iCraig » Thoughts

Google Street View Trikes in NZ [updated]

craig — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:05:10 +0000

Back in January Google announced that the trikes, which shoot footage for Google Street View where the cars can’t go, were about to start roaming the outback in search of interesting off-road places. They started at Taronga Zoo and held a public vote to choose the rest. Well that’s all fantastic if you’re interested in seeing Australia. And ~~thousands~~ millions of people are. But I happen to think that New Zealand has some pretty awesome things to show off too so I’m starting a list of places that the trikes should visit when they come here.

1: Otago Rail Trail: The most obvious starting point. 150kms of trail graded gently enough for the trains of yesteryear. The trail might be a bit rutted and bumpy so I hope they’ve given those trikes some good suspension to protect the equipment as well as the rider.
2: Wai-o-tapu: It’s an amazing “thermal wonderland” not far south of Rotorua and though it looks really good from the sky you really need to get in amongst it to show off some of New Zealand’s famous geothermal features.
3: The Luge: Whilst they’re down in Rotorua they should definitely pay a visit to The Luge. It’s a set of paved downhill tracks each as wide as a single lane road over looking the city. But don’t spend anytime looking down there because you need to pay attention to the corners and other riders as you hurtle down the hill on your three wheeled carts. This is my favourite man-made tourist attraction in NZ by far, and features in any good road trip. There’s one in Auckland too but you can see most of it from the motorway and it doesn’t look half as exciting as the Rotorua one.
4: Rangitoto Island: The jewel of the Hauraki Gulf is a volcano with a few unsealed roads. Right now they are only used by the D.O.C. workers and the pull-along tourist tractor that takes those that can’t walk to the summit. The last 100m or so is on wooden steps that the trike couldn’t traverse so they’ll need to carry it. Which should get them in good practice for…
5: The Tongariro Crossing: One of the world’s best day hikes, and there in lies the problem. If Google can get the Street View equipment down to a size where two people can carry it I’d gladly be one of the sherpas.
6: Viaduct Harbour: Often touted as ‘party’ central for things like The America’s Cup, the Rugby World Cup and really any event that Auckland hosts. I made a Real Place for it a while ago but I think it could do with the Street View treatment, ideally on a day when some really interesting big yachts are in.
7: Rainbow’s End: New Zealand’s biggest theme park may not stack up against the some of the ones in the recent UK update but that doesn’t stop it being the best one we’ve got. As you can see on the map there’s enough space to be worth exploring and I reckon putting the trikes on the race track would be fun too. If only they could make a splash-proof version for the log flume .

Any other suggestions?

Update
GEarthBlog.com has some speculation that StreetView might be heading indoors. If this is true then I’d add Te Papa, New Zealand’s national museum to the list of places to document. I think GEarthBlog’s idea is more of documenting the collections in proper posed photo shoots rather than riding a trike down the halls, but I like the idea of riding around the museum late at night when all the other visitors have gone home.

IslandReefJob

craig — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 08:44:26 +0000

My video has been up on the site for a little while now but those of us not lucky enough to every get listed as the most-recent applicants are struggling to get anywhere near the number of views those lucky few are receiving. Two days on the front page can bring in thousands of votes. So, I’m putting out a second post to encourage you to watch my video and give me a vote. I’ve heard that one New Zealander is guaranteed through to the next round and if you’re here to thank me for my software or after follwoing any of my travel blogs, the best thing you can do for me right now is a 5 star rating, and telling your friends about it too.

To try to drum up publicity I’ve created a page here on my site that I’ll keep up to date and voting progresses and a Facebook group that you’re welcome to join.

Here are those links again
Video: http://islandreefjob.com/applicants/watch/dF_InB2rFvY
Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48534483691

From a Taranaki oil rig worker

craig — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 06:53:01 +0000

I don’t generally forward on chain emails, let alone post them on my site, but I really like this one.

I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit.

In order to earn that pay cheque, I work on a rig for a drilling contractor.
I am required to pass a random urine test, with which I have no problem.

What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test. Shouldn’t one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare cheque because I have to pass one to earn it for them?

