Yes I think so, that rings a bell. Something like that would be cool, I downloaded beeper earlier to give it a go and it immediately wants an email and privacy policy and I assume collects data on what clients you use and so on.

Something like pigdin that’s just a front end that doesn’t phone home anywhere or collect your data and you just log in through it would be awesome.

Right I see, could be useful if you’re constantly switching between conversations on multiple platforms I guess. Which come to think of it I am. I only have the Instagram app because typing goes nuts when I try to message on their web interface.

Way back when I was running Ubuntu (like over a decade ago) there were a chat application that would combine Facebook chat, MSN (lol) and a bunch of others and it was very handy to have it right there on the desktop.

Oh damn that’s a shame, I use Facebook calls quite a lot. Sounds like for me it could be one app to rule them all just resulting in yet another app on top the others lol.

On a related note, this is the first I’m hearing of beeper.

Is the main draw just being able to combine messaging across different apps into one, or are there other benefits too?

Oh no. Great that the government abruptly cancelled the new ferries with no plan to replace these ones that keep having massive failures. This one is the only rail ferry too

Ah right that’s fair enough, SOEs definitely are a blindspot from an OIA perspective. I thought you meant in comparison to a private company, which would be the same if not worse.

I think in this case a combination of the huge public interest and the heavily regulated environment transpower operates under the causes will come out. But I guess we’ll see

That’s not a thing at all. SOEs face investigations like any other company. Kiwibank for example is getting prosecuted at the moment by the commerce commission for fair trading act breaches

It’s not supposed to look like that

I’ll say it. He’s a real Clown

The Prime Minister is a C-word

*won’t buy our way out, despite the government being able to borrow at far lower rates than anyone else.

Tolls for new roads are whatever, the RoNs are an enormous waste of money anyway. Let the car-brained idiots who want them pay for them.

PPPs are just a scam for the government to pretend like they’re saving money by moving the cost to a different budget line item so they don’t show up as government debt. They cost far more in the long run, look at Transmission Gully.

Adjusting for population it seems to be about the same - population has gone from about 4.3 million in 2013 to 5 point whatever million is it now.

I think it’s cold comfort though that every time we get a downturn like this, we do austerity that makes things even worse and let key sectors like construction just collapse and workers relocate to places where they actually try and do counter cyclical support.

There seems to be a tonne of evidence setting out they don’t work, yet they keep coming back because theyre popular with the electorate.

I wonder how much research there is about how opinions about boot camps are formed, and what might change them because all the studies and evidence out there doesn’t seem to have a lot of cut through for many people.

Lisa needs braces

Kinda weird that the PM is announcing an inquiry, that he gets to influence the terms of reference to, into an opposition party? Especially seeing the police are already investigating.

That’s so cool, like a sailboat/yacht? I love the idea of getting a liveaboard boat and doing something wild like sailing across the Pacific in it.

I say this as someone with exactly zero sailing experience, but the idea going such a huge distance using mostly the wind would be such an adventure.

The UK has something like this, where you’re paid or part paid out of their National Insurance scheme (but payments still come through the employer).

Genuine worker involvement in these decisions from the start, not just consulting on a fait accompli.

Ultimately that means proper structured worker representation through unions that can meet management at their level. Germany for example, has union representation on company boards. Worker owned cooperatives are another model.

I don’t think they deserve any credit for not being even crueler.

But lol yes won’t someone think of the payroll developers?! That’s been a common complaint across the numerous attempts to sort out the holidays act.

I can’t see how this would even help on that in this case, but I am not a software guy. Like isn’t this just introducing another category with different rules that you have to account for?

Given businesses are effectively run like dictatorships, and the public sector orgs emulate privates wherever possible, I’d say good practice in this space is extremely rare.