Today was my worst accident ever. I wanted to install a system in a rack. No problem.
Go to put in rails. Hmm.. These rails for a Sun V210 have a bit of extension past where the bolt onto the post at the back for cable management and it wants to touch that power plug. So I trace the lead from the plug to it's destination. Well, What do you know! It's powering the rack next to it. That's slack, so I lift a few floor tiles and I find a close power-point under the floor to power this rack.
I then dutifully ask everyone who has equipment in the rack if I can unplug their gear for a few minutes. "Yeah no problem" they say. The rack I wanted to unplug only had co-workers personal webservers in it, so that's was good. So I power down their boxes and pull the plug on the rack.
Something didn't seem right.
I couldn't pick it right away.
The room was quieter, or something.
I look over at another rack, the one full of expensive kit running important systems. It's off. It must have been the stopping of the constant whine of SMP machines with SCSI disks that alerted me to something not good. I had TRACED THE WRONG CABLE.
So I curse and curse some more. I plug the rack back in and hear a tone from the rack that I have powered off by accident. I see that it's still not on. I see the overload button on the rack has popped out. I curse some more.
I push in the button, machines start booting. I let go of the button, machines go off.
I push in the button, machines start booting. I let go of the button, machines go off.
I push in the button, machines start booting. I let go of the button, machines go off.
I comtemplate for a moment that I will spend the next 20 years holding in this button in quiet shame in the server room.
I am still there. My co-workers bring me slashdot on a laptop. Food sometimes.
No seriously, we lowered the load by switching off some DR and test/staging machines and moving their power around.
Anyway, I still have a red face and feel a bit shit.
In my defence, the cables did look the same and were tangled around each other.
As for the rest of the world, they do what's in their best interest without consulting the US. Get a clue.
Not true, the rest of the world consults with each other over stuff quite a lot. It is the US that never consults with anyone, that fucks everyone else off.
So, say the US let off those nukes, well, the world wouldn't talk to you for..ohh... I don't know. But until say, the US got rid of the terrible government that opresses the free people.
The "indians" of north america felt the same when bundled up, have money thrown at them and in general forgottern by the invaders from Europe(Funny, I had relatives on the Mayflower). Owww.. what? Did I say invader? Yeah invader, I mean it. Look up invasion in a dictionary, sounds a bit like colonisation doesn't it? That's how we feel sometimes.
Your identity is not compromised when someone makes a doll that looks like you.
That's not the Maori take on things. Those tats on their face are almost like rank marks. A person does not dress up like a police officer and walk down the street, that's most likely to be illegal where you live (It sure is here). Why? If everyone did it, we wouldn't know a real cop from a fake one. They are marks ARE our culture. The stories are our culture. It's seeping away, and we want to protect it. Some children don't even know a few Maori myths or traditions and the language is faltering. Lego toys arn't the way to educate a child about culture. They are, however, excellent creative outlets, I have heaps of the stuff from when I was younger:-). I digress, the fact is we need to re-enforce our culture is it's original and un-fucked-up by crappy interpretations (Read: Western. See: Dances with Wolves (Utter crap), Braveheart (Yeah right) + any hollywood interpretation of an old story brought down to modern 30sec attention spans).
Surely Maoris have more important battles to fight than this one.
Yeah, ignorance. The word is "Maori", not "Maoris", there is no word "Maoris", the plural of "Maori" is "Maori".
How about seeking more representation in the NZ parliament?
Ignorance. The Maori are currently over represented in Parliament. The Maori are granted special dispensation. And the proportional voting system also helps. It is slightly un-democratic, but hey, looking after those at bottom of the pile has kinda been the way for a long time now. The Maori seats have existed since god knows when in the NZ parliament. BTW - Don't tell a Kiwi how to run a representational democracy, we have been doing it longer and in my opinion, better, than anybody else.
How about addressing questions of land confiscation?
Ignorance. We have been doing this better than anybody else for quite some time now, see the Waitangi Tribunal website
How about preserving Maori language and culture through sharing and outreach, rather than trying to establish a stamp of unenforceable "ownership" over whatever incredibly vague notion of "likeness" they're trying to tie this thing to?
