Dave Lane @lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz

For those not in NZ, we have very few native reptiles here - mostly skinks and geckos. No snakes, not turtle, no salamanders and only a few native frogs, all highly endangered (we have some introduced Australian frogs that are fairly common)... so we need to protect what we've got!

Hah! My local neighbourhood newsletter has got wind of our native lizard sanctuary ('lizardarium') and asked me to write an article for the next issue. I'm chuffed. :)

We'll just see the results - lots of countries will back down and the actual taxation will be minimal. And there'll be a raft of new "regulation" that only the biggest megacorps will be able to afford to comply with, effectively creating new barriers to entry for smaller would-be competitors, leaving the Frightful Five free to exploit us all even more than they already are.

The foreign tech megacorps are going to lash back at this G7 tax proposal https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/444134/rich-nations-back-deal-to-tax-multinationals by dividing and conquering, and they've got just the tool to do it: secret ISDS claims which are part of the CPTPPA that NZ and a bunch of other silly countries ratified. Will be interesting to see - although, of course, the suits brought will be secret.

We need more leaders like this: has transparent values and sticks to them even if it's unpopular with some powerful people. Doing the right thing is often quite dangerous. But now's when we need leaders who're up to it in our gov't declared Climate Emergency. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-government/300322473/oh-god-sorry-dunedin-mayor-gets-emotional-on-climate-change-and-floods

Moral dilemma: a neighbour was recently made redundant and is looking for work. I asked him what sort of work he was looking for - he'd been working "in finance" (not sure what that really means) but he was applying for account management and biz dev roles... including for Coca Cola... I cringed (inwardly, I hope) at the mention. I think the job we do is an ethical decision, and I think Coca Cola is a peer of Microsoft in terms of damage done to society & the world.Hope he gets a different role.

The problem is serious, but it's not about the amount of money being spent (as suggested by the pundits), but rather broad ignorance among the *pros* who've been entrusted with managing these networks. Education, not $, is the issue.

I despair at listening to RNZ's coverage of the Waikato hospital ransomware attack... I suspect that the wrong conclusions are being drawn from advice taken from people with vested interests in foreign corporate businesses. It's only going to get worse from here.

After all this rain, I need to get out on the mtn bike for a bit of a blat up a hill... waiting for the drizzle to make up its mind.

Here's the recent rainbow...

Latest update on the lake that's formed over the past couple days in front of our house... here's a before and after... although there was a rainbow just now, too...

Darn. So many projects competing for my attention, I haven't done the experimenting with Svelte (compiled JS non-framework) that I've been wanting to do. Time to push it up the priority list.