Posts by Rich of Observationz
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i've always had respect for i/s, but that one crankiness really does say, "i'm on the dole/underpaid". :)
Student at Massey, surely. Why else would he live in Palmy?
(or he's a 15 year old child prodigy and lives with the folks, but I prefer the former).
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Of course, there's another option: give DHBs real authority to set their own budgets, so those elections and accountability are meaningful. but I can't imagine any NZ government doing that
Dunno, if you had a local income tax paying for health it'd reduce the headline rate for national income tax. It'd make IRDs job harder though.
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DHBs. Why do we have them?
We get a vote on the members, but it's pretty hard to pick out who they are, even if you read the candidate book cover-to-cover. They have no control over funding allocation (it's not as if they had a health rate or something to set) and little control over big aspects of policy, such as which drugs to fund.
Are they just there to give the government someone to blame when things go wrong?
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I do hope you're not coming out of the closet as an advocate of ideological purges of the civil service every time there's a change of government
No, but does it make for efficient government if senior management is ideologically opposed to the policy direction that has been decided upon by the elected government.
The private sector doesn't do this - you don't see Microsoft hiring Richard Stallman or Body Shop employing Donald Rumsfeld, do you?
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Something I've noticed is that way back when in the UK (and presumably NZ) something like water supply would be run by a person like the Chief Clerk of Waterworks on the equivalent of $80k.
Now it's the CEO of WetWater on $400k plus bonuses - and a whole executive team behind him or her.
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But here's the difference. Shit customer service in a cafe, and there's dozens of other alternatives where you can obtain a drinkable latte without wondering if the surly nitwit behind the counter has pissed in it.
Not for mobile phones though. If you don't want a phone that doesn't work overseas and won't work here in a few years, your choice is Vodafone or Vodafone.
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If you could use the internet on a party line, and one person downloaded something, would everyone get it?
I think you'd need a very special modem, usually only available to GCSB and the like.
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I'd have to send her the secret phrasebook first. You're not "turning it off then on" -- you're power-cycling the equipment
You're revealing trade secrets here. From the Linux level one support manual:
- Ok, can you type:
netstat -a
and read me what you see.
- Hmm, interesting.
- Try:
ps -ef | grep 'httpd'
and what do you get.
- Ok: can you type su and enter the root password please?
- now vi /etc/foobar_150308
- now press i then type foobar<tab>19001
- now press <esc> then _:wq_
- now try ps -ef | grep 'httpd'
- what do you get?
- hmmm, try reboot
- call me back when it's started? -
Come to that, I don't "want to spend $80 a month just for internet". Whatever speed I get from Telecom and a 3G cap is fine for my browsing.
I tried using BitTorrent, but rapidly got bored with waiting 24hrs for a file that might or might not turn up on my desktop - for a movie that I wouldn't have time to watch.
You could put "40-something IT consultant" as the generic term for the technology resistant?
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P.S. Mr. brown - don't tell people where the exchanges are! they don't have signs on them for a reason.... What if Te Qaeda were reading???
It's interesting that the owners of the unsigned buildings around Eden Terrace and other places consider they are secure because there is no big sign on the outside saying "Vodafone" or "Air New Zealand".
Personally, I think microwave dishes on the roof and a big standby generating set give the game away. Not to mention the number of couriers and the like who've been there.