A big thanks to Catalyst IT, Internet NZ and other sponsors for a great day, and CafeNet for the free wifi.
UPDATE: Duh. A big thumbs up to Havana too, for having a free espresso stand there.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
OLPC
The last session of Software Freedom Day I attended was an interesting presentation on the One Laptop Per Child programme. From what I understood, New Zealanders will be able to take part in the Give1Get1 program later on this year.
A big thanks to Catalyst IT, Internet NZ and other sponsors for a great day, and CafeNet for the free wifi.
UPDATE: Duh. A big thumbs up to Havana too, for having a free espresso stand there.
A big thanks to Catalyst IT, Internet NZ and other sponsors for a great day, and CafeNet for the free wifi.
UPDATE: Duh. A big thumbs up to Havana too, for having a free espresso stand there.
Census mashups
I've been accidentally invited to Software Freedom Day 08 at the Wellington Town Hall. Early afternoon sessions on Copyright and the Economics of Open Source depressed the hell out of me. Fortunately, a bloke called Gordon Anderson has been demonstrating his mash-up of meshblock census data and Google Earth. This is one hell of a public policy tool. Behold some examples:
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Down and out at the Taniwha Bar
This is the pub with the deerskin wallpaper. This is where the sacred and profane meet on equal terms over a beer, a wine, a spirit. There's a glossolalia of mingled conversations between the hard-luckers leaning at the bar, slurring their sorrows to strangers. Far off in the corner, beyond the pool table and cigarette machine, a smoke-fugged cabal swap secrets and mysteries.
A couple of booths away, by the open fire, I sit with pen and paper in front of me. I ponder a bit, write a paragraph or two. I stare at the mangled thoughts and semi-coherent curses before screwing up the paper and throwing it on the fire. Take a sip of wine, roll a smoke. It'll come.
Over in the bistro, a red LED number 42 squeals for attention. There's a man and a woman having a heated conversation over their spaghetti. It ends with the woman throwing her plate in his face and walking off. The man sits there, strings dripping off his nose and chin, tears and bolognaise mingling.
Jordan Luck is banging a groupie on a pinball machine while yodelling "I don't knooooooow, why does love do this to me?" Paul Ubana Jones is strumming away on stage while Anika Moa and Jacquie Brown pash against a huge carved taniwha. A twinkling from some unseen light source ricochets off the wall, hinting at delights just around the corner.
I stare back at the blank page. I stare at the pen. I stare at the ink inside, a well of wisdom in a superposition of birth and the never born. I put pen to paper once more, but only venom and violence pours out. It sizzles viciously as it dies on the fire, ticking and spitting its defiance helplessly. "Here, stop that," sez Sally the barkeep. "You'll ruin the fire." She chucks a chunk of manuka on and it crackles with exuberant aromatics.
So I fold up the paper for another day. It'll come, but not today.
A couple of booths away, by the open fire, I sit with pen and paper in front of me. I ponder a bit, write a paragraph or two. I stare at the mangled thoughts and semi-coherent curses before screwing up the paper and throwing it on the fire. Take a sip of wine, roll a smoke. It'll come.
Over in the bistro, a red LED number 42 squeals for attention. There's a man and a woman having a heated conversation over their spaghetti. It ends with the woman throwing her plate in his face and walking off. The man sits there, strings dripping off his nose and chin, tears and bolognaise mingling.
Jordan Luck is banging a groupie on a pinball machine while yodelling "I don't knooooooow, why does love do this to me?" Paul Ubana Jones is strumming away on stage while Anika Moa and Jacquie Brown pash against a huge carved taniwha. A twinkling from some unseen light source ricochets off the wall, hinting at delights just around the corner.
I stare back at the blank page. I stare at the pen. I stare at the ink inside, a well of wisdom in a superposition of birth and the never born. I put pen to paper once more, but only venom and violence pours out. It sizzles viciously as it dies on the fire, ticking and spitting its defiance helplessly. "Here, stop that," sez Sally the barkeep. "You'll ruin the fire." She chucks a chunk of manuka on and it crackles with exuberant aromatics.
