iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I also found his post confusing because he refers to "We" without clarifying who he's referring to. I assume he means his family? I thought at first he meant Zuru as a company (since he refers to it by name near the start) and was like "Why would you write this! Just say it's a personal donation"

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 13h

Nick Mowbray posted on LinkedIn a few days ago about "the criticism we receive for donating to National and ACT" I'd be curious to know what source of criticism he's referring to that apparently struck enough of a nerve that he compelled to write a whole post

A screenshot of a LinkedIn post from Nick Mowbray that says:

I'm aware of the criticism we receive for donating to National and ACT. I'm also aware of the false narrative that we lobby the government and expect something in return.
So let me be clear: we have never lobbied the government.
Less than 1% of ZURU's revenue is in New Zealand.
We donate because we care about this country's future and believe National and ACT have the right talent and strategy to move it forward.
We grew up with that Kiwi number 8 wire mentality. Work hard figure things out and believe you can build something from nothing.
These photos show our second small factory on my parents' dairy farm in Tokoroa, my brother winning the NZ science fair and our first factory in China. We used fibreglass matting from the Kinleith paper mill as flooring because we had no money. We sprayed weeds and milked cows on weekends to help pay the rent.
Then we moved to China and lived on US$1 a day for many years. No exaggeration. My brother spent close to a decade living in a tiny room inside our first factory. For a decade we worked almost every day from morning until late at night sacrificing pretty much every comfort to keep building.

Today, we compete globally with some of the biggest companies in the world. We employ thousands of people globally including hundreds of Kiwis, and aim to employ thousands more in New Zealand over the next five years.
We will surpass NZ$10 billion in revenue next year and are investing heavily back into New Zealand.
That's the future we want more Kiwis to have the opportunity to build. A New Zealand that rewards hard work and sacrifice backs people willing to take a chance and encourages them to compete globally and bring that success home. A country ambitious about becoming better and more prosperous.
New Zealand gave us a lot. We care deeply about its future. We expect nothing personally in return from any party. We simply want the next generation to have the opportunities we had and the chance to take them even further.
We want NZ to WIN! build a country of makers not takers

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14h

Did you end up baking in the amendments from the other day as well? bsky.app/profile/nzel...

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 29/09/2026

While the first two donations of $10K did not need to be declared at donation time, I assume there was some delay or oversight in recognising that the $100K donation required the initial donations to also be retroactively disclosed as the cumulative value from a single donor exceeded $20K

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 27/09/2026

Labour sent out an email about 10 minutes with this handwritten letter from Chris Hipkins saying he has "just come off the stage" The image metadata (which wasn't removed) shows a Sony ILCE-7CM2 took that photo at 1:45pm so a bit before the 3pm campaign launch actually kicked off 😄

A screenshot of an email with the subject line "A personal request - and a note to say thank you"

The letter says "Kia Ora I've just come off the stage at our campaign launch and wanted to thank you. Your support could be the difference between winning and losing. If you can I'd really appreciate it if you can click the buttons below and contribute"

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 25/09/2026

As someone who has worked for a Canadian company, I can confirm that Engineer is a protected term in Canada and so usually the title (for software roles) is replaced with an equivalent like "Expert" Most countries don't have a legal protection of the title and only a small handful do

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 24/09/2026

Is that all? 😉

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 24/09/2026

You can access NZ Herald using your library subscription at a city library (in person) but it seems that if you have a normal account, you can purchase a single NZ Herald issue to be read anywhere (but you can't purchase an issue when logged in via your library account at home)

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 24/09/2026

Speaking of, MMH and Te Whatu Ora were both officially issued some compliance notices yesterday by the Privacy Commissioner. Both notices contain specific actions that they have to undertake and report back to the Privacy Commissioner when they've been done www.privacy.org.nz/tuhono-conne...

privacy.org.nz

Office of the Privacy Commissioner | Privacy Commissioner issues Compliance Notices to Manage My Health and Health NZ

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 24/09/2026

Both things can be true at the same time and it's probably a debatable question of how responsible are media outlets for having to squint at their crystal ball to determine the media literacy/critical thinking of passive readers versus just focusing on their business model

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 24/09/2026

Admittedly I'm a bit lost in this thread but it seems like what you're trying to get at is something like: Journalism is clearly good and should be paid for yet a large passive portion of people never will so there is the meta-issue of what is accessible vs paywalled largely shapes perception (?)

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 23/09/2026

The NCSC's 2026 Cyber Report has a small factoid about the ManageMyHealth hack that I don't think was public before: > These [valid user] credentials had been stolen through a malware infection known as Lumma Stealer. www.ncsc.govt.nz/assets/insig...

ncsc.govt.nz

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 23/09/2026

To be clear, to this part of a larger quote from a source, not a comment by Hager himself

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 23/09/2026

I'm about halfway through the book and this part in the middle made me laugh out loud > Jordan has built this platform for himself, and he's got the keys to this car with this massive engine and he's just driving around going, "Well, I don't know. I'm not a racist."

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 23/09/2026

I was wearing my blue Detective Beans hoodie as well haha. It's my favourite thing to put on in otherwise serious contexts

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 22/09/2026

For some reason, I was under the impression that Potton & Burton themselves had some secret printing press of their own churning this stuff about but according to the back cover, printing was handled by www.yourbooks.co.nz here in Auckland. You too can publish your own expose with a couple clicks!

yourbooks.co.nz

Book Printing Experts in New Zealand | YourBooks NZ

Book printing experts. New Zealand’s no. 1 book printer for publishers & self-publishers. Print on demand using web-to-print service.

