MiramarMike's shared items in Google Reader

Future of Miramar Peninsula to be revealed - The Dominion Post

2011-10-31T03:17:22Z

Future of Miramar Peninsula to be revealed
The Dominion Post
The New Zealand Defence Force is looking to sell 76 hectares of surplus land, on what it calls Watts Peninsula - near but not including Wellington Prison - and it is understood it is likely to be designated a green reserve under the ownership of the ...

and more »

Samsung Series 5 Chromebook

2011-10-30T19:00:56Z

As the first post about my Chromebook challenge experience, I thought I’d take a look at what Chromebooks are actually like to use, from the perspective of a Mac user. The model that I’m using is the Samsung Series 5, and I’ve actually had it for a few months. When we were burgled earlier in the year, rather than replace my beloved stolen MacBook Air 11in, I decided to spend a whole lot less money on something that filled the same need for a small, reasonably light, “throw in your bag” occasional computer. I was also, of course, curious about ChromeOS and decided that I needed to know more about it.

While the Chromebook hasn’t been in use as my main machine, I’ve used it enough over the past few months to get an idea of its strengths and weaknesses, so it seems like a good place to start to talk about them.

Hardware

Given its relatively low cost, the Series 5 is a nice piece of hardware. The 12in screen is bright, although the colour isn’t as nice as the super-sharp LCDs on Apple hardware. Importantly for me, the keyboard has a good feel to it, and the track pad is a decent size instead of the horrible micro-trackpads that seem to be common on netbooks. There’s a couple of USB ports, a slot for an SD card, and monitor port (although this requires a non-standard dongle, supplied in the box and easily losable).

And, of course, there’s built in 3G, which is more than just a “nice to have” on a machine that depends on Internet-based applications. If you’re in the UK, you get a SIM in the box from 3 which gives you 3Gb of data which you can use over three months, which is a nice touch. I’ve used 3 for mobile data for a while, and I’ve always found coverage and speed to be pretty good.

Overall the hardware is pretty nice. It’s not Apple standard, but it’s perfectly acceptable, and much better than most machines I’ve seen in its class.

But there’s a little cloud on the horizon. The processor at the heart of the Series 5 is an underpowered Atom, and this means that it really struggles with some web applications. Flash video is OK, as long as you aren’t trying to do 720p full screen, but you get occasional stutters. And the overall feel is just a little bit sluggish – not unusably so, but just enough to annoy sometimes. I’d be happy to pay a little bit extra to have an i3 or i5 processor instead, and it would be good if someone offered this as an option.

Having said that, using the Atom gives one big plus point: the battery life. It’s exceptional, happily going through an entire eight hour day without running out of power. The Chromebook is the first laptop I’ve had where I haven’t even had to think about packing the power adaptor on a day-long trip, and it lets you laugh in the face of Mac and Windows users in meetings who end up fighting over who gets to use the power outlets.

One little touch which I like: where you’d expect to find the caps lock key you’ll instead see something with a magnifying glass on it. Yes, it’s a search button. Hit it and you’re taken to your search engine of choice (Google is the default, but you can change it) which is much more useful if you’re living an Internet-centric existence. I’d love to see this on non-Chromebooks too.

ChromeOS

I’m not going to delve too much into it for now, but suffice to say that if you’ve used the Chrome browser, you’ll find yourself pretty much at home in ChromeOS. If you’re using the ability to sync your bookmarks, extensions and so on across machines using your Google account, you’ll find everything ready and waiting for you once you’ve signed in and turned on syncing.

The first time you use it, though, you’ll probably find it something of a culture shock. My first instinct was to tab out of Chrome – but you can’t. Chrome is all there is. Everything is the web. This takes some getting used to. You’ve got tabs, of course, and you can create new, separate windows which you alt-tab between. But there’s no desktop. There’s no desktop! Where’s my desktop!?! Where’s my files?!? In the cloud, of course. That takes some getting used to, and it’ll be interesting to see how it goes.

Image by masakiishitani

The Rugby Blog’s Rugby World Cup 2011 Awards

2011-10-26T15:21:35Z

We hand out awards to the best, and worst, moments and people of the Rugby World Cup.

Jimmy Will Fix It

2011-10-29T15:25:08Z

THAT’S WHAT BILL COTTON wanted to call it, and who are we to disagree? Format pickled in time: automatic chair, square tin medallions, Mr Cigar, “guys and gals”, letters on corkboards, kids on beanbags, Mr British Airways, “what we have ‘ere”, extra special surprise, celebrity guest, “this very brave/beautiful young man/lady”, everyone waving at the end, “Now you’ve done it”, etc. Watched by everyone, and if you didn’t write in or dream of writing in you’re lying. Doesn’t hold up at all well nowadays, appearing tired, wrinkled, hugely contrived and plain dull.

