In March 2015 I started a series, 30 Artists in 30 Days, where the plan was to find 30 artists to support on Patreon. The 30-days part ended up being a little loose. Read that post first if you haven’t already. It’s been about 18 month since then, and I thought I’d go back and… Continue reading Revisiting Patreon
Wikipedia and systemic bias
A while ago, I noticed a comment on the talk page of one of the Wikipedia editors that I follow. An article he had created was nominated for speedy deletion. Speedy deletion is the kind of thing reserved for articles about my pet cat, my high school teacher, the rock band I’ve started in my… Continue reading Wikipedia and systemic bias
26000 runners and a walker
While about 11 000 people decided to run 56km this morning, and another 16 000 took it easy with the half-marathon, I decided it was perfect weather to cover a little less distance than that, and go for a walk on the mountains. 27 000+ people were blocking the route I planned to go, so… Continue reading 26000 runners and a walker
March 2016 African language Wikipedia update
My feeds have been full with Dumi editing up a storm on the Xitstonga Wikipedia recently, as well as helping the Ndebele Wikipedia into the incubator. Ndebele is the only South African official language without a Wikipedia, and it’s great to see this hole being plugged. So, it’s time for another African language Wikipedia update.… Continue reading March 2016 African language Wikipedia update
Trust Us, We’re a Payment Gateway
A friend told me today about an experience of attempting to book a flight on kulula.com. His credit card wasn’t working, but there was an option for bank transfer (EFT), so he chose that. The EFT option used SID, a payment option promising secure EFT transactions. All good so far, so he followed the link.… Continue reading Trust Us, We’re a Payment Gateway
Learning Man and the Talent Exchange
I’ve just come back from Learning Man festival, held on a farm just outside Riviersonderend. The festival describes itself as a call to co-create a great social experiment in community resilience, focusing on Experimenting with Off Grid Living, Adventures in Freedom, Learning skills for an empowered life and Using Our own Economy. Learning Man continues… Continue reading Learning Man and the Talent Exchange
Swiss Precision
I have an old analog scale, inherited from my parents. It sits in Dorje’s room, mostly gathering dust. I’ve never worried much about weighing myself, but in my own mind, I’ve been 80kg most of my adult life, and, more recently, since becoming “fat”, moved up to 85kg. The analog scale is not particularly accurate… Continue reading Swiss Precision
South African Literary Awards Online – 6 Years Later
In 2009, I wrote about the sad state of South African Literary Awards online. While sites such as bookslive.co.za do great work keeping on top of things, the bodies administering the awards did not and, at the time, many did not even have up-to-date, or in some cases any, pages listing their award’s winners. Jumping… Continue reading South African Literary Awards Online – 6 Years Later
Film heaven with Mubi
I’ve recently joined Mubi, a video on-demand site for film lovers. Netflix, which, in spite of users having to jump through DNS hoops as it’s not officially available in South Africa, is extremely popular, while Mubi is not well-known at all. Mubi has some advantages though. Firstly, it’s officially available to South Africans, so no… Continue reading Film heaven with Mubi
June 2015 African Language Wikipedia Update
I recommend that anybody new to Wikipedia editing starts, if possible, with one of the smaller Wikipedias. It’s far more fun, contributions will probably be openly welcomed, and there’s less likelihood of experiencing some sort of bureaucratic nightmare. An example fresh in my mind is the OpenCart article, which doesn’t exist. Anyone attempting to create… Continue reading June 2015 African Language Wikipedia Update