The land beyond Facebook

14.06.2011/09.53

Stowe Boyd wrote (and I re-Tumbled) the big drop in US and Canadian Facebook trafﬁc this week: Most prominently, the United States lost nearly 6 million users, falling from 155.2 million at the start of May to 149.4 million at the end of it. This is the ﬁrst time the country has lost users in […]

Wellington Airport ﬂip-ﬂops again, but pennies drop more quickly in Queensland

01.06.2011/10.52

Today, those of us on the anti-‘Wellywood’ sign page got some welcome news: that Wellington Airport would reconsider. But, I had to point out, this is again déjà vu. Last time, the Airport ﬂip-ﬂopped as well, and said it would consult the public. Given that the resource consent for ‘Wellywood’ was for nine […]

With ‘Wellywood’, Wellington Airport misses the point about how to brand a city

21.05.2011/06.22

I think this shows just how badly Wellington Airport CEO Steve Fitzgerald misses the point: Being niche and understated is cool positioning for a local audience, but to be relevant on the world tourism trail, we need to shout about why we are great. Actually, not always. And even if we did have to […]

Google Ads Preferences Manager issue conﬁrmed by NAI

05.05.2011/00.38

I’ve now had conﬁrmation from the Network Advertising Initiative that Google has, indeed, been dodgy about its Ads Preferences Manager. Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We were able to reproduce the issues you saw and have been working with Google for the last week to address them. I am happy […]

National thinks the internet is ‘Skynet’ as copyright amendments pass second reading

13.04.2011/13.10

This would be humorous if the implications of the copyright amendments were not so serious: Also speaking in favour of the bill, National MP Jonathan Young compared the internet to Skynet, the ﬁctional artiﬁcial intelligence network in the Terminator movies that tried to destroy mankind. That was in the National Business Review. I believe […]

Errors abound in the New Zealand internet as government ﬂip-ﬂops again

/12.42

This one hasn’t happened for a while (over a year), and, the last time I blogged about it, I managed to solve the issue—after putting up with it for years prior to that. (The solution before December 2009 was to wait for the computer’s foul mood to pass—hardly scientiﬁc.) Unfortunately, this ﬁx no longer […]

A great ﬁrst few days collaborating with Keith Adams on Autocade

10.04.2011/12.15

I’m pleased to announce that automotive writer and historian Keith Adams is now collaborating with me on Autocade—and doing an incredible job. Keith has been as good as his word: not only has he fulﬁlled his promise to work with me on Autocade, he has got so much into the spirit of the site […]

Two years on, the mainstream media wake up over BYD’s ethics

/06.02

I said it in 2009, and apparently, so did a diplomat whose note was leaked via Wikileaks: BYD might not stand scrutiny in a non-Chinese court over its vehicles. When I raised it, a few BYD fans (agents?) came commenting, trying to pick holes in my post, though they were unable to deny that […]

It’s about content, especially when reality is more appealing than reality TV

/01.55

It’s shows like The Apprentice that have kept me away from watching TV. I was surprised to learn, in conversation last week, that TV viewership is up, while print is down. Shows you can’t base too much of what the general public does on your own experience. I estimate my magazine and book […]

LOL, Wag, ﬂat white added to Oxford English Dictionary

25.03.2011/12.22

A few new words and meanings—45,437 to be exact—have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary, report the mainstream media. LOL is one, which I have always taken to mean little old lady, and have almost always used it in that context. Turns out that that was what the acronym originally stood for, […]