But enough about the host: what about the Fixes? In no particular order: scouts eating packed lunches on a rollercoaster; kid playing for Liverpool FC replete with Match of the Day graphics and John Motson commentary; kid whose Gran had made him a Dr Who costume and got to appear in specially written mini-story In A Fix With The Sontarans; kid playing drums with Adam and the Ants and ending up with a drum kit of his very own; kid getting to “drive” the Lotus from The Spy Who Loved Me (stunt driver hiding under his feet); kid getting to wrestle in a Tag Match with Big Daddy (because, as he explained in his Nice Letter, “Big Daddy never loses”), Giant Haystacks and AN Other, with Big Daddy still winning because it was the 1970s and that’s what always happened.

Plus the blind lady who sent Jim a piece of music composed by herself which was subsequently arranged by Bob Sharples and conducted by Ted Heath; people who always wanted to stand on the wing of an aeroplane; kid who wanted to make his own computer game, resulting in an isometric affair involving going round a supermarket with a shopping trolley (it was in the Virgin 1.99 range – bearded photo-opportunity ahoy!); that kid who wanted to be in TERRY AND JUNE and got a scene aboard a cross-channel ferry wherein T Medford, for some reason or other, had a ripe Camembert in his coat pocket – cue Fix-It girl walking past on deck: “Pew! What a smell!” Tezza: “I think it’s the age.” F-IG: “Well, I don’t want to get old, then!”.

Not forgetting the kid who actually got her own record released, to wit ‘I’m A Girl’ by Stephanie Davies, which unsurprisingly failed to chart; kid who transformed her back garden into a show-jumping course, at which point Harvey Smith, David Broorne and Caroline Bradley showed up pretending to take part minus horses; kid who wanted to read the football results, which they wouldn’t let him do on GRANDSTAND obviously, so Len Martin came into the studio to coach the sprog who was then positioned in a miniature version of one of those cardboard results boards they used to use and the whole thing beefed up with getting him to guess the missing score from Len’s tone of voice, as in “Leeds nil, Brighton and Hove Albion (measured tone)…” which would be nil, of course, except the kid fucked up the one involving his own team, which was supposed to have won 2,645 – nil, or something.

Finally, perhaps the most outrageous moment in the show’s history: the kid who wanted a new bedroom. If you recall, some design/furniture firm provided him with thousands of pounds worth of stuff – TRS-80 computer, telly, bed with ladders going up to it (oh no, hang on, that’s just a bunk bed), and remote-control curtains. For the grand handover, the comp drew the Jim’ll Fix It logo on the screen. What made kids utterly sick was the boy’s casual acceptance of everything, particularly the computer, which would have cost a fortune on its own.

Jimmy Savile, 1926-2011

2011-10-29T15:50:57Z

TV Cream is very sorry to learn about the passing of Jimmy ‘Sir Jim’ll’ Savile, who had been fixing things for people for years, before he sadly passed away. A true TV Cream hero, he’ll be much missed.

In 2007, we were lucky enough to chat to Jimmy, under the guise of our now-defunct sister site, Off The Telly. You can read the full thing here, but here’s a favourite bit, where Jimmy talks about the genesis of his FIX IT programme, which lay in his previous TV effort, CLUNK CLICK…

You see, if you do things on TV, and anything even remotely successful, then of course, there’s so few successful people on TV that they’ll do everybody to death. I refused two television jobs yesterday. And I refuse probably three or four a month, because I don’t work like that. So, er, initially they said to me, “Will you do something other than Top of the Pops?”. Because, some well-known faces, they’ve got three or four programmes running, you know what I mean? You lift up the toilet seat and there’s all these well-known faces saying, “Hello! How are you?” So, I was doing the “Clunk-Click” adverts and they said, “Alright, we’ll do a programme called Clunk-Click. What will it be?”. I said, “I don’t know, but we’ll do something”. And I added, “I want some of the people I know, who I bump into all over the country, to come down and I’ll talk to them on TV”.

I frightened the programe-makers to death one day. We’d have a figure who would be sitting there through the programme and talking to me – it was like a guest artiste, but it was an ordinary person. For one edition we didn’t have anyone. So, of course, I went in and said, “I can get one out of the audience”. They said, “Do me a favour, what are you talking about?”. And I swear to you, true story, I walked down into the audience, and they were going, “10, nine, eight,” and I was looking around and I saw this girl. I said, “Come here”. “Five, four,” I sat her down. “Three, two, one”. “Good evening ladies and gentlemen, it’s Clunk-Click, Bob’s your uncle … Now then [to the girl], what’s your name?” This was a girl who was very attractive, and – what was she? – she was a welder working with 700 fellas! Can you believe that? And of course, everybody just went, “Hallelujah. He scared the shit out of us, we had nobody!”.

