Gregoogle - Gregor Rohrig

Social networking – it’s all geek to me, or not!

2007-01-28T06:48:00.000+02:00

The 27 Geek dinner does not comprise of 27 spectacle-wearing, pale skinned, nerds, discussing the binary code of the mainframe within the Starship Enterprise, but rather of a community of online and net-savvy people, who share a mutual interest in the development and functionality of the online sphere.

The dinner is held monthly, respectively on the 27th day of each month, alternating between Johannesburg and Cape Town, offering an effective real-life social networking platform. The dinners are comprised of speeches, presentations, free wine, and good food, but most of all a gathering where people who normally converse via IM services and are in contact via various online networks, meet, discuss, laugh, have fun, and entertain the overall specific content of online.

In my opinion, the latest Geek dinner (and the first I have attended thus far) was a great success. Thumbs up to the organisers! I felt comfortable socialising and networking since I have gotten to know most attendants via the contexts of their blogs, websites, ect. Meeting people, who one normally only converses with through online social networks creates a sense of a strong, growing, and exciting online community. It is also refreshing switching phone numbers instead of URL’s.

These dinners will strengthen the ties between the local online communities and thus could have very positive and effective effects within local online start-ups and collaborative projects in future.

What ended at 1am, in Melville, with Aquila, Dave, Carly, and Victoire, was a phenomenal evening, which left me with some really exciting contacts and motivation to blog with and for an audience which I have come face to face with. Looking forward to March 27th!

Have a look on Chilibean’s (Chilibean.Chilibean,Chilibean) blog, there is more info and even a video clip of the evening. More pics also to be found on Aquila’s flickr account.

It's all a matter of timing

2007-01-25T22:08:00.000+02:00

This has concerned me for a while now, not to the extent that I suffer of sleepless nights; however it is an issue that I get reminded of on a daily basis. Find yourself a glossy magazine, and look for the first watch advertisement…or just have a look at the back, normally you recognize Brad Pitt or ~~Cameron Diaz~~ Uma Thurman showing off a silver Tag Heuer.

Now, look what time it is on the watch and then brows through the rest of the glossy and compare the times. 99% of the time you will find that the time on watches in adverts is set between 10:07 and 10:10. The only reasoning I can find for this is that maybe that specific constellation of arms allows for the maximum exposure of the face (not of Brad Pitt, that of the watch). Or maybe it looks nice and balanced.

Whatever the reason is, it is an industry standard to present watches with this specific time constellation and now that you aware of it will haunt you for ever and ever!

All McGyver Ever Needs …

2007-01-23T06:52:00.000+02:00

via neatorama

Time to uncover the truth about Brad Pitt and his wrist!

2007-01-23T00:17:00.000+02:00

I conducted some research for my last post about the watch advertisement, to make sure that it was accurate. But then I stumbled over what will possible be the worlds largest scam of all times (excuse the pun)!

My last post was motivated by an advert on the back of a Men's Health magazine, which presented Brad Pitt, wearing the new Tag Heuer Carrera watch. Then I started looking at adverts online and I stumbled over a Tag advert which had very similar attributes to the last one. The pic of Brad was identical to the ad I saw in the Men's Health. Just the watches were different. Now isn’t that just grand!? Not only is that very slack from the advertisers, using the same image twice, I also consider this being highly uncreative. But most of all, Brad Pitt is used to market this, however he doesn’t actually wear it. The watches are digitally edited into the picture, making the image firstly a complete lie, and secondly also confirming that the product is actually not worn by Pitt.

The more I write about it, the more I am shocked by this swindl! Sure, advertising to this degree is based on product placement and using public figures to promote products, but when it becomes apparent that the advert is not even ‘real’, when it becomes obvious that a product has been photo-shopped into a generic image, then that also reflects on the ethic of the company who is advertising the product.

The image of Pitt is nothing more than a false landscape beautifying the actual product. Pitt in this case is no different to the mud-ridden hillside presented in Land Rover ads, or the green background of a Kulula advert.

Brad's wrist in both pics are bare, no watch, just some Pittyful armhair...

iPhone, uPhone, blah blah blah – a tactic gone wrong!

2007-01-18T06:38:00.000+02:00

Yes, yes, I also like the iPhone, I think it looks great and the features sound amazing. But enough of that, since the hype of the iPhone only to be released at the end of 2007 (inSA) is a little to much for my liking.

I was surprised by the introduction of this phone before it actually got released, but it might have been market pressure. It seems like there is some form of technological breakthrough with this product, such as the interface and its overall functionality, but since the introduction of the iPhone various other phone models have been leaked and announced to provide similar functionality and ideas.

Chilibean (thanks for the motivation to write this post) posted about the Nokia Aeon which seems to work on a very fancy looking interface as well – and it looks simply breathtaking! Then there is the Google Switch, even though it’s just speculation, this might be the next Googlephone, oh and wait, look, also based on interface technology. Furthermore LG has released a phone which apparently has been publicized as the "first completely touch screen mobile phone".

With the iPhone only being released mid 2007 and end of 2007 in SA, I think Jobs’ strategy was not all too clever. Until the iPhone is available on the market there will be a rise in new phone models boasting the same ideas, with the similar interface and functionality. The iPhone obviously has the upper hand when it comes to marketing and product placement, and the interconnectivity between Apple products - but their potential downfall with this products’ high cost, where asby the time of its release its novelty will be worn off completely.

The real Google AdSense infiltration

2007-01-15T06:01:00.000+02:00

It was just a matter of time until $Google$ release its multi-billion-$-online-beast into the real world. After various speculations how the $Google$ web advertising system, “AdSense”, could be utilized with a variety of online multimedia (i.e. YouTube) the NewScientistTech reports on a patent Google apparently as filed.

Google’s AdSense, which displays adverts for products related to the page being viewed now, wants to do the same for billboard ads.

"In a patent the company has filed, it argues that however glitzy the ads that run on electronic billboards in shopping malls and out on the street, they are all but useless if local stores have not got the advertised products in stock. Google has come up with a system that only advertises products available nearby."

According to the NewScientistTech, stores can purchase advertising time on their local electric billboards which are connected to the clients’ stock-control computers. The ads are displayed repeatedly until the stock-control computer reports a product to be sold out. If this happens the ad is omitted from the cycle until the product is restocked.

One the one hand this kind of advertisement system is really smart, since consumers do like to buy what they see advertised, hoping that the specific product is in stock.

However, within an online environment, where products can be purchased globally, at any time, and at a rate which is not comparable to any local shopping mall’s retail store, the idea of advertising the actual stock seems to be of much more importance. Shops in local malls surely do not really have the vast amount / constant consumer traffic as online shops have. The above mentioned system thus seems to still be more appropriate to the virtual consumerist world.

It is either way interesting to note that the AdSense system is expanding from the online into the ‘real’ consumerist environment and will no doubt be soon visible on our local radar screen.

Gregoogle Classifieds?

2007-01-14T05:35:00.000+02:00

If anyone's interesting in purchasing the following:

- Nikon D100 Digital SLR + MB-D100 Grip + 1GB Compact Flash + 2x Li-Ion Batteries
- Nikon 18-35mm with UV filter
- Nikon 28-105 with UV filter

Entire Pro Kit has been used by a professional photographer (me) and are in very good condition. Included are the charger and cord, battery, manual, TV cable, USB cable.

Contact me: gregor.rohrig [at] gmail [dot] com

The scarce blogger

2007-01-14T00:27:00.000+02:00

I must apologise for the lack of blogging at the moment. My notebook is still sitting at Rectro n for repairs ( over 2 weeks now) and the machine I am using currently is not very user (net) friendly...

Will be back on track soon with some exciting posts and a (hopefully) great new site!

Wild Wired Predictions for 2007

2006-12-29T00:55:00.000+02:00

With three day to go before we have to get used to writing '07, Wired has published an article on some of the wildest predictions for 2007.

I have not listed all of them but have chosen my favorites:

Here are some Wild Wired predictions for 2007:

GoogleStock Hits $1,000 per Share
Second Life Ends a Life: Skullduggery in Second Life - probably digital adultery- ends in a real-life murder.
Year o' the Laptop: Half of all new computers sold in 2007 will be laptops of which 20 percent will be Apple's MacBooks.
Print to Web: A major newspaper gives up printing on paper to publish exclusively online.
PaedoSpace: Sex offenders start their own social networking service. It's popular on Capitol Hill.
Greenland Becomes Green: As the ice melts, Greenland becomes literally green.
A human embryo is cloned for real.
Don't Don't Be Evil: Google drops "Don't be evil" as its corporate mantra.
NYT Goes Free:The New York Times opens its archives from behind the paid firewall, realizing it's more lucrative to be the internet's paper of record than charging readers for individual stories.

If you're interested in some 2007 Web predictions have a look here: 2007 Web Predicitons

Let's wait and see what will happen, wishing everyone some great last days of 2006!
Pic by: squidish CC-BY-2.0

Intruding festive spirits!

2006-12-24T11:16:00.000+02:00

Normally I don't jump up when Father Christmas slides down our chimney, it is a very noisy and messy approach, but since it's Christmas it's expected.

But last night my jump was justified. Whilst watching TV around 1am a metal shatter frightened the living daylights out of me, this was followed by my brother pressing the panic button, resulting in the alarm siren waking the neighborhood.

And for the first time in many years this was unfortunately not a false alarm.

Luckily the festive intruders did not get into the house and no one was harmed, except our wall, and the accompanying barbwire. So after 2 hours of park and property search, security statements and a very wound up family discussion about the houses' security it was back to bed...starting Christmas with a little scare this year!

Merry Christmas from the groogle!

2006-12-23T08:41:00.000+02:00

So it's nearly Christmas, meaning the holiday has started and the blog will take a break till the new year.

So I wish all a very merry and festive christmas, may it be relaxing, exciting, and fulfilling (from all the food of course)!

