Open mike 09/02/2013

56 comments on “Open mike 09/02/2013 ”

• Comments are now closed

1. Sanctuary 1

   9 February 2013 at 8:32 am

   In the wake of the Mainzeal collapse, most of us see a yet another victim of New Zealand’s incompetent mangerial elite and more evidence of theemployment crisis in New Zealand. John Key just sees an urgent need to find Jenny Shipley a new job.
   • bad12 1.1

     9 February 2013 at 9:41 am

     The latest on Mainzeal from Shiply is that She had a plan to return that company to profitability in 2013,

     Another crock, the Serious Fraud Office and the Inland Revenue Dept should be all over these people to check out whether or not they should be in jail instead of haunting the boardrooms of NZ turning companies into loss making entities for the purpose of declaring losses to the New Zealand tax system while running off with the profits to a tax haven like the Bahamas which is where Richard Yan seems to have taken the main shareholding company,RichinaPacific,after de-listing that company from the NZ stock exchange,

     This is what we get for allowing basic sheep herders off the farm to run both the country and it’s companies, in Shiply’s case we get hollowed out shell companies collapsed upon a whim,

     English of course is just accomplishing what Shiply has just achieved but on the far grander scale of hollowing out a whole country…
     • Tiresias 1.1.1

       9 February 2013 at 11:54 am

       Here’s an interesting view – from the NBR no less:

       http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/mainzeal-collapse-exposes-flakey-celebrity-directors-rv-p-135504
     • tc 1.1.2

       9 February 2013 at 7:09 pm

       Shipley had a plan ! Lol someone gave her one.
       • Murray Olsen 1.1.2.1

         9 February 2013 at 7:42 pm

         If someone gave her a clue she could keep it next to the plan.
         • bad12 1.1.2.1.1

           9 February 2013 at 10:19 pm

           She would then need to hire a brain to explain both to Her…
   • Fortran 1.2

     9 February 2013 at 2:23 pm

     Michael Cullen has a couple of nice political sinecures from the Nacts.
     • McFlock 1.2.1

       9 February 2013 at 9:18 pm

       at least he demonstrated competence at running an economy? Shipley? Much lolz.
2. Rhinocrates 2

   9 February 2013 at 8:32 am

   Interesting interview on the “Precariat” on National Radio this morning. Available for download in a couple of hours:

   http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday

   8:15 Guy Standing
   Guy Standing is Professor of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and founder member and co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network, an international non-governmental organisation that promotes a citizenship income for all. His most recent book is The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class (2011, Bloomsbury, ISBN: 978-1-849-66351-9), and he is currently working on a large-scale pilot for a basic income scheme in India. He is visiting New Zealand as keynote speaker at the Precarious Work and Living Wage Symposium (14-15 February), hosted by AUT School of Business, the Service and Food Workers Union, and the Council of Trade Unions.
   • Tim 2.1

     9 February 2013 at 8:38 am

     Oh wow! Just came on here to recommend listening to the podcast when it becomes available. He’s absolutely nailed it.
     • Tim 2.1.1

       9 February 2013 at 8:40 am

       Kim asked some good questions too – such as “why do people disaffected by neo-liberalism turn to the right/neofacists for succour”? The answer is of course exactly what Key and cronies are up to.
     • Rhinocrates 2.1.2

       9 February 2013 at 8:59 am

       And it’s what Labour’s old guard and their pointy-haired boss are utterly, utterly failing to address.

       Indeed their strategy to use wedge politics and spout dogwhistling anecdotes about the beneficiary on the roof and the man in the Napier pub make their irrelevance all the worse.
       • Tim 2.1.2.1

         9 February 2013 at 10:58 am

         Indeed R. I was hoping a Pagani or two might have been listening at the time. I’ve always felt that when the Hobbits (as the likes of Bradly describe them) awaken to the fear-mongering and ‘othering’, as they surely will – realising they’ve been conned, Labour will have shifted themselves further to the right to the extent they’ll be entirely irrelevant. The old guard seem to have a habit of getting their timing wrong. It’d be a safer bet for them to just stick to some basic principles.
   • Anne 2.2

     9 February 2013 at 3:53 pm

     Listened this morning. Gripping stuff. I wondered how it would be possible to coerce David Shearer and his acolytes to listen to it. They would learn some major lessons on what not to do as well as what they should do. The MSM will largely ignore Guy Standing and his message which is a tragedy.
3. lprent 3

   9 February 2013 at 8:40 am

   Well my chart of the world with all it’s millions of vectors of reals in a mercator projection now works on the dinky device (with no FPU) that it is designed to operate on. From 85 south to 85 north. That was hard – especially Antarticia.

