Slashdot Mirror

Yes, I know MMP has been ret-conned into "Mixed Member Proportional" but I remember the ads run during the campaign to switch New Zealand from FPP to MMP and I *know* what I heard.

Anyway, tell me that this NZ Herald article http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10887551 on the relationships between the Greens and Labour coalition doesn't sound like something that a US paper could have written about the relationships between the TEA Party and the Republicans...

Or how about this article http://www.nzcpr.com/extremism-mars-election-race/ about how dirty the races have become this year and how NZ is practicing its own brand of gerrymandering to guarantee who gets elected to the Maori seats.

I believed that shite 20 years ago, but time has shown that MMP is ultimately little better than FPP was.

I feel medical publishing needs to move away from the current paradigm even more than the open-access journals that have been discussed so widely. The company that made this advance, Agios doesn't seem to be a typical "big pharma" company: They are running lean on market cap (350 million in outstanding shares) and big dreams. Imagine a world with a hundred more companies like this could be creating equally innovative solutions. Then realize that the biggest drug company has a market cap that could be funding over 500 Agios's.

Given advertising costs that number is a little deceptive. Nevertheless we are talking about human trials in the US, an enormously expensive process. It's popular to be conservative about medicine, especially in the US and there's a good reason for that but there's a line between looking for more likely results and wasting money on almost exclusive focus on incremental improvements. We've crossed that line.

Medicine is science and science is moving faster all the time. As a society we need to keep up by focusing capital on smaller, more agile companies, not only to prevent the tragedy of unaddressed new problems but to move the state of the art forward as fast as possible. There are lives to be saved.

Christchurch's earthquake resulted in building failures and caused loss of life. However, several buildings, while they later needed demolition, did stay up allowing evacuation.

The CTV building was the major failure, resulting in the death of 115 people (6 stories) [3]. A close one was the Hotel Grand Chancellor (26 stories) [2]. A frequent failure mode was the collapse of the stairwells [1].

However, you are correct, you are definitely safer being _inside_ a building. People who were on the street were killed by falling debris and masonry.

[1] http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/n...
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

http://canterbury.royalcommiss...

But if you pet them , you are in range of their teeth. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/n... http://www.smh.com.au/environm...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11297251

The GCSB (CIA equivalant in New Zealand) already legally requires every ISP in the country to implement these 'black boxes' and route all data through them, and only the GCSB has access to them.
  NZ Herald link
  Slashdot link 1
  Slashtod link 2

It was strongly opposed by 89% of the NZ public. The largest political rally in this country's history was held in protest. It passed through parliament with very little (and very partisan) opposition.

Raise this fact in public here now, and people just shrug. Fills me with rage & despair when I let it.

A cartoon on the current New Zealand Prime Minister in the US.

You're not wrong.

In 2005, a cat got stuck in a tree. It made national headline news for a week.

I wish I was kidding...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/worl... If the "worst case" comes true, then there will be billions affected, and in a few years. The current word is that the risks of a major "thaw" of Antartica are understated.

My sister worked for a major govt agency about 6-7 years ago as a climate researcher (She's a physicist), and has been howling about the fact a lot of her collegues research was implicitely gagged (Told to "tone it down" by govt administrators with job security threats attached) whenever it warned about certain thawing events. All of which only now are being talked about openly, possibly too late.

Anyone who tells you scientists have been exagurating the warnings for some sort of gain has no god damn idea of what actually hapens. Being a climate scientist can be harmful to your career. As she put it , she could make a lot of money becoming a phony contrarian and working for right wing thinktanks, but alas for her , she didnt spend a decade getting slaughtered for a PhD to turn around and become a pseudoscientist climate denier and instead has to just put up with a crappy university researcher wage.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/worl... If the "worst case" comes true, then there will be billions affected, and in a few years. The current word is that the risks of a major "thaw" of Antartica are understated.

It's for exactly that reason that he gets any traction in public opinion in NZ. The first time he came to the attention of most Kiwis at all was when the NZ police raided his house with swat teams, helicopters and the works at the behest of US law enforcement. For ... copyright infringement.

