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		<title>Pinglist :: Command Line Tool</title>
		<link>http://www.regravity.com/2010/07/pinglist-command-line-tool/</link>
		<comments>http://www.regravity.com/2010/07/pinglist-command-line-tool/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:42:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Command Line]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Downloads]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Windows]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[*.exe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[command line]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[ping]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.regravity.com/?p=984</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ah the command line, wonderfully powerful and often so cryptic it bends your mind like a pretzel&#8230; But we geeks love to use it none the less. Pinglist is a little handy tool I whipped up a few days ago. One of the hard things to do on the command line which should dead simple [...]

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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/PinglistHelp.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1029" title="Pinglist" src="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/PinglistHelp.png" alt="" width="557" height="219" /></a></p>
<p>Ah the command line, wonderfully powerful and often so cryptic it bends your mind like a pretzel&#8230;</p>
<p>But we geeks love to use it none the less.</p>
<p><strong>Pinglist</strong> is a little handy tool I whipped up a few days ago.</p>
<p>One of the hard things to do on the command line which should dead simple is to ping a list of machines and return if they are up or down.</p>
<p>Well with <strong>Pinglist </strong>you can!</p>
<p>Its really an extension of the traditional Windows &#8220;ping&#8221; command that is used by every single tech across the globe.</p>
<p>What it does is looks in the specified directory for a nominated text file name and outputs a CSV sheet with the discovered results.</p>
<p><strong>Pinglist</strong> syntax looks like this:</p>

<div class="wp-terminal">C:\> pinglist input output<br/></div>

<p>To break it down further:</p>
<p><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;"><em>pinglist</em></span></strong><em> </em>is of course the name of the tool</p>
<p><strong><em><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">input</span></strong><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #ff0000;"> </span>is the name of the </span>.txt<span style="font-style: normal;"> file you want to query without .txt  - this file should list of machines (one machine name per line)</span></span></em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">output</span></strong><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #ff0000;"> </span>is the name of the </span>.csv<span style="font-style: normal;"> you wish to output</span></span></em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">When you are running the tool its output will look as below:</span></span></em></strong></p>

<div class="wp-terminal">C:\> pinglist input output<br/>Machine Up   - 1000h<br/>Machine Up   - 1000he<br/>Machine Down - Machine1<br/>Machine Down - Machine2<br/>Machine Down - Machine3<br/></div>

<p>And the CSV Output looks like:</p>
<p>Raw CSV:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/PinglistCSV1.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1013" title="Pinglist Raw Text CSV" src="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/PinglistCSV1.png" alt="Pinglist Raw Text CSV" width="468" height="106" /></a></p>
<p>CSV in Excel:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/PinglistCSV2.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1014" title="Pinglist CSV in Excel" src="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/PinglistCSV2.png" alt="" width="507" height="120" /></a></p>
<p>So if you like what you see, grab a copy here&#8230;</p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><a title="Download Pinglist 0.25b" href="http://www.regravity.com/downloads/Pinglist0.25b.zip" target="_blank">Click here to Download Pinglist 0.25b</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: center;">(File Size: 188kb)</p>
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		<title>Software Asset Management –   A Primer – Part 1</title>
		<link>http://www.regravity.com/2010/07/software-asset-management-a-primer/</link>
		<comments>http://www.regravity.com/2010/07/software-asset-management-a-primer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:32:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Software Asset Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Asset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IT SAM]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.regravity.com/?p=824</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I know why you&#8217;re here, you typed into Google &#8220;Software Asset Management&#8221; expecting hundreds of links to methods, processes and software tools that help manage software in an easy concise and straight forward manner. You probably then clicked on a few links and had plenty of websites tell you how important Software Asset Management is and that [...]

