And you also do the some with the PC folks with the words "Microsoft is evil".

Huh? Most PC folk I know think "Microsoft is evil" is knowledge . It's just the Devil you know :-)

I was set up with the boring old Post Office, myself. Ironic that Kashin lived longer than that bank.

I still have the PostBank money box in a junk drawer here somewhere, although I broke into it at some point after the ANZ takeover.

It occasionally amuses me that despite…

As for phone services, I resist calls to 'modernize', and generally prefer to use voice. I won't leave voice messages, but…

After suffering through Vista on me Dell laptop, having installed the 7 RC I realised how much more useful the guts of a computer can be. But then I realised that I'd have to fork out hundreds…

:: Warning :: Threadjack ::
:: Cultural Upheaval Ahead ::

Disney buys Marvel!!
– there goes the Howard the Duck revival then...
Bags the first Vibranium cased iPhone!

Who's at the bottom of your swimming pool?
UK Police have been handed new information and are…

It's a mixture of tight deadlines leading to reporters needing a quick rent-a-quote from both "sides", and the useless 'he says she says' reporting technique the media seems to love, that leads to people like McCroskie, Cameron Brewer, Garth McVicar et al. getting a disproportionate amount of press.

Slight dissent…

So you did. Part two of this Editing The Herald post, wasn't it?

Yes.

Seriously, this is getting derisory.

And guys, there is nothing to be excited about an operating system.

Aw, don't be silly Tony. I found that review fascinating. Siracusa's final paragraph is this.

Snow Leopard is a unique and beautiful release, unlike any that have come before it in both scope…

I logoff for a couple hours catching up on uni work. Yes, I know its a semester break. I have one more. From Ars's review:

The number-one feature request from heavy column-view users has finally been implemented: sortable columns.

Seriously, this is getting…

Jobs for the boys then?
or just Intel Inside(r) trading?

you got a light,…

I was about to post that myself. You know, elephants, rooms, cash in . Damn it, you Trunked me.

...or, post-magic pre-science – in the holographic bubble universe, grate branes think alike...

I want to spend my light with a grille like you...

sorry about truncating your…

The Ars review of Snow Leopard is up — all 23 pages of it.

And I found a bug in opening one PDF that repeatably crashed both Preview and Safari.

Take a good look around Windows 7: A First Look for IT Pros and tell me if you still view Windows 7 as a service pack?

Actually, I said "bug fix" in response to Tony's "service pack" — but I wasn't being entirely serious ...

It actually seems to me…

It's the newly formed National Shooters Association.

Two stories in today's Press about guns:
Plan-for-gun-shop-sited-near-school-worries-residents
and
Business-broker-faces-three-firearm-charges

in the first one:

Gun City owner David Tipple said any concerns about the location of the store were simply "hysteria".
...and later...
"Our customers are the cream of…

Re overseas funding. Have you seen www.nsanz.org.nz? It's the newly formed National Shooters Association. No idea where they get the money from, but at first sight I wondered if it was an NRA offshoot.

As far as I can tell, it's just one man from Palmerston North who is fighting…

So you spent $59

$20 per licence, if you want to look at it that way. And that's the whole operating system, not some arbitrarily crippled "home" edition. How many hundred $ do you reckon the Windows 7 bug fix will set you back?

Both of you, stop it. Anyway,…

And you know how they always say "now, on a scale of blah to blah with shit meaning crap" every bloody time? We HAD to do that, and we got in trouble if we didn't read the question out exactly, every time. As far as I could tell, the supervisors…

Their purposes include "taking such litigation in the Law Courts of New Zealand as may be…

How many hundred $ do you reckon the Windows 7 bug fix will set you back?

Grrrr...you're starting to sound like that twit Mark Webster that writes that one-eyed and often ill-informed blog about Macs for the Herald!

Take a good look around [[http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/dd266801.aspx|Windows 7: A First Look for IT…

Voicemail is the biggest pain in the arse ever. I'm almost at the point of changing my voicemail message to say that I don't use voicemail, so please don't leave a message.

I'd rather get a text or an email or a tweet or a Facebook message. Anything but voicemail.

…

The surveys are long, banal and repetitive. I can't help but wonder how many busy people just get annoyed halfway through and put the phone down, which must have an impact on the sample.

