December 2004

Bats

Sarah reminded me that New Zealand has one native land mammal: Bats (Pekapeka). There are two surviving endemic genera of bat, the long-tailed bat (Chalinolobus) and the short-tailed bat (Mystacina), belonging to two family groups. The long-tailed bat has a membrane attached to the full length of its tail (which is used to scoop up [...]

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Matiu Somes Island

The 25 hectare Matiu Somes Island lies in the middle of Wellington Harbour, about 8 Km from the city and 3 Km from Petone. It’s been open to the public for about 9 years now, and although in the past it has been the site of pa, gun emplacements, a lighthouse, quarantine stations for animals [...]

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16:9 and iMovie

Summer holidays and it’s time to play with my video camera again. I’ve discovered my camera will do widescreen 16:9 and have filmed a few minutes for a friend’s special birthday this week. But guess what! iMovie doesn’t do widescreen. Fortunately though Bob Hudson has a Video tutorial: How an anamorphic (squeezed) 16:9 movie can [...]

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Opera beta speaks (Windows)

The new beta of Opera version 8 (for Windows) includes a nifty RSS reader and the ability to speak selected text, and apparently to respond to voice commands. I haven’t yet been able to command Opera by voice but have had it read some text aloud. The Windows version (via Virtual PC) uses a kind [...]

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Pillars in the mist

This is a great photo: Pillars from the Millau Viaduct … designed by the English architect Lord Norman Foster, rise above the cloud-covered valley of the river Tarn December 9, 2004. The Millau Viaduct with seven slender soaring pillars is the highest bridge in the world at 343 meters, now creates a direct route between [...]

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Holiday break

Summer and Christmas are here and in New Zealand we all stop work for a while, me included. In fact, I knocked off last Friday, though I’ve had to respond to several client crises since then. I knew I should have emailed everyone to say I was on a break … Anyway, if you’re looking [...]

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