Walking Out

Friday night, a whole bunch of us (mostly friends of my sister) went to Chai Yo, a Thai restaurant in lower Mowbray. It started well - they found a table that could seat 8 people, drinks orders were taken, and soon thereafter starters and mains were ordered. The starters arrived, and were particularly tasty - which indicated that the mains should be good too.

However, close to 90 minutes after the starters had arrived, there was still no sign of the mains. In fact we started counting down - initially 5 more minutes and then we would leave. After 5 minutes, there was no food - but the waitress came with a jug of water. One of the girls decided to tell her that if there is no food within 2 minutes, we would walk without paying the bill.

After the two minutes, we got up (well two of us got up, and the rest followed, some more reluctently than others); and it was another 2 - 3 minutes before we all assembled by the exit, where we informed the manager that we were leaving. At this point, the food was more or less ready; but most of the party had enough - and had already decided to leave even if the food was free.

I have never walked out of a restaurant before - and maybe it was unethical given the number of starving people around the world. It was not the fact that the food itself was late; but rather that no one told us that the food was delayed and why it was delayed - especially as tables around us seemed to be getting their food.

It was strange, and quite liberating in some respects. And we ended up going to Bruegels nearby - where the food was ready within 30 minutes of walking in; and ultimately proved to be a great place to have a meal with a group of people.

Bruegels Pizza

Went to Bruegels Pizza restaurant last night, in Little Mowbray (part of the little strip with Fat Cactus and the Thai restaurant). The prices were a bit high, but definitely one the best pizzas I have had. Except for the Margherita, the pizzas are named after artists and have very interesting combinations of ingredients. You can also have 1/2 + 1/2 where you can combine two different pizzas into one pizza. Highly recommended.

ID Numbers, ID theft and Privacy

There has been a lot of talk recently on the rise of identity theft in South Africa. Popular press has recently jumped on the bandwagon, and there are articles talking about how ID numbers should not be disclosed to anyone and that there is a need to keep the ID numbers secret.

In addition, there is the new privacy bill (which I still haven't read) - but since it is based on the EU privacy directives, I am very confident that it will list the ID number as private information and ask that it should be protected.

The problem is, we are trying to shut the gate once the horse has already bolted. The need to supply ID numbers is ubiquitous - and in many cases it does not make sense. Some buildings require you to provide a number (not any supporting documentation, just the number) to enter. Interact with a bank or any personal business relationships (credit applications, phone applications, post box etc.) you need an ID number. Need a job - you need an ID book. The numbers are everywhere, in multitude of systems, and they are also published online with no regards to data sanitisation. For example, here is a PDF I found detailing ID numbers of restaurant owners who applied for liquor licenses in Gauteng. I was looking for the address of one of the listed restaurants ... Oh, and Government gazettes are public documents, and the bylaws require that the information should be published.

The problem is that we use ID numbers for things we are not supposed to be using it for; namely authentication of persons. To illustrate, let's examine the definition of authentication (as a process) in RFC 2828.

An authentication process consists of two steps:

1. Identification step: Presenting an identifier to the security system. (Identifiers should be assigned carefully, because authenticated identities are the basis for other security services, such as access control service.)


2. Verification step: Presenting or generating authentication information that corroborates the binding between the entity and the identifier.

The ID number is an identifier. It is a 13 digit numeric string that is unique to all legal South African permanent residents (citizens and non-citizens). The verification step rests solely with the Department of Home Affairs. However, companies never make that leap - the Identity number and the associated Identity book has become a one stop authentication solution which it was not designed to be (or it would have other built in verification steps). Since business rely solely on the ID book and the ID number, the verification step is incomplete and thus ID fraud takes place.

The ID number does not necessarily need to be private. it is after all an unique identifier for persons - a more unique name. What is required is an easier, usable and secure verification service. That is the answer to identity theft resulting from "stolen" identity numbers. As for privacy of identity numbers - the number itself does not need to be private - it is after all an identifier. However, that does not mean that every one should collect the numbers. There should still be a reason to collect information, and should it be collected, there needs to be secure storage of the data. In these regards the EU privacy directive is absolutely correct.

Music: Chromium and The Frail

It's another thing I have not realy got used to in Johannesburg - gigs start a lot earlier and finish mostly around 12. Maybe it's bylaws - so while there were quite a few bands at Roxy's last night - I only got round to seeing two.

