Nic’s blog
I write about building businesses, failing and building a life, not a legacy.
"SABC to open Zimbabwe bureau" - OH, The Irony!
I read This post on southafrica.info and it made my laugh, then cry, then wonder and then the irony, and perhaps the dramatic irony kicked in. Let is wait and see how this one plays itself out. Till then, remember this post. Oh, The Irony!
Interesting Facebook Stats
This sort of growth is phenomenal, but what I would like to note is that it DID NOT happen OVERNIGHT. In fact it happened over years. Yes, there might be close to 20 million active users and something like 30 billion pageviews per month but it took time. And yes Facebook is said to be the largest photosharing site in the world, but again, that took time. So to all you startups out there, breath, take your time and grow your product, Facebook was not built in a day, nor was Rome apparently.
Fatima Meer Takes On The ANC In Front Of Mandela
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My Graduation Ceremony Rocked. It did, really. Not because I was the one and only important person in the world graduating but because one Nelson Mandela and Another Fatima Meer both attended the ceremony. Mandela was present because his Grandson was graduating so that was cool, chilled, didn't say much. Meer was there receiving an honourary doctorate in literature from Rhodes University.Let me give you some background of Meer before I go ahead with the controversial and stinging speech that was read on her behalf on Friday.
Fatima Meer (28 August 1928 - ) is a South African writer and academic, a screenwriter, and was a prominent anti-apartheid activist.
There is much more information available on Meer at Wikipedia.Now not only were these two icons present at my graduation ceremony but Fatima Meer took the opportunity to make an unbelievable speech in the presence of the ANC's biggest historical figure and advocate, Mr Nelson Mandela. Meer is not well. In fact she has a nurse looking after her 24/7 these days. She had enough energy to greet the congregation present and introduce her granddaughter to speak on her behalf. I cannot remember everything that Meer said in the speech but will try to remember some key points or statements that were made.She began her speech by doing the usual, thanking those present and Rhodes for having her and awarding her with the doctorate. That was it for the formalities. The Granddaughter then proceeded to read a scathing account of her grandmothers thoughts. Meer believes that a socialist uprising is coming. She believes that the people are on the verge of taking back their country and that it is the ANC that the people will be taking back from. She noted that in her opinion the Neo-Capitalist regime that the ANC has instilled in this country needs to and will soon come to an end. Meer further pushed the need for the ANC to reconnect with its people and get off the gravy train. She had much positive to say about South Africa and the people within this country, but she had nothing, absolutely nothing good to say about the ANC.That is the gist of what I can remember about the speech, I was gobsmacked and astounded at the guts of Meer herself and her granddaughter; getting up in front of Mandela and saying all of these things and more. In case you are wondering how Mandela reacted, you will not be shocked or surprised to know that he stood (with great physical difficulty I might add) applauded Meers speech and shook her hand. He never ceases to amaze me.Further thought leads me to wonder about the statement that he was making by not reacting and "endorsing" the speech with his silence? Is he perhaps agreeing with Meer? Is he perhaps stating that the ANC as it stands right now is not what Mandela fought for for so long? I am not sure what he was trying to say but in his presence I must admit, he can say anything he wants and it seems to be so incredibly phenomenal.Keep a look out for Meers speech in case it gets posted, I'll see what I can do in terms of audio or text versions of the speech. Read Fatima Meers book about Nelson Mandela. It should be a ripper: MEER, FatimaHigher Than Hope: The Authorized Biography of Nelson Mandela
Graduation Ceremony - Well Overdue
As Groogle has just blogged: It is Grad time, finally, eventually! Groogle is a year up on me but hey, at least I get a degree, how many people can say that? OK, maybe a few, but nevertheless, I am Graduating.I never thought I'd say this and I am sure there are others feeling the same way, but I really can't afford to have a two day week. Such is life. Everyone needs to step away from it all sometime. It's my time.I will be away from the internet for a few days, I might get on here and there but check out my flickr account to keep up with me. Don't check out my twitter, I wont be updating it, that is for sure!
