DomPost – Trans-Tasman cable funds withdrawn

Then again, TeamTalk has a potential Plan B. And better still, it'd be run from Kapiti.

Robyn just picked up several coolness points.

That must be why her STARmeter went up another 1% this week.

Robyn just picked up several coolness points.

Yeah, like she needs any more of those.

My favourite one is that in the early days people phoned the operator to ask the same questions that today we ask each other via Google.

Robyn just picked up several coolness points.

As a young lady Nana worked for some time on a switchboard in Manchester.

So did my mum – well, not in Manchester obviously. And she has great stories. My favourite one is that in the early days people phoned the operator to ask the same questions that today we…

As a young lady Nana worked for some time on a switchboard in Manchester. I really must dig out a dictaphone and ask her all about it one weekend.

My Nana, between her first and second husband, worked for... the post office I guess it would have been then?... on…

You could call it something like Connecting the Clouds. :)

That would certainly be the primary text. But Keith Newman's book is almost unfeasibly comprehensive. A doco would be some people's best stories.

I just watched the episode on TVNZ ondemand and I really enjoyed it!

Thanks!

I normally have a reasonable sense of timing in managing discussions. The internet one, I just got so absorbed I didn't even get to half my questions.

Afterwards, Nat informed me of the look in my…

And then — because it's 20 years ago this month — I'll be pondering the connection of New Zealand's first internet link to the rest of the world

I just watched the episode on TVNZ ondemand and I really enjoyed it!

Those three fellows all had interesting things to say.…

But next time, eh?

(More flattering angle here – mind you, any pic from 20 years ago is almost always more flattering).

(For future reference, Amy is not only a pioneer internaut, but also exceptionally telegenic. Ratings, people. Think of your ratings!).

Hear, hear! ;-)

I suspect factored out as not available for a tv appearance in Auckland this evening.

Apparently there's this thing called videoconferencing... but I think it needs a computer or something.

(For future reference, Amy is not only a pioneer internaut, but also exceptionally telegenic. Ratings, people. Think of your ratings!).

Can we not go down this route again, please?

Totally agree.

Fist-bump to Robyn for raising the question in the first place.

I knew you guys were terrorists!

But perhaps I'm being factored out as a groupie?

No disrespect indended. In the context of this discussion, I suspect factored out as not available for a tv appearance in Auckland this evening. That's all.

Funny that, Amy – I was about to name-check you and your awesome recipe data-base, one of the earliest practical applications of the internet.

True story: my first week in grad school, I was approached by a postdoc who asked if I was "the Amy Gale with the recipes".

It's…

If it's stories you want, Russell, you could try Noeline McCaughan. I'm pretty sure she's still out there. Her usenet contributions (food, ferrets, family) were legendary,…

Russell says "They all have their own stories to tell of our early internet". Later internet, far more women's voices.

Well, for one data point, if Nat was somewhere in the early/mid 90s then often I was there too. Sometimes working directly on the same thing (visiting govt departments to…

There is no apostrophe in the possessive pronoun "its". Nor is there an apostrophe in the possessive pronouns "his" and "hers".

However, when "it is" is abbreviated to "it's" then, of course, an apostrophe signals the loss of an original letter.

As a retired teacher I am dismayed at our…

http://imgur.com/27K39.jpg

Sacha, maybe not the its/it's distinction, but I really did have to…

[it only took 1 year in Canada to turn me into a hockey nut... and that's with my local team being the incredibly, consistently shitty Leafs!…

Time to watch the Bruins wins the cup...

However, when "it is" is abbreviated to "it's" then, of course, an apostrophe signals the loss of an original letter.

As a retired teacher I am dismayed at our…

CIF : HD downloads of all playoff games and most regular season via torrent. Open regs at the moment.

Please find me that for the NFL. Please.

For example, NHL coverage in NZ is almost impossible to get.

CIF : HD downloads of all playoff games and most regular season via torrent. Open regs at the moment.

(Currently waiting for todays Sharks/Ducks game six to be posted)

I'd quite like to watch the Stanley Cup playoffs on the NHL.com website, but their streaming service requires 750 kbps to get a smooth viewing experience.

One of us... one of us...

Which is why I expect "cromulent" to appear soon if it doesn't already.

Ahem

How slow is the internet in New Zealand? who is this for apart from gamers?

Rod Drury's Securing Our Digital Trade Routes is a good starting point.

Speed isn't the most critical factor, but rather it's the monthly data caps and global connectivity that are the issue, which the Kordia-PipeNet…

For example, NHL coverage in NZ is almost impossible to get. I'd quite like to watch the Stanley Cup playoffs on the NHL.com website, but their streaming service requires 750 kbps to get a smooth viewing experience. The…

Empty ducts: Lowest rollout cost / Highest user connection cost / Highest upgradability

Passive splitters: Lower rollout cost / Medium user connection cost / Medium upgradability

Direct fibre: Higher rollout cost / Medium…

If you're like to join us for tomorrow's recording, after 5pm at the Classic Comedy Club in Queen St, hit Reply and let me know.

