Breakout Course on Waiheke Island

On Monday and Tuesday this week I attended a course that the Bank put me on located at the Waiheke Island Resort on Waiheke Island.

There were about 14 people on the course with Anupam and Kai from Client Services as well. There was a range of people from Technology in Auckland and the rest from Wellington. We were put up in villas and all meals/alcohol included. We took the ferry on Monday morning to the island and the group was transferred to the Resort by Bus.

The breakout course covered the following areas; Core principles, Trust, Transformation and Learning, Creative Choice, Clearing withholds, Values, High Performance Mind, Communications, and Commitments.

I received a pack which contained the following items; Breakout Course manual, ANZ Technology Pen, juggling Balls, a keyfob with spectacle cleaner, Energy Bar, drink bottle, Desktop LCD clock, relaxation audio CD, and my own personal 'press pause' card.

The course was value on a number of levels, and it did provide a break from work with a definitely more leisurely pace. I would recommend this course to everyone and it is good to see that the bank is putting all new employees on it.

After I returned to the CBD on Tuesday I shouted Anisha dinner at the Lone Star in Newmarket. Again, I used one of the vouchers from the Entertainment Guide.

Catching up on the Blog Posts

Last Wednesday Anisha and I went to one of the shows that is part of the NZ International Comedy Festival 2008. We watched the "Big Show" at 8.45pm in the Auckland Town Hall. The tickets cost NZ$42.50 each and the show was 2 hours in length. The three comedians were; Neil Delamere, John Fothergill, and Eddie Lfft, with a special guest appearance by Jason Cook.

Neither Anisha or I had a lot of knowledge about the different comedians so we selected a show which had a variety of comedians rather then some of the others which were presented by one comedian, or a group performing together.

Last Friday was Sam Look's last day contracting for ANZ National. He is flying out to Japan with his girlfriend. I was discussing some ideas for a parting gift with Anupam and I believe Aaron came up with the idea for a USB Missile launcher. He didn't know where we could get one. This is where I sprung into action and went with Anupam to JayCar where I knew they normally stocked them. Unfortunately, they were out of stock.

I looked around JayCar and suggested that Anupam get the Mosquito Radio Control Helicopter. Sam loved it!

Below is some video I took of Sam testing out the Mosquito. The guy at JayCar told us that we would need to charge it for 30 minutes first but this was obviously not the case!


Video: Sam learns to fly the Mosquito!

Over the weekend on Saturday we went to The Coffee Club at the Botany Junction for breakfast. We used a coupon from the Entertainment guide to get a discount.

On Monday Anisha and I went to the Brooklyn Restaurant on Queen Street. I used the entertainment guide coupon we had and got a significant discount! With the discount coupon it turned out to be as cheap as McDonald's!

After dinner I helped out Anisha by picking up her brother from Auckland Airport. He is staying in Auckland for a week or so, in particular to watch a concert (Foo Fighters) that is coming up. His flight landed about 10.15pm and after dropping him off I got home about 11.15pm and went straight to bed! I saw him on Queen street today when I went to the ANZ centre to upgrade two printers.

I also got more details today about the "Breakout" event I will be attending on Monday and Tuesday. I will be staying overnight at the Waiheke Resort while doing this compulsory course. I also began preparations for a flight to Wellington to attend ITIL training in order to complete the Foundation Certificate in ITIL.

In other news, due to a limited audience for online photo gallery I have decided to abandon this project. I will no longer be posting my photos on my website. This should give me more time to focus on my technical blog and website which is doing outstandingly well!

I saw Mark McEntee on TVNZ 7 news at 8 tonight. The news article was about our aging workforce. I met Mark at tech and later worked with him in Microsoft Services.

Additional Information: The major sponsor for the 2008 Comedy Festival is Cadbury Crunchie!

An ANZAC Weekend Summary

On Friday night Anisha and I had takeaways from Nandos, afterwards I took Anisha to the Airport for her Quantas flight to Wellington.

On Saturday I Installed the latest version of Joomla onto nztechie.com. The EasyApplication installer which IXhosting provides will only allow you to install into a sub directory and not the root directory of your web server. The install went without a hitch and I rebuilt the site as it was when it was working.

I have decided to drop the whole online photo gallery as it was quite a lot to maintain, and there is a limited audience due to a logon being required. Looking forward, I may build a Windows Home Server (WHS) and use its built in capability to share photos.

Nanna, Granddad, Scott, and Amber came over on Saturday for a visit along with Charlene, Nick and Carlos.

On Sunday I went with mum and dad to have a look at some potentials places to rent in the near future. We looked at places in Mount Eden, and the City.

In other news, Anisha and I went 50/50 on the entertainment book. Kyle at work was selling them to raise money for a hockey club. The total cost was NZ$65 for the book.

Joining the New Zealand Freeview masses

This evening I completed my setup of Freeview at home. I now have complete terrestrial digital freeview reception.