The party’s over

2011-10-25T01:46:34Z

During the REAL New Zealand Festival, which runs alongside Rugby World Cup 2011, our Jock is roaming the country and blogging about it for the REAL New Zealand Festival Insider blog…

Revellers

Almost everyone was dressed up - French supporters with tricolour wigs, rooster hats, and red, white and blue drapes; Kiwis almost all in black, with silver hats, fern antlers, and enveloped in New Zealand flags. The black T-shirt, with the slogan ‘Keep calm/Piri’s on’, was everywhere. There was a team of people offering elaborate face painting; guitarists playing on every corner; and a juggler was performing high up on top of an elevated bicycle and surrounded by a circle of gawking admirers. People were laughing, ribbing their mates, doing impromptu hakas, and taking endless photos. Queen’s Wharf had already closed; but no-one seemed to mind. There were other places to go and watch the game on the big screen. Aucklanders were partying - and this was before that nail-biting finish gave them something real to celebrate.

A young All Black fan

World Cup 2011 and the REAL New Zealand Festival is now over. I can return to my humdrum life. After six weeks on the road, it is time for a few overall impressions.

One big party: The image which will stick in the mind is of Kiwis learning to party in public. The tradition of public carnivals is not deep in our culture. It used to be said that at the weekend the streets of our cities were so empty that you could fire a cannon down the main street and not hit a soul. On occasions when we did celebrate, such as VE and VJ days at the end of World War 2, people did not know how to behave or hold their drink; and once the kissing of strangers was over there was drunken hooliganism and breaking of windows. But the world cup has taught us how to have fun on the streets. True, the one real crisis of the cup came about at Queen’s Wharf on opening night; but this was simply a reflection of how keen we were to party. Once that crisis was worked through, the organising of the national party - at fanzones and other public places throughout the country was superb. There was plenty of alcohol drunk, but there was little aggro or wanton violence against property. We sang and laughed and danced and cheered. Huge street parties was not how I had imagined the cup; but it is the enduring impression. And this was despite that fact that early spring in New Zealand is never the most pleasant time to be outside at night - five of the first games I attended were in the rain. But it did not stop the music playing.

Good hosts: It may be simply our national insecurity - our desire to be liked. But there is no doubt that New Zealanders went out of their way to help our guests. The ‘Kia ora’s as you entered an exhibition, or the ‘How can I help you?’ which flowed from those wonderful volunteers in their blue uniforms were really appreciated. I spoke to at least 100 overseas fans, and their comments on the ‘warmth’ of the welcome became almost tedious.

Nationalism: If you landed in New Zealand on Sunday and saw the ‘Go All Blacks’ signs on farm gates and suburban fences, and the black flags with silver ferns on cars, you might have worried that a dangerous nationalism had taken hold. ‘Patriotism is’, after all, ‘the last refuge of a scoundrel‘. However, colour aside, this was not the black-shirts nationalism of the fascist state. There were a few ugly asides, such as the petty anti-Australianism, but in general it was a light-hearted nationalism, no more than a pride in the country’s footie team and a deep desire to express our best. Impressively, a love of New Zealand flowered alongside a real effort to learn about other countries. I will not forget the large window display in a New Plymouth store providing a map of Namibia and an interesting caption about its economy and way of life; or the way Napier divided its central city into quarters representing the countries that played there; or Palmerston North’s relabelling of Main St as Romania St and George St as Georgia street and their encouragement to everyone to wear red or yellow buckets.

Dunedin campervans

Campervanners: I had expected that most of the overseas fans would be relatively affluent people, eating in posh restaurants and staying in motels or hotels. From the moment that I checked in at the St Kilda motor camp and saw the huge army of campervans spread out over two football fields I began to realise that most were young, doing it on the cheap and heading for hamburger joints. This was confirmed when I saw vacancy signs at motels on match days at every place I visited, and when I was the recipient of an avalanche of moans from taxi-drivers about their lack of patronage. The profile of the visitors undoubtedly affected their response to the festival. I nearly always discovered a few non-New Zealanders at the exhibitions, concerts and plays I attended. The rugby widows undoubtedly enjoyed the cultural offerings. But the numbers of overseas visitors at such events were not great. Most, quite frankly, were more interested in enjoying fun in the bars with their countrymen. The audience who loved the festival were the locals. So, the achievement of the festival was to give us a richer sense of ourselves.

An outpouring of talent: I never ceased to be amazed at the outpouring of creativity which the cup released and which the REAL New Zealand festival pulled together so brilliantly. Each day when I looked at the festival programme, I was faced by tough mouth-watering choices. The number and range of offerings was deeply impressive. At times this meant that the audience was spread too thin; at times it meant that not everything was done to the same high standard. I would sometimes turn up to see a dance group and find it had been cancelled; or go to an exhibition and find the labels were incorrect or wrongly positioned. But the energy and ingenuity of the offerings, whether it was street theatre or a showcase event, was a constant. An awful lot of New Zealanders had their creative juices flowing over the last year. And as for the food - well, you could not take part in this festival without enjoying some truly delicious tastes.