RSS Blogs Publishing Other Peoples Blog Posts
I have recently noticed that pingbacks I am receiving on many of my posts are from blogs that are simply ripping off RSS from various other blogs that they can get their grubby paws on to. Can anyone explain this to me??Here is a list of a couple that I have noticed:http://www.rss.markpromotion.com/camel-gets-some-flavour.htmlhttp://thedrunkkansan.com/music/?p=6083http://thedrunkkansan.com/hottness/2007/04/09/stop-twittering-you-twit-live-your-life/http://www.rss.wineflavour.com/sa-cookbook-wins-food-and-wine-oscar.htmlhttp://www.rss.romanianfootball.com/football-hooliganism-makes-football-watchable.htmlhttp://world-beaches.biz/best-beaches-in-sa/UPDATE:Thanks to grandMasterkrust, I have found and installed a few plugins that will hopefully be solutions to an apparently large problem. Go figure. Check out these links if you are experiencing the same problem as I have been:http://www.plagiarismtoday.comhttp://redalt.comhttp://www.numly.com
Whiskey Contributions
I have just contributed to Jenwynne - a blog about Jo'burg and the awesome things one can do on any given night of the week!I went to a whiskey tasting last night and heard some interesting stuff about whiskey in general and more specifically about Johnnie Walker. Here's a little interesting fact:The mascot for Johnnie walker was designed on a napkin in a pub when one of Johnnie Walkers sons asked a cartoonist friend to construct a mascot for the whiskey!There you have. Now check out my post at Jenwynne!Aside: I have added a sidebar feature listing the blogs i contribute to or have in the past contributed to! Have a look see.
Camel Gets Some Flavour
It appears as if Camel Cigarettes have quietly done a bit of a marketing ploy. Not advertised ('cause they can't I suppose) in the media at all, no little boards up at the Petrol Stations or anything of the sort.I simply stumbled upon the new, new camel box below at the Petrol Station:
Now what the lovely pack above involves is an outer label that looks like a box. This is covering a Metal Box that is branded with Camel which houses the regular Camel Pack. This all cost me R23-ish. It's a mere R4 more than simply buying the regular hard box so my question is this; Is it worth Camel's while to make this promotional box if it is only earning them R4 extra, it's not advertised or marketed and their customers are only moving to the metal box when they stumble upon it like I did?Either way I like it, wont use, but think it's a nifty little gimmick.
Amatomu Zeitgiest 3
The third installment of my Zeitgiest post features, quite appropriately at the moment, Mr Ray Hartley.
It read: Ray Hartley: rock the bells little brother
Kumomo - Spamvertising Gets Personal
I just received this email from a "revolutionary advertising option for blogs":Dear Nic Haralambous,First of all, allow us to come clean. We've got your email contact from your blog, Media Madness & Everyday Mayhem at http://www.nicharalambous.com. We apologize shall this email cause any interference and we will make this message short and simple.We would like to share with you the launching of Kumomo.com, an online ad space booking platform, where you can sell the spaces on your blog. Sounds familiar to what you've experienced? Almost, but not exactly.This is the place where advertisers come looking for your space. There is no cost in posting your ad space here (it's free!) and fees from the advertiser goes direct to you! No Commission, No Cash Holdback, Free Exposure.If you have never sold space before, or don't intend to be flooded with sponsored banners? Here, you have the option to donate all the ad space proceedings to Cambodian Build A School Project. Be part of the Kumomo Tree Charity Project, www.kumomo.com/kumomo-tree, and bring a smile to the Cambodian kids.Kindly log on to www.kumomo.com/publisher to start selling your ad space.Best regards,YongKumomo.com - Got Space?I am impressed with the personalised touch, but if I wanted to sell ads I would be doing so. Should this be taken as a compliment? Is it really possible that a company would make real people (not bots) troll sites and get details from the sites to send a pitch to? I am again, impressed by the effort if this is the case. I am not sold however. Thanks Kumomo.com, but no thanks.
I Shmaak Amatomu's New Features
I just logged on to Amatomu and notices that "Schaak it" and "Add to favourites" are options now available to logged in users.This is a very much needed feature that drifts towards Technorati-ish style. It also does step in to Muti and Afrigator territory a bit in my mind. Nevertheless, I think it is a feature that is necessary and only adds weight to the Amatomu hype thus far.It is possible to view your favourited and Shmaaked items by logging in and clicking on the relevant menu tabs. Once there all of your favourites and Shmaaks are available to peruse. I expect next will be the ability to add friends to your account and view and share their Shmaaks and Friends, but that's just my thoughts on the subject!The "On Fire" tab on the menu displays blogs in order of their "Shmaaks" as far as I can see. This is a great way to gauge who is digging what blogs (no "digg" pun intended). All in all it seems to be a simple to use and effective system of people approach to their blogging habits. Again, a great addition by the MG team.
