Where are the Digg chicks?

It seems that my question is not only being asked in South Africa.

Why are there so few women on Digg?

And the bandwidth glut begins!

Eish, it's that time of the month, when everyone realises that they still have some bandwidth left to burn on their "broadband" account. That in turn means we all start to suffer collectively as masses music, movies, software & porn(in reverse order) are downloaded by those who have bandwidth to spare.
Already since Sunday afternoon web pages, in my experience both locally and internationally hosted, have begun taking an inordinate amount to load, often requiring a reload.
The forums @ myadsl.co.za have been buzzing since Friday discussing pinging times, a Telkom/Hong Kong link that was down, and a few other theories.
The fact of the matter is, this is going to be an ongoing problem that is just going to get worse, until
a) Telkom gets it's act together
and/or
b) Neotel get it's act together
and/or
c) government gets it's act together
and/or
d) SA gets another undersea cable outta here
and/or .... your opinion please ...


So take my advise, never leave any important online work for the last couple of days of any month. The situation is not going to get any better anytime soon. Get those online payments made before the 29th of the month. You will remain a whole lot saner that way.

Help required for posting to Amatomu

So, today is a nice slow day. Slap bang in the middle of what most people have made into a mega-long weekend.
I have noticed however that there are a few hardcore bloggers still posting and reading the blogs. (MyBlogLog is a whole lot cooler than I thought it would be)

So I thought I would take the gap, and ask some advice. But before I do let me warn those of you non-bloggers that this is not going to interest you. I am not a fan about blogging about blogging for the sake of blogging (and Amatomu rankings) so non-bloggers do yourself a favour and click here.

So, fellow, bloggers, here's my question. While I have readers from all over the world, I would like my main audience to be South African. Either those currently staying here in SA, those currently working elsewhere in the world, or ex-pats. I feel it's important to aim at a target market and not get drawn into trying to compete with the international bloggers. It will also allow me to pitch the blog to advertisers one day, should I decide to do so.
With this in mind, Amatomu becomes a very important tool. It's local focus means that the majority of the referrals coming from this portal are going to be local readers.
Thus the "Latest Posts" column offered by Amatomu on it's opening page becomes vitally important. This is the first thing casual surfers are going to use as a reference and it's an important leveler needed by the smaller blogs as the exposure they get is exactly the same as
the 'bigger' blogs.
When I first signed up with Amatomu they accepted your blog posting time as gospel. I found this out is my Blogger timezone was out of synch and I found myself sitting on top for hours with a post time way in the future. (Sorry, Vince & Matt) I eventually got that right, but others had cottoned on by then and took advantage of the loophole. Fortunately, they have sorted this out by assigning a random time if you post with a time that is in the future.
Now, my question. How do you ensure that you get the current time as the time posted? I have found that very often, despite constant pinging, it will take 20mins before a post will show up in the "Latest Posts" lists. By that time you are already way down the list. Clearly some of you have figured out how to get it right, so please share. I tried setting my time 15mins ahead, but that just got me penalised as it went through after 10mins and I landed up 3/4s of the way down the list anyways.
Help!

Another chance to win

Afrigator has gotten quite a bit of traction with their "Win an Ipod" competition. Viral marketing at it's best. The SA blog aggregator wars are beginning to get interesting.
Nevertheless, an Ipod is an Ipod. So if you have not already entered click on the pic on the left and sign up with Afrigator. Just remember to use eishblog@gmail.com as your referrer, that way Eishman can also stand a chance to win an Ipod.

[What is Afrigator?

Afrigator is a social media aggregator and directory built especially for African digital citizens who publish and consume content on the Web. We would like to see it become your choice for African social media in one place, in one bite.

You can use Afrigator to index your blog, podcast, videocast or news site (i.e. any site that publishes an RSS feed) and market it to the rest of Africa and the world. You can also use it to discover new sites in the Afrosphere.

Quote from www.afrigator.com]

Good luck, I hope it's an Eish!! reader that get's to win!

And bloggers you have a chance to win. Add a trackback to your blog to this post, if you are one of the first 50 to do so, you will get a t-shirt.

Freedom Swim Postponed till tomorrow

[Update : Well done to Tyron (big win) & Natalie (Just edging out Carina) on your wins. Click here for the full results]

High swells & general extreme weather conditions have forced the organisers of the Freedom Swim to postpone the race to tomorrow, 28th April, @ 10:15am. Let's hope the conditions clear and the water warms a bit.

Previous post : Freedom Swim 2007

If you are sitting in your warm home tomorrow and would still like to "watch" the race you can do so online. 6 GPS tracking devices are being placed on the boats of the top 5 swimmers and one other swimmer. Below is how & where to do this.

1. Login to www.sportstrack.net
2. Click on the login button at the top right corner of the home page
3. At the login screen – click on “Guest Login”
4. When entering the live site – you will see a menu of tacking devices on the left hand menu
5. You will see a map of Table bay and dots + names for each swimmer
6. The dots position will be refreshed every few seconds

Lets see if this works - $100

This could win me $100. Wish me luck.

NotSoBoringLife is the coolest site teaching everyday people how to play guitar, yoyo, pipe smoking, grip strength, and about shark fishing. Check out this post if you want to win $100!

