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Wainuiomata: On the other side

Posted on October 30, 2014 by: Shane Maru
Filed under: Reviews
Tags: wainuiomata

For some outsiders, Wainuiomata has a reputation for dullness, crime and poverty.

Over the past twenty years, jobs have been leaving Wainuiomata but with a population 17,000 that has remained relatively steady and jobs over the hill in the Hutt Valley, it has avoided "zombie town" status.

But the town is changing. We find out what life is like for 20-somethings in Wainui.

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Local Documentary

Posted on May 21, 2013 by: Wainuiomata
Filed under: Reviews
Tags: wainuiomata, documentary

A documentary is well under way which chronicles the life and work of former Wainuiomata resident and current Kapiti resident, Betty van Gaalen.

Betty is an inspirational woman and has been an influential figure at all levels of community and local government in the greater Wellington region for over 40 years. Despite retiring in the 1980s she has maintained a presence in political matters wherever she has lived.

Growing up in Bolton England, she learnt how to box to enable her to stand up to local bullies. She was then to get into trouble for hurting them. This fierce determination to make her way in the world and let nothing stop her, was to become her legacy.

Three lengthy interviews with Betty have captured a huge amount of information, and many memories of local and national political personalities.

Nimlin Productions, a Kapiti Coast based film company are working solidly on this project and hope to have it completed by the middle of next year. Anybody who has been associated with Betty over the years can support the project via Pledgeme.

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Water coolers

Posted on January 3, 2009 by: Shane Maru
Filed under: Reviews

Did you know something about those public water coolers? that the spout on the water cooler can contain germs? Imagine how many people use them to fill there water bottles? how many water bottles do people put to there lips? then fill there water bottles using a water cooler? what about the spout which the water comes out? maybe touches the water bottles? How many people are you kissing? yucky? you might catch something?

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Gearing up for Firefox 3

Posted on June 8, 2008 by: Rob van der Linde
Filed under: Announcements, Reviews

There's been a lot of hype towards Firefox 3 lately. The new version of our most popular browser has been in development for quite some time, and is due for release in June. For those of you that aren't aware of Firefox yet, it's an alternative web browser to Internet Explorer, that is released under a free Open Source licensing model (basically meaning anyone can help in developing it, fixing bugs, translation, or artwork, unlike proprietary software which is kept behind closed doors). Many people have already switched to Firefox for numerous reasons, such as tabbed browsing, integrated search, it's much faster, supports better web standards, a wealth of extensions, but most importantly protection from Spyware and other Internet threats and scams, or just the fact that it is Open Source.

Sadly, a lot of people only tend to hear about Firefox, after suffering from a really badly Spyware infested computer and taking it into a technician, getting it cleaned and being recommended Firefox as a preventative measure for the future, together with a decent Spyware removal program. These sort of trends are happening all over the world, we are not the only ones raving about Firefox. Firefox is continuing to show a rise in popularity and there are still no signs of slowing down. Firefox usage is now almost at 20% worldwide, however some countries such as Germany are much higher than that.

Firefox 3 is currently in Release Candidate stages, which means it's "almost" complete, but not quite. Firefox 3 is so stable though, a lot of people have found it more stable than Firefox 2 and are already happily running the Release Candidate now, despite it not even being finished. The latest version of the Ubuntu operating system, already has made a bold move to include Firefox 3 as it's default browser, despite it not even being finished yet, and it runs extremely well (I use Ubuntu as my primary operating system). Firefox 3 includes hundreds of new features and over 14,000 15,000 bug fixes and improvements. Rather than re-listing them here, I thought I would link to this screencast video.

Getting Firefox in the Guinness Book of Records

There's currently a campaign going on, led by the team at spreadfirefox.com, to try and get a record for the most downloaded software in 24 hours, on the day Firefox 3 is going to be released. The campaign is called "Firefox download day 2008" and you can already pledge to download it now, more information can be found on the Firefox download day website. Let's see if we can increase the number of downloads for New Zealand.

