Not sure about age 56 but by the time you get to 90, many people’s brains just aren’t what they used to be. If you’re a scammer, it doesn’t matter if 9/10 people see you coming, you just latch onto the 1/10 that can’t tell they are being scammed.

By 90 my grandmother had a Benjamin Button memory. She didn’t recognise the youngest grandkids, over time she couldn’t remember the oldest ones, and then her kids started fading from her memory starting with the youngest.

Even before that point, in her 80s (like most of these victims), if you walked up to her, said you’re a police officer and need her EFTPOS PIN to investigate fraud, she would have told you it.

You might be onto something. But also most scams originate from overseas, this guy was dumb enough to do it in NZ and apparently did something that led police to where there could be a foot chase.

Nice to hear of a scammer getting caught for once.

It’s such a weird way to subsidise tax cuts. I guess it wasn’t free for long so they wanted to get it changed back before people thought if it as a new fee instead of an end to a short period of free prescriptions.

Someone rushing them? Or just a misunderstanding of the physics of the situation. It’s probably a good argument for why you need to teach people the reason for procedures, instead of only telling them the procedure.

Beeper does allow self-hosting, though I think you have to use a matrix client, last I checked you can’t use their apps to connect to your own server but you can access your Facebook chat or whatever through a matrix client by running the bridges they provide.

Pidgin for Android would be amazing. I found references to an app from 2010 but the links all go nowhere so I guess that didn’t survive the test of time.

Not sure if this is the appropriate way to handle this but here is @[email protected]’a comment. If they want to repost it themselves I can delete this one:

I’d guess the contractors were not properly instructed. This brings a point, who were the contractors working on this? Did they have any relevant experience, or were they simply casual labour?

I’d expect all procedures to be fully documented and importantly regimented into crews. But seemingly not in this case, how the hell could this happen?

Whoops, I posted the same link as you after you’d already posted. Have removed that one and will repeat my comment here:

I can’t believe it, @[email protected] was right! Contractors took out too many bolts 🤦

Oh, was that Pidgin? I had forgotten about that! Having just looked it up, it seems it’s desktop only but it does support Facebook via plugin.

It sounds like it would be great to have on Android but I can’t find an Android app for it.

I can’t believe it, @[email protected] was right! Contractors took out too many bolts 🤦

Well done!

I’ve never been there, and I’m having trouble with the perspective. Is that island in the middle something with tall trees on it, or is it something that would be underwater if the water was up to the measuring stick in the foreground?

Holy he’ll, that’s so much worse than the article makes it sound like!

Haha yeah, but autumn can be nicer weather than spring in a lot of places so hopefully you get a weather upgrade.

Yeah, I am not aware of another way to take Facebook calls without having Facebook messenger installed.

The other thing with Beeper is you are generally required to have the other app installed as well. Not for Facebook, but often you are required to have the other app on your phone to make it work. They are putting all the chats in one place, not removing the need for the other apps.

The old Beeper Android app supports SMS, so I can see the texts come through on my laptop. But the new one only supports RCS, and requires you to install Google Messages to get this set up, so I’m still using the old app that is no longer updated. The new app is recent, but I just can’t bring myself to install Google Messages on my almost-Google-free phone.

Awesome photo! Did you take it?

Their selling point is many chat networks in one.

I use Beeper because it’s the only app I know of that let’s me chat to everyone on Facebook without needing to have a Facebook app installed on my phone.

Facebook doesn’t even let you use the website to chat from mobile, the bastards.

(Worth mentioning Beeper can’t do Facebook calls, but will give you a message when someone tries to call)

I’ll try to add on to what others have said. Matrix is a protocol. Element is the client made by the people behind Matrix but you can use any Matrix client. Matrix is the protocol behind Beeper but they don’t put much effort into integrating with Matrix, so for example (last I checked) you can’t log in to a Matrix account on Beeper.

However, your Beeper account is a Matrix account so you can join Matrix rooms with it. It’s a little janky, but basically you go to the menu in Beeper and find the option to join a Matrix room, then follow the instructions. From memory you might only be able to do this from the desktop application, not on mobile, but the room shows on mobile once you connected on desktop.

Lemmy.NZ has a Matrix chat, see: https://lemmy.nz/post/169187

There is an NZ homeserver: https://mtrx.nz

This is run by fediservices.NZ, the same folks who provide a server for us to run Lemmy.NZ on. But you aren’t able to connect a matrix account like this into Beeper, you’ll need to use a different app like Element.

Hope this helps!

Exciting! If you need to apply for an NZ passport, do it now, they used to issue them in a couple of days and now it’s a couple of months!

Are you having a nice long visit or just a quick trip? I’m assuming overseas since people don’t usually freak out over buying a bus ticket. Usually.

There’s some more on Nobby here: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/520252/who-is-nobby-clark-a-brief-history-of-invercargill-s-controversial-mayor

He sounds like an all around top bloke.

I’m telling you, the boats are coordinating an uprising.