Then it turned out that our intelligence services had been spying on him illegally, (along with 80 or so other foreign-born NZ residents) Some of our politicians had been taking political donations from him and later denying all knowledge, and our Prime Minister claimed to know nothing about the illegal spying despite being briefed on it 12 months earlier

In addition FBI agents in NZ sent copies of his personal files to the US despite the ruling of NZ courts.

In essence, our local politicians and law enforcement acted like such complete and total dickwads that they made even a guy like Kim Dotcom look the good guy by comparison. The let him into the country for his money, despite his convictions. Then when the US law enforcement came knocking they turned on him like a bunch of weasels.

In fact public opinion is starrting to swing against him. Kiwis typically aren't impressed by the kind of excess and showboating he is famous for. I don't think is party will get that many votes, but in a country the size of NZ, and due to the peculiarities of our version of MMP, a small party can sometimes gain a couple of seats and be in a position to act as kingmaker.

It's for exactly that reason that he gets any traction in public opinion in NZ. The first time he came to the attention of most Kiwis at all was when the NZ police raided his house with swat teams, helicopters and the works at the behest of US law enforcement. For ... copyright infringement.

Then it turned out that our intelligence services had been spying on him illegally, (along with 80 or so other foreign-born NZ residents) Some of our politicians had been taking political donations from him and later denying all knowledge, and our Prime Minister claimed to know nothing about the illegal spying despite being briefed on it 12 months earlier

In addition FBI agents in NZ sent copies of his personal files to the US despite the ruling of NZ courts.

In essence, our local politicians and law enforcement acted like such complete and total dickwads that they made even a guy like Kim Dotcom look the good guy by comparison. The let him into the country for his money, despite his convictions. Then when the US law enforcement came knocking they turned on him like a bunch of weasels.

In fact public opinion is starrting to swing against him. Kiwis typically aren't impressed by the kind of excess and showboating he is famous for. I don't think is party will get that many votes, but in a country the size of NZ, and due to the peculiarities of our version of MMP, a small party can sometimes gain a couple of seats and be in a position to act as kingmaker.

I really enjoyed this commentary. An extract:

"Eighteen months ago, after the slap-stick bumbling and embarrassing forelock pulling by New Zealand authorities to their United States counterparts was revealed, I was moved to wonder if Dotcom was in fact a computer virus, slowly infecting our senior politicians and agencies of state, and transforming them into figures of fun.

Whether he is a virus, or a puckish imp, sent by the gods to mock those who would rule over us, Dotcom continues his uncanny facility to bring out the ridiculous in them."

Wherever you stand on his legal issues, business ventures and politics, he is great entertainment.

New Zealand is so isolated that other than three species of small bat, no mammals whatever evolved in NZ until the day the Maori landed. So we have a Colorado-sized pair of islands inhabited by an assortment of species too ridiculous even for Australia, and with no adaptation to the presence of animals. There's the giant earthworm that glows in the dark:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/n... ...the three-eyed lizard...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... ...the living bug zapper...
http://www.waitomo.com/waitomo... ...and the 12-foot tall ground-dwelling bird - no animals to run from, remember, that was unfortunately delicious:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

The Maori had no weapons more advanced than clubs, but that was all they needed. Think of it as the world's first, biggest, most environmentally-insensitive tailgate party, after which the species was no moa.

AC opined:

They don't delete externally collected data. They obviously delete or age-off internal records.

Prime Minister John Key, who is in charge of GCSB said:

This is a spy agency. We don't delete things. We archive them.

Key's office confirmed that Key was talking about the video that his lawyers had claimed was deleted.

AC opined:

Isn't claiming that Dotcom was illegally spied upon putting the cart before the horse here? Where is the evidence? Regardless of whether it was deleted or not, by making the statement one is assuming the conclusion and puts their own credibility at risk.

Here are some links from the fine article showing that the government and the police have already admitted malfeasance:

Police Admit That NZ Spy Agency Illegally Spied On Kim Dotcom

NZ Prime Minister Admits That The Government Illegally Wiretapped Megaupload Employees

Oddly enough you are correct that these admissions of malfeasance do put the credibility of the police and the Prime Minister at risk although that is probably not what you meant.

