Posts by Russell Brown
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
http://digitalmedia.massey.ac.nz/exposure/video.php?id=39&q=hi
An animation by Massey University student Caroline Ting:
"RAM (Random Access Memory) is an animation about becoming too reliant and emotionally attached to your personal computer. It is an exaggeration of (my) research on recent trends of dependency and attachment found in children for their PCs, especially in the US and UK."
(QuickTime 7) -
Lovely. Even if it is by an American ...
-
Couple of things:
1. It's not clear from posts here that it's not only Simon's phone at work that's being affected, but his home phone too. This would seem to rule out the idea that it's just some malfunctioning auto-dialler, as does Simon's latest update, yesterday:
So the saga continues, 10am -8:20pm yesterday and then a couple at 11:30pm, but those had beeping at the other end. This morning about 10:10 they started again. We have been checking every hour or so to see ifit is still going, and indeed the phone is still ringing. There has been an interesting change today, now there appears to be someone listening and pressing buttons at the other end. I asked a few questions and they started using 2 beeps for yes and 1 for no. All very odd. I did not stay on the line as I am too busy to play silly games.
So the summary is:
Thurs 2:00pm-6:00pm 6:50-8:30pm
Fri 9:00am-4:00pm
Sat 9:30am-8:20pm +2 at 11:30
Sun 10:10am - currentNow that there is someone on the other end I am more confident that a formal complaint may actually find someone who is doing this.
Also ...
2. Keith, there's a very clear difference between protecting the network from some guy trying to torrent four movies at once, and someone using Skype. The former can represent a threat to service at peak time, the latter simply represents a threat to Telecom's business.
BTW, Bram Cohen always cautions against running too many open torrents. He says the protocol's not designed for that, and that having any more than two torrents downloading at the same time is suboptimal.
-
Where are we at with the All Blacks? A decent enough win over England - and then it's all change again for the French test. Should we be seeing a first XV by now, or is still about depth? Should we start fretting already about how really bad it might be if we contrive to yet again not win the Rugby World Cup? Do we have a centre yet? And which would be the most calamitous injury? McCaw? Carter? Or Hayman? Discuss …
-
We want more from the Iranian correspondent ...
-
With thanks to EATINGMEDIA
-
Yo Cass! Thanks!
I'll leave these here but also stick them in OurTube.
-
Via Brad Delong the actual scope of the Democrat's'victory in the Senate. Or, at least, victory in the popular vote.
Holy crap. I was wondering about that very thing last night, but I genuinely didn't realise the margin was that big.
-
Communicating with people of similar views is boring, and I like a bit of back and forth, it is good fun. There is an element of a desire to perform a public service here. I am a Kiwi who lives in the US and loves both NZ and the US. The gulf of misunderstanding between the countries has never been greater and is so frustrating when ever I go home for a visit. NZ is like an echo chamber, it is all "US bad", "Bush bad", blah blah blah, there is no attempt to understand or to look at things from another perspective, it is painful to say the least. There are sound reasons why the US does some of the things that it does of which most NZers are either completely unaware or seriously misinformed.
I appreciate you coming in James. and I'm pleased we can all be quite civil debating the ideas. But I don't think anyone posting here believes in "US bad". We all know Americans, most of us have visited, some of us lived there, and we all have benefited from American brilliance.
But disliking and disapproving of the current administration is not anti-American. Indeed, on yesterday's vote, it puts us right in line with the American people.
From my point of view, the bastards who have been in charge in recent years threaten the very things I like and treasure about the USA.
-
Craig, and more especially James, can I suggest you go and read the RS Worst Congress Ever story. It does make historical comparisons, and while you might not agree with every point or some of the language, it makes a very persuasive, well-referenced case for the point embodied in its headline. There have been bad Congresses, but the one just passed has been the laziest, most partisan, most duplicitous and most feckless one ever.
Here's a quote:
But the 109th Congress is no mild departure from the norm, no slight deviation in an already-underwhelming history. No, this is nothing less than a historic shift in how our democracy is run. The Republicans who control this Congress are revolutionaries, and they have brought their revolutionary vision for the House and Senate quite unpleasantly to fruition. In the past six years they have castrated the political minority, abdicated their oversight responsibilities mandated by the Constitution, enacted a conscious policy of massive borrowing and unrestrained spending, and installed a host of semipermanent mechanisms for transferring legislative power to commercial interests. They aimed far lower than any other Congress has ever aimed, and they nailed their target.
"The 109th Congress is so bad that it makes you wonder if democracy is a failed experiment," says Jonathan Turley, a noted constitutional scholar and the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington Law School. "I think that if the Framers went to Capitol Hill today, it would shake their confidence in the system they created. Congress has become an exercise of raw power with no principles -- and in that environment corruption has flourished. The Republicans in Congress decided from the outset that their future would be inextricably tied to George Bush and his policies. It has become this sad session of members sitting down and drinking Kool-Aid delivered by Karl Rove. Congress became a mere extension of the White House."
Last ←Newer Page 1 … 2270 2271 2272 2273 2274 … 2279 Older→ First