Found this image on flickr and could not resist. That's the African Rudolf right there :)

Pic: by cobalt CC-BY-SA 2.0

Local Marketing Podcast announced

2006-12-22T10:34:00.000+02:00

Mike Stopforth and Dave Duarte have officially announced the launch of Amplitude - A New Marketing Podcast for South Africans (by South Africans).

Am listening to it whilst writing this post and am impressed with the quality and content of their first (virgin) podcast. What I really enjoy is that it flows and is based on a completely natural conversation. The cast discusses these topics:

Introducing the podcast as the first and last show of 2006
Mike and Dave chat about what they want to do with the podcast
They discuss the Mike Arrington vs. Sam Sethi kerfoefel and how that affects their brand
E2 in Regent Road SeaPoint has the Marketing Maneuvre of the week
The SA Banking industry is the collective Tonsil of the week

As far as I know Dave was sitting in Cape Town and was talking to Mike via Skype. This could explain a slight quality loss from Dave's side, but it could also just be the microphone he used.

Look out for this podcast, its new, fresh, and boasts a great local feel.

Comm-on, just CC your blog!

2006-12-21T02:32:00.000+02:00

Adding an appropriate licence agreement to your blog just makes sense!

Forget copyrighting and limiting your content as a blogger, especially if you quote other peoples blogs, like most bloggers do anyway!

This sudden spurt of excitement results from a post I just read by Chilibean , who writes about using a Creative Commons licence for your blog (and thanks to his CC license I can quote him without having to worry about any legal ramifications) :

If your intention, as a blogger, is to have your content and your thoughts distributed as widely as possible, then reserving all your rights to your content is counterproductive.

I strongly recommend reading Chilibean's post as it outlines, and in detail, explains the ideas and the functions behind using Creative Commons licenses as bloggers - and when one actually thinks about it, it seems like a commonsensical idea! Trying to limit your content by using a full copyright statement just is'nt that smart!

Photograph: Getting creative with CC, one of the winners of the CC Swag contest, by Franz Patzig, CC BY 2.O

Discovering lost treasures!

2006-12-20T08:00:00.000+02:00

You can find a new set of pics on my flickr account. Initially called QuickSnap, I have renamed the series to The Photographers as it depicts pictures of people taking photographs. These images have been in my archive for four years now and I stumbled across them tonight - taken with a Nikon F80 (a phenomenal camera).

I began the series when I was in London, being a tourist myself and snapping away, when I suddenly noticed that I was standing in the background of a couple who's picture was taken. I thought to myself that I am probably on quite a few strangers' pics and that that is quite an interesting thought...do you know on how many pictures you actually are, and that you might be gazed upon subconsciously by a Japanese family after their visit to the Lost City? In that moment my focus was redirected, away from Westminster Abbey, to the actual tourist, taking pictures of them documenting their surroundings.

Additionally I edited the pics allowing the original colour only to stay with the actual photographer, symbolically representing the background as the picture taken by the photographer.

Flickr-ing away!

2006-12-19T16:24:00.000+02:00

So I used to have a flickr account for my social development project here. Then there was the Blogging Indaba for which I was taking the official pics, and they where hosted here. For over a year now I have been a dedicated flickr pro member and have finally transferred all my images onto my main pro account. A little frustrating since the images had collected some commentary on the other accounts, but now they are at least all together, under one roof and much easier to manage.

So if you wondering why the latest pics are dated back to mid year it's because they where taken then :)

Best time in JHB

2006-12-19T08:58:00.000+02:00

Is it because everybody is doing their last minute xmas shopping? Or are people going later to work, or generally chilling somewhere on SA's coastline?

The weeks before and after xmas are normally the most tolerable in this city. I speak from a drivers perspective here. My drive to work literally takes half the time than usual and I arrive way more relaxed and in good spirits since I did not have to dodge cars squeezing in-front of me, nor speed up to rid those fog lights sticking to my bumper. There is a real sense of calmness on the roads at the moment, making me wish that these few holidays weeks could go on for ever.

What scares me though are the amount of people in shopping centers...did they all walk there?

How the traffic in your city?

Pic: poagao ny-nd 2.0

Unsound podcast - rather use your voice!

2006-12-15T01:54:00.000+02:00

Curious as to what is happening on the quiet campus of Rhodes University (and waiting to check my final results) I visited the Universities Studentzone, finding my way onto the StudentZone news page.

And surprisingly I find podcasts under every news entry.

Now, I really don't know if they have been purposefully created to humour the idea of podcasts, because the actual podcasts consist of text-to-speech generated content. A text-to-speech program has been used to 'read' (and horridly mispronounce many phrases) the content available on the site - offering an extremely boring, monotonous and sometimes undecipherable podcast.

A quirky idea to try out , but definatly no means of catering for an audience who enjoy the idea of podcasts - have a listen here and decipher the message.

"Local is Lekker"...

2006-12-12T06:06:00.000+02:00

.. is what chilibean says after announcing having had bookmarked South African blogs on his del.isio.us account for quite a while now. And it is indeed "lekker" (lekk-irr with a rolling r - SA slang for nice, good, great, cool or tasty) because the list offers a very wide verity of local blogs and also shows that the SA blogosphere is quite large and expanding!

The ever growing del.isio.us list and the popular SA blog directory offer some great resources!

iCommons podcast coming up soon

2006-12-08T00:57:00.000+02:00

So today we produced the first iCommons podcast. The day began by driving around town finding a decent microphone, not an easy task since we were looking for a multi-directional mic and ended up purchasing a standard desk pc mic. It picks up sound and is part of the experience of trying out various technical equipment until finding the perfectly suitable one for this kind of recording.

As I write this, the podcast is being recorded in the office. Reuben Goldberg has introduced the team, including Heather Ford, Rebecca Kahn, Matthew Buckland, Paul Jacobson, and Whispa, the winner of the recently held ccmixter competition. Topics discussed are the ccmixter competition, the idea and a review of open source movies and a story of a successfully used Creative Commons license.

The podcast seems to be going well, the mic has to be passed to the person speaking but everybody is eager to discuss and add their point of view. Once the podcast has been edited and added to the iCommons site I'll provide a link, it sure is worth a listen and is the beginning of a series of interesting podcasts to come.

UPDATE: visit the iCommons site to find and listen to the podcast!

A short update

2006-12-07T03:27:00.000+02:00

It's been a long, but good week(oh, it's not over yet!). Working for Creative Commons is very rewarding. The work at this stage is always interesting as it is something new and always part of some larger project / idea. I've been doing some web development this week, also laying out website wire frames, collecting content for databases and reading through quite a bit of legal guidelines for upcoming projects. I'm involved with a South African podcasting project which will prove itself highly beneficial in close future, or so I hope. Last night was the iCommons xmas party, with a lot of good food, drinks, and interesting discussions. It is so nice meeting new people (most of whom where Rhodes alumni, but so am I now I guess) and getting acquainted with the office staff on a more social and relaxed level.

Furthermore, Gregoogle is now active in Second Life, flying around and trying to figure out how what works and why – next mission is to visit the Creative Commons Island to meet some commoners - then again, my avatar is quite a scary looking fellow :P

The Loftcube is ready - give me land or a skyscraper!

2006-12-06T09:58:00.000+02:00

So living in Johannesburg is an expensive task. Paying rent or purchasing a place is an even more expensive experience, especially since the property market is perversely overpriced. This sad fact comes at a time where I am looking for a decent place to stay. But thanks to Cherryflava I have found an option which I would (if I could) really consider...

It is called a Loftcube, designed by Werner Aisslinger, and is a prefabricated mobile home, looks very modern, compact, clean, and you can take with you wherever you decide to live...kinda...

Cherryflava describes it as

“a prefab, pod-like lair that you can have helicoptered onto any unused flat surface. No mess - no fuss...brilliant. Interiors can be customised to your tastes and possible pod-landing areas could include the top of high-rise buildings, to unused land in plett”

The interior space is a modular structure, offering customised partitioning via wall panels. The gross living area is just 39sqm, a tad small, but then again it is a mobile home. The Loftcube costs round about €55,000 (or about R522 000)...then there are of course still the property costs, you think they'll be very high? Top of the Carlton Center maybe? Or in your friends backyard?

The Loftcube website is great. It's interactive and explains the concept of the Loftcube with strong visuals and animated story lines.

iTube you bru*!

2006-12-05T02:15:00.000+02:00

This is cool. No, this is really cool! I've been wondering for some time now how to safe YouTube vids onto my laptop, and now I found an even better compromise.

A freeware known as iTube (PodTube for Mac users) makes it really easy to downlaod, convert, and add YouTube videos to your computer AND your iPod (the video iPod that is)

Using iTube on Windows, one simply pastes the YouTube URL into iTube, at which point it also downloads, converts, and adds the file to your iTunes library.

Its a really small application to download an works like a charm. Now I can stock up on some videos and use them to kill some time when waiting for meetings or people arriving late to lunches

PodTube (Mac) [djodjodesign.free.fr via Epic Empire]
iTube (Windows) [benjaminstrahs.com via Epic Empire]

Thanks to Lifehacker for the link.

*Bru, South African slang for "brother" or "friend"

Tackling the commons...

2006-12-01T05:25:00.000+02:00

I am currently working at the iCommons offices in Johannesburg, doing an internship for Creative Commons South Africa.

Firstly, the team I'm working with is great. Together with Heather Ford, Daniela Feris, and Rebecca Kahn I'll be tackling various exciting projects, ranging from content, multimedia and web development for the CCsa site, and also a very interesting legal pod casting project. On the list of tasks is of course making tea, shining shoes, fetching the post and polishing the doorhandles (hehe, actually not just yet).

The working environment is fantastic, a small open office with 4 people (including myself) caters for easy interaction and transparency – and with so much happening in the world of CC at the moment I am bound to have an awesome experience here.

I'll be linking to some projects and sites that I'm working on soon. Till then – free your content! :)

No speeding through the animal kingdom

2006-11-29T08:32:00.000+02:00

Following a 10 hour drive, some red bulls, dry wors, roadkill, chewing gum, and a kick ass ipod playlist (thanks to Russ), I have reached destination: Johannesburg.

