HP invites to Software Business Technology Optmisation Tour in Wellington

Today I received an invitation that I am able to extend to you. HP is running the HP Software BTO Tour 2008 in Wellington, 2nd September 2008.

This half day event is ahppening at the Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa from 8:30am through 1:30pm.

There will be conference streams during the day, designed to give IT Professionals a more practical approach to IT Management.

I won't be attending the event though, because I will be in Auckland attending the Microsoft Tech Ed, and writing the Unofficial Tech Ed Blog while there...

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19 July 2008, Harvey Norman had a huge sale on, I cant remember exactly what it was called but it had '12 hour marathon' in the name. Anyway, I ended up buying a new laptop! Compaq Presario V3500 with Windows Vista Home Premium, I don't care what anyone has to say about Compaq I absolutely love this laptop. Considering my previous laptop was a Dell Inspiron 2200 anything reasonably up-to-date would have been sufficient.. One or two more usb ports would have been nice and maybe even bluetooth connectivity but apart from that it does everything I need and does it well. I especially like the button above the touchpad which enables me to lock it.

If anyone is looking for a really nice laptop under $1300 I would recommend the Presario V3500.

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Isn't competition in the mobile marketplace fantastic? It's a concept that unfortunately New Zealanders are missing out on due to the cosy duopoly that exists between our two mobile providers - Telecom New Zealand and Vodafone.

Optus have just launched unlimited "timeless" mobile plans into the Australian marketplace. For A$99 per month you get unlimited calling to other mobiles and landline phones in Australia as well as unlimited SMS and MMS messages. This $99 pack however isn't quite $99 - it requires the purchase of a A$14.95 mobile pack that gives you 200MB of included data.

For A$129 however you receive unlimited calling, SMS and MMS along with 2GB of data.



Now compare that to what you're paying in NZ. Competition really is a great thing.

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I have talked about this in previous posts, but there are certainly varying opinions about the ethics of monitoring computer activity. I think everyone is in complete agreement that companies... Read More

OK so I have already talked here about why I prefer mythtv to MediaPortal, it’s not an exhaustive list but I think it makes a pretty compelling argument for Mythtv. However what makes an even stronger compelling argument for MP is its support for NZ's DVB-T broadcasts, and hence I use it. The latest from the mythtvnz mailing list is that Freeview HD is now working well in myth with the patches from pkendall, so hopefully it is just a case of getting the updates to ffmpeg etc into the main mythtv 'trunk' (is that what it called?) and we will be away!

Anyway I should get to the point of this post. I want to list a couple tips I picked up for improving mythtv here, as I alluded to earlier, myth does require more work than MP or GBPVR but it’s worth it:

1) Adding FM radio. I have no idea why this isn't included by default, it can't be hard and all other major HTPC programs have it. To get it in myth requires a bit of a hack, the setup instructions are here. As they note on the wiki page, it is a hack but looks like a plug-in in the end. It doesn't perform like a plug-in (in terms of sharing the card with recording etc) but it is good enough. Also this page gives an idea to the sort of changes to the menu structure that could be made if so desired.

2) By default myth only allows one job (such as commflagging, or a user job such as a special transcode) at a time. Assuming you are running a somewhat modern processor you can get away with a lot more, especially if you have a dual core. Under the 'general' settings in mythbackend setup, change the max number jobs to say 3 or 4. Also set mythcommflag to begin at the start of the show rather than wait until it has finished.

3) Make sure you enable plugins such as mythmusic, mythvideo and mythweb. If you are using Mythbuntu the Mythbuntu Control Center is the easiest way to change these settings. Mythweb in particular is great, and if you can successfully enable access through your router you can check out your computers status, and create recordings even when you are way from home.

That’s all can think of for now, but there are plenty of other settings worth investigating by hunting through the menus. There are some other good features that I never managed to fully implement, such as http://mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Mythwelcome and automatic sleep/wakeup.

Next I will spill my thoughts on Media Portal, and the improvements made now we are at RC2.

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So you complain about Windows Vista but actually never used it? Maybe what you need is Microsoft Windows Mojave.

In summary, a set of people were asked what they think is bad on Windows Vista. Their answers were recorded.  They were then shown "Microsoft Windows Mojave".

One of the subjects in the study even said "Wow", the word Microsoft used in the "The wow starts now" campaign for Windows Vista.

Microsoft then revealed "Windows Mojave" and "Windows Vista" are the same one.

I know a lot of Linux and Mac OS X users who bash Windows Vista without ever having touch a computer running the OS. How can they "know" so much? Or perhaps they don't.

Isn't this a big perception problem?

All the details here.

UPDATE: The Mojave Experiment results are coming on-line!

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A few months ago I created a Jobs forum on Geekzone to allow for some of our readers to exchange job information, post requests for specific skills, etc.

Of course it's no competition for the big job sites around, but it seems to be working ok for our community. We do have some of the job agencies posting some ads there - and why wouldn't they, it's free!

Anyway, after talking to the guys at JobX, New Zealand's newest site for job search, we decided to add a Job Search to Geekzone.

One of the first joint initiatives was their sponsorship at the Geekzone Pizza evening in Christchurch - by chance we selected a pizza place just next to their offices, so that helped too.

The Jobs forum is still active and I expect it to get busier every day, but I think the Job Search will bring an even bigger selection for you.

Good luck!

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