Mapungubwe

About three years ago, I saw a series of large posters highlighting South Africa's world heritage sites at the International Arrivals terminal at Johannesburg International (now off course known as OR Tambo International, and formerly known as Jan Smuts International). All but one of the posters were easy to recognize, and a golden rhino with the words Mapungubwe was the exception. Subsequently, I read up on Mapungubwe, and I have been trying to make plan to come here ever since.

Location, and how to get here
Mapungubwe National Park is located at the North Western corner of the Limpopo province, in the corner where Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe meet. It's about 80 KM from Musina, although the recommended route in both guide books and the SANParks website is through the back roads (R521) from Polokwane via Dendron and Alldays. I drove through the latter route from Midrand (about 500KM in total), and it is a fairly good road with little traffic. I have since driven to Musina, and given the amount of trucks going to and from Zimbabwe, it is a good enough reason to avoid the N1.

The park is broken up into two main areas, the large, and main part being the Western Half, while the Eastern Half has still got a large private ownership, and is not easily accessible.

While the main attractions are easily reached with a standard car, it certainly helps to have high ground clearance to travel around in the wider park. This is especially true in the case of the eastern part of the park. 

Landscape
Large parts of the park is composed of high rocky hills, rolling into valleys, oars cliffs over the Limpopo. The rocky features, eroded by water and wind themselves make interesting features, especially when there are trees perched on top of them! There is also quite a bit of forest, especially along the banks of the river.

The Heritage Tour
The main attraction of the park is the Heritage tour. A forerunner to Great Zimbabwe, there was, for around 200 years, an earlier civilization south of the Limpopo. It was first based around a hill now called K2, before moving for a brief period, to Mapungubwe, about 1 KM away. Unlike Great Zimbabwe, very little structural remains of the civilization remains, but instead all that really remains are the remnants of the civilization. It is most famous for the gold artifacts found here, most notably the aforementioned gold rhino. 

Mapungubwe and K2 are themselves preceded by another iron age civilization, starting around 800AD, which is also in the park, but presently unaccessible. There are plans to open a museum focusing on the various archeological highlights, but the center was supposed to open in 2008, and the buildings are still empty. It's a pity, because the main highlights of Mapungubwe are to be seen at the University of Pretoria, and reduces the impact of the tour somewhat.

The site was rediscovered in the 1930s, but the apartheid government wanted to keep it very low key, due to the fact that the site directly contradicted one of its core tenets, that all the South African tribes came to the southern tip of Africa around the same time. It was opened as a national park around 7 years ago, and the guide for my trip, Cedric, was the first guide for Mapungubwe.

Tree Top Hide
There are not that many animals in the park. Cedric's opinion is that the animal density is too low, thus reducing the chances of seeing game. Given, the tuckshop guy at the confluence viewpoint, showed me tracks of hyenas from the night before outside the shop, but also commented that the few lions, rhinos and the elusive leopard are almost impossible to see.

That said, there is still some game to see; and he park has some amazing hides, of which the Tree Top hide is my favorite (and where most of this post was composed). 

As the name suggests, the hide is composed of a long walkway amongst the trees, culminating in a hide in the trees, along the banks of the Limpopo. It is a twitcher's paradise, though not much in the way of animals, beyond a couple of elephants who have been grazing on the lush banks for quite a while (according to a regular visitor). It is a very serene and peaceful area, making it perfect place to relax!

Facilities
A standout attraction, in my opinion, is the very limited cellphone reception. In fact in parts of the park, I get better reception from the otherside of the border!

I have been camping, in the forest area, in the Eastern half of the park, and the camping facilities are superb. There is however no restaurant in the park, while the tuckshops (one at the main reception, and one by the confluence viewpoints) stock cooldrinks at very reasonable prices (R8 for a can!) and not much else. The nearest petrol station and restaurant is 30 KM away (where I am now), or in Musina about 80 KM away. 

Feel it! It's still here!

The first thing you notice as you drive into Polokwane is a large yellow vuvuzela spanning the N1, with the soccer fan blowing madly into the one end, and the words "Ayoba" spurting out the other. This is not the only reminder of  the world cup from last year, virtually every street corner has some signage related to the event; and even the fan parks continue to be advertised. 9 months on, Polkwane is still celebrating he world cup - I wonder how many other smaller towns continue to do the same?

Greening the scenery ...

For the most part, the drive towards Polokwane is rather boring, a mostly strait road, punctuated with a few toll gates (the tolls are quite high too). As you get towards Polokwane though, the mountains do lend themselves to some nice views, though it is by no means a scenic drive. A big difference to the landscape in Gauteng though, is how much greener it is. Instead of just yellow grass, there is a lot more trees and as we get steadily northwards, more variety in plants, specifically more tropicall plants like bananas and papayas. It's a pleasant change ...

Contrasting Opinions

Taken next to the Yeoville Taxi Rank, Johannesburg (November 2010)

Movie: Winter's Bone

In a very close knit rural community in the USA, a teen is forced to ask difficult questions about the disappearance of her drug dealer/drug producing father; in order to save her house. For me, the movie is more interesting as a snapshot of a very particular American community - poor, rural, gun carrying and closed - where there is (in this case, very legitimate) mistrust of outsiders, even the police; and matters are settled within the community, by the community.

The standout feature of the movie is its acting, in particular, the acting of Jennifer Lawrence as Ree (the teen in question); and the movie has got a well deserved set of nominations for best actress.

Personally, I found the storyline to be rather predictable, and the movie to be rather slow paced. Also, I found that the story hints at a much bigger set of subplots, which are ultimately not explored. In short, it is not really a movie I would watch again, or recommend to others.

Movie: Jane's Journey

The movie, Gorillas in the Mist, is famous for retelling the story of Dian Fossey, for her study of Gorillas; and her subsequent activism to save Gorillas being poached to extinction. Jane Goodall is a fellow primatologist, famous for her work with Chimpanzees (who admits to being mistaken as the lady from Gorillas in the Mist, a mistake which I must admit I also made initially). But unlike Dian Fossey, her activism has extended beyond the primates, to general protection of the environment coupled with social activism; from refugees, to ecoturism activities and beyond.

The documentary, Jane' Journey, traces her life from a very young age, to her ground breaking study of chimpanzees to her current globe trotting, and activities with regards to her two foundations - The Jane Goodall Instituteand Roots and Shoots. her work with Roots and Shoots is particularly impressive, especially as the movement was co-founded with a number of teenagers in Tanzania who were inspired by her talks in their school.

For me, the highlights of the documentary is certainly the first part; where there is a lot of footage from her early time in the Gombe Reserve and the chimpanzees. The latter parts of the documentary are filled with the obligatory repetitive quotations from admirers "on being a beautiful soul" etc. most of which I do not think really need any enforcement.

Jane's journey is partly an autobiographical documentary, partly a documentary on the perils of climate change. However, unlike Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth, it does not focus on statistics, shock and awe - but rather engages directly with the different factors - people need land to survive, the needs of progress, the challenges of economics, aided by her own observations, footage and documentation. It comes across more grounded and realistic - that climate change will require not only a change in human behaviour of the developed world but also needs to address the economic needs of the developing world. That is perhaps the most important message in the movie.

Sunjata

Africa has a rich tradition of oral story telling, but somehow this tradition does not seem to have really translated to movies or other contemporary entertainment forms. Sunjata, is one such story that features the brilliant mix of magic, prophesy, feuding kings and off course, the customary good vs evil.

Sunjata, also spelt Sundiata, was the founding king of the great Mali Empire, probably most well known for Mansa Musa. Sunjata's story is the story of legends - born to the king of the Manding, who married a hunchback woman on the words of a prophesy. He was born, effectively crippled, who taught himself to walk, and then became a great warrior. He then united the various Mali kingdoms, starting by defeating the king of the northern kingdom of Sosso, who had invaded Manding after the death of Sunjata's father.

I learnt the tale of Sunjata, through a play at the Market Theatre. Directed by James Ngcobo, the play focuses more on the birth of Sunjata, instead of his life on the two contrasting kings - Maghan Kon Fatta or Maghan the Handsome (King of the Manding) and Soumaoro Kanté (King of the Sosso); who receive two contrasting parts of the same prophesy. Maghan receives the prophesy of how he can get a son to continue his reign, by marrying an ugly hunchbacked woman; while Kanté gets the prophesy of how his cruel reign will be ended by a young warrior, who is just a boy.

