planet.linuxchix.org.nz

Lawrence Lessig's TED talk from 6th March - what liberals can learn from conservatives:

more at http://lessig.blip.tv/

»» Submitted by Shiny at 15 March 2010 23:58

There are two types of greenies

1) Those that spend a little more money, in order to save the planet
2) Those that spend less money, in order to save the planet.

I've been in category one for a long time. Buying the eco laundry powder, the sustainable bamboo clothing, organic vegetables and sorting the recycling.

My little sister, Julie, is amazing. She's firmly in category two. Her son used cloth nappies, well fitted modern ones, that she made herself. She makes her own laundry powder from salt and plant products. She grows a garden full of what she needs, and preserves the excess for the winter. She makes quilts from old fabric. She recycles, at home! She doesn't leave it out to be taken away if she can think of a way to re-use it.

I reckon my sister has it right. She is spending less money, and instead spending her own time. The result is BETTER products, and a sense of satisfaction at the things she made herself.

okay, now i need a sewing machine. I wonder if i can make one......

and now a baby photo:

»» Submitted by Shiny at 15 March 2010 21:53

Here's a book i've been reading: "buy buy baby" by Susan Gregory Thomas. I'll write up a review when i finish it, but it starts by describing how the advertising industry went from advertising to parents (1970s and before) to advertising to children in the 1980s, and how the age at which advertising is targeted got younger and younger. Children as young as 6 months old can show Brand Awareness, and it's very common by age 2. They don't want a toy, they want an elmo. They recognise brand names over generic. Additionally, the children who had television as a babysitter recognise brands within shows, and those toys come with predefined attributes from the show, limiting play possibilities.

Those who grew up through this education that advertisers give us have become brand loyal. Adults raised on this stuff don't buy music players, they buy ipods, without even checking out other brands. They buy macbooks, not laptops, SonyEricssons, not phones. I know someone who won't buy a TV, he'll buy a Sony TV, everytime. This extends to all electronics goods. If there's a sony version he'll get that one. Sometimes he doesn't want the product at all until one day there's a sony version.

Instead of trying out the no-frills / cheap label peanut butter, we'll buy the sanitarium without a second thought. Parents don't buy nappies, they buy huggies.

The book goes into the history of the "Baby einstein" brand, pre and post Disney buy out. They moved from actually educational, to "What parents perceive as educational and therefore it sells"... turns out, surprise surprise, they're not the same thing.

The book has me questioning all the brand loyalty I have. Is brand loyalty ever a good things? One thing is clear to me - 2 year olds should be playing with Trains, not Thomas. Dolls not Barbie. Blocks not lego. They should want toys to play with, and this "I want ELMO!" is a sign of something wrong.

I'll mix in my own "no child labour please" attitude, unless it's recycled. Lets see how we go without brand names -- is this even possible?

and now a baby photo:

»» Submitted by Shiny at 15 March 2010 21:30

Crossing at intersections is more dangerous, and time consuming, than crossing between intersections -- mostly because there are far more directions of traffic to check at an intersection, and because you can't predict which driver is going to drive right through the red light.

Here's a blog post on the way the law favours vehicle driver's convenience over pedestrian safety.

http://discoveringurbanism.blogspot.com/2010/03/pedestrian-survival-tech...

and now a baby photo:

»» Submitted by Shiny at 15 March 2010 21:21

EU Parliament tells USA's USTR it will not participate in secret treaty negotiations and calls for public release of ACTA documents.

The EU voted 663:13 in favour of the following:

1. Reminds that the Commission has since the 1 December 2009 the legal obligation to immediately and fully inform the European Parliament at all stages of international negotiations;

2. Expresses its concern over the lack of a transparent process in the conduct of the ACTA negotiations which contradicts the letter and the spirit of the TFEU; is deeply concerned that no legal base has been established before the start of the ACTA negotiations and that no parliamentary approval has been asked for the mandate;

3. Calls on the Commission and Council to grant public and parliamentary access to ACTA negotiation texts and summaries in accordance with the Treaty and the Regulation 1049/2001 on Public Access to Documents;

4. Calls on the Commission and Council to pro-actively engage with ACTA partners to rule out any further negotiations of an a piori confidential nature and to timely and entirely inform Parliament about its initiatives in this regard; expects the Commission to make proposals already prior to the next negotiation round in New Zealand in April 2010 and to demand that the issue of transparency is put on the agenda of that meeting, and to refer to Parliament the outcome of this round immediately after its conclusion;

