Today's gonna be good..

I have my reasons:

1. I got this blogger interface to work again. It was having trouble under the old editor.
2. I have FINALLY gotten MWeb to do what we asked them to do. 

• I first informed them of our intention to transfer on the 7th of June. 
• I requested a cancellation of my client's account on the 23rd of June.
• After some back and forth, we got the document we needed to cancel, and my client sent it through on the 27th June.
• No word from MWeb.
• I followed up.
• We get a request from MWeb on the 5th of July, asking what we want to do with this domain.
• I, as the technical contact on this account, reply, and ask them to urgently open the domain for transfer.
• This gets ignored.
• We follow up.
• It gets ignored.
• I post my frustration on Twitter, and a friendly MWeb person assures me they will look into this. 6 July this is.
• He escalates the issue.
• Nothing happens.
• 8 July I follow up, he escalates it again.
• Nothing happens.
• 9 July, I call Mweb Customer support. The lady on the phone assures me that this will get sorted this day, she will SMS me when this is done.
• Nothing happens.
• Today, I call MWeb again, speak to a friendly guy called JP who puts up with my rant. Once I feel better I give the account details and he looks into it. Finds out that it is still not up for transfer. He does what he can and actually sorts it out, for which I'm grateful. I then explain that MWeb owe my client an apology for taking so long. He comes back with something about a mail being sent to my client about what to do with the domain. I said I answered that. He said, she needed to.
• So, transfer has been sent through, and I'm waiting to see if it goes through, I expect it will.

I have some advice for anyone dealing with MWeb:

• If you want anything done, plan for it - they take 24 hours to get back to you with an automated reply.
• If you want to cancel an account, plan to do it - I recommend 2 months in advance, start telling them and trying to cancel.
• Add the MWeb Twitter guy - while not much happened, he did give me hope, and hope is powerful when dealing with Mweb.
• Oh, and instead of getting a technical person to help you, learn the stuff your self. Or send ALL correspondence from the account holder's account, as the account holder; else it's pretty much not valid.

I think that's all... today's going to be a good day! Back to coding Ruby, my favourite language :)

there's a hole in my packet, dear iBurst, dear iBurst

The conversation is so old, it's actually boring now. I've heard it so many times, and I'm actually as tired of hearing it as I am experiencing it. The age old how we in South Africa get inferior product/service for inflated costs. Often, there are also no redeeming factors! What I mean is, when I buy a Sony I expect a high standard of quality. Thats with Sony, but with our local business, very often we pay a premium for rubbish. And I believe it's only because we are starved for choice.

My gripe today is with iBurst. And with Eskom. And with the municipality. The story starts with Eskom. I'm still not sure whether it's called load shedding or load sharing. The latter makes more sense to me but I've heard both and so kind of mumble the last word to avoid embarrassment: "load sh (mumble) ing". So, just after 10 today it happens again at my home-office.... "hmm, darn, work from coffee shop" I think to myself as I head off towards Kyalami. Ofcouse, once again I forget to take the alternative route and I'm forced to use the road that hasn't been maintained in over a year and it falling apart... Literally, I could close my eyes and think I'm in Mozambique! Thats a bit dangerous for the other drivers, so eyes open I avoid the potholes (some places more of the road is a large pothole than road)... Now I know why most people in jhb drive a 4x4 - they're only avoiding ruining their cars on the roads. After a morning at the coffee shop I head back to my home, power having been returned, load sh___ing over. Fire up good old iBurst... well, not so good.

I encounter the signal I've grown used to - one little dot on my modem. I struggle to even send out an email. Everything is slow, slower than dial-up... First, a bit of history. When I first got iBurst, I had about 100%-95% signal, all the time (five little green dots). Then, after about 8 months, this all changed drastically, and I've had consistently poor signal for the most part (one to two little dots), except some weekend I get a "burst" of good signal. I have contacted iBurst about this before. I was told there was interference because of buildings, or sun spots, or some koalas nesting on the antennas or something. Anyhoo, pretty much there's nothing they can (or want to) do about it. And no, they can't send me some more replacement little green dots.

Honestly, the connection is so bad that when I try an SVN commit to the server (read: sending 3 text files) - it times out and corrupts the synchronisation of the project.

