Posts by Jarno van der Linden
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
My view of the ETS is that it is an attempt to incorporate the cost to society of pollution into the product. Something which the market system has so far mostly failed to do.
A product that uses more of a limited resource (oil, minerals, bandwidth, skilled labour) should have a greater cost associated with it than an equivalent product that uses less. Market forces are then theorised to find the most acceptable balance between consumption and resource use.
Pollution uses up the limited resource of a nice environment, but has traditionally not been subject to market forces in terms of monetary cost. In fact, a heavily polluting production method can be cheaper than a more environmentally friendly one, giving the manufacturer an incentive to pollute without the counterforce of people buying fewer product.
Yes, consumers can factor in pollution in their buying decisions alongside the price tag, but the dollar cost is by far the dominant decider for most. And the average shopper is so far removed from the production process that it is basically impossible to know which of those brands of baked beans uses up the planet less, except through price.
-
How does bringing fibre to the home reduce the cost per bit? Do they also have a strategy on how to upgrade the national backbone and increase international bandwidth?
For example, a million households at 100mb/s is roughly 100Tb/s of bandwidth. Currently the total capacity of the Southern Cross cable network is less than 1Tb/s.
I'm slightly concerned this is going to lead to giving everyone a super-duper driveway, connecting to the main dirtroad.
-
With 6 pictures of you on the front page, I suggest that TVNZ 7 be renamed The Russell Channel.
-
steven crawford:
I need to put my dad onto her. He still hasn't got the Internet connected. Being one of the very last telephone's with a party line in New Zealand wouldn't have helped.
A fair chunk of the Kenepuru is being connected up with a community wifi project. Soon he may have better internet than you.
-
No love for the Three Kings exchange? Boohoo :( I telecommute for an overseas company! I bring in foreign earnings! Knowledge economy! Where are my faster bits? They said there would be faster bits! Ahem...
As for my mother, she's the tech support for about half the Kenepuru. And yes, I am her tech support.
-
On the Auckland airport thing, is there something in people thinking it is OK to sell off assets to Canada but not Dubai?
But...but... it's a pension fund! How can you deny some old people a few meagre dollars to support their subsistence living?
-
I hope that the esteemed Minister for Transport Safety takes into account that one can cause more death and destruction by hijacking your average city bus rather than a small turboprop plane.
-
Call me paranoid, but what is the law enforcement situation with opening up ones WAP and ISP account to all? Is the law refined enough, and do the police know enough, to not break down my door when some traffic that is of interest to them gets routed through my humble box of plastic and electronics?
Not that I would open up my WAP. The monthly data caps make that a non-starter.
-
Can all politicians please revert back to their usual not commenting on matters that are in front of the court? Thank you.
-
I don't think I would even want NZoA to make judgements on what is culturally significant or not. That's up to the viewers and listeners, and is something that only becomes clear over time. They are however in the business of promoting New Zealand cultural products.
The discussion paper seems to concentrate on what the role of NZoA is in bringing NZ content to NZers in a digital age. The strategy employed at the moment to increase New Zealand stuff on air in NZ is to inject it into broadcast media through charters, quota, and salesmanship. As the paper points out, we are getting more and more content through channels which originate overseas, and over which NZoA or the government has no hope of getting any direct influence over.
More overseas culture being pulled in, less NZ culture being mixed in locally. I think the better approach to at least maintain the balance is to shout back at the world.
And the export of culture should probably stand above direct financial success. The country certainly gets a prouder "hey World look at us" feeling out of hearing of an NZ song being used in an overseas film, than hearing of an NZ company getting an export order.