Chris Keall

Final Keall brother married off (at Massey University gardens – who knew Palmy could be Jane Austin-esque). Beautiful wedding, Steve & Carla. More pics on the Facebook.

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Basically, it’s a wooden cupboard with a ray heater built into the back. Touch claustrophobic. (Fitness centre, Coachman Hotel, Palmerston North.)

Fred and Barney, dazed and confused at Kowhai Park, Whanganui.

An example of a detection notice under our new copyright legislation, courtesy Tech Liberty’s Thomas Beagle (click to zoom).

“Counting the ways that this notice does not meet the requirements of the act/regulations. Current count: 5,” tweeted Thomas.

Read Tech Liberty’s detailed analysis here and its check-list for a valid notice here.

We switched to naked broadband (DSL without a home phone line) on Tuesday. The new setup will soon be bolstered by a femtocell to boost our dodgy cellphone reception.

Our main motivation was to take advantage of regulatory changes, and attendant savings.

But telemaketers – who found our (extra cost) unlisted number no hindrance to hunting us down – also did their bit. If I was a Telecom shareholder, I’d be agitating for a national, US-style do-not-call registry (not a voluntary industry one; see Comments below). More after NBR returns Jan 16 …

Spotted by my sister-in-law, who’s re-reading the Arthur C Clarke classic, originally published in 1968. (Thanks to @GaryTurner who pointed out this YouTube clip of a related sequence in the movie.)

The Borders megastore on Queen St is closing in a few days (remember when it was going to kill Unity?).

New Whitcoulls/Borders owners the Norman family (who also own Farmers) are obviously looking to trim costs. But a large number of books to browse, and the cafe, were the only reasons to shop in a real-life bookstore. Give me the internet any day (though not the dysfunctional whitcoulls.co.nz) over the stingy stock in most shops.

What now for the vast, labyrinth space currently occupied by Borders? When I posed this question on Twitter, @BruceBuckman and @uof came back with the same suggestion: laser strike. Perfect.