Who's Owen?
.. and
why does David think he's so good?I don't know what the "
Centre for Resource Management Studies" is, it looks to me like Owen McShane and a couple of mates have formed a ginger group with an impressive name.
The article in the Herald by their "director" Owen demonstrates a remarkable lack of insight into the management of resources!
He suggests that we should be following the North American model of communities of interest based on the expensive and unsustainable lifestyle of the automobile, and uses this to knock down some straw men that he erects in place of community planning.
Hello Owen! It's the 21st Century! Resource planning for the future should be for *sustainability* planning, not profligate consumption. We'll be wanting those neighbourhood centres soon enough, and planners *should* be taking that into account ... now.
But then it seems this lad is also
one of the Peak Oil denial squad. What's the real agenda eh?
The Circus came to Town
Playing with the new camera and The Gimp.
Digital TV
So now that it's exceedingly obvious that
Freeview is working out just fine in the UK, when is *someone* going to do *something* about the national head-long rush to make Sky the national carrier?
I resent having to buy a Sky subscription in order to get the digital free-to-air.
I know that I *could* get my own satelite dish and buy my own receiver for something short of $1000 but the majority of people wouldn't bother and so that still makes Sky the choice of the masses.
Surely we should not be relying on a foreign mercenary operation to carry our primary form of mass communication.
I see no moves to avoid this looming disaster started by Marion Hobbs *not* making a decision when she was Broadcasting Minister.
Heard in the Lab.
Alex said:
"I think I've found the other end of a Black Hole!
It's the Marketing Department,
because there's a whole lot of shit coming out of there!"
Phigilantes
Gearblog has penned a new name for the grey-hats who are fighting back at the phishers in the net.
"Phigilantes" .. it's got a nice ring to it.
Telecom and the 027 Hack.
Telecom's response to the 027 hack has been somewhere between arrogant and ignorant.
It surely falls far short of the responsible behaviour that one would expect of such a major player in telecommunications in this country.
FIRST, they left the 027 mailboxes exposed to a well know exploit, presumably hoping that no-one would find it ... security by obscurity never works.
THEN they didn't do anything about it when the "hacker" approached them and told them of the weakness.
This "hacker" then demonstrated his immaturity by the way he subsequently publicized his discovery; accessing high profile mailboxes without permission. (Appropriate "white-hat" behaviour would be to demonstrate the exploit on mailboxes where you have the owner's permission).
THEN they involve the police in laying charges, when really the crime of not adequately protecting customers' information was committed by Telecom. (I wonder how the Privacy Act applies here?)
AND NOW:
it is reported that they have blocked access by their customers to the site where there is information about the exploit.
Like that's going to be of value! It won't stop someone from another ISP from accessing the information, and the only motivation can be to stop the dull-witted would-be hacker from gaining access to the web-site, and to stop customers from seeing how inept they have been in this matter. Not to mention the pong of corporate censorship.
Does Telecom have a Security Officer?
Where is his response? He must be feeling pretty stupid at the moment.
Has the exploit been closed yet? It's not *that* hard; restricting access from offshore sources is a good interim measure.
What else is he NOT doing?
Customer is God
I peeled this off the bottom of a tin plate I bought at A-Mart for tramping.
I like their attitude ... still smiling despite having wacked his thumb!
The Piha Post Office
Reading about
the Piha Post Office, and the fact that Telecom no longer want to own the land that it stands on, makes me wonder if there is not already a precedent.
The land was originally taken under the Public Works Act, so if it is no longer required for the purpose for which it was taken, then it should revert to (at least) the crown, if not the local residents or iwi.
Wasn't the Raglan Golf course a similar case?
Perhaps NZ is getting sufficiently grown up that Land Claims can be brought by Tau iwi as well?
Engineers Counting
Most things engineers do, I can understand and agree with, in fact I frequently claim membership to that club myself.
But when it comes to counting ....!!!!
When you question a numbering schema, you get
"I count from zero, I am an engineer."
delivered with all the self-righteousness of a PC-correct female secondary school teacher (you know the sort I mean).