The play starts of in a rather annoying fashion, but as the main story starts, the acting and the story is simply superb. In a genius move of role reversal, all the main male parts are played by women while the main female parts are played by men (although each of the actors have a number of different roles).

The costumes and the sets are minimal; but they are not needed - this is the telling of a legend, in an oral tradition brought to modernity - the acting is stunning, the story crafting is superb - all that was missing, was sitting around a log fire under the African sky ...

Movie: Black Swan

Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake is one of the most famous and popular ballets; and certainly has some of the most memorable (classical) musical pieces that I have heard. The story centres around a princess who is turned into a (white) swan by an evil princess and then needs to find true love to be restored. It is a tragic story; as the princess is robbed of her true love by the evil sorcerer's daughter (the black swan) - and unlike most fairy tales, there is no happily ever after.

The movie focuses on Nina, played brilliantly by Natalie Portman, who is a technically brilliant dancer (and thus can play the White Swan with perfection). However, she lives a sheltered life with a very protective mother (who is a former ballet dancer, who had to give up her dreams when she fell pregnant with Nina, seemingly unplanned); and as such does not, initially have what it takes to become the sensuous, care free, black swan.

Nina's transition is the subject of the movie, and is part horror, part thriller - focusing on Nina's (and to a lesser extent, her mother's) rather unstable mental state. It is perhaps a dedication to what it takes to be single minded in the pursuit of an artistic ideal (which in some respects would also apply to other professions, where repeated practice is a requirement for any perfection); and the movie is part gore, part scary and at the same time, supported by some incredible acting. It is not a straight forward tale - and stylistically is more like a David Lynch movie - which in some respects suit it; and in others makes it even more convoluted.

SA Music Audience Demographics

Madam & Eve's cartoon on U2, in this specific instance is not as accurate - but the general demographics in most music events in South Africa are far from representative of the Rainbow Nation. U2, was proportionally the most representative of the shows I have been to in the recent past - and it is not a white thing, or a black thing or <insert a race here> thing.

I frequently attend the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra performances and other classical music concerts. There, the audience is predominantly old white men and women. In contrast, gigs for rock and metal music (including concerts for bands like Rammstein) is predominantly frequented by young white guys and gals. Jazz concerts on the other hand, are often more predominantly black audiences; though more mixed in terms of age groups.

I am not sure, what is the reason for such discrepancy - especially when it comes to age. I know a lot more young people who listen to Classic FM compared to those that actually attend the concerts. Likewise, I don't think race is a predominant factor when it comes to the enjoyment of music styles - the varied audience and music playlist of stations such as 5FM are a testament to this. But it does not seem to translate to actually attending events - is it money, is it location or is the existing audience itself a barrier?

U2

I have been a fan of U2 for a very long time - and probably more than any other band, U2 was the band that I really wanted to see live. Last year, I considered very seriously to go watch them live in Dublin (around June), but the costs were slightly more than my bank balance. Due to various reasons, I didn't manage to get the tickets I wanted (General Admission, though I would have paid for Red Zone) - and instead only managed to secure seats, fairly high up. While that was certainly a loss in the intimacy offered in the field; it also provided a spectacular view of the stage and lighting effects.

All in all however, the experience was, as I told my colleagues this morning - 3 and a half hours of pleasure followed by 3 hours of logistical nightmare ...

The Support Acts
I didn't know anything about the first support act, Amadou and Mariam, other than they were from Mali, so I wasn't too sure of what to expect. The music was a cross between rock, blues and jazz - but it was well blended, and some excellent solo pieces from the various band members. Language aside, it was a great performance, but perhaps the music was better suited to a more intimate venue.

I have been a fan of The Springbok Nude Girls for a long time, and their set did not disappoint. However, I am not sure if their punk-/rock music style was really suitable as a support act for U2. While Arno and the guys put on a great show, I think that a band such as The Parlatones would have been better suited. This comment is supported from my observation on the number of people around me who actually knew songs from the Nude Girls.

U2
The show from U2 was everything I expected - a mixture of the great hits (Where the Streets Have no Name, Pride (In the Name of Love), I Still Haven't Found What I'm, With or Without You and off course Sunday Bloody Sunday); with the newer hits, including Vertigo, Beautiful Day and some songs from the latest album (most of which I don't know, and to be honest, don't really like).

And as expected, there was an integration of politics that Bono is well known for, into the show - from the support of the recent Egyptian Revolution, Ang San Suu Kyi, Madiba and a message from Desmond Tutu.

The two hour set was well paced, covering the ballads and the more harder rock songs; with great interaction with the crowd (unlike Rammstein a few days previously), and the stage really allows for a better interaction with the crowd.

The Stage and The Show
U2's Claw like stage, deserves its own mention - a behemoth that was taller than the stadium - is an impressive sight. In fact, it looks like one of those Martians from Spielberg's version of War of the Worlds. The opening bands didn't get to use all the nifty features of the stage; but U2's entire show is really based around all the nifty things that are enabled by the stage.

There is the simple stuff - moving bridges that allow the band members to walk between the inner and the outer stage, interacting with the golden circle from above. Then there is the lighting - brilliantly constructed not only in the various spotlights (manned by people hanging from the "legs"), but also how it all combines to cover the entire stadium. The lighting is one of the effects that people in the ground level will not be able to fully appreciate. But the most amazing part for me, was the screen, that is actually built up of many smaller screens assembled in a weblike fashion - allowing it to be expanded and contracted according to requirements. Hydraulics further allow it to be lowered and raised, allowing the band to be almost totally enveloped by the screen if needed.

And like Rammstein's pyrotechnics, U2's stage show is worth seeing; even if you are not a fan of the music.

The Logistics
I have been to 3 matches in FNB Stadium (or Soccer City), during the World Cup. It was a slick operation, where getting to and from the stadium was a breeze (except the well known problems on the first day), and food and drinks at the stadium were plentiful and efficiently delivered. The concert was a mess - and it seems that all the learnings from the world cup were mostly ignored.

Starting with the food and drinks inside the stadium, the problems are many. There was the confused system of tokens, where it was unclear whether tokens were needed or not needed. The lines at all the outlets were long, and insufficiently staffed. In the one I stood in briefly (I left after 5 minutes when the line hadn't moved a bit, and the guy in front said he was waiting about 20 odd minutes), was staffed by 2 people who were serving 6 queues - this is two people doing the cash handling, the order taking and serving. The average fast food restaurant employs more staff during its off peak period. The only vendors that were efficient were the ice cream vendors, although they did seem to have a problem with change. Seeing the ridiculous prices, and the restrictions on what could be brought in to the stadium, one would expect much better service and organisation.

But the worst part was the transport logistics. I took the park and ride option, parking at Constitution Hill and then getting a bus. Instead of the highly efficient Reya Vaya buses, we were saddled with coaches that didn't utilise the efficient bus lanes. In addition, the parking lot was jam packed with the buses fully loaded but stranded in the parking lot for about an hour. There was no crowd control in the buses, so people had to hunt for the appropriate bus, further complicating the bus system. I heard from a colleague, who took the train, that the train was equally messed up, with it standing in the station for a good hour or so.

The transportation and the food and beverage service for the world cup was well organised. Perhaps, instead of throwing away those lessons, it would be best to improve upon that system for all future big events at the FNB Stadium? Otherwise, the logistical nightmare would be a strong detterent to any attendance ...

Rammstein

Beyond the "Thank You/Dankeschön" and the obligatory "We love you" after the encore, they didn't say a word to the crowd. It didn't matter - Rammstein put on a show, that will be hard to replicate - especially given the constraints of the enclosed Grandwest Arena.

The signature pyrotechnics were amazing - especially when synchronised to the music, as were the props (or props and pyrotechnics blended together). Starting with the iconic "Rammstein" through the classics such as "Du Hast" and "Büch Dich" to the latest hits from "Liebe is Für Alle Da", it was an amazing performance - possibly the best live music concert I have ever been to.

They played most of my favourites; even though they did leave a lot out (given their repertoire, that was always going to happen) - but I did miss Amerika, Engel and Rotter Sand in particular. But the ones they did play - it was well organised, really flowed from one song to another, with the energetic anthems (with the appropriate amount of pyrotechnics) leading to grand finish.

Rammstein has been one of the bands I have always wanted to see; and it was definitely worth the additional expenses of traveling to Cape Town. Congrats to Grandwest also - the venue was super organised, and leaving the parking was a breeze (Carnival City, please take some lessons).

