I guess you want the internet to be a place for finding useful information, and/or the entertainment you choose to access, over it being a long uninteruptable stream of infomercials for crap products you have no interest in? Then groogle is not for you. In fact groogle is not for humanity.

I don’t have any skin in this game, but what are the Orwellian talking points you refer to? I’m curious how this term is used and develops over time.

A small addition to the discussion - I pay in advance with cash for 10 coffees at a cafe I go to several times a week. Its an informal arrangement, and a very small independent cafe (these are common in my country). If you have a regular spend somewhere ask if they could do this. Obviously it doesn’t work for all things. I wouldn’t do it as a pay later type of tab though otherwise you’re back in credit land. It works for me as its the best coffee in my area, an indie outlet, and they threw in 1 free per 10 paid for. They get my loyalty I guess and money in their bank (or cash in the till)- also bypassing the 3 or so middle men orgs between my bank and their bank by way of visa etc. which is another big motivator for me - we are being reamed in our country with up to 3% charge for using a credit card. Maybe thats common globally?

Ditch touch screen and give it physical buttons and we’ll be on to something.

I liken using groogle for finding factual information to using the yellowpages for doing the same. YT isn’t much better but it suffers many of the conflicts of interest traditional media outlets also had, depending on the corporation. In this case the almighty algorithm is the conflict of interest, though there are clever content creators out there making some good stuff, they’ll always be beholden to the owners of the platform and the true customers - the advertisers. As an advertising platform which can direct punters to actual long form content directly supported by watchers via patreon or similar, I understand why it is used : the sheer numbers using it.

That’ll help with keeping a low profile. I personally go for a red flashing clown nose, and triggers in my shoes which set off a loud explosion sound with every step. The speaker is in my ridiculously tall top hat.

Parent of a 5 year old year one student and just had first parent teacher interviews last couple days. As anecdotal as this will be, with my sample size of one, plus being in touch with other parents, this is a pointless populist move. The teachers are working their absolute arses off ensuring our kids are getting everything they can get. And already doing this needless to say. My kids teacher looks bloody exhausted at the best of times, and is made of stronger stuff than I or this highly rested smug shiny faced fake smiled property magnate. What teachers need are more resources, more time (i.e more teachers) and more pay. These useless checkbox ticking numbskulls think we fall for this empty grandstanding? Absolute wastage of resource, ironically.

How do you know what is or isn’t of benefit to NZ unless it is disclosed? If that takes effort, then thats one of the many costs of having a (always tenuous) democracy.

SAAS your shit up…

Great phraseology, and have experienced it with Arlo.

I’d agree about waiting personally. Not to defend it of course, but isn’t this already happening? Probably not at the banking side other than for their internal benefit (I presume as they’re fairly regulated) , but at the retail , POS , even accounting system sides? Theres also all other data collection and harvesting sources - internet use basically, location data etc - but thats all known. This is likely to be a more consolidated competitor in that space I guess. All speculation. I’m more curious so fishing for knowledge

You are complimenting them on their humanism, not their adherence to their religion. Which is fine. It’s the religion which has had to adjust itself to remain acceptable to its fee paying subscribers. As a lapsed Catholic myself , the theme of conversion, and evangelism was a fairly regular one at the weekly groaningly boring sermon. If your friends weren’t attempting to convert you I credit their social awareness, and again general humanism considering that at the back of their heads they have to agree , lest burn themselves, that you are going to burn in hell for eternity for not being a member of the same club. That trusted functional adults told me that repeatedly through my childhood while living in an otherwise decent, civil society is a credit to the social education my family and community gave me and each other otherwise. We cherry pick from the brutal bronze age texts but the pickings get slimmer and slimmer and the choices we make are filtered based on our actual humanity and ethical social standard of our time. Perhaps the official doctrine has since shifted - I grew up in the 70s/80s - but I don’t really care. Crediting people for their actual actions despite their environment is where I’ve ended up. I do disagree though with you saying their religion doesn’t spoil them. Being told by the apparently literal mouthpiece of God on earth that the universe was created for you and that (s)he keeps a constant tab on you and your prayers because you are a member of the club? Doesn’t get much more earthly and spoilt . Like being quietly and modestly told by your parents that you are really better than all other kid on earth. If the parents choose not to spoil their kids materialistically or otherwise, thats the work and choice of the parents, not their religion, let alone the work of the imaginary cloud man.

