stephen blyth’s blog

On Wednesday I finally decided how I’d rejig my computer set up. Because of the amount of work I do in front of a screen I thought I’d probably be more productive with a bigger one. Plus a couple of times recently, my presentations haven’t worked 100% because I included multi-media that can’t be handled [...]

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Downstairs in my office I’ve got a webserver running. On Wednesday night it began hosting this blog along with some other websites, programmes and my email from its new possie. The only thing I know about keeping it going is how to switch the power back on if we have a powercut.
I appreciate the wonders [...]

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It was a year ago today that I purchased the domain www.commonknowledge.net.nz. This calls for raising of glasses and toasts. Not so much to celebrate the first birthday of a domain name, but to recognise I’ve been self-employed for my first year.
Being self-employed has its up and downs but right now I’m feeling pretty positive [...]

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My demeanour as an ihug customer has changed from happy and unflappable to disgruntled and frazzled. I’m in the middle of a broadband tale of woe.
It all started when I decided to switch ISP from ihug to TelstraClear. Faster cable broadband was the carrot, and slightly cheaper pricing a not unwelcome bonus.
TelstraClear’s customer service [...]

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The Go-Betweens album I last thrashed on the turntable was “16 Lovers Lane”, released in 1988. This was the band’s sixth and final album from their first time together. Typical of their aching literary pop it’s easy to be swept out to sea when listening to it.
Since those heady days I’ve been wary of revisiting [...]

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I’ve been searching around for a Wilco bootleg. After seeing the band play at the Opera House on Easter Monday, there’s something about the energy and intensity of the concert I’d like to recapture.
Already I’ve heard a couple of their live recordings as Wilco are prolific sharers and have embraced the Internet.
Aside for the commercially [...]

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The popularity of authors and presenters following in the footsteps of famous writers or artists, or walking the whole length of a country, mountain range, island or following some geographic feature has got me thinking about a project of my own.
Last year I really enjoyed a TV series about distinguished English actress Miriam Margolyes’ [...]

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I’ve been humming and haring about whether to upload any photos of our daugther Elsa. Something primal has struck me - I feel very protective of her and I guess I don’t want to her image freely shared willy nilly with strangers. It’s not that I think any harm will come to her (I definitely [...]

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Pounding in the background is Talking Heads from on their “Stop Making Sense” live concert, now on dvd. It’s an astoundingly good concert, with a real spark over 20 years after its first release.
Using the concert name for my repackaged blog is not a homage to Talking Heads, though I’m fond of their quirky, edgy, [...]

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There were some damn good films at The New Zealand Film Festival last month. Here’s a few of my favourites. Well, actually, a write-up a couple of the ‘promotional’ websites.
First up, a word about the offical Film Festival website itself. It’s hard to avoid Telecom’s brazen sponsorship: an overdose of branding with slick functionality. A [...]

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