Living with Mangee

04:15:00 - Dugg: Apple ticking off New Zealand Mac users. No DST updates for NZ time change.

Quoting Russell Brown on Hard News "At 2.00am on Sunday September 30, New Zealand Daylight Saving Time will begin -- a week earlier than has previously been the case. It's looking very much like Macs won't be there". Apple to date hasn't seen fit to supply a patch... and with a week before it happens there is still issues with NZ keeping in sync with the rest of the world.

Yes, I submitted it to digg.com Apple did update their 'advice' on manually setting your clock during the week until the old rules change it automatically - but this still doesn't help issues with international calendaring - e.g I've got an online EMC conference next week - and constantly rely on iCal to give me timely notice of international events, such as other online Apple User Group meetings, or online events. Not just iCal, but anything that relies of a (non local) timestamp relating to a local one. So far UTC based events still seem ok, but anything in NZST/NZDT is a bit confusing.

Back ups that store times in UTC (converted from local) are an hour out in tests, and this will be a week of wrong backups - while an hour isn't that critical (it's a memo to all backup admins) - what have we missed?

Assuming Apple updates NZ with the rumoured 10.4.11 updates (due 27th September?) - there will likely be another slew of changes of timestamps as they are fixed. Argh! Apple has likely known about this for 6 months.. but is New Zealand so insignificant that it is only "September 13, 2007" before Apple even acknowledges there is a problem?

Great job Apple.

http://www.drury.net.nz/2007/09/19/daily-savings-time-on-osx/
http://publicaddress.net/default,4488.sm#post4488
http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,727,hard_news_deriving_satisfaction_from_the_misfortune_of_others.sm


read more | digg story

21:08:00 - A week till mini y2k, and no Apple NZDT update...

With New Zealand daylight time set to roll on a week earlier than ever before - at the end of this month, there has been growing concern amongst Apple system administrators and users over the failure of Apple to release an official update the includes patches for the changes in New Zealand Daylight Savings Time (NZDT).( Fears were allayed with the recent release of a patch by WellDev member, Glenn Anderson. )
Thanks to the efforts of WellDev the Wellington developers group and others, Glenn Anderson of mactcp.org.nz has released version 1.1 of a small application that will patch the time zone rules in 10.4.10 - including the files /usr/share/zoneinfo/Pacific/Auckland, /usr/share/icu/icudt32b.dat and icudt32l.dat, pending the rumoured 10.4.11 updates from Apple.

That should stop you having to (god forbid) manually adjust your clock downunder
Enjoy.

Current Mood: impressed

21:03:00 - Business.govt.nz

Sure it's got a Microsoft logo at the top, and asp in the url -- but I was surfing around the new business.govt.nz and ended up reading an article on technology basics. Got to love the outdated info you see, and the balanced articles, especially written by Microsoft about Apple.

Here something that fits into the basic knowledge you should have
"Apple claims that its top-end machines are faster than those running Windows. That is a matter of controversy; there are websites devoted to debunking Apple's claims."

Heh. Admittedly it does mention Motorola processors.. I think they went out with the dinosaurs. Intel now ain't it?

I'd better put a 'proper link' though:

business.govt.nz – the New Zealand government business site

business.govt.nz is a free and independent source of New Zealand business resources, and the fast way to find tools and information to help you start, manage or grow your business.

Current Mood: amused

19:07:00 - Wellington hosts first New Zealand SuperHappyDevHouse event

The Southern Cross bar on the corner of Cuba Street and Abel Smith in the Creative Capital, Wellington, played host to 40 or more developers today, in a pilot of a SuperHappyDevHouse. SHDH is a concept pioneered in the US, where developers gather in a monthly meeting to loosely collaborate and share ideas, or just code in the company of other geeks.
A successful meeting similar in concept to a BarCamp was held and attendees were reported to be keen for more of the "monthly hackathon event that combines serious and not-so-serious productivity with a fun and exciting party atmosphere". Despite the good turnout, it was reported almost $900 was left on the bar tab, boding well for those staying past the 5pm end time.

The Wellington event was a pilot, with invited attendees only due to initial funding concerns, but was well attended. Event sponsors quickly came on board, including Google, Microsoft New Zealand, Mindscape - the Wellington-based think tank, Actrix Networks - the first commercial, leading technology-based ISP in New Zealand and Catalyst IT, the Open Source IT specialists.

Attendees were seen clustered around laptops, wearing distinctive brown and green SHDH NZ Aotearoa T-shirts, and received CafeNet vouchers from Citylink to allow them to freely use the wireless connectivity available at the Southern Cross Bar, a popular hangout for Wellingtons' high concentration of software developers.

The pilot event was organised by Brenda Wallace and Penny Leach of Catalyst IT, along with Mauricio Freitas of geekzone.co.nz and Microsoft developer, Darryl Burling.

Wellington reportedly has the most intense concentration of software developers in New Zealand, with a number of incubator projects, and development firms. Many ex-pats from the US and UK report they moved to Wellington because of the vibrancy and culture the city hums with. Trade Me, the New Zealand auction site, grew in Wellington, utilising the networks available. Wellington has a unique 'world rare' fibre connectivity in the city and some suburbs, resulting in one of the highest uses of internet in the country.

A number of prolific networking groups have seen success in Wellington including Unlimited Potential - the ICT professionals network, ThursdayNightCurry, the Wellington Incubator network WIN and others. Wellington is home to a host of successful ICT enterprises and start-ups

Jo Booth, facilitator for the Wellington Macintosh Society New Media Group, WelMac NMG, founded around the concept of "Meet and Geek", is says he is pleased to see the pilot a success and sees the SHDH as an ideal way to bring together Wellingtons' fragmented developer community:

"I attend a number of networking events in Wellington, each focussed on a small subset of the larger community of ICT workers and hobbyists. It takes something like [SHDH] to introduce the PHP developers to the ASP coders, the Apple people to the Microsoft gurus, and the designers to the developers."
"In any industry, a collaborative environment, free from the competitive corporate hush is important to the growth of ideas and flourish of creativity. Being able to bounce ideas off peers, irrespective of their corporate affiliations, and to discuss advantages and disadvantages, to learn from others mistakes, and to work for common goals across different businesses is what comes of this kind of collaboration" he said.
Jo is keen to attend the next SHDH, admitting he has been wanting to release his inner geek for some time.


By Jo Booth, Mesh|net
superhappydevhouse