Great inspirational story about dreamed of cycling the length of New Zealand. They are raising funds NZ Forest & Bird, see here https://www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/cycle4nature/ Also they are Issue a Challlenge! Challenge Wouter to complete a task. http://www.cycle4nature.org/en/Fundraising/Issue-a-Challenge.aspx

read there blog hear http://cycle4nature.blogspot.com/ and follow them on twitter http://twitter.com/cycle4nature

Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10610206

When Belgian-born Wouter Van Wezemael learned his partner was pregnant, he assumed his dream holiday was off.

The building manager had dreamed of cycling the length of New Zealand ever since he was a child, but he could not imagine doing it towing a toddler.

It took some persuasion by his Spanish love, Vanessa Mudarra, to convince him they could do the trip with Ella – now 14 months old.

They quit their jobs and set off on a 3000km journey from Cape Reinga on November 1 – Wouter pulling the luggage while Vanessa towed the buggy.

The pair decided to use their adventure to “give something back to New Zealand” and raise money for the Forest and Bird Society.

He said they planned to be in the country for five months.

They get back on the road on Saturday and plan to avoid the Auckland traffic by taking a ferry to Coromandel.

The pair are keen cyclists in their home country of Spain, but said Northland’s highways presented some unexpected challenges.

They have decided to stay off the main roads after the riding began to get dangerous approaching Whangarei.

“Some of the drivers here are absolutely insane,” said Wouter.

www.cycle4nature.org

Posted via email from Branch Design

Source: Nelson Mail / http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/3079034/Urban-design-panel-to-give-expert-advice

The Nelson and Tasman councils have formed a panel to spearhead better urban design.
The panel is made up of a group of qualified professionals including its chairman, Wellington architect and urban designer Graeme McIndoe, who has chaired the Wellington Waterfront Technical Advisory Group for several years, and is a member of the Auckland waterfront advisory group.

The remaining 10 members of the panel include Christchurch architect and convenor of the city’s urban design panel David Sheppard, Wellington architect Ian Athfield, Christchurch landscape architect and member of the city’s urban design panel Grant Edge, Nelson architects Ian Jack, John Tocker, and David Wallace, Nelson landscape architect Liz Kidson, Nelson planner Jackie McNae, Mapua urban design and landscape architect Robin Simpson and Wellington planner Jane Black.

The panel will provide free independent design reviews for projects from private developers and the councils.

City council environmental policy manager Martin Workman said that improving urban design was a priority for the councils and both were signatories to the New Zealand Urban Design Protocol.

Mr Workman said the panel would not be able to decide on resource consent applications, but it could provide advice and clear recommendations on the design of a proposal, and how it might be improved well before a resource consent application was made.

The panel’s first meeting is scheduled for December 1, and one of its initial projects is the new medical centre proposed for Collingwood St.

Nelson Mayor Kerry Marshall said it was important that the region’s developed environment was good enough to match the natural beauty of the region.

Tasman Mayor Richard Kempthorne welcomed the opportunity for reviews.

Posted via email from Branch Design

I hope we can see some of these films on line. Shame I am not in Dunedin, to see them in person

Source: http://timpierce.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/natural-history-film-premieres/

For the last 11 months 12 students of the Natural History Filmmaking Course have worked around the clock the produce 6 short (25 minutes) films.These will premiere at the Regent in Dunedin this Saturday, November 21st from 7pm. If you are around and want to be the first in the world to see the work of inspired young filmmakers. then please come along to the Premiere.

For more details on the films, please see the official poster attached
Tickets are only $5 and on sale now at the Regent itself or online.

Posted via email from Branch Design

Paul Nicklen describes his most amazing experience as a National Geographic photographer – coming face-to-face with one of the arctic’s most vicious predators.

Posted via email from Branch Design

Very interesting An Interview with Erik Spiekermann over at fontfeed.com

Source:

Still speaking a-mile-a-minute and showing no signs of slowing down, > Erik Spiek ermann coyly calls himself an “old guy”. It’s true > that he’s been around for every incar nation of type — metal, > film, and digital — but he’s no fuddy-​duddy when it comes to > new technology and new methods. Spiek ermann embraced the fledgling > world of digital type early on when he founded FontShop 20 years > ago, and he’s just as forward-​thinking now about licensing type > in an era of Web-​embeddable fonts.

http://vimeo.com/7587791

More about Erik Spiekermann here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Spiekermann

Posted via email from Branch Design

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/3061570/Guide-to-RSS-feeds

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is an internet service that lets you subscribe to feeds and updates, including newly posted videos and photos, from your favourite web pages and read them in one window.

