There’s a current proposal to close the Xhosa Wikipedia for lack of activity, so I thought it’d be a good time to see the progress of the African and South African language Wikipedias. Heading the list of African-language Wikipedias by article count, Malagasy is still racing ahead in creating new articles, mainly thanks to articles… Continue reading May 2013 African language Wikipedia update
South Africa slumps in the 2013 World Press Freedom Index.
The 2013 World Press Freedom Index came out recently, and sadly, South Africa has slid alarmingly since I last blogged about it in 2007, and even more so when compared with its peak rating in 2003. Note that a lower score is better. Year Score Ranking 2013 24.56 (-12.56) 52 (-10) 2012 12 (0) 42… Continue reading South Africa slumps in the 2013 World Press Freedom Index.
MySQL, MariaDB and relative asymptotics
In 2002 I wrote a book on MySQL. At the time, I was working crazy fulltime hours for IOL and I was exhausted by the end of the process. I’ve been approached quite a few times since to write an update, or to write other related books, but have never had the energy, time or… Continue reading MySQL, MariaDB and relative asymptotics
Speed Comparison of South African Media Websites
I’ve noticed that each time I’ve visited IOL recently my browser takes a noticeable performance knock. Trying to browse it by opening lots of tabs, as I do with most sites I visit, is out of the question, and it’s probably the worst-performing site I have visited recently. I decided to run speed tests of… Continue reading Speed Comparison of South African Media Websites
You like my blog?
With my regularly updated blog jam-packed full of brilliant content, naturally it receives more compliments than Lady Gaga’s Twitter account. Happy New Year by the way. And Christmas. One fan went a bit overboard, submitting what seems to be every one of the compliments spammers regularly use to deceiver bloggers. Here’s the heartfelt comment: Thanks… Continue reading You like my blog?
Sam Harris on Free Will
Sam Harris recently released a book on the topic of free will. I haven’t read the book yet, but watched a presentation he gave of ideas from his book. Traditionally there are three positions offered. Determinism, which essentially states that we could not have made any alternative choices, as our choices are determined by pre-existing… Continue reading Sam Harris on Free Will
November African language Wikipedia update: Afrikaans passes Swahili
Time to take another look at the progress of African and African language Wikipedia projects. African Language Wikipedias Language 1/1/2007 11/2/2011 13/4/2012 16/11/2012 Malagasy 3806 36767 38753 Yoruba 517 12174 29894 30158 Afrikaans 6149 17002 22115 24821 Swahili 2980 21244 23481 24519 Amharic 742 6738 11572 11806 Egyptian Arabic 8433
US election news you may not have heard about
Listening to the US presidential candidates talking about who is more supportive of coal, or who will be tougher on foreign affairs, it can be easy to believe nothing will change, or that voting makes little difference. But there were real choices on offer, and 2012 saw many firsts. Here’s my summary of some of… Continue reading US election news you may not have heard about
Lucid Dreaming Chi Kung
I haven’t been lucid dreaming for a while now, at least a few months. In the past, I’ve found that I could become lucid quite regularly if I followed a routine of going to sleep relatively early (before 11pm), then waking up around 4am, then again at 5.30am and finally 7am. This routine worked very… Continue reading Lucid Dreaming Chi Kung
Sustainable American poetic Greek and Roman mythological cryptography with Coursera
I’m finally getting around to trying a course with Coursera. Coursera was founded by a couple of Computer Science professors from Stanford University, and its mission is to make “the best education in the world freely available to any person who seeks it”. It launched in April this year, and has already had over a… Continue reading Sustainable American poetic Greek and Roman mythological cryptography with Coursera