The drive went well, except on our way to Bedford, when a BMW traveling towards us, presented a completely shattered windshield, a crumpled roof and sprays of shiny blood all over the bonnet and windows. The last thing I wanted was a 300kg Kudu on my windscreen so I took it easy on the R350, one of the most hazardous roads I have ever traveled on. It is notorious for its high accident rate due to the large amount for wild animals roaming the area from the surrounding farm lands and game parks. I have traveled that route more than a dozen times during the last four years and every time encountered wild animals either jumping over or alongside the road – once even resulting in a full on emergency stop (damn Porcupine). The area is full of Kudu, Hartebeest, Vervet Monkey, Klip Dassie and small antelope – oh and apparently there are deer too, according to Russ.

On that note – since a lot of us rip Russ of about having seen deer in the Eastern Cape (it sounds absurd since they are not typically African animal species) I found this article which states that the early Settlers brought with them Fallow Deer, also known as ‘Takbok’, to the Bedfords area, over 140 years ago.

All in all, the trip was successful, the car is unpacked, now it is a matter of time getting used to the Jo’burg vibe again – looking forward to some really exciting times here

Time to leave

2006-11-27T02:50:00.000+02:00

My blogging has been scarce lately, I know. But there has been numerous things to do before leaving for Johannesburg. Packing itself takes most of the time, and getting rid of appliances and furniture is a nightmare.

So with 48 hours left in this town I have said all my goodbyes, I have packed all my bags (nearly) and am enjoying the last day just chilling with my friends and girlfriend, eating out, having a couple of drinks and taking all of this in for one last time. This is an amazing place, this has been a wonderful and fantastic journey, and it's a good time to leave and move on.

My next blog entry will be from Johannesburg where a completly new life awaits me - see you there!

What cameras do flickr users use?

2006-11-22T02:11:00.000+02:00

This might interest all the photographers and mobloggers who use flickr. Flickr Camera Finder shows graphs which present the number of Flickr members who have uploaded at least one photo with a particular camera on a given day over the last year.

According to flickr, “the graphs are ‘normalized’, which is a fancy way of saying that they automatically correct for the fact that more people join Flickr each day: the graph moving up or down indicates a change in the camera's popularity relative to all other cameras used by Flickr members.”

This information is quite interesting as it represents various trends, firstly: what type of camera is being predominantly used, secondly: how popular certain models are, and thirdly: how unpopular they become with the introduction of new models.

Another great feature is that of choosing a particular camera model, analysing its specific usage on flickr, seeing an up-to-date price comparison, user’s reviews, camera specs and then even exploring photos that have been taken by that specific model.

Cellphone models are also represented, however are under-represented, as flickr cannot always auto detect the mobile camera used.

The most popular mobile camera used is the Sony Ericsson K750i, where as the most popular camera in the flickr community is the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, also known as the Canon EOS 350D.

For camera enthusiasts, or potential buyers, this could prove itself as a very useful tool, since it is the quality of the image that we strive for when purchasing such equipment. And lets face it, the images presented on product pages are all taken by professionals in highly controlled environments and do not represent the quality of use by the average user.

I think this is very clever and interesting information to add into a social networking platform such as flickr - since it is a network of photography enthusiasts.

"The City of Saints" - that's why!

2006-11-21T02:46:00.000+02:00

Wikipedia states on the point of Grahamstown's Religion that

"For historic reasons, particularly the vibrancy of evangelism during Grahamstown's heyday, the City is home to more than forty religious buildings, and the nickname the "City of Saints" has become attached to Grahamstown."

As you could see from my previous post I was also under the impression that the number of religious buildings was between 40 and 50.

So today I took my camera, and continued last weeks mission, this time going to the Grahamstown Information Centre beforehand to get a list of all the places of worship and a city map. The list lists close to 100 places of worship! More than double as anticipated by most people I have talked to and good 'ol Wikipedia. And boy it's been a long day and a mission to find these places - and now I've found 35 worshipping places to be exact, of which 6 are unrecognisable and not on the list I have...

Interesting to note is the distribution of these churches. Within the city they are spread out quite evenly, unlike in the Township where one can find up to six churches lined up next to each other.

The flickr set is now filling up slowly, but it will take a good couple of days to finish this list.

Seeking churches - the pilgrimage begins

2006-11-14T02:47:00.000+02:00

So after receiving a good idea from Peas, to document the churches in Grahamstown, over and above the general documentation of this place, I set foot onto the roads today and started my search for the ~~40-something~~ ~~56 (thanks Alex)churches~~ close to 100 religious places of worship scattered around the area.

This task is not as easy as it sounds, and I walked a couple of hours from one end of town to the other (yes I know it sounds fast, but this place IS small) only documenting 10 religious structures, and getting stuck in a Herbal Healing shop looking at snake and Jackal skins...

On the list thus far is the Hindu Mandir, Trinity Church, Grahamstown Baptist Church, His People Christian Church, St. Clement's Anglican Church, River of Life Church, Commemoration Methodist Church, St.Patrick's Catholic Church, Chirst Church, and the former Synagogue which is now and attorneys office. You can view all images on my flickr set.

Next batch of pics coming soon, need to organize me a map of this place to find more churches...also keep an eye on the general Grahamstown flickr set for newbies.

A goat on the parking lot

2006-11-10T14:59:00.000+02:00

When one has to describe Grahamstown one can name various distinctive scenarios, such as the donkey carts that every so often cause traffic jams on our way to lectures, the vast amount of religious structures, the numerous street kids and parking meters lingering on High Street, the persistently varying weather patterns, or the herds of drunk students stumbling across News Street towards Mr Burger or Friar Tucks at night.

So I started my little mission today, which is to document the town, its places and people (pics can be found on my flickr account). I'm going out daily and capturing a few images which I can relate to from my experience here.

And when I came back this morning I felt like I had not really captured a typical Grahamstown scenario, when I suddenly discovered a bakkie parked outside my place, with a man in a suit getting out of the vehicle, which was loaded with a goat. I have no idea where the man went, but for a good 15 minutes, I was sitting in front of my computer, starring out my window, at a goat on my parking lot. Could not have chosen a more typical scenario: random, very random, that = Grahamstown!

Watch my Grahamstown flickr set for new pics throughout the week, enjoy!

New addition to Jo's family

2006-11-10T10:20:00.000+02:00

We are happy do announce that Jo's Toolkit has a new student editor. Peter Barlow will be dealing with all student and academic related submissions and contributors for the website for the next year.

Peter was the former chief designer and later editor of the Rhodes University Independent student publication Activate and has an unbelievable passion for the development of student media. Carly and I will continue as managing editors focussing on soliciting content and contributors from the professional media sphere.

I wish Peter the best of luck and am excited to welcome him on board Jo's family!

Online to print Convergence – a one way street?

2006-11-08T02:02:00.000+02:00

It seems like we anticipate the online media to adapt what the print media is throwing out there. The convergence between print and online is difficult but here is an example which I find very interesting.

What the Mail and Guardian has done is insert a side bar on their second page of their print edition, presenting a list of the top 10 most-read stories on the MG Online from the previous week.

It is interesting to note that the latest edition (November 3 -9) presents a lot of South African content, compared to the previous edition (October 27 – November 2) which presented a lot of international stories.

I’d like to know how precise and representative this list is. Are these the top 10 stories read by local users or international users, and maybe find out what the difference in numbers between local and international readers actually is. How many local and how many international readers are there and does that reflect on what this top ten list presents?

Over and above the question of how this sample is being taken, I do think that this is a great way of starting the online-to-print convergence. Since most convergence is often focussed on print-to-online and not the other way round.

This sidebar firstly promotes the online content, as these stories are not to be found in the latest edition of the paper, and readers will have to go back to the website and find the specific article.

It is also interesting to note what kind of content is read online compared to the frontage stories of the print publication. Here it becomes obvious that the importance of the cover story is not necessarily the same in the online edition. The reason for this I would assume I that the front page of the newspaper is chosen by the editorial team, where as on the online edition the reader chooses what is most important to read.

I like the idea of exporting content from the online sphere into that of print. It is an interesting step of media convergence and I would be interested to see how much other online content can be transferred back to the print format.

Water is overrated - I'm over not having water!

2006-11-07T06:19:00.000+02:00

So we have moved (since last week) from no water, to dirty water, to toxic water, to cold and dirty water, to no water again , to warm water only, to non toxic water, to no water again, to dirty water again, to only cold water and now no water at all - again!

I'm speechless, maybe cause I'm dehydrated and my vocal chords have dried out, never the less, this is unacceptable...

Blogger Challange by Intel

2006-11-07T02:26:00.000+02:00

Here is a potentially insightful project. Intel Launched a Blogger Challenge providing laptop machines to 6 rising stars in the blogosphere. In return for these machines, the participating bloggers agreed to contribute to a group blog over the course of 5 weeks sharing their honest opinions and responses to a series of questions about blogging, the blogosphere and technology. The aim of this blog is meant to stimulate discussions and bring bloggers together regardless of their “categories.”

The bloggers have hit Week 2 now and the content is very interesting. Reason for this is also the fact this project is run by such a diverse choice of bloggers - the participants are:

The City Blogger - Jen Chung from The Gothamist
The Gadget Blogger - Mia Kim from Popgadget
The Video Blogger - Bre Pettis from Make Magazine
The Mommy Blogger - Mindy Roberts from The Mommy Blogger
The Tech Blogger - Paul Stamatiou from Paul Stamatiou
The Food Blogger - Pim Techamuanvivit from Chezpim

During the first week, the participants were asked why they blog and what they have accomplished through blogging. The question asked in the second week questioned the participants what kind of advice they would you give to others considering starting a blog, and to bloggers who want to make the most out of their blogs?

It sure makes for an interesting read and I’ll post some of my favourite quotes when the project has been completed.

Gregoogle is ready - time to sprint!

2006-11-06T07:03:00.000+02:00

Whilst everyone around me is going manic due to exam stress I have been revamping my blog, yes that is the beauty of not having to write exams any more, there is suddenly a lot of time.

