Justin Hartman

iBook G4 now sporting Ubuntu Edgy Eft

2006-11-20T00:54:02+02:00

It had to happen and today it did. I have just completed a brand new Ubuntu 6.10 (codename Edgy Eft) Linux installation on my Apple iBook G4 laptop. I have to admit that I have always been very curious about Ubuntu on the whole and in particular the noise that they have made but for some reason I have avoided it up until lately.

PowerPC canned by Ubuntu

2006-12-05T01:50:06+02:00

So go figure. 15 days after installing Ubuntu on my Apple iBook G4 a decision was made today to drop future support for PowerPC. For those who don’t know PowerPC is the chip inside the “now old” Apple computers much like the Intel chips that are made for PCs and now also Apple.

Mark Shuttleworth puts me in my place

2006-12-07T17:58:32+02:00

So this Ubuntu PowerPC issue has been bugging me a lot, so much so that I left the following comment on Mark Shuttleworth’s blog site this morning.

Debian etch is now my local flavour

2006-12-15T01:19:37+02:00

After grappling long and hard about the whole Ubuntu dropping PowerPC support issue I have made a decision to move my Apple iBook G4 from my recently installed Ubuntu 6.10 to the ever popular Debian platform.

Firefox not free?

2006-12-17T15:54:18+02:00

I’ve been running Debian on my Apple iBook for about a week now and a recent upgrade to the unstable version of Debian made me realise that Firefox has been renamed Iceweasel. This was particularly strange to me and I couldn’t understand where this funny name came from suddenly so I decided to do some research.

How to swap Control and Command keys on PowerPC

2006-12-20T22:17:14+02:00

As a previous Apple OS X user I find that having to use the control key on my keyboard versus the Apple command key a real pain in the backside. Most Windows users don’t have a problem with this as the transition from Windows to Linux is easy with regards to using the control key. I’ve searched and asked and low and behold nearly a month later I now know how to swap the two around.

DNS Installation and Setup using BIND9

2007-01-15T18:45:00+02:00

This HOWTO will assist you in getting a Domain Name Server (DNS) up and running using BIND9 on Debian Etch.

PureFTPd Installation and Setup

2007-01-15T20:53:00+02:00

The following HOWTO is aimed at installing and setting up a FTP server, based on Pure-FTPd, which supports multiple Virtual Hosts.

Installing a second hard drive

2007-01-29T20:53:00+02:00

Installing a second hard drive is easy if you know how. I needed to do this on my server and below is the steps I followed.

Installing a Debian Etch base system

2007-02-05T18:16:00+02:00

The following is a mini HOWTO on setting up a base Debian Etch system.

Automated backup to Amazon S3 with Duplicity on Debian Etch

2007-03-05T20:05:00+02:00

If you’ve tried to use Debian Etch’s version of Duplicity you’ll know there is no way to use Amazon S3 servers for remote backup as Duplicity on Etch is simply not current enough. This tutorial will show you how to install the most current Duplicity and set it up to backup your Debian Etch server.

Setting the time using Terminal

2007-03-06T20:25:00+02:00

This is really basic stuff but if you aren’t running a GUI then it isn’t as easy as opening up a Time & Date Settings control panel so this is the way to do it.

How to change Apple Command key and CTRL key on Ubuntu 17.04

2017-07-17T10:22:00+02:00

If you want to swap both the Command keys with the default Control key on Ubuntu 17.04 inverting what they do currently then this is for you.

My New Blog

2004-10-09T01:02:00+02:00

Well after months of having the service available to me I have finally decided to go ahead and begin using blogs properly for the first time.

Pic of my 10 1/2 month old son Luke

2004-10-09T01:20:00+02:00

Pic of my 10 1/2 month old son Luke (what a gorgeous little child).

My Website

2004-11-06T01:57:00+02:00

For those of you who are remotely interested you can view my companies website [Hartman Productions](http://www.hpcc.co.za/) for a brief understanding of what I do with my life all day and all night :)

Asia Tsunami

2004-12-29T01:53:00+02:00

I'm sure that most of you have all been shocked by the recent events that have taken place in Asia as have I. More importantly a close friend of my brother-in-law has allegedly been reported among one of the South African's dead in the tragic events of the last few days.

What is an Entrepreneur?

2005-03-04T01:11:00+02:00

This has been a very interesting question to me lately. I recently read two fantastic articles about this exact question (sorry I can't remember where) and it has started a chain reaction of events not only in my mind but also in my personal life.

Terri Schiavo Right To Die Case

2005-03-25T01:07:00+02:00

Since March 18th I've been following the American case about Terri Schiavo and her right to Life, or death depending on how you look at it. What has interested me mostly is the apparent lack of respect to a disabled persons right to live.

Luke's First Day of School!

2005-04-04T14:12:00+02:00

It's been a while since I last posted something on the blog and with good reason. The last month and a bit I've been hectic with adding new services to Hartman Productions and also getting the business more automated.

I'm a Business Warrior

2005-04-17T01:54:00+02:00

The Up Side Of Anger

2005-05-15T02:19:00+02:00

It's A Good May Day!

2005-05-22T00:56:00+02:00

Well things are certainly looking up. I'm writing my first blog entry from a new Apple Mac which was kindly given to me.

In Loving Memory - Kevin Sweidan

2005-09-16T03:26:00+02:00

It's that time of year again when I remember that horrible day on September 15th 2003 when my best friend and business partner, Kevin Sweidan, passed away so horribly.

Is bad publicity good? and why i do grabble

2006-12-20T02:55:30+02:00

It has been said that any publicity, good or bad, is good either way. Well I experienced my first bit of ‘bad’ publicity today with Grabble and I’m still undecided if it’s good for Grabble or not. In a recent post by Uno De Waal about the Grabble search engine I got less than rave reviews and it seems as if the readers of Uno’s Blog were just as perplexed.

I'm looking for a new job

2006-12-27T15:22:54+02:00

It’s a little sneaky of me posting this on my blog but I am in the process of looking for new employment. Someone has to pay the bills seeing as my various projects don’t pay for themselves so I’m putting my feelers out there to see what may lie ahead for the new year.

Words that end in gry

2007-01-09T02:37:00+02:00

Yesterday I received a riddle sent to me via email without a solution and while I had seen this riddle before I had completely forgotten the solution to the problem. After a little research I managed to find the answer and I have to admit I found the whole thing very intriguing indeed. So below is the riddle and what follows is the solution to the problem. Give it a bash and see what you can come up with before reading the solution.

Seriously, Google is starting to scare me

2007-01-09T10:19:52+02:00

I know I run a competing website to Google however it has to be said that I am growing very worried at some of the decisions being made at Google. I am(was) the biggest fan of Google and the boys at Mountain View inspired me to start my own search engine but a recent anomaly in Search Engines being removed from Google page results are a growing concern.

Ja! Productions decided to hire me

2007-01-26T15:23:39+02:00

A special thanks must go out to Mike Stopforth and Dave Duarte for helping me to find a new job. Mike and Dave introduced me to Johan Reyneke of Ja! Productions and after a lengthy process I received an offer of employment from Johan this morning.

Of 9/11 and being pessimistic

2007-02-06T23:20:36+02:00

So the new job is going great (thanks Carls for asking) but I’ve had little time to blog recently. I really wanted to share my experience I had on Sunday but I’m only finding the time to do so today… rather late than never.

Apple is promoting the idea of ending DRM

2007-02-07T01:42:57+02:00

Apple’s Steve Jobs is encouraging the music labels to sell their digital music without any protection at all. If the labels stopped wrapping the music with DRM, then Jobs said he would “switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store.”

How I spent my Valentines Day

2007-02-15T20:44:06+02:00

As is the trend lately my current news seems to be stale news by the time I get around to blogging about it but nonetheless it’s one post I still feel relevant and somewhat important to me.

Social Networking = hard work!

2007-02-22T23:02:45+02:00

I love Web 2.0 stuff and more importantly I love community involvement but hell it’s hard work to keep up with the various subscriptions I have to social network sites.

Technology Thursday kicks off

2007-03-01T09:30:59+02:00

Today sees the launch of my new weekly contribution I’ll be doing for SA Rocks. Technology Thursday, will focus on South African technology and the impact it has on the world today. As South Africans we have created a vast array of technological innovations and will continue to do so and I’m privileged to pay homage to these achievements.

Twac.co.za - my new baby

2007-03-08T10:10:35+02:00

I was hoping to hold off a little on blogging about Twac as we're still working through a list of changes/bugs/feature requests but my article today on SA Rocks takes a high-level look at the new video sharing websites and Twac is now one of them.

Kudos to Mike Stopforth

2007-03-27T14:00:24+02:00

I have personally never seen a personal recommendation in the South African community as what Mike's just done and it is an amazing thing for all the 10 highly talented individuals to have so well done Mike.

I lost my virginity

2007-03-28T10:40:22+02:00

Well it's official - I'm no longer a virgin and my first introduction into the real-world geek community was fab.

The Cleaners Revenge

2007-03-29T10:11:31+02:00

So there's this really cool clip I came across yesterday on the Twac website which I thought I have to share with you. It lacks a little plot and is a little silly but the technique is brilliant.

The power of Afrigation

2007-04-05T19:57:48+02:00

With Afrigator only a couple days old I've already noticed the power of content Afrigation.

KillerStartups.com thinks we're hot

2007-04-07T01:51:24+02:00

The coverage of Afrigator, it would seem, doesn't stop within the African borders. I was notified via email on a few minutes ago that Afrigator had been reviewed at this unique website as the next big thing!

Is David Bullard an utter wanker?

2007-05-07T00:44:59+02:00

If you haven't read it already David Bullard, Sunday Times journalist and holier than thou author, has published an article today in the Sunday Times attacking the entire 70 million strong blogosphere.

Bullard responds - now even a bigger wanker

2007-05-07T16:53:42+02:00

So Bullard has responded via video and while bloggers all over South Africa may have asked for an apology from the Sunday Times all we got was more of the same shit.

Shirley, Goodness and Mercy

2007-05-09T10:38:24+02:00

So last night I did something I haven't done in more than six years - I went to the theater. Zane Meas of 7de Laan and Twac fame stars in the lead role of a beautiful coming of age story set in the coloured community of Riverlea called Shirley, Goodness and Mercy.

Bullardgate: A very interesting twist

2007-05-09T19:49:23+02:00

Now I was one of the first to react to David Bullard’s rant and I still maintain rightfully so however tonight I found an intersting twist to the Bullardgate campaign.Sunday evening Vincent Maher posted this and asked us all to join the revolution by signing up to the Facebook group which he had created in protest which I diligently did. However, browsing my Facebook profile tonight I realised that Vincent has left the very group he started:I’m confused. How can the General abandon his troops right in the middle of the battle? Does this mean that Vincent has now revoked the whole Bullardgate campaign? At the time of writing this there are currently 64 supporters of which Vincent is no longer one of them so what sort of message does this carry to the rest of us?At least Bullard has stuck to his guns.

The new Afrigator hits the block

2007-05-21T10:58:21+02:00

On a very cold and windy morning here in Johannesburg I'm comforted by the latest version we just released for Afrigator.

Show me the Gatorlove

2007-05-24T12:49:40+02:00

Some things just tickle my fancy but I have to admit Gatorlove is really blowing my hair back! It's such a simple yet cool new feature to Afrigator and I can already see the benefit of having Gatorlove on the site.

The big Cameroon domain conspiracy

2007-05-24T20:34:12+02:00

People say that this blogosphere is boring and to an extent I agree however I must admit I am finding some serious value in reading all the African blogs on Afrigator.

SA Top Sites and Blog Top Sites clarified

2007-05-28T10:29:08+02:00

The time has come for me to make a public statement about the current status of SA Top Sites, Blog Top Sites and Blog247.

27-5 yet another success

2007-05-28T11:25:28+02:00

One of the first things Nic Haralambous had to say to me on arrival at the 27dinner was - why are you not at home working? My response was quite simply that once every two months I take a night off to socialise and interact with like-minded Geeks and last night was no different.

Afrigator at TED

2007-06-07T20:46:19+02:00

The following pic was taken at TED and features Ory Okolloh from kenyanpundit.com talking about the cool things happening in Africa.

What to do with 1,300 images?

2007-06-11T02:48:12+02:00

Picture the scenario: thousands of personal pictures located across three machines, a multitude of CDs and DVDs and so many duplicates one doesn't know where to start. Well this was me.

The end of a football era

2007-06-25T12:57:42+02:00

Football is a way of life for me and Thierry, over an eight year period, played a integral part in my teams success and my admiration for the legend is without doubt one of the strongest I've felt for a sports celebrity in some time.

My Digital Life?

2007-06-25T17:59:29+02:00

Found on iburst this afternoon. Anyone know what the relationship is because I don't see any other advertising anywhere on the site...

MTN and Jupiter Drawing Room miss the mark

2007-06-26T13:18:41+02:00

I don't think there is a person I don't know who doesn't like the new MTN advertising campaign. Based largely on User Generated Content (UGC) they depict the social and viral aspects of our times and they're very entertaining.

Videos of the snow in Johannesburg

2007-06-27T02:03:39+02:00

If you missed it then you seriously lost out. At around 12:00 on Wednesday morning the snow started to fall in Johannesburg for the first time in around 26 years. In fact the last time I saw snow in Johannesburg I was only 2 years old.

Netgear and Google hurt my ego

2007-07-05T10:17:30+02:00

I consider myself somewhat of a technical person and I pride myself by the fact that I'm able to problem-solve numerous issues when it comes to technology but I did find myself in a very tricky situation this morning.

My new position at The Times

2007-07-05T12:22:08+02:00

After a couple months negotiation and some pretty hairy decision making processes I've finally signed and sealed a new contract to begin working at The Times. On 1 August I'll take up the position of Assistant New Media Strategist and I'm very excited about this career opportunity.

A review of Google Apps

2007-07-10T15:45:56+02:00

Google Apps has been out there for some time now and when I initially looked at it I wasn't really sold on the benefits of using the service. To me the free version appeared to function in exactly the same was as a normal Google Account but I'm pleased to report that this is actually not the case.

My first job at The Times

2007-07-11T15:13:47+02:00

I only officially start at The Times on August 1st but I've already got my first responsibility. This screenshot was taken off Facebook a short while ago.

What I've learnt not to do on Muti

2007-07-12T08:45:37+02:00

I'm a huge fan of Muti which is a superb African Social Bookmark site where users can post links to content on the web. The site, based largely off Reddit, has proven to be a great source of leading content within the African continent and generally what appears on Muti is worth the read.

25 Web 2.0 Startup Commandments

2007-07-20T10:10:59+02:00

1. Your idea isn't new. Pick an idea; at least 50 other people have thought of it. Get over your stunning brilliance and realize that execution matters more. 2. Stealth startups suck. You're not working on the Manhattan Project, Einstein.

It is a Web 2.0 world and we're part of it!

2007-07-30T11:33:01+02:00

This map taken from the Business 2.0 website shows the locations of the 31 hottest startups outside of Silicon Valley. While highly concentrated around Europe you'll notice that South Africa is featured all thanks to a small little site called Afrigator. I'm chuffed and this post will tell you why.

I think Facebook has been sold!

2007-08-06T15:57:01+02:00

Look at the favicon in the images below. This screenshot was taken a couple minutes ago while accessing Facebook and I wonder if they have finally accepted an offer from Yahoo!? This also might explain the recent downtime and security issues they encountered!

Apple - Think Different

2007-08-10T10:02:23+02:00

In 2002 Apple created a new advertising campaign called Switch. It featured real people who had switched from the Microsoft Windows platform to the Mac. Prior to this largely successful campaign Apple ran the Think Different campaign which was truly one of the best seen in the late 1990's.

My email to SABC News

2007-08-13T08:55:16+02:00

My email to the News desk at SABC sent late Saturday evening - reply still pending. Dear SABC News Team I'd like to enquire as to why SABC News choses not to report on news in the English Premier League?

