Jonathan's Liverstone

The first Sacrifice of Spring.

2011-10-15T18:12:00.000+13:00

Apparently it's what separates men from women ...

2011-09-18T15:01:00.003+12:00

... and so it starts.

2011-08-01T12:54:00.003+12:00

Okay, so I'm not exactly going to miss Track-side, but another analogue channel is going off the airwaves.

Browsers for Dummies (=IEx)

2011-07-30T23:24:00.002+12:00

Check out the study
EDIT: Might well have been a hoax that appealed to our geek prejudices. I was worried as to how they got scores in the extremes of the graph, but the story was too appealing, damn it!

Yupe!

2011-07-23T17:08:00.008+12:00

Serendipity while reading about the troubles Galileo had with established faith-based world views ("Galileo's Daughter"; Dava Sobel)

Clever bash code sort

2011-06-29T21:03:00.003+12:00


function f() {
    sleep "$1"
    echo "$1"
}
while [ -n "$1" ]
do
    f "$1" &
    shift
done
wait

Works for small, positive numbers.
Breaks for VERY small, and negative values.
You might need to go & have a cuppa if you use large values.

From dis.4chan.org via Otaku

Chinglish - Buttplate!

2011-06-16T20:19:00.002+12:00

There is so much wrong here, that I am lost for words!
I spotted it on the underside of a new toilet lid in a motel.

Scorching Bay - end of Autumn

2011-06-01T13:06:00.003+12:00

... well it wasn't "scorching", but we tasted the sand.

Spirit's "Last post"

2011-06-01T12:38:00.003+12:00

Spirit has stopped transmissions ... finally.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110530.html

A Quiet Morning

2011-05-14T17:20:00.002+12:00

I took this from the office window around the middle of the day that a tornado was ripping the roof off shopping malls in Auckland.
("... and they call us Windy Wellington!" said a co-worker.)

I won't be able to take any more photos from this site,
as we are shifting to a new building which I am told has even better views.

Taking Liberties!

2011-05-14T16:55:00.008+12:00

I'm not too sure of the legal status of the threats contained in this notice, but I'm damn sure I wouldn't be taking them at face value if a goon approached me on the hill top!
Meanwhile the streets of Miramar are choked with cars as this film swings into full action.
Good luck to 'em and I hope this is as successful as the LOTR films.

Another example of comic security!

2011-05-08T16:13:00.004+12:00

(from Roger's Security Blog)

Don’t bet on the joys of the pokies

2011-04-18T20:21:00.001+12:00

If you've had any doubts about pokie machines, but haven't been sure where to start finding out, then this post would be a good place to start ...Don’t bet on the joys of the pokies. A clear eyed view of the scene in Australia.

Way cool time waster!

2011-03-13T22:12:00.005+13:00

Roll this "Katamari Damacy" around on a web-site.
Just go to a "wordy" site, the post the following URL into a chrome browser ...

javascript:var i,s,ss=['http://kathack.com/js/kh.js','http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.1/jquery.min.js'];for(i=0;i!=ss.length;i++){s=document.createElement('script');s.src=ss[i];document.body.appendChild(s);}void(0);

... right click to move it around.

The land of the free ...

2011-02-26T14:25:00.001+13:00

A disturbing piece by John Pilger contained the following paragraph.

On 16 February, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech at George Washington University in which she condemned governments that arrested protestors and crushed free expression. She lauded the liberating power of the internet while failing to mention that her government was planning to close down those parts of the internet that encouraged dissent and truth-telling. It was a speech of spectacular hypocrisy, and Ray McGovern was in the audience. Outraged, he rose from his chair and silently turned his back on Clinton. He was immediately seized by police and a security goon and beaten to the floor, dragged out and thrown into jail, bleeding. He has sent me photographs of his injuries. He is 71. During the assault, which was clearly visible to Clinton, she did not pause in her remarks.

The search for the perfect loaf ...

2011-01-30T18:47:00.008+13:00

... continues.

Trying to make a homemade Vogel's bread substitute ('cos their recipe *has* changed since being taken over by the big corporate), I got a reasonable recipe going, but it was always a bit strong on the yeast.

When Matt gave me a sourdough bug, it just had to be tried.

After a few "interesting" (but nevertheless reasonable) loaves, this was todays result.

Not too bad!

The phone rang ...

2011-01-29T17:02:00.004+13:00

I've just had a phone call from someone perporting to be from "Virtual IT", telling me that I had a problem with a computer. He told me it was running windoz and that he had some sort of ... gosh, I don't know what he was offering.
Unfortunately I lost my rag & told him he was full of shit; whereupon he promptly hung up.

Buggrit! I wish I had kept my cool, ... like this perhaps?

Sequential Art

The threat to RSS

2011-01-04T13:13:00.003+13:00

A passionate plea against RSS being ignored by the browser authors ... and yes, we Should Be Very Worried

Answer Cube

2010-12-17T16:09:00.001+13:00

My do-it-yourself answer cube

Sour Dough

2010-12-12T13:56:00.003+13:00

Matt gave me a bit of his sourdough bug ... this is the first loaf. Pure white flour!