Coincidences

Yesterday, while buying electricity at a petrol station (which I don't usually use), I ran into a friend from varsity, who is briefly visiting SA on holiday. Coincidences are wierd - the perfect blend of being at the right place, at the right time - no wonder it's considered to be some sort of a miracle.

Mozart's Requiem

Mozart's Requiem (Mass in D minor (K. 626)) is one of the most famous choral and orchestral pieces, even though it is not completely written by Mozart (he died, leaving the piece unfinished). That said, it is still a very strange piece to play on his birthday anniversary.

The Johannesburg International Mozart Festival is back, although, this year I have far fewer chances to go to concerts due to other commitments. The theme this year is "One Wings of Songs", and the majority of the concerts feature vocal pieces. What is also nice, is that a number of concerts feature music and songs from South Africa.

The opening concert featured 2 pieces by by the "resident composer" Mokale Koapeng, and Mozart's Requiem. The performance was given by three choral groups - Schleswig-Holstein Festival Choir from Germany, Chanticleer Singers and the Chamber Choir of South Africa; supported by the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra.

The opening concert featured a new piece specifically written by Mokale Koapeng for the festival. I was not too sure of what to expect, other than choral gospel piecese (it is based on biblical passages). It was stunning - with the music perfectly matching the vocals, and the use of plucking strings and percussion beats gave it a more "African" vibe, and a really nice pace.

Mozart's Requiem itself, while great, did not seem to have the oomph that Verdi's Requiem from last year. Perhaps it is due to the smaller choir, but it just didn't seem to have the awesome power that certain passages (such as Dias irae) has in other productions I have heard. That said, the soloists were great, and it was certainly an enjoyable performance.

Facebook Valuation

Facebook's recent valuation of 50 Billion USD, has created quite a lot of commentary - mostly centred around it being way too high (from most commentary I have read). The valuation is based on what Russian (and part South African) venture capitalist firm Digital Sky Technologies and Goldman Sachs were willing to pay for a share in Facebook. In essence, most commentators have argued, that they paid too much.

In terms of classical economics, that is true, or at least based on given information. Afterall, Facebook is a private company, and thus its financial results are not public information.

However, valuations can also be based on the net worth of Facebook's assets. And its biggest assets have currently no real means of being objectively evaluated - personal information. Facebook has over 500 million active members; which in turn translates to personal information including likes, dislikes, freinds, connections, activities, photos, and a whole lot more of 500 million people on the planet.

If one ignores Facebooks' traditional assets (servers, datacentres, offices etc) and liabilities, it means that the personal information of 500 million people is worth 50 billion dollars - or 100 dollars an individual.

The resultant question is simple - is the personal information of you, or any other person worth more or less than 100 dollars? In fact, if someone would offer you 101 dollars, would you give them more information than what you have willingly published in Facebook for free?

50 billion dollars? I think Facebook is undervalued ...

Taraf de Haïdouks

The lead 1st violinist of the orchestra in the movie, The Concert, (Gheorghe Anghel) is a member of a Romanian band, Taraf de Haïdouks. This is a bit of trivia I found on IMDB, but the Gypsy music of Taraf de Haïdouks is just brilliant, and well worth listening to. See some of their YouTube videos or their MySpace page for samples.

Movie: The Concert

Every now and then, a movie trailer actually makes you look forward to a movie. Even though the story itself is predictable (genius forced out, in this case because of political reasons, intercepts an invitation, reassembles his orchestra, overcomes numerous hurdles including temperamental soloist to perform hugely successful show), the acting, the humour and most of all, the music, makes this a highly enjoyable movie.

The story centres around a celebrated conductor, whose concert of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, is cut short dramatically mid-performance due to political reasons (in Soviet Russia). So when he intercepts an invitation to perform at Paris' Théâtre du Châtelet, he decides to re-assemble his old orchestra, and put his demons to bed. There is off course a complicated side story involving the soloist, oligarchs who "sponsor" the trip, Russian orchestra members who are thinking of using this as an opportunity to get out of their dreary life and ex-KGB communist party official who reminisces on the glory days of communism.

The opening concert of last year's fourth season of Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, featured Daniel Rowland playing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. It is a stunning piece and unlike many movies of similar type (be it rousing speeches, novels or other works of art), the movie pays full homage to the music with a full performance. The emotion, the music and the story telling is worth the ticket.

German Inefficiency

Every now and then, you encounter German inefficiency, which sort of pulls them back to normalcy. But the strange thing about inefficiencies that I have come across - they know about it, they are very apologetic about it; and they don't seem to do anything about correcting it.

Two recent events give rise to this post, and both happened within hours of each other. The first, happened in Mainz, where I was meant to change trains (to the airport). Ariving at the platform, there was an electronic and verbal announcement (in German, but fairly easy to translate), that the train was cancelled. For me, that is a minor inconvenience - Mainz is very well connected to Frankfurt, and the airport, so an alternate is easily found. Not so fortunate for others, who were going to places beyond the airport - and there was no ready help at hand to assist in determining the best way forward. One passenger I met had particular trouble - this train was a connecting train to yet another train. This cancellation had a massive impact on his travel plans. The inefficiency comes in, not that the train was cancelled, but how it was handled afterwards. Furthermore, the cancelled train was an Intercity Express - which run from one end of Germany to another - surely, such information should have filtered through to the booking systems?

The second instance, relates to "Tax Free" services at Frankfurt Airport. In most European countries, you can claim back a certain percentage of the VAT, if your non-perishable purchases are made through "Tax Free" affiliated stores. The store provides you with a stamped form (with the amount) and then you need to first get a customs stamp, before you can claim back the money (either cash at the office in the airport, or by credit card or bank deposit through post). The process itself is well documented and easy. however, the customs office, once you are past passport control is in Departure B only, after security. The customs office in Departure C, which is where many of the large long haul planes leave, is closed (under further notice). So, to get the custom stamp, one has to go all the way to Departure B and clear security. Those of you who have made this trip, will know that this quite a long walk - about 15 - 20 minutes, depending on how many people you share this journey with! So taking account of clearing security, the round trip was almost an hour; and luckily I was able to leave my bags in the locker in the lounge ... otherwise, I don't think the effort would have been worth the refund!

Bi-lingual schools

I discovered on Saturday, a fairly recent innovation in Germany, bi-lingual schools. The intent, I am told, is to encourage mor fluency in English. Thus, a certain percentage of subjects (in the case of my friend's children, all the sciences) are taught in English, often with native English speakers. Other subjects, are taught in German.

The thinking is obvious, the learners get fluency in two languages as they are forced to use two, with a degree of regularity, but is not forced to learn everything in the foreign language, as would be the case with English medium schools. Given the number of official languages in South Africa, maybe this is also a viable way of encouraging bilingualism? Personally, while I was taught Afrikaans at school, there was no motivation for gaining any level of fluency, since it was only one subject, and a minor one at that. Being forced to learn Afrikaans, for another subject, would have certainly provided greater practice and motivation to learn.

German Expressionism Exhibition at Mathildenhöhe

The Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt sits above a hill, close to the city centre, and is the highest point in Darmstadt. It is a purpose built exhibition hall from late 1800s built by Darmstadt's Grand Duke, as part of a wider artist colony. It also features a Russian chapel built for the Tsar, and a wedding tower. Although, the artist colony is now gone, the beautiful houses remain, and many have been maintained by their current owners, either private citizens or various organizations.

I was not too aware of Expressionism, so I went in with an open mind. The exhibition had a wide range of exhibits, from all the various forms, painting, sculptures, movie clips, music clips, architecture models and drawings and stage costumes. The exhibits are largely chronological, tracing from the founding of the movement, through world war 1 to the end in the beginning of Nazi Germany. The exhibition itself ends with Mein Kampf, where the audio guide explains that Nazism's rigid control of everything was what brought the movement to the halt.

There was an array of interesting art works, where the whole motivation was "total art", which sounded very much like other similar labels, total football or total politics. Some of the ideas have persisted, such as glass architecture and weird and wonderful stage costumes. But there was also some very weird motivations for the artists, for example a number wanted world war 1 to happen, so that they could experience war first hand, and because they believed only a war would be able to reshape the worked to their point of view. After the horrors of war, which they often depicted in their works, they were left broken and it similarly impacted on their subsequent works.

