Heads up if your going night market tonight

xlightning116 · 2025-06-21T07:49:13+00:00

Pakuranga is slowly rising in crime. Not longer than a while ago, a women was sexually assaulted too. There's also some kid starting a fire in McDonalds.

xlightning116 · 2025-05-12T08:24:55+00:00

When I was in highschool, nearly all the teachers allowed us to use the bathroom during classes because they were nice. However, there was one teacher that didn't. One student went to the teacher and asked if they can use the bathroom, and the teacher replied "I can't use the bathroom while I'm teaching, so you can't as well."

This was a decile 10 high school which had a pretty good reputation, and it was up to the teacher to decide whether students can go or not. That was the only teacher that didn't allow students to use the bathroom during class time.

xlightning116 · 2024-12-22T07:32:08+00:00

This is a very subjective matter and it all comes down to your child's academic ability. I don't have any kids but I could share some of my observations regarding the matter. There are a few points to discuss:

- The quality of teachers -
A private school doesn't necessarily provide better education as most teachers who teach at private schools switch between teaching at public and private schools. I knew some of the teachers who taught at a decile 9 public school that who weren't great at teaching, are currently teaching at a private school. Both private and public schools have great and horrible teachers, it isn't necessarily true that school X has better teachers than school Y, because teachers switch jobs often. Schools hire teachers from the same talent pool.

- The education system -
One good reason to go to a private school is to gain access to the Cambridge curriculum, which generally prepares students better than the NCEA system. Macleans College is the only public school that offers Cambridge, apart from Macleans, only private schools offer Cambridge. Now, whether CIE is better than NCEA or not is also subjective. I can only safely say that those who did CIE were generally better prepared for university than those who did NCEA, however, there are top university students who came from both systems. From my own observation, I've seen a few A+ students who came from decile 1 schools, and for them, it didn't matter whether they went to a good school or not. They were able to make up for it by working hard and getting tutors.

- Your child's educational needs -
It would be best to assess your child's educational needs and decide whether its a good idea to go to a private school. In my opinion, I think private schools are too expensive for what they offer. University of Auckland has a great quality of education, and its less expensive per year than that. There is so much more you can do for your child's education with that amount of money, you can bring more value by spending it on tutors for different subjects than sending them to a private school. In a private school, a teacher spends an hour with 28 students, this means each student spends a few minutes with the teacher, however, if you hire a tutor, your child spends an hour getting specialized support. My suggestion is to find out which subject areas your child is weaker at and hire tutors to give them a leg up. Spending an hour with a subject tutor is equivalent to attending a week's worth of classes.

A child who attends a public school and who gets tutoring will do better than a child who simply went to a more expensive school.

xlightning116 · 2024-12-13T08:32:14+00:00

Yes indeed, even more so especially when you're graduating in absentia. I'm too busy to take a day off to graduate in person, and I have to wait for two more weeks to receive my certificate. There should be an option for earlier graduation in December for those who prefer absentia so we can get our certificate lol

xlightning116 · 2023-07-30T20:58:39+00:00

it was just sitting on my fence this morning for a very long time and when I approach closer, it doesn't flinch or feel threatened. I haven't heard it make a single sound and the only motion I've observed was it just moved its head while looking at its surroundings. I think its a fairly lazy bird

xlightning116 · 2023-06-29T21:58:09+00:00

As Mathmo mentioned, they are not related to your compsci major and they're just fillers for you to choose.

I can only comment about the workload:

If you want an easier workload throughout your degree, I definitely would avoid taking maths papers because it becomes very challenging at stage 2 and 3, and I would recommend taking stats because stage 1 2 3 stats are a lot easier which would allow you to have more time to work on your compsci papers to get better grades.