Please understand that I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do on the other hand have a problem with helping someone sit on their ass drinking beer and smoking dope.

Could you imagine how much money the government would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a welfare cheque?

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

craig — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:47:51 +0000

There are a few changes going on in my life, chiefly a new (ish) job, moving in with my girlfriend and soon we’ll be house hunting. The beginning of a new year gives me a good reason to sit back and do a bit of planning and thinking about the way I am heading. What do I want from life and how do I go about getting it. With the financial trouble that providing the newspapers with fresh doomsday headlines almost every day it occurred to me that it’s time for a rebalance. The commercialised and consumer centric society has had it’s day while the retailers were wailing about the public not spending “enough” this Christmas I was glad that the holiday season may return to being that, rather than the buying season it has become. So the retailers may go out of business, millions of jobs get lost. How can we cope? How about doing it ourselves? Tania and I are growing a few vegetables now and when we do buy a house we’re going to dedicate a large chunk of garden to feeding ourselves. It’s green and economical. My parents are doing the same after years of having an unproductive compost heap they now grow a full range of veges and my younger brothers are taking up fishing. This doesn’t quite stack up to Ayumi’s ideal of living in a fully self-sustainable community but it’s a good step along the way.

There are obviously people out there who are further down the track. My good friends The Noodleheads are two of those and have recently pledged to buy nothing new for a year, except essentials for hygiene & safety (think toothpaste and brake fluid). I’d like to get to that stage but with the potential for owning my first house this year and not having a lot of kitchen wear I doubt I’d be able to keep to the pledge. I can still do my part. I cycle to work now and only use my girlfriends’ car vary sparingly, thus reduction the amount of pollution I cause. I have only bought two shirts and a few pairs of socks in the last year, it’s not like I’m growing and my trousers haven’t quite worn out yet. I’m reusing shopping bags and those plastic boxes that (my flatmates’) takeaways come in and our recycling bin is filled quicker than the refuse one.

When we do get our house you can expect a few posts on the measures we’ll be installing to lower our impact on the planet and our wallets. Water troughs for the vegetable garden. If only solar panels were cleaner and cheaper to produce. I’d love to drop of the grid.

New Year updates

craig — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:07:15 +0000

After releasing Geotagger 2 I’ve taken a break from Mac programming and branched out into making apps for iPhones. I’ve been officially accepted into the programme and I’ve got most of the logic sorted on my first game. What’s missing now is the real spit an polish to make it a seller, something that people will show off to the friends and earn me another sale. Yes I’m now charging for my apps.

There will be more about that in a coming post, about sustainability, about my coding projects and about the cool new geotagging in iPhoto.

Developing

craig — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:22:54 +0000

I’ve spent this morning setting up my new MacBook’s dev environment to match what I had before. I’m now ready to get back into coding and polishing up the donationware items I released in my former life as a developer. The last two years have seen a lot of my personal time devoted to getting my body and mind into shape for months of isolation and hardcore exercise that comes with crossing countries on foot. Now I’m back on solid ground, thinking about arranging millions of 1s and 0s in a row. It’s an entirely different challenge and one I welcome. I haven’t decided if I can announce where I work just yet. Not that it’s a state secret but I’m not sure on their policies of personal blogs. Rest assured that it’s something I’m really looking forward to in a field I can be pretty happy I’m working in. I’ll try not to bang on about it at parties though

I’ve a week of induction and set up. Then once my brain is back in gear it should flow through to my own projects, if I’m not busy moving house, which I will be.

A reader writes

craig — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:42:53 +0000

I got an email last week from “an aspiring traveller” and it’s a question I’ve been asked a few times so I thought I’d share it.

Dear sir,
I am just curios as to how do you continue your travels and have ample budgets for your expeditions. I aspire to do just what you are doing now. I would like to know how do you earn your expenses along your journey.

and my response

Hi James,

If there’s a secret to my travels it’s being careful with my money and being prepared to be very uncomfortable. I take it you’ve seen both my American and Japanese walking sites. For those adventures I had almost no accommodation costs by sleeping in a tent, in temples in the occasional abandoned tunnel. The last 6 weeks of OneManWalking was traveling in a different style. Having a girlfriend along changes things because I wouldn’t want to put her in the position of sleeping in public toilets (a big fancy disabled one with my tent’s ground sheet below). So expenses went up dramatically. When I’m back home I try not to spend too much on things I can do free. I eat in as much as possible and rarely see movies at the cinema. I was really lucky to get cheap rent about 4km from my job so I walked that every day. It was good exercise and it saved me money.

