Hard News: Brown bigots etc.
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Say, what is 'Pacifics Triple Star' anyway?
North, South and Stewart
That's the generally accepted answer though Max Cryer dedicated a few pages to it in one of his books as there could be a few different explanations (none of which I can remember).
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At least it's not a terrifyingly nationalistic anthem. Other countries expound on their plans to overrun the world. We seem content that a greater power should intervene to stop us being overrun.
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But if you happen to believe there is no god then the whole anthem becomes a bit much - and the Maori version of it even more so.
For me the anthem can be consdiered inclusive of most religious folks, but what about non-religious folks?
I'm an Atheist myself. I find it mildly annoying. In an ideal world, I'd like to see that and the bloody parliamentary prayer out the door. The thing is, as my best friend the singing teacher tells me, people don't listen to lyrics. Normal people, that is. I had an interesting argument last year with an English coworker about who had the worst a)flag and b)national anthem. They're supposed to be embarrassing, aren't they?
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A couple of people have made the point that most folks don't want to know what goes on underneath the GUI.
I agree.
I also agree that most folks can't cope with the simplest changes in computing environment.
but that's my point
The ability to handle software (a bit) and soup up your operating environment and be able to pick and choose - and yes modify even - the software and addons you use is very important to how efficiently you can function in todays world. And personally I'm betting it will be more so in tomorrows world.
The current state of ignorance and outright fear present in todays adults can only change if you expose children to something different.
I want the next generation to be something other than MS users who blindly call helpdesk any time their file won't format properly.
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Say, what is 'Pacifics Triple Star' anyway?
If I could only think of someone famous who sings, dances and acts, I could provide some witticism about pacific's triple threat.
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" Say, what is 'Pacifics Triple Star' anyway?
North, South and Stewart"
Surely it's North, South, and West? In preparation for when we preemptively invade Ozzie before their terrorists destroy our World Cup chances.
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I'm an Atheist myself. I find it mildly annoying. In an ideal world, I'd like to see that and the bloody parliamentary prayer out the door.
Agreed. The most irritated I've ever been with one friend was when she blithely insisted that because the anthem didn't specify a particular flavour of religion, it was all-inclusive. Which seems to be the general "fuck-you if you aren't religious" sentiment common at multifaith pow-wows.
And can I register my immense distaste at and irritation with the crying-little-kid-my-pet-is-dead-because-mummy-and-daddy-didn't-get-kitty-insurance ad at the top of the page?
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Sue,
Not many (perhaps any) comments from females either....looks RB's identified a means by which to get (approx) half the population to opt out.
or maybe the females are all working during the day
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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...
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" Say, what is 'Pacifics Triple Star' anyway?
North, South and Stewart"
Always figured 'quadruple' didn't scan and the sly old dog was betting that no one would listen to the lyrics.
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"My wife's grandmother's father used to tell her tales of his dad taking him to the Auckland Domain so that he could be properly educated in taking a cudgel to the heathens."
Sounds like a cricket metaphor.
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rodgerd:
And can I register my immense distaste at and irritation with the crying-little-kid-my-pet-is-dead-because-mummy-and-daddy-didn't-get-kitty-insurance ad at the top of the page?Me too. A sneaky form of kiddie-porn.
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And can I register my immense distaste at and irritation with the crying-little-kid-my-pet-is-dead-because-mummy-and-daddy-didn't-get-kitty-insurance ad at the top of the page?
Is that what that is?! I only get the crying kid and the "Pet Medicare" showing up in my browser (for some reason, ::cough:: IE ::cough::) With nothing between the two I thought maybe Petmedicare had upset the little girl.
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Because we all know that wiki is always right
There is some discussion, with no official explanation, of the meaning of "Pacific's triple star". Unofficial explanations range from New Zealand's three biggest islands (North, South, and Stewart Island/Rakiura), to the three stars on the flag of Te Kooti, a Māori political and religious leader of the 19th century [2]. Another possibility is that Bracken was referring to Alpha Centauri, the brightest triple-star system in the southern constellation of Centaurus, which contains the fourth-brightest star in the sky.
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The illuminati are in your BSA raising your denominator.
ASA.
