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ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
D Ingram
@ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
6 followers 1 following 64 posts
Inhabitant of South Earth.

[bridged from https://mastodon.social/@ingram on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
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ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
The G4 geomagnetic storm is having an effect on the New Zealand power grid. Transpower have issued a Grid Emergency Notice and have taken lines and transformers in Southland out of service.
#spacewx #solarstorm
Cause:Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Induced Current Event in Progress South Island Region or GXP affected:South Island Starting:12-nov-2025 14:45 Ending:12-nov-2025 23:59 The System Operator advises that a Grid Emergency has been declared to remove the following assets from service due to the onset of an severe (G4) Geomagnetic Induced Current event; South Island Circuits: Roxburgh – Three Mile Hill circuit 1 North Makarewa – Gore – Three Mile Hill circuit 1 Benmore – Twizel circuit 1 Roxburgh T10 Consequences on the power system: Risk of partial or full cascade failure in the North and/or South Island. Map of lower south island showing the lines that are out of service
November 12, 2025 at 3:08 AM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
The 50th anniversary of the Whitlam dismissal is digging up some interesting reports. Some declassified memos from the 1970s are eye-opening. Heaven forbid Australia was independent of the US! And they didn't predict the dismissal […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Background ------------------ Our close traditional friendship with Australia has been under pressure for several years because of Australia's desire for greater independence in foreign affairs and because of Prime Minister Whitlam's style. The problems deepened two months ago when the Australian Labor Party (ALP) elected left-wing leader Dr. Cairns as its deputy party chief and We need to review our attitude toward Australia's greater independence and we need to review whether we want to keep our present installations in Australia and -- perhaps more important -- whether to locate any future installations there, The two matters are related. Presumably, if we are confident that Australia's independent course will not go too far, we would keep our installations. If not, we would move them. The former is more risky; the latter more costly. Whitlam's domestic political base. We should assume that Whitlam will last out his full three-year term, though new elections within this period are a clear possibility. Whitlam is not likely to be challenged for his post by left-wing leader Jim Cairns but Whitlam's policies are likely to shift perceptibly to the left under continuing pressure.
November 10, 2025 at 2:08 AM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
The AI slop polluting the web is making it unusable. A (what I thought was) simple query about changes/benefits of Samsung One UI 8 delivered a total turd of a 'blog post' with these gems. Not linking to them, but ugh. If text extruders are going to be used, declare it upfront.
Likely eligible families (based on support policies) Galaxy S-series: Recent flagships typically receive 42 OS upgrades and 52 years of security updates. Galaxy Z-series: Foldables usually mirror S-series support commitments. Galaxy A-series: Upper/mid A-series models often receive 34 OS upgrades. Galaxy Tab S-series: Premium tablets generally track S-series support windows. Enterprise/FE variants: Selected models may be included depending on launch year. Pre-update checklist Backup: Use Smart Switch (PC/Mac) or Samsung Cloud/Google One for a full backup. Free space: Keep at least 810 GB free; large updates need headroom to unpack and optimize apps. Charge: Update with 50%+ battery (or while plugged in). Clean up: Uninstall apps you no longer use to minimize migration overhead.
October 19, 2025 at 3:21 PM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
The oddness of Australia's states hits when looking at weather forecasts. The Bureau of Meteorology is a federal agency, but for some reason storm warnings are state based. Here's the NSW and Queensland warnings for the same storm. It gets crazier when the […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Map of southern Queensland showing a storm warning area in the south east. Map of northern NSW showing a storm warning area in the north east. Map of southern Queensland with a dangerous storm shown in northern NSW, but with the affected areas only shown in Queensland.
October 18, 2025 at 5:03 AM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
This image from Aïda Amer @ Axios sums up the USA perfectly.
US flag redrawn with cyclone fencing replacing the left field of stars and barbed wire replacing the stripes.
May 10, 2025 at 2:06 AM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
[#auspol]

