business talking
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Wednesday, 07 May 08 - 03:25 PM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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Sometimes, when you know someone who knows something, you want to get hold of them, buy them a coffee and chat about whatever it is that they know that you want to know.
Mostly, this goes well.
However here's an example of a conversation between me and a guy who I used to know, who seems to have completely lost the art of responding or conversing with people, and who also seems to not give a shit about potential work or clients. Maybe he doesn't need to. Regardless, what a guy!
Me: " ... Person X suggested you would be a good person to talk to about digital video file formats etc., aside from that it would be nice to have a coffee and find out what you're up to these days ... "
Him: "OK What's up? - Why are other web developers suddenly trying to get hold of me? .... I still do a little video work but the market is pretty saturated with the likes of Person X who will do anything for 50 cents.... As for coffee - You've probably forgotten - I don't "do" coffee (or tea) - so I'll take a Rain Check - thanks!"
Me: "I have no idea why other web developers are trying to get hold of you. ... I contacted you in all honesty because I was interested to say Hi and see what you're up to. .... Secondly thought we could have conversation about digitising video and file formats - exciting stuff. ... The coffee was of course a front, you could have juice.
Him: "Well I already know about all that sort of stuff - but perhaps you tell me all you know about integrating Ruby On Rails with WYSIWYG tools (I prefer Adobe Go-Live to DreamWeaver). ........ My Dentist tells me that the vitamin C in fruit juices have completely eroded my teeth."
Me: "OK well let's call it quits. Maybe I'll see you around. Maybe not."
I had pretty much forgotten about this conversation until recently, when the same guy had a similar conversation with one of my colleagues - in which he was unbelievably even more rude - also for no reason.
May he rot in hell with his horrible teeth I say!
nature and nurture
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Saturday, 03 May 08 - 10:53 PM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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While out walking recently Sandy tried to be at one with nature.
However it was short-lived - even being on top of the world wasn't enough to keep gadgets away.
No cafenet reception though, so it was back to the scenery.
In other news, recent child/non-parent relationship problems seem to have been resolved through the introduction of the mattress-filled stairway. Hours of daytime entertainment to be had.
blog 2
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Wednesday, 30 April 08 - 06:33 PM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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With my work hat on, a new blog arises.
The project I'm working with will be a bit of a long time coming. So we've created a blog to keep people up to date with what's happening. Check it out!
Note the Online Editor job that's available - if you or anyone you know would be suitable let me know!
smacking morons cheat as well!
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Tuesday, 29 April 08 - 01:30 PM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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Thanks Mike for pointing out this story today.
Unfortunately I'm sure they'll be back out there on the corners finding more idiots real soon to make up their numbers.
Let's follow them around with buckets of water ...
aerial takeover
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Saturday, 26 April 08 - 01:21 PM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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At the top of Mt Victoria is a cute little building, looks a bit like a miniature castle. But it has been taken over by a strange technological aerial population.
I'm sure there's a history to this building but ... alien invasion?
Latest in science ...
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Saturday, 19 April 08 - 09:01 AM (GMT +12:00) By Sandy Mamoli in General |
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Homosexual Geneticists Isolate Cause of Christianity
a slow week
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Sunday, 13 April 08 - 01:01 PM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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It's been a slow week in Wellytown - so what've we been doing? Borrowing from Martha and her bullet point fetish ...
- Sandy managed to put her neck out an injure her back, so she's not moving much
- I had an excellent party at the Havana Bar to celebrate (I think) getting older
- The Blue Meanies played at my party and they were awesome - I will try and get some of their music up here
- A fresh idiot has turned up on the Smacking Morons page to argue his right to smack his kids - somehow linked into the fact that he will spend 200K on them in their lifetime, so therefore he should be able to smack them!
- We did some user testing on our NZ On Screen site (that you can't see yet) and it did pretty well! Sign up for the next round if you're interested :)
- A little shit broke into our car by smashing the window - nothing to find there but he managed to fill the car with glass
- We're still looking for a new place to live - current one is OK but it's taken the landlord 4 months to even begin to fix the ceiling which leaks and we've had enough.