It was an enlightening experience, and sheds some interesting perspective on at least a part of German life between the wars. That in itself makes it worthwhile.

It's Spring ...

Before continuing to Bonn, I went to visit a friend/collaborator/colleague in Darmstadt. We have been trying to meet every time I lass through Frankfurt, and this is the first time we actually made it happen! While looking at his garden, I commented on how green the grass was, and he said, "for the last two days, it has been spring. I did not expect such good weather for another few months after the snow".

The weather has been quite good, daily temperature of approximately 10 degrees, and even some rays of sunshine. But the heavy winter snow has taken it's toll. Many roads have potholes, has a result of the snow, while there is flooding in quite a few towns. In fact, the Rhine river in Bonn has broken its banks in a number of places, submerging paths, trees and in quite a funny way, completely isolated a Chinese restaurant (on a boat) because the path to the boarding point is completely submerged. But the remnants of the winter are still visible - uncleared snow still lies in it's dirty, brown mush in some corners, while many of the lakes are still iced. And despite the comfortable air temperature, the wind means that many layers of clothing is still warranted. And Frankfurt airport is still prepared for more snow, with cots for stranded passengers still stacked up in the hallways.

A380

Now that there are two daily fights out of Johannesburg on the A380, a lot more South Africans can fly on it. Has it brought back the romantiscm of flying? No. But that is probably because cattle class on Lufthansa's A380 is like cattle class on it's other planes, just a few more ameneties. But it does have a few nice touches. It is really quiet for example, although my noise canceling headphones were still useful in drowning out people's conversations and the aircon. The flight map uses Google Earth bringing a more lifelike perspective on the flight details. And you can now sit in the front row and still not fly business class :)

But the romantiscm is not all gone. I sat next two young guys, who were taking their second flights ever. The first was earlier in the day,when they flew from Maputo. They are 4th year computer science students, who are taking part in an exchange program with an University in Finland. It wasqute an interesting conversation, on their interests and their wish to pursue Masters and higher, with the constraints of funding and the lack of opportunities in Maputo. But they have already turned down part time job offers In order to pursue the exchange program, and I wish them all the best.

Movie: You'll meet a tall dark stranger

I don't think I have ever watched a Woody Allen movie end-to-end, and on this evidence I am not missing much. The movie follows a family, with each person having some kind of marital problem. Alfie (played by Anthony Hopkins) leaves his wife, and then subsequently marries a prostitute. The wife, Helena, takes up the advice of a fortune teller, but does not meet her tall dark stranger. The daughter, Sally (played by Naomi Watts), wants to divorce her struggling-author husband, for her boss (played by Antonio Banderas); while the husband falls for the neighbour (and decides that she is his muse).

At the end of it all, I am left asking - was that even a story worth telling, and why did I waste 2 hours on that. The latter, was more due to the fact that there was nothing else that seemed interesting on at the movies.

Movie: El secreto de sus ojos

El secreto de sus ojos (The secret in their eyes) is an Argentine movie which won best foreign movie at the 2010 Oscars. It is a fairly complex movie with a number of interweaving threads; centered around a retired legal counselor (Benjamin) attempting to write a book on a brutal rape and murder of a young woman (Liliana).

So in part this is a murder mystery, as we follow Benjamin and his sidekick Pablo in trying to solve the crime. In part it is a love story - Benjamin's infatuation with the judge he works for; and the love of Ricardo for his now dead wife (Liliana). It is a story of corruption in the justice system, as we find out how the perpetrator is released and then hired as an official hitman. But it is the ending, when all the various strands of the story are brought together; it becomes a story about crime and punishment; it is not what you expect; and I don't think any Hollywood movie could have dared to put that ending in - and you are left wondering - what does punishment entail?

It is a brilliant story, supported by exceptional acting, editing, costumes, scenery and make-up. The story span approximately 25 years, and the characters age with appropriate changes to scenery and props. It is a well made movie, and definitely worth watching.

Body Fluids Division

Driving back from Pretoria this morning, I drove past a police vehicle which had the words "Body Fluids" written on it (in the area where the divisioin is usually stated). It's a strange name for a division, although it does make sense. Online, the only reference I could find is a SAPS training course on Body Fluids.

Just wondering if there is better terminology out there ...

Closed for Christmas

Given the rampant consumerism around Christmas, and South Africa's general tradition of making public holidays into retail therapy sessions, the number of establishments that close down during Christmas is very surprising.

As I noted last year, while travelling down the northern towns of South Africa, all types of commercial establishments - from guest houses to restaurants to shops close down; and this is also the case in Johannesburg itself. Apart from petrol stations (and the associated shops), I do not recall seeing any shop that was open during Christmas (although I did not check every mall). What was equally surprising, is the number of establishments that were closed on boxing day ...

Biker Clans

At a luncheon with M's neighbours yesterday, I met two old bikers - E and W. Both are fanatical about superbikes, and both have owned a number of such bikes in their lives. Apart from stories about speed traps (and the related fines off course), the standout conversation was on Harley Davidsons, or as E called them, "Hardly bikes".

It seems that there are at least three types of biker clans - the super bikers, the harley riders and the off road riders. W belongs to two camps - the super bikers and the off road riders; but he can't stand the Harley Davidson either. Both E and W tried to define why Harleys make no sense - they are not fast, they vibrate a lot (and are therefore not comfortable) and they are not much fun. According to E & W, the only reason that Harley has such big fan clubs, is that they have no one else to mix with ...

Doubtless, there was a lot of banter about Harleys with E & W, and E often gave long passionate defence of the super bikes and ran down the Harleys as often as possible. As a non-biker, it is the first time I have really noticed the sub clans within the biker culture. An ex colleague of mine is a passionate member of the BMW bikers group, and another colleague rides a Harley - but as E & W demonstrated yesterday; I have never really seen the various sub cultures interact (besides the toy run etc).

Just interesting ...

Songs of Migration

I missed Songs of Migration in its original run earlier in the year, but managed to get to the second last performance for the year at the Market Theatre on Saturday night. The show itself is a bit difficult to categorise - it is not a theatre performance, and although it is billed as a musical; there is no overarching story or dramatic performance. It is really a collection of musical pieces, collated with a single theme (migration) - but at the same time is devoid of the audience interaction and banter that goes with musical performances.

Songs of Migration feature a huge number of songs (about 40 IIRC), mostly written or adapted by Hugh Masekela. The show is mostly focused on black South Africa - from the arrival of colonialism, through apartheid to the modern era; although there is one song on Jewish migration, a short snippet in Afrikaans and a few African American songs focused on cotton picking.

The range of languages is amazing - almost every South African language and then some more! And this leads to my only real gripe about the show - there should really be a longer translation of all the songs, because, due to the variety of languages, there is always someone in the crowd who is not going to understand the song - even though the overall meaning is pretty clear.

In terms of the performances themselves - for me Sibongile Khumalo and Hugh Masekela stole the show. Sibongile Khumalo has a wonderful stage presence, and takes an almost matriarchal command of the performance; gluing all the various performances into some sort of an overarching tale of migration. And Hugh Masekela, for a 70 year old, he outdanced, outsang all his younger colleagues and then some more. He is just an absolutely brilliant performer. The other members of the cast also bring various talents to the fore; especially in the choral pieces.

The show is very slick and highly entertaining. I think it is back sometime early next year - so if you haven't seen it; go see it.

Gautrain Maths

The Gautrain is a really awesome way to get to the airport. And parking at Sandton and then taking the train takes away the lottery of the roads, especially in the current mix of rain and construction.

But the parking rates are way too high; and in some respects just doesn't make sense. For the airport, the first 24 hours costs R29, the second 24 hours cost an additional R29.50 and then for the third day onwards costs R97.50 a day. While the parking charge is less than the parkade costs at OR Tambo (R130 a day), it becomes much higher when the train ticket is taken into account. Only for the 2 day trip, is the Gautrain a cheaper option than driving to OR Tambo and parking at the parkade.

With the bus routes being rather limited (which I suspect is one of the reasons they are often empty) - the prospect of just jumping on to the Gautrain system is still a long way off. And until then, the economics of using the train if you don't live in and around Sandton, for anyhting more than a 2 day trip is going to be hard to justify.

AVA Expo in Sandton

Teh AVA Expo in Sandton City was billed as the largest expo for audio-video appliances in South Africa. While it was true, that a wide range of brands were represented - overall, it was a rather dull affair in my opinion. I have been building a specification for a full blown entertainment system in my head, and thus my interest in the expo - although I have learnt more through visiting individual shops than at the expo itself.

