Auckland Speed Limit Reductions – All stick but no carrot

TL;DR: Speeds limits are being reduced across the board. Driving is increasingly stressful as others will object to you following the speed limit. There are implications if you do receive an infringement. Driving is technically a privillege but alternative transport options for getting around Auckland remain disappointingly poor and impractical for many situations.

Noticed that Speed limits on some streets around the CBD have been further reduced. Now Wellington Street in Freemans Bay is down to a mere 30 km/h.

Entrance to Wellington St, Freemans Bay, Auckland (CBD City side)

I can say that no cars whatsoever were doing 30 or even 40 km/h. In fact I had to pull over to allow a car to pass because they were right on my bumper while doing an already rule breaking 40km/h down Wellington Street. Walking back up Wellington street, I had observed basically every car were clearly ignoring the 30 km/h speed limit.

I’ve come to terms it’s only a matter of time that I’m going to end up with my first ever traffic infringement at this rate (basically not a matter of if, but when). Why? Because the agencies (including NZTA and Auckland Transport) by way of their “Vision zero” programme are dropping speed limits across the board and not just around the CBD. They’re also pledging to deploy more enforcement cameras everywhere and dropping enforcement tolerances and it only takes a momentarily lapse in judgement (e.g accelerating a touch too much in order to move safely into traffic or change lanes while looking over my shoulder to check a blind spot) right at an inopportune time and I will be done for.

The issue as well with infringements is that even if it’s only $30 low level speeding fine without demerits from a speed camera, apparently this still goes on your record somewhere for 5 years and apparently in many cases, you are supposed to declare this to insurance and needs to be declared in other areas as well (applying for a fire arms license, etc) so pays to avoid getting them where practical.

While I’ve continue for decades to express a strong desire to see alternative, more environmentally friendly and safer travel options opened up particularly in car dependent areas such as East Tamaki Industrial, the anti-car and climate activists have been exerting an increasing influence on Government policy and various government to make driving purposely more difficult and attempting to strong arm the motoring public out of their cars before we even have available working and viable alternative transport options that are able to realisitically cater to people’s day to day and household transportation needs in this city.

With the likes of Auckland Transport playing hard ball over Bus lane infringements and being inflexible even to those who have an otherwise squeaky clean driving record, the state will lose the goodwill of the public. Day to day life is already stressful for families as it is and the state to start ramping up the enforcement, widening the net, and pinging people over an increasing array of infractions while being out to disrupt people’s livelihoods is only going to accelerate the erosion of public goodwill and respect particularly if we continue to find excuses not to run the trains.

While I see we are building seperated cycle ways slowly (which admittedly, I’m generally infavour of should they go where people need to go and can be implemented in a cost effective fashion), however until we begin to see viable transport options able to meet Aucklanders’ day to day transportation needs emerge, I will as an individual ratepayer be vigorously and assertively pushing back at attempts by the more ardent climate activists who unrealistically demand we stop driving our cars immediately.

Auckland Speed Limit Reductions – All stick but no carrot

Auckland Rail Closures 2023 – A Stark Wake up call to NZ regarding our infrastructure projects

Admittedly, initially had to actually check whether or not it was in fact April 1st. This afternoon, I learn that whole sections of Auckland’s Rail network is to be closed for lengthy periods during the coming 2023 year. Please read the details about these Line Closures here on AT’s Website.

Greater Auckland have already expressed their own dismay and concerns about this on their “GA” Twitter account.

I feel this ought to be a stark wake up call to New Zealand and the need to look into the way we do things in this country. Needed is an urgent nationwide inquiry into our infrastructure works and why everything gets done so glacially slow in this country and continues to get slower. Is it the project management process? Too many differing (unconnected) sub contractors making scheduling and coordination difficult? Overzealous Health and Safety? Too much needless bureaucracy? Lack of Will? Lack of incentive? Same questions go for our Roadworks as well which seem to take forever.

So just what were KiwiRail doing during all those Rail Closures and shut downs in the preceeding years? Did they only just discover the work needs to be done now? Were AT only informed of this now? It’s as if the rail line closures during the prior years (including during the weekends) weren’t already a sizeable inconvenience, It’s going to be just that more difficult promoting Auckland’s faith in the Public Transport network and enacting an effective modal shift away from dependence on the Private Motor car.