I support the introduction of compulsory teaching of Te Reo (The Maori language) at school. I hope this becomes law, it probably will in the next few years. I welcome it because I never really had the opportunity to learn. I could learn it now that I am at university, but I'm up to my eyeballs in Biology.. You might want to see This document concerning how we feel about protecting our culture, in this case, a recommendation was made that Te Reo was made an official language of New Zealand. It has been an huge boost to the culture.
Yeah well, the all mighty buck wins out in the end though. Two partners started my ISP a few years ago with the cunning name paradise.net.nz . Anyways, they sold out to a multi-national telecom/cable company. Now they drive Lambo Diablos around town. I doubt they lament the passing of the small ISP.
No, Java does not need MS, and MS doesn't need Java.
A common excuse for not implementing a Java solution in at work is that there is no one "Java", with MS Java now unsupported and out of the picture, business can say "Oh, okay, now there is only one 'Java' (This meaning the JVMs and JREs from Sun and IBM type big boys) so we can develop in it and know that it'll work across JVMs.
Of course, one could argue Java sucked in the first place, but since it is the only language I've bothered to learn, I can't complain.:-)
What about fourth amendment protection against searches and seizures? If they can go into your computer at will, the fourth is standing on it's last leg. Wait, civil forfeiture laws already have the fourth amendment on it's last leg. Well, so much for the fourth.
I know this is kinda stating the O, but New Zealand has no 4th amendment.
Infact, we have little protection from government snooping at all enshined in law. Just search warrants. As an aside, we do have pretty strong protection from other citizens and especially companies.
I work for a medical lab in New Zealand. If you get a sample taken at an MD's private practise (And not a state hospital) it'll probably pass through my employer. Hell, I might even see it. Everything is computerised. Say you have a sample taken from your body, forms come in from doctors, they get scanned into a large database. We have a large amount of data on the the person from whom the sample came from. DOB, Name and most importantly, what tests are being undertaken. I _CANNOT_ share personal info with anyone. I'd loose my job and the company would be in a whole lotta trouble. From what tests have being specified, it's pretty easy to take a guess and what a person has wrong with them.
And once the resukt is created, you can be be almost totally sure (That is of course, up to the doctors).
Now, say the government wants to find a weak point in a political opponent. The government could just crack our system and download details of those who they are interested. Massive histories could be availiable on everyone in the whole country if the government made copies of all information that passed through my employer over the course of the years. Adding this to what would already be kept on people if they passed through a state hospital, we have huge amount of information, all collected legally by the government.
Search for GCSB on mojonation, and if that stuff about all Microsoft stuff having a backdoor was true, I'd say it was a good reason to get these guys away from Windows:-). Anyway..
Now, the government only needs to start a rumour like "Political opponent X has an STD, and the spouse of X doesn't! X been sleeping around!" and someone could be royally screwed.
I cannot say anything about what I see at work, lest I embarres someone like this. Yet, the governement could... Easy...
Scary huh? Anyway, I don't think I'm going to lie down and take it, I'll do something about it.
Okay, I don't know how it is for people of other countries, but people from mine have an intense desire to leave. Not forever, but for a few years at least.
Why? Don't really know actually, perhaps it's because New Zealand is small (You can get from one end to the other by car in a couple of days (Or one if you drive like I do and catch a high speed ferry)). Perhaps it's that the weather sucks most of the time. Perhaps it's that work is hard to get. 7% unemployment is actually quite good on an international scale, and I seem to be able to get employed whenever I want fairly easily. But many do not.
My mother worked in the UK for awhile as a bar maid, and my cousins are far away. One in the USA working on farms (He says he can do the work of 10 Mexicans:-) ), another working as a lawyer in the UK. My sister has worked on and off at ski resorts in Colorado.
It's just something everyone wants to do, fuck off to another country for a few years and see the flipside of things.
The USA oft chosen because it's weird and the chance of getting a job is good and the pay is MUCH better than at home. Even when factoring in how much more things cost in the USA, it's still good money, my sister brings be back a new set of skis everytime:-).
But let's face it, not many of these H1-B people actually want to live in the USA, you'd have to be nuts. They just want the MONEY.
Surely they understand (As my sibling did) that if they want to keep their job, they keep their head down and do the work. Get fucked off with an employer? Come back home and tell your mates about your crazy boss or the armed police or the constant advertising for pain killers.
Something to tell their children about.
Re:do ya know, we have courts for these things?
