converser.nz

Month: November 2019

  • Why NZ First Self Destructs

    NZ First is self destructing again. The reason they do this is because they piss people off. The reason they piss people off is their party is not a collective interest. It is based on self interest of each member, starting from the very top. The party is not democratic like other parties. Winston Peters…

  • Why Councils Are Risk Averse In Building Processes

    So this one is a little different, it’s defending councils against the allegations that they have ensnarled building processes in red tape. Anecdotally you can hear many concerns over what it costs to build a house or some commercial premises these days, and especially over the consents process with a local council and the fees…

  • Hamilton City CEO Calls For Local Electoral Reform

    An interesting op-ed appeared in the Stuff website yesterday, reporting on the call from Hamilton City’s CEO Richard Briggs for reform of local government elections (reported on Radio NZ three weeks ago). The Stuff article is written by three academic management specialists, so it’s refreshingly non-partisan in its approach. Briggs has stated his view that…

  • NZ Rail Maps: Large Area Raster Tiles At Reduced Quality Setting

    Using Qgis to draw the maps, we’ve run against a few times some sort of limitation on the number of raster layers that it seems to have, which runs out a long time before hitting the actual resource limits of the computer it’s running on. This in turn limits the number of raster layers that…

  • Change Monitor Configurations Permanently in LXQt for Screen Recording

    As we have discussed in the past, I use LXQt in two different configurations with my various computers. Lubuntu, which now uses LXQt as its desktop environment, is what most of my non-desktop computers use. For example a media playback computer and a laptop are normally set up with Lubuntu which is quick and easy…

  • Using a Raspberry Pi as a livestream player [1]

    When I wrote the first post of this series I fully expected using my former Windows 10 PC as a home theater PC would work out. That didn’t last long and the Windows 10 part was soon moved to another computer so the Mini-ITX system could be reinstalled with Lubuntu for the specific role that…

  • Allegations Made Against Central City Councillor

    Most of us reading this will know that during the recent local government elections in Christchurch, allegations of improper conduct (amounting to a form of sexual harrassment) were levelled against a sitting Councillor in the Christchurch Central ward. The allegations were first reported to the Mayor in May 2019 and were kept quiet at that…

  • Long Term Ramifications of Insufficient Oversight of Local Government

    The 2010/2011 earthquakes in Christchurch were a huge wakeup call for local government in terms of its capability and willingness to ensure high standards were being achieved in building safety. We believe that the standards subsequently exposed in Christchurch were woefully inadequate. There had been a long legacy in the city of failure to properly…

  • Power Tools: Best brand of home power tools?

    If you are working at the cheap end of power tools there are a few brands to choose from. I have bought Ryobi stuff a few times, weedeaters have been good, also a good 1200 watt electric drill (a knockoff of a Bosch or Hitachi drill) with variable speed, hammer, 2 speeds, reverse etc. I…

  • Python Scripting: Planned Scripting Projects Update

    Back in February this year I set out a list of planned scripting projects following my acquisition of Python programming skills. The sequence of planned or implemented projects to date is: NZ Rail Maps project script to copy a set of GIS raster layer files based on reading a QLR file produced by Qgis. Currently…