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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I know why you&#8217;re here, you typed into Google &#8220;Software Asset Management&#8221; expecting hundreds of links to methods, processes and software tools that help manage software in an easy concise and straight forward manner.</p>
<p>You probably then clicked on a few links and had plenty of websites tell you how important Software Asset Management is and that it can save you or your company thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars.</p>
<p>Then they will tell you that its their solution that is the best for you to invest in and that it will end the issues that you are experiencing with your deployed software.</p>
<p>Well, while some of the tools will get you some of the way, you won&#8217;t fix your problems.</p>
<p>Its true that you need excellent tools to best capture information about the software in your environment, but its not the only thing you need.</p>
<p>So many business have struggled with Software Asset Management, and even when the combination of good policy, great tools and staff culture change are in place; it can still be a worrying task to complete.</p>
<h2>So why is SAM so hard?</h2>
<p>The overshadowing concern, before you think about policy, procedure, process and tools, <strong>STANDARDS</strong>.</p>
<p>Why such a problem?&#8230; Because there are no standards.</p>
<p>Firstly there is no standard by which software companies should license themselves. I&#8217;m sure we&#8217;ve all seen situations where you&#8217;ve said &#8221; I wish X Company would license their software like Y Company&#8221;, I know I&#8217;ve said this more than I&#8217;ve liked.</p>
<p>No standards equals the ability for a software manufacturer to choose how they license their software, and traditionally the larger the company and more popular in industry the software the harder it is to control your licensing.</p>
<p>But why make it harder to license and be compliant for software you buy?</p>
<p>It all comes down to the almighty dollar. If its harder to license then you&#8217;ll spend money to make it easier, but are you really making it easier or just giving the software manufacturer the keys to a self-operating money making machine?</p>
<p>Here is caveat number two, with harder to license software it inherently becomes harder to ever know your true obligations of the licenses you purchase.</p>
<p>How many people do you know who can speak &#8216;Legalese&#8217; the language of contracts and licenses? I know very few people who can digest this information an turn it into meaningful statements about licenses, even more so I&#8217;m yet to find two people who agree on the exact particulars of a software license.</p>
<p>Most people understand the overall idea of a software product:</p>
<ol>
<li>You purchase a piece of software.</li>
<li>You open the box to install.</li>
<li>You agree to a page of text that you don&#8217;t read or understand.</li>
<li>You start to use the software.</li>
</ol>
<p>This is the single largest mistake people and companies alike make when buying software.</p>
<p>Once you agree to the conditions the software product comes with, then you are legally bound by the End User Licensing Agreement (ELUA).</p>
<p>Do all software companies provide a similar method to producing and enforcing a EULA? Nope, once again it comes down to there being no standards.</p>
<p>A EULA can be as simple as the following:</p>
<blockquote>
<ol>
<li>You agree to be bound to this document</li>
<li>You agree not to reverse engineer this software</li>
<li>You agree not to copy or sell this software</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p>But as most it can be excruciatingly painful in its detail and complexity, only adding to the frustration of any person wishing to know what they may or may not do with their newly purchased software.</p>
<p>Have you read the EULA for each piece of software you&#8217;ve deployed? Wait a minute, you just said that you use freeware and open source.</p>
<p>Yep EVERY piece of software has a license and a EULA, even if its freeware or open source, don&#8217;t be fooled just because you didn&#8217;t need to pay for it.</p>
<p>Here are the short answers:</p>
<p>Do you need to read the EULA? <strong>Yes.</strong></p>
<p>Do you need to adhere to the EULA&#8217;s terms? <strong>Yes.</strong></p>
<p>Can a EULA be written that makes my use of this software difficult? <strong>Absolutely</strong>.</p>
<h2>The 2nd reason is quantity and distribution&#8230;</h2>
<p>Distribution is your enemy, how many machines do you have that use software you&#8217;ve purchased, all of them probably do unless you have made the change to open source or freeware operating systems.</p>
<p>So how many? one machine? one hundred? one thousand or more?</p>
<p>Anything from one to one hundred machines is quite controllable, you&#8217;ll probably know the people who use the specific software on the systems and they probably feel a sense of ownership of the software on their machines.</p>
<p>Up to one hundred people also are quite quick to respond to change in processes or procedure.</p>
<p>Anything over one hundred people and you start to run into a few larger issues, who needs the software? how many do you distribute it to? will they understand the limitation of the software use?</p>
<p>Have over one thousand people in your business or company? then the road is hard and fraught with pain, but this also may be to your advantage.</p>
<h2>The 3rd reason is discovery&#8230;</h2>
<p>Ok so you have a network full of software, how do you find out what is on each machine? What quantity do you have out in your network? Can you target a single PC for discovery?</p>
<p>Without spot on discovery, you&#8217;ll feel like you are up the proverbial creek without a paddle of any description.</p>
<h2>The 4th and final reason is metrics&#8230;</h2>
<p>Metrics are important, don&#8217;t let anyone say otherwise, you need metrics.</p>
<p>Killer metrics will only serve you best when all other things slot into place, know where you&#8217;ve come from, where you are and where you are going and metrics will be the proof in the pudding.</p>
<h2>There is light at the end of the tunnel&#8230;</h2>
<p>Its just how long the tunnel is.</p>
<p>The above statements seem quite final, and depending on your distribution you can have a nightmare on your hands, but worry not there is room to breathe.</p>
<p>Where to start, where to start&#8230; Locked Environments and Baselining is the key to making sure you are managing your software assets correctly.</p>
<h2>Look out for the next part of this primer!</h2>
<p>In the next part of this primer I will be discussing further the concepts and methods of Locked Environments, Baselining, SOE (State of Environment) benefits, Bulletproof Distribution and more!</p>
<p>If you have any ideas or further questions so far add it to the comments!</p>
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<p><small>© Tim for <a href="http://www.regravity.com">REGRAVITY</a>, 2010. |
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		<title>Best RSS Reader for Netbooks</title>
		<link>http://www.regravity.com/2010/07/best-rss-reader-for-netbooks/</link>
		<comments>http://www.regravity.com/2010/07/best-rss-reader-for-netbooks/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:54:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Open Source]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[USB]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Reader]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[As we all know, Netbooks lack the screen real estate that larger PC&#8217;s have. Sure you can plugin an external monitor to help out, but when you are mobile you don&#8217;t have that luxury. I&#8217;ve sampled a lot of RSS Readers in my time, most fit for the basics of RSS subscription and aggregation but only a [...]

