Both Waitangi and Anzac Days are the only two NZ public holidays that don't get substituted with a weekday if they fall on the weekend. And guess what - this year they both fall on the weekend. Feb-April looks like a good time to be a contractor...
And it doesn't get much better in 2011 - Waitangi Day is on a Sunday! Time to demand a Rugby World Cup holiday instead...
Monday, December 21, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
If you want passion, choose football
TVNZ's Michael Burgess gets it exactly right on the reasons for all the passion exhibited in All Whites' playoff against Bahrain.
1. Qualification for the World Cup is an incredible opportunity. It's the biggest sporting tournament in the world. The stakes were sky-high.
2. The game of football is intrinsically exciting. Low scores mean that goals are always worthy of wild celebration. The winning margin is usually small enough that it could have been negated or overturned at any point right up to the final whistle, which keeps spectators on the edge of their seats throughout the game.
3. Paradoxically, the low scoring also means that the supporters have plenty of time to sing, play instruments. pose for the TV cameras and generally have a party without missing any of the action.
Rugby Sevens comes close with its short-duration, often low-scoring games and sudden momentum changes. The atmosphere can be somewhat artificially generated however.
One-eyed rugby naysayers dismissed this game in particular as being of low international signficance, and football generally as being uneventful and too full of playacting. Diff'rent strokes and all, but this smacks of wilful misunderstanding to me.
1. Qualification for the World Cup is an incredible opportunity. It's the biggest sporting tournament in the world. The stakes were sky-high.
2. The game of football is intrinsically exciting. Low scores mean that goals are always worthy of wild celebration. The winning margin is usually small enough that it could have been negated or overturned at any point right up to the final whistle, which keeps spectators on the edge of their seats throughout the game.
3. Paradoxically, the low scoring also means that the supporters have plenty of time to sing, play instruments. pose for the TV cameras and generally have a party without missing any of the action.
Rugby Sevens comes close with its short-duration, often low-scoring games and sudden momentum changes. The atmosphere can be somewhat artificially generated however.
One-eyed rugby naysayers dismissed this game in particular as being of low international signficance, and football generally as being uneventful and too full of playacting. Diff'rent strokes and all, but this smacks of wilful misunderstanding to me.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Nokia hands free options
With the recent law change in NZ requiring hands free operation of mobile phones while driving, a lot of people are looking at ways to comply. In theory it should be possible to avoid having to buy a hands free kit. All you would need are a cheap cradle and the following phone settings:
Loudspeaker
Answer after x seconds
Any key reject
(Large Caller Info Display and Voice dialling would be a nice to have)
But can you set this up as a profile on a bog standard Nokia? No chance. Why? My assumption is that Nokia wants to sell lots of car kits. Grrrrrrrrr.
You can download third party apps that will set up a car profile for you. However these are not cheap in NZ currency. Does anybody have the spare time to make a free or cheap version?
Loudspeaker $NZ15 ($US10)
http://www.symbianguru.com/loudspeaker-v-1-0-for-series-60.html
Car Park $NZ31 (€15)
http://www.tektronic.ro/productdet.aspx?prodid=3
Sunday, November 15, 2009
NZ expansion candidates for Australian competitions
The selfish purpose of the NZ expansion teams is to enlarge the TV audience for Australian competitions. NZ benefits from a heightened level of play, but our domestic competitions are at risk of being cannibalised in the process. The Australian leagues have to also become our primary domestic competitions (as far as the Aussies let us), so we need to expand our currently token presence there. On a raw population ratio, NZ is under-represented.
It's taken a while but the three NZ teams are no longer a complete embarrassment, so perhaps the time is right to consider expansion candidates?
League
League seems the most promising due to the strength of domestic talent.
I suggest a Waikato-BOP team rotating their games between Hamilton, Tauranga and Rotorua. There is a strong grassroots following in this region, and between them these three cities have a larger catchment than Wellington or Christchurch (both of which have little grassroots interest in league anyway).
After this all I can see is another Auckland team but this risks eating into the Warriors' support so I'm not in favour.
Football
NZ football doesn't have a particularly illustrious history in Australia, so I think any proposal would have to be extremely compelling to even warrant consideration.
Wellington has proved to be a great football base with a cosmopolitan population who are receptive to the global game.
Auckland has looked promising but has a dismal track record, and success there would take careful analysis and organisation. South Auckland is league territory and the North Shore is Saffer rugby land despite the fabulous (and usually empty) facility of North Shore Stadium. The CBD and Eastern Suburbs have the closest thing to a Wellington demographic, but the most suitable stadium would be Eden Park and this appears to be closed to football (provision for a team should be a precondition for Rugby World Cup upgrade funding!) Waitakere have strong domestic football representation but no facilities.
