Mike Riversdale

[Updated] FooCamp (also known as Kiwi Foo and Baaa Camp) is hosting Kim Hill's Saturday morning National Radio show - so listen in and you'll definitely hear the "organised chaos" but maybe me. Listen live: AM/FM or via the Internet Kim Hill's Saturday Morning page Whilst I am away in Warkworth on FooCamp I am sure that Wellington will be pumping this weekend and the NZ Sevens will, according to Titch , "do well". Hadyn has published the following cracking wellingtonista guides: How to survive the Sevens: a guide for non-attendees How to survive the Sevens: a guide for attendees Note the pictures used in both Wellingtonista postings and here come from my 2006 Sevens experience (and here ).

Flickr: Wellington is more than just a Group

Much like my RSS feed cull mid last year it's time to remove the chaff from the wheat. Ruthless, aren't I!

Original posting at: Wellingtonista - Wellington social networker going for US$1m -------------- Sometimes, just sometimes, there is an actual reason to joining the plethora of social networking sites springing up like weeds. Facebook has led a few long forgotten friends towards Wellingtonista Towers, Bebo has managed to keep the family in touch for some of us young 'uns and Flickr supplies the best Wellington photos being taken by you all. But how many have joined up a social networking site to be greeted with, "Be in to win US$1m" ... not I but Chiaradina has. Chiaradina , a proud new comer to Wellington, is in the running for US$1m ($1,000,000) from the Kiwi developed iYomu . Of course I could leave you with a link for you to sign-up and vote but that would be boring. getting a share of $30,000 for yourself is the not so boring part! Chiaradina and Eduard (her partner in crime and camera) are not being boring. They are using the challenge to film some awesome Welling...

 

First there was Trade Me and now Yahoo! Groups has fallen into the same old trap It's either 'new' and therefore wasn't around previously to be improved upon. Or it's 'improved' based upon an older version and therefore can't be 'new' Mutually distinct options: New Improved Newly improved

Whilst I know the rest of the world is focused on the Aussie actor Heath Ledger and most Kiwis have only just stopped talking about Sir Ed Hillary for me the news that George MacDonald Fraser has recently died * has made me a wee bit sad. Fraser was a writer of both books and films . His most famous film is probably Bond's Octopussy . For me he gave the wondrous would of Flashman and for years I have been waiting on the latest exploits of this cad from the 19th century based (very) loosely on the bounder in, Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857) If you're stuck for a read, want a ripping good yarn that has our anti-hero shagging all the gals , cheating, stealing and generally be a thoroughly rotten egg during the 19th century's finest historical moments (you'll actually learn stuff as well) pick up Flashman (1969 - buy it from Amazon ), the first in the series of 12, and have yourself a rocking good time. * Fraser actually died on 2nd January. Thanks for me old mate ...

Boxing Day 2007 was a gathering that included TV, great food, beer/wine, family, gossip, laughter, ducks, a little rain and generally lots of relaxation - thanks Jane for hosting us all!

After a brief blast of Yuletide/Willowbank photos I've then gone very quiet - sorry, life has been VERY busy! Here we go ... Christmas Day 2007 Bit disappointed here as we didn't get any photos of Jack and Meg's wide open eyes as they woke us up with the news "Santa's been!!" and when they opened their presents from under the tree.

Discovered this photo of "C 1848, HII Region in Cassiopeia" during a StumbleUpon session and it is brilliant as the background on your PC/computer - give it a go and you'll see what I mean Click for the full version, wait for it to load and then right-click on the photo - somewhere in the menu that appeared will be something like 'Set this as desktop background' or words to that effect. Technical Details: Object(s): IC 1848, HII Region in Cassiopeia Observing Site: Azor Observatory, Las Rozas, Madrid,Spain Date: Data acquired between October 7 and November 7, 2007 Camera: SBIG STL-11000M @ -20ºC Telescope: ASA N10 Astrograph @ f/3.6, Losmandy G-11 mount Filters: Astrodon 6nm H alpha, SII and OIII Exposure: Ha 480 minutes, OIII 300 minutes, SII 300 minutes (30 min subs) Processing Software: Maxim DL, Photoshop Comments: HST palette, shown at 50% size

[3-Dec-2024: The video service no onger exists]

... smelling the air after fireworks have exploded? Show all | explain this

Loads more at Interesting and Funny World where these appeared in the feed reader :

I do - and that's why I am supporting my mate and his friend, Chiaradina , in her iYomi bid for US1,000,000. This from Ed's Making money - the Web 2.0 style post: I know I know - Web 2.0 is so last year and we’re already on the verge of 3.0 etc BUT I currently see first hand how Chiaradina uses it effectively to promote her message to a huge audience! She is one of the very few remaining contestants in iYomu’s 1 Million Dollar Challenge (think of the TV show Survivor on the Internet). iYomu is one of the social networking sites around and apparently chose to spend investors’ money to provide incentive for their users to go out and attract more and more users. To win this challenge she needs to have the most supporters voting for her every week. By creating videos to spread the word and attract people to vote for her we have spent the weekend doing all sorts of very 2.0 stuff - including our very first YouTube videos - and may I say we had heaps of fun 😁 ! Have a look at t...

