Next Wednesday (5th of July) there is another event on organised by UP and it looks to be a really good one. I won’t be here (bugger!) but I would strongly urge you to go if you are into “Gadgets, Games and Geeks“. Registration is from 4:30pm with a 5:30 start and it’s going to be in Renoulf Foyer at the Wellington Convention Centre. And the best bit is that it is free.
If I was going I’d be interested in checking out Renaissance’s Apple stand as well catching Mauricio Freitas’ presentation. They’re also giving away an iPod Nano at some stage during the evening. If you’re not already registered with UP, just go to the site and sign up (again, it is free).
I’ve shared my love of Threadless before. I’ve now been introduced to a European site modelled on Threadless (I assume) called The Derby. Judge for yourself the quality of the t-shirt designs but I feel the overall experience at Threadless is a little smoother and better designed. Happy t-shirt buying.
Currently available in German, French, and English…
David Seah hits the nail on the head when it comes to TV addiction:
“it’s just so easy to get into the groove and watch a half-dozen documentaries and dramas. I tell myself It’s OK…you’re learning about human psychology! You’re learning about WWII! You’re getting new ideas that spark new ideas!”
“If I want to go get new ideas, I should go out and meet ACTUAL PEOPLE in INTERESTING PLACES I’ve NEVER BEEN TO.”
Update: My own TV habits are probably somewhat different but I can empathise with the quote made above. For me now, the only time the TV goes on seems to be the weekend. Otherwise there is far more interesting stuff elsewhere (in books, on the net, outside, etc). I could never justify spending money on a Sky subscription either.
I used to be someone who would lose several hours to the telly each night but I found that that changed dramatically when I moved to Wellington. For a start I was spending more time at work which meant there was less time to spend on other personal things, and well, TV just started to suck.
I have a problem with the broadcast model that TV operates under. I don’t want you to tell me what I can watch and when. I want the control, not you. I can’t remember how many times I’ve missed a show and then grabbed it (illegally I might add) from the net to catch up. You’re missing out on those advertising dollars because you are choosing not to be flexible for me.
One thing I’m finding extremely interesting is how much time I’m spending on You Tube and indeed other online video sites. This is time I’m spending at the cost or detriment of TV. If you look at the content on the two models, it is inherently different. On You Tube, its content is generally low quality, low budget and short but it also holds content that would never make it to broadcast TV.
Consider this small video of Steve Jobs presenting to his local city council. This would never justify making it to broadcast TV and yet it is an excellent example of Steve Jobs’ presentation abilities, something many people would learn from and find useful (myself and over 17,000 other people included).
1. Wellington Wellington is just an amazing city. The city is wedged between mountains and a gorgeous harbour with little cheap land available that prevents suburban sprawl. The result is a compact city “pretending to be a village” with good public transport and a high quality of life. It is probably the most urban city in Oceania and subjectively, the easiest to live in. Come have a look for yourself.
2. Powerbook G4 + Mac OS X
Now almost 2 years old, it has been the best and most reliable computer I’ve ever owned or used. Anyone who knows me knows of my affinity with Apple computers thus it takes second place. It’s a gorgeous computer that is a pleasure to use and a delight to show off.
3. iPod
I’ve owned 2 iPods and they’ve been one of the most “ME” objects I’ve ever owned. Like with the Internet, I struggle to remember what it was like without one. My current favorite is the Shuffle – holds enough music for a long flight but is small and light enough to run with, without noticing it. Possible this should have been merged with the above point.
4. Icebreaker
If you haven’t heard of Icebreaker yet chances are you soon will. Icebreaker makes suburb clothing from NZ high-country merino and is a model NZ export business (representing Wellington!). Jeremy Moon who founded Icebreaker was also a graduate from the same university as myself. He presented to us while I was studying and it was a great opportunity to hear about the company and the progression it had made.
5. Viva Spanish
It has been a long-time goal of mine to learn another language. I decided on Spanish wanting to spend some serious time in America del Sur. I would wholeheartedly recommend Viva Spanish if you wanted to learn Spanish in Wellington. Adriana (who hails from Argentina) is a very patient and personal professora and the class sizes are small and friendly.
6. Satay Palace
Now moving in the food section (a topic very dear to me)… Satay Palace is your quintessential cosy immigrant Malaysian restaurant on Cuba St. Somehow this family can serve me dinner in a matter of minutes for $7. I love it, it is suberb. The owners have a great memory as well… Oh, its the one next to Floriditas.