My opinion is that football in Christchurch stands in the shadow of the mighty Canterbury/Crusaders and the population is far too provincial to be interested. Bahrain, Al-Ahly and TP Mazembe would probably be at risk of a beating if they were seen out on a Friday night!
Hawkes Bay and Manawatu are consistently strong domestically but their populations just aren't big enough to compete with Australian franchises. If they were a hundred kms closer together then we might have something...
Edit: With any luck the success of Auckland City at the World Club Champs may be the spur for a franchise there. Also I only just noticed that the population of Townsville (home of North Queensland Fury) is on a par with Napier, so perhaps this would be a viable franchise after all. However you'd expect that other centres would be ahead in the queue from the A-League's perspective.
Basketball
The Breakers haven't been around long but seem to have hit such a level of consistency that expansion is an unexpectedly realistic possibility.
Unfortunately I'm so ignorant about NZ basketball that I have no idea which cities or regions would be first off the rank. All I know is that Auckland is covered already, basketball is a winter sport which means it's vulnerable to the popularity of other winter codes, and previously we had a thriving domestic competition that has certainly dropped off my radar when the Breakers were launched and all the focus turned onto them.
Any suggestions?
It's taken a while but the three NZ teams are no longer a complete embarrassment, so perhaps the time is right to consider expansion candidates?
League
League seems the most promising due to the strength of domestic talent.
I suggest a Waikato-BOP team rotating their games between Hamilton, Tauranga and Rotorua. There is a strong grassroots following in this region, and between them these three cities have a larger catchment than Wellington or Christchurch (both of which have little grassroots interest in league anyway).
After this all I can see is another Auckland team but this risks eating into the Warriors' support so I'm not in favour.
Football
NZ football doesn't have a particularly illustrious history in Australia, so I think any proposal would have to be extremely compelling to even warrant consideration.
Wellington has proved to be a great football base with a cosmopolitan population who are receptive to the global game.
Auckland has looked promising but has a dismal track record, and success there would take careful analysis and organisation. South Auckland is league territory and the North Shore is Saffer rugby land despite the fabulous (and usually empty) facility of North Shore Stadium. The CBD and Eastern Suburbs have the closest thing to a Wellington demographic, but the most suitable stadium would be Eden Park and this appears to be closed to football (provision for a team should be a precondition for Rugby World Cup upgrade funding!) Waitakere have strong domestic football representation but no facilities.
My opinion is that football in Christchurch stands in the shadow of the mighty Canterbury/Crusaders and the population is far too provincial to be interested. Bahrain, Al-Ahly and TP Mazembe would probably be at risk of a beating if they were seen out on a Friday night!
Hawkes Bay and Manawatu are consistently strong domestically but their populations just aren't big enough to compete with Australian franchises. If they were a hundred kms closer together then we might have something...
Edit: With any luck the success of Auckland City at the World Club Champs may be the spur for a franchise there. Also I only just noticed that the population of Townsville (home of North Queensland Fury) is on a par with Napier, so perhaps this would be a viable franchise after all. However you'd expect that other centres would be ahead in the queue from the A-League's perspective.
Basketball
The Breakers haven't been around long but seem to have hit such a level of consistency that expansion is an unexpectedly realistic possibility.
Unfortunately I'm so ignorant about NZ basketball that I have no idea which cities or regions would be first off the rank. All I know is that Auckland is covered already, basketball is a winter sport which means it's vulnerable to the popularity of other winter codes, and previously we had a thriving domestic competition that has certainly dropped off my radar when the Breakers were launched and all the focus turned onto them.
Any suggestions?
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Jack Bauer and sly media in-jokes?
TVNZ: "Nelson cyclist Jack Bauer continued to cling on to the Tour of Southland's yellow jersey after a fighting finish in Thursday's 134km sixth stage. Bauer, 24, dragged himself up the gruelling climb on the Crown Range near Queenstown to retain the overall ..."
3 News: 24 hours on and Jack Bauer has tightened his grip on the leader's jersey in the Tour of Southland. Bauer holds a 25 second lead over Bissell's Peter Latham, with Jeremy Vennell another two seconds back, after a tough hill climb near ...
You be the judge.
3 News: 24 hours on and Jack Bauer has tightened his grip on the leader's jersey in the Tour of Southland. Bauer holds a 25 second lead over Bissell's Peter Latham, with Jeremy Vennell another two seconds back, after a tough hill climb near ...
You be the judge.
