Growing up is optional

I had a conversation online with Glutnix from Webfroot using Skype. Considering that I use a Pentium II 350MHz and a dial-up internet connection that quality was fantastic. I just used a mirophone and the standard speakers which worked alright. The sound quality was very good (to my surprise). The only down side was that I couldn’t do anything else while I was talking as it slowed down my PC too much, but I think that just because it’s a dinosaur.

I was a bit weary of installing it as it in made by the same people that brought us spyware disguised as a P2P client (aka kazaa) but spysweeper gave it the OK. Skype is still a beta release.

Simon Willison draws some interesting conclusions from an article in the NYTimes (registration required blah blah…).

Owning your name on Google becomes more important than owning your name with ICANN.

I agree. However, in New Zealand with its smaller population (and fewer businesses) it is not going to be such a big issue in the .co.nz namespace. Although registration is open and a lot of international companies are busy protecting their names.

Google is yet to have this site in its main index (as it is only new). Hopefully it picks it up soon.

This domain was previously held by someone else who let it expire (lucky me). I grabbed my son’s .com name too, but who knows what the future will bring? Domain names may be of no use in 10 years time.

Daylight Saving ended last night. A week of messed-up body clocks will follow. At least the darkness makes it easier to convince the kids that it’s bed time. It won’t be long until I leave home and arrive back in darkness; that’s the price I pay for living up the coast. I would like to see serious consideration given to moving NZ to GMT +13 hours permanently. I think it would be much better to have the exta darkness in the morning rather than in the evening. (Not that there is actually an ‘extra’ darkness).

Just to prove that I have got unfit over summer, (there’s been no surf and touch was cancelled nearly every week. Insert any other lame excuse in here too), I played soccer for Waikanae in a friendly match against Otaki at Otaki. We looked good scoring the first goal(Dave Horton), but they were 5-1 up at half time. The second half was much better. Duncan Cundy scored a great goal from a free kick. Greg (I don’t know his last name) scored with what looked from the left mid like a brilliant cross. Final score 6-3.

The long awaited PHP5 Release Candidate 1 is now available. It looks like it’s mostly backwards-compatible.

I put my Google News Block on PHPNuke. I have had heaps of traffic to this site. It’s amazing what having a link from a site with 100000+ page views a day does to your bandwidth use.

Yay for CSS. The whole site change with 1 file (and some pictures). Inspired by Zen Pool and some others at the Zen Garden. Disclaimer: I’m not a designer. Feel free to critique/criticise/comment.

There is never a shortage of English accents in soccer clubs aroung New Zealand. It’s almost as certain as being wet in water. My club is no exception. The season has finally started with my team’s first real practice last night. I don’t know what I’ve done over summer, but it must have worked. I usually spend the day after first practice crawling around the floor in pain. The Sunday after the first match of the season will be when it really hurts.

Note to the Poms: It’s “Soccer” in New Zealand (not Football)