Would we be better off being served by Bus ways rather than any sort of Passenger rail if this sort of rather disruptive and lengthy ongoing maintenance is required of rail? What assurances are KiwiRail and Auckland Transport able to provide to the public that there won’t be yet another round of hugely inconvenient, costly and lengthy disruption to the rail network in the years to come after all this work is supposedly complete? How do other countries manage to do it? Or is Auckland simply too small to pragmatically run a reliable and dependable Passenger Train network due to the lack of redundancy in the system (afforded to bigger rail networks in larger municipalities)?

Rightly or wrongly, I am forming an impression that the people in charge of these organizations aren’t serious enough about doing their job properly nor delivering for the public and hold very little, if any, sense of duty/responsibility or accountability to New Zealand. I will admit this is just my opinion as a lay person / ignorant armchair critic who undoubtably won’t have the full picture, but something almost undeniably and certainly seems amiss and some hard questions need be asked of those in charge.

Auckland Rail Closures 2023 – A Stark Wake up call to NZ regarding our infrastructure projects

Noble Dental Auckland Patient review – Initial Consultation only

Update 10th February 2023: Originally posted this as a 3 star review on their Remuera Google Business Listing. But disappeared unbeknownst to me. Google it appears have only allowed a very short and terse version of this review to appear.

Personal opinion only as a once-off patient. Self referred to Noble Dental Remuera back in October 2021 for an initial consultation only as part of a wider search for a new dentist after the clinic I used to attend closed down. All Noble Dental personnel appeared to be reasonably friendly and professional throughout the consultation.

While I acknowledge my dental health certainly isn’t in the best state it could be, came away feeling they made it out to be in a pretty bad way overall along with them verbally suggesting that any treatment they undertake for me would be “a gamble”. Other dental clinics I attended (as part of a search for a new dentist to frequent) did make mention of gum issues, but framed it more as a cautionary observation in which to keep watch on as opposed to warranting utmost alarm. In fact, I believe Noble Dental provided the most dire prognosis out of the Dental Clinics I had consulted.

I acknowledge Noble dental are seemingly regarded highly as specialists in this area and they are perhaps more particular in any assessment they make. Though will admit was at least a little taken back by overhearing behind the partition that 5 teeth (despite being free of decay and tested as “vital” apart from one root canaled one) have poor prognoses and would likely end up needing extraction. This appeared contrary to the impression I got when I originally read Noble Dental’s website where they state “We use minimally invasive, advanced technology in gum treatments to save teeth even in advanced cases of gum disease.”

Asked for a copy of the clinical notes during the consultation to be sent to me directly (as I had self referred) to which Noble agreed to do, though did have to chase them up a number of times. These were eventually supplied to me after a month with to their credit a profuse apology for their delay.

As a side note, two other reviews coincidentally or otherwise were originally found linked to an individual offering “Public relations for local dentists” and who I firmly maintain feel should have made disclosures of this potential conflict of interest upfront in his reviews. Upon accepting the PR person’s offer to let me sight his invoices to support his claim that his dealings with Noble were genuinely and strictly 100% patient/dentist, the individual back pedals with a curious story declining to do so along with his reviews disappearing.

Paid $490 for the initial consultation and Full Mouth X-ray which appears to be inline with what other periodontists in Auckland charge. Quoted around $7,000 for treatment which includes quadrant cleaning and perioscopy which I have decided not to go ahead with.

Have since settled into using another dental practice for regular routine treatment and ongoing monitoring of periodontal condition. That said, I wish to stress that this review is my personal opinion for the initial consultation only and does not in any way reflect or refer to the quality of Noble Dental’s treatments nor is this intended to throw shade on Noble or their expertise.

In an apparent attempt to explain the link of some of their reviews to a Public Relations entity, Noble Dental (or may be their PR agent?) has replied with…

 

 

Business which posted the reviews in question mentioned earlier on… “Shane Wotherspoon: Media and PR

Noble Dental Auckland Patient review – Initial Consultation only

COVID “Booster” and Other things

Happy Waitangi, Ended up decided to drive down this morning to the Leonard Rd Vaccination Centre in Mount Wellington and get the booster shot done.

There are two pre-check stations, first one is to check whether or not you have any fever or flu like symptoms and what shot you’re coming in for (1st, 2nd or Booster). The second station is to check your details. The third station is to receive the Vaccine – strangely this time, I didn’t feel anything. Once administered, there are waiting lanes to check for any adverse reactions prior to being released.

