Posts by Kyle Matthews

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  • Hard News: Sunday's Perfect Storm,

    The standard parole conditions apply for a minimum of six months from release - even for those released at the absolute end of their sentence.

    Also, extended supervision orders (up to 10 years) are available against certain categories of offender (sex offenders mostly/entirely) which can also extend well beyond any finite sentence (which might be a 7 year maximum for indecent assualt, for example).

    Ah yes. I actually knew about the second, but not the first. How strange.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Shooting for the Moon,

    The other thing I'd like would be to get things more 'in one'.

    I don't want a telephone line, a fibre optic cable and a dish on the side of my house.

    I should be able to get all those things through one 'thing', I don't particularly mind which.

    The other thing I'd like to speculate on is high quality internet to the lamppost outside my house. If I have a wireless connection on my computer, there's no need to dig up my front lawn/add more overhead cables to get it into my house, I just need it to come close enough to pick up the signal. My ex-girlfriend lives in a region in greater LA where the local council has an ISP that puts transmitters on telephone polls, and then she pays for a login to use that access via her laptop.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Shooting for the Moon,

    Can I just ask the PA crowd what kinds of speeds they think they'd like? I'm curious as to how fast users think they want their connections to go (I hear everything from 10Mbit/s to 1Gbit/s to "I just want it to cost less, I don't care about the speed").

    My main current speed restriction is bringing down video, which I get at about quarter screen, but it comes down at about real time. If that could be bumped up to full screen, and increased in quality a bit.

    So that would be about 6 times my current (IHUG/Vodafone) connection, which when it's really flying torrents down at about 300KB.

    Beyond that I'd like to move onto video phone. That would require a big increase in uplink, which I guess means fibre to my door.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Speaker: China: Shaken and Stirred,

    you know, the look that says, "wtf would jesus do?"

    I thought the look was "umm. I'm halfway through a book right now about a goat. and you know how long it takes me to read a book".

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Island Life: A pig this good you don't…,

    The best government, in my view, is one that is modest about its own capacities, and carefully restrained.

    To which I'd add 'vision'.

    I don't mind the government going out and spending big on something, as long as it makes some sense and means we're reaching for something, rather than arguing about who piddled in the corner.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Sunday's Perfect Storm,

    The overwhelming majority of people just don't look like that. So why are designers and fashion media so damn scared of breaking the funhouse mirror?

    Chickens and eggs really. Because a big fashion label that breaks that mirror, is going to find themselves not sitting at the cool table, and not making so much news in the big magazines, less awards, and not getting so much attention in the public.

    That doesn't mean that they shouldn't do it, but there'd be a big price to pay, and it would only make a small dent in the problem.

    For starters "her" idea of abolishing parole entirely and then having prisoners subjected to "supervised release" when they've done the full length of their sentence. Talk about missing the point!

    Also illegal. You can't supervise people beyond the length of their sentence. Once the X years that the judge ordered them to serve is up, they're free to go, unrestrained and supervised by the state. That's why parole kicks in earlier, you can't start it after the 15 years are up.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Random Play: Whistle while you work,

    From wikipedia:

    In 1967, the pseudonymous Whistling Jack Smith (actually a session vocalist) recorded an all-whistling number called "I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman", which went Top 5 in the UK. Despite a title that baffled most Americans (who no doubt were thinking of the other Batman), the tune hit #20 on the Billboard charts.

    Top 5 in the UK. And those funky video effects!

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Sunday's Perfect Storm,

    Kyle - he was 12 years old. A child in anyones book, & that in mine requires that he is protected.

    I think it is worth drawing a comparison to child soliders.

    Well if he was a child, and I suspect he was, then I'd argue he shouldn't be locked away for... 7 years? Name suppression is pretty secondary to the effect that must have on someone's life.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Random Play: Whistle while you work,

    Perhaps I'm swimming against the tide, but I really like Te Papa. My son is an energetic child, finds most things in museums boring and stuff stuck in glass cases uninteresting.

    He really enjoys going to te papa, likes the interactivity, and learns stuff while he's there. As I understand it Te Papa has had great visitor numbers, both from NZers and tourists. Surely the first point of the museum is to get people in the door? If you fail at that you're just a stuffy old archive.

    Personally (and I say this as a historians), traditional museum displays that I saw as a child (which would have been the last time I was in the War Museum) are remarkably uninteresting. The use of video, noise, interactivity, new technologies make it a modern museum.

    That doesn't need to 'dumb things down', but different media require different uses of information.

    And the 'rides' that are at Te Papa with the digital surfing and whatnot? That's great fun to do with your kids. And it's still about learning, who says museums need to be about learning about the past, that's learning about the future.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Sunday's Perfect Storm,

    In my book he shouldn't be convicted of manslaughter & his name/photo should have been suppressed for life.

    Typically name suppression is given for the benefit of the victim. Regardless of whatever fascination the media has for this young man, I'd struggle to find a good reason for name suppression for someone who was an accessory to a murder.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

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