Posts by Belt
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Let's remember that high wealth visitors do not want to see another McDonalds, Starbucks and, as mentioned, plastic Tiki stores. They come here to experience New Zealand: the backward country. Ok, sorry, the mostly unspoilt country in international terms. If this means their first impression is a port that is... a port, then that's what New Zealand is! If they are here only one day, then we should concentrate on fleecing them. I mean, how much "New Zealand" can you actually appreciate in one day? Take us as you find us, and please spend freely on the things we are known for: wine, thrills, and (relatively) unspoilt country/sea side. Thanks.
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So … Some of the young people involved had Bebo profiles. Among several million other Bebo profiles is one which references Suicide Girls. Both stories invite youth suicide experts to express shock and horror.
Yawn.
Another incarnation of "the Internet is evil".
Remember when all bombs, err, incendiary devices, errr, home-made explosives let off by curious teenagers were only possible through "recipes downloaded from the Internet"?
It's always amused me that by the time the main stream media actually joined the Internet, those instant microwave stories with an "Internet is Evil" theme pretty much disappeared.
Now that anyone over 30 doesn't "get" social networking sites (ok Russ, you're exempted), we have yet another instant microwave story container to use, abuse and reuse: Facebook/Myspace/Bebo/etc are EVIL...
...
Mind you. If I was a parent of a vital teenager that took his/her own life, I'd be looking for answers, and in the absence of anything obvious (there so often doesn't seem to be anything), a social networking site and some peer pressure can start the healing process.
(PS: I originally typed Facebook as Fecebook... heh)
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"I took myself to Tony's on Wellesley St"
Bugger.
The only thing I miss about Auckland. A 6pm eye fillet with bacon and mushrooms at Tony's. Surrounded by fries and seasonal veges. Only one bad meal in 2 decades.
In the end, it's the little things.
RIP Ed.
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"We love him, and he seems to love us"
Errr... no.
I know this sounds INCREDIBLY harsh, but I can't wait for my 3 remaining cats to shuffle off their mortal coil.
One's 21. And it may survive the others.
Still. I'm 44 and I may still have to feed those freeloading destruction machines, or two of them anyway, for at least another decade.
I won't bore you with the damage, direct and indirect costs these creatures have imposed on my family. Landlords seem to accepts cats over dogs. How wrong they are.
Anyway, enjoy your mistake. I'm here when you want to confess.
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@Keith Ng: use Google Mars... then you'll really freak out :-) I had a high resolution (NASA) mars photo as my desktop image for a while and I kept marveling at the idea that I was having access to what another planet looks like from my chair at home. Arsum.
As for TCP/IP - it's been great for me. Apart from a few early years when there were BBSs and dial-up modems at dazzling speeds of 300 baud (that's 0.03k for you 'ung ones), I occasioned to stumble upon the Internet in the mid 80's though a chap called David Dix. "Unix is where it's at", he evangelised. "Drop that silly Windows and OS/2 now and join the (Internet) revolution". He sold me a cheap-ish copy of Xenix/386, and I wrote a 4 line BBS in C.
I was the third owner of a privately-held NZ domain name, delphi.gen.nz, at a then-exorbitant cost of $200 a year ('87!), and our email/usenet (uucp) feed came through the DSIR (now broken into several CRIs). All of this care of the real architects of the *public* NZ internet: Paul, David, Ray and others (your names are starting to fade). We supplied free Internet email, Fidonet, FTP by (e)mail and Usenet access to anyone who was interested. In the end - we had three lines with 2.4k modems, and one with the $2000 wholesale NZ manufactured 9k6 modem. It was so fast...
Of the two others that owned domain names in those days, both survive today: Actrix and kcbbs (aka kc.net), with Actix the commercial winner. This was BEFORE the IHUGs, the IGRINs, the Waves. And some years before the Xtras, the Clear Nets...
My own ISP creation, Web World, survives, sold as a brick in the corporate fabric that started as Page 1, now First Contact, but is now a proud 14 years old in an industry that is perhaps only 15 years old at that.
The Plug, a "zine" (before there were blogs) managed to score a Netguide award, partially due to the fact it published Hard News in exchange for an insultingly minuscule honorarium, has faded into history. Still...
... I mean, I had Russel on my payroll dude... I 0wn3d da man...
(chuckle)
TCP/IP has been good to me, and continues to be so.
Happy birthday. Belatedly...
and good to see Russel has gone from strength to strength since. I had nothing to do with it.
He too, is indebted, to TCP/IP.
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"I will watch to the bitter end any television programme in which Peta Mathias takes us to some exotically foreign country to indulge her passion for its food."
She's both attractive and repulsive at the same time. It's like watching an accident - you can't turn away...
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Why does it appear that I am the only one hanging on the words that describe the food? Stuff Paul's oil; the rest sounds divine. One chicken? Such modest guests you have. Michelle A? Such a fan; never had the pleasure of crossing swords. She's so... ok, I gush, as a fan does. But then I always got aroused by brains. Xmas here was primarily a consumer pre-school orgy. Grandma sends clothing. We wondered what reception it would get. Such a lovely boy, still. But it won't last. As Grandma sends clothing again, scorn will eventually follow. (aside: why are all the clothes 3-4 sizes too large?). For us, this time of the year is for kids. Me, the cynic, there is no pain. My better half misses Xmas 'of olde', never to be experienced again. Soon, I suspect, it will all be about electronics, software, and being left alone. Which is why, I suspect, I gravitate towards the food. It brings us back together, affter the power is turned off, and the wrappings are in the bin, everyone can enjoy a moment of delicious togetherness.
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I'm not entirely convinced that it's worth the trouble of passing a law ... to catch a single person. Spam filtering technology seems to work
sigh
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@bart. OMG - commit suicide already! At least be consistent!! And don't you know... every time you do not reproduce 2.2 children, they have to import those New Zealand culture-changing (shhh) foreigners! You're a gutless traitor!!!
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Oh man. Thanks for the laugh out loud piece. I sit here with a nose bite as my 10 month old is now testing things parent for caloric value. Not sure if its your first, but all I can say is... HAHAHAHAHA SUCKAAAA.
Still.
What is it that makes us stay with women (answer: sex)
Is that really worth it in the end (answer: we have no backbone)
And then these babies come along. Why don't we run? (answer: Helsinki syndrome - I'm convinced of it)
And then some of us do it all again! What's the answer? (deprogramming - but nobody's coming to rescue us).
I actually discussed the benefits of turning homosexual with a co-worker after sharing "my wife/girfriend..." stories. Must be something to coming home, going "hey" and a raise of one eyebrow and a small lift of the head, and sitting down as a hand magically appears in front of you with a beer in it and you don't have to perform delicate hostage negotiations to get the TV from Little Einsteins to Mythbusters or Top Gear.
One more kid, and I think I might turn gay just to see what it's like to sleep in past 7 more than once a year.
That vasectomy was probably the first step I took on the road to recovery. Problem is, they tell me it's another 30-40 years after that before you're cured. If you outlast her, that is.