The information gets written with temporary marker on your Vehicle’s windscreen and wiped off as you depart.

Anyway, Waitangi day, Noticed there was no festivals running this time due to COVID-19

On other matters, Petrol prices are touching on 3.00 per litre. Might call time on any more travelling for a while and hunker down. Not expecting to post many photos to NUI.NZ this year except may be the odd gallery from past hikes (that I never got around to posting).

 

COVID “Booster” and Other things

Auckland Light Rail – My own thoughts

Dropped in to the Auckland Light Rail marquee at the Balmoral Flea Market to try and get a better understanding as to what this project is all about. The current focus they have advised is that the project most certainly is going a head and we are now choosing between “Light Metro” and “Modern (street level) trams”.

Promotional brochures can be found here.

Overall, they’re a friendly and approachable bunch manning the stand and were found to be willing to at least provide their take on any questions and concerns I had about the project.

They were at pains to note that this project is not about trams alone, but a transport and urban building project initiative combined where development will be intensified along the Tram routes. Continue reading “Auckland Light Rail – My own thoughts”

Auckland Light Rail – My own thoughts

ProductReview.com.au Australia

This blog post originally documented in detail some personal concerns I had regarding the validity of ProductReview.com.au’s claims, in particular it’s claim of “independence” made via their trust centre if they also happen to supply paid services to the businesses being reviewed on their site.

The matter originated from coming across what I feel were some fairly sizeable anomalies in terms of a significant surge of suspect 5 star reviews (that were too large to simply casually ignore) on a listing during what was intended to be a casual visit to the site.

Will look to refer this to the ACCC and NSW Fair Trading in due course purely to get their opinion on the arrangement. Right now with the COVID-19 situation worsening globally together with the fact this matter is in another country and really does not affect me personally in any direct way, have decided to put any such follow up on ice.

 

 

 

ProductReview.com.au Australia

No new active COVID-19 cases in NZ

There are officially no more known ‘Active’ COVID-19 cases in New Zealand. We move down in to Alert Level 1 tonight.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/418524/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-reveals-move-to-level-1-from-midnight

Still need to be vigilant obviously.

“We will almost certainly see cases here again. That is not a sign we have failed.”

“If we get one or two cases in the future – which will remain possible for some time to come due to the global situation and nature of the virus – we need to shut down those cases fast. The last thing … we want to do is move up the alert level system again.”

My feeling is though, heading into the Winter seasons in future years, it may still be a good idea to practice some sort of social distancing primarily to protect the more vulnerable in our communities.

No new active COVID-19 cases in NZ

Current Personal Take regarding CoViD-19

Indeed, my views have shifted over time. This is a rapidly evolving situation where frankly anything can go. I do agree that CoVid-19 is serious enough to warrant extra and utmost caution including taking measures such as proper and thorough hand washing, staying well away from others if you’re sick (CoVid-19 or not), and drastically limiting any non-essential travel. This is more so with protecting the more vulnerable in our communities (such as those who are elderly, who have pre-existing medical conditions, who are immunocompromised) along with flattening the curve to avoid overloading our health services (which includes the many hard-working health personnel on the front line).

At the moment, I am of the feeling that the lockdowns happening around the world on balance will save lives but a question does hover over whether these measures will ultimately be a net positive for people’s livelihood in terms of situational (e.g access to gainful employment, individual “agency”) and mental well-being overall in the longer term.

While I agree this situation is indeed serious, I am still of the opinion that many of the commercial mainstream media outlets globally have been irresponsibly fanning a counter-productive, unhelpful, and needless level of panic among the general population by cherry-picking the most extreme stories to come out of this. It would appear that a lot of people on the regular social media channels have been induced in to talking themselves in to a funk including lapping up what I consider as needlessly extreme apocalyptic fearporn doom scenarios and this appears to be getting more pronounced as the situation rolls on. I have been avoiding through blocking as much as possible, my own consumption of any mass media or social media during this period.

I don’t begrudge our own Government imposing a lock down. Given how globalised we were, The New Zealand Government had to do something (or at least been seen to do something) and it appears to be having at least a visible and measurable positive effect by way of decline in new cases each day. In saying that, as the lock down rolls on, I am seeing a lot of people’s mental well-being starting to decline being holed up in their homes and I am concerned that we could see a bit of increasing push back happening in the form of defiance or disobedience among a few of our own citizens.