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]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.feedreader.com"></a>As we all know, <strong><a title="Wikipedia | Netbook" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbook" target="_blank">Netbooks </a></strong>lack the screen real estate that larger PC&#8217;s have. Sure you can plugin an external monitor to help out, but when you are mobile you don&#8217;t have that luxury.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve sampled a lot of <strong><a title="Wikipedia | RSS" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS" target="_blank">RSS</a> </strong>Readers in my time, most fit for the basics of RSS subscription and aggregation but only a few really stand out of the crowd. Add in the needs of the mobile blogger / tech writer and you have an even harder task on hand, if you are a blogger constantly on the go then having a robust RSS Reader is essential.</p>
<p>So lets delve into the world of RSS Readers for Netbooks.</p>
<h2><a title="Google Reader" href="http://reader.google.com" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000000;">Google Reader</span></a></h2>
<p><strong> </strong>This is an excellent RSS reader for on the go for most laptop and cross-platform but is good for netbooks? Lets take a look.</p>
<p><a href="http://reader.google.com"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-913" title="Google Reader" src="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/googlereader2.png" alt="" width="549" height="270" /></a></p>
<p>On the plus side Google Reader does indeed fit the bill for portability, not requiring installation other than a current version browser and the much needed internet connection.</p>
<p>You can also use this offline with an installation of <strong><a title="Google Gears" href="http://gears.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Gears</a></strong> and of course if you use <strong><a title="Google Chrome" href="http://chrome.google.com" target="_blank">Google Chrome</a></strong> then you can install the <a title="Google Reader Notifier Extension" href="http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&amp;guide=27542&amp;topic=27546&amp;answer=173362" target="_blank"><strong>Google Reader Notifier Extension</strong></a> to know when new items are available.</p>
<p>Reading articles on the small screen with Google Reader is pretty good, especially if your browser has an excellent full screen mode.</p>
<p>To be accurate, Google Reader is a web app pretending to be a traditional desktop reader, it contains features that usually only desktop readers would have.</p>
<p>On the netbook it is as nimble as your current internet connection is, so waiting for content to load isn&#8217;t a problem, there are some UI elements which could be smaller such as the subscriptions sidebar width, it would also be nice to be able to minimize or remove the items listed in the sidebar that you don&#8217;t always need.</p>
<p><strong>Pros: </strong>Google reader is fast, clean and built for usability.</p>
<p><strong>Cons:</strong> A few UI flaws that need to be updated.</p>
<h2><strong><a title="RSS Owl" href="http://www.rssowl.org" target="_blank">RSS Owl</a></strong></h2>
<p>RSS Owl has been around for a long time, longer even than Google&#8217;s offerings in fact.</p>
<p>First released in 2004, it has a lifetime of development to make it a strong RSS reader. Where it differs from Google Reader is this is a desktop solution, software that has been written exclusively in <strong><a title="Wikipedia | Java" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_(programming_language)" target="_blank">Java</a>.</strong></p>
<p>Although being a desktop application it is available for Windows, Mac OS X and a variety of Linux flavors.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rssowl.org"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-919" title="RSSowl" src="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/RSSowl.png" alt="" width="550" height="302" /></a></p>
<p>RSS Owl is a great desktop reader, its interface is clean and uncluttered, plenty of options for the avid RSS reader and being written in Java its nice and snappy when downloading new feed content.</p>
<p>However on a netbook the only useful feed viewer setting is the newspaper view. Best of all though is that it comes in a portable flavor, meaning you can throw it on a USB drive and off you go.</p>
<p>Syncing is amazing with RSS Owl, the developers really have made it easy to sync from a wide range of sources, Google Reader, OPML and a plethora of others.</p>
<p>The wide and vertical views are not good on the small screen as you cannot read the post titles.</p>
<p>The one great saving viewing feature however is the tabbed views your open feeds is a great way to switch between each feed.</p>
<p><strong>Pros: </strong>Quick, clean and useful and syncs to a wide range of sources including Google Reader. Portable version available.</p>
<p><strong>Cons:</strong> Limited options for small screen space.</p>
<h2><strong><a title="Newsgator | FeedDemon" href="http://www.feeddemon.com/">FeedDemon</a></strong></h2>
<p>FeedDemon is an enormously popular RSS reader, its also a reader that has been with us for a long time.</p>
<p>Originally being developed for Newsgator as paid software with online subscription features from Newsgator.com, fast forward a few years and it became freeware with feed syncing  to Google Reader.</p>
<p><em><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-937" title="FeedDemon" src="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/feeddemon.png" alt="" width="550" height="310" /></em></p>
<p>FeedDemon looks great on the small screen, lots of space for your feeds to occupy, minimizing subscription pane, tiny header pane makes this all a joy to use.</p>
<p>FeedDemon has an amazing array of features that will keep even the most addicted RSS junkie happy.</p>
<p>On the downside, feed syncing is fairly slow, even with just a few feeds on a fast connection, so a large number of feeds would slow the process down considerably.</p>
<p>Another downside is that without hacks you can&#8217;t use the official build of FeedDemon as a portable app (mind you I&#8217;m sure the more industrious of you would find a portable version somewhere).</p>
<p>Finally and understandably it is ad supported. Going from paid software to freeware is a hard task, the ads are unobtrusive but still niggle at the senses while reading your favorite feed.</p>
<p><strong>Pros: </strong>Probably the best reading experience from a downloadable client</p>
<p><strong>Cons:</strong> Slow feed syncing, no portable version, it is ad supported.</p>
