I've just finished a week long holiday, and how great it was! I feel so relaxed now, and am ready to go back to work on Monday.

I think I've earned some time off. For the month or so prior to my holiday, I've been working some very long days (for a software developer). I'm talking 9+ hours a day (not including breaks or lunch), 5 and a half days a week. That may not seem like much to you non-programmer types, but imagine spending all those hours working on crossword or logic puzzles. You end up mentally exhausted and physically drained.

Luckily for me, I booked some leave back in October. I'd chosen this week to have off because it contains both my wedding anniversary (Wednesday) and my birthday (today). I figured there was no better time to spend with the wife.

Even though we've not actually gone away for the week, we've certainly been away from home a lot. My wife loves looking at used clothing, so we've spent a large part of the week visiting various thrift stores around Auckland. She's managed to find a few stores that carry designer labels, so we can look very posh at a fracton of the cost. For example, I managed to pick up a practically-new Burberry short-sleeved shirt for only NZ$54. I don't know what it would have originally cost, but it was probably several times what I paid for it.

We also went to Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World on Friday. I hadn't been for years (early 90s) and my wife had never been, so we decided to head along. I'm still of two minds as to whether it was worth the money. It was great to see all the fish and the penguins, but NZ$30 per adult is a bit steep when you can take your time and still be through there in no more than 2 hours.

The only real downside of the week was that it had to end. On Monday I'll be back to work, although hopefully I've got the worst of the long hours over and done with. Oh well, I've gotta make a living somehow.

For a while I've been having problems accessing certain Microsoft sites using Firefox. Whenever I attempt to get to one of these sites, Firefox would show the following error:

Secure Connection Failed
An error occurred during a connection to connect.microsoft.com.
New CRL has an invalid format.
(Error code: sec_error_crl_invalid)

I logged a Bugzilla ticket for this issue, and with the help of Nelson Bolyard I very quickly managed to fix the problem.

For some reason, I had managed to import a certificate revocation list (CRL) from Microsoft. There's something in that CRL that Firefox was having problems with, so every time you visit a Microsoft site it causes Firefox to go crazy.

To fix the problem:

1. In the Firefox menus select Tools > Options...
2. Go to the Advanced section, and within that go to the Encryption section.
3. Click the Revocation Lists button to bring up the currently-stored CRLs.
4. Delete any CRLs where the Organization and Organization Unit columns are empty.
5. Close the Revocation Lists dialog and click OK on the Options dialog.

This should remove the CRL that's causing the issue, and you can now browse without a problem. If you still have issues, you may need to remove all of the CRLs in the list and see if that helps.

Depending on where you live, you may or may not have heard about the copyright law changes going down in New Zealand at the moment. For those of you that don't know, part of this new law is aimed at file sharers on the internet. This part of the law, Section 92 (or S92 for short) revolves around one simple rule: if you're accused of repeated copyright infringements, you'll lose your internet connection.

Section 92 is causing quite a stir, for several reasons. The first and foremost of these reasons is that you do not have to be convicted of actual copyright infringement for S92 to kick in. No, you only need to be accused of infringing copyright. That's right, accused. In essence, it's taking the whole judicial concept of "innocent until proven guilty" and turning it on its head. What's more, there are no penalties for filing a false statement, so there's nothing to stop false accusations from being made.

Another large part of the problem is that is shifts the burden of copyright enforcement from the copyright holder to the internet provider. In order for this law to be effective, internet providers will need to keep logs of which account was assigned which internet (IP) address, possibly for several years at a time. They need to create systems for querying this data so that they can send an accusation to the correct account-holder. They dedicated staff to process accusation notices and ensure that each one meets the (fairly low) standard required under the law. All this because the various content publishing organisations (read: music and film producers) are too lazy to perform the necessary legwork to send each case through the legal system.

Our own government wasn't even sure that this section of the new Act was needed. Although present in initial drafts of the law, it was removed by a Select Committee because it was deemed unworkable. However, thanks to stupid and gullible politicians, the section was re-added.

So what does this mean for New Zealand? Anybody with an unsecured wireless router could get permanent disconnection from the internet for something they haven't done. Schools, libraries and companies could get kicked off the internet because of fraudulent accusations. Do our musicians and filmmakers benefit? Hardly likely, seeing as how the production and distribution companies receive the lion's share of any profits made from CD/DVD sales. No, all we're seeing is ordinary people being punished because a group of companies have failed to embrace the internet.

There's only one small piece of silver lining around this dark cloud. Although the new Copyright Act came into force as of February 28, our new prime minister has postponed the start of S92 until near the end of March. During this time, the internet providers and content producers are supposed to talk and come up with some sort of "code of compliance" that can be used to make this law work. If nothing can be worked out, S92 may be removed from the law entirely.

Let's all hope that no agreement can be made, or else we're in for some very interesting times in the years ahead.

A couple of nights ago I decided to buy Flower on PSN. For those of you who have never heard of it, Flower is a... well, rather different type of game, actually. Its designers have described it as somewhat of a visual poem.

In each of the game's levels, you are a gust of wind that has to go around and blow past the various flowers scattered in a desolate grassland. As you blow past a flower, it will open up and you will catch one of its petals. If you open certain groups of flowers, you will bring to life a section of the level and the grass will liven up, truning from brown to green (or in one level, one of several colours). The controls are dead simple too - you use the SixAxis motion sensor to turn around, and any of the buttons to move forward.

Aside from looking very pretty, it's also very relaxing. The flowers play a note when you open them, and opening a row of flowers will play a nice little melody. There's no real urgency to anything, and if you want you can just fly around and look at the scenery.

I really was of two minds about buying this game, as the reviews I'd read of it were really quite vague. The game has no demo either, and I'm always quite sceptical about buying a game without being able to play it first. But now I have it, it was defintely worth the small amount of money (NZ $15.50).

If you've looked at the game and weren't sure if it was worth getting, I say give it a shot and see what you think. You might be pleasantly surprised.

It's been a long time, but I've finally decided to do something with my web site. I'm afraid it won't be much, just a bunch of random stuff as I decide to write about it.

Thing will change as I get used to the blogging software. For starters, you should see fewer of the 404 pages I've been seeing while I try to set this thing up. Hopefully I'll be able to get the wrinkles ironed out and make this web site work.