Author Archive
This reeks of kickbacks
Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, March 6th, 2013 - 41 comments
It appears that someone in the government is leaking private information from the asset stripping of SOE value. Serious questions are being asked about how a sharebroking firm managed to obtain the details of a woman who’d just registered her interest in buying Mighty River Power shares. Is there a kickback system in operation? Perhaps to help fund the exorbitant upfront costs of sale?
Annoy Prosser and vote Muslim!
Written By: - Date published: 8:17 pm, March 4th, 2013 - 88 comments
After reading Queen of Thorns complaint about the limited gender options in the census, I was considering the census. For me and almost everyone else I know (apart from my brother and a few others) we are devotedly irreligious. But every census they ask us that same old rather meaningless question… Obviously voting Jedi didn’t work. However […]
Project complete (at least for the moment)
Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, February 28th, 2013 - 37 comments
Project code is complete and getting stamped on the hardware.
I have some time for maintenance and writing at last…. So put in your wish lists.
Oh and this is a warning to trolls. I have time to measure you and comment on your obvious lacks and deficiencies again 😈
Tickets to the Laneway Festival
Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, January 24th, 2013 - 4 comments
I have 3 tickets in my hot hand to give away to the Laneway Festival (the one that we have been advertising for months). It is all day at Silo Park down at the waterfront in Auckland on the Monday the 28th of January.
I’ll hand out tickets for those who request them (e-mail to me) in the usual order – authors, commentators, and readers and then on order of request.
Mega overloads
Written By: - Date published: 6:15 pm, January 20th, 2013 - 72 comments
In the continuing saga of Kim Dotcom against the forces of blind, silly, and technically illiterate conservatism, amongst whom John Key (our Minister of International Embarrassment) fits pretty well. Kim Dotcom has launched a new file storage service. Although that is not strictly correct – rather people associated with him did. It is the “Mega” and is accessible at present only using the https://mega.co.nz. And it is a bit bogged down with mega demand…
Back to work time
Written By: - Date published: 11:55 pm, January 9th, 2013 - 24 comments
Looks like people are heading back to work. I’m always surprised at how predictable the end of year pattern is on this site. In fact I can (and do) bet server maintenance on it. This year we moved fully into the cloud but did it offshore. That way we don’t pay excessive variable costs to the Southern Cross cable monopoly to pay for searchbots.
Climate: last year and this year
Written By: - Date published: 5:06 pm, January 3rd, 2013 - 142 comments
A group of people interested in climate have put out a list of the most interesting climate events of 2012, which was a year that weather made more of the headlines than usual. It is likely that it will have been just a precursor to 2013 as the northern fridge disappears and the sun flares. The one certainty is that the IPCC AR4 report got it wrong – they were far too conservative about how fast climate change was happening.
Comments at the end of 2012
Written By: - Date published: 4:11 pm, December 28th, 2012 - 30 comments
The average daily comments by week for 2012 are pretty healthy. 2012 was a post election year. 2012 was consistently higher than the election year 2011.
I’m pretty pleased with the comment’s growth. It looks like the policy of offloading all of the idiots to the sewer works well for steadily increasing rational dialogue on this site.
Take the damn chocolates AWAY
Written By: - Date published: 2:54 pm, December 26th, 2012 - 24 comments
I’m about to start doing some substantial site changes. So don’t get worried if the site disappears for a few minutes at a time. Most of these changes are targeted at increasing the privacy of both the site and of the people who use it. It is a really good day to do it. Traffic […]
Mega-screenshots promise more embarassment
Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, December 10th, 2012 - 6 comments
Kim DotCom has been twittering about his new website that is under development to the amusement of some observers. But for us in NZ we’re probably less interested in the layout of his file manager than what is actually in the screenshot of the file manager. Promises yet more pain for the government and it’s inept police and security services.
