“What’s the difference?” Mr 5 inquired.

When I arrived to pick up Ollie from Poppa’s place later that afternoon, they were both at the table, with two steaming pots of noodles in front of them. One pot was plain-pack, the other an ironically unidentifiable name brand. They had compared the contents of the flavour sachets, and were conducting a taste test worthy of a 3-star sommelier. Ollie was quick to point out that both pottles contained a “foldy fork”.

“So” said Poppa. “What’s the difference?”

Ollie’s eyes swivelled up and left, indicating deep thought. “We-eeell”, he said in trademark singsong, “I thought the one with pictures would be better, but they taste the same.” The conclusion was obvious. “The pictures must cost a lot, but I don’t think they’re worth it.” He nodded sagely to himself.

I think it was about three months later that Dad passed away. It’s been four months since then. In those four months I’ve never answered Ollie with “just because”, or “I don’t know”. And I hope I never do again.

Miss you Dad.

I love the internet. It’s all about creating and sharing content. I’m more than happy for you to re-use my work on your own site, or perhaps “remix” my work (hey, we can all use editing help). There is one caveat: you must attribute the original source to me, preferably by linking to my site.

This is all outlined clearly by my Creative Commons license, linked at the bottom of all of my pages.

What not to do

If you want an example of what not to do, you can use doyouflip.co.nz, a site owned (I presume) by Flip Video (and therefore Cisco). They have lifted one of my reviews in its entirety and pasted it on their site. Perhaps surprisingly, this is not actually against the terms of my license. Where they have failed abysmally is they have given no attribution whatsoever. There is nothing on the page that suggests the content was created by anyone other than Flip themselves.

If you have a poor moral compass and need additional reasons to not steal content, it might pay to see the buzz generated by this within social media circles inside a couple of hours. Flip Video has an open social media strategy, so it’s easy to post on their Facebook wall, for example. A search for “flipnz” on Twitter also uncovers a couple of choice comments.

The sad thing is, it would have taken all of about 10 seconds to provide an attribution link on the original page. I wonder how much time Flip Video and their PR company will spend dealing with this today?

I’m not going to grace Flip or Cisco with a link, but the evidence is in the image below. I’m sure you can find the site while it’s still up.

How to use my content

It’s pretty damn easy. Use my content, but make sure you attribute.

Obviously, it would be lovely if you’d like to pay me to use my work (for example in print), but this is not strictly required. I do reserve the right to switch to a “non-commercial” usage license in future, but of course that is not retroactive.se to a

Since Baby 1.0 we’ve had quite a number of attempts to get hold of a new model, with a distinct lack of success. Thankfully, back on the 12th of August, we acquired a brand new version.

We’ve spent three weeks testing the new model Baby 2.0, and it has been a mixture of surprise and familiarity. The first surprise was the new quality control facility that had been constructed since 1.0. The facility is bright and clean, with much better views than the previous one. Great work to all involved.

The acquisition of Baby 2.0 was much more controlled than 1.0. With 1.0 we had to battle with the production facility for some 30 hours before finally resorting to a manual retrieval. After the failures with 1.1 and 1.2, the experts suggested we pre-book a retrieval for 2.0. We did this, and everything went swimmingly well. The package arrived intact, with all the correct parts. It was a little smaller than 1.0 (3.9kg vs 4.15kg), but equally appealing to look at. We did of course have no opportunity to select between the two main versions, but have ended up with one of each, which is great.

In general, Baby 2.0 has been equivalent to 1.0 in terms of behaviour and usability. The integrated alarm function is still poorly calibrated, waking us up several times a night. It took us several months to debug this function in 1.0, and I’ m hoping we can do the same with 2.0. The new model has a greatly improved ingestion system however, requiring very little help and causing a heck of a lot less pain and anguish than 1.0.

Overall I’m very happy with the acquisition. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough. 5 stars out of 5!

So then. A few months ago I made my personal opinion clear. Reading that post again, I still stand by it, with some clarification. After discussions with many people I hold to be wonderful parents with truly incredible kids, I’ve changed part of my opinion. You may not care, but purely for positioning, I accept now that smacking should not be a criminal offence in all cases, and frankly I’m a little ashamed that I’ve said otherwise. I truly do not wish criminal charges against any of the people I know who happen to smack their kids. Hopefully you can accept that one man’s dogma can be altered by exposure to fact.

