Jonathan's Liverstone

bank.nz

Will those pesky bankers not get the message and just GO AWAY!
Once again they are pestering the internet community for second-level domain, this time with the rather thin reasoning that it will reduce spam & phishing.
It obviously won't, in fact their man even says so himslf by admitting that it will only "stop some of the near-miss attempts " ... pointless then, hardly justification for setting up a level of domain space for a club of (what is it?) 16 members.

If only I could get a loan approved with such flawed logic in the application.

They don't trust the geeks to do the banking, so why do they think that they can be trusted to "do internet" ... stick to your knitting coin-counters!

If they are eligible for this sort of status, then where would it stop!
I would suggest that therefore that sports clubs should have sports.nz, builders could be eligible for chippies.nz, hotels, resturants ... charity organisations (even Nigerian ones).

Posted by The Denizen @ 2/28/2007 10:58:00 pm {0 comments }

On the Wires

The suggestion that broadband distribution can use the trolleybus overheads for reticulating the cable (& hopefully other optical technologies) puts a whole new slant on "riding the infobahn" for bus passengers.
... bring it on!

Posted by The Denizen @ 2/28/2007 10:53:00 pm {0 comments }

Cuba Street Carnival

I spent Saturday at the Cuba Street Carnival ... took the camera along, took plenty of bad photos, here's the highlights ...

Posted by The Denizen @ 2/26/2007 11:48:00 pm {0 comments }

Bitstream pricing

Finally the Commerce Commission is seeing sense.
Rather than their previous *silly* policy of setting an absolute price,
they are now setting more general rules.
Not sure they have got it right, but it's a hellava improvement.

Posted by The Denizen @ 2/22/2007 09:42:00 pm {0 comments }

Island Bay Fleet

We were passing through Island Bay today and noticed a lot of action in the bay.

It turns out that it was the annual "Blessing of the Fishing Fleet".

I love traditions ...

Posted by The Denizen @ 2/18/2007 09:28:00 pm {0 comments }

Relativity

I'm not big in this field, but this seems to be the bleeding obvious, like he is trying to make a big deal out of what you-and-I call commonsense .
.. It's not called "Relativity Theory" for nothing ... its all about *what* it's RELATIVE to!
... sheez!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20070215-11354900-bc-us-paradoxx.xml

Posted by The Denizen @ 2/18/2007 09:10:00 pm {0 comments }

Does the ringing in my ears annoy you?

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn11190-earths-hum-linked-to-coastal-waves-.html
... and I thought it was just tinnitus or the music of the spheres.

Posted by The Denizen @ 2/18/2007 09:07:00 pm {0 comments }

ADSL2+

Prediction:
When the local loop unbundling occurs for real, and other operators put their
equipment in the exchanges, they will use ADSL2+ (wouldn't you?).
To date Telecom have only been using ADSL1 with some restraint on the power settings, so that there is not too much cross-talk in the copper bundles running down the roads.
Now ADSL2+ has a very high transmission power for the dsl signal.
That will be like SHOUTING in a crowded room, so the other users of the
particular copper bundle will be drowned.
so more ADSL1 customers will see a drop off in their speeds, just as they did in the "Broadband Unleashed" fiasco.
It's what happens with DSL technologies on the shared copper bundles.
It's called crosstalk, and it's gonna bite when 2+ hits the copper.
Telecom will start offering 2+ pretty soon, and I'm picking they will sell it as the cure for any problems experienced in the unbundled free-for-all.
The wise money will switch to 2+ asap and avoid being drowned by the new
noise.
Another Opinion.

Posted by The Denizen @ 2/18/2007 08:55:00 pm {0 comments }

Seatoun Beach

Waitangi Day Weekend was beach weather ...

Looking across to Scorching Bay, it looked kinda busy over there too.

Posted by The Denizen @ 2/18/2007 06:17:00 pm {0 comments }

Elevator Etiquette

Stand back from the door ...
... as it arrives, or if you are going to the top floor.

While waiting to board, stand AWAY form the door opening. DO NOT board the car unless you are sure no one is getting off on your floor. If there is someone exiting, allow them to clear the door before attempting to board.

You should stand as close to a wall as possible. Consider your destination floor and stand near the back if you are going to a high floor.

There ... now I feel better ...

Posted by The Denizen @ 2/11/2007 09:27:00 pm {0 comments }

Danielle said "no more"

"Hard-man" Russell Crowe is starting to act like a family man.

Posted by The Denizen @ 2/10/2007 08:06:00 pm {0 comments }

Great Timing

The admission that transit shutdown half the terrace tunnel at rush hour on Friday morning, causing gridlock out to Newtown and Kilbirnie, reminds me of another splendid blunder of impecible timing.
The {$EMPLOYER} has a bonus scheme, based on setting goals at the start of the year and then assessing them at the end of the year (I will resist the temptation to comment on this).
The whole thing is web-based, and so gets a thrashing twice a year January for assesssment, February for setting up the next year.
So guess when the neanderthals that manage the this system decide that they will do an upgrade of the software behind this application? Yupe .. right now, nice one guys!
Extra bonus point for the personnel HR people who have sent out an e-mail to everyone with a 1.7 Mb spreadsheet attachment (laden with pointless-but-pretty graphics) instead.

Posted by The Denizen @ 2/10/2007 07:22:00 pm {0 comments }

Kimmie is an Adjective!

...kimhillical ...
In the Listener Denis Welch coined a great new word by refering to Bill Bryson as "joining panels chaired by kimhillical types"
... love it!

Posted by The Denizen @ 2/10/2007 07:13:00 pm {0 comments }

A list of Programming Rules

Go check them out ...
I like:

5. if you don't talk to your customers to see what will make them happy, then sooner or later someone else will...

6. Sales guys can be powerful allies for interoffice BS, but if you make yourself too available they will never leave you alone...

7. Management has no idea what the customer wants...

8. Engineering has even less idea what the customer wants...

17. Engineers thinking something is "cool" is not a business case...

18. Engineerings job is to say yes, no matter how stupid management's requests are...good engineers find ways to say yes that spotlight their intelligence and managements stupidity...(e.g. if they ask you to turn lead into gold, tell them you will if they allocate a few trillian dollars and a fusion reactor)...

44. don't trust any RFC with updates on April 1st (e.g. IPSEC...jerks)...

45. IEEE specs are worse than RFCs...

46. ITU specs are worse than IEEE specs...

Posted by The Denizen @ 2/06/2007 09:54:00 pm {0 comments }

Disclaimer: (I stole this from Internal Affairs.)
All links and references to other websites, organisations or people not within my control are provided for the user's convenience only, and should not be taken as endorsement of those websites, or of the information contained in those websites, nor of organisations or people referred to. I also do not implicitly or impliedly endorse any website, organisation or people who have off-site links to this website.
... But then again; I only link to sites 'cos I see something there that's worth linking to.