Threatening to piss off overseas is not a solution to any problem.
I strongly recommend you go, for a few years at least, but good luck finding somewhere that is better than this. Remember when a British Pound was worth 3 NZ Dollars – not anymore.
You’ll find that there are too many old people just about everywhere (apart from in the third-world)!
I don’t have an easy answer to this, sadly. But, let’s agree to stop moaning, and get on with trying to find a solution.
Regards,
Generation X, Y & Z
You need to understand that a cozy retirement is not an entitlement for you, any more than free education or affordable housing (you will remember both of those, I’m sure).
Here is the problem in very plain language: there are too many of you and not enough of us.
Please sort your own shit out.
Regards,
Generation X, Y & Z
Here is an idea:
An EFT-POS terminal with card scanners on both sides of the slot, so it doesn’t matter which way you swipe your card.
I’m always interested to see the lengths that the people who make the terminals and the retailers who use them go to in order to try and educate people how to use them successfully. The little pictorial representations of the magnetic strip, or the line of numbers are my favourite. But they are worse than useless – perhaps it’s just me, but I seem to swipe the wrong way around 100% of the time, when pure chance would suggest better odds than that.
I’m not an expert, but I’m guessing that my solution would add a trivial amount to the cost of a terminal and would eliminate the problem completely.
While I’m at it, here is another idea:
An EFT-POS terminal with account buttons for “Cheque” and “Savings” but no “Credit” option – especially for those retailers that don’t accept credit card payments.
Not accepting credit card payments is pretty common, and yet the state of the art solution for these users is a bit of sellotape and a piece of cardboard saying “No Credit!!!”
Seriously, is this a 3M conspiracy?
For good measure, a third idea:
An EFT-POS terminal which doesn’t take twice as long to process Chip & PIN card transactions
If your bank has not already upgraded you to a Chip & PIN capable card, and you have any say in the matter, then I encourage you to resist as long as you can. At least until they can explain a benefit that accrues to you rather than to them (if there is such a benefit, I’m not aware of it).
Here is how a typical Chip & PIN transactions goes, in my experience:
Please, in the very least the terminal should display an obvious message telling operators they need to leave the card in place, or (even better) build in some tolerance so that if it is removed too early it can be re-inserted without having to start the whole dance over.
I was interested to notice our closest supermarket have disabled the Chip & PIN feature on their terminals – so if you try to insert your card in the slot it just tells you to swipe in the traditional fashion. I guess they have discovered that the additional faffing around is not a price worth paying in order to get the benefits of additional security? Either way, it ironically adds yet another failed step, as I’m just getting in the habit of inserting rather than swiping and now they’ve introduced an element of doubt because I don’t know which stores support it and which don’t. Look out for more sellotape soon, I predict.
Last but not least, while we’re on the topic, an idea for the banks:
Why not load my cheque account details onto my credit card, so I don’t have to carry two separate bits of plastic around with me?
Back in the last century I was a customer of BankDirect and they did exactly that – a combined VISA & EFT-POS, which came in any colour you like as long as that’s black (I liked). So, it’s obviously not a limitation of technology, just one of inclination and motivation.
I realise that criticising EFT-POS is almost unpatriotic in New Zealand – we’ve had it here since the 80s, before just about anybody else in the whole world, don’t you know!
There have been over 8 billion transactions processed through the system. Per capita we use EFT-POS twice as much as anywhere else. According to the Reserve Bank 60% of transactions use this system, and the volume and value of these transactions are reported as general indicators of activity in the economy.
For each of individually, having a detailed record of your purchases makes it much easier to keep track of your spending, if you’re so inclined.
I’m a huge fan of EFT-POS, to the point of being mocked about it on occasion. I love not having to carry cash. Three years living in London nearly got me back in the habit, but I quickly reverted once back in NZ. Recently I’ve even scanned my other cards (drivers license etc) onto my phone and ditched my wallet altogether for a funky leather iPhone case which has a pouch for my EFT-POS cards.
So, given all of this, it’s pretty disappointing to see how little innovation there has been. And, depressing that the “improvements” that are coming actually make it much worse.
What do you think? Is there anything we can do?
PS thanks to all of the people who replied when I tweeted some of these ideas earlier in the year – you made this post much better than it would have been otherwise:
From Jerusalem:
To Nowhere:
To Middle Earth:
A great day on the Whanganui River yesterday.
