tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-119248212011-12-22T01:21:58.552-08:00News and Views from South AfricaJoel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.comBlogger291100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-87611871141517738762010-04-01T17:07:00.000-07:002010-04-01T17:38:19.341-07:00

I wrote about this in a comment on one of the articles on this site, but I've decided it warranted a whole post instead. I've been in the UK for the last couple of years, and only recently got back. And I just used the bank that I was using before I left when I got back. And that's FNB. But I've since noticed that my bank charges are R300-R400 per month. And I'm earning almost no interest. Even

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-62709459984928578682009-09-26T09:12:00.000-07:002009-09-26T09:20:06.284-07:00

I've been using the USA iTunes Store for a couple of years now to buy music, tv shows and rent movies. I've considered posting how I manage to do it, but have always decided against it. Until now..Its dead simple. Since you don't have a USA credit card, you will instead have to use vouchers. There are a couple of sites where you can buy iTunes Store vouchers. The one I always use is iTunes

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-79721501578241975362009-08-04T14:24:00.000-07:002009-09-10T05:18:35.926-07:00

I've just created two new sites that hopefully people will find useful. I've created www.loadeddeals.co.za as a way for people to find what the best current deals out there are. Deals are submitted by the user (You) and voted Hot or Cold, so that the most popular deals are shown first. Deals are anything from a 40% sale at Guess, to Pick 'n Pay selling a T-Bone for R5, to your favourite pizza

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1156955981359421742006-08-30T09:20:00.000-07:002006-08-30T09:39:41.390-07:00

Banks operate on a simple principle. You deposit your money with them and they lend it out to other customers at a high interest rate. They then pay you a low interest rate and pocket the difference.SA Banks dont believe in this however. In addition to the above, they normally charge you a monthly fee (R10-R30) for the honour of belonging to them and then charge you a fee for anything you do with

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1135262606365571402005-12-22T06:23:00.001-08:002005-12-22T06:43:26.366-08:00

I recently bought the Olympia DualPhone and I am constantly amazed by it. It acts as both a regular Telkom phone as well as a Skype phone, neatly packaged in the form of a cordless phone. The Telkom calls are of normal quality, but it comes into it's own when you use SkypeOut (Or regular Skype for that matter). The quality is mindblowing. It is easily better than normal international quality, at

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1133193990613402702005-11-28T07:45:00.000-08:002009-08-10T13:49:21.763-07:00

In a year that has been full of uninspring books, it is exciting to come across a book as brilliant as Spud. For it to be written by a South African author is unheard of.Spud is John van de Ruit's first novel and hopefully not his last. The book is set in journal format and recounts the first year of John "Spud" Milton at a private high school in South Africa. This book is the funniest book I

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1132010330102396892005-11-14T15:11:00.000-08:002005-11-14T15:25:09.120-08:00

Google today launched a new product called Google Analytics. Google Analytics is the resulting product of their purchase of the popular Urchin website tracking software.Google Analytics provides many new features such as AdWords tracking, Goals, Funnels and a totally new user interface. Funnels are an interesting tracking tool that let you track a specific progression on your website. As Google

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1131365950171811172005-11-07T03:44:00.000-08:002005-11-07T04:19:10.183-08:00

For many years now I have been interested in owning a PVR. The PVR as we know it was immortalised by TiVo. Since the introduction of the TiVo unit, many other options have become available.Buying a TiVo in South Africa until now was useless as the channel information wasn't available until now (more about this later in the article)Building your own was very expensive and generally didn't look the

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1130786554128610602005-10-31T11:09:00.000-08:002005-10-31T11:22:34.143-08:00

I have been a 20twenty customer from the very beginning. At the time I was impressed with almost every facet of the bank. Great advertising, great concept, low charges and the very best customer service of any company in South Africa.20twenty then unfortunately went through some trials resulting from it's relationship with Saambou. It was under curatorship until Standard Chartered, on of the

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1130328493801839092005-10-26T05:03:00.000-07:002005-10-26T05:12:18.366-07:00