5. Stresses that, unless the Parliament is immediately and fully informed at all stages of the negotiations, Parliament reserves its right to take suitable action, including bringing a case before the Court of Justice in order to safeguard its prerogatives;

6. Calls on the Commission to conduct an impact assessment of ACTA's implementation on fundamental rights and data protection, on the ongoing EU efforts to harmonise IPR enforcement measures, and on E-Commerce, prior to any EU agreement to a consolidated ACTA treaty text, and to timely consult with Parliament about the results of this assessment;

7. Welcomes affirmations by the Commission that any ACTA agreement will be limited to the enforcement of existing IPRs, with no prejudice for the development of substantive IP law in the European Union;

8. Calls on the Commission to continue the negotiations on ACTA in order to improve the effectiveness of the IPR enforcement system against counterfeiting;

9. Urges the Commission to ensure that the enforcement of ACTA provisions - especially its provisions on copyright enforcement procedures in the digital environment - are fully in line with the acquis communitaire; demands that no personal search is undertaken at the EU borders and requests full clarification of any clauses that would allow for warrantless searches and confiscation of information storage devices, such as laptops, cell phones and MP3 players, by border and customs authorities;

10. Considers that in order to respect fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and the right to privacy, with full respect for subsidiarity, the proposed Agreement must refrain from imposing any so called "three strikes" procedures, in full respect of the decision of Parliament on article 1.1b in the (amending) Directive 2009/140/EC that calls to insert a new para 3 a to article 1 Directive 2002/21/EC on the matter of "three strikes"

11. Emphasizes that privacy and data protection are core values of the European Union, recognised in Article 8 ECHR and Articles 7 and 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which must be respected in all the policies and rules adopted by the EU pursuant to Article 16 of the TFEU;

12. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the Governments and Parliaments of ACTA negotiation participants.

Read more at Michael Geist's blog:
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4848/125/

Geist has the most comprehensive coverage of ACTA, and many other copyright and "intellectual property" issues in the world. He writes mostly from a Canadian perspective, but is also an expert in the applicable international politics and law. He has written and published a very good Guide to ACTA

and now a baby photo:

»» Submitted by Shiny at 15 March 2010 21:20

Gala!, originally uploaded by Br3nda.

»» Submitted by Shiny at 15 March 2010 07:11

Homeopathy (that's just water in a bottle, not to be confused with herbal medicine) gets a second chance in the UK -- more interviews with fans of homeopathy are coming, to be collated alongside science and medical conclusions.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2010/mar/12/mps-and-evidence-for-...

Personally, I just want people to know that it's water, just water, and NOTHING ELSE in homeopathy. It's sold in pharmacies in New Zealand alongside the herbals, and people dont' realise that they're buying incredibly expensive water that has been shaken to magically give it some kinda memory.

People are welcome to make an informed choice to treat their ailments with magic water. The problem is the homeopathy industry not displaying prominently that their products are only water.

»» Submitted by Shiny at 15 March 2010 04:11

EU tells the USTR where to stick their ACTA treaty (that's where we can all see it)
http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blog/2010/03/the-european-parliament-is-pr...

Tech liberty goes over why New Zealand's web filter is a bad idea
http://techliberty.org.nz/why-we-oppose-internet-filtering/

The Wellington city council wants to put a tacky "Wellywood" sign over miramar -- incidentally this costs about the same to maintain as the WCN server they are shutting down.
http://blog.mikeriversdale.co.nz/2010/03/wellywood-sign-meh-time-to-get-...

Vodafone's mobile network breaks in Napier - doesn't get the kinda press telecom's XT network got for their outage.
http://www.tuanz.org.nz/blog/e379f711-b2b6-4423-9e32-4a8bf9f301db/c6d20a...

Women on the contraceptive pill may live longer
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8563606.stm

a mass grave of beheaded vikings found at the London Olympic site
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/science/03/12/viking.olympics/index.html

over in the US, elected officials join campaign to allow gay men to donate blood - we need the same change here in New Zealand.
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2010/03/16-senators-ask-fda-to-li...

