I’ve been using the internet since the days of BelTel, so it’s safe to say that I’ve seen many technologies, concepts and ideas come and go, come again and go again and return yet again! I remember the excitement of logging on to IRC each evening to sweet-talk ladies around the world and bask in […]
Tech
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Engineering innovation
I have a new fascination. It’s about innovation: how it happens, to whom and, most importantly, why. The fascination stems from the incredible people I get to meet in my job — people who find a new idea to be passionate about, implement that idea in a novel way and then spread that passion to […]
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The Facebook business scorecard: F-
The mainstream media have been reporting lately that Facebook, the popular social networking application that lets you swap digital “secreta” with your long-lost friends, is being banned by more and more businesses in South Africa. The banks are some of the first — Standard Bank, Absa and a few others have added the site to […]
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The man who invented the internet
I spent the better part of Monday browsing LinkedIn, and have thus read my fill of people’s CVs. It is always interesting to see how people define and describe what they do, and LinkedIn offers the full spectrum from yawn-boring, to flighty. Look, I know it’s not easy. You have to summarise your life’s contribution […]
Posted inLifestyle, Tech
Of MacBooks, Monkeyland and the Mile High Club
This weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend a dear friend’s wedding in Plettenberg Bay. Not only was I able to witness two of my closest buddies merging their lives together as one, I was also able to get out of the city for a quick break from all the mayhem. I’ve always said it […]
Posted inLifestyle, Tech
Simplifying the rat race through technology
Most of us live in it, and most of us hate it, no doubt about, but the rat race is an inevitable phase of life for anybody interested in advancing their career and “becoming somebody”. The truth is that the rat race is bad for all of us. It’s not necessarily just the negative aspect […]
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Sex model pulls in the crowds on Facebook
Who wouldn’t want to be friends with a hot, naked, friendly blonde who had recently lost her digital camera containing some very explicit photos? Thanks to Facebook’s relaxed (that is, non-existent) identity-verification process, anyone could. And did. She received, apparently, “tens of thousands” of offers to return her lost property. Property whose finding was aided […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics, Tech
Trusting Wikipedia: a sea change
Here’s an interesting development. Long and acrimonious battles have been fought over the question, “Can you trust Wikipedia?” Now, at last, there’s a new answer to this question.
Posted inMedia, News/Politics, Tech
Crowdsourcing the campaign
In 2004, the Howard Dean campaign in the United States blazed the way in taking the election campaign online. Dean not only raised more than anyone else online, but more importantly also pioneered the use of the internet to gather and mobilise support both online and in real life. Since then we’ve seen social media […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
Why newspapers and social media make a good fit
Since early 2005, when I started working with Colin Daniels at the New Media Lab, my thinking about the web has been saturated by the language, principles and ideals of Web 2.0 and specifically the sub-set of uses we call “social media”. So I had to laugh at the provocative piece written by Paul Jacobson […]
Posted inLifestyle, Tech
Facebook: None dare call it Web 2.0
The most visible evidence of the rise of Web 2.0, or at least the social media and social networking that tends to define it, is the astronomical growth of Facebook. Many Web 2.0 role players, including some prospective members of the Amablogoblogo, reject Facebook as a member of the Web 2.0 family, because it makes […]
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When privacy no longer counts
I read a couple of stories in the past few days that seemingly have no connection, but that collectively demonstrate how the world we live in has changed. Article #1: Intelligence magazine reports on a new security system that is being put in place in airports in the United States. The system pre-vets travellers and […]