ESET Smart Security

For a number of years now I have been using individual applications for my personal firewall and Anti-Malware security which has until now consisted of a combination of Zonealarm Pro and the ESET NOD32 Antivirus System. My Zonealarm Pro subscription finally finished a couple of days ago and I have began investigating my other options for protecting my PC from Internet nasties.
I have now decided to replace both packages with Eset Smart Security and have combined both firewall and anti-malaware needs into one tightly integrated suite. With Zone Alarm Pro uninstalled and Eset Smart Security on my system I noticed an immediate increase in the swiftness and general responsiveness of my computer. Zonealarm Pro and NOD32 were collectively sucking up my computing resources for some time now.

Additionally, just last week I noticed on the Eset website that there is a version 3.0 of the NOD32 Antivirus System. I had been using version 2.7 until recently.

My current NOD32 installation is configured to notify me about component updates. I guess component updates does not include a notification about a new product release! In between the suite upgradedid use the 3.0 version for a a few days. Under my existing license I am entitled to download and operate it. It has a much more user friendly interface then 2.7 ever did, and this is brought through into the security suite as well.

It's early days so far but I am missing the visual traffic indicators that Zonealarm provided in the system tray/notification area. If I believe it warrants it I will write-up a full review on my tech blog.


Additional Information: A computer virus is a program (a block of executable code), which attaches itself to, overwrites or otherwise replaces another program in order to reproduce itself without the knowledge of the computer user.

Green Crocodile Cafe

Today I received a "tip off" from a gentleman who works on my floor, but for a different department about a cafe called the Green Crocodile Cafe. The cafe is located at 10 Darby Street, Auckland Central.

Craig told me of the variety on the menu which included both traditional style takeaway food like hamburgers, and a vegetarian option which included a number of salads. When I arrived there was a queue, reasonable for the time of day. I waited in the line until it was my turn. I ordered a large chicken sandwich and a Banana milkshake. No complaints about the food here. The only issue I had was the fact that the place didn't have EFTPOS!

Now with me being the stubborn mule of a customer I am, I have decided not to buy from there in the future. The great customer service doesn't cover up for the fact that they don't even have a basic EFTPOS facility.

My car parking situation has been sorted in the mid-term with my access card and window thingy arriving. I will be paying $199 per month for the luxury of parking in the city. The earlybird parking I was using at Wilson Parking is extremely limited compared to my new parking arrangement.

Later on in the night I helped Charlene put together her CV.

I am also experimenting with using feedburner for my RSS and Atom feeds. At this stage I have configured the EinkeY and Pickled Hamster's Superfun Blog with feedburner. Should the results turn out positive I will add the capability to this blog, along with my Disjointed Thoughts Tech blog.

I have also emailed my web host, requesting that they configure a new CNAME record for use with my tech Blog. It's about time that it is brought under the nztechie.com domain. I pray they are more responsive and understanding of my request then they were on my last attempt to have a subdomain set up. See http://einkey-pickledhamster.blogspot.com/2007/11/startlogic-helpdesk-are-plonkers.html for the shorts of the disaster story!

Additional Information: Crocodiles are carnivores; they eat fish, birds, turtles, frogs, and mammals. Young crocodiles eat worms, small fish, and insects.

Suspension Bridge Loop Track

Today, Anisha and I went to the Hunua Ranges for a walk through the bush. We selected the Suspension Bridge Loop Track today. The estimated time for the walk is 90 minutes, and we achieved this. The total distance walked was 3 km.

We started at the Suspension Bridge, access via Moumoukai Hill Road. This walk climbs through the forest to a spectacular platform above the Wairoa Reservoir. As we experienced with other walks and tracks, the term "loop" does not necessarily mean you arrive back where you started at the end of the walk. Once we completed the walk, we had to still go quite a way to get back to my car. We jokingly called this the "Gravel Road" track.

After the Suspension Bridge Loop Walk, we had lunch. Anisha had made some sandwiches in the morning for us.

Next, we took a drive around to the Hunua Falls. The falls are quite popular, fortunately there was a large amount of parking available. From the car park it is a quick five minute walk to the Hunua Falls. Once we were there I took a couple of snaps, and quick videos. There were also a number of people climbing up the rock face and then plunging into the water. There was also one guy with a dog which was making an awful racket. It echoed all around the enclosed area.

The day before, I bought a Notebook Cooler (Cooler Master NOTEPAL) from INC Technologies for NZ$70. I managed to negotiate a free USB cable from them as part of the deal. For my review of the NOTEPAL click here.


Video: Hunua Falls

Additional Information: The Hunua Ranges frame the region's southeastern skyline and make up Auckland's largest forested landscape. More than 14,000 hectares of native forest filters about 2300mm of rain annually into four dams, which supply most of Auckland's water.

Week Two Begins

No major updates today in my life. During the day I sent and email to Dolly at Zeacom asking how things were going.

I went to the Knuckle Sandwich for lunch. I wouldn't recommend the combination of toppings I chose today to others, nor will I pick it in the future. The exact fillings I chose are confidential, but rest assured that I will be more careful in what I pick in my sandwiches next time!