So I fold up the paper for another day. It'll come, but not today.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Realty Check
While Bernard Hickey and Gareth Morgan concede that NZ house prices must drop about 30 percent, I still think that that's optimistic. I reckon 50 percent is more likely. As for the US market, their correction looks to be about 80 percent, if this graph is anything to go by.
Or, if you prefer, why not try the real estate roller coaster again:
Or, if you prefer, why not try the real estate roller coaster again:
Friday, September 12, 2008
9/11 Porn
If 9/11 doesn't give McCain a bounce, I'd be surprised. 9/11 is a core strategy for the Republican ticket, as demonstrated by this horrible fear and loathing porn shown at the Republican National Convention:
So today was McCain's day. It wasn't Palin's. The GOP has released the messiah, Sarah Palin, to a soft interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson. Check out the blather:
I want to see this woman on Hard Talk.
So today was McCain's day. It wasn't Palin's. The GOP has released the messiah, Sarah Palin, to a soft interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson. Check out the blather:
I want to see this woman on Hard Talk.
Monday, September 08, 2008
The Exercise of Vital Powers
This Wednesday, the largest experiment in human history fires its first proton around the racetrack. The world will not end. They've flung protons around in particle accelerators for decades. But this squeezer is the biggest yet, a circle big enough to swallow Waiheke Island.
20 European member states, approximately 2,600 full-time employees, as well as some 7,931 scientists and engineers representing 500 universities and 80 nationalities. Built by humans who have agreed to stop killing one another for long enough, it's the pragmatic United Nations.
And when the pilot physics begin in late October, the whole world will benefit from this collaboration. One hundred years ago, Ernest Rutherford split the atom. This year, humans will split the proton. By the end of the year, we will be wiser.
Imagine if Ernest Rutherford had walked up to you and asked if you'd like to help him with his work. You wouldn't have to go anywhere, no fancy equipment or training needed or, indeed, even any of your time. Are you up for it?
Well, the geeks at CERN need your help. The data spewing out of the Large Hadron Collider is going to be something huge. Over 15 billion Gigabytes of data every year. There are 300 data centres around the world in 50 countries. The biggest of these is at CERN, a server farm of 80,000 PCs.
If you would like to be a participant in the world's largest experiment and not just an observer, get on over to LHC@Home. Download the BOINC screensaver program, which maintains all the number crunching. There's even an LHC New Zealand team already up and running. Donate your PC downtime to a greater cause.
20 European member states, approximately 2,600 full-time employees, as well as some 7,931 scientists and engineers representing 500 universities and 80 nationalities. Built by humans who have agreed to stop killing one another for long enough, it's the pragmatic United Nations.
And when the pilot physics begin in late October, the whole world will benefit from this collaboration. One hundred years ago, Ernest Rutherford split the atom. This year, humans will split the proton. By the end of the year, we will be wiser.
Imagine if Ernest Rutherford had walked up to you and asked if you'd like to help him with his work. You wouldn't have to go anywhere, no fancy equipment or training needed or, indeed, even any of your time. Are you up for it?
Well, the geeks at CERN need your help. The data spewing out of the Large Hadron Collider is going to be something huge. Over 15 billion Gigabytes of data every year. There are 300 data centres around the world in 50 countries. The biggest of these is at CERN, a server farm of 80,000 PCs.
If you would like to be a participant in the world's largest experiment and not just an observer, get on over to LHC@Home. Download the BOINC screensaver program, which maintains all the number crunching. There's even an LHC New Zealand team already up and running. Donate your PC downtime to a greater cause.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Palintology
A short round-up of facts and comedy on Palin:
Vanity Fair covers the parallel timelines of facts and conspiracy theories on the Birth of Young Trig.
Robin Williams sums up Palin in 2 minutes on Letterman.
A fairly comprehensive list of the abyss between what Palin says as what she does.
Baby Trig makes Newsweek story. Palin promises help for special needs families in her speech, in spite of cutting SpecEd funding by 62 percent when she was Governor.
There's no sign of the Republicans letting the press actually interview Sarah Palin. According to Republican campaign strategist Rick Davis, "We’re going to do what we think is in our best interest. If that means access to the press, we’ll give it to you."