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Fact: Highest number of trial lawyers per head -- United States of America
Fact: Highest standard of living -- Same Damn Place</i>
Gee, I'd think that first statistic would make a country horrible. _TRIAL_ lawyers is my point here:-).
I'd hate to live somewhere where I had to be insured up to the eyeballs incase of liability...
This is natural - A new status quo will result.
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When will the americans learn? You cannot beat the coders!:-)
Law and the court systems are too slow and the internet is to pervasive to slow down.
It's not that the coders are always right, but it's like trying to stop an exotic pest. The systems in place cannot cope, so in the end they assimilate the newcomer, and an new status quo is formed. And everything is cool again.
Or say the abolition of slavery in america, initially the farmers wouldn't have known what to do ("Uuhhhhhhhhhhh Pay the workers Cleatus? Confound it!") but in the end everything worked out.. And for the better for everyone.
25 years from now we won't know what the fuss was about, media, in all it's forms, will be quite different. And I doubt we'll be paying much for it, but since it's what everyone will be used to, no one will care.
Now HERE is the funny thing, New Zealand has NO large (Or noticeable) religous right.
That is: There are NO "brain-dead voters" as you say. I remember reading that, per head of population, NZ has the largest middle class in the world. By that note, we arn't really that conservative. There is NO large "Mums against porn" movement or "drugs kill children" movement or any sign of "The internet is BAD" movement.
New Zealanders (Like myself) are quite happy to let others do what they like as long as you don't tread on my toes.
Infact, we've got along with our government so well, we don't have a constitution in the traditional sense.
This is very weird for me, it flys in the face of everything we consider normal. We have good privacy laws, it's almost fun using them:-). I seriously doubt that this is something NZ wants. People, and the courts, don't tolerate the Government interfering with their lives when they don't want them too. Ie. Aziz finding the agents in the house. The Security Intelligence Service (SIS) have always flouted laws just a little (The shit I've heard... but can't possibly say because it would result in an international incident:-) ) but now that they could be reading MY email has me concerned. Perhaps they are worried because the drug dealing gangs in NZ (Who are a an okay bunch mostly) organise drug stuff over the internet. Big deal cops, you waste enough money as it is on choppers..
What is also very weird is the police assoc. spokesperson referring to political assasination! I see the Prime Minister every now and again walking down the main street (I live in the capital) visibly unprotected. No one even gets out of her way:-). There are no motorcades or anything like that. I'm free to walk around the parliament grounds and could quite easily pick off as many politicians as I want, email would have nothing to do it! To do somthing majorly criminal in NZ is a piss easy, look, the French blew up a Greenpeace ship in a very busy port and wouldn't have been caught if they had simply kept the yacht they had sailed in on.
I doubt it will fly in NZ. It all makes me wonder if this email snooper system could be an addition to the ECHELON system (Which NZ is a member). People will care, and it won't get too far.
Oh, BTW - We have not picked up guns in a over century to fight for our freedom, we should never do it again.
And if they'd just get rid of that pesky cash, we could be taxed without any effort at all.
Guess what, some countries have. Well, almost. This year, I will have no tax forms to fill out. Or the next. Or the next. In fact, I probably won't have to fill out a tax form in the rest of my life if I choose too. My country has decided that banks, employers and the tax department should share electronic information.
Last year, most people filed the last tax return of their lives. Unless they were self employed.
For as long as I have been working, tax has been deducted from my pay just before it was deposited into my bank account. This has a neat psychologic effect, people forget they are paying taxes sometimes:-).
I take it for granted. Privacy isn't too much of an issue, there are laws stopping the tax department talking to say, the welfare department, if you are working at a job but also claiming a benefit that you are only entitled too if you are unemployed. Or say if you were a drug dealer, you can still pay taxes (Via a forms, because you are self employed) and the tax department will not tell the police you are a drug dealer.
You can opt out of this system if you like, ie. be payed with cash, keep your money in a tin or ask the bank to not disclose details to the govt. But why cause the hassle? Americans, write to your.. Damn what do you call them? Congressman!
The point that interested me the most, because I'm a audiophile at times, was the 5.1channel output. Can you see, in the now near future, something like the Netwinder (Ie, just enough CPU to play a DVD or an MP3) but with a DVD player, plugged into your TV and stereo. It would get on the internet, play movies and write documents for one damn cheap price. Cheaper than buying the bits seperately anyway.
