Author: Default User

Swanson Pipeline Waitakere Dam loop Redux

Default User

Did a rather short “reconditioning” hike in the morning (before heading off to afternoon family activities), photos posted to NUI.NZ (as per usual).

A small Unnamed / unidentified Waterfall (Requires bush bash to get to)

Route by pure chance ended up being almost exactly identical the Swanson Pipeline Waitakere Dam loop I did last year with the Auckland Hiking Group where the dam was perhaps more spectacular then with water going gushing down it. My own photos for that hike have been posted here.

Almost feel like combining the two albums.

 

Swanson Pipeline Waitakere Dam loop Redux

Forecasting weather like the financial markets

Default User

While I am fairly sure that the folks at MetService try to do their best, the Auckland Regional Rain forecasts specifically have not been particularly dependable. I did have a First world problem where I missed out on hiking this weekend due to acting on MetService’s warnings for the Auckland Region that did not eventuate (except for parts of the Waitakare ranges) until well into the Evening.

It would be timely to Note, this non-expert opinion from myself does not include MetService’s Marine (Swell and Wind), Mountain and inland forecasts, which I hear are at least a little bit more on the mark if not more, with the Mountain forecasts being reasonable enough in the times I’ve needed to refer to them.

I’m not quite sure what it is, I do get the weather is simply the weather, but to date, much of the rain forecasting for Auckland just “isn’t quite there” to be of tangible enough benefit. It’s almost despite advances in technology, we’ve hit right into the walls of diminishing returns, as in, every Dollar being put into improving weather forecasting accuracy is now returning very little, if any improvement… as if we’ve hit a ceiling.

Some critics whom are more critical of the MetService forecasts suggest using MetVUW instead, to be honest, I don’t know how much better MetVUW are… While I’ve found the longer term rain forecasts perhaps slightly more on the mark, they may not be that much more reliable as people are lead to believe.

One of the reasons offered for the current state of Auckland’s rain forecasts appear to be that we’re coastal and that there are far less data points available to go on as opposed to an inland location on a larger continent, where there will often be many more weather stations and monitors in between the said Inland location and the coast.

I’ve called financial market and economic forecasting a “mug’s game” before.  Could the same term apply to weather forecasting at least with regards to the rain forecast specifically in Auckland? It would seem that both forecasting systems rely, at least in substantial part, on computers crunching numbers. Anyway, It would be fair to say, there is undeniably perhaps a bit of “Boy who cried wolf” effect creeping in to my psychology as the MetService has issued multiple rain Warnings in the past only to have no or not very much rain occur in the majority of the Auckland Region.

The plan from here on in. If the MetService issues rain warnings again and we’re planning to head out for a day hike or other activity, on the Morning of the Activity…

  • Look at the Rain radar on the MetService website.
  • Briefly review the Rain forecast maps on both the MetVUW and MetService website.
  • Look out the Windows or go outside to assess.

If the live rain map really is looking dire, then cancel or perhaps delay departure, if not (only patches of isolated rain), then continue with plans. Regardless of the forecast, always be prepared for change of weather, bring rain gear always and be prepared to abort if the weather changes en-route.

 

Forecasting weather like the financial markets

Something Crumbles and everyone cheers

Default User

General random photos from today. 25th Pasifika Festival at Western Springs during the day and later on “While you were sleeping” feature consisting of an iceberg texture projected on the walls of the Auckland Museum.

Picture of Iceberg texture projected on to walls of the Auckland War Memorial Museum

Having watched the awe inspiring trailer on the “While you were sleeping” page combined with the word “cinematic” along with the recommendation to “bring a blanket and a themo” at the bottom of the page, I have to admit, I was perhaps anticipating may be some transition to different varied imagery or may be even a few photo snap shots or videos of some Antarctic expeditions being creatively incorporated with the display.

The display itself was more maybe a slow gradual animating texture with an orchestral musical score playing in the background rather than being a “cinematic” show. In my mind, it didn’t quite lend itself to being a “sit back and watch” affair. In order to get the most out of the evening display itself, it requires one to circumnavigate the Museum Building… albeit slowly. Was good in itself as a 10 minute side visit (drop in) while going to or from one’s main evening activities in town.

Something Crumbles and everyone cheers

Binary Options Warning + ineffectual ASIC supervision and enforcement

Default User1 Comment

Please note, As always, These are my own personal (non-expert) opinions and should under no circumstances be purported as fact

I’m going to be direct, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) have in my own personal (non-expert) opinion been derelict in their duty to oversee and enforce financial regulations. May be it’s not entirely their fault, I wouldn’t know, all I know is that there is a proliferation of dodgy investment products being promoted on Australian Shores by way of high pressure cold calls to prospective investors.

