October 15th, 2009
Filed under: Web | Tags: email, google, internet, wave
Google Wave is Google’s new communication toy. It’s kind of like a new version of e-mail that includes aspects of wikis and chat as well as collaboration tools and more. I can’t really explain it but watch the little video below to get a run through of how it’s taking e-mail to the next level.
Watched it? Good, so now you know what I’ll talking about, you’re probably wondering how you can start using it. Well bad news is it’s actually invite only at the moment. But the good news is I have a couple (that’s 2) Wave nominations left to give away. I say nominations and not invites, because Google says “Invitations will not be sent immediately. We have a lot of stamps to lick.”
So what type of impossible request am I going to demand for you to receive one of the nominations? Nothing too hard really. Just leave me a comment saying why you want it here, plus leave a comment on any other post on my blog. In 24 hours I’ll pick the best two commenters and nominate them for a Google Wave invite.
September 13th, 2009
Filed under: Movies, Rants, Reviews | Tags: crazy, jackie chan, Movies, rush hour 3, subtitles
Rush Hour 3
I sat down and watched Rush Hour 3 on DVD for the first time a week or two ago. I knew it wasn’t going to be very good, but I’m a fan of Jackie Chan and the crazy moves he does so I had to do it. I was correct in my assumption that it wouldn’t be the best movie by a long shot, but that’s not what I’m ranting about today. For anyone who has seen Rush Hour 3, you’ll know that the movie is set in France, so logically there are a few scenes that involved a bit of French dialog. Not being able to understand French at all (sorry Mrs. Green for not paying attention in French class), I decided to check if there were English subtitles so I could follow what was being said. There was so I turned the on and watched a scene again. Check out the screen shot of what the subtitles gave me in all their glory…
Now bear in mind that “We’re gonna need…” is what they are saying in English. What they are saying in French is translated to “(Speaking in French)”! How useless is that!
September 10th, 2009
Filed under: Web, Work | Tags: resume, theme, wordpress, Work
My Online Resume
Found this cool WordPress theme online called
Time to Revolt. It’s so cool I just had to use it on one of my sites. Unfortunately I didn’t have a site that suited it, so I made one. Let me introduce you to my brand new online
resume!
Not exactly perfect for your average persons resume, but for me it’s great. A bit of a laugh never stopped me from getting an early childhood teacher job.
July 27th, 2009
Filed under: Movies, Reviews | Tags: comedy, drama, Movies
The Darjeeling Limited
Wes Anderson’s has written some great films. I quite liked The Royal Tenenbaums and still haven’t got around to seeing The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, but I’ll have to get my hands on it to see if it’s half as good as his latest movie The Darjeeling Limited. Simply put The Darjeeling Limited is a master piece and the best film I’ve seen in the last year.
It follows three rich brothers as they travel around India trying to find themselves and bond with each other again like when they were kids. Their spiritual journey that is a little too well planned (laminated daily schedules) goes badly from the beginning, probably because of the all the Indian medication they’re downing. Once their antics got them kicked off a train in the middle of nowhere they were ready to give up and catch the next flight out of there. While finding their way back to civilization they stumble upon three children trying to cross a river. This is where their real journey begins.
I would recommend this to anyone and everyone, so what are waiting for? Go watch it!
July 27th, 2009
Filed under: Movies, Reviews | Tags: comedy, Movies
Eagle vs Shark
I finally got around to seeing the little kiwi film that could; Eagle vs Shark. The best way I can think of describing it is a kiwi version of Napoleon Dynamite. The basic story follows a nerd who has a huge grudge on a Samoan boy who used to beat him up at school. He has been training in the arts of Kung Fu and fancies himself quite the pro now (Nunchuks are his specialty), so when his high school nemesis returns to his home town from Samoa he leaves at once to kick his ass and regain to families honour. Oh, and there’s a girl, a very geeky girl that is in love with the nerdy boy and will follow him anywhere, even back to his hometown.
Although the movie can get a bit dull in places there are plenty of great scenes that while have you on the verge of wetting your pants in fits of laughter. It is definitely worth watching if you are in the need of a good laugh.
July 2nd, 2009
Filed under: Life, Music, Web | Tags: new zealand, nz beats, podcast, radio, wellington
Your On the Air
To my surprise late last week I got an e-mail from Access Radio in Wellington. They were contacting me because they were planning a show based around kiwi podcasters and they had run into my little site
NZ Beats Podcast. One of the co-hosts Yenping and I got to talking and she ended up doing an interview for her show.
First I have to say, Yenping did a fantastic job of making me feel at easy. I usually get quite nervous in these sorts of situations, but this was just like having a conversation with an old friend. She also talked me up, a lot. My head size tripled in size while listening to the show, made me feel quite proud of myself and NZ Beats.
I have the interview bellow for your listening pleasure, but I would suggest heading over to the Access Radio Blog and listening to the whole show there. That way you’ll also be able to hear another interview with a different kiwi podcaster Tom whose podcast, Like a Mad Dog Running through a Puddle of Gravy, consists of him and his brother shooting the shit about an array of different topics.
