Skip to main content

Syndicate contentNew Zealand

Broadband, Slingshot style

June 2, 2007 by muyiwa

Since May 27 I've been on what must be New Zealand's slowest broadband connection, with an upload speed of between 12 5 kbps and 32 kbps, and download speeds of between 700 560 kbps and 2 Mbps. This on a plan which is nominally supposed to be 2 Mbps / 128 kbps.

Slingshot has not been able to tell me what the problem is, nor have they made any efforts to fix it. They have refused to acknowledge that it is a fault arising out of the provisioning for my service by Telecom, preferring instead to tell me that Telecom has tested my line and my line is capable of achieving the contracted speeds.

Why you shouldn't drive when drunk

May 4, 2007 by muyiwa

I've just watched a segment on TV3 about the dangers of driving on New Zealand roads, especially those posed by [mostly teen-age] drink-drivers, unlicensed drivers, etc., and I remembered that a friend had sent me pictures from the scene of a fatal accident.

Please be warned that the attached pictures are of an extremely graphic nature, so please do not try to view them if you are of a queasy disposition. However, I urge you to share the images with anyone you know who has ever behaved irresponsibly behind the wheels.

As we enjoy great Advantages from the Inventions of others, we should be glad of an Opportunity to serve others by any Invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.

— Benjamin Franklin

quoted in Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan.

Reclaim your computer!

A personal computer is called a personal computer because it's yours. Anything that runs on that computer, you should have control over.
— Andrew Moss, Microsoft's senior director of technical policy, 2005

The most serious impediment to a lasting archive is the evolution of media, platforms, formats, and the applications that create them. Unique, proprietary, and constantly evolving data formats such as Acrobat-4, MPEG-4, Oracle 8, Quicken 2001, Real G2, and Word 2000 suggest or even guarantee obsolescence.
— Gordon Bell, Senior Researcher in Microsoft's Media Presence Research Group.

LIMITATION ON AND EXCLUSION OF DAMAGES. You can recover from Microsoft and its suppliers only direct damages up to the amount you paid for the software. You cannot recover any other damages, including consequential, lost profits, special, indirect or incidental damages.
— Clause 26 of the Windows 7 License.

Moodle Resources

Open source web conference systems

Premium Drupal Themes by Adaptivethemes