Posts by slarty
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Look what I found: the St. Custards website.
A poor sub for those missing copies of The Compleet... (mine disappeared with the ex in 1996)
-
"as any fule kno"
Hey! I didn't think there was anyone else in NZ who knew about Down wiv skool :)
-
[I know this has an obscure technical meaning, but I think this is much better]
Encrapt (v): convert ordinary language into meaningless technical (legal, ICT, psychological etc.) babble. Generally used by the public sector to ensure its actions are indecipherable, but sometimes used for political spin, public relations and so on. [Encraption, encrapted, encraptable].
"We wrote a simple explanation of the new research loans policy, and have fully encrapted it for release so the public will not notice it enables us to divert funds to failing community projects."
"The email was released under the FOI Act, but fortunately it was fully encrapted do they didn't notice the authorization for the First Class tickets."
"Make sure you encrapt the information about how the DRM works in the new O/S so that only a real geek will read the detail. At least that way it will only be a non-entity at in some hole at the end of the world who will make any noise, and we might get away with it."
"Make sure the Executive Summary is encrapted, but not the main document. The journalists never bother with the detail, so we can always use that bit to get ourselves off the hook if people say they weren't warned."
Sometimes encraption can backfire:
"That briefing has to be encrapted before we give it to POTUS or he'll think we really are saying Iraq is a terrorist threat. Make sure it's so impenetrable that even someone with an IQ lower than their shoe size realizes there's no real evidence".
http://serendipitousphilosophy.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html
-
I also had a look at the British system, which is in many respects similar to the EFB. The sky hasn't fallen in on free speech there, but the British electoral commission is able to oversee a remarkable degree of transparency in campaigning, and that's a good thing.
... I'm not so sure - as a former resident of the place (child of Thatcher :) I do wonder about the lack of intelligent debate sometimes. Maybe it's the Australian newspapers, or maybe it's more balanced than I remember, but there seems to be a distinct lack of depth over there nowadays. I think these things can be much more insidious than we think.
"Money doesn't buy elections" what planet are they on - we need something that will prevent the farcical pseudo democracy of the good ol' U S of A...
-
I too cried with (supportive) laughter!
"Sack your midwife"
Have to agree: what with the Breastapo, the creationist ante-natal group and the bizarre mumbo jumbo witch doctor crap that our midwife seemed to make up on the spot we ended up firmly in the "planned C section / good drugs / formula / Obs" camp.
Scary thing is it seems to have worked for baby 1.0. Sleeps 12 hours a night + 2 hours during the day, eats anything, never sick... and mum got 5 good nights sleep straight after, and was out jogging within 3 weeks...
I'm sure she'll turn out to have "attachment issues" in the future, but at least we'll have something to blame the teen tantrums on :)
-
For crying out loud guys - read the 193 posts on this blog, put yourselves in the position of a police force trying to uphold law and order and keep the peace, and then imagine what you might do to get the legislation you want to do your job...
-
Sorry Slarty, the first part of your comment was a bit libellous for my taste,
Fair point! Don't drink and blog (don't remember it - unless there are two Slarty's?) :)
-
My WiFi router's SID is my street address
Same here. And same here.
Mesh doesn't need an Internet link in the first instance - it can simply grow up for gamers. I think there's certainly going to be gentle growth in terms of P2P and VOIP as kids realise what they can do (and have WiFi enabled mobile phones) a bit like the CB period I had in my teens.
Don't forget the Internet is mesh - it just uses wires (mainly). It grew and survived because it is out of control and robust.
Money for infrastructure? Maybe multiple providers connect at the edge and charge you only when you leave your local grid. This financially encourages the extension of the network and acts as an arbitrage system (even to the extent of least-cost-routing: if you are a business you could sell the off-peak extra evening capacity to your local grid). People are encouraged to go see the neighbour and ask to mount an aerial on the roof!
So, TV (Porn), Voice and Games will probably drive it I reckon.
Go Orcon: set up hub points on all the exchanges that you connect through, and appoint a local rep (maybe through a local school) to encourage the grid...
-
I'm one of those petty bureaucrats.
Ask any of us off the record and we will tell you:
1. The airport security process is theater - it serves no significant purpose.
2. We'd love to stop doing it, but the US would do something stupid and disproportionate in response (like issue a travel advisory warning their citizens not to travel to NZ). And if you don't believe me, note that every year NZ gets put on a "child sex trafficking register" because some right wing nutters in Washington don't agree with our decision to legalise prostitution.We would also like to legalise all drugs and sell them from pharmacies cheaply top responsible adults, thereby eliminating 75% of crime in NZ, allowing us to focus on the serious stuff and halving the prison population.
We would like to introduce a flat tax rate of 23% (which would be fiscally neutral).
We would like to get rid of the give-way-to-the-right anomaly, thereby saving 40 New Zealanders a year from an early death.
We would like to mandate that we stop exporting 15% of our electricity via aluminium ingots, thereby fulfilling our Kyoto requirement overnight, and mandate that power companies buy back electricity from anyone who pumps it into the grid at the current wholesale rate, thereby neatly dealing with future demand.
But we can't do any of these things because you keep electing grey, unimaginative politicians and allowing the media to get away with the half-arsed reporting that completely fails to explore important issues, while simultaneously buying wimmins magazines and fretting about our inability to chase a funny shaped ball around a field.
Sorry, I feel better now. But it does get me down sometimes.
-
Oh, and on the NZDS thing... a little bird tells me a number of large public sector organisations were one hour out this week... poor suckers are still using GroupWise. So if you turn up for gummint appointment and there's nobody there... :)