Chromium, is an ex PE based, currently Johannesburg based, metal band. I am impressed that they even have a Wikipedia page! A 4-piece band - they have great music, and well written songs. And they seem to have a fairly large following - it was really packed for their gig, and it wasn't all friends and family.

The Frail, are a band from Secunda - and are a testament to the possibility of great music being produced by bands from obscure towns. Great songs, and great stage presence (from the vocalist at least). The crowd was not as big as Chromium's, but I think the mosh pit was a lot bigger.

Neotel's Neoconnect Service is Kak

I got a Neotel account in April, and it has been a big waste of money. Yes, price wise they are very competitive - but if only they would deliver a service that they are offering. This is supposed to be broadband, but I have never got download speeds exceeding 100 KBps (or 800 kbps). The normal speeds I do get on a good day, is usually half that - averaging between 40 and 50 KBps.

But it is not the speed that is the most frustrating thing - it is the latency. And coupled with that - the failure to really deliver true broadband usage. Streaming video - forget it; unless you are willing to buffer it all and then play it back (so not useful for any live streaming). Streaming audio - if you must, at very patchy and unusable rates. File downloads ... hope it does not cut out - but sometimes it is so bad that even download agents give up because they exhaust the number of retries!

As for their phone service - I don't really use it to give real input. But the speaker phone functionality (on the hardware side) is awful and the voice quality is not exactly crystal clear. It has come to the stage that I am seriously considering cancelling the contract and going with Telkom - because I have no faith that Neotel will actually manage to fix all these issues with their service.

So far, in my experience, the 3G services from Vodacom has been the most reliable and the only service that offers reliable and usable broadband. However, it is just too expensive to really use it for everything - but Neotel is certainly not competing on quality.

Music: Sun to Moon Festival

Jo'burg clubs seem to have a lot of "festivals" - days where a number of bands come togetehr and play for more or less the whole day. The prices are very cheap (usually around R50) but the bands are usually not much to sing about; and hence I only go in the evenings and catch the final few bands. This time around (last Saturday), the bands had decent 45 minute sets, and the mixing was of a much higher quality - definitely increasing listening pleasure.

I only saw the last couple of songs from Laconia - a Pretoria (sorry Tswane) based metal band - and they seemed quite interesting; although none of the songs seemed anything particularly special.

Soil 7t7 was a wierd addition to the playlist at this point - as their music has quite a bit of reggae/ska influences. They also try the Linkin Park idea of combining rap and rock - but not very well. The guitarist is very good though - and they have excellent variety in music - so they are worth checking out just for that.

Runica, a goth/metal (of some label or other) band, had a great performance - and had some good music; although I cannot say that there was something that stood out. I quite liked their show, and would like to see them again sometime.

The interestingly named Mrs B, was the last band of the night. Playing mostly classic rock, they were definitely the standout performance of the night - with an amazing stage presence. They really combine well on stage, and look like they are all having a lot of fun. The music is very lively, and combines well with their stage antics.

Nothing to Hide

Air New Zealand's new ad campaign has gone viral on YouTube, and is certainly a lot more interesting when compared to other viral videos. The ad features pilots, air hosts/hostesses and ground staff in nothing body paint, with a tag line that they have nothing to hide - especially in their pricing.



They have also redone their safety video (Bare Essentials of Safety) - and what struck me as a fairly frequent flier; is that is actually a lot more effective in conveying information - even if the staff were to be dressed normally. The information on different brace positions, how to correctly inflate a life jacket (and not just telling you to pull tags) or what the indication lights at the floor level actually look like, is a lot more effective than safety videos of any airline I have flown in the past two years.

No fences for the neighbours

My business meeting in Sweden was in a town called Norrköping, about 150 Km south of Stockholm. The train ride was through a very picturesque country-side - very much picture perfect of forest and rivers. After the meeting, I was given a short tour of the area, and one very striking thing was the almost complete lack of fences between properties. Coming from South Africa, it is a very weird sight indeed!

Summer, Finally

It has been a strange week so far, weather-wise. Darmstadt and Frankfurt was cold - with almost no difference to the temperatures in SA. Berlin was warmer, but misty, overcast and mostly not too much fun (today at least, yesterday was not too bad). But finally in Stockholm, there is glorious sunshine and no forecast of rain for the foreseeable future. And it is in the mid 20s!