People I feel need to be mindful that the Data, particularly surrounding death rates, coming out globally may be skewed until such time we can broaden testing availability to more of the general population. The people who will be most often tested at this stage of the cycle naturally will be the ones showing the worse symptoms.

Once this current situation recedes, It will be interesting to see if we will also be taking more consideration of other potentially deadly respiratory diseases such as influenza from here on in. I’m picking physical distancing (more commonly referred to as social distancing) will become a matter of habit for a few years after CoVid-19 comes to pass and may even be something encouraged as a matter of common courtesy every flu season.

Again, like any view expressed in this blog, my views are most certainly subjected to change as events unfold and as new information comes to light.

Current Personal Take regarding CoViD-19

Drowning does NOT look like drowning

An interactive website I found that provides information on recognising signs of drowning in a child along with the opportunity to practice recognising these signs.

URL: http://spotthedrowningchild.com/

The key take away here is that… Drowning does NOT look like drowning

Quoted from the site… “Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.”

Recognise Drowning in a pool

The Youtube videos utilized on the site are from the Lifeguard Rescue (Channel)

Drowning does NOT look like drowning

Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd – Trading as SIXT Car Rental Vic and SA

Update 9th January 2022: Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd used to be trading as a Thrifty Car and Truck Rental independent franchise up until late 2021. They have since rebranded to be SIXT Car rental Vic & SA.

It is sincerely hoped under their new banner as SIXT Australia – Vic & SA that Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd will use this opportunity of a clean slate to continue to improve their business practices and move on from some of their former practices observed and experienced as a past customer of theirs.

Known SIXT Locations in Victoria, Australia which are operated by Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd

  • SIXT – Avalon Airport, VIC
  • SIXT – Bayswater, VIC
  • SIXT – Blackburn, VIC
  • SIXT – Clayton, VIC
  • SIXT – Coburg, VIC
  • SIXT – Campbellfield, VIC
  • SIXT – Dandenong, VIC
  • SIXT – Footscray, VIC
  • SIXT – Frankston, VIC
  • SIXT – Geelong, VIC
  • SIXT – Hoppers Crossing, VIC
  • SIXT – Moorabbin, VIC
  • SIXT – Pakenham, VIC
  • SIXT – Preston, VIC
  • SIXT – Richmond, VIC
  • SIXT – Tullamarine, VIC (Not the Airport one)

Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd also operate…

  • SIXT – Mount Gambier Airport, SA (South Australia)
  • SIXT – Repairhub (Derrimut, VIC)
  • Direct Vehicle Warehouse (formerly Thrifty Vehicle Sales)(Dandenong, VIC)

SIXT Car and Truck rental locations in Victoria not operated by Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd…

  • SIXT – Melbourne City (operated by Kingmill Pty Ltd – Master Franchise / NRMA Motoring and Services)
  • SIXT – Melbourne Airport (operated by Kingmill Pty Ltd – Master Franchise / NRMA Motoring and Services)
  • SIXT – South Yarra (operated by Christer Aust Pty Ltd)
  • SIXT – South Melbourne (operated by Christer Aust Pty Ltd)
  • SIXT – Brighton (operated by Christer Aust Pty Ltd)

The information has been compiled from what I know as a past customer to NRMA Motoring and Services car hire division (Originally trading as Thrifty, now trading as SIXT) and will likely be incomplete. I’m not employed in anyway within the car hire industry. The information was originally compiled upon request from other fellow Thrifty Car rental customers (back in 2018) enquiring as to which Thrifty car rental branches were operated by Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd and which of those that were not.

Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd – Trading as SIXT Car Rental Vic and SA

New Zealand Rooms of Matrix/Element.io Chat

Update: 10 April 2022 – This is an old article and has been superseded. Quick and dirty getting started guide for Matrix using the Element.io client can be found here.

Update: 23 July 2020 – Riot.IM is now Element.io

So far the known New Zealand specific chat groups (chat rooms) that exist within the Matrix chat federation include…

If there are others that you know of, feel free to advise me or post in the comments below.

If people are looking for a viable alternative for staying in contact with friends and family at home and abroad as opposed to using the common proprietary messaging systems (e.g. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc) operated by sole corporations. Then I implore people to start looking at the federation of matrix.org chat servers.

