It is getting hard and harder to deal with Google outside the USA. In the old days you could buy Nexus phone using a VPN and a friend in the US as the shipping address. Now you have to have a USA issued credit card and many times they know you on a VPN. My Google Glass invite will expire in 2 days which pisses me off because is my $1500 not as good anyone else in the USA?

Google Voice is simply another case in point. On May 15th they will block 3rd party apps, effectively disconnected people who uses Google Voice outside the USA. The native Google Voice app demands you verify against the USA phone number, which is fine while you are visiting the USA but once you leave it will stop working when you get a new phone or the app is updated. Groove IP was a great work around and allows you to join those US based work conference calls for free but would cost via Skype. Also handy to contact US based associates that don't have 24/7 VOIP app running and Skype has never work 100% on mobiles.

BTW I would love to hear suggestions for open source VOIP apps that would work as alternative to Skype? I can't say I seen any that can find peers without a commercial service or PSTN behind it.

It is crazy that a country as wide as China is a single time zone, and not having daylight savings just makes it worse in the east. Where I am, near Shanghai in the east, in summer it gets light at about 4:30am and starts getting dark at around 7:30pm. I guess it fits well with the other forms of craziness here.

My parents are in the 70's and on the other side of the world from where I work. I set up a new laptop with Mint Cinnamon and pre-set up their email accounts etc along with desktop icons to start email, Firefox . They have adapted quickly as the GUI is as close to XP as anything modern I can think of. At the same time I gave them an Android tablet.

Given the limited range of things they do, a tablet can also do the job and can simply be replaced and log back into to get them up in running if the tablet fails. They have got the hang of it reasonably well and it lessened the learning curve when they got their first smart phone, also running Android.

Alibaba? That's for foreigners who want to pay too much! The locals use Taobao. Some listings are likely to be bogus but the $400 was the local street price, online there are some real cheap deals. The USD buys 6.13 RMB so you can see a bicycle form factor for under $200 at http://item.taobao.com/item.ht... or this more scooter style one starting from $85 http://item.taobao.com/item.ht... but there is probably a catch with that second one.

My original post was referring to the more popular traditional scooter style that appear to listed for $200 to $360 typified by this on http://item.taobao.com/item.ht.... These things are everywhere and are a lot of fun to ride, just too slow for my taste.

Can't afford a Tesla and don't want to wait for the cheaper model then this electric car can be yours for $1750 http://item.taobao.com/item.ht.... Note the fan on the dash, it includes air-con! Shame it is probably illegal in most countries. They are not common here as most people step from the e-bikes to a conventional car. Personally I drive the petrol BYD F0 which was so very cheap for a quality car and I have seen the BYD E6 which is a serious electric car that should make the Japanese manufactures nervous.

The batteries are the major part of BOM cost of a Chinese e-bikes. I can't tell you the actual capacity from memory but they are more than 10Ah. Most use 4 x large 12V SLA to give 48V to a 500W brushless rear motor. They are in two removal packs with handles so they can be carried into your home for charging. Practical range is about 20 to 30km and we have free power for staff in the office bike park. Also the the scooter style construction is far more practical, able to carry a respectable load on it flat deck and I have often seen them haul a family of four, oldest child standing on the deck, dad driving, mum at the back with the youngest in between the parents. Contrast that with this bicycle add on with similar performance but far less carrying capacity.

My point is there probably 100M+ ebike in daily use that are a third of the price and more practical than this guy's add on. My question is why these ebikes are not used much in other countries and why overpriced bicycle solutions get press coverage?

Seriously am I the only person who has been to China? E-bikes are the most common form of transport in most cites in China and retail at about USD $400. His unit is $1200 and has less features that a $400 e-bike. Does no one do their homework anymore before launching a new product?

I know I can upset my ABS system, bringing on the the error light, by doing burnouts and handbrake slides. Burnouts give false readings on the from wheels and handbrake slides give false reading on the rear wheels.

Would play havoc with such systems but to be fair I don't normally do these while navigating.

When I worked for Navman we developed some of the first consumer in car navigation systems. We looked at this technology around 2002. Nothing new here...

I'm a Kiwi and I see the need for us to have spies as both a joke and waste of money.

It promises to shake things up from the stale old party options. They will get my vote. It will be interesting to see if they can break the 4% threshold to get in parliament. Given how close Labor (left) and National (right) are if he can get enough votes DotCom's party could hold the balance of power. Unlikely, but not impossible, it would be the ultimate irony that DotCom could have a significant measure of influence on those who wronged him..

The judges have so far been surpisingly enlightened in their handling of things related to Dot Com. While other parts of NZ government have been busy following the Hollywood script the judges rulings to date have called the police etc out for law breaking. If the judges stay to form then the GCSB are going to have difficult time in court.

I suspect they will only try this in some countries. They would be in breach of consumer laws in countries like New Zealand to charge to fix defects.

Regardless, other have said, it will weight in favour of other suppliers for new purchases.

I was going to post the same thing. I can say for sure that this class of failure would normally be covered under New Zealand consumer law no matter how old the machine is.

Yes, I am a Windows hating Linux user but the question is serious, not flame bait, why would they chose XP in the first place and why have they not moved to something else in the last decade?

With real cash at stake I would have probably started with a minimal BSD OS and just added the minimal graphics, comms and I/O libraries needed to support the main application. I'm sure others here have their own ideas of the best OS, most excluding Windows?

No, it is not a deregulated paradise, we have laws much like any civilised country. However as a New Zealand business owner who also was experience with USA business requirements I can say it is much simpler to set up and run a business in New Zealand. I know this as I have experience with doing business in New Zealand, the USA and China. If I was doing a kickstarter I know which country I would do it from. Which counties have you done business in (no, I don't count online purchases as doing business, I mean knowing enough of the law to trade safely)?