building an island’s economy

While holidaying in Rarotonga in 2010 I was impressed by the effort many young people were making to build the economy of the island, primarily within the tourist industry. These young people had often been educated in other countries, such as New Zealand, and were bringing back what they had learned to try and move the country ahead. In particular they were trying to implement innovative ideas, building on the natural and historic resources of the islands, that matched the type of tourist experiences people might have in other countries. Really interesting things don’t happen only in Silicon Valley!

Tuscany

The hills of Tuscany; a much photographed area, and my photo here is no different from most other shots people have taken. The main impression I wanted to capture from my photos of this area was how similar it was to parts of New Zealand. In fact whenever I could get a shot of the country side that didn’t  include a medieval village, or tower, or wall and so on I was sure that if I showed the photo to someone in New Zealand and said it was a photo of somewhere in , say Hawke’s Bay, they would believe me. The feeling that I had of an affinity with this country side was quite special and made me realise that there is in fact more communality in the geography of the world than divergence.

Boeing factory Seattle

Another highlight of being in Seattle was a visit to the Boeing factory. This was quite special for me given that I had spent many years, as an aircraft engineer, working on Boeing aircraft – mainly 737s. Unfortunately, we couldn’t visit the actual factory because of worker strike action, but it was great to be in the place that had produced the planes I spent so many years working on (although this wasn’t the part of the Boeing network where 737s were produced!). We did get to see the Boeing history and display section which had several mock ups of parts of the 787; definitely worth seeing.

stretcher frame with cross bars Roy Lichtenstein

Bernadette standing beside Roy Lichtenstein’s “Stretcher Frame with Cross Bars”. The reason I like this photo is that it is an example of where I used search technology to find the title and painter of the picture. I searched a range of possible  titles using Google images (such as “pop art windows”, “window picture”, – names of some artist such as Warhol, Lichtenstein) and eventually found a matching image. It wasn’t easy as there are some look a likes, and the title, of course, does not include “window” in it.

Bill Gates Home

 

Somewhere amongst these trees is the Bill Gates residence. It may seem a small thing but Bill Gates is one of my “up there” heroes, and to be in proximity of where he lives, in Seattle, was really exciting. I think people on the tour bus thought I was a bit “nutty” as I raced from window to window trying to get in a good shot. But for me it was a “psychological” connection that signalled “Bill is a real person”;  not just someone who lives in “computer land”. Wow !

Denys with early computer set up

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This is me, a much younger me, sitting at my desk with one of my first computer set ups. We were early adopters in the use of computer technology, compared to other special education offices in the country. Not only did we have a computer on each desk, but they were also networked. This allowed me to start developing a client management system, long before anyone thought this would be possible. This has evolved into a comprehensive web based system. In many ways if I compare what we had back then with what we have now, it mirrors the rapid development of computing technology over the past two decades. I suspect that we will have similar levels of change over the next twenty or so years. It is important to document the change that has occurred so far and used this to inform future directions; we have learnt a lot about developing robust and workable systems and this will lead to even better systems in the future.

Casa Nova's house

While in Venice you can also float past Casa Nova's house. Not that I know a lot about Casa Nova and his history, but I didn't know that he lived on a canal. Venice is a city with many unexpected twists and turns.