Smartphone

I have been looking for a replacement for my Harrier for a while, but am now being forced to change as Telecom are dropping CDMA 3G Data support in November. This is the second time that Telecom as forced me to abandon a phone and accessories etc that have features I need that are not necessarily available in any of the new phones. As a long time contract customer I am a bit peeved at this, as while there is a token special offer available, it is no better than some of the offers they have made to gain new customers, there is no real incentive for customer loyalty.

However I still have a preference for Telecom as I believe that over all they still have the best coverage for high speed data around the country. While I hope that Telecom has resolved all the XT issues, they seem to be very slow introducing new phones, and those that they are introducing have been around for some time in other markets, making them old before they are launched here ...

I have a wish-list below, some items are negotiable others aren't. So if anyone has any suggestions then let me know:

• Quad Band+ but primarily 3G on 850MHZ (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100)
• GPS
• Good internal memory
• SD or microSD SDHC storage (compatible with at least up to 16G cards)
• 5Mpx + camera
• USB connection (pretty obvious)
• WiFi (802.11n?)
• Bluetooth
• Infrared
• Serial? or USB Master & Slave capable
• Large touch screen
• secondary camera to allow for video calling (or main camera can move from from front to back)
• FM Radio
• External antenna connection option
• Good Outlook integration/sync (contacts & calendar at least, notes also desirable)
• Word & Excel compatible, + PDF Reader
• Android or Windows7Phone ???

Dropbox

I recently started using Dropbox and am finding it great.

I am mainly using it to sync files between my desktop computer and my laptop. However it can be used to sync files between operating systems and to share files with other Dropbox users etc.

It comes with a 2G plan for free

To get Dropbox and to get an extra 250M free click here

Three Cups of Tea

I recently finished reading Three Cups of Tea - One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time.

The story of Greg Mortenson and his work in Pakistan and Afghanistan building schools, not dissimilar to Ed Hillary's work in Nepal.

The book was given to me by a fellow International Red Cross delegate when I was in Haiti in 2008, I hadn't gotten around to reading for some time, but once I got into it I found it hard to put down.

Greg's accounts and linkages between the lack of open education and the raise of the Taliban and extremist views in the region at the time leading up to Al-Qaeda and 9/11 is fascinating.

Links:

• Three Cups of Tea
• Central Asia Institute

 

New Maps and NZTM Grid/Projection

With the almost imminent arrival of the new Topo50 map series on the 24^th there have been a few people asking about setting up older GPS's for the new NZTM Grid that the new maps use.

There are a few documents etc around, but I have also put some notes together.

Have a look at http://www.davisnetworking.co.nz/nztm/ and the linked PDF file and let me know what you think.

If anyone comes across issues with specific models then let me know.

Life and Death and other musings

In the past two and a bit years I have been to too many 'celebrations of life' of those that have been taken sooner than they should.

Yesterday I attended a service for a 10 week old, which was the most amazing service I have been to. It was a time to reflect and a number of things came from it that moved me, and got me thinking.

The question was raised, "where is the logic" or in other words "why did they have to be taken", as is often done, and I guess that in most cases, regardless of your belief, death is a moving on to a better place, free of pain and suffering. It does then beg more questions about pain and suffering, but for those that believe there is a mysterious plan that is not known to us.

Also at the service yesterday a poem was quoted that needs to be shared: its key message is

"So, when all that's left of me is love, give me away as best you can."

See the whole poem here

To all those that have lost, and those that grieve, you will hold on to the memories, and the love remains, be strong and think of what they would want you to do, the pain does ease with time, but life goes on.

New Entry ...

Ok so I haven't been adding entries here for a while, instead I have been tweeting on Twitter and posting on Facebook.

However recent events have let me back to putting something on the blog, and maybe I will do so more often.

...

Conficker Worm

Most of us in the industry are aware of and will have patched and protected ourselves from the Conficker Worm that is meant to go active today and potentially creating havoc on computer systems.

Everyone needs to make sure that they have all Microsoft Updates in place, and that their Anti-Virus systems are working and current.

Here in NZ a number of organisations got hit hard with the earlier outbreak. See:

• April Fools: Conficker virus set to spread
• Conficker's next move a mystery to researchers
• Infected ministry had no Microsoft support contract
  

A free tool to detect infected or vulnerable computers is available for system admins from prominent Computer Security firm Eeye

• http://www.eeye.com/html/downloads/other/ConfickerScanner.html

Search And Rescue EXercise (SAREX)

This year the Canterbury Regional SAREX was held in the Mt Somers area. A combination of a field search exercise and a small number of round robin training exercises was held in conjunction with Iroquois air support.

It was a great weekend, the weather was fantastic, and there was quite a lot of learning outcomes from the IMT side in particular.

See a few of my photos from around base and some photos from the field

S92A on Hold for review

Way to go, the new government has seen the light.

