On Thursday and today, on the way to the gym, a large shaggy black dog was on the loose on a short section of road. It wanted to attack the front tyre of the car. We had to stop, and edge off carefully. Blasting the horn moved it away briefly. 🐶
Frightening, as I didn't want to run it over! 😱
Hmmm. The other day I linked to Dark Hours, but things have changed — ★ Retraction: The App Store Rejection of the Week That Was, in Fact, a Correct Rejection:
Earlier today, Godier took his web app down and redirected his darkhours.io domain to Beher’s darkhours.app.
We were just discussing with a friend how long the panels on the solar farm being constructed nearby may last, and what happens to them at end of life.
It seems 35 years is the answer:
The solar panels have an expected lifespan of around 35 years. Being made largely of glass and aluminium they are highly recyclable, so we expect them to be recycled and reused at the end of this period.
It was pretty chilly this last week. One of NZ's warmest Julys followed by record-breaking lows | RNZ:
Meteorologist Braydon White said parts of the country plunged to record-breaking minimum temperatures on Thursday and Friday. …
White said Taupō, Palmerston North and Whangerei all broke their August minimum temperature records this week.
Dark Hours, what's actually visible in your sky tonight is very cool — an instant bookmark!
Via: Daring Fireball: App Store Rejection of the Week: Dark Hours.
Update, 09 August 2026:
★ Retraction: The App Store Rejection of the Week That Was, in Fact, a Correct Rejection:
Earlier today, Godier took his web app down and redirected his darkhours.io domain to Beher’s darkhours.app.
This is clever — Aotearoa New Zealand's native birds out of LEGO® bricks:
Welcome to Bricks by Mike! I build a lot of Aotearoa New Zealand's native birds out of LEGO® bricks, and sometimes other creations too. I design and sell custom brick building kits, often in collaboration with Forest & Bird or other conservation groups, raising funds for and awareness of our precious native wildlife.
Hmm, I won't take my big camera on my bike ride to the estuary this morning
…
But if I had, then I might have caught a decent picture of the spoonbill fishing, rather than the 8x iPhone snap. 🐦
At last there is tracking info for my Xteink X3 reader. It's on its way from China.
And at dawn, of course, the temperature dropped further. I can see a slight frost out the back (where they're doing massive earthworks to build out the subdivision).
We've lived at Ruakākā almost 12 months now and this is the coldest it's been overnight. Currently 0530.
The other day several blog pals were talking about the Xteink X3 Pocket eReader (or XT4). That got me interested, and the price is good. That led to this 😁 :
The tracking number doesn't have any info yet so who knows if it'll arrive in a few days or 6 weeks …
Hey friends. Did you know there's an official Babylon 5 YouTube channel?:
You’ve arrived at Babylon 5, the last, best hope for peace. A neutral station standing at the crossroads of galactic powers
I spotted a bunch of birds at the estuary today, not all in photos. I saw swallows, ducks, gulls, black-backed gulls. I also saw Oystercatchers, Dotterels, Arctic Terns, Godwits. 🐦
I went down to the protected area at the estuary today to see what birds I could spot. It was mid-tide and with the light wind coming from the west the water was very calm.
Behind the beach the eroded dune face is higher than me.
A couple of swallows cross the shot. 🐦
This is a good explainer and useful in the debate we need to have around AI data centres: Explainer: What is a data centre and why is everyone freaking out now?:
data centres have existed in some form here in New Zealand since the 1980s …
So if they've existed for decades, why is everyone freaking out now?
The crucial differences between any of these examples, and what is being opposed in New Zealand and globally, are scale and purpose.
The new data centres being proposed and constructed are AI data centres - to train and run proprietary AI models.
One for my blog pals who love knitting (it has a very happy ending): ‘I felt sick’: How one Dunedin knitting group fell foul of the law:
[Jan Aitken] decided to open the doors to her garden studio in the suburb of Wakari, offering somewhere for knitters to gather together, and Crofters Yarn was born.
Around 3 am I had a nightmare that woke me up and left me feeling a bit shaky. I got up to sit in the lounge with a piece of liquorice and a cup of strong green tea to anchor me back in reality.
Now, finally at 4.30 maybe I can get a bit more sleep …
The Odyssey was loud. It didn't drag. Parts were very icky (Circe turning the men into swine). The Cyclops was brilliantly conjured. The battles and storms were fearsome.
I guess the central journey was an exploration of who Odysseus actually was, as his core was stripped away and rebuilt.
An alert on my banking website this morning:
Under the More Info link was this, which included the statement, that among other things they collect:
the names of other apps installed on your device
And apparently, if we don't like them collecting that info, well, there's always banking in person …
This all makes me feel very uncomfortable and a sight less safe.
When we went to The Odyssey yesterday we bought ice creams. $9 each for two scoops of chocolate-dipped vanilla in a cone!
Before the movie were shorts for 4 films I definitely don't want to see and the usual two hokey ads for the cinema itself.
No wonder people prefer streaming!