Posts by Gary Hutchings
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Thank you so much for that sharing that Russell,
My Grandfather passed on 2 weeks ago, and although he had a great run to be 93 as with all eventual passings it will tinge this Christmas with sadness.
Your story touched a nerve that is still raw, but I hope that in time I will be able to reflect back as you have done today,
Merry Christmas and Aroha nui to you all
-
He is still being published in the ChristChurch Press, another missive turned up this morning.
-
The reason why behavoural tests for drugs are being introduced is that there are no roadside equivalents of alcohol tests at present. The reason why tests are needed is that there are too many stoners on the road. Being stoned makes them a danger to other road users.
Yes but are these the right sort of tests?
A study by the British Medical Association of similar testing in the UK this year BMA study Showed that while their Field Impairment testing was good for yeilding True-positives, was very poor at getting accurate false-negtive results
"However, of those judged not to be impaired by the police
officer, only 29% were found to be drug free""Hence based on this study, 64% of drivers who are drug positive would be detected at the roadside. Of all drug negative cases, the majority were identified at the roadside (74%, n ¼ 40). Hence based on this study, approximately three-quarters of those who are drug free would be identified at the roadside."
Although interestingly
"Benzodiazepines were the most frequently encountered drug group. Opioids were the second most frequently detected drug group"Also Pupillary dilation was also not seen as a great test.
Hey maybe we need a modified Voight-Kampff test :)
-
Given that there has been a big move away from "subjective" law enforcement in regards to traffic offenses,
"Yes I know that 111Kms on a dry straight uncrowded road may seem safe sure but it is over the limit...."
To introduce a bunch of, "Close you eyes and touch your nose" tests does smack a bit of inconsistancy and quakery,
*If* they can provide some double blind studies that show these tests show an exceptionally high correlation to "impairment"- whatever that might be I might be more accepting, but this does have a very high reading on the "chicken entrails" meter
-
I understand that the NZ Rugby Union are on the Board of the IRB, along with whole bunch of other countries,
And... Given that the Rugby Union are wanting a not insignificant chunk of change from the Govt to be spent on an event dear to their heart up Auckland way....
I wonder if there is any possibility that in an effort to "do what we can" the NZ Union might promote a remit that would seek Fiji's suspension from Rugby 7s.....- Yeah I know it will get voted down in a great flaming attack, but at least they can say
"The IRB said no, but we did ask" -
Finally, Michael Bassett's latest "newspaper column" did not appear in an actual newspaper, only on his website. Has the Dom Post given him the boot?
While offering no opinion on Bassett myself, The Column did run in The Press on Tuesday 5th December page A9.
-
Seems they want to let you watch out of zone DVD's
The focus of section 226 will continue to be on the link between circumvention and copyright infringement, and on the making, sale, and hire of devices or information rather than on actual circumvention. While actual circumvention may not be prohibited, any unauthorised use of the material that is facilitated by circumvention will continue to be an infringement of copyright. Consumers should, however, be able to make use of materials under the permitted acts or view or execute a non-infringing copy of a work. This is consistent with New Zealand's position on parallel importation of legitimate goods, for example, genuine DVDs, from other jurisdictions. New provisions are introduced to enable actual exercise of permitted acts where TPMs have been applied.
But as always the nitty gritty is what is in the legislation clauses,
Although one glaring red alert was that the format shifting will expire after 2 years, unless renewed. [Clause 44, new 81 (3)] WTF!! So I make a copy legally, and then parliament gets cold feet and it becomes illegal 2 years later, great!
Time to get out the tin-foil beanie and black helicopter detector.
-
Anyway, if I used a 350GB drive for this and AAC 192 as the compression format, do you think I could fit 1300 odd full CDs onto to one drive with room to spare
Should fit, 192 VBR AAC seems to be about 7MB/5min,
if you assume and average of 50mins an album, you get 70MB *1300 Albums= 91GB, so with a 350GB drive you have heaps of leeway for the longer albums/higher encoding rates if you liked.+ a bit for the cover art image to be imbedded,
-
Speaking of Ethnicity, There is this gem from Chris Carter a couple of days ago,
" The contribution ethnic New Zealanders are making to our country is immense"
Now I know what he was trying to say, but really.....
-
Apple resellers have said they intend to reduce prices to meet the new price points of the apple store,
All NZ Reseller pricing is changing today as well, to be in line with the NZ Apple store.
xxxxx
an apple reseller