Enjoy the new gregoogle menu bar at the top that will take you to my various online presences and a newly set out sidebar, with my all time favourite veeker mobile video player.With the start of a new life comes a new look. What does that exactly mean? Well, I am done with my studies. Finished! Four years of successful studies are completed and the real world is calling.

Life is moving fast now and in a few weeks I’ll be back in Johannesburg starting an internship at Creative Commons South Africa which I am highly excited about. (and check who is featured on the saCC website, hehe)

I will keep you all updated on the intriguing projects they have set out for me to undertake. What comes after that will have to stay a surprise!

Good luck to all writing exams! YOU CAN DO IT!

The water update: no more splish splash

2006-11-02T00:10:00.000+02:00

I just received this email from the Director for Communications and Development Division at Rhodes University. Here are a few important points:

THIS IS AN URGENT MESSAGE TO ALL STAFF AND STUDENTS

Please be aware that serious concerns have been voiced over

the toxicity levels of the municipal water supply.

According to Martin Davies of the Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries

Science, over 35 000 fish at the University's Experimental Fish

Farm have died over the last few days as a result.

The deaths of these fish together with behavioural abnormalities which has been observed are indicative of the presence of heavy metal pollutants in the water.

The particles are extremely toxic to human beings and cannot be removed through cooking or boiling water.

In the meantime you are requested NOT to drink water from any taps on campus (or at home) and not to cook with this water if your home or residence was affected by the recent water outage.

The University is making plans to bring further supplies of bottled drinking water to Grahamstown for distribution to residences.

Well, most people I know, including myself, have been drinking the water at some stage during the last three days...but what about the people living in the township area, are they being warned and provided with bottled water?

Furthermore, what about those residents who do not have the luxury of a network connection and who do not receive this warning email? The local municipality really did a stuffy job at warning Grahamstown residence about this dangerous water problem...

gregoogle's facelift coming up..

2006-11-01T10:52:00.000+02:00

I have been operating all day on a new template for my blog. Russ and Jason scrubbed in for a little while, but now I'm back in the OR, hacking away. I've chopped up the blogger template quite a but it's gonna be worth it...look out for a new gregoogle...

Splish, splash...

2006-10-31T03:27:00.000+02:00

Yesterday our water was murky brown. Today, well, today it was gone!

Rumours have it that the towns reservoir pump is bust and that it will take 2 days until we get water again...let's hope this is a rumour!

Any ways, I was chilling, watching Heroes, when I heard this rumbling in the parking lot. A fire truck pulled up...my dear neighbour and friend Carly had phoned the fire department to get some water! Nice one Carls, since nearly all the water in the local shops is sold out.

Am considering how lucky I am having water most of the time, should not take that for granted!

I moblogged some images, which you can find on my flickr account.

*******

UPDATE:

20 minutes after I posted this the water came back on...still a little dark thou!

The Student Editor's Forum

2006-10-30T02:49:00.000+02:00

Today we (Jo's Toolkit) have launched the student Editor's Forum.

This forum acts as a platform for all student editors to converse and discuss issues surrounding student media.

It will also aid the development and strategic planning for next year's student media Captivate conference.

The forum has the potential to create some really interesting discussions, which will further generate documentations and articles which will be presented on Jo's Toolkit at a later stage.

If editor, or non editor, anybody who has an interest or has knowledge within the field of student media if welcome to log in and add value to the discussions.

A permanent link to the forum is available form Jo's Toolkit.

Veeker - a powerful mobile video platform

2006-10-26T10:27:00.000+02:00

MobileCrunch just posted an in depth look at the newly launched mobile video site Veeker.

This site allows you to send mobile video clips via MMS, and then delivers the clips to a set of contacts, public and personal pages.

The Veekerplayer is very effective and useful. You use the Veekerplayer to syndicate your feeds and publish them to other sites. It is even possible to deactivate a Veekplayer embedded in a site without having to go and physically remove the code to do so.As MobileCrunch states: by embedding a Veeker player in your MySpace page for example [or blog as in nmy case], you can give viewers of that page an unprecedented level of visibility into not only your own personal life as depicted in the videos you’ve created, but also a view into the lives of your friends. This increases the immersive potential of any social networking site by an order of magnitude.

A series of short clips can be subscribed to by RSS and feeds of clips can be played automatically in an embedded player on another site.And it works like a charm. I can record video from my mobile phone and send it through Veeker and it appears in a player on my blog.

According to Techrunch, YouTube does support incoming video from phones, but there are quite a few steps that need to be taken to reproduce the kind of functionality that Veeker promises.

Veeker’s unique way of contextualizing video into the rich tapestry of your life and that of your friends is highly compelling, highly addictive, and looks to mash up the power of the social network with the compelling feel of real-life reality TV in a way never before possible.To login to Veeker you have to be either invited or send them a MMS video clip, and I was surprised to see my video clip online within a few minutes.

This service is not just a mobile video hosting service, but also a social networking platform. It is simple to use, it actually works, and it opens up a vast amount of possibilities for vloggers and citizen journalists.Try it out, you’ll be pleasantly surprised! I have added My Veeker player into my sidebar, look out for some of my, and my contacts' weekly veeks!

Bush and Google - the axis' of evil?

2006-10-24T10:23:00.000+02:00

This is a transcript from an interview with G.Bush:

HOST: I’m curious, have you ever googled anybody? Do you use Google?

BUSH: Occasionally. One of the things I’ve used on the Google is to pull up maps. It’s very interesting to see — I’ve forgot the name of the program — but you get the satellite, and you can — like, I kinda like to look at the ranch. It remind me of where I wanna be sometimes.

You can view the interview here. I also searched for Bush's ranch and found an apparent match on Google Earth...lat: 31.570477. long:-97.503966

PageFlakes 2.0 - a great upgrade

2006-10-22T04:57:00.000+02:00

Last week I posted about my anticipation regarding the newly launched PageFlakes version 2.0. I have now had a chance to browse through the changes and can only say that I am pleasantly surprised.

The redesign of the interface is firstly a dramatic improvement. Users can now choose their own header color and choose between preset layouts for the widgets (aka flakes).

Adding pages, renaming them and setting them up individually have also been made simple. A feature I have been looking forward to is that of sharing pages. Not only can pages be shared by inviting individuals via email, but they can also be shared publicly. Here the option of allowing others to edit content is a vital and improved one!

Then there are set templates which one can add, predefined by categories such as Web 2.0, business or entertainment etc., another handy feature!

The language support is obviously also a major expansion, which will allow this application to grow in user ship and popularity very rapidly.

There seems to be no updated widgets (I might be wrong here) and I still have not come across a decent calendar flake which correlates with dates and times of the to-do-list, a feature which I would find extremely helpful.

All in all this upgrade seems to be a really effective improvement. I have the feeling I'll be commenting on this personalised startpage system again, especially when $Google and $Microsoft are striking back...or will they just purchase again?

Multimedia vs. Multiple Media stories

2006-10-20T00:31:00.000+02:00

There are plenty of sites that claim they host multimedia stories, where as in fact they are nothing but multiple media stories.In my opinion there is huge difference when creating a multiple media story or a multimedia story.

Multiple media stories are definitive of their separate media elements. Record video and audio, take images, write text, add all visual and audio elements to view next to the text story, and voilà, a multiple media story. The problem then is, that there is no convergence, that the viewer is expected to read, hear, and see all these separate media separately and make sense of it in the end. There is often no link between the one medium and the other and most of all, text is still dominating the page.

I’m not saying that text should be ignored completely, but rather used effectively within a multimedia story. Text, such as captions, shorts intros, or chapter headlines are an effective means of presenting and guiding a story. Multimedia stories are a convergence of all the above mentioned media joined into one template. It is the collaboration of audio, video, still images, and text. One story is told by using all these media.

Personally, I prefer still images, sometimes animated, with background sounds and either a solid narration or interviewees narrating the story. Video works when the visual is very strong and should only be used for audio purposes if visually weak - rather compensate with some strong still images.

Here is another good definition.

Saturated social networks

2006-10-19T10:48:00.000+02:00

Web 2.0, mashups and social networking - it seems like it will never end. Every day I find a new platform which offers something new, something clever, and I am on a registration marathon, login-in and testing out all these new apps.

But I sense a collapse within this sudden boom; I sense it approaching silently, and rapidly. Since we are dealing with social networks, I think only a hand full will survive this boom and rise to become as good and as popular as sites such as flickr for instance. The term social network in conjunction with the ideas of Web 2.0 is hypocritical if so many varieties of networks exist without them mashing up with one and other.

The problem is that the over saturation of all these flourishing apps. won’t really create one large social network but a huge amount of scattered separate ones, creating more chaos than an organized mashups. But, do we want less and more dominant apps or does the current vast choices cater for the specific niche markets?

Any Flickr color you want!

2006-10-18T12:44:00.000+02:00

A very useful tool which I stumbled upon. It is called Flickr Color Selectr and allows the user to find photos by their colour schemes. All images that flickr finds for your specifically chosen colour are licensed under Creative Commons, making them (mostly) freely available for re-use. Further, one can rate the image. This tool can be very handy for web designers or any kind of creative work and the colour search results are astoundingly accurate.

Pic by RobbieTV

New pageflakes coming soon...really soon

2006-10-18T11:33:00.000+02:00

Pageflakes, a Ajax powered online desktop space which I have been using for a while now is being updated as I write. Pageflakes has been announcing this update since last week and I am looking forward to the new version.

I am hoping for some advanced calender widgets (they call them flakes) and updated page sharing features. It will be interesting to see how and if Netvibes will enhance their applications to stay in the race...

A phenomenal story, close to home

2006-10-17T09:52:00.000+02:00

As a multimedia producer and photographer, living in Grahamstown (Eastern Cape, South Africa), I have been looking to produce a really informative and effective story, and I found it, but unfortunately didn’t produce it. The Washington Post hosted a multimedia story entitled “WakeUp! South Africa” which portrays some amazing pictures and presents a very powerful story, with some amazing narration and effective background sounds.

