In the last few years I’ve noticed a reduction in service quality in mid-priced restaurants, and I lay the blame on takeaways. I’m sure that takeaways aren’t the only cause, but from a seated diner’s perspective I’ve noticed a few problems. The first is tables reserved for, or taken up by Uber Eats (and other)… Continue reading Takeaways are ruining restaurants

8:42, 8 carriages. All stops. Always plenty of seats, but don’t tell the people who sandwich themselves onto the 8:37, which was two carriages short. Fred the guard, or ‘customer manager’. Hair in a high bun. Click. Thanks very much. Click. Have a happy day. Click. Lovely weather. Click. Have a nice day dear (to… Continue reading Reflections on a daily commute

Media reports detailing the abuse of those in State care have appeared frequently over the last decade or two. At various times there have been claims the abuse was systemic, with denials by the Government. Having known several people who were put into State care, and who were abused, I took a keen interest in… Continue reading Was the abuse systemic?

I was in the market for a new laptop, and purchased an old MacBook Pro – the last of the mid-2015 models – instead of the new, thinner, touch bar model. Why? Firstly, I think the touch bar is a gimmick that did not speak to my needs. Secondly, the ports. I use only one dongle occasionally,… Continue reading Why I bought an old MacBook Pro

Over the last few years I have been releasing browser and OS stats for http://www.radionz.co.nz and The Wireless. I left RNZ today (Friday), so this will be the last of these posts, based on data from October 2016. I hope you’ve found them useful. In October 2016 we can see that the Chrome browser use has fallen and has been… Continue reading RNZ Browser and OS Stats for October 2016

The lab-grown meat industry has come up a with new campaign to market their product as Clean Meat. (HT @HoneyBeeGeek) It got me thinking about the way the stories we hear about how our food is produced influences what we choose to buy (and eat). An easy example first, free range eggs. Pictures of battery hens in appalling… Continue reading “Lab-Grown Meat” – The Stories Around What We Eat

WordPress, which I am using to write this, allows me to efficiently publish my ramblings for you to read. The same is true for Drupal, SilverStripe and  <insert name of platform you use>. Saas platforms do likewise for services – they allow the service to be provisioned and used by the consumer. So, every platform… Continue reading Your CMS has TWO customers

A couple of weeks ago I pushed the button on the new radionz.co.nz, and since then I have had a string of questions about what tech is behind the site. (Yes Rowan, I did play that song.) This post will answer those questions. Hardware We have eight 16 core HP servers, all with 16 gigs of RAM and… Continue reading Under the hood at radionz.co.nz

Just a quick post to tell you about the sound and smell of Siena in the morning. It is 8am and in the square below us there are only service vehicles – no locals and no tourists to speak of. Mind you, the place was still buzzing at 11pm last night. The smell of fresh… Continue reading The Grand Tour 18 – Morning

What is it really like in Rome? Well, for a start shopping is easy. It is also easy to forget the exchange rate. Most places are used to tourists and we only had to resort to Google translate once when buying a SIM card. Once a server in a shop heard an accented ‘buongiorno’ we… Continue reading The Grand Tour 12 – Out & About