Your window into Jim's life

I just spent 4 days in Hawkes Bay for my son's wedding. A couple of hours sailing in warm and comfortable conditions on Friday, catch-up with friends on Saturday before the wedding, again warm and sunny, likewise Sunday and Monday.....

Saturday and the wedding though was the peak of the weekend. Great weather, great people, great location, great food - what more can I say.

While it doesn't have quite the same attractions as Kerikeri did in January, the climate has to be an attraction. Having said that Wellington has been pretty damn good the last few days although the wind is drying out the garden.

Well the summer in Wellington has been pretty, well, cool and damp really, but we spent nearly 3 weeks away in sunny Northland and had a great time.

I lived in Dargaville when I was at primary school but haven't been back since apart from a one day trip when I was about 13 when the family went to visit old neighbours. It was interesting to see around the town again - lots of changes and much the same - but it was the rest of the trip that was memorable.

We camped in a few totally different campsites - Bayly's Beach, Ahipara, Waggeners at Houhora, Aroha Island and Mangawhai Heads. All great spots.

Since I hadn't seen anything much of the rest of Northland, and Jo hadn't been there for several decades, we spent much of the hitting tourist type locations with a in-between swimming, walking etc.

Lots of great sun, great beaches, good friends (thanks Jeremy & Ann in Kerikeri who told us about Aroha Island - a Kiwi Reserve/camping site.) Spent a day on the R. Tucker Thompson going out from Russell around the bay - recommend that trip for anyone who has the opportunity.

Highlights - Poutu Lighthouse (North Kaipara Heads), Kauri Forests, Kai Iwi Lakes, Whaling Museum, Cape Reinga, Rarawa Beach, Matai Bay, Aroha Island, Waitangi, Russell, R Tucker Thompson, Mangawhai Heads.

Also some market research in a bunch of chocolate shops - none of which measure up to L'affaire au Chocolat.

A practical view of security

Jeez - it sounds a bit pompous but I am - now - a grandad.

There is some debate going on as to whether I will be grandad or Jim (and no Poppa doesn't rate consideration thanks Gord). I'm in favour of Jim. My Mum & Dad called me Jim, my kids call me Jim, pretty much everyone else I know calls me Jim (one or two renegades insist on James) and I feel good about my name so that's that.

Still don't feel old enough to be a grandad though - does anyone ever?

Charlie Whipple has a new yacht named Endeavour. I like the colour scheme which uses that same colours as Resolution featured. Have a look at Charlie's blog

http://tokyowest.typepad.com/charlies_blog/2009/06/endeavor-260609.html

Having decided it would be pretty good to see the Simon & Garfunkel concert in Auckland in June I got prepared.

Tickets were to be on sale through Ticketmaster this morning. Not having dealt with Ticketmaster before, I spent a bit of time last night registering to use the site and checking out the Vector Arena seating plan to minimise the time it would take to select seats. 9a.m. this morning I was logged in to Ticketmaster and ready to go. Ticketmaster wasn't quite as ready but a minute or two later I was selecting 2 tickets/any price - let's see what the options are.....

Type in the robot prevention words and presto - nothing available that met my selection. OK - try some of the other selection options - same result. Try another PC and two different browsers - same result. Repeat until bored (actually I decided that I couldn't bill my client for the time I was spending and the lost income was mounting up to a significant percentage of the ticket price.)

Try phoning the local outlet a few times - busy every time as expected - that's why I want to do it on line. Actually I got the same result this evening too - one ticket any price. It doesn't say none are available/sold out/you have done something wrong/etc. Just nothing that matches my one ticket at any price criteria.

I guess the answer is to queue at a real outlet - but that is a time consuming process too and no more guaranteed to produce a result. The Internet should be a real alternative. Either sell me a ticket (or 2) or tell me there are none available. Don't screw me around.......

Time to get your act into gear Ticketmaster - booking systems aren't exactly rocket science and the customer experience should encourage not discourage returns.

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Update I have since found out that about 75% of the tickets had been sold in advance and the remainder sold out in 17 minutes. The transaction rate of 1 per second per 1000 tickets sold in 17 minutes is not exactly high performance. If the Ticketmaster systems can't handle that level of load they need sorting out.

Why couldn't they say "Sorry - sold out" or "Sorry the system is overloaded please try later".

Another great day on Saturday. My registration number was 40 so there were plenty of people there although there weren't 40 boats on the water. Photos and more later.

The 5th Plimmerton Classic & Wooden Boat Festival
is at the Plimmerton Boating Club, Karehana Bay, on Saturday the 14th March.

This event has been very popular with the public as well as the boaties over the past 4 years, and this year's one is again creating a lot of interest.

As well as old craft that have been restored there are always beautiful new boats designed in traditional style. Both sailing, motor boats and rowing or paddling craft are represented. There will be model boats, traditional boat designer John Wellsford will have a range of plans on display and there will be other displays of related interest. The sail past down to Plimmerton Beach will be at about 1.30pm weather permitting. There is also an open invitation to bigger boats of traditional style to come and anchor in the Bay near the Boating Club and just add to the character of the day.

"Messing about in boats" is the point of all this and if it inspires some more people to get involved, that will be a great result.

The Classic Boat Festival is now recognized as one of the main annual events at the Plimmerton Club and the public are most welcome to come and join in the event and enjoy the clubs' facilities, which include the bistro, restaurant and great areas for viewing the displays in the grounds and on the water. The public are welcome to come and enjoy this event any time from 10am to 3pm.

I have just been reminded of Marcus Ranum's "The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security".