Most new cars are set so that you're not getting all of the perforemance you should. Ever see the people who race little hondas, they plug in a laptop and adjust the shift points and get a 33% speed increase.
"shift points"? Maybe if they didn't buy an automatic, they wouldn't have had to plug in the laptop at all!
Honestly, it's not. A skeleton of the system I live under can be seen here Okay, if you don't know how a censorship system could work, here is what we do. Basically all publications can be submitted to the censorship office. As a matter of practise, only films are submitted en-masse. Only when a publisher has qualms does a book or computer game be submitted. Someone can object however, and then the censors should review it (Ie. a porno mag). So once a publication has been reviewed, it is assigned a rating, in our case: (G) General exhibition, so no restrictions. (PG(number)) Means parental consent should be attained to view the film, until the person is of the age in (number) (R(number)) The film is restricted to those of that age in (number) As long as those that administer it are not crazy, which I suspect could be the case if it became a reality in the USA, because of the (apparent to me) influence of pressure/lobby groups. I can see Americans, who appear rather paranoid of their government (And rightly so, ie. Jonestown) thinking a film about evolution could be banned because it's morally repugnant to the conservative community. Don't fear, if the law is well-written. For example, section 8(d) of the statute linked to about exempts science films from the law. Or section 3,2 uses quite a lot of common sense in decideding what is objectionable and what isn't. (Except some would argue, including the previous chief censor that 3,2(d) was a bit pointless (He said that bit of pee never hurt anyone!)) Personally, I have nothing to fear from the censorship, and few complain about it. The last time I can remember a film been asked to have it's rating changed was "Saving Private Ryan" which had a rating of R16, but after a objection it got dropped down to R15. It's there to protect children, nothing has more that R18 rating. Nothing is banned (Except sex with dead bodies and stuff like that) and no-one really complains about it. The chief censors are usually moderate, progressive people (The previous one was a rather well humoured.. er.. Homo) and we arn't scared by it, we don't feel repressed in any way. For example, billboards with naked people on them arn't taken down (Actaully, there was a billboard in one city with real-live singing and dancing naked people on it a few years ago, it was part of a radio station promotion)
However! After saying that censorship isn't that bad, no censorship is probably still more desirable, but don't get too scared by some well-meaning parents.
It says, right there in the fine print just before our comments The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. Slashdot is not responsible for what they say. Microsoft should be talking to the user who posted the info, not/. . The reply to 'small and soft' doesn't seem to make any reference to who actually owns the comment posted (What law applies to us applies to them, so to speak) Of course, I'd hate to see a user get in trouble for taking part in a technical discussion and scaring the rest of us into never talking about dodgy 'might be someone elses stuff' ever again. Which would be very sad.
Does this harsh american copyright (I just realised how ironic "copyright" is) have a parralal in the prohibition laws? I mean, even those enforcing it are probably guilty of breaking it. A film that uses somebody elses material without permission for example (Ie. The Full-Monty, it's very very similar to a local play called "Ladies Night" that ran here about 10 years ago). I can imagine Elliot Ness sitting down with a whiskey after a hard day with his Thompson machine gun. So why do I make this point? Laws that are unenforcible and are broken everyone on a regular basis usually get forgottern about (Ie. The speed limit is 100km/h, but your speedo says 110km/h) They more you break it, the less anyone cares about it. Though the american drug war is a notable exception, probably because politicians genrally don't shoot up in public or relax with some pot on friday night with the girls and boys behind the local bar. Noone has taken up my idea of moving companies that seem a little dodgy under the DMCA to jump ship so-to-speak to another country with friendlier laws... Boo-hoo:-(
Slashdot Mirror
For us geeks anyway;
;-)
The NZ Domain Name registration system runs on Linux, and Postgres, and it's Open Source.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dnrs/
I mean; who gives a rat about stock exchanges anyway ?
Today was my worst accident ever. I wanted to install a system in a rack. No problem.
Go to put in rails. Hmm.. These rails for a Sun V210 have a bit of extension past where the bolt onto the post at the back for cable management and it wants to touch that power plug. So I trace the lead from the plug to it's destination. Well, What do you know! It's powering the rack next to it. That's slack, so I lift a few floor tiles and I find a close power-point under the floor to power this rack.
