Gadgetman's Revenge!

Welcome to Winter

2010-06-08T18:00:00.005+12:00

Ummmmm.....well......I'm kinda overdue on this blog thing aye?

It's been a funny year so far.....haven't really been interested in my normal hobbies. Done almost no fishing or photography. But work has been busy (I have come through the recession unscathed) and I've been focussed on some other things, like painting the house (didn't quite get it finished over summer) and losing weight.

At the begining of February I put on a shirt that I only bought a few months earlier and realised that it was now to small for me. I packed a fair bit on over christmas, and not just the normal chistmas excess. After not being able to do anything for 3 months last year (I wasn't allowed to lift anything more than 1kg) my muscle mass was well down, and activity reduced after my sugery, so the festive fare turned to bloat rather quickly.

To be fair I was over 100kg before my op, and that reduced to around 96kg afterwards, but by the beginning of feb I was up to 103.5kg.

So putting that shirt on and realising it was now to small finally gave the the motivation to do what I had known needed to be done for a while.

I'm now 87.5kg, having lost 16kg in around 18 weeks. A few more kg and i'll be pretty happy. Pants have gone from 104cm waist to 92cm. A combination of low carb dieting, lifting weights to build some muscle tone, and walking as often as I can is what has worked for me.

Soon the hard part will begin. Maintaining it!

2 days in the Naki

2010-01-11T20:22:00.005+13:00

Well it's about time I revived this blog thing. So here I am.....incase you haven't guessed I survived the surgery......but I don't want to talk about that.

We spent the weekend visiting Pete and Shona in New Plymouth. We had a great time catching up with them and see in the sights. From the light festival to the mountain. (of course!) Thanks Pete and Shona!

Fun and Games

2009-07-21T19:03:00.005+12:00

It's been an interesting week. Last wednesday I had an angiogram, another test to find out why I have not been my normal self lately. It turns out my arteries are fine, but my aortic valve, which was replaced when I was 17 is now severely constricted. That means that I'm now on the list for another replacement operation, probabaly sometime in the next 3 months. So I have open heart surgery followed by a couple of months off work, and more time after that before i'm fully recovered.
Dunno how I feel about it. On one hand I am releaved that they didn't find another problem to worry about. And I'm not suprised, as the typical life of a human graft is 10-15 years, and mine has lasted 19. But on the other hand i'm quite apprehensive about the surgury and recovery. Last time was the worst time of my life, even though it all went fairly smoothly. It isn't something I want to repeat.

Friday Afternoon Fish

2009-07-10T22:10:00.003+12:00

So I was sitting in the office on the 18th floor this morning, looking out over the viaduct and inner harbour. I was feeling depresed, looking at the glorious weather and knowing that the forecast for the weekend is so bad. When am I going to get a fish? Then a plan started formulating.....a quick check of the calender confirmed that I had nothing to do that afternoon that couldn't be just as easily done from home while it is raining cats and dogs over the weekend. A quick word with the boss, and my plan was a go.

I haven't been able to get out on the water for about a month due to weather and other commitments, and the last 2 times I've been out off Eastern Beach I've come home empty handed, so was desperate to get a feed of Snapper! But where to go? Eastern Beach was out. With the tide as it was it would be easier to walk out to the reef than take the kayak. But I had a plan.......

11:30am: Meeting with a clent in East Tamaki

1:00pm home in Howick scoffing down lunch and loading up the car

2:00pm drop into Fergs Kayaks and pick up the NRS guide gloves they got in for me

2:30pm on the water at Kohimarama heading for the reef at the eastern end

The tide was still going out, so I started out flicking some softbaits around the westen side of the reef for half an hour or so with no takers. I'm yet to catch a fish on softies. What am I doing wrong?

By 3:15 the tide was starting to turn, so I paddled around the other side of the reef, and found a likely looking spot, dropped the anchor and burley and started putting some of the stuff I learnt at the Smart Marine winter snapper fishing seminar into practice. It was slow at first, but after about an hour the bites started coming, and pretty soon I had a couple of small snapper on board. They were bearly my boat size limit of 30cm, but I was desperate not to go home empty handed so kept them.....

After that the bites started getting quite regular, but I was making dumb mistakes that lost me fish. (Like birds nesting my new tld15 trying to cast it, and stiking with my egg beater reel in free spool ) So after swearing at my self lots, and putting the overhead rod aside I finally got my act together.

By this time the fish were on the bite big time. Every bait was getting hit within minutes of being cast. They weren't big fish, but I landed two at 40cm and another around 35cm. One of the 40cm fish got it's revenge, flicking a hook along my finger leaving a gouge 2 cm long an deep enough to paint the cockpit red. By now it was starting to get dark, and I don't yet have a light sorted. Plus I was a bit worried about how much blood I was putting in the water. (I wasn't bleeding to death, but the Jaws sound track was playing in my head ) I recon if I'd stayed another hour I would have had my limit easily, and the fish seemed to be getting bigger.

Anyway, I'm happy! I got a feed for tomorrow night, got out on the water, fished a spot I've never tried before, and got to try some of the tips I picked up at the seminar. Actually 5 legal snapper is the best I have done so far in my short yak fishing history! Now it can rain all weekend and I won't care :)

Perfect Harmony

2009-07-01T16:00:00.003+12:00

Home entertainment geeks rejoice! Now you can have it all. The joyous games machine\media player\ and Blu-ray player that is the PS3, and 1 remote for your whole home entertainment system.
Logitech Harmaony remotes have always been cool. The ability to plug it into your PC, tell it what components you have and not needing to go through and program all the commands in by pointing the old remote at it and pressing each button 1 by 1. Then you can set up "activities" - little macros, so when you press "watch DVD" for example it turns on your tele, selects the right input, turns on the amp, again selects the right input, and turns on the DVD player all ready to play your movie, Very cool. But the IR based harmony (or any other universal remote) never got on with the bluetooth Playstation 3. There were a few ugly workarounds but they were never very satisfactory. So finally somebody has done something about it. Logitech have released this PS3 Adapter for their range of Harmony remotes. All it is is an IR reciever wired to a Blutooth transmitter. Works a treat, and now I have 1 remote to rule them all!