   Turns out I disappeared into the code for 9 days – a lot longer than I expected. The spam folder was rather large. There were 661 comments in the possible spam (out of the thousands that we just discarded automatically), and only 3 were fals positives. I saw that most of the authors had sent the 20 false negatives helping to teach those lovely anti-spam programs about what to watch for.

   Nce to know that the site can survive without much off my attention when required.
   • Jenny 3.1

     9 February 2013 at 10:57 am

     The robustness of the site speaks volumes. Thanks again for your efforts Lynn. Much appreciated, I am sure, by many.

     Out of curiosity.

     What are your ambitions for the site in future?
     • lprent 3.1.1

       9 February 2013 at 3:00 pm

       Well, I currently have several months of leave available… But I haven’t thought through what I want to do with it. But several weeks will be set aside soon for this site. Looks like Lyn and I can manage to schedule a weeks holiday together in July (ie after after marking the mid-years).

       I have a file of possible enhancements and of partially written/tested enhancements. Basically everything has been patch work for the last few years as I didn’t have a effective home office until last september. Since then I have been doing all sorts of hours either working on work or sleeping in time off.

       But a few weeks holiday in a few weeks after the final code release (they start flashing boards on monday with the bulk of the setup and data) should get most of the site enhancements done. The one I’m puzzled about is that poxy “Internal server failure” after a published post gets re-edited
       • geoff 3.1.1.1

         9 February 2013 at 3:17 pm

         Technical question:
         I’ve found pages with 100+ comments scroll very slowly/jerkily on my phone (Phone isn’t a complete piece of shit). Is this something others have mentioned or something you yourself have experienced?
         • lprent 3.1.1.1.1

           9 February 2013 at 10:50 pm

           Yes. It is related to the sheer number of comments and the layout of the comments.

           I have a fix for it, which is to essentially to page the comments. The problem is that our comments are threaded, so deciding a good point in the threads to cut the comments is an issue. But there are problems with adding paging controls. The underlying reason why it slows down is to do with the styling of the comments which stresses the renderer on the phones – usually some variation of webkit. Basically the HTML/CSS elements need to be shifted to something that is easier for the underpowered phones (and they all are) to deal with the layout rendering. What WPTouch has will work fine for up to about 50 comments, but gets exponentially worse after that.

           I keep looking to see if I can find a more efficient plugin for the job with the numbers of comments that we have, So far that hasn’t happened. There will be a few days work finishing writing a new theme for the plugin.

           Problem with all of this stuff is that web development is not my normal area of work (I mostly write in c++). So each time I do something moderately major I have to cycle into the languages which usually takes a few days before I stop cursing the syntax and it starts flowing naturally. I usually don’t have more than a couple of days to do that.
           • geoff 3.1.1.1.1.1

             9 February 2013 at 11:01 pm

             Thanks for the info.
             So the CSS element for each comment is kinda bloated?
             • lprent …

               11 February 2013 at 11:59 pm

               Nope the problem is the number of divs….
               • Colonial Weka …

                 12 February 2013 at 12:04 am

                 Hey Lynn, this might be a nice addition to the Feeds and blogroll when you get the chance

                 http://www.thelittlepakeha.net (hat tip QoT)

                 /offtopic
           • geoff 3.1.1.1.1.2

             9 February 2013 at 11:17 pm

             By that I mean, is there quite a lot of CSS to process for each comment?
       • bad12 3.1.1.2

         9 February 2013 at 3:22 pm

         Yeah i get that sometimes even when posting a comment, the comment goes up on the page tho so the only problem is having to log off, shut the PC down and then log back on,

         It isn’t a biggy with me but my habit of getting quite long with some comments and being a snail at typing them means it’s an oh f**k no moment until i log back on and see the comment on the page…
         • lprent 3.1.1.2.1

           9 February 2013 at 10:34 pm

           Yeah it is irritating as hell. It is in the interaction of several plugins somewhere. I have tested that pulling each plugin individually doesn’t fix it. And that it doesn’t appear if I turn off all plugins.

           But I can only get it on the working system (and even there it is intermittent) and have never seen it on the test systems that are meant to be the identical. The difference is all of the people accessing the system at the same time. So I have never managed to isolate which plugins are involved because playing games on the production system tends to drive people nuts.

