Reefton Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 13 hours ago, curious said: Exactly. And they are now looking at orienting advantaged assistance to viable businesses that might reasonably be expected to ba able to pay back the $s. Rightly so IMO. Only thing worries me with that is the industry (which has already grown) of 'experts' to want to help you revive your business and grow your business to renewed viability. Jacinda and co need to watch very very carefully who is getting themselves some government funding to set up as business coaches/saviours. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curious Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 1 hour ago, Reefton said: And dear oh dear they have dished money out without one tiny bit of assessment of whether the recipients actually need it. Even a piddly Accounting firm like mine has plenty of millionaires with their snouts in the trough(and with my full encouragement I might add). And they include the $10k loan thing in the Tax Amendment Act last Friday by mistake??????. Some of these pricks need a job running RITA/NZRB. Plus the extra $25 a week for beneficiaries(I emphasize I do not want to beneficiary bash here but how much of that will be going on smokes and the pokies(or online gambling during the lockdown)). WE CANT BLOODY AFFORD IT!!!!!!!! I agree Reefton but I've taken the extra 25 a week for warming (it's half a bottle of Scotch that Winnie won't get), Also, the wage subsidy and the interest free 10k is on the way. Not sure what I'll do with that yet. Maybe buy a racehorse, though I've got to pay it back so that may not be such a good idea. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefton Posted May 4, 2020 Share Posted May 4, 2020 (edited) 4 hours ago, curious said: I agree Reefton but I've taken the extra 25 a week for warming (it's half a bottle of Scotch that Winnie won't get), Also, the wage subsidy and the interest free 10k is on the way. Not sure what I'll do with that yet. Maybe buy a racehorse, though I've got to pay it back so that may not be such a good idea. I wasn't getting at the superannuitants Curious but pleased to hear the money is being well spent! Besides which your winter warming allowance has doubled in this Covid crisis as well. Santa Claus Adhern is looking after you extra well! Edited May 4, 2020 by Reefton 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Stipe Posted May 4, 2020 Author Share Posted May 4, 2020 On 3/05/2020 at 4:13 PM, JJ Flash said: On 3/05/2020 at 11:14 AM, Chief Stipe said: "RITA inherited a structure which frankly has been living beyond its means for a number of years," wrote Peters Thats been my base case for months and is being addressed, but unlikely to satisfy all participants Nearly 11 months in and RITA has so far done ZERO to address the issue. If it was so apparent to the Minister and presumably his handpicked RITA crew - why is it taking so long? Peter's talks with forked tongue anyway. What "number of years" is he referring to? Surely not the period 2005 to 2008 when he was Minister for Racing - remember the $10m+ he dished out for $1m Iconic races? Wasn't that an example of "living beyond our means"? 2017 to 2020 - um what has he done? Created a new agency which is nothing more than the old NZRB in drag. Which according to you doesn't have to report to the Minister or Industry in the same fashion as previously. Still waiting for that half-yearly report. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Stipe Posted May 4, 2020 Author Share Posted May 4, 2020 On 3/05/2020 at 4:13 PM, JJ Flash said: Correct. Do you like the bit about reduced costs Can you read an annual report? The costs they are talking about reducing are peanuts in the overall scheme of things. Does radio trackside really cost that much to broadcast? They are simulcasting the TV audio so they haven't saved any broadcast costs other than staff.... Well they haven't really done that even - one would think that Radio Trackside staff were on the payroll and the Covid-19 staff has been claimed for them so they are still paying 80% of their salaries anyway! Smoke and mirrors! What about the BS that they are saving costs by racing only at courses that have "optic fibre" installed? That's none other than a red herring to justify the hidden agenda of closing down clubs that are not part of the master plan. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freda Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 20 hours ago, Chief Stipe said: Can you read an annual report? The costs they are talking about reducing are peanuts in the overall scheme of things. Does radio trackside really cost that much to broadcast? They are simulcasting the TV audio so they haven't saved any broadcast costs other than staff.... Well they haven't really done that even - one would think that Radio Trackside staff were on the payroll and the Covid-19 staff has been claimed for them so they are still paying 80% of their salaries anyway! Smoke and mirrors! What about the BS that they are saving costs by racing only at courses that have "optic fibre" installed? That's none other than a red herring to justify the hidden agenda of closing down clubs that are not part of the master plan. I tried to read that discourse between you and Bill about fibre, satellite, etc..but lost comprehension fairly quickly. Can you explain briefly and simply just why the 'fibre' option is a red herring? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freda Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 20 hours ago, Chief Stipe said: Nearly 11 months in and RITA has so far done ZERO to address the issue. If it was so apparent to the Minister and presumably his handpicked RITA crew - why is it taking so long? Peter's talks with forked tongue anyway. What "number of years" is he referring to? Surely not the period 2005 to 2008 when he was Minister for Racing - remember the $10m+ he dished out for $1m Iconic races? Wasn't that an example of "living beyond our means"? 