Posts by Stephen Judd
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: The price is that they get to…, in reply to James Butler,
Facebook also has the audacity to want to show it to your FRIENDS AND FAMILY OMG OMG OMG
Well, that's somewhat easier to control, honestly. The scenario I hate is that a malicious person, or a venal person paid by a malicious person, or a malign state agency, yadda yadda, commandeers the data amassed by Google or Facebook and uses it against us. We'd be aghast at the government snooping like this, but private enterprise has done it with our consent, and now that they've done it, the first warrants to hand over the goods to the state are probably already issued in the US, if not here.
Of course there's always accidental leakage as well. It is inevitable that there will be some sort of widespread security breach in the near future that ruins lives via Facebook or Google.
-
I think we need to bring the same critical attitude to Google. Between Google Analytics, Google Search and Gmail, they have amassed a pile of personal usage info that's at least as intrusive and potentially damaging to users as Facebook. I loathe Facebook, but I've recently come to see that they're just a tiny bit more blatant, that's all.
-
Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to merc,
When the Govt. stands for nothing, the opposition must stand for something.
I see this as somewhat reinforcing what Ben has just been saying. The Nats have been very successfully idling, making the opposition do all the work and expose themselves to attacks from the government's bully pulpit.
There may be a successful attack line now in labelling National as the Do-Nothing Government.
-
Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Sacha,
in the absence of a functional opposition or media
It’s pretty hard to be a functional opposition when the media are not interested in policy and have decided you’re going to lose. We’ve thrashed this out in endless detail over the last 2 years here, on the Dim Post, on Lew Stoddard’s blog, etc, and always I see a conversation that ends up like:
A: The media are crap and that’s why Labour can’t get traction.
B: If Labour weren’t crap, crap media wouldn’t be a problem.
A: What specifically could Labour do that wouldn’t be crap and would overcome the crapness of NZ news media?
B: That’s not my problem. -
Labour is promising to reimburse Christchurch Red Zone residents for up to $50,000 worth of home improvements on top of current payouts, and says it will buy 1500 sections to on-sell at cost to people whose homes have been written off because of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Leader Phil Goff announced the package today and said a Labour government would also:
* Resolve the stand-off over re-insurance and, as a last resort, be prepared to intervene in the insurance market "on a short-term basis" to get the market functioning again.
* Establish an independent insurance commissioner to protect consumers and resolve disputes
* Immediately release all geotechnical information with a plain English guide and
* Take action to fill critical skilled worker shortages with training and by converting dole payments to apprenticeships subsidies -
Speaker: Party Central, structures and silos, in reply to DexterX,
AMEN.
-
Field Theory: Four Years Ago, in reply to BenWilson,
Depends what you think the incident was. The Aussie reports, read closely, don’t go further than quoting an un-named person as saying that another person was a cabinet minister. I imagine if I were a harried hospo worker, telling an Aussie reporter that some random drunk in a suit was a cabinet minister and couldn’t be controlled would be both a great way of getting them off your back and playing a hilarious jape. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the incident of the staff member tweaking the journo really happened.
-
Hard News: Te Qaeda and the God Squad, in reply to BenWilson,
I am irresistably reminded of this (textually NSFW) Onion classic.
-
Hard News: Te Qaeda and the God Squad, in reply to Sacha,
during the election lead-up, you mean
Wasn't Labour was in government during the relevant period? I don't really see how the Nats would be hurt by the fallout.
-
Four years is hell of a long time to have your life in stasis, unable to get a proper job or to travel or to have any number of other freedoms. Justice delayed, justice denied, and all that.
It would not be practical for any such trials to proceed prior to the main trial in February
A cynic would speculate that it would be a bad look to have these trials during the RWC.