Posts by BenWilson
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I like practically everything people have hated on here (I did once like even the album I hated on). I expect this thread is going to end up being littered with the greatest music ever made, whose only crime was to be loved too much by too many of the wrong people. But I'll still love you all, and keep my musical tastes to myself (again).
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Any music can turn to torture with sufficient thrashing just as drops of water in the Chinese Water Torture are reputed to feel like the blows of a sledgehammer eventually.
I used to like the soundtrack from The Big Chill until they played it non-stop for 3 weeks when I was working a McDonalds front counter. Now the first bars of I Heard It Through The Grapevine cause a physical reaction, my hackles raise and a find myself snarling.
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Regarding back-doors, there's no way to prove the absence of such things, but I feel happy to use the systems nonetheless, because I very much doubt I'll ever justify anyone using the backdoor on me, just on the off chance that it's existence becomes known. It would need to be one massive secret that they extracted to justify the fact that their security equipment stock would very rapidly become worthless, as would their reputation. It's also likely that there could be massive law suits against the company, and if credible information came to light that they were working with the Chinese government on this it would cause enormous ramifications for Chinese international relations.
I'd be surprised if there's any secret in all of NZ big enough for them to risk exposing the back door, if there is one.
But, if you're really worried, then don't rely solely on hardware encryption for whatever secrets you are trying to keep. Encrypt at several layers with products from different vendors.
Governments can worry about this for me. Encryption secrets are considered weaponry. There are legions of nerds working full time testing the security of various systems and algorithms, for whatever all that encryption is really worth.
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Hard News: A storm in any port, in reply to DexterX,
whoever has the treasury benches has scant concern for the good of the nation.
I'm undecided if that's through malice or ignorance. The latter seems more likely to me - to not know that what you're doing is wrong because it doesn't hurt you enough. In that case you can sincerely think you are doing the right thing. The outcome is much the same either way, though.
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Hard News: A storm in any port, in reply to DexterX,
What I can't get my head around is that overall the thrust of the policy the administration is pursuing, asset sales and all, isn't in what I would call in the best interests of NZ
What's difficult about the idea that it's in a narrow set of interests, those of the people in charge? That's been practically an ironclad rule of politics since animals became social.
Yes, these things are obviously disastrous ideas for the country and city, but when you and practically everyone you know is a millionaire, anything that is good for bosses and investors is good for you. That's without any actual accusations of croneyism.
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Hard News: A storm in any port, in reply to Sacha,
Do you have any kind of link that shows what the nature of these organizations is, because you're describing a very unusual kind of company - it's hard to understand how you could even call people shareholders if, holding a majority of shares, they have no influence whatsoever over the company. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'd like to understand exactly what having shares in the port actually means. Do you have any evidence that what DexterX said about the possibility of the shareholders calling a special meeting and firing the entire board of directors couldn't happen?
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Interesting summary of recent proceedings here.
We seriously have to be asking how much money is this dispute costing, now? The lockout is a really bizarre twist. Len Brown might be getting his A into G, though, finally.
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This news made my night last night.
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Hard News: Time to move on, in reply to Ana Simkiss,
So you would hardly ever have a basis to challenge for cause.
My understanding is that the lawyers are allowed to know the suburb that the juror comes from, and that they couple that with the obviously observable demographic the juror appears to be in to make their decision about how likely the juror is to be sympathetic to their cause. So much depends on the kind of case that has come up, as to what kind of people will be challenged. For this case, for instance, the prosecution might see good sense in challenging off anyone Maori. In a rape case, the defence might challenge off only young women, and the prosecution might try to challenge out the old men. So the two demographics perceived as most likely to hold strong views are removed. In a burglary case, anyone from a poor neighborhood, or a rich neighborhood, is probably targeted.
These are sweeping generalizations and might not reflect the exact decision making of either side, but what I'm saying is the broad idea. Essentially, the idea is to weed out strong viewpoints, which are likely to cause the jury to get stuck. So juries end up mostly middle aged and middle class.
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In my first post on the case
Man, that was a bumout blast from the past. Not only was I a complete dick throughout, but sighting Finn Higgins' posts teared me up.
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