The Māori response: I had not set out to look for Māori culture in the festival, but time and again this is what I found. I saw a wonderful Māori dance, Te Houhi: The people and the land; a powerful Māori play, I, George Nepia; an ambitious but largely successful opera with kapa haka, Arohanui; several exhibitions on Māori rugby and influential Māori rugby players; and I just loved the way Māori presented their culture in a living way. Whether it was at the Haka exhibition at Hamilton or in the tents at the entrance to Waka Māori, visitors saw tattooing, weaving, carving and kapa haka in action. They were encouraged to eat hangi foods, sing waiata, do a haka. As a Pākehā, I sometimes felt that Pākehā culture, not Māori, was a museum relic!

Best rugby exhibition: I saw too many rugby exhibitions for my own good on this tour, and too many consisted of lengthy texts extolling past heroes along with a collection of tired objects such as old programmes or boots. Because the presentation was always lively and original, and it made a real effort to present rugby as a culture involving many people in the society not just the heroes, the best was ‘Red, Yellow and Black’ at the Waikato Museum.

Best non-rugby exhibition: I loved renewing acquaintance with Len Lye in New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster and Ralph Hotere in Dunedin; but the biggest challenge to my view of the world was in Nelson with George Shaw’s brilliant exhibition on street art, ‘Oi You.’

Best music: The single most affecting musical moment was Kiri Te Kanawa singing alone ‘Pokarekareana’ as a third encoure at her gala concert. It had us all in tears. But for sustained music I loved Annie Crummer’s energetic singing in The Cloud.

Best theatrical experience: This is a tough one, since I saw some brilliant theatre on my tour. I, George Nepia was fascinating and highly relevant; Finding Murdoch was engrossing; and The Earthquake in Chile, which was pitched so perfectly to its Christchurch audience, was one of the most emotionally intense evenings I have spent in my life. But I will never forget the emotional power of Te Houhi. It brilliantly evoked the human tragedy which colonisation brought to parts of this land.

Best match day: Perhaps because they were smaller and the event was more unusual, match day in the provincial centres was something special. New Plymouth was brilliantly organised and the compact entertainment on the waterfront was superb; Napier’s adoption of the Canadian and French teams was done with real charm; the walk to the new stadium at Dunedin was one long drawn-out entertainment; and the pre-match programme in Palmerston North’s Square was most enjoyable; but the match day in Rotorua will live longest in my memory because I was there for an Irish match, and the Irish fans simply have to be seen, and even more heard, to be believed.

Most upsetting moment: This was not when I heard that Dan Carter had hurt his groin, or when the French scored their try in the final. It came when I reached Christchurch’s Bridge of Remembrance, looked through to see the empty macadam where buildings long known to me had once stood and read the sad inscriptions on the wreathes laid against the wire barrier.

It was a moment such as this that put the cup into perspective. It’s great that we have learnt to party in public. The REAL New Zealand Festival was a brilliant showcase of this country’s talent and creativity. It made us all proud to be Kiwis. I feel as if we have been on holiday for six weeks; and have come back home refreshed. But when the party is over…….

I look forward to joining you next time!

YouTube Confirms Plans To Take On Cable With ‘Channels’, Names Dozens Of Partners

2011-10-29T01:01:27Z

YouTube’s ambitions to challenge cable television head-on are getting a big boost tonight: the world’s largest video site is announcing that it’s lined up a slew of new content partners who will be developing shows for the site, covering everything from sports to comedy to music. The news had been rumored for some time, including a report last week in the WSJ.

In a blog post announcing the news, YouTube says its goal with these channels is to “[give] you more reasons to keep coming back again and again”. The post references the so-called “defining channels” born out of cable, like MTV, ESPN, and CNN, and says that the next generation of these will emerge on YouTube.

These channels will start coming online next month (“continuing over the next year”, so some will take a while), and will be available anywhere YouTube is.

There are some big names on the list. But there are still a lot of questions: Will this content really rival the premium production values seen on cable? Will the shows be exclusive to YouTube? And how exactly is YouTube going to tweak the site’s user experience as it looks to shift users from funny cat videos toward these shows (which advertisers will be able to more effectively monetize)?

Here’s a list of content partners that are part of this announcement:

