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Not in the US for the one I think you are thinking of (and not eBay). http://www.stuff.co.nz/48059

My question is, if I find a device on one of my motorcycles or car, is it legal for me to remove said strange device.

And can I sell it?

Probably not, and since it's not your property they'd probably get pissed if you sold it. Me, I think I'd just wrap the thing in a coil of heavy copper wire and discharge a hefty capacitor bank through it. Then I'd record the cop retrieving it and post the video on Youtube. Maybe some of officer so-and-so's neighbors might have something to say about it.

Does anyone else find the thought of ordinary cops skulking around after dark, attaching things to private vehicles just because they feel like it, more than a little disturbing? What the hell were these judges thinking? Or, more likely, smoking? Personally, I find it irritating when cops are sneaky: frankly, it's not what I pay them for. Worse yet, given the complete lack of oversight involved now, you can't tell me that these guys aren't going to be tracking their girlfriends, ex-wives, annoying neighbors and anyone else they want to get dirt on.

Truly stupid decision.

My question is, if I find a device on one of my motorcycles or car, is it legal for me to remove said strange device.

And can I sell it?

Not surprising at all, considering the fact that the Chinese have gotten the green light to develop the oil fields.

With Akamai, googles local caches and other content distribution networks bringing the big content closer to users there isn't actually a bottleneck, the southern cross cable isn't close to being saturated, it's just that telecom charge too much for access to it. Competition in the form of more cables is planned and will make a real difference http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/3435625/Top-business-figures-in-bold-broadband-bid

There's a new cable planned to compete with the southern cross. Competition will bring the price down, especially as the southern cross still has spare capacity.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/3435625/Top-business-figures-in-bold-broadband-bid

I hate the Australian game censorship problem as much as you do, but to be fair:

- That should be changing quite soon. Michael Atkinson has retired as South Australian Attorney-General. He was the only AG holding back an R18+ game rating in AU. So the wheels are in motion to amend the classification legislation to bring games into line with movies/books etc. Of course, being a slow, political process, it could still be a few years off. But I firmly believe it will happen.

- On the internet filtering side of things, it's not like NZ is any different than Australia in this area. At least our filter is still only a (very unpopular) proposal - nothing has actually gone live as it has in NZ. :( But either way ... it sucks I agree.

Actually I don't blame Larry at all, in this witch hunt anyone that goes for the CYA strategy is just showing they have a brain. I mean we are living in an age where a drawing, no matter how crude, and that involves no real children what so ever can get someone sent to PMITA prison depending on their location.

The simple fact is it has long since quit being about "protecting the children" and become a classic witch hunt where I doubt anyone is truly safe if they end up with a zealous prosecutor and a hang 'em high judge. Is that an elf in the game you are playing? Looks like she might be loli! Hell we are gonna have to have every single fantasy/Sci Fi book have a porn style "all models depicted or described in this work was over 18" in the front of the book just to keep from risking jail!

So don't blame the guy for CYA when it is the whole system that is completely fucked. I mean you can go to prison just for having words on a page nowadays, so just the fact that he accessed those pages on his PC without reporting them could have landed the guy a jail sentence. I mean, what would you have him do, keep a stack of HDDs handy so he can burn his drive every time he accessed Wikimedia, in case something got cached? If you don't like this horseshit, write to your elected officials and try to organize your fellow citizens to get the laws overturned. Of course you'll probably be labeled a kiddy fiddler by the MSM and have your place raided, but that's what happens when you have a witch hunt and why most people will go for a CYA in this crazy time.

Don't talk to Kristian Digby about the exhilaration of tethering...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/3398502/TV-host-dies-in-sex-game-gone-wrong

Who cares about Super Bowl, it is no longer the single most watched sports event :)

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/3280912/Champions-League-final-tops-Super-Bowl-in-TV

" Or it would send a user from Iran or Libya to a 'domain name doesn't exist' server."

Why limited to these countries? How about Australia? Remember, this is a country that blocked Wikileaks thru its state sanctioned banlist. Politicians there are on board.

Even Linden Labs(makers of Second Life) have set up servers there(only 2-3 countries to have their servers outside the US). Critics theorize this is little to with technical distributed computing reasons but to be in readiness to self censor their content as LL seems to have had the opinion from Ozzie officials that Second Life in its current form would be "offensive". IE: against the law...like Child Porn etc.

