Today Microsoft announced on the back of its 2^nd quarter earnings, that it plans to cut 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months - starting with 1400. I found myself today reflecting on the organisation I work for, the job I do, and what I/the company needs to focus on to weather the storm moving forward in the current economic climate. I’ve often joke with colleagues and friends that for me, working for Microsoft is an addiction. I’m never far away from email, a laptop or my cellphone, and I find myself fortunate to be paid to do my hobby. So my sincere thoughts are with those that were let go today and their families.

We had a company meeting in New Zealand today, and it’s clear to me that the company wants to look after it’s strongest assets (the people) while ensuring we meet our shareholders expectations by increasing market share and profitability. Our leadership team did an excellent job in relaying the facts as they currently stand, installing confidence in the job that we do, our contribution as a subsidiary to the corporation as well as New Zealand and how we can play a positive hand in our destiny by the way we engage with our customers and partners and focus on the job at hand.

We can’t be successful unless our customers and partners are, so now is the time more than ever, for us to help identify opportunities to drive costs out of organisations through automation, process improvement, and smart adoption and deployment of technology.

We aren’t a faceless US Corporation, we are Microsoft New Zealand. If you need to drive costs of your business, make sure you are realising the value of the software you currently own, talk to us about the challenges you face - you maybe surprised where we can help.

Nick.

Santa Call is back in action and ready to add magic to your kids' Christmas.

Just visit the Santa Call website [www.santacall.co.nz] to have Santa call your kids and record their Christmas wish-list. You will then receive an email with a voice recording of your child's wishes.

Nick.

Motorheads as well as those with a professional interest in cars are flocking to CarJam, the spare-time brainchild of two security software specialists.

CarJam is a vehicle information search engine for the New Zealand motorist, would be motorist hoping to buy a car or just the plan curious who want to see what mileage their old vehicle has been doing and generally research things starting simply with the rego.

Simpy enter the registration details, and you can receive the following information -

HOLDEN COMMODORE 2002 (in Red)

Plate: Current Rego

• Make: HOLDEN
• Model: COMMODORE
• Year: 2002
• Submodel: ACCLAIM SEDAN AUTO
• Main colour: Red
• Vehicle type: Passenger Car/Van
• Body style: Saloon
• No of seats: 5
• CC rating: 3,791
• Fuel type: Petrol
• Power: 152kW
• Assembly type: Imported Built-Up
• Country of origin: Australia
• Imported damaged: Find out by purchasing the report
• Reported stolen: Find out by purchasing the report

Identification

• VIN: Find out by purchasing the report
• Plate: Current Rego
• Engine no: Engine Number

Economy, safety and pollution

• Transmission: 4-gear automatic

Ownership information

Find out by purchasing the report

Security interests

Find out by purchasing the report

Licence

• Licence expiry: 2008, October 31st (expires in 1 week)
• Latest licence issued on: 2007, November 5th at 09:31
• Licence type: Licence
• Continuous licence: Yes

Registration

• Registration status: Active
• Vehicle usage: Private Passenger
• Cause of latest registration: New
• Date of first registration in New Zealand: 2002, November 1st
• Date of last registration: 2002, November 1st
• Registered overseas: No

Plates history

Plate
Effective date

Current rego

2003, September 25th

Old rego
2002, November 1st

Warrant of fitness (WOF)

The WOF expires in 11 months (23rd September 2009). Last inspection was successful on 23rd September 2008.

Miscellaneous information

• Gross vehicle mass: 1,519kg
• Maximum rated towed mass: 1,200kg (for unbraked trailer) and 2,100kg (for braked trailer)
• No of axles: 2
• Front axle group rating: 1033
• Rear axle group rating: 1200

Odometer history

• Is odometer reliable?: Find out by purchasing the report
• Latest odometer reading: 72,829 Km (on 2008, September 23rd, source: WOF Inspection)
• Latest usage: 31.38 Km/day (11,422 Km/year)

Reading, Km
Date
Source or reason
Usage (avg), Km/day/year

72,829
2008, September 23rd
WOF inspection
31.38/11,422

etc

Kiwis can get rid of their unwanted computer bits and still be nice to the environment this Saturday with the country's annual computer recycling day.

Hard drives, monitors, keyboards, printers, games consoles, mobile phones and other computer gear can be dropped off at collection points in 28 cities between 9am and 3pm, where they will be disposed of in an environmentally sustainable way.

There is no charge for the recycling. A full list of accepted waste is available here.

Wellingtonians can get rid of computer gears at the Westpac Stadium car park. Aucklanders should use they Tamaki campus of the University of Auckland drop-off spot, while Christchurch has a drop-off at the Papanui Club.

The annual "eDay" is organised by the Computer Access Trust.

More information at www.eDay.org.nz

Hi All,

Yesterday was a busy day for the kids! Halswell School have been learning about dance and yesterday they put on a show for the parents. Vanessa and Lachie went to watch Liam perform, Lachie wasn’t too interested and found some nice dirt to play with outside.