Update: Mozilla have just announced today, that the final release date for Firefox 3 will be June 17, at the time of writing that is only 5 days to go!

Update: Firefox 3 has now been released, go to the Mozilla Website and download it now. Apparently it was downloaded so many times the download server crashed at some point, but is back online now, that comes to show the immense popularity of Firefox. I had a look at the download counter, and it's already up to 2.9 million downloads in less than a day! At current, it's being downloaded at about 4600 times per minute, that's insane! I just checked it again an hour later, and it's now over 4 million downloads going steady at over 10,000 downloads a minute, that's absolutely amazing, Firefox has to be the most popular open source project ever.

Edit: spreadfirefox.com doesn't exist anymore, but getfirefox.com is it's replacement.

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IBM releases it’s Lotus Symphony office suite for free

Posted on September 20, 2007 by: Rob van der Linde
Filed under: Reviews

EDIT: Lotus Symphony no longer exists, please check out Libre Office instead.

As the title says, IBM has just released it's new office suite, Lotus Symphony free of charge. When I first read about this announcement myself, it brought back memories of IBM's classic "Lotus Smart Suite 9.5" office package, which was often installed when you brought your Windows 98 based PC. Sadly Lotus Smart Suite slowly faded away as Microsoft Office started to gain popularity, and is now virtually unheard of anymore.

IBM Lotus Symphony on the other hand, is something completely different, it's actually based on the popular free Open Office office suite. So basically "under the hood" it's still Open Office, with a fresh new look and additional features added by IBM. The good thing also, is that IBM is donating a lot of it's changes back into Open Office, so IBM is also helping Open Office along in the process. Lotus Symphony is available both for Windows as well as Linux.

Being based on Open Office, it also uses the popular Open Document file format (ODT), a free and open document standard that is now shared between many other office suites. You can still import your Microsoft Word DOC files off course, and export to DOC format too. One of the big advantages of using open standard document formats such as Open Document, is because the specification to the format is open, your documents are guaranteed to still be readable by software 20-30 years from now, which closed source formats/software cannot always guarantee.

Have a look at the screenshots if you like, on the Lotus Symphony website, or download it if you want to try it out. If you already have Microsoft Office installed, don't worry, you can run both programs on one PC no problem.

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Jobs 4 Teens

Posted on July 19, 2007 by: Shane Maru
Filed under: Reviews

Jobs 4 Teens is a dedicated online interactive job center where New Zealand teenagers can find work in their area.

Whether you are looking for a part-time job or have a part-time job to advertise, Jobs 4 Teenz is the place to reach committed teenagers right across the country willing to fill roles to earn themselves some money.

To take advantage of Jobs 4 Teens search for jobs now or Contact Us to advertise your position with us and enjoy success today!

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UPDATE: It seems this website no longer exists, links to the site have been removed, however they seem to have a Facebook Page.

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A Try Feast Against Marist St Pats

Posted on July 16, 2007 by: Shane Maru
Filed under: Reviews

Wainuiomata Rugby Football Club (Inc):

Press Release Number: 16/2007.
Date: 15th July 2007.

The Wainuiomata Auto Auctions Premier team played its best rugby of the season and thumped Marist St Pats by 57 points to 0. Dominating all facets of the game the team lead by 22 points to 0 playing into the wind. A forward pack which outplayed its opposition enabled the backs to play with flair and all of the nine tries scored were by backs.

Try scorers were Lewis Marshall with 3 tries, Geoff Gilsenan with 2 tries, Feterika Sage, Uale Mai, John Monu and Te Aonui Ririnui a try each. John Monu converted 2 tries and Earl Va’a converted 4 tries.

Player of the day was Norm Faaaliga.

This week our Premiers play Northern United at William Jones Park at 3.00 pm, – support from the community would be appreciated for our Wainuiomata Premier team.