I then dutifully ask everyone who has equipment in the rack if I can unplug their gear for a few minutes. "Yeah no problem" they say. The rack I wanted to unplug only had co-workers personal webservers in it, so that's was good. So I power down their boxes and pull the plug on the rack.
Something didn't seem right.
I couldn't pick it right away.
The room was quieter, or something.
I look over at another rack, the one full of expensive kit running important systems. It's off. It must have been the stopping of the constant whine of SMP machines with SCSI disks that alerted me to something not good. I had TRACED THE WRONG CABLE.
So I curse and curse some more. I plug the rack back in and hear a tone from the rack that I have powered off by accident. I see that it's still not on. I see the overload button on the rack has popped out. I curse some more.
I push in the button, machines start booting. I let go of the button, machines go off.
I push in the button, machines start booting. I let go of the button, machines go off.
I push in the button, machines start booting. I let go of the button, machines go off.
I comtemplate for a moment that I will spend the next 20 years holding in this button in quiet shame in the server room.
I am still there. My co-workers bring me slashdot on a laptop. Food sometimes.
No seriously, we lowered the load by switching off some DR and test/staging machines and moving their power around.
Anyway, I still have a red face and feel a bit shit.
In my defence, the cables did look the same and were tangled around each other.
But I am still a fool.
I have a friend who works at a medical lab.
They got a new machine, the machine worked fine, but their computer system ate all the results the first time they used it.
Not a big issue though, there's always some sample left over and they tests could be done again on the old machines.
As for the rest of the world, they do what's in their best interest without consulting the US. Get a clue.
Not true, the rest of the world consults with each other over stuff quite a lot. It is the US that never consults with anyone, that fucks everyone else off.
So, say the US let off those nukes, well, the world wouldn't talk to you for..ohh... I don't know. But until say, the US got rid of the terrible government that opresses the free people.
Hey... That last bit sounds familiar..
Oh please... I don't want to learn the language, and I'm glad my school at least gave the option of either Maori or French
I never said Te Reo was nice.. I like French much more.
But now that I have grown up, I do feel like I have missed out on something..
I know I feel pretty commodified by the Ken doll.
:-). I digress, the fact is we need to re-enforce our culture is it's original and un-fucked-up by crappy interpretations (Read: Western. See: Dances with Wolves (Utter crap), Braveheart (Yeah right) + any hollywood interpretation of an old story brought down to modern 30sec attention spans).
The "indians" of north america felt the same when bundled up, have money thrown at them and in general forgottern by the invaders from Europe(Funny, I had relatives on the Mayflower). Owww.. what? Did I say invader? Yeah invader, I mean it. Look up invasion in a dictionary, sounds a bit like colonisation doesn't it? That's how we feel sometimes.
Your identity is not compromised when someone makes a doll that looks like you.
That's not the Maori take on things. Those tats on their face are almost like rank marks. A person does not dress up like a police officer and walk down the street, that's most likely to be illegal where you live (It sure is here). Why? If everyone did it, we wouldn't know a real cop from a fake one. They are marks ARE our culture. The stories are our culture. It's seeping away, and we want to protect it. Some children don't even know a few Maori myths or traditions and the language is faltering. Lego toys arn't the way to educate a child about culture. They are, however, excellent creative outlets, I have heaps of the stuff from when I was younger
Surely Maoris have more important battles to fight than this one.
Yeah, ignorance. The word is "Maori", not "Maoris", there is no word "Maoris", the plural of "Maori" is "Maori".
How about seeking more representation in the NZ parliament?
Ignorance. The Maori are currently over represented in Parliament. The Maori are granted special dispensation. And the proportional voting system also helps. It is slightly un-democratic, but hey, looking after those at bottom of the pile has kinda been the way for a long time now. The Maori seats have existed since god knows when in the NZ parliament. BTW - Don't tell a Kiwi how to run a representational democracy, we have been doing it longer and in my opinion, better, than anybody else.
How about addressing questions of land confiscation?
Ignorance. We have been doing this better than anybody else for quite some time now, see the Waitangi Tribunal website
How about preserving Maori language and culture through sharing and outreach, rather than trying to establish a stamp of unenforceable "ownership" over whatever incredibly vague notion of "likeness" they're trying to tie this thing to?
