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Not a bad pay packet

2011-12-15T17:55:00.000+13:00

The Herald reports: (edited) Judge Clark sentenced Brian Joseph Scandlyn, 29, unemployed, to a year's home detention, 180 hours of community work and ordered $7,643.21 reparation be paid to local businesses affected by Scandlyn who wrote cheques from a closed bank account. He had earlier pleaded guilty to two charges of engaging in a money-laundering transaction knowing that part of the

Carrier IQ Spyware

2011-12-06T13:02:00.000+13:00

In a way this is a follow-up to yesterdays post. Bruce Schneier's recent blog is about the latest in the Carrier IQ rootkit saga. This malware is installed on people's smart phones either by the phone company or by the phone manufacturers on their behalf and can report back all activity on the phone, including encrypted https sessions to other sites. Bruce's blog: Spyware on many smart

WikiLeaks Warns of Surveillance State

2011-12-05T12:39:00.000+13:00

The USA, Britain, Australia, South Africa and Canada are among countries developing spying systems that intercept mobile phones and portable computers. They are not only using these on their own citizens but selling to "dictators and democracies alike." Libya and Syria are among countries using the technology to monitor political opponents, said a WikiLeaks spokesman. "Who here has an iPhone?

Telecom XT harassment

2011-09-07T20:31:00.000+12:00

I am getting thoroughly sick of Telecom New Zealand. Despite my explaining that I intend switching from CDMA to XT when they have a suitable Android phone they continue phoning me up to try and get me to switch to one of their current crop of inferior or obsolete Android phones. When I first explained this to them they had no Android phones on offer and they apparently noted this as the next

What's the state of computer education in New Zealand schools?

2011-08-30T21:08:00.002+12:00

This interesting comment was recently on the British education system's failure on computer science. Google chairman Eric Schmidt has attacked the British education system, saying a failure to appreciate the importance of computer science was holding the country back in the digital age. ... He said he was shocked that computer science was not taught as standard in British schools, adding: "

Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death

2011-08-20T10:11:00.002+12:00

1816 was the year the crops simultaneously failed in Western Europe, North America and China. Approximate European fatality total was 200,000 deaths with an unknown (to me) number of deaths in other places in the northern hemisphere. Food riots broke out in the United Kingdom and France, and grain warehouses were looted. The violence was worst in landlocked Switzerland, where famine caused

Kids Going To School Hungry in NZ

2011-07-25T12:15:00.005+12:00

It boggles my mind that in New Zealand we can't manage to ensure that every child gets breakfast, especially given that we as individuals donate so much to support starving children overseas. Are we just ignorant about the problems or do we choose to pretend that all is for the best in this country. Today's Herald has this: "A children's lobby group says New Zealanders should stop blaming the

Pasta Strainer Deemed Religious Headgear

2011-07-13T12:45:00.002+12:00

According to the NZ Herald, pasta strainers are now considered suitable religious headgear in Austria ... at least for drivers licence photographs. It took him 3 years but Niko Alm an Austrian Pastafarian has finally received his laminated drivers licence card showing him wearing an upturned pasta strainer on his head after the driving authorities ruled the kitchen utensil was a suitable

Should British Royal Succession Rules Change?

2011-04-18T18:02:00.008+12:00

I have no intention in this posting of entering the debate on New Zealand becoming a republic, I'll assume for now that New Zealand is to remain a monarchy. With the upcoming marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton, various people, including the British Prime Minister are suggesting that the British succession laws should be changed to allow a female child to have the same precedence in

Driver charged over car door cyclist death

2011-03-16T13:36:00.000+13:00

The man who opened a car door and caused a cyclist to fatally swerve into the path of a truck has been charged with the criminal charge "careless use of a motor vehicle causing death". Source.

Credit Card Merchant Accounts

2011-03-09T19:21:00.001+13:00

A week or so back there was a discussion on one of the mailing lists I subscribe to about obtaining on-line merchant accounts for credit cards that would accept multiple currencies. The answer is that New Zealand banks try to restrict their customers to only accepting NZ currency and place all kinds of barriers in the way of businesses that want to accept payments in foreign currency. No wonder

The Future of Christchurch?

2011-03-08T08:03:00.001+13:00

The rescue operation is over. The end of recovery operation is in sight. The news media has long ended its continuous coverage and the tone has changed from sharing our shock and reporting heroism to looking for scapegoats.Christchurch residents are either working around the problems they are facing or are moving out of town. Some are virtual refugees others have simply expedited already

Free Web Templates

2011-02-26T17:06:00.001+13:00

I'm not a web site designer. I willingly tell people that I can't design a decent looking website to save myself and happily offer several reference sites to prove this claim. My strengths lie elsewhere, and I feel we should largely stick to our strengths. I've seen several badly broken websites where excellent web designers showed they were even worse at database programming than I am at graphic

Christchurch Earthquake Community Response

2011-02-26T12:27:00.000+13:00

A dedicated volunteer team of Internet people, web masters, programmers, and computer capable helpers have built the New Zealand Christchurch Earthquake Community Response site to coordinate help efforts. Anyone who needs help because of the earthquake or who can offer help should go there.