           As you say, it saves ok. The problem is when it has to display something. The reason is that something is locking the ‘read’ on the system for all ‘reads’ (probably after a post (not a comment) is re-edited) and requests start piling up waiting for it. Basically the system hangs until the offending process times out and then the backlog gets processed. Meanwhile on the client side the timeouts on various browsers often happen. It usually takes a couple for minutes from start to finish.
           • bad12 3.1.1.2.1.1

             9 February 2013 at 10:48 pm

             That has stopped occurring today anyway, so maybe just a temporary glitch in the system someplace,

             I usually don’t bother saying anything unless someone else points out they are having problems,

             If the sites up and running i tend to roll with the bits that are not at any particular time not playing the game,

             I am more interested in how to stop the cursor on my PC from jumping round all over the page when i am typing stuff…
             • geoff …

               9 February 2013 at 10:55 pm

               I am more interested in how to stop the cursor on my PC from jumping round all over the page when i am typing stuff…

               Delerium tremens, Haddock? Stay off the mineral waters.
               • bad12 …

                 9 February 2013 at 11:14 pm

                 I only get the DT’s when Slippery sacks another Minister…
             • lprent …

               9 February 2013 at 11:00 pm

               It’s a laptop? Usually the problem is that you’re brushing the mousepad whilst typing.

               I usually have a travel mouse (Logitech Anywhere MX) and disable the touch pad entirely (more RSI than I can deal with using the damn things anyway). That particular mouse is so damn good that I have one on my workstation because it operates well on a transparent glass desktop.
               • bad12 …

                 9 February 2013 at 11:15 pm

                 Yeah i get that, so if i get a mouse do i need to take the PC someplace to disable the pad or does plugging in the mouse do that…
                 • McFlock …

                   10 February 2013 at 12:51 am

                   Windows or mac OS (I’m taking a liberty and assuming you’re not using linux or android)?
                   On windows you can disable the touch pad in the controlpanel>mouse>device settings.

                   Also, on my wee netbook the touchmouse can be disabled by double-tapping the top left corner of the touch pad. Don’t know if that’s unique to my manufacturer though.
4. A Bit Shit 4

   9 February 2013 at 9:04 am

   The country is being asked to believe that Shearer is like Norman Kirk, we are being asked to believe that he is a leader who will join the Labour Prime Ministers of the past.

   I have given a lot of thought to this over the last few days. It comes down to integrity. Savage had integrity, Clark had integrity, Kirk had integrity.

   Shearer doesn’t.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcG3rVwOIKw&feature=youtu.be

   Isn’t the reason that you are all here, why you read The Standard, why you post on The Standard, because you do not like the way that this country is being governed and thus want an alternative?

   In 2008 Labour ran the John Key Double talk adverts… well if Shearer is going to play big boys politics and declare ‘I AM THE LEADERRRRRR’, he better face the fact that he has very little integrity. He will never be Clark or Norman or Savage.

   It is a joke.
   • bad12 4.1

     9 February 2013 at 9:13 am

     I bet $10 bucks you are not even a member of the Labour Party…
     • A Bit Shit 4.1.1

       9 February 2013 at 10:06 am

       You are about as good a gambler as you are at critical thought then.
       • bad12 4.1.1.1

         9 February 2013 at 10:16 am

         Are you trying to tell me that one hell of a lot of ‘critical thought’ went into splicing together a whole lot of Shearer’s umm’s and aagh’s as a video,

         Critical thought would have to include the fact that Shearer appears to be ‘it’ as Leader of the Labour Party until at least the 2014 election so attempting to fan the flames of what had degenerated into out-right hatred of the man, when critical thought is applied, would tend to suggest that to continue to buy into the ‘hate Shearer campaign’ is to more or less accept that there will be a 3rd term National Government lead by the current Slippery little shyster,

         I know what my preference is of the 2, do you???
     • kenny 4.1.2

       9 February 2013 at 8:17 pm

       What’s that got to do with it?
       To bad12 @4.1
       • bad12 4.1.2.1

         9 February 2013 at 10:17 pm

         Lets see, how about possible National Party members copping a free ride off of the back of the genuine frustration that actual members of the Labour Party have been expressing and attempting to keep the pot boiling by producing a spliced together series of umms and aaahs from the mouth of Shearer and then hawking the thing on the Blubber-boy sewer, the Hooten swamp, then posting it here on the Standard two days in a row,

         that enough for starters???…
   • Ed 4.2

     9 February 2013 at 9:23 am

     Not a funny joke bit shit, but I can see that you may think so. Have you tried Whaleoil? He may feature it for you. But don’t be coy, why don’t you recommend the Big Shit you want people to support – I can’t tell whether you think that is Key, Joyce, Ryall, Brownlee or perhaps Banksie . . .

