Posts by James Harton

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  • Hard News: Prospects,

    Credit controls? Yikes, they've been out of fashion for a very long time...

    So has nationalising banks.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2007 • 51 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Prospects,

    You're complaining that they did "nothing", but if they'd done things in keeping with the allegations that fly from the fingers of Farrar and Slater you'd probably be bitching just as loudly that they're nanny-statists, interfering in the free choice of the population to spend its non-money as it sees fit. And even if not you, many, many others.

    Well, let's be honest here. Pretty much the entire discourse - on both sides of the fence - is dominated by wingnuts. Nothing much makes a whole lot of sense, especially when distilled into soundbites and photo-ops. Is it any wonder we have a campaign based on personality? All people are left with is their gut instinct.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2007 • 51 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Prospects,

    I am rather relieved to not be in Epsom any more! I hated having to vote for a candidate I didn't necessarily support, in a tactical vote.

    Personally, I'm still trying to understand why we even have electorates in this day and age. Geography is obsolete, after all. For me it's just a waste of ink - I'm in North Shore. I'm not voting for the National incumbent, Twyford will be in on the list anyway, and voting for a minor is a waste of time.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2007 • 51 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Copyright Must Change,

    We've been waiting two years to be able to edit our own posts.

    Hah. [[http://www.rubyonrails.org/|Rails] anyone? Jeez.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2007 • 51 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Copyright Must Change,

    Whoops. Typo on my part. That bit was written late at night, and I also blame my sub-editor for failing to pick up on it :P

    Oi! Don't blame me for your poor mastery of the English language. There's a reason I beat you at Scrabble several times a week :)

    Russell, wouldn't it be better to change your model to allow authors to specify the license for the individual work as opposed to the site as a whole? Like the Flickr model where some of my images are CC and some are rights reserved. Given Cactus' proven ability for phearsome web development surely you guys can come up with something?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2007 • 51 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Copyright Must Change,

    What's the problem? This is like whinging that George Clooney won't turn up in your film for cheap.

    That music has a value, and if you won't pay, that's your problem.

    And if it costs too much, don't pay. That's the free market for you.

    The problem, is that it's just quoting. If I use quotes from other books in my book then it doesn't cost me $400k to clear copyright for all of them, I just have to attribute them.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2007 • 51 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Copyright Must Change,

    I'm glad you think so Russell. You and Matt disappeared too fast for us to say hi.

    Personally, I disagree with Lessig on a few things - I'm an abolitionist, but I have the luxury of having strong opinions considering that I don't have any expertise in the area. He's very sensible, I'll give him that.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2007 • 51 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Prospects,

    The polling is certainly interesting as an academic exercise in and of itself (see the excellent wikipedia article Opinion polling for the New Zealand general election), however I'm almost convinced they have almost no basis in reality. There are too many demographics whom these polls just don't reach (anyone too cool or too poor to have a land line, for starters). All this stuff about the party with the largest majority having a "moral right to govern" is weird though - do they not get the idea of proportional representation?

    Look, it looks to me like it could go either way, and really the 49th parliament of New Zealand looks to me like it hangs on the outcome of a bunch of Hui happening after election day. Pita Sharples himself said in response to a Marae poll saying 62% of Maori would be upset with a National-Maori coalition that they would be "stupid" to ignore the polls.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2007 • 51 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Copyright Must Change,

    Is it sad that my idea of an exciting night out with my wife is to go and see someone give a lecture about copyright reform? Oh my.

    You're right though, his presentation style alone is worth going to see.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2007 • 51 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Inimical to the public good,

    Turnover != Profit. The only people making any margin on selling international capacity is Southern Cross Cable. If there were margins in international bandwidth then ISPs would be competing on it more. They are not.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2007 • 51 posts Report Reply

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