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Link: NZ Topo Map - NZ Topo Map http://i.snag.gy/houhl.jpg http://i.snag.gy/vpbDx.jpg

Link: New Zealand to ban cigarettes for future generations - BBC News

Link: New Zealand earthquake: Tsunami arrives after powerful tremor hits - BBC News http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/10CC2/production/_92420886_newzealand_christchurch.png

Link: QuakeMap NZ | New Zealand's Earthquake Data Visualised http://i.snag.gy/p4U5C.jpg

Looks like the NZ police being given iPhilth to do their jobs better may - surprise, surprise - have been stupid. Looks like one persons house was surrounded twice and searched 'accidentilly' including door breaking because their GPS told them to. The house in question was on a whole different street but after three goes it appears the cops don't even bother to check the letterbox let alone the street name when kicking in doors. Thanks Apple, you have done the impossible, made our police even more inept and needlessly aggressive. Police apologise for raiding wrong house - Story - NZ News - 3 News

The MoE in NZ have negotiated the renewal of the Microsoft agreement for another two years from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2012. They have also announced the renewal of anti virus licensing for schools however have changed the product from CA Integrated Threat Managment to Symantec’s End Point Protection (SEP) antivirus. This is great news for schools that no longer face loosing half of their IT budgets (subject to school) on software subscriptions. I am not sure about the switch to the Symantec product as in the near past it has been a bit of an underperformer but I have heard good things about their new AV core so am hopeing for the best. TKI - The ICT Helpdesk - About the ICT Helpdesk I'm not sure exactly when the news was posted as my checks of the site had become less frequent given that this is the first update in two years

PC World New Zealand have printed my letter in the latest edition of their magazine. The letter even got the first place treatment with the large attention grabbing title. There has already been at least one new user from it too and it has only been out at news stands since late yesterday. So with any luck get ready to welcome an influx of new users from New Zealand as more people read the magazine. I have a subscription but that always takes a little longer to my mailbox than to the shops so I only have a grainy cellphone picture of it for the moment which is attached to this post.

Link: Doctor Who 50th Anniversary 1oz Silver Coin | New Zealand Mint http://www.nzmint.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/469x254/Doctor%20Who%2050th%20Anniversary%20Reverse%20469x469.png Face value: $ 2 [NZD] Cost: $ 155 [NZD] [Plus shipping] [£82.34 Plus shipping] A bit too costly for my liking.

There had been an ad playing on NZ TV for a short while which perfectly describes our current internet experience and makes the case for fibre. The ad can be found and played here Fibre to the Door | Broadband Network | Vector a short way down the page. As its not youtube I cant embed it. I find it quite ammusing how accurate their depiction of slow internet is and also useful to point to as an explaination for non-technical types. Here is a direct link for those with VLC installed http://www.fibretothedoor.co.nz/sites/default/files/video/Vector.flv This relates to the proposed funding initive by the government to roll out a remotely decent internet infrastructure which they are taking bids and input on at the moment. Vector is a power line company and is suggesting full fibre to the home where as the incumbent Telecom whos network is unstable, expencive and has been holding NZ back for decades want to use the cash to upgraded their links to their existing ADSL cabinets leaving us in the same choked position as before.

I am sick to death of dealing with a large proportion of the suppliers in this country (NZ), for one most are a total rip off which is not entirely their fault but rather an symptom of the suppliers tacking an extra 80% on to the cost when it gets here. The primary issue though is the bunch that 'know better', I asked for a switch of this model, spec etc. I want a quote for it not a bunch of second guessing and wineing about how that's not the way they would have done it. I don't care if you deal with a High School using smaller switches than us, maybe you are underspecing, maybe we were deliberately after something that would last for ages, be upgradable and cope with growth. As it happens I was going along with the theme that has served us quite well of going for quality hardware that would not become a limiting factor in the future. A good foundation instead of a good for right now solution. When they start saying things like 'we are not even going to provide pricing' for some options you have to start suspecting and when they come up at double the cost of any other supplier you have to wonder if they are in over their heads. Some suppliers that I deal with are good, do their best to get pricing as good as it can be in NZ and offer helpful input, they even provide the pricing that we ask for. So, to all cranky 'suppliers', before you get up on your high horse please make sure that you are actually dealing with a horse race instead of an F1 contest and keep your unhelpful criticisms to yourself. To all the good suppliers, thank you for providing pricing and helpful, non-accusatory suggestions.

Well the NZ election is in its final hours with the votes being counted and whoever wins there will be misguided ICT policies for schools. On the challangers side (Labour - Nanny State and spending for the medal) who are very unlikely to win we have the laptops for students pledge that would give all lower desile school students (eventually) a laptop. Lots of money, lots of infrastructure and no real planning behind it. For the defending champ (National - Business FTW but accounts kept in check) who are currently leading quite heavily there is the national schools network. This has promise building a national loop network between all schools over the new fibre links (when they eventually show up). The main issue here is that all schools will be tied into central services and these will be run by the same 'geniuses' that are hell bent on pushing their preffered suppliers agandas. This may well lead to NZ schools being a jointly owned subsiderary of Google and to a limited extent Apple. These are also the same people who built a network between dozens of schools that was brought down by a looped back cable. Whoever wins there will be changes and they both have good and bad aspects but I predict it turning into a total sham as usual with three of four people making decisions that suite them and their supplier friends to the expence of everyone else. Which toilet ICT will be flushed down is now up to the general public, may they choose wisely and may the suffering be breif.