I've been blocked from Facebook

2007-08-13T11:49:21+02:00

I'm the only one in The Times office but for some strange reason I've been blocked from Facebook. Wonder if they know something about me that I don't?

Is public opinion really this naive?

2007-08-14T12:50:37+02:00

I submitted my vote on The Times sports poll this morning and noticed a shocking figure in the results. Now I know I'm largely in the minority here but I honestly believe that Arsenal have a great chance of winning the league this season.

Lunch with Bullard

2007-08-16T12:36:20+02:00

David Bullard, acclaimed journalist and public enemy number one, recently invited me to an extended lunch with some other elite bloggers - youngBLOOD and Groogle. It was inevitable really that our paths would cross and I have to say I feel most privileged that I have had the opportunity to meet the man in person.After calling David a wanker one would imagine the man would never want to talk to me again however he has been a true gentleman about the Bullardgate affair and in particular my reaction to the whole event.I have to admit that I really enjoyed my lunch at The Grill House with Bullard and I noticed this morning that he sneakily took a snap of me on his new Nokia phone which he’s now trying to sell on eBay.David, you do realise this picture of me is better suited for Sotheby’s? I am after-all a highly sought after individual.

What kids like

2007-08-16T15:32:22+02:00

My 7 year old sister, Emma, was asked by a friend of my Mom to send through a list of her favourite foods. These were the results.

The best design application in the world

2007-08-16T19:53:07+02:00

Wondering who owns the best design application? Find out below.

A fresh new look

2007-08-21T09:32:27+02:00

In a sad and shallow attempt for exposure Groogle and I have decided to launch our new blog designs at the same time. That aside, I have needed a new, fresh look for some time now and I'm very happy with the final results.

Gmail offers additional storage

2007-08-21T10:58:26+02:00

A new feature to Gmail is the ability to now upgrade your disk space from the free 2GB limit. I came across this by chance really as I was checking my account settings page and I noticed the following: Clicking the Upgrade link brings you to a Google Checkout page with various upgrade options.

Mondli Makhanya responds to the Manto controversy

2007-08-21T15:50:36+02:00

Part One: The editor of the Sunday Times responds to the controversy caused by the investigative stories published about Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, which exposes her as an alcoholic and a thief.

Newspaper survival relies on free online content

2007-08-22T08:45:38+02:00

The New York Times announced an agreement yesterday to employ the services of Rapt.com across the NYTimes.com website.

SA and Australian Governments caught editing Wikipedia

2007-08-24T12:25:22+02:00

IT Web yesterday broke a story that the South African government was attempting to censor the largest human edited encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

A new Hartman is on its way!

2007-08-28T09:36:01+02:00

User unknown to parents has managed to creep its way into Mom’s tummy. Pictured above the little bugger is 7 weeks old, only 0.88cm big and has a healthy heart rate of 171bpm. Needless to say Mom, Dad and Luke are delight at the news!

Even Mambo thinks Joomla! is the best CMS

2007-08-29T08:30:08+02:00

OK well the title is not 100% accurate however the following screenshot was taken off the official Mambo website.

Is Social Media dead?

2007-08-29T12:25:57+02:00

In today's Blogumist column in The Times Paul Jacobson has written a piece titled Social Media is dead. Paul is a friend and a colleague but I have to say this article spurred some very negative reactions in me and I just think that this article is so far from the truth it's scary.

Afrigator Blog Trends launched

2007-08-29T15:07:14+02:00

Just launched this morning is a new Blog Trends page on Afrigator. You can read more info about it on the Afrigator blog site. Essentially the Blog Trends page gives you a snapshot of the Afrosphere and goes into some detail on the amount of traffic we've sent through to our blog sites.

The Hidden Google Earth Flight Simulator

2007-09-01T11:32:48+02:00

Hidden inside Google Earth is a secret Flight Simulator that takes full advantage of Googleâ€™s extensive satellite imagery. To access the hidden feature, open Google Earth and hit Command+Option+A (note it must be capital A) or Ctrl+Alt+A if youâ€™re using a Windows Machine.

12% of Blog traffic is sent by Afrigator

2007-09-04T09:26:37+02:00

If any of you have been watching the Afrigator Trends page you will have noticed that yesterday we sent a whopping 19,951 clicks through to blog sites who have joined up at Afrigator.

Business 2.0 to close next week

2007-09-06T09:20:48+02:00

When someone told me last night that Business 2.0 is closing their doors I simply couldn't believe it. After being featured in the magazine a month ago it came as a big shock to the system but the New York Times blog has the full story.

What's up with this weather?

2007-09-13T00:11:11+02:00

Looking at my Dashboard Widget at around 00:00 I noticed that today’s high was 32 degrees and that the current temperature is 23 degrees. Now forgive me if I am wrong but isn’t this still supposed to be Spring in Johannesburg? This is not the first time either that we’ve hit well above the 30 degree mark and I have to say I’m dreading December if this is a prelude of things to come.Makes you wonder if maybe we shouldn’t start taking a serious look at what we’re doing to our climate through the effects of global warming.

September 15 remains a sad day for me

2007-09-15T02:13:09+02:00

I've been debating whether or not to blog about this issue as it's a very sensitive topic for me yet despite my reluctance I've decided it's important to write about this day and remember. Four years today, almost to the hour, my best friend passed away.

Parallels for Mac OS X

2007-09-17T09:00:34+02:00

If you've owned a Mac before I'm almost positive that you've tried some kind of virtualisation software before. Be it Microsoft's Virtual PC or Apple's Boot Camp neither have really solved the great need to run Windows applications on a Apple Mac machine.

As entertaining as it is twenty20 is flawed

2007-09-17T11:00:29+02:00

Last night South Africa narrowly escaped a loss by beating England in the ICC World Twenty20. Had England fielded better or even had a better batting line-up we would have lost that game miserably. This got me thinking about a very apparent flaw I've noticed in the shortened version of the game.

Yahoo! Mash is a complete mesh

2007-09-18T09:00:49+02:00

Over the weekend I got an invite to Yahoo!'s new social networking site called Mash.

Pownce will kill Twitter

2007-09-19T09:00:36+02:00

Pownce is similar Twitter, only better. I've been using it now for a couple days and I'm far more impressed with the the user experience and reliability than I am with Twitter. Some experts will swear Jaiku is the one to watch but there are a couple things which make Pownce a winner in my opinion.

Mother's tears for her stabbed son

2007-09-19T17:29:57+02:00

This whole stabbing incident just makes me sick. I honestly hope these kids spend a long time in jail. The Times spoke to Nonhlanhla Ntshangase, the mother of murdered schoolboy Mfundo Ntshangase. Brought to you by: The Times Multimedia

What IPTV should look like in South Africa

2007-09-20T09:00:30+02:00

This week has been a week of reviews and I figured why stop now. With the recent announcement of Pay TV operators in South Africa I thought it would be best to look at IPTV in the form of Joost and what local operators can learn from them.

Business 2.0: The Final Cover

2007-09-20T09:35:01+02:00

This just in from TechCrunch. It's relevant to me because of these two posts.

Career Opportunity, London SW6

2007-09-20T15:44:01+02:00

Could you manage a football team with only a measly Â£500m budget?
Have you got the stamina to sign cheques morning, noon and night for any player you want?
Can you sulk in a sickening manner whenever referees don't award you five penalties every game?
Are you capable of spouting utter nonsense at press meetings?
Can you say 'Yes sir, of course sir!' whenever your boss makes a suggestion, however unhelpful?</ul>Yes?Then come to Stamford Bridge!Chelsea - A Proud History of Buying Silver Since 2005

Discipline at The Times... my bad

2007-09-27T10:35:43+02:00

I've been reprimanded by my superior, Colin Daniels. This email just arrived moments ago. From: Colin Daniels Subject: Pull your socks up Date: 27 September 2007 10:26:35 AM To: Justin Hartman JJ, I've had reports from an anonymous source in the newsroom who is concerned about your work output.

Amazon MP3 more of the same iTunes crap

2007-10-03T09:44:29+02:00

When I read of the launch of Amazon MP3 I honestly thought that finally some large company was seriously going to change accessibility to music in South Africa. How wrong I was...

How's this for a smoking room?

2007-10-05T09:21:26+02:00

This week I was lucky enough to attend a great digital workshop in Cape Town, hosted by The Times, featuring Simon Waterfall from Poke in London. My accommodation for the night was at the Extreme Hotel in Bree Street and it's an awesome hotel to say the least.

How to pack your clothes. No, seriously!

2007-10-10T13:02:12+02:00

This was found on OneBag.com and I wish I had found this before packing my suit and heading off to Cape Town.

Is this the end of the Record label era?

2007-10-11T11:32:26+02:00

This morning I purchased the new Radiohead album, In Rainbows, direct from their website.

Using Social Media to track the Mondli arrest

2007-10-15T13:48:06+02:00

On Sunday the news broke that Sunday Times editor, Mondli Makhanya and deputy managing editor Jocelyn Maker will be arrested some time this week.

So I'm pissed. How can I stop this?

2007-10-16T10:50:26+02:00

Yesterday I wrote a post called Using Social Media to track the Mondli arrest which highlighted my efforts in setting up Jaiku to aggregate what's been written about in the Mondli Makhanya affair. Within hours I stumbled upon the follow two websites.

Can Bolton Deventer win us the World Cup?

2007-10-16T12:35:27+02:00

Gregor and I have created this awesome game for The Times! I'm hooked. Make games | Share | Play free online games | User Generated Games @ Pictogame Brought to you by The Times Grab the embed code for your site below.

TinyLink gets a Public API

2007-10-17T11:25:06+02:00

After a lengthy discussion with Charl last night I got some inspiration and created a Public API for TinyLink. The API can be used through a REST or JSON request and if you're a developer you can chose either to integrate into your application.

MacBook Pro is hazardous to your health

2007-10-19T10:18:54+02:00

This post, unfortunately, is not nearly as thought provoking as dealing with the death of Lucky Dube however I thought this info might help some fellow MacBook Pro (MBR) users.

AAARRRGGGGHHHH

2007-10-19T12:15:41+02:00

Driving me mad….

God save the Queen

2007-10-19T12:46:33+02:00

ha ha ha ha!!!!

Anaesthesia for my 4 year-old son?

2007-10-22T13:00:54+02:00

Ok I need help. A few weeks back we took Luke, my son, to the dentist. Apparently he suffers from the Hartman "weak-teeth" curse and now he needs some work done to some of his molar teeth.

Making a grown man cry

2007-10-24T15:19:33+02:00

This morning Luke had his operation and thank God, all went well. I was dead scared about this operation but thanks to some great comments in my earlier post I lost a lot of the pre-op concerns and in truth I was completely fine up until Luke got his anesthetic.

Best newspaper cover ever?

2007-10-30T09:14:45+02:00

I know this is very belated but time has not been on my side however I think this cover is timeless. Originally published in The Independent on the morning of the Rugby World Cup Final this front page moved me and is the best cover I've ever seen yet there is barely a picture on it.

Move along Tiger - Leopard is here to stay

2007-10-31T09:05:26+02:00

On Friday, in true Geek style, I trekked half way across Johannesburg through rain, fog and heavy traffic to the iStore in Clearwater for the much anticipated Mac OS X Leopard launch.

Time to rethink what I'm doing here

2007-11-05T10:23:44+02:00

Friday evening was a particularly difficult evening for my marriage and I've been rethinking my existence ever since.

New Media and Technology law

2007-11-06T11:37:04+02:00

A week ago I was fortunate enough to attend the New Media and Technology law workshop hosted by Paul Jacobson and Daniella Kafouris.

Government takeover at Johncom - it's begun

2007-11-08T09:43:49+02:00

Take only minutes ago in The Times offices I found conclusive evidence that the rumored Government takeover of Johncom Avusa has already begun...

Sometimes I Hate South Africa

2007-11-13T08:54:41+02:00

Last Friday morning Rian Kerkhof (53) died in hospital after being robbed earlier that Thursday evening. Rian was a good family friend and news of his murder only made its way to our household early yesterday evening.

RedCube presentation on Multimedia and Social Media

2007-11-19T10:11:42+02:00

Gregor and I have just finished delivering a presentation to RedCube, the PR agency behind Visa, on Multimedia and Social Media.

African Web 2.0 map

2007-11-22T09:45:11+02:00

Hash (aka Erik Hersman) has done an amazing map of Web 2.0 sites through Africa. Lots of people have commented and seen it already however it really is worth a mention here. Well done Hash, looking forward to using it soon!

What is the point of a Medical Aid?

2007-11-22T10:22:08+02:00

One of my reasons for moving to The Times was the lucrative medical aid offer from Discovery Life. Having not been on a Medical Aid for more than 12 months this was quite a critical issue for me as family medical costs have to be a top priority.

Microsoft's equity in Apple

2007-11-23T12:02:11+02:00

On Wednesday I had a meeting with Rutger-Jan van Spaandonk who is the executive director and shareholder of the Core Group. In case you don’t know Core Group are the official distributors for Apple, Nintendo and Tom Tom in South Africa.RJ is an interesting man and he gave us a full status quo of where his products are placed in the SA market which was fascinating. What was more interesting though was when he told Gregor, Carly and myself that Microsoft owns a small stake in Apple Inc.The big Apple vs. Microsoft war seems rather pointless after news of this so I decided I wanted to quantify this statement with some facts.Turns out that at the 1997 Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would be entering into partnership with Microsoft. Included in this was a five-year commitment from Microsoft to release Microsoft Office for Macintosh as well as an investment of 150,000 shares of Apple Series A, nonvoting, convertible preferred stock worth $150 million.Steve had this to say to the audience.

If we want to move forward and see Apple healthy and prospering again, we have to let go of a few things here. We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose. We have to embrace a notion that for Apple to win, Apple has to do a really good job. And if others are going to help us thatâ€™s great, because we need all the help we can get, and if we screw up and we donâ€™t do a good job, itâ€™s not somebody elseâ€™s fault, itâ€™s our fault. So I think that is a very important perspective. If we want Microsoft Office on the Mac, we better treat the company that puts it out with a little bit of gratitude; we like their software.

Microsoft found themselves in a monopolisation legal battle and Bill Gates recognised that if Apple failed Microsoft would have no case that there were other, alternative operating systems available to consumers. It was a win-win situation for both companies.The 150,000 shares were convertible by Microsoft after August 5, 2000 into shares of the companyâ€™s common stock at a conversion price of $8.25 per share. During 2000, 74,250 shares of preferred stock were converted to 9 million shares and in 2001 the remaining 75,750 preferred shares were converted into 9.2 million of Appleâ€™s common stock. All 18.2 million shares were sold by Microsoft in 2003.Currently, Microsoft owns about 0.0046% of Apple through a Private Capital Management fund and Apple owns about 0.39% of itself the same way so whether Microsoft ever held any power in the company is questionable at best.

27dinner and Afrigator

2007-11-26T13:49:35+02:00

Tomorrow night I'm doing a presentation at the 27dinner at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg. We'll be making an announcement for Afrigator which I think is pretty cool so if you weren't planning on coming to the dinner before pop on over to hear what it's all about.

The iPod Touch Geeks

2007-11-27T09:21:24+02:00

All thanks to Colin both Gregor and I have a brand-spanking new 8GB iPod Touch all the way from the USA. Didn't take long and we've hacked the poor thing to death. Below is a photo I took of the Geeks running their hacks simultaneously. And this is the result after hours of deliberation.

27dinner and Team Afrigator

2007-11-28T14:45:45+02:00

Lots has been written about the eventful 27dinner last night but I just wanted to say that it was an awesome experience all round.

Presentation courtesy of Nic and Zoopy

2007-11-29T09:35:45+02:00

Many thanks firstly to Nic who was clever enough to film my presentation at the 27dinner and secondly to Jason at Zoopy who went out of his way to get this video up on their server. I was having loads of difficulty uploading the video but Jason quickly jumped in to help out.