The USA's FCC is working on keeping ISPs honest, by building online apps that measure you're connection speed - are you really getting the speed your ISP claims? How about New Zealand's commerce commission does the same thing?
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/12/fcc-comes-through-with-a-consumer-bro...
http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/U3_ypTy5uKw/americans-...

Every cell in a chicken has its own male or female identity
http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2010/03/every_cell_in_a_chicken...

The Android phone platform is growing growing growing.
http://phandroid.com/2010/03/10/android-growing-ridiculously-faster-than...

Pedestrian survival techniques -- crossing at intersections is more dangerous, and time consuming, than crossing between intersections -- mostly because there are far more directions of traffic to check at an intersection, and because you can't predict which driver is going to drive right through the red light -- here's a blog post on the way the law now favours vehicle driver's convenience over pedestrian safety.
http://discoveringurbanism.blogspot.com/2010/03/pedestrian-survival-tech...

Photos of an abandoned mental asylum
http://weburbanist.com/2010/03/10/abandoned-mental-asylum-hellingly-rip-...

Been waiting to buy a jetpack? They're on sale now.
http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20100308/jetpack/

Generic Movie Based on the Movie They've BeenReleasing Every Single Week Since the 1980s

p.s. Try eating cheese rings with chopsticks -- you don't get yellow dust on your hands.

»» Submitted by Shiny at 15 March 2010 02:22

Giant box of olpcs arrived, originally uploaded by Br3nda.

The OLPC XO 2.somethings have arrived from America-land. These are for the Saturday morning "Friends in Testing" group.

»» Submitted by Shiny at 15 March 2010 01:48

if you wear these, people conclude baby is a girl:
* flowers
* butterflies
* fairies
* anything pink
* most bows and lace.

if you wear these, people conclude baby is a boy:
* cars
* dinosaurs
* sailboats
* robots
* construction machinery
* airplanes
* monsters

some neutral things
* smiley faces
* bunny rabbits
* giraffes
* anything white, yellow or green

special note for pink: wear pink *anywhere*, it's a girl.. wear no pink at all, it's a boy.

but why? Girls don't drive cars? Girls don't dig up dinosaurs? (dinosaurs are awesome btw). Boys don't catch butterflies? Boys don't like flowers?

Exhibit A:
the girls' sock department:
http://www.jk.co.nz/category/girls1to6.accessories.1

Exhibit B:
the boys' sock department:
http://www.jk.co.nz/category/boys7to12.accessories.1

What have i missed? What else is gendered other than colours?

»» Submitted by Shiny at 15 March 2010 00:25

Seriously cute hat Jan made., originally uploaded by Br3nda.

»» Submitted by Shiny at 14 March 2010 22:40

CUBA Festival, originally uploaded by Br3nda.

<3 Wellington

»» Submitted by Shiny at 14 March 2010 03:38

My ISP is Telstra, cable. It's pretty darn good for most everything. Except youtube. The performance of youtube streaming video is really really shit.

There are people complaining about youtube on telstra in Wellington here and here and here and here and here and here and ......

Earlier this year youtube added a neat section where you can see the data speeds from your ISP, compared to others in your city, your country and the world: http://www.youtube.com/my_speed

It shows my ISP, telstra, sitting at between 30% and 70% of the average wellington speed. in other words, telstra with their superior cable network technology is being beaten by people with DSL, and being beaten a LONG way..but only for youtube. Telstra have done something to make youtube perform like shit for their customers.

»» Submitted by Shiny at 12 March 2010 19:37

Wellington Community Network (WCN) is a place for community organisations to host websites for free, powered by a bit of Joomla.

The City council has decided to shut down this community service. This makes me sad.

It is currently used by a HUGE list of diverse groups such as: (grabbed at random)
Friends of the Wellington Town Belt
Wellington Kidney Patient Network
Wellington RSAs
Diabetes Wellington
Lotsa sports clubs
Rotary
Wellington Association for Deaf Children
Lotsa Playcentres
schools such as... Wellington Hindi School and Wellington Sri Lankan School
Wellington Homeschoolers
Widowed Separated Divorced Support Group Inc
Wellington Somali Council
Pan-Pacific and Southeast Asia Womens Association
SeniorNet
Toastmasters
ESOL Home Tutors
lots and lots of Scouts and Guide groups
Lions clubs.
New Zealand Malaysian Society
Wellington Science And Technology Fair

and a couple *thousand* more.

and now a baby photo:

»» Submitted by Shiny at 12 March 2010 03:42

Chilling, originally uploaded by Br3nda.

