HN user
These days people may not often dress in suits or even business casual but I would think that you would want to make a good impression when you first meet someone, I've always been taught it's better to be over dressed than under dressed, and as tptacek said if a company rejects you because you choose to err on the side of caution then you've probably dodged a bullet.
This is most certainly not normal or accepted in NZ, and in case you missed it, the courts have ruled it was not legal, have asked the US to back up claims, and have not extradited Dotcom.
Yes. As others have mentioned BizSpark is a fantastic resource. As a developer mostly using the .NET and MS ecosystem it’s enabled me to build using tools and technologies I am familiar with. I use Amazon EC2 to host the applications as Azure seems a bit more expensive. If you are experienced in the .NET space definitely look at Bizspark, even the exit fee isn’t much when you factor in all the tools you get to use for YEARS.