sizeight

Change we can believe in?

Herman Pretorius — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:01:28 +0000

The Democratic Alliance unveiled their new logo this weekend at their re-launch party. After seeing it I couldn’t help but notice a striking resemblance to another logo I’ve seen recently? Hmm, Barack Obama’s campaign logo perhaps?

Register to vote in the South African General election in 2009

Herman Pretorius — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:02:23 +0000

Now that the US election is finally over, it’s time to focus on our own election in 2009, an election where every single vote really does count. Recently the question of where and when to register for the election has come up a few times in coversations I’ve had. Well, I found out.

Firstly you need to find out if you are already registered to vote. The easiest way is to SMS your ID number to 32810, you’ll get a reply confirming if you’re registered and where you should vote.

If you are not registered you need to find out where you can register. To do this, go to www.elections.org.za/searchVD.asp. Be warned, this is the worst website I have come across in a very long time, click the refresh button if the page doesn’t load.

After you know where to register, you can visit your voting station this coming weekend between 8 and 9 November, when voting stations will be open for registration from 8am to 5pm.

Easy as pie, now go register.

Go vote

Herman Pretorius — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:30:01 +0000

Not surprising, if the world could vote for the next American president, Obama would win hands down. Well, if Economist.com readers of the world could vote, I guess if the readers of gunhuntermag.com voted the results would be quite different.

Global markets are literally red

Herman Pretorius — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:57:05 +0000

I’ve been watching the fall of global markets over the last weeks on a cool tool provided by the Financial times. Go to markets.ft.com and click on the Equities - Macromaps: Markets image halfway down the page.

Just hearing or reading that the DOW has fallen by 8% or the Russian stock market has dropped 15% in one day doesn’t really give you an idea of what’s going on with global markets. Looking at this map, indicating in red (mostly) and green whether markets are falling or rising, gives you an instant snapshot of what’s happening to markets worldwide, and it doesn’t look good.

Dutch courage

Herman Pretorius — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:23:10 +0000

I have a habit of listening albums to death. I’ve been listening non-stop to aKing’s debut album, Dutch courage, for 6 days now and they’re still alive an kicking!

Excellent essay’s

Herman Pretorius — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:00:26 +0000

With literally millions of blogs on the internet these days, I sometimes find it difficult to find quality reading anymore. Once in a while however, I stumble upon a web author whose words instantly captivate me. Two years ago I came across a very well written and informative essay by Paul Graham, titled How to Do What You Love. I was so impressed I read most of his essays on his website www.paulgraham.com in the next days. Mostly his essays are about startups, programming, and philosophy, but what makes them such good reading is the fact that all of his essays have some practical insights about life and human behaviour in general. Even if you don’t know much about software development, I’m sure you could still find his essays informative.

Tonight I went searching for some good reading again and I found 2 recent essays with some interesting thoughts, take look.

Holding a Program in One’s Head - Paul Graham, August 2007
Stuff - Paul Graham, July 2007

Top 5 Games ever

Herman Pretorius — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:51:37 +0000

This morning me, Pieter and Pieter (Version 2) were thinking back about all the computer games we’ve enjoyed playing, and we started listing our top 5 computer games ever. We realised our favourite games were all relatively old. Probably because we played more games when we were younger and the memories of the hours we spent playing these games without a worry in the world are so great. I also find the simplicity of older games, the pixelated graphics and tunes games made them more memorable and addictive than today’s games. It’s difficult to come up with just 5 great games, but my choices are as follows…

Myst (This game was revolutionary. My dad brought it back from a visit in the US in 1993 and I spent most afternoons for the next year exploring every corner of these amazing worlds. Check out the re-release of this classic with a free downloadable demo.)
SimCity 2000 (Perfect for killing time on Sunday afternoons. I think it’s due to simplicity of SimCity’s objective, build a powerful city, that made it one of the most succesfull and addictive games ever.)
Medal of Honor (During the FIFA World Cup 2000 and our University Exams, me, my brother Hannes and my 2 friends Paul and Rian played this game front to back! Miraculously we also passed all our exams and saw most of the World Cup.)
Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis (I killed at least 2 school holidays in 1995 playing Fate of Atlantis. I loved the movies and this game was just as exciting. What made it even cooler was that there are 3 different “paths” to play the game through.)
Age of Empires II (Next to SimCity 2000, I killed the most hours on Sunday afternoons playing Age of Empires II over and over and over…)

How to start off a Friday on the right foot

Herman Pretorius — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:24:03 +0000

A foolproof way to start your Friday on the right foot.

Place your iPod in its dock.
Create a playlist in iTunes consisting of all the Creedence Clearwater Revival songs you can find.
Upload the playlist to your iPod.
Eject your iPod, insert the earphones in your ear and press play.
Cruise through the day with a smile on your face.

No thank you, I don’t want a brand new laptop for free!

Herman Pretorius — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:59:08 +0000

I just heard something very strange. An employee of a big corporation was complaining about the new laptop his employer gave him. His complaints were not about a crappy screen, or too little memory or even a short battery life. I saw the laptop, there is nothing wrong with it. In fact I wish I could upgrade to his model. No he was complaining because of the fact that his employer expected him to carry around this machine during his working day in order to improve his productivity and make his job a little easier for him.

Like me when I first heard his complaints, you’re probably wondering why anybody would complain about receiving a free laptop from your employer. In the rest of the world there is no reason to complain about this, but remember, South Africa isn’t the rest of the world. The person that told me this is a technician from Telkom, South Africa’s main telecoms provider. In reality he is really grateful for the privilege to have such a beautiful machine to work with everyday. The only problem is, that carrying around this laptop in broad daylight puts his life in danger on a daily basis. After hearing about another colleague who got high jacked or ambushed next to the road or on site to steal his laptop, who could blame him for saying things like, “I wish my boss didn’t buy me this brand spanking new laptop!”.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon

Herman Pretorius — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:33:24 +0000

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
I found this book pretty dull.