NZ Labour Party discovers the Internet

[StN]

Maybe Clare has a telly that doesn't pick up the correct digital encoding method correectly - I know I have to manually switch mine when I go to TV3 on Freeview, and when I do, it's several clicks of the volume button louder than the default that TV1/2 use.

Or... just had a flashback to that classic Auckland ad "BRAS BRAS BRAS BRAS!"

[Ab]

GMG

1. The brainless kneejerk Labour/Curran default behaviour. "I just noticed this thing for the very first time, we must have a policy for monitoring and standards!" the fuck? YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG. Copyright, Internet speeds, broadband rollout, all the same. Their default behaviour is formulate policy THEN learn about the key issues.

2. The volume of TV ads? This is worth the time and personal attention of the Opposition Spokesperson for Communications and Information Technology? A couple of months out from the election? Jesus, LRN 2 PRIORITISE.

3. TV ads? What the fuck? Who the fuck watches ads? Has this bint been paying attention to anything that's happened in the technology and advertising industries in the last five years? What's she going to do next, formulate a policy on an acceptable level of rotational intertia for the dials on rotary telephones?

[Lightspeed]

Labour should totally use this in their election campaign...
John Key 'Trotie' Dubstep RWC Rugby World Cup 2011

[^BITES^]

That was fucking terrible.

[fixed_truth]

Don't be too hard on him, it's probably wasn't in his high frequency word list.

[Jodi]

Lol.

Politicians get into government because they're good at politics, not because they know how to run a country.

[CCS]

This seems serious
Posted by Clare Curran on September 26th, 2011

Have just seen via Computerworld that 14 Government websites will be offline til Wednesday as the result of a failed system upgrade over the weekend. Upgrades aren’t always successful but surely there should have been a contingency plan in place to roll them back.

Seems like an IT fail. Perhaps Mr Joyce would care to explain? Or Nathan Guy? Or someone else?

The websites are:

business.govt
Companies Office
Ministry of Consumer Affairs
Financial Service Providers Register (FSPR)
G2B
Government Procurement Solutions
Insolvency and Trustee Service
Intellectual Property Office (IPONZ)
Motor Vehicle Traders Register
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals
Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR)
Radio Spectrum Management
Societies and Trusts
VolunteerNet
Business Data

The outage notice on the MED website says this:

Outage notice

We apologise unreservedly for any inconvenience experienced as a result of this outage. Please read on for further information about the impact of this outage.

The Ministry of Economic Development is working to resolve an outage affecting a number of its websites.

The outage occurred during preparation work on Saturday evening to upgrade the servers hosting these websites. The websites will be unavailable until at least midday 12:00PM NZST Wednesday 28 September.


8 Responses to “This seems serious”

sweetd says:
September 26, 2011 at 5:05 pm

Clare, would you say this is as serious as running a database server connected to the internet with no security for several months?
Tribeless says:
September 26, 2011 at 5:17 pm

Don’t panic Clare. This is simply what happens when politicians, of any persuasion, try to run anything. That’s why it’s best you don’t. But I know, you all just want to help … (down the road to serfdom).
tbird says:
September 26, 2011 at 6:38 pm

The other day I scraped my wing mirror against a carpark wall. Steven Joyce hasn’t done a thing about it.

Once I cut myself while chopping vegetables. It didn’t need a Bandaid, but I’m considering contacting Tony Ryall about this directly.

And just when is Phil Heatley coming around to change the lightbulb in the hallway?
insumnatio says:
September 26, 2011 at 7:05 pm

If sky goes down mid-final will that be stephen joyce AND Murray McCully’s fault?
Whafe says:
September 26, 2011 at 8:07 pm

Sheesh Clare, what a coup this post is.

It is so so Mr Joyce’s fault…… NOT.

I don’t at all think Labour is in any position to be critical of any online websites etc, as sweetd mentions above, your team really couldnt sort a website securely….

This is really stooping lower than low
Dion says:
September 26, 2011 at 8:53 pm

Claire – in reality it was probably a civil servant.
Patrick says:
September 26, 2011 at 10:27 pm

Speaking as someone who works in this area, this is a massive stuff up. Someone should be accountable for it.