<h2><a title="http://www.feedreader.com" href="http://feedreader.com" target="_blank">FeedReader</a></h2>
<p>FeedReader may appear to be one of the weaker of the RSS readers available for desktop use.</p>
<p>Its basic, really basic, but that might not be too bad.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.feedreader.com"><img class="aligncenter" title="FeedReader" src="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/FeedReader.png" alt="" width="550" height="310" /></a></p>
<p>FeedReader is really a bare bones reader, it has simple and functional features without providing a full on RSS reading experience like something like FeedDemon provides. No options to gather data from external online readers like Google Reader, it does have an import feature for OPML files so you can at least export your feeds from another source or sync from FTP / OPML hosted remotely.</p>
<p>The biggest drawback is that you need to add each feed manually to the reader, FeedReader does have auto-discovery which works for the most part but fails sometimes with websites that offer multiple feeds.</p>
<p>It comes in both installable and portable flavors to keep both worlds happy.</p>
<p><strong>Pros:</strong> Terribly lightweight, great reading pane size.</p>
<p><strong>Cons:</strong> Manual feed input, no syncing to online readers.</p>
<h2>The Verdict</h2>
<p>Really its up to you in the end, these 4 options are by no means the only on offer, feed tickers and other methods to get your RSS fix are available in droves.</p>
<p>If you have another reader you love to use on your netbook or have other alternatives for RSS reading, hit the comments to let me know!</p>
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		<title>Book Review: The Broken World – Tim Etchells</title>
		<link>http://www.regravity.com/2010/07/book-review-the-broken-world-tim-etchells/</link>
		<comments>http://www.regravity.com/2010/07/book-review-the-broken-world-tim-etchells/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 04 Jul 2010 05:52:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Rants]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.regravity.com/?p=922</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Its not often that I&#8217;ll go to a discount book store and find something truly wonderful to read. This book was no exception, in fact I wouldn&#8217;t even call this a book, more a self critical footnote that would do more for the literary arts as a door stop or perhaps a semi-attractive shelf. I [...]

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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-923" title="41zpYHUkH+L._SS500_" src="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/41zpYHUkH+L._SS500_.jpg" alt="" width="286" height="493" />Its not often that I&#8217;ll go to a discount book store and find something truly wonderful to read.</p>
<p>This book was no exception, in fact I wouldn&#8217;t even call this a book, more a self critical footnote that would do more for the literary arts as a door stop or perhaps a semi-attractive shelf.</p>
<p>I am actually considering on gluing all the pages together so that a) others won&#8217;t have the displeasure of reading it b) I may also hollow it out as a book safe.</p>
<p>&#8220;<strong><a title="Amazon.co.uk | The Broken World" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Broken-World-Tim-Etchells/dp/0434018333/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1278220983&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank">The Broken World</a></strong>&#8221; is written in an introspective, narrative, diary-esqe fashion of a person attempting to write a &#8216;walkthrough&#8217; guide for a video game aptly titled the same as the book while also attempting to describe, quantify and make sense of the goings on in his own life.</p>
<p>This is where Tim Etchells goes horribly wrong, a video game walkthrough isn&#8217;t a work of fiction, it is a work of fact written to inform of events that are based on a fictional media form, thusly the twisting of a walkthrough format as basis of a fictional novella is ultimately flawed.</p>
<p>And it shows.</p>
<p>There is little structure to the actual game &#8216;The Broken World&#8217; at least little more than the narrator eludes to during the course of the book. The resulting descriptions of the game, its world and inhabitance are merely used as either subtext to badly join two events in the real world together or as complete filler.</p>
<p>I would suggest that this book would actually have been significantly better had the author had the nouse to rewrite the book in narrative diary form, omitting references to the game &#8216;The Broken World&#8217; and carefully constructing segways between diary entries in a non-linear fashion.</p>
<p>One reviewer on <strong><a title="Amazon.co.uk" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/" target="_blank">Amazon.co.uk</a></strong> writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>This is a longish book structured as an unedited walkthrough for fiendishly complicated adventure game, written by a heavy-metal-loving 20-something slacker with a short attention span, sketchy language skills and &#8211; literally &#8211; a malfunctioning Caps Lock key.</p></blockquote>
<p>I tend to agree.</p>
<p>It was almost enough for me to discard the book when the author decided to include a five and a half page section which was described as a file from the game itself, this was nothing more than a jibberish, non-sequitor attempt to show off the complexity of the book which I have my beliefs may have been included to do nothing but raise the page count at the behest of the publisher.</p>
<p>In short, this book is a good example of a bad novel that could have been glorious, had both its writing style and execution been discarded from the start.</p>
<h2>Score: Zero Stars</h2>
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		<title>Focus Writer – Distraction Free Writing Bliss</title>
		<link>http://www.regravity.com/2010/06/focus-writer-distraction-free-writing-bliss/</link>
		<comments>http://www.regravity.com/2010/06/focus-writer-distraction-free-writing-bliss/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 27 Jun 2010 12:34:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Open Source]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.regravity.com/?p=904</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are plenty of distraction free writing applications, and I&#8217;ve used a swath of them, none capturing exactly what I wanted. I realized pretty quickly that what I wanted was a distraction free writing environment that had a host of smart features hidden away but totally at fingertip. Now as some of you may know [...]