Stop Twittering You Twit, Live Your Life
I refuse to acknowledge Twitter as a service that I will make use of. I tried, I did, I promise. I just cannot sanction the use of something so blatantly anti-social and real-world-phobic. Do me favour; stop blogging about life and live it.I know that I am stepping on people's toes here, but just be serious for a second and tell me exactly what the value of knowing someones EVERY move is? I just can't think of any significant value whatsoever. If you can please feel free to let me know. If you are using it and it has revolutionised your world, again please tell me so. I cannot justify the use of services like this.I found myself lost in my text messages to Twitter when I should have been listening to someones story, or drinking my beer or smoking my cigarette. This sort of behaviour, in my humblest of opinions is not socially acceptable. You begin to take the people you are with for granted, you begin to lose grip of what really matters. What really matters to me are things like human contact (touch believe it or not), actual human conversation between real people, no medium to hide behind, no screen to guard you. Openness that extends deeper than a 140 character haiku that states what colour your crap looked like because that is all you could think of to type to this twit, that twit or Twitter itself.Most serious bloggers believe that a blog post should be worth while, substantial, niche, specific, random but well written, intricate or simple, complex or basic but in the end it should mean something. What does Twitter lend to this theory? How does letting someone in Timbuktu know that you are walking down the Vegas Strip make a difference?I think that this is an issue that is bugging me more and more lately; people are not making the clear distinction between their hobbies or job (the internet and blogging) and the real world. I mean this sincerely. Step away from your phones, stop texting Twitter, don't check your Gmail on your WAP, just live your life breathing real air, eating real food and meeting real people with faces, not profile pictures.
Tim O’Reilly Releases Bloggers Code Of Conduct! PAH!
It has been done, one man, one document and 200 million bloggers are going to listen. Pah! Methinks not. Apparently one Mr. Tim O'Reilly has released what many people have spoken about and disagreed upon before; a bloggers code of conduct.I wont go in to much detail here as 901am has done a sterling job in their post.I will go so far as to say that Tim O'Reilly seems to be some kind of megalomaniac hiding in a naive little girlscouts skin.A quote from Tim:
We are committed to the “Civility Enforced†standard: we will not post unacceptable content, and we’ll delete comments that contain it.
Tell us Timmy my boy - Who is going to decide what is "civil" and what is not? In some cultures swearing is A-OK, while in others it is unacceptable to talk about religion. Who gets to decide amongst the 200 million odd bloggers what is acceptably civil?What a daft step in a very, very strange direction I believe.
David Bullard: Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome?
I love David Bullard. I love his brash approach to politics, life, economics and everything in between. After reading his column "Out To Lunch" in todays Sunday Times I felt as if he was suffering from depression or possibly Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSS).Normally Bullard belts out words of enthusiasm and conflict, words of incredible observation and brilliant solving strategies. Today Bullard sounded like a South African on the verge of packing it in and heading to the dreaded land of New Zealand. I can only imagine what he has gone through and do not judge the actions and thoughts that he writes about in the column. I just think that he is going through the normalities of stress and depression that are associated with his type of ordeal (not that I am a qualified psychologist).He speaks of canceling his nephew and some other friends that he and his wife were going to host on their trips to SA. He also mentions not being able to host the families unless they sign legal documents stating that he and his wife are not liable for anything that happens to them on their trip to SA. This is somewhat over the top and a bit drastic if you ask me. I also think that someone like Bullard should be more careful with their words when talking about an entire country and an entire trip to SA. Not every tourist is guarenteed to get mugged, robbed, murdered or raped on their trips, hell tourists in New York City have the same things happen to them, but not every person, ever time.It seems as though Bullard has attempted to illustrate the more real side of his ordeal in this column, which is commendable. It is necessary to be grounded about the realities of our beautiful country. People get hurt, bad things happen and have happened to people we know. This is real. Yet this is not all that our country is about. I am glad that Bullard has shown his readers that he is human and he has fear after what happened to him. He often comes across as a super human that is filled with a never ending pool of concentrated positivity, which is fantastic, but not real.I have the utmost respect for David Bullard and the greatest sympathy for his current situation. I hope he is back to his normal self sometime in the very near future!