Player of the Day!

2009-06-21T15:27:00.005+12:00

Daniel's team continued their unbeaten run yesterday by annihilating the Dio girls team 13-0. Daniel had his best game yet, putting in 100% effort for the whole game, and getting involved at every opportunity. He didn't score a goal, but helped set up a number of scoring opportunities, and was strong on defence too. He fully deserved the Player of the Day award!

Sup wid u?

2009-06-08T07:44:00.003+12:00

I haven't said much on here lately have I? Oh well.....

Daniel's team won 8-1 this week!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to school we go!

2009-05-25T19:10:00.002+12:00

Why does Nicola's school uniform make her look like a dwarf?

Happy Birthday Nicola

2009-05-24T19:58:00.005+12:00

Well our baby girl is 5. It's hard to believe that it was 5 years ago that I was dragged out of the bed at some ungodly hour of the morning to witness the arrival of Princess Nicola (aka The Chicken Nugget Princess......don't worry, it's a private joke.) So today she had a party at Chipmunks, complete with mini hot dogs, chips, Charlie the Chipmunk, and a princess crown cake. School tomorrow!

Sunny Sunday

2009-05-03T18:47:00.004+12:00

Today was a gloriusly sunny autumn Sunday, completely different to the wet and cold Saturday we had yesterday. As tempted as I was to go fishing, I decided to spend the afternoon at the domain with the family. The camera has been feeling a bit neglected lately too, so took that along and meet up with Tony from POTN and his family.

Days with weather like this are few and far between at this time of year, so we made the most of it. Hopefully the kids will go to sleep easily tonight after running around in the fresh air!?

I went and saw the new Wolverine movie yesterday. It is getting savaged by the critics, but I was bored, and it was raining and cold, so I thought what the heck. Despite a few plot holes you could drive a truck through, I thought it was all you can expect from a light weight comic book movie. Lots of great action sequences, super powers, super heroes, super villians and all that. If you are in the mood for a good popcorn flick then it is worth seeing, but don't expect a masterpiece. Enjoyable if you can suspend disbelief for a while, but certainly not unmissable, and probably quite a good one to wait to rent on DVD. There are plenty more movies to see over the next few month afterall. Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, Transformers 2, and Ice Age 3 are all on my list to see.

We are the Champions

2009-05-02T19:34:00.004+12:00

Daniel had his first hockey game today. They won 5-4. The had a big 4-0 lead at half time, but the opposition made a big come back in the second half. But the team held them off to pick up the points.

Fun and Games

2009-04-26T13:08:00.005+12:00

Daniel had his first coaching session for the upcoming hockey season at 8am today. So guess who drew the short straw to stand around in the rain and watch him? Well it gave me a chance to get out with my camera in between showers, and test the Sigma 120-300 f2.8 lens I bought a while back with kids sports in mind. It went pretty well. These are all taken with a 1.4 teleconverter @420mm f4 ISO800.

In other news this week......I went to the doc cos I haven't been firing on all cylinders lately....tired all the time, out of breath when I shouldn't be, that sort of thing. So he bundled me off to see a cardiologist. $340 latter I'm told that my second hand aortic valve still appears to be working fine, despite being "out of warranty" but there is definately something not quite right.

I enquired about how long valves like mine typically last, to which he said "they vary a lot, but generally around 10 years. Sometimes you get a good one that will last 15 years or more." Mine is a bit over 19 years, so apparently I got a good one. He doesn't think I am about to die (sorry if I got your hopes up), so has refered me back to the public system for some tests to see what is up. So over the next few months they will poke and prod me to see what is what. The cardiologist suspects it is probably something to do with the fact that despite the valve working well, it is really a size or 2 smaller than ideal (prossibly because I was only 17.)

Like I said.....fun and games!

Look Out Fishies

2009-03-14T14:35:00.006+13:00

Anyone who has known me for a while will know that I really enjoy fishing. Unfortunately since moving back to Auckland around four years ago I have had very few opportunities to get a line in the water, mostly due to the lack of any decent land based spots in Auckland, and the lack of any invitations from anyone with a boat.
Buying a boat isn't really an option. The cost (both upfront and ongoing) is prohibitive, and efforts to go halves with a friend have been fruitless. So what is a guy to do?
I tried kayak fishing a few years ago on a borrowed kayak, and despite the frustration coming from the kayak being poorly set up for fishing, I could see the potential. So a few weeks ago I started to seriously look at it again. It was clear to me that getting a cheaper general purpose kayak and adding a few rod holders would, like my previous try, just result in frustration. So I did a bunch of research and narrowed it down to two models that would suit my needs without being over the top in price. On my travels I spotted a Viking Profish on sellout at Burnsco Marine in Westhaven. I wasn't ready to buy, but at the reduced price it moved to the top of my short list.
I was very lucky to come across a seminar being run by Viking Kayaks with Stephen Tapp, who is New Zealand's best known kayak fisherman, and has been salt water fishing out of kayaks for around 20 years, sharing his experiences and techniques for around 3 hours. So last Tuesday I went along. This guy is a nut case! He paddles 30km off shore, and with New Zealand gone over the horizon proceeds to catch a lot of very big fish. It was an awesome, very informative night, even for someone who is somewhat less ambitious about his fishing.
So, on Wednesday morning on the way to work I dropped in at Bursco and bought their last Profish. I had intended to get just the basic kayak, but they offered me all the accessories already bolted on to what was their demo model at well below cost. So I ended up with a well set out kayak for a great price. I have seen them sell for more on trademe! (They do seem to hold their price really well, which is why I didn't buy second hand)
Understandably I have been hanging out to christen the Profish. The weather forecast for this morning was promising, so I got it all ready last night. This morning I paddled out from Eastern Beach at around 8 am. The weather was perfect for a newbie like me. Flat calm, with almost no wind. I paddled out to the reef marker at the northern end, dropped the anchor and started to fish. I wasn't really expecting to catch anything. I just wanted to test out the boat and get comfortable with it. But in among the baby snapper I caught a reasonable 38cm one that we will be eating for dinner tonight (I love fresh fish!). At around 11am the wind swung around to the east and started blowing fairly hard (WOW, an accurate weather forecast, who would have guessed?), so called it a day. With the wind behind me, and some waves to surf down, getting back to the beach was no problem. So a successful maiden voyage.