Electus Channel – Pop Culture (name TBD)
PMC PMC Entertainment News
WWE WWE
Young Hollywood Young Hollywood Network
DanceOn DanceOn (Madonna)
Fine Brothers Films MyMusic
Everyday Health, Inc. Everyday Health TV
TakePart™ TakePart™ TV
Digital Broadcasting Group (DBG) Spaces
Uncommon Content Partners The Conversation Channel
Demand Media eHow Home
SB Nation SB Nation
Magical Elves and InStyle magazine Little Black Dress
Hearst Magazines Channel – Fashion & Beauty Channel (name TBD)
Emil Rensing International Channel – Auto (name TBD)
My Damn Channel My Damn Channel: Live
Uncommon Content Partners Taste & Access
Red Bull Media House North America Red Bull
Machinima Machinima
Katalyst Thrash Lab (Ashton Kutcher)
Steve Spangler Science The Spangler Effect
New Nation Networks New Nation Networks
Smart Girls at the Party Smart Girls at the Party (Amy Poehler)
Bedrocket Media Ventures and Full Picture Productions Look TV
BermanBraun theLOGE
The Young Turks Town Square
BermanBraun & Rodale Inc. Vigor
Electus NuevOn – Latin Channel (Sofia Vergara)
Clevver Media ClevverStyle
ModernMom.com ModernMom Channel
Brady Haran DeepSkyVideos
IconicTV 123UnoDosTres
The Wall Street Journal The Wall Street Journal
Pharrell Williams i am OTHER
SoulPancake Productions SoulPancake (Rainn Wilson)
Chopra Media/Generate The Chopra Well (Deepak Chopra)
Clevver Media ClevverNews
The Bowery Presents The Bowery Presents
Clevver Media ClevverTeVe
Seedwell American Hipster
Hearst Magazines Car and Driver Television
Alchemy Networks Alchemy Networks
CafeMom CafeMom Studios
Bedrocket Media Ventures Channel – Comedy (name TBD)
Demand Media LIVESTRONG
Bedrocket Media Ventures Channel – Action Sports (name TBD)
FremantleMedia Channel – Pets & Animal (name TBD)
Big Frame BAM
IconicTV myISH
Electus Channel – Food (name TBD)
Soccer United Marketing & Bedrocket KickTV
Lionsgate Lionsgate Fitness Channel
East of Center Productions LLC YOMYOMF
EQAL u look haute!
Philip Defranco Sourcefed
Meredith Corporation and Meredith Video Studios Digs
Vlogbrothers CrashCourse
Walter Latham Digital Walter Latham’s “Kings of Comedy”
Tony Hawk’s production company, 900 Films, Inc. RIDE Channel
JON M. CHU Channel – Dance (name TBD)
Vuguru & POW! Entertainment Stan Lee’s World of Heroes
FAWN by Michelle Phan Fawn
DECA KinCommunity
Source Interlink Media Motor Trend
The Nerdist Channel The Nerdist Channel
Comedy Shaq Network The Comedy Shaq Network (Shaquille O’Neal)
Demand Media eHow Pets & Animals
Brady Haran numberphile
Cooking Up a Story Food Farmer Earth
Bleacher Report Bleacher Report
TED Conferences TEDEducation
Intelligent Television Intelligent Channel
Pitchfork Pitchfork TV
Vlogbrothers SciShow
EYEBOOGIE POP SPOT
Roadside Entertainment/BAC The NOC
Alli Sports Alli Sports
The Onion Onion Broadcasting Company
VICE VICE
Smosh/Alloy Digital Smosh Animation (name TBD)
VICE Noisey
Knights of Good Productions Geek & Sundry
Mondo Media New Animators
BermanBraun & Rodale Inc. Taste
Varsity Pictures Awesomeness
Black Box TV Black Box TV (Anthony Zuicker, founder of CSI)
IGN Entertainment / Shine Group START
@radical.media Channel – Education (name TBD)
Frederator Networks Channel Frederator’s Cartoon Hangover
monotransistor werevertumorro
Thomson Reuters Reuters.com
Slate Slate News Channel
Maker Studios The Maker Music Network
Maker Studios The Moms’ View
Maker Studios Tutele
Noisey VICE
Iconic Life and Times (Jay-Z)

The 2012 Time Travel Calendar Featuring Notable Time Travel Events

2011-10-28T12:50:29Z

The “2012 Time Travel Calendar” by graphic designer Alex Griendling is a wall calendar that lists 2.6 billion years of notable time travel events from movies, TV shows, comics, and videogames. Griendling is raising funds for the project on Kickstarter.

There are 97 different properties in the calendar. Each one has a unique icon that represents it. Some of these only show up once (Calvin and Hobbes, I’m looking at you), while others show up multiple times (Star Trek, anyone?). All together, there are 155 instances of time travel. Aside from learning about time travel movies you’ve never heard of, it’s always fun to see properties you’re familiar with line up with each other. Did you know that while Marty was saving Doc Brown from Mad Dog Tannen in 1885, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were battling Leatherhead aboard a speeding train? Now you do.

