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The Persuader
My personal blog, started in 2006. No paid or guest posts, no link sales.
Archive for the ‘New Zealand’ category
24.03.2023
The Hon Debbie Ngarewa-Packer MP was right when she questioned our governmentās decision to ban Tiktok from parliamentary devices.
If itās about foreigners getting hold of data, then why not ban Facebook and Instagram?
Last I looked, Tiktok had not, unlike Facebook, been party to any genocides.
Parliamentary Services says at least Meta is American and operates in line with our values. So being party to genocide is in line with our values? So information leaking to the likes of Cambridge Analyticaāand its effects on democracyāare in line with our values?
Itās all about hopping on an occidental bandwagon over unproven claims that Tiktok hands stuff over to the PRC.
And if it is proven, then let us see the proof.
Letās say our government doesnāt have the proof but itās using Edward Snowdenās revelations about the US as a proxy of how data from social media companies wind up with their governments. Thatās actually a fair point and we should expect that itās probably happening. We can make a pretty reasoned guess that it is.
In that case, itās all the more reason we should consider banning the lot of them, not just Tiktok. Keep our data in our country.
Remember, we’re not banning any of these platforms from private citizens, just what can be used by our Parliament. If it’s about private citizens, I’d be advising that we take out known disinformation ones, which are often funded or manipulated by shady overseas backers or even nation states. They’re literally placing New Zealanders in harm’s way. That would mean a pretty wide net, too, and I imagine no one in power would want to wield that responsibility. Or that the penny will drop, as it usually does, 10 years too late. (Hello, readers of 2033!)
Literally as I was completing the title and meta (small m) description fields for this, this Mastodon post from an ethics’ professor appeared.
In case it ever disappears, she writes:
As your resident TikTok micro-celebrity + tech ethics/policy professor, I have a lot of feelings about the proposed TikTok ban. I think that this statement from Evan Greer of Fight for the Future articulates some points well. If the sole argument is “but China” I would very much like to see something beyond speculation. And if it’s just not that, then go after Meta too. And either way maybe you could pass LITERALLY ANY DATA PRIVACY LAWS.
The image is from the Fight for the Future website, and the text reads:
āIf it werenāt so alarming, it would be hilarious that US policymakers are trying to ābe tough on Chinaā by acting exactly like the Chinese government. Banning an entire app used by millions of people, especially young people, LGBTQ folks, and people of color, is classic state-backed Internet censorship,ā said Evan Greer (she/her), director of Fight for the Future. āTikTok uses the exact same surveillance capitalist business model of services like YouTube and Instagram. Yes, itās concerning that the Chinese government could abuse data that TikTok collects. But even if TikTok were banned, they could access much of the same data simply by purchasing it from data brokers, because there are almost no laws in place to prevent that kind of abuse. If policymakers want to protect Americans from surveillance, they should advocate for strong data privacy laws that prevent all companies (including TikTok!) from collecting so much sensitive data about us in the first place, rather than engaging in what amounts to xenophobic showboating that does exactly nothing to protect anyone.ā
Tags: 2023, Aotearoa, China, Douyin, Facebook, government, Instagram, law, New Zealand, privacy, technology, Tiktok, USA, xenophobia
Posted in China, globalization, internet, New Zealand, politics, technology, USA | No Comments »
12.03.2023
In quite an unexpected about-turn, Bing began spidering Lucireās website again, and not just the old stuff. A site:lucire.com search actually has pages from after 2009 now, and while 42 per cent of results still get repeated from page to page, there are actually pages from the 2010s and the 2020s.
There are still a few ancient pages that have not been linked for a long time. And while Bing claims it has 1,420 results now (considerably more than 10), it wonāt show beyond the 56 mark, so some things havenāt changed much.
Still, itās a positive development worth reporting. The new pages at Autocade also seem to have made it on to Bing, almost instantaneously, or at least within a couple of hours (although Bing claims it only has 22 results for site:autocade.net, a far cry from the 5,000-plus actually on there).