Nggggghhhhhh!!!!!!
I understand the electronic logic behind such a statement, but who points at the first widget in a sequence and says "Zero, ..."?
It's so bloody illogical that it's unbecoming of the profession.
“Where's the money?”
British M.P. George Galloway's
performance in front of the US Senate Committee is nothing short of spectacular.
I don't know if there are any transcripts on line, but to hear him (on the radio) calling the shots at Chairman senator Coleman was a real pleasure. The new weapon of mass distraction of the US administration seems to be to accuse all and sundry of mis-deeds, to distract from their morally corrupt ineptitute in globe relations.
Galloway compares his two meetings with Iraq's Hussein with those of Rumsfeld who was trying to selling armaments.
"I know that standards have slipped over the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer you’re remarkable cavalier . . . you have nothing on me, Senator."
Great stuff!
The Big Game
So this weekend is the Hurricanes vs Crusaders, and all my sources tell me "it's gunna be a goody!"
Now
we all know about one eyed Cantabrians, but they have excellent company.
I was at the Petone Working Mens Club when the 'Canes met the Crusaders in early April.
At the start, the game was going the wrong way, and I swear, you wouldn't even know there was a game on. Like we were all just soooooo coooool about it, but then they scored a try which tipped the scoreboard ... and the room erupted!
Yeah, like we weren't watching! Now there was no change of any other activity or even conversation, the big screen was the centre of the universe ... except when the score tipped back.
So in my books, PWC is obviously the place to be on Friday night (unless of course you want to be at the Hornby Workingmen's Club ... yeah, I've been there too; I've got rellies in high places you know!)
Friday night Vittling
Friday night and I got to get some takeaways-for-one, so I treated myself to the local version of Deep-fried Chicken; not the trans-national stuff.
"Some Chicken & Chips please"
"How many pieces of Chicken?"
"Two thanks."
"Big or Large chips?"
"eh? How big is Big?"
"That one there is Large ..."
"So big is small?"
{dumb look ... and an agitated stirring from the proprietor-cook out back}
"... and a big chips please!"
Cat Creep
Now that the nights are getting cooler, the cat has taken to sleeping on the end if the bed.
The new goose feather duvet may also be an influence in her choice of sleeping places ... it's *real* toasty!
Anyway, I have noticed a phenomenon which I have dubbed "Cat creep". It involves the cat migrating into the middle of the bed over the course of the night, without apparently moving a muscle.
It's a bit like the "roll together" (much dreaded on mattress advertisements, but something that I find quite enjoyable as a feature rather than a fault of a bed), except instead of being related to the mechanics of a bed, it's got something to do with the construction of a cat. Mysterious!
(Also: Does anyone know why Aussies call duvets "dunars"?)
Correspondence School
The NZ Correspondence school is justifying their current "re-structuring" on the fact that the distance learning now only makes up about 1000 of their 20,000-odd clients.
This is yet another example of the business model of management being applied inappropriately where the service model applies.
The correspondence school exists because there was a need for a service for "distance learning clients" (= pupils who don't have any other choices).
The rest of their clientele are largely people with other options; but because they are in the majority, and therefore are a lucrative "revenue stream", they take precedence.
Normality is restored
Just caught the
BBC4: Hitchhikers, the Quaternary series .
And my, my, what a pleasant change from the movie.
All the anarchic wit is still running strong, re-inforcing the impression that the movie really is just a dumbed-down version, merely cashing in on the success.
Check out the first episode before Tuesday!
I just loved Bill Paterson's turn as a grumpy truckdriver, who is really ... (better you listen).
UPDATE: OK, so listening to the second episode I twig to the fact that it's
Quandary series, not quaternary(=4th) series. You see what you want to ...
(Jane Horrocks as Fenchurch ... mmmmmm)
Success for Telecom
After being an "also ran" for so many years, consistant performance has paid off and Telecom has finally made it to the top!
Their well deserved win must be congratulated!
The Last of the Summer Wine
What can I say? I enjoyed my Lunch on Saturday ...
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