Before and After Photos of 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Destruction Show 6 Months of Speedy Cleanup

2011-10-27T20:10:32Z

These astonishing before and after photos of areas affected by Japan’s devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami show the terrible destruction in the disaster’s immediate aftermath, followed by 6 months of remarkably speedy progress in the cleanup effort. The photos are presented by The Frame, The Sacremento Bee’s photo blog.

thanks to Graeme Wagoner-Lynch for the tip

photos via AP/Kyodo News

Reflections On The Event We Could Not Name

2011-10-27T04:09:00Z

The rugby tournament whose very name may only be used by companies with a commercial relationship with it is over. During the years leading up to the event there had been a presumption that hospitality businesses in New Zealand, and in particular those in cities hosting games, must thrive with the influx of thirsty supporters. Fortunately being in business during two Wellington Sevens tournaments made us wary of such presumptions. We have learned that a number of effects take place during a big event, particularly a sports event:

1. big televised sports events play havoc with our trade. Generally we suffer a net loss.

2. a really big event in Wellington like the Sevens or an All Blacks test might give us a modest boost in takings, although we have to put up with uncertainty, ebbs and flows in trade and, typically, a number of irregular customers who don't understand what sort of a bar they're in.

3. televising overseas sports events, particularly North American ones, has worked better for us than local ones, and we seem to do better from soccer supporters than rugby.

We told ourselves and hoped that international supporters of national rugby sides would be different from the typical Sevens reveller, for whom the quality of the beverages they consume (and perhaps even events on the field) are of low significance. Nevertheless we went into the rugby with some trepidation. We spent a little on some very targeted advertising, had a security guard on a couple of extra nights and rostered extra staff a couple of times.

Seven weeks later our most modest expectations were pretty much correct. But not without some pretty dramatic peaks and troughs. We had some great afternoons when good natured spectators waiting for an evening game in Wellington came in to watch an earlier game on TV. And the quarter finals weekend was hard work but very busy.

When the All Blacks played we lost business except when they played Japan and we were inundated by Japanese supporters.

By the semi-finals weekend it really felt as if the circus had left town. The games were only on TV and people seemed to be watching them at home or at the "fanzone". It seemed as though everyone's apprehension over the All Blacks' fortunes was drawing them into their shells. Our trade collapsed.

Then came the final. In stark contrast to the semi-finals tens of thousands descended on central Wellington - the fanzone filled up, every other bar filled up and by kick off we were swamped by spectators, a high proportion of whom were strays looking for a screen but who barely purchased a thing off us. Later we would find bottle caps for drinks that we definitely don't sell in the bar. When the final whistle blew the strays exited and were replaced by a steady flow of other customers, a high proportion of whom seemed to be drifting from bar to bar as well and struggled to comprehend our product list.

The net result was a record for Sunday trading that I doubt we'll ever break. But it was hard, funless work.

So after seven weeks of raised hopes, targeted advertising, apprehension, tension, hard work, no-shows and occasional packed houses we probably had a boost in takings that just exceeded what we spent chasing it.

It's tempting to have a good old whinge at the people who insinuated that the tournament would make us all rich. Even now the media seem conflicted between reporting the horror stories of suburban restaurants whose business has dried up and the claims of the payments clearing houses saying that tens of millions of extra money has gone through their systems. The fact is that simple logic suggested that a bonanza was on its way. And for a booze barn in the right location in Auckland or Wellington flogging beer in green bottles it probably has been a bonanza. But we almost all overlooked the alternative but suddenly obvious facts, that corporate travel and conventional tourism would dry up and people's angst over the All Blacks' fortunes would inhibit their socialising for weeks.

Fortunately Christmas comes every year and the trading patterns ahead of us should be more predictable. And before Christmas we've got a succession of events of our own design that we think will excite our regular customers.

Speaking personally, my main complaint isn't with the misconception that the tournament would bring a windfall - it's with the absurd legal and commercial protection bestowed on the event's sponsors. The capitalist system is supposed to use competition to drive efficiency. But at events like the Cricket and Rugby World Cups competition only takes place when would-be sponsors bid. Thereafter competition is outlawed and the actual ticket-buying consumers and their cash are directed toward the sponsors' products. And when the sponsor's product is as mediocre as HEINEKEN consumers are being treated with contempt.

In the last few years I've witnessed:

English supporters wearing actual replica shirts at the Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean told to wear them inside out because the shirts carried the logo of a rival to a tournament sponsor.
Children arriving at a Bledisloe Cup game in Hong Kong given toys by an "ambush marketer" on the way to the ground only to have them confiscated at the ground.
Hashigo Zake "inspected" to check that we didn't mention the name of the tournament that we were showing on a TV channel that we pay a commercial subscription for.

Clearly the rights of common or garden spectators, who generally paid a fortune to go to these events, are not being considered. New Zealand's Major Events Management Act is the local manifestation of a bizarre worldwide convention that says that rich corporate sponsors need protection from the random acts of individuals and small businesses.

I think it's time for a bill of rights for spectators at major events and fellow businesses in countries hosting them:

No monopolies at match venues.
Free drinking water
Adequate toilets
Freedom of choice in attire (subject to decency)
Maximum volume for stadium PAs
The right to use the name of any event important enough to have streets closed.

Google+: Popular posts, eye-catching analytics, photo fun and...