Thanks Spare Room . Statue Funeral (11am) on TV and radio tomorrow

Craft2.0 ( blog ) next event at TheNewDowse is Saturday March 22nd, 11am-3pm Craft2.0 returns March 22nd with an easter craft-o-rama featuring 60+ artists, crafters, and designers from Wellington and beyond they'll be showing off their latest and greatest D.I.Y. wares for your handmade-shopping pleasure! Craft2.0 with TheNewDowse continues to support and influence the handmade revolution we hand pick the most unique and talented crafters making the very best in handmade gifts and wares. Craft2.0 runs from 11am-3pm free gift bags to the first 50 adults and badges for the first 50 kids through the door at 11am Add to your calendar by pushing this 

Webstock 2008 (11th-15th February, Wellington) celebrates everything that is fine and good about the Web (1.0-2.0+) and as such is an active user of all the grand Web apps out there. For instance they are running a Flickr Group, Webstock 2008 Photo Exhibition: Freedom , from which will be culled a series of prints to peruse during the proceedings - more at my previous blog posting, Webstock the Photo Exhibition. Whilst I have entered a number of photos culled from the 19,500 or so we have online I also wanna let you show you these fine examples of "Freedom from English" I discovered on the box of a rather cheap and nasty toy Santa left in one of the kids stocking (*ahem*)

A friend of mine was always saying, "God, I wish there was a line on the road from my house to [destination] that I could follow and then I'd never get lost all the bloody time!" Well, it's not on the road it's suspended in the air like a cable - but it's yours to follow from here to there. Of course it's all done with the magic of computers from Virtual Cable ! [1-Dec-2024: Video is no longer available] Thanks to Rowan for his posting . BTW: If you're not subscribed to Rowan's blog then, you should be. He writes succinctly, honestly and with a smile about about cool, interesting things that appeal to virtually everyone. And I really should get around to posting about the Trade Me Manifesto just awesome!

I mean it's nice and everything but it's just a house in the city ... isn't it? (thanks Martha )

Full deal and bigger picture at The Dropkicks ...

Click to get the full voucher size ... [ 18-Nov-2024: Who knows what that voucher looked like]

Original posted at the wellingtonista - Are we a modern city? ------------------ Case in point ... why do we not have broadband access to everyone in the (wider) city? This from Singapore : Singapore gets free wireless connectivity with Wireless@SG while no one gets left behind in the digital revolution. Find out about how the Singapore Government is reaching out to more Singaporeans and equipping everyone to take full advantage of the digital opportunities that are opening up. So why don't we do that? Is it a case, as some think (in the comments) , that the Government should stay out of providing infrastructure and leave it to the private industry (to which I assume they are referring to Telecom or TelstraClear)? To be fair the Council is doing something about it - read their broadband plan Wellington City Councillors have agreed to a vision that could see affordable, high-speed broadband access throughout the city by 2012. But we all know how fast technology moves (have you seen ...

Just look at these pictures. Look! Aren't they incredible ... and all totally and utterly made out of food. Found these at the BBC via Bad Language blog - there are more, go see the full BBC set . Incredibly, everything you see in this image can be found in the kitchen. Photographer Carl Warner has painstakingly captured all kinds of food in a series of still lifes. The red sky at night in this landscape is actually made from salmon. The beautiful pea-green boat wouldn't be out of place in Edward Lear's nonsense poem, 'The Owl and The Pussycat'. A winter landscape for carnivores - Parma ham and breadsticks are fashioned into a sled which is pulled across a snow-covered road made from a selection of cold meats. Edible ingredients in this Italian-inspired rural scene include a lasagne cart, fields of pasta, a pine nut wall, mozzarella clouds, trees of peppers and chillies and a parmesan village.

Spire Framed by Winter Originally uploaded by Stuart's Photos . Changed the PC/computer wallpaper again - too many great photos coming through. That's it for at least 2 weeks. This is my home town, Monmouth in Wales ... nice eh!

