RobiNZ Personal Blog

Traffic Light Thought – What is it about North Shore Lights?

I don’t know why but traffic lights on the Shore seem to have the worst phasing of any in Auckland. You rock up to a light and it goes red, no other traffic in sight, wait, wait, wait, here comes a car, their light goes red… and I get a green. What is that about! Read more →

Traffic Light Thought – Road ‘Safety’ Camera?

I passed a Speed, sorry I meant Road Safety, Camera van on the way home last night. It was policing an arrow straight 100 km/h limit motorway section on a fine sunny evening. I presume it was set to nab those doing 5–10 km/h over the limit on a road that probably safely handle 150 km/h or more. Five kilometres down the road there is a long term interchange reconstruction underway. Lanes have been narrowed, flanked by concrete barriers, and a sensible reduced 70 km/h limit imposed. At that speed I watched cars and trucks fly past at 20–30 km/h... Read more →

Amazon’s ‘Recommended For You’… Got me!

I was watching a documentary about Facebook which, in part, mentioned how their adverts are targeted: “Going by the ads I see Facebook thinks I want an AMEX card, a new kitchen, a cinema ticket, a Honda and a holiday in Rotorua. That's zero correct.” Then a bit later: “The ads now think I still want a Honda, tickets to cricket, AMEX Platinum and affordable wall art. Oh, and Facebook marketing. No, no, no, no and no!” On the other hand, Amazon’s ‘Recommended For You’ is absolutely spot on. I had actually banned myself from purchasing any new media until... Read more →