Aotearoa Weekly Kōrero 11/4/2024
Aotearoa Weekly Kōrero 11/4/2024
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)
You may have noticed something different about our daily thread!
People haven't always had things to talk about each day, threads weren't posted each day so new conversations often started on old threads, and in general having daily threads didn't seem to be necessary. So the new format will be a weekly thread, this will be pinned in the !newzealand@lemmy.nz community so you can always find it, and we can have conversations there that we were previously having on the daily threads.
Roughly each week (no specific day) I'll create a new thread, pin it and unpin the old one, and we will start fresh for that week(ish).
14Exciting 😀
7Thanks, this makes sense. Would also help keep longer conversations going (one of the issues with the daily threads being that you were less inclined to go back to an older thread to check for new comments).
7If you're on the web UI, you can choose to view comments instead of posts. Order by New under Local and you can see every new comment being made in a local community!
Also works on All but a bit more crazy to follow there 😆
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I like it, this solves the problem of nobody making the thread on the weekends, and also less clutter in the instance feed.
6Weekly thread suits our pace better I think.
6Yay, this will stop me having to click around so much when I miss a few days and am wondering what you're all up to.
6
Our parents adopted a cat a few years ago now, and they haven't installed a cat flap yet because he'll bring home a mouse, and they don't want him to bring them inside the house. So for now, they've been opening and closing the door everytime (they've setup a little security cam at the door so they know when he comes back), which unfortunately involves opening the door in the middle of the night.
So I've been meaning to try and build a "smart" cat flap that utilizes image recognition to detest if he's got a mouse in his mouth or not.
I had previously done a bit of research last year and gave up on it for some reason. Here's to hoping I get a bit further down the road this time, and have some success lol.
9An easy "cheat" way to do it would be to use ChatGPT 4, you can submit a picture and ask it a question like "is there a cat in this scene and is it holding a mouse? Respond with either 'true' or 'false'".
Python examples here: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/vision
7Huh. Super interesting! I should give this an initial go, and maybe when I come up with my "own" solution, benchmark them against each other. Wonder if there's a trade off (e.g., chatgpt is more accurate but takes longer due to all the back and forth required, whereas the local solution may not be as accurate but is faster)
It's honestly amazing how quickly all this stuff is evolving and growing. Thank you for that tip 👍😄
3Nice PoC!
3
This is really interesting - will done (I know, it's not done yet)
I fear you'll spend months occasionally retraining it though? (I have no experience in this, I just knows how brittle my code is)
5Honestly no idea at the moment! It's literally my first time trying this. Hopefully not? haha
4
That sounds amazing! Would that be some sort of frigate setup?
I've always wanted to set up something like that, where you get notified that a van is in your driveway or a person is at the door via image recognition from a security camera. But I think the hardware is a bit hard to track down, though I haven't actually done much research towards this thing that I've "always wanted" 😆
4Would that be some sort of frigate setup?
Honestly I just started thinking about this again yesterday so I basically know nothing lol. Though i did come across frigate, and it did make me want to try and setup a local home security system (as I've been meaning to get away from using a wireless one from one of the big manufacturers of such things).
I've been doing a bit of a dive into something called YOLOv8, which seems to be an object detection model, where you can use existing models, or train your own. Utilizing that on maybe a RPi 5 with a camera and a Google Coral (which from my understanding, supercharges your hardware's ability to process such things), and then using the output from the model somehow to control some type of actuation (electromagnet maybe?) to lock or unlock a catflap.
But I think the hardware is a bit hard to track down
Yeah I think from memory, one of the main reasons I had abandoned it last time I looked was that it was so hard to get the relevant hardware. Having a look again, it seems that most things are quite readily available now :)
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Cat flaps are psychologically bad for cats.
Also keeping them in overnight means way less catfights/vet bills.
That said I love those image recognition catflaps they yield some hilarious picturs, especially the lightbox/silhouette method.
2What was the problem with cats and cat flaps?
Doesn't seem to be an issue for this guy. They installed a cat door on the little pool storage house thingy they have in the yard, so that he can get in and out of that as he pleases (it's sort of like his own little house 😄), and he doesn't seem to have a problem with it.
Also keeping them in overnight means way less catfights/vet bills.
Definitely agree with this one, though unfortunately this fella really does needs to take his (what we assume is his toilet break) little wander at 4am. The whole thing with him not wanting to use a toilet indoors is another thing all together.... Maybe it has something to do with the fact he was basically a street cat for a bit.
4Not all cats have a problem with flaps.
I have two cats they have zero problems with the flaps. They sometimes use the flap as a short cut to sneak up on the other one when playing.
I have those electronic ones you register with their microchip so only they can use the flaps.
But, I still get gifts like mice, skinks, praying mantis, cicadas, leaves, etc. The flaps don't stop gifts.
3
I just want to say that windows troubleshooting is unbelievably frustrating and needlessly complicated.
They constantly point you to tools that run but don't fix the issue then redirect you to forums that tell you to run the tool.
Then you search the problem and find posts telling you to install a random 3rd party tool to fix the problem. No I'm not installing a random non open source tool to run with admin privileges that would be unbelievably stupid.
