Well, that didn’t take long, looks like the reprieve is over… Eskom of South Africa Raises Power Supply Alert to Red Zone (via Bloomberg)
VodaShop Service up the Creek
My wife and I went to the Vincent Park Vodashop on the 1st of May to change her details into her married name and upgrade her contract from a TopUp to a Weekender. The gentlemen that assisted us was helpful, efficient and we left knowing that her name would be changed, that the contract would be upgraded, and include an SMS bundle, and that her new phone would arrive by Monday at the latest.
The following Wednesday we still hadn’t received the phone call to say that the phone was ready; instead, my wife had received a statement stating that an amount of R 144.50 would be deducted from her account come the end of the month.
Alarm bell number one.
The Fishbowl
In case I haven’t punted this blog often enough in the past, visit the Fishbowl for some good running commentary on the politics in South Africa.
A Thoroughly Corrupt Government
The Mail and Guardian, one of the “newspapers” that has often been on the receiving end of Laurence’s scorn, ran an article this morning on their online paper about the whole Pikoli debacle; and it is worrying. Claims that everyone from the SAPS to the President of the country purposefuly obsfucating the inditement / investigation of Selebi.
A thoroughly corrupt government?
Wdf? Eskom Idiocy
Yesterday I spoke of the possibility of a move to New Zealand. Obviously this isn’t something that has just popped up out of the blue, however, since the discussion between myself, family members and my beloved wife, my observation of the errors of this country have become increasingly more detailed. One, of course, understands that one must not belittle the country of their birth in order to make a distant shore more inviting, and one should observe with cold logic and analysis.
And pigs fly too.
Strange Days
Things have been changing over the last few weeks, it’s almost as if I’m waking from a long period of dull slumber. There are still, as there will always be, things in my life that need radical change, and that will never quite satisfy me. Recently however, new events, have re-energized me, and now I feel like taking the bull by the horns again.
This is teh awesome!
It’s a printer that, well, prints itself! That’s just cool. More info here.
A Dune Mod for Oblivion
It’s not Frank’s Dune, but this open mod for Oblivion is quite breath taking. I really need to find a way to add about 60 hours to my day so that I can do all the things that I want to, like play Oblivion, download mods like this, and then explore.
As you can see, Promethius is a genius when it comes to modding Ob. I only wish I had the time and patience to learn how tomod like that man can. If you want more information on the Dune mod, it can be found here.
Fun with IE 8 Beta 1
So, being in the geeky mood that I am in, and since I am already running FireFox 3 Beta 3, I thought - bugger it, I’m going to install IE 8 Beta 1. So I download the 14.5Mb file, and begin the install process (but not before setting a restore point).
Needless to say, it didn’t install. One of the things that I dislike strongly about Microsoft Software available off of their website is that it often asks to download the latest updates, which is odd, since I just downloaded the appliction - it should be the latest.
Anyway, I attempt to download said update automatically, but hey, that fails too. So I download it manually, and start smelling a rat. Or more specifically, begin to suspect that there is no way in hell that IE 8 is going to run on my current installation. The update it is looking for, is a file that fixes a language bar error which causes crashes in some obscure situations.
Regardless, and being cavalier about it, I attempt to install the update, which it then tells me that I cannot do because, well, the service pack that I have installed has a later version number than the patch itself.
Therefore, unsurprisingly, IE 8 Beta 1 does not work, not even install, on Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3. Go figure.
In Response to a God of Justice
This is in response to letter to our local newspaper, which can be found here. This seems to be a somewhat typical letter of religious intolerance in the local area of the Eastern Cape. It is not entirely surprising that the author does not give their name, but instead calls themself “Celibate by the Grace of God”.