I support the introduction of compulsory teaching of Te Reo (The Maori language) at school. I hope this becomes law, it probably will in the next few years. I welcome it because I never really had the opportunity to learn. I could learn it now that I am at university, but I'm up to my eyeballs in Biology.. You might want to see This document concerning how we feel about protecting our culture, in this case, a recommendation was made that Te Reo was made an official language of New Zealand. It has been an huge boost to the culture.
Yeah well, the all mighty buck wins out in the end though. Two partners started my ISP a few years ago with the cunning name paradise.net.nz . Anyways, they sold out to a multi-national telecom/cable company. Now they drive Lambo Diablos around town. I doubt they lament the passing of the small ISP.
No, Java does not need MS, and MS doesn't need Java. A common excuse for not implementing a Java solution in at work is that there is no one "Java", with MS Java now unsupported and out of the picture, business can say "Oh, okay, now there is only one 'Java' (This meaning the JVMs and JREs from Sun and IBM type big boys) so we can develop in it and know that it'll work across JVMs. Of course, one could argue Java sucked in the first place, but since it is the only language I've bothered to learn, I can't complain. :-)
What about fourth amendment protection against searches and seizures? If they can go into your computer at will, the fourth is standing on it's last leg. Wait, civil forfeiture laws already have the fourth amendment on it's last leg. Well, so much for the fourth.
:-). Anyway..
I know this is kinda stating the O, but New Zealand has no 4th amendment.
Infact, we have little protection from government snooping at all enshined in law. Just search warrants. As an aside, we do have pretty strong protection from other citizens and especially companies.
I work for a medical lab in New Zealand. If you get a sample taken at an MD's private practise (And not a state hospital) it'll probably pass through my employer. Hell, I might even see it. Everything is computerised. Say you have a sample taken from your body, forms come in from doctors, they get scanned into a large database. We have a large amount of data on the the person from whom the sample came from. DOB, Name and most importantly, what tests are being undertaken. I _CANNOT_ share personal info with anyone. I'd loose my job and the company would be in a whole lotta trouble. From what tests have being specified, it's pretty easy to take a guess and what a person has wrong with them.
And once the resukt is created, you can be be almost totally sure (That is of course, up to the doctors). Now, say the government wants to find a weak point in a political opponent. The government could just crack our system and download details of those who they are interested. Massive histories could be availiable on everyone in the whole country if the government made copies of all information that passed through my employer over the course of the years. Adding this to what would already be kept on people if they passed through a state hospital, we have huge amount of information, all collected legally by the government.
Search for GCSB on mojonation, and if that stuff about all Microsoft stuff having a backdoor was true, I'd say it was a good reason to get these guys away from Windows
Now, the government only needs to start a rumour like "Political opponent X has an STD, and the spouse of X doesn't! X been sleeping around!" and someone could be royally screwed.
I cannot say anything about what I see at work, lest I embarres someone like this. Yet, the governement could... Easy...
Scary huh? Anyway, I don't think I'm going to lie down and take it, I'll do something about it.
phone (04)471-9999
Eeek! That is so close to my phone number, it's just not funny. BTW - Search for 'GCSB' on Mojonation.. Interesting, but is it true?
Okay, I don't know how it is for people of other countries, but people from mine have an intense desire to leave. Not forever, but for a few years at least.
:-) ), another working as a lawyer in the UK. My sister has worked on and off at ski resorts in Colorado.
:-).
Why? Don't really know actually, perhaps it's because New Zealand is small (You can get from one end to the other by car in a couple of days (Or one if you drive like I do and catch a high speed ferry)). Perhaps it's that the weather sucks most of the time. Perhaps it's that work is hard to get. 7% unemployment is actually quite good on an international scale, and I seem to be able to get employed whenever I want fairly easily. But many do not.
My mother worked in the UK for awhile as a bar maid, and my cousins are far away. One in the USA working on farms (He says he can do the work of 10 Mexicans
It's just something everyone wants to do, fuck off to another country for a few years and see the flipside of things.
The USA oft chosen because it's weird and the chance of getting a job is good and the pay is MUCH better than at home. Even when factoring in how much more things cost in the USA, it's still good money, my sister brings be back a new set of skis everytime
But let's face it, not many of these H1-B people actually want to live in the USA, you'd have to be nuts. They just want the MONEY.
Surely they understand (As my sibling did) that if they want to keep their job, they keep their head down and do the work. Get fucked off with an employer? Come back home and tell your mates about your crazy boss or the armed police or the constant advertising for pain killers.