Auckland’s tornados again
Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, December 6th, 2012 - 37 comments
Auckland has been hit by tornado’s again (last time was in May 2011). Several people are dead. NZ Herald reports Storm brings death and destruction Three people have been killed and seven injured during a storm, including a tornado, that hit Auckland today, with another tornado hitting near Rotorua later this afternoon. Police have confirmed […]
I’d almost agree with David on gender discrimination
Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, December 6th, 2012 - 38 comments
A partner in a Napier legal firm is boycotting the annual Law Society Christmas party because it is being held in a club that will not allow women as members. “Women had to fight to get the vote. I’m not prepared to let that part of our history go, I’m not prepared to take that for granted.”
The political media and the blogs
Written By: - Date published: 10:34 pm, November 29th, 2012 - 110 comments
Chris Trotter, like myself, was at the Labour party conference a week and a half ago. Like myself and damn near every left wing blogger who was there, he saw a massive discordance between what was being reported and what was actually happening in the conference. The hysteria at having a carefully constructed fiction of media and the beltway PR being torn to pieces by ordinary citizens writing has been extraordinary. The implications for the poorly constructed Law Commission report on cyber-bullying is sobering.
Medium density housing is now the Auckland way
Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, November 27th, 2012 - 35 comments
It was clear that someone wasn’t doing their job in briefing. Sure a section of land sufficient to build a traditional 3 bedroom house in Auckland is bloody expensive and would cost as much as Labour’s budgeted amounts in KiwiBuild. That is obvious. So don’t build those types of property. Build something that requires less land. A brief lookup on my single bedroom studio Grey Lynn/Newton apartment shows a land value of $85k. A 3 bedroom townhouse down the road has a land value of $170k
Why I will party vote for the Greens
Written By: - Date published: 2:24 pm, November 26th, 2012 - 169 comments
I’m tired of watching the Labour caucus screwing up the left’s chances of winning the treasury benches. I don’t really trust them to be competent to implement any new ideas if they control parliament. And most of their recent ideas are just warmed over ideas from the Greens. The caucus stupidity over the last week has convinced me to eliminate the middle-man and leave the Labour whips to enjoy their busted trophy.
Reaction on the end of conference
Written By: - Date published: 11:52 pm, November 18th, 2012 - 40 comments
It was a good productive conference for Labour. The best reaction about David Shearer’s speech and the rank and files reactions to the conference that I observed was probably from Robert Winter, so I have quoted it here. Thanks to the NZLP’s council for letting me attend, and thanks to the working journalists for tolerating me.
Labour Conference 2012 policy remits
Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, November 18th, 2012 - 27 comments
The policy remits this morning. There isn’t a lot of time. However they are prioritized
Pushing at an open door
Written By: - Date published: 10:17 pm, November 17th, 2012 - 61 comments
Back in the early 90’s the first party conference I went to was very nearly my last. Intransigent foes who used the mic to assault each other was my introduction to the Labour party ‘working’ with each other. Eventually I gave up viewing the remit floor as meaningless. But it now looks like this has all changed. It looks like the Labour party has an open door through which it is capable of doing something again.
Labour Conference 2012 remits
Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, November 17th, 2012 - 81 comments
Especially for delegates (and me) to write comments on remits. Very fast so far. Robert Gallagher who is chairing the movement appears to be enjoying himself. A welcome sight.
A note to a media commentator
Written By: - Date published: 2:51 am, November 17th, 2012 - 53 comments
I finally got around to listening to Gavin Ellis making a complete dork of himself on Radio NZ talking about authors on this site being “manipulated”. Hah! Anyone trying to manipulate them is likely to wind up being made into a pretzel. I wouldn’t care to try it myself. So does Gavin Ellis = a bit of an idiot. Or more charitably, has he actually bothered to think about this issue?
