hwork.org

It’s nearly over as I’m currently in Arthur’s Pass National Park at a surprisingly big cafe. Me and five other chaps just got off the trail, summitting Avanlanche Peak then down a scree field to Crow’s Hut (where we stayed for the night), finishing today round Klondyke’s Corner. Awesome photos to come from the trek, Monteith’s Brewery Tour, Pancake Rocks, Franz Joseph Glacier, Lake Matheson, Wanaka, and along the drive the whole way. Tonight is Hot Springs, then tomorrow Christchurch, then back to sunny Dunedin. Longer posts/photoblogging from there. Next week: guest bloggers. Out.

Off to Fox Glacier, Arthur’s Pass National Park, up the west coast to Able Tasman, back south through Christchurch. See yall on Sunday. Many pictures/stories to come then.

flickr: sea_bass / photo: 000_0147.JPG.

Four AM in Dunedin, New Zealand and it’s sleeting like hell. and apparently, gail-force winds.

UPDATE: it’s now thundering! first thunder i’ve heard in NZ.
UPDATE#2: it stopped thundering. life sucks.
UPDATE#3: I’ve really got to learn how to wrap photos properly… as it sucks right now.
UPDATE#4: apparently i’ve mistaken the definition of ‘hail’ for the definition of ’sleet’

The dilemma: when products are good and consumers begin to depend on them, what happens when products change ? When TiVo, who boldly decided to give TV viewers control over what they watch, decided to throw ads over commercial fast-forwarding, they made their product arguably less groovy and some people weren’t happy. Is Gmail, Google’s free email service, going to do the same?

Unlike TiVo, Gmail isn’t static (I can’t revert to an earlier version), and since I don’t pay squat, I don’t feel like complaining loudly. But here’s the gist: instead of targeted ads on the side of email texts, now they’re placed in a bar above the main box used for inbox/composing. ‘Gmail Clip’ is probably a new advertising mechanism for Gmail users, or I could be wrong and it is Google’s offering of easy RSS-functionality. From what I can tell, not all Gmail users have seen ‘Gmail Clips’ on their accounts.

The story out there is mostly about the RSS capabilities, and that it can give you oppurtunity to add your favorite blogs and have Gmail stream new articles in for you. But there are two, possibly trivial annoyances with this:
-one, my mouse that once went to labelling or archiving buttons now goes to this ‘clip’ bar.
-two, targeted ads now show up in a much more prominent way — in the center, taking up more space, placed where functionality used to be instead out of the way.

The only intelligent thing I can offer on this topic:
when good products show signs of possibly getting worse, as larger, more prominent ads might well, how can users not help but feel helpless? Does the sequence of events indicate that Google has deliberately inticed users with great features only to reign them back in? I’m probably just full of it.

Any other Gmail users dig?

flickr: sea_bass / photo: 100_2132.JPG.

Last night we made it out to Sandfly Bay on the peninsula to check to see how the dunes were doing. We didn’t go to see the rarest birds in the world; we went to play. Jugglin’, dune-hoppin’, and disc-tossin’ were the mainstay. Here’s the set for bay, but it includes the last set so scroll down right past the sunset shots.

flickr: sea_bass / photo: 000_0141.JPG.

This will be overwhelming boring to everyone except my parents, and possibly, boring to my parents as well (gota love em). Here is an photo-blogged walk from Otago University campus, specifically from the Commerce Building, to my flat on Cargill St. Is it possible to harness the feel of a city through photographs? –Definitely not by someone who still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

OK this killer UltiVillage frisbee-flick video trailer for ‘Disc 1′ just came into my mailbox. They are viewing it at 8pm on Wednesday May 11th @ Rivalries on Cotton St. in Portland, ME. Check it.

I found this out today:

At the end of your program, you are responsible for ensuring that the institution sends an official transcript to Student Records at Bowdoin. The total of transferred credits will appear, with the name of the issuing institution, on your Bowdoin transcript. Off-campus study grades are not entered on the Bowdoin transcript, or calculated into the GPA.

It’s conveniently placed at the very end of page.

A couple of weeks ago we had three flights up through Christchurch and Wellington en route to the NZ Open 2005, in Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand (flickr photo set of the weekend). We got on the final plane only to promptly get led off. The engine failure allowed us to, besides realizing that our tent-bag hadn’t a tent-pole to its name, meet Gary Jarvais, a.k.a Gazza, and wife Chris, who were playing for Christchurch and Wellington, respectively. Gary has been to six ultimate frisbee world championships, 1992-2004 (Worlds are held every two years). He is undoubtedly the best player i’ve ever had the priviledge of meeting; I only wish I could have seen him in his prime or against topflight competition. Charlie and I had the great pleasure of eating with him and Chris at Piccola Italia, Italian Restaurant in Tauranga. By the way, if you ever visit this restaurant, make sure to ask for “the guy from Invercargill who pretends he’s Italian” — they’ll know exactly who you mean. Recounting rediculous old ultimate stories and having Gazza divulge his massive amounts of frisbee knowledge and experience was unbelievable and sobering. The guy, quite literally in the Harold and Kumar-sense, is extreme. He’s also rather smart about ultimate. He’s the author of, among many coaching drills and articles, a really nifty article on ‘The Ultimate Pull’. Check it out.