Posts by stever@cs.waikato.ac.nz
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Bletchley Park's website (how things have changed! It was a secret place until fairly recently!)
http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/
I guess if you think that the stored-program, digital, electronic computer is a good thing ( :-) ), then you will think that the people and the work that they did is a good thing, since Turing's, Newman's, Flower's etc. work led to where we are today, as a side effect, in a sense, of the code breaking work and the techniques and hardware developed to support it.
Oh! And it's the centenary of Turing's birth next year---BIG celebrations are planned around the world:
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Did either of the declared candidates for Epsom have any hand in any of this?
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Hard News: Someone has to be accountable…, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
I know :-)
But just for a moment I allowed myself the luxury of living in a good, fair world where baddies were apprehended and good triumphed.
We have to grab our pleasures whenever we can these days!
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Given the involvement (at least strategically and politically) of Key, Hide, English in all this, surely (given it's Auckland we're talking about) this MUST be the beginning of the end for them?
The Herald, at least, now has a gift of a series of stories to get its teeth into...
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I refer you all to Danielle's question along the lines of: can someone deconstruct the reasons why people think Key is a good bloke, a nice man etc.
I know it does no good trying to convince people who think that way otherwise, but....
....I WANT TO KNOW WHY THEY THINK THAT WAY, ANYHOW!!!!!!!!
I hate things I don't understand, and this is one of them. Please help!
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So, when is it OK to talk in a political way about the future?
I'd say that when the deputy PM says that everything is on the table for discussion, though makes it clear some things are more on the table than others, then he has started the political discussion,.
At which point, if others don't join in and consider the pros and cons, they are neglecting their duty.
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Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to Alex Coleman,
I think it's simpler---John Key is a coward. Not prepared to make clear what he believes in and then argue for it.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to BenWilson,
I can only speculate on why NZ would be a darling at any time – my guess is that it’s mostly through lack of actual knowledge, which leads to essentializing and romanticizing a place. NZ has a couple of extremities which can make it a natural settling point for theoretical views. It’s really remote, and really small, whilst at the same time being moderately developed. It’s the modern Timbuctoo. One of the first places you might think of when you wanted to get as far away from where you are as you can, in every sense of the word, without actually going into the wilderness or the third world.
This really does strike a chord for me, as an immigrant. And talking to my (still) European family (i.e they haven't moved form Europe), this does seem to be what they think of "us" (which is now how I think of myself, BTW). They romanticize it (when they think of it as anything but little Britain).
Brilliantly put, imho.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Looking back at reports from the time, those suggestions came from Boyens and Jackson.
Given today's news, those suggestions of rival bids are looking truthy.
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I also think it’s worrying that Brownlee’s Office (or was it Findlayson’s) was happy to give the Crown Law opinion to Warners, but still insist on withholding it from the NZ public.
That may be businesslike, but again it shows how business people make bad ministers.
They really won’t accept any concept of duty to the state, will they?