I’d be interested to know what sort of service agreement is covering this – I’ve never heard of this sort of problem resulting in multiple days of downtime. Is it a result of cuts to back room services? And if so, how much is now being spent to fix it?

Then again, perhaps it’s just the Insolvency and Trustee Service struggling to deal with the load from a certain Wellington High Court proceeding…
Bea says:
September 26, 2011 at 10:40 pm

I disagree Whafe – the Labour opposition should be jumping up and down about this. Having those sites down for that length of time certainly buggered me up today and I in turn have had to push back deadlines I’d promised to clients. Its a big deal.

I don't know how Steven Joyce can explain when he's busy with his sleeves rolled up and fixing some hardware issues

[aR Que]

Internet is down.

[CCS]

I demand a full Royal Commission of Inquiry.

[fixed_truth]

Perhaps Mr Joyce would care to explain?

Lol. This is sewious!

[Ab]

When concerned about website-management best practices, the NZ Labour Party should not be high on your list of people to ask for advice.

[CCS]

Come on, Ab! THIS SEEMS SERIOUS!

[cEvin]

Originally Posted by StN

Maybe Clare has a telly that doesn't pick up the correct digital encoding method correectly - I know I have to manually switch mine when I go to TV3 on Freeview, and when I do, it's several clicks of the volume button louder than the default that TV1/2 use.

Or... just had a flashback to that classic Auckland ad "BRAS BRAS BRAS BRAS!"

my freeview tv3 is way quieter than all other channels (which are consistent). even chan 8 (tv3 delay) is normal...

[StN]

Originally Posted by cEvin

my freeview tv3 is way quieter than all other channels (which are consistent). even chan 8 (tv3 delay) is normal...

Check your digital audio button - it may switch between AAC 2.0 and the other 2.1 jobbie.

[fixed_truth]

@NZNational says it was a real town hall meeting
http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/...-hall-meeting/

So Trevor, did you know it was a fake account or not? Either way you look dumb.

[Ab]

Option 1: he knew it was fake, which means he deliberately set out to deceive the public during an election campaign.

Option 2: he didn't know it was fake, which means he's an idiot.

Option 0: he knew it was fake because a Labour activist set up the account, in which case he's a dirty fucker and we're best rid of him and the party whose campaign he's running.

[CCS]

That is actually not a parody poster. It is a genuine Labour poster from Red Alert where Jacinda Horseface laments "Unfortunately we have run out of these great posters already." Yeah. GREAT POSTER. No unintentional lolarity there at all! The rail link to nowhere doesn't represent a fail at all!

[CCS]

Remember when Clare Curran said:

Twitter @clarecurranmp
Clare Curran
Are there loudness discrepancies found on NZ TV adverts vs progs and if so should they be monitored and a unified national standard created?

and Simon Garlick said:

Originally Posted by Ab

THE ADS ARE LOUDER THAN THE TV SHOWS. THIS IS A DISGRACE. COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SPOKESPERSON CLARE CURRAN PROPOSES MONITORING AND NATIONAL STANDARD.

And thus he Twate:

Simon Garlick
“@clarecurranmp: You realise you are helping me write policy here... #openlabournz” trans: "I am totally ignorant of the key issues"

unto Clare Curran and thus mocketh her he did.


So despite being ridiculed and failing to understand the issue she spoke of, Clare has bravely forged ahead and included it in her broadcasting policy.

An audio standard for New Zealand television

There has been an ongoing debate in New Zealand for some time around volume and consistency between featured programmes and commercials on TV, where there are concerns that the audio of television commercials are broadcast at louder sound volumes than the television programme material they accompany. The issue is not straightforward, but the solutions are.

Labour believes broadcasting networks have been slow to adapt and revise their Technical Delivery Requirements to reflect digital technology.

Labour will bring the TV broadcasting industry together to establish a consensus for new Technical Delivery Requirements and a unified national standard for all broadcasters that reflects international best practice.

Oh for fucks bloody sake

There are so many levels of wrong in that policy.

