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Marcus

@utf9k.net

I use computers for work during the day and to write letters to the government at night https://utf9k.net

1846 Posts298 Follower191 Folgt
Marcus@utf9k.net · 13h ago

Almost 10 years ago, I did a side project where I got parking ticket data from Auckland Council and made a Mapbox visualisation. Over the weekend, I received a $500 USD invoice from Mapbox because apparently some automated crawler was using the embedded default token to load 100K+ raster map tiles

Marcus@utf9k.net · 5d ago

I found a cool bug today at work where we have some HP EliteDesk machines that haven't been receiving security upgrades for a couple years. It turns out that they have USB-C PD ports. Those ports are empty so on_ac_power reports that the device is on battery which stops unattended-upgrades running.

Marcus@utf9k.net · 5d ago

DIA's tagline, and it was news to me they even had one, seemed to update today from "Building a safe, prosperous and respected nation" to "We strengthen connections and reduce harm for New Zealanders" I dunno, reduce harm (implying there is still some) sounds weaker than "safe [and] prosperous"

Marcus@utf9k.net · 6d ago

I realise this sounds like a poorly written cartoon villain story but as I was crossing the road on Shortland Street about 5 minutes ago, I happened to trudge past Simon Bridges. He was taking a call on his phone and I audibly heard him say "Give me some bad shit about Labour that I can think about"

Marcus@utf9k.net · last wk.

It seems that the state of AI copyright issues here in NZ will continue to be "We'll see what other countries decide first" for a while yet > "as most AI training and use takes place outside New Zealand's jurisdiction, creators' rights are usually governed by other countries' laws"

FYI.org.nz feed@feed.fyi.org.nz · last wk.

[Response] Paul Goldsmith replied about AI and copyright issues in the publishing and news media sectors

Marcus@utf9k.net · last wk.

The Ministry of Defence updated a bunch of their partner deployment pages yesterday If you check the Wayback Machine, you might notice that Bahrain's page now mentions the UAE as well and "up to 20 personnel" is now "up to 14 personnel" if that means anything 🤷 www.defence.govt.nz/our-work/par...

Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates | Ministry of Defence website

New Zealand’s economic prosperity depends upon open sea, air and electronic lines of communication.

defence.govt.nz

Marcus@utf9k.net · 2w ago

As part of this, I had ordered a shirt with the TOP logo rotated upside down but only to receive a regular TOP shirt instead. Anyway, I received an email this morning from the TOP merch store saying they received conflicting advice on hats and that if you have a TOP hat, you should hide it for now

An email from Iain Lees-Galloway at 6:46 AM It says the following: Kia ora Marcus, You have received this email because you purchased merchandise from the Opportunity Shop earlier this year. This email is only for people who purchased Opportunity Party branded caps. If you did not purchase a cap, please disregard this email. We have received conflicting advice from the Electoral Commission regarding the caps. Previously, they were not considered election advertisements and did not require a "promoter statement" (the text that starts Authorised by..."). However, recent advice has called that into question. Right now, it is unclear to us whether caps require the promotor statement. The cap(s) you purchased do not have the promoter statement. While we clarify this, please keep your cap(s) out of sight. Put them away in your wardrobe or a drawer. Displaying an election advertisement without the promoter statement is a criminal offence and could be referred to the Police.
Marcus@utf9k.net · 3mo ago

So @top.org.nz have an online merch store but if you know where to look, you can find an additional 204 pages of what I can only describe as placeholder clip art designs. Most if not all of the pages seem to be indexed via Google as well

A screenshot of The Opportunity Party merch store. A number of clip art style designs are visible including two martial artists sparring, two MMA fighters fighting, a man riding a BMX, a shredded turtle pointing at the viewer and a man playing basketball
Marcus@utf9k.net · 2w ago

This TV has a casting feature in the hotel menu but it doesn't seem to work with the apps I wanted to cast from because they just buffer forever. The hotel menu is boring HTML served via a network so what if I just served my own HTML instead...

A photo of a Macbook Pro. An ethernet cable is plugged into it via a USB-C to ethernet adapter. An ethernet cable runs from the laptop behind an LG TV. The TV displays a poorly drawn screen that reads "Marcus's better hotel menu :)" with a single "play content" button below it.
Marcus@utf9k.net · 2w ago

A couple interesting bits in here that were news to me. I don't really follow this stuff though so it's probably already known but still interesting to see in writing. > There are currently 62 operational data centres nationwide, with an another 48 planned or under construction.

FYI.org.nz feed@feed.fyi.org.nz · 2w ago

[Response] Nicola Willis replied about Economic Growth Briefings for May 2026

Marcus@utf9k.net · last mo.

Personally, I am in favour of a VPN ban. There are many small business opportunities to be had by starting a cafe and reselling the metadata of unsuspecting public wifi users to ad brokers /s

Marcus@utf9k.net · last mo.

It's kind of fun seeing extremely niche things in the feed. One of these Acts is for the Roslyn Institute. The Act says their property should be passed on when they dissolve but the PCO couldn't find proof of existence or proof of dissolution so I wonder if anyone knows what happened to their stuff

NZ Govt Consultations@nzgovconsultations.bsky.social · last mo.

The following consultation from Parliamentary Counsel Office is now open for submissions Consultation: third round of Acts proposed for repeal

Marcus@utf9k.net · last mo.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that in more boring bot news, I slapped together @nzgovconsultations.bsky.social which scrapes government consultations from a bunch of different places and syndicates them onto Bluesky Some of it is probably so specific to not be that useful 🤷