Hopefully it’s not another three years before we get out again! :-)
(source: SpellingMistakesCostLives.com/Santa)
The advertising battle in the imaginary friend space heated up this week.
Firstly the NZ Athiest Campaign kicked up a bit of a fuss and got some nice editorial coverage when they announced they would replicate a campaign from the UK, running ads on the side of buses with the message: “There’s probably no God. Now, stop worrying and enjoy your life”.
Not to be outdone rival organisation St. Matthews in the City hit back with their own funny/controversial billboard showing Mary and Joseph in bed, apparently in an effort to “inspire people to talk about the Christmas story”.
Santa, the most widely believed-in imaginary friend amongst the younger demographic, has been conspicuous in his absence from this debate. Although, this hasn’t stopped a grinch-y academic from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia claiming today that his obesity, speeding and drinking makes him a bad role model (presumably parents would be better, eh?)
The billboard above, via @gnat, is very funny, but is possibly too subtle to get much cut through with kids. I wonder if a message directly targeting them would be more successful? A variation on the atheists’ message, suggested by @rowsell, does the trick nicely I think:
“Santa probably isn’t real, so why not relax and be naughty”
Excellent. :-)
However, if you’re one of those parents who prefers hypocrisy to cynicism, remember, Santa knows if you tell lies!
In New Zealand we like to talk up the interconnectedness of the little village that we all live in.
Because of our small population, it’s often claimed that everybody is connected to everybody else by fewer than six degrees of separation.
There is even a new mobile phone network claiming just two degrees.
So, let’s try an experiment and see if we can return some lost property in the process.
Yesterday we were driving home from Taupo and saw a camera fall off the roof of one of the cars we were following. Unfortunately we didn’t see which one, and anyway, by the time we stopped and picked it up they were long gone.
Here is one of the pics from the camera:
If you or somebody you know are in the photo please get in touch so I can arrange to return the camera to you.
If not, please re-blog, re-tweet, or otherwise forward this onto anybody who may have been driving South along the Desert Road yesterday.
If you include a link to this post then I’ll be able to work out how long the chain is, if the owner is found.
Thanks in advance for your help!
UPDATE (14th Dec, 1pm):
I’ve got an email from one of the people in the photo, so I’m pleased to say that the camera and (more importantly) photos will be back with them soon.
I’m astounded at how many people have linked to this post this morning, from Twitter and various other sites. Thanks to you it took less than 3 hours to find them.
It looks like there were a number of different ways that I am connected to the owner – but the first to produce a result was via Tarik, who subscribes to my blog and is a friend of the owner, so just two degrees of separation.
Thanks again to everybody who made the effort to help!
UPDATE (14th Dec, 2pm):
A couple of people have pointed out an NZPA story about this, currently on the Stuff home page:
Blog helps reunite owner with camera
Too funny!
And, so nice of them to provide a link back to this post … oh wait, they didn’t.
UPDATE (15th Dec, 3pm):
The camera has been returned in exchange for a bottle of 42 Below. A good result!
These are two dumb billboards:
ASB is not a kiwi bank. They were sold to Commonwealth Bank of Australia (as the name would suggest, a publicly listed Australian company) in 1989.
Eh? Nobody picks JetStar because of the quality of the onboard service. They are a discount airline – cheap and cheerful.
Why do they choose to highlight the exact things they are not?
Both obviously feel they need to respond to their competitors’ advertising.
Kiwi Bank nicely mocks the “Australian banks” in their ads. And, Air New Zealand has done well to position themselves as the slightly-more-expensive-but-worth-it alternative, by highlighting all of the hidden extras that are not included in the discount airlines’ prices.
So, what should ASB and JetStar do?
Why not focus on the things that are important to customers that they actually are.
JetStar just needs to highlight their prices and ask the question: “how much are you paying for that tiny lolly mix?” or “how much are you paying for those airpoints?”
ASB is a more difficult example, because, it seems to me at least, that Kiwi Bank has them on most of the areas that customers care about. Perhaps the long slow queues at Post Shops, including people trying to send their Trade Me parcels, is one area of weakness to focus on?
Either way ASB need to stop talking about the things they used to be – kiwi owned, leaders online (where is the ASB iPhone app?), etc – and find a current point of difference.
