Posted in
News by
Lauren Nugent on April 13th, 2011
ANZAC Day is the time of year for New Zealanders (and Australians) to remember those who fought in the Australian and New Zealand Corps (ANZAC) at Galipolli in Turkey in 1915.
ANZAC Day marks a vital part of New Zealand’s cultural heritage and is commemorated by many of us through attending one of the dawn ceremonies held around the country. These services provide an opportunity for us to reflect on the sacrifice made by the ANZACs, as well as thinking about those who have served our country since. If you can’t make it to a dawn service, they are also broadcast on TV.
The red poppy has become the symbol of ANZAC Day. Worn on the left lapel, poppies provide a vivid reminder of the reality of the blood shed in war. Sold by the RSA, the poppies support our war veterans and are a great way of showing your support, so look out for sellers.
Since Easter Monday falls on ANZAC Day this year, why not take a break from your Easter chocolate consumption to enjoy some ANZAC biscuits (see our ANZAC biscuit recipe)? Originally sent to soldiers as a sweet, long-lasting treat, these biscuits are easy to make and delicious.
Flickr image credit: oh_darling
Posted in
News by
Mark Lincoln on March 1st, 2011
As the world now knows, a week ago today (22nd February 2011), Christchurch was hit by a 6.3 magnitude aftershock following the 7.3 magnitude 4th September 2010 earthquake.
You can view information, updates and more on the Christchurch earthquake by visiting our Christchurch Earthquake Information resource.
A Devastating Earthquake
Even though this quake wasn’t as powerful on the Richter scale, the position near the Lyttelton tunnel – just a few kilometres from Christchurch’s CBD – and the depth – around 5 to 10kms – meant that the overall affect on Christchurch buildings and residents was far more catastrophic.
While NZS.com is very much a nationwide, and even international, resource, our headquarters are located on Tuam Street in the heart of Christchurch. For the past few months, we’ve been watching dedicated tradesmen repair the damaged buildings around us. In particular, the old Christchurch City Council building has seen a swarm of workers suspended from ropes repairing windows and filling cracks.
On Tuesday last week, sadly all of this work was rendered pointless by the incredibly violent aftershock that ripped through the city.
As the shaking slowed to a halt, we took a moment to gather ourselves before stepping through the obstacle course that was now our office and heading down the stairs to get clear of the building. As we stepped into Tuam Street, the enormity of the quake became clear. We could barely see for a block in either direction – the below photo was taken moments after the quake, in the early afternoon, and shows a cloud of dust over the city that made it hard to see further than a block in either direction.
After a quick head count, we headed to our vehicles, forced the electronic barrier on the car park and joined the traffic leaving the city.
Ready to Move Forward
A week on and the staff are all accounted for, healthy, rested and have had time to sort out their own circumstances at home. Now the recovery process begins.
Helping Christchurch Businesses
Hopefully the worst of the shakes are behind us but for many Christchurch businesses, there are likely to be tough times ahead. One way that you can help this beautiful city to dust itself off and re-build is through dealing with Christchurch businesses where possible.
We have over 8,000 businesses listed in the Christchurch section of the NZS.com directory, many of which will have been affected in some way by the earthquake.
Here are some specific Christchurch businesses and services that you may be able to operate with in order to encourage healthy business growth in these difficult times:
If you have any comments or messages regarding the earthquake itself or businesses and services in the Christchurch region, please leave a comment below.
In the meantime, our hearts go out to the families of those that have fallen victim to the earthquake.
Posted in
Marketing,
News by
Gary Jensen on September 27th, 2010
This week, NZS.com has officially launched a new way of bringing your businesses’ social content together into a single place. You can read about it here in our media release: Local search company connects businesses’ social media efforts with searchers.
We’ve been working in the background, talking to our advertisers on what they’d most like to see on their own Site Profile pages and are quite happy with the reception it’s received around the industry already.
- Grant Osborne from First Rate said: “Brilliant! I was looking forward to a NZ directory launching this. In my opinion, the new features on NZS.com offers visitors far greater value and increased interaction with businesses.”
- Duncan Shand from Young & Shand said: “It’s a nice addition to the profiles!”
Over the last year or so, many in the online industry and beyond have been inundated with statistics on how many consumers in New Zealand are now involved in social activities online. 2010 has surely been the year when New Zealand businesses’ have sat up and taken notice of where their customers are spending their time online and how new publishing technology allows a business to start interacting socially with them.
As businesses step off into their own social content generation, it can be too easy to spend time on each social avenue as a silo, without considering how they all fit together and without using the power of each social stream to its fullest advantage as a whole.
That’s where the re-launched NZS.com Site Profile page comes in.
A business can have their Business Info, Twitter discussions, Facebook friends, YouTube videos and blog posts all together on a single page creating an exciting marketing opportunity for the business to present all of its social content in one place.
You can see some great examples of companies already using these pages to promote their social streams: Vodafone, Domains4Less, EuroAsia, Natcoll and many more.
If you don’t already have a directory and business listing with NZS.com you can do so through the Promote Your Business page or if you already have a listing with us just login and Edit Your Website / Business.
Posted in
News by
Mark Lincoln on September 6th, 2010
Well, what a weekend it’s been. By now, people all over the world are talking about the Christchurch earthquake that occurred just after 4:30am on Saturday, 4th September.
At 7.1 on the richter scale, 30kms west of Christchurch and 10kms deep, the earthquake has caused some serious damage to many buildings in Christchurch and the surrounding areas.
Despite all the damage, it’s fantastic to see that so few people have been hurt. We can all thank our lucky stars that the earthquake hit well outside of standard office hours so many people were at home and away from the worst affected buildings when the earthquake hit.
