Simon Lyall
@slyall
Living in Auckland, New Zealand. I write about IT, Public Transport, Auckland, Food, Trailers, Audiobooks & Geeky stuff Work with Cloud Infrastructure. Kubernetes, AWS, Linux, Monitoring, etc. Blog:
Interesting what AI comes up with doing my website config. It is replacing a lot of the hard coded config I had for a dozen redirects etc with loops and templates in ansible
Solar eating into coal/gas on the NZ grid. Both are around 1% of daily generation even in the middle of winter Only a little battery and solar growth to displace gas/coal to emergencies only Note the cost during the day of electricity is roughly 1% of the cost during the early evening and morning!
Got some sweets from the AUT in the Auckland CBD. The Patisserie Students were selling cakes and smaller items 😋 Just $4 for small item and $20 for a whole cake They will be there other days this week and next. Also other groups of students selling old.reddit.com/r/aucklandea...
I see my current favorite Canadian musician didn't make the Rolling Stone top 50 list But I like the list of all her musical styles on her Wikipedia and the fact that all of them have references
My partner is soaking the shower-head in vinegar so now I'm craving steamed dumplings
Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, The Untold Story by Jeffrey Kluger 4/5 Review: A good history of the programme although not much "untold" previously. But good level of detail and stories not in wider books www.thespacereview.com/article/5127/1
Got reminded of this album today: The Irish Rovers Greatest Hits My parents had a copy and I probably listen to it 50 times as a kid www.discogs.com/release/4923...
I'm watching a giant presentation on the paths of the Nazgul during the start of the Lord of the Rings This is the evening of Sept 23rd
Saw a facebook post where someone was complaining their mother-in-law distributed this before a family weekend holiday Personally I can see advantage. Fair enough if you just plan to bum around on a break. But people who expect to get stuff done but don't plan ahead are just stress
Went to Ikea for the first time yesterday. I though the meatballs, garlic bread, chips were average, price average. Sweets smaller and more expensive than mall next door. Hot dogs and soft-serve cones were nice and pretty cheap. Will stick to just them next time
I agree with this person: " My spicy opinion is that the 1987 Maori Language Convention made a huge mistake insisting on Macrons, as they were a bunch of impractical academics, and they should have standardised on double vowels. "
Typical. Over in Malaysia there is a oversupply of Durian so they are selling for under $NZ 1 each Meanwhile in NZ you are paying something like $50-$100 each I could fly over to Malaysia and eat 10 and I'd pay for my flight asianews.network/durian-price...
I like the pictures by Leonid Afremov. They are flashy rather than great art but pretty The guy died a few years ago and the paintings you can buy online are reproductions by employees (often in China) I don't mind that but it looks like often the ones they sell these days are low quality
The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982 by Chris Nashawaty 4/5 Review: Covers the development, production and release of 8 Sci-Fi movies released by Hollywood. Brief in places but still good psychobabble200.blogspot.com/2024/06/revi...
and the Pizza I got Margherita Potato Steak Frites Cost $30, about half of that was the Steak Frites slice
I've been looking at these Book Nooks online for a while. Thinking about buying one. Then I was walking through the Mall and Whitcoulls Bookshop had a whole display. Price was about the same as online ($65) so I bought one Will probably also have to spend a couple of dollars on batteries and glue
Went to the Auckland Costco last night with a friend. He was in a hurry to pick up a couple of things so I didn't get a good look around Only when I looked at my photo later I realised they had the MacBook Neo at a good price $1060 it appears
Weird when I see these. Somebody has replied to me but I can't see it for some reason Used to be I could switch to an alt but BlueSky makes that harder to casually do
Went to Mezze Bar in Auckland CBD for coffee. Vibe was nice as usual but their cake sizes seem to have shrunk $9 for what felt like a 30% less cake than previous visits
Sam Stubbs is a good example of how expertise in one area doesn't translate into others. He's got expertise in Investing and Building. But he regularly comes out with takes on New Zealand transport projects and policy. Where his understanding drops to the level of the average boomer on Facebook
For the Love of Trains: Celebrating 200 Years of British Railways by Paul Routledge Review: A mix of rail history and stories of the author's life and journeys. An okay light read but either topic is better served elsewhere 3/5 www.lovereading.co.uk/book/9781917...
Spending my day off in the Auckland Domain. Got some food at the cafe and went to the Wintergarden