Posts by David Slack
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I'd love to hear it on a ukelele. Is that something you could arrange, Jolisa?
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Tim Hazeldine speaks quite persuasively on this subject. He asks what use these league tables serve.
Certainly the notion of all boats rising, which you might use in its place, is one the free market advocates embraced enthusiastically although the cost on the planet's consumption somewhat taxes that proposition.
And neither does it address the valid question you raise: what actually constitutes a good, happy life? Hazeldine, if I recall his argument accurately, thinks it has a lot do with reducing the margin of inequality.
I have to say I'm still pining for this country, which is coming somewhat reluctantly to the free-market party: french-trader-was-forced-to-work-30-hours-a-week
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The starting point for the Duckspeak engine was the notion that is might be instructive to sift out all the flannel and see what substance might remain. (What does this substance suggest about the speaker? How much do they have compared to others? Bias and agenda that might be revealed could be interesting too but I'm not necessarily looking for a gotcha so much as interesting ideas, fresh thinking and good old fashioned stories and data.)
Along the way I've been adding some other considerations, like Keith and Rob's suggestion last year to measure language inflation by indexing any detectable rise in hyperbole using Hansard. That would probably be found in the flannel chucked out by the Duckspeak engine.
In talking about these ideas, I'm really just wondering aloud about what I might find by applying some different measurement techniques. Mostly I keep coming around to the same conclusion that so much of my work in the last few years has kept pitching me towards and that's that I really need to undertake some formal study in linguistics.
Bayesian voodoo with RSS feeds? Bring it on. I'm happy to kick all kinds of possibilities about this year while I mostly apply myself to not-dissimilar work on my website.
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D'oh. Thank you Robyn. Corrected.
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Finn, I love it. Stephen and Lyndon, we should most certainly talk.
Llew, stocks are not the only other fruit. And yes, let's work up that export niche. I'm thinking Michael Bulgaris to do the brokerage?
Russell, would you accept "customary annual aberraton"?
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When Mr. Slack is finished building his Quackspeak Detector-cum-Rhetorical-Inflation Engine, we could collaborate on a domestic political/blog version of Bullshit Bingo. Endure election season and win fabulous prizes!
As a matter of fact I was working on the very thing at the moment you wrote that. Here, have some raw data:
Most frequently used words: "young" and "youth" - 50-odd mentions each.
Here are the residual words left in John Key's speech after the duckspeak engine is done with it. (Incidentally, the DuckSpeak engine won't be available for the next little while. I will have it up on the hoist.)
I've also got a Tag Cloud here
labour
clark
helen
zealand
economy
global
kiwi
world
aspire
bigger
country
election
everest
falling
greater
kids
kiwis
nation
rates
voters
wages
wealth
wind
zealanders
accomplish
afford
ages
ago
alarming
australia
base
billions
build
buy
carbon
challenge
claim
climbed
companies
concentrated
continue
continuing
cracks
crime
despite
dollars
earth
ed
edmund
emerging
emissions
extra
failed
failing
favourite
feats
finance
foothill
fought
foundations
fresh
future
gap
gas
giving
goodbye
government
grateful
greenhouse
grocery
grossly
happy
harder
hardworking
health
heights
highest
hillary
hoodwink
house
immune
impacts
importance
improved
improvement
inadequate
inflation
inheritance
inheriting
innocent
issues
job
leaving
legacy
less
likelihood
literacy
lose
lower
matter
matters
minister
momentum
more
mortgage
mountain
neutral
new
numeracy
oecd
opportunities
paying
person
petrol
poured
prepared
prices
prime
questions
ranking
rate
remembered
remind
reminder
retirement
right
rise
rock
rocketing
roof
sandwiched
save
savings
second
severe
sick
significant
signs
skills
slowing
soar
solid
son
speech
sports
squandered
still
stronger
survival
tail
team
thousands
tomorrow
turning
unable
uncertainty
under
upwards
violent
wasted
wealthiest
winds
wrong
yourselves
zealander -
This solves the airport problem:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=108044Indeed it does. Richard, who is formally qualified to say so , informs me that it's not rocket science. My problem was that I was trying to do the Factory Default reset, described at the foot of the page. That one just would not take. What it actually needed was the hard reset. Helen has now gone. Of course, if it's also possible that the black ops people have been at work overnight....
Rob: Sadly, because the reset worked, I can't try the honk. I do sense a Youtube mash-up on the way, though.Paul: I use the tinfoil to wrap around my cellphone. It's the only way I can get stable V*d*f*n* reception in my office here on the isolated shores of the Waitemata harbour.
Meanwhile: here's a question I have already asked Richard:
Internet, connecting to Airport Extreme by wireless, is substantially slower on the Macbook Pro (using Leopard) than it is on ethernet. (Or more specifically: initial page loading is much slower. Subsequent refreshing of the page is much closer to the ethernet speed.) I don't strike this at all on the Windows laptops. In their case the wireless speed is almost as good as ethernet. Posts on discussion boards suggest other people are having the same problem. No configuration change seems to be able to cure it (including disabling all security). Any suggestion would be welcome.
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Jackie, I feel your pain. As usual when we travel, I'm saying "why don't we move here?" Perhaps this time I can persuade Karren. She hates that equinoxial wind.
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Leigh: a tin of salmon and two pieces of toast for lunch. And an orange. Don’t let anyone tell you that writers lead fabulous exotic lives.
RB. None for you on Saturday then. -