After much lobbying from many different parts of technology and media industries S92A for the Copyright Act will not come into force on the 27^th

• Draconian copyright law: Section 92 a SCRAPPED
• Finally, some leadership on Copyright issue
• Shift, alt, delete for internet copyright law
  

Tsunami - Not

This morning there was a flurry of activity after a moderate earthquake near Tonga.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued an initial alert at about 0730 our time with the usual 'it is not know if a tsunami was generated' statement. The initial warning listed a few pacific Islands with estimated times if a Tsunami did generate

At about 0830 the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a supplement to the initial warning puting a warning into effect for "TONGA / NIUE / KERMADEC IS / AMERICAN SAMOA / SAMOA / WALLIS-FUTUNA / FIJI"

And just after 0900 the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a cancellation with a measurement report from Niue

MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY

GAUGE LOCATION        LAT   LON    TIME        AMPL         PER
-------------------  ----- ------  -----  ---------------  -----
NIUE                 19.1S 169.9W  1911Z   0.04M /  0.1FT  06MIN

Along the way media in NZ maybe got a little carried away, and the following media coverage ensued

• NZ tsunami possible from Tonga Islands earthquake
  
• Potential Threat To Southland

CDEM Canceled the advisory at 0915

• Tsunami advisory cancelled

Blogging again

Well, it has been a while since my last entry, and here I go again with the intention of doing better.

I've started using FaceBook, so I may integrate my Blog entries onto my FaceBook through RSS, will see how it goes.

So stay tuned for a bit more activity ....

Abseiling Training & Fun

Over the weekend I was involved in a training and social weekend with a number of members of the Blue Skies Abseil Team and other invited guests at Windy Point near the Lewis Pass.

We covered some training on setups for rock face abseiling (as opposed to the normal setups for the Tower at Blue Skies) and practices a number of abseils using different belay techniques and using a variety of decender devices.

Some of the session was on a small rock face, about 4m, but most of the training was on a rock face of about 45m down to the Boyle River.

See more photos here

Photos on Flickr

I have been updating and reorganising my photos on Flickr, including adding some from my Haiti trip.

There was an issue with Flickr not showing my recent content, but I think that I have fixed the glitch, and it should be working now, or you may need to refresh the page if you have been there before.

See Flickr

Another school collapse in Haiti

Todays news of another school collapse and the tragic outcome of around 90 deaths from the first collapse which occured as I was preparing to packup and leave Haiti. The first school in Petionville was not all that far away from where I had been working in Port au Prince.

While the local Haitian Red Cross was very involved in the response to these school collapses the International delagation was not involved in the first, except for offers of assistance and in particular lighting equipment, which were not required.

• CNN Report - Second Collapse
• CNN Report - First Collapse

Heading Home

Currently in Miami on a short stop over on the long trip home.


We left Haiti on Saturday early afternoon local time, and arrive home on Tuesday mid afternoon NZ Time

• Port au Prince - Miami - ~ 2hrs
• Miami Stop over - ~ 24hrs
• Miami - LA - ~ 6hrs
• LA - ~ 2hrs
• LA - Auckland - ~ 13hrs
• Auckland - ~1.5hrs
• Auckland - Wellington - ~1hr
• Wellington - ~4hrs (short debrief etc with NZ Red Cross)
• Wellington - Christchurch - 45mins
• Home :)

[I will make somre more entries about Haiti soon]

Haiti - Week 5

In the last week we saw the departur of our counterparts from Austria, and we started the final packing up and finalising of paperwork etc, however there was also one last day trip to a sight to be done, with a trip to Jacmel, this time the roads were pretty good in comparison, apart from the remnants of a few landslides.

And again some views of the dramatic contrasts seen around the country

Haiti - Week 4

As a part of the work we travelled around Haiti a bit, however due to road conditions things took longer than normal.

Some of the roads as per the last posting have become boggy because of the rains/flooding, but others are rough and rocky.

A major "highway"

A view from Jeremie

Some other insights from Haiti

Our Austrian Red Cross ERU colleagues here in Haiti have a blog that offers some other information and insights into what is happening here. Unfortunately it is in German, so you need to translate it. Google can do a reasonable translation, so have a look at it here (You may need to click on the Home button to get the latest update)

Start by looking at the latest entry from the "Last Contributions" section on the right and then follow the previous article link at the lower left of the page (after the "Submit Comment" button).

Haiti Week 3

Am a bit behind, have been busy :) so a bit of a catch-up.

Week 3 was a field trip where myself and Robert the team leader along with a local driver and a counterpart from Haitian Red Cross went to visit a number of offices in the Central Plateau and northern areas.

The roads here are quite a challenge, even those that have not been directly impacted by the hurricane.

On one part of the trip we had an extra bit of a challenge when we got stuck in some mud. With a lot of help from some locals we eventually got out slightly delayed.

There is certainly some very interesting country side once you get away from the city.

Haiti Week 2

Well time is flying by.

Last weekend we had some spare time and a few of us managed to have some time at the beach. We went to Club Indigo, a former Club Med, a bit north from Port au Prince.

The facilities are pretty basic, as was the model of Club Med, but the beach was beautiful.



Otherwise things are still hot and busy, its not like last weekend all the time. With the heat we often get heavy rain at night, with thunder and lightening in the hills, and occasionally we get these downpours during the day, but they are usually short.