Archive for April, 2009
Well the counting seems to be over, and according to unofficial numbers posted on the News 24 site, the ANC has failed to gain a two-thirds majority. I must say that I feel rather relieved 
The ANC have stated that they have no intention of messing with the constitution, but I have great difficulty believing that! Expecting the ANC to not mess with the constitution is a bit like leaving a six year old in charge of a sweet shop. The temptation will just be too much to resist, and we all know that the ANC has great difficulty resisting temptation!
So why did the ANC not mess with the constitution when they had the chance?
I believe that under Mbeki, the ANC still tried to maintain a semblance of honesty, and that messing with the constitution was still seen as a no-no. Under Zuma, who doesn’t even try to maintain a semblance of honesty, nothing is sacred, not even the constitution!
Oops! I almost forgot! There is one thing that is sacred to the ANC: Jacob’s own claim to divinity!
Within months (Maybe even weeks) of the election, people will be back on the streets toyi-toying about something-or-other. In most cases the toyi-toying will probably be related to the lack of service delivery, lack of affordable housing, or low salaries paid to public servants and/or municipal workers. Of course the irony stems from the fact that most of the protesters would have voted for the very government they are unhappy with!
I have for many years had a little saying, “If you vote for morons, don’t complain when you get morons!”
So, when given the chance to make a real difference, many of those who are unhappy with the status quo fail to do anything about it? I just don’t understand!
Perhaps toyi-toying has become such an integral part of the South African way of life, that without the ANC, voters realise they might not have anything to protest about?
(Click the thumbnail to view the full size image)
During my involvement with system development at the IEC I have worked with many of the people in the pic. Without any hesitation at all I can say that all of them (Those that I know) are very nice people, but when it comes to technical skills, I have very serious doubts.
Having been involved with the development of the NPE (National and Provincial Election) system (The system that’ll process the results of today’s election), all I can say is - Good luck guys! I hope that the wheels don’t fall off!
Courtesy of The Times, hear the brain-dead Jesse Duarte blow her top! Yes, she actually says, “If you weren’t black I’d say you were racist!”
With all of the recent media coverage of the Pirate Bay trial, I’ve noticed that many South Africans seem to be confused about what BitTorrent is. In one BBC article it states: -
The file-sharing program BitTorrent, which is a legal piece of software, uses the torrent links to manage the transfer of files online between those who have parts of the data and those who need parts of the data.
While this statement is true, it isn’t entirely true, because it doesn’t explain that BitTorrent is also a protocol.
I guess the confusing part is that there is BitTorrent “client” software that uses the BitTorrent protocol to share files. Also, BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer protocol, which means, strictly speaking, there are no clients within the BitTorrent paradigm. There are no clients because each peer provides both client and server functionality. Of course torrent types will disagree, because in torrent-speak a peer is someone who is busy downloading file blocks, while someone busy uploading (Serving) file blocks is known as a seed.
A single BitTorrent “client” can download and upload (Serve/Seed) file blocks simultaneously. It can upload (Serve/Seed) file blocks to multiple remote peers (Even local peers if you want) simultaneously, and it can download file blocks from multiple seeds simultaneously. Got it? Good! All the confusion has been cleared up!
Now, just to simplify things even more, there are numerous BitTorrent “clients” available, most of which are free: -
µTorrent - Quite a popular BitTorrent client. I’ve used µTorrent once or twice, but I think it’s only available for Windows.
Azureus (Now known as Vuze) - A Java BitTorrent client. Not that I’m a big BitTorrent user, but this is the one I use - Mainly because I’m a big Java fan and because the software is portable between different operating systems.
For a full list, look here.
It isn’t often that I travel to Jo’burg, but today I had to attend to some business. Almost every friggin’ major thoroughfare between here and Jo’burg is being dug up!
Here is the route I took going to Jo’burg: -
Lynnwood Road between Glenwood Road and the N1 is a total mess! There is so much mud in the road that when it rains, 4 x 4 drivers actually look as if they have been offroad!
The N1 between Lynnwood Road and the M1 is an abortion! It has been like this for over a year and every time I travel the road, it seems to be even worse!
The M1 between the N1 and the Western Bypass is a little better than the N1, but still a nightmare!
The M1 between the Western Bypass and Empire road: no road works!
Empire Road between the M1 and Owl Street looks a lot like Lynnwood Road: a total bloody mess!
Owl Street: no road works!
Annet Road: no road works!
Kingsway Avenue between Annet and Perth looks as if a monster mole went crazy!
Coming home I thought I’d be smart… Miss the road works by going a different route… Yeah right! I went along Main Road and got onto the Western Bypass at Gorden Road.
The Western Bypass, all the way from Gorden Road to the M1 looks like the IPL of roadworks! There are so many bright-green-flag-waving-road-workers that for a moment I thought I’d taken a wrong turn and landed at The Wanderers
The M1 from the Western Bypass to the N1 is in pretty much the same state as driving towards Jo’burg.
And the N1 from the M1 to Lynnwood Road is an absolute and utter abortion on both sides of the road!