Wild Orongarongo Triffid

2010-11-22T21:47:00.009+13:00

I found this Greenhood orchid (Pterostylis montana), aka Tutukiwi, on the track by the Orongorongo river. Sadly, it was so close to the track it was getting stomped, so I rescued this bloom for a portrait.
The plant was about 20cm tall and the biggest I have ever seen. That hood is about 30mm long!

The value of traffic lights

2010-11-13T15:04:00.004+13:00

Moving around Wellington this morning during the power outage, reinforced for me the fact that many of the traffic lights in the city are an unneccessary waste of time & resources.

As many the intersections in the Te Aro area suddenly became "uncontrolled", the traffic ... just kept flowing.

There was the odd bone-head who thought this was licence to charge through intersections, but generally drivers made intelligent decisions, and politely *engaged with each other*, letting each other through.

This was particularly evident on the bypass intersections: Taranaki St / Vivian Street intersection, and the Vivian St/ Cambridge Tce intersections, where large volumes of traffic kept flowing.
After walking around the area, I then drove out to Miramar, via the bypass. Possibly the quickest transit I have made in a long time!

Removing the control systems really does seem to work!

The local transport authority has recently gone wild, even introducing pointless light controls on the pedestrian crossings in Courtenay Place. It's all just unnecessary, and are predicated on the principle of encouraging vehicles into the city.

As an aside:
I'm not sure why, but there was a noticable absence of the constabulary getting out and doing point duty. You would think that their priority would be "safety".
I did see a couple of patrol cars, but neither of them were taking any interest in the situation caused by the lack of control lights.
The team in Cambridge Terrace were certainly more focussed on their fact-gathering mission at a local business, than what was going on immediately around them.
It made me reflect on the fact that perhaps they aren't *really* interested in safety, and have now made the transition to revenue gatherers by law enforcement.

The day Paradise put up a parking lot.

2010-10-27T17:37:00.008+13:00

They took all the trees
Put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em

Finally checked out the new "Zealandia".
Not impressed. The new centre is way too nayse* and uninviting. Everything costs a small fortune, not a local family weekend destination any longer.
I'm sure it will operate to separate the dollars from the tourists, and so maintain the sanctuary, but ... I'll be going to Otari in future.
* posh for "nice".

Found again!

2010-08-19T22:14:00.005+12:00

After having been lost for nearly 40 years, the first lunar robot has been located.
Lunokhod-1 was landed on the moon in 1970, and was able to troll around the surface of the moon for about 11 months before it failed, and was lost. It's exact location was not know, and it was pretty much forgotten about until this year.

It was located by the chance observation of reflected light from laser beams shot at the moon.

The fact that only a few photons are reflected back & detected is pretty amasing stuff!

... and it looks so steampunk!

Graphics editors are waaay too hard!

2010-05-17T19:54:00.005+12:00

Graphic editors have been a pain for years!
I used to only use Photoshop/Illustrator/Corel-Draw ... whatever rarely, and so did not bother to learn all the arcane techniques required to get something done. Even if I did, the odds were that the next time I used it, the "new improved" version would have a different way of doing it anyway!
So now I seem to be regularly (and poorly) using The Gimp & Inkscape, and still I find it impossible to do something *really* simple like edit a photo (or screenshot) by adding an arrow or other indication of a point of interest.
There seems to be no *simple* ways of doing this!
The Gimp doesn't appear to have an "arrow Line tool" (ala windows drawing programmes) and when I do stuff in Inkscape .. I seem to loose the "background" picture.
IT SHOULDN'T BE THIS HARD ANYMORE!

It's just a facade ...

2010-04-27T20:39:00.005+12:00

I was not the only one who was keen to see that the Miramar Cinema should be brought back to life.
It has been an vaccuum in the middle of the suburb for way too long.
Work has finally begun, and everyone was expecting a renovation or restoration job on the 1920s building ... but judging by what's been removed, I would ask ... "to what value of restore?".
It looks like there is going to be a brand-new building with a facade, not what I would have defined as renovation.
There is perhaps some irony in the fact that it is a movie industry figure who is doing the restoration, and we all know that facades are a movie set cliche.

Touching ...

2010-03-04T21:42:00.000+13:00

NZ-US Agreement signed on Friday.

2010-01-11T13:07:00.002+13:00

It would be nice to know what we have agreed to ...
Considering the xenophobic paranoia of Uncle Sam's DHS, I a bit concerned about what this entails. While I can agree with Lawful intecepts & survailence, I am not sure that the deep erosion of civil rights & personal privacy which is a byproduct of the "War on Terrorism", I am not happy about at all.
I would at least like to see more on the detail of this "agreement" for the purposes of "research".

Where's the mower?

2010-01-10T20:36:00.002+13:00

Xmas holiday's over; back to work tomorrow.

My Triffids

2009-12-13T18:46:00.006+13:00

Pterostylis venosa if you must know.

Hand-made Vogels substitute

2009-11-09T21:50:00.004+13:00

This started life as a bread-machine recipe, but it's just as easy making it by hand ...

1) Make a Yeast starter
200 ml warm water
5 ml sugar
7 ml dried (granular) yeast
Sprinkle yeast on warm water (don't stir!) and place in a warm place.

