Friday’s news that South Africa’s gold and platinum mines had been forced to suspend operations because Eskom could no longer guarantee the power supply has emphasised just how bad our electricity crisis has become. We can switch off lights, swimming pool pumps and geysers to our heart’s content but the reality is that we need […]
Jaxon Rice
Jaxon Rice is a developer at Soup Consulting. By night he is the lead singer for a rockabilly band called the Diesel Whores. He blogs at http://jaxonrice.com.
Posted inTech
Seven web predictions for 2008
I always wanted to be like Siener Van Rensburg, except without the beard, male-pattern baldness and crazy right-wing followers. Predicting the future seems to be a pretty easy gig — if people find out you are wrong on something you simply make up some new predictions, and if you turn out to be right you […]
Posted inMedia
Spreading the word on satanism
There has been understandable outrage over the axing of Rapport columnist Deon Maas for his column on satanism and religious tolerance. Deon, who for a brief moment must have felt like a Danish cartoonist, was understandably confused about the whole thing seeing as the gist of his article was about being tolerant and accepting and […]
Posted inSport, Tech
Rugby should embrace more technology
France won their quarterfinal match against New Zealand on the back of a scintillating try that included a forward pass between Frederic Michalak and Yannick Jauzion. The pass was blatant to the millions of fans watching on television but was missed by referee Wayne Barnes and his two touch judges. Similarly, Fiji came within a […]
Posted inSport
A new national anthem
Rodrigo Orihuela’s recent post about the importance of national anthems in sports reminded me that we South Africans need a new national anthem. The swell of pride that I feel when I hear the opening strains of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika at a rugby Test match is replaced by intense shame when 35 000 white throats start […]
Posted inGeneral
Radiohead’s brave new world
On Monday Radiohead sent shockwaves through the music industry and paroxysms of fear through the major record labels when they announced that their new album In Rainbows would go on sale on the 10th October as a direct digital rights management (DRM) free download from their website. The price: whatever you feel like paying for […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
Radiohead’s brave new world
On Monday Radiohead sent shockwaves through the music industry and paroxysms of fear through the major record labels when they announced that their new album In Rainbows would go on sale on the 10th October as a direct digital rights management (DRM) free download from their website. The price: whatever you feel like paying for […]
Posted inLifestyle, Tech
Charity 2.0
It is becoming harder and harder for charities to raise funds. There is an increasing public indifference to the endless lotteries, fetes and nude calendars trotted out by charities each year and general suspicion that the bulk of funds collected finance the administration of the charity rather than the intended recipients. Whether these perceptions are […]