Nic’s blog
I write about building businesses, failing and building a life, not a legacy.
Setting up Posterous
I've just redirected a new url I purchased to my Posterous. It's an interesting service. I like the email to post thing for mobile blogging.
The Official God FAQ
Question: “Is there a God?”
Answer: “No.”
In the quite unlikely event that you were to discover any omissions or inaccuracies on this page, they may be reported to the international headquarters of The Official God FAQ, at aod@400monkeys.com, where they will be thoroughly investigated, submitted to rigorous scientific testing and, if substantiated, included in a subsequent update. Thank you.
Could someone please explain to me what ...
Could someone please explain to me what it matters if I change my twitter avatar to a shade of green? Apparently this is going to make a difference to someone in Iran, but I have my doubts. I have seen a few people I follow on twitter doing it and noticed a few tweets about it.I just can't understand the damn relevance. The people of Iran don't care, they aren't looking or watching and the green avatar you are now sporting is not going to change the world, in fact I think that these green avatars are way to appear cool. And it bugs me.It might just be my opinion but that's OK with me. It just gets under my skin when I begin to feel guilted in to doing something as meaningless as changing the colour of my picture on twitter to a shade of green.
Is mobile, hyper-local, location-based n...
Is mobile, hyper-local, location-based news content the way to save mainstream media in the USA?I think it might be. I have been watching closely over the past few months as newspaper after newspaper has fallen away in the US. It's a very scary and very sad situation that American media finds itself in. Resistance to change over the past few years has positioned many papers in a dire situation where it's a matter of shit or get off the pot. And many are shitting themselves.Boston Globe is a one example that I have been watching withe extreme interest. Boston.com is a great resource that has not been used effectively enough to pull Boston Globe out of financial trouble.The resistance to change coupled with a severe drop in advertising and circulation (with thanks to a recession and online media emerging as a force in the media industry) has left the Boston Globe almost crippled. Many people are set to lose jobs and Boston, the city, is set to lose it's competitive media market. If Boston Globe closes down the city of Boston will be left with a single daily newspaper. This defeats the purpose of mainstream media acting as a democratic watchdog or fourth estate. With one media organisation remaining things are not looking good.Enter hyper-local, location-based news content fed to mobile phones produced by hyper-local citizen media producers who put content up via cellphones on to hyper-local portals.This is what Martin Langeveld of Nieman Journalism Lab had to say on the topic of Boston Globe:
Langeveld's advice is to go (almost) online-only with Boston.com, and to launch or subsidise a network of hyperlocal sites all over the area, and launch a network of local niche verticals focussed on weather, traffic, jobs, entertainment, education and more. He proposes a tiered, variable pricing model for all, with most of the content free, but paid premium access for a "small but highly-engaged group." This income could be supplemented with transactional revenue, through selling theatre tickets, for example, or facilitating restaurant reservations.
This model could also expose the Globe's city-wide reach to a hyper-local market of advertisers (a longer tail than they would previously had access to). This coupled with a free/premium hybrid mode and the paper could be on its way back up.Regarding the print side of things it's a simple mechanic to alleviate some immediate strain: Make the paper a weekly and include the news created over the week from the hyper-local portals and citizens media. Pull city-wide, larger advertisers in to this weekly printed publication to subsidise the cost of the print and drop the price to allow for quantity to be sold and to make the paper appear to be more accessible to the everyday person in the street.There is no quick-fix for papers such as the Boston Globe, that is certain. But it is imperative that these papers start to adapt or simply succumb to a swift death.
Mail & Guardian have, for some reason, t...