An intriguing example of somewhere where voluntary compliance actually works - the Advertising Standards Authority doesn't actually have any power.
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I want the next generation to be something other than MS users who blindly call helpdesk any time their file won't format properly.
I want the next generation to have computers that format properly without people having to call the helpdesk.
I mean, many places will run about 1 technical support person to every 60 or so users. The ratio will be lower if the systems are complex, the users turn over frequently (like a school for example), or there are multiple instances of hardware/software (again, like these schools now where the staff have office, the kids have neooffice).
How would we feel if we had 1 mechanic for every 60 cars in society, and we had to phone one second day to help us get home?
I think the general evolution in computers has been to make them more intuitive and user-friendly for the ordinary user. Since we moved to a gui interface from text, I only get phone calls once a fortnight from my mother, I used to get them a couple of times a week.
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How would we feel if we had 1 mechanic for every 60 cars in society, and we had to phone one second day to help us get home?
We replaced our English cars with Japanese ones, and those days were but a distant memory. Sorry British Leyland.
Since we moved to a gui interface from text, I only get phone calls once a fortnight from my mother, I used to get them a couple of times a week.
Conversely, my wife loves LaTeX and detests Word.
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I'm with Paul. We have three Macs and a PC for the kids' gaming, and the PC has been more grief than the other three put together.
Yeh but that's PEBKAC which is hardly something Bill Gates should take the blame for.
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North, South and Stewart
I thought it was North, Rangitoto and Waiheke?
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And can I register my immense distaste at and irritation with the crying-little-kid-my-pet-is-dead-because-mummy-and-daddy-didn't-get-kitty-insurance ad at the top of the page?
The advertiser bought 60,000 impressions as an auction item at the recent fundraiser for our kids, so it's helping Leo get an education and a future (even when he doesn't sodding well want one). Best move away from the keyboard before you begin convulsing with guilt and shame at your unforgiveable callousness ;-)
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Conversely, my wife loves LaTeX and detests Word.
Now there's a case-sensitive statement.
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So let me just wade into the software debate again, because unlike most of the threads I comment on I do have some direct experience in the field.
I have spent the last 20 years jumping through hoops to win contracts by proving that I and my colleagues can develop or supply "enterprise", reliable, scalable software solutions. It has not always been a lot of fun.
For the last 10 years I and my companions have migrated 100% to using open source tools to supply these solutions, mainly to big corporates, government in NZ and overseas. Every now and then we get asked to support none-OSS systems and we do that as well.
As a result, our job has become much easier. It is easier to produce the sort of solutions we are required to, it is less costly and we make far fewer design and architectural compromises due to stupid and bizarre licensing rules. In short we invariably end up with a better end result than we did in a previous life. Technically it is satisfying and it is gratifying to be able to make a difference to someone's business without compromises.
So, I kind of get pissed off when Danyl and others glibly dismiss this sort of technology based on old or worse, incorrect, perceptions. Danyl to put it in your terms, it's like arguing with intelligent designers. Tiring and irrelevant but you feel it has to be done by someone.
Finally, I haven't had the chance to write a line of code for a long long time. I know no perl but I have run various flavours of Linux on my desktop for a number of years now. I don't go below the GUI to run stuff, including DVDs and so on. Of course, the lovely OS X is based on OSS as well.
Most of my clients use MS products and I have no difficulty in communicating with them electronically whatsoever.
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argh, the typo and grammar gods.
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An intriguing example of somewhere where voluntary compliance actually works - the Advertising Standards Authority doesn't actually have any power.
Yep, the ASA doesn't just act as a cover for its own industry, and its decisions are often quite interesting (if presented in a frankly insane fashion on its website - clearly, no one considered the possibility that anyone might want to link to them). It's an example of self-regulation that works.
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"How would we feel if we had 1 mechanic for every 60 cars in society, and we had to phone one second day to help us get home?"
If cars were able to get me home a million times faster than they could in the 70s, could store 100 millions times as much stuff, and could fit in my pocket, could do basically everything, I think I'd probably not be too bitter on them.
The instability is a function of how much new stuff we're getting every day. It would be nice if it all came out perfect from the word go, but it would cost a lot more, and we'd be waiting a lot longer.
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