You did pretty well; a bucket, a spade or two, and at the end of your hard labour was something to be proud of. A castle – complete with moat, spires, and even flags created with sticks found on the beach and pieces of wrapping from the contents of the chilly bin holding lunch.

This woman it seems, took things a little more seriously when it came to playing with sand:

Have you ever wondered how fast the pace of change really is? Have you had time to wonder?

The old saying is “knowledge is power”. From the earliest vestiges of mankind, through the middle ages and beyond, knowledge has been used for means of control. Those in power such as monarchs, politicians, and religious purveyors all used the ability to impart and disseminate knowledge to keep their position over the masses.

The chief tool used to accomplish this was the ability to read and write. The working class were kept uneducated, and their ability to congregate and share what they knew, and to become organised suffered greatly.

However, this has changed dramatically. In this day and age reading and writing is learned by almost all in first world countries, and is not the barrier it used to be. In fact, now the problem is not that information is scarce, but that there is so much of it, and sorting through it all is time consuming, and confusing.

With so many sources of information, and the World Wide Web giving so many the ability to communicate one to one and one to many, the issue has moved from a dearth of information to an overload, with much doubt cast on the validity or otherwise of this mass of words and pictures, still and otherwise. Pictures are ‘touched up’, documents are forged, statements are made that are so difficult to verify and validate.

Everywhere we look today there is more information than we could ever hope to process. Whilst the numbers in the video above have been bandied about in various places, this clip packages them together neatly, and is cause for thought. How can we ever begin to know what is real, what is important, what is relevant, and when will it end?

The part that stood out for me is that half of what is learnt in the first year of a four year technical degree is outdated by year three. What figure(s) made you sit up and think?

Do you have an old computer sitting around at home?

Is your Cupboard Of Discarded Gadgets getting a bit full?

eDay 2009 is this Saturday (12 September), giving you a chance to drop off your old PC, laptop, or mobile phone and be sure that it will be recycled safely and used for new gadgets.

Last year 946 tonnes of e-waste was dropped off for recycling at 33 locations.

This year there are locations throughout NZ including four in Auckland and one in Wellington (two, if you count Paraparaumu), and Christchurch. There’s a full list of recycling centres on this page.

You can even volunteer to help out - they’re looking for marshalls and movers on the day.

Computer circuit boards contain mercury, cadmium, and hundreds of other substances which leach into the environment when simply dumped in a landfill. Transportation and recycling will be carried out by certified disposal companies, so do something worthwhile for the planet, and dispose of toxic waste in the best way possible! (apart from not buying too much in the first place).

eDay website

As the internet becomes an integral part of our lives, and more and more of us spend a significant part of our work day in front of a computer screen, many are finding that unhealthy addictions are alive and well in cyberspace, as well.  Some (most?) are addicted to FaceBook, many to YouTube, others to Twitter and so on (then there’s crew.org.nz – a whole new level of there ain’t no going back!).

This is affecting everyone from students, to employees, to business owners (and often employers themselves).  Grades are suffering, productivity goes south, and the bottom line gets lower and lower. How to solve the problem? Ultimately it is a question of discipline, but to assist with this is a site I came across recently, KeepMeOut.com:

You enter the URL of the site that is the object of your desire and you’re provided with an alternative URL which you then bookmark, and use to access the site you just can’t get enough of.

At the time of entering the URL you also set a time period which if you you’re allowed to visit the site only once during.  If you attempt a second rendezvous, the site blocks you, and reminds you that you really should be doing something else. Simple but effective!

The lawyer was trying to undermine the policeman’s credibility…

Q: ‘Officer — did you see my client fleeing the scene?’

A: ‘No sir. But I subsequently observed a person matching the description of the offender, running several blocks away.’

Q: ‘Officer — who provided this description?’

A: ‘The officer who responded to the scene.’ Q: ‘A fellow officer provided the description of this so-called offender. Do you trust your fellow officers?’ A: ‘Yes, sir. With my life.’