Some enterprising people have managed to get Front Row working on non-iMac's. Here's how :Please note, the following instructions not garanteed to work. Your Mileage May Vary.Grab the software hereNext, OS X 10.4.3 users: Just run Front Row.app or copy to /System/Library/CoreServices/ and reboot.OS X 10.4.2 (and older?) users: Copy BezelServices.framework to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/,

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1130319759132132922005-10-26T02:41:00.000-07:002005-10-26T02:42:39.140-07:00

Much speculation has been doing the rounds this morning ever since the discovery of base.google.com. It seems to be a massive database with various front-ends allowing you to upload various types of information, from house sales to recipes. The site has since being removed by Google, but people are already speculating about Google taking on EBay via Google Base and Google Wallet (Google's long

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1130139732773905532005-10-24T00:42:00.000-07:002005-10-24T00:42:12.803-07:00

Never thought I would ever hear this. It is the right thing to do, but I still never thought I would hear it... Democratic Alliance: 'We must support the president' : Mail & Guardian Online

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1130073582309633832005-10-23T06:06:00.000-07:002005-10-23T06:19:42.313-07:00

In an exciting Sprint Race, Thomas Scheckter managed to a blistering start moving six places up the grid. He managed to hold this position throughout the Sprint Race, giving him a top ten start for the Feature Race. Even though the engine problems of the last race were sorted out, Scheckter was having difficulty getting the car to respond the way he wanted it to. Scheckters' technical engineer

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1129973354887710832005-10-22T02:21:00.000-07:002005-10-22T02:29:14.886-07:00

Another South African, Kilps, responded to my last article saying that he had a small review of Flock at his blog. There are also a couple of bugs and annoyances that he points out that are worth noting.It looks like Flock is getting a lot of attention, with 'Flock' being one of the most searched terms on technorati. It will be intersting to see if the market can absorb another Web Browser, or if

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1129891178443251882005-10-21T03:12:00.000-07:002005-10-21T03:39:38.456-07:00

Flock have just released a preview of their new Social Browser. It includes active bookmarks from del.ico.us, flickr and Blogger/WordPress integration. It is based on the Firefox code, although they say it is not a fork. I am loath to install cross-platform applications on my Mac, so if someone else is feeling adventurous, install it and let me know your initial feelings about it.

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1129548585375522622005-10-17T04:19:00.000-07:002005-10-20T13:13:14.896-07:00

Arno Carstens' new album, 'The Hello Goodbye Boys', is now available in the iTunes Music Store. Arno Carstens was the lead singer of the popular Springbok Nude Girls and has since succesfully launched his solo career with 'Another Universe'. 'The Hello Goodbye Boys' is Arno's second solo album and features the hit single 'Hole Heart'. All South African living overseas can now buy Arno's latest

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1129280986805474362005-10-14T02:08:00.000-07:002005-10-14T02:09:46.810-07:00

Amazon is hiring people for it's new Research Centre in South Africa. If you have development experience with the Linux Kernel, C, C++ and/or Java skills, go to www.amazon.co.za to apply. Now, if only I can convince them to move over to Mono, I will be a shoo-in.

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1129190795604356832005-10-13T01:04:00.000-07:002005-10-13T01:06:35.613-07:00

Getting people to visit your blog is a slow process. There is one thing in particular you can do to speed up the process. Register at BlogExplosion. When you read other members blogs, you earn credits. For every two credit you earn, someone will be directed to your site. Many people wont even bother reading your site, as they will just be trying to earn credits quickly. But some will, and if your

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1129140600670146252005-10-12T10:53:00.000-07:002005-10-12T11:10:50.196-07:00

So it seems that I was wrong. Apple has released the Video iPod. It is slightly thinner than the existing iPod, has a 2.5in TFT display with 320x240 pixels with realtime decoding of MPEG 4 and H.264 video. There is also video out to connect to a TV.There is also a new, thinner iMac with built in iSight and a new app called Photobooth, which makes your new iMac act just like one.Most interesting

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1129119399140031282005-10-12T05:07:00.000-07:002005-10-12T05:16:39.146-07:00

Apple Computer will be holding a press conference today and most people are guessing that it will be to announce a Video iPod. You can even bet on what it will be. I really don't think it will be a Video iPod for a variety of reasons. I'm guesing a TiVo-like product or iTunes Movie Store and video version of AirTunes.We'll see in a couple of hours.