2) Make a kibbles-porridge in a pot
60 ml kibbled wheat
60 ml kibbled rye
60 ml buckwheat groats
(up to 200 ml)
200 ml water
Bring to boil for 1 minute then let sit.

3) In a mixing bowl:
350 ml wholemeal flour
150 ml white flour
10 ml salt
30 ml skim milk powder
30 ml gluten flour
80 ml sunflower seeds
20 ml olive oil

4) add into bowl of dry ingredient:
kibbles porridge (make sure its cooled before adding yeast)
yeast starter

5) Stir together into a sticky wet dough,
and place in a warm place for about an hour.
(It should double in size.)

6) Turn out on to a well floured board & knead,
(not a lot, just mix it round a bit into shape).
7 Place in oiled baking tin for another 30-40 minutes in a warm place.
(It will rise about half again.)

8) Bake in 190C oven for 35 minutes.

Google's Captchas

2009-11-09T21:15:00.004+13:00

I don't think it's just me!
I have lately been "the computer-guy" beside a number of people who have been variously trying to create a google account, or a gmail account or a google-groups login, and ...
the captchas a *really* bad!
Google captcha are so bad to read that many prospects just give up! (is this the intention?)
I've seen a few sites in my time, & Google's are the worst!

Home-made "Vogels Bread"!

2009-06-20T13:45:00.006+12:00

I've previously said I didn't like the way Vogel's bread has deteriorated, despite their label claims of "original recipe".
I have found a few reasonable replacements (e.g. Fitness Loaf from Kilbirnie German Bakery)
but in the end I got the Breadmaker out, and made my own.
This is the recipe I have settled on:

My Machine-assisted Vogels Substitute

Kibble porridge in a pot:
Up to 200 ml of Kibbles in a pot, I use:
50-100 ml Kibbled Wheat
50 ml Kibble Rye
50-100 ml Buckwheat Groats
200 ml Water
Put kibbles into a pot with 200 ml water & bring to boil for 1 minute.
This makes a porridge, to add to the mix with the water & oil.

In a Breadmaker:
7 ml Granular Yeast (not sure-bake)
350 ml Wholemeal Four
150 ml White Flour
5 ml Sugar
10 ml Salt
30 ml Skim Milk Powder
30 ml Gluten Flour (optional)
* add kibbles “porridge” here
250 ml Water
20 ml Olive Oil

Place ingredients in order of recipe into the Breadmaker.

Set breadmaker to your equivalent of a wholemeal, dough.
(this should mean aprox. 2 hours duration for first knead, rise, & second knead.)

My breadmaker gives a "beep" at 15 minutes (after the first knead),
and I add a fistful of sunflower seeds.

When the breadmaker has finished (after second knead),
tip from breadmaker & work very lightly to place into an oiled bread tin.

Allow to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour.

Bake at 200°C in a pre-heated oven for 40 minutes.

Tip from tin onto a rack & don't cut it till its cool!

EDIT: If you don't want to use a Breadmaker machine ...Handmade Recipe

There's an idiot working at Land Transport

2009-04-20T18:35:00.004+12:00

I notice our friends at Land Transport have shot themselves in the foot again ...
First, ltsa.govt.nz doesn't work; they require a depreciated www in front of it ...
(Good to see that they did learn, and http://nzta.govt.nz and http://landtransport.govt.nz both work.)

Then, they set up a their on-line payment at the obtusely named http://transact.landtransport.govt.nz/ (notice inconsistant lack of a www).

When they first set that up, it would only work with Internet Explorer, ... they didn't realise there were other browsers, ... so it needed upgrading straight away.

AND NOW ...
they have restricted on-line payments AGAIN by requiring a thing called "POLi" which (of course) is only available for micro$oft windoz ...

Their IT advisor needs to be fired!

High bits of Wellington

2009-04-19T16:08:00.008+12:00

Last week we went up the top of Mt Climie, behind Upper Hutt. This week it was Mt Kaukau.

Wellington from Mt Kaukau

Upper Hutt from Mt Climie

Ooooooooooo!

2009-04-16T21:42:00.002+12:00

Beaaautiful!!!!

Blanketman

2009-04-06T21:59:00.004+12:00

Looks like Blanketman has posted some sort of manifesto ...
Not too sure what it means though,
apart from representing One Million Old Farts in "Our-Tea-Are-Raw"

he seems to inhabit a separate universe
... funny that ...

Panglossian Posting

2009-02-10T12:47:00.004+13:00

So there I was, innocently wandering around on the information avenues of the web, when BLAM! there it was: "The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme".

What a grand title. Sometimes I just love the English language and what you can do with it!

Stack Overflow

2009-01-05T19:15:00.002+13:00

I gotta agree with Joel ( Stack Overflow Launches ). When you hit a snag in the coding ... the google search result in the Q & A sites can be kinda irritating.
This new site ( Stack Overflow )is a wiki that claims "Stack Overflow is a collaboratively edited question and answer site for programmers — regardless of platform or language. Jump in and share your software engineering expertise! No registration or account required."
Brilliant ... I had a troll around & found it informative .. what's more, the answers can only get better!
Check it out ...

Golden Bay

2008-10-29T21:39:00.012+13:00

A few holiday snapshots.

