Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

How Cuckoos Do It

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

I was editor for the first edition of Programming PHP and, like all O'Reilly books, there was a vigorous discussion with the authors about which animal should be on the cover. All the recognizable megafauna have gone and we're left with different types of birds, bugs, and fish, so ...

Ubicomp and ubisec

Monday, March 17th, 2008

Read this ABC news story on digital frames coming with viruses installed if you want a glimpse at an unpleasant future. Ubicomp ("ubiquitous computing", aka spimes aka real world objects with computation and network capability) promises wonderful things: fridges and pantries that network to produce your shopping list, ...

Explaining technology in words

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

Julie Starr faced an interesting problem recently: how to explain RSS, aggregators, even Twitter to a room full of journalism students ... without slides or a net connection. In attempting this, as she says, she "found a new respect for teachers this week". As a recovering teacher (or, ...

Font Geeks in New Zealand

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

I often joke that Foo Camp ("Friends of O'Reilly") should be Font Camp (Friends of Nat Torkington) in New Zealand. I love typography and was delighted to find "The Font Scene in New Zealand", a list of typographers and fonts made by New Zealanders or by New Zealand companies. ...

From US to NZ

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

I just got back from a week in the US for Foo Camp, where I had a great time shopping two ideas around: New Zealand can be a hub of innovation, and Kids aren't being turned onto science and technology as careers Re: the ...

NZ Internet Use

Wednesday, April 12th, 2006

There were 1.24 million active internet subscribers in New Zealand between March and September 2005 (NZ pop = 4M, remember) 70%, or 869,300, were modem users Total residential internet penetration was around 30% Business uptake of internet connections increased by 17% 66 ISPs compete for the 1.24 million customers Dial-up ...

Looking Ahead to 2006

Saturday, December 31st, 2005

[I wrote up these thoughts for the NZ-2.0 list, but thought you might be interested] I've been thinking lately about Things To Do In 2006, and trying to figure out where technology will go in the coming year and where there are opportunities to ride that wave and win. I've come up with ...

Day 9: First Computer Conference

Friday, November 25th, 2005

I think I'm probably doing it a favour calling it a conference: Convergence Oceania was a Wireless Forum sell shop, an expo hall with a room featuring the biggest exhibitors. Everyone's Powerpoint deck was focused to their own product story. Good thing it was free :-) The expo hall was interesting, ...

Google Maps-style Map of New Zealand

Friday, July 8th, 2005

I can see my house from here.

Google Maps-style Map of New Zealand

Friday, July 8th, 2005

I can see my house from here.