Aaron Schiff
@schiff.nz
data tinkerer with #rstats
occasional economist
Aotearoa NZ
occasional economist
Aotearoa NZ
I went to the new Book Hero store today. It's not huge or fancy but it makes me so happy that an actual physical real-life book store has opened near where I live bookhero.co.nz
October 3, 2025 at 3:29 AM
I went to the new Book Hero store today. It's not huge or fancy but it makes me so happy that an actual physical real-life book store has opened near where I live bookhero.co.nz
Am I missing something, or is Woolworths New Zealand really selling wrapped onions for about 2.5x the price of loose onions?
October 1, 2025 at 4:20 AM
Am I missing something, or is Woolworths New Zealand really selling wrapped onions for about 2.5x the price of loose onions?
These words that Nigel Latta wrote in 2015 have always stayed with me
September 30, 2025 at 9:12 PM
These words that Nigel Latta wrote in 2015 have always stayed with me
A bit more context since I was just looking at the business demographics data .. Stats NZ reports 144 egg farming business in 2024, which seems like a reasonable number and is up a bit since 2022, but there could be a few large suppliers and many small ones.
September 28, 2025 at 11:55 PM
A bit more context since I was just looking at the business demographics data .. Stats NZ reports 144 egg farming business in 2024, which seems like a reasonable number and is up a bit since 2022, but there could be a few large suppliers and many small ones.
Gotta share this picture again because I love it
September 24, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Gotta share this picture again because I love it
Suspicious triangle too
September 17, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Suspicious triangle too
MBIE has released the external economic advice it received about banning credit card surcharges. I haven't read the full report but here are the key findings. Basically, it's a bad idea because it will reduce competition and benefit the credit card operators.
www.mbie.govt.nz/dmsdocument/...
www.mbie.govt.nz/dmsdocument/...
September 17, 2025 at 4:20 AM
MBIE has released the external economic advice it received about banning credit card surcharges. I haven't read the full report but here are the key findings. Basically, it's a bad idea because it will reduce competition and benefit the credit card operators.
www.mbie.govt.nz/dmsdocument/...
www.mbie.govt.nz/dmsdocument/...
Otoh, farm-gate beef prices are waaay up over the past year so probably there's more to the story than retail shenanigans
beeflambnz.com/industry-dat...
beeflambnz.com/industry-dat...
September 16, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Otoh, farm-gate beef prices are waaay up over the past year so probably there's more to the story than retail shenanigans
beeflambnz.com/industry-dat...
beeflambnz.com/industry-dat...
September 15, 2025 at 11:31 PM
The world is shit. I planted seeds.
September 14, 2025 at 1:50 AM
The world is shit. I planted seeds.
Today in data janitor land: This number in Excel appears to have leading spaces. But TRIM() won't remove them. Why? Because they're non-breaking spaces. But SUBSTITUTE() with CHAR(160) (non-breaking space) won't remove them either. Why?! Because they're actually CHAR(202). Why??! F*cked if I know.
September 9, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Today in data janitor land: This number in Excel appears to have leading spaces. But TRIM() won't remove them. Why? Because they're non-breaking spaces. But SUBSTITUTE() with CHAR(160) (non-breaking space) won't remove them either. Why?! Because they're actually CHAR(202). Why??! F*cked if I know.
3 more months! And this is pretty funny from Auckland Council. I presume they mean the first opening day rather than being open in general. But still, not something that a properly functioning city should say. www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...
September 3, 2025 at 10:39 PM
3 more months! And this is pretty funny from Auckland Council. I presume they mean the first opening day rather than being open in general. But still, not something that a properly functioning city should say. www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...
Speculators gonna speculate
September 2, 2025 at 3:49 AM
Speculators gonna speculate
We can have lower tariffs now please? www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
August 21, 2025 at 1:38 AM
We can have lower tariffs now please? www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
I would really like to help Watercare improve their usage estimation algorithm
August 20, 2025 at 9:44 PM
I would really like to help Watercare improve their usage estimation algorithm
Weekend gardening at our house
August 16, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Weekend gardening at our house
After all these years, I am still discovering maddening things about Excel.
Here the true and false values are text, but SUMIFS insists on treating "true" as a logical TRUE, so it fails.
Here the true and false values are text, but SUMIFS insists on treating "true" as a logical TRUE, so it fails.
August 13, 2025 at 10:47 PM
After all these years, I am still discovering maddening things about Excel.
Here the true and false values are text, but SUMIFS insists on treating "true" as a logical TRUE, so it fails.
Here the true and false values are text, but SUMIFS insists on treating "true" as a logical TRUE, so it fails.
For context, here's the statistics that the BLS produces (from Wikipedia)
August 12, 2025 at 12:23 AM
For context, here's the statistics that the BLS produces (from Wikipedia)
Is it normal for dental treatment plans to swap left and right, and does this ever lead to mistakes?!
August 11, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Is it normal for dental treatment plans to swap left and right, and does this ever lead to mistakes?!
Asked Chat 5 to design me a potting table for the garden, hmm, I don’t think it has a PhD in carpentry
August 10, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Asked Chat 5 to design me a potting table for the garden, hmm, I don’t think it has a PhD in carpentry
Another mildly useful application of ChatGPT Agent. I could have copied and pasted the tables myself, or written some web scraping code, but that would have taken longer than writing this prompt and doing spot checks on the results. But still have the nagging worry it may have made errors.
August 6, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Another mildly useful application of ChatGPT Agent. I could have copied and pasted the tables myself, or written some web scraping code, but that would have taken longer than writing this prompt and doing spot checks on the results. But still have the nagging worry it may have made errors.
So interesting. I must've messed it up the first time because I re-checked and got Meridian about 2% more expensive for our last bill (not including the $10/month credit that Meridian is offering for the first 12 months). Here's my maths with the prices Meridian quoted for us
August 4, 2025 at 9:03 AM
So interesting. I must've messed it up the first time because I re-checked and got Meridian about 2% more expensive for our last bill (not including the $10/month credit that Meridian is offering for the first 12 months). Here's my maths with the prices Meridian quoted for us
So interesting! Here's Chatham Island. And I just learned about "infragravity" waves 🤓
July 31, 2025 at 12:26 AM
So interesting! Here's Chatham Island. And I just learned about "infragravity" waves 🤓
We ended up with 101mm in the backyard yesterday. Auckland’s average for all of July is 113mm. Stormwater infrastructure earning its keep this morning
July 29, 2025 at 8:17 PM
We ended up with 101mm in the backyard yesterday. Auckland’s average for all of July is 113mm. Stormwater infrastructure earning its keep this morning