This in my opinion is a perfect multimedia story which sets an amazing example of quality research, narration, photography, sound and overall convergence of these media. These are ~~the~~ some issues which I’ll be dealing with on this blog, looking at multimedia stories, commenting on them and watching the development within this exciting industry.

32500 pictures later...

2006-10-15T05:33:00.000+02:00

My German logistics have failed me. After freelancing for four years now I have accumulated quite a few photographs, all stored on my external hard drive. Here I have about 63 Gigabytes of images (roughly ~~20000~~ 19755 images) which have not been sorted, dated or categorized, just lazily dumped into a ‘Pics’ folder. Over an above that I have another 8 DVD’s of images (that’s another est. 12500 pics) waiting to be managed.

I’ve been using programmes such as Picasa for a while now (but mostly for my personal stuff), but never to its fullest potential. A major problem is that many of my images have been shot in RAW format, one which is not properly read by Picasa...

Bin Laden starts terror on the net, again!

2006-10-12T07:39:00.000+02:00

It seems like the Taliban is now terrorising our email accounts. Quickly, switch to DEFCON 1!

Here is what I just got per mail, CC’d to a dozen other peeps:

PLEASE INFORM EVERYONE: Emails with pictures of Osama Bin-Laden hanged are being sent and the moment that you open these emails your computer will crash and you will not be able to fix it! If you get an email along the lines of "Osama Bin Laden Captured" or "Osama Hanged" don't open the attachment. Be considerate & send this warning to whomever you know. PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS: It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which "burns" the whole hard disc C of your computer. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it. This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus.

Now, check here, here and here! (...by the way, this mail has been circulating since July 2004)

This is what I often don’t get. We receive emails that warn of potential viruses, some promise you millions of Nigerian $dollars or ask for you to petition against rape victims and starving children. All I want to say that this here is a perfect example of how the responsibility of net users is diminishing. If it’s on the net it must be true, eh? It takes a minute of searching around to find out that these emails are hoaxes. Granted, it looks scary when this bright red message pops up on your email but the content gives it away.

Use these tools: Google Search or McAfee to double check before swamping please!

UPDATE: Russ and I just decided, the real terrorists are those who forward these hoax emails, not Osama! Bah!

Get well soon Masks...I'd be distressed

2006-10-09T10:57:00.001+02:00

76567mask
Originally uploaded by gregor.r.

Ok, the idea here is thoughtful; making the typical sterile looking white gauze mask to look more cheerful and funny while still serving its purpose. The result comes directly from Japan, printed masks with animal-snout patterns on them, transforming a human face into a hybrid vermin. I’d be quite bothered having to witness a horde of medics chasing around a clinic with these masks on them.

Medgadget (thanks for the link by the way) states:

“Just imagine yourself emerging from anaesthesia, high on narcotics, benzodiazepines and barbiturates, and seeing your anaesthesiologist, as a tiger-human hybrid. Probably not for patients with high-grade coronary stenosis.”

Anti-Mullet campaign takes city by storm

2006-10-06T15:38:00.000+02:00

Vincent pissed off a city the other day. He wrote about his latest experience he encountered in Port Elizabeth (sometimes known as "The Friendly City") and received some interesting feedback, an entire editorial on MyPE.co.za, and even a dedicated forum topic entitled "Does PE SUCK?". One of the main issues here is that of 'mullets' and since I also think of these hairdos as quite horrid I made Vin a "I Hate Mullets" badge! Please join in and support this anti-mullet campaign by adding this badge to your blog!

"Urban legends have the mullet dating back to 19th Century fishermen, who wore their hair long in the back to keep warm..."

An HIV/Aids movement with spark

2006-10-06T11:28:00.000+02:00

I was asked to photographically document an applied theatre project presented in various schools in the Grahamstown townships, for the Rhodes Drama department. My passion lies in documenting people and their livelihoods so I was very interested participating. This is not my first shoot of this nature; I have been documenting applied theatre in the township for two years now and can only say that it is one of the most fulfilling photo shoots I could hope for.

For instance, there is nothing more exciting and pleasing than to hear a large group of school children sing during their morning assembly before class starts. There is an energy around these kids which in indescribable, with the projection of their songs drumming through every classroom and corridor. It leaves you with goose bumps!

Then there are the applied theatre productions. Drama students develop interactive theatre, aimed at raising issues around death, dying, (indeed very gloomy topics) disclosure and the role of hospitals and other helpful organisations. Yes, it’s mainly about HIV/Aids, a topic which urgently needs attention, but one which in this case is tackled in a very creative and very effective manner.

One observes a transformation of the kids and the understanding within just a few hours. Issues are raised and debated in a form of dialogue or acted scenarios, always incorporating the audience.

When we face our horrifying HIV/ Aids statistics, when we have to deal with the uselessness of our own government to implement actions to combat this disease, when all this seems too large to control, suddenly a glimpse of hope arises. There is a youth that cares, there is a youth that is listened to, there is a youth educating the youth.

When returning from these shoots I am both inspired and humbled, it is an experience no one should be left without and my gratitude goes out to those who are organising and presenting these theatre projects and have invited me to be part of this movement.

Have some pictures posted here (more to come).

Politicians to face the net!

2006-10-05T05:36:00.000+02:00

The front page (yes, I do still read the newspaper) of yesterdays Financial Times presented a very interesting article about how politicians need to wake up and face the realities and the power of the internet and its users.

Google’s chairman and chief executive, Eric Schmidt (with an estimated wealth of $4.8 billion, so listen to him) says in this article that “Many of the politicians don’t actually understand the phenomenon of the internet very well.”

Schmidt also predicts that within the next couple of year’s truth predictable software will emerge. This kind of software would allow voters to check the probability of politicians ‘factual statements’ being correct, by comparing claims with historical data. This does not sound to far fetched and is a matter of converging and mashing-up data which is online anyways.

What also needs to be acknowledged are the political blogs out there. They are amongst the most popular blogs worldwide and could create a sense dependability as they voice an opinion from the average citizen and not from a sleazy politicians mouth. The American political blog, Daily Kos, for instance receives around 20 Millions hits a month, that’s a large audience one can influence. On a local level we have a variety of blogs, such as Politics.za and The Nervous Voter, who are probably rapidly gaining readership on a daily level, especially in the light of our chaotic political structure and our constantly trialled politicians.

Oh, and I actually did find an electronic copy of the article after reading it on the ancient scripts of print :P

More games from the Google Widgets

2006-10-04T10:25:00.000+02:00

Google Gadgets Set Free - Let's Widget!

2006-10-04T00:02:00.000+02:00

Widgets which you could have only accessed via Google Desktop are now freely available for your web site. More than 1200 Google Gadgets (widgets) have been set free today for embedding on any web page. Techcrunch reports that site publishers can now make it even easier for their visitors to get driving directions, view Picasa photo albums, play hang-man, use a multi-video player widget or check live sports scores or a police and fire map.

Widgets are going to pop up everywhere as “they help non-technical site publishers pull in rich, dynamic data from all around the web and place it on one page”.

With these widgets, the Google logo will of course also rise through the ranks of web sites and blogs and will most probably become the dominant feed for these applications.

Browse through the Google widgets here.

Get the Badge! Maher goes balistic!

2006-10-03T15:17:00.000+02:00

"In my latest attempt to win the arrogance competition with J arred Cinman and Mark Comerford, comes the I KNOW VINCENT MAHER Web 2.0 badge. They come in many likable flavours so download them and use them to link your blog to mine", sais Vincent Maher on his new web site.

Yes, Maher (and from now on I am adding him on my Blogger labels) goes for a knock out punch. I wonder what tactics Jarred and Mark will adopt to counter this, a tag team?

Vince made a badge for PEAS to...hehe..

How to create Elephant Dung paper

2006-10-03T11:52:00.000+02:00

I stumbles over this example on how to make Elephant dung paper and wanted to find out more. Well, I was glad to find a dedicated Elephant Dung Paper site which also presented some interesting facts about the production process.

On average an elephant will eat 200-250kg of food a day of which 50kg of dung can be gathered.
One elephant provides enough dung to make 115 sheets of paper.
Elephant dung does not smell that bad. If it does smell that bad then maybe the elephant is ill.
An elephant's dung is just fiber. Elephants are poor digesters of their food over 50% of what they eat comes straight out the other end.
It's 100% bacteria free.
Dung is a waste product if no one makes paper from it it would be pollution.

Creative Paper Onlines advetise their Dung papar as wollows:

Genuine Elephant Dung paper from Africa. Completely sanitized, this unique paper has been created with the Elephants doing the work of including the plant materials! Each package of 6 sheets is different from any other. Includes 6 envelopes (not Elephant paper) to complete your stationery set.

A set of African dung paper costs around $9 compared to those cheap Asian elephants, their dungappaer costs only around $3!

Web 2.0 Validator

2006-10-01T08:45:00.000+02:00

Yes, yes, another Web 2.0 post. But is your site worthy the Web 2.0 tag? Check out the Web 2.0 validator. You will notice that it does reffer to some strange categories thou.

Gregoogle only scored 11 out of 52, then again I never considered it being Web 2.0. But here is the problem...who defines Web 2.0 (since there are like 678 different definitions) and to what extent can one say a site is Web 2.0? Can any site be 100% Web 2.0?

Oh, by the way, Flickr, which is generally reffered to as Web 2.0 scored 4 out of 51. Gregoogle is more Web 2.0 than Flickr!

I wonder what my score will be if I mention: Chinese Forehead, Less is More, Dave Legg, architecture of participation, Web 2.0 Validator's ruleset, Nitro, Ruby, The Long Tail, podcasting, RDF, and the Semantic Web...

(I validated after posting this post and scored a whopping 22 out of 51!) haha

Hyperlinks vs Paraphrasing!