How important is Freedom Day?

I don't know about you, but I can still remember the miracle that was our first democratic elections. I recall standing in my queue waiting to cast my vote, and then going back home and seeing how millions of other South Africans were all doing the same. It still gives me goosebumps.

So of all the public holidays, I have always felt that tomorrow's Freedom Day is one worth keeping and celebrating. It's a day that all South Africans had and have a stake in regardless of their 'cultural heritage'.

So I was really disappointed when I checked the South African government's 'About SA' website. Below is the sum total of the Freedom Day information you will find here.






Now, I know that this is exactly what Freedom Day is all about, but surely there could and should be more information given. For example the 27th April is also the day our new constitution came into effect in 1997. How about a little of a back story? This i, or at least should be, the premier source of this kind of information, unfortunately it even makes it to number 2 when doing a Google search. Surely there should be more? It's a government website, for pete's sake, there should be so much information it should bore you! Eish, maybe it's just me.

Enjoy the long weekend.

For what it's worth the link's here.

Antidote for the cricket

While you all were sitting, depressed in front of the cricket, I was sitting in front of my laptop, browsing the SA blogosphere. Then I turned my attention to a little icon I have had on my desktop of nearly 12 months. Arcade!

Remember those old arcade games you played at the corner cafe? Or on your Vic 20, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum ...

Asteriods, Pacman, Space Invaders, Pong, Snake, Space Invaders & Tetris. All available for free download @ http://www.openwares.org/ 300961 people can't be wrong.

It's guaranteed to be more fun than watching the cricket.

Freedom Swim 2007

Friday is a public holiday, Freedom Day, the day when we commemorate our first democratic elections in 1994 .
It's also the day 72 individuals and 5 relay teams are going to swim the 7.5 kilometers it takes to cross from Robben Island to Bloubergstrand. The event is a fund raising vehicle for the Vista Nova School for children with learning disabilities and cerebral palsy and this year the plan is to hand over R75 000.00 to the school. It's sponsored by Cadiz FSG who's CEO, Ram Barkai, is an ardent open water swimmer.
Being subject to the Cape Long Distance Swimming Association rules the swimmers are not permitted to wear a wetsuit. So it's a Speedo (just one) and a cap(just one) and googles. Considering the temperatures usually range between 11 & 14 degrees, these guys will get cold.(Eishman attempted it a few years ago when it first started but the freezing cold water got the better of him, so he knows what he is saying when is says "these guys get cold")

The swimmers will be leaving the island at 10am and the first swimmers should arrive at Bloubergstrand just over 2 hours later. It's amazing to watch the swimmers emerge one-by-one from the water. They will be all shapes, sizes, sexes and ages. Do yourself a favour, go and enjoy a day at the beach and support these athletes as they pit themselves against the elements, and a hungry fish or two, to raise funds for an extremely worthy cause.

Click here for more information.

[Update : You can track the progress of the swimmers realtime. Here's how as explained @ www.cadiz.co.za :

We have arranged for 6 units of GPS tracking devices to be placed on the boats of the top 5 swimmers and one extra Ginny pig.

How do I do that?

1. Login to www.sportstrack.net
2. Click on the login button at the top right corner of the home page
3. At the login screen – click on “Guest Login”
4. When entering the live site – you will see a menu of tacking devices on the left hand menu
5. You will see a map of Table bay and dots + names for each swimmer
6. The dots position will be refreshed every few second]
   

Do you Schmaak this post?

Lost in Translation - A Beauty (Photo)

Lost in Translation

I came across this a little while ago in a small farm town (Grabouw) just outside Cape Town. It's a small clothing/electronics/cycle shop run be a Chinese couple that sell big name brands at remarkably cheap prices ...

You an click for a bigger view but here's the contents of the signs.

[Far left - Orange] TV-DVD-TAPE_CD
Only 2 Months Repair
Guarantee No change
No money back
Water damage not guarantee

[Middle - Orange]
Bicycles not
Guarantee Not
change No money
back
change parts
accept the money

[right top - Yellow]
Dissassemble the machine
and doess not guarantee
by oneself
Enter water and does not
guarantee
Break and does not guarantee

[right bottom - Yellow]
All
speaker not guarantee

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Now you can Moer a taxi - Seriaas!

Everyone has a beef with taxi drivers. There are so many times when you just want to get out the car and let him (or her) 'have it,' whatever your version of 'have it' may be. But you know that it's probably not a very wise thing to do.

Now you can. Go to http://www.ilogic.co.za/taxi-wars.html and you can hoot your vuvuzela, smash the taxi with a golf club and use spray paint on the taxi along with a few other ways to vent your frustration.
I had to chuckle when I heard the response of the chairman of one of the Cape Town taxi associations on the radio yesterday. He was 'appalled' that such a violent game could be played online and was concerned that this could lead to real violence being perpetrated against taxi drivers. Please buddy,how do think a viral marketing company came up with the idea? I'm pretty sure that if all your drivers stuck to the speed limit (how fast you are allowed to go on the road and remain within the law), indicated when stopping and/or turning (using the little stick that used to be on the side of the steering wheel to activate the little orange lights that warn motorist of the impending action) and kept to the correct lanes (left of a yellow line is not actually the taxi lane), their brainstorming session would have led to a whole different creation. Furthermore, trust me, if we could we would have done this to your taxis a long time ago. Playing this game will not suddenly make us stupid enough risk our lives and trying to do something similar in the real world.

