Well since my last post, we’ve watched the world burn with COVID-19 lockdowns, deaths and economic drops and rebounds.It’s been a long time since I’ve updated my blog because of a few issues that revolved around people taking things I’ve said completely out of context and using it to cause issues in my life, I held back posting things. But in that time I’ve changed a few things…Statamic 3 has been released, I was previously running a Statamic 2 installation - I’ve moved my server from the traditional hosting to the Google Cloud Platform - which allows me to run a virtual machine instance of Debian 10, Apache2 & PHP7.3 which I’ve configured to run with Statamic 3. I do need to figure out how to configure a mail redirect daemon on it though; something I’ll sort out soon.I’ve decided to be better with where I put my money this year and from now on, focusing more investing (using Sharesies) and moving my KiwiSaver to Simplicity Balanced Fund and I’ve started to make regular payments into it each week. 💲💲

Getting the maximum government contributionThe maximum government contribution is $521.43. To get it all you must save to contribute at least $1042.86 of your own money between 1 July to 30 June each year.IRD NZ - Getting the KiwiSaver government contributionI’ve also started to build up a good portfolio on Sharesies with stocks & ETFs. So far, I’ve made positive gains of about nearly $600 (NZD) overall.Just recently I jumped out of Cannasouth stock as it was going up recently at about $1.38 - giving me a positive gain of $460 on top of my initial investment of $400 - giving me a total of $860 😍I almost jumped back in with that and more money I had my wallet, thankfully it didn’t get processed so I cancelled it when I saw the stock price dip at about $1.49 then it dipped more and crashed down to about 70c.I’ve also decided to buy a 27” iMac (2020). Which will be one of the last Intel-based Macs before Apple starts transitioning towards their own Apple Silicon chips, based on ARM. Which is a major change and shift within the computing world in general.Since it’s a 27” model, it’s highly recommended you avoid buying RAM from Apple since they radically always overprice it. So it’s highly recommend you purchase it separately and install it yourself, it’s incredibly really easy. I plan to upgrade it to the max with 128GB (4x32G) memory.Apple transitioned off IBM PowerPC (PPC) architecture when the performance per watt gains on the Intel Core2 Duo release of CPUs, even on the lower end of things; were outright undeniable. Apple even released a G5 that was water-cooled in order to control the temperature issues because the chips were so bad and so hot.Apple is in a slightly similar position with Intel & ARM - Apple is in a position to be able to hold and remain with Intel or push off with ARM on their A-series silicon which have been getting performance numbers competing with high end Intel processors since Apple can control the processor development and design quite intimately, macOS optimization for A-series ARM silicon can yield quite good performance figures.I think Apple going ARM with their own silicon is a double edge sword, they can finally gain complete hardware & software control but I think it could also backfire if they don’t support Intel for long enough after the product transition. I don’t think Apple will drop support for Intel processors for a number of years considering they have to support their Pro-users who have just recently have invested upwards of USD$50k on their newer generation Mac Pro & users who have dropped USD$5-8k on their iMac Pro - which were marketed to their Professional user base, who would expect a good amount of long term support out of their investment in those products. Which I would expect since macOS Big Sur - released as v11 will still have official support for the “trashcan” Mac Pro (Late 2013). So I would expect a 2020 iMac to be supported for about 5-8 years; if not 10years.By then it the Linux scene would have ARM releases and repo’s available for systems out of date, no longer supported or cared about by mainstream Apple users. It would be very interesting to watch…Another major mission we’ll be doing over the next year and a bit, is saving up for a newer late model car. 🚗 We’re thinking 2014/15 Mazda Axela Sedan. It’s going to cost us a bit and would mean we have a quiet Christmas and New Years, but it’s worth the investment. Because of COVID my father will remain home more, spending as little time in public as required - so that enables us to both share a vehicle while society deals with eliminating COVID or waiting for a vaccine to be found and distributed.I will try and post more, I have topics I do want to post and talk about. But we will see.. 😊