The interesting thing about geek girls
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Thursday, 03 April 08 - 09:22 PM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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Prior to my little adventure into TV land I did a bit of research into geek girls ... or 'women in IT' in this current time.
My personal take, based on my own life and experience, is that while there appear to be proportionally much fewer women working in IT, there are no real barriers to entry - to any level. However I do appreciate that one person's hurdle is another person's barrier.
I also believed that the existence of organisations like Webgrrls or Girl Geek Dinners, was more of a networking, enjoyment thing - than 10 years ago when organisations like this really provided support for women, gave them some straws to grasp as they floated in an ocean of patronising and dismissive men. Maybe it's because I'm older, but patronising and dismissive men are more like toys you can pull the heads off than any kind of threat to me now.
(As an aside, the men who work in Dick Smith Electronics stores aren't patronising and dismissive ... they're just stupid. They treat men and women equally, with stupidity.)
However by canvassing the webgrrls list and checking around, I've realised a few things about women in IT these days:
- the 'need' for groups like webgrrls or girl geeks is just as strong as it was 10 years ago, although the motivations might be a bit different, the need for support, variety of inputs and ways to meet amazing, talented and ambitious women ... is still there.
- girls are not entering the IT field these days from way back in secondary school through to university and the job market ... however this applies when you define IT as 'programming' of one kind or another
- women are close to equally represented in the fields of project management, business analysis, design, testing ... and admin ... in IT companies or web agencies
- there is a distinct lack of role models or career examples of women in IT for girls to hear about or see - furthermore the visible examples of 'geeks' and media representation of 'boffins, nerds, geeks, hackers' doesn't really portray an appealing environment
- when people in the media talk about IT they could be talking about users, managers, programmers ... etc .. it's a blanket term for a wide range of jobs and skills
- resolving technical issues, sorting out computers, buying gadgets etc - is nerve-wracking and humiliating for anyone who is not familiar with the technology .. it's not restricted to women :)
- employers place a lot of value on university qualifications in IT-related subjects - however for programmers in particular they are just as likely, if not more, to be excellent without ever having been to university
- no one is quite sure why girls aren't entering into programming ... a few people are looking into it.
I would like to think we're making progress ... but then again when I look around at meetings, conferences, any IT gathering ... the progress isn't visible at all.
super-fast multi-purpose
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Thursday, 03 April 08 - 07:58 AM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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Every time we raise the flag to plea for better internet, we get deluded detractors asking the question "why do you need faster broadband?". See comments in this post.
NZ'ers are quite innovative, faster broadband would support innovation and business on a global scale. But I don't think even NZ'ers would have come up with using a 40Gb/s connection to dry laundry.
Aside from that - sounds like bloody nice technology, can we have some please?
Update ... wow, now I'm a religious screamer from the left ... boys can get so uppity when girls get involved in IT discussions can't they?
Geek on TV3
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Friday, 28 March 08 - 10:55 AM (GMT +12:00) By Sandy Mamoli in General |
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Over the past few years we have had an ongoing debate about who was the biggest geek in our house.
I thought I was on the losing end until this morning when TV3 made it official that Brenda is a "self-professed uber-geek girl".
Articulate, concise, smart and with make-up - Brenda talking about women in IT on national television. Watch it :-)
park 'n ride
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Thursday, 20 March 08 - 11:52 AM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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It's a lovely day today, sun shining, warm ... I had a few meetings around town so I decided to bike. Biking in Wellington is a bit like living on the edge - but if you keep your wits about you you can survive.
I have often wondered what people do with their bikes in town - there never seems to be bikes parked all over the place - although I guess Amsterdam was kind of extreme I would have expected something here!
Bike racks in Amsterdam
But now I have new insight. There is nowhere to put your bike! My meeting today was at the National Library, right opposite Parliament. I searched hard and found one bike rack. It could fit 4 bikes. Not mine, as the tyres didn't fit through the wheel thing.
the sum total of bike racks for the National Library
So not only do cyclists have to contend with no cycle lanes and crazy traffic - once you do get where you're going, there's nowhere to park! Duh.
smacking morons
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Saturday, 15 March 08 - 04:35 PM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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In NZ last year a bill was passed which was mis-named by the media as the Anti-Smacking Bill. The bill is not about smacking, but it sounded better to report it this way, and it is more easily believed by hoards of idiots who think they have the right to smack their kids.
