Kia ora tatou:

Just advance warning for any of you thinking of a holiday abroad combined with photography. I will be doing at least one workshop for the University of South-East Alaska in Sitka in June/July, the Northern Summer. I will be teaching Creativity,previsualisation and digital skills.

Come with me to Alaska, make wonderful photographs, meet fabulous people and improve your mastery of photography. More details in the coming weeks.

Ka kite ano

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. ~Henry Ward Beecher

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavour. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do.
Henry David Thoreau-Walden

It had been the best of days, it had been the worst of days, but it was coming to an end. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

I will be publishing a newsletter in the next week, which will go to those on my mailing list only. It will provide advance notice of my workshops for 2008, including New Zealand and the United States. There will also be one or 2 articles which will not appear on this website.

If you are not on my mailing list ( that is, you haven’t received one for at least 2 months), you can sign up here or here.

Ka kite ano

And soon I heard a roaring wind:

It did not come anear;

But with its sound it shook the sails,

That were so thin and sere.

The upper air burst into life!

And a hundred fire-flags sheen,

To and fro they were hurried about!

And to and fro, and in and out,

The wan stars danced between.

The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner -Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“Remember what Bilbo used to say: It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to…”;

- Frodo to Sam

Sometimes you just have to go with the flow, to follow the wind. Sometimes a chain of events flows from a single decision, from a single choice, and sometimes that choice isn’t really one at all. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

As most of you living in New Zealand know, The NZ government’s new anti-spam laws came into force on September 4. Now it is illegal to send unsolicited emails originating in this country. You have probably been inundated with emails from companies requesting that you confirm your willingness to continue receiving communications from them.

Those of you who have received email newsletters from me in the past are on my database (which incidentally I will never share). I will continue to post to those people. Itis worth noting that I sometimes include material that does not appear on my blog.

I will not however add anyone unless you either a) sign up using the form on my website or b) send me an email asking to be included.

Signing up is very simple and only takes a couple of minutes. Simply go here and fill in the form. Push submit and voila, you are on the list.

As an aside, the Christchurch Press reports that:

Anti-spam specialists SMX recorded a major spike in traffic, peaking at 1am – one hour after the law came into effect. Spam volumes were up 20 per cent on an average day.

SMX director Jesse Ball said the volume of spam had been “incredible” in the last two weeks.

“It’s been the biggest growth in spam we’ve seen. Everything is building day on day – it’s a huge increase.

“We had a bit of spike towards the end of last year but we’ve absolutely surpassed those volumes.”

Ball said the spike in spam was probably linked with Americans going back to work after their summer holiday. There was a 50% increase in total spam messages in August.

Hmmmm.

Kia ora tatou:

A trip-and stumble moment.

After years of teaching IT and related skills, I tripped up over a myth, namely that Macs don’t get viruses/worms/nasties.

They do. Oh, boy, they do.

About 2 days ago, I started getting return/undeliverable messages from places I had never even heard of and websites I didn’t know existed. By yesterday the trickle had become a flood, and I was starting to get suspicious ( I am a slow learner!) Now, working on the myth that Macs don’t get this sort of stuff, I hadn’t to date installed any antivirus software ( there isn’t much for the Mac anyway). But it was fairly obvious what was happening, so I went on the Net and did some research.

In the end I found a product called ClamXav, which I duly installed . I then ran a full scan and discovered to my horror….Mytob_IV and the Sober worms….. They have since been dealt with!

I guess the point of all this is the need to be ever-vigilant, no matter what your platform. This means :

1. Using good-quality antivirus software ( especially necessary for Windows users). I am told AVG and Avast are both good (and free) and don’t clog up your system; Panda and Norton, in my experience are guaranteed to put the brakes on your system. I am currently using NOD32-fast and efficient (but you have to pay for it).
2. Updating the definitions at least once a week, preferably daily.
3. Running a full scan of your system at least once a month.

So there you have it(or rather, there I had it). Can’t wait to get back to my Windows machine. At least it is protected (I think).

Stop sniggering, Volker.

Ka kite ano

Update:

I got back to Ranfurly yesterday and, following my experience witht the Mac, ran a full scan with NOD32 through my PC. I didn’t expect to find anything, since I have been using Panda antivirus for some 18 months now, and I scan weekly and update daily. Imagine my horror when it found 2 infected files that have been in my system for some 6 months! If you really want to know, it was the Win32/Randon.AY worm – now deleted.

Again the message- be careful and use good-quality antivirus software.

Kia ora tatou:

If you thought global warming was a myth, have another look. I received this email from Virginia. Enough said!

Dear Tony,
Part of my heaven has disappeared! Ivory Glacier has gone. It lay couched in its little cirque in a hanging valley, 600 ft above the Stag River inland from Hokitika. Beautiful striped brown, white and grey ice carved schist lies on the glacier’s terminal moraine where wonderful ranuculus flower profusely. All this is still there, of course, but the little cirque where the snow precipitated, froze, compacted and flowed into the lake, is bare, reminding me of Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard! I was deeply saddened to hear this devastating news from the man who had take me there early in 1995.
The global warming became a reality for me.

Do yourself a favour. Go and see An Inconvenient Truth.

Ka kite ano