Afrigator makes Read/WriteWeb

2007-11-29T10:10:18+02:00

I know the last few posts have been dedicated to the new Afrigator beta launch but being featured on Read/WriteWeb doesn't happen every day!

What sort of message is this?

2007-11-30T09:45:39+02:00

Earlier this month Pick n Pay spent a bucket-load of money on a new corporate identity. Groogle was perplexed as to why the R110 million didn't include a re-branding of the Pick n Pay website which did seem strange at the time.

2 million visitors to blogs

2007-12-03T11:37:01+02:00

I completely missed this as a result of the Afrigator Beta launch but we've just passed the 2 million mark in sending traffic to blog sites from Afrigator. You can read more on the official Afrigator blog site.

Did Pick n Pay actually listen to me?

2007-12-03T11:44:12+02:00

On Friday I wrote the following post in which I criticised Pick n Pay for allegedly removing the white woman from their banner when they added their new logo to the website.

The Times launches Planet Apps

2007-12-06T09:30:05+02:00

It's been a busy few weeks for me but none more than this current week. It seems as if all my efforts the last month or so have all come to a head and I'm pleased to announced the new Planet Apps portal for The Times.

Why can't I add Mark Zuckerberg as a friend?

2007-12-07T15:15:03+02:00

I'm trying not be a troll but after reading Ray Hartley's latest post on Facebook I decided to see how many Facebook friends Mark Zuckerberg has. Turns out he only has 554 friends but what I found more interesting was that you can't add Mark as a friend.

Disgruntled sub-editor just refuses to let go

2007-12-10T09:07:48+02:00

I've kept relatively quiet about the recent firing of Llewellyn Kriel but I've just read on MyADSL that Kriel plans to appeal the findings of the disciplinary hearing and now I feel I need to take a stand on this issue.

Facebook in 50 years time

2007-12-18T09:32:19+02:00

Picked this up on Orli Yakuel's Flickr feed. Orli is one of the innovators involved in Go2Web2.0.

Mac vs PC - the final debate

2007-12-20T15:17:38+02:00

Don’t say I never support Windows.

A year in reflection

2007-12-24T09:30:34+02:00

WARNING: This is my last post for 2007 and I decided I should take this time to reflectâ€¦ it might get sentimental! This time last year I had to face the harsh reality that Iâ€™d be without a job at the end of January 2007.

The South African Insult

2008-01-07T15:26:43+02:00

The following picture was taken on Christmas Day on a street corner in Yeoville which is only about 1km away from where I live. You can't really see the message on the street pole (larger image here) but I can tell you that it says "NO DUMPING".

Afrigator has arrived - finally!

2008-01-10T09:16:02+02:00

7 months. That’s how long this Beta version took us to finalise and while it’s not completely finished yet we decided to move it onto the live server late last night.The official announcement contains a fairly detailed list of what has changed and it would be great to get your feedback on this new version. Head on over to Afrigator and test the new system out.

South African Sociable Plugin for WordPress

2008-01-11T14:04:56+02:00

One of the first things I've been working on at The Times this year is a TimesURL Sociable Plugin for Wordpress.

iPhone 1.1.2 OTB working in South Africa

2008-01-21T15:37:25+02:00

After seeing Colin's iPhone working in SA I decided to buy one myself. The only issue is that all the new iPhones shipped with version 1.1.2 firmware on it can be hacked but there is no way to unlock the SIM card feature on these new versions.

Waiting at the hospital

2008-01-23T10:49:43+02:00

Two weeks ago Colette slipped on some wet tiles at our home and hurt her foot really badly. We thought the foot was broken but after further investigation the doctors realized that it was just badly infected.

Load shedding? Live near a politician!

2008-01-25T09:30:25+02:00

ESKOM CE Jacob Maroga has urged business not to rely on the government to find solutions to power shortages likely to persist until 2013, when the utility will have significantly expanded its generation capacity. - MyADSL

Day 16 of the rolling power outages and we’re all feeling the very serious impact this is having on our lives. Funny how the Eskom CE has made this statement because while we’re all sitting in the dark - sometimes three times a day - our politicians appear to be exempt from said load shedding.One of my closest friends lives in Killarney and during this 16 day trauma she’s had to endure the grand total of zero blackouts. Seems a little odd as Killarney is one of the hardest hit areas for load shedding but the difference with her is that she lives in the same road as Thabo Mbeki and Trevor Manuel. Another friend lives near Jacob Zuma’s residence in Forrest Town and alas they’re also unaffected by this load shedding.Once again it’s an us and them scenario and as long as JZ and crew remain unaffected by this power crisis we’ve got no hope of Government doing anything to resolve this issue.

8 Things

2008-01-28T09:05:13+02:00

Thanks to Mike for tagging me in this silly game I now find myself writing 8 things you didn't know about me. In principal I hate this kind of crap but I'll give it a bash... 1. I'm the eldest of 4 children. I have two brothers, Oliver (22) and Scott (16) as well as a very young Sister, Emma (8).

The Avusa Killer Bees

2008-01-29T09:30:32+02:00

Unless you work at The Times, or more specifically smoke with me outdoors at our offices, you won't know that lately we've been pestered by some very aggressive bees.

3 New Sites Go Live!

2008-02-04T14:08:10+02:00

This is so unintentional but as of this morning three new sites I'm involved in went live. Afrigator Mobile This is the second Afrigator mobile site to go live.

MacBook Air Parody

2008-02-14T09:00:28+02:00

This post is going to take up one minute from your life and hopefully it's not a wasted minute. If you haven't seen the MacBook Air advert yet then have a look at the video below. And here's my advert of the week...

Sociable Plugin Important Update

2008-02-14T15:45:14+02:00

I normally wouldn't blog about an update to a plugin I'm working on but I've just released version 1.3 of the TimesURL Sociable Plugin for WordPress. If you've never heard of this plugin before here's a quick excerpt detailing what the plugin is all about.

South African Facebook Demographics

2008-02-18T09:15:01+02:00

In November last year I did a presentation on Multimedia and Social Media to the RedCube PR agency and in it I looked at South Africa's total registered users on Facebook as well as where we ranked against other countries in the world.

Windows Internet Explorer for Mac - Finally!

2008-02-20T14:45:23+02:00

When I was using Debian as my primary operating system I installed a very handy application called ies4linux which allowed me to install and run Windows-based Internet Explorer 6 and 7.

Ashley Callie

2008-02-21T11:10:59+02:00

I've developed this strange sentimental obsession with Ashely Callie since I learned of her death last week. I have to be honest, I've never felt so emotional about the death of someone I've never met or even seen in real life before so overall I'm quite perplexed as to why I feel the way I do.

YouTube and that horrific Eduardo tackle

2008-02-26T12:19:10+02:00

Not only did I watch Arsenal drop two points to Man United on Saturday but I also bore witness to a horrific tackle on Arsenal striker Eduardo which saw him fracture his left fibula as well as sustain an open dislocation of his ankle joint in the same leg. During the match Sky Sports refused to show the replay of the tackle claiming it was too gruesome to repeat.Now I don’t know about you but I hate being censored so, on Sunday afternoon, lazing about at my parents home, I opened the YouTube application on my iPhone and did a search for eduardo tackle to see if someone had posted a video of the full footage.Amazingly there were well over 100 results and I started to watch some of the gruesome footage uploaded by YouTube users… it was very upsetting.Over a coffee discussion yesterday I told Gregor to do a similar search on YouTube to watch the unedited video but when he tried to click a video, any video, all he got was a message saying “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Arsenal Football Club”.Back in August last year we went through a process, well Gregor did, whereby The Times had a copyright infringement case and it was very interesting to see YouTube’s take on all of this. It took YouTube about three days to remove the video in question but we were also invited to use their Content Verification Tool which allows content owners to request removal of infringing content by using check boxes and “select all” functions. A very simple interface and a seemingly immediate solution to copyright infringement.I was just fascinated how quickly these videos of the Eduardo tackle disappeared from YouTube and it would appear that this self-managed solution is really helping all content owners combat the issue of plagiarism. It is clearly a much more efficient way of handling these types of issues than having YouTube moderate everything through a three-day lengthy process.If you are interested in viewing images of the tackle in question I have uploaded them here and here and if you want to see the live TV footage I have a short video clip of the tackle here. I must warn you it’s not pretty which is why I haven’t embedded it into this post.

How important is money?

2008-02-27T13:22:41+02:00

I read a very interesting blog post by Paul Buchheit titled Is there more to life than money? which got me thinking about whether money directly relates to happiness. Paul is an ex-Googler who was the creative genius behind Gmail, AdSense and suggested the company's now-famous motto Don't be evil.

Afrigator optimised for the iPhone and iPod Touch

2008-02-28T09:00:01+02:00

We announced on the Afrigator blog last night that our site is now optimised for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This is something I've wanted to do for some time now and once we had the standard mobile site completed, integration for the iPhone version was simple.

Interesting Email Facts

2008-03-03T09:15:59+02:00

On Sunday morning I went into Gmail to check my email and I was presented with over 700 spam emails in my inbox as well as 27,000 emails in my spam folder.I decided it was time to find some cool and interesting stats on spam and email in general, have a look at the results below.Spam Facts

60 billion e-mails are sent daily
90% of all email is spam
64% of spam servers are in Taiwan, 23% are in the US

User Facts

The average business user receives 25 email messages per day; increasing 10% per year
The average business user spends 2.6 hours per day reading and responding to email
38% of employees have sent an e-mail without the required attachment
34.1% of users open an e-mail by 5 pm
It takes 77 minutes a week for an employee to manage their mailbox, such as cleaning out old messages and filing old messages or attachments
It takes 27 minutes for a user to delete or archive enough messages in order to be able to use the e-mail system again after hitting a "quota limit"
It takes 8.2 minutes for a user to find an email that is older than two weeks

Email Marketing Facts

E-mail click through ratio is best on Wednesdays, reaching 3.9%
60% of business correspondence has grammar or spelling errors

Age Facts

75% of adults prefer e-mail to IM, 75% of teens prefer IM to e-mail
Less than one-fifth of teenagers use e-mail for communication

Extremely Scary Facts

60% of an organisationsâ€™ intellectual property is in the e-mail system
The typical user stores more than one-half of his/her critical business information within the confines of the e-mail system
38% of US and UK companies monitor and read e-mails written by employees

Impressive Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce application

2008-03-05T09:00:58+02:00

Yesterday Scott posted a link on Twitter to a website called HelloTxt. I had seen the service before but I decided, on visiting the site again, to register an account and try the service out.

Twitter in Plain English

2008-03-06T10:57:29+02:00

I love the Common Craft website because they simplify a lot of Web 2.0 services for the layman in an easy to understand format.

SA Blog Awards, WTF?

2008-03-07T12:20:28+02:00

I feel quite bad about doing this seeing as Mike just used me as an example in his SA Blog Awards post but I have some burning issues which need to aired.

The Avusa iLab and my new job

2008-03-12T08:52:00+02:00

Finally I can now officially announce that I’ve left The Times and have taken up a new position as the Digital Innovation Manager at Avusa’s new commercial applications unit known as the iLab.The iLab was formed to create online, offline and mobile innovation within the Avusa group and I’ll be heading up a small team from this point onwards. I will still report directly to Colin, who is now the Publisher of Times Online, but he will also work very closely with us on the strategy and implementation of new products and services.We’ve also been busy with recruiting new staff and I’m very excited that Gregor has joined the iLab, in a highly strategic role, as our New Media Specialist. We’re really going to diversify Gregor’s skills and it is without doubt that he’ll be an invaluable addition to the team.From the 1st of April Ian Barnes will join the iLab team as our Lead PHP Developer and I’m really excited to have his skill-set on board. Ian was responsible for the development of the Vault9 network as well as the blog traffic exchange site Blog Mad, so he has a proven track record in delivering high-quality websites.There is little doubt that we’re building up a formidable team in the iLab and we’re not done just yet. We’re still on the lookout for a killer Web/Multimedia Graphic Designer so if you want to work with an innovative, dynamic and super-cool bunch of guys then pop me an email.Exciting times at Avusa and I’m looking forward to reporting on some of our developments in the coming weeks and months.

Storm in a Hoek

2008-03-14T12:55:57+02:00

Last night I had a great evening with both Stii and Simone at Doppio Zero in Greenside. Lots of fun was had by all but more importantly we discussed some very serious issues ranging from work, life, parenting, blogging and the Stormhoek saga.

New Media Marketing Conference

2008-03-19T09:00:07+02:00

Next week I'll be presenting at the 2nd Annual New Media Marketing conference at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, Johannesburg. This four-day conference features an impressive lineup of speakers and I have to say it's an honour to be presenting at such a great event.

What the Internet looked like in 1995

2008-03-20T10:28:34+02:00

I found this video via Common Craft which is a digital version of a VHS tape educating people about the Internet. It's amazing to watch how ground-breaking the Internet was in 1995 and it makes you wonder what people will be saying about the Internet in 2018.

Impossible

2008-03-25T09:35:58+02:00

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world theyâ€™ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. Itâ€™s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. Itâ€™s a dare. Impossible is potential.

Following the New Media Marketing conference via Twitter

2008-03-26T08:00:55+02:00

If you're attending today's New Media Marketing conference and are planning to Twitter from the event then I'd like to suggest that you all use Hashtags in your twitter posts. Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets.

New Media Marketing Presentation

2008-03-26T11:02:39+02:00

Well it's done. My presentation on SEO and Social Media has been delivered and if you're interested you can now view it below or on Slideshare. | View | Upload your own

Apple iCal / Microsoft Exchange fix for Leopard

2008-03-31T09:01:06+02:00

One of the major drawbacks to working on an Apple Mac in a large corporate company is that most IT departments still use Microsoft Exchange Server for email and calendar support.

FireFox Add-on for TimesURL

2008-04-01T09:28:52+02:00

The TimesURL FireFox Extension is my first official attempt at a FireFox Plugin and I’ve had great fun in the process, along with some nasty headaches as well.The add-on allows you to shorten and share a website directly from your browser. Simply click the TimesURL icon and the add-on will automatically shorten the URL for you and present you with the short version that you can share with your friends via email, post to Facebook or bookmark on Muti.This extension has been tested to work on FireFox 2.0.0.13 as well as the latest Beta version 3.0b4. It’s really simple to install and it’s a great addition for those of you that use Twitter or just want to share links with other people. We’re working really hard at turning TimesURL (pronounced times-earl) into a destination to share information rather than just to shorten links and there is a lot under development to create this enhanced sharing experience.If you haven’t used TimesURL before then what better time to start using the service with an easy to use FireFox add-on?

Google and Virgin start Virgle Inc.

2008-04-01T22:32:31+02:00

Meet Virgle - an elaborate plan by Richard Branson (Virgin), Larry Page & Sergey Brin (Google) to colonise stars, in particular Mars, over the next 100 years.The 100 year plan includes the following key milestones.

A Virgle website has been setup and contains a well thought out plan including a myriad of information that kept me reading for about an hour. The crux of the concept is that Virgle Inc. will put up $10-15 billion over the next two decades and the community (i.e. normal people like you and me) will help build this New New World into an Open Source Planet. There is a Virgle application test to see if you cut the grade and afterwards you are invited to submit a short 30-second video clip to YouTube explaining why you should be included in project Virgle. After an undefined period of time Virgle will chose 20 candidates to go with Larry, Sergey and Richard to live on Mars and start the first Virgle community.All of this just seemed impossible to me but the fact that there are two videos, one with Richard Branson and one with Larry and Sergey, made me doubt my initial instincts. The fact of the matter is that Richard is a space pioneer and Larry and Sergey have already stated their desire to have an office on the Moon so while it seemed completely ludicrous it was believable at the same time.A search on Google for virgle is it real revealed an odd looking 404 - Page Not Found on the Virgle site. Details of which follow below.

oh, all right. Fine. April Fool's. Ha, ha, ha. It isn't real. There. Are you happy? Does it please you to drag us out of our lovely little fantasy world, to crush all our hopes and dreams? Is that really what you need to hear? Fine, you've heard it. Virgle isn't real. Yet!