For those seeking further information on the scale of the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks, you can view a range of earthquake information on websites listed in the seismology category of the NZS.com directory.
In the meantime, the team at NZS.com would like to wish all the best to those affected by the earthquake. We hope that you are all safe and warm and urge you all not to take unnecessary risks if heading back to offices this week.
Posted in
General,
News by
Gary Jensen on August 20th, 2010
If you came to see us at Bizzone this year I’d just like to say thanks for visiting!
After a successful and enjoyable time meeting with all of the attendees and gaining some great feedback about the new Enhanced Listings, anyone who entered our draw will no doubt be curious to hear who won the $1,000 worth of online advertising with NZS.com!
Just as an aside, if you have’t yet seen the details on how to make sure your business is getting the most from NZS.com, you can check out what enhancing your listing can give you here: http://www.nzs.com/enhance/
As for the prize winner, from hundreds of entries across the expo’s, ecoPortal® (www.ecoportal.co.nz) was the lucky winner drawn today. ecoPortal® is an easy to use online management system that delivers cost reduction, certification and awards on the way to environmental sustainability.
Logan Wait from ecoPortal® was thrilled with the win and the promotional push for his business.
“What a great start to the day! I wont have a free lunch but I did get some free advertising! I really appreciate the integrity of NZS.com actually delivering on the free stuff!“
Congratulations to Logan and ecoPortal®!
Posted in
Internet,
News by
Gary Jensen on July 28th, 2010
With Māori language week this week and with the launch of Māori macrons available for registration in .nz domain names, the question we’ve seen asked around a fair bit already is how do you type Māori macrons on your PC?
Let’s start at the beginning and answer what a Māori macron actually is.
Here’s an excerpt from the New Zealand DNC (Domain Name Commission), the body that is entrusted with running the .nz domain names, describing what a macron is:
What is a Macron?
The written form of the Māori language, te reo, uses macrons over vowels to denote an extension of the sound of the vowel. Up until Māori Language week 2010, domain names within the .nz space are not able to include these characters. From then on, it will be possible to have a domain name which accurately reflects one of New Zealand’s official languages, Māori.
Source: New Zealand DNC
Now that we’ve established what a Māori macron is, we turn to how to type the Māori macrons through your standard keyboard on a PC or Mac.
How to Type a Māori Macron
There are no keyboard buttons that are by default able to be used to type Māori macrons so initially you will need to configure your PC or Mac through the selection of the Māori language on your system and then through a short-cut system via clicking another button along with the corresponding vowel on your keyboard.
The best resource I have found for this that has a good explanation for each operating system is the Typing Māori easily / Te māmā hoki o te patopato page written by Stephen Copy.
Waikato University also have a training document that shows specifically how to type Māori macrons in Microsoft Word.
Māori Macrons in ASCII
If you’re really interested in the technical aspect of the Māori macrons, you can see an Ascii Reference for them as well.
The characters are ā, ē, ī, , ō, and ū.
ā is ā , Ā is Ā
ē is ē , Ē is Ē
ī is ī , Ī is Ī
ō is ō , Ō is Ō
ū is ū , Ū is Ū
If you have any other resources for Māori macrons that you’d like to share please add them to the comments below.
Posted in
General,
News by
Mark Lincoln on June 15th, 2010
If you’re interested in being amongst the first to hear about news, it’s worth knowing about the tools for subscribing to news updates on the web and through your cellphone and other mobile devices.
Of course, New Zealand news doesn’t always happen when you’re at your desk so while there are methods to receive news updates through email programs, browsers and widgets on your computer, it might be a good idea to check out the ways to receive updates direct to your cellphone if you really want to be informed of news as it happens.
For more information on the ways to subscribe to news updates, check out our article on how to get current news headlines.
Posted in
Entertainment,
News by
Mark Lincoln on May 21st, 2010
Do you still get fuzzy TV reception? In my opinion, technology should be good enough so that bad TV reception is one of those things we look back on and laugh about – like those old brick mobile phones.
Freeview are working hard to make it so. There have been a number of TV commercials recently to try and get more people signed up to the Freeview TV service. The service is now well out of its introductory period (having been around for three years now) so the channels have settled down into regular quality content.
Services are continuing to expand. Freeview started with just five channels and has grown to 17, including the latest channel C42. There are also plans to allow viewers to copy and distribute HD (high definition) content over the internet. Of course, there are no monthly charges but we all know that there are technically some setup costs. Users require a Freeview receiver but costs are falling since the birth of Freeview three years ago making Freeview even more accessible.
Visit the directory to find Freeview installers and receivers in your area.
Posted in
News by
Mark Lincoln on April 21st, 2010
Remembering and learning about ANZAC Day facts is very important for New Zealand’s cultural heritage. On the 25th April, this weekend, New Zealand will remember ANZAC’s (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) first major military action fought at Gallipoli during the first World War.
On Sunday, we will remember those who fought on this day and sacrificed their lives during this major battle for New Zealand and Australia in World War 1. As well as teaching our children about the importance of ANZAC remembrance, we can show our support for veteran soldiers through the tradition of baking and eating ANZAC cookies (see our ANZAC biscuits recipe) and through wearing a red poppy.
So keep an eye out for people selling red poppies to get yours today and don’t miss the ANZAC services that take place right across New Zealand and are broadcast live on TV this Sunday.
Posted in
News by
Mark Lincoln on April 20th, 2010
TechDay are hosts to a number of online publications featuring technology updates online. Publications include:
The TechDay website has recently been upgraded and new magazines have been added to the mix. If you’re into checking out technology online, TechDay is certainly worth a look.
