Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: nz.general: a speech

artig

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 17:00:15 +1300

I note with great sadness the recent passing of Bernadette Mooney, one of the pioneers of BBSs carrying Usenet news. Her BBS, Pinnacle, was connected via Nacjack to KCBBS. She was a frequent contributor to various newsgroups, and her signature "BCNU B" was well-known to many.

Matthew Littlewood

Thu, 26 Sept 2013 12:41:15 +1200

Same here, but I think for different reasons. I never really had a record player, and used to buy cassettes which (inevitably) got eaten by one player or another.

CDs were a massive step up, because I’d copy them to tape, secure in the knowledge that when the tape eventually…

Stephen R

Thu, 26 Sept 2013 09:01:07 +1200

(although sadly I still buy CDs).
Same here, but I think for different reasons. I never really had a record player, and used to buy cassettes which (inevitably) got eaten by one player or another.

CDs were a massive step up, because I'd copy them to tape, secure in the…

JacksonP

Thu, 26 Sept 2013 07:52:16 +1200

Glad I found the time to read this. Fascinating piece. Cheers.

Chris Lipscombe

Thu, 26 Sept 2013 07:13:12 +1200

Enjoyed your piece Russell. Made me think fondly of old Deep Throat BBS days.

Matthew Littlewood

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 21:50:16 +1200

A fascinating article, Russell, and much to meditate on. Your comments on the music industry certainly made me rethink some of my knee-jerk stances, although I wonder whether it could've been so much different if the majors were so slow on the uptake and let Apple (via iTunes) steal such…

"chris"

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 18:23:49 +1200

Times are a changing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJUJAeG1sCQ

Insightful speech Russell, a nicely balanced appraisal. I’m also looking forward to watching that doco when it’s posted..I had a wee chuckle at “Enjoy the murder”.

Ross Mason

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 17:28:47 +1200

“2,258 items”.

Busy lad???

But look at his posting numbers here: 16783 !!!! Times are a changing.

Kyle Matthews

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 16:51:05 +1200

For many of the smaller ISPs then (and even now, from what I’ve heard), though, it was more “accidental” that the salespeople were misleading customers about “just signing up for information” on a form that was actually a service contract allowing both internet and telephone service to be transferred away…

Russell Brown

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 13:16:30 +1200

Yay!

"2,258 items".

Kirk Alexander

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 13:15:37 +1200

Oh well, never mind. I'm not sure what Rowan did but I've got a script that can extract just the article and comments from a Computerworld HTML page if that helps.

Rowan Crawford

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 12:57:19 +1200

Will give this a try Russell, start saving your pennies...
Doh! I asked on the twitters but I didn't see this here at the time.

Rowan Crawford has done it and stories are flowing into my Dropbox as we speak. Hurrah!
Yay!

Sorry about the "fish can't see water" problem…

Matthew Poole

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 12:50:27 +1200

Telecom accidentally signed up my dad to Xtra, even though he told them he was quite happy with Ihug.

With Telecom, accidentally is probably accurate, though possibly also not. For many of the smaller ISPs then (and even now, from what I've heard), though, it was more "accidental" that the…

Russell Brown

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 11:59:38 +1200

Will give this a try Russell, start saving your pennies…

Cool!

Update: Rowan Crawford has done it and stories are flowing into my Dropbox as we speak. Hurrah!

Russell Brown

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 11:59:16 +1200

From memory, Dad emailed details of this to Nick Wood, who thought it was hilarious and gleefully contacted Russell with news of this stuff-up by Ihug’s rival.

In the 76 pages of links to stories under my byline, there are many I'd forgotten about altogether. Thanks for the reminder!

Kirk Alexander

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 11:45:21 +1200

Also: If anyone would like to write me a script to scrape all my stories from the Computerworld website, just in case, I will surely buy you a drink.

Will give this a try Russell, start saving your pennies...

Robyn Gallagher

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 11:11:54 +1200

The Computerworld years weren't all junkets and scoops. Here's an awesome story from 1999 about the time Telecom accidentally signed up my dad to Xtra, even though he told them he was quite happy with Ihug.

From memory, Dad emailed details of this to Nick Wood, who thought it was…

Robyn Gallagher

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 11:02:11 +1200

This is driving change. NZ On Air still chips in $5000 for the cost of making a video — the same amount since the 1990s

Since the Making Tracks scheme was introduced in 2011, music video funding has increased to $6000, with an additional compulsory $2000 contribution from the artist.…

Russell Brown

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 11:00:17 +1200

I see another Brown is taking to the broadcast media on Sunday

Indeed! Can you hold fire on commenting on it while I write a separate post about it? coming soon.

Alastair Thompson

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 10:57:20 +1200

Hi,

I can vouch for Jimmy Rae Brown's employability. He is very obliging and capable and we will keep employing him to do tasks for us from time to time.

Great speech Russell. Sorry I missed it. Have had man-flu for more than a week!

Hilary Stace

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 10:37:47 +1200

I see another Brown is taking to the broadcast media on Sunday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlAjCSIMbtY

Russell Brown

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 10:32:29 +1200

However, I was more of a soc.culture.new-zealand type…

Hippy.

Richard Ram

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 10:22:31 +1200

Nice. However, I was more of a soc.culture.new-zealand type...

Geoff Lealand

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 10:18:43 +1200

Thanks, Russell. The topic for next week's lecture in my first yrear course is "The future of print", so I may well quote you.

Public Address

Wed, 25 Sept 2013 10:18:43 +1200

Discussion from blog post.