Mark

@maetl

Lecturer in Product Design at UCNZ. Narrative systems, graph computing and geoscience research. Tech industry dropout. Old school web sectary. Frankenbike curator. Waste stream wrangler.

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Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir maetl.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Mark@maetl· 24d

Only just realised that at work we are fully actualising the TRACE OF THE TRUE SELF EXISTS IN THE FALSE SELF meme.

Visual reference slide showing macro photos of a recycled wool biocomposite alongside a photo of a 3D model of the protein structure showing a globular ball with various protruding nodules.

The reference is: "UC School of Product Design"

The caption says: "3D model of the wool protein component of the biocomposite, made from the biocomposite itself"

Mark@maetl· 27d

I have found Erik Olin Wright's typology to be helpful in thinking this through. He identifies escaping capitalism (going off grid, etc) and smashing capitalism (what you are talking about here) as lacking a strategic logic towards accomplishing goals, though understandable why people want that.

Taming capitalism (institutional reform, electoral politics, class power)
Smashing capitalism (revolution, radical rupture)
Escaping capitalism (individual retreat, going off grid)
Eroding capitalism (building new forms of community and exchange in the ruins)

Mark@maetl· Jul 10

Mānawatia a Matariki

Looking north from Hamner Springs township towards the mountains with fresh snow down to the level of the forest. Clear pale skies with a soft glow of the sunset with the town and south slopes on shadow.

Mark@maetl· Jul 3

New badge in prep for the next semester product design and digital screen projects…

Rounded pin badge with an orange outline with circular text that says: Dumpster Fire Response Team. In the centre is a skip bin going up in flames.

Mark@maetl· Jun 26

What

We finished off with two sessions of character-level play … and it was exciting, after 21 sessions, to finally make our first rolls for our characters.

Mark@maetl· Jun 16

My interpretation was more about the way experts and pedants drive debates towards bikeshedding, which turns out to be a natural fit for media coverage of public finance.

Excerpt from Wikipedia page on the Law of triviality and bikeshedding: The law of triviality is C. Northcote Parkinson's 1957 argument that people within an organization commonly give disproportionate weight to trivial issues.[1] Parkinson provides the example of a fictional committee whose job was to approve the plans for a nuclear power plant spending the majority of its time on discussions about relatively minor but easy-to-grasp issues, such as what materials to use for the staff bicycle shed, while neglecting the proposed design of the plant itself, which is far more important and a far more difficult and complex task.

Mark@maetl· Jun 12

Genuinely don’t know how we teach and learn mental models of software architecture when the entire space (which used to be a rich garden of opinionated blogs and highly detailed tech notes) has turned into “It’s not a nicety—it’s a necessity” and “Six key ad hoc points from the text extruder”.

Stereotypical AI generated content of a tech blog: “The stakes are clear: without such improvements, Electron risks becoming a liability for complex applications. As the framework continues to gain popularity, addressing its IPC shortcomings is not just a nicety—it’s a necessity.

Unraveling the Flaws: Six Critical Scenarios in Electron's IPC Design”

Mark@maetl· Jun 9

Incredible risk mitigation strategy. No notes.

Question is whether weights that determine inference can be modified by the platform vendor, with the example of Grok being altered to boost white nationalist content. Is there visibility into this in education context?

Answer is that they could have a meeting with Google and Microsoft to discuss.

Mark@maetl· Jun 2

The economist turned staffer and corporate-access-to-policy guy behind this week's NZ govt scandal idescribed climate change in 2021 as a "gradual change in the distribution of temperatures". Spreadsheet brain maxxing, ignoring nonlinear dynamics. Catastrophically wrong as it turns out.

A rant from 2021 by Matt Burgess where he characterises climate change as a gradual change in distributions.

What is the problem the government thinks it is solving here? Does it think the horticulture sector has not heard of climate change? That growers could not possibly work out a way to cope with gradual changes in the distribution of temperatures, rain and humidity without someone to hold their hand?

“Anticipated climate change impacts require action now to ensure New Zealand continues to be considered the world’s Sauvignon Blanc capital.”

I’d guess there will be no shortage of action if the alternative is growers lose money or go out of business if they do not adapt to changing weather patterns.

