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28 October 2005

The end of an era

I have completed all my lectures and assignments for my courses at university, which means that my year is over officially. It also means that technically I have finished my degree. It's done, it's over and I can't believe it! No exams so I am out of here in a week's time.

Its a bit wierd, I feel really displaced and strange now, like I don't really belong anywhere. I guess that's going to be the story of my life for the next year or two unitl I get settled into some decent employment and live in one place for a while. It's a very exciting turning point in my life, I feel free to do anything and go anywhere with no real responsibility. It's also really scary though, I feel really small compared to the world out there.

25 October 2005

We are such geeks

Gregor moblogged me while I was moblogging someone else at the New Media Lab party last week. Thanks for the pic Gregor.



By the way, check out Gregor's latest blog: GreGoogle. This is some funny shit!

23 October 2005

Things I did this weekend

I had such a great weekend, it's nice to feel a bit more refreshed and revived again!

I went to see Prime Circle on Friday night. They are such an awesome band and Ross Learmonth the lead singer has the most incredible voice and is only 21 years old. They have just released a new album called Live this Life which shows how hard they are working and how much they have matured as a band over the last few years. The only thing that annoyed me was that they finally started playing an hour and a half late, which was really unprofessional. They sounded good enough to make up for it though.. And they chilled and chatted with people in the Taphuijs after the performance which was pretty cool.

Then on Saturday I went out to a game farm with a bunch of mates for the day and night for a chill and a braai. It was so beautiful and peaceful out there, I didn't realise how much I needed to relax! Saw some cool animals too.

21 October 2005

Carnage

Things are going downhill for the following reasons:
  1. My liver is befok.
  2. I have an assignment due in 2 minutes and its not going well at all.
  3. I am having a lot of anxiety over leaving a lot of special people behind in Grahamstown when I leave in 17 days. In fact I am really sad and am going to miss everyone a lot... It was good to spend time with them last night and earlier this week.
  4. Constable Oosthuizen wanted to meet me this morning at 8am to take another statement about my car break in.
  5. They stuffed up the statement last time I was at the police station when they called me out of bed at 4am.
  6. He called back this morning and cancelled the meeting so I got up early with a bastard hangover for nothing.
  7. I am running out of money again.
  8. Apparently I am my lecturer's pet.
  9. I don't have a job in the US yet.
  10. I am hungry.

20 October 2005

The Redesign

Ok I have finally done what I wanted to do with my blog for now, at least it looks a bit more unique to me! The blogger templates are just too boring...

Let me know what you think.

19 October 2005

Another new look

I changed the look of my blog again, this one is better. Except the images at top are completely irrelevant so I will make my own when i next have a moment, to make it more individual etc etc it looks like a piece of crap at the moment but i will get there eventually hehe

14 October 2005

81 cats, 6 dogs and a mental problem

I actually sat down and watched a repeat episode of Oprah last night. Now I am not generally a devout fan, but do watch an episode here and there when there is nothing on and I have had too much caffeine. Last night she interviewed a number of people who hoard stuff. I am not talking about that pile of manky old t-shirts that we all have in the back of our cupboards that we love too much to get rid of but are too mouldy to wear. No this takes hoarding to another level. These people have a mental disease that takes therapy and drugs to get rid of, it's actually a form of extreme 'perfectionism', where people get so paralysed with wanting everything to be perfect and in its place that they can't do anything at all. I had NO idea that this is a disease that people suffer from, recognised as a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Check this out for more information.

To get an idea of what their houses look like, watch the program "How Clean is Your House?" You can't help but wonder if these people are well in the head.. turns out they aren't.

But what astounded me more is that people not only hoard clutter, they hoard animals as well. Oprah showed footage from their own crew and other programs on Animal Planet and channels that deal with animal welfare. It made me physically ill to see how these animals are living. These people don't live on huge farms where there is space for 81 cats to roam around, they live in flats and suburban houses. There is nowhere for the poor animals to go and no room for them to relieve themselve except on shelves, floors, counters, beds, showers, each other... And it's not only cats and small dogs, it extends to thousands of birds in tiny cages, goats, horses, fish, sheep.. pretty much whatever people have a fetish for collecting basically to fill a void in their life.

