Man attacked by shark at Auckland beach (New Zealand, Monavid)

(Source: NZ Herald)9:38AM Saturday Dec 20, 2008, Auckland, New Zealand:

A man believes he is lucky to be alive after a shark attack at a popular beach near Auckland.

Keen fisherman Ken Lindberg says he was checking his net at Maraetai, when he felt something clamp around his leg.

He waded back into shallow water to take a look and found a big gash in his leg.

";Doctors and nurses held my leg right up to stop the bleeding. On the outside of the left leg there are eight to ten stitches in that gash. Underneath the Achilles tendon is severed and I';ve got about four stitches in that.";

Mr Lindberg says he has not been out to set his net since he was bitten.

Source: Newstalk ZB

Auckland City View form MIssion Bay, New Zealand (davidlim, monavie)

You can click on the picture for a larger view.

How to Pimp your FireFox Broswer, Auckland, New Zealand, Monavie

Firefox 3 is not only one of the slickest web browsers I've ever used, but its also the leanest, meanest, and depending on which benchmarks you read, one of the fastest too. Best of all however, Firefox 3 is also incredibly customisable.

Adding add-ons

Add-ons are central to pimping out Firefox 3 with the near endless range of add-ons available providing tonnes of customisation options. Finding cool add-ons is as simple as this 4 step process.

1) Firing up Firefox, go to the Firefox Add-ons website.

2) Use the search box (or the drop down category list) to search for add-ons you'd like to install.

3) Once you've found an add-on that tickles your fancy, click the big green "Add To Firefox" button and the Software Installation window will appear. After a brief countdown click the "Install Now" button and Firefox will install your Add-on.

4) Restart Firefox

Useful Firefox Add-ons

Here's my pick of really useful add-ons to get you started:

DownThemAll!: By intelligently downloading separate parts of a file using multiple yet simultaneous download requests, DownThemAll! maximises throughput from your broadband connection to give you super fast, resumable downloads.

IE Tab: Many websites still won't play nice with Firefox. IE tab fixes this by putting an icon at the bottom of the Firefox status bar which allows misbehaved webpages to be rendererd using Internet Explorer in Firefox. Nicer still you can also nominate sites you want to be rendered using IE Tab.

New Tab Button on Tab Right: Internet Explorer might seem a tad pokey compared to Firefox, but being able to click on a new tab button is one feature Firefox sadly lacks. New Tab Button on Tab Right remedies this omission by giving Firefox similar functionality.

Foxmarks Bookmarks Synchronizer: Foxmarks allow you to synchronise bookmarks across all your of Firefox browsers, be they at work or on another computer. After creating a free Foxmarks account you can even log into the Foxmarks website to access your bookmarks when using someone elses PC.

Adblock Plus: There's nothing worse than spending an eternity tweaking your web browser and optimising your network settings only to go to your favourite website and have it slow to a crawl as dodgy banner adverts served up from a sluggish ad server in Outer Mongolia take forever to load. Using Adblock Plus banishing this problem is as simple as right-clicking on an offending add banner and choosing "Adblock" from the pop up menu. You can also select a filter subscription which will block most advertisements automatically, significantly speeding things up.

MORE SPEED

Adding extra oomph to Firefox will allow you to wring every bit of spare capacity out of your broadband connection. There's two ways of doing this, the easy way (quick fix solution), or the more difficult (but infinitely more tweakable) way using four separate, but relatively easy, tweaks under Firefox's hood.

Easy way

Click Tools, then Add-ons. You should now see a list of recommended Firefox plugins. In the upper right corner of this screen, you should see the link 'Browse all Add-ons', click this and you'll be transported to the Firefox Add-on's website. Search for 'Tweak Network' in the search box and then download Tweak Network 1.3

After you've re-started Firefox, once again click Tools, and you should now see Tweak Network Settings, click it. A pop up box will appear, on its bottom half you should see a section marked 'Default' and 'Power'.

Click Power and then Apply. Web pages should now render significantly faster. Not all websites will however play nice with the Power settings. If this is the case, go back to the Tweak Network Settings dialog box and re-apply its default settings.

Hard way

These tweaks will involve a little digging under Firefox's hood and have worked extremely well for large numbers of tweakers. This said, these tweaks are "as-is" so we take no responsibility should Firefox cease to work.

Large web sites can take ages to download and Firefox updates is configured by default to update the web page about every 12th of a second. These updates can however make Firefox sluggish.