What's that you say? It's not really a gadget? Just wait till next summer, when I'll add a fish finder......

First Listen - No Line

2009-03-02T19:02:00.011+13:00

As my regular readers (that's you Kerry-Sue) will know, I am a bit of a U2 fan. It started back in 1987 when I bought the cassette tape (hands up who remembers those?) of The Joshua Tree. Only people who have no electricity or running water and my Father don't know songs like Where the Streets Have no Name and Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. Actually lots of people with no electricity would know those songs too (Over 25 million copies of The Joshua Tree have been sold!). A couple of years later I bought my first CD - Rattle and Hum.
26th of November 2006 will remain, I'm sure, as one of the best nights of my life. After all those years of being a fan I finally got to see them play live at Auckland's Mt Smart Satdium. To say they lived up to my very high expectations is an understatement. U2 are awesome live!
I finally got around to buying The Joshua Tree on CD last year, spurred by the release of the remastered 20th anniversary edition. After 20 years it still stands up and rocks!

But what about the new album? I have to admit, that when I heard the first single - Get on Your Boots a few weeks ago, my first thought was "I hope this isn't the best song on the album!" U2 have this habit of every now and then saying "OK, now it's time to do something different" They did it after Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum with Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and Pop, before resuming with more of a "U2 sound" on All That You Can't Leave Behind (probably my favourite U2 album) and most recently How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. The rumour was that U2 had taken another experimental tack with No Line on the Horizon, so I wondered if we would end up with another Achtung Baby, or a Zooropa (which to this day I struggle to find 1 song on that I like.....ok I quite like Stay, but I just don't get the rest of the album at all!)

I've listened to the album a couple of times now, and what do I think? Sorry, no in depth song by song review here. I'm no music critic, just a fan with a new CD (Yes I did buy the CD, I prefer having physical media to downloading whole albums from iTunes, but it made it's way onto my ipod pretty quickly.) You will be pleased to know (well I was!) that Boots is not the best song on the CD! It is certainly different, but not Zooropa different. A lot of the songs are recognisably U2, but there are plenty of"Wow, this is different.......but I like it!" moments. There are a few "Wow, this is different....(and that's all)" moments too.

Magnificent is cool, Fez - Being Born is a great track, No Line on the Horizon is growing on me. Unknown Caller is funky too.

So, overall this album is not going to come close to claiming my "Best U2 Album ever" crown. But it is a good solid offering if you are not looking for "more of the same" from U2. Another thing I have noticed about U2 music, is that it is often the sort of music that grows on you over years rather than being instantly catchy like a light weight pop song. The lyrics often have a deeper meaning, and the music more complexity to it. With the exception of Zooropa, I like all U2 albums more now than when they were first released. So maybe All That You Can't Leave Behind should be worried about that crown after all?

Classic Hits

2009-02-22T16:20:00.004+13:00

I've been having a bit of a music binge lately, listening to all sorts. But the old 2Gb iPod Nano G1 was getting a little......ummmm.....shall we say cramped? Yes, positively restrictive! And I have been eyeing up the pretty pink G4 Nano I got Kerry-Sue for Valentine's day and going a shade of green. Not because it is pretty and pink mind you, but it has space, plays video, and is undeniably cool! So when I did some overtime this week I talked myself in to a new iPod Classic, with a wopping 120Gb! See, for Kerry-Sue, small and pink was a requirement, for me it is not. So I went for big (compared to the Nano) and black, and talked them into throwing in a nice clear plastic protective case for it. It's very cool, but it's gonna take a very long time to fill 120Gb.
I've never been a big Apple fan, but in my opinion the iPod is something they have done very well, from both product, and marketing perspectives. They have created a fine piece of high quality technology, and then made people want them, because they are just plain cool. Then they have hooked it in to iTunes to sell you the music, and I'm sure it is a real cash cow for apple. But the thing is it deserves to be, because it is a great product and service.
I am really growing to like iTunes. There are a lot of people out there who rubbish it, but with the latest versions it is getting quite polished. I have iTunes 8 Plus installed, which enables high quality DRM free downloads. But todays iPod and iTunes are so much more than just music players. They do video, podcasts and photo's as well. The iTunes store is so easy (too easy!) as well. Music, videos, pod casts and more at the click of a button. I know it isn't the cheapest place to buy music downloads, but it is high quality, and easy. I'll still buy some cd's, but iTunes is a great way to buy music when you only want a couple of songs off a particular album.
I'm still looking for the right piece of software to convert videos to iPod format. Ideally I want something that will convert DVDs and avi files and the like to play on the iPod for a reasonable price. There are 101 different programs on the net that do this, and I've downloaded a few trial versions and tried them. I just haven't found the right combination of functionality and price yet. (That doesn't mess with the aspect ration of the video! Why is it so hard to understand that I don't want everything stetched and distorted just so it fills the whole screen?)

Well, I didn't get the nickname "Gadgetman" for nothing!

And I took this photo of the sunrise I quite like on Wednesday morning:

Happy Valentines Day

2009-02-15T19:28:00.002+13:00

We went to Top Gear Live on fridays night. It was a hell on an entertaining show! Cars doing donuts on the indoor stage. Smoke, fireworks, precision driving, 4 guys on motorbikes in the cage of death. They played car soccer with 6 susuki swifts, ballet with 3 ferraris, the cool wall, a lap of the top gear track controlled by the audience through colour recognition camera. There was Jeremy, Richard, Greg Murphy, and of course the Stig. Good fun!