Okay! I understand that we are trying to get our country ready for the world cup, but what about the people who need to use these roads everyday? Besides the cost of the roadworks, I wonder if anyone has bothered to put a price tag on lost time due to traffic jams? And once this whole wonder-world of thoroughfare magnificence has been completed, who is going to pay for its maintenance? The country seems incapable of maintaining its existing infrastructure (Did you watch Carte Blanche last night?) yet we want to build more?
I guess there will always be stupid people on the Internet. It is the same stupid people who fuel spam, 419 scams, phishing, etc. There are also less noxious forms of exploiting the stupid, and one of them is SEO.
Back in the 1990s it was Y2K. Yes, Y2K was a real problem, but with all of the hype and FUD that surrounded the problem, it was blown out of all proportion. Of course many profited from the situation… The so called “Y2K experts!” It is also true that much of the hype and FUD surrounding the Y2K problem was created by the very same Y2K experts! Make the problem bigger than it is, and then profit from the stupid!
I’ve been a big fly-fishing fan for many years. I’m not a very good fly-fisherman, but I do enjoy the peace and tranquility of getting out into the mountains for a weekend. I remember a particular fly-fishing weekend back in August 1999. I was at Crane Creek Farm (Which rather sadly no longer exists) with my daughter, and one cold evening all of the fishermen gathered together in the farmhouse kitchen as they returned from their days fishing. It was usual for the fisherman to gather in the farmhouse kitchen. It was warm and welcoming, a good place to swap fishing stories, and a good place to clean and compare the days catch. Anyway, at some point in the evening talk turned to “the Y2K problem.” I sat silently and listened to what was being said. No one in the kitchen, apart from Rod and Mal, the owners of Crane Creek, knew that I was an IT consultant. So it was with some amusement that I listened. I listened to all sorts of stories, ranging from microwave ovens that would explode at 12 o’clock, to hospital patients who would die when the clock struck 12.
Mal, knowing about my involvement with IT, and I suspect because she saw the amused look on my face, decided to stir the pot by asking me what I thought of the Y2K problem. There was shocked silence in the kitchen when I announced quite loudly that 95% of the Y2K problem was nothing more than bullshit! Once they’d recovered from the initial shock, everyone told me that I didn’t know what I was talking about and got on with discussing how the world would end because of Y2K.
In February 2000, one of the fishermen who’d been present that evening, had the balls to phone me and apologise
So what does all of this have to do with SEO? Well, it’s pretty much the same thing… 95% bullshit from “SEO experts” who want you to part with your hard earned cash!
The 5% of SEO that isn’t bullshit is pretty much common sense, and here is a short list of things to remember: -
- If a search engine can’t see it, it can’t index it. Many sites, in the eternal quest to look sexy, use Flash and JavaScript for various things. Remember that most search engines only index HTML, so if you have content hidden away in Flash, the indexing bot won’t see it. The same thing goes for JavaScript: Links hidden away inside some sexy piece of script will be ignored by the indexing bot, and content displayed as a result of an AJAX call, will suffer the same fate.
- Content is king! If an indexing bot “sees” the content of a site as rubbish, it will index it as rubbish. If you don’t want your site to appear as rubbish to an indexing bot, make sure that the content isn’t rubbish. Also keep the content fresh and new. Indexing bots, very much like humans, get bored when they keep finding the same stagnant content.
- Do not publish links to MLM schemes, affiliate marketing sites, porn sites or any other “spammy” site. Indexing bots, in general, take a rather dim view of links to these type of sites. If the indexing bot finds these kinds of links on your site, it will naturally assume that your site is part of the crud, and will index it as such.
- Many SEO “strategies” are recognized by indexing bots, and will result in just the opposite of what you were expecting. So just keep it real!
There are probably a few more that I’ve forgotten to mention, but don’t let anyone tell you that you need an “expert” for SEO! SEO is common sense! Don’t forget it!
According to this blog post on the Pirate Bay site, the verdict in the ongoing trial should be announced today at 1pm Swedish Time.
I’m not really sure where I stand with regard to the outcome of the trial. I’ve never been a big BitTorrent user, mainly because leaches bleed you dry while (Sometimes) waiting for days to get the last few blocks of a file, but maybe things go a bit further than just being a BitTorrent user?
Claimants in the trial claim that the music, video and games industry have lost millions due to illegal BitTorrant downloads. While I’m sure that their claims are true, just exactly who has lost the money? In the music industry it seems that the lions share of profits is gobbled up by big organizations, while relatively little filters down to the actual artist. So is their claim made from a purely selfish point of view, or are they really trying to protect the artists?
I could never pretend to be squeaky clean when it comes to the question of copyright violation, but I certainly don’t advocate breaching these laws. I understand and respect the right for everyone to make a living, but is there a question of someone being ripped off?
So does Pirate Bay encourage copyright violation? Hmmmm… I’m not 100% sure.
Does the music industry (And other claimants in the trial) really want to protect the artist? Hmmmm… I’m not sure about that one either.
