Friday, November 20, 2009

Another Zenbu wifi hotspot in Auckland

Zenbu Wi-Fi hotspotZenbu Wi-Fi hotspot

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Sam Giffney and Zenbu Directory, Search and Mapping

Here's an article by iPhoneNewZealand.co.nz about Sam Giffney and his development of zenbu.co.nz which is New Zealand's premier [and Cook Islands] free, on-line, GPS based, directory, search and mapping of places of interest.

It's a way to find things such as businesses, parks, hospitals, schools, public toilets, and anything else which you might see a sign outside when walking down a street.

It's a top iPhone app in New Zealand. It can be downloaded to iPhones so that even without an internet connection, people can check the Zenbu app to see where things are that they want to find. With the "find nearest" function, the places closest to any particular place or a Zenbu listing are easily located.

Zenbu.co.nz is part of the creative commons realm.

Anyone can register and enter points of interest and edit other entries. Zenbu depends on people doing so because that's the way it's built - swarms of people adding and editing things of interest to them.

The database can be downloaded, with attribution, and used in anyone's websites such as has been done by the Mangere Bridge community. Simply enter "ASB" or "Naomi and Bill Kirk Park" or "cemetery" or "cafe" or "petrol" or "pizza" or "pharmacy" or "school" or whatever is of interest and locations, names, phone numbers and some information are shown on the map with links to the places if available.

Zenbu is also the name of Zenbu wifi wireless internet hotspots in Auckland and around New Zealand so they are easily confused. Zenbu directory, search, mapping and wifi work together in an integrated system.

If a wifi user is located at a Zenbu wireless internet hotspot, then the Zenbu system knows where they are even if they don't [tourists are easily lost] and can show them where they are on a map and the Zenbu points of interest closest to them.

Check out Google latitude too. You can get your location and that of your friends and contacts right there on your mobile device. Zenbu wifi hotspots have been uploaded to Skyhook to form part of the global location mesh to feed into Google Latitude.

Newmarket Viaduct Replacement

An excellent construction underway to replace the old viaduct which was structurally inadequate when it was built. See the details and pictures here: Newmarket Viaduct

The old viaduct had to be strengthened after construction with post-tensioning cables installed. During my civil engineering training at Auckland University in the early 1970s, our structures professor explained how it was found to be inadequate and was strengthened.

Being the main southern artery out of Auckland city, the structural risk is too great. It would be an economic disaster if a minor earthquake rendered it unusable.

Some people mistakenly think the replacement is purely a capacity increase project. While one more lane is being added, that's not going to be of much use to improving motorway capacity because going both north and south, there's no capacity issue on the viaduct. The bottlenecks are on either side because of joining traffic at Saint Marks Road and Gillies Avenue as well as bottlenecks entering Auckland city and over the harbour bridge at peak times.

The precast cantilevered construction is easy compared with the construction of the old viaduct which involved huge amounts of concrete poured in situ with scaffolding galore.

Verified by Zenbu

Zenbu Wi-Fi hotspotZenbu Wi-Fi hotspot

Zenbu Networks Wi-Fi Hotspots New Zealand

Easy wifi wireless internet for accommodation providers, cafes, hospitals, airports, and anywhere wishing to offer controlled public internet access and places sharing internet access among several people.