2011-10-27T17:07:00Z

We think Google+ should get better every time you use it. It’s not enough to obsess over community feedback (which we do); we also need to surprise and delight you with constant improvements (which we also try and do). Today’s no different, so we’re rolling out four new features in four different areas.

What’s Hot on Google+: see what everyone’s talking about
Google+ users share and receive billions of items every day—on a wide range of topics, in nearly every country. Circles give you a personal lens on all this activity, helping you focus on updates from your family or your favorite celebrities. But sometimes you want to know what the world is so excited about. Whether it’s breaking news or beautiful photos, you just don’t want to miss anything. With this in mind, we’re launching “What’s Hot” on Google+, a new place to visit for interesting and unexpected content:

Google+ Ripples: watch how posts get shared
There’s something deeply satisfying about sharing on Google+, then watching the activity unfold. Comments pour in, notifications light up, friends share with friends (who share with their friends), and in no time at all there’s an entire community around your post. We want to help people re-live those conversations—both to rekindle that initial excitement, and to learn how posts flow across the network. That’s why we’re launching Google+ Ripples: a visualization tool for public shares and comments.

To get started, just find a public post that interests you, and select “View Ripples.” From there you can replay its activity, zoom in on certain events, identify top contributors and much more. Google+ Ripples is still experimental, so let us know how we can make it more informative and more awesome:

Google+ Creative Kit: have more fun with your photos
Nothing tells a story like the perfect picture, so it’s only natural to want to make yours really, really, really, ridiculously good-looking. Unfortunately, photo editing is too often a chore, requiring specialized software and lots of patience. We want to help everyone put their best photo forward, so today we’re introducing the Google+ Creative Kit, a fast and friendly way to make powerful edits to your photos.

Now you can add that vintage feel to your vacation photos. Or sharpen those snapshots from the family barbeque. Or add some text for added personality. With the Creative Kit, all you need is an idea:

Of course: we also think photo editing should be lots of fun. So we’ve added some limited-edition Halloween effects to the Creative Kit, and we’re inviting everyone on Google+ to join a ghoulish (and good-spirited) photo competition.

Through the end of October, simply add some spook to your photos, and share them publicly on Google+ with the hashtag #gplushalloween. We’ll assemble a surprise panel of celebrities, and next Thursday, Nov 3, they’ll announce their favorites. In the meantime, you can see early submissions from community members below. After all: we take our fun very seriously. :-)

From left to right: Larry Page, Sergey Brin (top), Adrian Grenier (bottom), Britney Spears,

Snoop Dogg (top), Felicia Day (bottom), Tyra Banks, Rose McGowan

… Google Apps customers can now use Google+
You’ve been asking for it. I’ve been talking about it. And today we’re excited to make Google+ available to all Google Apps customers worldwide. Visit the Google Enterprise Blog for more details.

We think Google+ should get better every time you use it, and we hope it feels that way today. If ever it doesn’t, we hope you’ll let us know.

Posted by Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Engineering

Derren Brown confounded by ‘mystifying’ insurance renewal trick

2011-10-27T21:01:11Z

Illusionist Derren Brown has admitted to being 'totally hoodwinked' into paying a higher price for reduced cover when he renewed his home insurance - despite never making a claim. Brown claimed the experience left him 'disorientated and embarrassed' but equally with a sense of 'awe and admiration', which is why he's nominated the trick for recognition by the Magic Circle.

Time traveler

2011-10-25T15:33:53Z

via

New Life Member of UPnz

2011-10-26T09:25:56Z

mangee posted a photo:

Ruth is voted in as a life member

The Invisible Mother

2011-10-25T13:01:51Z

‘This was a practice where the mother, often disguised or hiding, often under a spread, holds her baby tightly for the photographer to insure a sharply focused image.’

- The Hidden Mother

…

Thank you to Memorias Perdidas and all the members of The Hidden Mother Flickr Group

Stephen Fry Talks Tolkien with Peter Jackson

2011-10-25T23:22:00Z

The Master of Laketown, Stephen Fry, sits down with Peter Jackson to talk about JRR Tolkien with The Hobbit director Peter Jackson at the Bag End set at the Hobbiton location. In the interview for Fry's "Planet Word" they discuss the language and writing style of Tolkien. If in the UK, can get the BBC stream here or on YouTube (also below). (via TheOneRing)

No 98 – Matthew Kelly

2011-10-26T06:47:15Z

Before Game For a Laugh began, someone high up at LWT said it was going to flop as you couldn’t have an entertainment show starring two men with beards.

In fact it was a huge success and one of those bearded blokes went on to become one of our most popular presenters.

MATTHEW KELLY had actually started off as an actor, appearing alongside the likes of Julie Walters at the legendary Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, before a variety of jobs including a spell as Hylda Baker’s mute sidekick and a couple of sitcoms like Holding The Fort.

Here he stood out thanks to his camp manner and his massive height and appeared on Punchlines, impressing producer Alan Boyd so much he was invited to join the team on Game For a Laugh.

