April 27, 2016

9 Simple Tips for Smart Phone Photography

I have some good camera gear, and many of my favourite photos are ones that I have taken on SLR, with carefully chosen aperture, speed and composition. But there are some that still really like that I have taken on my old pocket Casio 2 Megapixel camera, and still quite a number I’ve take on my phones over the years….

Categories Mobile Phones & Android/Photography/Social Media Comments: 0

April 19, 2016

Upgrading a 5 Year Old Samsung Galaxy S2 to Android M

I needed a phone for my son as he had been given an older ZTE V795 phone running Android Gingerbread. The ridiculous thing about this is that besides the fact there is really no way to easily upgrade or change out the ROM on this phone… you can’t even update the current setup as any ‘play store’ updates fail even…

Categories Mobile Phones & Android/Projects Comments: 9

March 18, 2016

My Trademe Tips for Low Stress Selling

Trademe poweruser I am not, but I definitely have seen a few auctions around that could do with a bit of a rewrite. For those who are not in the Land of the Long White Cloud, Trademe is the go-to place for auctions and classified sales as Ebay is for the US and many other countries. In fact Trademe is…

Categories Education/Opinion Comments: 0

March 14, 2016

The default problem with Facebook

Facebook has become the default social media platform for the majority of people worldwide.  I’ll start by saying, for me it was a case a couple of years ago that if I wanted to keep in touch (and get back in touch) with many friends and extended family on a regular basis, this was the only real option. However, I…

Categories Opinion/Social Media/Technology Comments: 0

February 17, 2016

My Photobooth Project…

I needed a photobooth for my wedding (this was one of my few assigned wedding tasks!). You know, one of those ‘take a few photos of guests, and print them’ sort of thing, like the early film ones . Early on, I built up a list of things I really wanted to achieve with it, as there are many options…

Categories Entertainment/Photography/Projects/Technology Comments: 0

January 27, 2016

How I manage and share 1000s of digital photographs

People often ask me for the best way to store their thousands of photos, and I’ve tried a bunch of ways in the past. I take masses of photos (SLRs, Action Cams, Pocket Cams and phones), and running my own commercial (colocated) server has allowed me to use applications such as Gallery, Piwigo and other server apps to store, manage and display…

Categories DIY Projects/Photography/Projects/Technology Comments: 0

July 6, 2015

Simple TV Wall Mounting with Cupboard

Back in 2015 I looked for a way to mount our 55″ TV on the wall tidily. This is the solution I came up with. As can be seen, I cut a hole behind the TV, and made a thin replacement cover from chipboard – but with spaces for the metal parts for a flat TV bracket. I wanted to…

Categories Home Renovations Comments: 0

June 10, 2015

How about some Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi is a low cost, credit-card sized computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV, and uses a standard keyboard and mouse. It is a capable little device that enables people of all ages to explore computing, and to learn how to program in languages like Scratch and Python. There are lots of different things you can…

Categories DIY Projects/Education/Projects/Technology/Weather Comments: 0

March 3, 2015

Tips to create easy Tag Cloud Artwork

You’ve seen them… those pictures made up of lots of words. You can create these pretty easily at Tagxedo, but it is handy to have a few tips as to how to get the best out of it. They make great family presents, and you can use all the words that are personal & meaningful to the person you are…

Categories Education/Entertainment/Projects/Technology Comments: 0

July 3, 2014

Dashcams… and the $80 Mobius

The proliferation of small sports cameras, ‘dash’ cams and security cameras has meant that Youtube abounds with footage of incidents, near misses, ‘oh %$#@’ moments, and just generally people and drivers doing stupid things. Camera technology has improved markedly in the past couple of years, with prices coming down, quality and resolution improving and the merging of use with model…

Categories CCTV/Opinion/Technology/Vehicles Comments: 0

March 10, 2014

You need a Zombie Apocalypse Kit

I must admit I was once a Boy Scout… and tend to like to be prepared for stuff. Sometimes more than I really need to be! Ok, I haven’t yet seen a Zombie (except for my son on Halloween) but there have been a number of Earthquakes in Christchurch New Zealand, and the fact that there are over 50 Volcanoes…

Categories DIY Projects/Opinion/Projects/Technology Comments: 0

February 26, 2014

Samsung Galaxy S5 Release, Impressive?

