Posts by Kyle Matthews

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  • Hard News: Awful in more than one way,

    one form of ID

    I think I might have this detail wrong. Two forms of ID. And a cheque book (which apparently counts as a third there).

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Awful in more than one way,

    And, Kyle, you can reduce any debate to its lunatic fringes while emotions are (understandably) sky high. I personally don't think political posturing over open graves is constructive let alone in anything less than appalling taste.

    Well that wasn't political posturing, it was "hey look at a couple of messed things I heard related to this news". Political posturing is "man, they should ban guns in the USA, look what people do with guns."

    But today and tomorrow and the following days are precisely the time to talk and think about gun control laws. Lots of countries, as people have pointed out, have taken steps following gun massacres, to improve their gun control laws.

    I don't think the US will do that now, but when someone runs rampage with a weapon who's sole purpose is killing people (as compared to animals or targets) that they got for $500 in five minutes with one form of ID and an 'instant police check' which took less than a minute, at a gun fair, leaving 33 dead and more injured - sounds like a good time to talk about gun control to me.

    Saying 'people are dead, we shouldn't talk about how this has happened now' is like saying 1968 is a bad year to talk about US involvement in Vietnam, because My Lai just happened and we should respect the recently dead.

    Philip Alpers hasn't been on Fair Go for about 20 years.

    No, but it was like a blast from my teenage years. It's like wandering down the streets and seeing Dougal Stevenson!

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Awful in more than one way,

    I was watching Campbell Live when he interviewed Philip Alpers, who's in the gun control side of the argument (and Fair Go!).

    He said there was a group in Virginia, whose basic purpose was to carry around loaded and unconcealed weapons and go into places like restaurants and movie theatres and whatnot, solely for the purpose of blatantly pointing out their right to do so. A, "You can't tell me where I can't carry a weapon, so I'm going to carry it everywhere".

    And a gun nut who argued that the best response to Columbine would have been to arm all teachers with guns.

    One of my best friends graduated from Virgina Tech in the late nineties. She had a really rough, quiet thoughtful day yesterday. I can't think that morons arguing for more guns really helped her very much, or indeed anyone who was actually on campus.

    So many levels of fucked up, it's hard to know where to begin.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Biting back at Bill,

    Apart from the obvious cost savings in padding out your broadcast with other people's footage, perhaps some smart person knows that there are lots of Kiwi expats in Oz?

    Surely they're watching Australian news and not our news? I mean, that would make sense if it was lots of news stories about Kiwis in Australia, but not... Australian fluff of no relevance in Australia.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Speaker: Part 19: Beating Sri Lanka,

    If it's going to be an SL/Aus final, sentimentally I know who I'll be backing.

    Wash out your mouth, turn around three times and spit!

    You forgot the letters 'NZ' in that sentence. Wipe out one of the other two.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Art and the Big Guy,

    But I recall that there was a reproduction right implicit in the price. Do I recall correctly? Anyone know how that works? Who grants the right and who gets the money?

    My understanding is that purchasing an artwork, does not give you the right to reproduce the artwork and sell it. Artists retain rights over reproduction. I'm sure however that it's often done and artists either don't know or don't do anything about it.

    If you were to make posters of an artwork, you would have to contact the artist, the owner of the artwork, and the photographer (or other means of capturing it) and get their permission, and negotiate with all of them any fees.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Art and the Big Guy,

    Speaking of which: have to agree with the prognosis for NZ rugby. The All Blacks- and NZ rugby in general- have not yet recovered from/fully adapted to the all-consuming Super 10-12-14 competition. Despite making money out of it myself :-) and enjoying a lot of the great rugby it's produced, it's crammed the season and disrupted the other games and teams in ways that are as easy to identify as they are hard to hard to quantify.

    I think the problem isn't that people go overseas to chase the dollar, the problem is that the best competition in the world is so far behind the dollar amounts. Players can make twice or three times as much heading over to England and playing in a decidedly average competition, when they only play half as much.

    I think administrators need to think outside the square more. Why don't Super 14 teams have to play one home game away from home every season? Crusaders vs Bulls at Twickenham. Blues vs Brumbies in Tokyo. Force vs Cheetahs in Paris. You could tag them next to the byes so travel time wasn't such an issue.

    Super 14 is based in three countries with small populations and therefore small sponsorship and other commercial markets. You take it to other countries where rugby is big, and populations are big, then you open it up to a lot more money. Baseball did this a while ago, two teams flew to Japan (which is a massive baseball market) and played their game there for the season opener. The NRL does it as well - Bulldogs play home games in Christchurch against the Warriors.

    Do we really want our players heading to Europe to play in a B grade competition and then come back to front up for the All Blacks? They should be playing here because this is the best competition for them.

    If they want to go overseas for 'something different' and to 'live elsewhere' that's a different story. Good on them. But they shouldn't be allowed in the black jersey while they're there. That'll hurt local competitions too much.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Art and the Big Guy,

    I concur with Russell that the comparison with the music industry is only useful to see that a collection method is possible. The media and nature of the copyrighted materials are so different that the question of whether it should be done isn't comparable.

    Artists can often get money from commercial use of their work - we have occasion to use artworks in advertising, and because we're a university, we normally get to do so for simply a credit, but commercial institutions are much more likely to be shelling out. That copyright doesn't disappear once the artist or gallery sells the artwork - the rights are retained no matter where the actual artwork goes.

    Whether or not it should be done...? I can't see any logical reason for it, except that it's a way of returning more money to artists and encouraging art production. I guess it's really then up to people who buy art, and people who sell it - one or both of whom will be paying in some way. As long as they don't mind, I'm never planning to buy a McCahon, so it's no skin off my nose.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Speaker: Part 19: Beating Sri Lanka,

    Wouldn't it say very little about the World Cup if England go through having beaten the cricketing powers of Kenya, Canada, Ireland, Bangladesh, South Africa (to come) and Bermuda (in the pre-Cup entertainment). Losing to NZ, Australia (twice, again, pre-cup giggles), West Indies (to come), Sri Lanka.

    Four definite minnows, one half minnow, and South Africa. Interesting to see how Ireland and Bangladesh making the super 8 series has left the race for 4th as the race between the teams that aren't performing as badly as those other teams that are going to finish 5th and 6th, rather than anything more inspiring.

    How can winning 5 games out of 10, put you into the top four in a 16 team competition? Also doesn't say much about South Africa's decisions in games which has left them with a dud run rate.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: You've gotta hand it to Steve,

    I'm not sure if that's an entirely equal comparison. I agree that you should be able to format shift when technology moves on. If you own a vinyl of an album that you can't play anymore, you should be able to copy it to tape or MP3 it.

    But that's a pretty different argument. Copying of PS games is a lot more difficult than just digitising your CD, and that's OK, I can't think of a good legal reason for copying PS games.

    Anyway, according to this, you can play PS1 and PS2 games on your PS3.

    http://www.nz.playstation.com/ps3/hw/productdetails.jhtml

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

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