Yesterday was Valentines Day of course, which marks 18 years of me and Kerry-Sue being together. Half my life! Sure we've had our ups and downs, but can't imagine being without her and am looking forward to the next 18!I got her a pink (of course) ipod. I guess she likes it cos she hasn't stopped playing with it. I'm not looking forward to the itunes bill! She gave me what every bloke wants for Valentines day ;)

I knew that was going to happen!

2009-02-10T20:01:00.003+13:00

It was only a matter of time......Nicola has taken to sleeping in her "hidey hole"
In other news, we bought a portable air conditioner today. It's soooooooooooo gooooooood. Maybe we will get some sleep tonight :)

Big Bird

2009-02-02T19:54:00.004+13:00

I was on my way back from visiting a client near the airport this afternoon, when I noticed hoards of people, and cars lining the street. I remembered that the 1st commercial A380 flight to New Zealand was ariving today, so I stopped for a look.

I didn't have my camera on me, so had to resort to the cell phone :(

It sure is big when viewed that close up! And I was amazed at how slow it's approach speed was. It was just hanging there.

Emirates are starting a regular scheduled service to Auckland with the A380, so I'll have to go back with a real camera and get some decent shots of the beast!

Happy Anniversary Auckland

2009-01-26T19:52:00.006+13:00

Anniversary weekend was really cool....ummm...I mean hot! We didn't do much on Saturday. The kids went to church with Nana and Popa, which was nice. It was lovely to have most of the day to ourselves! Then Nana, Popa, Micheal, Adele, and Peter came over for a swim and bbq dinner. The pool was 31 degrees!!! so more like a large warm bath really.
On Sunday we went and picked up Nicola's new bed. She has been asking for a bunk bed so that her best friend Bronte can come and stay, so we started looking around for one a while ago. Her bedroom is quite small, so we were looking for ways to make efficient use of space. We got this one off trademe for a pretty good price. It is solid wood, with a bed on top, a pull out desk and 7 draws underneath. Then on the bottom, there is a pull out trundler bed. And Nicola's favourite bit? There is a cupboard in the back, behind the draws and desks. She calls it her hiding hole. It took us all day to pick up the bed, put it together, and move the various furniture around the house. But the bed is ideal, and creates quite a bit of space in her room. She loves it!
Sunday night was the 2nd BBQ for the weekend, basking in the late afternoon sun at Aaron and Sarah's place with a few people form POTN. A few beers, sausages and garlic bread. Excellent!

Today we for a drive up to Snells Beach to visit our old friends Ben and Brenda. We hadn't seen them for ages (too long!) and it was great to catch up with them (and meet there little man) over lunch. After lunch we went out to Martins Bay for a bit of a play in the water. It was lovely and warm, and crystal clear too.
We came home through the new tunnel on the Northern motorway expension that opened this weekend. It was great! It took us an hour to get from Snells Beach to Howick. Doing that trip at the end of a holiday weekend used to take at least 2 hours going the old way!

Mi Geaz

2009-01-11T13:58:00.003+13:00

I thought it was about time I did a post on my photography gear. I first started getting into photography in mid 2005 when I bought my first Digital SLR, a Canon EOS 35oD with 18-55 kit lens. Sure I'd dabbled with photography before that, but having a decent digital camera set me off on this journey, it set me free to explore this hobby that I had always had an interest in. Since then I have slowly built up a system, upgraded bits an pieces to what I have now, and I doubt that this evolution is complete....;) If someone told me how expensive this photography thing was going to be maybe I would have stayed away.....then again compared to racing cars, or boats it ain't that bad!

So My gear currently consists of:

Canon EOS 5D digital SLR. This is a 3 year old model now, but it still holds it's own against the newer models in terms of image quality, even if it doesn't have some of the flashy new features. When it was released it was revolutionary. The first "affordable" full frame digital camera. Depends what you call affordable, but this was the first digital camera on the market with a sensor the same size as 35mm film for anywhere near it's price. And 2 years after it's release it still had no compeditors. This camera has it's shortcomings, but it is awesome for what I like to shoot! (Mainly landscapes.) The 5D Mk2 is now on the market, but I see no need to upgrade for some time.
Canon BG-E4 Battery Grip. My most recent addition. Adds a vertical grip for portrait shooting, and takes 2 batteries for all day shooting. Does make the camera kinda big and heavy, but balaces better with big lenses. The extra battery grip was essential with the little 350D. Jury is still out on with the 5D.
Canon EF 17-40 f4 L. I'm a wide angle junky. Love it! Santa bought me this for Christmas, and it is a hit. Wide and sharp....I could go on and on. This is likely to become my most used lens.
Canon EF 24-105 f4 L IS. This is my standard walk around zoom that I got with the 5D. High qaulity, its a good zoom range, fastish constant f4 max aperture, and image stabilisation as well. I've used this lens a lot and am very happy with it.
Canon EF 50 f1.4. I pull this lens out when I need to shoot in the dark. The fixed 50mm focal length is quite flexable on full frame and it is very sharp from about f1.8. Combined with the great high ISO performace of the 5D this lens enables me to shoot in very little light.
Canon EF 100 f2.8 Macro. Great for bugs and flowers, this lens enables 1 to 1 magnification. Macro photography can be so frustrating, but also very rewarding. This lens also makes a very good portrait lens too!
Sigma 120-300 f2.8 EX (plus teleconverter.) I picked this lens up secondhand from a professional sports photographer for a bargin price. (All my other lenses were bought new.) It is an awesomely sharp quality piece of glass, great for lower light telephoto work. But I am undecided if I will keep it long term. It is a great lens, but it is very big and heavy. I use it for a while and see what I think, but it may at some point get traded for something more portable.
Flash Units - Canon 580EX, 420EX, and ST-E2 remote trigger. Lights, camera, action. This little setup enables me to setup quite flexable lighting. With the ST-E2 on camera I can place two speedlights where I like and control power ratios etc. I really am a complete noob when it comes to flash photography....much to learn!