Whatever happened to BankDirect, I wonder? They had a great brand, but it seems to have been left to rot on the vine recently. I remember one ad with attitude they had years ago which said something like: “Our credit cards are black, because we think they look cool” – it convinced me to switch!
This is just another good example of something that smaller companies seem to find much easier – talk straight and be yourself.
Some Recent Posts
Bonus (not so recent, but related):
Tax matters?, 26th May 2008
“I don’t know, but I suspect there is an argument to say that lower tax rates just mean that those who are motivated to be successful either way get to keep more of the money they earn.”
Working for families?, 27th May 2008
“I suspect people would think differently about our “free” health and education systems, for example, if they better understood how much of their money was spent on it each year.”
(see also: Tax Statement, 8th June 2008)
Transparency, 9th June 2008
“Should public data be available online? The evidence would suggest that we can’t really make up our minds.”
The Order of New Zealand, 15th October 2008
“As a country, what do we reward?”
NZ Flag, 5th January 2009
“I find it odd that our country still holds onto some traditions from our time as a part of The Empire. The UK and Europe have changed a lot since then, and they have clearly moved on. It seems to me that we could too.”
“The Silver Fern is a symbol which is widely associated with New Zealand and New Zealanders. It’s the symbol most of us would pick if we were asked to represent our country in a single image – which, after all, is the broad purpose of a flag isn’t it?”
Are the All Blacks winning more than ever?, 9th June 2007
“In the 20 years since the first World Cup in 1987 the ABs have played 193 tests and won 154 of them. That’s an 80% win record while playing more games than were played in the previous 80 years.”
Dark Days, 13th October 2007
“It all started about 25 minutes into the second half last Sunday morning, when Daniel Carter went off injured and the TV pictures showed the look of absolute fear in his eyes. I sunk back into my chair. From then on in it all seemed to have an air of inevitability about it. Four more years, boys!”
“The problem is our expectations are just not based on reality. And, in the heat of battle they surely weigh a bloke down, no? I can’t help but think the complete lack of composure and loss of structure the All Blacks suffered in the final 20 minutes wasn’t in some way all of our fault.”
(see also: Whatever makes you nervous, 11th June 2007)
Re-invigorating the All Blacks, 24th December 2007
“Enough, I say! Here are two simple lessons that seem to have evaded rugby administrators…
Do you remember when rugby players wore tight shorts and loose tops, and international teams played games against provincial teams, and test matches started at 2:30pm?
This short film from NZ On Screen might take you back…
Like many of you, I’m sure, I’m enjoying following the adventures of Vaughan Rowsell, who is now more than two weeks into his attempt to ride the full length of New Zealand “uphill” (i.e. starting at the bottom and finishing at the top).
Here are the videos he has posted on his blog summarising the distance covered so far:
Week 1 – Stewart Island to Mosgiel
Week 2 – Mosgiel to Waikouaiti
He also has some route maps on his site.
What make this so exciting? Just that he’s doing it.
In other words: what sounds impossible is actually quite achievable, which is not to say easy.
The only thing that makes him different from you (and me!) is that he has managed to bridge that massive gap between thinking about doing something great and actually making it happen.
From Twitter:
“I do feel like I am doing something impossible! Something I never thought I was able to do. It’s such an awesome feeling. Try it.”
– @rowsell
It certainly beats sitting on the couch feeling fat and lazy and generally sorry for yourself.
I got to know Vaughan a little when we worked together on the first part of the Travel Bug project (then going by it’s code name “Jandals”)
He’s a pretty unassuming guy who deserves all of the credit and support that I hope he gets (en route he is raising money for The Agency for Spinal Concern).
I don’t know if he is thinking this far ahead yet … possibly only when it gets really hard grinding up a big hill or into a headwind in the rain … but the feeling he’ll have when he gets to the end is going to be crazy awesome.
I’m really looking forward to spending a day riding with him when he gets to Wellington.
Maybe two, if he’ll have me?
UPDATE (21-May)
I rode with Vaughan from Wellington to Otaki. It was a cold wet day, and the route we took over the Akatarawas was pretty brutal, but it was fun anyway. His blog has some details.
Since then he has continued on up the country and is now into the final week or so of his ride.
If you are in the Auckland area get out this weekend and support him as he rides across the bridge.
And, where ever you are, you can support his charity by donating through his page on Give A Little.
