27dinner — 27 April 2007

I went to the 27dinner last night and overall it was a great evening.  The venue was great – Neil summed it up well in his post.

It was good to meet Max, Dave, Malan, Roelof, Glen, Nikki and so many others.  Also good to see old friends and acquaintances.

Ian gave a great talk and I really enjoyed the talk on where Bru and Boegie came from.

Update:  had to add a photo … Tania and Ian + somebody that I do not know who it is 🙂
27dinner-20070427

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Congratulations South Africa

Today (27 April) is  Freedom Day here in South Africa, which for those that does not know, is the 13th birthday of when South Africa become a total free and democratic society. As a fairly old South African from the pre-1994 days, I must say that I was not sure what this would mean to me.  Now 13 years on I know that the fears I had, came to nothing.  We now have a society where white, black, coloured or whatever can compete on a equal footing with one another.  Yes, we as old white male South Africans had to endure some difficulties but that just meant that we had to look at things from a different perspective and use different opportunities that came our way.

I am sure that if we in South Africa did not change all that years ago, we would have been much worse off.  I for one am a much more rounded person and has been exposed to so many other cultures and experiences which did enrich my life.

Things are not perfect but that just means that we must work harder at it.  Be more tolerable and accept that there are other views, cultures and opinions than your own.

To my fellow South Africans, celebrate this day and embrace the wonderful future that we as South African can have.  Have a wonderful celebratory day and long weekend. And to top it off we can celebrate the day further with the 27dinner tonight here in Cape Town.

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So I want an Afrigator t-shirt …

Have you joined Afrigator yet .. shame on you if you did not.  Come-on, go join so that I can get my T-shirt and who knows maybe even the iPod

Hey it is not just for me.  You are supporting a Start-up vide.  Thanks Nikki — copied this from you 🙂

While I am at it … Mike you are doing some great work here.

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The less said the better, but ….

I have purposely said as little as possible during the Cricket WorldCup but now that we, South Africa, is finish I am going to say my bit. I know it is easy for us armchair cricketers to be critical but I believe that as a South African, and a proud one, I have the right to ask certain questions.

First about yesterdays game:

  • Why does injured players go play in an important game like that?  Does being the captain automatically imply that one play even if you have a injured knee? Is Andre Nel that much better than Ntini to play with an almost broken thumb – I think not.
  • What were Smith and Kallis thinking by storming down the wicket and throwing their wicket away so early in the game?  Cricket is suppose to be a thinking man’s game — there was absolutely no thinking.
  • Why did Smith not take the 2nd and 3rd powerplay or for that matter be more attacking in the field — they needed wickets. There was no way they would have won by defending the runs.

Overall on the whole worldcup:

  • Why did Petersen go with if he was not going to be used?
  • Why was there no stability in the team? I got the feeling that no one was realy sure who should play when.
  • Surely the team strategist, whomever he or she might have been, knew what type of wickets and condition was waiting on the team.  Why was’nt a team picked that are suitable for that conditions. I am sure somebody like Paul Harris would have been much more valuable than say Kemp.

Yes I am disappointed as a South African that we are out of the WorldCup but given the above I sort of expected it, so it was not a real surprise.  The surprise would have been if we actually went on to win the cup.  The fact that we got to the semis is already more than I expected with the team they picked.

I am sure lot of you have a comment and opinion, whether you agree or not.  At least we now have a Rugby WorldCup to look forward to.  Lets go into it  optimistically and I believe if we pick the right squad then we can win that Cup.

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Took the Harry Potter Character Combatibility Test … hmmmm?

I took the Harry Potter Character Combatibility Test and this is what came out.  I cannot say that I have read all the Harry Potter books or even saw all the movies.  I cannot even remember who Luna Lovegood is — who is he or she?

You scored as Luna Lovegood. You’re an extreme introvert and because of this, are also a deep thinker. You ponder things others would never dream of pondering and stand with your beliefs without backing down. You find it more valuable to daydream than to socialize, because there’s so much more going on in your head than others’. Most people don’t understand it, but you seem to prefer it that way.

Luna Lovegood

78%

Remus Lupin

75%

Albus Dumbledore

69%

Sirius Black

66%

Hermione Granger

66%

Oliver Wood

63%

Lord Voldemort

56%

Neville Longbottom

53%

Severus Snape

50%

Harry Potter

50%

Ron Weasley

47%

Bellatrix Lestrange

47%

Percy Weasley

44%

Draco Malfoy

22%

Harry Potter Character Combatibility Test
created with QuizFarm.com

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Be carefull … do not steal your neighbor’s WIFI!

Do not know whether we have laws in this country that governs this but the ECT act might have something on it.  See in the UK a person was fined for using somebody’s WIFI without the persons permission.

Just had a look at all the WIFI connections available to me from the houses around me in my complex and there is a couple that is open with no security what so ever. How ethical and legal would it be if I just connect to their WIFI and started downloading?  With the restricted bandwidth that we have in SA, this can save me a bit of bandwidth for other things.  Neighbors, do not worry, I will not steal your bandwidth, but please secure your WIFI routers.

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The joys of being a mobile worker

As most of you that read this blog know, I work for IBM and they are very pro mobile working.  Think one of the last stats that I saw said that around 50% of IBMers are mobile workers.

Today is one of those days where I am one of that 50%.  What a pleasure not to sit in the traffic for a hour of so.  It is amazing how much more work one gets done without being interupted by people and your office phone ringing.  I think I got through the same amount of work this morning than would normally take me at least 2 full days in the office.  And all the time one is still in contact with everybody through the wonders of technology like Lotus Notes and Lotus Sametime.

Think one of the best things is that one does not need to worry about what to wear since one has no face to face contact so basically one can be naked and nobody would be the wiser.

More and more companies should encourage their workers to be mobile workers. Less cars will be commuting to and from work.  Companies would save on office space since they can allocate one desk to multiple people.  People that are mobile workers also need to be more mature in the way they work.  They should be able to work independent with the least amount of supervision.

I would love to hear comments form people that work from places that is not their normal offices about their experiences, what they liked about it, what they hated and just how they feel about it.

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Facebook — I feel so old!

I have been on Facebook now for a couple of weeks and still try to figure out what the audience is.  So do others.  One thing I see is that the majority is from some or other University, even in South Africa.  I have found and joined my working network and even there it seems that the only people on it is the younger generation. 

Why do I feel so old on Facebook?  Am I missing something here?  Is Facebook only for young people?  Maybe I should start my own group for all over 40’s on Facebook!  Maybe there is one already and I have just not found it.

Lot of questions I know, maybe it is just that I do not get Facebook and the purpose of it.  There must be a purpose if somebody is prepared to pay 1 billion US dollars for it.

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IBM SA wins new contracts

Over the past couple of weeks IBM has won 2 major contracts in South Africa. One in access of R1 million with ABSA and another with SAB.

This is great news for IBM South Africa and shows again the value of IBM SA as part of the greater IBM worldwide.

I would have loved to see more of an Application Development component in these contracts since that is the area where I operate in and provide value to the bigger IBM.

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