Archive for the ‘personal’ Category

Jawug on the ZA Tech Show

So, I was on the ZA Tech show today!

A little nerve wrecking, since it was live and I hadn’t really prepared very much. So much more that I should have said.

I spoke about Jawug, and Wug.za.net and the growing popularity of the Wireless User Groups.

Show recording is embedded after the jump…

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Please, be good

Please Mr Movie making Man. Don’t destroy the memories of my childhood. Please be a good movie.

Music is my best friend

Its been such a long time since I was excited about new music.

When 5fm died, my passion for music died too.
I think it was more the way that 5fm died. It made me realise that the music industry has no interest in the art behind the music, or the musicians. It was made very clear that they were in it for the money, and to get that, the higher-ups at 5fm decided to go after a different target market.

Perhaps I had more of an attachment to the station than your average radio listener. Sitting in the studio during a live show made me realise that being a DJ was more than just a job. You don’t just talk between the songs, there’s a real passion behind it.

Until money gets involved. Then you end up with a station manager that gets rid of the best talent in South African radio, and replace them with a bunch of wannabe’s, fresh out of the celebrity factory.

They got rid of Barney Simon! And Alex Jay!

Thats when the music died for me.

5fm is nothing now. So far removed from the 5fm of the 90’s, that It feels wrong to call it 5fm. A talentless, money spinning, stream of crap that will make your ears bleed if you accidentally tune in.

Music “charts” have nothing to do with good music. Its all about how much money the labels can throw at PR and promotions. Just keep playing a new track to the masses, and they’ll “like” it. Don’t even get me started on the rampant abuse of Auto Tune.

But today, at the ungodly hour of 4am, I’m listening to a stream of endless new songs on thesixtyone. And it feels good, because I get to listen to the music that I like, and I get to share it with others. And I get to show my appreciation to the artists that put their hearts into creating the music.

From thesixtyone site:

On thesixtyone, artists sell their music directly to their fans. Unlike a record or distribution deal where they only make $1-2 per album (if they ever get paid, that is), artists on thesixtyone make at least $7 per album and are paid every 30 days — no wait for recoupment and no complex royalty schemes!

Giving the music back to the artists, I like it.

This is not a Hack

I’ve noticed an annoying trend lately, and its starting to get on my nerves.

Every 2nd person who figures something out on their own, is writing up a HOWTO.
This isn’t a problem. Its the fact that they’re calling it a “Hack” thats getting on my nerves.

A Hack is where you take something, and make it do something it was never designed to do. Not using something that was designed to do something, to do something slightly similar. Thats not a hack, thats an adaptation.

Well, thats my rant for the day. If anyone wants to sponsor some real gadget hacking, let me know and I’m sure we can work something out

Why do we need so much variety?

What ever happened to Butter?

The stuff you cook with, bake with and spread on bread? Just simple butter.

I can get Low fat butter. Butter thats not really butter. Butter with added Omega’s. Low low fat butter. Half fat Butter.

Where’s the normal butter? In a tub. Just plain butter in a tub?

And Shampoo.

I don’t tint or dye my hair, its not permed, I don’t have dandruff, I don’t need extra volume.

I stood there for 5 minutes just staring at a wall of too much choice.

I just want shampoo, for hair, on my head.

*mumble*

Google Wave is a lonely place

Everyone (at least, where I am), knows what Google Wave is.

And if you don’t, check out the About Google Wave page

I was quick to jump on it when Google first announced it, and I was lucky enough to get an invitation today. I’ve been waiting for months!

Its as awesome as I thought… but Its a lonely lonely place. You can only collaborate with people in your Wave Contact list. And my Wave Contact list is empty, because no-one else I know has a Wave account yet.

Its so lonely *sob*

What happened?

At the risk of sounding apologetic, I’m sorry I haven’t updated more often…

I started off quite well earlier in the year. Almost a post a day.
Sadly, I started to run out of ideas, and then work took hold.

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Cisco need to rethink their support

I recently had the mispleasure of trying to use the cisco.com website.

I wasn’t even trying to do anything with a Cisco router, or switch, or any Cisco hardware at all. I was trying to upgrade the software on my Linksys SPA942.

But its a Linksys device you say? Well yes, but Cisco bought Linksys in 2003. Obviously, they saw a gap in their product offerings (specifically, the home and small office market), and decided to fill it, by buying a company that was already filling the gap. (As is the Cisco way…)

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What a summer

Summer 2009 in Ireland has been great.

My parents were here for a while, we got to do a bit of touring/visiting. Got us out of the house!

Sunshine, is always a good thing. Its even better when its warmer in Ireland than it is in South Africa. I really needed some extra sunlight. It has an incredible affect on my mood. I don’t think I’d have been able to handle all the recent work stress if it wasn’t for the sunshine.

And thats why I haven’t posted in a while… So much work :/
But, it keeps me busy and keeps my brain active

Farewell Bank of Ireland

We’ll be going to shut down Jeanine’s Bank of Ireland account soon. For way too many reasons to name.

But I’ll share a few recent snippets of our recent dealings with them:

“Why would you want to move your account to another branch, you can do everything from any branch.”
“Oh, you want to do (Insert any common banking activity here), you have to do that at the branch your account is held at”

“Sure, this cheque is a Bank of Ireland cheque, it’ll clear in a few hours” – Bank of Irelands definition of “few hours” means anything from 3 hours, to 72 hours.

When I want to do banking, I go to a bank. If I wanted lies, I’d go find a politician.

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