this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2024
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Aotearoa / New Zealand

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Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that doesn’t justify a full post. For example:

  • Something interesting that happened to you
  • Something humourous that happened to you
  • Something frustrating that happened to you
  • A quick question
  • A request for recommendations
  • Pictures of your pet
  • A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like a hippo
  • Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)

So how's it going?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I'm still not feeling the best, but back at work today anyway (well, not at work, but working).

Also got an interesting spam message by a bot trying to register for an account here:

screenshot of registration applications screen, showing new user applying for account with answer to question: "As the day gently fades into the night, the time comes to express sweet sentiments to your sweetheart, creating a serene atmosphere for restful slumber. In this compilation of 200 Good Night Messages for Sweetheart to Bring Serenity, we delve into messages that capture the essence of love, tranquility, and the promise of sweet dreams. Let these messages be a soothing melody, lulling your sweetheart into a peaceful night’s sleep."

The question is "Where are you from", so they missed the mark a bit. The day before there was a registration application from a person, they read the instructions, answered the question, waited to be approved, then when they got approved they posted a spam URL and were immediately banned by the automod. Imagine all that hard work undone in a second.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

That’s great the automod worked like a treat.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Yeah it's been a life saver. It's only been running for a couple of months, I set it up when there was a massive whole-of-fediverse spam wave happening all sharing the same URL. Thousands of spam posts and most of them could be automatically removed before anyone saw them! One down side (and arguably up-side) of the fediverse is that if the home instance of the user doesn't ban them then every other instance has to ban them individually. Automods help to ease this burden, but each instance has to set up an automod and maintain their own rules.

I expect over time we will probably see more lemmy compatible tools to help, since Lemmy is still in the early days.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I’ve signed up for Lemmy.nz after the huge delays to my comments via Lemmy.world. Had better think of something to comment about now. Will definitely comment once I get my hearing aids on Monday.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Thanks, and thanks for your detailed reply to my Lemmy.world sourced comment.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

No problem, I hope it was helpful 🙂

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I've been online gaming recently and I keep running into this feeling that Oceanic internet is so dead. When I go to european based communities they have heaps of groups of people wanting to play all different types of games. Same for America but here we have small groups of people who play the 5 most popular games and nothing else. Maybe I just do what ever 30 year old Kiwi man does and get a shed full of tools and half finish a bunch of diy projects.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I suspect it's because Europe and the US have far more people! And of course if there aren't many people, then others don't join because there's never anyone online, and it's a compounding problem.

Maybe play games that don't rely on ping so much, so you can play with the Europeans and Americans?

A shed full of tools works too!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

I do play games with Europeans but they are mega autistic and sound weird. Americans are more normal to play with but don't compare to aussie nz banter.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Is it partly a timezone thing?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I finally managed to convince my siblings to join me on a bike ride and we went over to Hunua on Sunday and did the easy ride from the top of Moumoukai Hill Road down to the Clevedon market. Highly recommend if you're in the area, and it was a ridiculously beautiful day for it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Looks like a nice ride!

Although if the ride is downhill almost all the way, does that mean you have to ride uphill almost all the way back to your car?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Like some kind of masochist, I volunteered to head in about 90 minutes early, park at Clevedon, and ride to meet them at the top. I was only about five minutes short of actually beating them to the top, which I'm pretty proud of. That climb is hard.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Wow, good job!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (3 children)

I did a trip up to Waihi beach over the "long weekend", leaving Wed. My car blew a head gasket just north of Taihape, and we ended up getting a rental and towing my trailer the rest of the way, which meant we arrived early the next day. I did two trips up the coast, and the third day was spent playing in the surf.

Now I need to work out the most cost effective way to get my car back home, and sell it.

Here's the GPS tracks and a few photos from the trip.

Thursday, coastal paddle and rock gardening. https://www.relive.cc/view/vZqN1DG9zG6

Friday, coastal paddle, rock gardening and a walk up a stream. https://www.relive.cc/view/v26MjYPpVEq

Saturday morning, surf practice. https://www.relive.cc/view/v26MjYxAoEq

Sunday afternoon, surf practice and comp. comp https://www.relive.cc/view/vYvE2mAWBGO

It's been a great weekend, and I plan to be back next time.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Waihi Beach is a great little place. I used to live there.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Sucks about the car but it looks like you had a good trip!

When you say "rock gardening", you're talking about riding waves over rocks like this?