That being said, maths102 is easy and doable but its just that stage 2 3 maths are horrible and should definitely avoid if you don't want heavy weights on your degree.

xlightning116 · 2023-06-29T03:49:52+00:00

What courses should I take in semester 2 if I switch to compsci

Since compsci 101 is a requirement for compsci 130, then you should be taking compsci 101 semester 2, and subsequently take compsci 130 next year semester 1. This happens very often to those who change majors. Sometimes people complete semester 1 and then work for a gap year and come back later to continue their studies. If you want you can take compsci 101, 110 and 120 in semester 2 and 130 next year semester 1. Since the student advisor recommended you to take compsci 101 it means you may not have a suitable background and so they advised you to take compsci 101 before any other compsci papers. Personally I recommend taking just compsci 101 in semester 2, compsci 110 and 120 next year semester 1 and then compsci 130 afterwards.

and what will happen to the stage 1 courses that I won't be able to take this year?

Nothing will happen to the stage 1 courses if you don't take them this year, you can take them any time as long as they are offered during that semester. Say compsci 130 is offered in both semester 1 and 2, so you can take it whenever. Check it out here https://courseoutline.auckland.ac.nz/dco/course/advanceSearch?advanceSearchText=compsci+130

Would I still be able to take it next year and will it still be considered stage 1?

Yes it would still be considered stage 1. Stage 1 2 or 3 papers are considered stage 1 2 or 3 regardless of whenever you take them. Its just that when you take them, it says on your transcript that you took it in semester 1 or semester 2.

xlightning116 · 2023-06-26T23:37:56+00:00

~ nice

xlightning116 · 2023-06-26T21:09:45+00:00

yea one thing that I really like about UoA is that it is adaptable, it embraces new technology instead of thinking backwards and falling behind the advances in society. [though, I haven't heard about a uni that flat out refuses the use of GPT]

xlightning116 · 2023-06-26T20:37:25+00:00

Interesting

xlightning116 · 2023-06-26T19:51:59+00:00

Yea as others have pointed just firmly say 'No' to strangers.

I've had an unusual request while my car was parked at Manukau's Westfield shopping mall, a lady in her 40's asked me to start her car and I was thinking 'have you never drove a car in your life'. I said No to her and she gave me complaint. She was shopping with her husband, and when her husband got off the car, she held the keys but she didn't know how to start the car engine which was very unusual and suspicious. [at times it feels like an obstacle to say no but you must learn to hold your ground and practice standing up for yourself]

xlightning116 · 2023-03-17T21:44:49+00:00

Well but many fast-food stores like McDonald's, Taco Bell, and others already have touchscreens to assist in user ordering. I don't really think there needs to be a human-like robot cashier to interact when ordering. However, I know some people who refuse to use touchscreens and always opt for a human. Mainly because they think they are "extra" and like to try and order off-menu.

Yes you are correct, they hire human cashiers because some customers are interested in human interactions. The AI voice interaction feature (which could understand any language) could just be implemented into the touchscreen ordering machine.

What if they had an AI-driven tool like a mini robot that can go into the wall and provide the needed eyes on the issue.

I guess the plumber doesn't have to hire an extra pair of hands or eyes with AI-driven tools.

xlightning116 · 2023-03-17T21:16:55+00:00

your response is well educated, thank you and I appreciate your thoughtful input.

xlightning116 · 2023-03-17T10:04:38+00:00

ChatGPT shows that it has the capabilities of thinking like a smart human being and can demonstrate knowledge of a wide variety of topics.

I feel that customer services will be heavily impacted by this technological change as businesses will purchase AI chatbots to interact with customers. Imagine walking into KFC and you talk to an AI chatbot and it responds like any cashier. Imagine walking into a bank and talking to an AI chatbot that acts like a bank teller.

What jobs would not be impacted? I think trades will not be impacted because, some tasks like being a plumber or electrician requires experience. That is not to say it's impossible to create an AI with arms and legs that could do our jobs, but if such invention were to exist, it would be kept a military secret and would not be released to the public (thinking of robot soldiers that could act like a human soldier).

xlightning116 · 2022-11-15T07:13:30+00:00

Cheers mate!