Eish!!

Note : The game is actually meant as a viral marketing campaign, but hey, maybe it's going to land up providing an important public service.

Update : Mzala @ Township vibe posted the following re: Taxi Wars : Website incite violence against the taxi men . Tried to leave the following comment unsuccessfully (the site was misbehaving)
Hey Mzala, you serious?
The moment I see someone blowing a vuvuzela at their unfriendly taxi driver, I will repeal both this comment & what I posted about the site a few days ago.
Eishman

Hopefully they get to read this somehow.

Let's make a difference

In Friday's post I gave you some links to blogs, authored my members of the fairer sex. In the post I wrote "One thing I have learned while journeying through the submissions is that these girls can write! You will find very few quick one or two paragraph posts in this batch of blogs. The ladies have a lot to say, and they say it."

Unfortunately, I had not read ms Porcelains Friday's post @ Music, Life & Music. Because this lady really did have a lot to say and, in my opinion, she said it very powerfully. It's an awesome post highlighting her frustration at the way women are, and allow themselves to be, portrayed in popular culture. PLEASE do yourself, your mother, your sisters ,your daughters, a favour and read it. Then pass on the message. This needs to be heard by as many people as possible. If you have email, send the link to all you know, if you have blog do the same.

Below is a snippet from her blog post, the link follows. Ms Porcelain, eishman upgrades Music, life and music from "Nice one" to "A must read."

...

"Pop culture has a lot of power and influences young people in a way that is almost unbelievable. Yet the people who have this power seem not to know how better to use it. The use of words like 'bitch' and 'hoe (whore)' have become acceptable. Even the dreaded 'n-word' has become fashionable. believe it or not I've heard young South Africans call each other that. i much rather prefer the word 'cat' than 'the-n-word'... But that's just my opinion"

...

Link : The Hip-Hop issue

A possible replacement for Guns N Roses?

I received the following email from Daniel of the band 'One Day Remains,' an awesome new rock and roll band I posted about on the 3rd of April : see post One Day Remains

Take a read, click on their Myspace page to give their music a listen, and should you feel it warrants it, start forwarding to your mates, as per their request.

Dear Eish,

You might know that Guns n Roses are NOT playing at CokeFest in Cape Town anymore.

If you'd like new rock legends "One Day Remains" to be included on the Bill, then please forward this message to ALL your friends and let the power of numbers do it's thing.

O.D.R. is busy with a new video done by Grammy award winning production company.

Let's at least let people get some value for their money.

Check out what you can expect at:
http://www.myspace.com/onedayremains">www.myspace.com/onedayremains
or cut and paste www.myspace.com/onedayremains into your web browser.

Here's to South African music that can hold it's own against ANY international act.

Want to book the band for yourself? Make sure you have an event to be remembered for years come !

Booking enquiries: dwhvn@hotmail.com

Thanks,
Daniel van Niekerk

I haven't decided for myself whether or not this is something they should be pursuing. However, I do like the idea of this as a new media experiment. It will be interesting to see if there is enough online 'power' in SA to create sufficient pressure for something like a music festival lineup to be altered.

Having said that, if there is one band of musicians in SA which get the power of the web, blogosphere, new media, whatever you want to call it, it's 'One Day Remains'. So, as I said, if you agree with the idea and/or enjoy their music, start forwarding!

Here are the SA Blog Chicks

(... actually just a few)

Last week's 'Where are the SA Blogs Chicks' post resulted in a fair bit feedback to the Eishman. So I felt it was necessary to acknowledge those blogs that were brought to my attention. Before we get to them though let me say thanks to those of you posted comments and mailed me with suggestions. I can now safely say that these are just the tip of the iceberg. It would, however, be nice to get the profiles of a few more of those blogs authored by the fairer sex significantly raised and , in my opinion, the only way we can do this is to get more female readers. Or am I wrong?

One thing I have learned while journeying through the submissions is that these girls can write! You will find very few quick one or two paragraph posts in this batch of blogs. The ladies have a lot to say, and they say it.

Here's the quick list, with summaries gleaned from the blogs. Feel free to add more in the comments once again. (The list is orderless)

• Enigma : Merja, a 21-year-old junior journalist in Namibia. My friends back in Cape Town think I’m dodging bombs and bullets in the middle-east, they’re also under the impression that I’m next in line to win a Pulitzer award. I don’t have the heart to tell them that the only rewarding thing in my job is attending those ministerial visits that supply me with free food.
• Megan : If you can't impress them with your intelligence, confuse them with your bullsh@$t!
• Expensive Mistakes & Cheap Thrills : Eish say, the name is extremely descriptive .Eish recommends!!
• Peas on Toast : Break ups, #@%* ups, hook ups, cover ups. It's how I roll. Eish says, Multi - award winning blog. 2007 SA Blog Awards - Most Humorous Blog
• Thoughts and ramblings : These are just the random thoughts of a single girl living in Jozi, going about her own business in this crazy, interesting city and trying to find a little humour in everyday life!
  
• autumnal akika : Eish says, a wacky journal-type log.
  
