So Google is not satisfied with world domination, but wants to rule the universe too. Hey, even space shuttles need search engines. Ok, at a stretch. So it transpires that the new version of Google Earth now comes with sky imagery or a “virtual telescope”, as Google calls it. As the official Google Earth blog […]
2007
Posted inLifestyle
My own Oppikoppi A to Z
M&G Online editor Riaan Wolmarans wrote a great piece for the paper detailing the A to Z of Oppikoppi — that free-flowing cauldron of dusty love, music and drink somewhere about two hours out of Pretoria. It struck me how incredibly personal the whole ‘koppi experience is. Two people can spend the same amount of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
And the man at the back said everyone attack!
President George Bush and other members of his administration have sent a clear message to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — give us tangible results or you’re on your way out. With the reports on the military “surge” due in September, Bush himself is under pressure to prove to the American people that this latest […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Child labour: the baby dragon
An answer to: What should a country do about imports from countries that are known to be or highly suspected of using child labour or other forms of ‘slave’ labour or other techniques that are banned by that country?
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
What the Guardian’s journalism tells us about the media … and Thabo Mbeki
“…what this episode tells us is that respected foreign correspondents such as McGreal are willing to believe almost anything about our president.”
Posted inSport
Great expectations?
I always get nervous at about this time, the time just preceding a major international tournament in which a South African team is playing. I wait, wondering what it is that is going to go wrong to play a part in compromising the spectacle.
Posted inTech
The joys of code optimisation
Last Friday I had the joy of going live with code that improved the execution time of an existing piece of code by 422%, and moved it from a batch process (which took more than 30 minutes to run, and only ran three times per day) to an online real-time process, thereby enabling users a […]
Posted inLifestyle
A Vintage Sunday
SOWETO … “where you usually get slapped if you act like a clown …” Thankfully there weren’t any bozos running around and nobody got slapped this past Sunday at the Levi’s Vintage Sundays at the Backroom in Pimville, Soweto. No it was filled with discerning grown folk who had come to listen to the soothing […]
Posted inTech
Dear Rejected Facebook Friend
(I wrote this and posted it on my Facebook page a week or so ago. It was something of a cathartic excercise to make myself feel a bit better about rejecting so many friend requests. I went through long bouts of anguish and internal wranglings before being able to bring myself to click the “Ignore” […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Quiet diplomacy is not the alternative to an Iraq
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s claim that foreign intervention to impose regime change in Zimbabwe would occasion another Iraq is patently wrong. The finance minister, who I would love to see as our next president, has clearly not thought this thing through. It hardly needs pointing out that foreign intervention is not the only way to […]
Posted inLifestyle
Under the Mountain, but inside the subconscious
I know quite a few people in my age group — early thirties — who remember, very vividly, a TV show called Under the Mountain. I was probably about 10 years old and it scared the bejesus out of me and, I’m sure, if I was still wearing a nappy it would have been quite […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The untouchables
When Madiba finally crossed the Rubicon and started us on the road to a multiracial democracy, the overwhelming majority of South Africans rejoiced. Some 13 years on, in my humble opinion, both presidents, Mandela and Mbeki, have served us well. The country has progressed and is achieving growth. However, like an autistic child, we have […]