The key trends that we’re seeing in this month’s NZ browser statistics;

• IE8 is now the most used browser on NZS.com with a 3% margin to IE7
• Internet Explorer has dropped by over 1% overall
• Firefox, Safari and Chrome are all gaining in popularity

This month Internet Explorer has dropped by over 1% with most of this drop related to IE6. Over the past few months Internet Explorer 6 has been decreasing rather slowly, but this month has seen it drop by over a percentage.

Is this due to the highly anticipated Windows 7 now being released? Could this be the IE6 killer that us web developers all long and hope for? We will have to wait and see, but next month’s stats could well tell us if there is any truth behind this theory.

This data is taken from Google Analytics on NZS.com over the month of October 2009. You can see more information on the number of visitors the data is sourced from on the NZS.com Statistics page.

The key trends that we’re seeing in this month’s NZ browser statistics;

• Firefox, Safari and Chrome are all making small but steady percentage gains.
• Internet Explorer on the whole has declined slightly
• IE8 is on the brink of taking over from IE7 as the top used browser on NZS.com

Internet Explorer 8 is again on the move and has taken its gains from IE7 and IE6, bringing it ever closer to being the most used browser on NZS.com. The slow demise of Internet Explorer 6 is arguably due to the “corporate” users whose companies systems rely on IE6, or only upgrade their browsers when they get a new OS such as Windows Vista or the newly awaited Windows 7.

This data is taken from Google Analytics on NZS.com over the month of September 2009. You can see more information on the number of visitors the data is sourced from on the NZS.com Statistics page.

The key trends that we’re seeing in this month’s NZ browser statistics;

• IE 8 has taken another 5% from IE7.
• Safari and Chrome have taken small percentages away from Firefox and IE

Again IE8 is making strides in its bid to be the top IE browser on NZS.com taking another 5% from IE7. Within the IE statistics the percentages are; IE7 44%, IE8 35% and IE6 at 20%.

This data is taken from Google Analytics on NZS.com over the month of August 2009. You can see more information on the number of visitors the data is sourced from on the NZS.com Statistics page.

Taking place over the weekend 23-25 January 2009 is the New Zealand round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, and this will be held at the Taupo Circuit.

Hoodwinked! psp

A1GP pits nation against nation in the World Cup of Motorsport. Drivers from more than 20 nations compete in identical single-seater race cars as equals without financial or technological advantage.

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CJ7 movie

• The Importance of Being Earnest movie

Money from Home dvd

This year’s event could prove to be New Zealand’s fastest ever motor race owing to the new breed of A1GP cars powered by Ferrari. These new cars have been breaking lap records at many circuits and the Taupo record, held by an older generation A1GP car, is seriously under threat.

Having shared driving duties with Earl Bamber for the current season of A1GP racing, Chris van der Drift gets back behind the wheel of A1 Team New Zealand’s car Black Beauty for Round Four of Season Four of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.

• Take the Lead movie

There is still high interest in the event, with ticket sales on a par with those last year and large crowds expected over the weekend, especially for the Sprint and Feature races that take place on the Sunday.

Supporting the A1GP event will be the ENZED V8 Ute series, the Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup, iconic Muscle Cars and the Toyota Racing Series.

Flight One ended on thursday 8th and nine players were set to progress to Sunday’s NZ Poker Champs final table. 36 players started the day’s play, and the nine to progress were Craig Giles, Ken Eastwood, Wayne Paaka, David Bradford, Richard Grace, Martin Cardno, Graeme Putt, Kwang Son and Nilesh Naidu.

A Mighty Heart rip

Flight Two started with 59 players and was condensed down to 15 to progress through to the New Zealand Poker Championship final table. A big name to be cut from flight two was Team PokerStars pro Lee “Final Table” Nelson, on the table was 2 hearts, 10 hearts, 2 clubs and 9 spades, and Nelson went all in with an ace and a king, but when the jack hearts came out on the river, it was Nick Wright’s pocket eights that knocked Nelson out.