In other results the Building World ITM under 21 team lost to Oriental Rongotai by 10 points to 22 and the Clives Chemist Shop Senior 3rd team had its first loss of the season, losing to Petone by 10 points to 18. Try scorers for the Senior 3rd team were Robert Leota and Lepaio Sola with Paul Gale being the player of the day.

The Trevor Mallards Under 85kg Weightwatchers game was cancelled due to bad ground conditions.

The 12d Presidents team lost to Petone by a large margin.

(Peter Jones)
Phone 527-3204
Email pjjonsey@xtra.co.nz

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A return to the winning post

Posted on July 9, 2007 by: Shane Maru
Filed under: Reviews

Wainuiomata Rugby Football Club (Inc):

Press Release Number: 05/2007.
Date: 08th July 2007.

The Wainuiomata Auto Auctions Premier team returned to the winning post with a well deserved 23 points to 13 win over Avalon. Playing with the win in the first half the team dominated in all phases of play and lead by 20 points to 3.

In the second half in difficult conditions the Wainuiomata team kept out a well spirited Avalon team to deserve their victory. Our local All Black and inspirational player Piri Weepu scored one try, converted two and slotted three penalties. The other try scorer was Feterika Sage.

The team was well lead by Ati Olive who deserved his player of the day award.

This week our Premiers play Marist St Pats at the Evans Bay Park at 1.15pm, – support from the community would be appreciated for our Wainuiomata Premier team.

The Clives Chemist Shop Senior 3rd team remained unbeaten with a 27 points to 5 victory over Avalon to remain on the top of their points table and are in fact the only unbeaten senior team in all of the Wellington Rugby Union grades. This is a credit to the players, but especially to their Coach/Manager Nick Domonkos. Try scorers were Trevor Bull, Satini Lealana, Alfred Lepou, Winston Va’auli and Michael Williams. Bana Lio converted one of the tries and was the player of the day.

The Trevor Mallards Under 85kg Weightwatchers had a bye and the Building World ITM under 21 game was cancelled due to bad ground conditions.

The 12d Presidents team lost to Hutt Old Boys Marist by 17 points to 0, but the player of the day was Scott Sargent due to blistering pace and aggressive play at the contact area.

The Wainuiomata Times Womans team were out played by Johnsonville by 65 points to 0.

In other news it was good to see that Corey Draper, Feterika Sage and Ben Tupuola have made the Wellington Rugby Union Colts team with our Club Coaching Co-ordinator Chris Stirling being the head coach. We wish them well for their representative commitments.

In addition during the week the Club obtained the necessary funds to revamp its current indoor training facilities located at William Jones Park. The sawdust is going to be removed and replaced with an artificial surface as well as the current lighting being replaced. This project is going to cost in excess of $53,000.00 but will mean that the Club will have the best indoor training facilities in Wellington. Work on this project will commence once the current rugby season is completed.

(Peter Jones)
Chairman
Phone 527-3204
Email pjjonsey@xtra.co.nz

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Another Narrow Loss to Upper Hutt

Posted on June 18, 2007 by: Shane Maru
Filed under: Reviews

Wainuiomata Rugby Football Club (Inc):

Press Release Number: 012/2007.
Date: 17th June 2007.

Once again the Wainuiomata Auto Auctions Premier team lost to Upper Hutt in another close encounter by 13 points to 18. Wainuiomata had the wind in the first half, but a lead of only 10 points to 0 was not enough to an Upper Hutt team who scored two tries to once again beat Wainuiomata.

Wainuiomata had the opportunity to win this game, but missed scoring opportunities in the first half along with their inability to nail scoring opportunities in the second half again resulted in an disappointing loss – a game in which if we had taken all our scoring opportunities we would have won. The difference being that when Upper Hutt had scoring opportunities they converted them to points.

In the first half Wainuiomata were awarded a penalty try, which was converted by Uale Mai who also kicked a penalty. In the second half Michael Leala’ava kicked a sole penalty goal. Player of the day was Laifa Ta’ala.