Lots do. It happened to me plenty of times. What's more common, though, is for people…

Gods. Digipoll. I used to work for them. If you think it's bad taking a survey, try being the one reading the thing out.
The "it'll only take 12 minutes" thing is a management-mandated lie that we had to tell.

The surveys are long, banal and repetitive. I can't help…

Every kid at my primary school in the 1970's had an ASB kashin moneybox and ASB banking was a school activity. The cult of kashin started very young.

I asked the Herald exactly this question, how a one-man organisation gets into their paper so often, and is always called "Family First director Bob McCroskie".

So you did. Part two of this Editing The Herald post, wasn't it?

Sorry, had to ask;-)

Touche

Actually it was more that I had to keep trying to get him to change. Helped when his machine blew a gasket though. Change became inevitable at that point and the issue was simply one of direction.

It's a mixture of tight deadlines leading to reporters needing a quick rent-a-quote from both "sides", and the useless 'he says she says' reporting technique the media seems to love, that leads to people like McCroskie, Cameron Brewer, Garth McVicar et al. getting a disproportionate amount of press.

That's it…

[thanks] for inspiring me to keep trying to get an open OS on my laptop — as much as I don't mind mac os I had forgotten how nice it is to control the entire achine

How long does he plan to keep trying to get an operating system installed…

By the way, has anyone heard from the Maxim Institute recently? They must be very envious.

Maybe they haven't fully recovered from that plagiarism incident.

Apropos McCroskie, I'd like to know why the hell he gets so much coverage.

I asked the Herald exactly this question, how a one-man organisation gets into their paper so often, and is always called "Family First director Bob McCroskie". Their Social Issues reporter replied, saying he agreed McCroskie was…

It was Dead Elephant Frenzy.

Was it that or was it the fact that the zoo was free for the day? It was wasn't it? Perhaps the lack of prohibitive prices got out masses. It's bloody expensive.

Did else reading go? How was it?

We thought about buckling to the…

Not saying this is wrong, just that the media seems to present them as a political movement or society.

As with many entities that get coverage disproportionate to their intellectual or popular heft, I feel that perhaps I should write a little Firefox plugin that replaces all occurences of "Family…

I will share the contents of a message from a friend of mine (hope he won't mind).

[thanks] for inspiring me to keep trying to get an open OS on my laptop — as much as I don't mind mac os I…

They are not a society with members etc., they represent the trustees, all two (or is it four) of them. Not saying this is wrong, just that the media…

Though to be fair Tony's not the only one calling it a service pack. (and I edit to point out that I don't care either way, but that I had read the linked to article yesterday)

There's some good debate about that in the comments below the article. For me,…

Am I the only person who is slightly more worried about Bob McCoskrie's functional innumeracy (or his Tourette-like compulsion to make shit up) than where Focus on the Family gets its money from?

Quelle horreur, nutty fundy groups get money from richer nutty fundy groups

Yes, it is a service pack by definition.

Enjoy that new "fade-in highlight effect" on your Start menu, dude ...

Though to be fair Tony's not the only one calling it a service pack. (and I edit to point out that I don't care either way, but that I…

"Should a damn good thrashing, as part of good ...."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/national/2814572/Violence-blamed-on-removal-of-corporal-punishment

Really, if this is not advocating for child beating I don't know what is.

Don't you guys have a magazine in your house?

Yes, "Library" was once an honest euphemism for toilet too, in honour of the magazine rack therein. Best Americanism – "where's the euphemism?"

So you spent $59

$20 per licence, if you want to look at it that way. And that's the whole operating system, not some arbitrarily crippled "home" edition. How many hundred $ do you reckon the Windows 7 bug fix will set you back?

on having new features such as…

Go the Wot Wots!

Oh, hell yes. A kids show I can watch without being overcome with an urge to scratch my eyes out. Great stuff.

How strange – that's the last room I'd think of confronted by that name, "keeping one's powder dry" and all that. Or might it refer to the explosive power of the powder, nicely connecting back to the traditional "thunder box"?

Don't you guys have a magazine in your house? How…

An increasing number of real estate agents now talk about "powder rooms" instead of toilets in their ads.

