Gareth Cliff's going to hell, I'll see him there

I cannot actually believe that I need to blog about this story, but I do.I just read this article, here's a snippet and then I'll continue:

Not my cup of tea. I am sorry to say that my estimation of Gareth Cliff has been lowered, for what it's worth, not for his views on religion - I am not surprised by uninformed and shallow approaches to a Universe filled with mystery! That happens every day! I am disappointed in the manner in which he dealt with this issue, and the ordinary listener who expressed her opinion in relation to his. Clearly he was dismissive of her, yet he wanted to have the right to have his opinion heard without challenge!

The irony of this comment is that Dion (the author) is doing precisely what he criticises Cliff for doing; being dismissive. What a load of rubbish.I have openly stated before that I am an atheist and have no issue with that. I am not ignorant, uninformed of shallow. In fact, I am well versed in christianity and have gone out of my way to educate myself. Why is it that in the eyes of a christian, any form of altering opinion is blasphemous and tantamount to condemning yourself to "hell".Get real, freedom of speech is the answer here and Cliff said and did nothing that should be considered bad. So he aired his views, would christians be pissed off he said god was great? If he said that christians were right? No, they wouldn't because it would agree with their view on the world. Obviously they are upset because his opinion is different to theirs. Simple.There is really no reason for them to send in hate mail and tell him that they are praying for something to happen to him to convert him to god. Please.So if Cliff is going to hell then so am I. We need to get over this religious elitism in the same way that we have overcome apartheid.Another post to read: Sarah Britten.

Do you feel alienated by the Internet?

I don't. I feel connected, empowered and engaged.A common misconception for people who don't use the Internet as a matter of course is that it is alienating. I know people in my life who don't use or know what Google is. These people must surely feel as if the Internet will alienate them if they make us of it "too much".I feel the opposite these days. After three long years of full integration with Internet and its tools as a resource and part of my life I am happy to report that I feel alive when I use "cyberspace".What kind of a word is that anyways? Cyberspace? Who coined that term?This is what Wikipedia has to say:

Origins of the termThe word "cyberspace" (from cybernetics and space) was coined by science fiction novelist and seminal cyberpunk author William Gibson in his 1982 story "Burning Chrome" and popularized by his 1984 novel Neuromancer.[1] The portion of Neuromancer cited in this respect is usually the following: Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding, (69).Gibson later commented on the origin of the term in the 1996 documentary No Maps for These Territories: All I knew about the word "cyberspace" when I coined it, was that it seemed like an effective buzzword. It seemed evocative and essentially meaningless. It was suggestive of something, but had no real semantic meaning, even for me, as I saw it emerge on the page.

"A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions" - that is definitely not the Internet that I make use of. I am involved in a real world that assumes the parameters of what is socially accepted as the "real world". In fact, I find it hard to differentiate between waking up, driving to work, sitting at my desk and writing a story and waking up, switching on my Mac and writing a blog post. There is inherently no difference and thus I do not feel isolated.Sure I do both of the above, work at a desk and blog, but the two are both a part of my real existence.The Internet is not filled with fake relationships and sexual predators posing as young men to get in to bed with a young girl. Yes, there are those cases, but that is not what the Internet is anymore. The Internet is more, is everything and nothing to some.As you can see, I don't feel isolated or alienated but thrilled and revived by the Internet. Do you feel alienated?

3 years of blogging

December (the month we are in) marks three years of blogging for me. More specifically, three years of blogging on this blog. Now the name might have changed a few times which definitely hasn't helped my rankings at all.This is not going to be on of those posts where I explicitly explain what I've done in three years and how its felt deep down. To be honest I don't think you care and I don't think I do either.But this blog has been an interesting experiment for me. It has become part of my "real" life. People I'm out with begin sentences and stories with "don't blog this but..." and that's when you know.I have made friends, lost friends (I have enough friends anyways) and built incredible relationships in business and my private life all thanks to this very blog.SA Rocks is a result of this blog and to be fair, this blog is a result of the influence of the Groogle and Shnitz. So thanks to them too I reckon!I have also been thinking about my "linkbaiting" as some may call it. It's not. All that I do is speak my mind and take a different angle to the norm. Most of the time I piss people off, most of the time I don't really care but sometimes I do and sometimes I listen.My recent silence has been thanks to my end-of-year-brain-drain. I will be back on my game soon. Here's to another three or more years of blogging!