     Politics is about making choices, bit shit – what is your choice?.
     • bad12 4.2.1

       9 February 2013 at 9:46 am

       More than a bit i would suggest is a better descriptive to use as a handle for that one, apparently this has already been touted over at both of the sewer outlets as well as here on the Standard the other day…
     • A Bit Shit 4.2.2

       9 February 2013 at 10:11 am

       I would recommend someone who actually gave a thought to Labour values.

       Someone who thought that those who cannot work due to physical or mental disability should have dignity.

       Someone who is able to have a fully costed housing policy.

       Someone who is able to fully support the public education system and avoid using National Party neo-lib lines about getting tough on schools and teachers performance.

       It is funny, none of those sound like Key, Joyce, Ryall, Brownlee or Banksie. But of course, I must just be a dirty Tory for pointing out that Dear Leader the Second is really quite shit, right?
       • bad12 4.2.2.1

         9 February 2013 at 10:26 am

         Labour values, when critical thought is applied, would seem to consist of what the Labour Party makes those values to be,

         My view of the Labour Party is that it is in make-up mostly a political party of middle class people reflecting their middle class values, in which case, no matter how much i abhor such dog-whistle politics Shearer is simply reflecting what a lot of the middle class think,(if thinking can be applied as a descriptive to such dog-whistling),

         There are in the age of MMP other political party’s which better represent my values so i have no need to sit on the side-lines attempting to undermine the Leader of a Party that no longer represents my views and has not done so for at least the past 30 years…
         • Jenny 4.2.2.1.1

           9 February 2013 at 11:26 am

           My view of the Labour Party is that it is in make-up mostly a political party of middle class people reflecting their middle class values, in which case, no matter how much i abhor such dog-whistle politics Shearer is simply reflecting what a lot of the middle class think

           bad12

           Concern for the environment has been termed a middle class value. Yet Shearer steers clear of any mention of climate change like poison.

           If he was really courting the middle class you would think he would be all for taking action against deep sea oil prospecting, or the strip mining of the Denniston Plateau for coal, or the $billions being poured into motorways to the detriment of public transport.

           Yet not a peep.

           The conclusion one comes to, is that Shearer is not courting the middle class at all, but the corporate class.

           Form follows function

           As Chris Trotter has pointed out David Shearer can be very forthright and forceful when he chooses to. But unfortunately for him, most of the electorate would have a negative reaction of his views if he clearly articulated them, and he knows it.

           This explains the stumble foot performance to date. On gaining the Prime Ministership I think we can expect David Shearer to dump this persona, to become an articulate and forceful advocate for austerity, budget cuts, pension reform, workplace reform, fossil fuel expansion, free trade and the whole neoliberal song book. Revealing the corporate advocate, hidden behind the current yammering and amateurish performance.
           • bad12 4.2.2.1.1.1

             9 February 2013 at 2:38 pm

             I don’t disagree with you Jenny, but, Shearer is there as the Labour Party Leader until at least November 2014 as far as i can see,

             Sitting outside of the Labour Party raving on that Shearer is this or Shearer is that then becomes a sad song to continually sing, He is bit one person in that Party and i would rather wait for the release of Labour Party policy to see where the Party sees the next Labour lead Government going,

             when i talk of the Labour Party i am talking of the people that make up the party, not the MP’s, and it’s core vote who i see as being very middle class…
             • The Al1en …

               9 February 2013 at 8:59 pm

               “Sitting outside of the Labour Party raving on that Shearer is this or Shearer is that then becomes a sad song to continually sing”

               It’s only sad if it’s true and everyone’s pretending not to agree.
               Still a dead duck sinking, caucus numbers or not.
5. Herodotus 5

   9 February 2013 at 9:13 am

   I commented a few days ago regarding the financial stress many sports and community groups are under. This partially due to those funds that were sourced form local community pokkie machines are difficult to obtain, and the ever increasing costs to run these. Whilst such organisations do not have the same financial consequences as say mainzeal, the consequences could be far reaching.
   There isa growing storm as these sports groups struggle to operate. Think what happens if a rugby, softball, cricket, league club goes under owing,to initially the local community but to the wider aspect of to NZ’s social fabric and tin engaging the youth and getting them involved in sports. Remember that schools have been playing a diminishing part both : with expanding rolls resulting in classrooms being required where once sports fields existed
   And that teachers are expected to perform an ever expanding roll in the community with limited resources.
   The consequences of sporting club failures will be far reaching.
   • bad12 5.1