In the clubrooms, Jared Beyer was presented with his badge for playing 100 Senior games for Wainuiomata. This makes Jared the youngest player in Wainuiomata to reach his 100th game – congratulations for the Rugby Club and the Wainuiomata community.

This week our Premiers play Johnsonville at Helston Park at 3.00 pm, – support from the community would be appreciated for this vital game for the Wainuiomata Premier team.

In other games the Building World ITM Wainuiomata Colts team beat Upper Hutt by 34 points to 15 to remain unbeaten in their championship round. Try scorers were Eden Monu, Paris Winiata, Tau Mamea and two tries to Caleb Kahui. Jason Rogers converted 3 tries and slotted one penalty. Player of the day was Matthew Jacobs.

The Clives Chemist Shop Senior 3rd team won by default to Norths, as the Norths team only turned up with nine players.

The Trevor Mallards Under 85kg Weightwatchers beat HOBM by 32 points to 24. Jermaine Pasene scored one try while Patrick Wright scored three tries with Bernard Wright converting three tries and slotted two penalties. Player of the day was Michael Sukroo.

The 12d Presidents team travelled well to Mary Crowther Park and beat Paremata Plimmerton by 29 points to 27. A very close encounter in which their training at the bar paid off. Try scorers were Lee Bosworth, Geoff Goddard, Peter Griffin, Willie Power, and Barney. Brent Jeffrey’s converted two tries. Player of the day was Warren Dowman.

The Wainuiomata Times Womans team narrowly lost to Old Boys University by 20 points to 15.

(Peter Jones)
Chairman
Phone 527-3204
Email pjjonsey@xtra.co.nz

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Wainuiomata team played with distinction

Posted on June 12, 2007 by: Shane Maru
Filed under: Reviews

Wainuiomata Rugby Football Club (Inc):

Press Release Number: 011/2007.
Date: 10th June 2007.

This week the Wainuiomata Auto Auction Premier 1 played Petone and played with distinction, losing by 27 points to 39. For large parts of the game the Wainuiomata team attacked the Petone try line and were unlucky not to score at least another 3 tries.

The forward competed well against a bigger Petone pack and once the Wainuiomata back line received some good ball they threatened the Petone defence. Petone at half time lead by 20 points to 3. With the three points coming from a Jared Beyer penalty. In the second half Uale Mai scored two tries with one conversion, John Monu and Geoff Gilsenan scored a try each with Jared Beyer one conversion to earn the team a bonus point for scoring 4 tries.

The second half performance showed that this young Wainuiomata team can compete at the top level of Wellington Rugby and will be a dominant force in the Hardham Cup.

Another interest in this game was that both Jared Beyer and Geoff Gilsenan were playing their 99th game for the Wainuiomata senior team.

This week our Premiers play Upper Hutt at William Jones Park at 3.00 pm, – support from the community would be appreciated for this vital first round game of the Hardham Cup.

In other games the Building World ITM Wainuiomata Colts team beat Johnsonville by 53 points to 20. Try scorers were Ben Tupiliola, Wayne Aiomata, Glen Angus, Matthew Jacobs, Paris Winata, Tau Mamea, Caleb Kahui and Jason Love who scored one try, five conversions and one penalty. Player of the day was Ben Tupiliola.

The Clives Chemist Shop Senior 3rd team drew with top of the table Oriental Rongotai 15 points all to remain unbeaten. Try scorers were Alfe Lepou and Joshua Bowles with Henry Lea’ana converting one try and scoring one penalty. Player of the day was Akuso Akuso.

The Trevor Mallards Under 85kg Weightwatchers narrowly lost to Poneke by 17 points to 24.

The 12d Presidents team travelled well and had a very good victory against Rimutaka by 37 points to 26.

The Wainuiomata Times Womans team had a bye this week.

(Peter Jones)
Chairman
Phone 527-3204
Email pjjonsey@xtra.co.nz

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