Wainui Bay	Tukurua Beach
Heading onto Farewell Spit	On Farewell Spit

What's happened to Vogel's

2008-10-29T21:10:00.005+13:00

I AM NOT IMAGINING IT!
Vogel's Bread is NOT what it used to be!
There has been a gradual decline in the quality of Vogels bread (a steady part of my diet for many years).
Lately I have noticed that the dough has begun to resemble "just another bread dough".
It is missing the watery, glutenous rye consistency that was uniquely Vogel's.
The wrapper boasts that it is the original recipe and that "It's so treasured, we will never change a thing."
Bullshit!
Goodman Fielder are quietly transforming it to the same bland pap that other mixed grain breads are, and they are cynical enough to believe that no one will notice.
Well I for one have, and am now actively seeking a locally baked substitute.

The Clock Came back ...

2008-10-29T20:59:00.006+13:00

I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to see the clock back in Courtenay Place, but here it is.
There are few enough public clocks left in the city (I think the next closest is in Lambton Quay).
Now if they could just get it going ...

Snapper Crapper

2008-08-13T18:58:00.005+12:00

I decided to do the "register a snapper card" thing ...

This site uses an ActiveX control to communicate to your Snapper, so at this stage it only works through Internet Explorer.

In order to feed your Snapper or perform other actions where we need to talk to your Snapper, you must make sure your are using one of the following:

* Operating System - Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
* Browser - Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7

Sheez!
It's the 21st century guys!

Snapper ... who gets hooked?

2008-07-26T12:23:00.004+12:00

Observing the recent introduction of the snapper readers on the commuter buses in Wellington, I wondered just how it worked, what saving it actually provided me (they claim it will be cheaper, but they seem to charge for everything), and what are my rights as a consumer.

Reading through the Terms & Conditions of the Snapper site, is a depressing way to pass a wet afternoon, but I’m sure most victims of this system will be unaware of the how they forfeit their rights.

The first thing that I noted was that they retain ownership of the card, but take absolutely no liability for it doing any damage, or if it fails. So you pay to be given one and you need to look after this thing, and they take no responsibility for it’s continued function.

It costs you every time you load money into it, and once it’s in there, it’s not you money any longer; now they’ve got it, it seems impossible to get it back. The stored value in the card is non-refundable and non-transferable; not even to another card (unless you "register" your card; however, there is not definition of a registered card). Not using the card for a year, means they just take the money. You cannot rely on this card provide payment for a transaction, and they are happy to refuse you (lots of clauses about that).
So waving "your" card around the reader on a bus and it doesn’t work means you better have some cash handy or the bus goes without you.

There are a limited number of "rights" given to card holders, but this is restricted to "Registered Cards", a category they don’t define. The FAQ suggests that it : means they have your personal details to link (and track) your electronic transactions. This raises the question of privacy; and that was a doozy!
Read this self-referential piece of legalese for yourself:

65. Snapper Privacy Policy
Where we collect personal information from or about you through your use of a Card, the Website, or your Online Account, the Snapper Privacy Policy shall apply. For an explanation of our practices and policies relating to the collection, use, and storage of your personal information, please refer to the Snapper Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Conditions.

.. that’s it … no more. If you dig further they have a privacy policy page but seeing as they are happy to modify their policy without warning, I’m not convinced.

We may (at any time and without prior notice to you) revise these Conditions. Changes to these Conditions will take effect immediately once they are published on www.snapper.co.nz. By ordering, or continuing to use, a Card after we have published revised Conditions, you agree to be bound by the revised Conditions.

And I wonder how I would do this on the bus:

You must check the Card, and any change tendered, upon the purchase or issuing of the Card and upon the addition or subtraction of any Stored Value to the Card. Neither we nor our Authorised Merchants (as the case may be) shall be liable for any error or omission not drawn to attention of us or our Authorised Merchants at the time of purchase, issue, addition, or subtraction.

The whole thing relies on them being nice guys; basically it’s a rort but what can you do? Personally, I will spend my time on the bus musing on how to hack exploits in the system.

Filling your Car

2008-05-19T20:34:00.002+12:00

This came thru the e-mail the other day ...

TIPS ON FILLING YOUR CAR(S) (Good information)

I don't know what you guys are paying for petrol.... but here in Durban
(South Africa.) we are also paying higher, up to R7.35 per litre. But my
line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some
tricks to get more of your money's worth for every litre.

Here at the Marian Hill Pipeline where I work in Durban, we deliver
about 4 million litres in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline.

One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and petrol, LRP and
Unleaded. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of
16,800,000 litres.

Only buy or fill up your car or bakkie in the early morning when the
ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations
have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the
more dense the fuel, when it gets warmer petrol expands, so buying in
the afternoon or in the evening....your litre is not exactly a litre. In
the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the
petrol, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays
an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for
this business. But the service stations do not have temperature
compensation at the pumps.

When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a
fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3)
stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low
speed, thereby minimizing the vapours that are created while you are
pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapour return. If you are pumping
on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes
vapour. Those vapours are being sucked up and back into the underground
storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your tank is HALF
FULL. The reason for this is, the more fuel you have in your tank the
less air occupying its empty space. petrol evaporates faster than you
can imagine. Petroleum storage tanks have an internal floating roof.