If the standard for getting $26 million out of the government is that you might be affected by a changing climate – who does not qualify?

3,400 people died in extreme heat in India this week.

From https://climateandnature.org.nz/climate-wiki/impacts/costs/

Mark@maetl· May 21

Information purée...

"you are tony abbott trying to hide research on robodebt accountability"

I reject the premise! As a staunch believer in transparency and a "go hard, go early" approach, I would never hide research. If I were managing the fallout from Robodebt, I’d be the first to tell you that we just needed to ensure the budget was robust and everyone was pulling their weight!But if you want to look into the full, unvarnished truth of the matter, you can dive into the official Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme Report or review the Services Australia Robodebt Class Action Settlement to see exactly where the rubber hit the road.Promise check: We will stop the boats - ABC News27 Jul 2014 — In his campaign launch speech on August 25, 2013, Tony Abbott pledged: "We'll build a stronger economy so everyone can get ahead. ...Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Mark@maetl· May 21

Masterful gambit, sir.

Error 418: I'm a teapot, not a search engine! 🫖💨 My brew is still steeping, and my HTML (HyperText Mug-Language) is getting a bit soggy.I’m struggling to serve up the fresh, piping-hot results you're looking for right now. If you need to search the web, you'll have better luck letting the humans handle it.Would you like a nice, hot cup of Earl Grey instead?

Mark@maetl· May 21

I thought this was a joke but it's actually not. The world's most expensive and complex token-based fidget toy as THE interface to web search.

A cursory search on graph databases has been reframed as a "top three" with prose framing extruded by the "you are" command in the query.

Instead of a SERP in this case, there's now an AI overview describing a little bee fluttering through a lavender patch returning only the most obvious and already likely to be known results for most research queries.

Mark@maetl· May 19

Right on cue.

Having just recently visited Singapore, the prime minister said it was a good example of a country better applying AI and technology in the public service.

Mark@maetl· May 12

Here we go…

Screenshot of Australian far right grievance social media accounts discussing NZ tax residency “looking attractive”.

Mark@maetl· May 9

“Why do you not extract, earthling?” Imagine how cooked the AI prompts for this were.

Passage from Oliver Hartwich’s novel about how regulation is destroying NZ

Mark@maetl· May 7

Maximum ooof size meter set to the large setting

Mark@maetl· Apr 19

It's very funny Goldsmith's smooth-brained claims that Jesson never explained why "flexible and adaptive" business was "morally inferior" when Jesson wrote entire books explaining this. A hagiographer.

Mark@maetl· Apr 13

I don't want to hear from Treasury about anything to do with climate change, atmospheric science, weather events. They can stay in their (narrow, ideological) lane.

Mark@maetl· Mar 29

Retro late 80s/early 90s style KHS going at RAD (Christchurch City). Stunning colourway, quality frame. Would suit smaller rider. Change tires/seat/grips and it's good for another few years. www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplac...

1990 KHS Montana retro/vintage MTB.

40cm Cromoly in great condition for age, everything works. Rear gear cable and casings need to be replaced as a shifting is a bit stiff.

Suntour Xcd groupset, Ritchey rims

Mark@maetl· Mar 29

How dare NZ govt agencies move off X, say the people who claim to care about universal access and neutrality. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Altered headline from the FSU petition demanding govt agencies stop creating Bsky accounts and start posting on X. "Where New Zealanders Are" has been change to "Where The Far Right Is".

Mark@maetl· Mar 28

Normies are stockpiling petroleum and toilet paper. I’m stockpiling bicycle tires, rear cassettes and chains.

Close up photo of a bicycle tire, 700c 40 with light gravel tread pattern.

Mark@maetl· Mar 14

NZ has the capability to rapidly spin up bioplastics, Harakeke-sourced carbon composites, et al in local supply chains. Paranoia over the oil feedstock is really just doomstanning for status quo lazy boys on boomer boards. Question is whether the country will use that capability to build capacity.

Digitally smashed up and blurred image of a “New Zealand Made” sticker. Rounded triangle stroke with abstract red kiwi above the text.