And in conclusion: FUCK BETA!

Wow. You made an argument to prove that humans are much better at driving than cars are, and now you've just discredited it.

But this counters your discrediting of your own argument. There are a number of these events about the world...

Some years back there was a tobacco bootlegging operation in full force in the south island of New Zealand, they were even selling the stuff from the local stores. when they were finally busted and put out of business, the locals were PISSED that they couldn't get good quality tobacco anymore, only the crap that big tobacco pedals which is full of additives http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10335841

Placing this debate in the geo-political context is important - the internal pressure in most EU countries to assert their 'national identity' (real or imagined) is becoming stronger. The perception of French culture outside of France is determined mostly by watching movies I imagine - 'hey, look at all those quaint cobble stone streets, the laid-back cafes etc - we have to go there on holiday next year!!'.

The same kind of thing has been happening here in NZ - although there is no 'culture' to speak of here, the revenue from attracting tourists is ginormous and important to local economy. The govt here recently increased a taxpayer rebate for movie makers with a 'good chance of commercial success' from 15% to 25%. Yes, from taxpayer money. Apparently this is reason James Cameron decided finally to locate the new Avatar movies here.

Nobody here is complaining about where their tax dollars are going - either because they support this move, or they just don't care. Either way, if the situation was changed to taxing youtube video consumption I'm sure there'd be a riot.

So let me see if I understand you. It is far better to dedicate living space, vegs and medicines to cattle than humans?

Definitely. Vegtables and cattle don't play loud music into the night, argue with me about fence lines, park cars across my driveway, mug me, whatever.

My point is that there is an optimum human population which we have already exceeded (at least in those areas that are reasonably inhabitable). Economies of scale were reached and passed long ago, and we are now seriously competing with each other (which is likely to turn into widescale fighting soon) for diminishing raw materials, fuel and above all land space. I spend a lot of my time dealing with issues that can be put down to overcrowding: time in traffic jams, having no room in my garden for a workshop, maintaining (or earning money to replace) things now made with inferior materials because good materials have become rare and unaffordable. Like I still have a couple of bits of furniture from my not-very-wealthy grandparents, solid wood that when it got shabby you could cheaply sandpaper and re-paint; now furniture is crap chipboard with paper-thin veneer that can only be replaced when shabby, requiring more hours of wage time than the re-paint ever did.

How bad will it have to become before you stop enjoying the population increase? Like this?

Unless you get the following message on signup.netflix.com

Sorry, Netflix is not available in your country yet.

And you local TV network cancels it's agreement with Fox halfway through the Homeland season.
There is literally no choice left but to download illegally.

Just to help further illustrate the poor state your country is in, here is an article from today's newspaper, where a hitch-hiker was picked up by someone on the run from cops.

Note the last few sentences:
Police gave the backpacker a more sedate ride to Paihia and showed him the sights in the area before delivering him to his accommodation.
[The local police sergeant] said [the backpacker] would also be offered help from Victim Support if he needed it.

Of course the police aren't all rainbows and roses, but this sort of thing (the police helping I mean, not the car-jacking) happens all the time in civilised countries.

Again I'm not trying to boast in any way; simply pointing out that your experiences are not "normal" for a developed society and should never be considered acceptable. What are you going to do about it?

yep. lots of theory about leds but many are a disaster when it comes to quality control (including some expensive ones I put in our house). Let's hope they can do better than the pro-business New Zealand government leaving it all to the market.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11131680

If your interested in the NZ part read up on the David Lange papers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10363782
"US would no longer feel any inhibition in conducting intelligence gathering operations against us. [NZ]""
UN diplomatic communications, Argentine naval intelligence, Egypt, Japan, the Philippines, Pacific Island nations, France, Vietnam, the Soviets, North Korea, East Germany, Laotia and South Africa are also listed.
Loss of "Joint military activities" was the public Pentagon side, the NSA/GCSB aspect became public via a box of documents with an annual report from the mid 1980's.