For starters, while there were live demos; most stands did not bother with demonstrations of various components and systems. Thus, for many, it was more of a paper exercise of what their systems can do instead of really showcasing what the systems can do. I do understand the constraints placed by the environment, but then the organisers and exhibitors should have thought better ways to do demonstrations.

Secondly, if the purpose was not to showcase, then the retail aspect was not that great either. Almost every system on the floor (from a AV perspective at least), had the same price as the that in the retail stores. The manufacturer reps, although fairly knowledgable on the products, did not have suffcient knowledge of all the retailers that stock their products (or were not allowed to divulge this information due to conflicts with exhibitors).

For me, the worst part of the show however was the lack of knowledge, coupled with some really bad service from some of the exhibitors. At the SONY stand (which incidentally had won the stand of the year award), the guys manning the stands had neither the product specifications, nor the pricing of the various TVs on show. Likewise, at the Mede8tor stand (a product, I am quite keen to look at) the attendant started to have a chat with a friend that walked by, leaving myself and another prospective customer alone - even though he was actually mid sentence describing the product!

Movie: RED

Although the cast was promising, I wasn't expecting much from this movie - just a standard shoot-em-up action movie. Instead, it was possibly one of the best written and well acted action movie I have seen.

The plot is fairly simple - Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), a retired (and extremely dangerous, hence RED) black ops CIA agent manages to thwart an assassination attempt; and then assembles a team to get to the bottom of who is trying to kill him (and why). His elite team is played by acting royalty - Helen Miren, John Malkovich and Morgan Freeman - all retired, all itching to "kill people again".

It is a fast paced story, very well acted and very enjoyable. Certainly worth watching, especially for entertainment.

ITWeb's Misleading Reporting on Mobile Data Charges

ITWeb's comparison on mobile data charges is so misleading, I wonder how it even got through editorial review. And to top it off, the calculations are also wrong!



Lets start with the calculation error - Cell C's 2 GB rate is R149 per month, which translates to R0.07 per MB and not R0.08. It seems the journalist divided by R1000 and not 1024! The price per MB for 5GB bundle is actually 5.6c so 6c is forgivable, but the same mistake was made. I didn't make sure of the other calculations, but I assume they are equally wrong (and when you calculate it back, it makes sense too).

But the misleading part of the article is to focus only on out of bundle rates. Sure Cell C and 8ta have higher out of bundle rates, but the key question with out of bundle rates, is what was the total cost. Thus, it only makes sense to compare out of bundle charges if the total bundle cost is considered.



And then, if you consider the effective per Mb price, the real value will be shown, with Cell C and 8-ta coming out ahead.

Lastly, Cell C's pricing includes the modem which, as far as I know is not included in the other offers (I can confirm Vodacom, since I have used it). Once you take account of that, the pricing is even more competitive from Cell C!

I wonder who paid the journalist to write such crap ...

The Beatles ...

With Apple finally releasing The Beatles catalogue on iTunes, they have also released the first US concert free for streaming. What stands out from the concert, is it seems that almost the entire audience was screaming women. Which does not make it roo different to Justin Bieber or the Jonas Brothers etc ... I doubt however that any of the modern day equivalents will last as long as The Beatles.

Music: To Hire a Nurse, Doe and Zaire

The Bo was packed last night, and for good reason. Unfortunately, I arrived after the first band, To Hire a Nurse, had already started (they started on time it seems); and of the three bands, it was certainly the most interesting! Apart from the usual guitars, bass and drums, the band also features an electric violin which certainly gives the band a very different sound. Of what I did see, the violin fitted in perfectly; and the sound is somewhat similar to what Apocalyptica manages with its cellos. A very cool effect, and I now really want to see a full show of theirs!

The second band, Doe, was nice but not very interesting. The song writing was very good, but while the lead singer does sing well, I don't think her voice was always suitable. The mixing may also be to blame.

Zaire, is an indie-rock/brit rock type band with great songs, with great beats. A four piece band, they really threw a good party. I can't seem to find much about them online, besides this, and their Facebook page, but they seem to have quite a big following. They had the whole club dancing, and their music is very easy to get into. Another Parlatones in the making?

The 6 Month iPad review

It has been just over 6 months since I got my iPad. When I bought it, I did not really have too many ideas on what I would use it for. 6 months later it has become an essential tool, which although not irreplaceable, is certainly useful. And surprisingly, I use it most often at work. And over the last few months a number of colleagues phase joined me with their own iPads and there seems to be a corporate move to approve it for all.

The biggest use in a work setting, is taking notes in meetings, and the calendar and email functionality. The email application on the iPad is stunning, and integrates very well with Microsoft Exchange. The setup is quick, and in fact it can be argued that it is faster to set it up on the pad than it is on Windows! Likewise, the calendar function also integrates well and easy to use. One gripe, is that it does not seem to work well with proxies, or specifically proxies that have domain based authentication. It's not that much of an issue, but it does limit the functionality of certain applications and uses in the work environment.

Other than that, it is great for reading PDF documents, and the great battery life means that it is great on long flights. I have flown Boston to Berlin, via Frankfurt on a single charge, and spent most of the flight watching Ted videos or reading ebooks. I have a number of mini games, which are also entertaining, although some of them do seem to drain the battery life very quickly.

Surprisingly, I have found browsing on the iPad to be fairly annoying. This probably has to do with the way browse the web, and the iPad still lacking multitasking functionality. I per to open a number of windows and tabs and then switch between them,usually reading one tab while waiting for another to load. On the iPad, pages seem to reload every time I switch tabs, so it becomes quite annoying. The lack of flash is usually not an issue, except for sites like Ster-Kinekor and Computicket.

The iPad's keyboard is not awesome for very long periods, but it is usable and surprisingly accurate, even with moderately good typing speeds. This post was written on the iPad, but this is probably the longest single typing piece I have done.

Movie: Half a Confession

The Japanese Film Festival is one of the older film festivals on the Sterkinekor circuit; and this year it was showing in Pretoria last weekend, Cape Town this weekend and Johannesburg the following weekend. The selection of movies is small (5 movies) across 2 days; and the Pretoria/Jo'burg screening opportunity allows the possibility of seeing a few without spending the whole weekend at the cinema.

Half a Confession, revolves around the story of a decorated and well respected detective, who hands himself in after killing his wife. However, this is really euthanasia (or mercy killing) as opposed to murder - so it apparently is a fairly easy case; except that the detective does not wish to reveal what he did for 2 days between killing his wife and handing himself over; and is seemingly trying to protect someone.

Ultimately, while the storyline play itself out; the reason why the detective refuses to reveal his secret (or rather admit to it) becomes confusing - unless there is a cultral reference that just does not translate. It is a great drama - but was the drama actually meaningful and even necessary is somewhat lost in translation.

The movies focus on euthanasia, organ donation, trauma etc. is also a powerful angle; and is certainly a stand out point. However, even this is due to (comparative) cultural acceptance of mercy killing and suicide - I doubt a movie made in the US would eve dare to take on the subject in a similar fashion.

The movie is well acted, and if you are in CT or Jo'burg - it is worth watching.

The Girl in the Yellow Dress

It has been a long time since I went to a proper theatre production, although this fact is more due to laziness than a lack of opportunity. In fact, I think this is the first proper theatre production I have been to since I left Cape Town! So, I was looking for something different to do, and the Market Theatre's current production looked very interesting.

The play has a rich history of collaboration and past success (according to the blurbs posted on the Market Theatre's site at least) - debuted in the Grahamstown Festival, sold out shows in the Edinburgh Festival, it is certainly loud in its self promotion. This nicely ties into the overall theme of the story itself, which claims that the play was "originally inspired by Ovid's story Echo and Narcissus and psychoanalytic writings on narcissism".

It is a two person play, set in Paris, featuring Celia (and English, English teacher with some sort of a dark secret) and Pierre (a Congolese-French student, with an equally mysterious past). The humour is often driven by the complexities of the English language (I don't recall my English teachers dwelling on the complexities of past passive participles), while the drama is driven by the character's respective past histories and the complex stories they weave.

It is a very slick production, and highly enjoyable. The entire play takes place in Celia's living room, and the intimate confines of the Market Theatre's Laager Theatre, makes it a perfect venue for this production.

