Mike Riversdale

On ya James for finding this Penn and Teller snip of an alien abductee: [1-Dec-2024: This video is no longer available]

I reiterate the original posters heading: I cant say this has been fact checked. It hasnt. I cant say its 100 pct accurate, I dont know. But it rings true, and as I said, I trust the source ... but still, read on as it's fascinating stuff: Some intimate details on the Google YouTube Deal

Recently I've had: breastfeed animal sex (and various alternatives too yuk to share with you) crap talker false boobs "des mangan" +prick netball skirt broke teddy bears bottles scientology photo's of swimsuits the omd singles blogspot naked soccer goals cams in mens urinals morris oxford screensaver photo of w.c and girl sex free birg porn movies pictures of boys testacles lick my fucking knickers you wanker hoyts humping each other All do find a page sort of related ... never in an icky way, believe me. I was gonna try and be all clever and humorous about this wee selection but I feel a wee bit grubby and shall slope off to have a shower and a lie down with a good, clean and innocent book. Or maybe listen/watch something relaxing like the new Fat Freddy's DVD, Fantastic Voyages Vol. 1 (out Nov 13th, thanks NZMusic.com for the heads-up ): Have a grand rest of the day everyone.

Well, NZ (Wellington) really but it just has a much nicer ring to it with "USA" Agencies are a bit quieter this week and will rark them up tomorrow. The people I know around town though seem to be coming through with great guns (and jobs, more importantly) and I am forever grateful and surprised when I get a call/email out of the blue introducing me to yet another organisation. I suspect that I might be gainfully employed by the end of this week - can everyone sit in a quiet place and meditate positively on that prospect for a few minutes ... thanks. I'm actually out at Plimmerton with Emma for the week which is very restful (no, I/we don't want to move 'up the coast' just yet ... but that time may come, probably will). She has a glorious laptop with a wide screen, great view AND a free wireless connection. Well, she has a free wireless connection after I checked to see what's out there and found one that didn't ask for login credentials. So, to whoeve...

Found this via the official Google blog where they state they're willing to "help compensate these independent producers for their creativity" ... sweeeeeet, more useless guy stuff about to flood into Google video. The guys from EepyBird are back, with 251 bottles of Diet Coke and over 1,500 Mentos mints. In Experiment #137, they did a mint-powered version of the Bellagio fountains. This time, it's one giant Coke & Mentos chain reaction that has to be seen to be believed.

"targetting" - such an agressive word to be using around such objects

We went with Emma (Mindi was doing other things) to the National Aquarium in Plymouth and one of the little dudes we saw was, of course, Nemo (or Marlin)

Integrated/inbuilt spell checker that seems to be as good as any other you've used. Every form you fill-in is automatically spell checked with unknown/incorrect words underlined with the red squiggly line we all know and love from Microsoft Word. I'm using it now posting this ... it's made life so much easier! Do it, forget about the other browser , Firefox is already here and ahead - download and install

Many apologies for the lack of postings ... once I have a job and a settled home I'll be back into to it with a new blog (don't worry, you won't have to do a thing) and loads of malarkey you never wanted to know. Last week was a flight to Wellington (one of the last before the airport was shut due to bad weather/high winds ... welcome home Mike!) to hawk my body around the IT agencies in town . I also managed to catch up with mates and even get a few intro's to work people that might be able to help out (and I might be able to help them out). It was knackering ... but I'm glad I did it. The salary range has raised from what I was on in Wellington substantially (settled to around $100k+/year for permanent or around $75+/hour for contract). I even had an actual interview on Wednesday ... So, back to the family-in-holding down in Christchurch, spent a pleasant weekend with them before flying back up for a full week of job hunting, meeting people and the like. Wish me ...

Don't tell me how it ends as I've been falling asleep to it in Wellington library  (life is cool) ... that's not a bad thing, it's like having a cat on your lap, I'm home and it is very comfortable. Mind you the 2nd book got me in to Wellington airport that last Monday without screaming like an 11-month-old and/or a Kunikuni ... I was totally absorbed and only noticed we had landed when I head *ping*, "Welcome to Wellington airport blah blah blah ..." But man, it's a great trilogy , and about to be a movie ... read it first, truly, it's book first unlike Harry Potter which is both a movie and a book ... read the Dark Materials BEFORE seeing the movie ... but don't tell me what happens ...    