Monday, November 02, 2009
This has been a looooong time coming
Lynx is less a deodorant than the last resort of the testosteronally desperate and delusional. So the news that some reeking lonely guy is suing Unilever for misrepresentation of trade comes as no surprise at all. By rights they should have to repay every cent.
Why aren't the cops profiling Lynx users to identify when horniness becomes stalkiness?
Why aren't the cops profiling Lynx users to identify when horniness becomes stalkiness?
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Michael Laws - supercity Mayoral candidate?
Him and his wife are in the news every week, it's very blatant polarising self-publicism and it does him no favours in his current job. So why bother? I reckon he's going to launch a surprise late bid for the supercity Mayoralty. You heard it here first.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Commonly used incorrect spellings of Kiwi slang
This is going to be a continually updated post...
Wrong: Aye, Eh
Right: Ay
Meaning: equivalent to "isn't it?" Added to the end of a sentence
"Aye" is the sound a sailor or pirate makes when acknowledging an order.
Wrong: Aye, Eh
Right: Ay
Meaning: equivalent to "isn't it?" Added to the end of a sentence
"Aye" is the sound a sailor or pirate makes when acknowledging an order.
For people who think "Eh" is right, you should be aware that this "Meh" lead to serious confusion.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Lyrics for Downtime by Kidz in Space
Another quick crack:
You're all right with me
Spend all night with me
Gimme all your downtime
Your downtime
(Repeat x 3)
I love it how you live it
With your mind and your spirit
You define what it means to be
Divine I am lifted by
The way that we kick it
And these feelings you inflicted
Make me act a little different
This is something so terrific
Cos the look in your eyes
The size of your high
Make my meter rise
Swagger 'gainst a fly
Come take a ride
Shorty this is am night
Take my hand make me your man
We can spend some downtime
You're all right with me
Spend all night with me
Gimme all your downtime
Your downtime
(Repeat x 3)
I love it how you're looking
And your attitude is working
Never seen another person
Who could just close the curtains
On these other girls workin' it
An' your swagger is hurtin'
I'm thinkin' no that you're so
Takin' the charge with it
The look in your eyes
The size of your high
Make my meter rise
Swagger 'gainst a fly
Come take a ride
Shorty this is am night
Take my hand make me your man
We can spend some downtime
Gimme all your downtime
Your downtime
(Repeat x 3)
You're all right with me
Spend all night with me
Now why fight it
If I did it's a lie
Cos we both know the state
The first time we caught each other's eye
I can tell where it's goin'
Yeah I'm readin' the signs
Yo I can put it down
If you just give me the time so
You're all right with me
Spend all night with me
Three two one go
Gimme all your downtime
Your downtime
(Repeat x 3)
You're all right with me
Spend all night with me
You're all right with me
Spend all night with me
Gimme all your downtime
Your downtime
(Repeat x 3)
I love it how you live it
With your mind and your spirit
You define what it means to be
Divine I am lifted by
The way that we kick it
And these feelings you inflicted
Make me act a little different
This is something so terrific
Cos the look in your eyes
The size of your high
Make my meter rise
Swagger 'gainst a fly
Come take a ride
Shorty this is am night
Take my hand make me your man
We can spend some downtime
You're all right with me
Spend all night with me
Gimme all your downtime
Your downtime
(Repeat x 3)
I love it how you're looking
And your attitude is working
Never seen another person
Who could just close the curtains
On these other girls workin' it
An' your swagger is hurtin'
I'm thinkin' no that you're so
Takin' the charge with it
The look in your eyes
The size of your high
Make my meter rise
Swagger 'gainst a fly
Come take a ride
Shorty this is am night
Take my hand make me your man
We can spend some downtime
Gimme all your downtime
Your downtime
(Repeat x 3)
You're all right with me
Spend all night with me
Now why fight it
If I did it's a lie
Cos we both know the state
The first time we caught each other's eye
I can tell where it's goin'
Yeah I'm readin' the signs
Yo I can put it down
If you just give me the time so
You're all right with me
Spend all night with me
Three two one go
Gimme all your downtime
Your downtime
(Repeat x 3)
You're all right with me
Spend all night with me
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Section 59 Mind Games
"Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?"
For those without a purist world view then this seems to be a simple question with a simple answer.
However as every NZer knows, this referendum question has been posed in response to a change to the Crimes Act that was intended to remove legal defenses for dangerously violent parents. Detractors call this amendment the "anti-smacking law" and believe it infringes on the ability of parents to discipline their children.
So we have to consider it in reference to the law. But this isn't simple either! The amended law gives plenty of latitude to parents who want to discipline their children, and it's hard to see the relevance of the question.