Michael Palin for President:
Hat Tip RobiNZ
Vanity Fair covers the parallel timelines of facts and conspiracy theories on the Birth of Young Trig.
Robin Williams sums up Palin in 2 minutes on Letterman.
A fairly comprehensive list of the abyss between what Palin says as what she does.
Baby Trig makes Newsweek story. Palin promises help for special needs families in her speech, in spite of cutting SpecEd funding by 62 percent when she was Governor.
There's no sign of the Republicans letting the press actually interview Sarah Palin. According to Republican campaign strategist Rick Davis, "We’re going to do what we think is in our best interest. If that means access to the press, we’ll give it to you."
Michael Palin for President:
Hat Tip RobiNZ
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Ramsey vs Yanks
This article about Gordon Ramsey's culture shock on arriving in the USA sums up all the very worst in American diners:
But then again, the lived-in face of Ramsey is a bit of a shock to the Botox Nation too:
“Hardly anyone drinks here,” he announces, with palpable disgust... “You’re on your second glass of wine and they’re like, ‘How long have you been an alcoholic?’ "This was a huge bugbear for me when I was a waiter. The menu is not a fucking list of suggestions. It's the menu. If it's it's not on the menu, then you can't fucking have it!
‘Do you want that to go?’ I say to them, ‘Sorry? I just had the Caesar salad. What the f*** do I want to take that home for?’ The salad lasts for 11, 12 minutes – you’re gonna take that slimy s*** out of your fridge 24 hours later and eat it? Bollocks!”
[D]iners who insist on customising every order (“Can I have a BLT with no bread?” he mimics)
But then again, the lived-in face of Ramsey is a bit of a shock to the Botox Nation too:
“My first year here, I was staying at the Chateau Marmont and this room-service waitress turned up and she goes, ‘Oh, my God, what happened to your face?’” he recalls, shaking his head. “I said, ‘What do you mean?’ She said, ‘Did you go through a car windscreen?’ ”
Landslide
There was a loud shudder this morning. I thought nothing of it until I went out to the dairy. The upstairs neighbours hadn't been moving furniture at all:
Hunter inspects the landslide
No-one hurt, one window broken. I just hope those carports stay where they are. A carport in the lounge can really ruin the feng shui.
Hunter inspects the landslide
No-one hurt, one window broken. I just hope those carports stay where they are. A carport in the lounge can really ruin the feng shui.
Friday, September 05, 2008
Perverted Friday
Not content with widespread support of sapphic embraces in Christchurch? How about some panda porn, S&M spiders, transexual fish, wanking kangaroos or homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks? Have a look at New Scientist's overview of Animals Behaving Badly.
I'll drink to that
Congratulations to the Tuatara brewery for being awarded NZ's best brewer. Tuatara's India Pale Ale is the best beer in the world.
Puppetry of the Palin
Who is behind the puppetry of the Dick Cheney replacement? How does this matter to little old NZ? And why does Sarah Palin scare the bejesus out of me?
First things first. Sarah Palin is a puppet. Former sports newsreader, she makes Ronnie Reagan's actor skills look solid. At least old Ronnie had to his memorise lines. So Palin's speech at the Republican National Convention was just pitch perfect for the audience. Sarah Palin is good at reading with feeling.
At least with Dick Cheney, we knew where he stood. One foot in the grave, the other in oil, with his gun shooting off in his friends' faces. The president-elect for eight years, Cheney fiddled with the government while George Bush slummed out at Crawford, Texas ( W broke the record for the most days off work (879) back in March. The previous holder was Ronald Reagan). And if anyone was going to shuffle off this mortal coil sooner, it would have been Dick before Bush.
McCain will not have the same relationship with Sarah Palin. Sure, she will be in charge of government while McCain is on holiday or having chemotherapy. She's a fan of big oil, and polar bears are fair game. But one could only wish that Halliburton were in the same league as Palin's backers.
John McCain is old. Really old. The oldest presidential candidate in US history. Yes, his Mum is still alive, but I'm unconvinced that a gibbering unpredictable dementia case is a quality of life to induce confidence. These things are hereditary after all. Thank Dagg Margaret Thatcher is no longer in power.