Well that is the major gear. Of course I have filters, camera bags, tripods etc as well......maybe in another post I'll tell you about them, but I don't want to bore then non technogeeks reading this too much. (all 2 of you.....ok 1)

GKPE Muriwai Trip

2009-01-08T10:05:00.007+13:00

On tuesday a bunch of GKPE photographers headed out to Muriwai and Moari Bay for the afternoon/evening. We spent most of our time around the Gannet colony up there and caught the sunset before heading home. It was a fun afternoon. I got a few photos I am pretty happy with, and it was great to catch up with a good bunch of guys in the flesh, that I have been way to used to only seeing online. I hope we can do more in the way of real meetings with real people, taking real photos!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T09:06:00.003+13:00

Well, 2009 is here. What will it bring? Doom and gloom, or peace and prosperity? It seems certain that 2009 will be a difficult year for many, economically speaking atleast. But I am hopefull that it will be a good year for us. Work is in growth mode, with plans to double or triple staff numbers in 2009, and I have heaps of work on, so my job seems fairly safe. So plenty to feel positive about.Our New Years Eve was pretty quiet last night. All our friends were busy, and we didn't have babysitters. Daniel had been sick the night before, so we didn't want to risk taking the kids out late. So we stayed home and entertained ourselves. We were in bed, asleep, by about 11pm, and were woken up by some pretty loud fireworks at midnight. I was awake again at 5am this morning, so got up to see the sunrise which was cool, and it gave me a chance to test the new lens Santa bought me. :)

Nice one Santa!

2008-12-30T19:21:00.003+13:00

Well Santa scored some browny points with me this year! He bought me a new wide angle lens, the Canon 17-40 f4 L! Awesome! I have been missing my ultra-wide angle ever since I upgraded to the full frame 5D. I had a Sigma 10-20 for my 350D, and it was one of my favourite lenses. Awesome for vast landscapes and different perspectives, but it was designed only for the smaller aps-c sized sensors and not the full 35mm sized sensor in the 5D. The 17-40 on the 5D gives roughly the same field of view as the 10-20 did on the 350D. Can't wait for some decent weather to give it a workout. Nice one Santa!

Twas the night before the night before Christmas

2008-12-23T22:01:00.004+13:00

So we went to town on the kids a bit this year. It was nice that amongst all the doom and gloom that is around we were able to spoil the kids. And for a change I am really looking forward to Christmas day, and seeing the kids rip into the big pile of presents around the tree. It's going to be a good 1!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-12-16T19:31:00.006+13:00

Well, today I got my wish. Every time the kids say "I want an icecream" or what ever, I say "I want a Porsche!" So that is what they got me for my birthday.
It's a little short on head and leg room, and the quality of finishing is not up to what I was expecting, but now I have a Porsche.

Dunno what I will say next time the kids want an icecream..........

Go the Bay

2008-10-04T19:30:00.005+13:00

Well, 3 years after leaving Hawkes Bay to move back to Auckland, we finally went back for a visit. It was strangly depressing, because I realised that I miss the sunny and dry weather, and the nice house we had, but could never afford in Auckland, but nothing else. Not the people, or the lifestyle, or anything else. In fact we were bored, and came home a couple of days early. What I also realised was that I have achieved very little since moving back to Auckland. I have been in neutral, and need to get my life back into gear. I've become fat and lazy! So I need to change some things:

I need to improve my fitness and loose some weight in a sustainable way. Do some excercise, and eat better. So I'm working on an excercise plan, and am going to make better use of daylight saving.
I need to put some effort into my career development. I've been cruising a bit lately, but have been lucky to get some good opportunities and land in a great job. I can't take it for granted, so the Windows 2008 books have been ordered, and I will be studying at night instead of aimlessly surfing the net. I need to put some effort into being more of a leader at work too.
The house isn't renovating itself, so this summer I'm going to get off my butt and make some progress on it.
It's time to take our finances more seriously, pay off debt, and save for retirement. We have already been talking to a financial advisor, and restructure our debt. Now the hard work begins.

So other than that, I did get to do some long overdue photography while I was away. The first 5 were taken around the top of Te Mata peak after we had fish and chips for dinner there 1 night.

This was taken one morning at Awatoto. It was freezing! 1 degree C, and howling a gale.

This is inside the old Art Deco Rothmans building.

Beauty and the Beast

2008-09-23T19:39:00.003+12:00

So I bought a lens on Trademe last night. It's a Sigma 120-300 f2.8 EX. Ever since I got the full frame 5D I have felt that my 70-200 isn't long enough. Whenever I use it I have the 1.4 teleconverter on it which costs a stop of light, which sometimes I don't have (like taking photos of Daniel doing karate in a school hall) but the 120-300 still works with the TC giving me a 168-420 f4 option. (Above photo was taken at 420mm f4.) I bought the lens from a professional sports photographer, who gave it a fairly hard life. Cosmetically it is a little bit rough, (five minutes with a hammer straightened out the lens hood) but the optics appear to be in great shape, and it all works as it should, giving nice sharp images even wide open. I paid around a quarter of the new price, so I am a happy camper.
I plan to use the lens mostly for kids sport, and some wildlife. I can't wait to give it a proper workout next week while on holiday. The 70-200 and 85 f1.8 are now for sale to pay for this lens, and hopefully have enough left over for a tripod upgrade.

A fine Sunday......summer is coming!

2008-09-14T19:52:00.004+12:00

We took the kids to the Zoo today. Daniel spent the first hour sulking because i didn't buy him a map. Nicola has been asking to go and see "the Lion Man" all weekend so was happy as a really happy thing to see the lions and watch them eating lunch. It was quite a good day at the zoo. The cheetahs were runing around, the lions were eating, even the tuatara was out of its burrow. All the same Mum and Dad couldn't wait to go home for a nap. We were out untill 2am last night........

