The referendum to decide on New Zealand's next flag has been advertised as "your chance to decide", but how much decision making power do we really have? The public were able to submit entries and will get to vote on which flag will be the final choice to challenge our existing flag. However, the flags that comprise the shortlist has been decided entirely by a panel of 12. This panel's selection has introduced a flaw that will skew the outcome of the referendum.
In a couple of months this blog will have been running for a decade. The website started as just a mechanism to throw my thoughts into the ether. Over the years however, as I've pushed myself as a web developer, it's become a more of a sandbox for experimentation.
It's been ten months since the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill became law in New Zealand. Bob McCoskrie, still outraged at the idea of loving couples being joined in marriage, has resigned as a marriage celebrant in protest. So I've decided to fill his spot.
Since I joined Vend a little over two years ago our team has grown from a few desks in a corner to four offices across the globe. Over that time the industry has exploded, bringing lots of competition (and a few clones) but also validating Vend's existence. I have loved working at Vend, but sadly my time to move on has arrived.
We have only two days to wait until New Zealand's 50th Parliament passes Louisa Wall's Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill into law. Those opposing the bill know the likely outcome of the third reading and are getting increasingly desperate to stop the bill. Family First have tried to play the "think of the children" card, however, the reality is that their stance puts children at risk.
If you follow me on twitter you'll probably know I'm very opinionated and more than happy to discuss (some would say argue or troll) my opinions. I indent with spaces, Lea Verou indents with tabs. Lea has blogged about her reasons why she thinks that tabs are superior. I'm going to provide my opposing opinion and then tell you why neither of our opinions should really matter anyway.
When I was 15, I worked the Christmas rush at my Uncle's seafood factory and earned enough money to buy my first mobile phone. This purchase started a relationship with Vodafone which has now spanned almost half of my life. Recently I've begun to examine my relationship with Vodafone and in general, the relationship between brands and loyal customers.
Today, Louisa Wall's Marriage Equality bill will face its first vote in parliament. A vote that is expected to pass. But there is still a lot of opposition. These opponents, in an attempt to not be perceived as bigoted, claim that they are not against gay marriage but are instead against the redefinition of marriage.
I wrote the below article on the "Protect Marriage NZ" Facebook page but they disabled the ability for other users to write on their wall and thus destroyed my post. I'm re-posting it here for all to see.
After more than three great years, this will be my last week with Pixel Fusion. I have accepted a position as a Senior Developer at Vend.
It's a well known fact that I'm rather shite at keeping this blog up to date. I often have had a lot to say but the content never felt like it was the right fit for what I wanted to achieve with this site. A while ago I came up with an idea to create multiple blogs, each dedicated to different topics that I want to talk about. Although it has actually been running for a few weeks now, I would like to formally announce the first of these new blogs, Arbitrary.
As I have previously mentioned, I don't believe that any of the alternatives on offer in this year's referendum are better than MMP. However, I would like to propose an alternative Electoral System: Proportional Representation. Please keep in mind that this is intended as an initial discussion piece that could evolve into something more solid.
This year, alongside the general election there will be a referendum on the future of MMP and the selection of a potential competitor, should we decide that replacing MMP is an option. I want to look at the different options for electoral system that we have available.
We’ve all seen the ads that run before movies, at least those of us who still pay to see them. “You wouldn’t steal a car. You wouldn’t steal a handbag. You wouldn’t steal a movie." And that’s what they would have you believe, that copyright infringement is exactly the same as theft. Not like theft, but the same as theft. Some (who themselves listen to pirated K-pop) even try to tell us that assault on copyright is the same as assault on a human being.
The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill is a flawed piece of legislature but a big part of the public outcry wasn't just the bill itself but also the way in which it was passed. It made the public aware of the ongoing abuse of parliament's urgency laws as well as the fact that politicians pass laws with little understanding of what the laws mean.
The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill was passed with a large parliamentary majority but also with a big outcry from the public. I've written about copyright infringement and now I want to write about the law that has stirred up so much discussion.
When I was twelve I picked up a book, not because I had any interest in reading it but because I was forced to read something (good old SSR). The book was Tomorrow, When the War Began and it instantly became the favourite book of my youth. I hit the library the same week a took out every book in the series that had been released so far. Since then, I have read every book in the Tomorrow series and it's spin off The Ellie Chronicles.
As a rule, we only deploy websites from Subversion and this is something that we made company policy long ago. However, there are times when we are limited to FTP access and for these occasions it's good to have a decent FTP client. Panic's Transmit has, for a long time, set the standard for FTP clients on Mac OS X.
I dropped out of University twice. Computer Science didn't turn out to be as interesting as I had hoped and I was too young to appreciate tertiary education. If I had studied film I probably would have been more interested, but I couldn't see the career relevance. I have since regretted not having any form of qualification.
HTML5, I love the idea but I often find myself having issues with the ongoing saga of politics around it. Faruk Ateş recently wrote of The Battlefield of HTML5 (it's a good read if you haven't already) and made one suggestion that I completely support, Modularised HTML5.