The mainstream press is trumpeting figures from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) that software piracy costs the South African economy R1.5 billion. Perhaps a more appropriate name is the BS Alliance. On the whole, mainstream media has been found rather wanting in questioning these figures. Rather, they play their all-too-common role of simply parroting what… Continue reading BS Alliance on software piracy
Private numbers and Spambank – who ARE those people?
I get about one SMS every 3 days from Nedbank trying to get me to buy/win/participate in something or other, and fairly regular phone calls, not to mention the junk post as well. I don’t really mind email spam that much, as the vast majority goes straight to my junk folder, if it even reaches… Continue reading Private numbers and Spambank – who ARE those people?
Is PHP following in Perl’s footsteps?
Reading a post by Ryan Boren about the difficulties WordPress has in moving to PHP5, it strikes me that the PHP4/5 conundrum is similar to what happened with Perl 4/5. I’m showing my age by confessing I was coding in the Perl 4 days, but I remember that when Perl 5 came along, there was… Continue reading Is PHP following in Perl’s footsteps?
Of carving knives and guavas
Sitting with my 3-year old son in the kitchen, I heard some rustling outside, by the front garden. Living in Obs, where the houses are all quite close together, I assumed it was from a neighbour’s house, and didn’t pay much attention. Then the sound got closer. I got up to take a look and… Continue reading Of carving knives and guavas
David Bullard causes a ‘blog site’ storm
David Bullard’s rant in the Sunday Times caused a storm of protest from bloggers. See, for example: Vincent Maher Nic Haralambous Uno De Waal Marius Bock Paul Jacobson Eric Edelsein Coda Justin Hartman (UPDATE – see the Amatomu and Afrigator results for more) Being a bit otherwise, I have a slightly different take. I’m not… Continue reading David Bullard causes a ‘blog site’ storm
Elections elections elections
There have been three high-profile elections settled in the last day or so. France now has a new president, Nicolas Sarkozy. The DA has a new leader, Helen Zille. And the UK saw local government as well as Scottish/Welsh assembly elections. I had the misfortune to come across the Sarkozy news on a site called… Continue reading Elections elections elections
Cape Town’s Tea Club
For the last few months I’ve been attending Tea Club meetings, hosted by Ming-wei Andy Tsai and Feng-chih Lisa Tsai. I met them through the Talent Exchange, and was first invited to a Tea Club meeting to talk about the Ethical Co-op. I missed a few months after that, but have attended the last 3… Continue reading Cape Town’s Tea Club
Books to read before you die
Exclusive books are running a competition asking Fanatics members to submit their favourite 10 fiction reads. They’re using the submissions to assist them in creating a 101 Books to Read Before You Die list, for launch at the Cape Town Book Fair. So, roughly taken from my list of books read, here are my submissions.… Continue reading Books to read before you die
27-4 dinner at the Hotel School
Friday’s 27-4 dinner (I’m sure the URL will exist by the time you read this, otherwise try this one!) was fun. At the Hotel School, the venue was ideal for its purposes, and there seemed to be a lot more mixing. I gave a shortened, slightly tailored version of my technology and consciousness talk I’d… Continue reading 27-4 dinner at the Hotel School
Of rock stars and Wikipedia translation
At the recent iCommons party (which was partly an after-party for the Digital Freedom Expo), held at the Independent Armchair Theatre (normally a venue for bands and other creatives) Jimmy Wales and Lawrence Lessig proved their rock star status by actually standing up on stage and managing to hold the audience with a talk about… Continue reading Of rock stars and Wikipedia translation