So, after intense and ongoing frustration (did I mention I'm trying to run a business) - I email them and tell them I'm fed up and want to stop my service. I mention that I suspect saturation being the cause of my frustration with them. I literally pour my heart out into this mail... Hoping them to reply after looking into the matter. Or at least to reply saying they might maybe on a good day, if there's nothing else to do... consider maybe perhaps looking into it.. maybe. Nothing. No reply. Maybe they did reply, but they also can't send mails out because of their connections problems!

I know that this is a local regional problem, because my connection in Somerset West was flying! Though, I imagine that to be because the 5 other people on the Somerset West network weren't downloading at the time!

That being said, I've decided to take this matter to my fan-base. (See Flight of the Concords to understand that one). What I'm afraid of is leaving iBurst for an even poorer experience with Telkom (I've heard the stories), because then I'll be dealing with one of the big stuff-up buzzwords of Afrique du Sud.
Hmm, let's hope I can post this without timing out... pfff.

victory whine made from sour grapes...

My comments on this article: http://it-online.co.za/content/view/162500/142/

I think the hi-jacking of the event into a political game is both sad, pathetic, and counter-progressive. Yes, political correctness does have an ugly side, and it's bearing itself here.

I have a question for the politicians: if there were a majority "of-colour" representation in our team, and instead of going to the finals we failed to reach the semi finals, would your of-colour-lust be appeased?

It should be about talent. Sure, train up anyone, get them skilled, but then choose a team on talent and teamwork, not on melanin levels.

hopes for fast internet DASHED

Regarding the undersea cables.

A few weeks ago I got really excited at the prospect of decent internet bandwidth. While primary thinking of myself, my own usage, and my business - I also thought about how positively it would affect our economy and our international business ties.
Now, just a few weeks later, what was a beam of hope for many of us has disappeared as the dark clouds of bureaucracy drift in.

What is OBVIOUSLY more important to our Minister of Communication, is ownership and control over this pipe, obviously, because it can be quite a lucrative endeavour, because if it's locally owned, the pricing for the bandwidth can be unrealistically high, and once again the popular pass-time of milking the countrymen (as seen in the new car industry, the cell phone industry, the banking industry and currently the internet connectivity industry) can ensure than some key players make their fortunes.

This...
Sickens...
Me...

What can be done? Honestly, what is left for your average South African to do? I mean, if we take to the streets in protest (which we won't) will it actually matter? What will make a difference, when people in high positions are so feverishly set on greed rather than the good of the nation.

Is that truly the theme of this continent: The benefit of the few at the expense of many? Why are we marching to the beat of something which shouldn't be part of what South Africa is all about? No no no NO. That's the old system! Times of change must come, they have to.

the message is clear

On the sacking of deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge:
It seems that climbing in, getting involved and doing something useful are not as highly regarded as being in agreement. You could be useless, just agree that garlic and lemons is good for HIV sufferers, stick around. You could be useful, but a clash or challenge means you're gone.
This "agree with me or you're outta here" attitude is indicative of that of a tyrant. I'm not saying Mr Mbeki fits that description entirely, just that he shares some characteristics, and that, is scary enough.

Now, obviously this is all speculation as no official reason was given for her dismissal. However, I sense something is very wrong.

Read more here.

at last!!!

This news made me want to cry big fat tears of joy! Something South Africans have all heard about, experienced while travelling, and if you're like me, dreamed of for years now: inexpensive REAL broadband! People, this is the real thing, I repeat, this is not a drill! Check it out:

2009 target for undersea fibre optic link
Seacom has awarded the SEA Cable System supply contract to Tyco Telecommunications, a business unit of Tyco Electronics. The 13 000km project will involve the construction of the undersea fiber optic network providing high capacity bandwidth connectivity between South Africa, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, India, the Middle East and Europe.

http://www.it-online.co.za/content/view/108384/142/

dumpers busted

I caught this truck dumping rubbish illegally behind the centre at Chilli Lane. This area was completely clear before I went away in March 2007, I used to ride through there on my mountain bike. It has now been turned into a dumping ground by builders in the area (possibly).

This was taken on 12 May 2007 at 2:17PM, from the entrance to the Virgin Active gym. The license of the vehicle is TZJ708GP.
One word comes to mind: BASTARDS.

groenkloof

Had another great ride at Groenkloof Nature Reserve this Sunday. We arrived late and had to storm into the reserve to catch the rest of the group. Using our Navy Seal training, we determined which part of the reserve they were on and intercepted them speedily. (well, me less speedily and more exhaustily).

