Archive for December, 2005

FreeMind updated

Saturday, December 31st, 2005

Since I started wandering around the world, FreeMind, the best open source Java mind-mapping application and one of my favourites has been enhanced and much improved.  Regardless of whether you are on a Windows, Mac or Linux box, there’s a release for you and – if you’re on another OS – the binaries are available.  This is great for me as I can share mind maps between my work PC and iBook without any pain.

Trying to pull it all together

Wednesday, December 28th, 2005

As I have mentioned recently to few folks like Michael, I’m trying to get my personal productivity and task management back on track, as is my wont this time of year.

However, this year I have managed to complicate things a little by moving myself and family to the other side of the world, taking a challenging job in a whole new industry and spending the three months prior working from a briefcase and laptop at various wifi hotspots.  To add to the disorientation, I’m required to use Outlook as my main PIM at work when the last time I used it, it was called Schedule+.  Instead of the more usual laptop, I have been issued a new smart phone, an iMate Jam running Windows Mobile to hook into my mails and PIM functions via the company’s Exchange server.  All this is slightly at odds with my personal setup, where I’ve pretty much moved all my non-work computing/online activities to my iBook and my Mac-compatible Nokia 6680 3G phone.  I have almost relinquished the PC to the women of the house, save for using it as the admin terminal for the ADSL service and my wifi router.  I still have and cherish my Palm T3 but don’t use it as I’m overloaded with gadgets and the Mac Palm Desktop is less than friendly in my opinion.

And the point of all this is?  Casting around for possible solutions, I happened upon BitPal, a cross-OS PIM that seems to offer the possibility of bridging the yawning gap between Windows environment at work and my Mac/Symbian.  Small enough to sit comfortably on the smallest of my USB thumb drives, it’ll be interesting to see how it works out, though the initial sync with the iBook is taking an awful long time – perhaps not the best of omens.

[UPDATE] – Subsequent syncs were no faster so it’s back to the drawing board for now.  I like the premise of BitPal so I hope that the development of the idea continues.

Jessie

Tuesday, December 27th, 2005

Earlier today we found our tortoiseshell cat Jessie, who had become another road toll statistic over Christmas. Sadly, we have been here before with Jasper. Always an independent, on her own terms cat, she would often join me on my late night online sessions by flaking out on top of my monitor. I don’t think she ever forgave my for getting a LCD flat screen. After I set it up, she leapt on top, not realising their was no ‘top’ any more and plummeted down the back of the desk, emerging in one piece but distinctly unamused.

You’ll be missed, Jess.

NewsGator swallows NetNewsWire

Tuesday, December 27th, 2005

Yesterday evening, my buddy Chuck and I were talking over the variety of RSS aggregators available out there and what we prefer to use on which platform.  Earlier today, I had a similar chat with Jason.  All three of us now use both Windows and Mac machines on a daily basis and between us, we narrowed our preferred apps down to NetNewsWire Lite, Firefox with the Sage plug-in and the web-based Bloglines.  It was, therefore, with interest that I saw whilst reading The Office Weblog feed just now I clicke-through on a link to discover that the NewsGator has acquired NetNewsWire.  Regardless of the particular RSS client app I end up using, I will certainly create a recurring to-do on my PDA to periodically synchronise the OPML file in the client with one of the web-based feedreaders.  That way I get to read my favourite feeds from anywhere and I also have my subscriptions backed up if the worst happens.

Here and there and elsewhere

Monday, December 26th, 2005

I suspended writing on my long-running bignoseduglyguy.com weblog a few months back in favour of concentrating on recording our emigration experiences here. Whilst I have never been the most consistent of bloggers, I now intend to resume blogging there as well as here and elsewhere. Now I am settling to my new life and work routine, I am feeling the desire to be looking around the web again and writing on other subjects. This being the case, I am pretty sure that I will now split my blogging across the two sites.

No.8 Wire was always intended to be a collection of impressions and recollections centered around our experience as migrants in New Zealand. This being the case, I hope to keep that focus as the core of my writing here whilst broadening it a little to include things of interest to friends and family around the globe.

bignoseduglyguy will resume where it left off – as a stream of geeky bits and bobs, comments and critiques, fun and philosophy – namely a common or garden blog.

