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submitted 6 days ago by Dave@lemmy.nz to c/newzealand@lemmy.nz

Last thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

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[-] Fizz@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 day ago

I'm working on my game and reading papers about information warfare. It makes me feel like a schzio how blatant it all is. People know it's happening and they assume it's everyone else but them. I think the first layer is common knowledge like fake accounts sharing content and arguing to waste time and sow division but I don't think people are as aware of the boosting aspect. Having 1000s of fake accounts boost content from a real person like tim pool.

There was a piece of normie content that came out about how kick would pay people to share clips of its streamers and it would artificially inflate them and made them famous even with no redeemable traits. Just a ton of people from 3rd world countries spamming clips for $2 an hour. That's happening all across the internet, advertisers and platforms vs nation state troll farms vs advertisers click farms. All completing to serve inorganic content to users.

It kind of makes me want an internal internet that is realme verified so you know you're actually interacting with new Zealanders. I can live with someone being a cunt if they're genuinely just a cunt voicing their opinion about their country. Nz people are easy to regulate if they cross the line and are intentionally spending harmful narratives. This is something that needs to be addressed because its so hard to regain trust in institutions and government especially when it's lost from something completely fabricated.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 1 points 3 hours ago

I wonder how much of a direct target NZ is vs just collateral damage. I doubt you'd get many takes for a realme verified forum, but what about one that blocks any access from outside NZ (or NZ based VPNs), what would that forum look like?

Though NZ people are getting exposed to misinformation in other ways, so like you say many people would be unknowing spreaders or supporters of that misinformation.

[-] Band@lemmy.nz 3 points 4 days ago

I got banned permanently of reddit for quoting someone else, absolutely bizarre.

Now it seems I'm IP Banned for trying to circumvent the ban?

Then I realised I really can't be arsed changing my IP or browser to be apart of a site that's becoming increasingly ruled by an Automatic Robot Mod.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 2 points 3 days ago
[-] Band@lemmy.nz 3 points 3 days ago

Cheers Dave, how was your day?

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 3 points 3 days ago

Not bad, I went shopping with one of my kids to get them some clothes. It was the decisive one so it was a pretty smooth and quick shopping trip. And I took a kid to a swimming lesson. Pretty chill day really.

How has your weekend been so far? (besides getting banned from reddit 😆)

[-] Band@lemmy.nz 3 points 3 days ago

Welp.

I'm working through it. Well, Sunday/Monday anyhow, Going to take that time and a half+ a day in lieu and cash it in when it really gets cold and I need to spend a day in bed with the Mrs.

My first Winter season in the South, Looking forward to it.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 2 points 3 days ago

It's as good a plan as any, working when everyone is trying to have a holiday and holiday when everyone is at work!

I've never lived in the South but I know those that have and they loved it so I'm sure you'll have a great winter so long as you stay warm!

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 4 points 5 days ago

Also, reminder to submit a suggestion of a 2025 NZ song for Lemmyvision.

And if you're a LemmyNZ user and want to get more involved in managing the instance, see this post.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 6 points 6 days ago

Long weekend! Are you guys planning on attending the ANZAC dawn service (or later services) tomorrow? I used to go each year but haven't been since we had kids. Can't get them up early enough 😅

This week I've been on a spending spree. I have a new security camera that I'll put over the driveway, that will hopefully let me see both number plates of cars in the driveway and the kerb where we put our rubbish/recycling bins, letting me play with automations around reminders of putting the wheelie bins out or notifications of who is in the driveway. That will bring it to 3 security cameras + a doorbell camera, which is the final state I intended. It doesn't do a good job of security as someone could easily skirt around them, but it will do a great job of covering things that make for fun times in Frigate/Home Assistant!

I had to get a new switch as I've used all the 8 ports + extra 4 on my mini switch. I also can't thread any more ethernet cable into the ceiling through the existing hole, it won't fit more, so I'm going to roof mount the new switch, which has 7 POE ports which should cover everything.

Another thing I bought this week is a 20kg bag of Wairarapa grown flour. Shipping was a killer, I seriously considered driving there to pick it up but in the end I decided to just suck it up. It was an impulse purchase, not sure what I'm going ot use it for but we generally go through a lot of flour anyway. I might have to bake some bread, which I haven't done in a while.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 4 points 4 days ago

I can happily report I successfully mounted the switch and camera today, with no dramas and only a normal amount of blood sacrifice.