I hope you'll all come down to the London Bar after Media7 to hear Mayor Len Brown speak on regional governance at the monthly Drinking…

That's why I like the to-the-road approach, because it provides the backbone, removes some large-scale-uncertainty for private investors and allows for connections to then only be made on a "who actually wants it" basis

Which kinda what you'd have if the government got it right with regulating the cabinets. Telecom…

That's why I like the to-the-road approach, because it provides the backbone, removes some large-scale-uncertainty for private investors and…

Unfortunately I liked that as a low cost model, which apparently it isn't, and Treasury believes that private investors won't be interested as they'd have no return (although some may be willing if they are then locked in as the final connectors)

This was the problem with Maurice Williamson's costings…

The budgeted $1.5 billion is nothing like enough to pay the taxpayer's half of a high-speed fibre network reaching 75% of New Zealanders. The total cost is more like between $5bn and $10bn.

Interestingly, the study suggests that $3bn would possibly be enough to get fibre to the road. This…

It goes beyond the transgressions we accept and expect from student journalists, and does no good to any aspirations Oliver might have to a journalistic career of his own.

Surely all recent evidence shows that the ability to issue superflous legal documents, overreact to someone writing a blog and to…

Swine before churls.

Stephen, just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge your awesome punning prowess. Maximum respect, dude.

1. The budgeted $1.5 billion is nothing like enough to pay the taxpayer's half of a high-speed fibre network reaching 75% of New Zealanders. The total cost is more like between $5bn and $10bn.

2. No 1 is especially true if you actually want "ultra-fast" broadband in the form of…

Parliament is debating swine flu at the moment...

Ah, is that scheduled prior to question time? Swine before churls.

Speaking of reality TV did anyone hear the brilliant CEO of the Italian cruise ship attacked by pirates describe the event as the next level of reality TV, with priates wanting to be stars of their own reality shows

Sounds like we're closer to the Running Man and Series 7…

I'm getting the "internal error" message more often than not these days

I have got it almost every single time. It's reached the point where I'll hardly ever follow a link to Stuff at all, no matter what machine I'm using. It's a pity.

Here about 6:16 in

http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/mnr/2009/04/28/pirates_fail_to_board_cruise_ship

Could anyone imagine any NZ CEO…

1. The budgeted $1.5 billion is…

Ooops – that needed one of these. :)

Thanks Sacha – paranoia dispelled. (Which may mean I've spelt it wrong.)

Even Johnson wrote that one couldn't fix the language and that it was futile to try.

Just so. Which, perhaps rather too neatly, prodded me to recall Boswell's account of the following...

__After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious…

Russell, you have to put a space between the quote thing and the italics thing.
You'll learn. :)

Clearly ...

What would work is a Wikipedia-style button bar, where you just highlight text & click a button, without the need to type in anything extra.

Russell, you have to put a space between the quote thing and the italics thing.
You'll learn. :)

Clearly ...

Well they'd still be a really muscled up Vodafone/ihug wouldn't they?

True, they will have a strength in mobile networks as well when they role the 3g stuff out in May.

As an aside, who's to say we won't be having the same conversation with regards to open access cellular…

If you can't rely on the people who write dictionaries to be pendants... the world really is ending.

Your reliance has been misplaced since the OED got underway, at least. For decades if not a couple centuries, English lexicographers have record words as they are used, not as stylists wish…

Sorry – I do know how to spell 'you're' – see.

Weakest link. ref. "Off the island."

I can't swim.

if Telecom lost control of Chorus their share price would tank

Well naturally, but each shareholder would also get a very large payout of their share of the serious moolah Chorus would bring in the new fibre environment. And I would expect Telecom to retain a non-controlling ownership stake.

I…

We've turned on a dime and gone for the swine in this week's Media7. The opening panel will look at the swine flu coverage

I had a call from a Waikato Times journo this morning, wanting my thoughts on the coverage. As I didn't have anything profound to offer (other…

Telecom seems to have decided that co-operation is the better part of valour in hitching itself to the government's grand fibre plan — and, in the process, putting some meat on the bones of the idea.

Chorus would make a fine Fibre Co, provided Telecom was structurally separated and that…

Sorry – I do know how to spell 'you're' – see.

Weakest link. ref. "Off the island."

If you can't rely on the people who write dictionaries to be pendants... the world really is ending.

I know. They probably also give "imply" as a definition of "infer."

Well, they certainly have given in to those who misuse "factoid" to mean "an insignificant or trivial fact." That definition…

These things tend to be hard enough to put together as it is.

