I’m no angel. I’ve done plenty of things in my life I’d rather not remember: foolish words, rudeness, missed opportunities — there’s quite a list. I imagine everyone has such a list. What distresses me though is that these actions and events pop unbidden into my mind at odd moments. Now, I’m no devil either. […]
My life changed dramatically when I was in my early 20s: I stopped dreading pollen-filled summers. For the previous decade my summers were filled with sneezing, and the consequent sore stomach muscles, sore throat, sore nose, stuffy head and exhaustion, courtesy of my hayfever allergies. Life was miserable with hayfever. When the symptoms appeared I […]
Deep down, Unix based computers, such as those running Mac OS X, count time (and date) by the number of seconds that have elapsed since midnight, 1 January 1970 — trickier and more complex than it sounds. There are 86,400 seconds in a normal day, so at the end of the first day the Unix […]
In 2008 New Zealand’s Copyright law was changed. The changes take effect on 28 February 2009 and have important implications for community organisations, businesses and individuals. The law in question is the ‘Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008 No 27, Public Act — New Zealand Legislation’. The specific section you need to know about is […]
If you’re making a newsletter, preparing a presentation, or writing up a report on a project, do you include photos, drawings, or music? Some well-chosen pictures or sounds can transform your ‘publication’, making it more user-friendly, more compelling, more memorable. The problem is: how to find good pictures and sounds to include. It’s not yours […]
A couple of months ago a friend was planning to buy a new MacBook, so I pointed her to the Stiletto Laptop Stand, invented here in Wellington. The basic design idea, or brief, came from my father who wanted some laptop stands for his mobile computer suite. We spent the better part of a weekend […]
Paddy the Wanderer was a ginger and brown Airedale terrier who became a well known and much loved identity on the Wellington waterfront in the 1930’s. Now there’s a drinking fountain for people and dogs to remember him by.
When I first heard about the Australian mockumentary Kenny I wasn’t terribly impressed and decided it wasn’t for me. Zap forward a couple of years, though, put it on TV, set me in a mood for watching a bit of telly, and I relented. I’m so glad I did. There’s something about Australian films — […]
Courtesy of my accountant’s newsletter, two incredibly useful URLs for New Zealanders: NZ Marketing Association Do not Mail Request NZ Marketing Association Do Not Call Request Keep that infuriating junk mail out of your letterbox, and stop those rotten solicitous phonecalls. Note: these do not mail / call lists are only used by organisations that […]
In December 2008 I visited the Honolulu Zoo. I think the animals that left the most lasting impression on me were the Galapagos Tortoises. They are huge. While there I recorded a brief clip with my new Flip Mino video camera. The embedded clip below is an experiment in using Vimeo on a WordPress blog.