But for the sake of fairness, hereās how Bingās looking in terms of year breakdowns among the top 50 results (with the repeats taken out). The pattern is beginning to resemble a real search engine’s.
Contentsā pages ā
ā
ā
1997
1998
1999 ā
ā
2000
2001
2002 ā
2003
2004
2005 ā
2006 ā
2007 ā
2008 ā
ā
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015 ā
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021 ā
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2022 ā
ā
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ā
ā
2023 ā
ā
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ā
Static ā
ā
ā
ā
ā
ā
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Dynamic ā
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Maybe that ChatGPT foray gave the search team more money so it can start plugging the servers back in.
Still, I wonāt be returning to Duck Duck Go as a default. Bingās 1,420 is still a fraction of what Mojeek has for Lucire, and who wants to expose their internal-search users to Microsoft?
Iāll see if I can update the spreadsheet soon as I wouldnāt want you to think I only did so when there was bad news.
PS.: Here’s the spreadsheet containing Bing’s claimed number of results from a random (randomly among ones I could think of when I first began this analysis) selection of websites. Not universally up at Bingāthough Microsoft has more pages on itself than it has done for a while. Cf. the previous one here. Mojeek is the only one consistently adding pages to its record.
Tags: 2023, Bing, Google, Lucire, Microsoft, Mojeek, publishing, search engine, technology
Posted in interests, internet, media, New Zealand, technology, USA | No Comments »
12.03.2023
This is one of the more fascinating type design stories Iāve come across in ages. Jens Kutilek has revived a very unlikely typeface: the IBM Selectric version of Univers in 11 pt.
A lot of us will have seen things set on a Selectric in the 1970s, especially in New Zealand. Iāve even seen professional advertisements set on a Selectric here. And because of all that exposure, it was pretty obvious to those of us with an interest in type that all the glyphs were designed to set widths regardless of family, and the only one that looked vaguely right was the Selectric version of Times.
Jens goes into a lot more detail but, sure enough, my hunch (from the 1980s and 1990s) was right: Times was indeed the starting-point, and the engineers refused to budge even when Adrian Frutiger worked out average widths and presented them.
Itās why this version of Univers, or Selectric UN, was so compromised.
What I didnāt know was that Frutiger was indeed hired for the gig, to adapt his designs to the machine. I had always believed, because of the compromised design, that IBM did it themselves or contracted it to a specialist, but not the man himself.
Thereās plenty of maths involved, but the sort I actually would enjoy (having done one job many years ago to have numerous type families meet the New Zealand Standard for signage, and having to purposefully botch the original, superior kerning pairs in order to achieve it).
I think I kept our IBM golfballs, which carried the type designs on them, and hopefully one day theyāll resurface as theyāre a great, nostalgic souvenir of these times.
What is really bizarre reading Jensās recollection of his digital revival is that itās set in Selectric UN 11 Medium (an excerpt is shown above). Here is type that was set on to paper, now re-created faithfully, with all of its compromises, for the screen. Heās done an amazing job and it was like reading a schoolbook from the 1970s (but with far more interesting subject-matter). Those Selectric types might not have been the best around, but the typographic world is richer for having them revived.
The hits per post here have fallen off a cliff. I imagine we can blame Google. Seven hundred was a typical average, but now I’m looking at dozens. I thought they’d be happy with my obsession over Bing being so crappy during 2022, but then, if they’re following Bing and not innovating, maybe they weren’t. Or that post about their advertising business being a negligence lawsuit waiting to happen (which, incidentally, was one of the most hit pieces over the last few months) might not have gone down wellāit was a month after that when the incoming hits to this blog dropped like a stone. Maybe that confirms the veracity of my post.
