http://tvnz.co.nz/content/1580637

The link above is to the TVNZ Olympics Message Board.

But unless you want to be disgusted at the attitude of the majority of posters I wouldn’t recommend clicking on the link.

TVNZ is doing an amazing job covering the Olympics. They have four channels of coverage (TV One, Freeview Ch20 and two online channels).

But despite all this people are still complaining. I personally enjoyed the NZ vs Brazil soccer game which was aired on TV One (the main NZ channel).

New Zealanders need to get a grip and be thankful for how much coverage they are getting for free.

TVNZ surely paid top dollar to get the coverage, Sky TV would have been surely trying hard to out bid them.

Imagine the Olympics on Sky. a) Not everyone could get it - Sky costs, TVNZ is free. b) Unless you paid more it would not be in High Def. c) You would not have four channels of coverage - three channels at the absolute max. d) You would still have ads - like the live Formula 1. e) People would still complain.

http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/lewis-games/2008/8/10/communication-breakdown/?c_id=502

All I can do is laugh… I am glad I’m not the only one who gets into these sort of stupid situations.

3News are currently using the tag line “He doesn’t just read the news. He gets it.” So I came up with one for myself when I was on the news earlier in the year. (Sorry for the poor colour, it was done onto old VHS tape and then into the computer)

Update: And here is the video

From Kiwiblog: http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2008/07/world_internet_project.html

Those who like facts and figures will have no end of them in the NZ report as part of the World Internet Project. It is probably the most comprehensive study of NZer’s use of the Internet. Some interesting stats:

• 79% of NZers use the Internet
• 15% of users are online for over 20 hours a week (half a fulltime job)
• 66% of users have broadband
• 71% of users say the Internet is an important source of information, compared to 52% for newspapers and television
• 10% of NZ Internet users have a blog (this is a very high figure internationally)
• 28% of users use Facebook or other social networking sites
• 25% of users have made friends with someone online and half of those have gone on to meet them in person
• 15% seek info about political parties or MPs online
• 43% support Government funding to enable wider Internet access while 34% oppose it
• Almost 80% of teenagers visit social networking sites, and 40% of those in their 30s do so.
• Over 30% of Asian users have a blog, compared to under 10% for Pakeha and around 3% for Maori
• Around 20% of those in their teen or 20s have a blog, and slightly more females than males
• The more you earn the less likely you are to blog

I am a bit late in blogging this because I was away. But these were the conditions that I had to contend with when heading to the airport last Wednesday morning as a second large storm hit.

A bridge on SH17 between the Albany township and the Albany Tavern was underwater earlier today but reopened by 6.20am.

All lanes of Oteha Valley Road were flooded on the eastern side of the motorway but the road was passable, police said.

Now there is absolutely no denying that the storm that has hit us during the last two days has been particularly nasty, however, one thing that is getting to me is the way the media blow it up, and the way in which the general public then go into panic mode. I had a friend telling me that the motorway was closed and they shouldn’t be driving because there are slips and stuff. The irony here is that the motorway was never closed and the person couldn’t explain to me how you could get a slip in the middle of central Auckland where there are no hills to slip.

Coming back to the one in 10 year storm idea. Compare these two police media release pages. The first is for yesterday. The second is for July 10 2007. One year ago. Where we got hit by a very similar storm which took out power up here for two days. 48 hours. Not 3. And that was a year ago, not 10.

26 July 2008:

10 July 2007:

At first I was laughing at this press release by the NZ Police which was released in the middle of yesterday’s storm.

***Urgent Media Release***

There have been reports in the Media about the evacuation of Whangaparaoa.

There is NO Evacuation of Whanagaparaoa.

However, I think I may have no have worked out where the confussion arised from. At 10.30am the Whakapapa Ski Field at Ruapehu was evacuated due to the storm. Reading more about it you can see why:

Between 10am and 10:40am the wind speed went from 0 to 100kph and it’s now sitting at over 200kph. Our extremely hardy road crew are currently out being blasted by wind and snow as they fit chains onto all vehicles to get the public safely down the road.

Now I can imagine that the media would of probably just confussed the word Whakapapa with the word Whangarparaoa quite easily. One is a ski field on Ruapehu which often gets hits by snow storms. The other is a peninsula north of Auckland with lots of homes on it. Given the storm would of been bad at both areas a mix up in words is not supprising at all.

I will do a full blog post after the storm.

But nothing that exciting to report.

Given that this is meant to be the worse storm in years it seems very similar to this post from february this year (5 months ago, not years): http://www.brad.net.nz/blog/2008/02/the-flooded-garden/

Update #1: Okay we can now call this storm a real storm. Power cut out at around 3.50pm this afternoon. Came back on at 6.45pm which meant I missed the news. Grr.

I listened to the 5 and 6 o’clock newstalkzb radio updates. First there were 35,000 and then at 6pm 53,000 homes in northern Auckland without power. At the time they stated that any above ground power cuts would not be fixed today as it was dangerous. So I was presently surprised when the power came back on at 6.45pm.

The eye of the storm crossed Albany at around 5.50pm and it was indeed a sight to behold. Not as impressive as you see in the movies, however, you could still see the wall of storm cloud and clearish skies directly above you with no wind or rain for about 15 or so minutes. Quite cool really.

Note to self: Make sure you have candles, fresh torch batteries and gas for gas cooker ready for next storm. I had a cousin drop off candles and batterys but tonights dinner was cold. Thank God for canned fish. I had a milo the instant the power came back on.

Power restored over networks

Date: 26-07-2008
Updated at 6:45pm.
The following areas have had power restored throughout the day. There still may be pockets of no power remaining due to further network damage and damaged customer owned service lines. Our crews will continue to work throughout the night and tomorrow to restore power.

Atkinson Rd, Belmont, Browns Bay, Coatesville, Helensville, Henderson Valley, Howick, Laingholm, Mangere East, Manly, Manukau, Maraetai, Northern, Papakura, Riverhead, Snells Beach, Spur Road, Swanson, Takanini, Torbay, Parts of Waiheke, Waimauku, Warkworth, Wellsford, Woodford Ave,

Update #2: Well the power came back on and then about an hour and a half later my Internet connection died. I can’t win. It has finally come back on, 15 hours after it went out. Grrr. Anyway storm is over now. I will post full analysis soon.

Customers may experience intermittent disruption of Wireless connectivity in Auckland (Albany, North Harbour, Rosedale) between Saturday, 26 July 2008 8:30 p.m. and Sunday, 27 July 2008 11:05 a.m.. Engineers are working to resolve this issue. Woosh Wireless apologises for any inconvenience caused and thank you in advance for your co-operation.