I love the idea of Kiva and have just made my 170th loan. If you'd like to start doing the same you Kiva is giving away free loans for people to try out the service.To sign up to Kiva, click here To View More >>

I so love this speech on TED because Sir Ken Robinson puts forward such a powerful argument contrasting what he sees as the current failure of the education system in the USA and his proposed alternative. I often wonder if education is being ruined by political correctness? Now don't get me wrong, I am all for behaving well and being aware of our behaviour toward other cultures, ideals, religions and the opposite sex; I just don't think people always think differently, they just know 'what not to say', and that's not the same thing. I often observe situations where I believe people are To View More >>

This is one powerful story. A very inspiring and incredibly convincing story about the power of getting your hands dirty. I love that we're re writing the rules of society and building the world we want to live in. "Growing your own food is like printing money" Wow what an wonderful man. To View More >>

Early last year I had three things on my mind. I was researching the possible use of Amazon AWS for a project we were working on; I was watching the events at the Auckland Startup Weekend wishing I was there; and finally I was preparing for a presentation I was due to give at the College of Business at Massey University. It was a holiday weekend, so much to Sonya's dismay, I wondered if I could run my own Start Weekend. The question I asked myself was "Could I launch an internet business in one weekend, in the process write all the code, learn AWS including EC2, Route53, To View More >>

Photographers, and my other blogger friends, I have decided to take the "31 Days to a Better Blog challenge" by Pro Blogger. I downloaded the book last week and, having read it, decided it it has a lot to offer, especially at a time I'm considering how to bring more focus and value to my blog. Please Join Me I'd love to find photographers, and any other bloggers, that would like to undertake the challenge with me. If you would like to join me on this exciting and rewarding adventure, you will need to buy the book here, and if you constructively, and honestly, give feedback on my progress I To View More >>

I've been so excited by this story since yesterday I just had to share. Yesterday Danny told me that one of our developers, Simon, had launched a game on the iTunes app store. I was interested but to be honest, at least initially, more polite than excited. That was until Simon introduced me to "Nutty Bugs", and then I was blown away. I am not easily impressed, but it's not an overstatement to say that I was stunned. Stunned, not just because I had no idea about the project, but because what they have created is so complete and professional. In six months they have not only developed a game, they've To View More >>

I just had a wonderful evening with CEOs from some of New Zealand's best companies. The group was brought together by Better By Design to visit some of the USA's best Design-led and Innovative companies. It's going to be an amazing week, challenging I am sure, but an interesting thing happened tonight: if you like, a small distinction became clear to me. There I was talking to Diego Rodriguez a partner at Ideo, a brilliant design company, and Perry Klebahn a consulting associate professor at Stanford Design School, two great people who were truly gracious in the knowledge they shared. To be honest, To View More >>

Derek Sivers did a talk at TED about this crazy dancing guy and what we can learn from him in terms of leadership, and more importantly about the importance of the first few followers. "If you want a movement, a leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous". What you really need however is the first few followers, you need to nurture these people as they indicate to the masses that following is ok. Because they help to establish momentum, we need to love and embrace our followers as equals. In the video watch a movement happen in under 3 minutes as Derek dissects some lessons To View More >>

People with dirty jobs are happier In this movie Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs does two things, first he talks about a day he worked on a farm and amongst other things docks lambs. I saw this show and couldn't believe he did what he did. I thought it was inhumane and as it turns out initially he did too, but in an entertaining fashion he talks through his learning and explains. The second thing he does is he makes the point that in his opinion people with Dirty Jobs are happier. He puts forward a strong case that following the advice "Follow Your Passion" might be bad advice. For some it will To View More >>

Hi everyone. I have been asked a lot recently about my website, especially who hosts it and about the fact that I have it monitored 24/7 for uptime and reliability. Basically late last year I had lots of issues with uptime of my blog, so moved to Host Gator. They have been amazing. The server is quick, but the support has been even better. Even while a hurricane battered their data and call centre the support tickets continued to be answered. Below is a link to their site if you're interested, trust me they are cool and about 10 of my friends host with them now, they consistently rate high on "Best To View More >>