... there seems to be this"thing" about them that is very reminiscent of Microsoft 5 years ago and, if you're old enough about, IBM , ... the 'thing' is what we're being told by the experts (ie, ICT/computer/geek people that make it on to TV/radio/print): "they will make it easier and life better for us" ... bollocks, Google is just a software company and not actually of any use to us really. Weeeell, ok, they get bits and bites/bits/ bytes (huh?) shifting around the world quicker ... and ... so ... what ... look around, when does "knowing" something actually that good, when was "knowing" stuff been useful ... (outside of school - ie, in NZ, after 17/18-yrs-old ... ). Useful is WHO you know. So Google's historical mission statements (10 of them) are, nice, useful, pointless, 'something your parents would say', a nice Star Trek phrase ... to my mind it's a wee bit like something a Government agency would promo...

Found MyBlogLog: Adding Community To Blogs on Richards site so I thought I'd give it a go ... not sure how useful it'll be but what the heck ...

All Blacks squad for European tour announced: John Afoa, Auckland Dan Carter, Canterbury Jerry Collins, Wellington Clarke Dermody, Southland Jason Eaton, Taranaki Andy Ellis, Canterbury Nick Evans, Otago Rico Gear, Tasman Carl Hayman, Otago Andrew Hore, Taranaki Chris Jack, Tasman Byron Kelleher, Waikato Luke McAlister, North Harbour Richie McCaw, Canterbury (Captain) Leon MacDonald, Canterbury Chris Masoe, Wellington Aaron Mauger, Canterbury Keven Mealamu, Auckland Malili Muliaina, Waikato Ma’a Nonu, Wellington Anton Oliver, Otago Keith Robinson, Waikato Josevata Rokocoko, Auckland James Ryan, Otago Sitiveni Sivivatu, Waikato Conrad Smith, Wellington Rodney So’oialo, Wellington Reuben Thorne, Canterbury Neemia Tialata, Wellington Piri Weepu, Wellington Ali Williams, Auckland Tony Woodcock, North Harbour Player regional distribution out of a squad of 32 Wellington : 7 Canterbury : 6 Auckland : 4 Otago : 4 Waikato : 4 Taranaki : 2 Tasman : 2 North Harbour : 2 Southland : 1 North Island...

It's good to be back for the Vodafone Wellington Lions v Waikato final - gonna have a few beers, kick back and forget about getting a job.

As you might know from my life online I use Netvibes as my one-stop-shop for everything, think of it as my online desktop (other phrases to bandy around are "home page" and "start pages"). Anywho, apart from the ' What do they do? ' and 'What else does it?' type answers over at Richards most excellent Read/Write Web blog , Netvibes themselves have stumbled upon a wonderful 'How to set up Netvibes' step-by-step manual: masey » toolbox » web essentials » netvibes.com ( mirror at Netvibes )

"Oh shit, look what I've done," he finally muttered to his guests, according to Ms Ephron, before adding, "Thank God it was me". Billionaire puts elbow through priceless Picasso - 19 Oct 2006 - World News

Italy and Romania have both qualified and will be playing in Group C, the All Black group as it's affectionately known here. Get the latest with my World Cup calendar (and subscribe in many fabulous ways - RSS , iCal ...)

And all that jazz. Liz has packed everything. I am about to start on my clothes. The email "out of office" notification has been setup. Final farewells to the family friends last night (during which I had a phone interview from Wellington, fingers crossed). We leave tomorrow (Thu, UK time) for Singapore, 2 days chilling out in the 30' heat and humidity before getting one another Singapore Air flight to Christchurch to arrive Monday morning. Sit and be (and wake up at odd hours) before I get on a plane to Wellington so I can meet, interview, shake hands, catch-up and generally work my butt off to get a job before the weekend arrives!