McCain is three years shy of the Average American Male lifespan. Going on the law of averages, Sarah Palin could be President of the Free World in 2012. Not scared yet? Perhaps it is that clean sweep through DC you think she's going to do. Yet her record demonstrates that her solution to cronyism is nepotism.
And what a family. Straight out of a My Name is Earl spin-off; Alaska, the Deep South of the Far North. Unlike Earl, which stars Scientology groupies, this sitcom has much more devoted following. The Assemblies of God is an evangelical group which is founded on the Sixteen Fundamental Truths. Loving thy neighbour is not one of them. The last two "truths" are particularly worrying. They involve the Second Coming of Jesus and the Final Judgement.
This is the big problem with fundamentalists. You could take all the books from all the libraries from all of history and put them on a scale with a bible or a Koran in the balance, and a fundy will still say that their bible contains the one and only truth. In most cases, it's not even the full book, just selected verses.
Sarah Palin reckons she has a destined part to play in all this. She's too young and inexperienced to be VP nominee, after all. God must therefore favour her. Whether it's banning books, having a Downs Syndrome baby or a knocked-up teenager, Palin will bear these trifling burdens. Her self-proclaimed destiny is to hasten the apocalypse, and she has the scripture to back it up. That's the confidence you saw during her speech. She is God's Honeybunny.
I'm not having a go at Palin just because she's Republican. Although there's not a Republican president in living memory whom I've actually liked, I've had the good manners to tolerate them. Even McCain is a relatively nice bloke. It's not because Palin is a Republican woman. You only have to read of Cindy McCain's lonely and painful poor little rich girl life to have some sympathy there (I only hope that Laura Bush has sustained herself with some Ibogaine-like prescription all these years, and doesn't have to steal her meds like Cindy did).
So I'm glad that NotPC, usually one of the louder barkers for the Republican party, is posting his doubts over Palin. Good on him drawing attention to Palin's spiritual guidance and "God's will be done" mantra. If Obama's preacher was considered extreme, Pastor Ed Kalnins of the Wassila Assembly of God is just off the planet:
Sarah Palin is on a mission from God, and we should all be fearful. The current administration has already introduced the US equivalent of Saddam's Republican National Guard in the form of Christian mercenary outfit Blackwater. This Praetorian Guard, separate from the US military, provides the fulcrum for Palin's plans.
These plans are not tempered with experience. Palin only got her passport last year, and has travelled precisely once outside the US. Most of her travel up til then had been domestic, a narrow migratory circuit between Alaska and DC for federal funding grants. If travel broadens the mind, Palin's travels could be written on one side of a Eucharist wafer.
Palin's acceptance speech dripped hatred and xenophobia unseen in US history. Palin favours the oil pipepline as it reduces the reliance on "dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart." Vicious codewords litter the speech; caliber, faith, catastrophic, bulldog and lipstick. A servant's heart. This is undiluted fear and loathing.
These plans are not tempered with knowledge. Indeed, this is seen as a very big selling point against the Obama ticket, that elitist bookworm. General ignorance of history, politics, and evolution has never been in such high demand. Why be well read when all the answers are in just one book?
So I'm crossing my fingers that Obama is made president. Or at least, if McCain is president, he suffers no Gerald Ford type stunts. That could very well prove fatal for millions.
First things first. Sarah Palin is a puppet. Former sports newsreader, she makes Ronnie Reagan's actor skills look solid. At least old Ronnie had to his memorise lines. So Palin's speech at the Republican National Convention was just pitch perfect for the audience. Sarah Palin is good at reading with feeling.
At least with Dick Cheney, we knew where he stood. One foot in the grave, the other in oil, with his gun shooting off in his friends' faces. The president-elect for eight years, Cheney fiddled with the government while George Bush slummed out at Crawford, Texas ( W broke the record for the most days off work (879) back in March. The previous holder was Ronald Reagan). And if anyone was going to shuffle off this mortal coil sooner, it would have been Dick before Bush.
