Posts by Rich of Observationz
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Ben, I think there would be a market for a car that hadn't been developed properly but looked cool and went really fast.
(Actually, the TVR pretty much was that car).
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But if you happen to believe there is no god then the whole anthem becomes a bit much - and the Maori version of it even more so.
According to wikipedia the word "Atua" was used for pre-colonial Polynesian gods as well as our colonialist repressive sort.
Perhaps someone who actually speaks Maori could comment.
I get a little annoyed when someone feels the need to patronise folks at 'multicultral' gatherings by hideously mispronouncing a simple greeting in a dozen different languages without pausing for breath
I agree - there is often an assumption that only some kinds of furriners don't speak English. So you will get a translation in "ethnic" languages but not French or German (which quite a few NZ residents will have as a first language). Like on the http://www.elections.org.nz/ site - several Asian and Polynesian languages, only one European one.
Which is a tiny bit racist if it's based on an assumption that Tongans (for instance) can't manage to learn English but French people can.
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North, South and Stewart
I thought it was North, Rangitoto and Waiheke?
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On the National Anthem, it invokes a theist god and one that acts in human affairs. That could be any major religion (I think) - maybe not some forms of Buddhism?
Personally I would prefer a minimally deist version:
"God of bosons and of quarks,
the Big Bang's long gone and you aren't going to do stuff, are you?" -
_Firefox, Thunderbird, any number of alternatives to Windows Media Player, Open Office_
That's the good stuff, a lot of which have corporations behind them.
In order to install a current Oracle version on a current Redhat version, I had to:
- note what happened when the installer crashed
- Google for why
- Download a C file
- Install development tools (e.g. the C compiler) using a wierd semi-GUI interface
- Compile the C file (using the command line shell)
- Copy the file into an obscure locationThat's pretty standard. Other installs have required that I recompile my kernel.
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_As for using open source office equivalents on school computers - surely it would be a good thing if kids were to learn not only how to type into a word processing program but also how to find bugs and participate if the open source environment that fixes those bugs. Surely that would result in more computer literacy rather than less._
Yes, and we could require that everyone learn to replace a piston before they learn to drive, or milk a cow before they learn to make tea. On that basis, I'm not going anywhere near an aeroplane!
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I search almost everything using Google. It seems to be better than nearly all site-specific search, not to mention faster.
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Personally, I think they should have got an aging male journalist to write the blog pseudonymously. Garth George perhaps?
When the Indy started running "Bridget Jones Diary" it was anonymous rather than attributed to Helen Fielding and many people thought it was true not fiction.
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I note Section 103 states it's an offence to both accept and offer a bribe
It might be that whilst Field knew that the help with tiling his house amounted to a corrupt payment the tiler did not.
For instance: a corrupt overseas policeman stops you on the road and says "that's a $50 fine or you'll have to come to the station", you pay him the $50 and he pockets it and goes. You could quite reasonably think that that's how things work. The cop on the other hand *knows* whats going on and is thus guilty of corruption.
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Whilst anyone without (or yet to have) kids is inherently more mobile and on a short flight to Sydney
Actually I think Kiwis with kids go and live on the Gold Coast, those without skip Aus altogether and go live in London. Incidentally, nobody I ever met in London ever cited tax as a reason not to come home. Low wages yes, along with expensive drugs, whanau/kiwi men/kiwi women being dickheads, lack of quality dance parties... But never tax..
I do agree that there is nothing inherently noble about breeding that the state should subsidise, but on the other hand there is a public interest in kids growing up in reasonable surroundings.