Tweaking Firefox to do less frequent updates can make things a whole lot snappier. Fire up Firefox, Type about:config in its address bar, clicking the "yes I'll be careful" warning. Four columns of settings should appear. Right-click and select New, and then select Integer. In the preference name box that pops up, type content.notify.interval, click OK and then enter 500000, click OK. Right-click again and select New Boolean. Create a value called content.notify.ontimer and set it to True.

Another Firefox setting is content switch threshold, can make Firefox less responsive but able to load web pages faster. Tweaking this can improve the overall responsiveness of Firefox. As per before, Type about:config in the address bar, pressing Enter, right click an empty spot in the browser window, and select New , then Integer. In the pop up type content.switch.threshold, click OK, next entering 250000 and then click OK.

Firefox stores frequently accessed images and other stuff in a cache on your PC, where they can be accessed faster than being downloaded each time you navigate to the same page. Assuming your PC has 2Gb or more RAM, increasing this cache size can make a big difference. If you don't have 2Gb of RAM installed, you'd best skip this tweak (or add more RAM).

As with the previous hacks, Type about:config, pressing Enter. Right clicking a blank piece of browser window real-estate, select New then Integer. In the pop up box, type browser.cache.memory.capacity, clicking OK and then entering 65536. Click OK, restart your browser and you're now the proud owner of a barely used, yet larger browser cache.

Like most web browsers, Firefox typically sends a request for a page to the web server and waits for a response. This funky tweak will allow Firefox to send multiple requests without waiting, resulting in really fast web page downloads.

Type about:config in Firefox's address bar, double-clicking the network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining.variables and setting their values to true.

Next double-click network.http.pipelining.maxrequests and set it to '8'.

Not all web servers support this, so beware this tweak can sometimes slow page download times (if you find this to be the case, double click network.http.proxy.pipelining and set it to false).

Skippy Lim, Auckland, New Zealand, (Jack Russell, pet, dog)

Click on the picture for a larger view of Skippy Lim.

Moko: The Friendly Dolphine of Mahia, New Zealand, "David Lim"

(Source: Gisborne Herald)

19-December-2008--When the sun beats down on Mahia Beach and the sea is calm, Moko the friendly bottlenose dolphin cuts a familiar shape against the horizon.

The three-year-old dolphin has made Mahia Beach her home for more than a year-and-a-half, and now the summer holidays bring a new batch of eager children to entertain.

Many a bodyboard, crayfish buoy and rugby ball have been taken out to sea, never to be seen again, as the cheeky dolphin continues to play on her own.

Others have been on the receiving end of Moko's generosity, said Department of Conservation programme manager Jamie Quirk.

"She has actually been bringing fish to people. People have had kahawai and gurnard brought to them and some lucky people have had her bring them seahorses," he said.

Mahia local Bill Shortt has been watching Moko's movements since she first came to the region during Easter 2007.

"Moko is getting tamer than ever," he said.

"It's really amusing. She comes right into the shore now, into only a few feet of water to play with the children.

"She certainly hasn't gone anywhere. She follows boats in and out of the bay and plays havoc with my cray pots. She bunts the buoys and drags the pots together, tangling them."

Moko gained international attention when she saved two pygmy sperm whales from certain death after they stranded themselves.

A large sandbar just offshore confused the whales, who kept turning back and stranding again, until Moko appeared out of nowhere to lead the whales through the boat channel and out to sea and safety.

Moko's fame had brought even more visitors to the region, said Mr Shortt.

"Ever since that rescue she has been in virtually every newspaper and on every TV screen across the world but she just continues to cruise around here and wait for people to come play with her.

"We had a group of girls from France and Germany not long ago. After swimming with Moko they were so excited and called home straight away.

"She has certainly grown over winter, so it is timely to warn people that she is not a pet or a play thing.

"People can have amazing experiences with her but they need to remember she is now even more capable of inflicting injuries on people, should they do something she doesn't particularly like.

"People need to treat her with dignity that a wild animal like her deserves."

Angels on Karangahape Road, Newtown, Auckland, New Zealand, Monavie

Did the Angels come to Auckland a bit early this year for Christmas?

Power Tips: 20 Great Google Secrets, Internet Search, Web, Auckland, New Zealand

Google is clearly the best general-purpose search engine on the Web

But most people don’t use it to its best advantage. Do you just plug in a keyword or two and hope for the best? That may be the quickest way to search, but with more than 3 billion pages in Google’s index, it’s still a struggle to pare results to a manageable number.

