Rob's Rambling » Nothing Much

Ventersdorp Escalates

rob — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:58:47 +0000

After battle lines were drawn earlier today in Ventersdorp, it was hoped that following the exchange of pithy insults both the White and Black races would calm down enough to be rational. Unfortunately, the situation remained tense and matters came to a head when a group of black and white observers taunted each other with song.

Police were quick to step in with razor wire and attempted to calm the situation by leading opposing sides in a rousing verse of Kumbaya. After the second chorus a local woman, known only as Bliksem, threw cooldrink at the black group - triggering another round of singing with intent to harm.

Word on the street is that further demonstrations will take place tomorrow in the same location. A black man, who refused to be named, made this statement.

"Speaking for my people, I believe we have brought it. Our songs have done some real damage to racism today and we think they've proven our point nicely. Those whiteys will think twice before they protest again."

A representative for the White race, who also refused to be named, retaliated by promising widespread singing "of a kind that's never been seen before" and that would "send them blacks back where they came from" [sic]

It is widely feared that recent events may lead to further racial tension and may well escalate to full scale dance-offs in the streets around Ventersdorp.

- Ventersdorp, NotSAPA

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The Twitter Effect

rob — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 09:15:05 +0000

I'm not sure we've thought this whole social networking thing through properly.

I think relatively few people have realised what Social Networking has the potential to do and become. And when we start talking about companies that list dwindles significantly to around 40 (thanks to Mashable)

It's been pointed out lately that something has gone wrong with the whole gamut of services like Twitter, Facebook and so on. The problem? Social Networking is becoming dominated by business, not people.

I don't mean the innovative businesses that are using Social Networking to actually interact with their customers in a meaningful way. I'm talking more about those companies using Twitter to push their products and corporate agendas.

If I had a big virtual newspaper right now I'd be smacking those businesses on the nose with it - they need to learn that if they don't stop polluting social networks with what boils down to Marketing crap people are going to start leaving for better, newer services.

Do a quick exercise. Look around at the last 100 tweets on your timeline and the last 50 groups you joined on FaceBook. If more than 50% of them are businesses or business related (and you're not gaining anything from them), leave. Just straight up unfollow or stop being a fan.

I'm going on a virtual cull this morning and I'm going to remove anyone or anything that isn't actually at all interesting to me.

Don't follow companies blindly or the trend will continue. And none of us want that to happen.

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Blog redesign

Rob — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:29:08 +0000

Hooray, I've changed the layout and functionality of the blog as well as installed a lovely little theme that I think looks much better.

Now I just need to start blogging a whole lot more. Someone want to help me out with that?

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Southwest Airlines are idiots

Rob — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:26:29 +0000

Almost everyone has heard about the controversy surrounding the Kevin Smith/South West Airlines debacle but just in case you haven't, here's the skinny:

Kevin Smith (a large lad) had booked two seats on a South West flight - he changed his flight and SWA seated him in a single (because there wasn't space) and then very publicly ejected for being too fat with the reason cited that "he would not be comfortable occupying just one seat" and that he was a safety risk.

Goddess of PR, Gini Dietrich, drew my attention to it with a Blog post and while I hadn't thought about it in a PR sense before, I certainly have now.

Now look - I'm a fairly regular guy. I don't enjoy sitting next to gigantic people on a plane either but it's not something that's going to ruin my life. And since the policy that South West was enforcing is about people not being able to put down their armrests (which Smith could).

Anyway, SWA issued a backhanded apology to Smith on their public blog which didn't go down so well. You know the sort - "Well I'm sincerely sorry but you're a fatty and we have rules!"

As if that wasn't bad enough PR for the almost terminally stupid airline, it turns out that SWA simply lied through their teeth about the whole thing. A nice lady phoned Smith on Feb. 15th and told him that absolutely all of it was pretty much random profiling. There was no protocol, just a "Oooh there's a fat one, kick him off so we can leave."

For all of you keeping score, that's a cockup of monumental proportions for a company.

Whoever the PR folks are should be chucked - this whole thing could have been sorted out at the check-in desk, reasonably explained and SWA would sail the skies unmolested by a furious army of Smith fans.

Idiots.

