Posts by Mahal

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  • Hard News: Of Monsters and Old Boys,

    While I was at uni, I dated a bloke from Auckland Grammar. His mother was absolutely horrified to discover that, despite my decile three high school, I'd passed bursary with better marks than her kids at AGS and EGGS, and was getting straight A's at uni (her son had failed one paper that semester). She just couldn't believe that good teachers, parental support, and my own attempts at hard work meant somewhat more in my education than her own version of academic achievement (throw money at it).

    She's not the only parent I've run across with a similar mind set, and I find it quite sad.

    Auckland • Since Apr 2007 • 31 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Feckless Solutions,

    I grew up in a single-parent household, with my Mum on a benefit. (Dad passed away when I was small.) Money was tight, but we coped. More particularly, Mum coped. Because she had a support network.

    I'm now 24, and I see that as something sorely lacking in today's society. New parents don't have communities to bond with the way they did in the past. A friend of mine, who is a new mum, felt horribly isolated in her first two years of motherhood. She joined what parenting groups she could find, but those in her area tended to be the cappucino-cruiser and Prada-purse group. (The few that could afford to stay home with their kids..) She was the first new mum in my circle of friends, and whilst we were all willing to help out - babysit, offer help around home, and so on - none of us were parents. Visits to professionals (the GP and so on) are costly, and organizations like Plunket can only stretch their resources so far.

    Any 'fixes' that society tries to implement around child abuse problems needs to provide resources for new parents. Free ones, preferably, or so cheap that ANYONE can get hold of them. Family can't or won't help like they did 30 or 60 years ago, friends often aren't available, and society has fragmented. It used to take a village to bring up a child, and these days too few people have a 'village' to call on.

    Auckland • Since Apr 2007 • 31 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: An unexpectedly long post…,

    Science is not about building a body of known "facts." It is a method for asking awkward questions and subjecting them to a reality-check, thus avoiding the human tendency to believe whatever makes us feel good. (The Science of Discworld; Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen and Terry Pratchett.)

    Like Emma, I prefer to be informed about whatever it is I'm going to be putting into/on my body. Whether that be a GP-prescribed drug, an OTC cold/flu remedy from the chemist, vitamins from the shelf in the supermarket, or the herbs growing in my back garden.

    Providing that Big Business interests can be kept out of the way (a big ask, I know) - regulation, provided it's supported by good science, seems to be the best bet we've got at getting fairly reasonable answers to those questions.

    Auckland • Since Apr 2007 • 31 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Contains strong language,

    This may have been an urban legend I picked up at high school, but doesn't a religion above $certain_number_of_members become entitled to Governmental tax breaks/church-building-allowed or similar?

    Auckland • Since Apr 2007 • 31 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: New Dataz,

    (has any one actually had an ipod that hasn't broken within 12 months?)

    Yep, first-gen ipod nano. Works like a charm despite several instances of being dropped, getting lost, being left in the car, etc. Two previous flash players did not survive similar treatment, sadly.

    I have no interest in appletv for now. Maybe when the tech has matured some..

    Auckland • Since Apr 2007 • 31 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Contains strong language,

    I'm afraid to say I'm one of the annoyances who answered "New Zealander" - since my parents deemed me responsible enough to answer the thing, in fact. (That was the point I stopped claiming a religion, too, if I remember correctly.)

    As far as bad reporting and bad press go? I'm (surprisingly) feeling somewhat sorry for Mercury Energy. Not aided by the wonderful sight of an overpass en route to work this morning, where some charmer had spraypainted "RACIST MURDER MERCURY ENERGY". No doubt that there was some serious issue there - and my heart goes out to the family - but don't demonize the company without knowing the facts!

    Auckland • Since Apr 2007 • 31 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Brown bigots etc.,

    Macs are cute but in my mind you pay a premium for that cuteness if you happen to live outside of the USA.

    The way I heard a friend put it: "I'm not a Mac fan. But I am an OSX fan."

    I'm glad the prices are gradually coming down with the Intel chips - mac minis and macbooks are nearly competitive, even in NZ. And thanks to Bootcamp, Parallels, etc etc, I get to run OSX, Linux-of-choice, and Windows on whatever my next Mac purchase is.

    Auckland • Since Apr 2007 • 31 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Brown bigots etc.,

    The current state of ignorance and outright fear present in todays adults can only change if you expose children to something different.

    That requires people to teach who are flexible, able to update their education on the fly, aren't scared by technology changing... I'd tentatively say that most teachers and parents don't have the time to keep up with everything, and many don't care anyway.

    Then there's those who think the computer is a glorified typewriter, and have no clue what it can actually do. Or the folks who see it as a hindrance they have to work around to do their jobs...

    Auckland • Since Apr 2007 • 31 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Brown bigots etc.,

    Fortunately there are millions of nerds who have the strangest desire to show you the answer.

    Totally agreed - I have a couple of mates who work for open-source organizations. I even did a bit of Moodle programming at one point, and I'm far from a good programmer.

    I don't think there's much chance of that becoming the mainstream, though - most users want the technology to just work. (Getting folks to do the simplest troubleshooting steps via Helpdesk is like pulling hens' teeth, I swear.)

    Auckland • Since Apr 2007 • 31 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Brown bigots etc.,

    I guess my thinking was that with the continued expansion of computers into our lives, the ability to understand how software works might well become as much a part of life as say keyboard skills are now.

    The problem with that is the old saw, that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. There's a huge learning curve required between "Hello World" and "ability to debug Open Office".

    (The former I can do in several languages, and I'd imagine so can a lot of kids in my generation. The latter, not so much.)

    Auckland • Since Apr 2007 • 31 posts Report Reply

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