Liam has been going to Keas now for quite a few weeks, and last night he was invested (it isn’t as painful as it sounds) – This basically means you join, say your promise and receive your scarf , woggle and shirt. In a few weeks time we’re off to his first camp at Kaikoura, where we’ll stay for a couple of nights, do whale watching, mini golf, have mass produced food, and the adults will probably enjoy a few ales – Quite looking forward to it!<a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=606b7e0a-88bd-4411-8b50-376f3f9d9c95" target="_new" title="Dance Festival @ Halswell School">Video: Dance Festival @ Halswell School</a>

Lachie attends Mainly music on Tuesday, so when the fun outside began, (It was the end of term party of Keas).. he decided to put on his dancing shoes…

<a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=d7be2ee2-f975-4d9b-8d08-708f8dc18769" target="_new" title="Jiggy!">Video: Jiggy!</a>

Hi All,

I recently saw John Key and David Cunliffe present on how important broadband is to New Zealand in terms of growth, opportunity and the future of our economy. Labours view is pretty much centred around enabling access to the cabinets (Unbundling the local loop), while National have the desire to run fibre everywhere, as well as leveraging existing fibre where it makes sense etc.

While there is merit in both views, and maybe a combination of the both is where we should go, the question that keeps on buzzing around in my head is simple – So we can talk to each other at ‘fast’ speeds, so what? Sure there is a requirement for improved performance within New Zealand, however isn’t it more critical for us to be able to communicate at higher speeds to the rest of the world? We want to be seen as a safe, secure and cheap haven for organisations to build their data centres in. We want to provide opportunities for innovation and for New Zealand to be able compete effectively on a world stage - the reality is that the current cost of international bandwidth is too high and latency impacts on our performance.

Below is a link to information on how ISP’s in New Zealand are connected to local and international providers.

 

Am I missing a piece of the puzzle, or aren’t we better off working with others and owning a decent share of our destiny by owning our ‘future roads’ ?

Nick.

Last week John O’Hara gained a judgement against Telecom from the Disputes Tribunal for the amount of $1,000. The amount was in compensation for the 18.5 hours of his time wasted trying to re-establish my Xtra email account. He logged the time he spent on the calls and also made a note of the advice he received. During his hearing Telecom staff commented they were concerned about a precedent being set, to which he commented they were quite right to be worried!

Full story here.

It’ll be interesting to see if others jump on the bandwagon…

Hi All,

Well today started off earlier than other typical weekends. We’ve had alot of snow in the Canterbury Region, and we haven’t really had a good chance to go and have a play in it – So we headed south to Lake Coleridge in search of some snow. We stopped at Darfield and enjoyed a hot breakfast with some decent carb loading :-). It’s easy to get stuck in the routine of life, so we decided to enjoy our surroundings, and headed an hour south – the boys had a blast!

For more photos go here - http://www.thenet.gen.nz/Home/Photos.aspx?AlbumID=133

For videos of Liam and Lachie playing in the snow go here - http://www.thenet.gen.nz/Home/Movies.aspx

We had lunch out at Lincoln with Vanessa’s brother, wife and kids, then Liam and I headed off to the Canterbury vs Auckland Rugby game at AMI Stadium.

Great result with Canterbury taking it to Auckland 34 - 3 – It was our first ‘take a kid to footy’ night. (Take a kid to footy costs $25 for an Adult and Child, and they receive a ‘loot bag’ with a drink, chips, some bangers and some face paint) – Cheap night out! It was pretty cold, however Liam was keen to stay until the end.

A few more photos here - http://www.thenet.gen.nz/Home/Photos.aspx?AlbumID=134

Nick.

Hi All,

What would you do if a colleague, friend, student, family member or stranger impersonated you online in revenge?

Some students in New Zealand are taking a high-tech approach to revenge on teachers - assuming their identities in fake online profiles and putting doctored photographs of them on the internet.

FAKING IT
* Students fraudulently register on a social networking website in their teacher's name.
* They add photographs taken from the school's website or scanned from the school magazine, making it look more legitimate.
* They can then interact with other users and write comments online, which readers are likely to think are from the teacher.

Full article here.

This social engineering isn’t hard to do, the ramifications will be extensive, and no doubt it’s a hell of a thing to clean up afterwards! When it comes to people applying for jobs in the future, I for one always use my favourite search engine as background research. This type of information lives in the caches of search engines well after it’s deleted (if you’re lucky enough to get someone to listen and remove the content). I guess this is the world we live in – The Internet – How many versions of the truth would you like?

Nick.

Hi All,

I’m just home from a BBQ at Miha’s. We always try to get together with the ex-MSNZ family that are either based in Seattle, or are in Seattle for the Tech Ready event. This visit was no exception! Thanks Miha for an excellent night, and for hosting the venue!

For those that have been around and have dealt with Microsoft Services (predominantly) in the past, you might recognise some familiar faces here.

Nick.