The law, as it stands, clearly allows for “justifiable force” in several instances. These cover the range that most people would hold to be reasonable: avoiding danger, stopping disruptive behaviour, etc.. What the law does criminalise, and what I remain against, is the use of physical punishment for correction after the fact. I’d love to hear from the majority if they intended their “No” vote to enable physical punishment for correction, as opposed to instantaneous intervention.

If the question had been “Should a smack, as an instant intervention requirement, be a criminal offence”, I would have voted no. Would you have voted “Yes” if the question were “Should a smack, as a premeditated action intended to correct misbehaviour more than x minutes after the event, be a criminal offence?”. Or am I utterly barking up the wrong tree?

I ask this because as I read more and more online discussions about smacking and physical correction, the misinformation is utterly baffling. I’ve seen the argument that all mammals use physical correction, so it’s natural. I don’t however remember seeing a mammal hit its offspring some hours after the original event took place.

Please, this is not judgemental in any way. I’m truly, deeply interested in how to make this work, because it’s obvious that a minority of us don’t understand. You the majority owe me nothing, but I’d love to chat about your intentions so I can learn.

P.S. I remain a bit offended at Larry Baldock cheering like a madman at the result, after he was quoted as saying “I’m not opposed to the wooden spoon or ruler because you can control things with that better than you can with an open hand.” However I do understand he is on the fringe and not representative of many people who voted “No”.

Dad passed away on Wednesday, and we’re expecting baby 2.0 this Wednesday. Both a blessing and a curse all in the space of a week.

Wallace Gracewood

My engineer brain can’t help but observe the feelings I’m having with deep interest. I often marvel at the cognitive dissonance when you imagine diving into the sea on an acid-cold Winter day. Yet that same grey, icy sea is so welcoming in February.

Perhaps the only way to truly appreciate life is to witness death first hand? Or the best way to understand the warmth and love of family is to have a member torn away from you too soon?

Hard and Soft. Yin and Yang.

Death and Life.

Spring is a wonderful metaphor for what we’ve been going through these last couple of weeks. Our gorgeous new baby girl arrived one week, almost to the hour, after Dad died. The timing, while far too early for Wallace, was logistically perfect. Dad always had lists and calendars. Bookings and management – everything organised to a tee. He was the same in his death: the drinks trolley rolled past his hospice room at 5pm. We had time to charge our glasses, and then he slipped away gently at 6:15pm. Yes, the drinks trolley. St Joseph’s Mercy Hospice is a wondrous place. Part hotel, part hospital, and completely caring.

So with the arrival of Amelie, it will truly be springtime in the Fleming-Gracewood household. The end of an unusually cold winter. The closing of one chapter and the opening of another. Spring also marks the transition from one extreme to another. Have you ever walked on a beach in winter, looking at the icy grey sea, and imagined diving in? Isn’t it weird that that same sea is so incredibly inviting on a hot summer day?

Those summer days are made all the more wonderful because we remember the frosty winter mornings.

Without cold, we wouldn’t know what warmth is.

Without death, we wouldn’t know what life is.

Opposites. I’ve been thinking about them a lot over the last few days!

In the same way, when I think back about my time with Dad, it has been punctuated by opposites. Let me take you through a few.

Love (always) and pointless teenage hate. My late teenage years were spent living in a 100 year old villa in Mt Eden. That house seemed to be under constant renovation. I vividly remember the demands to scrape paint off 3 weatherboards (proper 12″ 1910 weatherboards, not tiny modern ones), before I was allowed to go out with my friends. While I understand the motives, and the result was incredible, I still feel the impotent teenage rage.

Sober and oh so very, very drunk. Both of us, at various stages. Me becoming a taxi driver for Mum and Dad when I was old enough, and soon after that (I’m sure I must have been over legal age), me returning home after a big night, totally convinced that I could act sober if I just concentrated on one task at a time. Walk in, place a steadying hand on a wall, then say “Hi Dad!”.

Creation and demolition. I’ve truly lost count of the fences, retaining walls, house renovations, and sundry construction projects that Dad got us involved in. I do however remember the corner post of the front retaining wall at Mt Eden. Dad left me and Greg to put the final post in – a huge show of trust from such a perfectionist. We took the responsibility with the requisite solemn concentration. We checked and triple-checked the levels, and stood back proudly to admire the concreted post, standing straight and true. The next morning, in the cold light, Dad kindly pointed out the very obvious twist that the post had. Perfectly vertical, but twisted out of alignment with the rest of the wall.