In my own personal mind, It beggars belief that outfits such as World Binary Exchange (WBE) among others have been allowed to continue to promote their services from Australia to Australians and beyond (in my case, living in New Zealand) without an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) for as long as they have.

I recall being contacted by this Entity (being World Binary Exchange) several times about a year ago engaging in what I feel was some pretty high pressure cold calling to try and sign me on to some unusual product trial. I told them I wasn’t interested and then blocked their number (with multiple attempts recorded). Continue reading “Binary Options Warning + ineffectual ASIC supervision and enforcement” →

Binary Options Warning + ineffectual ASIC supervision and enforcement

Wellington to Auckland Road Trip

Default User

Flew to Wellington, stayed overnight in Wellington at the Cambridge Hotel near town. Visited Te Papa, Parliament (doing the Parliaments Highlights tour), Botanic Gardens (Taking the cable car up), Mount Victoria.  Weather was wet pretty much the entire time I was there, with some brief periods of the sun trying to break through.

Sunrise while flying to Wellington

Next day, decided to leave the wet weather behind, grabbed a hire car from the Wellington Thrifty Branch and headed north, via Wairarapa before staying the night in Palmerston North / Manuwatu

On the next morning, the Wet weather had caught me up, visited Manawatu Gorge then drove onwards to Whanganui before heading to Taumarunui for a snooze.

On the final leg, stopped by Ruakuri caves and then headed directly back to Auckland.

Wellington to Auckland Road Trip

Epiphyllum Oxypetalum

Default User8 Comments

Pictures of Epiphyllum Oxypetalum Flowers. Opens only once a year at night.

—

23rd June 2020: This plant is no longer in my possession and has since been given to a relative down country.

Have been receiving the occasional inquiry about where to possibly acquire this plant (or clippings of) from site visitors both locally and overseas. If people know of any Garden centres (or otherwise) in New Zealand that may be able to supply this plant or otherwise assist, please do state in the comments below to help out fellow Netizens :o) Thanks!

 

Epiphyllum Oxypetalum

Keeping in contact with friends and Family at home and abroad

Default User

The often used line for people who sometimes quite vigorously defend (their use of) Facebook is that “It helps me keep in contact with Friends and Family far away (or overseas)!”…

Here’s the kicker, People I firmly feel were already freely doing that across the Wider general Internet way before the likes of MySpace and Facebook ever came on the scene.

Many people had their own Personal Homepages (at their ISP, colleges or elsewhere) or Personal Blogs and people would find each other by way of any number of search engines of the time, go to their page and flick them an email or sign their ‘guestbook’. (I know I have reconnected with many people I’ve lost contact with this way.),

RSS and ATOM standards were common place where people could subscribe to each other’s blogs or web pages, using any number of RSS readers and be able to keep abreast with articles from multiple sources, be it from their friends’ blogs, News media publication, or elsewhere in one place, (very much, I feel, in the same way how Facebook’s “newsfeed” operates today, but with far more granular control over what you wish to see than the Facebook newsfeed of today ever offered).

Another often used excuse for relying on facebook is “How can I share my photos with my family and friends overseas?”, Facebook is hardly the only medium or tool to do this. Again, your own blog could fill the same role with NUI.NZ as being my living example.

—

It’s worth remembering that Facebook as a communication medium is entirely controlled by a single corporation whose natural overarching focus is to maximize profits for their shareholders and is not an inter-operable communication protocol with several (typically competing) providers like how Email is structured.

—

If some people are serious about reducing their reliance on Facebook, are concerned as I am about the increasingly centralization of power to a few for-profit run silos, and are in favour of supporting open inter-operable web standards, I would kindly suggest that a regular Blog could fill that role as the first stepping stone.

Setting up your own personal blog I strongly feel needn’t be solely the domain of I.T. geeks. There are now blogging services which make it easy to get started as it is signing up for a Facebook Account.

There are several different blogging platforms, including B2Evoluation, WordPress, and many others. WordPress as a blogging platform seems fairly okay in my opinion… if you want a quick start, then suggest as an initial starting point signing up for a free account at wordpress.com at least as a stepping stone to get you on your way (it is very easy to sign up, as easy as it is to sign up for Facebook or any other social network).

Once you outgrow WordPress.com and/or you get sick of the adverts, you can then fairly easily move off on to your own self hosted WordPress blog at any web host of your choice once you’re ready.

What ever blogging platform you eventually get going with (Preferably an open source one that allows you to self-host in the future if not now), you can simply post links on your social media profiles (Faceborg, Google+, etc) back to your blog / homepage and have your blog / homepage as your main (web identity) hub and point of presence on the Internet in which to syndicate / share your content from. Much like what I do with on my own Faceborg Profile.

Keeping in contact with friends and Family at home and abroad