Yes, I was trying to be compassionate about the resources of a small weekly show. If it were 60 Minutes or CloseUp or a full documentary, no tolerance here.

our medical panel in the same show is 100% female.

What, you didn't bother to find any men? :)

Some unpublicised research in the 90s from the old NorthHealth RHA showed men worse off in all monitored health outcomes that affected both men and women (excluding testicular and ovarian cancers,…

They probably also give "imply" as a definition of "infer."

No 2 option in NZ Oxford, No 3 on Encarta.

Truly, these are the end times.

Your still distracting me!

They probably also give "imply" as a definition of "infer."

No 2 option in NZ Oxford, No 3 on Encarta.

Truly, these are the end times.

What Robyn Said. I would have thought it easy enough to contact say the Waikato University Computer Science Department, and work your way out from there...

In the hope of finding someone of the desired gender? These things tend to be hard enough to put together as it is. Like…

They probably also give "imply" as a definition of "infer."

No 2 option in NZ Oxford, No 3 on Encarta. Now please stop distracting me from my work!

You, too, may be thinking that even if the client doesn't know what "refute" means, surely his lawyer would.

Ouch!

I have written a few "cease and desist" letters during my legal career, and may once or twice have used the word "refute" when I meant "deny". It seems like…

In reference to the birth of net culture in NZ, I worked at DSIR between…

I guess the "20 year" anniversary depends on what you define as the "Internet". For those of us who have being using it for longer, at least in the UUCP/JANET variants, the 20th was long ago. :)

Not having been hooked into net culture at it's birth, what were the significant differences by gender in the experience?

Dunno, so let's hear from those who were there.

...their version of events will start to become the official story.

History is the end product of what gets written down/repeated…

If you can't rely on the people who write dictionaries to be pendants... the world really is ending.

I know. They probably also give "imply" as a definition of "infer."

i still think 'babe flu' or piglet flu' would sound much nicer

In Indonesian, it's flu babi. (pron – bahbi) It makes me smile every time I hear it.

Russell's post talked about hitching. In a slight change of thread direction disability activists have
chained themselves to the gates of the White House to protest at long term disability services and supports not being part of the Obama health plan. That means the bias towards institutional care in the…

I just wouldn't expect it to be as easy at short notice to track many down, is all.

Actually, when Connecting the Clouds came out and Robyn bristled here at the paltry number of women in the Index, weren't quite a few names brought up? I might be getting mixed…

If you can't rely on the people who write dictionaries to be pendants...

... we'll be the ones left hanging?

Refute: The Encarta World Dictionary gives as it's second option: To deny an allegation or contradict a statement without disproving it.

If you can't rely on the people who write dictionaries to be pendants... the world really is ending.

Robyn, surely you've asnswered your own question, to be fair. Russell says "They all have their own stories to tell of our early internet". Later internet, far more women's voices.

We shouldn't not hear from women just because there weren't many online back then.

In fact, it's because they were…

http://www.therealcuba.com/MurderedbyChe.htm

Refute: The Encarta World Dictionary gives as it's second option: To deny an allegation or contradict a statement without disproving it.

Backsliders.

It's not exactly proof though, is it?

i still think 'babe flu' or piglet flu' would sound much nicer

Considering I've heard suggestion that the current strain is a mix of pig, avian and human influenza, I've suggested Turducken Flu elsewhere...

There is a subtle play in there that Chorus is "effectively" separated…

Lin Nah, and Kim Scheinberg of Iconz come to mind

It would certainly be good to hear from them. I'm too tired to articulate rationally, but yeah, what Robyn said. And not what Sacha said. Domination doesn't mean exclusivity and I want to hear our stories too.

Hope that doesn't…

Refute: The Encarta World Dictionary gives as it's second option: To deny an allegation or contradict a statement without disproving it.

Backsliders.

I think an account of the very early days really should have someone from Waikato University, eg John Houlker.

One News has interviewed John, so we thought we'd try someone else. There were quite a few candidates for the panel (Tim Wood was keen, but is out of the country…

I refute those alligators, sir.

We all know that alligator skin makes fine quality boots and shoes.

Boots and shoes are made by cobblers.

Young people these days don't want to learn the demanding skills, so fine shoes are mostly made by aging artisans.

So what you are effectively saying…

Bart – someone's bound to try telling you that alligators are mammals too, as they have to come up for air.

I refute those alligators, sir. Utterly.

Impossible! Only mammals have udders.

I know it was male-dominated back then

Robyn, surely you've asnswered your own question, to be fair. Russell says "They all have their own stories to tell of our early internet". Later internet, far more women's voices.

Because you're all terrible at reading maps.

You, too, may be thinking that even if the client doesn't know what "refute" means, surely his lawyer would.

Professional journos no longer seem to understand that "refute" is not a synonym for "deny", so I'm not holding my breath for student media to do any better. However I agree…