2006-10-01T04:28:00.000+02:00

I am currently writing a paper on Web 2.0, and am noticing that I automatically hyperlink various terminology as I am so used to doing this when writing online posts. It makes so much sense just hyperlinking than painfully paraphrasing. Since hyperlinking, and the idea of free attribution is part of the Web 2.0 notion, I want to propose handing these papers in as online texts! Then again, procrastination during work allows me to think about these things, so back to work…

Jo visits iCommons

2006-09-29T19:59:00.000+02:00

Some great news. Jo (Jo's Toolkit) has been acknowledged my iCommons. Check the story here. A big thanks goes out to Daniela Faris, she wrote this really cool article!

iCommons Incubated by Creative Commons, iCommons is an organisation with a broad vision to develop a united global commons front by collaborating with open content, access to knowledge, open access publishing and free culture communities around the world.

Pageflaking - a useful application!

2006-09-29T11:18:00.000+02:00

Pageflakes is your personalized Internet. You can add what you like and remove what you don't like - and it's totally simple.

This is very cool, it is like an EVERYTHING CONNECTOR. One can set up personal sites that aggregate a whole bunch of feeds on one page are set up group pages, where multiple memebers can share bookmarks, rss feeds and images for example. Vincent and I are testing a group page at the moment and are considering setting up a page for the class, would be an interesting experiment.

Netvibes works on the same priciple and offers the same services as Pageflakes. It seems like it offers a few more extra apps but I like the look of Pageflakes more.

Boxing kangeroos in China and giant hornets in Germany

2006-09-28T07:01:00.000+02:00

One story more random than the other. The one could be defined as bestiality the other purley as a beast.

Can you believe that in China they have boxing competitions between Kangaroos and men (read here)?

Even freakier, ever seen a giant hornet (see here)? Google Earth found it in Germany.

Must stop surfing the net, finding too much random stuff...

Like clouds? Wanna see some clouds?

2006-09-28T06:39:00.000+02:00

I do tend to stare at clouds, waiting for them to morph into some funky shapes. It is quite a therapeutic exercise. So if you like clouds then follow this link to some really cool images.

Wish my pc display was a live feed to some moving clouds...

Nokia N95 ... Dear Nokia, please send me...

2006-09-26T05:40:00.000+02:00

Found this on Engadget... "5 megapixel camera, integrated GPS, 802.11g WiFi, HSDPA, microSD, 150MB of internal memory and pretty much any other spec you could ever care to have stuffed into your phone by a Finnish "multimedia computer" manufacturer. The 2.6-inch QVGA screen should provide plenty of room to partake in all this specification glory..."

Check out the rest of the specks and images here...

I kinda like it. I kinda want it.

Captivate - a conference to remember

2006-09-24T03:58:00.000+02:00

Paul and I are busy running the last workshop on blogging. Well, at the moment he is running it and I am submitting this post. But all in all, the Captivate Student Media conference was a great success.

The speakers were diverse, provided some really interesting insight into the industry and into the future of student media. Today was really great as we tackled the issues that student media face, and there was some healthy debate conversing between the delegates and the speakers.

Studentwire and Jo's Toolkit were introduced this morning and seemed to have created some interest from the delegates, a good sign, as these two entities aim at providing transparency, information and control to student media practitioners. I presented Jo's Toolkit (see pic) and hope to have triggered some motivation from the delegates to participate.

Thanks Vincent, Paul and Mark for your posts on the presentation and for contributing this weekend. A big up goes to the entire Captivate Comm, they did a tremendous job organizing a conference which proved to be well worth participating.

The lack of participation of lecturers has been discussed here; I don’t want to get into it right now!

View the Captivate blog here to see what has been happening!

Conferences for the year are over. No more running around, driving around, organizing this and that and most of all, no more conference food! YAY!

It time to Captivate!

2006-09-23T09:00:00.000+02:00

Get ready for a kick ass student media conference this weekend. The organisers of this conference have worked their butts off to bring this conference together. No doubt it will be a success.

Some of the speakers who will be joining the conference are Graeme Joffe (Highveld Stereo and CNN), Natalie Dixon (SL Magazine) and Matthew Buckland (Mail and Guardian Online)

Unathi (Yfm) was supposed to come as well but cancelled abruptly this morning, in my opinion an extremely unprofessional and dishonourable move.

Highlights will be tomorrows speakers, tomorrow evenings party (with Craig de Sousa) and of course my presentation on Jo’s Toolkit, hehe.

A blog has been set up for the conference, click here to view it and see what people are saying.

I cannow that I can already congratulate Carly, Verge, Mags, Paul, Serena and the crew for organizing this event!

Are you a Blog addict? Yes you are!

2006-09-22T12:35:00.000+02:00

Well, if you are then it is time for you to visit Bloggers Anonymous and get some help, fast!

I just stumbled across this site and it does offer a refreshing and very humorous aspect to blogging.

Have a look at the following post listing the 10 most signs of being a Blog Addict.

My top 4:

1. You “mental blog” while driving or on the train, and sometimes even when you are alone in the shower.

2. You “binge blog” 3 or 4 posts at once—only to feel guilty and empty afterward.

3. You think, “I can stop at any time.”

4. Your lunch hour has become your “blog hour.” You keep a few posts tucked in your desk in case you need them during the day.

What freaks me out is that I show most of the symptoms, but I’m sure you do to!

Finally, the Bratwurst

2006-09-22T11:57:00.001+02:00

Russians vs Bratwurst
Originally uploaded by gregor.r.

Here we go! I even added Peas into the pic!

How’s my driving? 0800 F O O L

2006-09-20T11:19:00.001+02:00

Wanker!
Originally uploaded by gregor.r.

Click on this image to have clearer view of this vehicle. Remember it. Tattoo, scratch or cut the licence plate number on your forearm, so that when you are driving you will always be able to check if this special individual is driving in front of you.

I was on my way to Port Elizabeth to fetch the Schnitz when I noticed some nitwits bulbar harassing my exhaust pipe. The Duke of Hazard was so close on my tail that I could not see his bonnet in the rear view mirror, and this at 120km/h! And I had the pleasure of having to drive this way most of the way. Every time an incline approached his car slugged off and once the decline drew near dimwit tried to break the land speed / over taking record.

Luckily I travel with my camera and it was quite funny witnessing the numskulls’ reaction when he noticed that I was photographing his actions.

So – if you ever need a lift, if you are a hitchhiker, a driver, a passenger, a pedestrian, a kudu or a toll booth, please be aware of this number plate RPV 395 GP. It is a company car for BOSTECH Engineering Service - Non Destructive Testing - and give them a shout on 082 372 5077 in case you’d like to scrape your lost dog off their bulbar!

Rant over!

If people were meant to pop out of bed, we'd all sleep in toasters

2006-09-19T07:48:00.000+02:00

Part of the morning ritual entails reading the news online whilst sipping on some hot filter coffee and waiting to gain consciousness.

I have not visited Fark in a while and decided to check it out this morning and found myself spurting out my coffee whilst reading following headlines.

And moving from the stupid and comic to the interesting…

View the 25 worst websites ever

What a great way to wake up! Good morning!

Maher should be a category!

2006-09-18T07:54:00.000+02:00

GroupBubbles
Originally uploaded by gregor.r.

Yes, he did it again. He lazed around, clicked here and there and produced ANOTHER bubble application. After introducing NewzBubbles, he now introduces GroupBubbles!

The application allows people to create and manage groups of blogs and generate bubbles for that group. The application could be anything from people wanting aggregate a bunch of blogs about a conference to a bunch of buddies wanting to aggregate their feeds.

It is quick, it is easy, it is effective, it looks funky, most important: it WORKS! I made my own GroupBubble within a few seconds!

I have only worked with it a couple of minutes now, so I will give an update on how it has been working for me and how it has changed my way of using an RSS feed for my friends blogs.

I snapped and snapped and snapped

2006-09-15T17:09:00.000+02:00

Matthew Buckland
Originally uploaded by gregor.r.

The DCI is over. It was GREAT!

My favourite part, surprise, surprise, was taking pics throughout the conference. I have not had such a fun shoot in a long time. Not being used to shooting conference pics, it took me a little while to get accustomed to the dim lighting conditions and the pacing of the presenters. But I must thank my little baby, her name is Nikon ED 80-200mm f2.8 D, she has never performed this well before!

What made this job fun was uploading pics straight away onto flickr, allowing those participants with network access to see the pics of the speakers whilst they where still speaking. Only pic I was not allowed to post was of Peas! I certified all pics under a CC licence in case anyone wants to use them.

Now I have 20 minutes to rest before going to the final DCI celebratory party, wish me luck.

DCI and Jaegermeister - they should sponsor this event!

2006-09-15T08:20:00.000+02:00

The DCI so far has been great, both in and outside the conference venue. Well, I would consider the Rat and Olde 65 being part of the conference venue by now! This week has been absolute madness, I need the weekend, next week and the rest of term to reflect and make sense of it.

And thanks to Apfelstrudel, my skull is pulsating and I still seem to be swaggering infront of my laptop. The Jaegermeister cooling machine at the Rat is the bomb!

But tonight is the final, ultimate and last event, watch my moblog to follow our progress...

Today is the last day of the DCI and the end of a long, long, long Highway Africa week. Have a look at the conference pics I have taken thus far.

Jo wins prestigious journalism award

2006-09-13T08:31:00.000+02:00

Carly and Gregor receiving their award....
Originally uploaded by gregor.r.

We did it! Jo, Carly and I received a few minutes of fame on SABC Africa, receiving the Highway Africa Awards for Innovative use of in Africa for the student resource website: Jo’s Toolkit.

The awards are given annually at the Highway Africa Conference to recognise and promote the creative, innovative and appropriate use of new media technology in Africa. Judges are looking for innovative applications of New Media in African journalism and the media, and decided for Jo to win this year’s award in the category of non-profit.

Receiving this award is such an honour and an exciting step towards educating, training and developing student and grassroot media practitioners. I am very excited to see where the site will be going from here.

Thanks to all those who have participated thus far, the site would not have been possible without you!

And a big thanks goes to Colin Daniels! He has been an incredible motivator during the entire process, and I am honoured following his footsteps in winning this award. Colin posted some pics of the awards here.

