Voyage to Te Wai Pounamu, available in all good bookstores.
Yep, it took a little longer than expected, but after one long slog of 14 days, I got the book together and had it published. Look it up on amazon, where you’ll pay €43.90 for 128 action filled pages, 90 of which have coloured photos (more than 170 coloured images in total, with another 25 or so in black and white).
And that’s it folks, until the next adventure begins! Continue reading
GEOrgET logo
Recording many a track with GPS over the years and collecting heaps of data (as was also done on this trip, and hopefully, on some to come) means having to use GoogleEarth to view and edit the data. But GE has many a drawback, e.g. paths can’t be joined, or reversed, and GE’s automatic “tour” algorithm results often enough in simply bouncing around the countryside, instead of viewing it. Therefore it is with great pleasure that I can announce the publication of GEOrgET, the Google Earth Organiser, Editor and Toolkit. This is free software, licensed under the GPL, and resides here. Go download. Continue reading
Time to whinge again. This time I’ll deal with the only two other plugins I decided to use with this installation of WordPress and how they fared. Continue reading
Technology played a key role before, during, and after this trip. It was not only a question of having been there and done that, but also one of preparing the spoils for showing afterwards. Therefore it was sobering on many occasions to see how close I came to Wallace’s tragedy. Continue reading
I have tried, and I have given up.
The idea of extending the functionality of WordPress via plugins is good in principle.
But… Continue reading
I mentioned the flies, but there is much, much more than could be said about the downside. The balance of the last year or so of working with WP:
Show a programmer some of the WordPress code as a deterrent. They should swear off further coding with immediate effect. Just take a look at this nonsense, replete with single spaces to position the lines (not heard of the tab key?) and those endearing, but useless, trailing space-slashes at the end of the tags: Continue reading
WordPress boasts that it “powers” “10%” of the web, but far more awesome is that it attracts 98% of the flies. I went into this business hoping to share a few impressions, tracks and photos from my journey and all I get stuck with is the blowies. Time to reflect on blogging and what it’s worth. Continue reading
Thanks to old friends Tom Bishop and Rayna Ramsay for organising some functions for me in Auckland; Hamish Spencer for getting the ball rolling in Dunedin and to new friends Shinichi Nakagawa, Jenny Rock, Katie Brockie for organising the three lectures in Dunedin (for Zoology, Skeptics in the Pub called the Church, and Science Communication) and to Michael Edmonds for organising the talk in Christchurch (Skeptics in the Pub, but their pub has fallen down, so it was Skeptics at CPIT, with the pub for pizza and beer afterwards). To all those who attended my talks and demonstrated that they could think: congratulations. Continue reading
Stopover in Singapore was too short for any meaningful activity but once we were back on the plane, I was seated next to another passenger to my right, a German woman living in Australia, and the two seats to the left of me were free, so I grabbed the F seat before takeoff, so that we both had a pair of seats to ourselves. After dinner and a couple of bottles of wine I managed to sleep for about five hours and after waking took in Hitchcock, and in Pulp Fiction was surprised to find Julia Sweeney with a speaking role. Then it was time for breakfast. Had had a couple of nosebleeds along the way, but they were survivable. Continue reading
Was up at 7:30 for a shower, a shave, some breakfast, and then the rest of the packing. Suitcase was too heavy with the laptop in it, so decided that the laptop could be carried in the rucksack. Had everything together just after 10:00 and bid farewell to Graham and Joe.
Filled the tank for the last time down the road and then made my way to Wendekreisen for the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s decommissioning. Had the printed out receipt for the shuttle from the last time with me this time and was able to have the $32 refunded to the credit card. Not much in the way of formalities and we were quickly at the airport – so early that Qantas was not yet open. Didn’t have to wait long, however, and soon had my suitcase on its way. Continue reading