Google needs the tools to "keep sweet" with local authorities. These DNS changes would help them avoid being like Linden Labs situation.

Curious how Patrick Stewart got a mention here, but Peter Jackson slipped under the radar:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/3199875/Peter-Jackson-says-knighthood-a-tribute-to-parents

Why did I find out about this via slashdot before I find out via local news?
Government thinking of telling people? Or am I actually under a rock. (Entirely possible however.)

it was on stuff.co.nz a couple of days ago.

If you're on Facebook, you should join the Creative Freedom Foundation group - they mentioned it less than an hour after this new draft legislation was announced.

If anything I'm surprised it took Slashdot this long!

The Camry hybrid's American-soft suspension settings meant the sedan wallowed its way around every Manfeild bend, which made the conventional model's handling sportscar-sharp by comparison.

Note that down-under, the local Camry would in-turn be generally considered "wallowy" itself vs many of its contemporaries, but smaller sportier cars are the norm down here.

"whilst I agree its a beautiful wood, its also somewhat dodgy to come by. "

Excellent. It will go nicely with the baby-whale-oil lamps, the blood diamond/ruby laser, and the miniature death camps for the Persian cat's mice.

One must keep up appearances.

Now, before we get to business, some chocolate?

Steven Joyce has clarified that you will be able to LEGALLY use a Phone as a navigation device. And childed authorities for making such a statement. Story here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/gadgets/2912318/SatNav-mobiles-won-t-be-banned-Govt -Joel W Pauling (aenertia)

This article is a non-story. Shortly after TFA went up and Slashdot provided the link in the summary, someone must've clued in, because a follow-up story has been posted to the same site indicating that the proposed regulation has been slapped down. The follow-up story was even linked from TFA, although the site seems to be slashdotted so the formatting is pretty whacked on both articles.

No fuss required, apparently.

I agree. I go to Stuff.co.nz to get most of my non-tech news, but I don't think I would ever pay for it, even if there was no other free local new site. I'd just go back to TV and supplement it with whatever other news services are left on the net (because they won't all be charging).

Thats really a small number though that could depend on multiple variables. How do we know that the same amount of cars passed through it? For all we know there could have been a road that was under construction that people use now. Also did the road get any more improvements? What about weather? There would be a big difference if last year there were lots of storms. Etc. Plus, for all we know, most of those 14 deaths could have happened with one or two cars. Its really too small of an amount of deaths to say with any certainty if they are working.

The 14 figure stated by the AC is wrong. The period that they are talking about was over Easter - 4.5 days approximately. According to this the Easter road toll for 2008 was 9 nationally so I have no idea where the 14 came from.

Already beee done (somebody placed one on a online auction site when the police did this to him (in New Zealand))
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/48059

Sell the thing ... it was connected to your car, so must have been there when you brought it, you don't think you need it, auction it.

Guy in New Zealand who found a police tracking device on his car ripped it out and placed it on an online auction site.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/48059

Quote "A police operation to covertly follow a man came to an abrupt halt when the man found tracking devices planted in his car, ripped them out, and listed them for sale on Trade Me"

A group of young Kiwis just back from Mexico have come down with an influenza-like illness, striking fears a flu virus that may have killed 80 people has arrived in New Zealand.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/2364487/Kiwis-show-flu-like-symptoms

It is possible that there is something shady going on, but I wouldn't underestimate Judith Tizard's monumental idiocy.

Bear in mind: (1) the RIANZ isn't nearly as powerful as the RIAA is in the US; the ISPs are much more significant by comparison, as they haven't been able to parcel the country into small monopolies quite to the same extent that they've done in the US (except Telecom, but Telecom is a weird case in several ways). (2) Judith Tizard hasn't retired; she just was too low down the list to get back into parliament. She's continued to be vocal in the last couple of months, issuing a stream of press releases that no one has bothered reporting outside the Business pages; that tends to suggest that she was acting under her own steam all along -- it's not that she was bribed, it's that she actually genuinely does care more about the income of multi-national corporations more than she does about the freedom of NZ citizens.

Now, that's not to say that there won't be another similar law on its way. The PM has already made clear that he fully intends to sell out on this issue. But who knows? The ISPs may end up shouting louder.

For those who don't know, the final straw was when simply said no ( http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/2252415/TelstraClear-rejects-copyright-code ). It would not implement the law because its customers were complaining and were might pissed.