• ChampagneHeathen : I am not one for first or quick impressions, so rather read the blog & work out all the intricacies of a Jozi chick trying to figure out where she wants to be this evening, let alone in 5 years time. Eish likes.
• MsMozi : Eish says, she gives us a little insight into her life.
  
• Limn : Jam is a sweet, slightly stewed person who lives in Johannesburg, South Africa
• Szavannablog : Remixing open source projects, music, and guru-shishya parampara. Szavanna_blog is about art, creativity, open source & open content topics, languages and more. Eish says, a great blog.
  
• Music, life and music : This my journey from being a journalism graduate with a stable-ish job in radio to being a full time muso... The ups and the downs and everything else in between. A 20-something who is trying her best to fufill her destiny. Times get rough and then they get good. I just want to share... That's all! Eish says, nice one. [Update : check out my 23 April post for my take on a recent posting, it really struck a chord with me]
  
• Glad to be a girl : ift through my insanity and revel in my genius! Modesty drips off me in buckets ;). Eish says, a lot of fun, this girl can write.
• So Close! : After being so close for so long, I have finally arraived. Life after infertility. Eish says, Tertia is SA's premier blogger. This is a must read.
• THG* The Home Girl : My universe is perfect so give me a good reason to leave the house
• Baze : Eish says, Always entertaining and well worth a regular visit.
• Whispers and wandering : Eish says, she takes he blogging seriously and it shows.
  
  
  

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Do the Makaraba

Makaraba, is township slang for safety hat. Originally worn by supporters to soccer(football) matches as protection against flying bottles, a creative Kaizer Chiefs fan decided to carve and decorate his helmet to show his support for his beloved team. Of course when rival fans took notice, there was no way they were going to be outdone. This was the birth of what, along with the Vuvuzela, has become part of the South African sporting landscape.

A few weeks ago I met Michael Souter. For the past twenty years Michael has been in the Graphic Design industry as a designer and illustrator. Lately he has ventured into the art of the Makaraba. Each Makaraba he makes is custom made, and there is no team emblem he cannot fashion into a crowd attracting Makaraba. Check out some of his handiwork below.

If you support Western Province, Western Force, Red Sox, Dallas Cowboys, Calgary Flames, Barcelona FC, Miami Heat, Blue Bulls ... You can show that not only are you a serious supporter of your team, but that you are a South African!
Heck, even if you watch your sport at home, in front of the tv, you can ensure that your neighbour is in no doubt what team you are supporting.

Do yourself a favour and make contact with Mike for more information and place your order now. You don't want to be caught in the last minute 2010 rush now, do you?

Email :
souter@sybaweb.co.za
Further info : www.southafricanartists.com

Update : Now check out their website www.makaraba.co.za

www.flickr.com

Eishman scores!!

Official Web 2.0 Expo Shirt - Contest
Originally uploaded by whiteafrican.

Eishman's submission to White African's Official Web 2.0 Expo Shirt - Contest has been chosen as the winner.

Check out my and other submissions at his blog.

Thanks Mr African, repayment will be in the form of a link in the sidebar, and a recommendation to my readers to go and check out your blog.

Eish!! cracks 1 000 000 at Technorati

I don't know what this means but we have cracked the one million in the Technorati rankings.

Rank: 872,192

I know you are ranked by, amongst other things the amount of links in other blogs. I am particularly proud of being quoted at Global Voices Online.
Article : Amatomu: The South African blogosphere, sorted

Calling SABC3's Webmaster

As part of the research I was doing for what was going to be today's post in the upcoming drama series on SABC 3, Jozi H, I went to the station's website(www.sabc3.co.za).
This site needs to be seen to be believed! The opening page wished me "a wonderful New Year 2007." I kid you not!
Now obviously with each refresh they like to highlight different programmes, one assumes that they would particularly like to advise of new shows that will be airing soon. Right? Wrong? Did you know that "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" will be airing from Monday 06 November @ 19:30? Maybe they mean November 2007? Maybe they do, but I sincerely doubt it.
I decided to click on "What's on today." For some reason SABC3 has decided that "today" is the 26th March. GO figure. (btw. if you missed the CWC game it's showing at 6:30am, who needs a PVR?!)
The list goes on, The Tyra Banks Show is coming in August, has to be 2006. If you are looking forward to some comedy, don't. Look back! "8 Simple Rules" & "Joey" start on the 26th February. "The Amazing Race" is apparently currently being aired on Tuesdays? At the time of writing I was still waiting for the 'On Air Schedule" to load, so I can't comment in it's accuracy, or if it even exists.

But, perhaps the most irritating feature is the incessant scrolling of a message telling not to forget to watch "3Talk with Noeleen"! Ironically,probably the most accurate bit of news available on the opening page.

Eish! Come on guys, get you act together.

FYI : Jozi H airs on the 19th April ... or is it 26th April ...?

Frustration @ Traffic Department - on video

2 Must have Firefox add-ons

Let's start be addressing those of you who have not yet converted to Firefox to browse the web.
Shame on you! Do yourself, and Eishman, a favour and scroll down this page till you see the "Get Firefox with Google Toolbar" button. Download it and install. Your online experience will become a whole lot more pleasurable. (and Eishman will get a few cents towards the war chest)

Now, the beauty of Firefox is the availability of add-ons which can enhance and aid all sorts of browser based applications.