McCain will not have the same relationship with Sarah Palin. Sure, she will be in charge of government while McCain is on holiday or having chemotherapy. She's a fan of big oil, and polar bears are fair game. But one could only wish that Halliburton were in the same league as Palin's backers.
John McCain is old. Really old. The oldest presidential candidate in US history. Yes, his Mum is still alive, but I'm unconvinced that a gibbering unpredictable dementia case is a quality of life to induce confidence. These things are hereditary after all. Thank Dagg Margaret Thatcher is no longer in power.
McCain is three years shy of the Average American Male lifespan. Going on the law of averages, Sarah Palin could be President of the Free World in 2012. Not scared yet? Perhaps it is that clean sweep through DC you think she's going to do. Yet her record demonstrates that her solution to cronyism is nepotism.
And what a family. Straight out of a My Name is Earl spin-off; Alaska, the Deep South of the Far North. Unlike Earl, which stars Scientology groupies, this sitcom has much more devoted following. The Assemblies of God is an evangelical group which is founded on the Sixteen Fundamental Truths. Loving thy neighbour is not one of them. The last two "truths" are particularly worrying. They involve the Second Coming of Jesus and the Final Judgement.
This is the big problem with fundamentalists. You could take all the books from all the libraries from all of history and put them on a scale with a bible or a Koran in the balance, and a fundy will still say that their bible contains the one and only truth. In most cases, it's not even the full book, just selected verses.
Sarah Palin reckons she has a destined part to play in all this. She's too young and inexperienced to be VP nominee, after all. God must therefore favour her. Whether it's banning books, having a Downs Syndrome baby or a knocked-up teenager, Palin will bear these trifling burdens. Her self-proclaimed destiny is to hasten the apocalypse, and she has the scripture to back it up. That's the confidence you saw during her speech. She is God's Honeybunny.
I'm not having a go at Palin just because she's Republican. Although there's not a Republican president in living memory whom I've actually liked, I've had the good manners to tolerate them. Even McCain is a relatively nice bloke. It's not because Palin is a Republican woman. You only have to read of Cindy McCain's lonely and painful poor little rich girl life to have some sympathy there (I only hope that Laura Bush has sustained herself with some Ibogaine-like prescription all these years, and doesn't have to steal her meds like Cindy did).
So I'm glad that NotPC, usually one of the louder barkers for the Republican party, is posting his doubts over Palin. Good on him drawing attention to Palin's spiritual guidance and "God's will be done" mantra. If Obama's preacher was considered extreme, Pastor Ed Kalnins of the Wassila Assembly of God is just off the planet:
Pastor Kalnins has also preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war "contending for your faith;" and said that Jesus "operated from that position of war mode."This is serious. This is Third Temple in Jerusalem-grade serious. This is World War serious. It's so serious, I'm just glad Hunter S Thompson isn't around to witness this. Guns are for fun, not fundamentalist crusades.
Sarah Palin is on a mission from God, and we should all be fearful. The current administration has already introduced the US equivalent of Saddam's Republican National Guard in the form of Christian mercenary outfit Blackwater. This Praetorian Guard, separate from the US military, provides the fulcrum for Palin's plans.
These plans are not tempered with experience. Palin only got her passport last year, and has travelled precisely once outside the US. Most of her travel up til then had been domestic, a narrow migratory circuit between Alaska and DC for federal funding grants. If travel broadens the mind, Palin's travels could be written on one side of a Eucharist wafer.
Palin's acceptance speech dripped hatred and xenophobia unseen in US history. Palin favours the oil pipepline as it reduces the reliance on "dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart." Vicious codewords litter the speech; caliber, faith, catastrophic, bulldog and lipstick. A servant's heart. This is undiluted fear and loathing.
These plans are not tempered with knowledge. Indeed, this is seen as a very big selling point against the Obama ticket, that elitist bookworm. General ignorance of history, politics, and evolution has never been in such high demand. Why be well read when all the answers are in just one book?
So I'm crossing my fingers that Obama is made president. Or at least, if McCain is president, he suffers no Gerald Ford type stunts. That could very well prove fatal for millions.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
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