Posts by Russell Brown
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I actually thought there were still quite a few cyclists when I was down last week – although obviously it was people going around the CBD. The twice-daily flow across Hagley Park, to and from the city centre, is gone for now.
I was also reminded what a breeze it is cycling in a flat city. You can’t go far from where I live in Auckland without having to climb some sort of hill, but my little trundle got me to Avonside with minimal effort.
So, yes, David: you are even more right than you usually are.
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Hard News: We are all Twitter, in reply to Steven Price,
if we had celebrities…
Brutal.
Thanks Steven.
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Hard News: Someone has to be accountable…, in reply to Mr Merde,
Products are being bought and implimented that are outdated and not compatable with later versions of existing applications as a result the norm is to regress to older versions of applications.
I'm told the new system isn't IPv6 capable, which seems crazy.
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Hard News: Someone has to be accountable…, in reply to 3410,
I just don’t get the deafening silence from almost all quarters.
The Herald story itself is on page 7 of the paper. Not really getting why it isn't front-page news.
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Hard News: Someone has to be accountable…, in reply to Steve Withers,
Even more clever is the same people trying to blame Len Brown for the apparent dysfunction of the structures these same people imposed.
This was predicted last year and, verily, has come to pass.
It's really hard to look at this and not conclude that costs were deliberately hidden until they could be blamed on the new council.
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We have a result! Orsman in the Herald:
Super City reporter Local Government Minister Rodney Hide says there is nothing contradictory about a promise last year to build a new Super City computer system for $126 million and the final bill of $576 million.
Writing in the Herald in June last year to "get a few facts on the table", Mr Hide said there was a $60 million upfront investment for information technology and a "further $66 million on IT to finish the job post November 1 (when the Super City came into being)".
Yesterday, Mr Hide and Auckland Transition Agency boss Mark Ford distanced themselves from the projected $576 million bill to complete a new computer system, saying their job was only to get a basic system in place for the Super City on day one.
At no stage in the Herald article or in a May 27, 2010, press release on transition costs did Mr Hide mention the long-term IT costs, which were presented to Auckland councillors behind closed doors this month.
Making matters worse for ratepayers, the council has only budgeted $150 million for the $450 million cost over the next eight years. This has left a $300 million shortfall that will have to be borrowed or paid for from rates at a time of economic hardship.
I even get a mention, which is kind, given that all I've done is shouted about it occasionally.
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Can I seek some commentary on how much the Giggs palaver has to do with the UK’s particular laws and precedents around privacy?
Is there a sense in which it couldn’t happen here?
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Huh. I've only just noticed that I referred to the Auckland Transition Agency as the Auckland Transition Authority in the original post. Fixed. But aren't y'all supposed to crowdsource that sort of thing and tell me?
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Hard News: Someone has to be accountable…, in reply to John Holley,
The ATA was able to drive decisions through under a cloud of secrecy with no one, apart from the ratepayers of Auckland financially, being accountable for those decisions.
And this is firmer ground. It's an awful failure for which, as I suggested in the headline, someone must be held accountable.
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Hard News: We are all Twitter, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
You could report 10,000 people :-)
That sounds like a lot of work.