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Transportation

In New Zealand, a System To Watch for Disabled Parking Violators 551

Posted by timothy from the allocation-problems dept.
cylonlover writes "What does it mean when a parking spot is marked with a wheelchair symbol? If you answered, 'It means I can park there as long as I'm going to be quick,' you're wrong — yet you're also far from alone. Every day in parking lots all over the world, non-disabled drivers regularly use spaces clearly reserved for the handicapped. They often get away with it, too, unless an attendant happens to check while their vehicle is parked there. Thanks to technology recently developed by New Zealand's Car Parking Technologies (CPT), however, those attendants could soon be notified the instant that a handicapped spot is improperly occupied."
Open Source

Small OSS Library Project Battles US Corporation 118

Posted by Soulskill from the what's-in-a-name dept.
New submitter abesottedphoenix writes "The rural library responsible for the first open source library catalogue is under attack from defence contractor PTFS. More than a decade after rolling out Koha (which we've discussed in the past), they now find themselves in a battle to keep a generic Maori term within the public domain. The story is also covered at Radio NZ. "
Government

US Offered To Draft NZ 3-Strikes Law, Fund Copyright Initiative 204

Posted by timothy from the we-were-just-in-the-neighborhood dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Wikileaks has just posted hundreds of cables from US personnel in New Zealand that reveal regular government lobbying on copyright, offers to draft New Zealand three-strikes-and-you're-out legislation, and a recommendation to spend over NZ$500,000 to fund a recording industry-backed IP enforcement initiative. The funding raises the question of whether New Zealand is aware that local enforcement initiatives, including raids and court cases, have been funded by the US government."
Image

Computer Opens Unmanned Store For Holiday Screenshot-sm 333

Posted by samzenpus from the opening-the-store-is-too-important-for-me-to-allow-you-to-jeopardize-it dept.
tomhudson writes "The Walkato Times in New Zealand is reporting that someone forgot to tell the computer not to unlock the supermarket on the Friday holiday. 'About half of the 24 people who came into the supermarket paid for their groceries using the self-scan service. The service stopped working after alcohol was scanned, requiring a staff member to check a customer's age before the system is unlocked.' The owner, Mr Miller, was quoted as saying 'I can certainly see the funny side of it... but I'd rather not have the publicity to be honest. It makes me look a bit of a dickhead.' Rather than take legal action, Mr Miller is hoping that the people who didn't pay will do the right thing."
Media

NZ MP Enjoys Copyright Infringement, Votes For 3 Strikes 220

Posted by timothy from the one-law-for-the-lion-and-the-ass dept.
An anonymous reader writes "As New Zealand politicians are looking to rush through a new copyright law, 92A, which imposes a 'three strikes' regime on people accused of file sharing, some New Zealanders were a bit amused to see Parliament Member Melissa Lee stand up to speak in favor of the bill just hours after tweeting how she was enjoying a compilation of music put together for her by a friend. Does that count as her first strike?"

Comment Re:240/4 subnets (Score 1) 312

by kinko (#35065142) Attached to: Last Available IPv4 Blocks Allocated

> Isn't it a bit idiotic to hard code refusal to route addresses reserved for "future use"?

they were reserved for multicast, back when everyone thought TV/movies would be distributed through the web. Multicast (1 server stream sending to lots of clients) never really took off though....

It's not so much a "refusal to route" to them as they are handled specially, and aren't designed to be routed as normal. Lots of home routers (eg my WRT54) will occasionally send out multicast broadcast packets onto the LAN, which you can see with a network capture tool.
Lord of the Rings

Peter Jackson Hospitalized w/ Stomach Ulcer 84

Posted by CmdrTaco from the sauron-is-watching dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Hobbit author JRR Tolkien suffered from a perforated ulcer before dying in 1973. Now today, New Zealander Sir Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and soon-to-be-director of the two Hobbit movies, was hospitalized with a perforated stomach ulcer, and underwent surgery. This is only expected to slightly delay the filming of The Hobbit, and he's expected to make a full recovery."
Lord of the Rings

