The Paepae | . . . hosted by Peter Aranyi @ Page 87

2 Comments »

Hotchin's statement of claim 'referred to a number of columns and a profile feature published in the Weekend Herald between 2008 and 2011. It says the articles had damaged his personal and commercial reputation and caused him to lose commercial opportunities in Australia and New Zealand' (NZ Herald - click)

Spruiker Mark Hotchin — the face of Hanover Finance (claiming in its TV ads: “This One Weather Update is brought to you by Hanover, a New Zealand business with the size and strength to withstand any conditions“)*, whose operation broke promises to 16,500 investors leaving them out of pocket $554 million and subject to a questionable arrangement with Allied Farmers which apparently ended his liability … is suing the NZ Herald and Brian Gaynor for defamation because their criticisms [allegedly] cost him reputation and opportunities.

Oh dear me.

Um, gee, what about the outcome of your business, Mark? Maybe that’s what affected your reputation and opportunities? Just a thought.

Maybe it was the news that the Serious Fraud Office is investigating your business and affairs and the Commerce Commission has frozen your assets in anticipation of there being (ahem) a call on them? Could those Google-able FACTS have affected your reputation and opportunities?

What do you think?

*Other businesses using that or similar slogans:
Scania Trucks

Scania Mining Trucks:

Robust, durable and reliable trucks that get the job done. Scania mining trucks are built to withstand the toughest conditions over a long operational life on and off the road.

ComNav Marine Racing systems:

The display shows the data in clear, easy to read digits, with both primary and secondary readouts. Built to withstand the toughest conditions, it also allows the user to access a comprehensive range of information – at the press of a button…

Toshiba fan-cooled electric motors

Toshiba’s EQPIII motor line is the cornerstone of our product offering. Built to withstand the toughest conditions, all of our EQPIII motor products offer some of the highest efficiency and torque ratings while producing some of the lowest vibration ratings in the industry, leading to a longer life and greater reliability.

ALTAMA Combat boots

ALTAMA Combat boots are made to withstand the toughest conditions of both battle and the environment.

ICA Sports facility construction

ICA’s SportsFrame structures are built solid to withstand the toughest conditions, including wind, rain, and snow. In fact, its standing seam roof has a life expectancy of over 20 years.

Imagine if any if these overt claims of durability and ‘being built to withstand the toughest conditions’ ended up being as hollow and anemic as Hanover Finance’s (not to mention the moratorium ducking and diving and dividend payout shenanigans).

Who would they (say Scania mining trucks) sue for “defamation” if their failure to live up to their promises of strength and hard-wearing toughness were pointed out in the news media and discussed by analysts, eh Mark?
Duh.

Your business deserves the scorn, in my opinion. And you were its face.
– P

UPDATE: And in news today: Hotchin’s assets remain frozen

Serious. To quote Cactus Kate: “To keep the freeze precisely as it stood on Thursday would be a signal to Hotchin that he is in serious stoock.”
Yup.

UPDATE: Or, not so much. A lot has been unfrozen, despite the headline, apparently. Read this, if you care – Cactus Kate: Huge Wins For Hotchin

spruikers

Dirty rotten liars posing as their opposites

Posted in 7 May 2011

2 Comments »

Look at this page which an innocent Google image search result led me to last night:

This lying liars 'webpage' tried to download a zip file while I watched the bogus 'scan' and results with the offer to 'Remove all' trojans and malware. Filthy liars. (Click to enlarge.)

As well as a bogus scan with blinking displays and an imitation desktop window (displayed within the browser) — supposedly checking my computer for malware and viruses telling me the ‘alarming’ news that ‘Your computer is infected‘ the website also kept trying to download an unrequested .zip file with the wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing file name of ‘anti-malware.zip‘. (God knows what you’d unleash if you unzipped that file!)

Yeah, sure thing. Oh yeah, you really are the ‘Apple Security Center’ popping up unexpectedly after a Google image search with a web address like: http://69.50.201.182/files/e13c9c5[snip]a04e3bef3b8fc0ecb80699ab1.zip

Oh yeah, I believe you.

Dirty trick. Rotten scoundrels like this prey on the innocent and the naive.
Loathsome weasels.

– P

Media issues - Tech

Apple, authenticity, Mac Defender, malware, online life, scam?

I don’t want to see any pictures of Osama Bin Laden dead or alive

Posted in 6 May 2011

1 Comment »

Good grief. No thanks.

Any such images would settle nothing, as Jon Stewart said (sarcastically):

A photo will end the speculation — just like that Zapruder film put to rest all that JFK business.

Watch the video at The Daily Show (click)

Bernard Whimp gets his name in lights … sort of

Posted in 6 May 2011

1 Comment »

You may recall my posts ‘Low-ball share buyer Bernard Whimp in action‘ and ‘Bernard Whimp – another suck of the saveloy. No shame?‘ which catalog this unimpressive Christchurch businessman’s questionable, um, ‘endeavours‘.

