Posts by Rich of Observationz
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1. How many people...
If information is available on a website or in an annual report, etc, can a department answer OIA requests or Parliamentary questions by telling the questioner to go look at the website or whatever?
On that basis, it'd be cheapest to publish as much data as client privacy would allow, wouldn't it?
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Perhaps the choice of venue wasn't the wisest?
So they should deliberately seek out somewhere that, whilst no cheaper, is notably scuzzier.
Mind you, almost all corporate conferences and retreats are big no-ops, in my experience. The main cost isn't the accomodation so much as the lost time ($500 a day maybe for a middle-grade manager).
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Great sunsets! Have you seen an aurora, or do they not really happen that far north (!)
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WH: move.
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I'm entitled to a white rabbit fur lined hoodie, you say? Awesome. I just gotta catch me a white rabbit.
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I reckon most of the people threatening to clear off to Aussie because we pay too much tax are estate agents, salespeople and the odd accountant. All of whom we can easily replace, or do without.
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Quoted in Keith's NZ article:
the attraction of bigger cities and better weather and beaches
All highly subjective. In how many Australian cities can you live in the CBD and be 15 minutes from the bush? (Maybe Canberra??)
"Better weather" depends on one appreciating 40 degree+ conditions, coupled with alternating drought and torrential rain. (Maybe Melbourne doesn't have that, but I don't think their weather's much sunnier than here?)
Beaches. I'm yet to find a better beach than Piha. The Aussies might have warm water, but half the time it's so full of human-hostile nasties you can't go in. Plus on the (deeply average) city beaches, they're rioting half the time. They own us on reefs though, at the moment, though they're busily f...g them up.
For me, I know I could make a bit more money in Australia. But I could make a whole heap more money in London or New York. Living in NZ is a lifestyle decision, I like it here enough to justify the money I'm losing.
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Also, Aussie has a 9% compulsory super contribution. This isn't entirely tax, but it locks up a proportion of an employees "total employment costs" until retirement. Australians don't AFAIK get any super funded out of general taxation (as we do).
They also pay a 1.5% medicare levy.
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Just one thought. I reckon, from observation, that a substantial part of the radio audience only wants to hear songs that they've heard before. Mainstream radio knows this, and even if they aren't running a total oldies format, they keep the amount of new music they drop into the mix to a minimum.
I'm not sure what anyone can do about this, really.
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Cassette to disk is mandraulic, I'm afraid:
- Plug the cassette recorder into your mic/line in.
- Load Audacity
- Now you need to try recording at various levels until you find a point where the levels are reasonable and it doesn't clip. Too little level is better than too much.
- When you're happy, record it for keeps
- Use the "Normalise" utility which makes the peak of the song 0db.
- Save as FLAC, Vorbis, MP3 or whatever.
- If you like the music, don't own it and it's available, consider buying it and helping the nice artist :-)While I'm here, I think this might be the appropriate thread to plug something:
Tibetan Benefit Gig
Saturday, May 24, 2008 at 8:30pm
BODEGA (Newly Renovated!), WellingtonPlease join us for a night of music and dance to help raise money and awareness for Tibet.
Bands include:
Fire Rabbit
Date With Doom
The Actualities