ponoko
My ex work colleague Dave ten Have is making his dream real with new venture Ponoko.
Ponoko allows designers to have their own workshop and factory to create products…as well as an online showroom to sell their designs.
It’s a great idea, especially for spatial/industrial designers who can create in a 3D space or visualise realworld creations.
I think this idea has huge potential for the hazy future when nano-technology promises to deliver desktop nano-factories – allowing people to download a design then ‘render’ a functional product in their living room.
WOMAD
My fifth WOMAD was one of the best ever and has to be the most diverse music festival out there – the musical variety is unmatched and the event is also an incredible melting pot of New Zealanders and world citizens.
Quite a few of my friends and family came along this time as well and are raving about it. The event is in danger of becoming too popular (it sold out), and the organisers now plan to run it annually instead of bi-annually.
Highlights included Etran Finatawa (Niger), Mahotella Queens (South Africa), Mr Scruff (UK), Gotan project (France/Argentina) and the The Mamaku Project (NZ).
UPDATE: Comprehensive WOMAD coverage, including embrassing videos of me dancing, can be found over on Webweaver.
child beaters
In New Zealand it is legal defensible to beat-up children…
Some policians are trying to pass a bill to ensure children have the same rights to be protected from violence as adults do.
But, to my disgust, thousands of people are trying to defend their right to hit their children by running protest marches, running advertising campaigns and more.
It’s rediculous to think the state will jail parents just because they might smack a child’s hand when they are about to stick a fork in a plug-socket or trash a supermarket display – people who think this are out of touch with reality and have probably never experienced or witnessed real violence against young children.
Fact is that little kids are getting bruises, broken bones and worse due to adults not knowing the boundaries and not being held accountable for their actions.
ACC
Recently ACC subjected me to a dehumanising experience.
Just before Christmas I received a $100 bill from ACC (which I decided to pay after my holiday break). Then in early February I received a warning letter from ACC’s debt collector (addressed to “Paraparaumu, Australia”).
…I paid.
A few weeks later they then threatened to fine me $1500 (for a measily $100 bill which I’d already paid!).
I complained to ACC about the experience and how they should take a lead from IRD who now use different tactics and treat tax payers with some respect.
The response I got from ACC was [insert descriptive word here].
I’ll have more on this in a later blog… (in the interest of exposing their flaws and in hope of them improving their wicked ways. Hey …it worked with Kiwibank!).
and in other news
you’re not alone
My goal of reaching 1000 regular blog subscribers by the end of 2007 is nearly halfway there! Welcome aboard!
going up in the world?
My website Google Ranking appears to have jumped from 4 to 5. It has done this a few times in the past but has now been fixed on 5 for a week. Not bad for an obscure little blog.
will the real Zef please stand up?
And for the person who keeps searching on google.co.nz for “Zef Fugaz” real name (it shows up in my Search Engine Queries) some of the answer is here.
The full story is a tad complicated…
My name at birth was “Joseph Renata Wilson” – this was later changed to “Jozef Wilson”. My nickname became “Zef” and this has stuck for over 20 years now.
“Fugaz” came about for various reasons…
One being my fascination an involvement with Spanish, Cuban (Salsa) and Colombian (Cumbia) music…
The other being Hale-Bopp Comet which I saw though a large telescope outside Dunedin in ’97.
At the time I was a 3D animation whizzkid and spent hours creating a replica of the comet in 3D Studio – complete with transparency, blur and my own particle effects (which in the mid-90s was bleeding-edge stuff).
The other influence was my girlfriend of the time – Lisa Maria – who also shared my fascination with comets, shooting stars and stuff like that.
We looked-up the Spanish translation for “shooting star” which is “Estrella-Fugaz”.
“Estrella” just happened to be one of the names I was already using for one of my music-performance non-de-plumes (along with DJ Java, DJ Fiesta and the Kaos Posse).
And… I was bored with ‘Wilson’.
So I changed my name by deedpoll in 1997 to ‘Zef Estrella Fugaz’.
Now I’m older this all seems a bit whacky and strange, but I was never one for normality.
My mother also changed her (first) name when she was young, so maybe it’s in my blood!
Adios,
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