Dave Dustin
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dustin.nz
Dave Dustin
@dustin.nz
Semi competent Principal Engineer based in Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Formerly a Microsoft SQL Server MVP but still a big fan of Azure. Primarily working with AWS these day.
70% of ALL the data centers in the world are in one country.

The US state of Virginia alone has more compute than Western Europe.
December 14, 2025 at 5:19 AM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
Henry Ford HATED Jazz because too many Jewish & Black Folks were a part of it. He pushed the Department of Education to make square dance part of the curriculum to counter Jazz.
December 13, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
Fucken quicksand!
Gen X assemble!
Austin Dirks walked through a shallow stream of water in a Utah canyon that looked and felt similar to dozens of others the avid hiker has passed.

But during his Sunday hike, his left foot suddenly sank into the ground.
Rescuers questioned the call but it was real: A hiker was trapped in quicksand
A hiker's backpacking trip turned into a rescue mission after he became trapped in quicksand in a canyon in Utah’s Arches National Park.
wapo.st
December 13, 2025 at 5:21 AM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
i stand by this statement every year
December 12, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
Excellent 🧵. Unfortunately, the government is going to consider precisely zero of these issues.
#nzpol
I've been doing a bunch of media about Australia's social media ban for under 16s this week.
NZ looks likely to follow.
Before we copy-paste a ban, here’s what actually matters (imo) 👇
#nzpol
December 11, 2025 at 6:42 AM
Cost of living question. How much do you think this bottle of aerosol sunscreen costs?
December 11, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
Writing HTML in Notepad
December 10, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
This year's advent calendar is a box of paracetamol 🫩
December 10, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Could be worse...

Could be with Aramex.
NZ Post: we must build a super sorting centre for parcels because efficiency.
NZ: why tf is my parcel from Wellington in Wiri (Auckland) if it is going to Christchurch?
Also NZ: and why does it now take THE DAYS LONGER?
NZP: efficiency!
December 9, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Bloody hell Palmy...

34C at 7pm.
December 9, 2025 at 6:10 AM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
Omg not what I was expecting at all 😂😂
December 8, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
Do you know, I have seen all these Jack Ryan movies and all the Star Wars movies and not once did it occur to me that this was the case.
December 8, 2025 at 6:15 AM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
🇳🇿 Yesterday wind power accounted for ~12% of New Zealand electrical power generation (13GWh). Solar power was ~2% (1.7GWh). Hydro power was ~65% (68.6GWh). Geothermal power was ~19% (20.4GWh).

Source: EM6

#NewZealand #windenergy #solarenergy #geothermalenergy #hydroenergy
December 7, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
Yeah, this is a real thing.
I spend so much time verifying everything now from art to cited sources to photos to historical references to citations to quotes to legal and medical information that it's really hard to fathom how much work AI has collectively added to the world, not reduced
Here's the reality this example illustrates:

It's not even just about people blindly trusting what ChatGPT tells them. LLMs are poisoning the entire information ecosystem. You can't even necessarily trust that the citations in a published paper are real (or a search engine's descriptions of them).
December 7, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
I still don't get why people pay attention to literary awards. The Nobel Prize for Literature. The Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The Man Booker Prize. Not one of these have ever honored a book with an illustrated cutaway that tells you what all the parts of a castle are.
December 7, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
you know how i know im a 44yo dad? how much i laughed at this shit
December 6, 2025 at 3:31 AM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
I think that the Internet should be weird again and we should just code things because they’re delightful. We should also code things so that the haters hate less
December 6, 2025 at 4:39 AM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
… and he SERVED ✨
December 6, 2025 at 1:56 AM
December 5, 2025 at 9:45 AM
I don't think I have any songs that I _hate_

Sure there are ones that I dislike and given the opportunity to skip forward I would take, but...

Actual hate?
December 5, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
December 4, 2025 at 5:30 PM
December 5, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Stardate 90210
December 5, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Reposted by Dave Dustin
Jerry n- oh wait yes thank you same to you
December 5, 2025 at 6:45 AM