I see the S5 has just been announced by Samsung finally at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona & and it will be available in NZ on April 11.  I have been looking over some of the features after having an S4, Note 1 & 2, and various other Android phones. There are some incremental improvements and a few new…

Categories Mobile Phones & Android/Opinion Comments: 0

February 20, 2014

“Things” are funnier than they seem

I quite like board games, well party games really. I have quite a few myself. But I do get a bit annoyed when I hear someone raving about a game… that I’ve never heard of, and last weekend was one of those occasions. At the end of a BBQ, the guests were split into the ‘youngies’, and the ‘slightly more…

Categories Entertainment/Opinion Comments: 0

February 19, 2014

Linked-in Collec…Connecting

Connecting to people on social media has its place, and I have been using a number of social platforms over recent times for rapid viewing of up-to-the-second information and keeping in touch with more people that it would otherwise humanly be possible. Facebook over the past few years has improved their privacy settings (enough that I will actually use it…

Categories Opinion/Social Media/Technology Comments: 0

January 7, 2014

iPad and iPhone tips

Just a repost from a technology site.  I guess if you have an iPad these are useful things to know.  I think they have hyped it up a bit… they aren’t exactly ‘mind-blowing’!  Interesting and mostly helpful all the same.

Categories Mobile Phones & Android Comments: 0

November 28, 2013

Bitcoin…. it’s not magic

Bitcoin has been mentioned in the mainstream media recently as a ‘new form of electronic money’.  It sounds impressive, but the way it works as a system of ‘money’ is actually not that impressive and easy to explain if you take the ‘tech’ side away.  

Categories Technology Comments: 0

November 20, 2013

Living with Windows 8 Mobile

I’ve had the (dis)-pleasure of being forced into a new mobile for ‘real-job’, and after a bunch of to-ing and fro-ing with our IT management, Windows 8 has become the mobile operating system of choice. We are moving from a Blackberry environment, but I was fortunate enough to be able to run my own Android phone until recently.  As a…

Categories Mobile Phones & Android Comments: 0

November 14, 2013

Zoomy taxi app is a game changer

I don’t often have a need to get a taxi these days as I am less out and about than I used to be, but when I needed to drop my Holden in for a service, I jumped at the chance to call a taxi via the new Zoomy app taxi service.

Categories Technology Comments: 0

November 14, 2013

Should I buy a Chromebook for my child’s schoolwork?

This question gets asked of me a lot in the local area where I live. Most of the local schools ‘require’ some form of personal computing device for each child now (beyond about the age of 10+) and Chromebooks are an often recommended solution with the alternative being the iPad or a full laptop. I’m sometimes not even sure if…

Categories Education/Technology Comments: 0

March 21, 2009

Just another day at the track

There were lots of cars there…it was $75 for the day – generally the club keeps costs low and tries to just break even. A number of Aucklanders went the day before and stayed the night locally. We stayed at the African themed hotel in Taupo.

Categories Mazda MX5/Photo Gallery Comments: 0

October 21, 2005

MX5 turns 10… celebrated in Christchurch

I happened to be travelling to Oz around this time for work, so I stopped in Christchurch to help the Christchurch club celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the MX5. It was great to meet the famous (in Mazda Circles) Toshihiko Hirai who was head of the Mazda Roadster program from 1986.

Categories Mazda MX5/Photo Gallery Comments: 0

October 8, 2005

That 2005 MX5 Record Attempt

Remember… back in 2005 we set the Guinness World Record (at the time) for the Largest Parade of Mazda MX-5s? It was also part of the launch of the NC Model, one of which led the parade. Officially, 294 MX5s/Roadsters turned up on the day (we counted more, but hey…)

Categories Mazda MX5/Photo Gallery Comments: 0

March 12, 2005

NC Launch! (and other cars in a car show)

I’m great at planning work trips… and this one I happened to be in Melbourne at the time of the Melbourne car show. This was the regional (and possibly the same time as the other nations) launch of the NC MX5.

Categories Mazda MX5/Photo Gallery Comments: 0

January 18, 2004

It’s Training… not Racing

Who doesn’t love a good track day (or driver training day… as we always try to call them). In my time with the club, I probably went to 5 or 6 at various circuits around NZ. This one was at the Pukekohe circuit.

Categories Mazda MX5/Photo Gallery Comments: 0

December 13, 2003

A Very MX-Mas 2003

Standard Club stuff, go to a place around Xmas, have a picnic. Well that is what it is like in NZ… maybe not in the UK and US. This was a bunch of pics from way back in 2003.

Categories Mazda MX5/Photo Gallery Comments: 0