     9 February 2013 at 9:20 am

     Propping up ‘sports clubs’ with monies out of the pockets of mostly the poorest people in our society is a good idea why???,

     My view is that the whole lot of them,pokie machines,should be turned into scrap and sent off to be turned into washing machines,

     Allowing ‘sports clubs’ anywhere near the ‘profits’ of such an abomination in the first place was simply the sweetener to leverage the unthinking into tacit agreement to allow these things to suck what’s left of the life from poorer communities…
     • North 5.1.1

       10 February 2013 at 6:49 am

       Hear Hear bad12 !
6. Morrissey 6

   9 February 2013 at 9:18 am

   Democratic protestors briefly speak out at Senate confirmation hearing

   Things didn’t go quite as smoothly as anticipated for one war criminal in Washington the other day…

   http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/02/07/us/politics/100000002049609/brennan-interrupted-by-protesters.html?smid=fb-share

   http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/02/07/us/100000002049334/targeted-killings-under-scrutiny.html?smid=fb-share
7. Jenny 7

   9 February 2013 at 11:47 am

   A winter storm labeled “Historic” in its intensity is about to hit the American North East.

   Reuters reports that “several thousand customers lost power in New Jersey and points south, though officials warned the number was likely to rise as the snowfall got heavier and winds picked up.”

   Weather Underground co-founder and meteorologist Dr. Jeff Masters writes that some of the periods of intense snowfall may be accompanied by thunder and lightening. He adds that coastal wind speeds may reach 50 mph, with gusts potentially surging to a hurricane level of 74 mph.

   Masters also points to “unusually warm” ocean temperatures as contributing to the intensity of the storm:

   “Cold, Arctic air spilling southwards behind a strong 1038 mb high over Canada will collide with warm, moist air over the Atlantic, where ocean temperatures are unusually warm–about 5°F warmer than average over a large swath from New Jersey to Nantucket, Massachusetts. The contrast between the cold and warm air will help intensify the storm, and the unusually warm waters will pump large quantities of moisture into the air, which will be capable of feeding record-breaking snows over New England.”

   Common Dreams http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/02/08-0
   • kiwi_prometheus 7.1

     9 February 2013 at 8:29 pm

     I don’t think a coked up Hollywood hack could produce a more OTT story than the climate chaos unfolding in Mickey Mouse Land this last year.
8. joe90 8

   9 February 2013 at 5:53 pm

   They’ve got their grubby oily hands all over Canada so I wonder if there’s any connection to our oil industry.

   http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/10/idUS427145980520120510
9. ianmac 9

   9 February 2013 at 8:13 pm

   I wonder if this Youtube fits in with Sir Paul Holmes’ eulogy? Weird.
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cJ_rHJZl_A
   Uploaded on Oct 16, 2007
   Paul Holmes joins That Guy and his panel to discuss how That Guy’s Rugby World Cup has revolutionised the world of broadcasting.
10. beatie 10

    9 February 2013 at 8:33 pm

    A note of appreciation for The Standard and it’s commentators. I get depressed sometimes at the level of almost willful ignorance, apathy and indifference out there regarding the political situation. This blog gives me hope, inspires and educates me. Thanks people.
    • blue leopard 10.1

      9 February 2013 at 10:00 pm

      +1 Same here!
11. The Al1en 11

    9 February 2013 at 9:56 pm

    From the BBC text commentary of the 20/20 – “Hello there fat lady, you sound remarkably sweet this winter morning.”

    Have to say I’m failing Norman Tebbit’s cricket test with aplomb.
12. Tim 12

    10 February 2013 at 12:04 am

    …mmmmm Cloud Flare! I ‘spose one has to put their faith in SOMETHING!
    (The Other) Tim would have it in Bullshit and JellyBeans. I continue to wonder why (in an IT context) the more things change – the more they stay the same. I’m pretty sure though it’s not so much ties to the technology as it is the ego.

    I’m sure tho’ that Cloud Flare would trump a Talent2 or 3

• Comments are now closed

• Log in
• Donate
• Contribute post

• Articles RSS