Posts by Jono Baddiley

  • Southerly: My Life As a Palm Tree, in reply to David Haywood,

    Did your parents allow you to make fireworks or similar? Do you let your children?

    Give me something to cheer me up when I awake to a damp English Monday.

    I once set fire to my parents hedge. Dad said to use a bit of petrol to lift an oil stain off the drive. I think that he was envisioning brushing, but burning seemed obvious to me. When it seemed to me that the oil stain must surely be burnt off, I used a hose to put it out. Of course, the flames floated on the top of the water, into the hedge.

    Instant conflagration. I consider it an important life lesson: make sure that the driveway doesn't dip down to the hedge when you try to put out burning petrol with a hose.

    Wellytron • Since Mar 2008 • 11 posts Report

  • Hard News: Back to mediocrity, in reply to Rich of Observationz,

    Much of the problems with WiFi will be associated with the technology itself, not the deployment. I worked on the world cup technology, and providing "older" (2.4Ghz) connectivity in a location with potentially thousands of devices using the same radio frequencies was impossible to address (short of putting up faraday cages all over the ground). 5Ghz WiFi worked well in the same environment though...

    Wellytron • Since Mar 2008 • 11 posts Report

  • Field Theory: Awkward in Tokyo,

    If you had read "world war z" (highly, highly recommended), you would know that the best approach for sorting out zombies is an entrenching tool.

    The Marines modified the standard entrenching tool during the first zombie war (it was referred to as the "lobotomizer") which had the highest kill-to-dollar ratio of the war.

    And as for steampunk...where was the mad scientist trying to "get a live one" to better understand the nefarious infestation?

    Wellytron • Since Mar 2008 • 11 posts Report

  • Busytown: A wee development,

    The packaging is one thing, but not as odd as the fact that it looks very much like Wellington's Oriental Bay in the background of the photos on the box...

    Wellytron • Since Mar 2008 • 11 posts Report

  • Up Front: I Don't Think it Means What…,

    heh - me and my wife use "ease down. Ease down. You'll blow the trans-axle" as a replacement for "that's more than enough effort, don't you think?"

    And don't get me started on "do you want to take a ride?"...

    Wellytron • Since Mar 2008 • 11 posts Report

  • Hard News: Food Show 08,

    It's funny cos it's true

    My wife (a woman in her own right, obviously) felt very vindicated when the starbucks that opened next to the fuel coffee cart on the terrace in welly shut down several months later.

    Wellington may miss many things, but one thing it doesn't have a lack of is coffee snobs

    Wellytron • Since Mar 2008 • 11 posts Report

  • Hard News: Truck Off, etc,

    On the trucking protest, I feel conflicted. On one hand I think "thank god someone has remembered to how to protest. And why didn't this happen with the ECA or other initiatives in the past?".

    And on the other hand I think "why is this worth protesting about?"

    Another view would be that it sorted out the trip into work this morning. I dropped my wife off at her office (it's the last day of her current contract and she had a cake to take in), and there was hardly any traffic at all all the way into and out of (welly)town.

    Wellytron • Since Mar 2008 • 11 posts Report

  • Hard News: A night on the town with Mr Slack,

    Congratulations on the win - nice you got to meet Tama Easton - he's been doing a brilliant job for the NZ cycling community for a long time now, and it seems that it's only been in the last year that it's been recognized. A real demonstration of community-led-content - especially in the video, photo and mobile contribution spaces.

    Also, the site is http://vorb.org.nz (although there is a redirect from vorb.co.nz) ;)

    Wellytron • Since Mar 2008 • 11 posts Report

  • Island Life: Rage against the machines,

    A workmate at a previous job had couple of SCSI server drives hung on his wall. He had shot them with a .44 - such a clean entry hole, and a chest-burster-worthy exit wound. The sales manager for the server manufacturer was rather shocked when he visited our office the first time after the drives were hung up.

    Personally, at the start of my career in IT I had a wall in my office where I had put up a sign that stated "Naughty computers will be made an example of". I stapled components (in all their naked glory) onto the wall. By the end of a couple of months I had a complete PC (minus case and CRT, which I was certain I couldn't staple to the wall) laid out like an alien autopsy.

    And it even worked. I had a pc that had caused me no end of grief. I brought it into the office, left it in front of the wall, and told it "...that if you're not going tomorrow I've got a drill with your name on it".
    It worked perfectly from that point on.

    At the same job I climbed to the top of a new (3 story) building we were constructing and threw a non-working Mac SE off the roof. It wasn't as aesthetically explosive as I was hoping for, but it sure was cathartic.

    Wellytron • Since Mar 2008 • 11 posts Report

  • Hard News: A business most feral,

    Can someone tell me why, in a country of 4 million people, we need so many DHBs?? Does Sydney have this many managerial units to oversee health delivery?

    I was wondering on this last night. Local accountability would be the one answer - and then sydney isn't 1800km across.

    I wondered if the approach would be to have good A&E/critical care units locally, but then set up national specialist centres for different things.

    Of course, it would mean that if you have an ailment that isn't your local speciality, you'll be away from family though.

    I think that situations like this is why I'm happy that I don't work in the health sector...

    Wellytron • Since Mar 2008 • 11 posts Report

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