Pic: Paul Greenway

DCI - The Blogging begins

2006-09-11T02:17:00.000+02:00

From the 14-15 September 2006, the first African Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI) will take place in Grahamstown, South Africa, coordinated by Colin Daniels. The aim of the DCI is to bring together bloggers, citizen journalists, media practitioners, industry experts, and representatives from civil society all under one roof.

Vincent Maher and I have set up the official DCI blog. I will be administrating the blog, inviting the speakers and delegates to participate, creating accounts for them, giving them moblogging access, adding them to the blogroll, creating an exciting blogging environment.

If you are a delegate or a speaker for the DCI please leave a comment here, or visit the offical DCI blog, and I will get back to you.

It's Highway Africa time

2006-09-09T04:35:00.000+02:00

Highway Africa is an annual ICT conference hosted by Rhodes University which is situated in Grahamstown, South Africa. Each year, more than 500 delegates from across the globe attend the conference to discuss issues relating to Internet governance, ICT policy and media for democracy.

I will be attending all the events (all the ones I can possible attend), will be shooting quite a bit, and hopefully engage into some interesting discussions. You can view all the Highways Africa photos here.

First pics to get flickred are of Vincent Maher and Peter Verweij...more to come!

Google Image Labeler - Tagging images somewhat differently

2006-09-07T10:16:00.000+02:00

Here is a fun way of aiding the tagging of gazillions of images.

Google Image Labeler is a new feature of Google Image Search that allows you to label random images to help improve the quality of Google's image search results.

It is quite fun to participate. Once logged into your Google account you will be randomly paired with a partner who is online and using the feature.

Over a 90-second period, you and your partner will be shown the same set of images and asked to provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see. When your label matches your partner's label, you'll earn some points and move on to the next image until time runs out. After time expires, you can explore the images you've seen and the websites where those images were found. And we'll show you the points you've earned throughout the session.

Try it!

Bubbles go balistic!

2006-09-06T05:03:00.000+02:00

Vincent Maher the director of the New Media Lab at the Rhodes University School of Journalism & Media Studies has taken his newzbubble concept another step forward. He has not only created international news feeds but now also allows you to register your own feed to get your own personalised bubbles for your site, what a great idea!

Bubbles will take over, watch it happen!

Jo is running wild!

2006-09-04T10:28:00.000+02:00

Just one week after launching Jo's Toolkit the response by visitors has been mind blowing. The comments and the emails we received so far have been really astonishing. Thanks to all who helped and who have commented so far!

Also, the amount of potential contributors interested in adding their input has been terrific. This means our contributor lists will not only grow in numbers but gain even more quality.

All in all, after developing the site with Carls and now running it with her for merely ten days has been a blast and I can only see more exciting times for Jo to come.

There are a few additional ideas which are going to pop up on the site in very near future, so keep your eyes peeled, and continue having fun.

You can now also subscribe to our FeedBurner and get the latest posts sent to your email, visit Jo to subscribe!

Newz in a bubble jungle

2006-08-31T11:18:00.000+02:00

This is quite a fresh and funky way of news gathering. The bubble news feed has been introduced before on the Grocott’s Mail Website, and since has been further developed into its own entity by Vincent Maher.

Newzbubbles.com gathers most of the major South African news feeds renders them as bubbles and allows you to see which stories are the most popular.

It is a Web 2.0 application and will grow with feedback from its user base. It might seem strange to brows the news via bubbles, but they do give a clear indication, through the graphical representation, which stories are most popular.

Have fun poking sunbathing women

2006-08-28T03:17:00.000+02:00

I found this site whilst doing some Flash research. Not that it is in anyway helpful for what I was looking for but it is kinda quirky. Have fun!

Jo's Toolkit - We're Live!

2006-08-21T00:40:00.000+02:00

Finally! We are live, we are online! After months of preparation, and a couple of weeks of intense work, especially the last week, we have finally launched Jo s Toolkit – 'The essential journalism toolkit for student and
grassroot media'.

Carly and myself have established and developed this website which will hopefully change and influence the communication between journalists, on an academic, professional, grassroot or student level. Our aim is to create an environment which will teach, train, give advice, create a dialogue and be free to use - no registration, no fees, just good content and no authoritive
voice.

Jo's Toolkit is a journalism resource. We have especially targeted the student and grassroot media as potential users for this site. It allows anyone to submit content, to comment on content, to download documents (such as style guides or workshops), with the aim of aiding, stimulating and developing student and grassroot media.

Our contributors list is growing steadily, and we are motivated and excited to see where this site will take us and student / grassroot media.

We have certified all content under a Creative Commons License, making the content available for re-use, re-work and hopefully opening up the idea of an open-source, sharing community.

You will be able to find examples of writing styles, photography and design. An A-Z Journalism glossary will allow you find terms you need to know. We also offer vast amounts of resourceful links, to aid research, or find interesting sites for specific areas of journalism. Another feature this website boasts are the 10 Tips and Tricks articles, submitted by influential journalists in the country – and even these can be commented on, discussed and debated. And if you have a question directed at any of the contributors, just email (jostoolkit [at] gmail.com) and we will forward it to thespecific contributor.

Check out Jo here, leave some comments, and submit an article, a picture, a design, anything which you think is relevant. You will see from the layout that it is an easy site to navigate, it has the potential to discuss ethical, theoretical as well as practical issues… have fun!

And not to forget, big thanks to Colin who aided the technical and motivational process! Hence all the kick-ass details on the page!

1.4 Mil for Cop Car? Who has the facts?

2006-08-21T00:06:00.000+02:00

I found this post on 4xforum via Muti, presenting a bling Hummer H1, apparently spotted in Johannesburg, represetning a Police vehicle.

Apparetly it is the personal runabout of the National Commissioner of Police, Jackie Selebi.

A forumite (Rat) comments on this pic stating:

So your taxes have illegally imported a left hand drive vehicle for the National Commissioner of Police that drives around without number plates. You try this.

You may believe these photos to be digitally enhanced, but this goes beyond the question if these images are real or not, fact is, it would not come to a surprise that this is possible in South Africa.

I found this on Muti , a site inspired by Digg and reddit but which is dedicated to content of interest to Southern Africans or those interested in Southern Africa. Muti has recently gotten some publicity from CNN.

Vroooooooooooooom.

The rebirth of the Dinosaur – bye bye Woof Woo

2006-08-18T01:07:00.000+02:00

Here is a new pet toy for you. It looks cute, looks way better than Sony s Aibo hound, and comes with some really funky features.

Popular Science has termed
Pleo the smartest robot pet yet.

Pleos movements are fluid; its actions are spontaneous and unprogrammed. Its skin is smooth, seamless and stretchy. Inside, however, the 3.3-pound Pleo is very robotic indeed. It iss stuffed with 38 sensors to detect light, motion, touch and sound. They feed information about Pleos environment to one of eight processors that can handle a collective 60 million calculations per second. A complex computer program determines what the dino pet does next—howl over the edge of a table, sneeze, crane its neck around 180 degrees to see who’s scratching its back, or any of thousands of other possibilities. As Pleos manufacturer, Ugobe in Emeryville, California, develops more sophisticated personality coding, you’ll be able to upgrade the robot through its SD-card slot or from the Web through its USB port.

We discussed the advancement of AI the other day in one of our seminars discussing the potential agency that machines could develop and the possible reprogramming by hackers which occur. By allowing owners to add programs to their dino does create on the one hand a practical forum for development in the bot industry, on the other hand might motivate the recreation of a mechanical Jurassic Park!

Check out this video of Pleo!

Dr. Ian Malcolm: God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs...
Dr. Ellie Sattler: Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth... (Jurrassic Park, 1993)

Check out this cute Ninja! He'll slice anything for you

2006-08-17T10:35:00.000+02:00

Thanks to the White African, saw the Ninja slicing around your blog :) Go to the Ninja Text Generator and ask the little bugger to slice for you...

Strippers and Soccer

2006-08-11T14:15:00.000+02:00

Mike and I produced a multimedia story for the Sunday Times online about how 2010 might inlfuence the sex industry. A rather light hearted story with some great text and interviews with strippers from Teazers... the interviewing process was a great experience too, I wrote about it here. I'm sure the story will generate quite a few hits.

Sex. Nudity. Strippers. Boobs. Nude Schoolgirls?

NML multimedia live on Sunday Times Online

2006-08-11T13:58:00.000+02:00

After a week of working for the Sunday Times online we (Rhodes New Media class) have successfully produced five multimedia stories, focussing on the upcoming 2010 Soccer World Cup.

The special reports can be found on the front page of the Sunday Times, linked by the accompanying graphic!

This marks the end of the NML fieldtrip (at least in the newsroom that is), which has been a very insightful experience.

Multimedia is definitely making waves in current online news trends and our extensive experience managing the Grocott’s Online website has benefited this project greatly.

Another successful New Media Lab project.

NML RAW - Let the good times roll!

2006-08-04T14:20:00.000+02:00

So we are leaving for Johannesburg on Sunday morning.

We = 6 New Media students and 2 lecturers, an 8 seater van, alot of technical equipment and some Red Bull.

Our mission is to produce MultiMedia stories for the Sunday Times. We will be blogging about this experience whilst in the Newsroom, on Assignment and from the Hotel, so check out our NML RAW Blog, see what we are up to and let us know what you think!

Be sure to see some funny pics, some random remarks and some kick ass MultiMedia!

Grahamstown weather mayhem!

2006-08-03T17:09:00.000+02:00

It has been raining constantly since last night. It has been storming. It has been cold. It has shaken up the town.

This morning on my way into the department I encountered deserted streets, flying umbrellas, stuck cars, and swept away cars, it felt like a battle zone, or somethinglike that.

Colin posted this pic of an uprooted tree. Check my pics on flickr and brows through reporter.co.za, seems like they are collecting a whole bunch of content about the August weather isssue, my pic will be there too.

There is more rain and even stronger winds expected for tomorrow, hold on tight!