[-] nsh@lemmy.nz 2 points 2 days ago

Congrats! Mind me asking what models for security cams and doorbell you went with? I had to get mine installed quick and kind of regret not spending enough time shopping around.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 2 points 2 days ago

I have a whole range! All are POE because I am using them with Frigate and all the recommendations are to avoid wifi cameras for that.

The first one I put in was this TP Link one. I was pretty happy with that one really. I got a 4mm focal length and didn't really understand what that meant at the time, for the place I put it I'd probably go for the 2.8mm version if I did it again for the slightly wider angle, but it does what I need it to. Noting that wider angle means pixels are spread across a wider area so identifying people is harder if you're using it for security.

The second camera I got is this HiLook one. I got it because it's a Starlight camera, working in very low light. However, it doesn't seem to have a setting for automatic frame rate, so if you have it set low for low light then it's blurry all day whenever anything moves. In the end I have it using the IR light at night and don't really make use of the Starlight capability.

My most recent camera is this Ubiquity one. It turns out you need a device with Unifi Protect in order to enable the RTSPS stream to allow Frigate to get the video stream, it's not enabled by default. I have a device capable of it (Unifi Dream Machine SE) so it wasn't an issue for me, but if I didn't that would have been a shock! But I only got the camera because I have that Unifi ecosystem for some other stuff. It's a bit nicer build quality than the others but it's a lot more expensive than the TP Link and I don't know that it's any better.

The doorbell camera is this Reolink POE one. I only paid $120 for it in the black friday sale (only just got around to getting it installed). It can do cloud stuff if that's your thing but I have it running all locally with the video streaming to Frigate and with Home Assistant notifications for when someones at the door or if they press the doorbell button. The Reolink app lets you talk through the doorbell with the person at the door, when someone presses the doorbell it rings your phone like a video call and you can accept or decline. Two way audio is apparently doable through Frigate to Home Assistant but we decided we don't really want to do calls with the doorbell so I haven't looked into it much. All in all pretty happy with it though, maybe my only complaint is that I think the HDR could be stronger, the sky is bright in the shot and people approaching it have shadowy faces so facial recognition doesn't work that great unless it happens to get a properly lit shot of them.

These cameras all come with AI detecting of people, animals, cars, etc, but I'm not using it because I've got Frigate so I can't really comment on their effectiveness.

[-] nsh@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 day ago

Thanks for sharing the info, much appreciated. Frigate sounds like a great idea - no need for cloud subscriptions, privacy concerns, etc.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yeah Frigate is pretty cool. Really I got the cameras to play with Frigate, I didn't get cameras first haha. I also got a Coral TPU as a dedicated processor for object detection.

It has been fun playing with the driveway one this past few days. Using number plate recognition in Frigate I can have Home Assistant send me notifications (with a photo) of when our cars arrive in the driveway. Over time I'll add common visitors too, then maybe I can have my Home Assistant Voice PE (smart speaker) announce for the kids when Grandma has arrived or things like that.

I currently have the camera send me any detections. and I had no idea how often a neighbours cat chills in our driveway.

[-] Panq@lemmy.nz 3 points 5 days ago

Hopefully will find enough time (and nice weather) to fix the robotic mower's boundary wire. And by fix I mean rip the whole lot out and replace with the heavy duty wire. It's done well to last so long, but it's in too poor condition now for me to bother trying to patch whichever section is corroded.

Then I have to put my fancy new Old Man Mountain front rack on my bicycle and figure out how to mount my light to it.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 4 points 5 days ago

Is your boundary wire special, e.g. has some power or signal running through it, or do you literally just have wire and the robot uses magnets or some other magic to detect it?

[-] Panq@lemmy.nz 4 points 5 days ago

Nothing special, any copper wire should work.

It uses induction - the base station sends a signal around the loop and the mower picks it up with a coil. The signal is inverted when the coil is on the outside of the loop.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 3 points 5 days ago

Ah, that is the kind of special I meant. So it's plugged in to a base station sending signals.

You mentioned it's corroded, so it's just a bare wire? Or it's insulated but over time I guess the sun would damage the plastic and air/water would start to get into the wire and corrode it?

[-] Panq@lemmy.nz 3 points 4 days ago

Or it's insulated but over time I guess the sun would damage the plastic and air/water would start to get into the wire and corrode it?

Bingo! Ripped out a bunch of it yesterday and found a section of it where insulation has failed for whatever reason and the wire was crumbling to dust.

this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2026
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