Four Brothers video The final table was finalised with 41 players set to dual it out for the New Zealand Poker Champs crown after flight three finished up on Saturday 10th. Nick Wright came in with the overall chip lead with $140,000, followed not far behind by David Bradford, David Borg and last years champion Eric Assadourian.

The final table was set to be a thrilling encounter with many big names starting with large stacks, but it was Australian David Borg who eventually outplayed compatriot Tony Hachem. Borg made a flush on the river after Hachem went all in to take the $100,000 first prize and the biggest win of his career – as was crowned the New Zealand Poker Champion for 2008.

Runner up Hachem took home $54,000, and the highest placed New Zealand player was John Pye who finished third and picked up a cheque for $34,000.

Final results of the New Zealand Poker Championships are below:

The second event was the Peter Peko Memorial – Pot Limit Holdem / Omaha, there was a total of 59 players contesting this event with a total prize pool of $29,500. New Zealand’s Sam He was the eventual victor who received the top prize of $10,000.

Australian Poker star Eric Assadourian became the only player to defend a New Zealand Poker Championship title in the history of the tournament, when he took out the New Zealand Pot Limit Omaha Championship. Assadourian headed off a field of 60 players to walk away with $10,000 in winnings.

The top 3 for each of the events are listed below.

• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor move

The Canterbury Championships, the South Island Championships, Peter Peko Memorial and New Zealand Pot Limit Omaha Champs will again feature in 2008.

Big star names that have expressed interest in playing in this years tournaments include international cricketer Shane Warne, 2005 WSOP Main Event champ Joe Hachem and professional poker player Kenna James.

The New Zealand Poker Championship tournament details are listed below.

The latest problem with spyware is not from hackers or malicious website, but from the people you know and possibly live with. Most notably, suspicious spouses who turn to spyware to monitor their partners every online move, such as website visits, emails, chats, online searches, keystrokes and even activity on popular online social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace and Bebo.

Cases of domestic abuse and stalking through spyware and surveillance of Internet use have already been documented. In these situations, information gathered was then used to intimidate or control a partner.

There are many forms of Internet security that can protect you from spyware, phishers, trojans, viruses and worms – our computer security section is a great place to start.

The Hunchback buy

New Zealand is a wonderful place to vacation, and scuba diving around our coastline is simply breath-taking. Our coastal waters offer some of the best scuba diving and snorkelling in the world.

There are many wonderful New Zealand dive spots including the world renowned Poor Knight Islands and the Rainbow Warrior Wreck, plus closer to Auckland, Goat Island and Little Barrier Island. The South Island also offers the Marlborough Sounds and Milford Sounds as great diving destinations.

Diving courses are available through dive shops in most main centres. Open Water Scuba Certificate courses cost around $400-$500 and include twelve hours of theory and pool instruction, plus two sea dive evaluations. The two main certification types in New Zealand are PADI and SSI.

Scuba Diving can be relatively inexpensive to get into, with a basic diving equipment package starting from $2000 which would normally include the following: wetsuit, dive boots, fins, gloves, mask and snorkel, Buoyancy Control Device (BCD), regulator and gauge, and a tank. Most dive centres also give you the opportunity to hire gear when first starting out on a diving courses, which can go a long way towards helping you get into scuba diving in New Zealand.

Check out Dive New Zealand for some great diving resources and information on dive sites, diving tours and more.

Image from Flickr.

There are some other benefits of shopping online too:

• Because you’re at your computer, you have the ability to research a product using the Internet, giving you a good overview of your gift choice, rather than a sometimes one-sided salesperson’s view.

• As well as being able to read reviews online, you’ll also be able to find the lowest price on any given product, using handy price comparison sites like PriceSpy. This is especially useful when shopping for electronics – computers, digital cameras, MP3 players and mobile phones.

• Online stores sell a vast array of gifts and products, all available to buy from the comfort of your own home!

• Being on the Web, online shops are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so you can fit your Xmas shopping around your busy end-of-year family, work and social schedule.

Get started on your gift shopping right now, by visiting our New Zealand online stores category and taking a look at our Christmas gift guide.