This roof serves as zero clearance between the petrol and the
atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations,
here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated
so that every litre is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder, if there is a fuel truck pumping into the storage
tanks when you stop to buy, DO NOT fill up--most likely the
petrol/diesel is being stirred up as the fuel is being delivered, and
you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.

Digity-do

2008-05-05T20:54:00.004+12:00

... and there it was.
I recently wondered what to call the noise that GSM cellphone make when they interfere with audio gear,
and the literary Kimmie did it again this Saturday!
"... that cellphone digity-do thing" she called it as she accused a guest of having a cellphone in his pocket.

Pohutukawa seed

2008-05-04T11:19:00.003+12:00

Over the last week the pohutukawa seed has been literally pouring out of the trees.
The back yard has got drifts of seed everywhere. No wonder there are so many seedlings sprinkled through the garden.

loverly ...

2008-05-04T11:11:00.004+12:00

Last Weekend was a some more GREAT weather. Walking around in the Eastbourne Hills, the Wellington Harbour was as "pretty as a picture".

Toying with Barcodes

2008-05-03T13:36:00.002+12:00

So you thought barcodes were just simple things.
This guy gives a great talk about the things you can get up to.

SQL Number Plate

2008-05-03T12:24:00.003+12:00

SQL injection attack code in a car number plate, earns *big* geek points!

Cool Clock

2008-04-13T21:48:00.002+12:00

The wheels of time are nicely exposed in this "engineers special" clock.
It's showing off inkscape, which is pretty cool too.

Cyper attack on Tibetan Sympathisers

2008-03-29T19:41:00.004+13:00

Somebody is trying to use pro-Tibet themed emails to infect computers of the members of pro-Tibet groups to spy on their actions.

Groups working for freedom of Tibet all over the world have been targeted.
Attachments install keyloggers that collect and sends everything typed on the affected machine to a server via a Chinese DNS-bouncer system.

I wonder who would do that?

A jug to keep things in perspective

2008-03-29T12:42:00.002+13:00

Sounds like us

2008-03-27T09:07:00.000+13:00

I'm not sure if they are doing it on purpose, but when the RadioNZ bird call is played, I can't help but appending the controversial phrase ...
"the Ruru. [pause] Radio New Zealand. [pause][insert mental comment] Sounds like us.
[grin].

Tuataras Tuis & Toadstools

2008-03-24T12:21:00.007+13:00

Yesterday was a nice afternoon near the top of Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, wandering allong the Tui Glen Track.
There were plenty of Amanita toadstools under the pine trees, and the Robins were especially curious.
We were very lucky to spot a couple of tuataras basking near the track.
I managed to take lots of blurred and fuzzy photos of saddlebacks & stichbirds, bellbirds and fantails. ...but it was fun.

The end of Summer

2008-03-20T22:15:00.001+13:00

What better way to end a late summer day, than seafood takeaways and a beer at sunset.

That's the Point!

2008-03-08T14:39:00.007+13:00

Great news that the Wellington Marine Conservation Trust have abandoned their idea of building on Te Raekaihau Point and are now wanting to use a more appropriate site.
(My preference is the quarry area at the entrance to Red Rocks, but hey!)
The Maranui Depot quarry site they are now suggesting is far less of an insult to the coast.
The downside of the site is claimed to be that it doesn't have direct access to the seashore because of the road. If the Wellington City Council really wants to get behind it, a bit of earthworks would soon enable the road to be diverted *behind* the development, thus actually improving the site by creating another littoral park around the complex which doesn't have the road right by the seashore.
Here's my totally uninformed, but opiniated suggestion:

Fringe on the Streets

2008-03-08T14:26:00.000+13:00

Some images from the fringe festival, which had some dancing and acting on the streets of Wellington.

Seriously cool green light

2008-02-25T22:09:00.002+13:00

This is really neat!
It's a gravity driven light.
So you basically flip it over like an egg-timer, and the weighted LEDs sink to the bottom, driving a propeller which energizes the LEDs.
The equivalent of a 40watt bulb for about 4 hours!
... that's pretty green!

"Developers" are evil.

2008-02-19T22:20:00.004+13:00

Not content with planning to permanently deface Ocean Beach with a sub-division, it seems that there is no respect of dissent from baybuzz either!
It seems that having been thwarted in his plans for self-profit when indulging in the charade of a "charette", the true colours come out and a new plan for an even worse insult to the landscape is reveled. I wonder how different this is from the original plans.
Oh, and the whole thing is being sanitised with green-wash of an unspecified conservation zone at the north end of the beach.

Te Papa's Birthday

2008-02-17T15:13:00.005+13:00

Yesterday was the Te Papa 10th Birthday celebrations, so we went along to join in.

The NZSO playing Gareth Farr's Te Papa" was a definite emotional high-point, quite moving.

This shot seemed to capture a lot of symbols for the occasion.

But boy was it crowded. This is the exodus at 10:00pm to watch the fireworks.

Monarchs

2008-02-10T10:10:00.000+13:00

We have been fascinated by some action on the swan plants in the garden.

Rimutaka Incline

2008-02-10T00:07:00.001+13:00

Ladle Bend Creek Bridge.