It is possible to sleep drive in the same way you can sleep walk. A New Zealand woman drove 300 kmand operated her cell-phone while asleep.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10912545

You are right. He would really need to use some sort of computer to be able to measure whether his Internet speed had changed by that amount. How unlikely is that?

Seriously, we can't know what he meant by noticing the speed change. It may just be that as a gamer, he keeps an eye on his ping times regularly and noticed the numbers change. Frankly, that is not the important part of the article so it isn't worth worrying about that quote.

Actually we can know what he meant, because he has stated it before.

https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcoms-gaming-lag-hints-spying-121004/
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10838484
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/10/06/1723231/kim-dotcom-apparently-spied-on-for-longer-than-admitted

Dotcom's claims of noticing an extra 20ms 'as a gamer' rather than 'as somebody looking at the ping displayed next to various multiplayer serves' are somewhat dubious; but there are a few additional details to his story.

Apparently, as a major Modern Warfare 3 enthusiast, and living at more or less the far end of the earth, Dotcom took his ping pretty seriously and had a dedicated line installed from his house to the peering exchange in Auckland's Sky Tower. When his ping increased, he pulled customer support in to sort it out and they determined that his connection had picked up a few extra hops within NZ.

We have become a country for the rich and by the rich, subject to foriegn powers. Our property is being sold out from underneath us, our laws have become mutable. There is little responsibilty in government, and even less in the corporate sector.

Well, seriously, you New Zealanders did vote for this (like every other country facing this same shit). Face the music or change it at the next election. Of course sheeple will just continue to vote for whoever the rich tell us to vote for (via their mass media channels).

(Also as a New Zealand citizen) I would like to add an apology for the rule of law going to hell here. The GCSB was caught out spying illegally on NZ citizens. Nobody was charged, no-one was even fired. We have become a country for the rich and by the rich, subject to foriegn powers. Our property is being sold out from underneath us, our laws have become mutable. There is little responsibilty in government, and even less in the corporate sector.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10575739&pnum=0

Immigration New Zealand has told one pregnant woman that - despite her financial stability - she would "be putting an additional strain on our already short services", which the department claimed were "stretched in most areas of the country".

This has actually happened, more or less.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10710715/

You just need to learn to obey French road rules.

Using a foreign Australian newspaper for a New Zealand story is about the same as using a Mexican newspaper to report on an issue in the U.S.

The New Zealand newspaper of record is the New Zealnd Herald which carried this story 3 weeks agao (when it was topical) - http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10776556

Oh! and sweet as bro.

Did you read the New Zealand case? They already did away with "innocent until proven guilty". In particular

[14] There is insufficient evidence before the Tribunal for it to make detailed findings on these factual issues,. That is the nature of the decision being made on the papers. On the basis of the information available to it, however, together with the statutory presumption that each incidence of file sharing identified in an infringement notice constitutes an infringement of the right owner's copyright in the work,, the Tribunal is satisfied that file sharing took place via the Respondent's internet account as alleged.
http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/document/pdf/20135/RAINZ%20v%20Teleom.pdf

Unfortunately secure booting is linked so tightly with vendor lockdown, tracking, and DRM concerns that I never expect it to be embraced by any open-source community. Hysteria over treacherous computing so far has been overblown. For example, the potential abuse of the unique ID features of the TPM chips were not sufficient reason for the boycott against using them when available they generated--especially if you're booting into an open-source OS.

It's pretty ridiculous that software like trusted grub isn't in mainstream Linux distributions, while Windows booting is easy to protect using the TPM with BitLocker. I boot my Linux/Windows Thinkpad using the Windows boot loader specifically because it resists evil maid attacks better when I'm traveling. The hysteria isn't limited to Linux; the same indefensible arguments are made by TrueCrypt. That acts as if TPM provides no protection against physical attacks, which is ridiculous if you look at how much work it takes to hack one.

What do you mean I can't get a laptop with a Hercules mono graphics card in it?

And who said CGA was "so last century".

Hell, maybe it's time I upgraded.

