Laurence of Commentary has written two quite interesting pieces on environmentalism and technology (Let’s do the time warp and What’s wrong with technological solutions). Both pieces are worth responding to. Unfortunately, they’ve also attracted the usual utterly idiotic comments. For example, in response to the earlier piece, Colin Pretorius writes I have no time for… Continue reading Technology and the environment
Dear Standard Bank staff
I enjoyed this piece a friend of mine submitted to Standard Bank… Further to my earlier email, when your MasterCard SecureCode failed to recognize my identity number, and I couldn’t make an online purchase, because either your computers are a total mess or you’ve somehow got the wrong ID number for me, you will be… Continue reading Dear Standard Bank staff
When will Paypal be able to transfer money to SA accounts?
Paypal became available a few years ago now to South Africans. Unfortunately, it remains a one-way vacuum cleaner, happily taking money out of the South Africa, while South African entrepreneurs and businesses remain hobbled and unable to earn anything back. After years of seeing the stock PayPal continues to research how best to expand its… Continue reading When will Paypal be able to transfer money to SA accounts?
Interviewed by Vincent Maher
I’ve been offline much more than I’m used to thanks to a move of about 400m, from one part of Obs to another. With Obs having wireless coverage from hell, I’ve sadly had to (again) break my vow never to spend a cent with Telkom again, and am waiting for them to install my line.… Continue reading Interviewed by Vincent Maher
Spambank at it again
I always use a unique email address when I subscribe to anything, so that I can trash it if it gets used for spam, and a number of others who own their own domains do this to. Normally it’s the dodgy forums that use the mail for spam, but I was a little surprised when… Continue reading Spambank at it again
Bloggers for positive change
Thanks Urban Sprout for tagging me with a Bloggers for Positive Global Change award. The award meme was initiated by Climate of Our Future, and the rules are simple – basically, when tagged yourself, tag up to 5 other blogs that you believe fulfill the criteria of trying to change the world in a positive… Continue reading Bloggers for positive change
eNaTIS hack attack: DoT denying the undeniable
There is no doubt that the eNaTIS website was hacked (in the common usage of the word) yesterday, twice. The attackers, possibly making use of a simple exploit in an outdated, unpatched version of Joomla, a commonly-used open source content management system, first struck with a polite warning in the ‘How do I’ section. When… Continue reading eNaTIS hack attack: DoT denying the undeniable
Zend framework released
Version 1.0.0 of the Zend framework was released today. It’s a PHP MVC framework, similar to Ruby on Rails, Django, TurboGears, Pylons, or CakePHP. CakePHP lags behind the more mature Python or Ruby frameworks, but with IBM and Zend both solidy behind the new PHP framework, it’ll be interesting to see how whether this, together… Continue reading Zend framework released
Learning Mandarin Chinese, and some insight into my brain’s inner workings
I’m learning Mandarin Chinese in preparation for my trip to Taiwan in August, where I’ll be attending the Wikimania conference before spending a month or so wandering around the island. That’s assuming my passport comes through the strike in time of course. I’m enjoying learning a new language again after a long period of atrophy… Continue reading Learning Mandarin Chinese, and some insight into my brain’s inner workings
Is Wengophone the FOSS alternative to Skype?
I was pleased to see that OpenWengo 2.1 was released for Linux recently. I’ve already written about why I was excited when I first came across it, and about how Ekiga, the main FOSS alternative stands up. Interestingly, Ekiga is no longer bundled with Kubuntu. Feisty, 7.04, contains no VOIP client by default, while 6.10… Continue reading Is Wengophone the FOSS alternative to Skype?