The Financial Markets Authority announced today it has ordered Bernard Whimp and his associates to “include a warning from the FMA at the beginning of any unsolicited offer they may make”.

What would you call that? A vote of no-confidence?

The warning reads in part:

Warning: Offers from Mr Bernard Whimp May Not Be in Your Best Interests

May 2011

Famous for all the wrong reasons (Bernard Whimp's special FMA warning - click to read it in detail)

This is a warning from the Financial Markets Authority.

The Financial Markets Authority urges you to treat this offer with great caution.

Before you accept it, carefully read the details of what you will be paid and when, and any fine print anywhere on the offer or forms.

The Financial Markets Authority considers it is not in your interests to accept an offer that is for less than the market price, or where you will have to wait longer than three days to be paid.

Make an informed decision – seek advice from a registered financial adviser, your lawyer, your accountant, a Community Law Centre or Citizen’s Advice Bureau….

Well, that’s making it Bernard Whimp. (No, not really.)

Judging from similar dubious ‘personalities’ I have encountered, I bet Bernard Whimp feels unjustly singled out, for unfair reasons … and let me guess: I bet he is blaming his ‘competitors’ for this turn of events, and ‘biased, ‘corrupt’ authorities for their envy-driven efforts to denigrate him — a ‘leader in the industry’. Oh, yeah. (Excuse me while I barf.) He’ll have a picture of himself as NZ’s #1 share trader, getting great ‘results’ — yada yada yada.

I feel a memoir coming on…. ‘~~Compulsive liars~~ ~~Con-men~~ Misunderstood geniuses I have met’

– P

Business/Investment

Bernard Whimp, scam?, spruikers

I can see Pakistan from my house. Security clearance? You betcha!

Posted in 3 May 2011

Media issues - Writing/Publishing

2 Comments »

Oh, boy, those White House photographers must have an ultra-plus-plus security clearance, huh? Here’s Pete Souza’s pic of the gang watching the Osama Bin Laden ‘kill or capture’ mission LIVE-as-it-happens … just like TV show 24 only the body count is real. Imagine being there.

You've got to wonder whether those identified in this photo are all under surveillance by foreign intelligence agencies ... if they weren't they will be now, I guess. (Pic Pete Souza, The White House flickr stream - click)

UPDATE: Spoofed by NZ Herald cartoonist Rod Emmerson

Emmerson nzherald.co.nz (click)

UPDATE 2: Hillary Clinton photoshopped out of Situation Room photo by Ultra Orthodox Hasidic newspaper Der Tzitung (via Jezebel)

Bending reality. Why would I believe a single word in that deceitful excuse for a rag? What shocking disrespect — not for women, for the TRUTH.

Barack Obama, courage, journalism, Photoshop

Keeping your distance

Posted in 2 May 2011

Media issues - Writing/Publishing

“The only way a reporter should ever look at a politician is down.”
— David Broder

That’s a pretty harsh line from veteran US political journalist/columnist David Broder, widely regarded as ‘the dean of the Washington press corps’. It’s quoted in a pretty good opinion piece from The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank on how journalists socialising with politicians (typified by the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner) can start to feel compromising …

How the journalist prom got out of control

… I don’t fault any one host for throwing a party or any journalist for attending. Many of them are friends. There’s nothing inherently wrong with savoring Johnnie Walker Blue with the politicians we cover.
But the cumulative effect is icky. With the proliferation of A-list parties and the infusion of corporate and lobbyist cash, Washington journalists give Americans the impression we have shed our professional detachment and are aspiring to be like the celebrities and power players we cover.

Worth reading if you’re interested in stuff like this, which I am.

The ‘socialisation of the elite’ — wherein fire-breathing radicals enter the legislature and become accustomed to deference, fawning staff, doors being opened for them, chauffeur-driven cars, silver service etc … and thus, inexorably become part of ‘The Establishment’ they railed against as outsiders … well, it doesn’t just apply to politicians. I’ve seen that with my own eyes. Milbank is right.
Journalists need to watch our headspace, too. There is such a thing as too cosy.

Criticising your ‘peers’

It’s the same in industry groups (no matter how loose or informal). Continue reading →

courage, journalism

Don Brash’s ACT will cannibalise National

Posted in 30 April 2011

1 Comment »

Guess who's coming to dinner John Key? Yup, that's right —the guy you rolled. (NZHerald - click)

I like (agree with) John Armstong’s analysis of the nothing-if-not-brazen Don Brash takeover of ACT. And I agree with his take on whose political problem his ascendancy is… “With Labour down to its core support, the only source where Brash can realistically pick up votes is from National”.
Yup.

