Just a quick post to say we’re back in New Zealand…
I’m seriously considering buying a bike, just a cheap thing to ride around the roads of Whitby on. At this point I’m debating whether to buy a new one or get a second-hand one off New Zealand’s favourite auction site. Not as straightforward as it may sound, with the price of new ones being so low- a mate at work got a GT brand one with front shocks and disc brakes for around $400NZ.
We’re currently staying with my in-laws in the UK and I have managed to put my IT skills to good use already 
The dog’s food bowl was being mysteriously depleted overnight and suspicions were high that something was coming in through the cat flap and stealing his food in the middle of the night.
Armed with a laptop, a cheap webcam and an internet search engine, I came up with a plan. I even found a detailed step-by-step guide which did the trick and recommended some free software. I set everything up, positioned the laptop & webcam on the counter looking over the food bowl and we all went to bed. This morning when we woke up we had plenty of evidence!
If this is your cat, be warned this incident has been reported to Interpol
Wellington has been hit with power cuts this week. On Monday, several blocks in the CBD lost power and traffic lights were down too, causing chaos. Yesterday afternoon was a similar story, but on a smaller scale.
Our office didn’t lose power, but our ISP, Citylink went down, causing our office to lose connectivity. Apparently generators have been brought in by the electricity company to ensure it doesn’t happen again, we shall see.
Reading the Stuff.co.nz website this morning, I found an article about enjoying listening to cover versions. It’s time I came out and admitted it - I also like a good cover thought I would share some of my favourites.
I have found lots of cover versions I like, far too to mention here, but have a listen to some of the covers below and hopefully you’ll see where I’m coming from….
I’ll start off gently, here’s a cover of Oasis’s Wonderwall by Mike Flowers Pops. Yes, it’s been covered a thousand times and is every busker’s favourite, but you have to agree (more…)
It’s a weekend, this calls for a celebration! Have a happy weekend song on me:
Since we moved to the other side of the world, we have found Skype to be invaluable for keeping in touch. This morning, we were disappointed to find we couldn’t log in. First we thought there was a problem with our DSL (no, everything else works, but rebooted the router just in case), maybe a problem with our ISP? No, can’t log in from work either. Had a look on the Skype website and found this update:
Hello everyone,
Apologies for the delay, but we can now update you on the Skype sign-on issue. As we continue to work hard at resolving the problem, we wanted to dispel some of the concerns that you may have. The Skype system has not crashed or been victim of a cyber attack. We love our customers too much to let that happen. This problem occurred because of a deficiency in an algorithm* within Skype networking software. This controls the interaction between the user’s own Skype client and the rest of the Skype network.
Rest assured that everyone at Skype is working around the clock — from Tallinn to Luxembourg to San Jose — to resume normal service as quickly as possible.
*If you’re a non-techie, try replacing “deficiency in an algorithm” with “programming error”.
I suppose it’s nice of them to try to keep their customers reassured, but it’s contradictory to say they love their customers too much to let a crash or cyber attack break Skype (which I’m pretty sure is impossible to guarantee) BUT they’ll quite happily release a ‘deficient algorithm within the Skype networking software’ which causes the software to become unusable for everyone. Absolutely renders their product useless. Completely.
Recently I have seen the counter at the bottom of my Skype client say there is over 8 million people connected, that’s a lot of customers to annoy.
On the Skype homepage they say they will have it fixed within 12 to 24 hours. That’s a long time to wait for a fix. I can only assume it was some sort of capacity issue, since they’re not being specific and it broke so catastrophically.
How-to take great panoramic photos
There’s nothing like a panoramic photo to capture beautiful scenery (unless you count actually being there, of course). I’ve been taking panoramic pictures for a couple of years now and I thought I would share them with you, as well as some tips.
Here’s the first panorama I took, from the bank of the River Thames in Wallingford (UK).
(Click for a larger version)
I was fairly happy with it, for a first attempt. I used the Canon Photostitch software which came free with my Canon 350D camera. It’s done a fair job of stitching the photos together, but there’s some noticeable lines where the joins have been made. Also, I let the camera take care of the exposure setting, so the sky changes colour across the scene.
I was a bit disappointed with the end result, so I did what everybody does when they want to learn how to do something - I Googled it. I got some useful tips:
Turn Auto-exposure OFF Turn Auto White Balance OFF Turn the Flash OFF Use one Focal Length for all shots in the sequence (manual focus, not AF) Use one Size/Quality for all shots in the sequence Use a tripod whenever possible – especially when objects are near to the camera If a tripod is not available, lock elbows and pivot on one spot – keep camera level. Use 25%-50% overlap for each shot Use reference points on the landscape when moving the camera. Go beyond 360 degrees when shooting for 360 degrees panoramas – mark your tripod with a piece of tape Create time-based groups – wait no more than 40 seconds between shots Insert visual dividers (black shots, or a shot of the ground / your hand) between sequences Be aware that an object in motion may cause problems when stitching Be aware that scenes without much detail (cloudless sky over flat sea) are more difficult to stitch
Armed with this information, I was certain my next panoramic photos would be better. (more…)
The observant amongst you may have noticed that the ‘banner’ image at the top of this site has changed. So the banks of the River Thames have been replaced with a panorama of the river at Gibson Quay in Hokitika. I stitched 8 photos together, using Arcsoft Panorama Maker - I am very pleased with the result.
I have started putting my more interesting pics on Flickr - follow this link to my online NZ photoset.
We’ve just come back from a 3 week holiday in NZ. While we were over there, we kept a blog - The Brown Family Visits New Zealand. Have a read, the entries start at the bottom,
Here are some pictures taken over the Christmas period.
Click here for Xmas Day
Sorry I haven’t been putting much up recently, we’ve had our hands full! Sophie is now just over 6 months old and eating her first solids - sweet potatoes and pears are her favourites (not at the same time!).
Our well-deserved holiday in New Zealand is just around the corner… we are counting down the days! We are looking forward to seeing some friends over there we haven’t seen in ages. Plus hopefully the weather will be an improvement on the UK… but apparently they haven’t seen much nice weather so far.