RSS is handy for keeping up with the latest news and weather reports, blogs, job listings, and currency and sharemarket news. Not all sites have RSS, but most that are updated regularly and have a reasonable following should. RSS feeds link back to their websites, so you can click on them for more information.

HOW IT WORKS

If you’re using an Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari web browser to surf the internet you’ll see an orange symbol below the address bar that looks a bit like a speaker symbol. Clicking on the symbol will activate RSS for that web page and you’ll jump to another web page showing that site’s latest feeds and updates.

You can then subscribe to receive the feeds via your browser, or you can use a dedicated RSS reader and subscribe to feeds from your favourite websites – each reader will have different instructions for doing this.

RSS READERS

Internet browsers have simple, built-in RSS readers (although Firefox users can customise their reader using hundreds of add-on features). You can also download or sign up to use software purpose-made for gathering, presenting and sorting RSS feeds. Here are a few free options.

Google Reader www.google.com/reader

You need a (free) Gmail email account to sign up for Google Reader. The software lets you specify your interests – such as photography – and will give you a list of photography sites with RSS feeds. Users can sort feeds by date, topic and importance and can view their feeds in their iGoogle homepage.

Netvibes http://www.netvibes.com

Netvibes lets you create your own homepage, much like iGoogle and Windows Live, and read all your online content such as your latest emails and news updates from the same page. It has a built-in RSS reader, and can also gather podcasts for you from around the web.

FeedDemon http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/FeedDemon/Default.aspx

This RSS reader works on Windows operating systems only and is a favourite with reviewers. Users can set keywords for topics they’re interested in and FeedDemon will search all incoming feeds for them, and specify how often they receive feeds. FeedDemon 3.0 (the latest version) lets you synchronise your Google Reader and FeedDemon accounts, and highlights popular articles and videos from your subscribed feeds.

NetNewsWire http://www.newsgator.com/INDIVIDUALS/NETNEWSWIRE/

A reader for Mac operating systems, NetNewsWire takes note of which types of feeds interest you the most and sorts them accordingly. Users can easily email links or content to others and the service integrates with other Mac applications – such as the calendar software iCal and photo sorting and editing software iPhoto – so you can add events from feeds to your calendar and add photos from feeds to your online photo library.

Snarfer http://www.snarfware.com/

A relatively simple RSS reader, Snarfer can search incoming feeds for keywords and sort them into categories, show only unread messages, and also use other popular RSS and blog search engines to trawl the web. Users can email articles and feed lists to others through Snarfer. The software is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP and Vista operating systems.

Sources: PC Mag, Newsgator, Net for Beginners, CNET, Google, The Age.

Posted via email from Branch Design

I have been working on a new website for the artist David Stones (Yes family) over the last few weeks and we are now up and running. Have a look over at www.davidstones.co.nz for some fantastic fine art images. This site was developed on the www.wordpress.org blogging platform. You can also follow David over at www.twitter.com/davidstones and also over at Posterous: http://davidstones.posterous.com/

Posted via email from Branch Design

I am finally happy with the new landing page of www.branchdesign.co.nz Cleaner and with a simple news feed using twitter, follow me here www.twitter.com/damianstones
I have also updated my Blog http://www.branchdesign.co.nz/blog.html using FeedBurner and Posterous services http://branchdesign.posterous.com/

Posted via email from Branch Design

by Robert Ellis, Macworld.com

Download now or preview on posterous

Solve inkjet printer problems | Printers | Digital Photo | Macworld.pdf (670 KB)

Posted via email from Branch Design

Interesting site on visitor experiences

Free web seminar about visitor experience http://www.experienceology.com/classes/museumonlineclasses/downloads/downloadvisitorexperience.html

also an up coming payed seminar on interpretation http://www.experienceology.com/classes/museumvisitorexperienceonlinetraining/outdoorsignageclinicwebinar.html

tags: wayfinding, interpretation

Posted via email from Branch Design