The SAS flight from Berlin was interesting - and unfortunately did not feature any hot blond hostesses :( The plane had three classes: business class which was basically the first two rows on the plane, economy seats and some legroom; economy plus (where I was) and economy. It was only when we got on air, that the differences became clear - business got food and drinks on nice cutlery; economy plus got food and drinks in the standard plastic/polystyrene packaging and economy had to pay for their food and drinks! It's the first time I have seen this kind of distinction on a plane - and in many respects it makes sense. I wonder who else will copy them ...

Awesome World Cup Ad

While flipping channels, saw this awesome World Cup ad. It starts with a young boy juggling an imaginary football, and slowly getting a lot more people juggling footballs, with a great tag "Rhythm like you you've never seen before".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMlKb1npzQ0



I have seen quite a few ads by Tourism South Africa, and they are generally very impressive, and many of them are available on YouTube. What is interesting however is the comments that are usually attached - especially the highly negative ones along the lines of South Africa is a den of evil and everyone who goes will step into a warzone to the defensive.

Many of the comments are by ex-South Africans (or from neighbouring countries) such as one I have seen calling himself "ex-Rhodie-racer". In those terms, the labelling of comments as racist is justified - but the fact is, many of the comments have some seeds of truth. After all, there are not that many places in the world where people live behind electric fences - although in other parts of the world, security guards for complexes wield machine guns ... so not exactly too different.

Ultimately, the success of the world cup will depend on visitor's overcoming the negative imagery of South Africa's security. Transport problems - people at some level expect them. I have been to sporting events outside South Africa, where it took hours to get to the gate because of traffic ... and I started at dawn; or where people had to queue for the next train or the one after that, because there was no space. And stories of players and supporters getting robbed (even if the players might be the ones to blame) does not help the image of South Africa's security. But in the same vein, the success of the IPL does give us hope - but how do we combat the negative image?

Co-incidence

While queueing for the flight to Frankfurt last night, I met an old friend I had last seen at UCT about 4 years ago. He was on his way to Dusseldorf, and was seated in the row behind me. Furthermore, he actually lives in Centurion, not too far from me (last I heard, he was in a different province altogether)... it's a small world.

I arrived in Darmstadt early in the morning, and the hotel allowed early checkin. I had originally planned to travel to Stuttgart, but the journey times was not attractive (or I had to pay a lot of money for the fast train tickets) - I should have planned better. Instead, I took the opportunity offered by the hotel, and rested :) 10 hour flights on board Lufthansa economy class are quite tiring.

Although it is supposedly summer in Europe, it does not really feel like it. It is in fact only a few degrees warmer than it was in Johannesburg. And there is a slight drizzle - so exploring Darmstadt is not much of an option either. Well, at least Berlin is a lot more promising.

Vodacom Funny Festival

The Vodacom Funny Festival kicked off for the 3rd edition last night, starring a number of highly regarded local comics and two international acts. Of the local acts (3 dedicated acts excluding Marc Lottering himself), Trevor Noah was my personal favourite. I have seen him before at the Blues Room in Sandton, and he has an amazing ability with languages and makes full use of it. Tumi Morake, the opening act, and the only lady, brought a fairly different set of jokes to the stage; while Nik Rabinowitz was very much a comic taking the maximum advantage of Western Cape politics.

Of the international acts, John Lenahan's magic show was certainly very different to standard comic performances - although, as he himself commented, the magic itself is not the focus of the act.

But by far the best act on show, was the crazy Japanese duo called Gamarjobat. Part mime, part slapstick and very clever - they managed to get the audience laughing (in fact it probably ranked as a ROFL and not a LOL :D) without a single spoken word. Their act is theatre and comedy at its very best, and somewhat similar to the comics of the silent screen. They are not playing for the whole festival - only until 1 July, and if nothing else, they are the reason to go attend the festival.

Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra - Again ...

After my first visit to the JPO, 2 weeks ago; I was hooked. Hooked enough to be contemplating a "season" ticket for the next season, starting in August. This time around, it was a Russian evening once again, with a young American pianist Pallavi Mahidhara, as the soloist.

The first short piece was the overture to Glinka's Russlan and Ludmilla Opera followed by Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2 in C Minor a very impressive musical piece, and Mahidhara's performance was brilliant, richly deserving the standing ovation at the end. The last piece, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 4 in F Minor was really a celebration of what an orchestra is all about - a lot of different musical instruments combining with perfect timing. Particularly humourous for me, were the guys standing up to play the triangle and cymbals (after sitting down for about 90% of the piece).