... but NZ politicians would still dearly love to get a FTA with the US. And the National government has already made clear that they would be willing to create new copyright laws specifically to get such a FTA -- just as Australia did.

It's probably got something to do with the fact that, despite all reasons to run screaming from the US, the US is still our number 2 trading partner. (Unless you count the EU as a single nation, of course.)

Truly a case of Uncle Sam's left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, considering the recent creation of a Copyright Czar.

At least Apple is moving in the right direction, announcing yesterday that it will drop DRM from it's tracks.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4811674a28.html (and elsewhere)

Careful what you wish for - the New Zealand Government came very close to doing just this... only the recent change of government stopped it:

It was suggested:http://www.stuff.co.nz/4586858a11.html (June 08)

It got some instant attention from people who raised lots of contentious issues: http://www.stuff.co.nz/AAMB0/aamsz=760x120/4587346a7693.html (June 08)

The party that won our early-December election suggested in November that they would 'review' the policy - http://www.stuff.co.nz/4775021a11.html (Note the following: "Australia plans to ban the sale of incandescent light bulbs from next year when Britain will start phasing them out. China, which makes 70 per cent of the world's lightbulbs, recently agreed to phase out incandescent bulbs.")

Then as of 17 Dec 08 the new government said it was 'consumers choice' and repealed the decision to get rid of incandescents... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10548446

I'm glad they did it, because I want the choice. I have a mix if CFL and Incandescent at home (buy the right bulb for the job, I say) and I do maintain that the CFL light is best when it's on for a period of time...

As for LEDs? I have an LED 3-D Maglite Clone and a 4-D Maglite (genuine), the latter of which uses Incandescent. It puts out more light, and i'm sure that's not just voltage talking. For 'being seen' the LED is fine (with a wand on the tip for traffic control, for example) but for casting light, id rather have a lightbulb.

Careful what you wish for - the New Zealand Government came very close to doing just this... only the recent change of government stopped it:

It was suggested:http://www.stuff.co.nz/4586858a11.html (June 08)

It got some instant attention from people who raised lots of contentious issues: http://www.stuff.co.nz/AAMB0/aamsz=760x120/4587346a7693.html (June 08)

The party that won our early-December election suggested in November that they would 'review' the policy - http://www.stuff.co.nz/4775021a11.html (Note the following: "Australia plans to ban the sale of incandescent light bulbs from next year when Britain will start phasing them out. China, which makes 70 per cent of the world's lightbulbs, recently agreed to phase out incandescent bulbs.")

Then as of 17 Dec 08 the new government said it was 'consumers choice' and repealed the decision to get rid of incandescents... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10548446

I'm glad they did it, because I want the choice. I have a mix if CFL and Incandescent at home (buy the right bulb for the job, I say) and I do maintain that the CFL light is best when it's on for a period of time...

As for LEDs? I have an LED 3-D Maglite Clone and a 4-D Maglite (genuine), the latter of which uses Incandescent. It puts out more light, and i'm sure that's not just voltage talking. For 'being seen' the LED is fine (with a wand on the tip for traffic control, for example) but for casting light, id rather have a lightbulb.

Careful what you wish for - the New Zealand Government came very close to doing just this... only the recent change of government stopped it:

It was suggested:http://www.stuff.co.nz/4586858a11.html (June 08)

It got some instant attention from people who raised lots of contentious issues: http://www.stuff.co.nz/AAMB0/aamsz=760x120/4587346a7693.html (June 08)

The party that won our early-December election suggested in November that they would 'review' the policy - http://www.stuff.co.nz/4775021a11.html (Note the following: "Australia plans to ban the sale of incandescent light bulbs from next year when Britain will start phasing them out. China, which makes 70 per cent of the world's lightbulbs, recently agreed to phase out incandescent bulbs.")

Then as of 17 Dec 08 the new government said it was 'consumers choice' and repealed the decision to get rid of incandescents... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10548446

I'm glad they did it, because I want the choice. I have a mix if CFL and Incandescent at home (buy the right bulb for the job, I say) and I do maintain that the CFL light is best when it's on for a period of time...

As for LEDs? I have an LED 3-D Maglite Clone and a 4-D Maglite (genuine), the latter of which uses Incandescent. It puts out more light, and i'm sure that's not just voltage talking. For 'being seen' the LED is fine (with a wand on the tip for traffic control, for example) but for casting light, id rather have a lightbulb.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4786351a1860.html

Discussed on Slasdot:http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/08/1515211

New Zealand has had cellphone jammers in prisons for some time now because of the issue.