If you want to start chatting. Go to Element.io, sign up for a Matrix.org account and start joining rooms such as #nz:matrix.org

Similar to how Email is structured, where Joe Bloggs at Hotmail can seamlessly Email his friend, Max Mustermann at Yahoo without needing to be with the same provider. The Matrix protocol is structured the same way for instant messaging and group chat. No one single company / provider has total control of the protocol.

If Joe Bloggs for example, doesn’t like Hotmail for what ever reason, he is able to choose to sign up to Gmail. Matrix.org is the same way, you have a choice of providers. You can even host your own node (like I do).

Like any project the onset, Matrix was pretty rough around the edges, but I feel the development of the system (being the Matrix Protocol together with the available client software) has now matured to a point where I feel Matrix/Element.io is now certainly very usable.

The reason why I favour Matrix over say Telegram, Signal, Slack, Zulip, Mattermost, Rocket Chat, is that Matrix is the only system where you can…

  • Self host a node of your own AND
  • Send messages to users on other servers (Federation) AND
  • Has a usable front end client (Being Element.io available for Windows, Android, iOS, Linux, and others)

 

New Zealand Rooms of Matrix/Element.io Chat

Huawei P30 Pro Camera – Hybrid zoom

Update 13 October 2019 – So took the Huawei P30 Pro and compared it to the Panasonic TZ110 and another quick test…

At x5 zoom…
Native zoom for the P30 Pro’s x5 Camera. To my untrained eye, it is fairly similar enough in detail. The TZ110 may be a touch more natural in detail and colour reproduction.

Continue reading “Huawei P30 Pro Camera – Hybrid zoom”

Huawei P30 Pro Camera – Hybrid zoom

Matrix Messaging Matters

Earlier on Today, Matrix.org had to be pulled off line for emergency maintenance. It’s back up now and Kudos to Matthew Hodgson and his crew for getting it back up quickly.

On other matters, aside from a flurry of activity in the New Zealand Chat channel #nz.matrix.org, I’m still not seeing as much uptake of the protocol as I would like and today, If I search for any other Matrix chat resources in NZ, my out of date (and sorely need of an update / Fix up) Matrix chat sign up guide seems to come up as the first result.

Will try and pull my finger out and actually fix that page up (including the numbered bullet points and new screenshots) some day, though will state up front, I don’t plan on becoming any sort of Community Lead or Evangelist (Defacto or otherwise) for the Matrix chat / messaging protocol in New Zealand… Well at least not right now with my current commitments.

Matrix Messaging Matters

Motivations for setting up my own personal homepage

As mentioned in my Facebook Notice, I had elected to build my own personal homepage for staying in touch with Friends and Family as opposed to relying on Facebook. In short, I prefer staying with decentralized inter-operable web protocols and standards (particularly those that allow me to self-host) where practical as it offers me more freedom and control over my own personal web presence.

While It is acknowledged utilizing proprietary platforms that are singularly owned and operated by sole for profit business entities have their near term benefits (many such platforms are Free of charge), they aren’t “neutral” mediums and are typically run with the natural focus of maximizing profits, ahead of the best of interest of their users or the wider world at large. (Engineering their products to be as sticky as possible, to keep people on their platforms for longer in order to serve advertising, locking them in so that it’s difficult to leave and consequentially, with an increased tendency to cause addiction in quite a few people).

Proprietary platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat are structured in contrast to say inter-operable protocols like regular E-mail where you have a choice of providers. A user on their choice of provider can E-mail another user on a different provider. No one provider controls the protocol.

It is worth highlighting that the more we use, rely, and pressure others to use these proprietary platforms (by way of the network effect), the more powerful these entities will naturally become. In the case of Facebook, it’s already large and still ever increasing influence and power in our lives (be it through through Facebook Original, Instagram, WhatsApp), I see as potentially detrimental thing to us in the longer term in the sense of…

“Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely”

Personally, I desperately struggle to see how so much power concentrated in the hands of any given single entity, especially a “for-profit” one, could ever be considered as a good thing for us in the longer run. While Facebook certainly isn’t alone in trying to get their mittens on everything we do online, there is a concern within me that should we allow the general trend to continue, (along side the gradual erosion of Civic Responsibility) we could see an erosion in our own individual self determination as we collectively cede ever increasingly control and power over our lives to such (non-democratic) business entities whom are ultimately answerable only to their owners and stockholders.

