Author Archive
Good move: recognize inevitability
On a hiding to nothing Sometimes a party to a lawsuit has to recognize they’re holding a losing hand, and put an end to the dispute. Certainly, in my experience, it can take a while for reality to sink in to your opponent’s cranium. A long dispute means both parties are wrong, said Voltaire, which […]
Free Trial Scam!
A friend of mine got caught in this ‘free trial’ scam. Never thought I would EVER get scammed online….but DID! RealFreeSamples – a link on Facebook got me good..have cancelled my credit card but am out by $450..so annoyed at myself…. That means the fine print says they’ll keep sending you shipments until you jump […]
The French Resistance and Google
I must say I like the absence of inevitability the French demonstrate towards the mega-Google. Their ‘keep your hands off our culture’ approach, (despite Euro Disney and the laughable but well-patronised McDonalds and Disney store on the Champs Elysees) is refreshing and worthwhile. The hopeless shrug of the shoulders so many meet Google’s apparent dominance […]
Cor!
Anyone who ever felt intimidated by a border crossing can be thankful they didn’t get this treatment. Lily Sussman’s story interests me for two reasons beyond the Midnight Express/travel horror story aspects. 1) Wow! The hard drive still works! 2) Look at the discussion on Lily Sussman’s blog about the Israel/Occupied Palestine issue. It gets […]
A novel explanation of copyright and IP
© kiwiright from nu4mz on Vimeo. Worth watching and mostly good. But a specious argument (starts about 1.50) reveals a mindset: Do you know if you walk around town with a camera you’d be filming a lot of trademarked signs, You might have to get a permit for that. You might have to pay a […]
I hope this site was helpful
A search string someone used recently to find their way to ThePaepae.com: “How many times should I turn a blind eye to dodgy practices before I blow the whistle?” Great question! I hope you found something on this site that was helpful.
A rose by any other name
Well, that was quick. Rupert Murdoch’s campaign (what’s the opposite of ‘charm offensive’?) calling news aggregators ‘parasites’ and ‘thieves’ for their activities harvesting News websites’ internal organs material has had rather quick pay-off. We discussed the widely-reported/hyped ‘discussions’ News Corp was supposedly having with Microsoft Bing about ‘de-listing’ News Corp sites from Google (yeah right) […]
Congratulations, boys.
NZ rocket launches into space NZ Herald | Monday Nov 30, 2009 New Zealand’s first space rocket has launched this afternoon. The Atea-1 took off from its launch site at Great Mercury Island just before 3pm, after technical problems delayed this morning’s planned launch. The launch company, Rocket Lab Ltd, started up three years ago […]
Did they jump or were they pushed?
Heads must roll… Fallout from last week’s blinding flash of the obvious, which I described as classic ‘provider capture’. Kneecapper and straightshooter Dame Margaret Bazley found that the Legal Services Agency was being routinely rorted by lawyers and that lawyers were effectively asserting control over the legal aid system. Four resign over scathing legal aid […]
Unhappy BOTH ways?
German publishers criticize new Google Books deal Frankfurt – German book publishers – angered at being included in the Google Books Settlement without being consulted – voiced concern Sunday that they had now been excluded. The US search giant and US publishers announced Friday that the revolutionary plan to put every out-of-print book in the […]
Pun competition: Dubai’s financial woes
The puns are coming thick and fast in news reports and discussion about Dubai’s financial woes: “Dubai’s economic miracle built on foundations of sand.” “It was all a mirage.” “When the sh*t hits the sand” Any more?
Oh, this is funny…
Poor Simon Edhouse. If this isn’t viral yet, it will be. IMO. “If deal goes ahead there will be some good money in it for you.” — How many times have publishing and design professionals heard this line? “The project I am working on will be more successful than twitter within a year. When I […]
Blinding flash of the obvious
Well, who’da thunk it? Doh! A classic case of Chicago School of Economics ‘public choice theory’ or ‘provider capture’. Read the full story for tales of (shock, horror) crooked lawyers playing the system. (Never!) Breathless reportage from the NZ Herald: A damning review of legal aid says a sea change is needed to fix a […]
Why journalists shouldn’t be defending Fox News
I didn’t see this article at the time, but Dan Froomkin makes a good case. I dislike the hypocrisy of this ‘channel’ — the apparent willingness to distort, their naked manipulation of the ‘issues’ (far beyond a ‘slant’, Fox misleads … in short, like some people I know: a total lack of self-awareness Sure, Fox […]