I’m not terribly surprised. And before you think, ‘Why would Google care?’, ‘Would they bother targeting you?’ or ‘You are so paranoid,’ remember that Google suspended Vivaldi’s advertising account after its CEO criticized them, and in the days of Google Plus, they censored posts that I made that were critical of them. Are they after me? No, but you can bet there are algorithms that work to minimize or censor sites that expose Google’s misbehaviour, regardless of who makes the allegations, just as posts were censored on Google Plus.
Tags: 1960s, 1970s, 2022, 2023, Adrian Frutiger, censorship, design, fonts, Google, IBM, technology, typeface design, typefaces, typography
Posted in design, interests, internet, New Zealand, technology, typography, UK | No Comments »
08.03.2023
The demise of Twitter continues. Today I saw, while heading back to Tawa from PapakÅwhai, the aftermath of a seven-vehicle accident (three cars, four commercial vehicles) on the opposite side of State Highway 1.
I posted this on Mastodon, and, made an exception and did a fresh message on OnlyKlans, I mean, Twitter. You know, the website where they let Nazis back in, and where today its proprietor mocked a disabled man with muscular dystrophy. Seems to be in keeping in a country where certain states are going after trans people and womenās rights that a disabled man would be next.
Net result of the posts in the first hour and a bit: four favourites and four boosts on Mastodon.
Absolutely nothing on Twitter.
I admit the messages were not identical and I called Twitter āOnlyKlansā, which might have ensured it didnāt get seen. Thatās with hindsight. But since 2022, during a lot of which I had a cross-poster going between the two sites, this has been typical. Twitter engagement began to decline while Mastodonās rose. Getting to eightānil is completely on trend as Iāve had crickets to other Tweets, too.
Iāll know for next time. There really is no point, even when doing a public service, to announce a thing on OnlyKlans.
And the last few companies I Tweeted, because there were no other contact points (no phone numbers, no email addresses), didn’t reply, with the exception of Fiverr (who dealt with someone selling fake services). Google, of course, I expected nothing from, but Scottish Pacific Finance couldn’t be bothered, either.
This seems appropriate:
And this is useful context to the fediverse:
Tags: 2023, Aotearoa, cartoon, fediverse, human rights, humour, Mastodon, New Zealand, Porirua, Twitter, Wellington
Posted in culture, humour, internet, New Zealand, politics, social responsibility, technology, USA, Wellington | No Comments »
06.03.2023
Paris Marx makes a very good case about Elon Musk wanting to relive the good olā days when he was doing start-ups at the beginning of the millennium. Itās why things at Twitter are as bad as they are: Muskās nostalgia. Itās well worth a read if youāre interested in whatās going on at OnlyKlans, as Marx probably nails it far better than a lot of other commentators.
There were aspects of the good old days I liked, too. Better CPM rates for online ads. Way more creativity in web design, as well as experimentation. The fact I could balance doing brand consulting, typeface design, and publishing. That helped my creativity flow. But these are rose-coloured glasses; thereās plenty about my current life that is far better than those hairy start-up days.
If thereās one thing Iāve learned in half a century on earth is that you canāt re-create the past. And even if you could, it wouldnāt be as good as how you remembered it.
Iām often nostalgic for those early days in Hong Kong and that mega-fantastic day of the Tung Wan Hospital fair in 1975 (or was it ā76?), where I got to go in the bucket of a Simon Snorkel fire engine. Wonderful day. But at the time I couldnāt drive (I was three), so you canāt have it all.
And millennium me running Lucire might have been having fun in terms of breaking new ground, but Iād much rather be where I am now having talked to Rachel Hunter and putting her on the home page (and in two print editions). Our stories are also heaps better than what they were in the late 1990s.
Just enjoy the moment and make the most of where you are at. Iāve projects I want to return to, too, but if I do, I wonāt be assuming the year is 2000 and working in an area I donāt know that much about, while annoying all the people around me.