Also I'm bombarded with system tray notifications because programs on windows think its ok to serve the user an ad via system tray. I expected better from malware bytes but I expected exactly this from Adobe and one drive.
Another thing is that the windows forum advice is really bad like really bad. It doesn't teach the user anything about problem and instead gives them a solution that will work but might break other things.
I'm not a noob to windows either I've used it for 20 years at least. I think after moving to Linux I've realized how simple things can be.
8And the settings ever since windows 10, like the main interface is the slick new style but it doesn't provide all settings info, so it ends up back into the old layout/control panel that traces back to windows 95 (but is still better). It's all just a mess as far as ui goes.
I switched to Linux again for my home laptop last year and pretty much use it full time. The only major sticking point for me is ms office - libreoffice feels like office 2003 and you can never be confident a libreoffice docx is going to look the same when someone opens what you've sent them in ms office.
Plus when I troubleshoot in Linux I can use the terminal and feel like a real hackerman™ (even if I am mostly just copying stuff off Google).
5The only major sticking point for me is ms office - libreoffice feels like office 2003 and you can never be confident a libreoffice docx is going to look the same when someone opens what you’ve sent them in ms office.
If you haven't tried it already, check out OnlyOffice - looks very similar to MS Office and has great compatibility with it too. I once did a side-by-side comparison with the same .docx running in Word (M365) and OO, and they looked virtually identical (I posted the screenshots sometime ago on Lemmy, if I can dig up the post I'll link it here).
5
I reckon with Windows it's just easier to nuke the whole thing and reinstall. Especially with most stuff syncing / backing up to the cloud (and drivers pulled down via Windows update) plus with SSDs, it's much more faster to just do a clean install.
5
So what is everyone else doing with the glut of feijoas? Getting a little tired of eating them everyday
6There are 4 heavy eaters in my house (everyone except me), so our problem is they aren't ripening fast enough 😆
5We’ve been getting about 8 to 10 dropping everyday, plus some that people have been giving away. Three of us are eating them every night, but we still have two big bowls full!
4
I haven't checked my tree for a while actually.
4Uh oh, you better watch out for those feijoa-stealing whores!
3
We’ve got lots as well. Looking at how to use them in other dishes, I found a Herald article - "24 Feijoa Recipes".
It’s an archive link to skip the "pay-for" - https://archive.ph/TzMXj
4I'll take some!
4I moved to Australia years ago and I still feel the pain of missing feijoas. They exist here but not in a huge quantity like in NZ. Enjoy your harvest! 🤤
3I didn't even realize it was feijoa season until I went into the office earlier this week, and it seemed every other person had a bag full of em on their desk lol.
Went over to mum's earlier today, and she gave us some as well 😆
3
The weather has been terrible today, so we all stayed inside. I started playing PGA Tour on game pass on a whim and hoo boy am I bad. I don't remember the last time I played a golf game, but man it feels difficult. My character, John Golf, can't even qualify to get past the first stages of the career mode, he's ended up placing in the 140's after my first few goes 😂
5My day was similar except I played Stardew Valley with the kids. Luckily it's hard to lose at that. Though I did forget to update the game before we played so we missed out on the recently released new content, but there were no tears so all in all a good session.
3
Did you guys hear about the stabbings in Aus over the weekend? Its insane
5Fuck my mate who went out for a fish with us whilst sick.
If you're sick just stay home. I'm tired of this convoluted game of germ tag we keep playing.
5I finally watched Dune 2 and it was better than expected. I found the first one forgettable for some reason but I’ll have to watch it again now.
Also watched a few episodes of the 3 Body Problem. I read the books and this series does them justice.
4I just completed a big milestone in my whitewater kayaking journey, my first grade three trip, down the Hut gorge.
Put in was just downstream of the waterworks at Kaitoke regional park, and get out at Te Marua.
One combat roll, no swims, flow approx 6.5 cumec at the Kaitoke gauge, probably about 8 after the Pakuratahi joins the flow.
4I've been looking online but couldn't find a definitive answer.
It seems that if I purchase something overseas and have it shipped here, if its total value (incl. shipping) is under $1000 NZD, that Customs won't collect GST at the border, and rather, this is supposed to be collected by the Vendor.
But what happens if your vendor doesn't collect GST at the time of sale, and your goods are under $1000? Will it then be collected at the border by Customs?, or by your shipper (e.g., DHL)?
4So you're not using YouShop or similar, the place you're buying from is not registered for GST in NZ and the value including shipping is under $NZ1000?
This CAB page says:
If the overseas seller is not registered for GST, they do not have to add GST to the cost of the goods
If the overseas seller is not registered for GST (because they do less than $NZ60,000 of sales to New Zealand customers), they will not collect GST on the goods you buy from them.
If the total value of the goods is no more than $1000, you will not be liable for GST.
So it seems you wouldn't pay GST.
4Yeah just shipping via DHL or UPS.
Interesting, I wonder if there's a way to know whether a seller does under that per year, or maybe if customs flags that they are doing over the limit, they send a request to the vendor, hence if they don't seem to be collecting gst as time of sale, one could assume they are under?
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