Wow, just wow. We got a batch of the new MoE lease laptops in last week and finally they come with Windows 7 and Office 2010 unlike a month ago when they showed up with XP/Office 2003. I do commend them for this progress but I have to ask who made the rest of the decisions. The laptops themselves are nice little hp ProBook 6550b units with 320GB HDs and 4GB of RAM. Screen res is a little pathetic geared towards the blinder teachers I think but in general the hardware is good, latest platform i5 etc. Here's where it gets a bit squiffy, with 4GB of RAM on board you would expect the Windows 7 variation to be the 64 bit one... Nope, 32bit so every replacement lease laptop going out to all the teachers in the country (sans those that are in the cult of Mac) are unable to access 1.25GB of their RAM. Over several thousand teachers that is Terabytes of wasted RAM. They did it to make them more compatible with older networks/printers but still it seems wasteful. Next up when you open your shiny new laptop you are greeted a lovely document entitled "You now need to activate your software". As 7 and Office 2010 use the new licensing model this is somewhat expected but what is not is the decision to deactivate the automatic search for a KMS server. If they had just left it the systems would have just activated in schools that had a KMS server and not done so in those that did not. But no, by helpfully disabling it now each teacher is expected to get a KMS key and enter that. Way to make work for people. Really a KMS server will run on any Windows Vista or higher box and they are not that hard to setup. I do struggle to figure out what goes through the heads of the people making this kind of decision. Tumbleweeds is my best guess.

Westmount School One school - 15 campuses Co-educational Y1-13 Registered private school Christian values A culture of learning and realising individual potential We are seeking a skilled, experienced and innovative manager to lead, support and develop our information management and technology infrastructure. A person who has knowledge and experience both of databases (preferably File maker) and computer networks, and of the New Zealand education system. We are one school with 15 campuses, situated in most parts of New Zealand and connected by intranet and video conference. Key aspects of this role will be: Management of the school information systems, particularly the student database (KAMAR) Support and development for staff in the use of Information management systems and databases Technical support to the school National Office and liaison with server and software providers Enquiries and/or application that include a CV and details of three referees to the Education Manager: Email: [email protected] Phone: 09 622 4042 Mobile: 027 264 6626 Postal address: Westmount School P.O. Box 13979, Onehunga. Auckland 1643 Closing date: Friday 14th May Advertised in the Central Leader 07/05/2010 PDF Page 8 (link will expire 14/05)

This post is just an overview of what is avalible from the MoE to New zealand schools at the moment, if anyone finds any more please do add them to this thread. As I have come across schools that were still running Office XP and paying for certain software titles as they had no idea that they were entitled free stuff I thought this thread might be a good idea: As to what is avalible, the MOE offeres: Free core Microsoft Software including Office, Windows, Encarta, Visual Studio which must be appyed for each year by filling in a form with the number of computers and sending it off to datacom. This gives you direct access to the MVLS portal so that you can download the required software as it comes out and you also get Software Assurance along with CDs posted out too. (http://www.tki.org.nz/r/ict/helpdesk/ms_faq_e.php) Reduced cost Microsoft server software including ISA $380, Server Standard $85 etc. This is purchased yearly through Datacom along with the subscription to the other stuff. (http://www.dsv.co.nz/moe/) Free antivirus and antimalware from CA in the form of CA ITM (http://www.av4schools.co.nz/) which is sent out once appied for and works on Windows, Linux, Mac. Subsidised filtered internet access from either Telecom Schoolzone or Watchdog - ick to both but they are better than nothing, if substantially more expencive. They used to offer free liscences to surfcontrol filter and antispam but have stopped providing this to new schools and have not payed for any upgrades (http://www.minedu.govt.nz/educationSectors/Schools/Initiatives/ICTInSchools/ICTInitiativesAndProgrammes/ManagedInternetServicesSolutionsForSchools.aspx) There is also a deal for Macs offered from the MoE which provides the latest version of Mac OS, iWork, iLife and Kidpix (http://www.red.co.nz/moesoftware) which is again free to schools to sign up to. They used to provide Office for Mac but have moved over to iWork. Additionally there is the Laptops for teachers scheme which allos schools to lease subsidised laptops for each employed teacher in the school (hp, Toshiba or Mac) (http://www.minedu.govt.nz/educationSectors/Schools/Initiatives/ICTInSchools/ICTInitiativesAndProgrammes/LaptopsForTeachers.aspx) Laptops for principals, in which the principal is given a free lease laptop (http://www.minedu.govt.nz/educationSectors/Schools/Initiatives/ICTInSchools/ICTInitiativesAndProgrammes/LaptopsForPrincipals.aspx) And projectors for classrooms which offers subsidised projectors (http://www.minedu.govt.nz/educationSectors/Schools/Initiatives/ICTInSchools/ICTInitiativesAndProgrammes/ProjectorsForClassrooms.aspx)

Link: Geoscience Society of New Zealand Online Databases Resources available via this site: Public Web Maps 2009 Iceberg Locations Central South Island Glacial Geomorphology map CityMap Manukau FRED: The Fossil Record Electronic Database Geological Map of New Zealand GNS Airphoto Holdings New Zealand Gravity Station Network MinMap New Zealand Active Faults Database PDQmap (Petroleum Data Query) PETLAB Selecting Central South Island Glacial Geomorphology map: http://i.snag.gy/J3M5o.jpg

Link: Rankers > Respect NZ > One Map, Every Camping Location http://i.snag.gy/aP0GK.jpg