I must say I’ve prided myself with being able to spot the various April Fools jokes on the Internet today but this one got me hook, line and sinker.

Lolly Jackson's Koenigsegg CCX

2008-04-02T12:51:28+02:00

Lolly Jackson, owner of Teazers, has just purchased himself a brand new Koenigsegg CCX super-car at a whopping R14 million. This makes the Koenigsegg almost double the price of a Ferrari Enzo... South Africa will receive 3 of the 30 cars made a year and I wonder who the other two cars are going to.

Afrigator Is One Year Old Today

2008-04-03T09:00:36+02:00

Wow, can't believe this thing is one year old already... check out the celebration post on the Afrigator Blog.

The Ultimate Web 2.0 Tag Cloud

2008-04-08T09:05:47+02:00

I must pay Netcare so my son can visit his brother!

2008-04-09T09:00:53+02:00

With only days to go to the birth of my new son I find myself waiting in anticipation for that call from Colette to tell me it’s time to go. Being a father for the second time round is even more daunting for me than the first but I’m nervously excited nonetheless.It’s been more than four years since Luke was born and we made a decision to utilise the services of the Netcare Park Lane Clinic once again for our newest arrival. We didn’t actually have a very good experience with Park Lane when Luke was born, as the staff where really quite useless, however most people have great things to say about the hospital which is why we’ve decided to give them a second chance.That said I am completely freaked out with Park Lane’s (and Netcare in general) newest policy forcing us to pay R3,400 for the privilege to have Luke visit his mom and new brother. While one of the two wards is allocated to medical aid clients the other is for semi- and fully-private rooms which come at a premium. The catch here is that if Colette stays in the medical aid ward then no children are allowed at all while the private one allows siblings to visit in the room during visiting hours.The cost for the semi-private room, which has 4 beds, is R800 per night and you have to pay for four nights upfront when checking in. If you wanted to go fully-private then that cost shoots up to R1,400 per night.Now I understand that these private rooms are a luxury and come at a price and I’m not ignorant to this but what I fail to understand is why a sibling isn’t allowed into the medical aid ward?Seriously, what difference does is make to anyone if a sibling under 12 visits his mom and new brother in a ward with 12 beds? To me this is just a manipulative policy by Netcare to make more money out of us and it stinks if you ask me.How am I supposed to tell Luke that he’s not allowed to see his mom or brother for four days? It’s already going to be such a stressful time for him and I simply can’t do this to him so now I’m forced to fork out the money which I really can’t afford.Had we not already paid the R350 registration fee I would have sought an alternative hospital - not this casino that claims I’m in safe hands.

Invitation to join Google App Engine

2008-04-11T10:11:02+02:00

Google App Engine launched a couple days ago and I signed up to be a beta tester but hit what seems to be a major waiting list. Initially Google only allowed 10,000 developers to join but I've read that those invitations were snapped up within the first 10 minutes of the launch.

The newest addition to our family

2008-04-16T08:30:08+02:00

The wait is finally over. At 17:15 yesterday afternoon our new son was born weighing 3.61 kg and everyone is recovering nicely.

Man from Discovery wanted to shoot my son

2008-04-18T10:36:43+02:00

Yesterday morning we were minding our own business at the hospital when the Ward Nurse, Felicity, came to our room to have a discussion with us. Felicity: Morning Mr. and Mrs. Hartman, I have a man here from Discovery Health and he wants to shoot your son.

Unbelievable pictures from Ben's Bris

2008-04-30T16:53:49+02:00

On Tuesday we had a very small gathering for little Ben's Bris ceremony. While no parent likes to watch their son's penis being cut to shreds I have to say it all went down very well and I managed to keep the tears to myself!

State of the nation: Fucked

2008-05-19T09:00:01+02:00

I've just watched a disturbing Photo Story on the Times Multimedia titled Flames of Hate. As violence in Gauteng spreads so does the nature of beast and now these savages have resorted to burning people alive.

Afrigator's dedicated Xenophobia page

2008-05-22T08:00:36+02:00

Last night we published a brand new Xenophobia topic page on Afrigator which highlights everything that is being covered throughout Africa about the recent xenophobic attacks in our country.

Automattic Showcases Times Multimedia

2008-05-29T09:00:34+02:00

Warwick Poole, a born and bred South African now living in New York, is the Systemologist for Automattic - the company that runs WordPress.

Social Media in Plain English

2008-05-30T09:49:52+02:00

Yet another classic from the guys over at Common Craft. This one explains Social Media to all the layman's out there - me included!!!

SA Blook, Chapter 7: The importance of technology in SA's global emergence

2008-06-02T10:00:37+02:00

Technology and globalisation go hand-in-hand. Globalisation unleashes technology, which in turn drives companies to plan production and sales on a global basis. Technology changes the work we do and the jobs created by it demand more education and training.

Which direction do you stir?

2008-06-20T09:00:41+02:00

Brace yourself for one of the most random blog posts you'll ever read from me! I drink a fair amount of coffee each day and I always stir my coffee in a clockwise motion while making it.

Snow in the City, what a joke!

2008-06-23T09:00:46+02:00

Mary Fitzgerald Square will be turned into a white winter wonderland ...... all in the name of fun in the inner city.

Yeah right!Yesterday we shipped off to Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown, Johannesburg where we’d hoped to share some moments like the one below.To our dismay though the Snow in the City event, sponsored by Nando’s, The Star and JDA, turned out to be a miserable disaster.When we heard on Radio 702 that the Johannesburg CBD was to be turned into a massive snow day we couldn’t resist taking Luke to play in some real snow.We arrived shortly after 11:00 only to discover there was a massive queue for tickets. We stood in the line for nearly an hour and a half because Computicket only had two people issuing tickets at the event.Entrance fee was R15 and for this cover price you were entitled to:

1 x 20 minute ice rink session
1 x bucket of snow
1 x snow drink
1 x free Nando's crisps
5 x slides on the snow slope.

Luke is now super excited and is eager to hit the snow slope so I take him to wait in another long queue. Unfortunately for us the queue for the snow slope is about 900m long and there is no way either of us are prepared to stand for another hour just to go down the slope.We decide that we’ll go ice skating. The queue for the ice rink is much shorter however as each skate is 20 minutes long the queue simply doesn’t move. To make matters worse I notice that the ice rink is not an ice rink at all, it’s a plastic mat that obviously simulates an ice rink.No point in staying. We leave.I’m utterly disgusted with the organisation of this event. The only real snow was on the snow slope and in the bucket you could get if you managed to brave the long queue. The ice rink was minute and was an insult to everyone.There were far too many people to make this event viable and while I realise they were trying to raise money they should have limited numbers so that everyone could have a chance.We were all expecting to see a massive ice rink (made from real ice) with a play area covered in snow but clearly the organisers of this event thought that a plastic mat and a bucket of ice would do the trick.However, the biggest upset of this all was the very disappointed 4 year-old that never got to experience what we went there to do. Luke was so looking forward to playing in the snow and all he ended up with was the chance to throw some pieces of paper that somewhat resembled snow.

A scary look at the impact of inflation

2008-06-24T09:45:01+02:00

Yesterday I happened to notice two Sunday Times newspapers lying next to each other. One was from 30 September 2007 while the other was the latest edition printed on Sunday 22 June 2008.

Kentucky Fried Cruelty

2008-07-02T12:21:34+02:00

Over the weekend I learned about how KFC suppliers overpopulate birds in their factories, drug them and boil them alive to remove their feathers. I honestly couldn’t believe what I was hearing so I did some further investigation.It turns out that PETA, an animal rights organisation, along with PETA activist Pamela Anderson have formed the Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign to help spread the word.While this is not a new campaign I found the following statement on the Kentucky Fried Cruelty website truly shocking:

KFCâ€™s own animal welfare advisors have asked the company to take steps to eliminate these abuses, but KFC refuses to do so.

I watched the video below and I’m not sure how I, or anyone who watches this, can ever eat KFC again.

</embed>Help spread the word guys!!!

Regator.com steals our brand - coincidence?

2008-07-04T13:33:54+02:00

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Regator.com went into private beta today and I picked it up via this Techcrunch article. They've also got great exposure on ReadWriteWeb and even Mashable.

Regator.com update

2008-07-04T23:54:33+02:00

Earlier today I posted this in which I argued that Regator may have stolen Afrigator's brand. I have to say that while Regator has certain elements that share a close resemblance to us I'm of the opinion that Scott and his team did not do this maliciously as I had initially suspected.

WordPress for the iPhone

2008-07-11T12:12:30+02:00

This is the best news I've heard coming from the new iPhone Application store. WordPress made easy for iPhone users.

Rex The Lion is a Pussy Cat

2008-07-17T11:50:49+02:00

I am Rex. Hear me purr.Rex The Lion surfaced at the beginning of this month and the hype around this pussy cat is something to behold. Quite frankly I am bored. Don’t get me wrong, I love the concept and the software they’re using is awesome but I feel Rex could be executed far more effectively.As an anonymous user, who’s sole mandate is to talk about the local blogosphere, I would expect Rex to be more controversial but alas all we get is name-dropping and link-baiting which is really not amusing or interesting in the least.If I were Rex, and clearly I’m not, I’d be ripping bloggers off and really creating some hype. This lack of controversy leads me to believe that Rex is simply a marketing ploy developed by some person/agency to get exposure for something which will most likely be revealed in the near future.Unlike Bolton, Guy Mclaren or even Vernon Koekemoer - Rex The Pussy lacks originality in his content and the only thing going for Rex is his cool software.Come on Rex, let’s really see you roar!

First iPhone 2.0 firmware Hack in South Africa?

2008-07-21T08:30:19+02:00

On Saturday evening the iPhone-dev team release PwnageTool 2.0 for Mac (version 2.0.1 has now been released as well). This new version jailbreaks and hacks any 1st or 2nd Generation iPhone so you now have the ability to run the latest iPhone firmware 2.0.

Vodacom seem ready for iPhone 3G

2008-07-21T13:37:00+02:00

After upgrading my iPhone firmware it's clear to me now that Vodacom's iPhone network is alive and kicking. I upgraded Colin's iPhone on a Cell C network and none of the localisation functions had kicked in like it did on my Vodacom phone.

Rex goes down on Zoopy

2008-07-29T16:17:58+02:00

I rest my case…

How to change Vodacom APN settings on iPhone 2 firmware

2008-07-31T09:00:21+02:00

When I upgraded my iPhone firmware from version 1.1.4 to version 2.0 I realised that I had lost the use of EDGE on the Vodacom network. Justin from WantItAll alerted me to the iPhone Configuration Utility which allows you to create custom profiles for your iPhone.

My presentation at the Advancing Web 2.0 conference

2008-08-14T12:15:33+02:00

As you read this I am busy delivering the following Avusa case study at the Advancing Web 2.0 for traditional media conference. Hope you enjoy it. Case Study: Convergence Online - Opening up doors to Traditional Advertisers View SlideShare presentation (tags: avusa web case study)

Last.fm's Awesome New Functionality

2008-08-19T09:00:12+02:00

I have a four year old. He loves music. The only problem is he loves listening to his music on my iPhone. The net result of this has been a complete dominance of kids music on my Last.fm profile. I think the graph below illustrates my point.

Apple iCal / Microsoft Exchange fix version 1.2 released

2008-08-28T13:48:20+02:00

I have updated the Apple iCal / Microsoft Exchange fix for Leopard with a bug fix and a few enhancements. Here are the release notes for this version: Fixed = iCal bug message saying "no data was added to iCal" thanks to Jon Milan. Added = London timezone support thanks to Ryan Hunt.

Five years today

2008-09-15T09:00:08+02:00

R.I.P. my friend. I still miss you.

Zuma has the last laugh

2008-09-22T10:17:53+02:00

The big news of the weekend is the resignation of Thabo Mbeki and I can't help but feel that Zuma is sitting with a God-forsaken smile on his face right now at the irony of how he's finally got his revenge.

iPhone 3G now in pre-approval phase

2008-09-22T15:48:55+02:00

Just got this email from Vodacom about the imminent launch of the 3G iPhone. I spoke to Apple earlier today and it is confirmed that the iPhone will launch this week in South Africa - just not exactly sure of the date yet.

Trevor Manuel's Wikipedia page already updated

2008-09-23T14:51:15+02:00

Picked this up on Twitter thanks to Nadia Padayachi. A group of people have already updated Trevor Manuel's Wikipedia entry with the news of his resignation only a couple hours ago. The new text now reads: "Trevor Andrew Manuel (born 31 January 1956) served as South Africa's Minister of Finance.

Luke Loves Afrigator

2008-09-29T15:44:35+02:00

I tried to get a better pic of my son smiling however this was the best I could get.

The end of an era

2008-09-30T09:00:01+02:00

Today is my last day at Avusa iLab. At the beginning of September we announced that MIH Print Africa had acquired a stake in Afrigator - a project I've been working on since early 2007 - and as a result I've been finishing up work and preparing for the big move down to Cape Town.

This is what happens...

2008-10-10T10:21:05+02:00

...when you don't bring cake to the office on your Birthday!

Moving to the Mother City

2008-10-16T09:00:40+02:00

It's been 13 days since I shipped my entire family down to Cape Town and what an experience it has been.

This kind of thing makes me sick

2008-10-16T12:42:35+02:00

Picked this up on Muti only moments ago. Read the tag highlighted in blue. To be honest I just have no time for people like this. It's disgraceful, inhumane and shows a total disrespect for human life. I know we live in a culture that still breeds this type of racism but really...

Paul Allen and his Tatoosh

2008-10-20T09:00:52+02:00

Yesterday the family and I shipped off to the V&A Waterfront to pay a visit to the Two Oceans Aquarium. The aquarium in itself was awesome but after the expedition I noticed a yacht in the harbor which I simply had to go and see.

SAA - extortion at its best

2008-10-21T09:00:15+02:00

It's Luke's birthday in November and as a special birthday gift Colette and I have decided to fly his grandfather and my sister (his aunt) down from Jo'burg to spend some time with him over this time.

SAAsucks.com

2008-10-23T09:00:11+02:00

What do you get when you... • ...install a brand new WordPress instance on a fancy new domain name? • ...steal FlySAA's home page banner and insert it into the WordPress default theme? • ...do a Google search for other people who've complained about SAA? The answer... SAA Sucks.

State of the Afrosphere - my presentation at 27dinner Cape Town

2008-10-28T10:46:53+02:00

Here is my short presentation I gave last night at my first Cape Town 27dinner. I tried to have a look at the state of the African Blogosphere as reported by Afrigator. Disclaimer: This is not authoritative.

We're one of the 100 trendiest companies in Cape Town

2008-11-04T10:08:53+02:00

According to Springleap, Afrigator has been selected as one of the 100 trendiest companies in Cape Town. What's cool about this though is that we're in the list with Ogilvy, Jupiter, Young & Rubicam, Vodacom and Investec to name but a few. I wonder though if Springleap have seen our offices yet?

Thoughts on my first month in Cape Town

2008-11-07T13:33:56+02:00

To be honest I have to say that I can’t believe it’s only been a month since we moved to Cape Town. So much has happened this past month that I feel like an old pro navigating my way through the Mother City and living the relaxed life.Well, not sure if that’s all entirely true but we are all settling in very nicely which is hugely positive for me. I certainly feel like we’ve made the right decision coming here.On the work front I’m amazed at how much we’ve managed to achieve in the last 30 days. For the first time ever Stii and I have been in the same place for longer than a couple drinks and having Lester on board has been a blessing in disguise.Lester has managed to turn the Afrigator Blog into an entertaining read and people are actually enjoying it. His skills from a marketing and product perspective has been invaluable and he’s really helping to humanise Afrigator in a way that I don’t think we were able to do.In total, Lester and I have done 24 meetings this past month, Stii lectured at Nomadic Marketing and I did a brief session at the Graduate School of Business and we’ve meet some great people along the way. As a result we’ve established some really exciting partnerships and some of these are going to filter through in the next month.Stii has been working very aggressively on rewriting Afrigator once again. We got to a point with Afrigator where we realised that a lot of what we plan to do in the coming months were not possible on our current framework so Stii’s been living off coffee and beer ever since. We joke and say that Stii does the only real work in this company and in truth, without him I don’t think we’d be as good as we are!This month has been fantastic but the real reward has been seeing how a focused approach has really helped Afrigator gain some traction and growth. To give you an idea we increased our unique user base by 83% and our traffic to the site increased by 181% from September. We had a record breaking month which should make our shareholders happy.I do realise that every month is probably not going to be as good as this past one but I feel extremely positive about our business and the direction it is going. While most of you can’t yet see the fruits of our labour it will become visible very soon.

