Autocade hits 1,500-model milestone

Thanks most recently to the work of Keith Adams, who added numerous important models into Autocade, we now have reached 1,500 models. The 1,500th is a bit mainstream, but after all the odd cars we’ve put in over the last three years, it’s nice to have something almost everyone knows. Audi TT (8J). 2006 to […]

Read More… from Autocade hits 1,500-model milestone



One year on, the same issues remain pressing

In 2011, the issues that I spoke about during my campaign remain as pressing as they always did.    We still need better, wider and earlier consultation, whether we streamline current processes or create new ones for citizen engagement.    We still need to build a city-wide wifi network, one which exists but needs a […]

Read More… from One year on, the same issues remain pressing



Duck Duck Go voted best search engine of 2011

According to a reader poll, Duck Duck Go beat Google for best search engine of 2011.    ‘With 48% of the vote, relative search newcomer DuckDuckGo beat out search behemoth Google, who came in with 45% of the total vote,’ said About.com.    Bing trailled at 3 per cent and Yahoo! at 2.    There’s […]

Read More… from Duck Duck Go voted best search engine of 2011



Some positive news a month on from the Christchurch ’quake

Tomorrow, it will be one month since the Christchurch ’quake.    It’s tempting to argue scale—the Japanese earthquake and tsunami versus our own—but at the end of the day, people are people, and our nations have both been hurting. We have become united, through disasters that emphasized that we live in an emerging global community. […]

Read More… from Some positive news a month on from the Christchurch ’quake



Chromium remains buggy; and I get charged twice for parking (thrice if you count my rates)

I am happy to say that Firefox 4 Release Candidate 1 is working smoothly with no crashes to date. It reminds me of, well, Firefox 3·0, before Mozilla started doing weird things to it and we had the multiple-crashing 3·5 and 3·6. Let’s hope this situation lasts.    Meanwhile, the bugs I reported to the […]

Read More… from Chromium remains buggy; and I get charged twice for parking (thrice if you count my rates)



Alarm für Cobra 11: a 15th birthday celebration

Today marks the 15th anniversary of Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei, a German show I have followed for just over a half of its run.    I’ve watched it through budget cuts and some naff storylines of late. It’s of some interest to chart the course of the show over these many years.   […]

Read More… from Alarm für Cobra 11: a 15th birthday celebration



In the wake of the ’quake, a time to be bold

The Christchurch earthquake is certainly not over, not while the city rebuilds. And the bill, at a meeting I had with some other luminaries last Thursday, is estimated to be in excess of the NZ$20,000 million that the New Zealand Government predicts.    So, other than juggling the funds, what does the Government intend to […]

Read More… from In the wake of the ’quake, a time to be bold



Hopefully the last Firefox 3 blog post

Since discovering that Firefox 4 Beta 13 is stable, I have spent less time with Firefox 3·6, the buggiest, most oft-crashing program I have ever used in 30 years of computing.    But I used it today enough times to net myself five crashes, though this is above average. The ‘unmark purple’ bug that plagued […]

Read More… from Hopefully the last Firefox 3 blog post



Giving our young people a fair go

Earlier this month, I gave a workshop talk to the Leadership and Development Conference for the New Zealand Chinese Association in Auckland.    I’ve just uploaded the speech notes, and as I did so, I wanted to append a few more thoughts.    The topic was identity—not just branding, but personal identity.    My self-critique […]

Read More… from Giving our young people a fair go



We all belong to the Christchurch region

Above Good Living, November 11, 2009, with Angela Stone and Megan Banks. Or, the day I met Donna Manning, who produced the show. I drove in a total daze today. The last time I felt like this was September 12, 2001,* the day of the World Trade Center attacks.    And then I learned a […]

Read More… from We all belong to the Christchurch region