So, Writely (online document creation and collaboration) is no more and Google roll out Google Docs & Spreadsheets bringing together documents and spreadsheets. As I use iRows for spreadsheets I can't tell you how good that side is (although the argument to keep them separate will be interesting as I progress life online). My initial views are - nicer, cleaner and very "Google". Some have wondered where the bells and whistles are but, as a user, I don't really want them and am happy being able to create, share and publish - that's probably two extra "bells and whistles" if you're from a pure PC background. Oh ... and did ya hear that Google bought YouTube for US$1.65bn ... crickey. I agree with the thinking that video will be the next big thing via the Web as more and more have broadband and digital TV's - it's the way of the future guys and gals. Um, what now happens to Google Video ? And one last thingy about Google and online stuff...

Taken at the Monmouthshire Show end of August - this is a classic example of Megs laff and smile

Once a year the collection of weird and wonderful (and wacky to complete the well worn phrase) science projects being funded out of your pocket (one way or another) are celebrated - here's a review of this years: Ig Nobel prizes hail 'digital rectal massage' (New Scientist ) And this is pretty amazing.

      Still suffering ... but what a night!

Nice one of the girls

Gale, snow warnings in place for central North Island - 05 Oct 2006 - National News

Last Sunday the whole fandambily headed off to the Blake Theatre here in Monmouth to join around 500 others to be entertained by Julia Donaldson whilst she read and sang stories from her brilliant kids books. If you know nothing of her work and have children aged between oooh, 1 and 6-7 then you really are in for a treat, especially those that are illustrated by Axel Scheffler ( A Squash and a Squeeze , The Gruffalo , Room on the Broom and many more ... ). It wasn't just her, she had her hubby playing the guitar and acting out the parts and her sister shifting kids around on stage and making sure all the pieces were in the right place. It was oodles of fun and Whilst I shouldn't have (as I was told during the show) I managed to take a bunch of photo's and even a wee bit of video - photo's to be uploaded sometime soonish. AND, the best bit for those that live in Aotearoa - Mum/Nanna queued to get a few of Jack/Meg's books signed and Julia (first name basis alre...

Was cool to see that Bic was coming here and I did wonder if we could go along but we had two mates to entertain. In fact, we were sat in the local and a whole stack of people bowled in around 10:30pm buzzing so I suspect that was the after gig crowd ... didn't see Bic but there are quite a few pubs in Monmouth IF she's at all interested in that sort of thing.

I just love this, Women more likely to breed office discontent (Stuff, 28-Sep-2006) , sort of dodgy research that people read once in their lives and regurgitate for ever and ever. As we all know, Stuff are infamous for taking down their articles after a short time so here's the article in full - I have highlighted my favourite lines that I will be using in offices from time to time: Women more likely to breed office discontent 28 September 2006 By CLAIRE BARRY Women are more likely than men to breed discontent and ill-feeling in the workplace, a study into workplace relations has found. Auckland University of Technology psychologist Rachel Morrison said both sexes valued their colleagues, but used them in different ways. "Men usually bond when things are going well, whereas for women it's almost the opposite." Her research, to be presented to joint conference of New Zealand and Australian psychologists in Auckland today, says women were more guilty of spreading work...

Darwinian Evolution: When blogs collide ... nice picture ;-)

Whilst you're welcome to check out these links they're more for me - make comments if you want - other links or views from people in the know are always gratefully received. Knowledge not process- can speed up process to a degree, no change to the "how it's done". Loads taken from: Building a Knowledge-Driven Organization by Robert H Buckman (ISBN: 0-07-138471-5) Trust - very important Fast Company Strategy as if Knowledge Mattered Managing Codified Knowledge The Analysis of Knowledge What’s more important to business success — information or knowledge? Working Knowledge: Reading Summaries Cultural Change/threat Change from 'info guardians' to 'knowledge shareers' - different way of working. Perceived loss of "power/influence". Especially prevalent in "middle management". Change to "IT" departments required. Encourage the flow of knowledge One-step transmission (get rid of Chinese whispers) Universal access - techno...

And this is from the phone taken ages ago (July):