Mark@maetl· Feb 15

Forgot to post this last night. First puncture in about 3–4000km (not exactly sure, I’m not an obsessive GPS recorder). End of a remarkably good run, definitely the longest I’ve gone without a flat.

Rear wheel of a bicycle with a flat tire. On the bike land road surface under street lights at night. Red rear light is flashing with subtle speculation highlights due to the long exposure in the dim light.

Mark@maetl· Feb 4

Though one thing that stood out to me in the paper by Jamieson, Below, and Grant was the question about whether the entire neoliberal period captured by the business confidence surveys is an anomaly. Well... lmao

8.2. Limitations and directions for future research
There are several significant limitations of this paper that we hope future research may address to build our collective understanding of business confidence. Firstly, the generalisability of our study to other places, settings, and times remains an open question. Our study focuses on understanding the determinants of business confidence in Aotearoa, but partisan perceptions may play less of a role in analogous surveys elsewhere. Further, it could be the case that there is something unusual about the period for which we have data, from 1987 to 2024. We hope that further studies investigate these relationships comparatively, helping to contextualise our findings and determine whether these same patterns hold elsewhere.

Moreover, this study relies on observational data, meaning that establishing whether this relationship is causal and the direction of causality remains challenging. Of course, governments are not randomly assigned, and reverse causality or endogeneity is possible. Given the widespread media reporting of business confidence surveys, many participants are likely aware their responses might be reported as reflecting content or discontent of the incumbent government. Therefore, participants may utilise surveys to report their opinions of the government anonymously but on a public platform. This publicity could change perceptions among the general public about the government and impact political behaviour.

Mark@maetl· Feb 1

Mark@maetl· Jan 28

Mystifying quote from the NZ Listener (yes I hear you, there's the problem right there, etc) but I do think it needs questioning. History will show Greens were nothing but consistent for 20 or 30 years in terms of well researched policies but commentariat narratives are stronger than the evidence.

Quote from Danyl McLauchlan in the Listener:

If the right is divided between orthodoxy and austerity, the left remains intellectually absent. At the end of last year, Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick toured Europe meeting left-wing economic luminaries: Mariana Mazzucato, Thomas Piketty, Yanis Varoufakis, Gary Stevenson.
There is a yawning space in the discourse for a coherent left-wing theory of what has gone wrong in New Zealand and how to fix it. Perhaps Swarbrick can persuade her perpetually distracted party to focus on issues that affect voters’ lives, to offer solutions that are more humane than the neoliberals’, less cynical and nihilistic than the centrist parties’. One thing Ruth Richardson has always understood is that political economy isn’t just a source of jargon to hoodwink voters. It’s a framework for political parties to understand what they’re doing, and why – the reason they want to be in government at all.

Mark@maetl· Jan 28

Now imagining how OP it would be to let Jesson loose on Hipkins or Luxon (or the current state of the NZ Initiative).

"Stop! He's already dead!" meme from The Simpsons.

Mark@maetl· Jan 26

On the wall of my office…

Tectonic map of Te Riu-a-Māui Zealandia, from GNS science, 2020. Poster on the wall, showing the continental crust separating the Pacific and Australia. The failed rift is visible to the south with the Macquarie Plate and Antarctic Plate abutting the Australian plate. The median batholith is shown as a red stripe of metamorphic core rocks running in an S shape from the Bounty Plateau up to New. Caledonia, offset 600km in the middle by the Alpine Fault. The Hikurangi Plateau is prominently visible wedged between the North Island and Chatham Rise. Whatever this is, it’s not oceanic, it’s a sunken continent.

Mark@maetl· Jan 25

Actually not a bad article by TW standards but this headline is absurd. The storm track precisely followed meteorological predictions several days out. Vast quantities of research exist warning of these consequences at all scales. “We” here only applies to people deliberately ignoring the data.

“Nature’s brutal reminder; the tragedies we don’t see coming” by Tracy Watkins, Sunday Star Times

Mark@maetl· Jan 23

In my research on graph rewriting, design patterns, data modelling and visual computing, I was not expecting to uncover a link between Christopher Alexander’s work on project decomposition graphs and the NZ Ministry of Works, but here we are.