"Auckland's New Public Transport Network"

Can't wait. This change in bus route organisation is long overdue and will be most welcome.

Phillip Morris, have a little shame....

Cigarette makers, Phillip Morris, are apparently mounting a campaign to defend smoking. They've set up a web site where smokers can share their problems. They've called it "My Opinion Counts".

This is a corporation that makes and sells a product that kills people who buy it if they use it as intended. It is only legal because it is an addiction that used to afflict a huge proportion of society and banning it would have created more problems than any ban would have solved. Instead, the policy has been to educate people as to why smoking is a stupid waste of good money from almost every angle one can think of.

The web site has a contact link where you can give Phillip Morris feedback.

Here is my feedback:

Have a little shame. 


You promote and sell a product that makes people ill. It kills them. 


My father is dying of lung and liver cancer right now. Your "campaign" to defend smoking makes me more than a little sick. 


Not to mention standing next to smokers at bus stops is gag-inducing.....especially on wet days. They simply stink. 


It's their choice to smoke despite the obvious hazards and the fact it makes them ugly and old faster....and dirty in seconds. It isn't against the law to be stupid. 


But I have NO choice about the way they pollute my environment as though they have a right to stink under my nose....and leave their tar smell on everything they touch. Never mind the butts all over the road. I walk 10kms to work each day and there would be barely a metre of gutter that didn't have discarded cigarette butts in it. 


Gross filthy habit....and the people who engage in it these days think the world is their ash tray. 


....and you want "defend" this.    


I'll be writing MPs to communicate my feelings on this matter. 

The (parody) Queen has spoken!

This caught my eye on Twitter. Very funny. :-)

For the avoidance of doubt, there is no such thing as 'American English'. There is the English language and there are mistakes.

— Elizabeth Windsor (@Queen_UK) May 29, 2012

"Free speech" should be honest speech

I've been thinking about the media, as I am sometimes known to do. The most recent round of thought was sparked by this blog post by Russell Brown on publicadress.net.  In it, Russell looks into how the New Zealand Herald has repeatedly used an audience rating figure for TVNZ7 that is incorrect. Worse, the Herald has ignored attempts to inform it of the error or correct it.

The incorrect information supports the Herald's editorial line that no one watches TVNZ7. This view is less supportable when the real viewer stats are taken into account...and we see that TVNZ7 has at 3 times the viewership the Herald has reported.

So what do you do when the major news source in your town proves - again  - to be 'economical with the truth' when the truth is contrary to their political agenda?

Owning mass media should not be confused with the right to free speech. If you do blur the two, then "free speech" effectively becomes the right of billionaires to spew propaganda at us....and we are powerless and effectively silent....as we don't own a voice of comparable magnitude. We can talk all day and no one hears us for all practical purposes. There needs to be a powerful check on abuse by the owners of voices so loud and so powerful they drown out all others.

Media who lie or deliberately mislead (very subtle difference) should be accountable. An outlet that consistently behaves this way should be prevented from owning media, just as we prevent dishonest people from owning pubs, casinos, banks or brothels. 

Almost Time to Vote!

It's almost voting day.

I'll be voting Green because they are the only consistently reality-based party with respect for evidence.

I'll be voting to keep MMP because it's the only system that ensures the real majority governs and that I was able to actually elect people I want to represent me.

STV will be my fail-over choice. It's the only proportional alternative.

What will you do?

Copyright, You are Dead to Me.

As of now I do not give a rat's bleeding arse about copyright. It's obviously become a scam allowing corporations to steal from all of us. It's not for me or anyone like me.

I just tried to upload a video I made that was made up of bits of video shot at the Auckland Lantern Festival in February. Amid the thousand people talking in the background someone, somewhere was singing some very bad karaoke.

My camera's mic picked it up for a few seconds (30?) and braindead YouTube laid a copyright infringement claim against my video before it had even finished uploading. Fair Use is being trampled completely. These corporations are stealing from us all with impunity. 

I now officially do not give a flying monkey's toss about copyright. These corporations clearly do not care about my rights.

Let's call that even. It's over. 


Copyright, you are dead to me. 

YouTube and Fair Use

A couple of weeks ago I was walking up Queen St in Auckland and came across some young people break dancing in Aotea Square. Some of them were pretty good.

I had my 3D camera with me (Fujifilm Finepix Real 3D W3) and I shot some stills and video. Later, I made a video of the best efforts by the best dancers and uploaded it to YouTube. Two days later they notified me I had infringed copyright because of the music the kids were playing on their sound system. YouTube restricted the ability to see my video on some platforms (mobile, in particular) and in some countries. They advised me I could dispute the claim if I wished.

I definitely wished.

The videos were recordings of a spontaneous, unorganised, non-profit event in a public place. The sound track includes chatter, clapping, cheers and laughter. The segments of the video aren't in chronological order. Parts of several songs are included and not necessarily in the order in which the incidental music was played by the dancers. I have no idea who the artists are or what the names of the songs might be.

If this isn't Fair Use....then YouTube have allowed it to be killed by the RIAA.

I have disputed this claim. I don't know how long the disputes process takes, so will be interested to find out. I'll post more information as it comes to hand. 

Here is the disputed video. [Update: I deleted the video off YouTube. You can see it at 3DF33D.TV if you're interested]

(The embedded player doesn't seem to include 3D support. You may wish to click through to YouTube for other 3D modes.)

VIDEO DELETED