June 14th, 2009
Filed under: Life, Music | Tags: chris knox, Music, stroke
Chris Knox
One of my all time favourite New Zealand musicians, Chris Knox, suffered a stroke recently. You will be pleased to know that he is recovering in Auckland Hospital this very moment.
For those of you who don’t know Chris Knox, he arrived on the New Zealand music scene back in 1977 in arguably the most influential kiwi punk band The Enemy. Later he went on to form great bands like Toy Love and Tall Dwarfs as well as releasing a plethora of solo self produced albums. At the 2001 New Zealand Music Awards his 1990 track Not Given Lightly was chosen as New Zealand’s 13th best song of all time. 5 years later he started his own record label A Major Records and continues to create music to this day with The Nothing.
In order to send out my good vibes to Chris in this his time of recovery I have dedicated this weeks NZ Beats show to his work. Have a listen to the podcast below, or head over to NZ Beats for the full show notes.
here it goes: I want it because I’ve been looking for one invitation ever since the first GWave came out, it’s been a couple weeks of hunting and I haven’t been lucky. So tonight I’m laying on my bed wondering what else I’m missing on my physics essay and then I just felt like going on Twitter and search for invites once more. Not gonna give up. I WANT GOOGLE WAVE to get all my friends together in a single peaceful internet/vacational spot =)
Hi mate. Wasn’t aware you had a blog. Been a follower of yours on Twitter for a little while, but where I first got in touch with you was on Pownce, where you were spamming your amazing NZBeats Podcast!
Anyway, why would I like a Google Wave nomination? Simple really… I watched the Google I/O Presentation on YouTube awhile ago, and thought the concept looked amazing, and can see it playing a significant role in the future of communication. Basically, I’d just love the chance to have a go myself. To see what all the buzz really is about!
Anyways, I’ve bookmarked your blog. Good stuff mate. Going to have a read through your other posts now.
Well, Ki. I hadn’t heard of Google Wave til you started talking about it. I’m not up with the coolest thing on the internets, evidently. But it has become clear after some research (on Google, hmm) that this is indeed the next new best thing and I’m prepared to be dazzled… Anyway, if I don’t have Google Wave how are we going to co-ordinate, like, that big project we have planned over the summer? It’s no good if you’re on it but I’m not.
I’m on the brink of solving the world’s energy crisis and require Google Wave to disseminate my findings. ‘Help the geek, save the world.’
Hmm.. why do I want Google Wave?
Well, as a programmer and a geek, I need to keep on top of these new technologies: not as you might think to create mods or addons for it, or to even use it all!
No, I would like an invite solely for the bragging rights. Oh, I might play around with it for day or two, and engage you in a couple of real-time Wave conversations; but inevitably it will languish unloved and unused on my hard drive like so many other chat/social network apps that I don’t use.
So what’dya say Ki? Invitation coming my way?!
Oops, correction on my comment: Google Wave is a web app, It doesn’t get installed on my hard drive! Silly me.
I would love one, as I have been waiting for a long time, and would love to get this to share around more people. Thanks for the opportunity, I want to see what this is like on the BlackBerry too!
I know things about you Ki… secrets that you might not want others to know.
Give me the invite and nobody has to find out.
Once, while in the far away land of Faerun, I come across a tablet. On this tablet there were few words, but that ones printed had vital importance:
“Get into google wave or everyone dies. Everyone.
Love,
God”
And thus I seek an invite, for the sake of humanity.
Please? For Humanity?
-Lemur
Ok the winning commenters are SkinBintin and Sean. Congrates! Thanks again for commenting everyone else, but some of you should have read a bit more clearly. I asked for 2 comments; one on this post and one on another post.
Marissa I’ll try my best to get one out to you too!
Wow! Thanks Ki!
I wasn’t expecting on winning… looks like I’ll actually have to use it now
I’ll fire off a wave to you once the invite gets through, and I get up and running.
And if I get some spare invites, I can always share them around too…
Hi Ki,
How did you get so lucky to have google wave invites to give away. You are in a wonderful position to make some people happy and improve their lives. Lucky you.
I want a google wave invitation because I love the concept of all aspects of social networking, email, and chat blended into one platform. It’s brilliant.
I look forward to the day in public education when all educators have google wave. It’s so easy to send an email to a group of people, but the group communication stops when someone inadvertently replies to sender instead of replying to everyone. This happens all the time when the team is communicating with parents and other staff. Google wave would eliminate this.
Google wave would also be a great benefit to my PLN. Imagine the conversations when multiple thinkers are on the same page regarding a topic.
I like the idea of brain energy being transferred from one person to another. That’s what Google Wave is doing!
Want an invitation?
Get on that page and comment it
http://gregoryalussier.com/2009/10/18/free-google-wave-invitation/
Greg