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 22/09/2026

Here's the Table of Contents for anyone interested. It's definitely not the longest book in the world but you won't hear me complaining 😄

A photo of the Contents page in Dirty Work by Nicky Hager

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Reposted by Marcus

Marcus @utf9k.net · 22/09/2026

I was browsing the Taxpayers' Union website and I couldn't help but notice that the Stop Three Waters website features in a number of images on their frontpage. Thankfully I came into possession of that domain earlier this year so I set it back up for them with a few tweaks :) stopthreewaters.nz

stopthreewaters.nz

Taxpayers' Union? Dirty Work.

Investigative journalist Nicky Hager's new book Dirty Work promises to pull back the curtain on a decade of Taxpayers' Union involvement in politics

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 22/09/2026

Unity Books on High Street, Auckland has plenty of copies! In fact, the bookstore was quite empty so a very different scene compared to Wellington last night

A photo of the book Dirty Work by Nicky Hager. Visible in the background is a window insert of Detective Beans.

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 22/09/2026

stopthreewaters.nz

Taxpayers' Union? Dirty Work.

Investigative journalist Nicky Hager's new book Dirty Work promises to pull back the curtain on a decade of Taxpayers' Union involvement in politics

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 22/09/2026

Neat! I guess if The Press story is anything to go off, some stores have already been invoiced so maybe only certain staff know 😄

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 22/09/2026

I stopped by Unity Books Auckland to ask if they could add me to the wait list for Nicky Hager's book. Apparently they don't know anything so I might have to postpone my leave until they actually know when copies will be available 😄

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 21/09/2026

i'm so fucking cregnant and it's a 96% on rotten tomatoes

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 20/09/2026

I booked some leave just so I can binge it if it's juicy enough so this will be a handy thread 😄

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 19/09/2026

I happened to be near Whenuapai today so I crossed glancing at the all-of-government data centre off my todo list. It's visible from a small cul-de-sac outside the airbase. I waved at someone to try signal that I wasn't a cooker and just found it interesting but I'm not sure they were convinced 😄

A photo showing the top of a grey tin roof mostly obscured by flaxes, trees and other vegetation

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 17/09/2026

Big! I bet it was good but I couldn't bring myself to interrupt the banger main menu OST (I did play a few hours and it's great stuff I now have extra incentive to get back to 🤩)

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 16/09/2026

There are 4 different documents (CBA + peer reviews) that MBIE published here for anyone interested: www.mbie.govt.nz/document-lib...

mbie.govt.nz

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 15/09/2026

> Education Minister Erica Stanford today released the final two learning areas – Health and Physical Education and the Arts This is really confusing to read since it looks like three areas at a glance

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

step 1: put toast in the toaster step 2: remember toast 1 hour later repeat

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

I just spent 30 seconds trying to dismiss the Siri AI writing orb from the top left of Safari because it was covering a website's in-page back button

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

Anyway, that ended up being a longer thread than I expected since I ended up just reading large parts at work 😄 There's much more to read beyond what I pulled out

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

> Participants said registration must be one-time, fully accessible in NZSL and plain language, and culturally appropriate for Māori Deaf users. Crucially, an anonymous route for some calls, such as those reporting crime and violence, must be preserved.

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

> Microsoft Teams creates barriers for users. One submitter said that for her, creating an account took approximately 90 minutes

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

> Some community members, however, highlighted that TTY is faced with an impending deadline. New Zealand's landline network is itself scheduled for phaseout. While not in the short term, this broader phase-out does mean that TTY will one day be retired.

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

> The Teletypewriter (TTY) is discussed later in this report. [...] it works over a landline without data > One participant described whānau in the far north who simply cannot connect, and who are therefore not future users of anything other than TTY

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

> The potential role of artificial intelligence (AI) was specifically discussed in wānanga. Participants were clear that AI has no role in language, saying that a signing avatar cannot hold a karakia, and that AI is not culturally sound, nor is it a substitute for NZSL interpretation

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

> Submissions describe the same pattern—a son who makes and takes calls for his father, colleagues who make calls for a deaf accountant, a husband who speaks for his wife and passes on messages > The designated person is not always accepted by the organisation on the other end of the line

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

> These risks are compounded by platform limitations in Microsoft Teams where users have reported an inability to have confidence [...] that conversation histories are deleted after a call, leading to fears that subsequent Interpreters or others using the same device could access private transcripts

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

> Personal privacy concerns represent the single largest barrier to registration, identified by 50% of respondents (42 of 84) > an NZSL submitter described the vulnerability of having to disclose sensitive information, such as driver’s licence and bank account numbers through a video call

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

> One participant [...] asked the provider why there was a switch away from real-time typing for web-based text relay, and the response she received was that it was a government decision. The participant said the usual response to service shortcomings was ‘it's not within the contract’.

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

A few random excerpts from the report: > An NZSL submitter reported banks treating Video Interpreting Service (VIS) calls as scam calls

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

2 of the 3 documents are Paul Buckrell's submission which includes this great quote: > The closing date [...] was extended from 6 July to 20 July after it was discovered [...] MBIE had not directly informed the relevant NGOs nor the Telecommunications Carriers Forum that the consultation was open.

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

The consultation report is available as a docx here (www.mbie.govt.nz/dmsdocument/...) and I've exported it as a PDF for convenience here (cdn.utf9k.net/documents/nz...)

mbie.govt.nz

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 14/09/2026

MBIE released their consultation report and a couple other documents a few days ago: www.mbie.govt.nz/document-lib...

mbie.govt.nz

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 13/09/2026

Now that I think about it, their outfits are slightly similar!

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Marcus @utf9k.net · 13/09/2026

For no particular reason, that still reminded me of Popful Mail youtube.com/watch?v=X05Z...

m.youtube.com

biffed it 2 IN HD

YouTube video by CaptainPlanBeefheart

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