I think it is as in 'powder your nose'

My wife had her first day as a 'paid' zookeeper at Auk Zoo on saturday, fortunately she got out of having to go in on…

I asked the Chief Electoral Office under the OIA and on 13 July got this (RB, can I add a PDF of the reply?)

If you email it to me I can upload it.

I'd love to know how the referendum $9m was spent.

I asked the Chief Electoral Office under the OIA and on 13 July got this (RB, can I add a PDF of the reply?) in round fgures

Printing and delivery of ballot papers (outward) $1.8M
* Budgeted postage for return…

I removed voicemail from my phone service ages ago.

Both my work and personal phone messages are: "I'm not here, don't leave a message, I won't check it. Text or email me instead for an immediate response"

In the first week I got four messages, all of which said "What…

My god, I thought. I am turning into my parents.

Different outfit — Bob's Family First.

I stand corrected — they all melt together into a bit ear-waxy ball of useless.

But I am interested in where he gets his money from and how it's spent.

So am I, but I'd rather the Herald on Sunday put a little more…

My kids were a bit disturbed by it when they were looking through the paper looking for 'news' to take to school.

I just dislike euphemisms such as this. An increasing number of real estate agents now talk about "powder rooms" instead of toilets in their ads.

It's a style of language I find…

My kids are gutted, by the way.

So is my inner child, you cynical bunch. Kashin was like a family pet – just marketed to and shared by many, many families. But very good at building affectionate relationships spanning years, in any case. I was touched that they closed the…

I'd rather get a text or an email or a tweet or a Facebook message. Anything but voicemail.

...a transcription service for voicemail...

A contact is a high volume cellphone user with Vodafone and as a part of his package he gets a 'free' actual person to take his voicemail messages, that are then sent to him by SMS. Since he got the service his voicemail has fallen…

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article6736587.ece

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/gadgets/2723705/Macbook-cracks-upset-Apple-fans

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/gadgets/2682891/iPhone-suicide-workers-family-paid-67-000

Kashin didn't "pass" Kashin died.

Actually, she was put down. "Kashin died" doesn't suggest any agency, whereas the zoo staff have actually been pretty upfront about the fact that she was in a lot of pain and so they made the decision to euthanise her.

My kids are gutted, by…

Vodafone – that their billing system is messy and that their inability to make all online account services available via a single website is lamentable

Get yourself onto the XT Network!

Interesting they are asking about a transcription service for voicemail. I blogged a couple of months ago that someone should offer such a service. I'd definitely use it, if it was reasonably priced. My concern is they'll charge $5 a message!

My mind was deadened by the repeated questions, but…

Am I the only person who is slightly more worried about Bob McCoskrie's functional innumeracy (or his Tourette-like compulsion to make shit up) than where Focus on the Family gets its money from?

Different outfit — Bob's Family First.

But I am interested in where he gets his money from…

Am I the only person who is slightly more worried about Bob McCoskrie's functional innumeracy (or his Tourette-like compulsion to make shit up) than where Focus on the Family gets its money from?

Yes?

Out on the main road, I could see streams of families: thirtysomethings and their families; the parents just of the age to have been captured by the legend of Kashin the elephant as small children themselves.

This reminds me of the last time I went to the Easter Show. There…

"Well, if we're measuring, mine's 64-bit now too."

To be honest, I haven't noticed a difference.

Herald on Sunday's Matt Nippert, who revealed last week that Focus on the Family New Zealand has received a million dollars in funding from its US affiliate in the past six years.

Am I the only person who is slightly more worried about Bob McCoskrie's functional innumeracy (or his Tourette-like…

Did my own OS up date over the weekend. Ubuntu 32 bit to 64bit.

Well, if we're measuring, mine's 64-bit now too.

Most noticeable in System Preferences, which has to relaunch into 32-bit mode for some third-party preference panels.

I had my first savings account with ASB/Kashin, too. It brought me back to primary school to hear that name again.

Why have we let this mendacious lower-middle class euphemism replace the simple reality of the verb "die" ?

You can pass wind, pass an exam, pass another person…

A vain hope, I know

TV3 needs to make more of the presence of these blogs.

I'm so sorry.