“I reckon an education notice can’t just say “don’t do that”. It needs to include what to do instead otherwise it’s not education. “
“The biggest threat to an author is obscurity, not piracy.”
– Tim O’Reilly
I was overseas and missed the bulk of the debate about Section 92a of the new Copyright Amendment Act.
But the outcome was pretty interesting, even from a distance.
The #blackout campaign, initiated by Creative Freedom NZ and supported by a huge number of people, managed to get a lot of coverage of the issue and convinced the government to delay the implementation of this part of the Act.
And then, earlier this week, they announced that they were scrapping this altogether and going back to the drawing board.
So, here is a question for everybody that supported the campaign (i.e. everybody who changed their avatar in Facebook and/or Twitter):
Now what?
The current wording of s92a is dumb. All agreed. But, how should it read?
I’m not sure that I’ve heard anybody propose a solution that everybody would support, which I assume means that this is a much more difficult problem than we think.
The Creative Freedom site lists three goals:
These are fine goals.
I think everybody would nod in furious agreement as they read those.
(If you haven’t already I encourage you to follow the links above read the details).
And I think that most people would also agree that the groups representing the various rights owners have to be part of the solution, even though they have not seemed very willing to engage in the debate (for example, when RIANZ CEO Campbell Smith describes a requirement to provide evidence of copyright infringement as “impractical” and “ridiculous” he just looks silly).
There just doesn’t seem to be a middle ground at the moment.
So, it’s a stalemate.
On one side we have people who consume content who, it seems, would probably prefer to keep the status-quo where they can reasonably freely download and share whatever without risk of being caught (it’s hard to beat free, eh!)
That might be unfair, but I haven’t really heard anybody on this side of the debate come out strongly against copyright infringements and say “we think it’s terrible that it’s so easy to steal, and we think it should be enforced like this …”.
Perhaps it’s a case of people in glass houses being a bit cautious about throwing stones?
On the other side are the content producers and rights owners who seem incapable of grasping the size of the opportunity they are missing out on by sticking to their old business models and a mindset of having to hold on so tightly to the content they own.
As Elan from Plex said so well in his recent open letter to media companies…
“You have to stop being scared that I’m going to steal your content, because I’m already stealing your content. Your goal should be to get me to give you the money I’m already giving to others.”
And
“There is a holy trinity of things I want desperately from you, because I can’t get them anywhere else: availability, quality, and metadata. By availability I mean give me access to full catalogs of content. More is more. If I can’t get it from you, I’m going to have to go elsewhere, and you don’t want that. Secondly, give me quality: why would I go to you for SD content when I can get HD content elsewhere? Why would I go to you for ad-laden content when I can get ad-free content elsewhere? Lastly, give me rich metadata: reviews, related content, recommendations, transcripts, and credits. And give me an API interface to that data. In return I will give you my money every month, and I’ll rub your feet at least once a week.”
And stuck in the middle of all of this are the ISPs of various flavours, who would, I suspect, much rather just invoice monthly than have to get involved in the messy business of being adjudicator and enforcer.
That seems like quite a big gap to try and bridge.
How do we break this deadlock?
What’s the next step forwards?
Are there examples from overseas that we think would work here – i.e. the American model (which gives a bit more power to the rights owners) or the European model (which gives a bit more power to the consumer)?
Or perhaps we try our own hybrid, with some form of industry self-regulation?
Would that work?
Or do we just think it’s all too hard, and so stick with the status-quo by default?
Interested in your thoughts.
I wonder: how far into what we now call the Great Depression did they start to call it a Great Depression as opposed to a regular old recession?
The US stock markets just recorded their worst month since 1933. The amount of money that has been wiped off the value of listed companies around the world is staggering.
As this chart from Financial Graph & Art shows, this is now the second worst bear market when measured by the percentage decline in values, but we still have some way to go to match both the length and severity of the market drop between 1929 and 1932.
This is clearly somewhat uncharted waters. And, it’s interesting to see what different countries around the world are doing to try and address this situation.
Having spent a few weeks in the US recently, it feels like we’re much less optimistic here in NZ. Obviously the recession/depression is dominating the news over there too, but the mood is still “yes we can!” rather than “gulp, we’re stuffed!”.
For example this (from the New York Times)
“Wrapped inside the economic stimulus package is about $80 billion in spending, loan guarantees and tax incentives aimed at promoting energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, higher-mileage cars and coal that is truly clean. As a stand-alone measure, these investments would amount to the biggest energy bill in history.”