Adgator - Africa's First Blog Advertising Network

2008-11-11T12:00:23+02:00

In December 2007 I did a presentation at 27dinner in Jo'burg where I previewed the first Beta version of Afrigator. Most people at the time thought we were going to announce an acquisition but alas it really was just geeky from start to end.

88% of SA Bloggers make no money

2008-11-28T09:00:29+02:00

Alistair, the brains behind the SA Blog Survey, sent me a very interesting slide yesterday about the revenue that bloggers earn from their blogs.

A small matter of R461,500 - the Quality Vacation Club farce

2008-12-04T12:54:02+02:00

I've been following the Quality Vacation Club's (QVC) attempt to sue local blogger Donn Edwards very closely after Donn himself left a comment on my blog.

Afrigator on ReadWriteWeb and the New York Times as a Top 10 International Product for 2008

2008-12-08T09:00:46+02:00

This almost went unnoticed but on Friday Afrigator was voted one of the Top 10 International Products for 2008 by ReadWriteWeb.

Taxi Protest in Cape Town

2008-12-09T10:29:52+02:00

Driving to work this morning I heard that about 100 taxis were driving from the N2 into the Cape Town CBD in a protest to the introduction of the government's Bus Rapid Transit system.

ReadWriteWeb does it again

2008-12-12T10:22:53+02:00

ReadWriteWeb loves us! WOW. I know the last few posts of mine have been about gloating but when ReadWriteWeb features us in their Top 10 lists who can resist?This time, RRW has given Afrigator an honourable mention in the Top 10 RSS and Syndication Products of 2008 list.This Top 10 list features FriendFeed, Google Reader, Twitterfeed, Feedburner and Yahoo! Pipes. Here’s what RRW had to say about us.

Finally, we love African social media aggregator Afrigator - it's a great way to learn about what's happening all over the continent and it's a great use of RSS. We named it one of the Top 10 International Products of 2008 but we think it deserves an honorable mention in this category as well.

Once again I’m humbled by RRW’s support of Afrigator and it’s a great way to end off a fantastic year for us!

Gaza: Why I think Israel is right

2009-01-09T13:12:52+02:00

Writing about the middle-east is about as wise as walking into a pub filled with Harley-Davidson bikers and telling them that only babies drive their crap bikes - However, here I am.

What YouTube looked like in 2005

2009-01-12T12:15:53+02:00

This particular post has been sitting in my drafts since July 2008 after the iLab guys and I started looking at the similarities between YouTube's logo and another South African company.

My first Tilt-Shift photo

2009-01-19T10:46:10+02:00

My good pal Gregor has been posting a series of Fake Tilt-Shift photographs and I've been dying to try it out myself.

What happens to Fragile boxes?

2009-01-23T13:16:00+02:00

This morning Stii and I grabbed a cup of coffee from Ecco il Caffe in the BMW dealership below our offices. Over a healthy dose of java and nicotine we noticed a Schenker Logistics truck mishandling a load of fragile boxes.

Today's Solar Eclipse

2009-01-26T09:51:56+02:00

I knew an eclipse was imminent - I just didn't know when it was. Luckily though the cloud cover around this morning's solar eclipse allowed me to get a few shots. The beauty of this shot is that I wasn't expecting it and I only had a window of about 2 minutes.

Schenker Logistics - a brilliant ORM example

2009-01-30T10:21:57+02:00

Last Friday I posted a video titled "What happens to fragile boxes?" in which I managed to capture some boxes being mishandled by a delivery person at Schenker Logistics.

Coolest guy on the Internet

2009-01-30T13:31:44+02:00

I'm on a search to find the coolest guy on the Internet. The reasons why I'm looking for this person will be revealed in due course but for now let me highlight a few of my favourites. Vernon Koekemoer became the most popular person on the Internet by far.

Coolest Guy Internet Update

2009-02-01T10:32:25+02:00

So on Friday I posted a video called coolest guy on the Internet and I must apologise if it seemed somewhat random.

The Parlotones Concert

2009-02-02T15:09:27+02:00

I've been trying to remember what the defining moment was that got me to listen to The Parlotones for the first time. Initially I thought it was a live performance I had been to but in truth it was actually as a result of a documentary I saw on SABC 3 about the band a year earlier.

Creating a mobile site with Yahoo! Blueprint

2009-02-12T08:43:54+02:00

Yahoo! Blueprint, in theory, is an amazing and agile mobile development framework. Yahoo! describes Blueprint as... ...a platform for developing and distributing rich mobile Internet services.

SA Elections website launched

2009-02-17T13:09:57+02:00

The Times newspaper has today launched a new initiative - a website dedicated to the upcoming SA Elections. The SA Elections website was developed by Avusa iLab and is by far the best election-related website I've seen in a very long time.

Vinny Lingham raises $20 million for SynthaSite

2009-02-18T08:30:24+02:00

I just received the following email from South African Entrepreneur, Vinny Lingham. I hope he doesn't mind me republishing it but I feel it's well worth spreading the news.

DA invites bloggers to Social Media unveiling

2009-02-19T16:03:10+02:00

The Democratic Alliance today unveiled their new social media strategy to a small audience in Cape Town comprising journalists, party members and, believe it or not, bloggers. I was one of the lucky ones to crack an invite yesterday afternoon and I have to admit I was extremely excited to hear what the DA had up their sleeves.Cape Town City Mayor and DA Leader, Helen Zille gave the first speech highlighting the DA’s progressive and forward thinking strategy. Mayor Zille said that,

this new digital strategy will reach South African voters in exciting and groundbreaking ways. Our approach is to build a personalised relationship with the DA's supporters by involving them in our activities and campaigns.

The speech was followed by another from DA CEO Ryan Coetzee and he took us through the elements of the new communication strategy. This new strategy includes some of the following:

Two Interactive websites
Online advertising and marketing
SMS communication
Mobile web access
Engagement with voters via social networking and in the blogosphere

New DA website launchedThen the two new websites were unveiled. The first was the DA’s main website www.da.org.za which has seen a major facelift and integration with various forms of Social Media. Some of this include videos embedded via Vimeo and Times Multimedia, a new forum component and various other social tools for sharing information. It’s cutting edge, usable and really puts the pressure on the other political parties. A job well done.Contribute To ChangeThe new contribute to change website is equally impressive at first glance. The core of the website is to allow people the freedom to bring upon change in our country and the site has a strong social networking aspect to it that facilitates this process. In addition to the social networking you can pledge your support to making a change in the following ways:

Build a team by recruiting your friends.
Spread the word by sending letters to all the major newspapers and talk shows.
Attend or host a DA event.
Make phone calls and reach out to voters.
Go door to door.
Donate some cash.

Each of these allow individuals to take action and contribute to change as Helen puts it. I noted that while this website was extremely well put together I worried about what the value proposition was for end users and laymen like you and I. My first impression of the site was that this is very heavily directed to helping the DA and while this is positive I struggled to see how this benefited consumers - in other words, what were the DA doing for us in return.For those who have heard Helen Zille speak you’ll know that she delivers a convincing and strong message and she was very quick to answer my concerns. The whole aim of the DA is to ultimately shift focus on opposition toward the focus on our country and how we as citizens could help make a difference. While I do respect this and it was a convincing argument I am still concerned that an ANC or COPE supporter wouldn’t use this website as it’s too heavily focused on the DA.I wanted to ask, but thought not to at the time, whether or not the DA had given any thoughts to making this website agnostic - similar I guess to the new SA Elections website - as this could really bring the whole country together and not just DA supporters. If the Contribute To Change website was powered by the DA yet remained in the background I think this website could be far more successful in the long term.What has really impressed me though is that the DA are by far the most progressive political party in South Africa. The ANC’s attempts at social media have been dismal and these two new sites by the DA really highlight their commitment to long term change in our country.Both the new DA and Contribute To Change websites are built off open-source technology, specifically WordPress, BBPress and BuddyPress, and it’s great to see the use of open-source to drive the DA’s campaign.I have to commend the DA, their web development team and the guys running the social media strategy behind the scenes on a job well done. I’m only worried that the Contribute To Change website is a little too advanced for a South African audience but only time will tell.

The Afrigator / 24.com Integration - what it means

2009-02-25T11:48:11+02:00

So the big news today is the announcement we made via our blog about the integration between 24.com Blogs and Afrigator. For a few months we've been working with Alistair Fairweather and his dev team at 24.com to try and make this work and I think that as a phase one we've done pretty well.

Temperature in Cape Town

2009-03-05T16:22:19+02:00

I know everyone in Cape Town is talking about the heat wave we're experiencing but I just had to share this with people who aren't here right now.

The Digital Edge - Reprobates and bloggers

2009-03-30T10:27:10+02:00

I’ve long been a fan of the new Digital Edge podcast series produced by Jarred Cinman and Saul Kropman. When it launched some 12 episodes ago Cambrient received a bit of flack for the promotion of their company but I think over time the content of The Digital Edge has won the battle over the perceived, professional marketing carried within.What I really like about the podcast series is that it’s short (generally around 15-20 minutes), the content is relevant to the industry and the production quality is superb. In a time when information overload is a major concern this podcast series gives you bite-sized bits of information on the go.To my embarrassment I’ve been meaning to blog about The Digital Edge for some time but as you can see from the lack of posts on my blog lately time has simply not been on my side. Today however I do have a reason as I’m featured in the latest podcast titled Reprobates and bloggers.The latest installment looks at the state of the South African blogosphere to see what was really happening. It features top SA bloggers as well as Fred Roed and Afrigator’s other brother, Mike Stopforth. This episode is quite long but I really won’t mind if you skip to the end to listen to me! ;)

Shift happens

2009-04-01T10:44:19+02:00

OK, so I had all these thoughts about the video embedded below and I really wanted to go into detail to explain the context, where it came from, what it means for me (and you) but in the end I've decided to just embed it and let you make up your own mind.

My presentation at Nomadic Marketing

2009-04-02T10:25:48+02:00

On Tuesday I was invited by Dave Duarte to give a presentation at the UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB) for their Nomadic Marketing course. A very daunting task to say the least but I lapped up the opportunity to engage with some of SA’s brilliant minds.My presentation was on Tools & Technologies, Filtering and Collaborating and while the start is mostly around education the end of the presentation got very interesting. I figured that while it was important to explain the different tools and technologies out there I also wanted to show delegates how to use the tools effectively.Having been privy to the delegate list beforehand I knew that there were a number of Old Mutual people in the audience so I figured their company would be as good as any to do a small case study on. The results across the various social websites was interesting and I hope that it highlighted how companies are being spoken about online but also how the conversation is generally a one-way street. In my mind it’s an opportunity to engage users and customers in a very unique way.

Nomadic Marketing March 2009</embed>

View more presentations from Justin Hartman.

Afrigator turns two today... somehow it feels like more!

2009-04-03T09:30:20+02:00

Honestly I can't believe it's that time of year again. Today the team at Afrigator are celebrating our second birthday but strangely it feels like our baby is much older than it actually is.

Please help Investec from committing Online suicide

2009-04-08T14:32:06+02:00

Investec Bank, a company I've long admired, is about to ruin their hard earned reputation online. On the Investec homepage there is a graphic enticing users to test drive their new website located at http://beta.investec.com. This is what it looks like.

GeekCricket - a very serious affair

2009-04-14T09:00:42+02:00

For a few weeks now I've been following the GeekCricket Wiki, an initiative started by Rob Stokes and fellow Geeks, hoping that I'd get picked to play in Sunday's game at the Wynberg Cricket Club.

One year old today

2009-04-15T14:07:00+02:00

At 17:15 on 15 April 2008 Ben Hartman was born. It’s impossible to quantify how much Ben has changed our lives over the last 12 months and it always amazes me how quickly time flies.Ben is our second born son and I really love to see how different each of our children are. Luke is cautious and shy by nature while Ben is a maniac who shows no fear. He’s already given me tons of new grey hair and I’m positive there’s going to be a lot more in the years to come.While Ben can’t really understand the significance of today, Luke is completely excited that his little brother is one year old. Yesterday he said he was going to invite everyone we knew to Ben’s birthday party but as we’re recent Capetonian immigrants we don’t really have anyone to invite :)We don’t want to damper Luke’s excitement so we’re off to buy Ben a really cool present this afternoon and then we’re hitting the spur for a birthday dinner.

I've been nominated for the 2009 Men's Health Best Man Awards

2009-04-16T09:00:50+02:00

Yesterday I received a notification that I’ve been nominated for the 2009 Men’s Health Best Man Awards. To be honest I’m blown away but before I get into that here’s what the awards are all about.

Every year a few men stand out from the crowd. They inspire us, challenge us and lead us to greater heights of personal and professional achievement. Men's Health magazine believes that these men deserve to be recognised and so the Best Man Awards was born.As the first campaign of its kind in South Africa; Men's Health Best Man aims to reward our country's top achievers for the ground-breaking work they have accomplished. We've highlighted six categories - sports, media, business, arts and culture, public service and science and technology - and after an exhaustive process by our expert panel selected the finalists who represent the Best Man. These men were profiled in the May issue of Men's Health from which the final three in each category are then selected. The Best Man winner in each category will then be announced at the final Best Man Awards dinner.

This year I’ve been chosen as one of eight nominees in the Media category and very shortly they’ll be narrowing this list down to three finalists. The other nominees in the Media category that I’m competing with are:

Jonathan 'Zapiro' Shapiro (do I even need to tell you who Zapiro is?)
Paul Holden (author of The Arms Deal in Your Pocket)
Solly Philander (multi-award winning performer)
Thabo Marera (award winning commercial director)
Danie van der Walt (award winning journalist and executive producer of the environmental programme 50/50)
Garwin McLuckie (award winning SA cameraman)
Matthew Buckland (GM, Social Media 24.com)

This is an impressive list of contenders and I really am extremely grateful to the powers that be for nominating me and even considering me amongst these top professionals. It really is a nice feeling being nominated for such a prestigious award and although I’m thankful I have to warn Men’s Health that I’m not taking my shirt off for the cover photo shoot when I win! :)

Grabble laid to rest

2009-04-20T09:00:23+02:00

In 2006 I was fascinated with search. So much so that I learnt all that I could about search engines and SEO and this was largely driven by the fact that I was in complete awe of Google at the time. All of this inspired me to start a South African search engine and during 2006 I launched Grabble.Because I only understood the theory of search engine technology it wasn’t as easy as I had thought to start my own and implementing the technology was an extremely complicated experience. My very first version was powered by Lucene but as it was powered by Java (and TomCat) I had great difficulty in getting it to work as expected.I then ran a version of mnoGoSearch which was run as a Perl command line utility and while this one seemed to give me the best results I had resource issues which hampered my efforts. What I soon figured out was why Google has a few hundred thousand servers powering their search engine and after about a week of indexing South African websites I ran out of disk space. With about 8 million records indexed I had used up my 80GB hard drive.So, in the end Grabble went PHP and while I retained some indexing capabilities from mnoGoSearch I also tapped into Yahoo to help out. At the time Yahoo didn’t have a search API so I had to do a lot of hacking to get results returned from Yahoo. In particular, Yahoo provided all the image, news, videos, blogs, sport and forum search results.While being in awe of Google I also felt that total dominance of only a few players in the market wasn’t a good thing. I believed, esoterically at the time, that local search needed to be dominated by a local company. These beliefs I still hold true to heart and I feel that it’s critical that competitors exist. There is something very uncomfortable in knowing that one or two companies hold the majority of the world’s data and I was convinced that Grabble would be a winner.Almost three years later and I’ve been debating what to do with Grabble. For the last two months the site hasn’t even been operational (well web search anyway) and while I didn’t want to close it down completely I also had to face the reality that Grabble was never going to dominate and I simply did not have the time to maintain it any longer.Then along came 4hoursearch - a website powered by the Yahoo BOSS search API and running off Google AppEngine. I stumbled across this site by chance and realised that they had released their source code under GPL. Subsequent to this finding I have now moved Grabble onto this Python software and my final version of Grabble has now been hatched.What this final version does is allow me to keep the site up for those who still want to use it and at the same time it gives me an opportunity to say goodbye. Running through the Yahoo BOSS API means that I don’t have to worry about indexes any longer and living on the Google AppEngine means technology is now taken care of.I have learnt so much about search through my efforts with Grabble and I hold it very close to my heart. While it never took off it did give me an opportunity to expand my knowledge and experience in an area I felt passionate about and the learning curve I’ve gone through has certainly helped define where I am today.