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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/focuswriter.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-905" title="Focus Writer" src="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/focuswriter.png" alt="" width="500" height="219" /></a></p>
<p>There are plenty of distraction free writing applications, and I&#8217;ve used a swath of them, none capturing exactly what I wanted.</p>
<p>I realized pretty quickly that what I wanted was a distraction free writing environment that had a host of smart features hidden away but totally at fingertip.</p>
<p>Now as some of you may know I use both Mac and Windows platforms, and of course its difficult at best to find a developer that writes cross-platform software at the best of times.</p>
<p>I tried <a title="WriteRoom" href="http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom" target="_blank"><strong>WriteRoom </strong></a>for Mac, which although does what it says on the box, but of course I have a Windows laptop so it wasn&#8217;t suitable for on the go writing.</p>
<p>Next was <strong><a title="DarkRoom | they.misled.us" href="http://they.misled.us/dark-room" target="_blank">DarkRoom</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, a direct clone of WriteRoom. While this is written for Windows, its heavily dependent on .Net, and although this is fine for my laptop its not good for portability if I wanted to use it off a USB Key (not all machines have .Net unfortunately).</span></strong></p>
<p><strong><a title="PyRoom" href="http://pyroom.org/" target="_blank">PyRoom </a><span style="font-weight: normal;">was a good compromise but lacked features, so I was still looking for a perfect solution. </span><a title="Q10 | Baara.com" href="http://www.baara.com/q10/" target="_blank">Q10 </a><span style="font-weight: normal;">was also a winner, but as it had lacked active development for a while and wasn&#8217;t cross platform.</span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">Then through a complete stroke of luck I was checking out some freeware products and stumbled upon </span><a title="Focus Writer | gottcode.com" href="http://gottcode.org/focuswriter/" target="_blank">Focus Writer</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> from <strong><a title="Gottcode.org" href="http://gottcode.org" target="_blank">Gottcode.org</a>.</strong></span></strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Is it cross-platform?<strong> Yep</strong></li>
<li>Does it have better features than the competition? <strong>Yep</strong></li>
<li>Dependant on a required framework? <strong>Nope</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Focus Writer is the masterpiece of distraction free writing, lightweight, cross-platform, feature rich glorious writing application that packs a punch.</p>
<p>Its flexibly customizable, meaning you can make it look and feel exactly how you want, green/orange on black terminal style? want an image in the background? specific font or text widths?</p>
<p>Just whip up a theme and you can have the look and feel you want.</p>
<p>But most distraction free writers can do this, where Focus Writer shines is in the details, extremely well integrated spell checking, daily goals and totals that are easy to set up and track, live stats-as-you-type about your current document and a tabbed document interface.</p>
<p>Opening documents side-by-side in a tabbed environment is paramount to successful writing. You can have your main document you are writing open along with a notes document, this is glorious to keep track of where your writing is going.</p>
<p>Some other writers of this type provide you with a keyboard full of shortcuts to control the application (I&#8217;m looking squarely at you Q10) but Focus Writer tucks them nicely into the top and bottom of the screen, just a mouse over away, this means less chance you&#8217;ll hit some weird key combination by accident and ruin the document you are on currently.</p>
<p>Long story short (no pun intended&#8230; no really&#8230; REALLY) Focus Writer is a godsend, its an amazingly flexible writing application that I can&#8217;t praise enough.</p>
<p>Give it a try now:</p>
<p><a title="Focus Writer | Gottcode.org" href="http://gottcode.org/focuswriter/" target="_blank"><strong>Download Focus Writer Here</strong></a></p>
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		<title>Amazing Physical Audio Spectrum Analyzer</title>
		<link>http://www.regravity.com/2010/06/amazing-physical-audio-spectrum-analyzer/</link>
		<comments>http://www.regravity.com/2010/06/amazing-physical-audio-spectrum-analyzer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 27 Jun 2010 02:14:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hardware]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.regravity.com/?p=891</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The guys over at Makezine.com have found a winner, this spectrum analyzer called &#8220;Yukikaze&#8221; or &#8220;Snow Wind&#8221; in Japanese. I think I could sit and watch this thing do its magic for a long, long time&#8230; Here&#8217;s another cool project by Taichi Inoue- a Physical Output Device for Spectrum Analyzer. It came out way back [...]