Market Theatre Blurb:

The Girl in the Yellow Dress premiered at the National Grahamstown Arts Festival followed by sold-out seasons at both the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town and the Traverse Theatre for the duration of the Edinburgh Festival. It then transferred to Live Theatre in Newcastle, the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow and the Stockholms Stadsteater before coming home to the Market Theatre. Craig Higginson's second original play, The Girl in the Yellow Dress, is an exciting collaboration between the Market Theatre and two of the UK's most prestigious theatres. ..more info
Originally inspired by Ovid's story Echo and Narcissus and psychoanalytic writings on narcissism, The Girl in the Yellow Dress is set in contemporary Paris and deals with the exchanges between Celia, a beautiful English teacher in her late twenties, and Pierre, her younger French-Congolese pupil.
Brimming with humour, rage and longing, this celebrated new South African play provides a minute exploration of an increasingly hazardous romantic entanglement and an insight into some of the tensions between the 'first' and 'third' worlds. Part psychological thriller and part a State of the Nation analysis, it tackles issues such as language, power, identity, sex, past trauma, class, exile and refugees - tensions that run through South African society and beyond.
Malcolm Purkey, Artistic Director of the Market Theatre and best known for his international hit Sophiatown, directs leading UK actress Marianne Oldham (nominated for the prestigious Stage Award for this production) in the role of Celia, and emerging South African talent Nat Ramabulana as Pierre.
Reviews from the Edinburgh Festival
"Higginson . is clearly gifted. He not only filters pressing concerns about race, prejudice and power through a highly charged two-hander, but he wraps it all up in a witty discourse about language itself." - Daily Telegraph
"..it is unusual and fascinating to see a play investigate the extent to which words can shape our thoughts and feelings as much as vice versa." - Financial Times
"exposes some painfully ugly truths about race and class, wealth and victimhood . written and directed with great skill." - Scotsman (Pick of the Festival)
"Higginson's slick, precise dialogue builds the tension . There is, quite plainly, a formidable intellect at play.This piece challenges our received assumptions about ideology, language and sexuality to strong effect and comes recommended to thoughtful audiences." - The List
"a spell-binding two-hander.You'd be hard pressed to find a sexier scene this festival than the shared naked foot stroking that turns nasty, then violent. Marianne Oldham is the new Maggie Smith." - What's On Stage
"..this gripping two-hander is a highlight of the Traverse programme." - Evening Standard

Top of Africa

I have been to Carlton Centre a number of times (mostly related to work), and the boardrooms and offices on floor 46 have stunning views of Johannesburg. Yesterday afternoon, a colleague and I decided to stay a bit longer while the traffic died down, and went over to the 50th floor. It is named "Top of Africa" since it is the tallest building in Africa, and the views were absolutely stunning - especially as it was a pretty clear day.

While the view is stunning, I would think that a little more effort would be made to spruce it up more - and make it more visitor friendly. That said, there is a lot of floor space up there, and it is a lot more than other panoramas I have been to, making it easy to move around etc. Some effort is also needed to get some more recent information, and mark up land marks especially "new" places such as Soccer City.

More Interesting Phishing Emails

After the phishing email supposedly from Standard Bank, two weeks back, I got another two this morning, supposedly from FNB. This email was even more sophisticated - the from address made sense (at first glance): info@fnb.co.za, the dates were reasonable and the language; as well as the disclaimers etc. were all spot on. In fact, Google didn't even pick it up as a phishing email! And like the Standard Bank email, this email also asks the user to download a real life, proper anti-phishing/security product.



So why is it a phishing email? Firstly, the link that will supposedly allow you to download this file has nothing to do with FNB. Doing some digging, it seems that the site (seems like a personal site) has been compromised and is probably going to redirect the user to the malware or compromised application.

Secondly, as the headers of the email clearly show, the email from address has been spoofed, and it has nothing to do with FNB. The reputation check, as per below suggests that this is a new spam host, and one of the reasons it did not get picked up by the anti-spam engine.

Received: by 10.216.55.139 with SMTP id k11cs1749wec;
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:31:40 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.213.13.80 with SMTP id b16mr216811eba.89.1288157499734;
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:31:39 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path:
Received: from linux14.unoeuro.com ([94.231.101.70])
by mx.google.com with ESMTP id w3si18982624eeh.36.2010.10.26.22.31.39;
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:31:39 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 94.231.101.70 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of minami.dk@linux14.unoeuro.com) client-ip=94.231.101.70;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 94.231.101.70 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of minami.dk@linux14.unoeuro.com) smtp.mail=minami.dk@linux14.unoeuro.com
Received: from linux14.unoeuro.com (localhost [127.0.0.1])
by linux14.unoeuro.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id o9R5VdDS015687
for ; Wed, 27 Oct 2010 07:31:39 +0200
Received: (from minami.dk@localhost)
by linux14.unoeuro.com (8.13.8/8.13.8/Submit) id o9R5VdFS015686;
Wed, 27 Oct 2010 07:31:39 +0200
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2010 07:31:39 +0200
Message-Id: <201010270531.o9R5VdFS015686@linux14.unoeuro.com>

The new types of phishing are impressive in how well they masquerade as legitimate emails, and most Internet users will be fooled. If this persists, the next question really is - what should the banks do next? Go back to post?

Telkom: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Ever since I moved to my new place (almost 2 months ago now), I have been trying to get ADSL to be installed. In fact, one of the key criteria when looking for a new place was - does this place have a Telkom line? I first logged a request with Telkom, online, a week before moving in - and that order was lost. The help desk did take my details down - but that order was also lost. I tried the Internet route again - I got a callback to confirm all the details; and yet the order was lost! So I tried again - at the help desk; and this time it went through! It truly says a lot about a company when it looses track of customer orders!

All said, the actual help desk people are very friendly (most of the times) and wanting to help - and my order was finally processed and the line was installed two days back. And yet again a debacle - I was called on Tuesday, and informed of the installation. When I enquired on the time; I was told to call the help desk on Wednesday morning to find out. When I asked if I could choose another day - I was told it would have to be handled as a new order!

So on Wednesday morning, I called the help desk and I was told they have been specifically told not schedule installations, and they cannot help me. They suggested "I wait around" waiting for the installer; and was surprised when I told them I don't have anyone at home who would wait for them. Of all the service problems I encountered with Telkom, this has to rank as the worst.

During the morning, the installer called me, and we made arrangement for the installer. And this is again, where Telkom really did claw back - the guy was professional, and very motivated to getting things done correctly. When the line was first activated, he realised that there was interference, which he proceeded to fix. After that, he still could not get the ADSL router to stabilise, and after some investigation, he established some of the causes (some bad wiring) and a fault on the DSLAM setting at the Telkom exchange. He promised to sort it out, before he signed off the job - and when I came back home that afternoon - it was fully sorted.

So, John (who did not give his surname) - thank you very much - I just wish your colleagues were as efficient and motivated!

Thoughts on 8.ta

Telkom's recently launched mobile phone service (and South Africa's 4th) - 8.ta, has not exactly created the market buzz one might expect. In some respects, their offering does have some real value - specifically in the call charges; but my personal opinion is that Telkom has missed the boat (or perhaps are still waiting to really launch their boat). And that is, Telkom is the only South African telecommunications provider that can provide real fixed-mobile convergence services; something that could really make them different to other telcos in the market.

South Africa's lack of a viable competitor to Telkom can be blamed on many things; including foot dragging by the regulators and/or the Department of Communications (which incidentally has a conflict of interest, being the majority shareholder in Telkom). But since last year, there are over 600 licensed operations in South Africa - with more than 10 operators providing various levels of fibre based services to business in South Africa. Yet, none of them - including the established mobile operators in Vodacom and MTN as well as Neotel have really taken the leap into providing large scale residential and SME fixed line services. Furthermore, considering the large number of security estates and business parks in South Africa; this is strange given the relative high density in potential subscribers for fixed line services.

And enter Telkom in the mobile market. The one trick that Telkom can really play is a fully converged telecommunication offering. Take data service - Telkom can potentially merge their capped ADSL, 3G roaming and WiFi hotspot offering to one seamless data service offering; that provides a single data offering regardless of what medium is used. Yes, Vodacom has something similar - but Telkom would be the only service provider that can provide the seamless service since they also own effectively all the access paths. Likewise, a fully converged voice service could allow seamless transition between mobile and fixed telephony; something similar to what corporate telephony offerings from unified communications vendors such as Cisco. And the one interesting impact of such a service could potentially be no difference in call charges on "on-net" calls; as long as the calls are to Telkom.