»» Submitted by Shiny at 11 March 2010 02:39

Newtown Fair, originally uploaded by Br3nda.

»» Submitted by Shiny at 10 March 2010 23:10

Urewera is a special place, full of rainforest, hermits, and Patupaiarehe.

Lake Waikaremoana, originally uploaded by RobAucklandNZ

I spent more childhood summers than I can count in the Ureweras, staying at the Hostel in Tuai. You're always a long way from "civilisation" and even further from a petrol station. The road enters the bush suddenly and you've got 3 hours of road just wide enough for one car, while you hope you don't discover a car going the otherway on a blind corner (though you seldom do see anyone else on the road). Suddenly the lake becomes visible from a high cliff top. I think it's the second largest lake in New Zealand, formed when a massive landslide blocked off a small stream. There's not much water going in or out so it's a very calm place.

Child beside Tuai lake wall, near the Hostel. Photo by Chris Thompson

It was, and still is, another world. Wild bees swarm in the village regularly. There seemed to be a dredge taking mud out of lake Tuai constantly, and silly birds that stand on one leg. There was no security stopping people wandering into the power station back then. Everything was closed in, the bush always nearby and us humans have only these little clearings that are far far apart.

We ended up out there because my father worked for the Electricity Department. My whole childhood can be mapped around powerstations.

Thanks to flickr, i found a few photos of that remote world.

I like this one best:

Meet Dan - this is his house.... he is a very happy man.
Unfortunately I met Dan around half way through the Urewera National Park, around 70km from my destination on a windy, wet gravel road. Dan and a few friends were moving his house from Ruatahuna to his marae. It is a VERY tight fit! I had a 30 min wait at this point while they dug the bank away enough to get the house through, and let me through.

This gate is the overflow of late Tuai; It is powered and controlled by gravity and alway fascinated me as a child. The high security fence is new; Times have changed.

Photo by Chris Thompson

Tuai Power Station

Photo by Phillip Rickerby

Photo by Phillip Rickerby

»» Submitted by Shiny at 10 March 2010 21:54

This is not the Hamilton i remember growing up in:
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/6913352/hit-and-run-robbery-vic...

Passing motorists ignored a hit-and-run robbery victim left lying on the side of a Hamilton road last night, police say.

The 21-year-old man was walking home across Anglesea Street about 11pm when he was hit by a vehicle, near the Caro Street intersection.

The vehicle's occupants, believed to be two men and a woman, demanded the victim's wallet and took his backpack which had been thrown a short distance by the impact of the car.

In fact i'm hoping the journalist has left something out of this account to explain it. I'm gonna be watching for more details.

The area was busier than usual as people made their way home from the international cricket match at Seddon Park, and police hoped someone may recall seeing the incident take place.

I've seen someone fall off a pushbike in central Wellington and be inundated in people trying to help. Hamilton isn't that much different to Wellington.

p.s does Cricket really run as late as 11pm?

and now a baby photo:

»» Submitted by Shiny at 10 March 2010 00:27

Michael Geist is coming to town..

allow me have a little fangirl moment

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

Here's the press release:

Michael Geist to keynote PublicACTA - InternetNZ

Media Release - 10 March 2010 - InternetNZ (Internet New Zealand Inc) is excited to announce that renowned Canadian law professor Michael Geist, a world authority on technology law issues, will be the keynote speaker at the PublicACTA event, being held in Wellington on 10 April 2010.

"We are delighted that Professor Geist is able to make it to New Zealand to contribute to the debate around the ACTA negotiations," says InternetNZ Policy Director Jordan Carter.

PublicACTA is being held the weekend before the next round of ACTA negotiations in Wellington, 12-16 April 2010.

ACTA is a plurilateral trade agreement being negotiated by the USA, EU, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries, aimed at increasing the control that intellectual property owners have over their products and ideas, and at reducing incidents of counterfeiting and illegal trade in goods. The negotiation phase of the treaty is intended to be finished in 2010.

Professor Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada, has written widely on the challenges of copyright and digital technology.

"His in-depth understanding of the ACTA process to date, and well publicised positions in favour of citizen access to the negotiation process, will add quality analysis and profile to the event," says Carter.