Here are two I have used for some time & highly recommend.

Firstly, Foxmarks. This is an invaluable tool for anyone with more than one computer. By installing and setting up an account, you can seamlessly synchronise your various pc's bookmarks. No more emailing yourself links of pages you want to remember to visit or bookmark on another pc. The moment you open Firefox it will check to see if there have been any changes in the synch file and viola, you have the same bookmarks wherever you are.

The second utility is a useful little boykie. There often comes a time where we need to take a snapshot of what we are browsing. It may be that something doesn't look right and when we try and explain it to tech support, he says he doesn't see the problem when he logs on with his pc! Or may need to illustrate a help file, paper or blog. Install Screengrab and with a clickot two of your mouse you can have a screen dump of whatever you are looking at in your browser in the format you want.

Two simple but extremely useful little add-ons.

I heard the voice of an angel

I sit down, ready to spent a long night in front of the screen, fingers typing, mouse clicking; typing and testing code.
I filled my media player with some chill out podcasts, and began to work...

The first intro begins, I hear the unmistakable sounds of DavesLounge. It's an old show from the beginning of the year which I must have missed. The the first song begins to play...
I have to stop, sit back and listen. The first few barres, sounding Beatles-ish belies what is to follow. It's no hyperbole when I describe the voice of Leigh Nash as angelic. Dave rarely gets it wrong, but man, did he get this one right! He mentions that Leigh was the vocalist for Six Pence None The Richer, and the songs are available at www.emusic.com. I'm there, and at Kalahari.net, yes they have the album in stock. Add to the wishlist quickly ... now back to work ... wait I think this needs to be shared, quick blog it ... ok, now back to work ...!!

Links :

• To listen download the podcast episode mentioned : Daveslounge #67.
• To listen or download from emusic.com
• To browse or purchase from kalahari.net
  

Windows XP Keys Available from Google

It's not a new method, but there is a very easy way of getting Windows & a whole host of other application's installation keys & serial numbers from the web.
An extremely useful system analysing tool (which I often use myself) displays it's results as an html page and these have been posted on the web by individuals, I assume purposefully. Part of this analysis is the reporting of the actual installation keys and serial numbers. A simple Google search for the application or Windows version and the name of the tool and you have a stack of keys at your disposal, in my case 92 keys for Windows XP Professional to choose from.

I am not one to advocate the piracy of software so I am going to let you readers figure it out how to do this for yourselves.

The thing that interests me is the where & how this information is available. All it took was a simple Google search.
I am no advocate for internet censorship, in fact I have purposefully stayed away from the Bloggers Code of Conduct debate in the hope that it all fades into nothing, but is this something that should be so easy to find through a search engine? Should Google be self censoring? The keys actually show up in the search result, you don't even need to click on the resultant link. Then again, if they start cutting certain pages then where does it stop? Tough one I think. Google in it's quest to do no evil will always have this two-way debate centred around it's search engine. It capitulated when challenged by the almighty Chinese government and took a fair bit of flack for that.
So what should we expect from Google? After all, it's not public service in the true sense, it's a business. It wants, and needs as many searches to be done on it's platform as possible. In order to do that it needs to ensure it's users will have faith that it will supply the result the 'searcher' is looking for.
Somewhere in there is the answer to quandary.

Btw, come back tomorrow for a nifty Firefox add-on that I used for the little graphic above.

Get you Air Guitar Stage Name

Time for some frivolous fun.

Click here to find out your air guitar stage name.




Eish "Air To Dream" Man

Where are the SA Blog Chicks?

In my recent travels through the SA blogosphere I have noticed a massive discrepancy. There some to be very, very little blogs authored by women, ladies, girls, chicks.
I find this both interesting and a little disheartening. I assume that there are female readers as Tertia @ So Close is consistently near the top of the charts. But I reckon that in order for the South African blogs to truly become mainstream we need to have blogs that appeal to female users, by female bloggers. I think an injection of views from the fairer sex will make for a much more dynamic SA blog world. Currently the top blogs are centred around sport, technology, the web (2.0) and blogs about blogs. Something I enjoy, but not necessarily topics that are going to appeal to the ladies.

We desperately need some SA Blog Chicks!! Come on girls, start blogging!!

Just to acknowledge Glad to be a girl & Sista2Sista.
I am sure there are others. Feel free to list them in the comments.

The 7 deadly sins made by SA Cricket

It's being a roller coaster ride for SA cricket supporters the over the last 6 months or so of the World Cup. Sorry, slight exaggeration in the length of time, but it does feel like this World Cup is going on forever!!
Going into the cup we were ranked no. 1 in the world after home series wins. Expectations were high. But here's where I think the 'thinktank' have sinned, have got it all wrong.

1. Firstly, way too much was made of 'building' for the World Cup. By consistently referring to this over the past two years, they have opened themselves up for this type of criticism. After each bad performance were told, "don't worry we are building to the World Cup". After each great performance we were told, "this is all about building to the World Cup." Of course, if they manage to win, all will be forgiven!
   