Tags: 1970s, 1975, 1976, 1990s, 2000, 2023, celebrity, design, Elon Musk, Hong Kong, Lucire, nostalgia, publishing, Twitter, web design
Posted in business, design, Hong Kong, internet, New Zealand, publishing, technology, USA, Wellington | No Comments »
03.03.2023
Above: The 1966 Alfa Romeo Giulia, the most recent entry to Autocade.
Next week, Autocade will turn 15. I donāt expect big editorials extolling its history, mainly because the site has not changed much in principle or appearance since it was first conceived in 2008.
We did a single video under the Autocade name, which my friend Stuart Cowley filmed, edited and directed. But as we both have full-time jobs, it never took off into a series of web videos.
There could be a surprise development from Autocade thatās actually Amandaās brainchild, but Iāll have to work out how much time is involved. It looks like the next major addition to the Autocade world will happen in its second 15 years. It wonāt be an online magazineāI once registered a domain related to Autocade and stuck a Wordpress installation on it, but nothing came of it, and I gave up the name. Besides, there are plenty of entries already in the online automotive space, and Iām not interested in being a latecomer.
The original site is getting close to 31 million page views, which I am very happy aboutānot bad for a hobby, spare time site that so many have found some utility from. Thank you, everyone, for your visits and your interestāand big thanks to Nigel Dunn, Keith Adams, Peter Jobes, and my anonymous (at his request) friend for your huge contributions.
Extra thanks to Graham Clayton for being our number-one commenter (when we had Disqus forms running). Iāll be back with a ātraffic reportā during March, and maybe a hint of what weāre up to for Autocade in 2023.
Tags: 2008, 2023, anniversary, Autocade, cars, friends, JY&A Media, publishing
Posted in business, cars, interests, internet, media, New Zealand, publishing, UK, USA | No Comments »
01.03.2023
I have told this story many times: I became interested in fashion magazines with a 1989 issue of Studio Collections. In fact, it was its fifth anniversary issue. I really liked the typesetting, photography and print quality. I was probably one of the few people disappointed when they went to desktop publishing and the typesetting quality deteriorated in the 1990s.
No such problem at Brogue (well, British Vogue) in 1991, which was still put together the old way. Coincidentally, my first issue of this venerable title was also an anniversary one, namely its 75th. Linda, Christy and Cindy were known to everyone, even young straight boys like me (actually, especially young straight boys like me). Here the visuals and the article quality were influential, and I had grown up reading largely British car magazines, such as Car and Autocar (though I began with Temple Pressās Motor in 1978). The British way of writing resonated with me and it was familiar territory.
My journey in this world, therefore, began eight years before I started Lucire, and the ideas had brewed for some time.
Yesterday we uploaded three articles from 1998 and they were quite terrible. I might have known what the benchmark was from the late 1980s and early 1990s, but we sure didnāt hit it in our writing a year after we started. I like to hope that we have since got there.
Someone shared Phil Knightās 10 steps in business for Nike, when it was a fledgling enterprise back in the 1970s. I had seen this a long time ago, in the late 1980s, and even used to share it with my students in 1999ā2000. I hadnāt seen it since.
They are aggressive and macho, which probably ties quite well in with Nike and its early days (John McEnroe was more than a suitable ambassador). They probably lend themselves quite well to sportswear. But a few of these are universal in business.
I like (7): āYour job isnāt done until the job is done,ā and the third of the eight āDangersā: āEnergy takers vs. energy giversā. Bureaucracy, naturally, heads that list of dangers, and rightly so.
You should āAssume nothingā (5).
I donāt know if they still follow these tenets, but some definitely remain relevant.
Tags: 1970s, 1980s, 1989, 1990s, 1991, 2023, business, design, fashion, fashion magazine, JY&A Media, Lucire, magazine design, magazines, modelling, Nike, publishing, retro, typography, UK, USA, Vogue
Posted in business, culture, design, leadership, media, New Zealand, publishing, UK, USA | No Comments »
27.02.2023
Of course some of us expected Microsoft Bing and ChatGPT to be rubbishāand we knew ChatGPT would make stuff up. Because Bing makes stuff up.