"PublicACTA will be aimed at creating a constructive contribution to the negotiations being held in Wellington. Professor Geist's participation will contribute to that goal," says Carter.

Professor Geist is looking forward to participating in the event:

“New Zealand has emerged as a leading global voice on ACTA and I'm delighted to have the chance to participate in this important event.

“Many people around the world have watched with admiration at how thousands of New Zealanders have actively engaged in domestic and international copyright reform initiatives, promoting a balanced approach that meets the needs of all stakeholders,” he says.

Further information about Michael Geist is available at his website, which can be found at www.michaelgeist.ca.

People who are interested in attending the PublicACTA event should register their interest by sending an email to rsvp@internetnz.net.nz.

Further details about the Conference will be released on a dedicated website next week.

»» Submitted by Shiny at 09 March 2010 23:07

The fancy new version of statusnet rocks.

It's AGPL licenced, fully federated, and you can have you own installation for free.

head to
http://status.net/signup

And you can get your own statusnet installation. Mine is at http://shiny.status.net.

And cos it's all federated, anyone using another Ostatus compliant app can subscribe to you. You can subscribe to me by entering shiny@status.net, or br3nda@identi.ca -- you can subscribe to Google buzz users by entering their gmail address - and there are a handful of other apps out there that support ostatus.

It's a true open source, open data, open web solution - without any single point of failure. awesome stuff.

and now a baby photo:

p.s. Baby microblogs at caseyaroha@identi.ca

»» Submitted by Shiny at 09 March 2010 21:46

I'm willing to be challenged on this one, as I have only the basic details, but here's something that doesn't sound right going on in this tale.

Red Cross goes into Haiti following a massive earthquake - puts out the plea saying "send infant formula, we need it"

Across the Lactivist communities, (mostly) western white middle class women bloggers cry foul. Formula is evil, they need breastmilk, not formula. Don't send formula! boycott any charity sending formula!

and they're mostly right - the World Health Organisation STRONGLY advocates breastfeed exclusively because most of the world does not have access to a clean later supply. Haiti included

but - something feels wrong here. The Red Cross are there, on the ground, and they say that infant formula is what they need. It doesn't take much imagination to work out scenarios where formula is necessary. The mother being dead or missing comes to mind first.

Likewise, an island in Samoa recently asked for supplies, such as infant formula, to help them through the next cyclone.

I also ponder how much breastfeeding is a privilege. You need to be nearby a hungry child in order to successfully breastfeed, or have access to refrigeration, a breastpump, and sterilisation equipment. How many people in developing and impoverished nations have this access?

Breastfeeding rates in New Zealand are lower amongst those on low incomes, and lacking tertiary education. Many would like to breastfeed but are unable to because they work. (We only have 15 weeks paid leave, and it's very low paid).

Is it not the same in Haiti? Perhaps worse? Women don't have a choice but to return to the workplace, and there's no protected right have breastfeeding breaks or facilities for pumping.

My own conclusion is: If Red Cross say they need formula, then I will believe Red Cross first and foremost.

and now a baby photo:

»» Submitted by Shiny at 09 March 2010 03:28

The conclusions on a kiwiblog post really annoyed me. (yeah, i know, i shouldn't read that blog if i wanna keep my faith in NZ)

http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2010/03/the_gender_pay_gap.html
quote:

I’m generally reluctant to conclude discrimination, and look for other factors, because discrimination is just so plain stupid. I can’t understand how anyone would think someone is more or less capable in a job because of their gender, and would pay them less. Mind you, I think the discrimination might be subconscious, rather than a conscious decision.

To paraphrase, the author thinks discriminating on gender is stupid, therefore gender discrimination probably isn't the reason women graduates are consistently paid less than men graduates with the same degree.

That logic just doesn't bare up to scrutiny, that because something is stupid it's therefore not what's happening.

Regardless, the study didn't find a difference in whether graduates gets employed or not. Both men and women graduates found jobs; but the woman was consistently given a lower starting salary than the man. The employer is not thinking "the woman can't do the job". They are employing women and paying them less.

There's two aspect to this:
1) Women doing the same job as men and getting paid less for it.
2) Jobs seen as "women's work" are paid less.

It's not because women take time off to raise children, because we're talking starting rates of someone who has just graduated from university.