[fixed_truth]

lol there will be thousands of geriatrics getting all excited over the prospect of not having to mute ads anymore!

[sidbo]

I thought that more often it's not so much the loudness rather it's that they compress the fuck out of the ad soundtracks/voiceovers etc so that while they have the same max volume that is allowed for programmes, the whole ad is at that volume and therefore seems to be much louder.

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/0...ed-on-youtube/ kind of explains what I mean (for music industry at least).

[cEvin]

correct

[StN]

Yeah, nah, Clare - our ad loudness is based on an RMS value, so the actual loud looks big on paper, but because half of the curves and pixels, it's not really all that big...

I think this entire policy comes down to a desire to control sound by knobs.

[aR Que]

Originally Posted by sidbo

I thought that more often it's not so much the loudness rather it's that they compress the fuck out of the ad soundtracks/voiceovers etc so that while they have the same max volume that is allowed for programmes, the whole ad is at that volume and therefore seems to be much louder.

I got this cool meter thing, it meters all kinds of cool things. db is one of these cool things that the cool meter can meter.

When I first got the cool meter, I thought, cool, I can meter some cool stuff and one of those cool things i decided to meter was the difference between ad and programmes. IIRC (it was 2 odd years ago now) the ads were 7db louder on avg.

As you say, they most likely play it at full volume aka war explosion level all the time, is it freakin annoying? Yes, several methods however can be employed to remedy this annoyance such as expensive industry meetings, or you know, by pushing the mute button.

FUN FACT: I measured a car (aw11) as being 102db 1m from the exhaust

[cEvin]

I want a law that pop music can't be obnoxiously compressed too

[Lightspeed]

It's lots o' lols how CCS is still harping on about this as if it's not possible to measure differences in loudness.

Labours is plenty dumb right now, but not because of this.

[aR Que]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

Labours is plenty dumb right now, because they're bothering with silly shit like this.

[Lightspeed]

Yeah, but that's politics. Much like National's so-called welfare reform.

[sidbo]

Originally Posted by aR Que

, or you know, by pushing the mute button.

Or watching from sources that have the ads taken out...

[CCS]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

It's lots o' lols how CCS is still harping on about this as if it's not possible to measure differences in loudness.

You sound like you know a lot about this subject

[Lightspeed]

You sound like you think you know everything about this subject.

[Saladin]

Originally Posted by CCS

That is actually not a parody poster. It is a genuine Labour poster from Red Alert where Jacinda Horseface laments "Unfortunately we have run out of these great posters already." Yeah. GREAT POSTER. No unintentional lolarity there at all! The rail link to nowhere doesn't represent a fail at all!

Needs a pair of hands on either side of the loop.

[Baal]

Originally Posted by cEvin

I want a law that pop music can't be <anything>

[Rince]

Originally Posted by Saladin

Needs a pair of hands on either side of the loop.

the internet has ruined your innocence, man!!!

[CCS]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

You sound like you think you know everything about this subject.

More than you, little man.

[Lightspeed]

No doubt, which is probably why it grinds you so that you're wrong.

[CCS]

And what am I wrong about?

[Lightspeed]

Most things really.

[CCS]

Come on, don't be intellectually dishonest. Point out what I'm wrong about or shut up.

[zeekiorage]

Originally Posted by sidbo

I thought that more often it's not so much the loudness rather it's that they compress the fuck out of the ad soundtracks/voiceovers etc so that while they have the same max volume that is allowed for programmes, the whole ad is at that volume and therefore seems to be much louder.

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/0...ed-on-youtube/ kind of explains what I mean (for music industry at least).

You mean they compress the ads to save on bandwidth? Satellite bandwidth?

I have to say some of the channels on Sky have this loudness problem. NatGeo in particular. I would say the programming sound level is lower than any other channel, so you have to increase the TV volume, which results in you loud blasting ads. Annoying. Not "we need a law" annoying but annoying.

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by CCS

Come on, don't be intellectually dishonest. Point out what I'm wrong about or shut up.

Well, you're wrong any time you preface a statement with "everyone".