BTW: these cross-postings will stop once I update the MiramarMike template to the new Blogger way of doing things which will mean I can just stick the 'Enterprise 2.0 New Zealand style' blog feed into the side panel. Until then, cross-posting it is ... 3 reasons to read this blog With a new blog there is always the tendency to plough on in and just start posting up thoughts, links and the odd video without letting the readers know why, what the relevancy it all has to them and the underlying reasons for subscribing to this blog. 1: Full coverage I find that many ICT blogs tend to stick with one niche area such as a particular vendor product or a type of programming language/methodology but the blogs that float to the top of the pile give you the whole picture. Within a sphere of making information available, findable and usable within organisations using the bigger picture elements of Web 2.0* this blog will cover the following 3 key areas: read the full article >

Breathtaking coastline of Wales Originally uploaded by Bēn . New wallpaper ... just caught my eye and love it!

About Mike Riversdale I (Mike Riversdale, aka Miramar Mike) have worked all my professional life alongside users of information with my work with software vendors (Business Objects, Sydney), New Zealand government agencies (Department of Corrections, Ministry of Health, Christchurch City Council), charitable organisations (skylight) and private/public companies (Fronde, Etam). My focus is always on the real users and their information demands - I have been called the "people's poet"! Read the full article > Prediction of the year has already come true ... back in the 1950's I made the following prediction over at ReadWriteWeb : 3. The USA Election will change the way politics in that country is fought with the Internet (Web) becoming the primary battle ground. The fall out from this will be substantial and I suspect YouTube/Google will do very well out of it. And through my eclectic list of feeds I scan each day this popped through from Modern Mechanix, TELEVISION ...

As you know , Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10, if you must know) comes with Compiz which gives you all manner of desktop eye candy but it's a bit of a pain to find out how to use them. Loads of advice about how to turn them on etc but then how do you rotate the cube? Let me tell you ... First you need to turn on the effects you want and that's a two step process: Tell Ubuntu to use the fancy effects System -> Preferences -> Appearance Visual Effects tab Custom Tell Compiz which effects to us e System -> Preferences -> Advanced Desktop Effects Settings Choose away to merry hearts content ( Forlong's blog posting is a good read to help) Some aren't that obvious until you try them - I suggest an evenings playing to find the ones that make you smile. I love the Cube (with reflections), Shift Switcher and Expo - try them to see how brilliant they are. And when you do try all this cool stuff think back to the old Windows XP days and wonder at how basic and very out...

Sir Edmund Hillary dies at 88 (and all reports all over the world ) There's gonna be some mourning, state funeral and loads of tributes and retrospectives. RIP Sir Ed

"Sit back, relax ... or lean forward all twisted up, the choice is really yours"

You may have heard me say that I rate the His Dark Materials trilogy as one of the finest pieces of fiction I have ever been privileged to read and that it's only a small step behind The Lord Of The Rings as my top read of all time (so far). The reason that both these works (and they are works, not merely books) rate so highly is with the depth the writers place within them. LOTR is famously steeped in worldly detail - detail of Middle Earth that is - both in its descriptions of its present but how its own history and mythology seep into the current story. His Dark Materials also has a "descriptive" layer (not quite LOTR) but it's true depth comes from Philip Pullman's philosophy of 'who we are' and his subtle insistence that we should open our minds to the big questions of life. It is a trilogy that can never been fully appreciated in one read as the questions it asks of us become fuller, closer and scarier each time. For a background on the themes an...

And a "Kiwi scientist" is boosting the theory ... maybe that's because Kiwi's are actually system control parameters and are here to control the madness of the other programs let loose in this 'virtual reality' that we exist within. Oh, and I'm convinced that we're a very early release. Full article at Computerworld: NZ scientist boosts "universe as virtual reality" theory - here's a snifter to get your mind racing: Massey University scientist Brian Whitworth has attracted international attention with a paper he wrote suggesting physicists should explore the idea our universe is a giant virtual reality simulation. Whitworth says the idea, that " the world is an information simulation running on a three-dimensional space-time screen" , is no more weird than many in physics and could lead to interesting new paths for research and could offer explanations to complex problems.

Just caught the end of the C4 documentary The History Of Heavy Metal which is taking me through a time warp back to the music I grew up with. Not the music my parents had in the house but the music I went out to buy, dress up as and go to concerts to see. The band names are everyone I still have LPs/tapes of - Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Twisted Sister, Motorhead, Def Leppard ... I love it and so will you, bang ya head to this me old muckers! [19-Nov-2024: This isn't the original YT video, but heck it'll do!]