Mail & Guardian have, for some reason, taken it upon themselves to create a list of 300 young South Africans you have to take for lunch.It is not an enviable task by any means. Someone is always going to point out that you missed some or other person out, it's the nature of a list! I think MG does a sterling job and I think Elan also composed himself a great little list of people who should be considered for the list next year.But this year I was fortunate enough to be added to the list of 300. Initially I paged through the Media section of the list and realised that I wasn't there. I found myself buried in the Technology section. I think this depicts the progress of my career and illustrates the choices I've made in a very accessible way. I am no longer a man working to be heard in the media.My insert read as follows:
Nic Haralambous; project manager; social media; VodacomFrom the get go, it's obvious that Nic Haralambous is deeply in love with multimedia. The 24-year old attributes his preference for online over print media to his view of the internet as the more "democratic communication" medium.Proactive is probably the best word to describe him. "Don't bitch and moan, give solutions," he says. It appears to be his mantra.After hearing a speech by Bob Geldof on television in 2005, he booked a ticket to Edinburgh for the next day, where he rocked up with his film camera to photograph the G8 summit and he was beaten by riot police.Haralambous has written and shot for the Sunday Times, designed websites for Financial Mail and managed blogspots for the Mail & Guardian. He also started up the website SA Rocks and recently moved from general manager of the social media website, Zoopy, to Vodacom. -- Ilham RawootLunch spot: Plaka, Illovo, Johannesburg
I am joined on the list by Saul, Vincent, Vinny, Jason, Mike, Charl and many more deserving people. The youth in this country are here to stay and make a difference.
I love discovering trends and genres tha...
I love discovering trends and genres that I have previously been completely blind and ignorant to. The most recent discovery that I have made, now don't laugh, is SteamPunk.Yes, Steam put right there next to the word Punk, which gives us Steampunk. For those of you who aren't aware of what Steampunk is here is a short definition:
Steampunk is a sub-genre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date.
Here are some images to help your imagination get started on the idea of Steampunk:
Starting a new job is always a bit trick...
Starting a new job is always a bit tricky. You need to balance the people you work with, the new projects, the people you outsource, the scope of things, the context of things, the history and the progress as well as the potential and your sanity.That's what I have been doing for the past 3 weeks. I have willingly chosen to drop off the radar. Sometimes it's nice to be off of a radar. Sometimes it's quite pleasant to not have people know what you did, when you did and who you did it for. Sometimes it's nice not to be in touch and updating all the time.
I studied to be a journalist. I trained ...
I studied to be a journalist. I trained for difficult situations, for uncomfortable things to happen and for strange situations verging on impossible. I have wanted to be a war-correspondent since I was 10 years old. That will not happen.But on Sunday I was involved in a freak accident involving a plane, a bakkie and a few bloggers freebording. I ran towards the plane as did our whole group and not for one second did I think about stopping, taking photos or video and sending word to a media organisations. I could've, I am capable and I know how to, but I'd rather help. It's that simple and now I am certain of that.
Seacom Cable Landing tomorrow should be ...
Seacom Cable Landing tomorrow should be very interesting. Wondering if they are going to try and make it a bit less technical and more relevant to the average person. Will be updating via twitter and streaming video on SA Rocks as often as possible.
No Free Ericsson Laptops. THIS IS A HOAX...
No Free Ericsson Laptops. THIS IS A HOAX. Google it dammit.There is no person working at Ericsson named "Anna Swelung". They have confirmed that they will not be giving away free anything. So do me a favour and stop sending me this spam. It's junk.
Moving in to mobile.
It has already been announced that I am leaving Zoopy at the end of May.I didn't really have anything solidified when I resigned from Zoopy so it is with great pleasure and pride that I can now say that I am moving to Vodacom as the Product Manager in the Social Networking Porfolio.My time at Zoopy was well spent, I learned alot regarding myself, what I want to do and what I am good at. I also figured out where I think the market is heading, what the industry is doing and where I should be positioning myself.Zoopy is doing fantastic things right now and are one of the online companies to watch this year.I am going to be working very closely with Vincent Maher, who is going to be my new boss. I've worked with Vincent before and feel that I can only learn more and get better at what I do working at Vodacom for Vince.If you haven't realised it yet, mobile is not the next big thing, it's the big thing.
2010 spam emails are coming. I have just...
2010 spam emails are coming. I have just received my first one with thanks to SA Rocks. This is what 2010 Spam looks like:
My name is Mr Ray Edward, I got your website in the internet, when i was searching for a good business partner interconnection to 2010 Fifa world cup that will be hold in your country south africa nest year,Do you know a good profitable business that we can invest? I did it in Germany 2006 and i was favored so much, Get back to me with your kind of investment proposal so that we can proceed now,Yours truelyMr. Ray Edward.