The Hobbit To Be Filmed In New Zealand After All 123

Posted by CmdrTaco from the showed-them-the-money dept.
An anonymous reader writes "John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand, has confirmed this afternoon that The Hobbit will be filmed in NZ, after weeks of uncertainty. From the article: 'The future of the $670m production hung in the balance after an actors union issued a no-work order on the films last month. Talks were held overnight with studio executives from Warner Brothers to resolve concerns about industrial laws in New Zealand.'"
Science

New Zealand Scientists Make Atom-Trapping Breakthrough 101

Posted by timothy from the gotta-keep-'em-separated dept.
Mogster writes with this news from New Zealand: "'University of Otago scientists have made a 'major physics breakthrough' with the development of a technique to consistently isolate and capture a fast-moving single atom. A team of four researchers from the university's physics department are believed to be the first to isolate and photograph the Rubidium 85 atom.' Good to see Kiwis following in Rutherford's footsteps."
HP

Submission + - ex-HP CEO Hurd Pays $14 Million Oracle Pledge Fee

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Valleywag reports that ousted HP CEO Mark Hurd is paying dearly to roll with Oracle, giving up millions of dollars to settle the HP lawsuit that threatened to prevent him from working with his tennis pal Larry Ellison. Hurd will forfeit about 345,000 restricted HP shares that he was given as part of his HP exit package, which had a market value of $13.6 million Monday. In addition to announcing the truce against the backdrop of Oracle's OpenWorld conference, HP and Oracle also reaffirmed their vows to each other.
Privacy

Social Media Can Help You Fake Your Own Death 146

Posted by timothy from the you-never-read-this dept.
Julie188 writes "We are inundated with warnings that social media is systematically stripping away our privacy. But Frank Ahearn, the so-called 'Dear Abby' of disappearing, is attempting to show folks how to use those same technologies to regain your privacy, even helping you go as far as faking your own death. Ahearn is a professional skip-tracer who has hunted down people like Monica Lewinsky. In an interview with Ahearn on Network World, he says, 'One can legally disappear through the use of corporations and offshore corporations. The idea is to embrace technology and to become a virtual entity.' My favorite tip is that New Zealand is the place to land once you leap off the grid. Not only is it far from most of the rest of the English speaking world, he says, but it also has great beaches."
Image

Pizza Lovers Suffer Data Breach From Hell Screenshot-sm 164

Posted by samzenpus from the hell-of-a-breach dept.
netbuzz writes "Some 230,000 New Zealanders have been informed that their personal information has apparently fallen into the hands of hackers who compromised the network of a locally famous food chain, Hell Pizza. The company says it suspects 'a rogue employee,' but one security expert says Hell's ordering portal is 'about 50 steps of fail.' Several New Zealand celebrities are among the victims and at least one is taking the matter in stride, musing: 'My Twitter has been hacked, my Facebook has been hacked and I'm pretty sure half of New Zealand has my phone number already. I have nothing bad to say about Hell.'"
Communications

NZ Plan For Fiber To the Home 169

Posted by kdawson from the pinching-the-air-supply dept.
Ars has a note about New Zealand's plans for nationwide broadband access, which will induce envy in many North American readers. "New Zealand has decided not to sit around while incumbent DSL operators milk the withered dugs of their cash cow until it keels over from old age. Instead, the Kiwis have established a government-owned corporation to invest NZ$1.5 billion for open-access fiber to the home. By 2020, 75 percent of residents should have, at a bare minimum, 100Mbps down/50 Mbps up with a choice of providers. Crown Fibre Holdings Limited is the company, and it's wholly owned by the government — for now — and the company's mission couldn't be any clearer. Two of its six guiding principles include 'focusing on building new infrastructure, and not unduly preserving the "legacy assets" of the past' and 'avoiding "lining the pockets" of existing broadband network providers.'"

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