FijiTV Editing Awards

The latest news saga in Fiji has to do with the deportation of the Fiji Sun's publisher and editor-in-chief. It's an unfortunate story, too.

I received a call yesterday afternoon from a reporter at FijiTV. She wanted to ask me questions about email security as it related to this news story. I answered her questions but then she asked whether they could film me on camera. I told her I wasn't comfortable with that given the current environment but she insisted that this was completely non-political. Stupidly, I relented.

She came over and asked me some initial questions about email security and how someone could gain access to other people's email. I said some things about how people inside a company can have access, how Internet providers can have access, etc...

The conversation then seemed to shift over to these email documents which, if FijiTV is to be believed, were at the center of this deportation story.

Beqa Shark Dive

Been a week since I posted..that's not cool. Been busy...lots of stuff happening.

Stanley and I took a trip down the coast Friday night for a short trip and I finally got around to doing the shark dive at Beqa yesterday morning. Was more incredible a dive than I could have ever imagined. Without starting a debate over whether this is a good thing to be interacting with sharks in this manner, I walked away (or swam away, in this case) with a new found respect for them.

To be surrounded by such an abundance of sea life from the sharks to the giant trevally to the enormous grouper that showed up at the end, what a way to spend a morning. On the shark side of things, a gang of lemon sharks and nurse sharks made up much of the first dive while the second one introduced a bunch of ultra-fast grey tips, white tips, black tips and then the almighty bulls. The bulls are the meanest looking of the bunch and look to be always on the verge of insanity. At one point, a single bull changed direction quickly and looked my way. My air reserves depleted at a much faster rate.

A huge "vinaka" to Boris from Waidroka for leading me on the trip as well as the crew from AquaTrek Fiji for filming and who, once again, have shown me an incredible time underwater. The dive was so well organised and the thanks goes to these operators.

Video clip below of my dive put together via footage from AquaTrek. If you dive, you absolutely need to think about doing this trip. [update: I added some sound...the soundless version seemed to be missing something but if you'd prefer that, it's available by turning off your speakers.][update 2: sound back off...was seeing problems with this file but will aim to get it back up.]

Digital Talanoa : Mobiles, Medicines and Mavericks

I can very clearly remember a conversation I had with my father almost 20 years or so ago. He had just purchased a new car and at that time, it was becoming popular to have mobile phones installed as an option. My dad’s reasons for having this extra feature seemed legitimate. He felt that he might need to be reachable when outside of the office. Personal mobile phones were also becoming more common at the time and although a bit large and heavy compared to today’s handsets, I asked whether he would have just been better off with one of those. He strongly opposed the idea. I can very clearly remember him saying to me “No way. I don’t want to be reachable all the time!”

Fast forward 20 years. I’m on the phone with my father helping him troubleshoot his new BlackBerry. It had suddenly stopped delivering emails and he was on the verge of digital rage. His installed car phone gone long ago and now replaced by this new device allowing anyone, anywhere in the world to call him, text him, email him or instant message him. When it doesn’t work correctly, my father gets close to melting. The amusing part of this story is that as we’re trying to figure out what was wrong with the device, my father was surrounded by both a regular telephone and a computer, two items which effectively do the very things he’s struggling with on his handheld. Only technology has the ability to create such behaviour.

Mailife : www.mailife.com.fj

Community websites. Social networks. Flash. Blah, blah, blah.

There are many opinions about what makes a good website. All of them are relevant and justified in the eyes of the person voicing the opinion. At the end of the day, however, the only thing that ultimately does matter is whether the website meets the expectations of the person visiting it. Everything else tends to be irrelevant.

Oceanic has been working with the team at MaiLife during the past few months on the planning, designing and developing of a new website for the magazine. We’ll be launching it towards the end of February if all goes as planned. Although we obviously want the site to look good and fit the MaiLife brand, we also want it to evolve into something a bit different. It’s a alternative medium, after all. From the day we began talking about it, everyone has wanted to build a site for MaiLife that would be an extension of the print magazine (and visa-versa). This is better than just building a place to dump an article or two every month and hope people visit.

Activity of the Week : Spin the Black Circle

It's been a while since I posted an activity. This one can last for months, if it doesn't drive you crazy first. I'm warning you in advance to cancel all activities for the next several hours if you click the link and begin playing this friggin' activity. Should you lose the skin on your fingers, don't come crying to me. If your partner leaves you, don't blame me. If you find yourself a bubbling mess of damaged jello, sitting in the corner of a room batting away invisible insects and screaming things like "watch out for the spikes! watch out for the spikes!", it's not my fault. You've been warned.

Play the game.