Happy Fathers Day

2008-09-07T09:46:00.003+12:00

So instead of lying in bed this morning waiting for breakfast to arrive (yeah right!) I got up and used my camera for what I bought it for, for the first time in months. I drive over the Panmure bridge on my way to work most mornings, and often see stunning sunrises there, so took the camera ther this morning. There was a big bank of cloud on the horizon that spoiled the sunrise a bit, but still managed to get a few shots I like.

Oh, and I got a pen for fathers day.

Windows 2008 as a desktop - update

2008-09-03T16:56:00.002+12:00

Just a quick note to say that I am still running Windows Server 2008 as my primary desktop. The only issues I am having are:

I still have sound issues. The sound goes gittery when the computer in under load, such as playing iTunes and opening a new program, or sometimes just switching between windows.
uPnP media sharing is disabled in Media Player on WS2008, so I can't share media to my PS3 using Media Player.
My AVG Internet Security Network Edition trial license is about to expire. Not really an issue, but it's time to cough up.....

I would love to hear from anyone who has a fix or workaround for 1&2.

Non Geeks Rejoice!

2008-08-17T19:39:00.004+12:00

Normal service is resumed. No more talk of computers and 64bits, and stuff. So what else is there to talk about? The weather? well that just sucks, which why I thought I'd add the butterfly photo. For a splash of colour. I can't wait for summer. Warmer weather, daylight savings, BBQs, beaches, photos of the sunset, and all that stuff. I've had enough of all the rain etc I'm bored with winter. I want to get out and about, not be stuck inside in front of the computer or TV.

W2008 as a Desktop - Part 2

2008-08-11T17:26:00.002+12:00

Sorry non-geeks, but the saga continues. Here is the details of my installation.

THE BUILD:
This was a really handy site: http://blogs.msdn.com/vijaysk/archive/2008/02/11/using-windows-server-2008-as-a-super-desktop-os.aspx

Create RAID1 set with the 2 x 320GB Hard Drives
Installed W2008 on a 50Gb volume on the mirrored pair
Enabled Remote connections and continued build from rdp connection on current desktop
Install the final release of Hyper-V (The version that shipped with W2008 is a beta version. The rtm version is available here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/virtualization-consolidation.aspx)
Add the Hyper-V role. (I wanted to add Hyper-V early in the process so that I could be sure all my apps etc would be happy running on top of Hyper-V)
Created the other volumes I wanted on the mirrored pair
Downloaded and Installed AVG Internet Security Network Edition 8.0 tial edition from http://www.grisoft.com/ww.download
Installed Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 from CD
Downloaded Vista x64 audio drivers from ASUS web site and installed
Installed Desktop Experinece and Quality Windows Audio Video Experience Features
Downloaded latest versions of Cannon DPP, Zoom Browser, and EOS Utility and installed
Disabled Shutdown Event Tracker
Enabled Themes Service
Added File Services Role with Windows Search and File Server services
Enabled SuperFetch
Set Processor scheduling to "Adjust for best performance of: Programs"
Adjusted Visual Effects settings
Disabled IE Enhance Security Configuration
Install Office Pro 2007
Created VPN connection to work and test
Configured Outlook to connect to work Exchange Server
Install Nero 7 Essentials
Adjusted Start Menu and Task Bar settings
Installed old Hard Drive and Transfered Data
Connected Monitor and Keyboard, setup display
Downloaded latest vista 64bit colourvision spyder2express software and installed
Calibrated screen
Enabled Aero
connected speakers
Download iTunes 7 64bit and install
Redirected user folders to Data drive
imported music into itunes
Installed msn (to install copied msi from vista PC...I'll find a reference for that)
Installed microsoft lifecam. Now that was a bit of fun. I downloaded the latest installation file from MS, but that checks for the OS version and won't install. So I had to extract the msi file and edit it to remove the version check. http://forums.technet.microsoft.com/en-US/winservergen/thread/2499e71a-7f76-4d23-9393-b81bec4284a0/
Downloaded and installed fddshow codecs. http://www.free-codecs.com/FFDshow_download.htm
Enabled Autologon. This is a home desktop, so I don't want to have to logon all the time. Just make a reg file out of this:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon] "DefaultUserName"="User""DefaultDomainName"="Domain""AutoAdminLogon"="1""DefaultPassword"="Password"
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS:
It all seems to run pretty well so far. The only issue I have noticed so far in the sound can be a bit choppy under moderate load. Such as when iTunes is playing something and you open another window or something. It might be a driver issue, so I'll see if I can fix it. No other problems so far, but I will run it for a few weeks before I activate all the licences and pay for AVG. I need to install the 250GB drive and format it to hold my Virtual Machines, Apply a bunch of updates, and build a few VMs, but basically I'm done. Then onto Phase 2 - rebuilding my old desktop for Kerry-Sue.

The Great Windows Server 2008 as a Desktop OS experiment - Part 1

2008-08-09T19:51:00.002+12:00

WARNING this post (and probably the next few posts after it) will be a super geeky one about computers and operating systems, and stuff that non geeks won't care about.

OK so you have been warned.....
I have quite a few PCs at home, but I have a bit of a problem in the way that they are utilised. I other words the gruntiest one sits under the house running 24x7 next to nothing waiting for me to use it for a study lab. It's a Dual Core Athlon X2 6000 with 4Gb RAM, a pair of 320Gb Hard Drives and a reasonable Video Card. So a reasonable box. Not the latest and greatest, but quite grunty, and not being used much at all.

My current desktop PC is a bit older. An Athlon 64 3200, with 1Gb RAM,a single 320Gb Hard Drive, and an older, relatively low end PCI-E ATI graphics card plugged into my 24" LCD. I run Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit edition (SP1 of course), Office 2007, Photoshop Elements 5, all the Canon digital camera utilities, IE7, MSN, itunes, a few games (but nothing too demanding) and the normal selection of utilities that you will find on any IT geeks computer. It runs most things that I ask of it reasonably well, but it is a long way from fast, and gets quite memory constrained at times, particularly when I'm doing photo editing in Canon DPP and photoshop. This PC gets used a lot, as in every day, anything from 2 - 12 hours a day.