Q: ‘With your life? Let me ask you this then officer Do you have a room where you change your clothes in preparation for your daily duties?’

A: ‘Yes sir, we do!’

Q: ‘And do you have a locker in the room?’

A: ‘Yes sir, I do.’

Q: ‘And do you have a lock on your locker?’

A: ‘Yes sir.’

Q: ‘Now why is it, officer, if you trust your fellow officers with your life, you find it necessary to lock your locker in a room you share with these same officers?’

A: ‘You see, sir — we share the building with the court complex, and sometimes lawyers have been known to walk through that room.’

The courtroom EXPLODED with laughter, and a prompt recess was called. The officer on the stand has been nominated for this year’s ‘Best Comeback’ line — and we think he’ll win.

(Courtesy of ‘Wheels’ of crew.org.nz forums fame)

Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs

The seven dwarfs always left to go work in the mine early each morning.

As always, Snow White stayed home doing her domestic chores.

As lunchtime approached, she would prepare their lunch and carry it to the mine.

One day as she arrived at the mine with the lunch, she saw that there had been a terrible cave-in.

Tearfully, and fearing the worst, Snow White began calling out, hoping against hope that the dwarfs had somehow survived.

‘Hello! … Hello!’ she shouted. ‘Can anyone hear me?

Hello!’

For a long while, there was no answer.

Losing hope, Snow White again shouted, ‘Hello! Is anyone down there?’

Just as she was about to give up all hope, she heard a faint voice from deep within the mine, singing,

‘Vote for Winston Peters – Vote for Winston Peters’

Snow White fell to her knees and prayed, ‘Oh, thank you, God! At least Dopey is still alive.

In celebration of their 10th anniversary, Google have put up a page linking to their oldest available index from January 2001.

Searching for such things as “iPod“, “broadband“, and even “Barack Obama” (yes – he did not just drop from a cloud in 2006) lead to some interesting results.

Of note to us types is a search for ADSL which leads the webarchive page of Telstra BigPond extolling the virtues of broadband. One would want it to be very virtuous with prices ranging from $189 (18 month contract) to $399 (3 months) for install. The plans themselves are a snip at a $89.50 for 200MB at 256kbps download speed and 64kbps up, or $132.50 for 500MB – 1500kbps/256kbps. For the ‘heavy’ users, there is 10GB available at 1500/256 for a mere $446.50 a month!

As for sailing, I haven’t found anything like crew.org.nz (founded in 2004) so it looks like Zoe hit it on the head with the site (that and waiting for yachties to learn how to use computers )

A search for Slingshot leads to ‘Internet with Attitude!‘ – “Slingshot.co.nz is specifically engineered for customers who want great performance and no busy signals. What’s more, the Slingshot.co.nz service offers…” So there you go – no more busy signals! Clicking the link to the homepage of Slingshot past give us:

How can we do it?

Because we’ve done this before!

Slingshot.co.nz is operated by CallPlus Limited, part of a telecommunications group with over $30 million in revenues, and who pride themselves on being at the forefront of internet development.

So you can be confident we have the resources to meet our commitment.

Good to see their website has kept up with the times

I’ve spent about 20 minutes and found some interesting things long forgotten (by me anyway) until now. If you find anything interesting, share it in the comments.

The Virtual Laser Keyboard has been around for a while now, and it looks to be hitting the spot for a number of people. Essentially the device projects a virtual keyboard on to a flat surface and can detect keys that are ‘hit’ and even supplies the clicking noise to go with it.

The keyboard works with Macs, PCs, tablet PCs, most PDAs, Blackberries, and even the Nokia N95, with more device support on the way.

Whilst not the cheapest keyboard around at US$199 (they can be ordered from the website) the portability is unparalleled, as is the cool factor when pulling one out at the next business meeting in front of envious colleagues!