Posts by Stuff n Things
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Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to Christopher Nimmo,
Christopher - that's an awesome program. I used it and was able to see that a friend of ours was ok. Thanks.
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Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management advises hospital is operational, with one ward damaged: http://www.civildefence.govt.nz/ (CHCH Update No 3)
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Dismal Soyanz,
See - I do really well and then I muck up 'annunciate'. Sigh. Well - at least it was correctly spelt.
I'm liking Midnight Espresso even more now that it has moved to Cuba St. The coffee is consistently good - although I they continue to make you wait for your order at the counter. So many times I walked past the Courtenay Place cafe and saw lines of people waiting for their coffee, and furtively hoping a seat would become available once they'd received their drink.
Mephis Belle and the Supreme place on Guznie St are both fun to check out for their alternative-to-espresso options. Tried the various drip options - it was quite fun (and akin to drinking tea - in that you get your own pot at the table).
I think it's our technique that makes us stand out. Steaming milk is an art form here. Anyone can shove a steam wand in milk - but it takes care to turn that into a microbubbled, creamy, sweet wonderful cup of wonderfulness. Sure, there are people all around the word who can do it - but I think Australia and New Zealand wins the award for the highest ratio of cafes that get it right consistently. I had some great black espresso-based coffees in Europe, but most of the milky ones were horrible messes. THAT is what keeps me coming back.
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I always love these discussions, being a coffee speculator myself. One of the resons I love Wellington is its wonderful cafes. I was reminded recently that on a cold and stormy night, a dimly lit Cuba St cafe is one of the best places to be...
Oh, and Marion - I went all oldschool-like and pulled out my Concise Oxford. It confirms that 'expresso' is a varient spelling of 'espresso'. So it must be true :-)
Having had a few speech and drama lessons in my day, though, I still think it's important to spell it the way you *should* annunciate it (IMO).
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Did you catch the episode where Craig Parker got to play Darken Rahl's comedic double? That was good.
LMAO. The accents throughout have been ... curious, but I've loved the way actors haven't really taken the whole thing too seriously ... Mr Parker being an excellent case-in-point. Actually ... the main two actors might take it a bit too seriously. But hey - the guy is "that guy from the Dominos ad", so what can he expect?
I have been a bit confused over who the audience is for Legend of the Seeker.
On the one hand, the dialogue is full of "what have we learned from today" and the violence is generally pretty tame. On the other hand, the show is all about getting your top off, and there is this strong lesbian / dominant women thing going on that is dealt with very overly. It's hard not to raise your eyebrows and burst into laughter when one of the red-leather-clad, heavily-made-up, hair-tied-back-just-like-that-librarian-you-know evil female characters pulls out her rediculously phallic weapon and uses it to slap guys in the face.
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Ah Prime - why do you hate us so, with your dropping of shows halfway through the season?
Ok, ok, ok - so my wife an I were the only ones who like season 2 of Legend of the Seeker. At least they could have warned us they were giving up. I had to find out on Throng man! Who cares if the storyline was pointless? You had buff guys, bosom-y girls and a good chance to catch some NZ actors hanging out (look, it's Keisha!). A chance to see Craig Parker without watching Shortland Street. Awesome.
oh well.
And when is Prime going to get an ondemand service?
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Also bear in mind that I had paid almost $700 for the original device, and had only had it for 15 months. They lovely bits of gear, but I'm a bit jaded about the idea that something that cost THAT much would not have a more reasonable lifespan.
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I've had a few iPods over the years too. The first died just outside of its 12 month warranty, the replacement (I kicked up a fuss) a few months later.
This. <begin rant>
About 3 months out of warrantee the one button on my ipod touch died. I had made the unfortunate mistake of ordering the device through Apples 0800 number, so had the fun of trying to explain to guys from Australia and the US that we had a Consumer Guarantees Act and that I believed they should replace it, even though the warrantee had expired. To be fair, they were friendly and polite, but it took 5 phone calls over the course of a couple of week ("have you tried resetting it using itunes" "well no, 'cause I'm at work...") before I got through to the right person. After a fair amount of discussion that they did agreed to replace it...
And within 3 months the audio socket on the replacement started cutting out. By which stage I worked out the device was 3 (now 4) generations old, and Apple didn't care. I gave up.
</end rant> (that felt good)
On the plus side, because I no longer care, I had a go at jailbreaking it last night, and look forward to see what I can do with that...
The devices are lovely - but my albeit brief experience has indicated that Apple products are no more stable (in terms of software or hardware) than the other brands. Maybe this is less true of their computers, but I'm not sure.
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I dont think I can record (in HD) from my set-top freeview box can I? (which is implied by answering yes to the earlier question)
Technically no, you're not supposed to be able to record in high def from the Freeview approved products. As I understand it, their agreement with Freeview provides that they not send a high-def signal through the outputs on the unit.
There are some non-Freeview approved products that don't follow this requirement, though, and I understand that some of the (very pricy!) new Panasonic recorders include the ability to record in high def.
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See, I thought "inbuilt freeview" meant you didnt need a set-top box.
I should clarify: you don't need a separate box to watch TV.
The thing is - 20 years ago your TV would have a tuner in it and your VCR had a tuner in it. You often linked the arial through both of them, but the point was that they could operate independently from each other. You didn't need to have the TV on to record programmes, and you did need a VCR to be able to watch TV.
BUT, because we have gone with a fancier (but internationally less common) HD standard for our new freeview boxes, a lot of the electronics producers haven't got round to incorporating tuners that work with the NZ standard into their products.
Now, if you have a DVD recorder with no tuner built into it, it is possible to use the tuner in your TV to record off, but it's such a pain you wouln't ever bother (for one thing, the TV would need to be on, and switched to the appropriate channel).
That's why I reckon you shouldn't be buying new TVs (or recorders for that matter) that don't include the freeview tuner - it's just a cop out for the producers who haven't bothered to get with the programme. Of course, you can use one of the seaparate freeview boxes (or a Sky box) to get round this - but it that just adds another remote to the pile amassing in your lounge.
...And means that you have to explain to mum that she has to use THIS remote for changing channel and THAT remote for turning the TV on, and THAT remote for recording programmes.