2017 to 2020 - um what has he done? Created a new agency which is nothing more than the old NZRB in drag. Which according to you doesn't have to report to the Minister or Industry in the same fashion as previously. Still waiting for that half-yearly report. A little bird told me that a large number of positions are to be lost at Rita/NZRB. If that is correct, that's great news, and an indication that things might be trending in the right direction. But, not confirmed, and even if so, just a drop in the bucket to what is needed overall. But - it shouldn't have taken a pandemic, a horrid balance sheet, and agitation [ at last ] from sector groups. I understand Reefton's comment elsewhere about not 'biting the hand that feeds you' in a reference to the continued silence/stonewalling from both Rita and Saundry....but that shouldn't have precluded succinct information. Their collective performance to date IMO has been disgraceful. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Stipe Posted May 6, 2020 Author Share Posted May 6, 2020 On 6/05/2020 at 6:39 AM, Freda said: I tried to read that discourse between you and Bill about fibre, satellite, etc..but lost comprehension fairly quickly. Can you explain briefly and simply just why the 'fibre' option is a red herring? The availability of a permanent fixed high speed fibre connection is a "Red Herring" for a number of reasons. Ask yourself - "Why wasn't it necessary before Covid-19 to broadcast from those racecourses that didn't have it?" The answer is they used other types of connectivity back to the central studio like, but not limited to, satellite. There are other options that are available e.g. temporary circuits, 4G WiFi. The argument now against Satellite use is it is "too expensive." Now that is another "Red Herring." Why has it suddenly become too expensive? How do they do it in Australia? Is Alice Springs on a permanent fixed high speed fibre connection? Echuca? Fanny Bay? There are cheaper options that don't need to be a permanent solution e.g. 4G WiFi or even a permanent fibre connection on each course that is only enlivened for each race day. A permanent fibre connection isn't that expensive to install. On race day just just connect your moveable network and broadcast equipment to it and pay for the data you use. At the end of the day though the data volume RITA would use is all paid through the one account and they would have (should have) negotiated favourable terms. So where is this Bullshit coming from. As you know I don't normally swear on BOAY but this sort of crap annoys me! My guess is that strategically RITA has bought into a high cost broadcast model. It probably aligns with their long term goal of centralisation - well they think it does. The high cost model involves permanent infrastructure and huge data pipes. This isn't where the rest of the innovative world is heading. Who is driving this? The Broadcast and IT geeks aided and abetted by the Telco. The Broadcast geeks - they want multi-streams of high definition uncompressed broadcast feeds back to a central studio. This allows them to be "creative" and demonstrate their amazing skills. Like multiple views of a race, zooming in on a the tongue tie so we can see if it is a rubber band, pantyhose or a piece of string, zooming in on the fashion in the field contestants so we can see if they are wearing bra's and what brand they are or sticky tape. Now what the Broadcast geeks forget is what business they are in. They are in the business of providing at most 3 minutes of racing action so those that pay i.e. the punter and owners can see if their chosen horse gets across the line first. Most of whom don't have a 4k HD TV let alone thinking about getting a 8k one! Has anyone asked what happens to the squillions of bytes of data (video) that they capture across those high speed fibre connections? It probably gets stored in a data centre and is never seen by anyone on TV. I'm sorry but I don't want to see a 4k High Definition view of Bevan Sweeney! The IT geeks - well they like permanent infrastructure. Especially new stuff. The more lights the better. They take their bosses and other stakeholders on tours and show them the big flashy cabinets with all the lights pulsating. "They must be important." Where it gets complicated with corporates is when they outsource a lot of their IT to big corporates like Spark and Datacom who don't really understand racings core business. The Vendors have an incentive to put in permanent infrastructure and big pipes - they make more money. Plus it is easier to support because the can sub-contract onsite installation and repairs to to other organisations and they can monitor things centrally with young people who are paid stuff all to watch for alarms. Now this suits the in-house IT folk because they have shifted the blame if something goes wrong to a Service Level Agreement. I could go on and on. I'm old-school IT.....well actually I'm not old-school I just have some good solid IT management principles and a forever alert technical Bullshit antenna. My base principle as an IT Manager is I'm there to serve and enable the business. To do that I have to understand the business and to put it simply - where does the revenue come from and how to I using IT enable more of it and at less cost. As an apology to the Broadcast, IT and the Vendor minions it isn't necessarily their fault that things get stuffed up. It all comes back to their management. THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT BUSINESS THEY ARE IN! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huey Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 5 hours ago, Chief Stipe said: The availability of a permanent fixed high speed fibre connection is a "Red Herring" for a number of reasons. Ask yourself - "Why wasn't it necessary before Covid-19 to broadcast from those racecourses that didn't have it?" The answer is they used other types of connectivity back to the central studio like, but not limited to, satellite. There are other options that are available e.g. temporary circuits, 4G WiFi. The argument now against Satellite use is it is "too expensive." Now that is another "Red Herring." Why has it suddenly become too expensive? How do they do it in Australia? Is Alice Springs on a permanent fixed high speed fibre connection? Echuca? Fanny Bay? There are cheaper options that don't need to be a permanent solution e.g. 4G WiFi or even a permanent fibre connection on each course that is only enlivened for each race day. A permanent fibre connection isn't that expensive to install. On race day just just connect your moveable network and broadcast equipment to it and pay for the data you use. At the end of the day though the data volume RITA would use is all paid through the one account and they would have (should have) negotiated favourable terms. So where is this Bullshit coming from. As you know I don't normally swear on BOAY but this sort of crap annoys me! My guess is that strategically RITA has bought into a high cost broadcast model. It probably aligns with their long term goal of centralisation - well they think it does. The high cost model involves permanent infrastructure and huge data pipes. This isn't where the rest of the innovative world is heading. Who is driving this? The Broadcast and IT geeks aided and abetted by the Telco. The Broadcast geeks - they want multi-streams of high definition uncompressed broadcast feeds back to a central studio. This allows them to be "creative" and demonstrate their amazing skills. Like multiple views of a race, zooming in on a the tongue tie so we can see if it is a rubber band, pantyhose or a piece of string, zooming in on the fashion in the field contestants so we can see if they are wearing bra's and what brand they are or sticky tape. Now what the Broadcast geeks forget is what business they are in. They are in the business of providing at most 3 minutes of racing action so those that pay i.e. the punter and owners can see if their chosen horse gets across the line first. Most of whom don't have a 4k HD TV let alone thinking about getting a 8k one! Has anyone asked what happens to the squillions of bytes of data (video) that they capture across those high speed fibre connections? It probably gets stored in a data centre and is never seen by anyone on TV. I'm sorry but I don't want to see a 4k High Definition view of Bevan Sweeney! The IT geeks - well they like permanent infrastructure. Especially new stuff. The more lights the better. They take their bosses and other stakeholders on tours and show them the big flashy cabinets with all the lights pulsating. "They must be important." Where it gets complicated with corporates is when they outsource a lot of their IT to big corporates like Spark and Datacom who don't really understand racings core business. The Vendors have an incentive to put in permanent infrastructure and big pipes - they make more money. Plus it is easier to support because the can sub-contract onsite installation and repairs to to other organisations and they can monitor things centrally with young people who are paid stuff all to watch for alarms. Now this suits the in-house IT folk because they have shifted the blame if something goes wrong to a Service Level Agreement. I could go on and on. I'm old-school IT.....well actually I'm not old-school I just have some good solid IT management principles and a forever alert technical Bullshit antenna. My base principle as an IT Manager is I'm there to serve and enable the business. To do that I have to understand the business and to put it simply - where does the revenue come from and how to I using IT enable more of it and at less cost. As an apology to the Broadcast, IT and the Vendor minions it isn't necessarily their fault that things get stuffed up. It all comes back to their management. THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT BUSINESS THEY ARE IN! So sounds like (well a lot of initiatives in NZ racing do) this is another means of culling courses, the most overrated strategic objective in NZracing! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Stipe Posted May 7, 2020 Author Share Posted May 7, 2020 45 minutes ago, Huey said: So sounds like (well a lot of initiatives in NZ racing do) this is another means of culling courses, the most overrated strategic objective in NZracing! All for the wrong reasons!!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eljay Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 How many people in here had their first racing experiencing by being on course. Remove the courses, remove the future fans/punters. Sensible isn't it!!! 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Stipe Posted May 9, 2020 Author Share Posted May 9, 2020 22 hours ago, eljay said: How many people in here had their first racing experiencing by being on course. Remove the courses, remove the future fans/punters. Sensible isn't it!!! The first time I've met a horse and smelt horse pooh. What about this photo from Ruakaka's January 5 meeting 2019. The Kids Open Handicap Sprint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huey Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 On 9/05/2020 at 2:18 PM, Chief Stipe said: The first time I've met a horse and smelt horse pooh. What about this photo from Ruakaka's January 5 meeting 2019. The Kids Open Handicap Sprint. Brilliant to see and happens across almost every country track over that period, but the dummies want to stop this. I can't figure it out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.