Wonderboom

Wonderboom are old hands on the rock scene in South Africa. With numerous hits, and a long time on the South African scene; they are one of the most professional bands - and their gigs show it. They have their own crew, mixing was perfect and guitars and equipment were all set up before the gig. But most of all, the band has chracters and great on stage performance - from the drunk and essentric drummer (Danny), the subdued lead guitarist, Martin to a very energetic bass guitarist, Wade and great vocalist in Cito - they combine well, and give a great show.

Back 2 Basix is a strange venue in many respects - it used to be a house - and so it feels quite intimate. But despite the great band, the crowd was quite small - about 30 to 40 - and not the 100 odd expected (as per the barman). But despite the small crowd, it was a rocking show, and definitely one of the best rock shows I have been to in Jo'burg.

Security and Liberty

According to the Mail and Guardian, the founder of Auto and General (a South African short term insurance company) has offered the government R1 Billion to fund a new approach to crime fighting.

Essentially his plan is to provide a lot more technology tools - satellites, helicopter patrols, computers etc. While the motivation is certainly noble, as is the business motivation (less crime leads to less theft leading to less payouts for A&G), two questions need to be asked.

1) Is funding the main cause of South Africa's, so far, unsuccessful battle against crime. And,

2) Are high tech solutions such as satelites and CCTV cameras worth it.

On the first question - I don't think money itself is an issue. The South African police need better pay, better training, more motivation, better tools. I somehow doubt R1 billion is what the government has been missing and thus could not implement. That said, every little bit helps.

In terms of high tech solutions, I am reminded of the quote:
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." --- Benjamin Franklin
that is often brought up in privacy papers (and in Civ 4). There is always a trade-off between security and indiviual liberty. The tighter the security controls, the less individual liberty and vice-versa. It would be good for the police to all have computer systems that can efficiently capture reports (crime, accidents etc) and provide correlation of different crimes in terms of time and location. However, linking police solutions to high end monitoring solutions such as CCTV cameras with facial recognition would start to erode liberty that South Africa struggled to achieve.

Ultimately, the root causes of crime in South Africa, including the lack-lusture justice system need to be addressed. Better policing will help, but not necessary solve the problem.

Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra

I don't know the technicalities and the jargon of music - especially classical music. However, I really like listening to classical music - it is very different to rock, metal, jazz and hip=hop - there is a certain grandeur and complexity that is just not present in most modern music. There is also a certain air of "class" - performers are all dressed up and the audience is all dressed up in smart/formal wear. And although most of the audience is old grey haired pensioners, there are more than a few young people.

I came across the listing of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra by chance - and the lineu-up of russian composers was intriguing (not that I recognised any of the names). The first piece - Overture to Prince Igor (Alexander Borodin) - was comparatively short, and an excellent warm-up to the rest of the concert. The second piece, Piano Concerto No 3 in C Major (Sergei Prokofiev) featured Japanese soloist Ayano Shimada, and had a amazing conclusion. While the first parts were seemingly simple, the latter parts featured amazingly complex musical performance - both from the soloist and the supporting orchestra. The last piece was my favourite for the evening - Scheherazade, Opus 35 (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov) - a trully grand masterpiece involving a mix of a number of differenct musical instruments and sounds.

Apart from the music - two other thoughts: watching the conductor do his thing is quite a lot of fun and the guy who plays the cymbals had impecable timing, but looked quite bored most of the time. I am still not sure why the conductor is so valued, but his direction of various performers was quite amusing to watch.

Orchestral music is amazing in its complexity - the number of different parts and the timing of the various actors. I am really keen to go again - esp in two weeks time for the last concert of the current season featuring a few more Russian composers, only this time I know of them :)

ITWeb Security Summit

I have been to many conferences, but this is the first time I have been to an industry only focussed conference. Apart from the product placements, the key difference between academic and industry conferences is in the level of detail and the practical application of the knowledge. In academic conferences, there is real in-depth knowledge and discussions while most presentations at industry seem to be at the glossy level - and stop just as things were getting really interesting. Conversely, the practicality of issues dealt with at this conference was much more tangible than that at academic conferences.

There were some great talks in the past three days - Phil Zimmerman's keynote on VoIP security, Tyler Moore's talk on economics of security, Fransisco Artes' talk on security of MMO games and really interesting talk by "The Grugq" on why there are criminal hackers.