The bill removes from the Crimes Act the statutory defence of "reasonable force" to correct a child, meaning there will be no justification for the use of force for that purpose.
It's not about arresting parents who smack their kids, it's about removing that as a defence for abusive parents who beat the shit out of their kids.
So when I see people like the sanctimonious ignorant cow in the photograph above, setting up a stand to actually overthrow the bill and getting signatures from people who want to fight for the right to smack their children ... it makes my blood boil!
Aside from the fact they are taking a stupid, media-driven moronic interpretation of the law, they are actually out there, in public, showing how incredibly dumb they are.
These stands are turning up everywhere - usually run by older men and women who would be better off petitioning about better health services than the right to beat children.
We should take the signatures and names they have on their petition and enforce sterilisation for everyone who signs - obviously they're crap parents who shouldn't breed anyway.
Doctor of Sin
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Thursday, 13 March 08 - 08:24 AM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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A long time ago in another life I completed a PhD in a field related to molecular biology and genetic engineering. It doesn't really have any relevance to my current life, so I don't mention it.
But now thanks to the Catholic Church and their seven new sins, I can say that I am a Doctor of Sin, a SIn Doctor!
I think I'll refer to it much more often now :)
iPhone heaven
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Sunday, 09 March 08 - 10:30 AM (GMT +12:00) By Sandy Mamoli in General |
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It might not be the most sensible thing to do but I can never resist the temptation: Leopard beta, iPhone cracking, any alpha update - here I go ...
This normally leaves me a crying mess (real women don't take backups) or an ecstatic gadget enthusiast. And at the moment I'm in gadget heaven.
I took the big step to upgrade my iPhone from 1.0.2 to 1.1.4. Took a deep breath, restored (restored, not upgraded) to 1.1.4, ran ZiPhone and there it was: Jailbroken and SIM card unlocked; happily playing along on the Vodafone NZ network.
No fiddling around with secpacks, sequential up- and downgrades of the firmware and fighting with baseband versions from a command line. ZiPhone let's you do it from a GUI - push a button and and it does it all. Thank you, Zibri, for the magic :-)
For anyone who's still hesitant to get one: Now is the time!
For anyone who's not convinced yet and/or is wondering how to get one in New Zealand read Julian's rave over at Seradigm.
Unlock the phone and get it on the network by following Zibri's instructions and if you happen to live in NZ you might as well get it kiwi-ised (Thanks, Shane, for the tip!)
Mardi Gras!!
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Monday, 03 March 08 - 09:08 PM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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When you go to Sydney for a big party weekend you know it's going to hurt.
It hurt our feet ... we walked and walked and walked ... had to buy new shoes (mine were inappropriate for walking and Sandy's broke) and new clothes (hurt our wallets too) and walked and walked.
After the parade we snuck off to Chinatown for some Yum Cha (love Sydney - Yum Cha from 10pm-2am - guess those fleets of Asian ladies have to eat when their shift is over). By the time we got back to Oxford St it was an enormous trashy mess of really really drunk people and glass and rubbish.
By then the jetlag hit us and we wimped out and didn't go to the party but sat and watched drumming and dancing in the streets and limped our way home (feet really hurting) - past a cordon of police trying to look menacing while having hordes of dressed up girls and boys throwing themselves at them for photo opportunities. Turned out the police cordon was to somehow protect the street cleaners ... weird.
The next day we walked and shopped some more, had coffee with Annie and Anya and flew home!
Tired, hurting, but happy. Sydney for a weekend - totally do-able.
Wellington revealed
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Thursday, 28 February 08 - 01:47 PM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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I have just come across this wonderful video made in 2004 by Richard Sidey through Massey University's Visual Communication Design department. It's called Aeon, I can't embed it here, but if you're from Wellington you'll be fascinated, if you're from somewhere else - here's Wellington with all its faces revealed.