2. In the series against India & Pakistan the groundsman should have been instructed to prepare variable pitches. It's fair to say that no-one knew what to expect in the West Indies, so using that logic the players should have had pitches that took them by surprise, made them work out strategies on the fly, maybe even think!
3. I know this is getting stale, but no spinner was blooded for this world cup. Even if they were not sure of a spinner would be required for some games, they knew that the world cup was being held in various countries, in the freakin' Caribbean. (By the way why the hell did they take Petersen anyways?) The weather was always going to play a part and that can make the pitches susceptible to cracking and 'powdering' due to heat, humidity and rain. They could have sent Petersen or Harris to the wolves here in South Africa. Every four and six hit by the Indians & Pakistani's would have been a learning experience. After that, give them a pitch that actually turns and they would have been a force to be reckoned with. There have even been games at the World Cup that they could have given Petersen a chance to start.
   
4. The Australians lost their no. 1 spot to us temporarily when they lost the one day series against New Zealand. But they had rested some of their key players. We were so focussed on winning the pre-world cup series (spot the irony? See point 1) that we did not allow enough recuperation time for the players that were going to be match winners in the Caribbean.
5. The middle order we have always been so reliant on, have just not performed. No surprise that. The only practice they have had over the last 3 months has been in the nets! There was ample chance to play around with the batting order during the home tour. Why not allow Kemp to open? Let Hall come in at no. 4? At least they would have had a chance to play themselves in and get a little confidence? Another opportunity lost.
6. Where has all the pace gone? Not so long ago the South African pace attack was something to feared. Sure Ntini & Pollock are worth their weight in gold and I actually rate Nel. But they are no longer rated as fast bowlers. A real quickie would have provided that variety that is so needed. Even without a spinner.
7. Finally, clearly the fitness coach need to be hauled over the coals. Why is it that our men have been so effected by the conditions in the Caribbean? Sure one or two other nations have had a player taking a bit of strain, but we have had Smith, Kallis, De Villiers, Gibbs and Hall needed treatment ... that I am aware of. The Australian game could have been a total different kettle of fish had Smith been fully fit. Not saying we would have won, but it would have been a much better game, that would have left a net run rate a whole lot more healthy.
   

I am not an expert. So take this from where it comes. To me these are just obvious things which would have made a difference to the World Cup campaign, and given us, the supporters a little more confidence in our boys when the march out against their World Cup opponents.

Let's hope that they can overcome the 7 deadly sins. Bring the cup home boys and the ALL WILL BE FORGIVEN!!!

Chuck out Adobe Reader

In my quest to find solutions that empower us poor bandwidth starved South Africans I bring you an alternative to the bloated Adobe Reader.

Many are under the impression that in order to read a PDF(Portable Document File) file you have to have Adobe's Reader. Actually anyone may create applications that read and write PDF files without having to pay royalties to Adobe Systems. The patents they hold they license royalty free, something which aided the adoption of the technology when it was battling for supremacy with other formats in the mid 90's. The problem is Adobe's Reader requires a download 27.5mb large and they irritatingly throw in unwanted and unnecessary add-ons to the installation like browser search bars!
Enter Foxit. A free PDF document viewer that opens in an instant. And it even has some extra features. Here's some reasons to switch to Foxit taken from their website.

• Incredibly small: The download size of Foxit Reader is only 1.5 M which is a fraction of Acrobat Reader 20 M size
• Breezing-fast: When you run Foxit Reader, it launches instantly without any delay. You are not forced to view an annoying splash window displaying company logo, author names, etc.
• Annotation tool: Have you ever wished to annotate (or comment on) a PDF document when you are reading it? Foxit Reader 2.0 allows you to draw graphics, highlight text, type text and make notes on a PDF document and then print out or save the annotated document.
• Text converter: You may convert the whole PDF document into a simple text file.
• High security and privacy: Foxit Reader highly respects the security and privacy of users and will never connect to Internet without users' permission. While other PDF Reader often silently connects to the Internet in the background. Foxit PDF Reader does not contain any spyware or adware.

I have been using Foxit for some time now and can highly recommend it. Those vital seconds gained when having to open PDF document make the install so worthwhile.

Schmaaking Amatomu Stukkend

The guys at Amatomu better stop updating their baby soon. It is making Eishman look like an apologist for www.amatomu.com! Maybe they should just start paying me. Nope take that back, then you wouldn't believe me when I rave about a new feature.

Now you can 'schmaak' a blog post. I like this feature as it combines nicely with the most popular post feature. A post may have a catchy headline and as a result have a high rating as the most read, but the content may not be up to scratch. By combining the most read and the 'schmaaks' readers can now guage what articles are worth clicking through to on more than just a headline.

It's so simple, I tested it and landed up cheating by 'schmaaking' my own post. Probably shouldn't do that again. Please feel free to 'schmaak' any of Eishman's posts though.

They have also added a 'Favourites' option. Pretty self explanatory.

Now guys, take a break, go and have a cup of coffee!

My problem with the Circus

We took the children to see Brian's Circus last night. They thoroughly enjoyed it, which truly is the most important thing. But I had one problem.