Not sure about the “truly clean coal” part, but that does seem positive.
And, it makes the 9-day-fortnight proposal seem pretty modest.
On the other hand, I’m not necessarily sure much of the optimism is warranted.
What are they going to do about their auto industry? More bail outs? Or let them fail? Neither seem like especially attractive options.
While I was there Hyundai were running a series of positive TV ads highlighting their assembly plants based in Alabama, employing lots of Americans, etc, etc (and without saying as much noting that this was all without government bail outs). As Fred Wilson pointed out: “the auto sector has the potential to be the ‘Vietnam’ of his energy plan” and “when a portfolio company acts like [GM] in our business, they are dead on arrival”.
Whether you’re optimistic or pessimistic, it’s difficult to disagree that this is a horrible mess.
So, what are we going to do about it? What are you going to do about it?
Do you feel like there is anything you can do, or is this something that they have to solve? And, if so, who is “they“?
Think about the things you have already personally done: do you think they have made things better or worse? For example, if you have stopped spending so much on stuff you can do without, what’s the impact on the companies that used to make and sell that stuff, and the people who work for those businesses?
Amongst this carnage, where are the opportunities? Remember: Trade Me was launched in 1999, just as the first tech bubble burst spectacularly.
And, is anybody else worried that we’ve all started to feel that things are inevitably going to get worse?
If you want to understand how this whole mess has come about, here is an excellent animated overview:
Interested in your thoughts.
I am a New Zealander.
I was born here. My parents were both born here. My grandparents were all born here. Seven of my eight great-grandparents were born here too (the other was born in Scotland).
I don’t belong anywhere else.
I hate being called a European.
I lived in London for three years, and loved it, but I don’t have any connections there. They have a queue at Heathrow for Europeans, but I wasn’t allowed through that way.
I find it odd that our country still holds onto some traditions from our time as a part of The Empire. The UK and Europe have changed a lot since then, and they have clearly moved on. It seems to me that we could too.
One easy thing we should do, which would be a symbolic start to this process, is change our flag.
I say “easy” but of course the devil is in the details.
There are people who have strong associations to the current flag – such as some former soldiers (although, those who fought against the Germans and Italians in WW2 should note that people from those countries all now enter the UK via the European queue I mentioned above).
And, even amongst those who support this idea there is disagreement about the design that should be adopted.
For me this is easy. The Silver Fern is a symbol which is widely associated with New Zealand and New Zealanders. It’s the symbol most of us would pick if we were asked to represent our country in a single image – which, after all, is the broad purpose of a flag isn’t it?
A flag needs to be simple, and instantly recognisable. A plain Silver Fern on a black background would achieve this brilliantly.
So, I’m pleased to see that the group behind NZ Flag have re-organised. They have my full support and hopefully yours too.
I think they would have a better chance of success if they proposed a specific new design, rather than just advocating a change. Their current design, which was created by Cameron Sanders from Cato Partners, is cool but is too stylised. Unlike other Silver Ferns used by sporting teams and other organisations, the design used on a national flag would not need to be registered as a trade mark, so doesn’t necessarily need any unique design features.
I suggest something like this:
(a design based loosely on the Tourism NZ logo)
What do you think?
If you want to add your voice in support of NZ Flag, sign-up on the website or join the Facebook group.
Thanks.
Photo Credits: Silver Fern, by Heaven’s Gate
I was in Auckland last week and spotted this ad in the business section of the Herald:
The small print at the bottom reads:
“People seem to be investing more than ever in TVs. So it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where to invest your advertising dollar.”
Now, I realise that I’m far from the target audience for this ad – given that I’m not the sort of person who’s likely to buy TV advertising.
But, it still made me angry.
Our big LCD TV is hooked up to a MySky box, which means most of the things we watch are available in HD.
But, not the TVNZ channels, which look like rubbish in comparison.
So, instead of expensive ads in the newspaper, I wish that TVNZ would put their energy into sorting out their petty differences with Sky and making their content available in the best possible format however people choose to access it.
Then, ironically, more people might watch their channels.
Which will make it easier for them to sell more ads.
Which will mean they don’t have to spend so much money on newspaper ads.
Everybody wins. Except the newspapers, I suppose.
