As I posted to Facebook the other day.... :D :D :D

With thanks to the Wellywood Sign Generator. :-)

My LCA2010 Tuesday started with an Airport pickup; it was my job to meet Keith Packard at Wellington International Airport and deliver him to the event.
I then had to drive across town to my car park and walk back to the event :/

However... I did get back on time to pick up the tail of the Keynote and then attend the remainder of the days session - and this day was of particular interest, being the 'Open and the Public Sector' stream. This was kicked off by Don Christie in his role of President of the New Zealand Open Source Society and the keynote was by the UK Governments Director of Digital Engagement, Andrew Stott. I have to say that I give the UK Government a lot of credit for their willingness to embrace online engagement, the talk was given via Skype and was (generally) successful - though they should probably have pumped the audio across an ordinary PSTN or even cellular phoneline, as the Internet link wasn't flawless by any means...

Though I have made two, separate previous entries on the subject, my grand intention to blog about the Wellington-hosted Linux Australia Conference kinda looks pretty lame; here I am 6 weeks? later finally putting 'pen to paper'.

In my defence, well, domestic and professional life have both taken their toll; a grand total of 2 months off work (All of Dec and Jan) resulted in a need to hit the ground pretty much running when I returned to work proper on the 4th of February, and it's been basically a full month before I got to the stage where 'normality' had returned. That was Friday...

So back to my intention: To write about LCA.

Well, there's an article above about the Monday, but really, my involvement in LCA started earlier than that:

The Rental Truck...

Stuff are on the ball with the news that most of us were probably expecting anyway.

In short:

* Driving Age Minimum 15 -> 16; (in the end, a move of questionable value)

* "Requiring novice drivers to have 120 hours' supervised practice before driving alone" (I for one want to know how 'novice' is defined and how on earth this'll be managed/scaled/audited);

* Introducing a zero drink-drive limit for drivers under 20; (how it should be)

* Better education; (HELL YES!)

* An investigation into vehicle power restrictions. (requires very careful implementation.)

"A second package to address alcohol and drug impaired drivers would go to Cabinet next month. It included compulsory alcohol interlock devices and a zero limit for repeat drink driving offenders." Sounds good to me.

Important point to flag: "He said Cabinet would consider changes to the give way rule later in the year and public input would be sought. "

So the right turn rule for which NZ is notorious, is to be changed - but not immediately and there will be consultation which is of course, horrendously important.

So whilst I can imagine there'll be uproar in some circles, i'm in wait-and-see mode. Most of the above changes actually seem quite logical. I'm not entirely convinced that the change to the driving age will be a big benefit (the problems with driver inexperience are just that, inexperience... age is a limited factor and infact starting younger probably improves your experience levels?!) but the drinking law change is a given (existing limits so low as to not be worth risking anyway) and of course, improved education for those working through the drivers licensing schema is an excellent move. Kiwi drivers are notoriously poorly educated on a world scale.

Let the knee-jerking begin??

A video that one of my mates posted on Facebook yesterday inspired me to have a nosey for Space Knights. How retro!

Eventually I came across the official entry on the SPP website.

Produced in 1989 - Yes, 21 years ago - and used to show on a Saturday afternoon as I recall.
Interestingly it doesn't appear at all on IMDB.com despite having some notable names. Wider websearching shows some interesting facts, though, like the Managing Director of South Pacific Pictures was director of several of the episodes of what was SPP's first ever television production. They are of course better known these days for some of New Zealand Television's finest, including Shortland Street and Outrageous Fortune.

So that was my history trip for yesterday. Now I find myself pondering finding a copy of 'Space Junk' by Dave Dobbyn...

Oh and the publisher of the above also seperately put Just the Intro Sequence up - and the comments are gold, some nice historical anecdotes, esp about the way it was produced!

As heads roll, there's outrage amongst Telecom XT Customers - but there's similar frustration from a strong minority of folks who don't see why folks are letting themselves become so vulnerable in the first place.

We have the slant being taken, that the XT outage is serious enough to cause risk to life and property due to the inability to call 111. The example given is a kid who was bashed at a Mall in Christchurch and how folks couldn't call for help...

- What, no other cellphone networks were available amongst the folks in the neighbourhood? At the moment we have XT and CDMA (both Telecom, but seperate), plus Vodafone, and 2 Degrees. Seriously, noone around had a non-XT handset?
- What, no landlines handy? You were in the urban area of one of NZ's main cities and you couldnt find a payphone or a building with a landline?

