Expert advice

During February The Wireless has been looking at stories that relate to the the theme of ‘Knowledge’. As the month comes to a close, we ask a variety of New Zealanders to share their expert advice and insight.

HOLDING ON TO YOUR MONEY

How many different passwords do you use for your email, internet banking, to sign in to other websites? Doctor Peter Gutmann says they’re probably not enough.

The “professionally paranoid” computer security researcher says the biggest mistake people make is falling for phishing scams. Scammers use a fake website that looks and acts exactly like an existing bank’s website to trick people into giving over their password and access to all their account details.

That might not seem like a big deal if you’re stretching your overdraft four days before payday, but think about all you can do on internet banking: extend a credit limit, sign up to a mortgage, give someone else access to your accounts. “Traditionally, to do all these things, you had to go into a branch, talk to a teller, present your driver’s licence,” says Dr Gutmann. He says it’s the same with ATMs, which are (mostly) very secure boxes: “They’ve taken the security of a bank branch and an ATM, and moved it onto your PC, because it’s cheaper and more convenient, and your PC is not an ATM.”

There’s no reason some random shopping site in the US needs to know your date of birth or your passport and your driver’s licence.

Dr Gutmann says phishing sites make New Zealand banks’ efforts to increase security irrelevant, in part because they’re so much more sophisticated and convincing than emails from a prince in Nigeria. Now, the emails come from the email address of a friend, saying they are stranded at an airport overseas, and asking for emergency money. “That’s a relatively common scam. Initially, the bad guys would send you email from some random guy in Kenya. Now they make sure that it comes from a close acquaintance of yours.”

Dr Gutmann says it is hard to give a one-size-fits-all solution to increasing security, but there are some simple things that people can do. “If you are going onto your bank site, bookmark your bank site, and never click on a link in an email [for your bank].” He says to lie if you are asked for your date of birth while signing up to a website. “There’s no reason some random shopping site in the US needs to know your date of birth or your passport and your driver’s licence.” Part of the problem is that most people are conditioned to tell the truth. “But if there’s no reason to tell a website those details, don’t tell them. Because eventually it’s going to be used against you.”

Dr Gutmann suggests using different passwords for your online profiles, at least those that matter. “If you have a thousand sites you go to and most of them are knitting patterns and recipes, OK, use the same password, it doesn’t matter.” But for banking and email, use different passwords. “Email is actually really important, because if I can get into your email, I can do a password reset on your bank account. And a lot of people don’t realise that, that access to your email gives access to almost every other account via password resets.”

It’s also worth thinking about what your password is, and how you form it. Dr Gutmann points out that people have hacked people’s Facebook accounts by guessing their password based on the information in their profile. “You’re on Facebook and you’re a golfer, you check the names of famous golfers; if you’re in the military, use military acronyms, topdog, and stuff like that.”

LOOKING FOR LOVE

Dating can prompt self-doubt and endless questions, but Sasha Madarasz, a dating expert in Auckland, is qualified to answer them. Sasha has been running her dating agency, Two’s Company, for ten years. While she deals with clients who pay to meet people and have the means to do so, she says the rules are much the same for everyone.

Madarasz says because New Zealanders weren’t brought up in a dating culture, many people take it more seriously than they need to.

“One of my big rules is always have a second date with someone, unless they are a complete and utter knob and you hated every second of it,” she says.

“We have this checklist of things a person has to tick off before going on as date with them. My advice is just have fun. Open up that door.”

Madarasz says it takes time to get to know someone, and it is takes time to become relaxed around them. “If you look at all your relationships, 99 per cent of them you have known that person over time. You have to get to know someone; it’s about how they treat you, other people, themselves, the waiting staff, how they form their thoughts and opinions if they are intelligent, and what their friends think of them.”

DRINKING AND LIVING TO REMEMBER 

Doctor Paul Quigley, an emergency medicine specialist at the Wellington Regional Hospital, has to deal with the aftermath of New Zealand's binge drinking culture, which he’s worried will lead to widespread dementia because of the link between alcohol consumption and memory loss.

“The more binge drinking people do when they are younger, the stupider they become. We are seeing patients concerned they don’t remember things and one thing we now know is drinking too much, too quickly causes that. It’s about how fast your alcohol level rises.”

Dr Quigley says there are blackouts, where you are unconscious and can’t remember anything, then there are greyouts, where you appear to be conscious but the record button is not working in your brain.

During a greyout you can be talking to people and dancing, but because your alcohol level rises so rapidly, you can’t remember what happened the next day, Dr Quigley says. “The more of them you have, studies show that literally the more stupider you will become as the ongoing brain development will become poorer.”

Dr Quigley says if you’re binge-drinking in your teens, it’s rare to grow out of it and it’s likely you’ll carry it on into your 30s.“The earlier you get control, the better the long term is. If you let it go on too long it’s hard to pull back.”

If you drink at a steady rate you don’t tend to get the memory loss. “You can still drink at an appropriate rate and have a really good time and a great day the next day. It’s just that concept of this drinking so much, too fast.”

STAYING SAFE

Cornelia Baumgartner is the New Zealand Programme Director of Kidpower Teenpower Fullpower Trust, which runs self-defence and empowerment workshops. They cover how to handle yourself and react to a variety of situations, from avoiding being groped at a party to being grabbed from behind when you’re alone in the streets.

It all starts with keeping your cool, being confident and setting boundaries, but in the worst-case scenario, she has some moves anyone can use.

“You all have power; you just have to focus it, to use it to run away, or if you have to, fight or even hide,” she says.

Staying aware and acting confident makes you less likely to be targeted on the street.

“If someone tries to provoke you, acknowledge their presence, like ‘Yes, it’s a nice day’, and then carry on. Don’t get into a conversation with them.