After work, when walking to my car I saw Jolene and we had a quick chat. She was in a hurry as she had a number of deliveries to make.

I wrote an article on how to disable and enable User Access Control within Windows Vista. This was fueled by the fact that a colleague at work (Jeremy Jung) mentioned how annoying the UAC dialog boxes were on his home laptop.

Enabling and Disabling User Access Control (UAC) in Windows Vista
http://hayden-tennent.blogspot.com/2008/01/enabling-and-disabling-user-access.html

I have received two emails (one from Nigel, and one from Anisha) regarding "The Good Wife's Guide - Housekeeping Monthly (May 1955)". I transcribed the associated document and placed it onto EinkeY and Pickled Hamster's SuperFun Blog.

The document claims to be a monthly housekeeping magazine for housewives. It talks about how a wife should treat her husband when he arrives home after work. There is a lot of speculation that it is actually a fake/hoax in numerous places on the Internet.

The Good Wife's Guide - Housekeeping Monthly (May 1955)
http://einkey-pickledhamster.blogspot.com/2008/01/good-wifes-guide-housekeeping-monthly.html

Additional Information: The sandwich is said to have originated over two thousand years ago with various combinations of meats and cheeses placed on bread or in pastry. This concoction didn’t get its name until 1762 when the 4th Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu, a British statesman, got hungry during a marathon poker game. - www.chefs.com

Fullers Harbour Cruise

Earlier this week, Anisha thought of the idea of taking a harbour cruise. We turned her thought in to a reality today by going on the Fullers Habour Cruise.

I came into the city just before lunch. I initially went to the Wilson Car Parking building near Anisha's apartment to park. After looking at the pricing, I decided to park elsewhere. If I had parked there today, it would have cost me NZ$30 for a 12 hour ticket.

I went and located the ParkRight car park on Greys Ave, opposite the Civic. This parking was only NZ$5 for parking (flat fee) that is valid until 6am tomorrow morning. During the day (week days), this parking is reserved and casual public parking is not available.

Prior to going on the cruise, we had lunch at the food court in Britomart. We planned to go one of the 1 1/2 hour cruises available. We selected the 1.30pm session departing from Pier 2B.

We departed on time at 1.30pm. The cruise visited the following points of interest; Westhaven Marina, Chelsea Sugar Refinery, the Harbour bridge, Devonport Naval Base, North Head, Rangitoto Island, and the Bean Rock Lighthouse.

The Harbour Cruise departs at 10.30am and 1.30pm daily from the viaduct. The cost per adult is NZ$30 per person. I believe if you order your tickets online, you can receive a discount. As per the brochure, "Choose from tea, coffee or juice and a selection of delicious muffins (morning) and cakes (afternoon)."

On the afternoon cruise we were actually offered both muffins and cakes.


Video: Fullers Harbour Cruise

Additional Information: The naval base in Devonport dates back to 1840 when William Hobson, then Governor of New Zealand, arrived on the HMS Herald and established Auckland as New Zealand's (short lived) capital. Today it is an important administrative centre for the Royal New Zealand Navy.

My first day at ANZ National

Today was my first day as LAN Analyst at the ANZ National Bank. I got in to the city early this morning, not taking any chances with getting parking. I successfully got a car park and went onto Queen Street.

I was a bit early, so I went to McDonald's for breakfast. After breakfast I went to my new job. I met my manager, who introduced me to the team. The other guys in my team were equipped with three monitors each!

The main logging application is Unicenter Service Desk. This is the same application that I used when I was working at Datacom for logging jobs for VTL and New Zealand Post (When I wasn't using the web version).

Basically, I spent the day sitting with one of the team, watching how jobs were processed and dealt with. I also got most of my accounts sorted for the various applications I will use, and sent off requests for accounts where approval is needed.

At lunch time I went to JB Hi-Fi and had a look at the PC's and DVD's on sale. I asked about the Asus Eee PC previously advertised in their catalog. They advised me that they are out of stock. In fact, the guy at JB Hi-Fi told me they weren't making any more Eee PC's. I don't know whether to believe him or not, as it's a brand new product on the market.

At the end of the day, I was subjected to awful traffic when trying to get out of the city! I filled up the car with petrol and went home.

Additional Information: With a profit of $1 billion in the year to 30 September 2007, ANZ National is New Zealand’s largest company based on profit and assets

I am Legend

Today, Anisha and I went to the movies at Sky City cinemas. It also gave me the opportunity to check out the car parking in the area, and where my new job at ANZ National is going to be. Carole had bought Anisha and I a movie ticket voucher for Sky City Cinemas for Christmas.

We planned to use them today. However, I should have read the very restrictive conditions fully. The vouchers came with the following restrictions:

- Not valid Saturday night from 5pm or on films marked "no complimentaries"
- Not valid at IMAX Cinemas, Gold Class Cinema's or de Luxe Platinum
- Not valid at Film Festivals

Of course, the new film "I am Legend" is a no complimentaries movie. I made the executive decision to go anyway.