As for writing elsewhere, I was involved in the London launch of the ever-growing Metroblogging franchise and still intend to post there occasionally as a ‘foreign correspondent’ though, now I have sorted shelter, food and warmth for the family, I might just have time to work on something else with Sean and the crew. Last but not least, I still hold out a small hope for making time to work on something with my good friends Chuck, Jason and Roger. Though we are all more than busy with our various lives, careers and families, I still fondly recall the fun we had writing for Chuck’s most excellent but now-dormant happypalm.com.

Back with a vengeance…

Monday, December 26th, 2005

I suspended blogging here a few months back in favour of more spasmodic output over at No. 8 Wire whilst we emigrated to New Zealand, secured a job, sorted visas and found a house to live in.  Whilst I have never been the most consistent of bloggers, I now intend to resume blogging here as well as continuing elsewhere. 

This decision is prompted by the fact that I am back on a broadband connection after four months of email and internet access via Bluetooth connection to a 3G smartphone.  Having said that, there’s a lot to be said for regular paychecks, sleeping in the same bed every night and familiar surroundings too.  After at least two minute’s thought, I am pretty sure that I will now split my blogging across the two sites. 

No.8 Wire was always intended to be a collection of impressions and recollections centered around our experience as migrants in New Zealand.  This being the case, I hope to keep that focus as the core of my writing there whilst broadening it a little to include things of interest to friends and family around the globe.

bignoseduglyguy will resume where it left off – as a stream of bits and bobs, comments and critiques, fun and philosophy – namely a common or garden blog.

As for writing elsewhere, I was involved in the London launch of the ever-growing Metroblogging franchise and still intend to post there occasionally as a ‘foreign correspondent’ though, now I have sorted shelter, food and warmth for the family, I might just have time to work on something else with Sean and the crew.  Last but not least, I still hold out a small hope for making time to work on something with my good friends Chuck, Jason and Roger.  Though we are all more than busy with our various lives, careers and families, I still fondly recall the fun we had writing for Chuck’s most excellent but now-dormant happypalm.com.

Missing Mog

Monday, December 26th, 2005

One of the cats has been missing since Christmas Day morning. Whilst it is perhaps not too surprising as they have been uprooted and relocated twice in the last four months, it has brought a subdued mood to the house. Given that she is a town-raised cat in a rural setting, the possibilities are endless, for all the cats have gone into overdrive exploring their new and extensive territory. As well as the more usual getting stuck in a cupboard or locked in the shed, here we also have possibility of getting lost in the five acre maize field, being kicked by a bull or becoming trapped in the abattoir to factor in. Needless to say, no-one is wanting to even consider the State Highway at the bottom of the garden likelihood.

Christmas in Kumeu: a day in pictures

Sunday, December 25th, 2005

Tramp

One adult, two kids and just three hours to assemble

Kitchen

The Chef’s Salad and the salad chefs

Meatchickenprawn

No turkey here

Eating

The family and the neighbours lunching

Chefbnug

Cap from Maryland, USA: US$40
Daughter’s RipCurl shades: NZ$20
Shirt from Rarotonga, Cook Islands: NZ$35
Chef’s apron from London, UK: £20
Feelings of happiness and contentment: Priceless

 

The cattle are lowing…

Friday, December 23rd, 2005

100_0001

Christmas Eve 2004, London, UK

A plastic tree, homemade paper chains and snowflakes, short days with biting winds, some nice neighbours and Chardonnay in the fridge.

100_1154

Christmas Eve 2005, Kumeu, NZ

A real tree (same fairy on top), homemade paper chains and snowflakes, sunshine in the 20s, bulls for neighbours and Chardonnay on the vine in the distance.

Given the horrors and privations that some have endured in the last 365 days, we feel extraordinarily privileged to have been able to bring about change in our lives and be where we are today.

Bush telegraph

Friday, December 23rd, 2005

In the last 36 hours, the combined technical clout of NZ’s satellite TV company and national telecoms provider has converted our rural hideaway into a fully connected digital homestead. After nearly four months of expensive cellphone calls and 3G wireless data connections, we now have expensive digital satellite TV and ADSL!

This means is that, when I’m not glued to the European cinema channel eating turkey sandwiches or watching All American supermarket cart racing whilst grilling steak and prawns on the barbie, there’s a good chance that I’ll start writing here a little more regularly again.

[UPDATE] I have either just fried my AirPlus wifi router or it’s power supply, so wifi access for my iBook will have to wait until tomorrow. All I have to do is work out which of the children’s presents to return to the store for a refund to pay for a new router.

More to follow…