Month: August 2008

SxSW Panel Picker; vote for my panels if you like ‘em

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So it’s almost time to start thinking about making our way over to Texas for SxSW…

Earlier this year I did a panel entitled Building a Startup You Love (is Hard) – download pdf – which I think went down pretty well. So for next year, I’m hoping to expand on things by going into more detail and adding a bit more content.

Additionally, I’ve also submitted a proposal for another panel, which I think is also pretty interesting, given that the web is no longer dominated by English.

Here are the details:
Go to http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ and create an account – 1 minute.

Visit:
Building a Startup You Love (is Hard)
Lessons Learned Building Global Apps with Multi-Cultural Teams

If you think that you’d benefit, please vote for me! ;-)

So this is what blogging again feels like? ;-) Lol…

Fortune favours the brave; but the brave are motivated by favours of another kind

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I’m getting some interesting nuggets coming in via the little news feed at the top of Gmail…
This one looks at why soldiers are motivated by glory, despite the risks – makes for good reading if you’re interested in natural selection.
_ Fortune favours the brave; but the brave are motivated by favours of another kind – Times Online

From the heroic 300 Spartans of Thermopylae to the Charge of the Light Brigade, history is littered with tales of the bravery of men who knew that death was as likely an outcome as glory.

Such courage has always been recognised as a supreme asset by military strategists — Carl von Clausewitz, the 19th-century Prussian theorist, described it as “above all things . . . the first quality of a warrior”. For biologists, however, it poses a problem: humans simply should not have evolved to be heroic: the dangers to life and limb are too great.

Now, it appears, the solution to this evolutionary puzzle may lie in sex. New research suggests that braver soldiers may ultimately win more sexual partners as well as more battles, and that the extra chances to spread their genes can outweigh the risk of dying in combat.

Cheaper, fast internet on schedule for Africa next year

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Good news if you’re in SA… ;-)
_ Cheaper, fast internet on schedule for Africa next year - South Africa – The Good News

The construction of a 15,000 km fibre optic undersea cable is on schedule and set to go live in June 2009 in time for the FIFA Confederations Cup.
Images by Gallo Images / www.gettyimages.com The Seacom system will bring affordable bandwidth to East and Southern Africa by connecting South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Kenya, and Tanzania with India and Egypt thereby linking the region with the international cable grid in Europe and South Asia.

According to Seacom, all marine and ecological impact studies have been completed by scuba diving scientists, giving the company the go-ahead for rolling out the undersea cable next month.

Some 10,000 km of cable has already been manufactured in the USA and Japan and Tyco Communications, the project contractors, will begin shipping terrestrial equipment this month.

Seacom President Brian Herlihy says, “We are very happy with the progress made over the past five months. Our manufacturing and deployment schedule is on target and we are confident that we will meet our delivery promises.”

The privately-funded operation is 77% African owned. It will complement communication carriers of Southern and East Africa by providing African retail carriers with equal and open access to inexpensive bandwidth which, at the moment, relies on expensive satellite connections.

Hat tip to Sean

Olympian Phelps’ unusual diet

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I’ve been doing a bit of reading on diet, nutrition, calories, metabolism etc etc, towards my goal of getting fitter, and I found this very interesting:
_ BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Food for fuel: Olympian Phelps’ unusual diet

MICHAEL PHELPS’ DIET
Breakfast: Three fried egg sandwiches; cheese; tomatoes; lettuce; fried onions; mayonnaise; three chocolate-chip pancakes; five-egg omelette; three sugar-coated slices of French toast; bowl of grits; two cups of coffee
Lunch: Half-kilogram (one pound) of enriched pasta; two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayonnaise on white bread; energy drinks
Dinner: Half-kilogram of pasta, with carbonara sauce; large pizza; energy drinks