We spotted some zebra and this pic was taken while i cycled past. I've also seen giraffe, wildebees and a variety of buck and small animals at the reserve. I love it.

SA government to switch to open source!

Well, what can I say but wow and at last. It makes sense, and is perfectly do-able.

I interrupt this news flash to report that I just completely freaked out when something moved under my foot, slamming my knee into my desk. In my mind, it was a Park Town Prawn, in reality, it was the wires behind my desk... ow. Even so I'm glad it wasn't a mini Geiger monster.

OK, back to open source. Why spend thousands of rands per computer of software for normal day to day business activity when you can use an open source alternative. See, I don't only blast the government..
Read up more here: http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=1377&s=news

blood diamonds, blood platinum

I was appalled to see news articles about South African Government welcoming, and meeting with the President of the People's Republic of China, Hu Jintao, this week. Not only is South Africa meeting with him, and strengthening ties, we're accepting his donations. Are we so simple minded to not think that there could be consequences to this? Dire ones.

China, while undoubtedly a world leader in many respects, is no world leader in liberty. Yes, it certainly would be good economically to make ties with this giant, but we cannot afford to consider economics at the expense of doing what is right.

Now while you might think I'm going to shoot off on a tangent about under-age and under-paid kids producing western label gadgets and clothing, I'm about to shoot of on another tangent entirely.

OK, let's step back and look at this. What do they want? According to a Bloomberg news article they want to invest in our mining. We have an abundance of precious metals and minerals which they would love to tap into for continuing development of their technologies. OK, fine. We get that.

What do we want? Well, it seems, handout: Gifts, Money, Business. Thats good for us, right? I mean, as long as it's not ivory or rhino horns - because that would create a stir these days.

So we're all set to go. But wait a minute. Isn't this the same China that persecutes hundreds, if not thousands of Christians yearly? Yes it is. Even today, even this month, there have been reports of people being arrested, molested and yes, even killed. You haven't heard about this? That doesn't mean it isn't happening.

We westerners are very skeptical of the US and British governments, I've heard endless opinions criticising Bush and Blair; and yet, when President Hu lands on our soil, we welcome him with open arms?

If we support China's development, we support their government, and we condone their actions, philosophy and methodology. The countries which had economic sanctions against South Africa in the Apartheid era made this statement by their actions: "We do not support or condone your Apartheid philosophy and legislature, and so we will not support your development." The countries that had a business as usual attitude with South Africa back then, weren't necessarily supporting apartheid, but they were not prepared to lose their benefits for the sake of what is right. Right now, South Africa boldly stands in the position of the latter, which is ironic taking her past into account.

This year alone, in China:
3 Jan 2007: Christmas Celebration Raided in Inner Mongolia
China ranked 8th worst country of persecution in the world
9 Jan 2007: New Year Bible Study in Communist Party School Raided in Hebei
14 Jan 2007: Released two of nine underground priests arrested in Hebei
16 Jan 2007: Christian service raided in Henan Province
25 Jan 2007: Christians under attack in China
28 Jan 2007: House Church worship service raided in Anhui Province
28 Jan 2007: 9 Arrested House Church Leaders in Henan released after 15 days detention
29 Jan 2007: Beijing House Church Activist Hua Huiqi and his mother attacked and detained by police
30 Jan 2007: Executed for distributing bibles
6 Feb 2007: China's shifting policies still hindering religion

Information taken from Persecution.org, a watchdog of Christian religious freedom worldwide.

Release International, describes China:
Religious Freedom Rating: 6 (7 is worst)
Population: 1287 million (2003 est.)
Widespread persecution of church leaders and members, especially those in unregistered (underground) churches, which may represent as many as 100 million believers.

A last note: before reading this, your ignorance to what is happening in China protected you from responsibility of doing something. Now you are informed - and your choice is simple:
1) denial, which is willful ignorance. It will appease your conscience for a while, but you will be guilty of knowing the facts and deciding to pretend they aren't there or are lies.
2) acknowledgement, where you realise what is going on, and admit to it, even if doing nothing.
3) action, where you protest either actively or passively. Actively would constitute writing letters or speaking to people, praying for the Christians in China, getting involved with organisations that support those who are persecuted there - passively would be deciding in your own capacity not to support China's trade by buying their products.

It is important that you understand that I am not speaking out against the Chinese people, or people of Chinese heritage. I am aiming my words straight at the South African and Chinese governments, their policies, decisions and statutes.