auchmeddan

I try not to put too much Tech stuff up on here as it’s meant to be more about our lives and not my geeky obsessions, but I just spent a couple of days up at Tech-Ed in Auckland courtesy of Axon sending a few employees up to the conference. This was my first Tech-Ed, and I really enjoyed the security related presentations by Steve Riley and Kai Axford. It was very interesting watching Kai’s Forensic based presentation and the Q&A with NZ Police’s E-Crime unit, then closing the day listening to a hyped-up (read: normal) Steve Riley stressing that there is NO back door into BitLocker and YES the bad guys can use it too if they want to.

What Bitlocker could mean for Computer Forensics is an interesting space to watch. If the penalty for not supplying your decryption key (or PIN, or whatever) is six months in jail and you have something on disk that could send you away for Waaaaaaayy longer, what would you choose?

I held off buying “Guitar Hero 2″ for a little while as I was afraid it would get “old” quite quickly…which I was totally wrong about. In the end, I was seduced by the chance to play Motley’s “Shout at the Devil” and GNR’s “Sweet Child O’ Mine”.

I had also held off as Jules told me she was looking forward to laughing at me while I played it. However, this never had a chance to happen as Jules took a keen interest in the game as soon as she heard me playing “Strutter”. In truth, Jules is just as addicted to this game as I am and was initally doing waaaay better than I was - a fact Jules took great delight in. I have since caught up, and won the “Eddie Van Halen” award today for hitting a 500 note streak on Sabbath’s “War Pigs”. Another three hours of my life gone forever chasing Xbox achievements!

Jules and I are now locked in combat over “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, the Kansas Song “Carry on Wayward Son”, and Skynyrd’s “Free Bird”.

We went out on Anzac Day for a walk along a trail on the East Coast of Wellington, past Eastbourne. Our walk turned into a 4+ hour hike, and we got high enough up to appreciate some of the scenery and view back towards Wellington. We were lucky as we had almost perfect weather all day, and it was nice to get away from the City and suburbs for an afternoon.

On the way back we realised we were being watched from the Hills beside the trail, and eventually we looked up and saw around a dozen or so goats. I have to be honest - goats scare me a little. I think it’s because they look like Satan’s minions, vomited from the dark maw of hell onto the earth. It must be the eyes.

Anyway, Jules decided to “Baa” at them and giggled as they stopped what they were doing to stare at us- which didn’t amuse me much. “Would you bark at a pack of wild dogs?” I asked. I urged Jules to “not stare at them” and “keep walking” as I reminded her about her experience in Queenstown being surrounded by hungry goats. I remember them surrounding the car afterwards and looking out of my side window right into an evil eye staring back at me. I still clearly remember it snorting steam against the glass - not unlike a tiny version of the T-Rex from Jurassic Park!

Happily, the goats didn’t stampede us and some photos from our day out are posted below.

I felt my first earthquake yesterday. I was glad to finally experience one (after sleeping through the previous ones) but I was honestly expecting a little more from it. I was in a meeting on the 17th floor of a building when it “struck”, but instead of pictures falling off the wall and windows cracking it felt more like the Tea Lady had just pushed a heavy trolley down the hall.

Jules told me it was 4.7, which I guess equates to a little bit of floor shaking but not much else.

We went out for a hike today in the Rimutaka Forest Park. We chose the Orongorongo Track (which we’re still not sure how to pronounce) and had an enjoyable few hours hiking to the Orongorongo river and back. Being NZ in summer, the weather changed a little on the way. I set out wearing trousers, long sleeves and a baseball cap and ended up in a Fleece and Wooly hat by the time we got to the river. On the way back the weather warmed up again and it was back to normal again.

I had a look for the trail start on Google Earth and was surprised by how out of date the photo was. The trees around the car park are definately thinner now, and the start of the Orongorongo trail should be visible.

There are a few more trails for us to explore there, so I imagine we’ll be back at the park soon.

(UPDATE: Per the good people in Jules office Orongorongo is prounounced “oh-wrong-oh-wrong-ah”)

This is my first blog for a while, sorry its been so long in coming. Just had my 32nd birthday and to celebrate Dave and I decided to go out and look for a car…well I think that I really decided that. I’d already given our details to a dealer in town so that was our first port of call the morning of my birthday. He showed us a nicely priced 2yr old gold, Nissan Pulsar. Think the colour was putting Dave off but I really liked it. We went around a couple of other dealers but everything in our price range was 6 years old or more, not really what we were looking for. Went back to the first dealer and had another look at it and Dave said it was my decision so we bought it. They were kind enough to give us a lift to the bank to get the draft cheque and our insurance sorted. After not having driven in a little while I got Dave to drive to the parking spot we have in town. More than going out for lunch i wanted to know where it was for driving into town the next day. This annoys the crap out of Dave but driving somewhere new when I don’t know where I’m going stresses me out like you wouldnt believe. Anyway, we went out for a late lunch and having plucked up the courage I said I’d drive home if he wanted a beer. With my co-pilot Dave by my side I wasn’t as nervous being on new roads. Only just realised today that 75% of my driving experience has been in Bermuda so its no surprise that driving on a 3 lane motorway was making me somewhat nervous.

Today I ventured out by myself for a little shopping spree, below is the picture of me driving off. Got a very nice top and necklace and a couple of glossy lipsticks. Feeling much more comfortable driving the car now but its going to take me a while to get used to driving in all this traffic.

I also got flowers from mum and dad today, they were supposed to come on my birthday but with Dave and I being out all yesterday I didnt get them until today. I’ve put a photo of them below, they’re gorgeous. Didn’t even have to re-arrange them, they fitted perfectly into the vase.

We finally got the last of our shipped items yesterday. It’s taken a couple of months to get here, but everything turned up in one piece and Jules unpacked our boxes today. This is the first time in 6 years we’ve had all our belongings in one country.

We went out last night to see “Casino Royale” and were shocked at how good it was. I really wasn’t expecting much from it (or the new Bond) but it looks like I was very wrong. After the horror-show of “Die Another Day” it appears the franchise is back.

For our first movie going experience in NZ we used the Gold Lounge at Reading Cinema which is full of reclining seats, free popcorn and sodas, and unobstructed views of the screen. They also let you order drinks at the bar and set times for them to bring them to your seat. It was definately nice having beers turn up at set intervals, but I think in future I’ll order spirits to keep the liquid content down.

….and it blows. Literally.

Today is the first day of summer in NZ, and it’s been cold, windy and rainy in Wellington today. Just to cheer me up even more I took a look at Ondrej’s website and saw that he’s been diving with Eagle Rays and Octopus.

I’m very jealous. I need a dive holiday.

For the first time since January, Jules will be in paid employment as of tomorrow. Hooray!!

Jules working will not just have an impact on us, but also on the pair of ducks that live around our apartment block. Jules has been feeding them bread and muesli every day, and I think they have come to expect these regular handouts now. We spotted them outside this morning hanging around the grounds and when we opened our kitchen window to throw some bread out we almost ended up with the female in our kitchen. I guess she was hungry since she flew up to us as soon as she realised food was on it’s way.

We’ve also finally got around to uploading a few photos of our apartment today. They are available here.

For now, here’s a photo of me playing the Xbox 360 on our lovely 50″ TV.

We finally have broadband access at home again! Hooray!

Not having internet at home is incredibly hard for me, especially as very restrictive policies at work mean I can’t check personal email there.

We will start updating the blog and responding to emails again shortly.