Kerry-Sue's PC is an old small form factor Celeron 1.6 compaq deskpro with 768Mb RAM and a 40GB Hard Drive. Running Windows XP, Office 2003, MSN, and IE7. (Yes, it is handy working in the IT industry! I have lots of licenced NFR software that I have picked up at various indusrty events.) This PC doesn't get a lot asked of it, but at times it runs like a dog, which is not suprising really.

I also have a couple more hard drives, windows licenses and other stuff lying around that I can make use of.

So anyway......It has been on my mind for a while to reshuffle all this stuff around, but I need to achieve a few things:

1) Better utilisation of the hardware and software I already own. Put the good hardware to use where it will make a difference to our lives. I want better performance on my PC for photoshop, and Kerry-Sue's PC for whatever she wants to do.
2) Provide a decent platform for a study lab. I work in IT. I need to keep myself up to date. That is why I bought the current "server" to start with. But I have decided I don't need a perminantly running domain, exchange server etc. I just need to be able to run a test/study lab with that sort of stuff in it, that performs decently when I need it.
3) Implement a decent, reliable, and robust protection for my data (mostly photos) to gaurd against hard drive failure, theft, and disaster such as the house burning down.

And I need to do all this while not spending any money. Or almost none anyway.

So the plan to achieve this is basically to rebuild the current server box as my new desktop. Then rebuild my current desktop for Kerry-Sue to use, and configure her PC as a NAS of some sort to host my backups.

But here is what will make the project interesting.....I'm going to try running Windows Server 2008 as the OS on my new desktop! Why? Primarily so that I can use Hyper-V as the virtualisation platform to host the study/test lab I need. Hyper-V is a hypervisor based virtualisation platform, unlike VMware workstation, or Virtual PC software that will run on top of Windows Vista and performs much better than those host OS based products. I'm not the first to try this, there is quite a bit of chatter on the internet saying that Windows Server 2008 is the best desktop OS microsoft has ever made. But of course it isn't designed as a desktop OS, so their will be challanges.

I don't anticipate to many application compatability issues, but finding an Antivirus/security suite that works with Server 2008 and is afordable was something I was worried about. Fortuitously my current Security products subsciption has just expired, so it needs to be replaced/upgraded anyway. None of the normal consumer product will work on server OSs though. AVG Internet Security Network Edition 8.0 looks like it might be the answer. It's reasonably priced and works with 2008. I'm still open to other suggestions on this.

I think that is quite enough writing for now. Time to get started and see if I can make this work.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth......

2008-08-02T20:12:00.002+12:00

Well it finally happened. We have been wondering for a while when Daniel would have some more teeth fall out, and he has lost 2 in 2 days. Kerry-Sue keeps calling him the toothless wonder, which he doesn't like at all! He in having a little trouble talking with no front teeth which is quite funny. I guess the tooth ferry is going to have to dig deep tonight.

I finaaly got motivated enought to gib the wall I moved to fit the fridge in the kitchen today. Might even get to gib stopping tomorrow.......you never know.

The Week that Was

2008-07-20T08:41:00.003+12:00

I spent the last week at what was possibly the worst technical training I have ever done, which I am really disappointed about. I was really looking forward to the HP SAN training, it had the potential to be really interesting and usefull, but the trainer was useless! He seemed to be gloating that he knew more than us (Well duh....no kidding!) The 2 SANs he bought for us to play with were both broken so we couldn't do anything with them. Now I am going to have to spend hours and hours going over the student guide because he didn't expain much very well.

Yesterday we made the mistake of going to Harvey Normans 1 Day sale......we got a bunch of prints done at 10c each, and I splashed out on a new computer screen. The old one has been getting a bit fuzzy (well, it was free!) So now I have a 24" LCD. Very nice, but I still need to tweak the colour callibration a bit. They had face painters which kept the kids entertained while Daddy shopped. It seem ed to be working for them, I'd never seen Harvey Norman so busy!

Daniel's 8th Birthday Party

2008-07-13T11:20:00.003+12:00

Daniel turned 8 on Tuesday, and had a bunch of mates around for a bit of a party Yesterday. They played playstation (it's quite a thing to see that. 7 boys playing a 2 player playsation game at once!) and ate pizza, sausage rolls, cherios, and popcorn for lunch.

And the cake of course! Kerry-Sue made this awesome cake in the shape of a figure 8 race track, complete with a Speed Racer car. Daniel wasn't so keen on it. "Didn't you know that race tracks don't have centre lines?" he said.

After Lunch Kerry-Sue took the 7 boys to see Speed Racer at the movies. (Lucky Her!) I stayed home with Nicola and her friend Bronte.

My Brain is Full!!

2008-07-05T15:11:00.002+12:00

I spent 3 days at a sales conference in Taupo this week....yeah, I know...a SALES conference. Well it was actually quite interesting if a bit heavy going for a technogeek like me. I managed to sneak out and get some work done during the heavy salesy sessions anyway.

They put on a big fancy dress party with a future theme on Thursday night which was great. Good band, disco lights, a big TARDIS, the works. Was fun...but there were some pretty unhappy looking people on friday morning, and I had to drive one of the guys cars home because they were not in any condition to drive. (Not mentioning any names...Andrew!)

Our Handsome Boy!

2008-06-26T17:49:00.004+12:00

Daniel got his glasses yesterday. He really looks quite good in them. Well they were the most expensive ones in the shop!! (Nike's no less!) But I figure getting glasses is traumatic enough for a kid his age, without getting cheap, nasty, geeky looking ones.

He seems to be quite happy with them too, and is amazed at all the stuff he can see now. Hopefully being able to see the board will help with his school work!

Meanwhile I might need to find a second job to pay for the lenses we have to replace every 2 months while they try to correct a stigmatism in one of Daniel's eyes.

Auckland ain't so bad!