Something to tell their children about.
Fact: Highest number of trial lawyers per head -- United States of America
:-).
Fact: Highest standard of living -- Same Damn Place</i>
Gee, I'd think that first statistic would make a country horrible. _TRIAL_ lawyers is my point here
I'd hate to live somewhere where I had to be insured up to the eyeballs incase of liability...
When will the americans learn? You cannot beat the coders! :-)
Law and the court systems are too slow and the internet is to pervasive to slow down.
It's not that the coders are always right, but it's like trying to stop an exotic pest. The systems in place cannot cope, so in the end they assimilate the newcomer, and an new status quo is formed. And everything is cool again.
Or say the abolition of slavery in america, initially the farmers wouldn't have known what to do ("Uuhhhhhhhhhhh Pay the workers Cleatus? Confound it!") but in the end everything worked out.. And for the better for everyone.
25 years from now we won't know what the fuss was about, media, in all it's forms, will be quite different. And I doubt we'll be paying much for it, but since it's what everyone will be used to, no one will care.
So.. You cannot beat the coders.
Opps.. Forgot WWII (Is that possible?).
:-).
Sorry, I don't mean to offend you or your dad, but Vietnam was a wash.
I'm looking at it from a Maori point of view too
Now HERE is the funny thing, New Zealand has NO large (Or noticeable) religous right.
:-). I seriously doubt that this is something NZ wants. People, and the courts, don't tolerate the Government interfering with their lives when they don't want them too. Ie. Aziz finding the agents in the house. The Security Intelligence Service (SIS) have always flouted laws just a little (The shit I've heard... but can't possibly say because it would result in an international incident :-) ) but now that they could be reading MY email has me concerned. Perhaps they are worried because the drug dealing gangs in NZ (Who are a an okay bunch mostly) organise drug stuff over the internet. Big deal cops, you waste enough money as it is on choppers..
:-). There are no motorcades or anything like that. I'm free to walk around the parliament grounds and could quite easily pick off as many politicians as I want, email would have nothing to do it! To do somthing majorly criminal in NZ is a piss easy, look, the French blew up a Greenpeace ship in a very busy port and wouldn't have been caught if they had simply kept the yacht they had sailed in on.
That is: There are NO "brain-dead voters" as you say. I remember reading that, per head of population, NZ has the largest middle class in the world. By that note, we arn't really that conservative. There is NO large "Mums against porn" movement or "drugs kill children" movement or any sign of "The internet is BAD" movement.
New Zealanders (Like myself) are quite happy to let others do what they like as long as you don't tread on my toes.
Infact, we've got along with our government so well, we don't have a constitution in the traditional sense.
This is very weird for me, it flys in the face of everything we consider normal. We have good privacy laws, it's almost fun using them
What is also very weird is the police assoc. spokesperson referring to political assasination! I see the Prime Minister every now and again walking down the main street (I live in the capital) visibly unprotected. No one even gets out of her way
I doubt it will fly in NZ. It all makes me wonder if this email snooper system could be an addition to the ECHELON system (Which NZ is a member). People will care, and it won't get too far.
Oh, BTW - We have not picked up guns in a over century to fight for our freedom, we should never do it again.
And if they'd just get rid of that pesky cash, we could be taxed without any effort at all.
:-).
Guess what, some countries have. Well, almost. This year, I will have no tax forms to fill out. Or the next. Or the next. In fact, I probably won't have to fill out a tax form in the rest of my life if I choose too. My country has decided that banks, employers and the tax department should share electronic information.
Last year, most people filed the last tax return of their lives. Unless they were self employed.
For as long as I have been working, tax has been deducted from my pay just before it was deposited into my bank account. This has a neat psychologic effect, people forget they are paying taxes sometimes
I take it for granted. Privacy isn't too much of an issue, there are laws stopping the tax department talking to say, the welfare department, if you are working at a job but also claiming a benefit that you are only entitled too if you are unemployed.
Or say if you were a drug dealer, you can still pay taxes (Via a forms, because you are self employed) and the tax department will not tell the police you are a drug dealer.
You can opt out of this system if you like, ie. be payed with cash, keep your money in a tin or ask the bank to not disclose details to the govt. But why cause the hassle?