And for "surf practice and comp", is this a competition? And you're not meaning surf as in surf board, but still in kayaks?

Edit: Oh and one last question, what's the photo at 0:31 in this one? https://www.relive.cc/view/v26MjYPpVEq

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That's the more extreme end of the spectrum, we were paddling in much calmer conditions. Mostly just noseying around the rocks. And yes, we were surfing in sea kayaks, it's a slightly different game to board surfing as we're catching waves much further out than the other surfers, and ideally peeling off before they actually curl over and break. We had a competition, which I actually came third in.

I think that's the inside of my pocket, I didn't notice that photo was in there.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Congrats on third place! That's so cool, sounds like a lot of fun!

I think that’s the inside of my pocket, I didn’t notice that photo was in there.

Haha, it looks a lot like a photo taken pointing down into the water!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

That looks like fun!

That website your using is so cool.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I'm back at work this is my 3rd week, slowly increasing my hours back to normal.

I was very sick for a while.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Glad you're getting better. Slowly increasing your hours is the way to go.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I hope you're recovering well! One off or something that could come back?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Recovering.

I got pneumonia, with a bunch of complications.

Hopefully it never comes back.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Oh that's no good! Sounds like you're through the thick of it now so it's good to hear you're mending.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

We headed to Ohakune for a weekend escape with the kids. Took them for Trout Fishing Lessons at the Tongariro National Trout Centre then did a few tramps etc... was a good weekend.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like fun! What do trout fishing lessons look like?

When I was younger we would go trout fishing on a charter boat, the captain would put lures on downriggers, we'd chill out until there was one on the line, then pull it in. In hindsight this feel a bit like the UK's pheasant shooting where you stand with a gun and wait for people to bring the birds to you 😆

I'm guessing the trout fishing lessons are more along the lines of fishing in a river?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

More like young kids standing with a adult around a man made pool haha getting taught how to swing the rod back and forth and basically waiting for a bite from one of the 4000 adolescent fish in the pool. Then slowly reeling them in and netting them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Ah yes, I seem to remember doing that 30 years ago at a prawn farm in Taupo.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

haha awesome!!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

A bit of a long shot, but can anyone recommend a battery powered inverter that uses pure sine wave, that isn't painfully expensive?

I'm trying to power some outdoor festoon lighting that uses LED bulbs, the original plan was to use the Ryobi battery topper so I could use my existing batteries. But after a little research I found out it uses modified sine wave, which apparently isn't great for LED lighting (runs inefficiently and generates more heat, thus reducing lifespan). Not sure if my search skills are lacking or is really nothing in that range

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I can't be of any help but those Ryobi ones look quite interesting. Didn't know they existed. Though at 150W, you'd be constantly changing out batteries!

Does your lighting plus straight an AC wall outlet?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yeah it plugs into a standard wall outlet.

I guess it would depend on what you’re using it for, the max is 150W. Seems like a good way to utilise their batteries as power banks in an emergency, especially if you’re already in their ecosystem. They do have up to 9ah batteries. I have multiple 4ah batteries which I believed should have run the lights for a few hours, if only it was suitable

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

just from having a think about it, your basically going DC (from the battery) to AC from the inverter back to DC via some inverter incorporated into the Festoon lights right? Do you already have the lights?, Or are there versions of the light that use DC?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Already have them unfortunately, but I did learn after the fact that running them on DC would be the most efficient.

Mainly I don’t want to go through the hassle of getting an outlet installed outside as we’d only ever run them for an hour or two if we were outside when it’s dark. Something portable I could just plug in when we wanted to use them was the idea

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Just testing out a system to try to catch us up to Lemmy.world, which seems to be working! You might see a bunch of notifications for comment replies coming through as they get synced across.

If this works well I'll post a post to explain a bit more about it, but as always I'm also happy to answer questions!

Also let me know if something seems broken or missing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

How are people feeling about the Tegal ad?

the original lyrics are:

We're gonna have a good day And ain't nobody gotta cry today 'Cause ain't nobody gonna die today Save that drama for another day

cutting that line in particular just feels uncomfortable to me. Almost insensitive

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Is the as on YouTube or something? I don't get to see ads except when I visit our parents. I see some on YouTube but nothing too recent.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Nah TVNZ ads. Not seen them anywhere else actually

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Ah I block those too, so haven't seen them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Cold. Pesky winter. We hates it yes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Heard fireworks go off at 2:11AM in Welly... very random. Anyone know what could be the reason?