The commenters did pick up on women not being aggressive negotiators; The commenters however haven't followed through to *why* women are weak negotiators.

This has been studied to death in recent years. Women who are aggressive getters of what they want are punished for it, with derogatory names, and avoidance. They are often considered selfish. Men who state clearly what they want and go for it are respected. This goes way beyond pay negotiations into all aspects of life.

Girl infants who are rowdy aren't encouraged, while parents will play much rougher with their sons. Girls learn very early that they are expected to be polite, simply because people around them correct their manners more, and their loudness, than they do for boys. Even a parent trying hard to not apply these differences to their children will struggle to stop grandparents, other parents, daycare, teachers, and other children defining their gender attributes for them.

Just as children today learn quickly that pink is for girls (and has been a girls' colour since only circa 1950), they quickly learn which gender they are in therefore whether they should be crashing trucks in the sandpit, or brushing a dolls hair in a circle with the other girls.

Girls who boast are not rewarded. Think of the women you know that have a high opinion of themselves, and how they are regarded by those around them - do they appear well liked? Now think on how many men you know with high confidence, are they disliked for this?

We need to undo this. Employers, and employees, need to question why they are paying women less. "She didn't ask for more" isn't a good enough reason if we're ever going to undo this. Teach the women graduates that they need to negotiate harder, and we should all examine our own prejudice against aggressive women. Negotiation skills are valuable in an employee.

Likewise, women ask your men colleagues doing the same job what they earn.

I hold no blame on women who choose to not negotiate harder. They do so simply because they are punished for being aggressive.

As for women's work being paid less - i don't know the answer, i work in an industry that is ~85% men. I suggest asking people working in those industries. Those observing from outside won't be able to see as clearly.

and as a last thought: In Open source 75% of women have experienced sexism, while only 15% of men have noticed sexism.

and now a photo of a baby driving a car:

»» Submitted by Shiny at 08 March 2010 22:26

“Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant,” the resolution said, “but rather a highly beneficial ingredient for all plant life.”

Change the wording a little bit, and substitute “shit” for “carbon dioxide”, and it’s still just as true

»» Submitted by Shiny at 08 March 2010 08:06

A UK Hansard Society report – Parliament 2020: visioning the future Parliament

asking first-time voters, parliamentarians and parliament officials about their visions for a future Parliament found that all groups wanted to see Parliament using new technologies to more actively engage with citizens.

(just ignore all the pro-labour stuff on there, the stuff is still interesting)
http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2010/03/07/young-voters-demand-more-...

Sony Patents "feature erosion"
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/sony-patents-degradable-video-game-de...

USA's secretary of state says good things about the goodness of OLPC laptops in use in Haiti after the massive earthquake.
http://blog.laptop.org/2010/03/05/hillary-clinton-touts-the-work-of-olpc/

Goodnight Forest Moon - a downloadable book to assemble at home, is a mash up of starwars and goodnight moon.
http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/Al9LbPPf6gg/goodnight-...

Ubisoft's misguided "uncrackable" DRM is cracked in 24 hours
Boingboing muses that giving gamers DRM is really giving them a puzzle to solve, and that's what gamers do, they solve puzzles.
http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/fHyD-O5t650/ubisofts-n...

The "blind" camera

What it does is tracks the exact time that the button was pushed, and then goes out and searches for another image taken at that exact time. Once the camera finds one, it displays the image in the LCD on the back of the camera.

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/03/05/the-blind-camera-shows-you-someone-...

Nearly half of Nepal's children under five are suffering from malnutrition, a report by the Nepalese government says.
Folks living in the developed world have an average 22 hectare "footprint"... but there's only enough planet for 16 hectares per person.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/south_asia/8550503.stm

Apple versus Innovation.

The patent system is out of touch with the modern world, where today’s innovations are taken for granted in next year’s products

HTC has become real competition for apple's smartphones - so apple are suing HTC for patent infringment.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Money/Mises-Economics-Blog/2010/0304/Apple-s-su...

Cliff Chiang has created a great series of Star Wars Imperial Propaganda posters
http://www.cliffchiang.com/2010/02/22/armed-forces/

Gladiator fight in the amphitheatre at Te Papa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjY8arWlp24&feature=youtube_gdata

Green Party sound alarm at proposed policy change removing the second chance school leavers get at a university education.
http://blog.greens.org.nz/2010/03/02/will-the-govt-deny-kiwis-a-second-c...

