Templates on the Afrikaans Wikipedia, and a translating tool

I’ve been having fun today on the Afrikaans Wikipedia. Although my Afrikaans is bad enough so that everything is quite slow going, and I sit with a dictionary by my side, its quite fun working on something that’s still so incomplete. The English Wikipedia is huge now, over 600 000 articles, so the tiny Afrikaans… Continue reading Templates on the Afrikaans Wikipedia, and a translating tool

King Leopold’s Ghost, Hypocrisy of Mugabe’s critics and Live8

I’ve just finished reading King Leopold’s Ghost. I mentioned my first impressions in an earlier post. The easy part of these sort of books is writing about the horrors. Surely all readers can share the author’s horror at the atrocities he accounts. The real challenge for writers of historical atrocities, of course, is to interpret… Continue reading King Leopold’s Ghost, Hypocrisy of Mugabe’s critics and Live8

One more thrust at the G8

Walton is in Edinburgh right now, providing a blow-by-blow (let’s hope it doesn’t really come to that) account of the protests at the G8 summit. With the mainstream press coverage up to its usual standard, it’s up to independent journalists and blogs to give us a clearer picture, and Red Star Coven is a must… Continue reading One more thrust at the G8

impi.co.za

The domain impi.co.za points to my server. It’s a coming-soon project, but in the meantime it seems Impi Linux have stuffed up and posted ads all over Distrowatch punting Impi Linux (yes that’s org.za), and pointing anyone who clicks the banner to impi.co.za. One of the more successful marketing campaigns? 🙂

What pisses me off about spam

I’ve just deleted about a gazillion referer spam hits from my logs. Thanks to b2evolution’s great spam-control system it’s been fairly painless, but the spam certainly had time to piss me off 🙂 I have a soft spot for quite a few sorts of illegal or at least socially disliked behaviour. Graffiti can be the… Continue reading What pisses me off about spam

Password protected PDF’s on Linux – part II

I’ve been attempting to read password-protected PDF’s on my new(ish) Linux laptop. I mentioned this a while ago, while still on my previous laptop, but yet again it’s the cause of fun and games. KGhostview is as hopeless as ever with password-protection, but things have moved along, so I tried KPDF again. Wonder of wonders,… Continue reading Password protected PDF’s on Linux – part II

The slaughter in the Congo and the progression of humanity

I’m reading a harrowing account of colonialism in the Congo called King Leopold’s Ghost. I seem to be enjoying genocidal histories right now, having recently read The Earth Shall Weep, about the genocide against the Native Americans in the United States, and Enemy at the Gates, about the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II.… Continue reading The slaughter in the Congo and the progression of humanity