Life and near-death. There was a time that Dad fancied himself a bit of a sailor. He purchased a small, cheap catamaran to sail in the estuary at Pauanui. He went out a few times successfully, then took me and my friend, both aged about 9 or 10, for a sail. The wind dropped completely as we floated out into the middle of the tidal estuary. In surprisingly short order, we were swept downstream, out through the notorious Pauanui bar, and spat broadside into the 10′ surf on the main beach. Thankfully, some deft rudder work eventually had us surfing in on a giant wave, barely avoiding a huge pitch-pole dive in the process. I remember having to use one hand to open the other’s grip on the rope I was using as a lifeline. 5 minutes later, I had my first ever brandy-laced hot tea – Mum’s attempt to stop my shaking.

Ups and downs, but the trend is obvious. Life goes on.

• Reviewing the new Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 kit.
• Reviewing the Arduino starter kit from Mindkits.co.nz
• Giving away an LG HFB-500 Bluetooth hands-free kit
• Noisy and fast gadgets for Fathers’ day.
• A new daughter.
• …and more.

On the personal front, I’m speaking at the PRiNZ Northern networking event tonight, and attending Vodafone’s mid-winter christmas dinner on Friday. It’s a hard life!

Also, a quick plug for my wonderful employers, who are trucking along having yet another incredible year.

Among my favourites are one point regarding comment moderation:

Having a journalist approve or moderate every comment before publication is too expensive and blocks the flow of debate. It is the reason the NZHerald blogs have so few comments despite being very heavily read. Commenters want instant gratification from instant publication and the joy of being part of an active debate.

And another regarding the individual focus of your site:

If we don’t have it first, we simply link to the website that has it. If we can’t find a fresh angle or a way to explain it better to our audience, then we simply don’t cover it or we link to someone else. We know we’re not the only website people look at. Being best for us means being first, fast, accurate, useful and incisive. If we aren’t at least one or two of those things, we don’t waste our time (and our readers’ time) doing the story.

On the first point: I don’t moderate comments. I do have an automated spam system. If you ever have any issues with comments not appearing instantly, please let me know, because it usually means something is broken.

On the second point, I could not agree more. When I started blogging for real back in the old days, I felt like I needed to keep up with every possible development in the world of tech. Now I’m much more sanguine. I know that sites like CrunchGear and Engadget have more resources than I could possible marshall. But what they don’t have is me. If you want a constant stream of all the latest tech and gadget news, make sure you subscribe to those sites.

If you like my style, and want a local, personal touch, make sure you subscribe to mine.

If I’ve learnt one thing today it is this: PR is a quirky business.

Today, for reasons yet unknown, Vodafone NZ has completely removed the HTC Magic from sale in New Zealand. They’ve removed all mention of it from their website, and removed existing stock from store shelves.

Perhaps this is related: yesterday I took a few images down from this blog at the request of Vodafone PR. This image was one of them:

Why did I take them down? Here’s where I put my balls on the line and apologise to my readers. I took them down because Vodafone PR offered a quid-pro-quo, that I quite incorrectly accepted. I apologise wholeheartedly to my readers. It’s not good enough. It won’t happen again. If there is a next time, I will thoroughly question PR motives before complying.

There was no restriction on photography at the event. I wasn’t the only one taking photos. So to the best of my knowledge I have every right to publish the photos.

Added: At the time and soon after the party, a couple of people commented on the usage of Google trademark and that it seemed a bit dodgey.

Couple more images after the jump:

In New Zealand, during July, you will be asked to vote in a referendum on the following question:

Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?

I’m not going to into the maddening semantics of this question, but I am going to ask you to think very hard about your response before you vote. It’s very easy to look at that question and come to a conclusion quickly. It’s very easy to get worked up about the premise and become irritated at the thought of the government intruding on your perceived human rights.

It’s also very easy to get frustrated, annoyed, and irritated at your child and then hit them. Is that “good parental correction”? In my opinion it is not.

There should be no “reasonable force” defence for assault against a child. Please Vote Yes.

If it helps, before you vote, ask yourself some of these questions:

• As a 30 year old, would you expect your father to hit you if he doesn’t like your opinions?
• Would you permit another child to hit your child if he didn’t like the game he was playing?
• Would you push your child over – repeatedly – if he refused to play rugby?

If you want to leave a comment, please be respectful. Vigorous debate is part of a democracy. For the record: I am a father of a happy, intelligent, and polite 5 year old.  I expect him to say please and thank you (and he does), I expect him to respect appropriate authority and question inappropriate authority (and boy does he ever).

I have never smacked him.