Posts by Deborah
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OnPoint: MSD's Leaky Servers, in reply to Jonathan King,
It’s not that incredible that most people don’t know a lot about the internal workings of computers and computer files and how to access them. Computers are a bit like cars: most of us know how to use them, many of us know how to do minor things (check the oil, change a tyre, top up the windscreen water thingie), but when it comes to doing anything more than that, we hand it over to experts. Some people love tinkering with their cars, so they know a bit more about it, and some people can even do most car stuff themselves. But for many of us, a car is just a tool that facilitates other things we do, and we’re not all that interested in the internal workings, so we hand anything other than very basic maintenance over to experts.
Same thing goes for computers. Keith lost me at about, “just using the Open File dialogue in Microsoft Office, you could map any unsecured computer on the network.” And what exactly is a file server?
A computer’s just a tool that I use to do my job and other things that I find interesting. Just like my car, I can do basic things like loading new software, and sorting out a printer connection, and changing my desktop picture, but that’s about it. I don’t want to spend effort understanding the rest or fiddling about with it, so I hand those tasks over to experts.
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I only managed to catch the last 10 minutes or so, thanks to kids' music lessons and sports, but what I saw looked great. I thought your last guest was very engaging.
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I think it's a biggie,. and well worth our attention, and I've been married (to a man) for 22, or actually closer to 23, years now. Yes, there are plenty of issues that we (meaning me) could be working on, but this is one of them. And it matters, both for the people who will be directly affected by it, and for all of us who think that relationships between people of the same gender should be able to be visible in exactly the same way as relationships between people of differing genders. It's about creating a fairer and better society, little bit by little bit.
Also, the "get to the back of the queue" trope is so wretchedly familiar to women. I don't want to see it deployed against other marginalised people too.
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Up Front: The Up-Front Guides: The…, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Nah.... I can walk, talk, and chew gum.
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But I really, truly, deeply, feel that God has defined marriage and we would be wrong to change it
That's nice. Which god, BTW?
You see, I really, truly, deeply, feel that our current marriage laws are a human institution, and it's up to us to keep on rethinking and redefining and remaking that institution, in an ongoing act of constituting ourselves, though discussion and argument and by reference to other ideals that we have. Like that piddly little one about the state not discriminating against people on the grounds of race, gender, ability, gender, and so on.
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I wrote about marriage equality for the Dom Post a few months ago: Gay, straight, bi - marriage should be for all.
Churches and temples and mosques and synagogues have muscled in on the act. Marriages conducted in many religious institutions are recognised as valid for the state's purpose of registering households. When a minister intones his words, he is performing the state function of registering relationships. That gives him and his church power and status as agents of the state. Yet many churches routinely refuse to perform marriage ceremonies for some people, usually the same people the state refuses to allow to be married.
Churches should not be allowed to perform state marriage ceremonies. They are welcome to perform their own ceremonies, but there is no reason for the state to endorse them. If the Head Prefect of the Assembly of Elf Worshippers wants to conduct wedding ceremonies on midsummer night's eve, then she should go ahead. It just oughtn't to count for the purposes of the state.
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Muse: OPEN HOUSE: Margaret Mahy, The…, in reply to Rob Stowell,
I didn't realise that you and Margaret Mahy were family, Rob. I'm (a) jealous and (b) so very sorry that she is no longer with you. She has been a national treasure, and also from what you say, very much treasured in your family.
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I love her young adult books, and her children's books. One of the last picture books I bought for my girls, before they moved onto chapter books, was Down the Back of the Chair_ - a wonderful book to read aloud. We have Kaitangata Twitch in both book and TV series (on DVD) form. When we first watched it, I was thrilled to see Margaret Mahy in an early scene in the library, in her trademark wig.
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I've never given Apple my credit card number. I run my iTunes account using giftcards, and that's worked perfectly well for downloading apps and music and movies and whatever I want. And my technically challenged father has manaed to run his iPad perfectly satisfactorily without giving Apple his credit card number.
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Hard News: Women and their representations, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
You forgot: also, you might be too fat.