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Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Monday, June 19, 2006
I'm in the newspaper!
We went to Fieldays at Mystery Creek in Hamilton on Saturday and a couple of Waikato Times reporters came up to us. They took a picture of our daughter which is in tonight's Waikato Times newspaper, and you can see the article here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/waikatotimes/0,2106,3705408a6579,00.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/waikatotimes/0,2106,3705408a6579,00.html
Friday, June 16, 2006
Free Digital TV in New Zealand
Sometime next year in New Zealand there will be a free digital TV service. TVNZ, CanWest, and Maori TV have got together to provide up to 18 free TV channels. (See: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10386824)
The catch? Well of course there's a catch. Viewers will need to fork out from $200-$400 for a set-top box to receive the signal, as well as more money for a dish (or decent antenna) if they don't have one of those. So far the only confirmed channels on this new service will be TV One, TV2, Tv3, C4, Trackside, and Maori TV - whoopee, hold me back! Not much of an offering to pay up to $400 for is it! We can already receive these channels free-to-air through normal TV transmissions, and they can be received on Sky Digital anyway.
There needs to be an incentive for people to depart with there money to get a set-top box. True analogue signals may be switched off in 6-10 years time, so people could wait till then , but what about now? Apparently TVNZ will have 6 of the channels and CanWest (TV3) will have 6 of the channels. So what will they show? They'll probably just have the same crappy TV programmes but at different times of the day - whoa, I can't wait for Dancing with the Stars to be on more than once a week! There will need to be some decent channels like Britain's Freeview TV (see http://www.freeview.co.uk/). Hope Prime TV signs up, but now they are owned by Sky TV this may not happen.
How will this affect Sky Digital? Hope the free-to-air channels are still on their service, otherwise we may have to purchase the new Freeview set-top box - especially for people in bad reception areas.
The media is talking about this new digital TV service as a new revolution in this country. It's not! Sky TV has been around for 16 years and almost half of that time with their digital service. We already have over 40 channels available to us on a digital/satellite platform and a lot of good channels too. Can't see at this stage how Freeview will be any better (unless you take money into account.)
But with all these new channels next year I bet NZ television will still treat top quality shows like crap. The prime example - Star Trek! Currently Prime TV is only showing a couple of Star Trek shows on Sunday mornings. In other countries around the world all the series of Star Trek are been shown often on various TV channels. Let's hope Freeview TV provides some good quality TV channels for the NZ audience for a change - yeah right!
The catch? Well of course there's a catch. Viewers will need to fork out from $200-$400 for a set-top box to receive the signal, as well as more money for a dish (or decent antenna) if they don't have one of those. So far the only confirmed channels on this new service will be TV One, TV2, Tv3, C4, Trackside, and Maori TV - whoopee, hold me back! Not much of an offering to pay up to $400 for is it! We can already receive these channels free-to-air through normal TV transmissions, and they can be received on Sky Digital anyway.
There needs to be an incentive for people to depart with there money to get a set-top box. True analogue signals may be switched off in 6-10 years time, so people could wait till then , but what about now? Apparently TVNZ will have 6 of the channels and CanWest (TV3) will have 6 of the channels. So what will they show? They'll probably just have the same crappy TV programmes but at different times of the day - whoa, I can't wait for Dancing with the Stars to be on more than once a week! There will need to be some decent channels like Britain's Freeview TV (see http://www.freeview.co.uk/). Hope Prime TV signs up, but now they are owned by Sky TV this may not happen.
How will this affect Sky Digital? Hope the free-to-air channels are still on their service, otherwise we may have to purchase the new Freeview set-top box - especially for people in bad reception areas.
The media is talking about this new digital TV service as a new revolution in this country. It's not! Sky TV has been around for 16 years and almost half of that time with their digital service. We already have over 40 channels available to us on a digital/satellite platform and a lot of good channels too. Can't see at this stage how Freeview will be any better (unless you take money into account.)
But with all these new channels next year I bet NZ television will still treat top quality shows like crap. The prime example - Star Trek! Currently Prime TV is only showing a couple of Star Trek shows on Sunday mornings. In other countries around the world all the series of Star Trek are been shown often on various TV channels. Let's hope Freeview TV provides some good quality TV channels for the NZ audience for a change - yeah right!
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Terrorist released from prison
I can't believe this one. Today Abu Bakar Bashir, who was involved with the Bali terrorist bombings in 2002 which killed 202 people, was released from an Indonesian prison - after only 2 years! Meanwhile Shapelle Corby, who obviously did not smuggle drugs into Indonesia, is serving a life sentence! Doesn't make a lot of sense does it?
Easter trading?
Apparently MPs are to vote this afternoon on whether there should be retail trading on Good Friday and Easter Sunday in New Zealand (see: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10386507). Here's an email I sent to Newstalk ZB about it:
First of all, I am a Christian, and I think it would be great to see retails stores stay closed throughout Easter and in fact be closed on every Sunday throughout the year. There are plenty of other days to do shopping and people can easily prepare themselves by shopping on the Saturday so that they wouldn't need to shop on Sundays.
Or we could look at it this way. Have retails stores open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. I'm sure this would drastically reduce unemployment. When it came to weekends and public holidays employees of these retails stores should be given a choice on whether they want to work or not. I'm sure there would be many people out there who would willingly work on these days as they would need the money, and of course need employment.
First of all, I am a Christian, and I think it would be great to see retails stores stay closed throughout Easter and in fact be closed on every Sunday throughout the year. There are plenty of other days to do shopping and people can easily prepare themselves by shopping on the Saturday so that they wouldn't need to shop on Sundays.
Or we could look at it this way. Have retails stores open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. I'm sure this would drastically reduce unemployment. When it came to weekends and public holidays employees of these retails stores should be given a choice on whether they want to work or not. I'm sure there would be many people out there who would willingly work on these days as they would need the money, and of course need employment.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Queen's Birthday honours
The Queens Birthday Honours List came out yesterday for 2006 (see: http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1.asp?storyID=97139) - bugger, I missed out again!
Now that New Zealand has got rid of the British honours system, including Knights and Dames, then why on earth have a NZ honours list come out on Queens Birthday?? It does not make sense to me! Shouldn't our honours list come out on our national holiday?
Now that New Zealand has got rid of the British honours system, including Knights and Dames, then why on earth have a NZ honours list come out on Queens Birthday?? It does not make sense to me! Shouldn't our honours list come out on our national holiday?
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