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1129117833068289382005-10-12T04:46:00.000-07:002005-10-12T04:50:33.073-07:00

Being a big fan of Angel, Buffy and Firefly (The creations of Joss Whedon) I am looking forward to the Serenity movie. It is based on the short-lived Firefly series which became a best seller after the show was cancelled. Unfortunatly, I cant seem to find out when it is being released in South Africa. If you know, please let me know in the comment section.

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1129042420049161202005-10-11T07:43:00.000-07:002005-10-11T07:53:40.056-07:00

ADSL in South Africa is in for a change on the 1st November. Telkom/SAIX will no longer allow unlimited local bandwidth after you reach your cap. You will have no internet connection whatsoever. At the moment most ISPs use SAIX for their bandwidth, so if you are in doubt whether this affects you, it most probably does.There is a solution however. Internet Solutions (IS) will be providing 30GB of

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1128977696390595492005-10-10T13:38:00.000-07:002005-10-10T13:54:56.396-07:00

A long time ago I came across a site a called MyADSL when trying to find out if Sentech's MyWireless would work under Linux (incidentally it does thanks to Rodent). MyADSL became a site that was the go-to site for anything broadband related. When Sentech's MyWireless service became unbearable, MyADSL (and Rodent again) were at the forefront, creating protest sites and gaining lots of publicity in

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1128623274907193572005-10-06T11:17:00.000-07:002005-10-10T06:45:29.906-07:00

So Podcasting has finally arrived in South Africa. No, I'm not talking about those people in Klerksdorp. 5FM has joined the party. I sent 5FM an email a while ago, and begged some people who work there that I know (Hi Gorg) to give it a shot. Unfortunatly only the Roger Good show is available at the moment, but I'm sure that will change. To make it go faster, send 5FM an email asking them to add

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1128539114974005242005-10-05T11:46:00.000-07:002005-10-05T12:05:14.986-07:00

So the President of Sun Microsystems writes on his blog that "If I were a betting man, I'd bet the world was about to change" This is in relation to a joint press conference with Sun and Google, at the Computer History Museum. Yep, this should be huge. So what transpires? Google and Sun will be entering into a partnership and their first baby is...the ability to download the Google ToolBar from

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1127739314991005132005-09-26T05:46:00.000-07:002005-09-26T05:57:44.286-07:00

So Skype dropped their SkypeOut rates in South Africa recently. The new rates make Skype effectively cheaper than Telkom.The rates, are however, still too high. South Africa should be included in the SkypeOut Global rates countries. South Africa has something like 5 million people with fixed-phone lines and using the internet. This is much larger than the entire populations of some of the

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1123770661591164872005-08-11T07:16:00.000-07:002005-08-11T07:31:01.596-07:00

Its been a while. Well, for the last couple of months I've been working for a really great company called Magus TravelNet developing a product called BookSure. Amazing people, great job potential and to make it even better, work is just down the road.Booksure is basically an online reservations and secure payment system for guesthouses. It integrates into the guesthouses website, eliminating the

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1115665168123393312005-05-09T11:27:00.000-07:002005-05-09T11:59:28.163-07:00

There has recently been some talk about improving the developer environment for Gnome, which has lead me to the following.Gnome is an absolutly terrible environment for people developing Information Systems (IS) and even desktop apps. The reason for this is the largely Gtk's fault. Gtk has been designed for creating a great desktop. And Gnome has acomplished this. Gnome is in my opinion the

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11924821.post-1112645880963036932005-04-04T13:13:00.000-07:002005-04-04T13:18:00.963-07:00

Well, since we have dissolved Blue Knot Solutions, I have had to try and move my blog. Since the old blog was on the old server, it is now lost (I think).Graduated and now looking for a job :-) Hopefully my contribution to Mono will pay off. Having Miguel as a reference can't hurt :-) Found a nice new C# based Filesharing app that uses Gnutella, Gnutella2, eDonkey and OpenNap and it's under the

Joel Basson (JStrike)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10493856776129624738noreply@blogger.com1