Posts by Richard Wain

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  • Cracker: Oma Rapeti!,

    I did a similar thing on my first half marathon (yet to run another due to a couple of knee surgeries since) - I ran a slow 2 hours 25 with female running partner. Was just aiming to finish and we ran all the way. Still got passed several times by grannies who mixed up fast runs with walking!

    My pal then ran yesterday's marathon with a fast 2-hour first half, I was very impressed when I met her on the finish line - 4 and a half for the full marathon, she had to do the second half with no running pal, as hers pulled out.

    Since Nov 2006 • 155 posts Report

  • Hard News: Sunday in Super City,

    What for? Does anyone ride a bike to the rugby?

    Hey! Last time I saw the Hurricanes play at Eden Park (only time TBH) me and a buddy biked over.

    Since Nov 2006 • 155 posts Report

  • Hard News: This is what we have to work with,

    I'm with Ben, it's not so bad here. Mind you, I work in Auckland City and also live in town. I don't own a car and bike everywhere, it's great!

    Apart from nearly getting murdered every day by arrogant motorists who can't see that the lane (one of two on the main roads I take) doesn't fit them AND a bike (I try to go fast so they don't feel the need or aren't actually able to zoom past me, missing a collision by centimetres).

    One of my workplaces is five minutes away, another is slightly further off at 10 minutes. Only sucks when it rains heavily. Or when one of those abysmal drivers actually takes me out...

    Bike lanes would be nice but I don't hear these Super City folks talking about them...

    Since Nov 2006 • 155 posts Report

  • Field Theory: My first All Black game,

    That's not a kick, though it does look worse in the original wide angle shot at 00.54 than the slow-mo replays which had everyone in my lounge scratching their heads.

    Girls kick each other harder than that in football. You know, the round ball code.

    Since Nov 2006 • 155 posts Report

  • Field Theory: My first All Black game,

    What, nothing on the yellow card that wasn't? The All Blacks would still have won though - unimaginative attacking play seemingly can't stand up to pinpoint razzle dazzle under the new rule interpretations, so long as the defence also works. When was the last time the Boks strung a decent attacking move together against NZ? They can do it against Aussie...

    My first ABs game was that dull RWC quarter-final in Edinburgh. The best thing was the Scottish fans singing "You only beat us by 40" as tens of thousands of us made our way back into town, completely blocking all traffic.

    Since Nov 2006 • 155 posts Report

  • Hard News: Music's emerging digital market,

    Nice! Obviously not that big an audio nerd, me. I just bought Buffalo on FLAC and of course it won't run on my stupid iTunes... d'oh!

    But put me down for any files "at least CD size" then... why starve yourself with a 128kbps hissy piece of crap when you can just as easily have 10 times that and it sounds fantastic comparitively?

    Storage space of course. I rotate songs instead.

    Since Nov 2006 • 155 posts Report

  • Hard News: Music's emerging digital market,

    256k AAC -- generally pretty good, but occasionally problematic.

    I'll take anything 192kbps and above with FREE downloads, sure... but if it's mine and I have a choice, I ain't runnin' nothin' less than full CD size. And Apple/iTunes clearly are no use there. The default factory setting on my laptop was a horrendous 128kbps, ouch...

    Case in point: the Haiti quake disaster, Justin Timberlake singing Hallelujah with his pal Matt Morris, whoever the hell he is, on the US Hope For Haiti Telethon thing? Saw it at a TV station I was working at, thought how amazingly beautiful (and who knew JT could really, really sing?) so tried to buy it immediately as the blurb on CNN or whatever said I could... and I couldn't. Shame on them.

    So got the boffins to make me a big fat WAV file of it for the ol' Shuffle and YouSentIt to myself. Imagine my shock (if you're any kind of audio nerd) when it came in at over 2,000kbps! Who knew that was even possible?

    And to be able to listen to it on the Shuffle I had to knock it down to a mere 1,300kbps Apple Lossless file that would actually run on the wee thing. Sheesh...

    Since Nov 2006 • 155 posts Report

  • Hard News: Music's emerging digital market,

    The iTunes shop, as with so, so many things Apple, can kiss my big ass. I've never been there, you can only access it through your iTunes right? And you have to download or do something or other to get it to work eh... meh, too hard. Plus what ratio/size can you buy there? Used to be pretty small shitty files, has it improved?

    I've paid for approximately zero of my rather large digital music collection - but I have paid for the CDs it came from, some of which I bought online (thanks Smoke CDs, you guys rule!). Otherwise it's from friends' CD or digital collections, or via good MP3 blogs (not torrent sites, don't bother with that either - too much work).

    Since Nov 2006 • 155 posts Report

  • Field Theory: It's just like the droids…,

    During the recent Cricket T20 World Cup on ESPN Sportscenter the two presenters bantered about how they didn't understand cricket because it was too confusing. And while it is compared to baseball, it's nothing compared to football, hockey and basketball.

    Now you've GOT to be talking about NFL, American football right? Which BTW no one outside the US calls football.

    Association football (actual football) isn't confusing at all. Apart from the offside rule, and that only got complicated when some idiot decided there was passive and active - as in the winning goal in Monday night's Socceroos-All Whites friendly.

    Since Nov 2006 • 155 posts Report

  • Random Play: Police. Security. Screams.…,

    Well put sir.

    Since Nov 2006 • 155 posts Report

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