Enough?

$6 Billion profit in one 3 month period isn't enough?

Dotcom

Not sure I agree that the Dotcom trial has got less visceral, and while I might agree that he's trying to stir controversy, he has had nothing but wins against what might loosely be called the New Zealand Government. It's all rather hilarious for us down under, until we remember that when he wins all those law suits he is bringing, we'll be the ones paying the damages from our taxes.

Just a wee tip for Pakeha reading this from outside Aotearoa. It's pronounced "Hungy" rather than "Hangy".

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the videos to illustrate the meteor shower I missed, but the second one has got me really angry. Seriously, "Video's by Jere" makes me want to F***ing shout and F***ing swear. Why does that need an apostrophe?

Titanic

Can I nominate this as the worst movie ever. Its only redeeming factor was that the very annoying main character died at the end, so no sequel. Yay.

Yay! Bees!

We here in New Zealand got very excited a couple of years ago when some Bumblebee Boffins from Blighty turned up wanting to catch some specimens of our most common Bumblebees. Turns out they were imports from the old country, and thirved here, whilest becoming somewhat rare back home.

If I remember correctly we were quite chuffed and told the Boffins to help themselves.

Valuation

Facebook is "valued" at $900 Bazillion or something, and they need desperately to justify that, so this is an opportunity to gather more of your data to sell. Just ask yourself who the customer is here? (and what is the product).

Careful what you wish for.

The AFL need to be a bit careful here, as they might wind up in the same boat as the NZ Rugby Union, who have served us more and more All Blacks to the point where the games are not very special any more, and people are starting to turn off to them. If faced with a $5 charge every time a game comes on, the average sports fan might just go outside and kick a ball around. The hard core fan will probably pay, as it's not a huge amount, but that's not exactly growing market share now is it?

Monopoly

I am fairly sure that the current Government, headed by the National Party, has some bigtime Telecom shareholders in its ranks.

When they were in power last time, the Telecommunications Minister was a total Muppet who spent several years turning a blind eye to various anti competitive activities.

Lo, when the other mob got into power, the first thing they did was announce regulation of Telecom, and some sort of market started, (in fixed line broadband anyway).

Now we have National back in, Telecom's getting great wodges of my money again.

Blind trust my ar*e.

Fail again

Seriously. The fault for this will be with Vodafone NZ, they must be the least competent bunch I've ever had the misfortune to do business with.

Caveats

Thanks once again for an article about the music business that makes some good points. Thanks also for giving us the opportunity to comment, very nice.

The title "A collective failure of imagination" seems to me to apply in the first instance to the record companies. They own the rights to recorded music, and mostly have done since music was first recorded. The Internet, and associated technologies have been available for well over 10 years now, and yet the record companies have never provided music online to customers willing to pay. That job has fallen to Apple, mostly. They however are not really allowed to make a profit from the service because those same record companies don't want to lose control, (I suppose).

Just saying.

Could be Wrong

But maybe Microsoft are only good at selling Windows and Office, and everything else is a loss leader?

Ha, Irony indeed

Control, competition, property. Two of those things the Vatican have spent two thousand years collecting, and the other one has been ruthlessly destroyed. I'll leave it up to you to figure out which one's which. Or you could ask the Cathar family next door.

Oh, wait...

Golgafrincham

They really should be worried about the Mutant Star Goat. My hairdresser told me all about it.

Load of old Crap

Go on flame me, I don't care. Not entertainment, not literary, just a slice of life from a bygone era. Might be nearly interesting as a look at life for a certain section of the middle classes in Victorian England if it weren't so fucking dull.

Business Model

HarperCollins' business model has just gone the way of the dinosaur, and so the pirates will have to teach them the error of their ways. Seems to be working with the music leaches.

Pyramid Scheme

That's all it is. I get lots these in my spam filter. Also known as pump 'n' dump.

Not a Cult

WBC is not a cult. Its a family business making money from suing (or settling with) Police forces or Local governments which try to restrict its right to protest.

Try http://kanewj.com/wbc/

Last Night's Quake

The quake happened during Lunch hour local time. Seems a bit odd to call it "Last Night's" quake. Google personfinder can't tell me anything about anybody I know in Christchurch, but then I only lived there for 6 years, and don't know everyone.

10 years? Can't be.

I had to remove this worm from a client's PC. Twice. In the same week. Seems the client in question was a big fan of Miss K, and was very keen to have a look at some photos of her. Very keen indeed.

Chinese garlic is worthless anyway

As the ac noted above, it tastes like s**t. There's no duty where live, so the stuff is super cheap compared to the locally grown stuff, but our local supermarket has stopped stocking it, as they couldn't give it away. It is also bleached I understand, to make it look good on the shelf.