Another point; Noone's noting the fact that Cellphones were never sold as 100% reliable in the first place. There will be coverage failures from 'time to time'. (Admitted, XT's woes are pretty unreasonable if you're throwing money at them and theyre broken more than is 'reasonable').

For those complaining they're losing business; why don't you have a plan-B? Landlines? Cellphones on other networks? A backup plan could simply be an old handset on another network with a prepay connection. I still have my 027 CDMA Prepay for this reason, despite having been a Vodafone customer for ~11 years.

And with number portability, there really is little excuse for the final point; vote with your feet applies!! If the network you're a customer of is not cutting the mustard, change to a better one. Ultimately that is the way to demonstrate your satisfaction (or not) - it's the way that businesses listen (with their wallets).

Athiest Bus Campaign canned by NZ Bus Company.

"NZ Bus stated that they have received a number of complaints from the public about the proposed ads..."

Oh come-on... athiests vs non-athiests?! Why should one win out over the other? Freedom to choose guys... !!

In principle I have serious concerns about the trend this sets; I hope NZ Bus intend to reject all religious advertising going forward - in the interests of fairness!

(It is of course their perogative to reject advertisers. I just hope it's even-handed.)

I hate it when the Government gets it so, so wrong...

"When disagreements or fights develop, the presence and the use of the knife turns the encounter into something lethal that has absolutely devastating consequences for the victim, the victim's family and our society," Justice Asher said.

"Somehow the message has to be imparted to young people that it is unacceptable for knives to be carried in public places."

This statement is crap as read. I've underlined the relevant bit; the USE of a knife is the problem when it comes to violent conflict. Posession itself is not an issue, and yet the second sentence is problematic.

The problem is not the posession, it's the intent and the use.
Some knives are designed as weapons first.
Some are designed as tools.

What about moving a knife between two private places, transiting public places? Do you get nailed then?

What about a swiss army knife or similar, on a person who regularly has cause to use such a thing - or who simply want's to be prepared?

"We need to make sure our laws are sending a message to young people that it's totally unacceptable to have knives in public places and that there will be consequences if this happens."

Sigh.

The article goes on to quote:

The Summary Offences Act (s13A) provides for a penalty of up to three months in prison or a fine of up to $2000 for possession of a knife in a public place without reasonable excuse.

The Crimes Act (s202A) also makes it an offence to carry a knife in a public place without reasonable excuse, an offence which carries a penalty of up to two years in prison.

The emphasis is mine. What construes 'reasonable'?

Yes indeed. Started with a bang at about 0430 with Benjamin demanding a feed, which was duly administered. Unfortunately as has been par for the course lately, doing so (and the burping, etc), ran to over an hour and even more unfortunately, I began to suspect his ability to deal with the nasal drip he's been coping with as a byproduct of his allergy. This caused me concern enough to wake up Liz at about 0600 and for us to together, agree shortly thereafter that a visit to the Afterhours (Accident and Emergency at Hutt Hospital) was on the cards.

For those unaware, our son Ben (born in December) has been exhibiting the same symptoms as our daughter did 4 years ago, with regards to an allergy to Dairy. Rash, irritability, and other symptoms abound, and in essence its been getting harder and harder to feed him and settle him afterward. Over the last few days, sleep was getting harder to come by (we estimate his hours of sleep in the time to Midday Saturday was in the order of 2 hours for the previous 36.)

We've been working the system as we're meant to, to get Ben's situation addressed. A visit to a (private) paediatrician recently didn't help much, as it appears he doesn't subscribe to the kinds of problems our Son is facing. With serious concerns for his wellbeing, the only way to accellerate our getting help through the public system was to visit A&E. So we did this; we were there by shortly before 0730 this morning.

Fortunately, given that it was early on a Sunday, the ER was quiet. We were seen relatively quickly and after briefing the registrar, then a junior Paed doc, we waited for the Paediatrician. Ben moved between quiet, and loudlyuncomfortable, while we waited. And waited. I must recognise, though, that the staff at the ER were excellent, friendly and helpful - they checked on us regularly and made sure we were well looked after. Biggie ups to them! The chief delays are around waiting for doctors/specialists.

I lived there. Sadly, this is pretty typical..