I noticed that I became much better at playing minesweeper after switching to an NVIDIA card.

Hmmm... I think this morning's earthquakes may have rattled something loose in my head ;-)

This is what NZ does to its vermin problem :

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10797453

and it REALLY sucks to be a rabbit down here :

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10797453

This is what NZ does to its vermin problem :

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10797453

and it REALLY sucks to be a rabbit down here :

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10797453

The real crooks are the cops and civil defense people

Corrupt building inspectors were most likely the biggest issue. Newly constructed buildings were not built to code and came crumbling down. Of course, it's a lot harder to go after those guys than just blaming some scientists who were making reasonable predictions based on the available data.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/world/europe/08codes.html

We've something like that happening in NZ. After the big one in Christchurch (22/Feb/2011) one of the buildings in Christchurch collapsed. The investigations have found that the engineer falsified his degree and he may also be liable. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10835563

Somewhat remiss of people not to check on someone's qualifications. Skeptics of the world unite.

Aircraft can go for YEARS still using parts known to be a risk.

Four to be exact. I'm sure a cost/benefit agreement was reached. Brings little comfort to the passengers.

As for the Concorde, about as freaky as accidents get. More than one airliner has been brought down by a popped tire.

You mean like the earthquakes near Christchurch over the past two years? Help from the US military was offered but turned down.

celebrities for the most part relax while their chauffeurs work to preserve their licenses and future income.

where do you get this information? the only two cases I can come up with off the top of my head are princess Diana's chauffeur (driving too fast, as well as drunk), and Hitler's (also driving too fast, per his instructions)

Here's a more personal take on this:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10388620

This article puts quite a different spin on it, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10811266 From the article: "He said he had contacted the agents to offer to take clones of the items to the United States Embassy only to find they had already sent the clones to the US." Sounds like the NZ cops were going to give it to the FBI but the FBI wasn't waiting from permission anyway.

I think a better example is when a supermarket in NZ with self-service checkouts accidentally opened on a public holiday last year. Of 50 people, about 12 of them actually paid for their groceries. The rest of them either loaded up their trolleys and stole the food, or abandoned their trolleys and left with nothing. (Admittedly, halfway through the day it became impossible to pay for the groceries, because some idiot scanned a bottle of alcohol and the self-service checkouts locked up waiting for a supervisor to validate the customers' ID to purchase it - which was impossible as no staff were present).

It's all a bit of a mess really. Here's an article giving a few more details: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10808032

You mean the James Cameron who has decided that New Zealand might be a better place to live?

heya,

Well, in a bit of luck for the "little guy", it seems there may be good news for the champagne cork opener guy:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/6667488/Kiwi-inventor-wins-champagne-patent-battle
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10795728

If what's written in those articles is true, it sounds like the American companies were real dicks - asking for a sample to "evaluate", offering him a paltry $2500 for unlimited use, then when they got turned down going to find his Chinese manufacturer, and attempting to steal his product.

Cheers,
Victor

Kim Dotcom was arrested in New Zealand, not Australia, and the biggest complaint he's had about his treatment is that he doesn't have enough money to pay for all his domestic staff.

So let's not get carried away here.

What I find disappointing is the negative way the media in New Zealand is portraying Kim "Dotcom" Schmitz.

NZ police acted on US request for help
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10780138

They raided him with freaking helicopters!! :

Police complete Dotcom search
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10780142

Dotcom birthday party targeted
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10780321

Dotcom's lavish life of parties and luxury
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10780514

Dotcom 'extreme' flight risk - Crown
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10780553

Dotcom case 'not open and shut'
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10781113

What I find disappointing is the negative way the media in New Zealand is portraying Kim "Dotcom" Schmitz.

NZ police acted on US request for help
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10780138

They raided him with freaking helicopters!! :

Police complete Dotcom search
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10780142

Dotcom birthday party targeted
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10780321

Dotcom's lavish life of parties and luxury
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10780514

Dotcom 'extreme' flight risk - Crown
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10780553

Dotcom case 'not open and shut'
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10781113