Posts by Robyn Gallagher

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  • Island Life: Know your current events,

    Shakespeare had a blog, which, in the absence of a working internetz, was nailed to a tree in Stratford.

    I immediately thought of Stratford in the 'Naki, and I was like, "Well, they do have that whole Shakespeare thing going on with the street names there..."

    Oh.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report

  • Hard News: Don't call it a consensus,

    I was thinking that Elliot was a kind of unusual name for a girl (I say this as someone who has been called Mr Robin Gallagher), but then it clicked.

    Speaking of women with men's names - Barack Obama's mom's first name is Stanley.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report

  • Hard News: They don't make 'em like they…,

    I well remember when I first discovered puters which was the same time as the World Wide Web really became populist in NZ (about 1995, I think).

    I once read that if you ask people what was the year that the web went from being a niche experience for geeks and scientists to being populist, they'll name the year they first got online!

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report

  • Cracker: Bye Wellington,

    Well he was the first PILF in my lifetime.

    During the 1992 election campaign, I remember telling some friends at school (I was 17) that I thought Clinton was the first good looking American president since Kennedy.

    They all looked at me like I was mental.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report

  • Hard News: They don't make 'em like they…,

    __I sometimes like to amuse myself by totting up what my current monthly usage would have cost me back in the old days. 60GB a month, anyone?__

    Seriously. Get out more dude. There's a whole world out there waiting for you.

    It's very easy to rack up many gigs by setting up bittorrent downloads of movies and TV shows and letting them go at night while you're asleep, or during the day when you're out. (And I'm sure having teenagers in the household contributes too)

    It's not quite the sign of a lifeless nerd.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report

  • Hard News: They don't make 'em like they…,

    (If anyone can - ahem burn me a copy of their album, it'd be appreciated. :)

    You should know that such a group will have an international fanboy following and will have ended up on an mp3 blog.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report

  • Hard News: They don't make 'em like they…,

    I just checked my website stats - in the last six months, I had seven visitors using Netscape, and they all looked like one-off visits.

    I fondly remember when I first used Netscape back in '95 - the version with the blocky 'N' that pulsated to let you know it was loading a webpage, and that default grey as the background for all pages without a background colour set.

    I don't want to get all nostalgic, but I like how the net was back then. It was simple and nerdy and fun and promised great things, even though it was slow, clunky and a bit ugly. Of course, the net is better now, but we wouldn't have got here without the clunky ol' days of Netscape.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report

  • Hard News: Networking takes a back seat,

    I'm always amazed by people who don't like zoos.

    I'd always taken zoos for granted, but then one day I started thinking about exactly what zoos are for and I got a little bit creeped out.

    There are arguments that some animals in zoos are there because they are endangered species or at risk of being poached and so the zoo life gives the animal a better chance of reproduction and survival.

    But most of the animals in Auckland Zoo aren't endangered. They've been taken from their wild homes, transported to New Zealand for... For what? For our entertainment? Education? Amusement?

    Why do we need to see a giraffe in a pit in Western Springs to understand it? Why can a wildlife documentary not show the same?

    Are zoos are creepy relic of bygone era that we've attempted to make better in this modern age? And even if you give a rhino a nice African name like Mtoto instead of Charlie, what difference does that make if the rhino can't go for a run in whatever direction it feels like?

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report

  • OnPoint: Children come first, except…,

    all this stock standard typography and grammatical regulation is nutting me out.

    I once read that graffiti is a very conservative artform. The standard form was established in the 1970s and there's been little change to it since then. Very few graffiti artists veer from the template of writing their name in big bubble letters with spraypaint.

    But every now and then I'll see something on the streets of Auckland that is just a bit different from the rest. For example, this one which was done with house paint and fills a vertical space.

    I'm also fond of the accidental art caused by buffs (that's the name for when the council man paints over graffiti). I found this powerful yellow wall in Palmerston North with three shades of yellow paint. In fact, there's a Flickr group dedicated to the interesting art those blotches of paint accidentally create in their effort to cover over someone else's art.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report

  • Hard News: Not so much ironic as outrageous,

    Would International Observer have sent this drivel if his/her real name was printed?

    Hi Judy. IO is a PA System regular, even while he doesn't post under his own name, he does post enough that other regulars have got to know him, if you know what I mean.

    His post above was sarcasm, so maybe you could read it again with that in mind.

    Of course, sarcasm only works if it's obvious to the reader. (I like the old faux HTML </sarcasm> tags.)

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report

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