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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><center><object width="540" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/b4HtUwAkVDg&#038;rel=0&#038;color1=0xb1b1b1&#038;color2=0xd0d0d0&#038;hl=en_US&#038;feature=player_embedded&#038;fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/b4HtUwAkVDg&#038;rel=0&#038;color1=0xb1b1b1&#038;color2=0xd0d0d0&#038;hl=en_US&#038;feature=player_embedded&#038;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="540" height="300"></embed></object></center></p>
<p>The guys over at <strong><a title="Makezine.com" href="http//Makezine.com" target="_blank">Makezine.com</a> </strong>have found a winner, this spectrum analyzer called &#8220;Yukikaze&#8221; or &#8220;Snow Wind&#8221; in Japanese.</p>
<p>I think I could sit and watch this thing do its magic for a long, long time&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Here&#8217;s another cool project by Taichi Inoue- a Physical Output Device for Spectrum Analyzer. It came out way back in 2007, however the effect is beautiful, and this is the first time I&#8217;ve seen it. I&#8217;ve been trying to think of creative projects to do with an oscilloscope that I picked up a couple of months ago, and it seems like building an interesting visualizer such as this would be a great place to start.</p></blockquote>
<p>via <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/06/physical_output_device_for_spectrum.html">Make: Online : Physical Output Device for Spectrum Analyzer</a>.</p>
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		<title>Wynns Coonawarra Estate 2008 Shiraz is FTW!</title>
		<link>http://www.regravity.com/2010/06/wynns-coonawarra-estate-2008-shiraz-is-ftw/</link>
		<comments>http://www.regravity.com/2010/06/wynns-coonawarra-estate-2008-shiraz-is-ftw/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 19 Jun 2010 09:32:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Rants]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Ah wine, its delicate texture, the lovely taste, the tannins&#8230; I could go on for ever, just know that if you are looking for an excellent bottle of red then look no further than a Wynns Coonawarra Estate Shiraz From the Winery: Wynns Coonawarra Estate has developed a reputation for producing this consistently top-quality shiraz. [...]

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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.wynns.com.au/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-857" title="Wynns Coonawarra Estate" src="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Wynns-Coonawarra-Estate.gif" alt="" width="410" height="390" /></a></p>
<p>Ah wine, its delicate texture, the lovely taste, the tannins&#8230; I could go on for ever, just know that if you are looking for an excellent bottle of red then look no further than a <strong><a title="Wynns Coonawarra Estate Shiraz" href="http://www.wynns.com.au/wines/shiraz.asp" target="_blank">Wynns Coonawarra Estate Shiraz</a></strong></p>
<p><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-863" title="Wynns Coonawarra Estate Shiraz" src="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Wynns-Coonawarra-Estate-Shiraz-106x300.jpg" alt="" width="106" height="300" /></p>
<p>From the Winery:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Wynns Coonawarra Estate has developed a reputation for producing this consistently top-quality shiraz.</p>
<p>It has aromas reminiscent of ground black pepper, mulberry and raspberry through to blackberry on the riper end of the spectrum.</p>
<p>Oak is used to mature and increase the wine&#8217;s complexity but not to dominate its distinctive cool-climate Coonawarra shiraz characters.</p></blockquote>
<p>With that said, go and get yourself a bottle, you wont regret it!</p>
<p>Rating: 5 Stars</p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
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		<title>Ghosts of Open Source</title>
		<link>http://www.regravity.com/2010/05/ghosts-of-open-source/</link>
		<comments>http://www.regravity.com/2010/05/ghosts-of-open-source/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 May 2010 15:53:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Open Source]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Open Souce]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Open Source has been a hot topic across software industries for a long time. As an evolution from the freeware revolution to promote source code for released applications, Open Source has been adopted by not only bleeding edge technologists and coding enthusiasts but also by a wider population of people looking for low/no cost software [...]

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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/opensource_logo.gif"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-807" title="opensource_logo" src="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/opensource_logo-300x258.gif" alt="" width="300" height="258" /></a>Open Source has been a hot topic across software industries for a long time.</p>
<p>As an evolution from the freeware revolution to promote source code for released applications, Open Source has been adopted by not only bleeding edge technologists and coding enthusiasts but also by a wider population of people looking for low/no cost software solutions with a defined support backbone.</p>
<p>This is where freeware differs greatly from Open Source, traditionally freeware is developed by a small number of coders, often only a single coder patching and incrementing version.</p>
<p>Open Source however is community based by nature, where several hundred, or even thousand coders can come together to both support and improve upon a product through bug fixing and code development.</p>
<p>This type of development has become more popular with the advent of online open source project code hosting such as <strong><a title="GitHub" href="http://github.com/" target="_blank">GitHub</a>.</strong></p>
<p>While this is perfectly fine on home and small business platforms, where does Open Source fit in mission critical production systems for large corporations?</p>
<p>There are plenty of arguments as to why businesses should support Open Source applications, but also plenty against.</p>
