I am looking at resintalling my OS (currently Mint) which I have been running for a few years.

Mint is great and I may end up going back; but was thinking of trying something new.

I want to be able to play with local models and agents; I have a pretty decent system.

• AMD 3700X
• 64 GB DDR4
• AMD RX9070 16GB GPU
• 2TB NVME SSD
• A few TB of HDD's

What are some good options for easily running models and agents; I have been using ollama to run models; but I'm sure things have moved on since I begun playing with things a year ago.

Give me a few tips; I am going to have a bit of time on my hands over the next few months.

I recently drove my EV from Taupō to Auckland and back.

ChargeNet is great and all, very nice quick charging. But wow is it expensive.

$0.99/kWh on a Sunday afternoon. That is 2.5x what I pay at home, and probably 10x the wholesale rate which they are buying power at.

I am an engineer, so I understand the complexities of delivering huge power loads at a moments notice. But is it really worth the 10x markup?

For context my EV gets approx 5.5km/kWh ~20c/km; vs my ute at currently 32c/km. It would be cheaper running a small petrol car rather than an EV using public charging.

I mostly charge at home at ~19c/kWh; or ~4c/km which is much more reasonable. Long trips are a killer.

I just voted for opportunity.

I hope everyone got their registration in and that you vote.

Make sure you are enrolled.

You can't enroll once advance voting starts.

To vote in a general election you need to be enrolled by midnight, 13 days before Election Day.

For the 2026 General Election this means you can't enrol or update your details after midnight, 25 October 2026.

I caught the multiparty debate last night; I have to say despite the sometimes heated exchanges. Every leader came across as mostly sensible.

The clear loser (IMO) was Winston; he kept leaning on past successes and experience; it made him look old and out of touch.

Hard to pick a winner; Q obviously had a lot to do to show kiwis that Opportunity is worthy of that kingmakers spot; and she did, it was an excellent performance.

Does anyone know how to do this?

It used to be an option buried in the voicemail menu; but they changed the system a while back and now I can't disable it.

The "help" only says:

Your Voicemail account will be deactivated after 60 days of inactivity (i.e. where no messages are deposited or retrieved).

But it relies on no one leaving a message for 60 days.

An interesting project, tracking projects and their statuses.

Recently broke the main blade on our food processor.

Replacement parts are unavailable.

KW715708 is the blade, but everywhere is out of stock.

So I'm looking for a replacement that is known for keeping parts available for years.

BIFL crew, what are your recommendations?

Kiapara ki Maurangi; is now up for grabs. With Chris Penk not seeking re-election after the leadership debacle.

He held the seat for 9 years; and won in 2023 with an almost 20k majority.

I doubt that it will switch away from National with such a clear lead. We don't know who National will put up though.

There are two other high profile contenders:

• Opportunity deputy leader Daniel Eb.
• NZF's Jenny Marcroft, who has a seat from list position.