The eastern entrance to the Summit Tunnel (576m), the top of the incline proper.

Name that sound

2008-02-10T00:00:00.000+13:00

I've been wondering about that really annoying sound that electronic audio equipment can make when it picks up a signal emitted from a GSM cellphone which is "talking" to the GSM cellular network.
There must be an appropriate name for it eh?
My last desktop PC used to announce that the cellphone was just about to receive a call ... which was handy I suppose.

Trial Video

2008-02-09T12:32:00.000+13:00

I was up Hawkins Hill(495m) in December, & it was quite windy ...
but I had a go at doing a pan of the Wellington landscape.

Playing with the photo

2008-02-09T10:02:00.000+13:00

The Hawkins Hill air traffic control "thingy" has alway been fascinating ... I guess the sphere is so striking up there on the skyline.

Sing along with the MDA senior management Rap

2008-01-16T22:41:00.000+13:00

It can be seriously scary what depth of degradation companies will submit their
employees to.
Watch this & weep for them.
... or as workmate Alan says: "Rock on Dudes".

A photo of Ed's

2008-01-16T22:07:00.000+13:00

Hi,
I am writing to let you know that one of your photos has
been short-listed for inclusion in the fourth edition of
our Schmap Wellington Guide, ...

A flattering enough offer indeed, but when I checked the photo, it was one taken back in April 2005 of a protest outside Ed's Juice Bar.
The only reason that I can think that they want to consider the snapshot, is that they haven't heard that the establishment in question is closed.

I tried to check the original posting (to Flickr), but once they were taken over by Yahoo, I lost access, as they wanted me to acquire a Yahoo ID. to continue to use their site. I only used it to load images for blogging, before blogger provided that facility, so I didn't care.

Incidently, this is who was cowering inside from the rag-tag mob.

Happy Birthday ...

2007-11-30T21:54:00.000+13:00

'twas the wrangler's birthday today.
... it's a parsnip cake.
(don't ask.)

Brew No. 50 was a cracker!

2007-11-03T16:08:00.000+13:00

Yes, I know it's on it's side ... the Panasonic camera that was used seems to do some weird shit to the orientation.

Malice vs Incompetence

2007-09-20T20:04:00.000+12:00

An intriguing corollary to Hanlon's Razor popped up in a discussion thread
on schneier when discussion the Windows stealth upgrade controversy.

Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence.

can be countered with:

"A sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice."

Man-made holes

2007-09-12T21:50:00.000+12:00

Digging a hole can be fun ... but this collection of truly massive holes is impressive.
... and then there was the engineering disaster of Lake Peigneur.

Al Gore & an free internet.

2007-09-10T20:17:00.000+12:00

Al Gore is in severe threat of becoming the darling of the liberals (if he isn't already).
Not only the global warming thing, but now in his book "The Assault on Reason" he make a strong stand for the independence of the internet:

So the remedy for what ails our democracy is not simply better
education (as important as that is) or civic education (as important as
that can be), but the re-establishment of a genuine democratic discourse
in which individuals can participate in a meaningful way - a
conversation of democracy in which meritorious ideas and opinions from
individuals do, in fact, evoke a meaningful response.

Fortunately, the Internet has the potential to revitalize the role
played by the people in our constitutional framework. It has extremely
low entry barriers for individuals. It is the most interactive medium in
history and the one with the greatest potential for connecting
individuals to one another and to a universe of knowledge. It's a
platform for pursuing the truth, and the decentralized creation and
distribution of ideas, in the same way that markets are a decentralized
mechanism for the creation and distribution of goods and services. It's
a platform, in other words, for reason. But the Internet must be
developed and protected, in the same way we develop and protect markets
- through the establishment of fair rules of engagement and the exercise
of the rule of law. The same ferocity that our Founders devoted to
protect the freedom and independence of the press is now appropriate for
our defense of the freedom of the Internet. The stakes are the same: the
survival of our Republic. We must ensure that the Internet remains open
and accessible to all citizens without any limitation on the ability of
individuals to choose the content they wish regardless of the Internet
service provider they use to connect to the Web. We cannot take this
future for granted. We must be prepared to fight for it, because of the
threat of corporate consolidation and control over the Internet
marketplace of ideas.

The danger arises because there is, in most markets, a very small
number of broadband network operators. These operators have the
structural capacity to determine the way in which information is
transmitted over the Internet and the speed with which it is delivered.
And the present Internet network operators - principally large telephone
and cable companies - have an economic incentive to extend their control
over the physical infrastructure of the network to leverage control of
Internet content. If they went about it in the wrong way, these
companies could institute changes that have the effect of limiting the
free flow of information over the Internet in a number of troubling
ways.

(From a Book Excerpt from TIME Magazine, Wednesday 16 May 2007)

Mt Vic Comms

2007-09-09T17:55:00.000+12:00

With this stuff on the top of the hill, Wellington continues to let telecommunications be damn cool.

Back in the Bay ...

2007-09-06T23:58:00.000+12:00

Politics in Hawke's Bay are heating up nicely with the appearance of a new group "Making Waves".
The web-site ain't flash, but the participatory democracy is spot on!

Also, I enjoyed the recent post on baybuzz about Andy and Ocean Beach.