What was ultimately annoying, was the short time spans of some of the really interesting technical talks (20 minutes) - hardly much time to discuss complex topics such as internet telescopes, privacy from data correlation across multiple online sources or even seemingly simpler topics such as security of IPv6.

I was also involved in a "pubcast" (which has yet to be released) - seemingly out of the blue. And I won a bottle of French Champagne at a product launch - although lost out on the Russian vodka, personalised golf clubs, the portable hard-drives, blackberries and numerous other lucky draws from vendors.

Melodic Mayhem @ Tempo's

Although I have known about Tempo's since I have been in Gauteng, I have only gone there a few times. Tempos frequently organises "festivals" comprising of a lineup of a number of bands - although whether there is a theme to the bands is questionable. While the festival started early in the afternoon, I only went through in the evening, so I did not catch all the acts. This post only covers the notable bands IMO. I was quite surprised at the small crowd, and most of them were family and friends of the bands.

By far the best band of the evening was Soul Picnic. They are a new band, playing largely "old school" rock - similar to Perez in a way, and despite the small, non-interactive crowd - they put on a great show. Their songs are great, and their combination of different musical styles is a good breath of fresh air. I am definitely keen to see them again.

Only Forever and Holly and the Woods were the best supported bands of the evening - although, it was a pity that most of the supporters only pitched up during the performance, and left soon after. Only Forever had a dynamic performance on the stage, although I thought they were rather ordinary musically. Holly and the Woods do not feature any band member called Holly, but their lead singer Melissa is not exactly the stereotypical rock star wannabe. She does have a great voice, and a great collection of songs. Furthermore, the combination of cover songs by bands such as Skunk Anansie and their own made a great lineup. Of the two, I definitely found Holly and the Woods more entertaining.

Autumn Sun was the band I was really interested in seeing. While the music was definitely interesting (the keyboard element of the bands makes it more symphonic - but it has not really translated into the performance itself), the mixing was horrible. I would really like to see them again, and hopefully with better mixing.

World Superbike Championship

The 6th round of World Superbike Championship for 2009 took place this weekend in Kyalami. I am not a big fan of Superbikes, and apart from Moto GP I don't really follow any bike racing (I follow Moto GP mainly through weekly columns in the Autosport Magazine). And apart from Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa, I haven't heard of most of the riders. That said, bike racing is usually very exciting with lots of action (both crashes and passing). And it was not disappointing - lots of passing, a few crashes (especially the big one in front of my grandstand) and great racing. The event was dominated by the Ducatti team though, with 1-2 finish in the both races.





The event was very well organised - park and ride facilities worked very well (esp in placement - one was 15 minutes walk from my flat) and very good crowd co-ordination and information booths etc. There was also other entertainment dotted around the circuit - from live music (though the "biker gang" musicians playing cover songs weren't that good) to a small amusement park for kids. The one thing to complain about however is the lack of food facilities - queue lines were usually over 1 hour in waiting time, and there was very little variety. While I can understand alcohol sales being controlled - there should have been more people selling cooldrinks and water. For a full day event, I think these are crucial components for a sucessful event.



My other gripe was the small viewing screens and the limited number of them. Kyalami is an oddly shaped circuit, and viewing screens are essential to follow the race. That said, the race commentary was excellent, and did not require a radio.

Jazz at the Lincoln Centre Presents ...

The Lincoln Centre is one of the major cultural patrons in New York, and hosts all the "high" culture events like operas, ballet and Shakespeare performances. Together with the US government, their Jazz foundatin takes prominent Jazz musicians to other parts of the world. At the Bassline last night (and for that matter tonight) the program presented two artists.

I like Jazz, but I don't really follow it. I have been to a few Jazz gigs at Kennedy's in Cape Town - but nothing seriously. There were not that many options last night on the live music front, so decided to see what it was like.

Salim Washington is a saxophonist and was supported by a number of South African band members - playing a number of fairly long Jazz numbers. The music was quite somber, almost blues-like, and the collaboration with the band members was quite impressive. He is due to perform in Durban and Grahamstown Arts Festival in the next few weeks.

Helen Sung is a pianist, and was supported by her own band. The music was far more lively, and a lot more varied - including jazz interwoven with poetry. It was a really impressive performance and very entertaining. She will be playing at the Baxter next week, with the UCT Big Band.

So overall, it was definitely a good idea to go to the Jazz ... should go more often in fact.