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, […]

And now, Ben Heck makes an ‘Atari’ Xbox 360 ‘1977 edition’

21.03.2011/09.32

A while back, I came across Benjamin J. Heckendorn (a.k.a. Ben Heck) and his Commodore 64 laptop. This is a quite a fascinating machine, considering the actual “portable” 64 Executive was a heavy beast that could kill if hurled at you. While Ben took the 64’s odd colour, keyboard and 64C’s motherboard, his is structured […]

Some positive news a month on from the Christchurch ’quake

/05.19

Tomorrow, it will be one month since the Christchurch ’quake. It’s tempting to argue scale—the Japanese earthquake and tsunami versus our own—but at the end of the day, people are people, and our nations have both been hurting. We have become united, through disasters that emphasized that we live in an emerging global community. […]

Alarm für Cobra 11: a 15th birthday celebration

12.03.2011/01.24

Today marks the 15th anniversary of Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei, a German show I have followed for just over a half of its run. I’ve watched it through budget cuts and some naff storylines of late. It’s of some interest to chart the course of the show over these many years. […]