In neither case did I deliberately earn expenses along the way. Once in America I was given a free room for helping spread wood chips at an inn-keeper’s prayer park and in Japan the locals were incredibly generous. Some people stopped and gave me fruit, some bought food from convenience stores and handed it straight to me and some even handed me cash. I never asked for it but they felt like doing a good thing for someone taking the time to see their country in a different way. There’s a similar phenomenon on the PCT called “trail magic”, people leaving chilli-bins (coolers) in the forest full of drinks and snacks, or doing other good deeds just because they like to. You should never get to a point where you rely on these things, be self sufficient, but be open to the idea that things usually work out pretty well.

If you do go traveling and write about it, let me know, I’ll be needing some good travelblogs for next year.

~Craig

I’m settling back in pretty well. On the job/house hunting circuits. I haven’t yet dug back into my code, I haven’t even gotten the latest version of Google Earth. But I will, and I’ll post updates to both projects when I can.

Chemistry

craig — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 06:57:05 +0000

Chemistry by Semisonic available in the iTunes Music Store

I remember when I found out about chemistry
It was a long, long way from here
I was old enough to want it but younger than I wanted to be
Suddenly my mission was clear

So for awhile I conducted experiments
And I was amazed by the things I learned
From a fine fine girl with nothing but good intentions and a
Bad tendency to get burned

All about chemistry
Won

US Supreme Court Vs Smith & Wesson?

craig — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 08:46:52 +0000

Everyone on the net has heard about the recent US Supreme Court Ruling (MGM Studios Inc. et al v Grokster Ltd. et al) that went against the companies that make the file-sharing software, basically holding them accountable for the illegal actions of their users.

Justice David Souter wrote: “We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright… is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties”.

Has anyone considered how this might effect gun manufacturers?

What if Lorcin, Bryco Arms or Smith & Wesson could be held accountable for the illegal actions of their users? After all the sort of things you can do with a gun deserves a lot heavier penalty that simply making a duplicate of someone else’s music. Wouldn’t it bring the gun industry to a grinding halt if every time a bullet made by one of those was used to commit a crime companies they could be charged with aiding and abetting? I think it would help slow production, maybe even raise the price of bullets so they wouldn’t be used so often. The gun nuts could still find a few if they felt so threatened that they just *had* to carry a loaded gun, and the rest of us could feel a lot safer knowing that there were less bullets being fired off at random.
MindTangle has an email about corporate lawyers getting prepared to make a huge amount of money out of all of this. Either prosecuting or defending these ‘secondary liability’ suits, the people who stand to come out on top are the always the lawyers.

Update July 28th: BoingBoing have an article there on the subject.

The New Zealand Flag

craig — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 03:14:47 +0000

My car has a radio with Japanese frequencies, thus I limited choice in the stations I listen too. I tuned into News Talk ZB today, and heard them debating the flag. Someone recently called for it to be changed and the presenter, and every caller was lashing into them for being unpatriotic and forgetting the so many NZers died for the flag. I disagree. I think they died for our right to self govern, not to be ruled but other countries and to ensure that every country has that right.

I called up and said such. I mentioned that Great Britain is only a part of the heritage of some of the people here. And that the % of people it represents is rapidly decreasing. What we need is something that represents the country, so I brought up Mr Hundertwasser’s design.

haha The next caller on is thinking the same thing. Agreeing with my points. “the previous caller had a really good point about the cultures represented”, and how people fight for the country not the flag.

We’ll see how long that lasts.

iCraig » Thoughts

Google Street View Trikes in NZ [updated]

1: Otago Rail Trail

2: Wai-o-tapu

3: The Luge

4: Rangitoto Island

5: The Tongariro Crossing

6: Viaduct Harbour

7: Rainbow’s End