<p>On the plus side Open Source can provide low to no cost alternatives to expensive software, the most stand out would be when choosing office suites.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Plus &#8211; approx. $700.00+</strong></li>
<li><strong>Open Office 3.2 &#8211; $0.00</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>And while this looks appealing on the surface, what do you lose in the trade off?</p>
<p>Well lets examine this, while you are provided with a suite of alternatives for Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Access you also lose features that each individual application provides.</p>
<p>This can be devastating in the business world when time and productivity is lost attempting to open documents with features that the Open Source application does not provide.</p>
<p>A good example of this is within Excel 2007, a standard feature is to use conditional formatting to provide colouring to a series of data, Open Office cannot replicate this feature, and although it can open Excel 2007 documents it fails to be truly compatible.</p>
<p>But is this really a problem?</p>
<p>Well yes and no. If your business is centered around the creation of documents for internal use between your staff members, then something like Open Office is a perfect alternative, you&#8217;ll only ever use features available in the application.</p>
<p>But if your business requires you to share documents to and from third parties then it bucking the trend to save money can be detrimental.</p>
<p>So where can Open Source fit into your organization? In the cracks&#8230;</p>
<p>Everyone knows the frustration of having to complete a specific task that eludes even some of the most expensive software titles. This is where Open Source software excels.</p>
<p>As with freeware, Open Source applications are usually born from frustration of limited or badly coded paid software, that one feature that nothing really does well or that one task that everything can do, but not do well.</p>
<p>This is where businesses would be best to take advantage of Open Source.</p>
<p>Need a CD/DVD Burning solution for your organisation? Sick of purchasing expensive CD/DVD authoring software to find its full of bloat? Try <strong><a title="InfraRecorder" href="http://infrarecorder.org/" target="_blank">InfraRecorder</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> for a bloat free burning application thats every bit as good as its paid alternatives.</span></strong></p>
<p>Need a good unicode compliant programmers notepad? Dedicated IDE&#8217;s too expensive? Give<strong> </strong><a title="Notepad++" href="http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm" target="_blank"><strong>Notepad++</strong></a> a go for well developed and mature notepad replacement that provides a strong programming environment with code highlighting for over 30 different coding languages!</p>
<h2>WHAT ABOUT SUPPORT?, I hear you say.</h2>
<p>Well support is an interesting conundrum with Open Source products, its true that with a paid software solution you also generally are provided with a support channel with the manufacturer / software vendor, does this usually help resolve issues?</p>
<p>If its a configuration issue then yes but if its a coding bug or flaw then probably not, the manufacturer may choose to add your issue to its bug tracking or just disregard the request hoping it will go away in time.</p>
<p>As long as they are still making money, then the wheel still turns.</p>
<p>Open Source software is also usually well supported, the difference here is that its community supported. The people who have created the software,  actively develop or review code for the application and general users of the program form the basis of support in Open Source.</p>
<p>This does have one clear advantage, support is only a forum away (or several if its a widely used product), and it can be almost guaranteed that if you have encountered an issue then multiple others will have also and its already been escalated to the developers, this means that if its a big enough issue you can expect a version update soon.</p>
<p>Until then however you may need to mitigate the issue with another piece of Open Souce / freeware or resolve the issue in another way.</p>
<h2>So whats left?&#8230;</h2>
<p>Well the 900 pound gorilla in the room is the question, should businesses look to Open Source for all the answers?</p>
<p>That is an easy question to answer&#8230; No</p>
<p>Businesses need to weigh the pros and cons of implementing Open Source software in their organisation.</p>
<ul>
<li>Do I have a clearly defined need?</li>
<li>Is the paid solution cost prohibitive?</li>
<li>Does the paid solution only partially resolve the issue?</li>
</ul>
<p>If the answer to more than one of these questions is yes then you have nothing to lose but a little time.</p>
<p>If the answer to more than one is no however, then you need to test each solutions and choose the most appropriate for your business.</p>
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		<title>DreamHost Review</title>
		<link>http://www.regravity.com/2010/05/dreamhost-review/</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 06 May 2010 10:06:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Read my DreamHost review at Who Is Hosting This Related Posts Book Review: The Broken World – Tim Etchells Canon IXUS 80 IS &#8211; Review Imation Atom Flash Drive Review

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		<li><a href="http://www.regravity.com/2010/01/canon-ixus-80-is-review/" rel="bookmark">Canon IXUS 80 IS &#8211; Review</a><!-- (7.98887)--></li>
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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Read my <a title="Who Is Hosting This | DreamHost" href="http://www.whoishostingthis.com/hosting-reviews/dreamhost/" target="_blank">DreamHost review </a> at Who Is Hosting This</p>
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		<title>Tech and the Traveller</title>
		<link>http://www.regravity.com/2010/04/tech-and-the-traveller/</link>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 17 Apr 2010 09:56:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Camera]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Currently as some people may already know I&#8217;ve been travelling in New Zealand, lots of fun here in NZ but as a techie travelling from Australia its posed a few interesting problems. First of all is that in the land of OZ I have an iPhone as my normal mobile. But when I went to [...]

