Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

Thanks to those nice people at Merula we're now on ADSL Max, and are getting an order of magnitude more speed than our old 512/256 DSL connection. I've also just replaced the main house switch with an unmanaged gigabit beastie from D-Link that works rather well, and gives me a few more free ports for future expansion.

So, things are currently looking a little like this:




It's rather nice being able to download a DVD image from a software company on the west coast of the US in under an hour. (Something I have had to do several times this week last, as we've been churning out lots of features and reviews about some pieces of software that came out this week...)

Next: Build a new house server with the VPro Core 2 Duo motherboard that arrives next week, and source a gigabit network card for the current server.

Anyone after an unmanaged 16-port 100 Mbit rackable switch, drop me a line, and we can negotiate. I seem to have one for sale...

Inscription (and paw print) in the concrete outside special effects masters Weta's workshop complex, near Wellington.

Wellington, New Zealand
November 2006

Sign on the door of the ladies restrooms at A.J. Hackett bungee near Queenstown.

Queenstown, New Zealand
October 2006

(Note: The gents has nothing this interesting...)

On our first trip to New Zealand we only saw tui once, deep in a dark rain forest near Rotorua. This time it was different, as the native flax was in flower, and the beautiful blue-green birds with the white neck tufts were taking advantage of the season to eat pollen and drink nectar. Their strange call twittered and boomed around the forests and flashes of bright colour leapt across the roads.

Here's one we saw at Marahau, on the edge of the Abel Tasman National national park.



( More tui, getting its head into a flower... )

Beautiful birds.

Rising fuel prices take their toll on the New Zealand populace...

South Island, New Zealand
October 2006