Fed up with the Electoral Commission barring Darren Watson from expressing his valid view with his satirical song ‘Planet Key’, I made a spoken-word version of it for my Tumblr a week ago, with copyright clearance over the lyrics. I wrote: Since the Electoral Commission has imposed a ban on Darren Watson’s ‘Planet Key’—in fact, […]
Read More… from ‘Planet Key’ is good old-fashioned Kiwi satire
At the weekend, 40,000 to 50,000 took to the streets of Moskva—Moscow—to protest their government’s actions in the Ukraine, at the Peace and Freedom March. I understand that media called the country’s actions ‘the shame of Russia’. A friend provided me with photos of the protest that he and his friends took, which I […]
Elementary is an modern-day, American TV version of Sherlock Holmes. It’s not an American remake of the Steven Moffat–Mark Gatiss update, which I love, and some might say it has taken too many liberties with the original. Watson is now female. I’ll leave you to comment, but I don’t make my thoughts of remakes […]
After being interviewed about the outcome of the ‘Wellywood’ sign vote yesterday (a summary of what I told Newstalk ZB can be found on my Facebook fan page) I was reminded about how a few Wellingtonians, who supported my quest to stop the sign in 2010 and 2011, were not that thrilled that I used […]
Read More… from Intellectual property doesn’t deserve a black mark, but some powers-that-be do
In 2002, I did something really stupid. I bought a brand-new, 750 Mbyte Zip drive. After all, I had had three years of use out of my 100 Mbyte one, and since 750s looked like the way of the future, I had one installed. I can still count the number of times […]
Read More… from Why do the major parties insist on holding us back?
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 […]
Read More… from Wellington Airport flip-flops again, but pennies drop more quickly in Queensland
In 2011, the issues that I spoke about during my campaign remain as pressing as they always did. We still need better, wider and earlier consultation, whether we streamline current processes or create new ones for citizen engagement. We still need to build a city-wide wifi network, one which exists but needs a […]
Read More… from One year on, the same issues remain pressing
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 […]
Read More… from National thinks the internet is ‘Skynet’ as copyright amendments pass second reading
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 […]
Read More… from Errors abound in the New Zealand internet as government flip-flops again
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 […]
Read More… from Two years on, the mainstream media wake up over BYD’s ethics