I am not a child psychologist, I’m just a geek with an opinion. With that in mind – I do not support Sue Bradford’s wish to repeal Section 59 of the NZ Crimes act, 1961. Section 59 basically gives parents the choice to physically discipline their children using reasonable force. Sue Bradford wants to remove this option from parents and give some very vague guidelines as to when you can and cannot touch your children in a way that would cause discomfort. She uses emotive language like “Full repeal of Section 59 is the only way of removing the legal justification for assaulting babies, children and young people”

Babies. The public and the court system takes a very dim view towards abuse of babies of any form, look at the outcries after baby deaths in this country due to abuse. Any jury that accepts someone using the “reasonable force” argument when it comes to babies should be rounded up and shot. It’s common sense. But Sue Bradford uses the term babies here to buy more believers – it’s a classic advertising trick: appeal to the animal instincts, in this case, the animal instinct to protect our young. This is why you see stupid advertisements for cleaning products that apparently save babies from salmonella and its other buzzword-disease-brethren, because every well adjusted parent leaves raw chicken on their baby’s high chair, right?

There are two other main ways to advertise – annoy or amuse. Sue has both covered here too – she’s either annoying or amusing those of us who believe in appropriate smacking.

Unfortunately, some bad parents have got away with the reasonable force argument after beating their children horrifically – using objects to increase the act of discipline to a beating. I do not believe that child abuse is correct or acceptable, I do believe however that smacking is acceptable, and “a clip around the ear” is acceptable in some circumstances. Beating a child with a length of hosepipe to the point of welting is not good parenting, regardless of your political orientation, ethnicity or religion.

Earlier today I was at the supermarket waiting in the checkout queue, and there was a mother and her daughter ahead of me. The daughter would have been maybe four or five years old, and she was having a tantrum over nothing in particular – lying on her back with her limbs flailing while screaming at the top of her lungs. Her mother, obviously well adjusted, warned her daughter to stop. Her daughter did not, and got up, picked up a bounty bar and threw it at me – an innocent bystander. Back when I was a kid, the innocent bystander would probably smack me on the bum and send me on my way for doing such a thing. Not today, I’d be done for adult assaults minor.

The mother, however, swiftly picked her child up by the arm and gave her a good smack on the bum. Lo and behold, the child stopped throwing a tantrum, obviously learning cause and effect: misbehaviour == punishment. A guy a couple of checkouts down yelled out “Good job! way to Section 59 her!” which got a few laughs.

But I couldnt help but be reminded of when I was a toddler, I was misbehaving in Woolworths for reasons I can’t recall, and my dad belted me across the bum – after that I behaved in supermarkets as if they were libraries, until of course I got to the age of reason and started to grow an aversion to supermarkets simply because I dont like being in confined spaces with a lot of people, as it brings out the misanthropistic worst in me, and makes my blood pressure skyrocket. But I digress…

A colleague was musing about this the other day – she said that when she was a kid, she got smacked and she turned out ok, her younger brother got the time-out treatment and is now a drug user, constantly in trouble with the law and probably headed for jail, which in the modern soft times is potentially not a bad career choice – you get housing, hot meals, tv’s and playstations. It’s better than being a student!

Much of this current debate potentially harks back to a name we all know: Spock. The claim is that Dr Benjamin Spock’s writings on raising children resulted, directly or indirectly, in the positive reinforcement parenting style – resulting in soft children, who would grow up to be soft parents. And while we in the 80′s werent beaten to the extreme of earlier generations (on average), we mostly came out very well adjusted. Children these days seem to tend more towards being self-absorbed, selfish little brats who are easily brainwashed by corporate advertising. So what did we do right in the 80′s?

My opinion? Do not fully repeal Section 59, simply amend it to clearly define what is reasonable force – an open handed smack, and what is not reasonable force – a closed fist hit, or use of any instrument whatsover for the purpose of increasing the physical harm to the point of bruising, welting, bleeding or other serious wounding. This gives parents who choose to smack their children to discipline them clear guidelines as to what is reasonable. It also gives police and the courts clear guidelines as to what is reasonable for the serious offences. There is no doubt in my mind that the father who beat his daughter with a hose to the point of welting should be convicted.