Conference 2012 – Labour
Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, November 16th, 2012 - 149 comments
Well, I’m at the Labour conference – as media. Feels somewhat weird after many delegate years. I figure that The Standard needs to start sending someone along to the conferences. So I will ground-break at each of the major ones over the next year. The remit book looks like the main focus for this year. […]
Auckland housing market bubbling
Written By: - Date published: 2:40 pm, November 15th, 2012 - 34 comments
Like many other well-paid people in their 30’s. Lyn is getting depressed watching a toehold Auckland property disappear out of her grasp. Of course the well rounded gits in Wellington will get ‘worried’ about this and want to make property available 50kms away. But spending an hour or two of your life driving each day is hardly useful to anyone apart from the land bankers, property developers and used car sales who seem to be of such importance to the National party.
Shuffle the caucus deck
Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, November 12th, 2012 - 95 comments
By all means, get rid of the unfortunate experiment that is the David Shearer leadership. But the problem is really with the NZLP’s parliamentary caucus who appear to have lost sight of what we want them to achieve. Until that problem is fixed the party will continue to shed people willing to exert effort supporting them.
Random thoughts on MMP
Written By: - Date published: 4:14 pm, November 6th, 2012 - 36 comments
Colin James has expressed my response to Judith Collin’s politicialising of the MMP review. “Elections do not belong to MPs. Elections belong to the people. MPs should be very wary of appropriating what belongs to others.”. Self-interested bleating by Act and United Future doesn’t mean that National should go off and do another short-term hack of the good proposals as they did in after 1993. The recommendations are clear and an accurate reflection of public mood. Just implement them as they are.
Whaleoil and his toilet paper
Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, October 31st, 2012 - 205 comments
The New Zealand Truth has been going down the toilet for a long time. But they may have found their perfect editor. Cameron Slater aka “Whaleoil” has apparently been made editor of it. A bombastic bullyboy with fetish for inaccuracy is exactly the right fit for the role. And it gets a real deadbeat away from the taxpayers purse.
Browser wars: The battle for NZ
Written By: - Date published: 4:20 pm, October 23rd, 2012 - 40 comments
Please chant in unison. “I hate Internet Explorer”….
Well it looks like that opinion has finally penetrated from web developers out to the general public in NZ. IE is no longer the top browser here or worldwide.
It is a slow day suitable for a mindless topic 😈
Rant: Why reconnect to broadcast?
Written By: - Date published: 3:40 pm, October 21st, 2012 - 59 comments
We moved out of the rental back into my old apartment in a flurry of concrete dust from polishing concrete and cursing from fitting storage two months ago. But I still haven’t bothered with connecting up broadcast TV. Why would I want to bother? Broadcast TV is largely mindless and endlessly frustrating. These days there are better alternatives than video stores.
Tony Abbot: misogynist and hypocrite
Written By: - Date published: 7:17 am, October 10th, 2012 - 160 comments
It really was a pleasure last night watching the most obnoxious weasel in aussie politics, Tony Abbott, getting done over by a fired up Julia Gillard. She was pointing out that his sudden calls against sexism and misogyny could be better applied to himself. Then she spent glorious minutes detailing exactly why Tony Abbott was the last politician in Austrailia who could throw dirt using these charges.
TEDx
Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, October 5th, 2012 - 2 comments
We have some tickets for tomorrow for someone. You have to be in Auckland and you’ll have to pick them up from me.
Shane Jones: now pimping for Sealords
Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, October 3rd, 2012 - 26 comments
As Shane Jones makes a complete dick of himself in public yet again in a traditional display of Labour party backbench egotism. I’m left shaking my head at the apparent complete inability of the Labour caucus to settle down to the task of being an effective opposition.
On the trailing edge: Brownlee on Rena
Written By: - Date published: 1:41 pm, September 28th, 2012 - 11 comments
I was reading an article looking at the aftermath of the Rena shipwreck in the Herald. In it I read some ridiculous statements by Gerry Brownlee that seemed (like so much from him) to come from the early part of the last century. It appears that he (and his minons in the M0T) haven’t quite caught up on rapid progress of the digital age in nautical circles. Hasn’t he heard about AIS? Or computers?
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