tirohia

joined 1 year ago
[–] tirohia 4 points 2 months ago

Last time I wrote a question - probably a couple of months ago. Last time I posted a question .... aaaaages ago.

By the time I get sufficiently frustrated to contemplate asking a question, I find the clarity that comes from stopping and trying to clearly lay out a question usually results in my figuring it out just before I hit post.

[–] tirohia 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It did not. As I say, it was a few months ago, it may have been updated. At the time though, I could select a store and it appeared to populate from a single inventory for the relevant chain.

Still, fingers crossed that gets/got fixed, the idea of the app is good.

[–] tirohia 2 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I tried the app out a few months ago. Good idea, but at the time it was basing product availability on the chain rather than the store - i.e. it would tell you that any product available at the larger Countdown's was available at all the smaller Countdowns, which is very definitely not the case. I'm assuming that's the sort of thing they'd need help from the supermarket chains to fix.

[–] tirohia 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Just to clarify, are you suggesting that people can't drive 30, 40, 50 kms, park in a building or around the corner and walk an extra few meters?

[–] tirohia 2 points 1 year ago

I tried. Going through that loop convinced neovim is not an ide. It's a means by which someone who wants to build an ide can build one.

If you're one of those people who doesn't want to build an ide, like me, it's not for you.

[–] tirohia 2 points 1 year ago

This has been getting to me for a while. A couple of months ago I stumbled across the gemini protocol - the extension of gopher. I haven't done much in that space as of yet, and I'm not suggesting it's a salve for all the problems talked about in the article here, but I have found it is somewhat of a balm for the soul. A different attitude, to the internet and to a limited extent some of the software.

Extending that mindset into even a small fraction of software development would be refreshing.

[–] tirohia 2 points 1 year ago

Remember kids, if you see someone stealing food or toiletries, no, you didn't.

[–] tirohia 1 points 1 year ago

That, is excellent customer service.

The product is doing it's job. They're not bugging you trying to up sell something, or overcharging when their plan changes and leaving you on the old one. And you never have to talk to them, that, is some top notch customer service right there.

[–] tirohia 2 points 1 year ago

Not up to pie award standards, but I made myself some steak and kidney pies on the weekend. Finally got the pastry so that I can pick it up and eat it properly. Quite happy about that.

[–] tirohia 4 points 1 year ago

I tried it out a few months ago. If I recall correctly, for a beta version it was excellent. It was still missing a few things which were deal breakers (I think working on a remote system wasn't an option?), so I'm not currently using it. I imagine it's only got better, and I should probably go have another look at it.

[–] tirohia 1 points 1 year ago

You don't have to be a country to sell GMO free produce.

By market, I meant the market for a product, not a physical place - the market for milk powder vs the market for premium ice cream for example.

I wouldn't say any day, but it will happen. Fonterra ignoring it demonstrates a lack of foresight - illustrating one of the reasons we're bad at capitalism.

Don't know the percentage of the top of my head, but milk powder (or casein derived from milk powder) is used in paints, paper manufacturing, textiles, it's used a an ingredient for a whole bunch of things in labs, packaging, an additive to some plastics, in some places an additive to concrete, it's used in cosmetics. Whey is used to produce industrial alcohol (Fonterra used to make this, don't know if they still do). It's got a lot of non-food related uses.

And even in the food industry, corporations like Nestle aren't going to care where it comes from when they're using it to adjust fat or protein content in the vast majority of their foods.

[–] tirohia 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

We might have been the only country. There would have been a tonne of other companies not from New Zealand competing in that market though. I odn't think we're going to agree on that though so ... moving on.

There being nothing differentiating Fonterra milk powder from any other milk powder is entirely my point - if they could have moved their production to premium markets, they would have. They haven't, which suggests to me that they can't. So at least we agree on that :)

The milk in a vat thing, it's been around in some fairly primitive forms for several years, it's been very interesting watching it develop.

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-yeast-cow.html

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/sep/18/leading-the-whey-the-synthetic-milk-startups-shaking-up-the-dairy-industry

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/03/12/precision-cultivated-dairy/

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-30/synthetic-milk-made-without-cows-may-be-coming-to-supermarket/101383770

There's a bunch of companies - Perfect Day and New Culture in the US, Legendairy Foods in Germany. Remilk in Israel. If there's not someone, somewhere in amongst all that planning on ramping up produce milk powder for industrial uses, I'd be very surprised. As I say, companies who use milk powder in their industrial processes, literally do not care if it comes from a vat or a cow. Short term not so much. Long term, I don't see how this doesn't screw Fonterra if they carry on as if it was nothing.

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