But Google is an remarkably powerful tool that can ease and enhance your Internet exploration. Google’s search options go beyond simple keywords, the Web, and even its own programmers. Let’s look at some of Google’s lesser-known options.

Syntax Search Tricks

Using a special syntax is a way to tell Google that you want to restrict your searches to certain elements or characteristics of Web pages. Google has a fairly complete list of its syntax elements at:

www.google.com/help/operators.html

Here are some advanced operators that can help narrow down your search results.

Intitle: at the beginning of a query word or phrase (intitle:”Three Blind Mice”) restricts your search results to just the titles of Web pages.

Intext: does the opposite of intitle:, searching only the body text, ignoring titles, links, and so forth. Intext: is perfect when what you’re searching for might commonly appear in URLs. If you’re looking for the term HTML, for example, and you don’t want to get results such as

www.mysite.com/index.html

You can also enter intext:html.

Link: lets you see which pages are linking to your Web page or to another page you’re interested in. For example, try typing in

link:http://www.hungry-hackers.com

Try using site: (which restricts results to top-level domains) with intitle: to find certain types of pages. For example, get scholarly pages about Mark Twain by searching for intitle:”Mark Twain”site:edu. Experiment with mixing various elements; you’ll develop several strategies for finding the stuff you want more effectively. The site: command is very helpful as an alternative to the mediocre search engines built into many sites.

Swiss Army Google

Google has a number of services that can help you accomplish tasks you may never have thought to use Google for. For example, the new calculator feature

(www.google.com/help/features.html#calculator)

Lets you do both math and a variety of conversions from the search box. For extra fun, try the query “Answer to life the universe and everything.”

Let Google help you figure out whether you’ve got the right spelling—and the right word—for your search. Enter a misspelled word or phrase into the query box (try “thre blund mise”) and Google may suggest a proper spelling. This doesn’t always succeed; it works best when the word you’re searching for can be found in a dictionary. Once you search for a properly spelled word, look at the results page, which repeats your query. (If you’re searching for “three blind mice,” underneath the search window will appear a statement such as Searched the web for “three blind mice.”) You’ll discover that you can click on each word in your search phrase and get a definition from a dictionary.

Suppose you want to contact someone and don’t have his phone number handy. Google can help you with that, too. Just enter a name, city, and state. (The city is optional, but you must enter a state.) If a phone number matches the listing, you’ll see it at the top of the search results along with a map link to the address. If you’d rather restrict your results, use rphonebook: for residential listings or bphonebook: for business listings. If you’d rather use a search form for business phone listings, try Yellow Search

(www.buzztoolbox.com/google/yellowsearch.shtml).

Extended Googling.

Google offers several services that give you a head start in focusing your search. Google Groups

(http://groups.google.com)

indexes literally millions of messages from decades of discussion on Usenet. Google even helps you with your shopping via two tools: Froogle (http://froogle.google.com),

which indexes products from online stores, and Google Catalogs (http://catalogs.google.com),

which features products from more 6,000 paper catalogs in a searchable index. And this only scratches the surface. You can get a complete list of Google’s tools and services at

www.google.com/options/index.html

You’re probably used to using Google in your browser. But have you ever thought of using Google outside your browser?

Google Alert (www.googlealert.com)

monitors your search terms and e-mails you information about new additions to Google’s Web index. (Google Alert is not affiliated with Google; it uses Google’s Web services API to perform its searches.) If you’re more interested in news stories than general Web content, check out the beta version of Google News Alerts (www.google.com/newsalerts).

This service (which is affiliated with Google) will monitor up to 50 news queries per e-mail address and send you information about news stories that match your query. (Hint: Use the intitle: and source: syntax elements with Google News to limit the number of alerts you get.)

Google on the telephone? Yup. This service is brought to you by the folks at Google Labs (http://labs.google.com),

a place for experimental Google ideas and features (which may come and go, so what’s there at this writing might not be there when you decide to check it out). With Google Voice Search (http://labs1.google.com/gvs.html),

you dial the Voice Search phone number, speak your keywords, and then click on the indicated link. Every time you say a new search term, the results page will refresh with your new query (you must have JavaScript enabled for this to work). Remember, this service is still in an experimental phase, so don’t expect 100 percent success.

In 2002, Google released the Google API (application programming interface), a way for programmers to access Google’s search engine results without violating the Google Terms of Service. A lot of people have created useful (and occasionally not-so-useful but interesting) applications not available from Google itself, such as Google Alert. For many applications, you’ll need an API key, which is available free from CODE
www.google.com/apis

Thanks to its many different search properties, Google goes far beyond a regular search engine. Give the tricks in this article a try. You’ll be amazed at how many different ways Google can improve your Internet searching.

