As quoted from News Hub

Future generations of Kiwis will be banned from buying cigarettes in New Zealand - those who are 13 years old right now are likely to be our last smokers.

Those aged 14 years and under when the law comes into force - likely 2023 - will never be able to buy smokes.

The number of places allowed to sell tobacco will be slashed from about 8000 to just 500.

Should the Government tell people how to live their lives?

Then what about all the overseas visitors especially the Chinese that smoke like trains will they want to come to a country where you cant get smokes from the local dairy?

As an online seller with our own fully functional e-commerce enabled website it really amuses me to see how much of a hash many of the physical retailers make in their attempts to conduct their businesses online.

Today's experience has been in trying to purchase a Mitre10 E-Gift Card. Enter in all the required fields which include our and the recipient's names and emails, add a covering message (for my nephew who is a first house owner) and input a card value. Add to Cart. But no...

The panel that contains the message was rejected despite it being 93 characters short of the maximum. Following contact with Mitre10 it turns out that their message input field will not accept any punctuation marks whatsoever, only letters. To their credit the person I am dealing with has rewritten the message I had written excluding 2 apostrophes, 2 commas and two full stops. As a result the message now reads like a primary school pupil has composed it.

If they want to make the input criteria that strict, and counterintuitive, why don't they state this on their website, or at least provide a reason for message rejection when this occurs. Their IT department needs a reaming!

As a result my nephew will now be sent a pressie card accompanied by a suitably worded card.

Selfish, selfish animals.
How much longer will we put up with these complete arseholes?
They seem to think they know something we dont but they might be the dumbest subset of idiots humanity has seen.
Anti Vaxxers need to ne locked up. They are a danger to the rest of us. These scumbags would see us all dead to prove their ill thought out uneducated stance. Absolute wankers to a man.
The imbeciles are a drain on the nations resources and patience. 
Im all for having them shipped to Stewart Island.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politic...chair-says

This short read was quite interesting:

https://www.companionlink.com/blog/2020/...indows-10/

Please discuss.

I quite like foreign movies & recently watched the French film, The  man in the hat. Slightly bonkers & almost silent, it was lovely for all that, whimsical, joyful, magical & definitely not run of the mill.
Ciaran Hinds has the lead role in what is one of the most intriguing movies I've seen for ages; but I suspect it won't be to everyone's taste.

It occurs to me how there is a significant difference in behaviours of Mac and PC users/systems.  

Highlighted by the security certificate issues hitting older macs now with some websites not displaying correctly... 

The difference is that a Mac user will quite happily continue to use a system from 2013, stuck on 10.9  "Mavericks" because for whatever reason it wasn't or didn't update... Today they are not offered updates...  and Apple don't seem to to put up any warning notices about end of support...

Not trying to create a mac vs pc debate, just wondering why it is is seemingly acceptable for a Mac user to keep using old OS versions - because they don't know any different? Are they really still that secure?

No one would be seen dead using XP or Vista (possibly even 7) today, especially online...  except for one or two special cases maybe

post your favourite rants

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-c...QUCXXYKRE/

Anyone looking for a good read by a NZ writer could do far worse than this series - aimed at YA, but readable by older readers, its set in a future NZ & the first three books are each told from the point of view of a different but linked character.
Its definitely an absorbing series; I very nearly put oil in the petrol tank on the lawn mower because I was still thinking about the people in the book. I've bought all three for a granddaughter who reads as much as I do & we both enjoyed them. It was originally to be a trilogy but there's an excellent chance there may be more in the pipeline - I hope so.

They'd make a good Xmas gift, too, & can be bought directly from the author, which is how I got them.

https://www.facebook.com/RHvandeWeert/po...7715603301

I don't wear one, but when I absolutely have to....for a see through top in summer....it comes off as soon as I'm home. Or even in the car at the 'getaway' point. I just love to let my girls free to breath. And they love me more for it.

Has anyone ever cancelled a sale because the buyer was such a jackass that you don't want to trade with them?  Without getting into specifics, I have one now who has written to me as though I was his serf.  

He has already paid but I would rather refund him than deal with him in the future when he complains about the small flaw (photographed and mentioned in the listing) which he probably hasn't read or noticed based on his inability to read instructions.  I suppose I could email him and point out the flaw and hope that he cancels the sale but I really would prefer to cancel the trade and suck up the success fee. It is a $10 item.

I am prepared to take a negative feedback and give my explanation in return (impatient, rude, not reading and following instructions). Accurate, not retaliatory.