He certainly made an impact in series one as he broke his leg before it and spent the entire run in plaster, but his “naughty boy” approach was hugely popular with the audience and when he decided to leave in 1983, both Henry Kelly and Sarah Kennedy decided he was so important to the mix they didn’t want to do it without him.

His huge appeal among kids also saw him installed as the first presenter of Children’s ITV and a couple of other kids shows including Madabout:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mmn8sUOGQDI

Later in the eighties it got a bit quiet, however, but things perked up in the nineties, first when he replaced Brucie on You Bet, but then massively when he replaced Leslie Crowther on Stars in Their Eyes.

This was initially only a temporary measure as Crowther was in poor health but he was never well enough to return and Kelly got the gig full time -- and he was brilliant at it. Why it worked was because of Kelly’s wonderfully warm manner, treating the contestants with absolute respect, always referring to them without irony as “star guests” and clearly being absolutely thrilled for them.

At a time when light entertainment was getting nastier, it was truly refreshing to see a man being really nice to people -- a much underrated skill. Unfortunately for Matthew he was then investigated over some lurid allegations, of which he was found completely innocent, but the press coverage led to him getting a bit fed up with showbiz, so he gave up his light entertainment roles and went back to his first love of acting, where he’s landed some major roles in large productions and enjoyed much critical acclaim.

But with some of the “stars” of Saturday night telly at the moment, it’s a shame this thoroughly likeable man isn’t livening up a torpid format.

THE DEFINING ROLE: Game For a Laugh was a big hit, but we don’t think he’s ever topped Stars in Their Eyes because he was such a bloody nice bloke on it.

Flailing

2011-10-26T06:29:23Z

Here is some unusual advice for people working on a start-up, or thinking about it: swim.

Most people think they can swim, because they had some lessons when they were a kid and perhaps spend time at the beach every summer.

But, I’m not talking about a cheeky length of the hotel pool before a session in the spa or a refreshing dip off the side of a yacht.

Swim a long distance in open water. Say a kilometer or two.

(e.g. if you’re in Wellington, imagine starting at Freyberg beach and swimming around the lighthouse at the point – that’s 2.4km).

It will teach you a lot about your venture and about yourself.

Swimming for any length of time requires technique. You can have all the strength and fitness in the world, but without good technique most of your exertion is going to be completely wasted. The best swimmers are the ones who get the most forward motion out of each stroke. But, even then, a world-class swimmer is only about 9% mechanically efficient (that is, 9 out of 100 calories expended produce forward motion). For somebody like you or me it’s probably more like 3%. So, small improvements in technique can produce significant improvements in performance.

You also need to stay calm. The combination of getting physically tired and needing to spend the majority of time holding your breath with your head under water can quickly cause swimmers to panic and lose their form. This is accentuated when your swimming in close quarters with others (what triathletes call “the washing machine”).

To swim a long distance you need to relax and take the time to breath properly. Unlike swimming in a pool there is no black line to follow. You need to set your own course, and that means you need to stick your head up on a regular basis and some fixed landmarks to aim at.

Last but not least, it helps if you can swim with the tide rather than against it.

Likewise with your start-up…

You can have a superstar team and a big bank balance, but you still need to work out how to spend your time and money on things that make customers happy and actually grow your sales, otherwise you’ll just be flailing. To start with just about everything you do will be horribly inefficient, so you need to quickly determine what is working and what is wastage and focus your energy where it makes a difference. An empirical and analytical approach to this keeps you humble.

The pressure of working on a start-up can be all encompassing – you’re often pulled in many directions at once, and need to do everything yourself. In those situations it’s even more important that you stay calm and keep focussed on the things that you have decided help you, rather than getting distracted by the noise all around you. The winners are often not those who make the biggest splash.

Take time to think about what you’re doing, what you’re not doing and what you could do differently. Be honest about what’s working and what’s not. Consciously choose a direction and go at it. Be careful that you’re not just blindly following somebody else, who may or may not be heading most directly to where you want to be.

And, remember, a positive industry or technology shift to push you along, such as the move towards mobile or software-as-a-service, can help accelerate your venture just as much, if not more, than any of the things you do yourself.

Keep your arms turning over and keep breathing.

And enjoy it!

Filed under: Business, Startups

Funny New Zealand Drinking And Driving Advertisement

2011-10-25T22:47:09Z

Many drunk driving PSAs carry a boat load of shock value in order to scare people from getting in the car, such as the Australian commercial found here [GRAPHIC]. This lighthearted ad from New Zealand uses humor to shed light on on the positive outcome when you help prevent people around you from driving inebriated.

via reddit.com

Google Reader + Iran

2011-10-26T05:32:23Z

Alex Kessinger makes some good points about Google and Google Reader — including one that surprised me: Google Reader is big in Iran because it’s hard for the authorities to block.