A couple of years ago wifey and I formed a home business as the New Zealand distributors for CardMemories. The business we formed was Jazzed Solutions Ltd and we just relaunched it's website after running a very flat, very basic HTML page for a while.

Due to our changes in personal circumstance the business has been wound right back until recently, but now it's time to get out there again with our Greeting Card Albums. They really are a neat product and are an awesome gift (Christmas is coming y'know!).

So check us out. What can I say, it's our lil thing and it deserves the odd plug. :)

Whilst reading the Herald today I was surprised to see an article on NZ's thriving underbelly which mentioned Jason Boon - a school acquaintance who was brutally murdered and it opened my eyes to a few more of the details which were not spelt out well at the time.

It's enough to provoke a lot of thought, most of which isn't suitable for open discussion, but fundamentally it makes me grateful for the values that my parents taught me and for the person i've become.

It also disturbs me exactly how significant the criminal world out there really is, and how oblivious to it many folks are.

Ok here's one that's annoying and frustrating as heck.

We picked up a safety-gate to block off the stairwell of our place. It's a fairly decent brand, and pretty well made - a style similar to a window blind (of the roll up variety).

The attachments are meant to be screwed into the wall.

So I had a go. This was the result of attempting to use the self-tapping screws to _try_ to fit the brackets to the wall.

The instructions were followed precisely. Drill a 3mm pilot hole 5cm deep. The screws are 5 cm long.

Problem is that by the time they're about 3cm into the wood, the work becomes tough and the heads of the screws... well take a look at the outside ones. The screwdriver tip came away covered in metal shards/splinters (one of which attacked my finger)and I definately appear to have stopped trying at exactly the right time.

So what's the deal, oh experienced interweb handyfolks? Is this just a case of cheap screws letting down an otherwise good quality product? Any tips on whether I should pick up 'harder compound' screws?

A brief note regarding Birthday season in the Foster household.
Laura and I both have our birthdays in the same week. I might've turned 30 (and gotten a Mr Potato Head and a great cake) but perhaps more significantly, young Laura turned five years old and starts school tomorrow!. So proud of our lil' monkey and yet it's also the beginning of yet another chapter in life, scary as that is.
Meanwhile Ben and Liz have to wait another 5 months for their birthday season. :-)
Tomorrow we're taking Laura to her first day of school as a family, and it's all downhill from there. :-)

I just hope that he doesn't 'bake' when the flames get too close!

(He's officially called a 'Fryer-fighter'. Har Har Har!)

Yeah, i'm getting old in a day or two. :-) So in celebration we had a few friends around tonight for some food and drink, and to share in this remarkable birthday cake that my good wife made for me this week.

What can I say? It rocks. Or Rocked, until we performed a 'front cut'. ;-)

We also found one of the best uses ever for an iPad.

So yup... we're well and truly here, and I think our Auckland-ness is finally sinking in. :-)
We're baaaaaaaack!

New place to live (Birkdale, on the Shore, a suburb i'm still making my mind up about...)
House is nice, though.
The new car I picked up as a work-hack finally gets infront of my camera:

So...

Today I hear about the passing of 'Lindsa' who I mainly knew from Twitter.

A guy with a quick wit whos comments were entertaining. Turns out he was fairly well regarded in the NZ Twittersphere and there's lots of 'OMG' going around at the moment.

This tacks onto more interesting news from the twittersphere: Lynne Pope tweeted that our mutual friend Nic had had an altercation with some motorists who objected to his taking a photo of their car. Of course, their car was illegally parked in a disabled car park at the time, and Nic runs a website dedicated to outing folks who do this. Unfortunately it appears that today, Stuff have picked it up and spun it in the negative.

Nic tweeted: "Am at A&E because this arvo a car parked illegally in disability space backed out while I was still talking to them. Flipped wheelchair"

Unfortunately the news article talks about Nic having 'grabbed the steering wheel' and other such nonsense. Ever seen a person in a wheelchair reach high enough to get their arm in the window and grab the steering wheel? Nic has of course pointed out he didn't do this. I more think that the driver knew they were in the wrong, and were caught doing wrong, and didn't like it.

The reporter who put the above Stuff article together should seriously be pulled up over the one-sided nature of their article. Yes, Nic is in discussions with Campbell Live (and yes, i'll be watching) but that's no reason to take other people's skin at face value.

I know Nic well enough to know he's probably closer to the truth than is being reported, that's enough for me. :( SADFACE.

Is now a good time to observe that this is my Niece?

Sadly this complaint is not a new one, my family (my wife in particular) have had some very poor experiences with bus drivers in the Hutt.

This gets coupled with what I tend to see of them most - their utterly inconsiderate drivers. This extends to Newlands bus services as well.

Bus drivers on the whole seem to have a bad rap - but I can't say it's not undeserved yet either!!

So... yeah... I think i've mentioned it on here before, but it's definately official now; i'm becoming an Aucklander again.

As of Saturday i'm domiciled back in Auckland; currently staying with my friend Nick while I 'sort myself out'.

The sorting includes getting settled into work; finding a new car, and a place for the family.

Hoping to bring everyone else up during the school holidays in July. So the hunting will begin in earnest from next week onwards, in terms of rental places. In the meantime i'm trying to sort out some wheels to get around in (hard to hunt for houses if you're immobile!)

Grateful to Nick and his fiance Lisa for their gracious hospitality; Lisa even loaned me her car for today to help me get to work and back. :)

Missing the wife and kids, I must say. Nothing quite like cuddles from your loved ones!

So in the meantime I bury myself in other matters. Today I set up an Ubuntu 10.04 box at work, to use as a 'second system' to provide me with a test bed for some stuff, and to free me from needing to have my laptop running constantly.

First thing I noticed was that They've Moved the Buttons that control Minimize, Maximize and Close. what a pain.

Fortunately the Python script Linked works very nicely, and i've been able to restore the old location. I'm moving between Windows and Linux constantly, a little bit of consistency (especially when you consider the habits of many, MANY years) is not too much to ask for!

Of course the Apple fanboys can keep things where they like them. Should be a choice. :-)

So while I settle into my new job (learning curve = steep, but a good challenge for me) I'll also get a chance to do some more tinkering, which is nice. Gotta brush-up on my Cisco-fu though.