Our online library
Your Wellington Central library (or ‘sanctuary’ as it’s know here at the Towers) was been quietly expanding its online offerings and today has added a handy wee email notification service … or is it just another way for ‘big brother’ to keep tabs on ya?!?
To quote from their blog (RSS):
We have introduced a new service for hearing about reserves and any overdue items on your card — you can now get these messages by email. If you want to switch to this option, all you need to do is complete the online form or ask at your local library. And of course if you find you prefer paper or phone notices you can switch back again at any time.
Webstock Mini
Webstock Mini was last night, and for those that weren’t there: sorry. You missed out on a treat.
There was a room full of smart, cool, clever and passionate people; a couple of very interesting headline speakers: Rod Drury on User Centred Design as applied to both Aftermail and Xero.com; and Peter Gutmann on the ludicrous but for real Copyright Amendment Bill [PDF, 1.4Mb] (get submitting — there’s a couple days left); and later, ten others for two minutes each on “How the Internet changed my life”, interpreted rather loosely but very entertainingly.
We were there too: or more correctly 40% of the Wellingtonista collective (because you can’t be called a Wellingtonista and not belong to a collective, right? It goes with the faux left-wing chic of our name, you know). And we had lots to think about. Especially the one of us that was speaking.
Others have already written about last night in a much more structured way. Rather than reinvent the wheel, we’ll link to them instead.
Phewf, that was easy. And a good use of the internet, too.
And then we’ll resort to namechecking William Burroughs as a pathetic excuse for dumping the pooled thoughts of this 40% randomly as follows:
MySpace Freebies hit Wellington
Back in Feb those lucky Auckland MySpace people had the chance to check out Evermore for Free.
Well Wellington, our time has come and it’s a goodie. If you are a MySpace member just add The Black Curtain to your MySpace friends and you’ll be told the secret squirrel location of the free screening of HotFuzz this Friday.
Why Go?
Well, to start it’s free.
To follow it’s by the genius minds behind Shaun of the Dead
To continue you get a special appearance & introduction by Peter Jackson.
If that’s not enough — it’s free, people!
My only hope is that Simon Pegg is as funny in person now as he was when he was in Wellington for the Laugh Festival back in the deep dark ’90s.
The Cook Strait Rollercoaster Ride
Shot by an ex-workmate of Wellingtonistas Tom and Noizy, presumably spread by the magic of email, and now shared to the world thanks to someone in the UK, here’s some footage to rival that of our previous YouTube hit ‘Classic Landings at Wellington Airport’.
This time it’s some serious weather doing its thing in Cook Strait, with the captain of the ferry Suilven deciding no gigantic swells were going to stop him from getting his freight and passengers to the South Island. Much, one thinks, to the horror of his passengers, who probably spent most of the trip in white-knuckled terror as the ship pitched and yawed its way across this particularly hostile stretch of ocean water.
Details on just how horrific the weather conditions (and a few stills of the Suilven making its way over some mountainous waves) can be found at the MetService site.
[hat-tip: spare room]
Looking UP 2007
Want to know what the New Year holds? Well, come along to What’s UP — 2007 on Thursday the 24th to hear predictions for 2007 from a group of infallible experts: or “bloggers”, as we like to call ourselves.
A group of more-or-less well-known local bloggers (including the (in)famous DPF, Tom “WellUrban” Beard, techno-prophet Hamish McEwan and Mr Geekzone himself, Mauricio Freitas), will make rash forecasts about the Internet, gadgets & games, business and telecommunications, technology and (my particular field) Wellington & NZ.
Bloggies 2007
As both Mike and Wanda have pointed out, nominations for the 2007 Bloggies are now open, but close this Thursday (NZ Time). Feel free to nominate the Wellingtonista in the ‘Australia/NZ’ and ‘Group’ categories, and likewise any of the other worthy Wellington blogs you see listed on this site, particularly those found via our About Page.
First Wii Fatality
Some nice viral internet action is going on over at Webweaver, with the ‘First Wii Fatality’ video she was involved with making, getting close to 70,000 views at time of writing…
Here’s some background…
Last week Ross spent a few hours making a couple of paper Wiimotes, with all the features printed on the paper, which he cut and shaped to match the real thing. He packed the three-dimensional shapes with tissue paper to give them a bit of strength so they wouldn’t collapse when held, and put a coin in the end of the one he was going to use, to weight it. He attached the other one to the back of Brian’s shaven head, and decorated Brian’s skull with tomato sauce (which sadly didn’t end up in shot because it was on the wrong side!).
Silicon Welly — the sequel
Remember that article in Idealog that Noizy wrote about last month? It looks like the name was too good to pass up, because some of the high-tech companies featured in the article have got together and formed a Silicon Welly website to help keep you up-to-date with techy developments.
One of the more prominent of those companies, ProjectX, is about to launch a new version of their ZoomIn interactive mapping and community site. Rumour has it that there’s a now lot of exciting functionality and local data on the way, but if I told you I’d have to kill you.
Spend it
Wellington may be New Zealand’s most exciting city, but that’s not enough to earn us one of Wallpaper*s City Guides. Almost as galling as the news that Auckland will get one next year is the fact that this disqualifies us from entering Gridskipper’s $100 a day contest and winning the complete set of guides.
Still, that shouldn’t stop us. What’s the best way to blow US$100 (about $150 Kiwi) in Wellington in a day?
Silicon Welly
We didn’t even have to come up with that pun — it came preformed via Idealog, in an article which talks about how Wellington is helping to make the web ‘cool’ again in New Zealand.
With the likes of TradeMe, ProjectX (the latter being the creators of zoomin.co.nz), and, well, us, being based in our fair old town, not to mention those movie guys over at Weta, Wellington is quickly making a name for itself as a hub of creative technological endeavour. As is pointed out over at the ProjectX blog…
Wellington is hotting up with start-up fever. I know of 4–5 startups that are currently in the pipeline. With Weta now scaling up in terms of people and projects (more movies, animation and games) , Wellington is a buzz with all the activity. There are going to be some good opportunities for skilled people to work on some kick ass projects.