7. Coffee32
Wellington is insanely good at coffee. However if you asked me a while ago where the best coffee in Wellington was I’d be surprised (just as much as you) to say The Terrace. A middle aged couple run this small but busy cafe in one of the more corporate parts of the city and yet they exude authenticity with the best coffee in town and immaculate presentation – you can tell there is love in the coffee. Another owner with an AMAZING memory. Situated at 32 The Terrace (surprising really…).
Hi, my name is John. I’m a 20-something year old married to a girl who’s way way way out of my league. We live and work in Wellington, New Zealand.
I work at a start-up called Ponoko where I spend my days talking to our users in my role as Community Manager. We launched Ponoko at TechCrunch in San Francisco in September 2007.
Before moving to Ponoko I worked for a software development company called Intergen, on their creative team. Previous to that I ran my own company (now sold) called iVISION and was involved in two others, one that is still going and one that isn’t. Even earlier you would’ve found me as an undergraduate at the University of Otago School of Business studying marketing and IT.
There are a number of things and areas I am passionate about and this blog is my vehicle to format and share these thoughts and ideas. I write about all things Wellington, IT, business, marketing and innovation, design and advertising, personal productivity and Apple Computer. Oh, and it wouldn’t be complete without a little bit of travel logging.
This blog uses Movable Type, and is hosted on a Powermac G4 sitting in my apartment next to the TV. Unfortunately this is hosted on a 128k/bit uplink due to the shoddy sad state of NZ broadband This blog uses WordPress and is hosted somewhere in Hong Kong.
Note: Comments have been disabled on this entry due to masses of spam. If you want to leave a comment for me – just click through to any other page or entry and you will be able to leave a comment.
Umami is a japanese word for that savoury taste that is now generally regarded as a basic taste (the fifth taste alongside sweet, sour, salty and bitter). The characters when translated literally mean ‘delicious flavour”. It was Professor Kikunae Ikeda who isolated umami early in the 20th century.
However the western world didn’t really acknowledge the existence of umami to begin with. Primarily because it didn’t fit the tongue maps we’d all been taught at school but on which rests very very little actual scientific foundation. Go figure!
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Have a look at the video associated with this story at TVNZ. The story is about a personal outbreak Dr Cullen had in an interview with Guyon Espiner where he blames the media attention on tax cuts soley on journalists (such as Espiner) who are wanting tax cuts for themselves. Ok, that’s cool – he’s entitled to his own point of view…
For me, that wasn’t the most interesting thing in the video. Look at Cullen’s mannerisms when he speaks, especially at his mouth and lower lip. I think there is also a difference in the tone of his speech as well, it sounds a tiny bit lispy to me. I’m no doctor but it reminds me alot of my grandmother who suffers from Parkinsons. Has public office has taken it’s toll on Dr Cullen and is he starting to succumb to something? Which begs the question, is he still fit for public office?
I hope for his (and our) sake that I’m wrong and he’s fine. I had to look it up but was surprised to learn that he is only 61 years old.
Note: I’m loath to create a “Politics” category so this gets stored under Life…
After publishing my last post on what I feel Wellington needs I came to realise that maybe I was being overly negative and saying Wellington isn’t doing enough to remain a competitive city. That definitely isn’t so. Following the last post’s formula here are three things, in my personal opinion and based on nothing more than anecdotal evidence, that Wellington has that helps make it a globally competitive and relevant city.
1. Internet infrastructure.
I remember when I used to live in Dunedin, we were terribly jealous of Wellington’s inner-city fibre loop. One of the things we couldn’t believe was that a council would have the foresight and the ability to drive something like this forward. It really is amazing. And people have heard about it all over the world, it’s kinda scary how much so…
Obviously Wellington lends itself really well to this kind of network as it is a compact city with a lot of high users in a small area but it still is an impressive accomplishment and asset while providing an excellent model for other cities to follow.
2. Transport infrastructure
While our transport network and infrastructure isn’t perfect (and a key focus of my last post) it is still very good compared to other cities especially in our corner of the world. Let’s recognise that a lot of good progress has been made, but let’s not stop or rest there.
A good friend of mine who recently moved to the Wellington region remarked firstly how good public transport was but how easy it made his life… that’s fantastic. Again, Wellington really lends itself to this kind of network as a compact city with a few corridors of population that can be efficiently and effectively served by public transport.
3. Compact village-city
One of things many people love about Wellington is it’s compactness. As an example, Wellington has the largest numbers of people who walk to work in New Zealand (11%). As Tom Beard has said: “Wellington is a city pretending to be a village”. It forces people to interact and come together in a really comfortable way. It saddens me to think humans couldn’t build a city like this unless forced by some limitation or factor. Wellington’s geography is the only real reason that this has come about; wedged together between mountains and sea. While urban sprawl does rears it’s head from time to time, it has been starved compared to other cities.