Bolton Deventer lives on

2009-04-20T10:11:24+02:00

When I was formulating my presentation for the 24.com Blogging Workshop on Saturday I was struggling to find a good example of how to promote your blog and market yourself online. So, I decided it was time to revive Bolton Deventer.I figured that Bolton had a massive impact on the South African blogging community so what better way to illustrate this than by using him as a case study. I must say that I had massive amounts of fun putting this presentation together as it reminded me of the shenanigans that went on during that brief twelve day period. If you haven’t heard of Bolton then best you view the presentation below and get some tips on how to grow traffic to your blog!

24.com Blogging Workshop</embed>

View more presentations from Justin Hartman.

My thoughts on BarCamp Nigeria

2009-04-30T10:47:09+02:00

On Saturday I was fortunate enough to attend BarCamp Nigeria 2009 in Lagos. Despite various concerns about going to Nigeria (more on that in another blog post) I must say I had a fantastic time and met some amazing people along the way.Loy Okezie from Startups Nigeria has a really nice summary of the events that transpired over here and there’s another in depth look by Possicon over here as well so I won’t rehash what’s already been said.What I will say is that this room, filled with about 80 Nigerians, was a true eye-opener for me. They all have university qualifications, all have an online startup (mostly ecommerce focused) and are all extremely well educated and experienced in the online space.The big question in my mind has been that if a country like Nigeria is filled with such talented individuals in the largest Internet penetrated country in Africa (currently more than 10 million users) then why hasn’t Nigeria produced any world-class Internet startups yet?This seemed to be a general question and a reason why the event took place in the first place and while there were a lot of theories flying around such as poor connectivity, electricity problems, Government support and regulations, etc., I was left with a strong sense of what’s been lacking - a community.Up until BarCamp Nigeria most of these 80 people had never met in real-life before. Some have interacted online but for the most part each one has been left to his own devices and they’re all trying to grow their businesses with very little help along the way.This is the core difference to say South Africa where we do have a pretty strong online community and while it’s often incestuous, contrived and filled with so-called rockstars this community does help drive products online. I can testify to this with my experiences with Afrigator - without the community we’d be nowhere.South Africa’s online community, or early-adopters, may well be small in the greater scheme of world markets but it all has to start somewhere and in Nigeria’s case this hasn’t really begun yet. I could see that after BarCamp the guys were hungry for more and so they should be. The more they meet, interact, share ideas and create partnerships along the way the more we’ll see online innovation thriving out of Nigeria.In addition to my observation I also had to do a presentation and to be honest I didn’t really feel qualified to do so. I am the first to admit I don’t know much about Nigeria so I decided to share my experiences of running an online startup in South Africa, shared some of our most detailed social media trends and finally launched our latest baby Gator - Gatorpeeps.Have a look at the presentation below and let me know what your thoughts are!

BarCamp Nigeria 2009</embed>

View more presentations from Justin Hartman.

Afrigator tried to buy Twitter, we launched Gatorpeeps instead

2009-05-11T09:00:33+02:00

The news is finally out that Afrigator has officially launched Gatorpeeps. Gatorpeeps is our very own micro-blogging platform that we hope will connect our vastly growing community of users.

Getting rejected, it's never fun

2009-05-12T09:00:30+02:00

While this blog has been a lot about my good news lately, today it's a lot about my bad.

Street life in Lagos

2009-05-13T09:00:23+02:00

Lagos is an adventure that I maintain any African should experience at least once in their lifetime. Lagos reminds me of one really big township and it has a real sense of adventure about it. This photo was taken while driving and depicts a typical scene of what street life is like in Nigeria.

Vodacom - please send me an HTC Magic

2009-05-19T09:00:45+02:00

Vodacom, if you’re listening, I want to make it abundantly clear that I will not, under any circumstances, turn down an HTC Magic from you. Seriously though, since I found out Vodacom were bringing the HTC Magic to South Africa I’ve been scampering around trying to get my hands on one.I’ve been an iPhone owner since January 2008 and this is by far the longest I’ve ever kept a phone without feeling the need for a replacement. Over the last 16 months I’ve written extensively about my experiences around being an iPhone user and rightly so - it’s the single biggest mobile device to hit the world since say… the Android OS.While I still love my iPhone it’s time to part ways and the Android operating system has had me excited since it was announced. I doubt the Magic is really the iPhone killer but it’s clear that Android devices are going to get better and smarter as the technology and OS evolve.Yesterday evening I was listening to the latest ZA Tech Podcast, aptly titled Paranoid Android, where Toby Shapshak takes us through some of the coolness that is the HTC Magic and now I’m even more convinced I need one seeing as my life literally revolves around Google Apps.Thanks also to Duncan McLeod who mentioned a really cool email client called Postbox which I have duly installed and am now running on my Mac. Since I only use Google Apps for all my email I’ve found email clients (including Apple Mail) to be clunky and generally very slow with the Google IMAP servers however Postbox is not only fast but looks and functions great. Think of tabbed browsing for email and you’ll get an idea as to what Postbox can offer.On a very amusing sidenote Toby and Simon Dingle claim that I made them swear during the podcast and you’ll see what they mean at around 11:00 minutes in the show. These guys had me in stitches and I’m pleased that I cracked a cool mention on the show.

GivenGain: Hidden South African Giants

2009-05-21T12:39:50+02:00

Today I stumbled across an amazing initiative called GivenGain which is run by a bunch of South Africans. Here’s a quick excerpt from their About page.

We call our service GivenGain because we believe that we are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse and keep.GivenGain has an established reputation as a service provider to the non-profit sector. We provide a web-based platform to non-profit and support-based organizations with a complete electronic payment, donor management, online publishing, and communication solution.We have offices in London (UK), Stellenbosch (South Africa), and further represented by partners across the world.

Why this site has interested me considerably is largely due to the fact that fund-raising online is a model that doesn’t really generate that much cash for the organisations in question. Well not in South Africa that is. Unlike other initiatives GivenGain is a model that appears to be working very successfully.According to the site they’ve generated a total of $37,5 million donated by more than 32,000 individuals and this has directly benefited 1,626 projects. This is stagerring if you think about. It means that on average each individual donates $1,143 and each non-profit project receives $23,118. Granted this is an average and others have donated more/less while other projects have benefited more than others but it’s a massive average at that.The team behind this initiative deserve to be commended. More often than not people in this industry only ever focus on the players who make the most noise but these giants in the online space are not only doing a whole lot more but making a success of it at the same time.

Unboxing the HTC Magic (Android G2) phone

2009-05-28T11:25:51+02:00

My Mom always told me that if you don't ask you'll never get and this is true of the HTC Magic phone which I received from the kind team at Leaf over the weekend.

My reponse to Moneyweb's article on Social Media

2009-06-12T12:33:04+02:00

I had the unfortunate pleasure to read an article on Moneyweb titled Social Media: Is it worth it? written by Monique Vanek. The ignorance of the article made me quite mad and I decided to send Monique and the Moneyweb Editor an email highlighting what I felt were the core issues in the article.

CAPTCHA - A sure-fire way to lose customers

2009-06-18T09:30:56+02:00

A CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to ensure that the response is not generated by a computer. The process usually involves one computer (a server) asking a user to complete a simple test which the computer is able to generate and grade. Because other computers are unable to solve the CAPTCHA, any user entering a correct solution is presumed to be human. (via Wikipedia)

I really do consider myself an intelligent human being yet despite my own personal beliefs other websites simply don’t agree. For a long time I’ve struggled with CAPTCHA’s implemented on websites. Either I’m really dumb or the technology is flawed - I lean towards to later.Let’s look at my latest example. Last night I went to Register.com to look for available domain names. Now I normally use GoDaddy for domain name ~~squatting~~ hunting but alas the last few days their search results have not been working properly so I decided to use the other giant.When I tried to access the WHOIS details for a particular domain I was presented with a CAPTCHA - I guess in an effort to determine if I was a robot or a real human being - but after twenty unsuccessful attempts I simply had to give up the challenge-response test and succumb to the notion that I must be a robot/spammer/computer and not human after all.After the first ten or so failures I decided to screenshot all my responses to the CAPTCHA images presented to me because I have to prove to myself that I am not a robot by getting your help on the matter. Here are my results.Please can someone tell me where I went wrong…….?The net-result is that Register.com will not be seeing any of my money any time soon and I can’t tell you how often this exact thing happens with CAPTCHA. I realise why a site like Register.com uses it, GoDaddy uses it too, but surely it could be easier for real people to pass the challenge-response test?In 2005 the W3C Working Group wrote a paper on the Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA and there were some interesting findings. Most importantly they discovered that many of the CAPTCHA systems can be defeated by computers with between 88% and 100% accuracy and that all CAPTCHA effectively does is give site owners a false sense of security.So if you implement a CAPTCHA system and are only able to achieve at best a 12% success rate in avoiding abuse of your system, then surely it’s time to implement other human verification methods?

Should companies fear Social Media?

2009-07-07T09:00:52+02:00

In the last week or so there’s been a huge furore in the South African Social Media scene around the pricing of Apple products in the market. For those not in the know Apple is solely distributed by the Core Group who have had the monopoly in SA for a number of years now. I’ve been silently watching anti-Core websites being launched, poorly handled PR by the management and asking myself if I really cared.It’s no secret that I love Apple and I’ve owned many of their computers and accessories for the last six years and to be honest I simply don’t see the issue with pricing in SA. I also have to concede that the Core Group have actually done a fantastic job at distributing and growing the Apple market share in South Africa.With the advent of the Internet and more recently the adoption of Social Media many people would have forgotten or are not contextualising what it was like six years ago in the SA market. I remember when Beeld bought an Apple computer for almost R500,000 because it was the super-computer that would take them to a new level in production. Today, however, pricing of Apple products have dropped considerably and the company has positioned itself away from publishing and graphic design to the more lucrative consumer market.I also remember a time when the Core Group had a lot of competition. Many years ago Apple granted multiple licenses to companies in South Africa yet despite this open market the only distributor to survive was the Core. At that time gaining market share was near impossible yet despite it they’re still around to tell the tale hence why Cupertino decided to award the Core Group with the sole-distribution rights to South Africa.Granted that the Core Group have benefited by Apple’s overall positioning and mass global adoption but irrespective they have seen the best and worst of Apple and stuck to their guns.So what’s the point of all of this I guess you’re wondering? Well the point is that not everyone is Social Media hates companies or are out to hurt reputations. I’ve sat in countless meetings with potential Adgator clients where I’ve explained that when a blogger takes the time to write something bad about their company it generally means only one thing - they care about you. In fact not only do they care about you but they’ve taken the time to write something about you in the hope that you will respond. Most of the time, no one ever does.It is because of this that I encourage people to engage users, no matter how tough it may seem, because by turning a negative response into a positive you start to create brand champions for your company. These brand champions will take your company a lot further than any marketing initiative could ever accomplish because quite simply put, people value their friend’s opinions more than they value yours!From my experience, dealing with the negative responses in the right way is sure to change perceptions however the issue is that most companies have no idea how to go about this.The Core’s situation is a case in point. RJ van Spaandonk retaliated, via Twitter, to the angry lynch mob which really just fueled the fire even further. While he tried to highlight similar pricing strategies from countries outside of SA it wasn’t handled in the right way and his strategy, or lack thereof, backfired badly.The bloggers now hate the Core Group even more and RJ van Spaandonk is now recommending that companies stay far away from Twitter, bloggers and Social Media in general. In the end everyone has lost.Had I been the Core I would have sought help from professionals before publicly making statements and retaliating. If you don’t know how to deal with this medium, ask for help - there are many professionals today who can help and advise you on the right Social Media strategy and how to mitigate negative responses around your brand(s).For any company the message is simple. People are having conversations about you all the time and you really can’t afford to not be apart of it. Seek help, build a good strategy and above all - #DLFS*!* Don’t Look For Shit! (this is Afrigator’s corporate motto and we stick to it, religiously! We learned our lesson the hard way.)

My presentation at the MIH Media Lab Entrepreneurship Workshop

2009-07-29T13:30:28+02:00

This morning I delivered the following presentation to the students of Stellenbosch University's Media Lab. My topic was on the start-up lifecycle and I think it went alright. Students are sometimes hard to gauge but I hope that this provided some insight into life running a startup.

My thoughts on the TechEd Africa 2009 Keynote

2009-08-03T14:02:33+02:00

A couple weeks back I was contacted by Eben De Wit who is the Microsoft Developer Advisor for the broad developer community in South Africa and was invited to attend Microsoft’s TechEd conference in Durban.Eben wanted me to attend as a non-Microsoft person in an effort to get some perspective on the Microsoft offering but more importantly he has asked me to blog about my experiences while at TechEd in an honest way - so here goes.Last night was the start of the conference which saw a two and a half hour Keynote presentation. The format was pretty dynamic and interesting but after two hours it was just too much to take in. The key elements of the Keynote were a focus on:

The IT Pro
The Developers
The End Users
The Cloud

The reason it was structured in this way was to highlight the new Microsoft offerings to each of these core areas.What I didn’t likeThe Keynote was filled with various live demos, most of which didn’t go as planned and many times the system (Windows 7 based) simply hung.Seriously, there is no reason to do live demos during a Keynote presentation. They never work, never go according to plan and it’s embarrassing for the presenter when it all goes pear-shaped. As a non-Microsoft person these failed live demos reiterate my position on why I don’t use Microsoft but at the same time I’m not sure how it was received by the 2000 strong delegates in the audience.I must also admit that I really didn’t like the Bing presentation much. The main reason was because the guy presenting (someone high up in Microsoft SA) kept having a dig at the competitor. I’m not a big fan of competitor bashing and the whole presentation was based around how Bing should be people’s new default home page and how much better it was to Google. Not a good strategy in my opinion.What I did likeI must say I’m very impressed with the Office and Exchange 2010 offerings. The applications are looking slick, seem very fast and most importantly PowerPoint now has some Keynote coolness which means there’s no longer a need to bore people with bland slides. In the 2010 ranges all these applications will be available in The Cloud - which essentially means you’ll be able to work on docs, spreadsheets, presentations and email from another computer via the web. This is an interesting move in that Microsoft is now combating the Google Docs effect and it’s going to be interesting to see how this battle pans out.While I wasn’t particularly wowed by the other applications I have to say that each one that was on show had some really useful functionality that really does enhance the offering.My take on Microsoft’s offeringsWindows 7 looks great. It was sad that the live demos tarnished Windows 7’s real stability but 7 is certainly a massive step in the right direction. For Apple or Linux users Windows 7 isn’t really ground breaking as we’ve been exposed to this type of functionality for some time but for Windows XP/Vista users this is an earth-shattering release that is going to wow users.At the end of it all I was left with a strong impression that Microsoft is trying very hard at repositioning the company in all spheres of the market. They’ve invested a lot of money and resources into usability and the applications, while clunky at times, are really much better than any of their predecessors.There also appears to be a strong drive now to take on Google in a big way. They’ve adapted a lot of the coolness from Apple into their offerings and are competing head on with Google in the fight for enterprise and search market share. Sure, Microsoft own the enterprise space right now but they know that Google are hot on their heals and while Google owns search, Bing is fighting to take some of that control away.Over the next couple days I’ll be spending some time attending break out sessions that are relevant to me and I’ll post more as I go along.