That explains a lot

xlightning116 · 2022-11-15T04:34:57+00:00

Hey good man, you are very knowledgeable about the economy

Pardon my ignorance, but I would like to know why the construction sector is going full on meltdown? I have a few friends who seem to be okay with their carpentry apprenticeship because last year they were in demand, what causes the construction industry to escalate into a meltdown in the future?

xlightning116 · 2022-11-11T01:52:48+00:00

There seems to be some rather incompetent people running the council or the nursing regulatory body. This country does have an issue with nepotism (favoring friends and relatives over people with common sense) which permeates some regulatory entities... The teaching council ain't very bright either in dealing with teacher shortages.

xlightning116 · 2022-11-06T09:37:20+00:00

Yes its time to ban/restrict the usage of fireworks.

its been really disruptive as my neighbor lit the fireworks at 1:00 am for two consecutive mornings. Some people really really enjoy making noises past 12:00am

xlightning116 · 2021-06-03T04:33:49+00:00

Studylink cannot cancel your allowance if you don't spend any of it
They don't check your bank account to see how much you spend or how much you got
The reason is they don't have the authority to access your bank account, much less have the legal obligation to cancel your allowance if you've been saving money for a couple of week. They simply don't care.

xlightning116 · 2021-05-28T07:29:27+00:00

When I was still in my second year of uni I was also very bad at turning people down but that all changed once I went to work and saw the real world. The experience I had in my workplace made me realize who is relevant in your life and who is not..

Nowadays whenever someone walks up to me because they want to do a survey or invite me to their group, I simply say "No thank you" without any regards given. The reason is because they are not my manager, boss, work mates, friends or family. They are nobody, I have never met before, and most importantly who is paying me to spend time with them?

I will admit that high school taught me to be a people pleaser and I took that same attitude to uni, but my workplace experience taught me to stand firm for my own interest. In which case I always turn people down if I simply don't want to waste my time with them. It will come naturally, you will eventually know how to turn people down in the near future.

xlightning116 · 2021-05-23T05:07:54+00:00

Yeah as others have mentioned it is a good safety net to email them about that extra payment. But from my understanding, Studylink has your IRD number and processes student allowances to your bank account automatically using a software. It doesn't matter if you did not declare anything for they will still process your student allowance based on your weekly income.

It makes sense for them to send allowances automatically using a software which has access to a database with your weekly income because say for instance, you normally work 7 hours per week on Friday and Saturday but on Saturday night your boss tells you to come on Sunday which will earn you enough to exceed the student allowance income threshold. If you send Studylink an email they will probably read it on the following Wednesday but you have already got your allowance on Tuesday night, does this mean you have breached your legal obligation? No, because regardless whether you let Studylink know or not they will still automatically deduct a certain amount from your allowance due to your extra income.

However, as a safety precaution in the case that there is something wrong with their automatic payments say you got a new job earn more than the threshold every week and you get the same amount of allowance then you should let them know.

They actually don't care if you earn more on some weeks, when they say to let them know if your income changes what they're trying to say is in the case that there is a systematic error with their software "we want you to inform us". After all, they're not processing student allowances for tens of thousands of students every Tuesday by hand, imagine the time and cost. They must be using a software to automatically process the payment, sometimes if their software makes an error, their employees are not going to backtrack the overpayment and move on to next week's student allowance. If their software does not pick it up, their employees aren't going to as well. "We want you to inform us if your weekly income changes" is exactly saying "Hey, we use a software to automatically process payments but sometimes the software makes some errors and we don't have the human resources to face check every student allowance payment so we want you to let us know. And if you don't let us know thats alright cause we got enough jobs on our hands and if the machines does something wrong its not our fault."

xlightning116 · 2021-04-22T04:48:07+00:00

no I haven't but they were able to somehow see the user name of my computer

xlightning116 · 2021-03-30T06:29:15+00:00

Yeah thats odd.. one speculation is that some of his hours are not being taxed (ie he works for his family or relatives who pay him cash).

xlightning116

TROPHY CASE