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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-781" title="New Zealand" src="http://www.regravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/nz_map_green2.gif" alt="" width="150" height="220" />Currently as some people may already know I&#8217;ve been travelling in New Zealand, lots of fun here in NZ but as a techie travelling from Australia its posed a few interesting problems.</p>
<p>First of all is that in the land of OZ I have an iPhone as my normal mobile. But when I went to turn on &#8216;International Roaming&#8217; through my carrier (Optus) I found that it would cost me $20 AUD per megabyte, not even considering the costs of calls internationally!</p>
<h2>Mobile Phone:</h2>
<p>I figured that even though I was attached to my iPhone I really only needed a phone to get me by if there were problems while travelling.</p>
<p>So I turned to my trusty <strong><a title="GSMarena - Samsung E250" href="http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_e250-1772.php" target="_blank">Samsung SGH-E250</a></strong> &#8211; basic phone, basic features, no 3G no EDGE, just phone calls.</p>
<p>This was an old handset so it was already unlocked, I was pleasantly surprised when as I walked out of the Christchurch airport I got a Vodafone NZ sim and 20 bucks credit for $50 NZD.</p>
<p>After a while though I found that the new mobile network 2 Degrees are just as good, and the sim card only costs $5 NZD (Vodafone cost me $30 NZD!)</p>
<h2><span style="font-weight: normal;">Wireless Internet:</span></h2>
<p>Lack of internet was my next problem, when my girlfriend and I had booked the hotels during our travel WiFi wasn&#8217;t a priority, so we had some pretty crappy internet during our travels.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a breakdown on the places we went in relation to WiFi.</p>
<p><strong>Christchurch:</strong> <em>Hotel SO</em> &#8211; This place  is awesome, its a tech device filled place that clearly has a digital soul. Free WiFi was provided by the hotel which was cool, but it was extremely weak in our room, I was only on the second floor but needed to go to the lobby to get a decent connection.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Speed</strong>: 512kbps</li>
<li><strong>Connection:</strong> Poor</li>
<li><strong>Restrictions:</strong> Unable to download mp3, zip/rar or exe</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Queenstown:</strong> <em>eCafe</em> &#8211; yeah I know, Internet Cafe, how early 90&#8242;s, but when your hotel has WiFi that costs $20 NZD for 1 hour, what can you do! eCafe had a great deal going at $3 bucks for an hour and you could bring your own laptop so you didn&#8217;t need to use their terminals.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Speed</strong>: 3mbps</li>
<li><strong>Connection:</strong> Excellent</li>
<li><strong>Restrictions:</strong> None Found</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Franz Josef:</strong> Not much WiFi going around here, there were a couple of backpacker lodges that have WiFi included in the price of staying. The motel I was staying with luckily had a wired connection that they allowed me to use in their reception office. But even this was pricey at $2 NZD per twenty mins.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Speed</strong>: 3mbps</li>
<li><strong>Connection:</strong> Wired (Excellent)</li>
<li><strong>Restrictions:</strong> None Found</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Hanmer Springs:</strong> <em>Green Acres Chalet</em> &#8211; <strong><a title="SurfSpot" href="https://secure.surfspot.co.nz/hosts.php" target="_blank">SurfSpot WiFi</a></strong> paid hotspot available, currently thats what I&#8217;m using at the moment to type this post. Its a decent price too, $12 NZD for 24 hours, the downside is the 500mb data allowance, but with a decent freeware bandwidth monitor (I&#8217;d recommend <strong><a title="SoftPerfect - Networx" href="http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/" target="_blank">Networx</a></strong>) it is easy to track the use of the cap.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Speed: </strong>5mbps</li>
<li><strong>Signal Strength: </strong>Excellent</li>
<li><strong>Restrictions:</strong> 500MB Data Cap</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Christchurch Airport: </strong><em>Airport Lodge Hote</em>l &#8211; WiFi isn&#8217;t free at this location either, they also use SurfSpot WiFi hotspots, thankfully the $12.00 NZD 24 Hour 500mb card I bought in Hanmer Springs also worked at this location so I didn&#8217;t need to buy any more before leaving!</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Speed:</strong> 5 mbps</li>
<li><strong>Signal Strength: </strong>Excellent</li>
<li><strong>Restrictions:</strong> None Found</li>
</ul>
<p>All in all its been not too difficult to find some sort of internet connection while travelling, although in hindsight I&#8217;d probably spend $99 for a 3G wireless device and a $50 credit to have a more solid connection, especially if blogging and uploading photos to social network / photography sites.</p>
<h2>GPS:</h2>
<p>I&#8217;ve only one thing to say about GPS units&#8230; BUY ONE NOW.</p>
<p>I bought a GPS a few months with the intention to use it in NZ (I have a TomTom XL340 &#8211; Awesome Unit), got the latest New Zealand maps loaded onto it and off we went.</p>
<p>It has been a godsend in the rental car, best couple of hundred bucks I&#8217;ve spent on a device this year.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s saved our ass more times than I can count with quicker routes, shaved off about 5 hours of drive time while we&#8217;ve been here, and saved my girlfriend and I the hours of map consulting and consequent yelling at each other as to which way / direction we need to go.</p>
<p>Once again&#8230; BUY ONE NOW.</p>
<p>So the trip to the land of the long white cloud has been a lot of fun, and travelling around has been easy with the GPS.</p>
<h2>Camera:</h2>
<p>If anyone has read my older blog posts you&#8217;ll know that I have recently purchased a <strong><a title="Canon IXUS 80 IS" href="http://www.regravity.com/?p=556" target="_blank">Canon IXUS 80 IS</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">. </span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">I brought it over, its taken over 7GB of photos and video so far, which might seem excessive, but when you sort through the crappy shots you come out with some stunning photos.</span></strong></p>
<p>On the video front it has been more than adequate, even when I was filming a street performer and ended up a part of the show! (I&#8217;ll upload the video once back in OZ)</p>
<p>So if you are travelling, take a look at the capabilities of your digital camera before you decide to lug around your whiz-bang HD recording video cam, that is unless you have one of those sexy little personal HD cams.</p>
<h2>Overall:</h2>
<p>So with only one and a half days to go here in New Zealand I&#8217;ll be winging my way back to Australia soon, keep watch on the blog as I&#8217;ll upload all my photos and video from the trip!</p>
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<p><small>© Tim for <a href="http://www.regravity.com">REGRAVITY</a>, 2010. |
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