Posts by Simon Honiss
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Hard News: On joining the international…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
100% agree why should Maori have to do the heavy lifting when this is Pakeha issue to resolve, those people didn't come here to speak to Maori probably just about them. No, Pakeha were the intended audience, Pakeha have the responsiblity to rebut their vile message.
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There is also the option to retro fit an existing bike if, like me, you have one hanging on the wall gathering dust. They tend to start around $1000 for a hub based one but also go to $1800 for fancy mid drive units with more powerful batteries.
Also plenty of options for cheaper buying across the internet (as noted previously in the comments) but the freight on some of these heftier purchases, particularly if you have to ship back, gives one pause to consider.
Anyway a potentially more cost effective option for the undecided.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Better Bit…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Ah, yet another device, I really thought my 64gb ipad would solve that but once you pack some on movies and that TV series you’ve been meaning to watch, you’re down to dodgy rates to fit music on.
And on other devices here one that’s well intentioned but likely to sink without trace.
(may have been posted earlier in the week I think)
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Have done the match thing as well and generally had reasonable results though I am fascinated by the way it will match only half an album and choose to upload the rest. Apparently it is on a song by song basis and they use song length as one of criteria which can lead to regional differences depending on who pressed the CD.
I did find some problems with replacing songs below 128kbps in that they where classed as ineligible so I had to upsample them to 128kbps and they then worked fine. Initially I went with Match as I was travelling and wanted access to my entire library but it didn't really work out the way I anticipated hotel broadband being what it is.
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What I did to fix mine was to go to Setting > General > Reset > Reset all settings.
This maintains your call and message history but blows away wallpaper, Favourites and stored Wifi logins so it's not without its downsides. I was trying to find the post on Whirlpool which detailed everything that was reset but can't find it amongst the flurry of recent postings.
I had previous done a full restore and clean install of all my music and photos but that didn't help nearly as much as the reset. Now not quite as quick as 3.1.3 but live-able until a more permanent fix is provided.
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From the FAQ
Can I use a TiVo media device from Australia/USA?
No, the TiVo media device has been specifically adapted for the New Zealand market.
By December 2010, all of the current Australian TiVo devices will receive a software update that allows them to work in both countries.
So at least there is hope for the future. I currently use MySky in NZ because I didn't want to install an antenna as I'm in a poor coverage area and the mast was going to be expensive so went with the dish. Since Freeview is terrestrial only not sure how I'll resolve that.
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The street price for a Tivo in OZ is around $500-600AUD depending on what else you bundle the purchase with, I got mine from JB HIFI for $590, if I had agreed to buy a massively overpriced HDMI cable it would have brought the Tivo cost down but... I have seen some purchases for under $500 but they are few and far between.
I confirmed with Tivo that I would be able to use it in NZ when i return home but I suspect it's not all that straightforward given the different digital recording standards.
I can actually use the Channel 7 website to set up individual recordings (but not Season Passes) so don't necessarily see that Genie is all that flash.
The Home networking package is pretty flakey at the moment, it's particulary poor if you're a Mac user and its not currently supported on Windows 7. I don't think that it is worth $199AUD but they have regular special where you can get it for $100 if you are prepared to give up some demographic info.
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For a weekend I'd do a walking tour of Street art in the CBD http://www.melbournestreettours.com Lunch at Chocolate Bhudda in Fed Square (great people watching), visit Ian Potter Gallery, wander Southbank, try getting in to Hellenic Republic for dinner or Bar Lourinha http://www.barlourinha.com.au (tapas) both are very popular and good.
Sunday morning head for South Melbourne, breakfast to St Ali http://www.stali.com.au, best coffee in Melbourne (don't tell anyone it's already getting too busy). Check out South Melbourne market as an example of working market. Cross the city and try Gertrude St (the Smith St end) edgy fashion (as is nearby Brunswick St) and more food and wine Epicure and Lladro there are across the street so if one is busy the other normally has a spot.
Head up to http://northcotesocialclub.com to see what's on or maybe the http://www.thehifi.com.au/ if you want to be close to the CBD.
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Having both a TiVo in Australia and MySky (SD) in NZ I am inclined to think the MySky is the better device to use, certainly my partner, who is less inclined to fiddle, around votes in favour of the MySky.
There are some nice features (Suggestions for one) on the TiVo but I find spend a lot more time digging around menus than I did on the MySky. This is probably a reflection of it being a more sophisticated device in general.
I paid ~$AUD600 for the unit (RRP here is $699) I've seen people get lower prices ~$AUD550 with a lot of haggling. My setup allows me to have it fairly close to my ADSL router which means that I don't need the wireless adapter ($50 saving) but did I buy the home networking package (HNP) that allows me to transfer programs off the Tivo to my PC for editing. This program normally costs $AUD199 but I got for $99 because I gave up some demographic info in a survey, they seem to run these sort of deals periodically here.
Because Australian digital TV is broadcast in MPEG2 it takes up a lot of space on the disk (160 gb, only gives 20 hours of HD), so if there is any thing I want to keep I transfer it off to PC and edit to remove the massive amount of ad's they shove in and re-encode in to MP4. This is time consuming though, am considering voiding the warranty and upgrading the disk to 1 TB, as it is relatively easy (for me) and cheap.
I can download movies from Blockbuster and because my ISP has a tie-in with TiVO this is unmetered so doesn't get counted in my cap. The movies cost slightly more that I could get from the video store but I guess I don't have to drive there. Despite this I still haven't used it yet because the selection isn't great.
HDMI cables can be had for as low as $5 from my local computer store thought the gold one will set you back a princely $15.
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It highlights deficencies with the presenter and our firearms laws.
I haven't heard any of this presenters progress but having been through the firearms licensing process twice I've always felt quite reassured by it, knowing that those without reason (in both senses) are unlikely to get access easily, if at all.
Especially good was that the firearms officer made a separate appointment with my partner and an additional referee (non-relation)to discuss with her my motivation/suitability for firearm use/ownership.
Doesn't impact those who use firearms illegally of course.
And with respect to the driving analogy the level of what is considered "accidental" is held to a much lower level when use of firearms is involved, as it should be given the likely outcome of a weapons discharge. With that in mind, I think you'd have to be a particular sort of idiot not to understand the responsiblity you take on when issued a firearms license. I would dearly hope that was also the case when people obtain drivers licenses but it seems not to be the case.