If you have a normal, functioning web crawler (or spider), there’s no way you would ever wind up with pages that have never existed. Nothing about this is normal.
The latest contributions from Microsoft’s Wayback Machine for site:lucire.com are these. On my phone, I noticed it had ranked in third place, after two framesets from the early 2000s, a page we had for Plucker for the Palm Pilot! That gives you an idea of how old Bing’s index must be.
On the desktop, meanwhile, a site:lucire.com search now includes sites that aren’t lucire.com. I guess if your index is that small now, you need to pad it out not just with repetition, but other domains. One is related to usāit’s our Dailymotion channelābut the other is totally random with no connection whatsoever. Bit like ChatGPT.
My friend Robin Capper has discovered the same, when enquiring with the new Bing about himself. It claimed to have sourced from his Linkedinābut fed him back facts that are nowhere to be found. Here’s his blog post. I like how he put artificial intelligence in quotes, since there’s nothing intelligent about this. It’s a simple text processor, but it sure gets a lot of things wrong.
Tags: 2000s, 2023, AI, Bing, blogosphere, bugs, Microsoft, retro, search engine, technology
Posted in business, internet, New Zealand, technology, typography, USA | No Comments »
30.01.2023
If Appledystopia is right in its 2020 article, Microsoft loses US$1Ā·5 milliard per annum on Bing. So maybe that explains why itās worsened so much. Microsoft might well be finding ways to cut its losses, and servers cost money. Pity that none of the Bing clones are saying anything, not even Duck Duck Goās usually vocal CEO.
Iām glad I discovered Mojeek when I did. We lost some traffic with Duck Duck Goās near-dead internal search on Lucire, and overall I suspect everyone has lost traffic with Bing dying. With Google now also faltering (they still make plenty from the human farms, but you have to wonder just why it has worsened, even for existing sites), then itās important that alternative, growing search enginesāthatās engines, not services (so you can discount Ecosia, Neeva, Qwant, Duck Duck Go, and many others)āget our support.
Thereās really only Mojeek in the occident with a growing index, regularly requiring new servers. If you arenāt anti-Russian, thereās Yandex; and China of course has Baidu. Brave and Yep are making great efforts but their indices are still small, though Yep can do better than Bing on some sites.
Tags: 2020, Bing, media, Microsoft, news, search engine
Posted in business, internet, marketing, media, New Zealand, politics, publishing | No Comments »
18.01.2023
Along came Copytrack again yesterday, identifying an image that they allege we stole and put on Lucireās website. And once again I had to go back through old emailsāonly 11 years this time, not 13 like the lastāto retrieve the email to prove that I had the correct licence to publish it, and that and the download page where I got it (itās one of the most famous fashion labels in the world and knowing their budgets, theyāve paid for press). You wonder why they donāt whitelist legitimate publications.
Itās all very well for them to use their automated systems but I have to get the DVD archive manually. Iām just incredibly fortunate that Iāve kept every email since the 1990s.
On that note, Iāve marked most of the gallery entries on this blog as private today. Pretty much every image in the gallery I know to be either licensed for press use or is a publicity pic. But some have come via social media. I simply recognized them to be the press images because I have a photographic memory, and, for fun, Iāve added them to the gallery. Even though legally I have numerous defences, and I’m pretty sure I’d prevail in case of any legal claim, for a personal blog itās just too much of a hassle when these so-called copyright services come knocking. Iāll do the hunt for work but Iām not being paid to blog. I know a lot of you enjoyed those gallery posts but theyāre going to be pretty limited moving forward.
There are plenty of nice pics at Lucireāfeel free to pop by there for a gander.
Tags: 2020s, 2023, bot, copyright, Germany, JY&A Media, Lucire, photography, publishing, technology
Posted in gallery, internet, media, New Zealand, publishing, technology | No Comments »
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