Get more information here and here and here. Or here are the Google results on a search.

I am astounded, it never fails to amaze me how strange and sick people are.

11 October 2005

Yahoo News gets onto the citizen journalism bandwagon

My brother directed my attention to a story from Reuters today about Yahoo News, "the world's most popular Internet media destination", which is to begin testing on Tuesday on an expanded news search system that includes not only news stories and blogs but also user-contributed photos and related Web links.

Yahoo explains that their decision to include published news and opinion from sources other than traditional online media will enrich the quality and diversity of information, reporting and analysis available from the news site.

I found this structure particularly interesting:

"Yahoo has, in effect, created a three-tier system for finding news that starts with the links to top ten stories and related photographs produced by mainstream news organizations on the main Yahoo News site.

Readers searching for further details will be taken to a second-level news site, which splits the page between news from 6 500 professional sources and links to the hundreds of thousands of blogs available from its syndication service.

Thus the expanded search stops short of blurring all lines between edited news and self-publishing".



I think this is a useful way to make the most of "citizen journalism", where there is a system of distinction between what is traditional 'independent' journalism and what is produced by grassroots publishing media that perhaps challenges and criticises traditional media. Most importantly though, it provides more opportunity for editorial checks on what is published on the blogs and photo-sharing sites such as Flickr, so that not just any old crap gets put out there. They are at least giving a platform for increased awareness of the role that citizen journalism can play in enhancing media coverage and analysis.

I haven't found any information about how Yahoo is gathering or choosing particular blogs etc to include in their news search system, but one would hope they use some discretion. Another worry I do have with this is the danger of descending from layer to layer into an endless clickpool of information that is more overwhelming and confusing than helpful, and tends to repeat information over and over in different forms.

10 October 2005

Ethics Ethics Ethics

The Wits Journalism School runs a website Journalism.co.za which deals with all kinds of journ issues, one of which is ethics. If you go to the Journ-Ethics section there are a number of columns, articles, and discussion forums which deal with various scenarios that journalists could face.

One posting I found of particular interest is on the ethics of motoring journalism and the extent to which the reporting is driven by misinformation and corporate influence by car manufacturers who sweeten the jobs of motoring reporters with freebies and "long-term" test drives.

05 October 2005

The Boy Who Heard Music

Pete Townshend of The Who is writing a novella in serialisation, which is released chapter by chapter on his blog. The novella, entitled "The Boy Who Heard Music" is open to commentary from anyone interested. I wonder if he has thought about putting a Creative Commons licence on his work...

It's interesting to read, not easy but interesting. If nothing else it's a great example of how literary works can be made open to the public at no cost and how intellectual ideas can be shared around with less emphasis on copyrighting and profit incentives.

Check it out.

'I am not a Spur People'

I found this and was very amused... Forthe South African's out there - I know you have been to Spur at least once and had a kak meal!


The ANC is grieving...

The Business Day cartoonist's interpretation of Brett Kebble's funeral yesterday. Here is the full story.

04 October 2005

Microsoft vs Open Source again...

This is a story about providing underprivileged sectors of SA with facilities including PCs, printers and the internet. The centre organising all this, the State Information Technology Agency, issued a tender for free open source software feeling that government had a duty to assess open source software if it could meet its needs better than proprietary programmes. Microsoft was having none of this and is making an effort to get its technologies into the hands of a new segment of society by pledging free software for all 284 government-backed community technology centres. And they say it's not a direct response to the threat from open source... whatever! Just can't resist getting their fingers into every pie can they?

Story from Business Day online.

03 October 2005

RANT:

I cannot believe that I am paying almost R3000 airport taxes to fly to the USA at the end of November. The taxes are 50% of the ticket price or more.. WTF is that? How the hell can it cost that much? Will someone please do something about the ridiculous oil price.