If you wish to visit the possibility of using alternatives mediums to stay in contact with friends and family, please see “Keeping in contact with loved ones” where I’ve listed out what I’ve done and the recommended stepping stones to reduce reliance on centralized, proprietary and commercially run services.

Disclosure

As of February 2017 (About a year ago as of writing this), I am now a direct shareholder in NASDAQ:FB. The reality is I don’t think we Netizens are going to realize the longer term implications of where we are headed anytime soon. I do recall people seven years ago rebuked me as being “so pessimistic” for even suggesting that Facebook would become as powerful and ubiquitous as they are now. People are saying Facebook is dying and while that may now be true in North America for their original main name sake platform, many of those same people go on to suggest Instagram and WhatsApp (both Owned by Facebook), along with Snapchat (whom personally I consider as equally as obnoxious) as examples as to where everyone is now flocking to.


Fergus Young
www.nui.nz

 

Motivations for setting up my own personal homepage

Matrix RIOT two Month Review.

Have had an Instance of the Matrix “Synapse” Chat Server for two months now (instructions). The system operates alright, but in short, the User Interface for both the Android App and the Web Based user interface I found hasn’t been particularly fast… In fact, it feels a bit lethargic in a way akin to walking through a swamp.

Having said that, there is a new series of the server in development called “Dendrite” that promises to be faster with more optimal resource usage, but do not know when the developers are going to get around to formally releasing it to the public.

Will keep the current server up for now, but won’t be actively pushing or promoting it beyond family and a handful of friends. If people expressly mention that they are looking for an alternative, will mention it there and then along with my instance of Matrix/RIOT, but generally not before then.

 

Matrix RIOT two Month Review.

Riot Matrix: Background + Findings

The following post deals with the background, along with my personal experiences and findings to-date with the RIOT/Matrix instant messaging and group chat system. To connect to the Matrix Synapse instance, please refer to the basic guide to get started.

In Late December 2017, some concerns were raised among friends regarding their discomfort with Relying on WeChat (along with other proprietary commercial instant messaging apps) for communicating among ourselves, and subsequently I was asked whether or not it would be possible to add some sort of chat function to my website.

I’m going to be upfront. I don’t believe at this stage that I am ever going to pull the majority of my Facebook Addicted friend base out from the clutches of the Facebook eco-system (FB Messenger and WhatsApp) and at this present time, only aiming this service at Family and a handful of closer friends who have expressed desire to use an alternative instant messaging platform. Continue reading “Riot Matrix: Background + Findings”

Riot Matrix: Background + Findings

Ranger says No

Relatively short Multiday Trip to Tama Lakes, Waihohonu Hut and Oturere hut and back out to Desert Road. Was going to go around to Mangetepopo Hut and complete the Northern Circuit though an updated 11:00 a.m. Weather report upon reaching Oturere Hut, the Ranger advised us not to proceed due to dangerously high wind gusts.

Click photo below to access the gallery…

Mount Ruapehu

Hut Rangers, Doug and Horse, who we met on the trail, were fantastic.

A dip in the Springs near Waihohonu Hut provided some much needed refresh and temporarily removed the pain of my Left foot.

Ranger says No

Future Website Plans

Over the next month or two, I’m planning (where I have time) to go back through past posts and photo albums and tidying a few things up. Namely…

  • Finish captioning as many un-captioned photos as I can.
  • Writing up more detailed Trip reports to go with the Photo Albums (where I can, particularly with those to do with Hiking).

While originally the intent of this homepage was purely set up as a means of keeping in contact with friends and loved ones (in preference to relying on Facebook), the reason for the Tidy up planning came about while I was trying to search for some new possible hiking trips to do and then ending up back at my own homepage.

It appears some of the pages have been ranking a little higher in search results than they have in the past and this corresponds with a noticeable uptick in general visitation arriving from various search engines, combined with an increase in the general email inquiries about various trips and what not.

I’m thinking some people will no doubt be landing on my website (expecting to find more information about a given hike or place), seeing a photo and going… “Where the Flip is this? Where is this landmark / building? Where’s the Information?!” Potentially frustrating casual visitors in the process.

All that said, the intent of this website was to be a personal homepage (to keep in contact with loved ones and friends) and I never really envisioned it being anything more than that. I don’t at present have any plans as such of turning this into any sort of  travel blog with any intention to monetize or paste it over with adverts, at least not yet anyway. (Website is currently funded solely through my own personal funds)

Video

Keeping in contact with friends and Family at home and abroad

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