Amatomu adds 6 month stats graph

With the recent announcement of Afrigator's changes, updates, movements and developments it seems that Amatomu has upped their game and their focus on stats.Have a look at the new graph from Amatomu stats page:

The worst job at 46664

This poor guy pushed the camera on tracks from approximately 12:30 to 22:30:He had an SABC media tag on so I can only assume that the poor guy wasn't paid too much. I wonder how many kilometres he walked throughout the day?

Chris Crocker gets blended

I have blogged about Chris Crocker previously here and here.Now let's see how well he blends:

Afrigator launch video

Last night's 27 dinner was great fun and others have blogged it already. What I am going to post is the video of Justin's Afrigator Launch Presentation.So without further delay here goes:Let me tell you that by the end of the almost 17 minute presentation my hand was in spasms. So I am pretty relieved that it worked out OK!

The Afrigator guys in one room

Just attended the 27 dinner. Was great to see many people (will blog more about this tomorrow). But was really great to see all the Afriguys together for the first time in one room:In the picture you see Justin, Stii, Mark and Mike.I also have a very long video of Justin's presentation about Afrigator Beta! I will be putting that up tomorrow and I think it will also be featuring on the Afrigator blog at some stage.

Journalist pages on Facebook

Many of us in SA (over 600 000) have Facebook pages. I personally know a host of journalists who live double live. One life on Facebook, socialising and another in real life being journalists. Why hasn't anyone linked these two facets of life?Facebook has indeed done so. I just read and noticed that Facebook pages cater for professionals as well as brands, companies and others. You can now have a Facebook reporters page - here's an example. Instead of garnering yourself friends, you gather "followers" who watch your every professional move.I personally think this is a great idea but wonder how effective or relevant this might be.There are a few angles to take here.Firstly there is a sort of "representation" view. Where the more journalists a media organisation has on Facebook, the more presence and representation that organisation will gain. People can then become accustom to journalists and their beats as apposed to magazines and their genres or themes. Thus allowing readers and Facebook users to familiarise themselves with specific content written by specific people.The other is that people do (and especially journalists) lead double lives to a certain extent. What if a journalist is writing an "object" story about the state of the American presidential race. Their personal political views aren't reflected on their professional FaceBook pages but will be present in their personal page.Now we get in to the area of media restricting employees. This isn't preferable as most employees enjoy a level of separation from their work on sites like Facebook.For me the line has been blurred already as I dislike Facebook immensely already. So I took the decision to make my personal profile as barren and empty as possible so that nothing questionable would pop up on my page and affect my professional profile on Facebook.What do you think? Would you like to follow your favourite reporter or writer on Facebook? Bullard? Ronge? Anyone?I think this is an interesting development and one that should be considered by media organisations.

Financial Mail gets blogging

So FM (the magazine I work for) have "officially" launched the very first blog that will be attached to the FM Blogging platform. Rob Rose is the author of the FM Governance blog. It is nothing fancy, design is secondary to content and Rob can definitely hold his own on this front.In his own words:

FM Governance is written by Rob Rose and provides irreverent commentary and the odd spark of clarity on who's breaking the rules, who's paying lip-service, and why you should care.

Obviously this isn't officially the very first blog that FM Has ever produced. Duncan McLeod produces FM Tech and has done so for a while. So in theory we are adding on to Duncan's great work in creating an FM brand in the blogging world.Here is a screenshot:Rob's been quite creative and intuitive as a first time blogger and thought up so interesting ideas. One of those ideas is the loser of the week. Rob pretty much tells the world that one company or person is the loser of the week and then blogs about the reasoning for this.Read about this week's loser here and now.