We now plan to use the vouchers to see "Bee Movie" which Anisha would like to see when it is no longer a "no complimentaries" movie.

Additional Information: The first dedicated "picture house" was built in New Orleans in 1896. However, theater-goers were going to have to wait a while for anything good to watch - Hollywood's first full-length film, The Squaw Man, wasn't released until 1913. Popcorn was first served in movie theaters in 1912, so it was actually in theaters before full-length films.

My last day at Zeacom

Today is my last day working for Zeacom, destined to move to my new position with ANZ National on Monday. It began as a day like any other day. I walked in the door, said good morning to Matt and Wayne, then the rest of the helpdesk as I went to my desk.

Wayne asked me to come into his office, so he could complete some of the formalities on a checklist he had. Wayne told me that a morning tea was organized for me at 10:30am this morning.

As 10:30am came around, everyone from support gathered around, and so did a moderate number of the rest of the staff. Due to the time of the year, unfortunately a lot of the team were still on holiday and out of the office. Nevertheless, there was a significant presence of people.

Wayne made a speech about me to everyone, and I followed shortly afterwards. I was given a card and the company gave me a $50 Westfield voucher as well. Zeacom has organised some morning tea goodies which I consumed with the rest of the staff.

Deepak Kulkarni has been away on leave for about 6 weeks at Zeacom and is due back on Monday. As part of a very elaborate joke on him, the support department has removed his entire desk and replaced it with a couch. His flight from Sydney has already been cancelled, so this will no doubt add to his stress levels on his return.

For lunch I went the Subway Grafton. The Manager there Ravi seems to recognize me. Undoubtedly because I eat there quite often.

At the end of the day, I had handed off my keys and mobile phone to Wayne, and emptied out my desk of various items and returned them to their originating departments. I gave most of my stationary to the new tier 1 agent Levi.

Earlier in the week I had sent an invitation to the Zeacom staff, and a couple of selected friends that I used to work with at Datacom for drinks after work at the Cardron Speight's Ale House in Mount Eden.

After work I pretty much met up there straight away with Matt, Dolly, and Harpreet. Alan Mason from Datacom arrived, as did Mark McIntee from ExpressData (Formally Datacom). Anisha was there with me of course as well. Jolene (Formally Datacom) also arrived later on in the night, with her dispatcher at Urgent Couriers Jamie.

I had a couple of drinks and generally a good time tonight. I am going to miss working at Zeacom, with the only reason for leaving is purely financial reasons. All departments in Zeacom has been fantastic to work with; Support, Sales, Development, Installation and Training, and Marketing. The Management team in support is second-to-none.

Additional Information: The goldmining town of Cardrona was formed in 1862 when a group of miners stumbled upon gold in the Cardrona Valley. The first settlement, the Upper Town, springing up where the historic Cardrona Hotel, built in 1863 still remains.

Back from the Trip to Hahei

Anisha and I arrived home on Saturday afternoon, after a wonderful four days at Hahei beach.

We went to Hahei on Tuesday 1st January 2008. Jean, Warren, Jackie and her partner David were there when we arrived. Jean made us a dinner that night. Jean and Warren went home after lunch on Wednesday.

When we initially went to Hahei Beach, the water was quite cold, however we did manage to take a bit of a dip. In addition to the obligatory walks, sunbathing, and swims at the beach we went to Cathedral Cove. The car park to the start of the track was full, so we did need to park quite a way down from the entrance.

There are two tracks which we saw which lead to Cathedral Cove which diverge at a certain point on the track. To the cove we took one which was predominantly open air on a well made track. On the way back we took the other route which went through bush on a very roughly created track.

We stayed at the cove for a bit, and I took a number of photos of the area. I showed Anisha the waterfall.

Anisha noticed from a newsletter found in the Bach, that there was a Gala at Cooks Beach reserve. We made our way to the Gala on Friday. At the Gala, there were three groups playing music, of which I watched and recorded on video two of them. One was native American, while the other was "Insert Nationality Here". The second group appeared to be performing music from a CD they were touting to people.

We also noticed the guy we saw at the food show selling his famous slicing machine at this Gala. This guy must get around. This is the third time we have seen him in months! Are we attending too many shows? LOL.

Anisha wanted to see Hot Water Beach so we did a quick drive by.

At the Bach, there appears to be a bird which has built itself a nest on the porch where it is protecting four eggs. When Jean was at the Bach she told me that she had been feeding it bread. The bird would fly away whenever someone would open the door to leave the Bach, or indeed if they come up the stairs as well.

One night we made homemade Pizza. I topped mine off with some left over sausages from the night before. At night, Anisha and I would watch episodes of Magnum P.I and Without a Trace. I had previously got a whole season of Magnum P.I from Kmart for the sum of $20.

We polished off a bottle of Pinot Gris, and Anisha made a few cocktails.

We had perfect weather on all days except on Friday where it was overcast.


Video: Cooks Beach Gala 2008

Additional Information: Hahei is a small settlement near Cathedral Cove on the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula, in the beautiful Coromandel region.