Linky: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4174128a11.html

New Zealand always struck me a pretty civilised

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4725572a28.html

"Recording Industry Association chief executive Campbell Smith has said it would be "impractical and ridiculous" for copyright owners to prove the guilt of infringers in court before demanding they be cut off from the Internet."

Not real sane, if you ask me.

I don't know the specifics of how fast their connection is but they paid for 10 km of fibre to be laid out to their offices so no they wouldn't be on ADSL.

Bets that this judge is some OAP who was shown by his grandson how you could "google" someone...

Actually what's particularly interesting about this case is that the judge also teaches Information Technology and has written a text-book on cyber law in New Zealand, and he's made a submission to the NZ government about spam legislation which I haven't read, but you could probably look at if you want some guideline idea of his IT competence.

One of New Zealand's media commentators with a lot of IT experience (Russell Brown, for whom I have a lot of respect) threw in a few comments over here, and wasn't immediately condemning of the actions of the judge. Brown commented that he thinks this judge probably has more technical knowledge of the Internet than any other judge in the country, and coming from him it's either quite compelling or very detrimental to every other judge.

New Zealand's had problems in the past with courts trying to suppress names, particularly in cases when there's been international interest in the case, because the suppression orders only apply in New Zealand. I don't understand what he expects to achieve except possibly hoping that jurors won't be able to hide at home and google the names as easily during critical points in the trial, especially since the details of this trial are unlikely to gather much interest outside NZ. I think Brown's theory that this is an experimental act from the judge to see what happens sounds fairly feasible.

For further info, Link 1 and link 2. The exact value was USD 3817 at today's exchange rate. Hell will get:

a contract outlining details of the ownership and a signed certificate.

So, yes, a soul does indeed have market value.

For further info, Link 1 and link 2. The exact value was USD 3817 at today's exchange rate. Hell will get:

a contract outlining details of the ownership and a signed certificate.

So, yes, a soul does indeed have market value.

Hmm, you're right -- the story is here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4619215a12855.html

"[The judge] also ordered Walker - who has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of Autism - to hand over his computer-related assets to police." -- possibly that includes the money (or possibly he spent the money on computer gear). Of course, we all know how good the news media are at getting the facts and details right.

I can't find the actual judgement -- it may not be online yet (since it was only two days ago).

At the risk of extending this rather off-topic fork, I feel its important to correct a mis-truth in the above.

By removing the defence of reasonable force there is no longer a defence for smacking your child; how is that NOT illegal?

For clarity, the truth is that it has always been 'illegal' to smack your kids (ala 'assault anyone') but reasonable force has always been a valid defence for parents, in the course of disciplining their kids. No longer the case, making prosecutions much more likely to succeed. Net result is that we now have busybodies and narkers stepping in...

News coverage from when it became law: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10440080%5D

Noted as the most extreme law in the world on the subject: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0705/S00223.htm

A father gets a warning put on his police record for flicking his childs ear:
http://stuff.co.nz/4354765a10.html

The latter occurred because a bystander 'took umbrage' and an off-duty police officer phoned it in. The guy then winds up surrounded by 6 cops!

Sorry but I couldnt let you spread mis-truths about New Zealand Law. It is illegal to smack your child here, because there is no legal defence for what essentially is an assault in the eyes of the law. Splitting hairs further has no value.

http://stuff.co.nz/4610626a18335.html If you want an iphone down here in New Zealand then be prepared to pay out big. Vodafone is selling Apple's 8 gigabyte iPhone 3G from $199NZ, but to get this price customers must sign up to a 24-month plan charging $250NZ per month. The plan includes voice calls, SMS and 1GB of data per month. Other plans charge $80NZ or $130NZ per month for 250MB and 500MB respectively, with the 8GB handset costing $549NZ or $449NZ respectively. The 16GB iPhone models cost $150NZ more in each case. The iPhone in New Zealand will cost from $2469NZ to $6199NZ over two years, depending on the plan and how much is paid up front.

Pfft, Pluto's doing fine, it's got a whole category named after it now! All it needs is a leaked sex tape and it'll be the Verne Troyer of the Milky Way.

http://stuff.co.nz/4218411a10.html

Since then Virgin Airlines have flown aircraft with biofuels too, although theirs use biofuel derived from coconuts (not a viable source). Since then Air New Zealand are testing the biofuels, although currently limited to only one out of four engines. Noone has jet aircraft running only on biofuel, and that is a long way off.