Now I know that there are many people who have all sorts of issues with the circus. There are those who take issue with the way animals are confined and made to perform tricks for their human oppressors. There are those who find the cost of going to see the performances too expensive thereby making it inaccessible to the masses. There are those who take issue with periodically finding themselves being made neighbours to the band of nomads and a rather stinky menagerie. Still others feel the workers too are exploited. Not me, I have a much more deep-rooted issue. Choice!

You see, being just privileged enough to afford tickets for a family of four, but not enough to afford the expensive seats, we had to sit in the unbooked seats. This choice thing became an issue the moment we managed to get close to the front of the queue to get into the tent. This meant we had a couple of hundred unallocated seats to choose from the moment we entered. But which to choose. The ones in the middle? The ones closer to the back that were more raised? No wait, surely the ones closest to the expensive seats? I mean if they paid so much for their seats ...? And how were the poles going to effect our vision? Where were the performers going to be performing? The choice. Please, please, please someone tell me I have to sit somewhere, because now, no matter where we choose, there's always going to be the what if!!!

I am not going to tell you where we decided and if they were good seats. You need to go and enjoy a performance at Brian Boswell's Circus yourself and see if you can figure it out for yourself.

Check out their website for there tour schedule. I do know they are in the Cape Town environs until the middle of April.

Two Oceans Marathon on Zoopy

Another massive Cape Town event took place today.

Compliments of www.zoopy.com

The Stormers manage a win

It took a little help from a Lions side that peaked a few weeks ago, but the Stormers managed to score 3 tries (should have been at least 2 more) and give the home fans something to cheer about ... at long last.

Stormers tries by Peter Grant(c. Peter Grant) & De Wet Barry (c. Peter Grant) & Naas Olivier (c. Peter Grant). Peter Grant three penalties.
Lions try by Jacgue Fourie. Andre Pretorius

The Great Tennessee Dagga Cave

Now I know that Eish!! is centred around all things South African, but when I came across this story, it sounded so incredible I had to share it with you.

Then I saw the pictures ...
http://www.onmarijuana.com/2007/04/03/the-great-tennessee-marijuana-cave/

Since the beginning of time ...

Something light for the holidays!

God Said, Adam I Want you to do Something for me."
Adam said, "Gladly, Lord, what do You want me to do?"

God said, "Go down into that valley."
Adam said, "What's a valley?"
God explained it to him.

Then God said, "Cross the river."
Adam said, "What's a river?" !
God explained that to him, and then said, "Go over to the hill......."
Adam said, "What is a hill?"
So, God explained to Adam what a hill was.

He told Adam, "On the other side of the hill you will find a cave"
Adam said, "What's a cave?"

After God explained, he said, "In the cave you will find a Woman."
Adam said, "What's a woman?"
So God explained that to him, too.

Then, God said, "I want you to reproduce."
Adam said, "How do I do that?"
God first said (under his breath), "Geez....." !
And then, just like everything else, God explained that to Adam, as well.

So, Adam goes down into the valley, across the river, and over the hill, into the cave, and finds the woman.
Then, in about five minutes, he was back.
God, his patience wearing thin, said angrily, "What is it now?"

And Adam said

"What's a headache?"

Bob Woolmer Tribute - Alan Donald

Watch if you wish, www.zoopy.com have all the tributes posted, from the service yesterday.

Eish, truck jumps queue!

Has to be seen to be believed.

http://www.thehubsa.co.za/forum_posts.asp?TID=11567

Note : Link had to be changed, look like we flooded the previous blog!!!

Amatomu Ups the Ante

Things are hotting up in the SA blogosphere!

The 2007 Blog awards were held on Friday, Amatomu has pretty much launched itself into public alpha (see Monday's post), Muti arrives and then Afrigator is launched.
Read Gino Cosme's post today for an interesting take on the Benefit of two social media aggregators for business.

Now Amatomu has already launched an upgraded feature, and it's really cool. Those of you even remotely interested in all things online have to give this a look. Go to amatomu.com and click in the 'Trends' tab. The have some really cool charts for "Total page views", "Post per day", "Category breakdown" etc. As a blogger they have also added like graphs particular to your blog.

Very cool guys, I like where this is leading.

I know you read these posts, so here's my suggestion. How about a graph tracking the blogs daily ratings?

Free online help for Cape Town ratepayers

For a while now Cape Town homeowners have not been sure as how to take the new rates valuations. One can't help feeling chuffed when the value given to your home is high, until the implication of the potential rates incurred sink in.
The new formula was published this week. Read here for more in depth info.

For many sectional title owners however the process was a colossal stuff up! The result being double and triple the actual value being shown on statements. For those of you effected you have until 30 April to object, so get moving!
You will be happy to know that a website has been setup that will assist you with your objection free of charge. www.helpmeobject.co.za will take you through a 3 step process, at the end of which you will have an objection letter you can take to your friendly municipal 'objection centre.'

One day remains

The previous post "Big freaking deal!" was a purposeful precursor to today's main posting.

Here's a band that, in my humble opinion, "get" the new media revolution. Last week I heard them on Adam Curry's 'Daily Source Code' for the first time. He played it on recommendation from Jersey Todd from the US of A, who heard it after the band placed it on the Podsafe Music Network on the advice of Andrew Pavitt host of RockOutLoud in Oz.