Now, on the lighter side: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucQLYSC9Lho

It’s funny, I cracked up in the middle of the office when I first saw that, raising eyebrows from colleagues and management, and it is true in my opinion – a lot of ADD/ADHD cases these days are simply cop-outs from parents who are incapable of effectively disciplining their children. Though in saying that, ADD/ADHD does exist, it is a serious issue, and no amount of discipline seems to make a difference. My older brother has ADHD, and his condition affects my family. When he’s on his drugs (ritolin or otherwise), he’s fine. When he’s not on his drugs, he becomes noticeably erratic, irrational and unreasonable.

The Sun has this article up giving 10 reasons why England is better than Australia, so I thought that as an unbiased commonwealthean/antipodean, I might be able to voice an opinion here.

We drink pints, they drink thimbles
We Brits like nothing more than a nice pint of beer. Yet, in Australia, they don’t even drink pints – they have tiny glasses of weak lager called schooners. These schooners are so dainty that even the world’s most expensive magnifying glass couldn’t make them look as appetising as a sturdy pint of the good stuff. Fact.

Pint glass, meet yardie, handle and jug.

We gave the world the Sex Pistols, they came up with Savage Garden
In 1976 the Sex Pistols burst onto the music scene and took the world by storm with their provocative lyrics and noisy guitars. Planet Earth was never the same again. In the mid-90s, Savage Garden flopped into the charts like a wet flannel – and their insipid love songs made roughly 90 percent of listeners sigh, roll their eyes and then angrily fall asleep.

Sex Pistols, meet AC/DC. England on the other hand has no excuse for coming up with the Spice Girls and a whole decade of pop trash cloned after the crap that’s infesting America. Your try-hard hip/hop subculture is particularly amusing.

Forget Bondi Beach – Brighton rocks!
Who needs sandy beaches with the beautiful sun belting down? Not us, we get all that on holiday. We much prefer a bracing walk on a pebbled beach in Brighton with a stick of tasty rock in one hand, and a cautionary brolley in the other. Seriously. It’s homely.

Ok… whatever floats your boat, mate.

A couple of silly ones that the author scratched together to make the list hit 10

yep, nuff said.

Vegemite – you either loathe it or you hate it.
It’s a debate that has raged for years – Marmite or Vegemite? And really there is only one winner – Bovril. Case closed.

This is subjective. I prefer marmite, my flatmate prefers vegemite, and both jars have an uneasy equilibrium in the kitchen. I am, however, looking for a foreigner who has never sampled the great commonwealth yeast spread to partake in this blog’s very first mite-off.

Their pets can kill
Our household pets are cute and cuddly: cats, dogs, hamsters, fluffy bunny rabbits, sweet little mouses. But in Australia, you’re more likely to find something lethal in their back yards – think crocs, snakes, deadly spiders, violent lizards, angry dingos, deceitful cats …

I’m sure Aussie has cute and cuddly too, but I’d rather that the pom author goes there and finds out for himself. If it makes you feel any better, my cousin who lives over there claims that in the few years that she’s lived there, she’s only seen a deadly spider once. Some 1 whole second of justice with a Jandal (aka thong or flip flop) soon takes care of that. As for the rest – take a chance, make your life more interesting.

They’re dreaming of a white Christmas
Imagine Christmas day without the prospect of snow – it’d be awful. But they get that every single year down under, because, ridiculously, Christmas falls in their summertime. Honestly, who wants to see a fat, beardy Santa in a pair of Bermuda shorts and a string vest? We certainly don’t.

Trust me, no one in the antipodes dreams of a white christmas. We dream of a brown christmas – tanning next to a bbq, drinking beer and going swimming, enjoying all the goodness of summer as well as the goodness of christmas – days off work to get drunk. Trust us, it’s the best of both worlds. You’re more than welcome to sit in the frigid northern hemisphere, with your year-round overcastness and freeze your scrotum off. Your choice. By the way, Santa isn’t real.

Keeley is British
When it comes to glamour girls, we are simply the best. They gave us Emily Scott, who, in fairness, isn’t too disappointing on the eye, but then we have Keeley. No one even comes close to our Keels.