However we're all left with the impression that the Government is likely to act in response to the referendum result, so we have to consider it seriously. So commentators search for deeper, hidden meaning in the question and the petitioners who posed it.
To me the question is pointless and should never have been allowed to be posed without going through a vetting process. There is huge uncertainty about how the referendum outcome is to be actioned.
For those without a purist world view then this seems to be a simple question with a simple answer.
However as every NZer knows, this referendum question has been posed in response to a change to the Crimes Act that was intended to remove legal defenses for dangerously violent parents. Detractors call this amendment the "anti-smacking law" and believe it infringes on the ability of parents to discipline their children.
So we have to consider it in reference to the law. But this isn't simple either! The amended law gives plenty of latitude to parents who want to discipline their children, and it's hard to see the relevance of the question.
However we're all left with the impression that the Government is likely to act in response to the referendum result, so we have to consider it seriously. So commentators search for deeper, hidden meaning in the question and the petitioners who posed it.
To me the question is pointless and should never have been allowed to be posed without going through a vetting process. There is huge uncertainty about how the referendum outcome is to be actioned.
Friday, July 03, 2009
TVNZ's Freeview channels are a disappointment
On the face of it, TVNZ6 & 7 are a huge opportunity to experiment. The government is funding their programming until 2012, so commercial pressure is nonexistent at the moment. This would be the perfect environment for Serial Killers style sitcoms or Big Picture-ish documentary series to flourish. However TVNZ appears determined to avoid producing anything that requires significant writing effort.
With TVNZ7 in particular, a Wellycentric cultural aesthetic has combined with reality TV techniques to give us shows that manage to be both cheap looking and unwatchably dry.
The set ends up being the make-or-break factor, which is why Backbenchers emerges as the best of the offerings. Political talking heads on the subject of pay equity would be soporific in the absence of a liquefied audience heckling the panel and presenters.
With TVNZ7 in particular, a Wellycentric cultural aesthetic has combined with reality TV techniques to give us shows that manage to be both cheap looking and unwatchably dry.
The set ends up being the make-or-break factor, which is why Backbenchers emerges as the best of the offerings. Political talking heads on the subject of pay equity would be soporific in the absence of a liquefied audience heckling the panel and presenters.
Monday, June 29, 2009
The simple charms of Bing
My primary search engine has changed for two very trite reasons and one paranoid reason:
- Nice pictures - I'm sick of Google's cloying cutesiness
- Shorter url - my homepage is about:blank and I type a lot of urls
- When logged into any of the google apps, I don't also want my searches to be associated with my google account
So...time for google to buy a domain off ggl.com?
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Lyrics for We Walk In Circles by Computers Want Me Dead
This is my quick effort after listening to this 3 times:
lets undress you're me unique
unless then rest just us two geeks
lets allow just one to sleep
those same sad eyes you give the creeps
we walk in circles til the sun burns out our eyes
all right
we walk in circles til the time erodes our fight
decline
(not going to attempt the distorted stuff at the end)
lets undress you're me unique
unless then rest just us two geeks
lets allow just one to sleep
those same sad eyes you give the creeps
we walk in circles til the sun burns out our eyes
all right
we walk in circles til the time erodes our fight
decline
(not going to attempt the distorted stuff at the end)
Monday, June 08, 2009
Joseph O'Neill, we salute you
His novel "Netherland" is about a Dutch cricket fan whose obsession takes him into the world of the migrant underclass in New York. Friday must have been a special day for him.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/8082343.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/8082343.stm
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Let me use poo-flinging Roman siege engine against burglars
A colourful businessman who says he is being harassed by burglars and arsonists has deployed a modified Roman siege engine to protect his premises. For use as a non-lethal security measure the catapult is loaded with chicken excrement, but even so its use has been forbidden by the police - apparently resulting in more break-ins.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/15/poo_catapult_man/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/15/poo_catapult_man/
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thank god for the BCCI!
I love the BCCI and I want to give them a huge hug and lots of mushy kisses.
Hold on! you cry. They're the monopolist bastards who are responsible for ridiculous actions like pulling Sachin Tendulkar from a match at the last moment because of a slight hint of ICL in the air. Aren't they ruining the game by preventing the best players from competing with each other?
Well yes, all of the above is true. But every story needs a decent villain who gains the ascendancy for long periods, only to get their comeuppance in the final chapter.
Sadly the story of cricket is nowhere near as exciting. The headline competition takes the form of a series of international home and away tours that provide no continuous arc to a decisive final competition to select the season's champion.
Tennis learnt the lesson that a series of tour events is insufficient for fan involvement, with everyone losing interest after the US Open. So they introduced the end-of-season Masters Cup, in which the best performing players of the year fight it out for megabucks to decide that year's champion. Now, fans will follow their favourite players for the entire season to see if they make the grade - which translates into watching a lot of tennis.
