My new years resolution

Resolution

IRD Secure Site Still Down

Given the penalties and short shrift given to the general public by the IRD if we ever have the temerity to be late with a return or payment; or worse make a mistake - the least they could do is have a working website. If our site goes down for an hour my ass is on the line; one that has been down for over a week is a disgrace. IRD get your **** together, please. Just a shame I can't invoice you for all my time you are wasting through your ineffectiveness.

So where is the Greens response?

How about getting HER fixed?

One of my pet peeves with the Green Party within New Zealand is their continued lack of response let alone leadership on the worlds largest environmental issue.

They seem to be able to propose measures like killing 25 percent of the countries cows - yet when it comes to the root causes like over breeding they are spineless and silent at best.

At worst they generally support this type of activity belying their true communist roots and exposing their green facade for what it is - facile and disposable.

Blissful ignorance

The iMac In A World Of MacBooks On The Brink Of iPads

This "tech" post encapsulates so many of my pet peeves with the Apple / Mac love fest its actually quite amusing.
However the "tech writer" manages to encapsulate it all in one quote:

"Another element the iMac gives you that a MacBook does not (at least not yet) is the option for a “Fusion Drive”. Marketing terms aside, this is a great method of compromise that Apple has come up with. Essentially, you have both a solid-state flash drive and a traditional hard drive in the machine, and software found in a slightly altered version of OS X Mountain Lion determines what data should go where automatically (based on your usage). This allows you to have the speed of SSD with the storage volumes of a regular hard drive."

You see hybrid hard drives (as they are generally known) have been around since Seagate released them in October 2006. And yes that 6 is not a typo. This tech is actually older than Facebook (literally) but because it's got an apple on it it's suddenly hot. To twits like this anyway...

Brilliant backup service with a fatal flaw

SocialSafe, The Social Media Back-Up Tool, Raises $400K To Out-Archive Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

Socialsafe is providing a fantastic service for anyone conscious that they might like to actually find that tweet or post about when their child's first tooth was. Especially when said child gets old enough to ask about things like that (typically when they have kids, so ask yourself how soon you want that to be...)

However I do have one major beef with it - the client is written in Adobe Air - which might not mean alot to most people. But this is a language / framework that has already begun to be deprecated (ie killed but in a progressive slow fashion) by its only maintainer Adobe.  So I have to question - why would you backup your social life using a tool that's already dead?

Systematic

Systematic

Headdesk

Headdesk

A good question

A good question

In that the answer is "because it's a bloody stupid law". And just because something is law doesn't make it right.

A sacrificial public servant

A sacrificial public servant

Lawless farmers

Lawless farmers

Savita's law

Savita's law

Big brother is watching you

Big Brother is watching you

Green logic

Govt to hike petrol taxes and road user charges 9 cents over three years to pay for 'roads of national significance'

Only the Greens could reason that increasing taxes on petrol results in locking more people into a car dependent lifestyle.  While I can understand them decrying building of motorways as a philosophical standpoint to suggest that using petrol taxes to do so is a bad thing just demonstrates the total mess this country will be in if they ever have a genuine say in running it.

The ministry of education gets a spanking

The Ministry of Education gets a spanking

The HYEFU

The HYEFU

Compensation for rendition

http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/compensation-for-rendition.html

The end of an era

The end of an era

Reported back

Reported back

NRTR

"The Government actually doesn't care about Kim Dotcom"

Alright - in the past I've always been frustrated by No Right Turns no comments policy, so from now on I'll try to create a post for every article to allow conversation to occur
Let loose people :D

Food for schools - done right

Fonterra rolls out its Milk For Schools programme nationwide, following success in Northland

Showing once again that it's not all about Government and tax

A worthwhile thought piece

Bad Incentives That Work Quite Well: The Opportunity Cost of Political Partisanship

Worth reading regardless of your particular political partisanship

Oh please make this true

Chris Avellone blesses inXile's Planescape: Torment successor • News • PC • Eurogamer.net

Planescape torment is one of the few RPGs that can hold a candle to Daggerfall.  Heres hoping they can stay true to the spirit and make something even better.