Ruthless Brash now National’s problem

… As Helen Clark discovered, he is a deceptively dangerous political opponent.
He may give every appearance of being a refugee from a more genteel political era.

But his politeness, his disarming demeanour, his seeming reasonableness, the reasoned nature of his arguments, his seeming frankness (“frankly” is one of his favourite words), his willingness to acknowledge other points of view (even if he discounts their validity), plus his huge credibility built up during his years as a Reserve Bank governor all help him reach audiences other politicians can only dream of touching.

His ability to communicate so effectively with the electorate was once Labour’s problem. It is now National’s problem.
In staring down Hide to become Act’s new leader, Brash has drastically altered the whole election-year dynamic. …

But, gee, if John Banks as MP for Epsom is the answer, what was the question?

Politics - Writing/Publishing

journalism

Silence and the abandonment of moral leadership

Posted in 30 April 2011

courage, telling the truth, whistle blower

America's first black President has to prove more fully that he was American-born than any other President. Why?

Wow. Following President Obama’s decision to publicly release the long form of his birth certificate to address Republican crazies, conspiracy theorists and cynical opportunists (or all three like Donald Trump) I read a brief essay by Clarence B Jones which, like others since, squarely placed the hallucinatory ‘controversy’ in racist territory … and also echoed one of my own themes: The urgent need to courageously speak out and not remain collusively silent. (Of course it’s a challenge.)

A factually non-issue was permitted become a national issue, not because of Donald Trump and the media. No, this was the ultimate result, of the silence and tacit acquiescence of white political, religious, and community leaders, especially leaders of faith-based organizations, who sat, said and did nothing to counter this insidious new form of 21st-century racism. The silence and abnegation of moral leadership, by persons whom we should have otherwise expected to publicly to challenge this growing “birther” issue, is a stain on the conscience of our nation.

In 1963, Rabbi Joachim Prinz, then president of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) was the speaker who immediately preceded Dr. King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech at the March On Washington. The AJC was one of several major organizations participating in the March On Washington on August 28, 1963.

Obama’s decision to release his “official” birth certificate in an effort to silence the challenge to the legitimacy of his American citizenship reminded me of the words of Rabbi Prinz on that occasion. He said:

When I was the rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin under the Hitler regime, I learned many things. The most important thing that I learned under those tragic circumstances was that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence.

Continue reading →

Business/Investment

Calling all gullible gamblers!

Posted in 29 April 2011

14 Comments »

Two communications arrived in my in-boxes a day apart … and I couldn’t help but see them as similar.

Property spruikers Sean Wood and Steve Goodey are soooo keen to get you along to their hyperbolic sales pitch that if you buy a ticket to attend (instead of getting one free from an affiliate, or the buy-one-get-one-free deal they’ll probably trot out any minute?) … and stay the entire day (groan) … they’ll put you ‘in the draw for a chance to win a $400,000 house!’ (Terms and Conditions apply) — well, naturally.

Exhibit A – Sean Wood/Steve Goodey marketing email:

Promotion for the Sean Wood Steve Goodey roadshow. Sit through it and you might win extra cheese.

And you can surely trust those two, can’t you? I mean, ask yourself: When have either of those blokes ever said or done anything that could be described as remotely shonky? (Sean Wood | Steve Goodey) (What’s that? Blue Peak?)

But, lucky for me, I don’t need to waste my time with those two wide boys merely to go ‘in the draw for a chance’ to win a house ‘worth’ NZ $400,000. Look at the GREAT NEWS I got by text message yesterday:

Exhibit B — ‘Global Mobile Lotto Draw’ text message

Oh boy! Winning US$500,000 was the first I'd ever heard about this! (Thank you Easter Bunny.)

Terrific! I don’t even remember entering — and no (Terms and Conditions apply) …. yowser!

So what is it about ‘Dr Murphy’ and, more significantly, the recycyled-Richmastery spruikers Sean Wood and Steve Goodey that they seem to equate property investing with a ‘lucky draw‘? (See below.)

I remember about five minutes ago when Steve Goodey was hooked up with a different spruiker Dean Letfus and self-proclaimed internet wunderkind Shaun Stenning in the (now defunct?) NZ Property Guru’s [sic], they were ‘giving away’ Colour TVs as lucky prize draws for people who managed to sit through their entire buy-one-ticket-and-get-one-free hyperbolic sales spiel.

Later, Steve Goodey offered this bait for a different ‘property investing’ (ahem) event: Continue reading →

Business/Investment

Dean Letfus, hyperbole, marketing, NZ Property Gurus, Sean Wood, spruikers, Steve Goodey

The iPhone is not logging your location

Posted in 28 April 2011

Apple replies. Not location data but 'database of wifi hotspots and cell towers up to 100 miles from your current location'. Makes more sense. (click)

Read this if you cared…

Apple Q&A on Location Data

1. Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone?
Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so….