I have just sent the following through to Kerry Prendergast (Mayor) and Ray Ahipene-Mercer (Portfolio Leader: Climate Change + my local councillor) - I will keep you informed of any progress and if it's nothing in a weeks time I will send it again to all the councillors. Of course, don't hold back on emailing them yourselves to ask them to support Wellington and Earth Hour! [Updated 10-Jan-2008: 2:37pm] Auto-response (I suspect) from PA as Kerry is on hols - stuck the response after the email. ------------- To: kerry.prendergast@wcc.govt.nz , ray.ahipene-mercer@wcc.govt.nz Date: Jan 10, 2008 2:27 PM Subject: Is Wellington going to be part of the Earth Hour 2008 alongside Sydney, Chicago, Copenhagen and many other cities? As a Wellington citizen (Miramar) I believe the Wellington City Council should actively participate in and promote this year's Earth Hour environmental event at 8pm, Saturday March 29th (details: http://www.earthhour.org and all around the world). Ca...

In fact turn everything you can off! Earth Hour 2008 In essence, fvck the politicians, the rambling NGO's and the corporates with their ulterior $ motives. Let's make a difference ourselves - I will be reminding you closer to the date :-) Last year it was just in Sydney, this year it's all over the world ... a travelling band of "lights out" at 8pm, Saturday 29th It started with a question: How can we inspire people to take action on climate change? The answer: Ask the people of Sydney to turn off their lights for one hour. On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour. This massive collective effort reduced Sydney’s energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for one hour. With Sydney icons like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House turning their lights off, and unique events such as weddings by candlelight, the world took notice. Inspi...

Dan has saved me previous typing time by getting inside my head and writing my Golden Compass review for me, right down to the "partner's thoughts" - enjoy this from his mighty Funeral & Snakes movie review blog : Keen-eyed readers will remember that a year ago I nominated The Golden Compass as my most-eagerly-awaited title of 2007. So, how did it pan out? I’m one of those who consider Philip Pulman’s His Dark Materials books to be the most important works of fiction produced in the last 20 years and I was surprised at how closely the film followed Book One (Northern Lights), possibly to it’s detriment. I was worried that a film with much exposition and detailed scene-setting might prove unwatchable but my companion (unfamiliar with the books) found it thrilling whereas I found it hard to let myself go and relax into it - maybe second time around.

On him, very funny and totally out there for taking the piss out of himself! Cameo's from Bono to Hilary Clinton and many others - nice! Found at Presentation Zen: Bill Gates "rocks" CES Enjoy this, from the man that "just doesn't believe in paying more than $7 for a haircut" [1-Dec-2024: This video is no longer available]

Presumably having the Google car trundling around taking it's street view pictures means they will update Google Earth/Maps with the new "bypass" . [18-Nov-2024: Damn, that photo is long gone] Google Street View spotted in Wellington by the ProjectX dudes (their picture) with others seeing one in Christchurch and no doubt Auckland is also being photographed. Other sightings - this could get bigger than Beckham ;-) Bevan's blog: Google camera-car detail B's picture on Picasa

Enterprise 2.0 New Zealand style blog posting - Webstock 8x5 - come along and hear my 5 minutes of February fame As you know I have a humane mission to assist IT Departments in New Zealand get up to speed with Enterprise 2.0 whilst getting them out of the way of the work that actual business people want to perform. Not all IT Departments are "in the way", but a lot are. Mike and his team at Webstock have kindly given me one of the 8x5 slots (8 people, 5 minutes) at this years event ( Feb 11th-15th , conference proper is Thu 14th/Fri 15th at the Wellington Town Hall) in order to give you all pointers so that you may decide which IT Department type you have. I'll be speaking Friday in the 2:20-3:10pm '8x5' session. Here's what they say about me: ... read on >

The Wellingtonista has a calendar of events that we think you really REALLY want to know about. We also know that you want this vital information delivered into your own calendar - easy peasy. 6 steps to adding the Wellingtonista to your Google Calendar Go to your Google Calendar ( http://calendar.google.com ) Click the 'Manage calendars' link - bottom left of the current calendar list (which might only be one, yours) Click the 'Add calendar' button - bottom of the list of current "Other calendars" Make sure you're in the "Search Public Calendars" tab Enter wellingtonista and push the 'Search' button There it is - click the 'Add Calendar' button How to add to other calendar systems If you are lucky enough to be running an iCal ( hu h?) calendar system, such as Microsoft Office 2007+, you can subscribe to our Wellingtonista Google Calendar iCal feed Finally, there is an RSS feed of the calendar events. I don't think th...