This sums up the LNP last night for me...
A Few Good Men Meme image. 1. I want the pre-polls 2. You can't handle the pre-polls
May 4, 2025 at 1:38 AM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Time to tweak the Canadian joke (https://mstdn.ca/@AhTheGreg/114424456120304431) #auspol
What's the difference between a toilet and Peter Dutton? They're both full of shit, but at least a toilet has a seat!
May 3, 2025 at 12:55 PM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
I am happy to support journalism, but The Guardian in Australia is losing the plot. This is why I cancelled...why support the paper when my $15/month subscription not give me ad-free browsing? An ad blocker and cookie clearer give me less hassle, and leave me with more money.
Guardian cookie options. Advertising or Pay.
May 2, 2025 at 1:44 PM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Google Street View can do some interesting time warps. Turning right from Moorak St onto Moggill Rd (Taringa, Brisbane) you go from seeing an under-construction supermarket to a vacant site to the finished supermarket in the space of 100 metres. A short vid showing the transitions...
May 1, 2025 at 3:54 AM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
I found a Moro (NZ choc bar) in the fridge and I knew it was fairy old without looking at the Best Before. It was 60g! Ones in the shops are now 50g. Once upon a time they were 65g. #shrinkochronology
Front label of a Cadbury Moro chocolate bar Zoom in on the 60g weight marking on the Moro label. Best Before 20-01-25 on the back of the Moro label.
April 12, 2025 at 8:52 PM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
[#auspol]

I'm not sure the LNP scare flyer about the Greens is going to have the expected effect. Is there a Greens mole at LNP HQ?
LNP negative advertising about Greens policies, flyer delivered to letterbox
April 11, 2025 at 12:36 AM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Looking at the specials at a hardware retailer in Australia and I'm so conflicted. I don't _need_ 750mm long bolt cutters, but maybe they'd come in handy for the impending apocalypse? Only A$5.39 (inc GST).
Web store page for a set of bolt cutters on special.
April 6, 2025 at 10:51 AM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Solar storm has caused a geomagnetic induced current grid emergency in New Zealand. The grid operator has taken action to prevent a 'cascading grid failure' […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Grid Emergency Notice Revision To: GEN NZ Participants From: The System Operator Sent: 02-jan-2025 07:57 Telephone: 0800 488 500 Ref: 5881326725 Email: NMData@transpower.co.nz Revision of: GEN, 5880633351, 02-jan-2025 07:28, Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Induced Current Event in Progress
January 1, 2025 at 8:37 PM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Endangered species spotted in suburbia (St Lucia, Brisbane). Somehow this post box survived the cull when the ones at local shops were removed. #auspost
Red Australia Post street posting box on the side of the road.
November 25, 2024 at 6:53 PM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
The Explanatory Memorandum has a different take on "Australian", that being someone in Australia.The Bill is poorly drafted -- why does it not say "child in Australia" rather than "Australian child"?
Section 5 of the Online Safety Act defines terms used throughout the Act. Item 2 amends section 5 to include definitions for 2 new terms being established by the Bill. Notably, an age-restricted user is a child who is ordinarily resident in Australia and has not reached the age of 16 years.
November 25, 2024 at 4:51 PM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
The Australian social media ban (<16 yo) bill has some "interesting" definitions. My take is that a temp immigrant or permanent resident child would not be in the class of age restricted users, but Australian children overseas would be (provided the service […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
age-restricted user means an Australian child who has not reached 16 years.
November 25, 2024 at 4:50 PM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
And here's the breakdown. Arqiva have 700-ish towers with 400MHz links to the Communication Hubs for the north, and Telefónica (Virgin Media O2) have the south.
https://www.smartme.co.uk/smets-2.html
Smart meter comms map from smartme.co.uk
November 11, 2024 at 7:46 AM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Ah ha! Looks like the RF modulation is ETSI EN 300 113-1, operating between 412-414 and 422-424 MHz. This is interesting because EDMI and Landis+Gyr compete to make energy meters--never expected to see the brands used together. Arqiva operate the UHF FlexNet […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Photo of an L+G energy meter with EDMI communications gateway. Block diagram of the EDMI CS10 gateway.
November 11, 2024 at 7:18 AM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
The map makes just as little sense. The info provided by DCC, the data network operator, is opaque, so I have no idea what frequencies or protocols are used. There looks to be a Zigbee in-home hub required for the meter to transfer data.
Stylised map of Great Britain showing a line from Liverpool in the west to Hull in the east, with areas north of the line using "radio signals" and the areas south of the line using "mobile technology".
November 11, 2024 at 7:03 AM
ingram.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
[Victoria Police (nuff said)]

It's deeply concerning that Victoria Police have created a "Protester Extraction Team", let alone created special badges for their vests. And what's with the subdued printing rubbish? This is not a healthy mindset.
September 13, 2024 at 9:01 AM