Convergence strategies would also require Telkom to relook at its current fixed line offerings - something it has so far shown no interest in really pursuing. Furthermore, by setting up 8.ta as a separate service with minimal Telkom branding; it is questionable how much converged services it is really considering offering.

Music: Hell and High Water, My/Epic/Vice and The City is the Desert (In Disguise)

The Bohemian (The Bo) is apparently the third oldest (still operational) pub in Jo'burg. It's surprising, since it is only 27 years old, and not longer in a country that ranks very high up in alcohol consumption. I have seen a number of gigs advertised at The Bo, but Saturday night was my first time there. The neighborhood is on the dark and dingy side; but it is a welcoming venue; and has a fairly laid back atmosphere. There was not much of a crowd though.

Hell and High Water is a young, new 4 piece band; which played mostly covers from various rock bands - local and international. The band members are fairly accomplished musicians with a solid vocalist; so it was a good first band. They had one or two original songs - which were not very memorable - but not horrible either :)

Last time I saw My/Epic/Vice, was at Seether's concert two years back - and they were horrible. This time around, their music was actually quite good, and looking at their website, it seems that they played most of the songs out of their album. The band was suffering from the lack of drummer (broken wrist) though they got round this quite well by playing back the drum tracks through an iPod. They were also missing a guitarist - but the reason was not very clear. They delayed the start of their gig, and the missing guitarist ended up as the sound man - not sure of the rationalles there.

The last band, The City is the Desert (In Disguise), inevitably raises the question - what is the most well known band with more than 5 words in their name. The longest I could come up with on Saturday night was 4 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience; while Bob Marley and The Wailers would give 5 words - but 7? So while their name is a memory tester, their music and performance definitely makes it worthwhile to remember their name. The music genre is difficult to describe - part Jazzy, part Rock, part pop and a combination of a whole lot more - it was really just great music, good song writing and a great performance. I was pleasantly surprised, and this is certainly a band worth watching out for.

Brilliant phishing email

Phishing emails are dangerous - they are effectively misleading, fraudulent emails that aim to lure people to giving away passwords or other important data; which can then be used to defraud the associated account.

Most phishing emails are actually easy to spot - they either take advantage of the person's gullibility (419 scams that claim you can help some obscure price/businessman/politician to transfer money) to the more direct; your banking account has expired; please enter your password in this site. Modern phishing sites are even more advanced and often replicate, very closely the target website's look and feel.



This morning, I got a phishing email which was frankly amazing, not only how it is constructed; but how well it is disguised with an air of legitimacy. An email, asking you to download software, to protect you from phishing is simply brilliant!

For me it was easy to spot this as a phishing email; and I was impressed that Gmail also picked it up. The from address is suspect (Standard Bank after all is a South African company, not polish), the reported from address is not Standard bank's website; and the link in the email is not to a Standard Bank website. And lastly, I am not a Standard bank customer. But I suspect, others may fall for it - and thus this post is both a warning and at the same time an admiration for a very well directed phishing scam.

SA 'needs more PhD graduates'

I found this article on IOL this morning, and it is also featured on other news sites. The basic synopsis - to grow the economy South Africa needs more PhDs. The data seems to stem from the graduating class of 2007 - and since I belong to that club; I ought to comment :) I do however note that I do not fit the overall trend - I am not White; and I got my PhD before my 25^th birthday and not in my 30s.

The 'need more PhD graduates' needs to be contextualised; and I feel that none of the news reports trully delve into were the need stems from. But since the overall thesis is, we need PhD graduates to grow the economy, it can be assumed that PhD graduates are required by:

1. Industry, to enable it to develop competetive products and services


2. Academia, to enable a higher quality of education and research; feeding industry with higher quality university graduates, and


3. To create new industries and services, through start-ups etc

In my graduating class of 2007, there were 3 PhD graduates (in December at least, and for Computer Science only). Of us 3 - I am the only one who remained in South Africa; and all of us work in industry. Most South African companies in South Africa do not really value PhD graduates - it is clearly seen in the recruitment drives and for that matter in industry itself. This is also seen by the relative lack of R&D institutes in South Africa, that are fronted by industry. In fact, other than Sasol, I do not really know of any other South African company that has a big R&D setup in South Africa. Without viable R&D labs, are South African companies really interested in employing PhD graduates for their skills? And without a need for PhD graduates in industry, the pool of students wanting to do a PhD drops due to a lack viable job opportunities.

I agree that deploying PhD graduates within South African universities would have a significant impact on a number of factors - and not just acamedics. However, for this to successfully work out, South African universities need strong post-doctoral programs; ideally on an international exchange basis - that can be used to hone in the research skills and widen the research skill base.

Nurturing start-ups and protecting research outputs are things that South African universities and research institutes just do not seem to be good at. From my experiences at UCT, there was no drive for patents or setting up startups from the research outputs. This is a vital cog in the research process that can trully contribute to the economy. If I compare my experience at UCT with my internships at German research institutes in 2007, my actualy research output was actually higher for the time: I had one paper at ACM DRM 2008, one patent application and contributed towards 2 OMA standards for the mobile industry; all in 3 months at one research institute.

Tied into the last point, I think there is also a need to have focused research programs instead of the ad-hoc research that happens in many SA universities. It is hypocritical on my part to say this - when my own research was ad-hoc and very much removed from most other research at UCT - but if I compare my PhD experience in terms of the actual research project; to my peers in my research field around the world - formal research programs where a team of students, post-docs and academic staff work on the same research topic has a tremendous impact on the quality of the work produced. I think the outputs discussed above, with regards to my internship can also be similarly attributed - there my team was 5 persons (including me) in my specific stream and a total of 10 persons in the research program as a whole.

So yes, I agree that more PhD graduates will have an impact on economic growth - but I do not think that can happen without the supporting environment from both universities and industry. Other factors such as primary and secondary education are also important - but for PhD graduates to have meaningful impact on the economy there needs to be mechanisms for them to contribute meaningfully.

ZaCon 2

Last year, a bunch of security techies (mostly from Sensepost it seems) banded together to form a technical security group, called ZaCon. In seemingly no time, they had organised a conference/get together - which I could not attend due to work commitments. ZaCon 2 was the newer, bigger conference event. It is not really a novel concept in many respects - a bunch of people get together (on the weekend off course), organise a venue and discuss their common interest for a day - and all for next to no cost (the organisers funded some of the equipment hires; the rest was either sponsored or non existent). It is the purest form of participation really - being there because it interests you.

As with all conferences; there was the mixture of the superbly interesting to be boring - but that is to be expected. With a strong technical focus; many of the talks focused on IT vulnerabilities - how they can be exploited and/or mitigated - from Google Apps to Java JAR files.

There were a number of highlights. On the attack front, Ivan Burke's talk on the usage of Google Apps to create features similar to botnets (though, as he willing admitted, he was not a good speaker) was a great example of how cloud computing facilities not only create security challenges with regards to confidentiality of data (stored in the cloud) but also create a platform for future security exploits. Jurgens van der Merwe's talk later about the use of Selenium expanded further the potential of attacking web based systems. In fact, a potential that wasn't explored in great detail - the combination of Selenium and cloud based services such as Amazon EC2 and Google Apps could create a significant assault on data confidentiality - through exploiting gaps in web based services. Also on the attack front; Daniel Cuthbert's talk on banking website security was a sobering reminder on vulnerabilities that are created by sheer incompetence as opposed to oversight.

Ross Simpson's talk on the use of jailbroken iPhones as a means to infiltrate wireless networks did not really explore major new ground - but was a very practical walk through on the power of smartphones and a new attack vector. Like the attack vector of cell phone cameras where normal cameras are not allowed; this is yet another attack vector that is easy to deploy and hard to mitigate against.

Ollie Whitehouse discussed the forming of UnCon 10 years ago (security community in the UK, and seemingly the idea that gave rise to ZaCon) via Skype - and was impressive not only in the content of the talk (I think there is a lot of things that ZaCon can "copy") but also the fact that the technology worked. Using two different computers (one to control the screen and the other to conduct the Skype call), each with its own 3G connectivity definitely helped in this regard.

The last talk, Barry Irwin's analysis on the propagation of Conficker was quite interesting - especially the patterns on the network traffic correlated to the spread of the virus. The fact that Conficker has gone quiet is itself a worry - and the correlation of Conficker to other viruses; including Stuxnet, could be interesting research.