I cut netflix and disney a year back and my kid hasn’t mentioned them. age at 5 years old could be a factor - 10 might be different and harder to resist. He’s hardly had any media growing up saying that. Wasn’t really a planned thing so as with any parenting matters I get its whatever works for your mental survival. I have a couple of seasons of the 3 shows he has watched in the past on a Plex server incase of desperate times. Yaharrrr .

Wow. Thanks for the link. Makes me wonder if the whole thing could be seen as a honeypot opportunity for lawyers of evil corps and others. Also makes me wonder what their business end game is - get acquired by Amazon or another streaming giant ? In which case, yikes again. I was suspicious enough with the mere fact it was a hybrid streaming, live tv, and self host media solution. Conflicts of interest. A Shame. Theres alot of good aspects to using it. Hello Jellyfin.

Is this via social / account stuff within the plex ecosphere ? Ive never used any of that (wittingly) including seperate user accounts in my household. Is it between such accounts you’re referring to, or more insidious than that ? Ive been plexing for some years but always have one eye on jellyfin. If theyre doing anything dodgy with data I will jump. Need to have another look at their policies and settings - its been a while. Good to have a headsup.

Was about to post this. This is mind boggling. Also, this whole thing we have now where all you have to do is state conflicts of interest and it’s enough. No repercussion, no ensuring unfairness isn’t occurring because of the conflict. Nope, we declared it so thats fine. Wtf! Commerce commission needs to be cleared out, senate needs to be chucked out of it, and gov agencies who’s job is meant to be oversight of industry need to be squeeky clean , independent, totally self contained (outsourcing work to a consultancy who also work for the orgs your reporting on ? Wtf) and have real sharp teeth. Same goes for other regulatory outfits. Corporations should be quaking in their boots if the commerce commission come knocking. No wonder we are all being ripped off as consumers, and citizens. But look who’s coming into power….the kings of commercial conflicts and slick PR comms to offset any critical reportage. Prepare for the distractions and catchphrases.

You can be sure that self interest is more often than not the motivator, e.g “ Business Desk reported Grenon is linked to the NZ News Essentials website, which is dedicated to attacking the Government. Grenon is a Canadian private equity tycoon who made headlines in Canada when he shifted $68.2m to New Zealand while involved in court action with Canada’s tax agency.” Why wouldn’t such characters put a bit of personal capital toward promoting agendas which could gain themselves serious bucks? or to campaigning against opposing agendas. Its the public who need to check themselves for credulity. God forbid such tycoons end up with 0.1% less wealth. They might have to put rents up and we will all suffer /s

“ LIMITATIONS OF THE DATA

This dataset provides a handy indicator of how recent price increases are likely to impact on consumers. However, it does not reflect what customers have actually paid for electricity in any particular period, as the QSDEP only models one type of customer in each city or town, when in reality, Consumption and pricing plans vary significantly across households. ”

“Newsroom reported donations just under the declarable limit were made in March 2019 to the foundation after a public relations consultant orchestrated a meeting with Hart’s son-in-law Duncan Hawkesby and NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell. An email from the PR consultant with the subject line “re CGT” said Mitchell’s stance on a capital gains tax aligned with Hawkesby’s. A meeting Hart briefly attended between Hawkesby and Mitchell occurred and three donations of $14,995 were made from different companies aligned with the family. In April 2019, then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed a capital gains tax would not be introduced saying consensus could not be reached between parties in government. ”

• a tiny investment for someone who holds billions in property. We are so easily sold out. And we’re about to be sold out yet again. Legal Corruption.

Yeh, the zeitgeist is also highly diverse , nuanced, layered, multi linguistic, regionalised and constantly evolving. Which I see as hopeful and isn’t what the CCP wants. Any Western generalisation especially across headlines is hardly ever accurate, but also plays to the party’s own often defensive (feelings easily hurt) public info strategies.

Agree. It is quite an achievement for a single party to hold sway over the 1.4 billion or whatever the population is. There must be very little appetite for upheaval or instability given even recent history. such sabre rattling and the risk of actual war must be a shaky proposition internally, despite supposed levels of nationalism.