Quote of the Day

"The moment at which two people, approaching from opposite ends of a long passageway, recognize each other and immediately pretend they haven t. This is to avoid the ghastly embarrassment of having to continue recognizing each other the whole length of the corridor."

-Douglas Adams

Quote of the Day

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the drug store, but that's just peanuts to space."

- Douglas Adams

Quote of the Day

"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands."

- Douglas Adams

Quote of the Day

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."

- Douglas Adams

Quote of the Day

"He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief."

- Sir Francis Bacon

Quote of the Day

"Wives are young men’s mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men’s nurses."

- Sir Francis Bacon

Bet my wife is looking forward to nursing me at old age ...

Quote of the Day

"Silence is the virtue of fools"

-Sir Francis Bacon

You got to love this one after my absence of posting :)...

To Post Or Not To Post

Whoah ! Just look at that It's been almost a month since I last posted... Since I went on a week's vacation, I just got lazy... or is it because a lack of really interesting news out there. Well anyways let me see if I can get back to at least one post a day. Even if it is only a quote.

Scott Adams Creates a Blog

I don't believe it ! The mentor for all office workers right around the world has decided to start his own blog. Now if that is not an awesome news item, I don't know what is. (Do I need to mention that I am a fan of the comic strip Dilbert ?)

Rootkits

Yep after viruses, trojan, malware and spyware comes a new menace - Rootkits. These things actually change the way your operating system works so that your normal spyware/malware detectors can't pickup any problematic proggies running on your system. These things are real nasty and apparently the only solution to really get rid of one is to format the system again. There are a few programs out there that will help you detect these bothersome things.

Check out the article at :
Tech Support Alert

Slave Species of god

I found a new interesting book via fedup.co.za (thanks goes to my wife) that has been written by fellow South African, Michael Tellinger. The first chapter can be downloaded for free.

"Short introduction to Slave Species of god.

While many books have been written around the subject of our human ancestry, Slave Species of god skilfully manages to combine much of the ancient knowledge of lost civilisations to expose the shocking truth about our human origins. The book is easy to read and grabs its reader from the very first chapter. It unravels the mystery of our CREATOR and the creation of "Adam" while it draws a clear distinction between "god" and GOD. It takes its reader on a journey of discovery through 550 pages of astonishing facts. You will be exposed to the earliest human writings and our ancestors some 450 000 years ago, as they plotted the genetic manipulation of the human race. This is probably the most controversial book written by any South African author and will challenge all the newcomers to this genre of literature."

Check it out here :
Slave Species Link

Ananova - Artists erect giant pink bunny on mountain

Now here is a news item worth noting.



"An enormous pink bunny has been erected on an Italian mountainside where it will stay for the next 20 years."

Check it out here :

Ananova - Artists erect giant pink bunny on mountain

Quote of the Day

We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.
- Robert Wilensky

Steve Ballmer Event

Went to see Steve Ballmer yesterday at Gallagher Estates in Midrand, South Africa. One thing I can say about him is that he is very aware of competition out there and really is a champion for the future of Microsoft development. He pretty much had everyone hanging on his lips and lots of people clapping at fairly simple features.

I was pretty much impressed though with the new way that Office 12 is going to work. Rather having little factual menus, the whole thing has been revamped to the way people would work. Steve also pushed how us developers will be able to use all the new wonderful features of Vista in our code.

Only problem is - that Vista will probably only have an implementation base as of 2 years from now... but I really look forward to it though. It will make us coders look so much more intelligent with little coding :).

Microsoft business systems future definitely looks great going forward though and they are trying their best to outsmart competition. And as it is directly benefiting Microsoft there is no reason that they won't succeed ... I'm one of the people that is sufficiently impressed on what .NET can do and it's going to be big.

"Steven A. Ballmer is Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation, the worlds leading manufacturer of software for personal and business computing. Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 and was the first business manager hired by Bill Gates. Since then, Ballmer’s leadership and passion have become hallmarks of his tenure at the company.

During the past 20 years, Ballmer has headed several Microsoft divisions, including operations, operating systems development, and sales and support. In July 1998, he was promoted to President, a role that gave him day-to-day responsibility for running Microsoft. He was named CEO in January 2000, assuming full management responsibility for the company, which includes delivering on the company’s mission of enabling people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential."

Mark Shuttleworth on Ubuntu Linux

Found this article on Slashdot :

"Mark Shuttleworth has released a FAQ about Ubuntu's Direction and Intent. It comments on the discussions of funding, of being a Debian-fork or not, of the strange names, and many other 'hot topics' relating to Ubuntu. In his own words: 'This document exists to give the community some insight into my thinking, and to a certain extent that of the Community Council, Technical Board and other governance structures - on some of the issues and decisions that have been controversial.'"