As you may have noticed I was having apostrophe issues together with a limited use of speech marks but that's all sorted thanks to the wonderful people at Ubuntu Forum (plus a little tweaking of my own). I am now the proud user of a Dell 101-kley PC keyboard in U.S. English Macintosh layout. Who knew that would be solution!? No more ´ or ¨, I can now ' and " with the best of them!

wales january 2008 107 Originally uploaded by lesrogerson . Something relaxing from Wales. And I can't call it my ¨PC¨ wallpaper any more as it doesn't feel like a PC but a real computer ;-)

Enterprise 2.0 New Zealand style blog posting - Storing your information in the cloud - it´s coming There are quite a few of my family, friends and colleagues that think I am mad as a hatter to store all my information (all that becomes electronic at least) in the cloud (i.e., on the Internet). For instance I am currently uploading to Flickr all of the Yuletide photos and, as they are successfully stored online, I delete the surplus copy stored on my PC. That means there is only one copy of the photo in existence, the one on Flickr. Scary stuff? Nope. ... read on ->

Found at The Bible According To Google Earth article, I quote: It’s the work of Sydney-based “creative collective” The Glue Society . The project was commissioned by Eric Romano of Pulse Art, New York for its Miami art fair . Romano had seen the group’s Hot with a Chance of a Late Storm installation (below), a comment on global warming in which a melting ice cream van oozed across the promenade and onto the sand at Tamarama in Australia last year as part of Sydney’s Sculpture by the Sea event, and commissioned them to create this new work. Now check out the pictures ... The Crucifixion Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden Noah’s Ark Moses parting the Red Sea

When comedy writers fall out Thanks blue cat for the link

[Updated] Oops, I am running Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) not the Feisty Fawn release - will update the video later. To those that wanted to know what it now looks like on my non-Windows XP/yes-Ubuntu desktop ... not a lot different. Seriously, the clock is at the top (but I now know how to put it at the bottom if I wanted). To be fair the really fun visual stuff comes when you install Beryl ( YouTube vids ) or Compiz ( YouTube vids ). I am trying to give Compiz a go but no luck just yet ... [Updated] Gutsy Gibbon comes complete with Compiz (I'd broken it - fixed by following these instructions ) Anyway, this introduction to Ubuntu is good for getting you in the mood for changing and is pretty close to what I´ve got:

The wellingtonista is not only a hugely popular website all about Wellington (New Zealand) but it´s a group of people that are as diverse and interesting as you´d care to mention ... and to prove it we´re hosting a live radio show on VBC ( Victoria University of Wellington's Student & Community Radio Station) - TONIGHT with Steven. In fact not just tonight but quite a few Mondays from 7-9pm . Hopefully I´ll get time away from the family to host a show ... you can rely on me to let you know. Listen live using your wireless ( 88.3FM ) if you´re close enough to pick it up or from anywhere in the world at http://www.vbc.org.nz/default.asp#listen works just fine. If you want to call the wellingtonista then pick up the phone and call the studio on 04-463 9994 .

I´ve been toying with the idea of moving the "work" postings out of MiramarMike for quite some time ( proof ). And now I have done it with the birth of Enterprise 2.0 New Zealand Style. All of the information management, Web 2.0, wiki, RSS postings re being moved over and thatś where you´ll find new ones from now on. I´m still playing with the blog layout but in the spirit of agile development I am releasing early and often. This blog will carry on being my personal blog where you´ll find postings one everything from funny videos, idiots on the bus and cross postings from the wellingtonista. In fact, everything that´s good about being Mike and won´t bore the pants off my wife. Addresses for you to play with: Blog: http://enterprise20-nz.blogspot.com RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/NZ_Enterprise20

This : ... We promise we won't bombard you with emails! We'll just let you know when there's something new we think you'll want to know about. So if they decide the email deluge is not spam ("something new we think you'll want to know about") then who am I to argue, right?!

With Jo and Hadyn hitting the NZ airwaves this morning with their Wellingtonista interview/chat with Noelle McCarthy on National Radio ( listen - MP3, 3.7Mb) I am ever so slightly happy as Larry to be be associated with such "make it happen" type of people! As Martha commented, "have to actually write stuff on the blog now" (I paraphrase) - Martha, now there´s another "make it happen" type of person ( be her friend and she´ll love you for ever) And I totally love being a small cog in Jo´s five year plan ... Oh, and if the MP3 file is gone from the National Radio site then leave me a comment/drop me an email (miramar.mike@gmail.com) and I´ll flick ya my copy.

Willowbank is a must for us Riversdale's when we visit Christchurch* and I found out this time I am (yet again) a season ticket holder! A few from both our visits (24th and 30th) this Yuletide:           * Here , here and here