Algae derived biofuels are definately the future, and not just for making jet fuel. The US department of Energy estimated that if 1/7th of the fields devoted to corn production were converted, the entire petroleum fuel consumption of the US could be replaced by algae biofuels. Algae derived biofuels have up to 20 times the yeild (gallons per acre) than any land based crop, and these yeilds will only improve as the technology is researched. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_fuel

Honeywell is fairly new to the biofuel scene, although I'm sure they have no problems aquiring smaller and more established companies, and throwing money at them.

Interestingly enough, a prominent news source in New Zealand has picked up on this and claimed that Neanderthals spoke a bit like New Zealanders.

Considering that they were prepared to spend 40-odd bn for yahoo when Vista probably cost them 5 bn, they are very serious about aquisitions.

MS have never really got far with their aquisitions (except office and MSDOS) so this new policy will probably burn a hole in the bottom of the ship.

Expect MS to go on a big shopping spree.

Biodiesel from algae is not new, and algae doesn't use up land resources like converting farmland for ethanol production does. In fact growing algae utilizes waste water streams from sewage plants, making the water cleaner in the process. On top of that, the yield of oil from algae (and hence biodiesel yields) can be up to 200 times more per acre than the best performing vegetable oil crops. Biodiesel from algae isn't without it's faults: it is expensive to set up the infrastructure to produce it (although that is a one time cost), and extracting the oil can be difficult. However new technology in systems using supercritical fluid extraction (using a superfluid CO2 of all things) has been nearly 100% efficient. There are companies already doing this: http://www.aquaflowgroup.com/technology.html

The problem is that people are still focussed on ethanol as the solution, being a quick and easy replacement for gasoline. Ethanol production from crops is nowhere near as efficient as producing biodiesel from crops, and ethanol production is expensive from both an economic and energy point of view. Many of the crops used to make ethanol only grow well in specific climates, meaning farmers outside those climate ranges who convert to ethanol crops can expect very low yields per acre. An eventual solution would be to move to diesel/biodiesel engines over gasoline/ethanol engines, and use ethanol is only an intermediate step to cover that conversion. Jets already make use of biodiesel blends with jetfuel, and progress is being made to jets using biodiesel only fuels. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4218411a10.html

The problem I have with these studies is that they treat ethanol as the only biofuel available. There are other biofuels, from straight vegetable oil to biodiesel. They claim that it is more destructive than commonly made out, yet the do not mention it is nowhere near as destructive to the environment as fossil fuels (and related fuel processing). Once the infrastructure is in place, it is far better for the environment. The studies also make out that biofuel production has resulted in massive deforestation, yet massive deforestation has been happening for decades before biofuels became mainstream. The real culprits are primarily demand for wood, farmland (and not just biofuel crops) and resource mismanagement on an extreme level. While the studies have raise some important issues that must be considered, I can't help but feeling that somewhere along the funding chain for these studies is an oil company. On top of that oil companies' PR agents are having a field day, making sure these studies get published everywhere.

Have a read of this: http://www.stuff.co.nz/blogs/lifeatwork/2007/11/09/employee-restraints-this-time-its-war/

Just some stuff I have in my bookmarks.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/015804.php
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4006289a12.html
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2007/June/theworld_June713.xml&section=theworld
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22663795-601,00.html
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,21403909-2,00.html?from=public_rss
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21525531-421,00.html
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21785791-421,00.html
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22286025-661,00.html
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,21359123-661,00.html

I do not have any stats to back that up but you bet that lower band (band: school rating system) Hong Kong schools seem to be full of maladjusted children and incidentally most of the parents of problem children here both work. Contrast that with the children involved in a recent tragedy in a poor neighbourhood.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4238589a12.html
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=12&art_id=55157&sid=15812229&con_type=3&d_str=20071015&sear_year=2007

Those links however do not have any of the positive comments that the SCMP quoted from the officials of the school where the children attended. They say that the children were well behaved top students in their class and they are that in spite of a mother who was not very stable but at home and being part of a poor family.

'Us cops don't get paid enough to go home in a box'

My city, two nights ago. First police shooting in three years. The dead guy didn't have a gun.