Learning Languages Revisited

I’m making vague plans to go to Argentina in August, so I’ve started brushing up on my Spanish. I’d learnt Spanish for a month before going to Peru in 2001, but haven’t used it since, and have forgotten everything but Hola and, of course, Hasta la vista, Baby. I’ve been considering how my personal language… Continue reading Learning Languages Revisited

Biowashball distributor’s response

Following my previous post, here is the response from the biowashball distributor. ——– Original Message ——– Subject: Fw: Unfair public statements Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:50:02 +0200 From: Marietjie Lacomme To: CC: Ian, For the record, I never said we didn’t mention the Soapnut, and we persist that we did not and in no… Continue reading Biowashball distributor’s response

Threatened with legal action by the biowashball distributor

12/3/2009 UPDATE – They have sent a response to the email below. A comment I made in the Ethical Co-op newsletter last Thursday attracted some attention. When introducing a new product, laundry soap nuts, I mentioned my unhappiness with another product, a laundry ball, which in their marketing material had slammed soap nuts, and had… Continue reading Threatened with legal action by the biowashball distributor

The state of Wikimedia projects in South African and Africa – Dec 2008

I took a look at the South African language Wikimedia projects again today, to see whether there’s been much progress since May. Wikipedia – number of articles Language 1/10/2007 10/11/2007 9/12/2007 1/5/2008 16/12/2008 Afrikaans 8374 8608 8731 9679 11 285 Zulu 107 109 121 141 182 Tsonga 10 16 37 71 150 Swati 56 66… Continue reading The state of Wikimedia projects in South African and Africa – Dec 2008

An attractive honeypot

I came across a website recently that, lurking amongst the usual About Us and Contact Details had an Anti-spam link. I followed the link, and came to this page. It’s a company selling an anti-spam product, and the page was a spam honeypot (or spamtrap). Spam honeypots are web pages with email addresses that then… Continue reading An attractive honeypot

Standard Bank – not inspired, motivated and whatever the other one was

It’s been over a year since my last post about a bank’s systems, and perhaps I’d naively thought I couldn’t get surprised any more. I’ve had the dubious pleasure of using almost all the online banking systems in South Africa. I’ve mentioned before how, First National Bank, in their upgrade, introduced a rather obvious regression… Continue reading Standard Bank – not inspired, motivated and whatever the other one was

BS Alliance offers R100 000 to catch software pirates

The Business Software Alliance is at it again, peddling unbelievable figures. Apparently, local piracy constitutes an annual figure of R2.8 billion in theft, with the majority of small businesses using illegal software. When I reported on their claims in May last year, the figure listed was R1.5 billion. So, in one year we’ve added another… Continue reading BS Alliance offers R100 000 to catch software pirates

WASA launches

I was pleased to see the launch of the Website Association of South Africa (WASA). Currently, the only credible option for publishers is the Online Publishers Association (OPA), and their fees mean that only large media companies can justifiably participate. They’ve faced deserved hostility in this regard, as effectively they’ve shut the door to small… Continue reading WASA launches