Richard won Best Short Documentary in the 2005 Documentary Film Festival.
Thank god we're an island!
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Sunday, 24 February 08 - 01:21 PM (GMT +12:00) By Sandy Mamoli in General |
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And here is what the lovely Wellington based national newspaper Dominion Post has to say about online trading (yes, the year was 2008 in case you were wondering):
Yes, the world is a very dangerous place which we wouldn't possibly want or dare to be a part of.
Why would anyone want to compare the value and pricing of goods and services and perhaps even benefit from a global market? Not me! I'd never trust anyone who doesn't operate from New Zealand! (Don't you, too, just love the feeling of safety and security invoked by the inspiring and omnipresent tag line "NZ owned and operated"?)
Obviously the rest of the world is not nearly as civilised or trustworthy as we are and it is absolutely recommended to limit interactions to a bare minimum. Off I go canceling those dodgy Amazon.com, iTunes NL and Paypal accounts ...
Seriously, I am grateful that our fortunate geographic location makes it possible for us to maintain our isolation in the world. Instead of advocating for better broadband we should cut those undersea fibre cables to protect our innocent people and to keep our good "internet" local and national.
Thank you, Dominion Post, for this excellent advice. Please keep up the good work!
(Unfortunately I was too gobsmacked to write down the name of the genius journalist who wrote this. If anyone remembers please let me know.)
Presentation zen
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Thursday, 21 February 08 - 12:44 PM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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This book is recommended reading (and should be compulsory) for all the people who present awfully at all the meetings and conferences we go to.
We should never have to sit through powerpoint hell again!
Buy it here if you're in the southern hemisphere - altho it seems to have doubled in price since I bought mine.
Buy it here if you're somewhere north.
voices in the wilderness?
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Wednesday, 20 February 08 - 01:19 PM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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It's a well-known fact amongst NZ's internetterati that our internet infrastructure sucks big time. Many people have blogged about this many times. Our papers and magazines have written well thought out and passionate articles about it. Recently it was the aftermath response of Webstock attendees from overseas.
But is anyone paying attention? Does anyone other than those of us forced to live within the constraints of what we have really care? Should Tourism NZ be considering this as counter productive to our "NZ is wonderful" brand? Where should the pressure be coming from, how can the pressure be increased?
TVNZ OnDemand, Radio NZ and (soon to be released) NZ On Screen are all high bandwith, high quality sites and services - just to name a few. All unable to deliver the quality and speed of service to the end user due to the infrastructure we have here. All sending data via the US to circumvent the issues (primarily peering) here. Largely due to Telecom and its need to make as much money as possible and to hell with the NZ experience.
How can we (the above sites/services) and you (the end users) up the pressure? Your thoughts ... ?
update: *sigh*
view from the window
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Monday, 18 February 08 - 06:47 PM (GMT +12:00) By Brenda L in General |
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It was with some trepidation that we watched the small empty shop at the end of the alleyway beside our apartment transform into BoomBox - not an auspicious name for something to live beside.
However the ugly concrete wall which we looked down onto was transformed one day/night into a graffiti-art thing of beauty. The shop turns out to be quite cool (so cool in fact I've been too shy to go inside) and kind of fun to watch from time to time (when Sandy's not looking at me, because she thinks that's little-old-lady behaviour).
Then some dumbarse moron with nothing better to do tagged the gorgeous wall with illiterate black scrawl. I felt really sorry for the BoomBox guys, someone had basically destroyed an artwork. Apparently this just comes with the territory of being a graffiti artist.
Today they're repainting it. It's quite impressive. I hope it stays.
There's been a fair bit written about graffiti in Wellington. Some of it is definitely better than others. For this wall, and for the graffiti alley down the road, I think the graffiti is a definite plus. I'd love to see some of the other boring walls around town opened up to let these guys show off their stuff. For the idiots who feel the need to scrawl mindless nonsense just to have their illegible stupid name on a wall ... shame.
... More items are available in my News Archive