2008-06-23T20:30:00.002+12:00

So, it's winter. Cold and wet. And the price of cheese is making you want to move across the ditch? Well I'd just like to say that Auckland isn't such a bad place to live. (OK except when you are sitting in the traffic on your way to work.) So I thought I'd share a few of my favourite photos of this lovely city of ours. At night Auckland comes alive. The view of the city is quite beautiful at night. The ugly port becomes a shining light, and the skyline is great.Bean rock at dawn. I used to really enjoy catching the ferry to work on a nice morning
Rangitoto.........one of the great Auckland landmarks.

Choice One Bro

2008-06-15T15:35:00.003+12:00

Well it hasn't been a very blog worthy week, but we went to an 80s party last night which was.....ummmm....ok. Far from the worst party I have ever been too, but not exactly exciting. The conclusion I came to is that he best thing to come out of the 80s is the music (well some of it), and the worst thing was the clothes.

The worrying thing is that I worked out that in 1980 I was the same age as Daniel is now. Made me feel old :(

Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

2008-06-07T20:03:00.009+12:00

Well, Kerry-Sue flew out to scrap camp in Palmerston North on Thursday morning, so I am 3 days into a 4 day stint of single fatherhood.

It hasn't been so bad really. Last night we went to Gran and Grandad's for dinner

(roast pork -YUM! Thanks Gran and Grandad!!!) and today we went to the zoo with Nana and Popa. After picking up Daniel from Karate we had an early lunch, then went and picked up Nana and Popa. At the zoo the kids dragged us from place to place. We saw the Aligator encounter (which was pretty boring because they don't eat anyting for 4 months in winter....really it could have been a stuffed animal!) We also went to the Tiger encounter, which was much more interesting. Daniel and Nicola spent more time playing on the playground than looking at animals I think!! But, hey, it kept them entertained! So does telling the kids it is later than it really is, so that they will go to bed, make me a bad father?

Goodbye Moppsie

2008-06-04T22:23:00.003+12:00

Today we buried Moppsie. It's late, it's been a long day, so I'm not gonna say anything else, but here is the view she now has from her resting place:

(Click on it for a larger version)It's my first real effort at a pano. It's made from 8 shots stitched together, shot handheld in manual mode. The joins need a lot more work before it's ready to print, but I think it will end up as a large framed print on somebodies wall. OMG...the full res file is 428MB!!!

Daniel

2008-06-03T20:24:00.002+12:00

Well, I realised today that I haven't got any photos of Daniel on my blog yet. So here they are. Daniel is 8 next month (And man does that make me feel old!!!) He is into Karate, and Playstation. He loves to read, and is very good at spelling and maths. For some reason that doesn't translate into writing. Like most boys his age, he needs to be told to do anything 5 times (if you are lucky!) and his bedroom is generally a bomb site 2 minutes after he has finished tidying up. He has inherited his fathers love of Lego, and Star Wars. Only now you can get both at once - Star Wars Lego! or even combine that with his other favourite thing - Star Wars Lego playstation game! Just as well they weren't around when i was a kid, or I never would have tidied my room either.....no...wait....be quiet Mum & Dad!

Nicola's 4th Birthday

2008-06-02T16:18:00.010+12:00

Last Saturday (24th or May) was Nicola's 4th Birthday, and I finally got around to processing the photos today of the party she had on Sunday (I know....my bad!) It was just a small party at McDonalds, with her 2 favourite friends (Jackson & Bronte) and family.

I think it was all a bit much for her.....

Gloom

2008-06-01T19:58:00.007+12:00

I dragged myself out of bed this morning when i saw the fog. Not early enough for the sunrise, but I thought I might get some atmospheric fog shots. So I set off, but as I was driving to the spot I had in mind I was thinking to myself "there is too much fog! I'm just gonna get shots of white nothingness" Just then I drove passed this graveyard, and it looked great, so slammed on the brakes and found somewhere to park.

I spent about an hour wondering around getting some photos, and am pretty happy with what I got. By the time I was finished, people were turning up for church and looking at me funny ;)

I carried on to a few other places, but the fog was too thick to get what the shots I was after, and I couldn't wait around for it to clear, cos I had other things to do.

So it was home to dump the gear, and clear the CF cards before pileing the kids in the car and heading off to Welsford to drop in on Kerry-Sue's family who are busy with the aftermath of her nana passing away on thursday night.

It was weird being at her house without her there. She was always really nice to me. I remember even as a shy teenager, when Kerry-Sue and I first started going out, going to Dixon family gatherings. I always felt welcomed by Phyllis, and never felt that she looked down on me or judged me, unlike some of the rest of the family. The truth is I still don't really feel that welcome, so I even though we really weren't very close, I will miss her.

This week I need to pack a weeks worth of work into 1 day. Tomorrow is a holiday of course. Tuesday I will be at work. Wednesday the funeral, and then I'm on leave on Thursday and Friday. Kerry-Sue is going away to scrap camp Thursday to Sunday, so I'm a single parent for 4 days. That will be fun....NOT. But I'm hoping to get out and do some photography while the kids are at school on Thursday and Friday.

Well here I am then....

2008-05-31T17:04:00.000+12:00

I have been thinking about doing a blog for a while.....having a place I can share my thoughts, photos, and what ever. Maybe nobody will read it, but It will give me a chance to express myself anyway. Not sure what will end up on here, but lets see what happens.

Anyway....a bit of an intro:

My name is Scott Thomson. I live in Auckland, New Zealand, with my lovely wife Kerry-Sue. We have 2 kids. Daniel is 7, and Nicola has just turned 4.

I work as a Solutions Architect for Gen-i, doing presales consulting, and system design for our client base. I have been with Gen-i for about 4 months and am loving it.

In my spare time I am into mucking around with computers, photography (you will see a bit of that on here), movies and home theatre, beaches, bbqs, family times, and the occasional night out on the town.

That'll do for starters....how about a photo?

That's Kerry-Sue and I. Taken about a month ago.

The background is a sunrise at Eastern Beach that I took a while back.