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Worst. Idea. Ever. (Thermite)

Rob — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:36:20 +0000

http://hackaday.com/2008/09/16/how-to-thermite-based-hard-drive-anti-forensic-destruction/

Leaving aside questions of what you'd have on your hard drive that needed destroying so badly and the fact that most of the 12 year olds using this mod would have to pay for a new floor in their parent's house - What would you do WHEN it went wrong?

I mean compuiters are unstable enough already - now you're going to attach a thermite reaction to them? Really? I don't imagint it'll be the world's most pleasant feeling having a hold burned through your leg while you're helping yourself along to some of that contraband you're protecting.

WIth the new Thermite hard drive destruction mod, you'll be putting out the flames in your now mistreated crotch as the FBI burst in through your door and see the lingering images of Vanessa Hudgens as your mom storms in to see what the fuss is.

Seriously.

Worst. Idea. Ever.

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Helpless Hairballs

Rob — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:41:48 +0000

Today has been a bit of a mixed feeling day really. We live in a complex and (as with most places) some people who live here are not as nice as others.

Some of the more unsavoury sort moved out about a week ago and left three little kittens behind. The cats can't be more than a month or two old and surely hadn't done anything to warrant this sort of treatment.

We fed them and watered them for the last day or so and finally had to call the SPCA today. Kinda sad to see them go off to a place some animals don't come out of but they have a much better chance there than roaming around.

Poor buggers.

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Passion

Rob — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:59:40 +0000

I'd love to say I've been motivated to post by my own drives and desires or even that it's out of a loyalty to the tens of readers of my blog.

Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Well, some things could but they'd really have to involve the FBI and what really happened to Elvis and JFK (later).

In fact, I'm being driven to post by the simple use of CommentLuv on friend Alex's newly born site Old Takkies Indaba. See, when I post a comment on someone's exquisitely well written article to do with South Africa, the CommentLuv widget goes and fetches my last post. In this case, a piece charmingly entitled "Twitter updates 20/07/2009". I know, sure to win various awards and acclaim from around the world.

So, here I blog with almost nothing rushing through my mind (which is a rarity) and almost nothing to say. The only thing I'm moved to comment on is the flagging passion that runs through all of us - the manner in which motivation flees our very presence is something that interests me.

In many ways, I've become a slave to the passions of the various things I enjoy doing - I.T., reading, writing,sites and so on. Although I spend a fairly minimal time doing all but one of those, they collectively take up a gigantic amount of my time. Perhaps I need to schedule better... or perhaps it's good that I'm filled with this slow-burning passion for all and sundry.

Who knows? All I do know is at least CommentLuv thinks I'm ahead of the game now.

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Rihanna and the Occult

Rob — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:53:13 +0000

I don't ordinarily post about the occult on here. In fact, I think this is my first post anywhere that has anything to do with the occult. However, it's simply too serious a topic for me to ignore.

Rihanna is an agent of evil and is intent on enslaving all humankind with her song Umbrella.

This startling revelation is brought to us by VigilantCitizen and I strongly recommend reading it.

Jay-Z even has a prophetic rap verse.

If you aren't careful they'll both drag you down to hell. Ell. Ell. eh. eh.

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I have 28 books to read

Rob — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:50:27 +0000

And that's actually a good thing

I've figured out that I have 28 books that I want to read in the next little while. It makes me very happy that I have an unbroken line of stuff to dig into.

In case anyone cares, they are:

Soul of the Fire (Terry Goodkind)
6 more Terry Goodkind books
Crossroads of Twilight
Knife of Dreams
New Spring
Moondust
Thomas Harris' Hannibal trilogy
The collected stories of Sherlock Holmes
Kidnapped
Duma Key
Sue Townsend's new(ish) Adrian mole book (Weapons of mass destruction)
The Harry Potter Series
The Lord of the Rings

Wish me luck.

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So probably no house…

Rob — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:13:58 +0000

So it turns out that what with the economy, our financial position and generally the bank's skittish way of dealing with people (requiring a 10,20 or even 30% deposit) the chances are good we won't be getting a house.

All is not lost - we do have an offer in for one so we'll see how that goes. If the offer falls through though, we'll happily stick tight to where we are and just pump whatever cash we may have into the bond.

Sounds quite good actually.

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