Well Mr. Ray Edward, I have great ideas. Why would I give them to you? And if you are going to pitch me spam, at least try to get the spelling and grammar half-decent, not even all the way decent, just half.
My time as a terrorist - Unclassifiable
My time as a terrorist - Unclassifiable
I am an averaged sized male, 1.78m tall. I have olive skin. I cannot be classified as white. The best description that I can think of in the conventional methodology of boxing people is Caucasian - whatever that means.I enjoy growing a beard. I am privileged enough to be able to don one of these majesties of male testosterone. I am also relatively alternative in my fashion sense, my tattoos and my approach to people.Over the years I have progressively struggled more and more with the issue of racial classification. I studies politics at Rhodes University and for some reason we never covered the top of racial classification, where it began and why it has never been lost or forgotten. I wish we had because maybe then maybe I'd have some insight.It all began when I was about 16 and started to realise that I could grow a sizable beard in a short period of time. I now have a 5 o'clock shadow at 11am and a full beard within 5 days of growth. I would venture out to the local hotspots for teenagers my age and could see the confused look on the faces of people around me, people I met and acquaintances who didn't quite know me well enough to know my last name or heritage. I would meet these people, they would shake my hand, bemused and I quickly began to recognise the look: "What is he, where does he fit in, should I know where he is from, should I treat him differently, what's he doing here? Black? White? Indian? Arabic? Mediterranean? Bomber?"You might think that I am being oversensitive about this and so did I initially until I began to speak to people around me about my perceptions. All of my friends jokingly and openly admitted that it took them weeks to figure out that I was not X, Y or Z but was W. They tried to place me but couldn't. Girls that I would interact with, meet and talk to began to intimidate me because I was wondering if they were concerned about the ambiguity of my racial classification. Many of the girls I dated would later tell me that they knew I was Muslim when they met me. I'm not.Flash forward to 2004. I organised a trip to the United States. You can see where this is going. 3 years after 9/11 and I had no chance. I shaved my head, cut my beard, stayed out of the sun, wore my best suit and brought along all the sworn testimonials that I required to gain entry in to the US of A. Approximately 4 hours later and barely escaping without a cavity search I was granted entry in to the United States of America. I made sure that I shaved my beard every morning, that I stayed out of the sun and spoke with a pronounced English accent. I could not afford to be misrepresented in the USA, that would almost be fatal. I was young, naive and impressionable back then. In spite of all my best efforts, I still received the looks, questions, queries and was "randomly stopped" at almost every airport terminal I entered and exited.Moving onward to 2005. I was freelancing in the UK at the precise time and in the precise location of the 7/7 bombings in London. I was at the Canary Wharf station 2 days after the bombings occurred. I hopped on the tube and carried on my merry way. I was carrying my camera bag on my back sporting the typical freelance photographer look; long hair, unshaven, scrappy looking Camel-Man image. Bad idea. Three men approached me, prodded and poked me and forcefully asked me what I had on my back, was it a bomb and did I know who I was messing with. At this point I was slightly more aware of the world. I probed them as to what, precisely, they meant, showed them my Cypriot and South African passports and calmly told them that I had a camera on my back. Not good enough. Two more men joined the onslaught and forcibly removed me from the train. I walked the rest of the way home, went straight to the bathroom, cut my hair and shaved off my beard, yet again. I was beginning to think that being hairy on the facial area was somewhat of a curse.Again in England but this time it was 2006. I was getting on the Eurostar heading for Paris for 4 days with my girlfriend. We packed one bag - short trip - and I carried it in to the metal detector area. Wrong move. We passed through the metal detectors unscathed but as I picked up the bag and the security guards were able to confirm that the hairy, dark-skinned man owned it and I was done for. They stopped me and proceeded to unpack our bag item by item by item. They stuffed everything (underwear, sensitives and fragiles) back in to the bag with no regard for privacy or respect for personal property. My girlfriend has since carried every bag that we own through any security. She is white-skinned, brown haired and