TechEd Africa 2009 Summary

2009-08-06T09:00:05+02:00

TechEd Africa 2009, Microsoft’s pinnacle conference that attracted more than 2000 delegates has ended amongst a hive of activity within the Microsoft community. Microsoft sure does know how to get its users and developers excited by the prospect of new software, approaches and company developments!Attending the conference was an interesting experience and I have to admit that it was extremely difficult to decide on a focus area at TechEd. From a myriad of topic choices, from information security to product overviews, and self-paced hot labs, Tech-Ed offered us a unique perspective into what the future holds for the company.As mentioned in an earlier post live demos proved to be a problem throughout the conference. While I get the need to do these live demos bandwidth constraints and software problems hindered the impact of the message but in the end we got the information we needed.I was particularly interested in the discussions around IE8, PHP for Windows, Windows 7 and Silverlight 3. Of them all I must say I think Silverlight is certainly an interesting product worth watching as it allows native developers to create applications relatively easily.Microsoft is also embracing the future in cloud computing, through the creation of Windows Azure, designed to enable application developers and users with better access and less capital outlay in application development and deployment. I seriously doubt that cloud computing is viable in Africa right now but nonetheless Microsoft feels differently.While it may have been difficult for me at times to find my place within the TechEd community I can certainly see this community thriving. Microsoft has done a fantastic job at entrenching themselves within the corporate/enterprise market and this is evident by the varying array of delegates at the conference.It’s that sense of community that made networking relatively easy at TechEd. From the opening party, to the informal gatherings round lunchtime drinks, to the closing party featuring Louise Carver, we’ve certainly had a fantastic time.So, thanks, TechEd, for giving us the opportunity to explore and evaluate an environment and working atmosphere that has not been our own. I’m not sure if we’re ready to drop Apple and Linux just yet but it’s certainly been a great ride.

Nokia and their disruptive model for the music generation

2009-08-31T08:45:08+02:00

On Thursday Nokia South Africa announced their new Comes with Music range of mobile phones. This new range is not just a series of sexy mobile phones but rather a new, disruptive model to take on the entire music DRM model.What’s particularly special about Comes with Music is that with every purchase of a new handset (see supported models) you get 12 months of unlimited access to over 5 million songs on the Nokia Music Store. This translates into 5 million songs, for free, for life.Yes you heard correct! You can download (potentially) all 5 million songs on the Nokia Music Store free of charge for one year. Once your twelve month subscription is over the songs you’ve downloaded are yours to keep for life. (read the press release for more info).The caveats to this are that the songs are DRM protected and can not be burned to CD and are additionally linked to your PC and mobile handset. You can share music with other Comes with Music users but you will need an additional DRM license to share or copy your music to another device - which will cost you, naturally.I’m not entirely sure how Nokia plan to really make money off this offering. You can be assured that people will download as many tracks as humanly possible, or as Telkom bandwidth allows, and that will cost them a pretty penny in licensing rights to the artists and record labels. That said, Nokia can be assured that people will continue to buy their mobile devices as a new phone purchase renews the subscription and who’d want to lose their music collection they’ve spent downloading over the last year?What’s particularly interesting for me is the gauntlet that has now been set to other suppliers of digital music. In particular I wonder how this model will affect iTunes and in turn iPhone sales. I’m busy using the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic device which is very iPhone-like. It has full touch screen support, a 3.2 megapixel camera, records video and comes with 4GB microSD card which can be expanded to 32GB. Granted it’s not as responsive as the iPhone but did I mention free music, for life?With iTunes music not being available in South Africa the Comes with Music model is sure to dominate this market and potentially hinder Apple’s ability to penetrate the music crowd if/when iTunes comes to SA. In addition, sites like Amazon etc. also don’t support purchasing of music in SA so I think Nokia have the right model at the right time in this market. I honestly expect this range of mobile phones to be a hit as people will buy them just for the music access.

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic iSync Plugin

2009-09-04T10:09:58+02:00

Last night I decided to hook up the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic which I received from Nokia. Unfortunately for me this phone is not supported on Apple Mac - at all! When I say at all I mean at all.

The Parlotones make a Giant Mistake

2009-09-17T14:28:04+02:00

If you haven't heard the news yet then let me tell you that The Parlotones are now wine makers and last night we were privileged to attend a private, intimate launch party for their new red wine called Giant Mistake.

Our experience of sending bulk emails to users

2009-09-22T16:11:29+02:00

Let me start by saying that Mailchimp is an amazing company and their bulk email service is worth every penny. They deliver a punchy service and their UI is awesome however we no longer use them as our account has now been deleted. I certainly can see the value in newsletters but from experience our newsletters were more often than not perceived as spam and I think, ultimately, this has hurt our brand. Added to the fact that many of our @afrigator.com email addresses now end up in people’s spam/junk folder and I think you’ll see why we’ve ultimately decided to drop our newsletter service all together.Maybe our execution was poor, maybe we’re just not experts at doing this but I can tell you in future I’ll be hesitant to send out any emails to users. It’s a tough one for a small online business as email is, fundamentally, your only communication tool with your clients and this tool needs to be used very wisely…….. or else.I can in all honesty tell you that we’ve learned more than we’d have liked to (mostly painful stuff) and if I had to do it all again I would have never started email newsletters in the first place. We had all these grandiose ideas about how we could leverage off email to our users but in the end I think we failed.

Why are Clocks so prominent in my life right now?

2009-09-30T09:00:54+02:00

I’m struggling to find the meaning behind this but for some reason children’s clocks are featuring very prominently in my life right now.Two days ago Colette and I went to see a psychologist about our eldest son Luke. There’s nothing wrong with him but we were asked by the pre-school to put him through a series of tests to see if he is ready for big school (i.e. Grade 1) next year. The meeting was essentially a report-back on her findings.While the results of the tests were very interesting (more about this in a later post) the strangest thing emerged. One of the questions asked to him was if he had three wishes what would he wish for. His first answer was… a clock. Colette and I were both taken aback as was the psychologist. None of us could figure out why a five year old would wish for a clock.During the session we also realised that we don’t have a single clock in our house. Not only that but neither of us own watches either so there is nothing apart from computers and mobile phones indicating the time. Maybe this is the only meaning around this but then some more random events happened.Last night I received a phone call from my late best friend’s mother. We haven’t spoken in over two years and I think it’s mostly due to the fact that the context of our relationship was connected through my friend and with him not being there it was difficult to maintain the relationship when we both reminded each other of him. So, needless to say it was a pleasant and unexpected surprise to hear her voice again.I suspected that the call was in relation to the sixth anniversary of his death (September 15th) but this wasn’t the case at all. She contacted me to tell me that she’d started making, wait for it…, children’s clocks in her spare time and wanted to know if I can help her market the kids clocks online.Soon after the phone call I put Luke to bed. Every night Colette reads him a story before bedtime but last night I decided that I should do story-time instead. As is customary Luke choses a book and tonight was a rather large Dr. Seuss collection of five stories.Luke opened up the book and said to me that he wants to show me his best part. He continued to page through to a particular page in the book and said look Dad, this is it. I took the book from him and asked him why this page was his best and he said, because the long hand is hanging off looking all squiggly and he was referring to the rather comical looking clock on the page.Maybe I’m being nuts but these three, seemingly random events around clocks, kids clocks in particular have me wondering if there’s not something there. I don’t believe in co-incidence, I believe in things happening for a reason and everything has meaning but I can’t find anything online that can help me understand this better.Hopefully you have more insight into the random events of the last two days.

England, thanks for ruining cricket for my son

2009-09-30T12:45:27+02:00

First let me state that Luke, my 5 year-old, is a cricket fanatic. If we’re not watching cricket he’s bowling balls down the passage or setting his imaginary field and he’s driving me nuts with wanting me to purchase every piece of cricket equipment that has ever been made. It’s turning into a costly passion.Over the last two days I’ve witnessed two jaw dropping incidents in the ICC Champions Trophy, both of which involved England, and these have had a serious impact on Luke. The first and most controversial was an incident involving Graham Smith and Andrew Strauss during the SA vs. England game on Monday evening.Smith was on 124 runs with South Africa needing another 69 from 36 balls to stay in the ICC Champions Trophy and requested for a runner yet Strauss declined it. After the match Strauss explained that “He asked for a runner and the umpires took the view that cramp is a symptom of fatigue. Being tired does not qualify batsmen for a runner under the laws of the game”.It is my belief that this decision by Strauss was a defining moment in the match and was a major contributing factor to our loss. After Strauss turned him down you could see Smith’s whole demeanor change. Couple that with the fact that he could barely walk and Smith was now forced to look for boundaries to try and steer our team to victory which ultimately lead to the fall of his wicket at 141.If you asked me Strauss knew that Smith could win the game for South Africa and he wanted him off the field as his bowlers were pretty much ineffective against him. I believe that Strauss broke the rules of the gentleman’s game in a display of the worst sportsmanship I’ve ever seen in cricket in recent times.The impact this had on Luke astounded me. He was in Graham Smith mode at the time, with pads on and bat in hand, trying to win the game and when he saw how upset Smith was he went from excitement to total disappointment. He got furiously angry with England and accused them on cheating and not being fair and this frustration ultimately brought him to tears. It took a long time to console him and explain to him that sometimes things happen in sport that prevent you from winning but he struggled to comprehend it all.This was the first time that he’s ever understood and been exposed to injustice in sport and he didn’t like it one bit. When he went to bed he told us he’s never playing cricket again - a truly shattering moment for a child who just wants to be the next AB De Villiers. As parents this was a difficult moment for us and I’m not convinced we handled it as well as we could have. Be that as it may, Luke agreed to take up cricket again the next morning.The second incident I witnessed was during the England vs. New Zealand match yesterday evening. Paul Collingwood, who had been declared run out after wandering out of his crease, went up to New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori and had a mini-conference with him. Soon after they shook hands and Vettori decided not to uphold the appeal and Collingwood was allowed to continue his innings.To be honest I’m shocked that England expect every other team to honour the Spirit of Cricket ethos while they only really do so when the pressure is not on them.It is true that Andrew Strauss had made a similar decision in England’s opening match against Sri Lanka by recalling Angelo Mathews however there wasn’t the same sense of pressure or intensity during that match. The truth is, when England are on the ropes they are simply bad sports. If you don’t believe me then lets look at last year when Collingwood was captaining England when New Zealand’s Grant Elliott had been run out after a mid-pitch collision with Ryan Sidebottom. The umpires were obliged to rule him out, but Collingwood’s refusal to withdraw the appeal had infuriated Vettori and invited widespread criticism from the media.Vettori’s decision yesterday was more significant as there was no case of obstruction in this instance, and Collingwood had no one to blame but himself for venturing out his crease. In addition, it was a do-or-die match for New Zealand yet despite this Vettori still showed outstanding sportsmanship at the time.You make your own decisions around this but I for one am disgusted by England’s tactics and the fact that the ICC continue to back this team and the decisions taken by them on the field. What example are we setting to the youth who idolize these players and the game?

Twitter introduces lists and becomes a lot more useful

2009-10-16T14:28:52+02:00

Twitter have today started rolling out a Beta feature to select users called Lists. To me this is the most useful feature that Twitter have added since they launched. I’ve had my Twitter account since March 2007 and during that time I’ve accumulated a whole bunch of followers. The problem with this is that Twitter has, over time, become far too noisy for me and I’ve lost my ability to follow what’s going on.As a result I’ve used Twitter more for updating than for following but Lists now change this. As you can see from my sidebar I can now create both public and private lists. This means that I can now create a private list just for friends and instead of seeing all the noise I can just view stuff from people that actually matter to me - my friends.You can also see that I have created an Afrigator Team list. This list I made public so anyone can view this list and follow it if they want to. As with following individual Twitter profiles you can now follow a list and be updated on that lists stream which is pretty useful. What lists also do is allow you to know who are part of a team. Twitter have a team list as well so you can now follow people from a company or cause that matter to you.Twitter has just become a whole lot more useful to me and I think it’s a game-changer! How many of you have access to Twitter Lists?

ad:tech, Adgator and me - it's the perfect fit

2009-10-18T11:09:58+02:00

Jeremy Schoemaker who runs the blog Shoemoney is offering one person an all-expenses paid opportunity to attend ad:tech New York in early November. Now I’m not big on entering many competitions but attending ad:tech is something that is critical to me and my business. In addition to attending the ad:tech conference there is also a pass to attend Content Revenue Strategies (formerly Adspace) where Jeremy is going to be speaking and you get to have lunch with the man himself.So why is this important to me and my business and why do I feel that I should attend over all the other potential candidates? Well there are two main reasons which I’ll highlight below.Adgator - Africa’s first blog advertising networkAfrigator, the company I co-founded and now the largest niche aggregator in Africa, pioneered the first blog advertising network on the continent called Adgator. We launched Adgator almost a year ago and we’ve had some great response and varying success. In particular, what I’ve noticed is that we’ve solved a critical need to connect advertisers with bloggers (vice-versa) and for the first time there is a simple solution for brands to advertise and communicate to a social media audience in Africa.While we’ve certainly solved many problems we are the first to market and this has come at a hefty price. There have been huge learning curves for us and as the market isn’t as big as say the U.S. we’ve had to be disruptive in our innovation in order to succeed. For me ad:tech would help us to learn from people a whole lot smarter than us, connect with highly influential people in the market and ultimately give us valuable insight into the state of play.All of this will help us apply what we’ve learned and the insight we’ve gained to a market that we ultimately understand. I’d imagine that attending this conference would leap-frog our business to a completely new level and this is critical to our survival.Working with the U.S. GovernmentBack in August 2009 we were contacted by the U.S. Government and together we formed an interesting partnership. We worked very closely with the Department of State, the SA Embassy as well as America.gov to assist them in showcasing the work the U.S. is doing in Africa.Together we launched a pioneering social stream in time for Sec. Hillary Clinton’s seven nation trip to Africa and not only did this showcase official content from America.gov but it also showcased the conversation happening in real-time across all the social media platforms. We’ve long built up a relationship with African bloggers and content producers and it’s relatively easy for us to pull all of this together and we aggregated everything from Afrigator (i.e. blog posts), Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and Delicious that related to Sec Clinton’s trip.As a result of our very close connection with the U.S. I think it’s imperative that I finally get the opportunity to visit the land of the free as I’ve never been to the U.S. before. As America continues its mission in Africa and we continue to work with the U.S. Government it would be hugely beneficial to understand both markets and not just the one we live in.So, Jeremy, you could possibly chose someone else but I think your best candidate is staring you squarely in the eyes.

I've made it to the finals

2009-10-22T08:30:23+02:00

I love a good competition. Nothing like the thrill of the chase to drive one nuts. If you’re reading this blankly then let me elaborate by saying that I am now one of two finalists in the $3,000 adtech content revenue strategies giveaway which includes a trip to New York to attend the conference.This is something I really, really want and I am forced to rely on you to help me get what I want. Basically it’s now down to public voting and your vote will determine who gets to go. Please can you head on over to Shoemoney’s blog by clicking this link and cast your vote for Justin in the vote box?Voting ends on Friday morning and I’m competing against a really great guy so your vote is important and really will help to make a difference.I must thank everyone who’s voted for me so far. The support has been amazing from you all - thank you!

Audi MVP Day

2009-11-02T10:00:34+02:00

The legendary Chris Rawlinson was kind enough to invite me to the second Audi MVP day which is an opportunity for eight geeks to drive around for a morning in the latest and greatest cars that Audi Cape Town have on offer. It was an experience that delivered thrills way beyond my expectations.

