Last Saturday, I went skiing for the very first time at Mt Hutt. As I was a complete newbie, I opted for the Starter Pack. The Starter Pack includes lessons, gear rental, and access to the magic carpet. I rented a pair of snow pants as well so as not to get my pants wet. The weather was great and the snow was perfect for skiing.

First things first, gear rental took much longer to sort out than I expected. I had to collect my pants, tried on a couple pair of boots to make sure it’s a good fit, get the skis properly adjusted so as not to injure myself, and choose a pair of ski poles for me to poke anyone that gets in my way. This is more of a note to self in case I need to rent boots again. I’m a size 9. The lesson here is to get up the mountain early so that you have plenty of time to sort things out. I missed the first session of my lesson but thankfully they had a later stream for other latecomers like me.

Skiing 101 is about snowplough, snowplough, and more snowplough. The snowplough is so very important because that’s how newbies control speed, avoid running into people, and not end up down the cliffs. You also learn:

• how to get in and out of your skis;
• how to remain stationary on a slope;
• how to get up a slope in your skis; and
• how to make basic left and right turns (shift your weight to your left ski to turn right and vice versa).

I was pretty hopeless with the snowplough. The key is to always lean forward so that you make use of the full length of the skis. It took me more falls than I care to remember, and the better part of a day to learn this basic skill. By the end of the day, I was able to ski the gentle slope by the magic carpet fairly comfortably. I still have a tendency to lean backwards when I start to pick up speed and have to constantly remind myself to lean forward.

I raked up the highest number of falls in my group. I lost count after five. Surprisingly, I do not have any injuries. It must have been quite an entertaining sight. Getting back up on your skis after a fall is a bit of a challenge but with the amount of practice I had, I did become quite good at it.

With some luck, I’ll be back on the slopes sometime later this year, or next. I’m keen to take on Highway 72.

As you may well know, I don’t read good. But, I have been doing quite well with podcasts. So, perhaps audiobook is the perfect solution for me. After hearing so much of Audible on TWiT, it’s about time I give it a go.

Following a TWiT referral, I managed to obtain a trial membership which entitled me to download one free audiobook of my choice. After browsing through the various categories and numerous suggestions, I settled on Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. It is an unabridged version, which means I will finish the book in approximately 9 hours. This is considerably less time than it would take me to read it. I’m currently about halfway through the book.

It’s a tad strange listening to someone reading a book to you. Though this particular reader isn’t that bad, I wish Audible will provide a sample clip so that users can decide whether they would like to listen to a particular reader for an extended period of time.

Another thing I have found so far is that, just like reading, I’m very good at procrastinating. Maybe it’ll take me a few years before I finish the second half, but hopefully not. I will keep you posted about my thoughts on the book.

Sad to say, I had to cancel my subscription to Audible. Their services and offerings are good but I couldn’t justify spending USD 14.95 a month when I hardly read; or listen in this case.

If you’re interested in giving Audible a go, use this TWiT referral to score yourself a free audiobook.

WARNING: In light of new information, I no longer support VistaPrint. There have been numerous complaints against them. For more details, see the following VistaPrint warning by consumer.org.nz.

On a business card at least. But seriously, I’m trying to do some part-time freelance IT consulting. Give me a call if you ever need a hand with your computers, networks, or websites. I also do custom softwares. Or perhaps, you want me to design your business card.

I designed this on VistaPrint. A set of 250 cards set me back about NZD 38 including postage. It was a promotional offer but I did add on a few optional extras—a glossy finish for the front, and a black and white print for the back. The postage was about NZD 11 for the slow delivery option which may take up to 21 days. In my case, it took them only 10 days to deliver the order from Belgium. The quality of the print and finish is good. The only thing that annoys me is the amount of promotional email that VistaPrint sends out. Though, I think you can opt not to receive those emails.

After rebuilding my system last week, I had to retune my TV tuner. Reception here isn’t great so auto-tune doesn’t work very well. I find it easier to manually set the channel frequencies. This is the second time I’m doing this, so I thought I should make a note of it.

* SKY UHF channels are scrambled using VideoCrypt.

While searching for the channel frequencies, I came across the following Lincrad page that lists all the transmitter sites in New Zealand along with all the frequencies the channels are broadcasted on. Central Christchurch seems to be primarily covered by the Sugarloaf transmitter… wherever that is.

http://www.lincrad.co.nz/transmittersites.html

My PC at work used to be so slow that I couldn’t listen to music on it while working. As you could imagine, this was seriously impairing my productivity. So, my iPod to the rescue. Problem is, when you’re listening to it 8 hours on end, it’ll run out of juice eventually. You can always charge it on your PC but what do you listen to during that few hours? Your iPod of course.

I was searching for an answer to this a while back but didn’t find anything. Then, I stumbled across this solution by chance so I thought I’ld share it.

What do you need?

An iPod, a PC with iTunes installed, and a cable to charge the iPod from the PC.

Instructions

1. Connect your iPod to the PC to start charging. Your iPod controls will be disabled.
2. Open up iTunes if it does not start automatically.
3. Eject the iPod from within iTunes. Do not eject it from Windows Safely Remove Hardware in the system tray or it will stop charging.
4. Your iPod controls should now be enabled and you can use the iPod as you normally would. If you check the iPod, it will show that it is still charging away in the background.
5. When done charging, you can eject it from Windows Safely Remove Hardware. If you cannot find that system tray icon, it is safe to just yank the cable.

This works on my iPod Nano with iTunes 7.4.3.1. What if it doesn’t work for you? Too bad I guess.

Need to edit your Mozilla browser preference settings? Try entering ‘about:config’ in the location bar. You’ll find settings that you didn’t even know exists.

It’s not flash, but it gets the job done. Saves you having to hunt through numerous screens, especially if you know what you’re looking for.

For a reference of what the settings are, please visit:
MozillaZine About:config entries

It is by no means a complete reference but it is a good place to start.

I didn’t realise that I was always @ Work. Not until a friend of mine asked me if I was at work on a Saturday for no apparent reason—or so I thought. On the upside, my manager probably thought I was really dedicated.

Windows Live Messenger 8.1, which was released early this year, included a new feature—roaming Display Picture and Personal Message. This means that your display picture and personal message are stored on Windows Live server, and will always be the same regardless of which machine you’re signing in from.

This sounds good as it means you only have to set your display picture once and it will be available everywhere else. However, I like my personal message to be different depending on which machine I’m signing in from. This allows me to have an ‘@ Work’ message on my work pc, and a more personal message on my home pc without requiring me to constantly switch between the two. For a while, I thought those days are gone. Luckily, the feature can be turned off. The option can be found under File > Options… > General > Sign In. Uncheck Use the same display picture and personal message wherever I sign in and everything should be sweet again.