The March update was positive, so let’s see how the various African-language Wikipedias have progressed since then. As always, this measures the number of articles, which is an imperfect metric, but it’s interesting to follow the trends. African Language Wikipedias Language 11/2/2011 9/5/2013 26/6/2015 5/3/2016 24/11/2016 Malagasy 3,806 45,361 79,329 81,240 82,799 Afrikaans 17,002 26,752… Continue reading November 2016 African language Wikipedia update
There’s a mouse in mi kitchen, what am I gonna do?
It’s useful to have some backup skills if you ever want a career change. Mine is mouse catcher. In the last month, I’ve caught 5 mice. And I mean caught. No poison, no traps. I channel my inner cat, sneak up on then, and catch them in a bucket (usually by herding them inside). Don’t… Continue reading There’s a mouse in mi kitchen, what am I gonna do?
Before the Flood
Today I watched Before the Flood with Dorje. The film is currently freely available on National Geographic’s Youtube channel. Of course I’ve talked to him about climate change, meat eating, pollution etc, but it’s different seeing it presented visually, and it seemed to have much more of an impact on him. Words alone will struggle… Continue reading Before the Flood
Bumbling round Bergen
Norway is not a welcoming country. Not when the bottled water is on sale for R60, or the quotes for the taxi from Oslo airport to the city centre start at R2400. I can also splurge on a fancy limo for R14000. Maybe choosing the cheap flight and arriving in Oslo after midnight wasn’t such… Continue reading Bumbling round Bergen
Revisiting Patreon
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