Posts by Sean Murgatroyd

  • Hard News: The Perfect Drug,

    I like the fact you can either have a bag just with your favourite, or a selection, like the mythical 50c lolly bag of my youth.

    As to benzodiazepates: What the fuck?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diazepam#Adverse_effects
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diazepam#Contraindications

    Next up: Benzedrine is the perfect pick-me-upper, and medicine-grade heroin will help your evening soiree run without a hitch.

    Got to go, I hear the footsteps of the Ford on the stairs...

    New Zealand • Since Apr 2011 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Muse: What The Frig, Police?,

    Didn't we hit the point where hiphop was a valid mainstream option for New Zealand with Stop, Drop and Roll? With Scorpio Girls? How Bizarre?

    Hiphop people are people who like music. Surprise!

    New Zealand • Since Apr 2011 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: One man’s Meat Puppets is…,

    The Phantom of the Opera is appalling.

    A deconstruction of the main, and opressively dominant musical motif:

    Start at the top of a minor scale. Go down to the third. Go back up again. That's all. No refunds for the short ride.

    Good on ya, Lord Lloyd Webber.

    Otherwise, my torture would be anything from Ms. Celine Dion.

    New Zealand • Since Apr 2011 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Muse: Start The Week,

    The Crumb affair made me angry, as a lover of his work. I know he helped me accept the vast swathes of my character that don't line up with the expectations handed down from my upbringing. There's a fearless self-honesty he communicates that isn't present in those who campaign for "family values".

    This type of person is, of course, active in New Zealand as well as across the Tasman, even if they get less traction.

    I always remember watching a documentary on New Zealand "naturists" with my other half - there was nothing else on, and these were the days when we watched tv at all.

    A certain moral guardian was one of the contrasting opinions recruited by the reporters. At one point he commented the danger with these camps was that it was all about the men controlling the women and girls for the purposes of predation. Something about his phrasing made me distinctly uncomfortable, and I turned to herself and commented that it sounded like he was, in fact, stating what he'd like to do in an ideal world.

    The moral guardian, as it turns out, was Graeme Capill. As we know he is still a very well respected figure in the community, with the sole exception that he needs written consent from his probation officer to have contact of any form with a minor.

    No wonder Crumb lives in France. Vive la différence!

    New Zealand • Since Apr 2011 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: The great New Zealand phone…, in reply to Ross Mason,

    Essentially, if we're talking about "one girl with one piece of an algorithm" as being a unit in the "calculator"... aren't we talking about crowdsourcing accurate computational outcomes?

    This is where genius lies.

    New Zealand • Since Apr 2011 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: NetHui is here,

    I don't think there was a complete absence of creatives - I talked to plenty, but I do recall that one of the streams set up to talk about valuing "content" as a way to support creatives which mysteriously turned into a discussion around "if you get your company's profit by selling a 99c app, so be it," which left me dumbfounded - kind of like suggesting selling mailboxes is the way to make money out of running a (physical) newspaper. Sure it might be, until everyone has a mailbox, or somoene else invents a cheaper mailbox. Either way, it is hard to see "valuing content" in that model, unless we are valuing the creative touches of the app designer; I've seen some menu systems I've been inspired by.

    New Zealand • Since Apr 2011 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Ladi is a champ,

    Saw Husker Du live in the Powerstation sometime in the early nineties. Magical.

    New Zealand • Since Apr 2011 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Matthew Poole,

    Patents != copyrights.

    Intellectual property = intellectual property. You seem to be assuming that if I use an analogy that's broken some identifiable respect that I'm using a broken analogy. Every analogy is broken, because the real world is the only thing that maps to the real world.

    I'm merely pointing out that intellectual property is the wider conversation taking place, being played out in copyright law. Creative Commons also != Copyright, but there are equivalences that can be discussed.

    Keep up, eh!

    New Zealand • Since Apr 2011 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to giovanni tiso,

    Not really, no.

    No. But that model certainly is being exploited by patent trolls far and wide.

    New Zealand • Since Apr 2011 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Russell Brown,

    We all watch infringing material on YouTube, even the copyright crusaders.

    Oh thank god someone else has come to that conclusion! Yes.

    Also:

    Yes, if you were torrenting kiddy-porn, then the authorities would really want to know who exactly was responsible. But that's not going to be of interest to copyright enforcers - they're not interested in real crimes.

    This.

    Protection of "intellectual property" is not about prevention of crime. Plagiarists can also put a (c) at the bottom of a page, and if they do so first, they win.

    Please, nobody steal off me by remembering the words I just typed.

    New Zealand • Since Apr 2011 • 18 posts Report Reply

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