Posts by Paul Campbell

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  • Hard News: Fibre Coming Soon! Ish ...,

    latency is still an issue - the biggest bugaboo in my work life - I can't work right now because in the NZ evening packet latency from here to my US workplace is often popping around between 300mS and 10 seconds - tough if you're trying to type - best case latency to the US for me never seems to drop below ~200mS (it's gotten a lot better in the past year though - best case latency just from here to Auckland has dropped by ~100mS)

    you won't be directly controlling your robots remotely with latency like this - batch work though is here now - just ask Ponoko who already provide such a service from NZ

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: Fibre Coming Soon! Ish ...,

    Thinking more about his use of 'tranche' I wonder if under a Key govt we'd be in for 3 years of incomprehensible finance metaphors

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: Fibre Coming Soon! Ish ...,

    crap that link was meant to be 'Tranche'

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: Fibre Coming Soon! Ish ...,

    well all I can say is "roll on the election year internet infrastructure bidding wars!" - mind you he really said:

    "In the first six years, priority will be given to business premises, schools, health facilities, and the first tranche of homes"

    I'm not sure how one joins the "first tranche of homes"

    (a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranche_(disambiguation) in my experience usually refers to a type of financial instrument so I for one am confused - maybe it's the meat reference)

    I work at home, run a small business, maybe I can weasel in that way

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: Not all victims are equal,

    Russell: and that's part of my problem with the SST - they seem to just want to be angry and vent - I guess part of the deal is that they're a front for that wrath of god old testament justice part of the National Party and getting angry with Labour is part of the spiel - next time the nats get in I bet they wont be quite so critical

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: Not all victims are equal,

    "To the SST's frustration, the crime seems to all about the perp, and nothing about the victim."

    Obviously a crime is about both - but our justice system is set up to deal with the perps. Something that deals with locking people up, fines, home detention, whatever really doesn't have a place for victims - we've had a couple of centuries of justice-culture set up to deal with the bad guys

    One of the things we've learned over the years is that justice has to be fair - used to be if you were poor they sent you to Australia - now days we expect the rich and poor, gang members and business men to be treated equally for the same crimes - we've built a carefull dance to try and make that happen - it isn't perfect, but then it probably never will be.

    There's sort of 2 ways you can include the victims - you can come up with some sort of restorative process - hard for people who are locked up, easier for those white collar guys or, if you follow the SST, you can give them some revenge - I'd argue that revenge really doesn't help anyone, it maybe even makes matters worse rather than better - but then I'm a big fan of Nelson Mandela

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: Not all victims are equal,

    I was listening to this this morning on the radio and all I could think was "why can't they find something that isn't a baseball metaphor" - I understand they're basically channeling the US right-wing but surely they could be a little more subtle "10 wickets and you're down"? "6 balls and you change ends"? maybe a bowls metaphor? (the rugby rules keep changing too fast)

    I was living in California when they instituted "3 strikes" - it made for great polemics for politicians - but it also lead to weird stuff like people going to jail for life for stealing slices of pizza - definitely not justice

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: Hot Media,

    Ondemand just tells me "sorry this content isn't available for you to view" - doesn't even try to suggest I'm not a kiwi

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: Hot Media,

    I actually work for a company where people are required to (occasionally) look at porn - it's handled very carefully with signed releases, permission slips from managers and closed doors .... largely to avoid sexual harassment lawsuits ....

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Island Life: What I've done with Julie…,

    well you see later on I really did get into much bigger rockets (maybe not quite that big) ... my wife is understanding and I've since spent much more on them than the good old skyrockets I bought when she was my GF ....

    sadly I haven't flown rockets since I moved back to NZ and skyrockets are no longer sold during GF - otherwise surely the China free trade deal would have meant more wondrous fireworks than we possibly could have imagined - instead they're going to send us their tai-chi instructors - presumeably as an end around the Falung Gong

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

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