Posts by Ben Gracewood
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If anyone thinks introducing anti-circumvention measures is a good idea, no matter how carefully worded they are, take a read of this document.
"This document collects a number of reported cases where the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA have been invoked not against pirates, but against consumers, scientists, and legitimate competitors. It will be updated from time to time as additional cases come to light."
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Oh no wait, I'm confused: I'm allowed to circumvent DRM, but I'm not allowed to sell stuff to circumvent DRM?
mummy?
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Tomorrowpeople, you're golden. That's the key thing that the new amendment caters for: format shifting.
Just don't try to format-shift your DVDs, because that's circumventing copy-protection mmkay?
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Yup, looks like it's time to get emailing people! Here's my take on the whole affair, plus a copy of my email to Judith Tizard.
Scary times.
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While stuck in my usual 5 minute crawl along Quay street this morning, I had plenty of time to contemplate the view-blockage of the waterfront proposal. If you travel west to east along Quay street from The Strand, here's what you see, and what might be spoiled by the stadium:
- I cruise past the strip mall, with the big Mobil, KFC, Macdonalds, and the hobby shop with the worst customer service in Auckland. On my right is a busy container terminal. I can't see the sea because of the wall of containers and port buildings.
- Stopping at the Tinley Street lights, the memories of teenaged Friday nights, cruising in my Carolla with its 18" subwoofer bring tears to my eyes. The view towards the stadium location is blocked by a huge glass wall thing. I presume it's a windbreak for the port?.
- I drive off from the lights, barely able to contain my sense of architectural pleasure as I drive between a big-block Foodtown store and the 'wall'.
- Coming to the end of the 'wall', I gaze to my right (checking first that the woman in the car in front has finished with her mascara, and has her attention back on the traffic). I see acres of Japanese cars, and behind that I can just make out the cliffs of Belmont, topped by 70's apartment buildings and partially obsured by a nice grey and blue container crane.
- Cruising up to the next set of lights, I crane my neck and can just make out Devonport and North Head, again only if I peer through the legs of container cranes.I think about how life might be, stuck in traffic on my way in to work on a Friday morning, tickets to that night's game in my glovebox. Will I be disappointed at the lack of view while I talk to friends on my cellphone arranging a post-game meatfest at Wildfire on Princess wharf? Or will I be gazing at the cliffs of Belmont while I desperately arrange how the fuck I'm going to get to Eden park and home again before midnight?
Waterfront please. Waterfront.
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Just. Build. It. For crying out loud. I'm thoroughly sick of the 'consultation paralysis' that we currently seem to suffer. Just the other day I got a huge glossy brochure from Transit asking "ummm, would be ok, pretty please, if we put tolls on a new road?" I don't care. Just do it and stop bloody asking questions.
We elected you buggers to do stuff for us, and yet you seem incapable of making a decision without spending squillions asking us if it's ok.
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As a fan of excellent architecture (this brings a tear to my eye), I'd like to see something more ambitious on the waterfront.
I guess a stadium has certain design contraints that preclude a truly unique construction. Add time constraints into the mix and we get something 'ok' but not spectacular.
I still think it's the best option, just wish it had been proposed a lot earlier.
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I genuinely believe the whole e-govt initiative has been a fantastic success. Both from the technology trenches (we build govt websites with alarming regularity), and as a user. It's amazing that I can check my student loan balance online, and grab a non-resident withholding tax exemption form in 3 seconds. Imagine doing that 10 years ago.
Stinker - busy tones in the early days with iHug, and the current equivalent of congested backhaul. Flying Pig definitely deserves a big fat rasberry - why didn't Whitcoulls just take their brand online rather than dot-bomb it with a stupid name?