Of course you’re going to be patriotically biased on this one. Keeley is an attractive girl, especially if you’re a breast guy, but the author really should pick up an Aussie FHM to find out what a well adjusted girl with straight teeth looks like. Like Imogen Bailey, Gabrielle Richens or Sophie Monk. If you must drool like a zombie at breasts, look for Bessie Bardot. No wonder Kelly Brook left your shores – you’re daft!

We’ve got Grant Mitchell, they’ve got Toadie
Close your eyes and picture our great TV hardmen – the Mitchell brothers, Doyle and Bodie, Minder, Justin from Hollyoaks. Now open your eyes and look at our picture of Australia’s toughest television character ever – Toadfish from Neighbours. You’re having a laugh, mate!

British TV hardmen, meet Chopper. Fuckin hullo!

New Zealand has yet another problem. We won the rights to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

The problem is we need a stadium for some 60,000 people, and the minister assigned to the relative portfolio for this, Trevor Mallard, has got it into his head that we must have a waterfront stadium in Auckland. This is being hotly contested, and will probably ultimately result in a white elephant stadium built on the waterfront that will be used once and then not packed out again. It will sit on the waterfront looking like a bedpan, and it will take up valuable port space.

The argument for it is that it doesnt have resource problems like the other contenders, and that other cities in the world have waterfront stadiums. Well, that’s pretty poor, especially considering that Auckland has bigger concerns to worry about. The keeping up with the jones’ argument is insipid at best – why should Auckland strive to model itself after so many cities that when named inspire thoughts of mediocrity? I bet residents from Devonport are spitting tacks at having to wake up to the sight of a bedpan across the harbour, given Aucklanders have a history of forcing anti-progressiveness via NIMBY (and then complaining about the repurcussions, take a bow anti-cable jaffas), I’m not sure that the waterfront stadium will be popular.

What are the alternatives?
Eden Park – too residential, not quite the right amount of infrastructure

Carlaw Park – too much work, no residential worries, a need to revoke its current ownership and take some space from the nearby domain

Westpac Stadium (Wellington) – existing infrastructure which, after recent announcements of new train carriages expected to be delivered over the next 5-6 years should be able to handle the capacity, was designed to be extended either temporarily or permanently. Wellington has enough hotels, motels etc. Watch how it handles the next Sevens and add 50% more, and you’ll see that Wellington is still a forerunner. This is my preferred option.

Jade Stadium (Christchurch) – I havent been there in a long time so I really cannot comment.

But if you absolutely must have it in Auckland, don’t make it Auckland City – make it Auckland Region, and have it at my other preferred option: North Harbour Stadium. It has the space, the resource consents, no residential problems, it has excellent infrastructure already. All it needs is some public transport to augment what’s already there, and public transport is an investment that Auckland can use well after the World Cup is done. Why Albany is virtually ignored is beyond me.

Basically, if the government is going to be sinking tax payer dollars into this instead of investing in national infrastructure like roading (transmission gully anyone?) or broadband, I’d want to see it done right – sensibly and not a kneejerk white elephant investment. Auckland really needs to fix the harbour bridge too, which I’m told is not geologically sound. We seem to be losing our ability to get our priorities straight.

The other problem with a 60,000 seat stadium, is that after the world cup is done – you wont be filling it up for some time. A 60,000 seat stadium with 30-40,000 people in it will not look full, and that’s not a good look. Another suggestion was modular temporary stadium seating – the idea being that you could upgrade one stadium temporarily, and when required, ship the temporary stands to other stadiums as required. Now that’s engineering.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7kZ3z-6T_iU

Brilliant.

Well, finally we’re catching up to what Beyond 2000 was promising back in the 80′s and what the Jetsons and Star Trek and many others were promising decades beforehand

It plugs into an existing broadband connection (I hope that xtra is not a requirement) and allows video telephony. Expected hardware cost is roughtly NZD$750 for one or $1400 for two with a monthly fee of roughly NZD$23

I’m still trying to find out more about the hardware – for what you pay I’d expect it to be able to plug into a TV or something…

Backstory – in a fit of hating Microsoft (restrictive licences, malware headaches) and not wanting to put up with Linux zealots dribbling nonsense about the GPL saving kitty from the tree, I installed DesktopBSD and havent looked back. Now my entire home network is BSD based, all bar 1 legacy win2k server and 1 winxp workstation that I use for VPN’ing to work.