Headless Chickens of the Apocalypse

2011-02-24T13:01:00.000+13:00

Yep, that's me too. In the wake of the 22 February earthquake I officially nominate myself as a headless chicken of the apocalypse For the benefit of archaeologists reading this in 1,000 years time, it's now 2 days since a 6.3 magnitude earthquake went off under Christchurch, killing at least 75 people (possibly as many as 300), demolishing buildings and destroying the water supply of NZ's

Placebo effect works on real medicine too

2011-02-18T16:29:00.001+13:00

I remember an old TV comedy where a character said she is such a bad hypochondriac that the doctor has prescribed broad spectrum placebos. I was reminded of this today when I read this article in New Scientist. Quote: "Before you pop that painkiller, you might want to focus on how much better you'll feel afterwards. Positive thinking could double your pain relief."Why was anyone surprised? Tell

Hone Flies Again

2011-02-10T19:35:00.002+13:00

There's a huge fuss on at the moment about Maori Party MP Hone Harawira. He's been suspended from the party caucus and there's apparently a process that will decide if he will be expelled from the party. The mainstream media are baying for blood, the NZ Herald editorial "Maori Party should cut Harawira loose" while the Gisborne Herald printed a letter saying "Harawira not keeping to Maori values"

Oyster death hysteria

2011-02-09T12:32:00.000+13:00

"Oysters being wiped out around the world" The Herald headlined on Monday "Wild oysters are now 'functionally extinct' in many places where they were once plentiful. More than 85 per cent of their reefs have been lost through overfishing, a study says." More... Of course things aren't always what they seem. Note the "In many places", then read to the bottom and discover on the very last line

O tempora o mores; Oh Times, Oh Daily Mirror

2011-02-03T23:26:00.000+13:00

Until a very few years ago the professional news media: owners, editors, and journalists had a huge power to limit the information that was available to the ordinary person. If any step in the chain didn't consider a piece of information was "fit to print" the ordinary person never got to hear about it. More subtly the professional news media had the ability to slant the news according to their

Web Directories

2011-02-01T14:13:00.013+13:00

I'm taking time out from braying at the moon to be a little self serving. When it first started, the web was pretty small and either academics or fairly geeky hobbyists. They built links between their pages based on webs of interests. People would find interesting sites based shared interests. The web grew, Yahoo came along and built a massive directory, then the search engines arose. Today

Stressed out Judge?

2011-01-28T19:38:00.001+13:00

Judge Tony Adeane, a district court judge who works in Hawke's Bay and Gisborne courts looks like he's reaching the end of his tether, and has been in the news a few times over the last couple of weeks. Two weeks back the lawyers for 2 accused of aggravated assult on a policeman scheduled a bail hearing then said they wanted a delay so they could apply later. Adeane is reported as saying he

The loss of history

2011-01-26T22:05:00.000+13:00

Five thousand years ago the Sumerians started writing on clay tablets. Mostly it wasn't interesting stuff, commercial transactions, tax records, the occasional letter or decree. Today these give us an insight into their life that we would not have if we relied only on the official pronouncements and how they would want to be seen by posterity. Not long after the Egyptians started recording their

Telecom's customer data open to former staff members

2011-01-25T11:40:00.001+13:00

The Herald has an update of this story today. Sounds to me like Telecom were forgetting some pretty basic principles of information security. Telecom's customer data open to ex staff - NZ Herald: "Former employees have questioned Telecom's security policies and one can still look up customer details despite having left his job two months ago. Andrew Rozen, who worked in a customer service role

All Telecom customers details revealed

2011-01-16T12:10:00.002+13:00

The Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff, has announced she will investigate how Slingshot's marketing company Power Marketing obtained and used a sign-on code that allowed access to account details for every Telecom customer. The NZ Herald reports that they had access to a "legitimate account used by a Telecom dealer to carry out its business" There are at least dozens and possibly hundreds of

Waived insurance, got sick, complained

2011-01-05T14:27:00.001+13:00

"A family who reported their son's chicken pox to Air New Zealand three days before they were due to fly believe they have been 'punished' with the extra costs involved in rebooking their travel. [Father] told the airline about the medical condition and was told his son could not board the flight.Staff told him the booking fee could be reimbursed with a medical certificate, but he was quoted a