Overall, it was a great event - and a great learning environment. I do think, however, that there is a need to shorten the number of speakers and instead open up the floor for a lot more debate and discussion. Congratulations to the organisers for a great event!

Movie: Small Town called Descent

A new South African movie (I think it is yet to be released for general theatrical release); the movie centers around a Scorpion investigation into a xenophobic murder in a small town (called Descent). Intertwined within a fairly good crime drama, is an exploration of corruption (from the town's main mayor), police indifference/corruption, xenophobia, alcohol abuse, remnants of apartheid legacy and for some inexplicable reason, the politics of Mbeki-Zuma (I suppose the Scorpions is a link - but it has no relevance to the story).

The plot itself is quite good; but the script wasn't polished enough; and often features over-acting/posing/theatrics that end up ruining perfectly good storylines. Added to this, the dialogue also sometimes does not seem to fit the characters. And finally, the movie finishes without completing all the story arcs - and unlike good stories where this technique is usually a mechanism for the reader/viewer to make their own conclusions - this just leads to confusion. For example, the corruption angle is never finalised and thus the exact reasons and collusions behind the corruption activities or the end impact on the participants are just not explored - even though it is the driving force behind the movie.


Overall, from a plot and cinematography point of view; it is a great movie. However, the acting and the script writing detract from the positives; and does not really make it worth watching.

Movie: The Red Chapel

I stumbled across the Tri-Contentinent Human Rights Festival, now in its 8^th year, at Rosebank while waiting for the traffic to subside on Friday afternoon.

The Red Chapel is a documentary made by a Danish reported, posing as a theatrical director, who takes two Danish comedians (of Korean descent) to North Korea on the pretext of a cultural exchange program. One of the comedians, Jacob, suffers from Cerebral Palsy; which creates two contrasting points in the documentary - firstly his speech impediment allows Jacob to truly express his feelings in Danish without anyone else understanding; and secondly, it contrasts with the rest of North Korea where there does not seem to be any other handicapped person around.

While the documentary's aim is to expose the dark evilness of North Korea, I found that, in many respects the movie fails and it is largely due to the director, Mads Brügger. Mads comments in the film, that he has no moral qualms about anything to do with North Korea - and thus forces both comedians (Jacob and Simon) to do things they are clearly not in favour of doing. Furthermore, while Mads comments on various claims (which are most likely to be true), such as death camps and starving children; the documentary has no supporting evidence to back up its claims. Another problem with Mads' thesis, is that, he gives no credit to the actual talent on show from North Korea - especially children that ends up participating with the team; and instead seems to brush it off as simply a product of the evil regime.

All said, the documentary still provides a fascinating insight into North Korea - and a great example of media and propaganda management. There are many touching moments within the movie - especially the interaction between Jacob and the translator/minder from North Korea; but in my opinion, it does not really serve as documentary evidence of North Korea's evilness.

Jo'burg Street Market

I have always been facinated by street/village markets. Supermarkets, while providing the luxury of aircon and variety have taken the fun out of bargaining and just the experience of the market. Some weeks ago, I took photos of street markets around Jo'burg as part of a photo walk; and I think I have photos of other markets from around the world too (I have also previously posted about, though not exclusively, on markets in Helsinki, Hamburg and Huaraz).



Jo'burg street markets bring in elements that are only really found in the developing world - cut price soccer shirts at a fraction of the real cost; fresh produce sold at very attractive prices but somewhat unappetising locations, ready made street food that does not have the complicated hygine rules of the west and off course the seemingly ubiquitos pirate DVDs and CDs.









Not many suburbanites venture into Jo'burg during the weekends, and they are missing out a vibrant, colourful and interesting part of the city.

Rose Boats & Toy Museum

The road to Bedarsdorp passes through the town of Napier; which would most likely not warrant a stop; except for two things: the absurdly amazingly large chruch that stands tall, and the Rose Boats & Toy Museum.




The museum is run out of a house, by its owner; focuses mostly on toys from the early 1900's to 1970's; and its standout attraction are the Rose Boats. The boats are handmade (and available for sale) out of tin; and feature cyclic flush steam engines; powered by a candle. The concept is simple, and the results are amazing; and there a number of articles and awards hung around the museum to support how well the boats are engineered. See this wikipedia article for more.



Apart from the boats, there are a number of other attractions, such as trains and cars; and although the collection is not particularly large; it is certainly a very worthwhile stop.

L'Agulhas

Cape Agulhas is the southernmost point of Africa, and a place Jay and I have been trying to get to for a number of years (and for one reason or another postponing). The nearby town, L'Agulhas naturally has a number of "southernmost" - restaurants, hotels, B&B's; although the parking lot prize goes to the Cape itself (with a parking lot, 150m from the point).



It is a fairly scenic place; but not as spectacular as Cape Point. It is a lot more laid back, and there is a great view from the viewpoint on a nearby hill. The lighthouse is the second oldest in South Africa; which is itself a small tourist attraction (which was closed by the time we got there). I found it somewhat strange that it was not built earlier given the notorius storms that frequent the Western Cape; and that at one stage there was even consideration given to demolishing it completely.

The 3D movie rant

I hate 3D movies. I see no advantage that most 3D movies have, in terms of making the audience as part of the action; over most 2D movies. I say most, because there are a few exceptions - such as U2 3D; or in the case of Avatar, where the visuals were simply stunning. However; in most cases - 3D effects are mostly after thoughts, with no real impact on the experience.

And then there is the cost aspect. To watch a 3D movie, there is a premium in the ticket price. Added to that, I discovered last night, Ster Kinekor now charges R5 for 3D glasses. It seems to be an utter waste - not only will people not return these glasses, chances are, they will not bother bringing them along to the next show either.

3D "feature" has spread to TVs and Blue Ray players; and I still don't see the point of it all. There are quite a few rants and justifications on why 3D is just a fad, on the web - so I am not going to regurgitate it - but I am honestly perplexed why 3D is promoted as a miracle experience; when most 3D media just doesn't really make much use of it; or do it very well.

Waenhuiskrans

Although the official name of the village is Waenhuiskrans, it is better known as Arniston, after an early 19^th century shipthat perished nearby killing nearly everyone onboard.

It is also very well known for its cave along the sea; which is only accessible in low tide. Unfortunately, we visited during high tide, on the day after a full moon, so the cave was barely visible.


It is a stunning laid back location, where the "expensive" restaurant at the hotel (as per the owner of our B&B) compared very favourably to mid-priced restaurants in Jo'burg and Cape Town.

Import Taxes

A few weeks ago, I bought a T-Shirt from Teefury, costing 9 USD. The shipping was another 9 USD - which combined is still not bad for a T-Shirt (approx R140). I was pleasantly surprised on the speed of the delivery, but not too impressed on the import taxes. For a T-Shirt costing just under R70, the import taxes, including VAT, was just under R55! That is almost a 80% duty, and I don't think this falls under the cheap imports from China category ;)

All said, Teefury is a brilliant concept. 1 unique T-Shirt a day, not to be repeated except for random draw once a month (or so), which is incidentally today. You can't back order, and can only order until the T-Shirts sell out. They have some very interesting designs; so all in all worth the hassle :)

Prepaid Confusion

I recently moved house (after buying a place, instead of renting); and one of the "renovations" I did was to install a prepaid electricity meter. South Africa, it seems is the only country where prepaid electricity has taken off; which I think is a pity. Prepaid utility consumption (be it electricty, water or gas) is easier to manage and offers, in my opinion, far more flexibility than the standard billing methods.

The new prepaid electric meters are also very cool - the utility installs the tamper-resistant meter at the external distribution box (i.e. a straight swap with the old meter) and then provides the user with a remote unit that is used to indicate the value of electricity purchased, usage (accurate to the watt) as well as to buy more electricty etc. The interface unit communicates with the main unit via powerline ethernet - so another cool usage of technology.

As for the confusion - the contractor who installed the prepaid meter, installed it at the wrong house, even though I was given the unit. So, I paid for my neighbour's electricity for a week and the previous owner paid for mine. The guys at the City of Johannesburg offices were stunned at hearing about the mistake - and we all had a good chuckle. Even the contractor couldn't beleive his mistake ... although he blamed it all on his labourer. Personally, I blame them both - the labourer for not being able to do a simple job; and the contractor for not doing his supervision job correctly.