coffee.geek.nz

i'm waiting for solr again, it's become the bane of my week. So, here's some link spam:

Do you know that the bitter, in lemon lime and bitters, is 45% alcohol? Danni discovered this recently
http://dannipenguin.livejournal.com/292929.html

Vancouver ran outta condoms during the olympics - and emergency shipment was sent for the athletes. That's about 14 condoms per person.
http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/blogs/postblog/2010/02/emergency-shipment-of-...

Vodafone tried to take advantage of Telecom XT's woes. Lance Wiggs goes over the difficulty and inconveniences you must go through to actaully take up their offer.
http://lancewiggs.com/2010/02/27/vodafone-fails-to-take-advantage-of-tel...

NZ Herald gets 2009 and 2010 confused, and reports an internet blackout campaign from last year as if it was next week. Also quotes from Bronwyn who was busy giving birth at the time:
http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blog/2010/02/a-statement-about-mondays-int...

UK Government forced to reveal evidence they hold on the USA's use of torture.
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2010/02/open-justice-wins-again-in-uk.html

NBR reports

Prime Minister John Key has announced that the government will throw out the controversial Section 92A of the Copyright Amendment (New Technologies) Act and start again.

The Creative Freedom Foundation has teamed up with Mike Corb and Luke Rowell / Disasteradio to produce the Guilt Upon Accusation anthem: The Copywrong Song.

The song is part of a week of action, launched by the Foundation, against Guilt Upon Accusation laws in NZ. The campaign, taking place from 16-23 February, is a reaction to Section 92A of the Copyright Amendment Act due to come into effect in NZ on February 28, and has already seen thousands of people, organisations, and major companies "blackout" their websites, blogs, FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter and Bebo accounts to show their opposition to the law.

Lyrics: Matt Hunt, Mike Corb, Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, Luke Rowell/Disasteradio
Music: Mike Corb
Produced by: Luke Rowell/Disasteradio
Vocals, guitar, guitar synth: Mike Corb
Synths and programming: Luke Rowell/Disasteradio

DOWNLOAD THE MP3
Info on the Remix Challenge

Debate on section 92a, between Bronwyn Holloway-Smith (Creative Freedom Foundation), Ant Healey (APRA) and Technology Journalist, Pat Pilcher.

View streaming on demand from tvnz Episode 2, 5 Feb 2009 (in chapter 3).

Some snippets transcribed for the hearing+flashplayer impaired:

Moderator: Have you gone back to your members? because [Creative Freedom members include] APRA members who are really unhappy about this.
APRA:... We're a big organisation .. of 6,000 members, of course they will have divergent opinions. We are governed by a board of composers, a board of directors who are composers. We have clear instructions about posistion to take

(he didn't answer the question - did APRA consult their members or not?)

APRA: We must, we must not stand idly by and watch really core important rights simply be ignored
Moderator: But you've just had your best revenue year ever last year. You don't seem to be suffering from this.
APRA: well, we are. If you look at the revenue streams that revolve around the revenue from CD sales, a small part of which goes to the composer, of course we are. I could give you those figures and the figures would be decimated.

........ they've had their best revenue ever - but cd sales are down so this means we need to do something about the decimation of vinyl records magnetic tape CD sales.

Media7 | MEDIA 7Source: tvnz.co.nzBronwyn Holloway-Smith (Creative Freedom Foundation), Ant Healey (APRA) and Technology Journalist, Pat Pilcher will discuss the implications of Section 92a of the Copyright Act which could force ISPs to become policemen and to disconnect paying customers deemed to have breached the Act.    Thursdays at 9.10pm, with encore screenings on Friday at 12.10pm, Saturdays at 9.10pm & Tuesdays at 12.10pm.    

hurrah for Mauricio - who arrived with a cdma <-> wifi router thingie and provided us with intartubes at the hotel.

Sunday involved lotsa slide preparation for my colleague (there really is nothing like the last minute) - for me i meet a lot of people, some i've only known online.

We picked up loot - the usual conference bag and paper spammage - a bottle of wine - shirts (not t-shirts, first noticable opensource/microsoft difference).