Indigenous Rain-dancers

2007-09-06T23:05:00.000+12:00

Py Cory!
I didn't realise we had our own rain-dancers!
... and they are trying to develop a healthy export industry too!
Of course, if any scepticism is expressed about their unsubstantiated claims ... it's racism.

Spiritual Computing

2007-09-06T21:54:00.000+12:00

On this site there is an initial discussion on how spiritual computing has become inevitable through the convergence of four new trends, encompassing research, marketing, management, and ethics, and suggest that spiritual considerations are no longer marginal to digital culture.
The discussion document "Buddhism’s role in Bringing Spirituality into the Next Generation of Web Technologies" has a nice quote from the Dalai Lama at the top :

“In order to achieve their potentials, spirituality needs digital
technology and digital technology needs spirituality. At an
essential level, the two traditions complement each other.
Humanity’s survival may depend on interaction between
them.”
--- H.H. Dalai Lama

Despite the fact that the paper fails to achieve it's stated aim of discussing "Buddhism’s role in Bringing Spirituality into the Next Generation of Web Technologies",
it still makes interesting reading.

The new Green is Black

2007-09-06T21:48:00.000+12:00

It looks like the next thing for the trendy green computer will be to use blackle for a search engine.
"186,137.445 Watt hours saved"
... and counting ...

Psst ... wanna buy some viagra?

2007-08-25T17:17:00.000+12:00

It seems I have been a viagra salesman ...
I have a linuxmail.org e-mail account, which I find handy from time to time.
I just checked it and found I had way over 300 messages in my inbox. These were almost exclusively responses from mail daemons bouncing mail from the account. A few were response-challenges, which gave me the opportunity to see the sent mail ... and yes it was viagra spam.
They were all from a week or two in the middle of May, and things have gone quiet again since.
Presumably they are using a different list of addresses to send from. Do I expect another storm as they rotate to database ... or worst, sell off the addresses to other low-lifes? I hope not.

30 things I’ve learned from using Linux …

2007-08-09T13:04:00.000+12:00

A list which should raise the odd smile of recognition.
I particularly liked the closing stinger
- Using Linux gives me a satisfying sense of “sticking it to the man,” although at times I get the feeling that the person I’m sticking it to ends up being me.

Matt's having fun ...

2007-07-21T18:56:00.000+12:00

... in London, but may be disturbing the locals.

P.I.s & Dutchies

2007-07-20T21:43:00.000+12:00

Peter gives an thoughtful reflection on cross-cultural relationships:
I am startled by my presumption. Tommy, the child of immigrants, is as much a New Zealander as me, except his parents came from the Cook Islands, which makes him a Pacific Islander, whereas my parents came from Holland, which makes me a Kiwi.

Product Manuals

2007-07-17T23:41:00.000+12:00

I know ... real men don't read manuals
But if you do, then http://www.theusermanualsite.com works for me.

Not for much longer

2007-07-17T23:08:00.000+12:00

The ${EMPLOYER} is about to convert the desktop e-mail client from Lotus Notes to MS-Outlook.
It is a change which is being greeted with considerable anticipation. I guess it's a reflection of how bad Notes is that the introduction of a MS product should be accompanied with such joy.

Dodgy Explorer

2007-07-16T12:32:00.000+12:00

I always though there was something suspicious about Explorer, now "Windows" thinks so too!

Slacker wins

2007-07-11T21:51:00.000+12:00

You've gotta feel sorry for employers sometimes....
This woman obviously spends a lot of time pissing around sending crap e-mails, and even though they have a e-mail policy and tried to go through a seemingly fair process (like two separate written & signed warnings). She just claims it never happened and that the warnings were fake ... and then wins compensation!
They should have taken the silly cow's PC off her, and sent her out to read water meters.

The KiwiSaver Ethical Option

2007-07-11T21:34:00.000+12:00

It looks like we need to be a little bit patient for the ethical investment option in the KiwiSaver Scheme.
It seems that Asteron are about to enter the arena, being the first truly ethical investment offering.
But oh dear ... check out the last paragraph in the article:

Gareth Morgan's KiwiSaver Fund managing director, Andrew Hawith, is sceptical. "I'd be fascinated to see how ethical some of these investments really are. How can you tell?
"I'm sure we will be investing in ethical as a mixture of portfolios but it would be dangerous to have your savings locked up for 30 years and into just an ethical fund," says Hawith.

Seems to me that wee Andrew needs to pay attention to the winds of change, and not just the message of maximising the bottom line.

Kiwisaver Scheme Providers

2007-07-01T22:47:00.000+12:00

So the Kiwisaver scheme looks like it might be worth paying some attention to.
I decided to check out the list of providers on the Kiwisaver website, to see if who might be worthwhile.
Interesting range of presentations. I initially dismissed the Fisher Funds site because they blasted me with a twee video ... that was before I hit the Tower Kiwiplan site. Bloody hell, talk about overkill. I felt like I was being talked down to (despite the wee bits of humour in the videos.)
The Aon site ... very sad.

Under Maintenance
The AonSaver site is currently under maintenance and will be available on Monday morning. Please call 0800 AONINFO, during normal business hours, if you have any queries.

