Feats of social engineering
Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas.
Feats of social engineering
Richard Simpson, the guy who wants to tear down the big bridge and dig us some tunnels, isn’t pushing a bulldozer into a sandcastle—just Aucklanders into spending their taxes a bit differently. Maybe we should cough up. Councillor Simpson has big plans for the big city and won’t rest until they’re realised: “It’s pathetic that we’re number five [on the Mercer Index of quality of living],” he says. “We should be number one.” Read more of Simpson’s plans—and why he reckons Auckland is undelivering and Wellington has the formula right—on our website.
Calm down, Graham
Voting is open for the 2007 Filminute International One-Minute Film Festival, with 25 finalists drawn from across the planet … and of course there’s a New Zealand entry in there and it’s a doozie. Check out Waxeye Design’s ‘Graham’, directed by Paul Scott-James, and once you’ve wiped the cartoon gore off the screen head to the Filminute website and give it your vote.
Maaaate …
Christcharch mobile developer Zodal has quietly unveiled RugbyMate, a sweet little program for keeping smartphone-wielding rugbyheads in the loop as the Rugby World Cup unfolds. Zodal’s developers even created a version for the Apple iPhone, despite not having an iPhone to test it on—but reports are that it works a treat. If you have a smartphone, check it out. It’s free.
Be brutal and win some sweet sounds
We want your opinion. We want it so badly that we have some shiny new Apple hi-fi kit to give away to our opinionated readers. Fill out the readers’ survey on our website and you’re in the draw to win an awesome iPod Hi-Fi worth $599 and an AirPort Express to stream music around your home. The survey will take about 10 minutes, is mainly multi-choice and we do pay attention to what people tell us! So get clicking.
 iPod Hi-Fi
Fill your home with sound, not stereo components. Keep your music collection at your fingertips, not in countless CD cases. Change the way you experience digital music. For $599, iPod Hi-Fi delivers crystal-clear, high-quality sound in a clean, compact design. Hear, hear.
 AirPort Express
Enjoy your iTunes music library in virtually any room of your house or several rooms at once. Share a single broadband Internet connection and USB printer without inconvenient and obtrusive cables. Create an instant wireless network on the go. Extend the range of your current wireless network. How many devices do you need to do all this? Just one: the Airport Express. Featuring AirTunes for playing your iTunes music wirelessly on your home stereo or powered speakers, AirPort Express (retail value $169) brings not only the Internet but your music to wherever in your home you like to enjoy them most, whether you use a Mac or PC.
Anatomy of a robot
It looks like it’s game over for us humanoids, and the proof is in this video of Airic’s_arm at work. Perhaps the only hope for humankind is if the robots need someone who can still write in cursive. (Via jwz)
Panda poop
Two weeks ago Gena pointed to a story about some canny Irish entrepreneurs who are selling genuine Irish dirt™ to Americans at US$15 a bag. The staff of a panda-breeding facility in Sichuan, China, have gone a step further however: they’ve found a new market for the tonne of panda poo that they deal with each day. If you’ve ever wanted a panda-shaped paperweight made of panda poop, you’re in luck.
 Air New Zealand Inspiring New Zealanders presents the inaugural Scholarship in Film with Martin Campbell.
Be mentored by New Zealand born, Hollywood-based filmmaker, Martin Campbell and spend one-on-one time with Martin on his next major feature film.
You’ll also get to attend a short course at UCLA Film School in America and a further complimentary flight on Air New Zealand to anywhere in the international network.
Applications are now open
Waste on (inner) Earth
It’s not too late to get tickets to tonight’s Walk On Earth fashion show in Wellington tonight, featuring a bunch of the capital’s finest fashion labels—including deNada, as seen in the current issue of Idealog—and a unique ‘inner Earth’ atmosphere created with mesh from Kaynemaile. Doors at Massey University’s Grand Hall open at 7.30pm, and the Wellington City Mission stands to benefit.
It’s New Zealand Book Month, and if you’re the kind of writer who likes to be in control, then Taranaki is the place to be tomorrow when Graeme Beales spills the beans on self-publishing. Other events take place throughout the country.
Check out Idealog’s events guide, Agenda, online and in print. Anyone can add an event to Agenda—just fill out the form on our website.
Quote of the week
“You don’t just throw pipe dreams out there, because they’ll get shot down. The idea about the canal [connecting the Manukau and Waitemata harbours] has been around since 1880 … some of the best ideas are things that we’ve kept overlooking, but you blow the dust off and look at them with a new light and new approach. And they just start making sense.”
—Richard Simpson
More at Idealog online
Read more on our website: web exclusives, opinion, Idealog IP, the Idealog blogs and the Idealog podcast. See you at idealog.co.nz.
Matt Cooney
Editor
Idealog Weekly is sent to friends, subscribers and registered website users of Idealog magazine.
|