The closest that cricket has is the Ashes, which captured international attention when England despatched the ultimate cricket nemesis to universal acclaim. However the following week both teams had moved on to the next tour, which Australia predictably won. England's achievement wasn't forgotten, but it was somewhat overshadowed.
Wouldn't it have been magnificent if the Ashes had been the climactic final competition of the season? England (and the world) could have rested on their laurels and enjoyed bragging rights for a year.
Of course there are difficulties with an arbitrary international season across both hemispheres, but tennis is also an international game and has managed to work out a solution.
And back to why I love the BCCI: at present they provide the only story in cricket with any degree of long-running drama. Without their battle with the plucky ICL, I would have lost interest long ago. And when the BCCI is finally brought down a peg or two, my satisfaction will be all the greater for having had to wait for it.
Hold on! you cry. They're the monopolist bastards who are responsible for ridiculous actions like pulling Sachin Tendulkar from a match at the last moment because of a slight hint of ICL in the air. Aren't they ruining the game by preventing the best players from competing with each other?
Well yes, all of the above is true. But every story needs a decent villain who gains the ascendancy for long periods, only to get their comeuppance in the final chapter.
Sadly the story of cricket is nowhere near as exciting. The headline competition takes the form of a series of international home and away tours that provide no continuous arc to a decisive final competition to select the season's champion.
Tennis learnt the lesson that a series of tour events is insufficient for fan involvement, with everyone losing interest after the US Open. So they introduced the end-of-season Masters Cup, in which the best performing players of the year fight it out for megabucks to decide that year's champion. Now, fans will follow their favourite players for the entire season to see if they make the grade - which translates into watching a lot of tennis.
The closest that cricket has is the Ashes, which captured international attention when England despatched the ultimate cricket nemesis to universal acclaim. However the following week both teams had moved on to the next tour, which Australia predictably won. England's achievement wasn't forgotten, but it was somewhat overshadowed.
Wouldn't it have been magnificent if the Ashes had been the climactic final competition of the season? England (and the world) could have rested on their laurels and enjoyed bragging rights for a year.
Of course there are difficulties with an arbitrary international season across both hemispheres, but tennis is also an international game and has managed to work out a solution.
And back to why I love the BCCI: at present they provide the only story in cricket with any degree of long-running drama. Without their battle with the plucky ICL, I would have lost interest long ago. And when the BCCI is finally brought down a peg or two, my satisfaction will be all the greater for having had to wait for it.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Error: dependency is not satisfiable: libpango1.0-0
Quoted from forums.getdropbox.com which I suspect aren't crawled so I can't bookmark
Error on downloading and double-clicking from
http://www.getdropbox.com/download?dl=packages/nautilus-dropbox_0.5.0-1_i386_ubuntu_7.10.deb
- Using Ubuntu 7.10
- libpango1.0-0 is already installed according to Synaptic Package Manager, reinstalled anyway without improvement
- I think the prereqs listed come up as installed, there are so many files I'm not sure tho
Any assistance appreciated
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi David,
I had exactly the same issue. This is what I did to resolve it:
As Michael advised, I ran
sudo dpkg -i nautilus-dropbox_0.5.0-1_i386_ubuntu_7.10.deb
(however, I actually gave it the full path to the .deb file, not just the file name).
This told me that I needed version 1.18.3 or greater of libpango1.0-0, but I only had version 1.18.2 (it took me a moment to figure out that 1.0-0 wasn't the version!).
Note: the command also left a broken installation of Dropbox, which I removed using Synaptic package manager before carrying on.
I did a bit of hunting and found this page:
http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2008/03/10/fix-libpango-dependency-errors/
Following the instructions on this page, I installed libpango1.0-common from
http://packages.ubuntu.com/gutsy-updates/libpango1.0-common
(following the link at the very bottom of the page, and overriding the warnings that it was later than the most recent approved version).
In the same manner, I then installed libpango1.0-0 from
http://packages.ubuntu.com/gutsy-updates/libpango1.0-0
Once I had done this, Dropbox installed correctly, and the rest was plain sailing.
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Paul.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Britain's snigger-worthy place names
CRAPSTONE, England: When ordering things by telephone, Stewart Pearce tends to take a proactive approach to the inevitable question: "What is your address?"
He lays it out straight, so there is no room for unpleasant confusion. "I say, 'It's spelled 'crap,' as in crap,"' said Pearce, 61, who has lived in Crapstone, a one-shop country village in Dartmoor, for decades.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/23/europe/journal.php
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)