Appropriate Acronym

Out of habit and a certain tendency toward masochism, I always search the local news websites for 'leaky'; and this morning that resulted in an advertising link to a website that would explain the implications of the FAP.
What?

No, really.
I followed it and discovered that this is the chosen acronym for the Financial Assistance Package which is the latest Government scheme to make leaky home owners morally and financially responsible for the state of their homes. Basically : New Zealand suffers from a huge leaky home problem because the Government undermined the safety checks in the building industry and the local Councils who earn a great deal of money from the inspection processes legally required in the construction of a house failed hopelessly in those processes; so now the Government plans to pay 50% of the amount it will cost to fix the problem, the Councils will pay a further 25% and it is for the homeowner to find the rest. Oh, and you get the money AFTER the house has been fixed, so you can imagine the builders lining up for that bargain; that's if you can convince the bank to lend you 25% of the total cost of fixing a leaky home with that loan  being predicated on - wait, let me think - oh yes, a LEAKY HOME. Good luck with that one.
So all in all, given the colloquial meaning of FAP, perhaps it is an apt acronym after all.

It's 11.11 on 11.11.11!

Well, it is in New Zealand, and so, it just has to be done!

A small oversight

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/newzealand/8031618/New-Zealand-scraps-ridiculous-road-rule.html
New Zealand drivers drive on the left, in much the same way as the UK and Australia. New Zealand does however have a unique road rule which states that the vehicle turning right has the right of way. Think about that one.It leads to a number of surreal situations, such as the one I always face when going from my home to the local shopping centre :

I'm in the blue car, wanting to turn left. The oncoming white car wants to turn right and he has the right of way; but obviously can't turn right if there's a car behind me that is going straight; so this means I  have to check my rear-view mirror before turning left; and you can imagine the potential for disaster here.

The rule apparently dates from 1977 and is based on a rule introduced in Victoria (Australia) which helped cope with trams, of which there are a severe lack in New Zealand (except one in Christchurch), so go figure.

So as you would expect, this change is going to have to be preceded by a massive information campaign with very clear cut-off points. And what date is New Zealand going to be carrying out this change?

April 1st, 2012. Yep, that's right. An entire Government department failed to spot that introducing a major change of this nature on this date might just Not End Well, and it was left to the Transport Ministers' private secretary Monique Waayer, to ask the question, "Are we confident that April Fool's day is the right date?".

Massive facepalm!

Is it just me...

or are the hackers getting lazier? I mean, really. I only occupy them for twenty minutes or so on the phone explaining that I have no computer literacy whatever and let them talk me through all the stuff they need me to do in order for them to mine useful stuff off my computer before going "But does this work on a Mac?" or "which IP address is the infected one; we have 17 computers in the house - what do you mean you don't know which IP address it is, how the hell are you monitoring it if you don't have an IP address?"; which I think is enough fun on both sides.
Now they're sending me emails inviting me to log on to obscure sites for support; because that's easier than having to figure out how to hack in when you have an obstinate, obtuse and obfuscating user on the phone. Please, it really does match up with the joke about the lazy Irish hacker who emails you asking you to delete all your own files and send them your credit card information because they can't be bothered.