Online Extra: More Google Tips. Here are a few more clever ways to tweak your Google searches.

Search Within a Timeframe

Daterange: (start date–end date). You can restrict your searches to pages that were indexed within a certain time period. Daterange: searches by when Google indexed a page, not when the page itself was created. This operator can help you ensure that results will have fresh content (by using recent dates), or you can use it to avoid a topic’s current-news blizzard and concentrate only on older results. Daterange: is actually more useful if you go elsewhere to take advantage of it, because daterange: requires Julian dates, not standard Gregorian dates. You can find converters on the Web (such as

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/JulianDate.html

excl.gif No Active Links, Read the Rules - Edit by Ninja excl.gif), but an easier way is to do a Google daterange: search by filling in a form at

www.researchbuzz.com/toolbox/goofresh.shtml or www.faganfinder.com/engines/google.shtml

If one special syntax element is good, two must be better, right? Sometimes. Though some operators can’t be mixed (you can’t use the link: operator with anything else) many can be, quickly narrowing your results to a less overwhelming number.

More Google API Applications

Staggernation.com offers three tools based on the Google API. The Google API Web Search by Host (GAWSH) lists the Web hosts of the results for a given query

(www.staggernation.com/gawsh/).

When you click on the triangle next to each host, you get a list of results for that host. The Google API Relation Browsing Outliner (GARBO) is a little more complicated: You enter a URL and choose whether you want pages that related to the URL or linked to the URL

(www.staggernation.com/garbo/).

Click on the triangle next to an URL to get a list of pages linked or related to that particular URL. CapeMail is an e-mail search application that allows you to send an e-mail to google@capeclear.com with the text of your query in the subject line and get the first ten results for that query back. Maybe it’s not something you’d do every day, but if your cell phone does e-mail and doesn’t do Web browsing, this is a very handy address to know.

Top Ten Tips and Tricks on iPhone, Auckland, New Zealand, David Lim

Here are top ten tips and tricks for iPhone which will make your navigation process easy.

Check the following top ten tips and tricks for iPhone. You can use these tricks to make your digital life simpler.

Home Button This button is your all time best buddy. While playing around with iPhone if you are lost, just press the Home button. You will get back to your familiar iPhone Home screen. The Home button is always located at the bottom.

Remember your own Phone Number

• If you have problems remembering your phone number, first hit the home button.
• Select settings in the bottom right corner.
• Scroll down to Phone, select it, and then look at the top center of the screen. You get your number there.

Modify iPod Menu Buttons Go to main menu. Select the iPod icon. Now select the More icon. Click the Edit icon. You can drag the icon down into the menu over the icon you want replaced.

Mailing Safari URL Go to the page that you want to mail in Safari Now tap the address bar, which will show the address bar. Click the Share button at the top left corner. A compose email shall open with the URL included as the message of the email. It will also have the subject line. You can add the email address and click on send.

Exit Frozen application

If you think a program or an application is frozen for quite a long time, you can close it by pressing and holding the home button for few seconds until it releases.

Move and Delete items

• Need to go into your favorites or mail messages or other items screen.
• Now click the Edit button.
• You can delete an item by clicking the red icon beside the name.
• Confirm the deletion.
• If you want to move a Bookmark or Favorite, click the icon to the right of the name.
• And then slide the name to the position you wish.
• One more way to slide your finger from left to right, over the item, which shows the delete button.
  

Hard Reset Press and hold the sleep or wake button on top of the iPhone, and the Home button on the button front for few seconds. You will see the apple logo.. let it go and iPhone will reboot.

Power down and Power Up

• Press and hold the sleep or wake, which is at the top of iPhone for several seconds.
• You will see the screen changing and will display Slide to Power Off.
• Slide the Power off button from left to right.
• If you want to turn your phone back on, press the same on/off button on the top of the phone for a few seconds. It will start up again.

Automatic mail checking

• Go to home screen. Tap the settings icon, and then the mail section.
• Tap the Auto check option. You will get it once you scroll down.
• Select the how frequently you want your mail updated.
  

Enabling Caps Lock Feature

• Click on Settings in the home screen.
• Click on General on the next screen.
• Now touch the keyboard button.
• You will find a tap next to Enable Caps Lock. Click on it.
• To use this feature, double tap the shift key and you will see it turning blue. It implies that you are in the caps locks mode.
• Tap the shift key again to quit the caps lock mode.