GCSB. Government Communications Security Bureau. NZ's CIA/MI5/MI6 equivalent

The police got the spooks to do it, presumably because police snooping would have needed permission from a judge.

But GCSB can spy on foreigners freely, which makes it all legal. This reasoning has been lambasted on billboards by a beer company.

So now the GCSB is facing ugly questions about what is they actually do and why we even need spooks since they are just a police dirty trick and tool for the US.

$150000 x 25 Petabytes of data would bankrupt the US.

But since all that money would pay for NZ Government for the next 1000yrs, LETS DO IT!

Let me get this right:
Because they had lots of outside contractors working on the control systems they have lots of disparate control systems, and they are going to solve this by getting an outside contractor to write a new control system?

Does anyone else see the inherent flaw in this plan?

Please Google, please please please, label it the Persian Gulf.

Everything that is Persia pre-dates Islam and shows that Persia was great without the help of Allah.

Long before the mullahs Persia ruled most of the civilised world in the west, with the mullahs its a bit player in a sideshow.

Everything Persian undermines the regime in Tehran, so...

Please Google, please please please, label it the Persian Gulf. And call the middle east "greater Persia", and Afghanistan Inland Persia, and Tehran the Persian Capital, and Iran the Persian Empire.

Also, can we sell Greece back to Persia? They wanted it a while back and its really no use to us anymore?

Most everyone is happy about 20 year patents.

Hardly anyone thinks no copyright is a good idea. And the exceptions are mostly hippy crazies that we can ignore.

The problem is that copyright is excessive for the purposes for which it was created.

Exactly.

Tell me why trademarks need continual work to maintain, and patents worth BILLIONS last only 20 years but copyright lasts over a hundred years for NO MORE EFFORT THAN INITIAL CREATION.

What is so special about Walt Disney and Stephanie Meyers that they trump Steve Jobs and Arthur C Clarke?

Why are Arthur C Clarke's awesome books SOOO much more awesome than inventing geosynchronous satellites?

How come modern telephones are dependent on Hettie Lamar's expired and now worthless patent but her forgotten films are still "valuable"?

third option: enclose the astroturfing in astroturf tags

<astroturf>XYZ App is the greatest thing ever. It completely paradigm shifted my synergy</astroturf>

You've complied with the company request and made it obvious that it is not your own writing/feelings.

Nope, just informing your colleagues of potential problems.

if they interpret that as a threat that is their problem.

Until it comes from your boss, it's only a request and you can say "no".

If you're proud of the application, and you think it might help some people you know, by all means tell people about it.

Until it's an order and you disagree with the text of that order, you don't have a problem.

If it is an order and you disagree with the statement, then you have to consider whether that damage to your reputation is excessive given the consequences of not complying.

Can we please have a special variant of Godwin's Law for Americans? The first person to mention Communism in discussions not directly related to the Soviet Union, China, or Cuba loses the discussion immediately. Call it Beck's Law or something, from what I hear he's probably the most likely to cause it's invocation.

Would it also be fair to assume that as soon as a crack starts propagating upward, it will increase the stress above it (same force but less material) and thus be even more likely to crack vertically?

"better regulated market like the North Sea"

Seriously? The North Sea, split between famously cooperative countries like Britain, Holland, Germany, Norway, is better regulated than the interior of the USA?

You guys are in serious trouble.

Living in an earthquake-prone country, I'm more worried about the effects of destroying the integrity of the underlying geology.

The poisoning of drinking water is only of interest to lifeforms that depend on water to live.

"spent eight years slaving over a bottle opener that quickly and neatly extracts all the cork along with the wire restraint and foil wrapping from a champagne bottle."

Hardly sounds like an easy job, or much like a buggy whip.

By the way, NZ law specifically excludes inventions that have been patented elsewhere, so patenting 'extrapolate one obscure datapoint to generalise millions' is probably blocked by the yankee precedent.

Beautifully said sir. I applaud your erudite and insightful analysis of the situation, and pray that many will follow example of pecuniary support to a just cause.