DBSD has a package manager which is a front-end for the FreeBSD PORTS system – a depository of some 16000 free, open source applications/libraries/drivers etc, but the interface, as with most in-progess software, was seriously lacking in usability; It took me 2 seconds to figure it out, it took my mum half an hour, and my younger brother (a graphic designer) is still struggling to wrap his head around it (by the way, they elected to use DBSD out of curiosity, I didnt force them into it) And after some thought, I designed a mock up interface improvement for it to increase the usability for newbies, and to provide a stepping stone towards a more task oriented experience in future versions.

The current version:

My (draft) suggestion:

In my submission I did make some textual changes, such as reducing the amount of times the word “Welcome” appears etc, and the above suggestion is with the pending operations and details panels hidden. The developers have just got back to me with a current snapshot of what they’ve implimented, and what will be in the next version:

Needless to say, I’m a little proud of myself at the moment – my input will improve the experience that people will have with this tool on GUI based BSD operating systems everywhere, in some 25+ languages all around the world.

Now you can’t say that I don’t give back / Don’t care about what’s important to me

Questions about BSD welcome – I wont try to convert you, I promise

You’re at the pub and the quiz night CD is skipping and sporadically refusing to read. So you write a small script that copies the contents of the disc to the local hard drive, rewrites the autoexec.inf and Powerpoint playlist file, then calls them. When done the script automatically removes the directory.

And then on the walk home you come up with at least 5 different ways to improve the script.

And then there’s the fact that it’s in a WinXP Virtual Machine on a Macbook Pro.

I need to invest in a life.

http://www.theregister.com/2006/10/29/microsoft_vista_eula_analysis/

Why would you pay good money for something so restrictive?

I think it’s long overdue that people wake up and stop using Windows. If you really must pay for an OS, get Apple’s OS-X. Sure an Apple costs more, but think about the time saved by not having to do spyware scans, antivirus scans and other maintenance tasks.. Surely there comes a point where that pays itself off?

Most of what you can do on a Windows box can be done on any POSIX box – your legacy apps can probably work via FreeDOS or Dosbox, the apps that you cannot live without can work via WINE or something like win4lin/win4bsd.

The only two apps from Windows that I really miss are Foobar2k and Irfanview, apart from that – I’ve got games running on BSD either natively or via WINE, I have a better interface, and I have no malware headaches. Sure, Linux and BSD arent quite there yet usability wise, but they’re damn close.

In other news, I setup a FreeBSD 6.1 box last night to act as a caching DNS server, using OpenDNS as the upstream DNS and I have to say – my internet experience has been blisteringly quick, compared to my previous setup where I load balancing NZWireless’ and Xtra’s DNS servers.

I’d recommend that anyone having trouble with xtra’s experience since broadband was “unleashed” that they try the OpenDNS servers.

I tend not to discuss work on my blog, but I have to put this out there – since the start of July I’ve been earning $8.49/hr less than what I’m contracted for.

Since July? you ask. Well, I’m paid fortnightly, so initially I just suspected that I’d got my timesheets in a bit late and that things would just clear themselves up. They didnt. It wasnt until my last payrun two weeks ago that I decided that things were amiss.

I dont like breaking a promise, I promised my sixth form maths teacher that the maths she was teaching would be useless for real life and that I’d get by just fine without it. I broke that promise and used mathematics to figure out what was going on. But that mathematics didnt add up, so I had to approach the issue programmatically – declaring variables and formulas to get the margin of error right down 100 fold.

With evidence in hand, I confronted my employer, and a satisfactory reason has been brought forward. No apology, but so far I’ve received the contract I’ve been waiting 10 months for, and I’m still waiting for the backpay to clear through. All $5901.37 of it

One of these is looking mighty good right now, but I have some bills to deal with first