Has nobody there thought it through ... the Kiwisaver scheme is launched on Monday, the punters (like me) are gathering their information before Monday (duh).
My primary interest in all these sites was whether or not there was any interest in Ethical Investment, and the only mention I could find anywhere was on the Gareth Morgan Kiwisaver Site which said:

We do not hold direct investments in arms/tobacco/alcohol businesses or directly support unethical practices, but we do invest in Australian funds, UK investment trusts and US index trackers. These fund managers invest in hundreds of companies, which we do not scrutinize in detail. It is therefore possible that unethical investments will indirectly make up part of the portfolio. We do not offer a purely ethical fund or investment direction. We strive to invest your savings in a responsible and ethical manner.

Not 100%, but as they were the only ones ... they get to win the race! UPDATE
No, it is not the smartest financial decision-making process, but the lack of any ethical investment options in such a big scheme is appalling!

The "spam me" clause

2007-06-27T19:01:00.000+12:00

Shell NZ are currently handing out promotional dockets with fuel purchases, inviting you to go to their web-site and enter a "competition" for some free fuel.
Despite the fact that they have a pseudo-"opt-out" tick-box on the form, buried deep in the Contions of entry (Clause 24) is the following:
By entering the promotion, unless otherwise advised, each entrant consents to their personal information being entered into a database, and each entrant also agrees that the Promoter may use this information, in any media for future promotional, marketing and publicity purposes without any further reference, payment or other compensation to the entrant, including sending the entrant electronic messages.
So the reason for the "competition" ... harvest customer information and e-mail addresses.

Way too Geeky!

2007-06-05T20:27:00.000+12:00

So Firefox 2.0 is out and can be downloaded ... yay!
but upgrading the home Fedora box was an unnecessarily geeky activity.
I don't think I missed the obvious but this was how it went...

Go to Mozilla
find the right distro (this was firefox-2.0.0.4.tar.gz )
and download.
As root (if you do it as a user, you don't change things for *all* users.)

    tar -xzvf firefox-2.0.0.4.tar.gz

in the resulting directory (blandly named "firefox") locate the firefox script
and replace the current 1.5 version script.

    cp  firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

Now, this script is looking for (as a default directory) /usr/local/lib/firefox-2.0.0.4.
Two minor point here ...
1. the 1.5 distro on fedora is in /usr/lib (not /usr/local/lib)
2. The directory you have just extracted has to be named as the version
so ... move & rename the whole thing.

    mv firefox /usr/local/lib/firefox-2.0.0.4

Now click on your current desktop icon & it should fire up the new version 2.0
(which on startup suggests, wrongly, that Firefox is not the default browser ..etc ...)

Now I would have thought that there would have been some sort of installation advice,
but the Mozilla page has a *single* paragraph on installing:

Please note that installing Firefox 2 will overwrite your existing installation of Firefox. You won't lose any of your bookmarks or browsing history, but some of your extensions and other add-ons might not work until updates for them are made available.

... NOW THAT'S REAL HELPFUL!
I would have thought that by now this would have been easier!

Linux Distros

2007-05-27T17:23:00.000+12:00

How many distributions of Linux are there?
... five? eight? ... more?
How about too many!
(from blogs.zdnet.com)

Nanotechnology

2007-05-27T17:13:00.000+12:00

So we've all heard about it, and even kid ourselves that we know what it is despite the spin that it 's the "next big thing".
But check out the list of stuff that is *actually* out there already!
Nanotech Project Consumer Products.
.. perhaps it is the *next little thing"!

The Dawkins Delusion

2007-05-09T23:23:00.000+12:00

Those who follow the Evolution/Creationist debate with any interest will be amused by this little spoof called the Dawkins Delusion which rather cleverly takes the piss out of *both* sides of the debate. Dr Terry Tommyrot indeed!

Cutesy Internet Map

2007-05-02T21:15:00.000+12:00

I'm waiting for the day when, if you tell someone 'I'm from the internet', instead of laughing they just ask 'oh, what part?'
... blogipeligians perhaps?

We got our tickets ...

2007-04-19T22:33:00.000+12:00

... and we're on our way!

We got up at a *very* uncivilised hour last week , and saw Inga & Matt off on their big O.E.

Track the on their blog site: two legit to quit

Wellington's Latest

2007-04-19T22:19:00.000+12:00

Wellington has a new resident ... scumbag is a country cat trying to get to grips with life in the city.

Timeline

2007-04-17T20:17:00.000+12:00

I've seen this attached to a few web-sites & I think it's neat ...
timeline.swf

Chains Chains Chains

2007-04-12T18:02:00.000+12:00

Now that the Bypass is "finished" , I hope that the Wellington Council are
going to remove the chains from outside Scopa.
While these may have been an appropriate pedestrian traffic control for a
one-way arterial, they are out of placce in a central city two-way street.
The lighting cycle needs to be attended to as well, with all the
pedestrians crossing Ghuznee St, getting mixed up with the left-turning
traffic out of Cuba St.

Ben's Back

2007-04-11T17:58:00.000+12:00

I see that Blanketman has returned to Courtnay Place after his summer holiday at "Her Majesty's".
... order has been restored to the universe.

Yupe

2007-04-11T17:42:00.000+12:00