Aqua Bimini - Stay young forever

Can you believe that it has come to this?There is actually a company that is advertising anti-aging water, for real. I have seen the TV advert and actually had to visit the website just to see if this insanity is actually true. It is, or at least it seems to be for now.To be fair, I am the one saying that you can stay young forever, not them. They just claim that the water will help your DNA repair better over time. Apparently there is "proof" of their claims but to be honest I didn't really understand much of the information provided.Have a look:
As you can see the product is called Aqua Bimini and people seem to think it's working - wonder how much they have been paid to think that?These people think it's the way forward, or something:

MIXXing it up a little

Could Mixx be the Digg Killer that many have been waiting for? Maybe.I think that Mixx has gotten something right because I immediately liked what I saw. The user interface is great, well laid out, clear and easy to navigate. Immediately I think that they have a leg up on Digg in this area.To be honest, I really couldn't have been bothered with yet another social, web 2.0, vote-up-vote-down site. So what I did was tell Mixx exactly what I was interested in and then subscribed to the RSS for things that interested me. Fantastic.The next thing that I must note is that the content on Mixx seems to be more relevant. Fair enough, I am only subscribing to a feed that I asked for, but on Digg, finding things that interest me and are relevant is a hit and miss sort of affair. Mixx again seems to have attracted users who are posting relevant and important info.If nothing else Mixx will become a great alternative to Digg. Have a look for yourself and tell me what you think.

Do you laugh when you type "hahahaha"

I know that I don't always laugh when I type "hahahaha" on IM... do you?

Bloggers Who Like to Get Beta Testing Invites

I found this interesting Facebook group.Many of us bloggers are what we like to call "early adopters". This means we like things quickly, we like to be the first and we like to break the story in some way.This Facebook group sources beta invites and try to link up bloggers with beta websites. Blogging about the website's beta is seemingly optional but owning a blog is a prerequisite.From the group:

Are you a blogger that loves to get in to test new sites first? Many of those sites are trying to reach you too - but they get lost amidst all the press releases for stuff you don't care about.This is an exclusive group for those bloggers who want to try out some of those new Web2.0 sites that are starting everyday, and MAYBE blog about them. Whether or not you choose to blog is up to you ... but at least you'll get the invites first. To join this group, YOU MUST HAVE A BLOG.

Amatomu puts back unique user sessions

Finally the unique user sessions are back on amatomu stats!

iPhone protectors without the iPhone

So we all know by now that I have an iPod Touch and I have done a few things to it to make it my own. One thing that I haven't done but that has happened is the scratches on the metallic part of the Touch.I am not pleased about this at all. I did what any Apple supporter would do, I went to the Apple shop yesterday and I asked them if they had any iPod Touch covers/protectors. Low and behold, they didn't.What they did have was the iPhone cover/protector. Let me ask a question: Why do they sell iPhone covers if there is no iPhone in SA?Then, my next and most obvious issues is that if you can get iPhone covers in to SA then why, OH WHY, can't you get iPod Touch covers in to SA?And lastly I have a suggestion for Apple for their next range of iPhones/Touches: The front of the Touch is made out of a "scratch proof" glass substance, why not make the entire iPhone/Touch out if this substance. Maybe keep the metallic back part but cover it in a thin layer of the "scratch proof" glass?

What happened to Facebook.co.za?

A few months back Facebook blew up in SA. Then Facebook.co.za was bought by a local blogger. Then Facebook.co.za blew up in the rankings on the local blog aggregators. And then it was gone.Now it's back as it seems. Cleaner, more web 2.0 and more ad-filled then ever!Here is what happened to Facebook.co.za:

Johnnic is dead, Avusa Lives

It seems as though today is officially the day that Johnnic has its funeral and Avusa has its birthday!Here are some of the first images that I have seen today of the new logo and brand name:

Is South Africa not good enough for Vinny Lingham?