The idea that we should only allow what is necessary for the function we need to deliver is usually only thought of at the level of firewalls and other network level systems. Once we get onto a workstation or server we generally have access to a wide range of services by default - even on a locked down system.
I am going to start taking a serious look at the hundreds of installed packages on my Ubuntu laptop to see what I can remove or disable without stopping me doing what I need to on a day to day basis.

One that comes instantly to mind is the Vodafone Mobile Connect Client. The Gnome Network manager now handles my Vodem 3G USB device properly and I am no longer using VMC. Of course I won't be able to send or receive text messages (unless there is something else to do that) but actually apart from an initial test to see if it works, I never did anyway.

I'll keep a record of my application and executable cleanup activity and update this from time to time.

My weather station (link above) appears to be working properly but the outdoor temperature axis seems to have fixed on -80C as a lower limit even though the records for the day don't have readings that low.

The battery of the old laptop that the Irox ProX plugs into has been flashing its status lights at me for a while so I unplugged it yesterday. It's old and stuffed. However I don't want it connected directly to my web server and it uses less power than an old desktop. I do have an old single board computer in a box that is a viable and smaller alternative. I need to set up some cables to hook up an external IDE CDROM to install software on it. Its got a PIII processor of some sort I think and 128M of memory so should be OK for the console version of WeatherDisplay logging to a local database.

Yesterday was a fine summers day in Wellington with a good strong breeze blowing. I spent most of it on my friend Gordon's yacht, an H28, sailing on the harbour. We had hoped for about 15-20 knots for a pleasant cruise around to Island Bay and back, however it was more like 25 gusting 30+ so we stayed in the harbour, headed across to Eastbourne, up to Day's Bay and then to Somes Island where we anchored for a swim and lunch.

I had a play with my Olympus u770 waterproof camera a bit while swimming. It's hard to use underwater without a mask to clearly see the screen through so most of the underwater photos are a waste of time and the visibility was poor anyway.


While I was swimming towards the shore, a small dolphin popped up beside a boat moored a short distance away from us. I headed towards it and then back to the boat to get a better view but it disappeared.

With two reefs in the main sail we headed home as fast as we had come across the harbour with only one reef in, and with much less weather helm.

Anyway - a very good day out.

My weather display software is logging outdoor temperatures as low as -80C at times now. Given that our NZ summer rarely gets below +10C its obvious something is pretty bad. The desktop display seems to read OK. Not sure whether its the software or the Irox ProX station returning the wrong data.

Also the desktop display unit has its temperature sensor reading stuck on sensor 3 which is in my spare bedroom. It won't cycle around the other sensors as it used to. I can only cycle around them manually using the remote. May need to consult the manual on that.

In another area my Owl remote power monitor appears broken. Have checked the batteries and reset it so I'll need to check out how to get a warranty repair done.

I got an email last week telling me that my old friend Sam Sampson, the "Fluid Druid of Stewart Island" had died of cancer. I just got back today from his funeral/memorial celebration.

It's about 4 years since I last saw Sam on the island and he was obviously not well. The main problem apart from his ongoing battle with depression at that time was his emphysema, no doubt brought on by a lifetime of heavy smoking. I wasn't aware he had cancer although it didn't surprise me when I heard that.

He was cared for over the last year or so by the community on the island and there was no doubt that he was loved by the locals as much as he loved them and the island itself. There was nowhere else that he wanted to be.

Sam had a lifetime interest in education, and was one of the early initiators of outdoor education programs for high schools in the late '60s. He taught the natural and human history of areas he worked in (Nelson Lakes, Tautuku and on the island) and got the message acroos to his students through a mix of dialogues, story telling, singing of folk songs and whatever would engage the attention of teenagers. There are thousands of ex-students throughout the country who will remember Sam for who he was, if not all the lessons he imparted.

There were a variety of stories told in the community hall on the island yesterday that raised many knowing laughs. As a story-teller of some note himself Sam would have appreciated those. And the afternoon ended quite fittingly at the bar.

I don't usually enjoy whiskey but I downed a couple in memory of Sam. They went down well and seemed to fit the occasion.

I'll try to find some references and pictures to link to from over the next few days.

Here is the death notice that was published in most main centre newspapers last week. Quoted here 'cause I don't know how long it will be available on the NZ Herald web site.

SAMPSON

Charles William. Sam the Fluid Druid of Stewart Island. Sam passed away peacefully at home with friends on Monday 8 December 2008, at Stewart Island, aged 65 years. Privately cremated. Sam would like to welcome all his friends and colleagues to a memorial service to celebrate his life. At the Stewart Island community Hall on Monday, 15 December at 2:00 pm. Messages to PO Box 65, Stewart Island. Avenal Park Funeral. FDANZ.

Published : Saturday, 13 December 2008

Continue reading "The end of another era" »

Jo's new shop, L'affaire au Chocolat is now open in Berhampore. She is making and selling fine handmade chocolates from the shop at 464 Adelaide Road. Stop by for some special treats, gifts or a hot chocolate made with real high quality dark chocolate.

Her web site at http://www.affairechocolat.co.nz will be going live in the near future for on-line purchases.

Note that Jo has previously sold her chocolates under the 'A Rosy Affair' trading name of her company Delice Limited.

L'affaire au Chocolat is the new trading name associated with the shop.

It's good to see that after the sudden end of his dreams when Resolution hit the rocks on Great BArrier Island in June Charlie has another project under way. He is building a Tideway 14 and you can read his blog at Charlie's blog - Tideway.