Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Dropping the Bomber, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Of course it isn't as blatant as that. I'd be surprised to find a smoking gun email setting out terms. But there's a general consideration that in return for Mediaworks running radio stations that promote a right-wing agenda, they'll get favourable treatment on things like license fees.
That'll be why they aired Public Address Radio for five years, then.
Radio Live is a commercial radio station -- that's all you need to know. The Prime Minister is hugely popular, for reasons that have little to do with politics in a conventional sense. Put him on and people will not only listen, they will talk about it. It was a great score for a station that struggles for a profile.
Same with RNZ - management know which side their bread's buttered.
I can only imagine the furore had something similar happened when Helen Clark was Prime Minister.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to 3410,
The idea of a "hospitality bonanza" wasn't so much "anticipated" as "heavily promoted". Frankly, many of us predicted this outcome and were shouted down as "being negative" etc.
The thing is, that bonanza did happen in 2006, big time. It wasn't at all unreasonable to assume at least a similar degree of business given that there were many more games on.
And I don't think anyone predicted the extent to which local custom has stayed died away -- this isn't just a bonanza not eventuating, it's a collapse in comparison to normal trading for the time of year. OTOH, (virtually) no one predicted the massive turnout for the opening day in Auckland. The public has responded enthusiastically to the event -- but is staying at home at other times.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Ngaire BookieMonster,
We’ve definitely seen a deluge of camper vans and foreign tourists in our region (Matamata-Piako) and we noticed the same in Coromandel two weekends ago.
I gather Nelson's been quite lively too.
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Hard News: Thanks, Steve. For everything., in reply to Christopher Dempsey,
Has anyone read Job’s commencement address that may explain a few things?
It's definitive.
Steve Jobs: The godfather of fonts as we know them includes some comment from his calligraphy instructor at Reed.
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As a comparison to iTunes>iPod, consider Sony's MiniDisc player. Sound quality was pretty good for music, and it was a good field-recording device. Later versions even connected to your computer via USB, but the software for managing it was some of the most insanely awful shit I've ever seen. And it wouldn't even let you transfer recordings you'd made as files. And the controls were stupid and fiddly.
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Hard News: Thanks, Steve. For everything., in reply to Sacha,
The impact of iTunes was really as an aggregation/market channel, not a technology/protocol.
It was an environment in which people felt comfortable buying music downloads and that hadn’t really happened at that point. The major labels had formed cartels and tried to be their own retailers and failed miserably. Windows Media DRM was a frankly idiotic experience.
Apple devised a DRM scheme that assuaged the majors’ fears but was sufficiently light-handed that it wasn’t really a bother (or even apparent) to the majority of people – and then Jobs chivvied the labels into relinquishing DRM restrictions altogether.
When the iTunes Store launched, one application let you buy music and video and play it on your computer, make libraries, burn them to CD, or seamlessly sync them with an iPod. It was also a music server (and now video) that networked with other computers or with Airport Express, which had audio-out ports you could plug your stereo into. The application is a pig in need of reform now, but it was a true joined-up product.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
But hey, one thing Clark had in spades over any Nat, she had maturity. I saw her once say “haters” frustrated. That was it. Talk about cool calm and on top. :)
She said a few other things she might have regretted too. She moved fairly serenely through her first couple of years but by the 2002 election was displaying impatience and even anger when things didn't go her way. She tended to react poorly to being wrong and was prone to believing her own bullshit. She was also, of course, a successful and effective Prime Minister with a remarkable intellect.
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Hard News: LATE OCTOBER: Life in the…, in reply to Sacha,
Normalisation is more convenient for the helpers. Good analysis and articulation.
Yes. She knew I didn't want a stump speech, so she had to front on a personal level. I thought she was impressive.
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Hard News: Thanks, Steve. For everything., in reply to Lilith __,
Windows 7 is a brainy and responsive OS, light years ahead of XP. It’s good to use, it does what I need it to.
Yep, I get that. I don't use it, but my boy does and it's pretty clearly the best Windows ever.
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Hard News: Thanks, Steve. For everything., in reply to Stephen Judd,
I accept that I’m out of step with the majority, and perhaps the problem lies with me, but it’s all a bit Princess Diana to me.
I can’t see that at all. People imagined a personal connection with Diana because they’d read about her in magazines. People felt a personal connection to Jobs because they’d used tools he’d created, in some cases for decades. The scale, tone and nature of public mourning also seems very different. So yeah, nah.
"Thank you” Post-It notes on the Apple Store window? Weird.
No “weirder” than the blog post above, surely. There’s nothing weird about acknowledging a debt of thanks on the occasion of someone’s death.
When the tributes are so uncritical, I think the charge of hagiography stands.
Tributes in the 48 hours following someone’s death usually aren’t critical. Indeed, pretty much by definition, tributes aren’t critical.
Addendum: will people feel like this when Larry Ellison dies? Why not?
Interesting question. They have some things in common – both adopted out by biological parents they had contact with later in life, for example – but I guess it comes down to what has Larry Ellison ever done for me?
I’ve seen then both deliver keynotes. Jobs’ enthusiasm was infectious; he nailed what he was doing. OTOH, I saw Ellison lose his composure when an OpenWorld presentation went wrong and then file into a press conference with a Gaddafi like retinue of va-va-voom personal assistants – he seemed faintly absurd. Ellison preened, Jobs didn’t.