Enough from me though. I sent them a couple of questions via email and got a quick and comprehensive reply from Daniel van Niekerk, the bass player. So here's some background on the band gleaned from that response. Take a read than mosey on down to their myspace page and enjoy some good old rock and roll!

Although only formed one and a half month ago there is a fair bit of pedigree in "One Day Remains." Bassist Daniel has been playing in various bands for many years, as has Michael Naranjo who is probably best known for his stint with "7-day Story" which played the title track on SABC's "Going Nowhere Slowly" and drummer Brett Palmer's biggest previous gig was with Benjamin Gate which enjoyed great success in the States a few years ago.

Yesterday I took delivery of my latest cd purchase. The artist? The Who. What relevance does this have when we are talking to a band who list such influences as Bon Jovi, Winger, Petra(one of my all time favourites), Pantera, Van Halen & White Snake?
You see, there is so little good, new rock and roll that I have been forced to start collecting albums from the classic bands of the past. "One Day Remains" believe this is a void they can fill. "We want to become the new standard of South African Rock. We offer something wholesome with some good solid lyrics."
And they are going to do it independently. "We believe in the whole Independent concept, and making sure artists get what is due to them. The 90% going to the label and maybe 5% going to the artists days are over. The traditional record industry is dying of an industry cancer. New media is the way to go....electronic, downloads...having the CHOICE of what to purchase." And why not, it sure as heck is working for them so far! They've had international airplay, are getting overseas tour leads, struggling to keep up with the incoming correspondence and they haven't played a single gig yet!!

Plans for the future? Their impending launch has been postponed due to the unexpected tsumani of interest but a tour of the States in the first quarter of 2008 is already being organised and they "have a few surprises up their sleeve," so keep checking their website. Hopefully we'll get to see them live soon!

In the meantime take a listen to the track below and click the link under the player to vote for them in the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands.

btw. Being new to the whole interview thing, I didn't get to ask them where the name "One day remains" come from. So keep and eye on the comments below. I am pretty sure they will fill us in.

Updated 19 April 2007 : They have a new website www.myspace.com/onedayremains take a look

Big Freaking Deal!

Apple is teaming up with EMI records to offer DRM free downloads from their iTunes store.

Sorry Muso, but as much as I would love to get excited about DRM free music (actually, access to back catalogs is the big news as far as I am concerned) until Apple open up their freaking music store to South Africans this has zero bearing on our consumption of music.

Come on Apple, Apartheid ended a long time ago, let us in!

Coming soon ... an anti-dote.



read more | digg story

Kudus to Amatomu and Muti

Sunday's April Fool's story has caused some major excitement in EishLand! The story made it to the top "hot" spot at the www.muti.co.za and this in turn pushed up eishcoza.blogspot.com to 34th position in the www.amatomu.com top 500 blog list.

So in return for the increased traffic, I reckoned I would pay them back with a little featurette on these two fully fledged South African web services that I can guarantee will make your blog travels a whole lot more interesting.

Amatomu

Brought to you by Mail and Guardian Online, Amatomu is a South African blog portal. "Amatomu" means "reins" in isiZulu and it's goal is to "steer traffic towards bloggers by acting as a homepage and zeitgeist for the South African blog network."The internet universe is so immense that blogs originating from South Africa are pretty darn hard to find. Since discovering Amatomu that has all changed for me. It's been referred to by some as the Technorati of South Africa, but I don't know if it's just me, but I find it way more usable than it's 'big brother.'

It's has easy to navigate tabs which start with a 'full' top 500 listing (that oddly stops at 200!?). But then you can check through the top blogs by traffic for the past 24 hours, 7 days & month. The same can be done for each of the categories. It has a sidebar which lists new postings from registered blogs as they are posted. There is also a column for newest blogs and a "Zeitgeist" widget which displays most popular topics being blogged on the SA blogosphere.
As a blogger it's simple to register and as the rankings are calculated on actual traffic figures it's a fun way to keep tabs of visitor numbers in relation to fellow SA bloggers.

Muti
"An aggregator or news aggregator or feed reader is a client software that uses web feed to retrieve syndicated web content such as weblogs, podcasts, vlogs, and mainstream mass media website" : Wikipedia.

www.muti.co.za is an web based aggregator specifically serving postings originating from Africa.
Inspired by social bookmarking sites like digg.com and reddit.com, Muti allows registered users to submit stories they wish to share and others to then vote on the submitted stories. Those voted then move up and down the lists depending on the number of votes it gets. It gets a little more interesting in that you can also vote a story 'down' if you think it it's current score is underserved.
The submittor can then earn kudus, a word play on kudos, for their submissions and they too can be rated as good sources for news.
The user interface leaves a lot to be desired, but the concept has been tried and proven. A South African spin is necessary and welcomed. With continued development this could and should grow to become a major player in the SA Web 2.o market.
Take a look, register, see whats new and, of course, submit and/or vote for the latest story at eishcoza.blogspot.com!

Did I get you?

No, or course Microsoft are not going to be pulling out of South Africa. They are making way too much money out of us.

Yes, I guess, Iama Liah!

There were masses of April Fools stories on the web today. I especially liked the Google's "Welcome to Google TiSP", a sewage based broadband delivery system. Alot of effort went into that hoax as well as their Google Paper launch.

Click here for a comprehensive list web based April 1st pranks.