Just got Google AI to admit that its search platform deliberately suppresses autocorrect. In case anyone else who has massive hands was finding this a nuisance on their phone.

(1/2) I don’t know if googles AI *actually* learns from users input, or if it’s just appeasing me, but I had a strange message in a game pop up and asked Google to help me understand why it was happening. I called it out for making up nonsense to avoid admitting it didn’t know.

Ironic that Michael Laws would make sexist remarks. I guess it’s easy to doubt they’re sexist when your party reduces gender to unspecified biological features. How could they ever be supportive of women when they define them as mere meat vessels?

Doing some deep dives into the NZ electorates to look at which are highly contestable and boundary change effects etc, and I see that Tubby Hansen - a staple of CHCH local elections - is contesting the ChCh central seat. I hope this man outlives us all.

Anyone noticed their position on TVNZ's vote compass way off from the political compass? Here's a comparison for this years election. The y axis on the PC is authoritarianism, but the x axis on both is economic. I wonder if TVNZ centred their axes with domestic norms? The PC being more global.

Is National's obsession with Chloe Swarbrick a form of cyberbullying, or does the recently passed stalking legislation allow us to give it another name? www.ashcatton.com/posts/6200-c...

Dr Ash Catton, PhD - Cyberbullying....or Stalking?

While there are many things that probably ought to take precedence when it comes to my writing time, including the fact I’ve been hounded – indeed cyberbulli...

ashcatton.com

I’m sick of hearing about split voting, tactical voting, & what we all *need to do* to keep the coalition or vote them out, and if we don’t do the things they demand then we’re horrible people. It’s sick. It’s anti-democratic. If you tautoko a kaupapa, give it a tick. That’s all you need to do.

Among my many writing priorities - including the phenomenal bullying I’ve endured lately - But as someone who’s researched cyberbullying and trolling - I’d like to address the bizarre targeting of Swarbrick by National. It is hostile - but is it cyberbullying?

I often wonder what Karl Marx would have made of full time “content creators” and “twitch streamers”.

I know advocating for gender & age inclusivity in discussions of sexual harm - in light of the research on the topic - is perceived as threatening by many who hold outdated views. But the amount of hatred & bullying I still receive is both disappointing and exhausting.

Finally, after how many years, I see someone made a joke about Shane Jones as being from “Ngati Matua” 😂

No. Not Captain Picard. Nope. Nope. 💔

A thunder warning has just been issued for Canterbury. Nothing makes me miss cigarette smoking more than thunder. I used to go sit outside during a thunderstorm, smoking cigarettes, watching the lightning get closer and closer then further away.

Sorting through some old things I had in storage and found this old certificate for climbing the Christchurch cathedral steps, 30 years ago…

I hit 50 citations this week!! I know it’s pretty small fry compared to the big academic players, but I’m chuffed my work gets noticed at all. I also got a request from a researcher in California asking for some of my gender inclusive research materials. Lowkey proud.

I really wish our mainstream news didn’t perpetuate the stupid notion of tactical voting with their polling and theorising about overhangs etc. Just vote for whoever you can stand by. For whichever kaupapa you support. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.

The funny thing about being an elder millennial is that we grew up on repeats of shows from the previous 30 years at the time. It means that as much as this image means something to those 60+, it’s also part of my own upbringing. Bizarre & confusing, but man I love those shows.

I'm currently working on my evaluation of the new Tika plaform for disclosing sexual harm in NZ. Much work to do, but from the outset, some of the promotional material isn't victim-centric as it signals the platform is for one group of victims - implicitly excluding others.

Love it when I get a notification that a book chapter has cited my work. AFAIK, my research is the only experimental work on #disclosure of #sexualharm ever to be conducted anywhere in the world. I still have another paper on a further experiment in the pipeline too!

Lately, I've noticed folks seem unsure and distrustful of Opportunity, particularly now that our politics are so tribal. So I called it out for what it was: collective paranoia www.ashcatton.com/posts/6128-o...

Dr Ash Catton, PhD - Opportunity-induced Collective Paranoia

I was going to write about the potential harms that National and Labour’s social media ban would bring, as I consider this not only to be an important issue ...

ashcatton.com

This fine stems from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. I wrote about the tactics of that outfit at the time, concluding that we weren’t sure whether social media manipulation results in a changed vote or just solidifies existing intention. www.ashcatton.com/posts/430-ho...

A few people have told me they don’t get why I don’t vote instrumentally, even after reading my writing about authentic voting. So I came up with an analogy: For me, voting is a form of self expression. That expression is one of support. It signals whose kaupapa I tautoko…

I saw someone say that we’ve forgotten what a centrist party is in this country, and they’re incompatible with our dichotomous, tribalistic way of thinking now. Seeing the weird takes about TOP being RW sleeper agents & a front for some communist agenda, I’m inclined to agree.

I know I haven’t written about it yet, but I will. But I’m really *really* concerned about the implications of a social media ban for teenagers. For many reasons. I don’t see how the benefits outweigh the harms it will almost certainly introduce.

My Google wifi router has been having problems lately, and googles AI suggests it’s because the technology inside it has been superseded. It’s a 4 year old router. Bought brand new for hundreds of dollars. It should NOT be unfit for purpose already. Google seemed to agree…

For any kiwi Internet Historians out there, I have just uploaded the first version of (what was) Telecom XTRA's mailed out CD featuring an introduction to the Internet and all their software, in a new fandangled multimedia presentation: archive.org/details/xtra...

XTRA (NZ) ISP CD, version 1.0. 1996

This is an ISO of the first edition of the NZ telco provider, Telecom's first iteration of their ISP - XTRA's mailed out CD from 1996.The second version is already available here, but the first editio...

archive.org

Imagine if the ACT party existed during the Muldoon years. They’d have had a bloody hernia.

I just saw someone on another social media app tell someone to kill themselves because they said they’re not voting Labour. Like, what are we doing here guys? Let’s turn the dial down a bit. Things are getting nuts.

We need subtitles to understand what Winston is mumbling. He’s incoherent. As usual. #nzpol

Everyone’s against racism until it’s about Indians. Honestly, the anti Indian sentiment in this country is just humiliating.