My presentation at the Addynamo Blogging Workshop

2010-02-18T11:02:42+02:00

If you missed it, here's my presentation from the Addynamo Blogging Workshop that I did yesterday. There are some interesting Adgator insights which haven't been seen before. Addynamo Blogging Workshop View more presentations from Justin Hartman.

A to Z of SA

2010-02-22T10:00:52+02:00

In December last year I was invited by Apple to attend the launch of a new campaign called the A to Z of SA. In short, the campaign is about promoting South Africa in a positive light, rather than the negative one we see every day in the media. Apple have decided that, with 2010 being just around the corner, it’s time South African’s showcased the best of SA to the world in an effort to help change perceptions.The launch in Cape Town was an experience to remember. The theme was the Ama-zing Race and we were told to find clues along the way and follow them. We were all given Nikon cameras along with our first clue and the key to a fancy Mini Cooper. The clue was simply to find which Mini was ours and I’m pleased to report we got the convertible.Our next clue, inside the car, told us to explore the sights of Cape Town and take as many photos as possible along the way. Along with our cool, bright-red cabrio we each had a padkos bag filled with SA-only goodies and an iPod jacked into the Mini which, yip you guessed it, only had South African artists on it.Adele and I drove for well over three hours in the basking sun, snapping away like German tourists all the while taking in the pleasures of Cape Town.When we returned to the iStore we were tasked with creating a photo book from our pics using only iPhoto and the built in software. I must admit, after zipping around all day in a Mini, this wasn’t the easiest thing to do but the software did simplify our lives. Sadly our photo book didn’t with the super cool iPod but about three days later we received a hardcopy of the book which can be seen below.The good news is that anyone can enter this cool campaign and win prizes along the way. Read the A to Z of SA website for more details on how you go about doing this.This was an awesome day where I got to explore the beauty of Cape Town and I think this new campaign by Apple is one of positivity and hope which we should all get behind. If any of you would like to attend one of the upcoming Ama-zing Race (Jo’burg and Cape Town) where you too can experience a day similar to this - please let me know. You can post a comment below or email me directly justin@hartman.me and I can get you onboard.

In Loving Memory - Rodney John Hartman 25/02/1949 - 18/05/2010

2010-05-19T08:30:11+02:00

At exactly midnight my father passed away after a long battle with Cancer. Today I remember my father as loving, dedicated and humble person who endured many hardships to make our lives a little easier. The world has lost a great human being. I lost my hero.

Aston Martin Rapide Cape Town Launch

2010-06-04T10:53:40+02:00

Yesterday evening I had the opportunity to attend the Cape Town launch of the Aston Martin Rapide all thanks to Justin Stanford. Aston Martin has long been an aspirational brand for me personally and I’ve had my eye on the DB9 for a long time now. I guess, however, that the biggest issue with owning a DB9 is the practicality of having more than two passengers. Well the Rapide now solves this issue…The Rapide is arguably the most beautiful four door sports car in the world and is powered by Aston Martin’s hand built 6.0-litre V12 engine from the DB9. From the DBS the Rapide has inherited the suspension and combined this adds up to an impressive and practical sports car that blew my mind away.Sitting in the Rapide is an experience to behold and it feels like you’re in a F1 car - only far more comfortable and stylish. All four seats are independent from each other and in true Aston Martin style they have all been hand stitched. The Rapide boasts a 1000w Bang & Olufsen sound system that is just as impressive as the interior itself.The boot space in the Rapide is mind-boggling and there is so much space that it’s now completely conceivable that you can take the wife and kids on a seaside holiday in this car.With a starting price of around R2.7 million it makes for a hefty chunk of change but as a consolation every Aston Martin now comes with a full maintenance plan as of 1 May 2010. At the Gauteng launch I think they sold four Rapides on the night (including a One 77) and I’m keen to know how many more were sold last night.The only thing left for me to do now is to organise a test drive which may, or may not, be a good thing. For more pictures from the event and of the car click here.

My Sabbatical

2010-09-21T08:58:40+02:00

On Thursday myself and Gregor Rohrig are off on a two-week trip to the United States. We’ll be in New York to attend the Web 2.0 conference and then we’re headed off to San Francisco to meet some interesting industry folks, including the Yola team.Initially I just wanted to go to attend the conference but as time draws nearer I realise that my trip to the US is going to be a much needed sabbatical from the events of 2010. Over the last few months it has become clear to me that the loss of my father has had a much bigger impact on my life than I realised. I’ve also had a number of personal issues which have really played a major part in defining where I am at today.The result of all of this is that not only has my personal life been affected but so has my business life. I have an inbox that looks like a sick spam joke and my communication of late has been appalling. This has not been how I wanted to deal with the world but life sometimes has other ideas for us.Right now I’m focusing my effort on getting myself back on track. I have been spreading myself way to thin over all the business ventures I’m involved in and I need to focus on my personal well being in order to fix the mess both personally and professionally.Life is not easy and being an entrepreneur even less. I’ve learned some very difficult lessons of late but lessons they have been and I hope to rectify the wrong-doing over time.So, for the next two weeks I won’t really be bothering too much about work. I need this time to reflect and enjoy my time in the US and I know that Stii will sort out all the Afrigator issues in my absence. I look forward to returning and feeling like I can take on the world again. Right now that isn’t so true for me.

My US trip as visualised by Flipboard

2010-10-08T14:17:24+02:00

If you own an iPad then you've probably already installed and using Flipboard for iPad and if you don't yet own one please add Flipboard to your downloads list when you do get one. Flipboard is an amazing piece of software that creates a personalised magazine of your social lifestyle.

Social Media ROI... does it exist?

2010-10-21T10:08:27+02:00

Yesterday I delivered a presentation at the WTF Media Conference titled Social Media ROI... does it exist?. In the ever growing world of Social Media businesses are often scared to dabble in the industry. I ask the question about whether or not Social Media can deliver a ROI or not.

Social Code goes public, finally

2010-12-06T13:35:20+02:00

Almost twelve months ago I had an idea, largely from on my experience with Afrigator, to provide social media services to corporate companies looking to dive into the space. This idea grew even further when I had a chat to my good friend Gregor Rohrig about it.

My Tattoo, what, where and why I did it

2010-12-21T09:00:05+02:00

When I was 16 my father gave me a framed copy of the Rudyard Kipling poem titled "IF" which hung on my wall for the entire duration of my high-school career. This poem was very special to him and when I was 21 he read me the poem in his speech at my 21st birthday celebrations.

Digital strategy in SA simply doesn't exist

2011-06-03T08:41:16+02:00

If you know me at all then you'll know how difficult it can be for me to make big decisions.

Since You've Been Gone...

2016-05-18T23:12:47+02:00

I'll never forget the 18th of May for as long as I live. Today symbolises not only the wedding anniversary of my parents, Carine and Rodney, but it also represents the day in which my father died.

The Day My Father Died

2018-04-03T21:05:28+02:00

At around midnight on 18 May 2010 my father passed away after a long battle with Cancer. I was 15 years old when he was first diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL).

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

2018-05-25T15:49:48+02:00

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

Grabble.co.za is launched

2006-10-30T00:01:26+02:00

It's the latest addition to my stable of projects and I'm extremely proud to share it with you! Grabble is a new South African search engine which gives you fast, accurate and AD FREE results from only South African websites.

Debian Wiki Launched

2007-01-18T02:42:11+02:00

The Debian Wiki was created solely because I needed something to help me keep track of what I was doing when setting up Debian servers and as such it has developed into a whole series of HOWTO tutorials.

Afrigator - the history behind the project

2007-04-04T12:39:46+02:00

Afrigator is our solution to a social media aggregator and directory built especially for Africa. Its _leak_ comes only two weeks after Amatomu was launched which in comparison becomes our biggest competitor but I've tried to avoid, where possible, us conflicting with each other.

TinyLink - My latest clone

2007-10-02T10:57:58+02:00

I've been a big fan of TinyURL for some time now and I've been quite fascinated with how the whole thing is put together so I decided to have a go and see what I could come up with.

Diceware Password Generator

2018-03-16T21:12:00+02:00

The Dicewear Password Generator is open-source software I wrote in Python that uses a world list and "dice" to output an easy to remember, yet highly secure password based on a sequence of words.

Bootstrap 4 Boilerplate Template Kit for Espresso

2018-09-15T15:09:18+02:00

A Boilerplate Template Kit for Espresso that speeds up your project development by providing templates, code, CSS, fonts and scripts using the Bootstrap 4.1.3 framework.

Hats Off To Google

2004-10-09T01:20:00+02:00

I can't help but feel inspired by Larry Page & Sergey Brin (founders of Google) and the rest of the Google team. Last night I spent most of my time on the web doing a little research on both the guys and found some interesting pieces.

New Website Development

2004-11-06T01:57:00+02:00

I must say I am very excited at the new development of our new website. I have been unhappy for a long time with the current website and I have been feeling the need to develop a new one since the launch of the current one.

Siblings are convicted in first felony spam case

2004-11-06T01:57:00+02:00

Well times are certainly changing and the first conviction in the US for spam proves this. I know that laws have gotten tougher and it is a continual battle to combat the spam issue and I only hope that this helps change many peoples mind before doing so.

New Website Released

2004-11-08T01:18:00+02:00

I am very excited about the release of the website... Finally!

Firefox Ignites Demand For Alternative Browser

2004-11-10T13:42:00+02:00

For those of you not using the Firefox browser here is an interesting article about its development. Co-developed by a 19-year old techie (Ross) it has far surpassed what Internet Explorer can do and I highly recommend you download it to see what it can do.

Microsoft to Launch New Search Engine

2004-11-10T16:58:00+02:00

It appears that if you have a lot of money you can be anti-competitive and illegal and get away with it by paying everyone off.

Judge Puts Microsoft Deal Under Scrutiny

2004-11-26T14:38:00+02:00

It appears that if you have a lot of money you can be anti-competitive and illegal and get away with it by paying everyone off.

Google Desktop Search

2004-12-07T01:32:00+02:00

If you're like me you've probably accumulated close on 9000 emails this year alone and I'm sure that the amount of files lying on your computer is getting far too unmanageable...

Microsoft's Passport fails to travel far as Web strategy

2004-12-31T12:00:00+02:00

I love to see a Microsoft failure...

Technology - Can't live with it and can't live without it!!!!

2005-02-10T02:26:00+02:00

I'm in the IT world. I live and breath internet and IT technology yet somehow I wish I could throw it all away... Since Friday two weeks ago I have been inundated with the Beagle virus.

My new pet hate

2005-02-10T03:02:00+02:00

Most of you wouldn't have noticed but if you now type in www.google.com in your browser you are automatically taken to the .CO.ZA google domain.

Gmail has arrived for me...

2005-02-18T03:19:00+02:00

Well finally I get to test out Google's Gmail. Gmail is Google's answer to email and has a massive capacity of 1GB of storage space.

Get Gmail now

2005-02-23T02:27:00+02:00

It took me nearly 6 months to crack an invite to get a Gmail email account and now I have found an even simpler way to get one.

My PageRank moves to 7

2005-07-19T10:53:00+02:00

Imagine my suprise when I realised yesterday that my Google PageRank jumped from a minute 4 out of 10 to 7 out of 10!!!!! I have been working very hard over the last few months to get this PageRank up and finally I can see the rewards.

I Got Hacked...

2005-07-27T16:54:00+02:00

On entering my web site I was hit with a very nasty surprise... I had been hacked. I am so angry with these guys and even managed to log onto their IRC chat to give them a piece of my mind.

Some new features to SA Top Sites

2006-10-26T02:16:20+02:00

Two major enhancements have been added to the SA Top Sites system which I am very excited about. The first is a Google PageRank display and the second is a New Members page on SA Top Sites.

Grabble shopping goes into beta

2006-12-18T02:37:20+02:00

Grabble Shopping is the first of many new add-ons to the Grabble portfolio. This new sub-product of grabble is an initiative between Grabble and PriceCheck and hopes to provide a useful comparison shopping website for all users of the Grabble search engine.

Google Browser Sync

2006-12-21T14:03:55+02:00

I think that the majority of people are aware of the Google Toolbar for Firefox but what I don’t know is if people are aware that Google have developed a whole series of Extensions for Firefox.

WordPress 2.1 Ella

2007-01-23T22:46:03+02:00

So yesterday the guys over at WordPress launched the newest version 2.1 of the popular blogging software. I of course run WordPress on my site so I’ve just upgraded to 2.1 in the last few minutes. While there isn’t much too look at in terms of visual changes there are a ton of new features which should make things run smoother and more efficiently. As with any WordPress upgrade in the past the process was as simple as uploading the files and running the 1-Step upgrade script. Simple, easy and fast.

Web Standards

2007-01-26T12:20:51+02:00

I’ve been spending a few minutes this morning reading on the net and it seems that Web Standards has crept into the wood-work once again. I say once again but in truth this is an issue that should be on the forefront of everyone’s mind more so if you are a website owner.

Back online

2007-03-21T21:26:37+02:00

So it's been almost two weeks but I'm finally back online. I've learnt the hard way that if you don't have RAID configured on your server you will lose everything if your hard drive packs up.

Game Over for Sony PlayStation 3

2007-03-23T11:11:22+02:00

Let me state before I start ranting that I am was a huge supporter of Sony in that I own a PS1, PlayStation 2 and PSP. All in all I've been a very happy customer of Sony for many years now up until I saw the price tag of the new PS3.

CSS Expert needed

2007-04-02T01:17:13+02:00

OK so I'm getting really frustrated with CSS and Internet Explorer. Why Micro$oft can't create a better standards-based browser I will never know. They've done much better with IE7 but still it's a freeking mess if you ask me.

Afrigator goes Mobile... and then some

2007-04-13T11:40:49+02:00

It's been just over 10 days since Afrigator hit the waters and so much has happened it's scaring the living crap out of me.

New Firefox Security Issue

2007-04-26T14:15:20+02:00

A new FireFox Security issue told through a cartoon.

iGoogle and Afrigator

2007-05-10T18:14:35+02:00

It's no secret and it's been out for a long time but iGoogle is really starting to amount to something. Previously known as Google Personalized Homepage the team at Google are now officially calling it iGoogle.

MyBlogLog is being re-branded

2007-05-15T09:50:19+02:00

At the recent SOBcon conference in Chicago Robyn Tippins spoke about several major upcoming changes with MyBlogLog. Yahoo! recently purchased MyBlogLog and Robyn was hired as the MyBlogLog community manager.

Facebook has lost its appeal

2007-06-14T13:57:31+02:00

When I heard about the launch of Facebook Apps I got a little concerned and I think, rightfully so.

Complete List Of Html Meta Tags

2017-06-09T02:00:00+02:00

Ever wondered how many HTML meta tags there are? Ever wanted a complete list of all of them? Well, here you go. The most concise list of meta tags are at your disposal below. Enjoy.

Installing CakePHP on Mac OS X running XAMPP

2017-06-16T01:21:00+02:00

The following Howto will install CakePHP and get you up and running using XAMPP on Mac OS X 10.7.5+.

Create a humans.txt file with a Last Updated timestamp in Jekyll

2017-06-23T11:35:00+02:00

I wanted to create a humans.txt file but at the same time I did not want to manually update the `Last update` variable in `/* SITE */` section every time I made a change. I wanted to automate the process so that I never have to worry about it again.

How to Find Your Device's MAC Address

2018-04-25T15:52:10+02:00

The following HOWTO will show you how to find a device's MAC Address on either Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows or macOS.

GitHub + Microsoft = Not a Bright Future for OSS

2018-06-04T17:38:24+02:00

Really concerned to read this morning that GitHub is going to be acquired by Microsoft for $7.5 billion. Yes, that is billions!

Migrating Jekyll from GitHub Pages to GitLab Pages

2018-06-06T17:21:06+02:00

This post will show you how to migrate a Jekyll site from GitHub Pages to GitLab Pages.