When I bought my slimline HP media computer recently I took note of the TV Tuner capabilities. I picked a PC that was capable of picking up terrestrial digital. However, despite the fact that Windows Media Center has support for terrestrial digital, Microsoft does not have an update a present to support the the variant used in New Zealand.

The Internet is full of rumours stating that Microsoft will release an update to support terrestrial digital in New Zealand. I believe the Microsoft will eventually release an update in the future.

In the mean time, how did I receive terrestrial digital television on my PC? Mix the following and bake for 1 hour to get sorted:

- Mediaportal
- MediaPortal TV Server
- MediaPortal SVN
- H.246 Codec
- LATM AAC Audio Codec

Mediaportal is simply an open source alternative to Windows Media Center. I used the 'bleeding edge' nightly builds of the Mediaportal SVN to achieve Freeview playback.

To decode the Freeview video I installed the CoreAVC h.264 codec. An alternative is to use the h.264 codec which Cyberlink bundles with its PowerDVD software to enable Blu-Ray playback.

Audio New Zealand also has a funky audio format which can be decoded with the LATM AACCodec. The good thing is that a codec (a.k.a Monogram ACC Decoder) is included with the Mediaportal SVN builds which can decode audio.

If I get a chance I will do my own write-up on the setup of Freeview for New Zealand conditions. There are however a number of guides explaining the process on the web.

With my present setup, I find the Video and audio quality excellent and the changing of channels to be swift. My next project is to associate channel Icons with each channel and to implement and EPG. By leveraging my existing media PC setup I have avoided having to fork out $NZ400+ for a set top decoder box.

I have also written a quick guide for computer savvy people on how to setup MediaPortal to work with Freeview in New Zealand. It is available at:

Configuring MediaPortal for Freeview NZ [Quick Guide]
http://tech.nztechie.com/2008/04/configuring-mediaportal-for-freeview-nz.html

Additional Information: Freeview|HD is broadcast on a digital terrestrial network and received via a UHF aerial. It will be available in the Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Napier, Hastings, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. That’s 75% of New Zealand homes.

MediaPortal
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/

CoreAVC
http://www.coreavc.com/

Actions Paintball

Anupam from work organised an outing today for a game of Paintball. The event was not an official event sanctioned by the bank.

I invited Nigel along to play with all the others that came. We went to Actions Paintball which is based in Swanson. This is the first time I have ever played Paintball. Due to not playing before I was not completely sure how many paintballs to purchase at the beginning. I started with a Starter kit which included 100 paintballs and cost me $40.

I also purchased an extra 100 paintballs at the start for $18. After a break in the game I ended up purchasing a second "reload pack" to keep me going. I purchased 300 paintballs in total. At the end I had used approximately 250, so I did not order too much.

We split into two teams. Overalls were provided for $4 each. Andrew Kyle's overalls had a big whole in its bum. In my Team we had myself, Sam Look, Andrew Kyle and two of his friends, Sam Look, and Chris Hacking.

We played a series of scenarios which included 'capture the flag' games. Of particular note in our team was the excellent efforts of Sam Look and Chris Hacking. They were excellent at pushing forward and were the key to winning many of the games.

After Paintball Anisha and I went to Kim and Nigels place for lunch.

Additional Information: Paintball is a high adrenalin action-packed team sport. Actions Paintball offers to both the social & tournament player excellence in competitive Paintball.

The Amazing Race

On Friday ANZ National Technology were involved in a team building event on Waiheke Island. It was the Amazing Race! There were four teams of four people each. The idea was to score as many points possible and win the race.

Prior to going to the Island our team went into The Warehouse and purchased some team hats. We picked some pirate hats. One of the other teams were quite funny in their wearing of hats with "cow girl" written on the top of them!

The following people were in my team; Anupaum, Alex, and Chris. We were briefed on the ferry on the way over, and the games began as soon as we arrived. We had various tasks to do which varied from taking photos of particular situations, to flinging eggs at a target on a sports field.

When we arrived on the ferry we were given a set of tasks, a jeep, and a digital camera to take photos. There were short time limits and we needed to meet several times at certain "pit stops" to receive our further instructions/tasks. At the pit stops we were given an option to do one of two options. Typically one was more intellectual-based while the other was a physical activity.

Failure of of activity would give rise to another activity you would need to complete instead. For example, when on the sports field we failed to hit the target with our supply of eggs and had to complete some brain-teasers. Full credit to Chris for his excellent work here.

After the event we went to a bar (The Lazy Lounge) on the island and had alcohol and nibbles. a thoroughly exciting day!


Video: Returning to the ferry after the amazing race!

Additional Information: Waiheke Island is a picturesque blend of farmland, forest, beaches, vineyards and olive groves. There is a great range of activities on Waiheke. Options include sightseeing, mountain biking, sea kayaking, a relaxed vineyard tour and much more.