Author Archive
Preventing cyberstalking and breaches of privacy
We’ve been discussing cyberstalking and the abuse of private information on the web at an individual level. (hint: You want private? Don’t put it on the web!) But there’s more to it than unguarded Facebook comments and anonymous trolling. I remember I first made Jacqueline’s acquaintance here at The Paepae after I commented on the […]
Corrosion
Two unrelated (except that they’re comments about American poltiicians) excerpts from articles that jumped out at me recently. As they do. First, from What if he’d made it earlier? David Runciman’s (London Review of Books) review of the latest instalment in Robert Caro’s epic record of LBJ The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. IV: The […]
Judge David Harvey spikes ‘the enemy’ guns
David Lange once said, ‘He who lives by the quip, dies by the quip’. “The problem is not technology. The problem is behaviour. We have met the enemy and he is us.” — Justice David Harvey at NetHui Judge David Harvey’s later pun about the United States being ‘the enemy’ in a discussion about the […]
Flacks will always try this on. Resist.
The New York Times reports in a vaguely-nauseating article ‘Latest Word on the Trail? I Take It Back‘ on the increasing use of ‘quote approval’ by the US presidential campaigns as a condition of interviews with people associated with the campaigns. I’ve never agreed to that request when asked by ‘newsmakers’ at all levels, or […]
The Warrior – by Chuck Girard
I mentioned Chuck Girard’s album Written on the Wind recently as part of my eclectic musical ‘heritage’. My pal Graeme and I remembered Girard (who always struck me as a lost Beach Boy) and a few of his fellow inspirers like Barry McGuire and Larry Norman at lunch today… so I pulled this track up, […]
There goes the whole appeal of Facebook for some personality types … well, not really
In the same way that locks are only really designed to keep out honest people, this ‘dramatic’ change to how Facebook operates will, in reality, be of minimal effect. We’ve discussed the (lack of) privacy of material posted on the world’s largest social network before. Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, some people gotta SNOOP. […]
IDEA: Turning payphones into free Wi-fi hotspots
Read at gigaom: New York starts turning payphones into free Wi-fi hotspots Smart idea. -P
Someone who asks questions for a living does a good job of answering some
From one of the most thoughtful and illuminating* ‘Twelve Questions’ columns I’ve read … NZ Herald: Knowing what you know now about the media, would you still want to be a journalist if you were starting out in 2012? Anita McNaught: It has changed, but with a few reservations I love the way it has […]
Bad behaviour online – NetHui
These notes (by Nat Torkington @gnat — available as google doc here) are from discussion/part of Judge David Harvey‘s presentation at Nethui underway now in Auckland. They directly touch on some of the recent discussion we’ve had on the topic of online free speech and harassment. [Harvey:] This session looking at bad behaviour online. Law […]
I wonder how common this combination is?
From a blogger’s potted bio on a review of the excellent Scrivener software I use: About Brian xxxxxxx Computer programmer by day; horror and post-apocalyptic thriller writer by night. Bless him! – P (Reminds me of you JT.)
Distribute comment spam. Get pinged. Ask that YOUR OWN SPAM be removed. Hahahaha!
From Josh Marshall at talkingpointsmemo.com. He calls it ‘chutzpam’. I call it bleurgh! In other words, the estimable businessmen and women at realinsurance.com.au have been paying SEO companies to spam the comment sections of sites around the globe. But now Google’s new search algorithms are making that legacy spam really damaging. So now they’re sending […]
Untangling from emotional habits
Reviving memories of Edie Brickell got me thinking about her, how happy she seemed, and how she seemed to disappear after marrying Paul Simon. Here’s a line from a Jan 2011 AP interview ‘Edie Brickell releases records full of joy‘ talking about how her long-awaited 2011 CDs, the eponymous “Edie Brickell” and “The Gaddabouts”. Both […]
What am is what I am. Are you what you are, or what?
I had this Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars virtually on permanent rotate in my car’s cassette player (!!) when it came out. Along with Chuck Girard’s Written on the Wind, Paul Clark’s Hand to the Plow and Vangelis’ Chariots of Fire. Good times. Fantastic music. Dedicated to Cally. […]
Comments, classified
I don’t enjoy navel gazing about comments and moderation here at The Paepae. Every now and then I’m forced to think about it again because someone wants to have a crack at me or someone else in low-value terms. Usually anonymously. I tend towards no censorship beyond filtering spam (thank you Akismet) and throwing out […]