Vinny Lingham has recently secured $5m dollars in Venture Capital investment for his startup, Synthasite, from Compagnie Financière Richemont’s subsidiary, Swiss-based Columbus Venture Capital.He is making waves internationally, he is doing a great job of building an empire. Unfortunately that empire is moving away from it's home.Vinny is moving. Now most of you wont think twice about this, good for him making something of himself and moving on to bigger and better things. But I have an issue with all of this and trust me, I am not the only one.Setting up a fund for local companies to pool resources from (commonly known as Venture Capital - VC) is great. But taking these companies to a global market, removing them from SA and garnering credit from an international market with no emphasis on the South African nature of the product is not on.If Synthasite is anything for us to go by we can expect all of Vinny's "investments" to up and leave SA for greener, better, larger, more profitable markets. Which makes sense I suppose. But the nature of our market is one that needs nurturing and growth from the grassroots up and the inside out. Vinny could've been our man but it seems as though profit and power motivate more than development and growth for SA.Don't misunderstand me, I am not berating Vinny's success. It is marvelous that the man is set up for at least the next well, forever. Investments are great but how about giving something back?Vinny has the opportunity to hire local developers, train local people to become great innovators, developers and business people. He has the chance to make an impact. Instead he is fleeing SA for San Francisco. The money is greater, the market (I mean USA when I say "the market") is more appealing for him and SA is left in his wake. Sad situation if you ask me.He claims to be a VC but to date Lingham Capital seems to have invested in SkyRove and that's it. In fact, for someone with a site that builds sites (Synthasite), Lingham Capital's own website looks pretty dismal to me. The homepage is barren, the featured investments are empty, there hasn't been a single blog post and it seems as though the site never even got off the ground.Some might say he's been busy raising $5m for Synthasite but that's hogwash. Yes he raised the $5m but then why bother even making a massive announcement that he would be investing in companies locally?Speaking of local investments, it seems as though Vinny has no interest in investing locally unless there is massive global focus. Vinny has openly stated in the past that he's not interested in the South African money - the market is too small. He did so on David Bullard's blog where he only spoke of dollars and pounds because his company, Incubeta, only generate about 5% of their R60 million turnover from SA.Eve Dmochowska has a great post wherein she chats about a meeting with Vinny, Justin from Afrigator and others. Here's a quick excerpt:

This is how the situation panned out. Try to keep up.Vinny cannot invest in Afrigator, because it does not have immediate global appeal, but Triumph cannot invest in Synthasite because it does not have enough local focus. Unfortunately, even though Afrigator is all about local focus, Triumph wouldn’t invest because there is no cash flow. Blue Catalyst might be able to put Afrigator in touch with angel investors who might provide the capital necessary to get Afrigator to a positive cash-flow situation, but the fact that Afrigator’s creator has only had one failure behind him (and not at least five) puts him at a disadvantage in all the VCs’ eyes. Go figure.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. I am sure this is how Vinny is going to feel after reading this post. Unfortunately I am one of those people who believe that it's not someone else's job to make change happen. It's my job, it's your job and it's the job of whoever can actually make a difference.Vinny has openly said that he wont invest in Afrigator because it is too local. Why would he not want to invest now and help them mould their company in to one that is locally based with global appeal? Why must profit = global alone? Why can an African website such as Afrigator not make it in a VC's mind? Short sighted and naive in my opinion.South Africa needs heroes, captains of industry and leaders. Not Capitalists who flee when things get tough and the market is more lucrative somewhere else.

Faking it - Orgasms, iPods and more

Going to work today I realised that I was in the elevator with my iPod's earphones in my ears but no music. I had forgotten to push play (or tap play in the case of the iPod touch!).The most interesting thing happens in an elevator when people think that you can't hear them, they immediately assume you can't see them and that you don't exist at all.I have definitely done this before and on purpose to try and catch people unawares. I have managed to catch some interesting info out while people think I can't hear them.My question to you is:What do you fake? Anything at all? Nothing? You aren't a faker? I want to know if it's an orgasm or an illness.