Picture of the massive earthquake in Chile.
http://feeds.boston.com/click.phdo?i=6dbc4c975e19c049cc0a8bb79ab8c9da

NZBus refused to let evangelical athiests advertise on their buses.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2010/03/the_atheist_bus_campaign.html

and now baby photos:

»» Submitted by Shiny at 07 March 2010 21:59

Super happy dev house, originally uploaded by Br3nda.

»» Submitted by Shiny at 07 March 2010 03:27

Super happy dev house, originally uploaded by Br3nda.

»» Submitted by Shiny at 07 March 2010 03:27

Super happy dev house, originally uploaded by Br3nda.

»» Submitted by Shiny at 07 March 2010 03:27

Stay classy New Zealand, originally uploaded by Br3nda.

NZ looks down of the of eugenics.

»» Submitted by Shiny at 05 March 2010 00:01

Yeahs, i'm a hippy.. both an open source hippy, and a "made locally, with no child labour, and eco friendly please" hippy.

So, when finding clothes for our baby, that outgrows everything every 4 weeks, I'm looking for crafty craft people.

Tomorrow (6th March), is the Martinborough fair. It's about 75 minutes drive from Wellington and it's massive. The whole town is taken over by this ginormous fair. We'll be picking up bebe clothes, but also adult clothes, kitchen things, jams, pickles and who knows what else.
http://www.martinboroughfair.org.nz/

Martinborough Fair, originally uploaded by cristina.gherghe.

070203_017.jpg, originally uploaded by mEyegallery.

Tomorrow is also Craft 2.0, out at the Dowse in Lower Hutt. Lotsa crafty wellington people selling their wares
http://craft2.org/

Goodie bag, originally uploaded by Cle0patra.

And on sunday, the Newtown festival. This has less craft, more made-in-china junk.. but there's entertainers and lotsa food, much of it fair trade.
http://www.newtownfestival.org.nz/

Newtown Festival 2002 - 053, originally uploaded by TELPortfolio.

and now a baby photo:

»» Submitted by Shiny at 04 March 2010 22:04

In December last year, two Liip employees Brian King & I (Penny Leach) went to the Czech Republic for a week, for the first ever concentrated Moodle Developer Conference. There were 16 attendees from around the world, participating in an intense week of discussion about the upcoming Moodle 2.0 release, with a lot of decisions being made and work being planned. The session notes are now online.

After that, I had a 6 week secondment to Moodle HQ, working on improving the Moodle Networking feature for Moodle 2.0. This was my second secondment to Moodle HQ, the first was in 2008, to work on the Portfolio API. Moodle HQ is based in Perth Australia, but there are employees working all around the world in different timezones, so communication largely happens on our jabber development chat, and bug tracker, with the occasional skype video chat.

The first step was to evaluate the current state of MNet, which was added to Moodle 1.8, but needed a lot of work to bring it up to Moodle 2.0 compliance. I created a metabug with a number of subtasks representing the different areas that need work, and then linked all the existing MNet bugs to those. Then I created a whole lot more bugs for a lot of refactoring that needed to happen. Then I rolled up my sleeves and started work. I closed many bugs, some of which affected the stable 1.9 version of Moodle as well, and will be in the next stable point release.

Unfortunately there was more needing to be done than I had time to do, but MNet is now in a much better state to be able to be maintained by more people. I will be doing a handover meeting with David Mudrák soon, and also of course continue to help with bug triage and fixing during the Moodle 2.0 beta period.

Technically, I was tracking Moodle cvs with git, making branches for each bug I was working on, committing to git and then eventually rebasing and using git-cvsexportcommit to land the work into the relevant Moodle branch. This is a workflow that David has recently described in more detail, and works very well for me, a long time thoroughly convinced git user.

Working with Moodle HQ directly is always a great experience, although doing it in a European timezone, as I did in 2008, works better than doing it from New Zealand, which is where I was this time. Even so, I had as always great support from the other core team, testing and doing code review. I hope MNet users will be happy with the improvements in Moodle 2.0.

03 March 2010 09:00

Tonight's sunset in Wellington, originally uploaded by Br3nda.

»» Submitted by Shiny at 03 March 2010 07:26