IRD tax grab stupidity incarnate

IRD backtrack confuses employers and employees with ruling that the cost of accommodation when a worker is required to work away from home is taxable income for the employee

I'm desperately hoping the National government in power can put paid to this piece of ridiculous interpretation.  Frankly there can be no sympathy with the IRD over cases of tax avoidance when they throw out their moral standpoint in the most spectacular of ways. There is no way that anyone who has ever traveled for business would argue that a hotel room was a perk, and I'd love them to show how in the majority of cases an employee was able to reduce their costs by the "income" they are suddenly being attributed.

The benefit of the iPad

Is that despite its absurdity of revolutionary conformance, it allows the consumption of challenging and nonConformant thought. Thanks to Stanford for the online publication of what must always be treasures, and never beholden to copyright http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/frequentdocs/birmingham.pdf

No Right Turn: So much for "common sense"

No Right Turn: So much for "common sense"

I'm with NRT on this one

Our thoughts are with you

Nothing else will suffice our hearts bleed for your loss S and T will get long hugs this weekend

Meet ACTA: PIPA and SOPA's Big Brother

I just signed this urgent petition from Access calling on the European Parliament to vote NO on a dangerous international treaty, ACTA. I'm forwarding this to you because of how important it is that we stop it, so please join me and the thousands from around the world and sign below. Continue reading below the link for what Access has to say about ACTA:

Heres the link: https://www.accessnow.org/page/s/just-say-no-to-acta

"All of the things that you and I enjoy about using the Internet, like the ability to speak freely and widespread access to information, is under threat with a dangerous new international treaty, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. This intellectual property agreement, which has already been signed by several countries, will force ISPs and websites to track our every move, turn over our personal information, and report our activity to the government, all in the name of copyright protection.

The European Parliament still has to approve ACTA for it to go into effect around the world. If they vote NO, then ACTA will be effectively dismantled -- even in countries that have already signed it. We helped bring down SOPA and PIPA in the US, now let's turn the fight to ACTA. Now matter where you live, call on the EU Parliament to take a stand and vote “NO” on ACTA!"

For more information on ACTA, go here: https://www.accessnow.org/what-is-acta

No-give, No-take in Israel

An excellent idea (fully in line with Libertarian theory) to increase the rate of organ donation.
Of course there is also the selfish side that I've had my organ donor status as yes on my drivers license for 14 years :D

No-give, No-take in Israel:

In Entrepreneurial Economics I argued for a “no give, no take” system for organ donation–people who signed their organ donor cards would be given priority over non-signers should they one day need an organ. The idea has an element of justice to it but the primary goal is to increase the incentive to sign one’s organ donor card.

Israel recently adopted this policy by giving extra points on the allocation system to people who previously signed the organ donor card. In the case of kidneys, for example, two points (on a 0-18 point scale) are given if the candidate had three or more years previous to being listed signed their organ card.  One point is given if a first-degree relative had signed and 3.5 points if a first-degree relative had previously donated.

It’s early but so far the policy appears to be very successful:

Due to the population’s surge of interest in obtaining an organ donor card, the Adi-National Israel Transplant Center has extended through March 31 the deadline to register as a donor and receive special benefits.

…During the past few weeks, Adi’s phone system has collapsed several times due to the high demand.

Since Adi decided to give preferential treatment to those registering as a potential organ donor, tens of thousands of people have registered, raising the number of potential donors to over 600,000. Until last year, the rate of registration was among the lowest in the Western world.

Hat tip to David Undis whose excellent group Lifesharers (I am an adviser) is implementing a private version of no-give, no take in the United States.

Here is my piece on Life Saving Incentives and here are previous MR posts on organ donation.

The Problem With Patents (Infographic)

What is amazing through this is that even though the patent system often seems to grant patents for absurdly obvious things (and ignoring prior art / visualisations) - is how complex the process is when there is a genuine breakthrough that deserves protection.

So it would seem to be failing on that front as well.

Source: http://frugaldad.com