Last year a close friend and neighbour who lived two houses away was murdered. As he lay bleeding to death on the floor of his bedroom after being hit on the back of his neck by a laptop — so hard that the laptop bent — I am sure my friend would have been pleased […]
2011
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Darren: A new word for our dictionaries
Darr-en Transitive verb 1 To use racial epithets to refer to a member of another racial group. 2 To racially abuse another individual. 3 To explain the repeated use of verboten racist epithets on the grounds of anger, stress and/or drunkenness. 4 (Possible future use) To beg forgiveness for the use of racist language. Noun […]
Posted inLifestyle
‘Eish, you’re not South African’
By Cano Ssemakalu It can be tough being a foreigner in South Africa, even if you are here legally. I have lived here for seven years now, during which I’ve been treated like a South African by the very generous government and its people. But my grievance is with the corporations in the private sector […]
Posted inGeneral
What goes wrong when a proprietary company buys an open source one?
The past few years have seen many open source companies being bought by proprietary ones. Back in 2003 Novell bought German Linux maker SuSE. A few years ago Sun Microsystems bought database maker MySQL in a landmark $1 billion deal, and then last year Sun Microsystems was itself snapped up by Oracle. One of the more […]
Posted inGeneral
Silly season
By Lawrence Mashimbye The so-called “strike season” in South Africa is no longer funny. Day in and day out we hear one union after the other calling workers to riot. I know the complaints around conditions of employment and salary increases are pertinent and imperative, particularly in a country that survived apartheid and its bad […]
Posted inNews/Politics
11th commandment: Thou shalt not prosecute a fatcat
If regard is had to the Protection of Information Bill it would seem that those who drafted it contemplated achieving a balance between the free flow of information and transparency on the one hand and ensuring that national security is protected on the other. My response has been that this is so much nonsense and […]
Posted inGeneral
No excuses for Darren Scott
I awoke this morning to find out that Darren Scott has reportedly resigned from both SuperSport and Jacaranda 94.2 after it was reported that he referred to a colleague as a k*****. I don’t know Scott personally at all but have come to respect him as I’m sure many have over the years as a […]
Posted inGeneral
RWC players to watch
The Rugby World Cup commences tomorrow September 9 with the All Blacks vs Tonga match. The flood gates will open for all the 20 team games with 600 players in four pools of five teams each playing to win the final on October 23 at Eden Park. This means that of the 600 RWC players […]
Posted inGeneral
The importance of SMS in an instant messaging world
While a cat has nine lives, it seems that SMS has an infinite number of lives. So while the rise in mobile instant messaging (MIM) has been heralded as its end, a closer look shows that this rather increases SMS’s value in the corporate space. It was BlackBerry and its ostensibly free messaging service between […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Libya: SA foreign policy has seen better days
By Francis Kornegay South Africa and the African Union (AU) have ended up internationally isolated on the issue of a post-Gaddafi Libya. This predicament was accentuated by Russia’s recognition of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) on the eve of the Paris “Friends of Libya” summit at the beginning of September. China as well as […]
Posted inGeneral
How secure is your cloud PBX?
Doing business today, they say, is a bit like going to war. Would you fight alongside a soldier whose actions put you at risk? Would you let him reload your rifle, and can you trust him to have your back? You’d think twice. Then you probably agree that accepting an unprotected Internet Protocol (IP) connection […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Our real heroes
I will remember the week of August 28 to September 4 2011 for more than the hordes of Malema supporters who descended upon the Johannesburg city centre. The week will be remembered by me for more than the fiery words of the minister of sport, Fikile Mbalula, who while speaking from underneath a gigantic and […]