“If someone cuts you off and gets into your space, like the path you are walking, then you need to set a boundary and trust your feelings.

“Early on I will say ‘Stop right there!’ Then if they don’t, I will say, ‘Turn around and go away’. Take charge. Hold your arms up in a stop action. Make sure they turn around and walk away before you run away.”

If they keep coming at you, then you need to either ball your hands into a fist or bring your fingers together “like little daggers”, hit them in the eyes, then make a run for it, she says.

Baumgartner also teaches a pretty good party trick. “If someone is touching you and won’t leave you alone after you have told them to stop and set the boundaries, and you don’t want to gouge their eyes out or hit them in the groin and have the whole party jumping in on it, then you pinch them on the inside of their arms, and tell them to stop what they are doing.”

CREATING A COMMUNITY

Ash Holwell is empowered by the idea that all rules are optional. “Nothing is set in stone. By abiding by the rules we endorse them. Every rule is breaking another rule.”

He lives and runs a community space in Whangarei called Wood, which is inspired by his time squatting in the Netherlands in 2009. He opened the space a year ago and hopes what he’s doing in Whangarei will inspire others to bend the rules and use spaces in different ways.

My dad had an empty building which no one wanted to rent over the four years I was away. I couldn’t not use it, or my squatting and idealism wouldn’t mean anything, so I moved in.

“My dad had an empty building which no one wanted to rent over the four years I was away. I couldn’t not use it, or my squatting and idealism wouldn’t mean anything, so I moved in. I started up a community bike workshop; a community circus moved in; a whole-foods co-op moved in; we have a full cinema; people use it for theatre rehearsals; there’s a woodwork workshop, an office space; we have held other workshops there, and hosted a few Christmas parties. We also have a coffee roaster in here.”

His next step is create an indoor urban village.

Holwell reckons about 20 per cent of the offices and buildings in Whanagrei’s CBD are empty. “The old model of it being full of commercial ventures is not happening, but there’s social enterprise and other ways of going about things. There’s a sense that landlords won’t budge on rent. They are expecting big prices and if they put it down everyone else will have to, and it will have all these bad effects.”

He aims to have enough enterprises using the space so that within a year they’ll be paying full rent. “For the use of the space over the last two years for free, to end up being in a paying situation is a whole lot better than it sitting empty for another four years, waiting for the economy to change and pick up - it’s a dormant situation for landlords to be in.

“For this to work for other people and businesses, for people wanting to rent out their spaces in this way, I think trusting people is a big thing, having relationships and knowing that you are not necessarily giving something away, you are sharing something, making it an asset we can all use.”

FAME IN MUSIC

Liam Finn says one thing he’s learnt about the music industry is that, whether it manifests itself as arrogance or shyness, everyone is insecure. “As much as Kanye’s deluded, he’s probably deeply insecure. That’s the thing: humans are insecure. These people get idolised as being the voices of this or that, and it’s valid for a lot of the time. But what I find is that when people aren’t friendly to you and you feel like an outsider, it’s only because they’re insecure and you’re insecure. 

Finn comes from a famous musical family and found success early with Betchadupa, which formed when he was still at school. He says he’s lost his “sheen of youthful fearlessness”, though it was the best thing about being young.

However, finding success early has its downside. “It’s not good getting successful young because you don’t have that opposite side to judge it by so therefore you may not appreciate it as much as you should. And you may really fuck out when you fuck out because you think ‘Why is it not the same?’. But there is something really amazing about being seventeen and going “this is what I fucking think”.

SUCCESS IN SPORT

Don’t believe the hype. All Black Conrad Smith says that’s something that most rugby players learn eventually. 

“Each game comes down to a few small things, especially the higher the level that you play. Couple of things go right and suddenly you’re an All Black; couple of things go wrong and you shouldn’t be playing first class rugby. There’s a very fine line, but you shouldn’t buy into it. You’re not suddenly a rubbish player just because a couple things went wrong. I think if you keep believing and trusting in that and yourself, you’ll gradually play better rugby and have more times when things go well. That’s how you make a rugby career.”

I found myself going from not playing any first class rugby because they said I was too skinny to being an All Black. I was level headed enough to know that I wasn’t an amazing rugby player all of a sudden I’d just worked hard and done the little things well.

Smith has 75 caps with the men in black, his first against Italy in 2004. But his success wasn’t always guaranteed.

“I found myself going from not playing any first-class rugby because they said I was too skinny to be an All Black. I was level-headed enough to know that I wasn’t an amazing rugby player all of a sudden, I’d just worked hard and done the little things well. In 2007, things didn’t go my way when I got injuries for the first time, I was trying to do too much. I remember looking at a lot of other centres and even centres before me like Tana [Umaga] and thinking about what I would have to do to be like them ... I needed to bust a line more and be really quick.

“But it’s funny, because Tana was the one who always told me to do what I do well and told me that I was a different type of centre. What I do can be just as good for a team as what he does as a centre. That’s always sort of left a mark with me. 

“I got a handle on that the year after, when I could look back and think that I’m not going to be a 100kg guy that busts a line, but I can still create the space that those 100kg guys can’t and see a game in ways that other guys don’t. That was something I learned, something I’ve stuck to, and even something I try and pass onto other guys that are playing now.”

Smith says that even though the game is professional, pulling on the black jersey doesn’t come down to dollar figures for him. “Colin Meads, Ian Kirkpatrick and Brian Lahore are guys I could just talk to for days on end. I love that it wasn’t about money back then, and I still don’t think it is. Especially when you get to the All Blacks, no one is thinking about the money, everyone is thinking about the jersey. I have a lot of respect for them and the way they hold themselves.

“They don’t pretend the game is still the same and that we could be doing what they did. But they know that there are still a few things that are the same from back in their day; commitment, passion, and determination.”

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