NZS.com Blog : New Zealand Internet and Web Space Blog » Zane Gilmore

Marine Studies Centre

Zane Gilmore — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:56:03 +0000

During the the summer holidays this year, we spent time in Dunedin. There are plenty of great things to do in Dunedin

but one of the things that really stood out was the Marine Studies Centre.

Not only is it a great aquarium but is also a research centre for the University of Otago. It was fun to check out their amazing collection of fish inside the glass tanks and even get to handle some of the creatures in the touch-tanks.

This centre is at the forefront of research into the marine environment as well as being a popular outdoor education provider to all ages.

Galaxy Zoo: ordering galaxies in space

Zane Gilmore — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:57:37 +0000

In my perambulations around the Web the other day I discovered a very geeky site, that I have since used quite a bit, called Galaxy Zoo.

Astronomers have taken over a million pictures of galaxies in space – and now they need to categorise them. Currently, the only way that we can categorise galaxies is by having a person look at a picture of a galaxy and then decide whether it’s an elliptical or spiral shape. It turns out that computers can’t really do this job very well at all, so what a group of astronomers have done is provide the Galaxy Zoo website, where anybody can categorise galaxies after a quick ten minute tutorial.

The thing about pictures of galaxies is that some of them are quite spectacular; hence the site can be quite addictive. It’s very cool to be part of a real astronomy science project too.

Find more fascinating astronomy facts in the NZS.com directory.

Image from Flickr.

Software Freedom Day

Zane Gilmore — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:09:57 +0000

This weekend a worldwide event called Software Freedom Day will be held to publicise open source and free software. Here in New Zealand, we have a handful of events being organised by local enthusiasts. So, if you want to find out more about open source and free software, then go along to one of the events.

The Alamo divx Software Freedom Day is a global, grassroots effort to educate the public about the importance of software freedom and the virtues and availability of free and open source software. Local teams from all over the world organise events on the third Saturday in September.

Congratulations on NZ Standards OpenXML decision

Zane Gilmore — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 04:16:46 +0000

Recently, there has been a move made by Microsoft to get their digital document format OpenXML accepted as a standard by the International Standards Organisation (ISO). There have been many descriptions of how this format contains components that are proprietary and can’t be implemented by anybody other than Microsoft. Acceptance as a standard means that a government may, more easily, accept and prescribe it as mandatory for any communications. This, in turn, will mean that anybody who communicates with that government must use Microsoft’s software.

So, this can mean only that: the user’s choice is more limited, innovation is stifled, and the government is left vulnerable to the vagaries of the vendors’ business decisions in the future.

Yesterday Standards NZ decided to vote ‘no’ to the OpenXML standard proposed by Microsoft in competition with the present ODF standard. Congrats for making the right decision in the face of a tirade of PR noise. Let’s hope we avoid the Swedish situation and keep some sanity.

Who knows Microsoft might actually be forced to implement the present standard!

Ta Moko: A uniquely NZ tattoo phenomenon

Zane Gilmore — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:49:42 +0000

The native people of New Zealand, the Maori, have a tradition of tattooing called Ta Moko. It has become famous probably because it is often on the face, and also for its striking designs. Recently there has been a resurgence of people wearing Moko on their face, with some quite prominent figures starting to wear them.

There are a few websites that have explanations of the cultural background of Ta Moko and also a few with some practitioners of the art form.

You can find out more about our unique Maori culture in the NZS.com directory.

Some cool software

Zane Gilmore — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 00:40:47 +0000

There is a type of software that exists that you are not only allowed, but are encouraged, to copy and give to your friends. This software is not second-rate or dubious quality but, just for example, it runs most of the world wide web.

The most famous name for this software is Open Source Software also known as Free Software, FOSS, FLOSS and Libre Software. It should be noted that the the term Free Software is a reference to freedom not lack of monetary price.

Fast Track: No Limits movie full The main features of Open Source Software are:

The complete source code of the software can be accessed and modified
It is possible to get the software without any charge

Open Source software has been significantly growing in popularity since the birth of the Internet. One of the more famous examples of Open Source Software is the Firefox Web browser. There is also a free word processor and office suite called Open Office. The Web server that serves the pages of the majority of Web sites on the Internet (Netcraft Survey) is called Apache and is Open Source Software.

Arguably one of the most significant Open Source projects is called Linux and is an operating system (like MS Windows XP and Apple OSX). This Web site is served from a system running Apache on a Linux operating system.

Here in New Zealand we have a large and active community of Linux enthusiasts and experts. We have NZLUG which is a New Zealand-wide mailing list to get help on and discussion about Linux there is also CLUG in Canterbury, and WLUG in Waikato and a quite a few other places.

There are also New Zealand companies that specialise in Open Source Software solutions, like Catalyst in Wellington and Egressive in Christchurch.