Posts by Rich of Observationz
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Up Front: An Open Letter to the Labour…, in reply to Isaac Freeman,
Yeah. Also, I was testing my poll-jamming software this morning: 496 of those votes are mine, but I'm not saying on which side.
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Up Front: An Open Letter to the Labour…, in reply to Emma Hart,
One of the great things about MMP is that unless you live in Epsom or are on the Maori role, electorates don't matter. So I generally vote for the Green candidate - sure, they probably won't win, and a split vote might let the Nat in, but the list allocation will nullify that. If Labour happen to put up a candidate who seems to align with my ideas, then I might vote for them (e.g Grant Robertson, last election) but otherwise not.
The other thing is that the media, who are no friends of the left, often portray perfectly diligent and sincere politicians as being unpopular liabilities on a basis of absolutely nothing. Because someone loses a marginal electorate on a swing against their party, or a demographic change, doesn't mean they put up a worse performance than someone who's entrenched in a safe seat and under no risk of loss.
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Are you a member of the Labour Party? If so, and they have a democratic candidate adoption process, you could go along and vote, or even stand yourself.
If not, then consider voting for a more democratically based party.
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Hard News: Media3: Game On, in reply to BenWilson,
How would an Android console world work? As I understand it, the reason Microsoft/Sony are able to deliver a fast system at a sub-$500 price-point is that they are running a razorblade model and make the deficit up by charging a royalty to game vendors. I'm not sure an open console maker would be able to do that?
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Hard News: Media3: Game On, in reply to Russell Brown,
and a free frequency licence, the ability to charge for access to airtime and no requirement to deliver a profit
I'm confused. Do you mean Mediaworks or PlanetFM? Cos the former seems to have found a way to opt out of tax, and already got a sweet deal on a deferred payment of $43mln in license fees (will these ever be paid?)
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It’s not hard to make a cryptographically secure system. It’s harder to make one that’s usable, especially in communicating with arbitrary people.
I’d imagine that NZ has some sort of secure inter-embassy communication system, but it’s cumbersome – the user has to go to a secure place in the embassy, or write the message out longhand and give it to a courier to encipher and send. They might even have a secure mobile device, but it’s probably a brick, and can only call/message selected people with another similar one.
So it’s easier for Key to use his bog standard mobile which can then be tapped.
Ironically, the government could deploy secure comms on an ordinary smartphone, but don’t, because they don’t trust the platform. So then the principals use fully insecure comms anyway.
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Hard News: The United States of Surveillance?, in reply to BenWilson,
I'm not sure what they want to keep quiet, but it's one of the ostensible reasons for giving GCSB all that money and power. It's another reason for a future government to replace them with an accountable and under-control body.
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Hard News: Media3: We have much to discuss, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Obviously the $40mln bailout from the taxpayer wasn't enough.
They seem to be using this as an
opportunity to opt out of tax and pay "suppliers" (for which read overpaid "talent" and management) ahead of other creditors. Which I thought was illegal? -
The latest is how the UK bugged delegates email at G20 conferences.
Given NZ isn't in the G20, we wouldn't have been there. But I wonder how well GCSB defends our people against similar bugging when they visit UK, given their status as a branch office of Cheltenham/Langley. (Not to mention NZ intelligence's abject failure to detect other instances of state-sponsored shenanigans).
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Hard News: Not good enough, Eden Park, in reply to Scott Chris,
The English middle classes worked this out a while ago. Most English soccer games involve (even today) the kind of offensive behaviour that would be unimaginable in NZ. But the middle classes (unless they hold or seek office in the Labour Party) care little - they, ironically, go to rugby if interested in watching a winter team sport.
It's a kind of self-imposed apartheid - like going to trance gigs rather than hip-hop, or gay bars rather than Courtenay Place.