And from the wiki :

"Ubuntu is not without its controversies. This is a good thing (at least IMO) as it suggests we are both challenging the status quo, and taking some risks. Speaking for myself, my motivation for funding and participating in Ubuntu so heavily is in large part derived from a desire to do both of those things, I enjoy shaking up established lines of thinking, and I enjoy taking risks. This document exists to give the community some insight into my thinking, and to a certain extent that of the Community Council, Technical Board and other governance structures - on some of the issues and decisions that have been controversial."

Check it out here :
Ubuntu Wiki

First Live Giant Squid Photographed

The animal—which measures roughly 25 feet (8 meters) long—was photographed 2,950 feet (900 meters) beneath the North Pacific Ocean. Japanese scientists attracted the squid toward cameras attached to a baited fishing line.

Check it out at :
National Geographic Link

Gerrit Badenhorst

Now here is a fellow South African that is a huge success - Gerrit Badenhorst :

"Gerrit is still a full time strongman performer and entertainer doing one-man shows and acts at all kind of venues. The fact that he can do strongman shows and sing simultaneously, proves him to be an asset to any show or function, as he is a true crowd-pleaser and performer. Old and young absolutely adore his performances and outgoing personality."

"Gerrit Badenhorst just released his first CD 'Soen, Soen', translated means Kiss, Kiss. An album with variety, tempo, passion and emotion in English and Afrikaans. The World Strongest Man Anthem is a song which brings International flavour to this album. He was fortunate to sing this song in Holland and Hungary at the International Strongman's contest recently. This song is gutsy, inspiring, motivating and is being played in Gyms and Sporting events internationally."

Check out his website at :
Link To Gerrit's Site

Cosmic Collision

Found these interactive movies on the universe and collisions within.

Check it out at :
Hubble Site Link

Googlize !

I thought of a new word today : Googlize.

I used the word today and the person I was speaking to immediately knew what I meant. The said person was looking for information and then I said "I'm not sure, but have you googlized it ?". The term obviously mean - searching for something via Google. Interested by the term, I thought I will googlize the word googlize, to see if someone also have laid claim to this term. Sure enough there is quite a lot of hits on googlize. So there goes my glory road to fame - but it is interesting that the word has been used by so many people... it may even become a valid word. This would probably be the entry :

goo-gel-ize Pronunciation Key
to search for information through the Google search engine

Although the way Google has been expanding their line-up this term may later be more inclusive...

7, yes 7 ! editions of Windows Vista

Apparently the following Windows editions will be released :

1. Starter Edition, which like XP Starter Edition, is a crippled (and lame) product aimed at the two-thirds world. It will limit users to three concurrent applications, and provide only basic TCP/IP networking, and won't be suitable for most games.

2. The next step up is Home Basic Edition, which is really the sibling to today's Windows XP Home.

3. However, as the name suggests, there's also Home Premium Edition, and this is where we start to split features like hairs and create a gaggle of products. HPE will build on the the Basic Edition by adding, most notably, the next-generation of Media Center capabilities, including support for HDTV, DVD authoring, and even DVD ripping backed up (of course) by Windows DRM. For non-corporate types, this is probably going to be the OS that most people use. It's similar to XP Pro in power, but with all of the added bells and whistles for entertainment. Well, most of them.

4. Windows Vista Professional Edition won't occupy the same spot that XP Pro occupies today, because this time it's truly aimed at businesses. It won't feature the MCE functionality that Home Premium Edition has, but it begins to provide the kind of functionality you'd expect in a business environment, such as support for non-Microsoft networking protocols and Domain support. But don't expect too many businesses to necessarily turn to PE.

5. Microsoft is also planning both a Small Business Edition and

6. an Enterprise Edition, which build upon pro by adding (seemingly minor) features aimed at appealing to each market. SBE, for instance, includes a networked backup solution, while EE will include things like Virtual PC integration, and the ability to encrypt an entire volume of information.

7. Last but not least, there's Ultimate Edition. Hey, I'm just glad that they didn't call it Extreme Edition. Ultimate Edition is a superset of both Vista Home Premium and Vista Pro Edition, so it includes all of the features of both of those product versions, plus adds Game Performance Tweaker with integrated gaming experiences, a Podcast creation utility (under consideration, may be cut from product), and online "Club" services (exclusive access to music, movies, services and preferred customer care) and other offerings (also under consideration, may be cut from product)

Check the rest of the article here :
Windows Vista release link