Americans, write to your.. Damn what do you call them? Congressman!
Well, it looks damn scary to me. It scared my children too. It looks like something Asimov had drawn on the covers of his books.
Please fix it's scaryness.
The point that interested me the most, because I'm a audiophile at times, was the 5.1channel output. Can you see, in the now near future, something like the Netwinder (Ie, just enough CPU to play a DVD or an MP3) but with a DVD player, plugged into your TV and stereo. It would get on the internet, play movies and write documents for one damn cheap price. Cheaper than buying the bits seperately anyway.
This is an great example for the likes of the NRA of why guns should not be controlled. Clap clap.
Most new cars are set so that you're not getting all of the perforemance you should. Ever see the people who race little hondas, they plug in a laptop and adjust the shift points and get a 33% speed increase.
"shift points"? Maybe if they didn't buy an automatic, they wouldn't have had to plug in the laptop at all!
Honestly, it's not. A skeleton of the system I live under can be seen here
Okay, if you don't know how a censorship system could work, here is what we do. Basically all publications can be submitted to the censorship office. As a matter of practise, only films are submitted en-masse. Only when a publisher has qualms does a book or computer game be submitted. Someone can object however, and then the censors should review it (Ie. a porno mag). So once a publication has been reviewed, it is assigned a rating, in our case:
(G) General exhibition, so no restrictions.
(PG(number)) Means parental consent should be attained to view the film, until the person is of the age in (number)
(R(number)) The film is restricted to those of that age in (number)
As long as those that administer it are not crazy, which I suspect could be the case if it became a reality in the USA, because of the (apparent to me) influence of pressure/lobby groups. I can see Americans, who appear rather paranoid of their government (And rightly so, ie. Jonestown) thinking a film about evolution could be banned because it's morally repugnant to the conservative community. Don't fear, if the law is well-written. For example, section 8(d) of the statute linked to about exempts science films from the law. Or section 3,2 uses quite a lot of common sense in decideding what is objectionable and what isn't. (Except some would argue, including the previous chief censor that 3,2(d) was a bit pointless (He said that bit of pee never hurt anyone!))
Personally, I have nothing to fear from the censorship, and few complain about it. The last time I can remember a film been asked to have it's rating changed was "Saving Private Ryan" which had a rating of R16, but after a objection it got dropped down to R15.
It's there to protect children, nothing has more that R18 rating. Nothing is banned (Except sex with dead bodies and stuff like that) and no-one really complains about it. The chief censors are usually moderate, progressive people (The previous one was a rather well humoured.. er.. Homo) and we arn't scared by it, we don't feel repressed in any way. For example, billboards with naked people on them arn't taken down (Actaully, there was a billboard in one city with real-live singing and dancing naked people on it a few years ago, it was part of a radio station promotion)
However! After saying that censorship isn't that bad, no censorship is probably still more desirable, but don't get too scared by some well-meaning parents.
It says, right there in the fine print just before our comments /. . The reply to 'small and soft' doesn't seem to make any reference to who actually owns the comment posted (What law applies to us applies to them, so to speak)
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. Slashdot is not responsible for what they say. Microsoft should be talking to the user who posted the info, not
Of course, I'd hate to see a user get in trouble for taking part in a technical discussion and scaring the rest of us into never talking about dodgy 'might be someone elses stuff' ever again. Which would be very sad.
Does this harsh american copyright (I just realised how ironic "copyright" is) have a parralal in the prohibition laws? :-(
I mean, even those enforcing it are probably guilty of breaking it. A film that uses somebody elses material without permission for example (Ie. The Full-Monty, it's very very similar to a local play called "Ladies Night" that ran here about 10 years ago).
I can imagine Elliot Ness sitting down with a whiskey after a hard day with his Thompson machine gun.
So why do I make this point? Laws that are unenforcible and are broken everyone on a regular basis usually get forgottern about (Ie. The speed limit is 100km/h, but your speedo says 110km/h) They more you break it, the less anyone cares about it.
Though the american drug war is a notable exception, probably because politicians genrally don't shoot up in public or relax with some pot on friday night with the girls and boys behind the local bar.
Noone has taken up my idea of moving companies that seem a little dodgy under the DMCA to jump ship so-to-speak to another country with friendlier laws... Boo-hoo
Move /. offshore.
That's all I have to say about that really.
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