3. Why is my iPhone logging my location?
The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it’s maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested.

Calculating a phone’s location using just GPS satellite data can take up to several minutes. iPhone can reduce this time to just a few seconds by using Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data to quickly find GPS satellites, and even triangulate its location using just Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data when GPS is not available (such as indoors or in basements). These calculations are performed live on the iPhone using a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data that is generated by tens of millions of iPhones sending the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple. …

So, a bit of clarification and a software update ahead to squish the ‘keeping a year’s data’ “bug”. I don’t know if this will end the apparent hysteria.

So, leaving aside the cheap semantics lesson (Q: How is a database of ‘wifi hotspots and cell towers near your current location’ very different from ‘your current location’? A: Not very.) … it’s interesting (to me) how long Apple chose to take to reply to the ‘mounting pressure’ — leaving many in the media (mainstream and blogosphere) stewing in their own imagination.

It’s tricky reporting on this kind of stuff, and easy to be swept along by the apparent story, citing claims and analysis by people, like Privacy groups, with noble intentions but not necessarily the true picture.

Apple’s delay in responding let that news cycle run wild over the Easter break. Any real brand or PR harm to them? Dunno.
– P

Media issues - Tech

Apple, iPhone, privacy

What is it about TVNZ Breakfast?

Posted in 27 April 2011

In the style of their sacked-in-disgrace old boy Paul Henry, now TVNZ Breakfast newsreader Peter McWilliams let his mouth cross to side of duuurr! — by referring to double Olympian and Badminton champion Mark Todd in these unflattering terms, according the NZ Herald.

Stupid but "not malicious" — 30 year TVNZ veteran Peter Williams and giggling schoolboy impressionist Corin Dann yucking it up at Mark Todd's expense on TVNZ Breakfast. (pic: TVNZ)

While commenting on Todd’s win in the Badminton Horse Trials, Williams said: “Some of Mark Todd’s personal habits frankly don’t lend to being … he’s had the odd fag over the years, hasn’t he?”
Co-newsreader Corin Dann, giggling, asked: “What did you just say?”
Williams replied: “Cigarette, I meant.”
TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards said the comment from Williams and any innuendo was accidental and not malicious.

“…not malicious”? Uh, OK. Is that on the basis of Hanlon’s razor, Megan Richards?:

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”

Maybe there’s an undetected fault in the air-conditioning in the Breaklfast studio and they’re all suffering from a non-fatal but IQ-diminishing variant of Legionnaires’ disease. Or is there ‘something the water?’

Come on, Peter Williams. You can do better than this. – P

prejudice

… actionable copyright infringement?

Posted in 24 April 2011

I just read an interesting side issue to the Apple v Samsung IP lawsuit about the iPhone/iPad. The case itself is interesting, but Nilay Patel raised an issue about Apple’s lawyers’ without permission use of two images from websites in their documentation for their claim.

So as I noted in my breakdown of Apple’s lawsuit against Samsung, it looks like Apple’s law firm made an embarrassing copyright mistake: they used photos of Samsung products taken by Myriam Joire and AndroidCommunity without permission. Hell, they even cropped AndroidCommunity’s watermark.
That’s more than just a minor faux pas; I’m pretty sure it’s actionable copyright infringement. Seriously! While everything that judges and courts produce is in the public domain, there’s no rule that says lawyers and law firms are immune from copyright law.

Nilay’s point is that this is not a minor infraction but “actionable copyright infringement. Seriously!” … Meh, I’m not so sure.

Where are the damages?
How would Myriam Joire and AndroidCommunity suffer commercial or emotional harm* from the unauthorised use of their IP (photos of devices at the centre of the lawsuit)?
That’s a looong way from Shepard Fairey’s Obama HOPE posters/T-shirts/mugs/badges/stickers…

Right on! I like it, Nilay Patel. (click)

Finally (and this is what really prompted this post) speaking of publishing our values, here’s Nilay Patel’s stated virtue:

I think I’m doing a pretty good job not yelling at everyone all the time.

Bravo!
– P

* If I understand him correctly, Nilay’s point is they don’t have to. From his blog‘s comments:

No, I’m pretty sure it’s copyright infringement, and most of the lawyers I’ve talked to agree with me. The real question is whether or not there are damages to be had, and how much — probably nothing, in this case. So it’s not a huge deal, just embarrassing.
It’s telling that you think it “probably falls under fair use” because it’s not a “commercial use.” That’s just not how fair use works in our system. It’s much more narrow, and it’s applied case-by-case, not broadly across categories like “non-commercial use.”

I’m sure Apple’s lawyers can find a way to live with the embarrassment, Nilay. It IS just ‘a minor faux pas’. They have much bigger fish to fry, huh?