As he has done so many other times since we encountered each other in 2001, Simon Anholt has articulated my thoughts on governance and politics much better than I can through his ventures. I think this puts a very good context on why I ran my mayoral campaigns the way I did, and for that […]
Tag: 2016
How to pay a parking ticket
There’s one compelling reason to continue using cheques: the chance to write letters like this. In case the above image no longer shows, my original Tumblr post is here. You may also like New Plymouth responds Live from Level 3 Happy New Year! Has it really been 20 years? Billy T.: Te Movie débuts August […]
How will things play out at Fiat?
Above: The current Fiat 500. A year shy of its 10th anniversary, is it still cool in 2016? The Detroit News reports that Fiat has been having trouble Stateside, with dealers now permitted to sell the cars alongside Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram instead of at stand-alone showrooms. It’s been worrying seeing Fiat’s plans […]
RTL orders Blitzkrieg on Alarm für Cobra 11 fan community prior to the show’s 20th anniversary
With the lead-up to the 20th anniversary of the German TV show Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei, a fan group I run—the largest unofficial community on Facebook for the series—has been the subject of a Blitzkrieg by RTL. Trailers, which made up the majority of the uploaded videos, are indeed copyrighted material, but have […]
Autocade reaches 8,000,000 page views; viewing rate up slightly since last million
I had expected our car encyclopædia Autocade would reach 8,000,000 page views this month, just before its eighth anniversary. The difference was that this time, I was there last Monday GMT (the small hours of Tuesday in New Zealand) to witness the numbers tick over—almost. Usually, I find out about the milestones ex post […]
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Bye to the US news app that ranks the Steven Joyce dildo incident above Martin Crowe’s passing
I’ve just switched from Inside, the much vaunted news app from entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, to Wildcard as my principal news app on my phone. I never got to use Circa (which I understand Jason was also behind), which sounded excellent: by the time I downloaded it, they had given up. But we all need […]
RIP Martin Crowe
Martin Crowe was not only our greatest batsman, but a gentleman and all-round decent bloke. I remember him as an honourable, nice guy, and soulmate to Lorraine, and it was a privilege to spend time with them both back in 2013. Back then, we had thought the worst was behind him; I am deeply sorry […]
What Facebook’s anti-malware malware does to your Windows 10 computer
When I said in January that Facebook’s and Kaspersky’s anti-malware malware (there’s no better term for it, though of course they will deny that it was malware) had it in for McAfee, what did I mean? As some of you know, I fell for Facebook’s insistence that I download its malware if I wanted […]
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Why Stephen Fry left Twitter, and what could be next
Stephen Fry wrote a witty blog post (he is the Stephen Fry, after all) on why he left Twitter. I won’t quote the whole thing, as it’s his copyright, but I will excerpt a chunk here: … let us grieve at what twitter has become. A stalking ground for the sanctimoniously self-righteous who love to […]
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Your preferences mean nothing: Facebook still profiles you, even after you switch off interest-based ads
A few years ago, I discovered that Google was monitoring and gathering user preferences even after one had opted out. Google would initially put an opt-out cookie that went with your browser when you first opt out, which is exactly what every other ad network does—but, then, within 24 hours, it would replace it with […]