1st in Africa - The Digital Citizen Indaba on Blogging

2006-08-01T10:12:00.000+02:00

Here is an event I am looking forward too. The Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI) on Blogging will be held in September (14-15^th). Where? Well, right here in Grahamstown, and as being part of the New Media Lab, I will be involved in the coverage and participation of this conference which is a first on African soil.

There will be about 90 African bloggers, citizen journalists and media practitioners, partaking in the event and it will be very much focused around developing skills through practical workshops and discussions with experts from around the globe.

Read Colin Daniels (DCI event co-ordinator) official press release here.

Watch this space for further info on the conference.

Rolling Stones tour with phones

2006-07-28T17:13:00.000+02:00

You might get a buzzing ear after a while, but at least you can claim listening live to the Rolling Stones. The British rock band is the first to use a technology that allows fans listen in on a live concert.

By dialling a tollfree number you can listen to them perform all down the line in real time for $1.99 per seven minutes.

The Stones are the first to use a new technology called Listen Live Now, which is backed by Hollywood talent firm Creative Artists Agency, tour promoter Live Nation, and veteran artist manager Marty Erlichman.

The technology will debut Friday when the band takes the stage in Paris.

It should just a matter of time (short time) till you can watch events like these live on your phone.

India rejects $100 Laptop, stupid move!

2006-07-28T09:50:00.000+02:00

Acording to The Register, India has decided against getting involved in One Laptop Per Child scheme, which aims to provide kids in developing countries with a simple $100 machine.

The success of the project depends on support, and big orders, from governments. The loss of such a potentially huge, and relatively technically sophisticated market, will be a serious blow. The Indian Ministry of Education dismissed the laptop as "pedagogically suspect". Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee said: "We cannot visualise a situation for decades when we can go beyond the pilot stage. We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools."

Banerjee said if money were available it would be better spent on existing education plans. Banerjee told the Hindu: "We do not think that the idea of Prof Negroponte is mature enough to be taken seriously at this stage and no major country is presently following this. Even inside

America

, there is not much enthusiasm about this."

Once again we are stuck in the dilemma of the digital divide. And India s response is an interesting one, as it clearly shows that even if the technological portion of the digital divide could be bridged, there are still far more other aspects which need to be taken into account.

What good is the $100 laptop if there are no sufficient teachers, or teaching facilities? For a developing country to spend a couple of million dollars for a product which has not proven its benefits is a risky choice.

But on the other hand, for the first time, technology is easily available and should perhaps motivate and stimulate the development of education and computer literacy. And with the usage of the $100 laptop, countries can narrow down the digital divide, even if only a few schools take on this project. India s argument, to set up schooling and teaching systems first is potentially a bad strategic move, as this development will take a very long time, during which they could have had the chance to develop computer literacy and accessibility.

At least Nigeria has ordered 1 Million machines, showing great support and confidence for this project to become beneficial.

Pic by Colin Daniels

High-tech bikini combats sunburn

2006-07-26T20:47:00.000+02:00

SmartSwim UV bikini features a digital UV meter built right into the garment. The idea is to warn the wearer about the dangers of sunburn and how long you should stay in the sun without getting hurt.

With interest in the risks from skin cancer high, this little number should sell well. Apparently it is made out of 100 per cent top quality Lycra and available in three colours, Techno Silver, plus black or white.

Not only is the meter itself waterproof, it should last for years on its CR2025 batteries. On more moderate days, the belt onto which the meter is mounted can simply be removed.

There are even smarter swimwear products out there for all those hi-tech beach goers. Wonder how the common Camps Bay or Clifton mob would react to this state of the art tech-fashion bikini.

Check out all these sunburns including the world famous Gregoogle sunburn, pity they havent developed the UV detecting speedo!

Showing off cleavage, breasts, bikinis once again!

Intelligent carpet can autodiscriminate

2006-07-26T20:40:00.000+02:00

Watch your step! Your weight, your pace, your age and even your gender could now be analysed whilst walking along the office hallway to meet your future employer. Well, that depends if the employer is looking for an overweight, middle aged, semi fast paced male or rather a bulimic, underweight teenager.

The Inquirer refers to this as a new form of automated prejudice, to make business decision-making far more efficient.

Experts predict that in business recruitment, especially in the City of London, the process of snap decision-making could be streamlined to achieve faster judgements.

The intelligent carpet, invented in

Japan

, can tell bosses or market researchers the age, sex and weight of the person walking across it. The prototype carpet can differentiate between people in their 20s and 60s with nearly 100 per cent accuracy, according to a story on Nikkei.net. The carpet can determine a walkers gender with up to80 per cent accuracy, the inventors claim, since males and females have different centres of gravity.

The research team developing this carpet hopes to improve on its prototype so it can be used in such places as shops to analyse shopping patterns or entertainment venues to provide audience data.

A layer of silicone rubber with built-in electrodes embedded in the carpet measures the changes in electrical resistance and current flow caused by a person walking across it. Analysis of the data collected can determine foot size, stride, walking speed, weight and centre of gravity of those ambling innocently along.

Happy striding!

2006-07-24T21:42:00.000+02:00

Ronaldo - haha, what a useless toy

...but it does show the physical instability of soccer players...

Cursors come to life, watch your head!

2006-07-24T16:58:00.000+02:00

Just when you thought that we enter virtual realism only when sitting in front of our computers. Now virtual realism is really becoming real, no computers needed, just a little bit of wind.

The cursor visible on this image is not a photo manipulation, but actually a kite. And it does create a very perplexing image, but it must be even more confusing when walking along the road seeing a massive cursor hovering in the sky.

According to windfiredesigns, very little is known about this kite. It was sighted during the 2005 Burning Man festival. Quadline control, asymmetrical framing, invisible stainless fittings, and opposed-bow tensioning for the sail make this incredible kite look digitally pasted right into the sky. It was designed by Tim Elverston and is a high-end addition to the WindFire collection which marks the beginning of the WindFire OS Series.

Check out OhGizmo for other cool gadgets!

Reconnected, rejuvenated, ready to blog

2006-07-24T12:49:00.000+02:00

So here I am. Back, in front of the keyboard, the network connection, back, inside the blogging portal which I feel so safe and cosy in. And after a month of no internet connection, no blogging, I must say, it is good to be back! But it also has been a great break.

Whilst touring the cape winelands, eating masses of sushi and taking in every mountain and sea view available, I did manage to do a still shoot for a great television production called Cooked and a lingerie shoot for the Condenast publications Glamour. I used the Digital Daylight Studio in Cape Town, which offered an amazing working environment. Other than that, it was a very relaxing break.

Enough personal Gregoogle babble, look out for some interesting posts and to start of slow I will just add this link for you to look at and contemplate about.

Have a break, have a...

2006-06-22T18:27:00.000+02:00

Gregoogle is on a break. So watch my moblogging space, which I will update regularly.

And in the meantime, whilst I am not blogging and others are, have a look at Vincent Maher s latest publicity photos, or view his longest blog post ever. Track Colin Daniels whilst he will be working as the chief web developer during iCommons and check what Ceridwen Devi has to say about exploding Dell computers. If that is not enough, you can always read some entertainment news on JvonBlog, or see what the Ritz is up to in her cyberspace.

If you need more please feel free to click on my blogroll and find some cool stuff.

Over and out, lock and load, see you soon.

Oh, if you are still looking for naked schoolgirl pics (by the way thanks to all those pervs who are upping my hits on this) please feel free to find them here.

A sad moment, I am not surprised, thats the sad part

2006-06-15T17:43:00.000+02:00

Edwell Gumbo, a citizen journalist, posted a story on Reporter.co.za about how some school pupils actually believe that having a hot shower after unprotected sex prevents AIDS. This comes as a shock, but an expected one, after Jacob Zuma s testimony during his rape trial where he stated:

It would minimise the risk of catching the disease.

Edwell writes:

On Wednesday, the 7th of June I was shocked when during a lesson with grade eights when one boy argued that if one takes a shower after having unprotected sex, the risk of infection is nil.

I tried to verify whether the boy, a 13year old, was joking or not and I found out that he was dead serious.

I disputed that and more than fifty percent of the class argued against me and said that Zuma is HIV negative today after having unprotected sex with an HIV positive woman because he took a shower after the act.

This quote as literally washed all anti-AIDS efforts down the drain. I do think this deserves more media hype or some kind of drastic damage control.

Dear Jacob Zuma (please feel free to copy this question and ask Mr Zuma if you get the chance):

After tarnishing anti-AIDS efforts and trivialising the prevention of AIDS, due to your idea and statement which now has serious implications, especially with our youth, how do you propose to tackle the issue of AIDS prevention and education now?

Not even Star Trek saw this coming

2006-06-15T14:07:00.000+02:00

Not even Star Trek saw this one coming.

It is a sliding door of distinctive technological innovation. The Fukuda automatic door opens just enough to fit the precise profile of the person or the object that is passing through it. The portal saves energy by keeping a door from having to open and close all the way, which according to popgadget and gizmodo japan, helps to maintain a stable temperature in a room, and can prevent dirt, bugs or other materials from entering. In addition to people, this doorway can even be used to accommodate a car coming through a garage door.

Apparently it will be most useful for people who are handicapped or cannot manage to open and close the doors very easily. It is still a prototype, but here is the official website, and it also allows you to practise your Japanese a bit.

I wonder how fast it can open and close, or if it could be set up to do a retinal scan before opening? It could be quite useful here in SA when we need to escape those darn intruders and our trelly doors have malfunctioned.

Virtual Replay - take control over the World Cup

2006-06-13T00:52:00.000+02:00

Steffen Fjaervik, posted on Poynter about a virtual replay service, offered by BBC Sport. You can choose highlights of all the 2006 Soccer World Cup and watch all the goals from different angles and point of views. This is really a fan-tastic application. You can choose to watch the highlights from the referees point of view, from any side, any player, even from the balls perspective.

Watch Philip Lahm as he scores this World Cup s first goal or check out the highlights from the Italy vs. Ghana game, one of the best matches ever in my opinion!

You will need Shockwave to utilise this virtual soccer field. Have fun!