clearly not going to bomb anyone, you see.Ending that trip in England I had to leave on the passport that I entered on, my Cypriot passport. It seems as though everything I do is wrong when it comes to security because I showed my passport and was lambasted with an onslaught of questions and queries. Yet my passport is a valid EU passport. No one else was being stopped (then again they were all pasty white folk who clearly had not propensity with their light skin and light hair to bomb anything). Why was I? Why was I being scrutinised? I stood at the check in counter for over 90 minutes while security ran my name, passport number and fingerprints through every security system in the world. That is not a hyperbole. They literally ran my details through every possible system that they could. After almost two hours I had almost missed my flight but they smiled at me, doffed their caps and called for the next in line. Goddammit now I'm getting pissed off.The same premise still applies today and for some reason more so in the current climate. Indoctrination has moved to an uncontrollable level. The Western world is pushing their fearful concept of terrorist rebellion on to the rest of the world and you might laugh at me but it has reached South Africa more rapidly and more pervasively than you would like to admit. I can admit it, I live it. I decided that I had had enough and that I like my beard, I liked wearing scarves around my neck even if it was a black and white scarf that resembled the ones you've seen Bin Laden wear on TV. Fuck you, I am who I am - take it or leave it.I have been flying a lot recently. Work permits me to travel to Cape Town fairly often. One would think that a simple evening trip back from Cape Town to Johannesburg would happen without an incident. But I am becoming wiser now to the ways of the fearful and Western-indoctrination. Waiting to board the plane in the Cape Town airport a family of four sat opposite me. Father, mother, daughter and son, all, one after the next took turns to look over their shoulders, confirm that I looked like a bomber, and whisper their concerns. At one point, the father even approached the airline employee asking if I was on their flight. Call me paranoid but I watched it happen. At this point I started to get irate. I put my leather jacket on over my hoodie, put my hood on over my shaved head and covered up my beard with my scarf. I put my laptop (bulging bomb) on to my back and stood in line, right in front of the family. They were shitting themselves. Bastards.Now do me a favour, think about this one really carefully, tell me if you judge people based on the colour of their skin, the length of their beard or the way that they dress and think about it the next time you interact with people. We know you look at us differently, we know you think of us differently and I've started to like it. I'm coming after your preconceived ideas, I'm going to destroy them, your ideas, not you.*Disclaimer: I am not, nor have I ever been involved in a terrorist movement of any kind. In spite of my appearance I have never considered bombing anything or harming anyone. Ever.I am a South African with Greek/Cypriot heritage and proud that people cannot classify me. I am unclassifiable to the naked eye.
Two man guitars. What amazes me is not t...
Two man guitars. What amazes me is not the four hands on the guitar, it's the skills of the guy sitting down. Sick.
New York Times launched Adobe Air Deskto...
New York Times launched Adobe Air Desktop Application. I am unbelievably impressed with my first impression of the NYT Adobe Air Desktop Application. Let me rephrase that, I am impressed with the NYT Digital Edition. Because that's what this Adobe Air App is, it's a Digital Edition complete with Multimedia (video, photo, audio and text) as well as clickable hyperlinks, a newspaper layout which resizes up to 5 columns depending on how big you want the app to be on your desktop.There's a front page, the international section, local news, tech and any other section you can image.I am blown away at how effective, smooth, fast and clean this application is. It looks like a newspaper, on my desktop.But the question to answer all is: How will this make money?
Obama does stand-up. Where is this man f...
Obama does stand-up. Where is this man from? He cracks jokes, he rips into bush, he alludes to "Mother fucker" in one of his jokes (without saying it). Honestly, where is this man from?
T-mobile crowdsources "Hey Jude" by Th...
T-mobile crowdsources "Hey Jude" by The Beatles:
ABSA Internet Banking... it sucks
For many years I have used ABSA's internet banking but alas, for the last three days I have been unable to pay accounts, access my online banking, or even simply receive the verification SMS that is sent to you to do certain things on your account.I'm fed up. I want a solution and I want to be able to ACCESS MY OWN MONEY. NOW.