Tag Archive for 'General'

Come on Bokke!!!!!!

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/10/18
in General
. 0 Comments

I’ll be wearing my green and gold tomorrow ;-)

Quote of Francios Pienaar – 1995 South African Rugby World Cup winning captain – just before accepting the Rugby World Cup trophy. His comment was in response to the statement that there were 60,000 South Africans at Ellis Park that day: “We didn’t have 60,000 South Africans supporting us today – we had 43 million South Africans”

Appeal to all South Africans and Springbok Supporters:

This is a patriotic appeal to Springbok supporters and proud South Africans all over the world, and particularly those in London and England. This is a very important message and requires your support to spread the word and make it happen.

This Friday, 19th October, we call upon all South Africans abroad to wear green and gold in public, especially on their way to and from work. Whether it is your Springbok rugby jersey or just a South Africa t-shirt - make sure it’s visible. If you are required to wear a suit – wear it over your shirt and tie on your way in to work. If you work casual – wear your green and gold!

This is in response to a similar call made by Thabo Mbeki earlier in the week to South Africans at home, to show our very proud support and solidarity for John Smit and the team as they take on England this Saturday in the Rugby World Cup final.

Let us show the world that we stand as one – 100% behind the men in Green and Gold. Wear your colours not with arrogant pride but with a sense of unity and how far our nation has come!

Most importantly: as a matter of urgency please forward this message by email, SMS or word of mouth to all the South Africans you know. Time is of the essence. Send it back home to family and friends so they can send it on to others abroad. Let’s show the world.

This is not only for a bit of fun – press and other organisations have been informed to capture the day. This show of support will hopefully be broadcast and the boys in France will gain a sense of the immense support behind them.

All the best, and most of all, enjoy the game on Saturday!

Come on Bokke!!!!!!

New release on Kindo Beta today!

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/10/10
in General
. 0 Comments

Sometimes there’s nothing better than some positive feedback from people you love, and in the case of Kindo it’s no different. This afternoon I sent out an email to my folks to let them know that we’d done another release, and they could check it out, and this is the response I got from my Dad:
“Hi Gareth,
Mom and I had a look very good, much easier and better to use I will now send to other relations…
Love
Dad & Mom”

Somehow, that short email the way only my Dad writes emails, makes it feel really good to get this release done. I don’t want to sound mushy, but hey, that’s the way I feel.

We’ve been working hard on Kindo for a while now, and whilst at times it’s felt like the light at the end of the tunnel was far away, today we’ve taken another step closer to a Public release of Kindo we can be proud of.

So, onto the meat and potatoes. Some of the stuff we’ve added to Beta:

  1. A profile page, so you can keep track of what your family is up to (and remember their birthdays and anniversaries)
  2. Invitation pages, so you can re-invite those family members who are too lazy to respond right away
  3. Pruning, so you can see who’s who in your tree. We’ll only show your blood-relatives, which makes the tree so much easier to navigate

Let us know what you think please!

Check out Dopplr

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/10/9
in General
. 0 Comments

Looks pretty interesting…. pity I’ve not got many travel plans on! ;-)

About Dopplr - http://www.dopplr.com/

Dopplr is an online service for frequent travellers. It was created by an international team of world travellers. We saw a need for this kind of service, but discovered that no one was offering it. So we did it ourselves, and are delighted that other people are liking it as much as we do.

Dopplr lets you share your future travel plans with a group of trusted fellow travellers that you have chosen. You can use the service with your personal computer and mobile phone.

The Dopplr ‘beta’ service is open by invitation only. Once invited by an existing member you will be able to invite others to join Dopplr and share your travels.

We would like to remind you that you can use your mobile phone to invite friends to join Dopplr. Once you’re signed up, you’ll need to first register your mobile number at http://www.dopplr.com/account/sms . After that, just SMS their email address to Dopplr, with a + symbol in front of it. For example, text +yourfriend@herdomain.com to +44 7797 806 170. That’s all you need to do. This number will only become more useful in future so save it in your phone book.

Please refer to our blog - http://blog.dopplr.com - where we discuss things like service improvements, travel tips and various ideas/tricks for using the service better. Feel free to stop by and comment. We also have a Frequently Asked Questions page - http://www.dopplr.com/main/faq - that we will keep updating.

What’s next for the Kindo Family?

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/9/20
in General
. 0 Comments

Over the last month or so, our number one priority has been to release Kindo to friends, family, and early adopters (these were our Alpha and Beta releases) so that we could get as much feedback as possible to make Kindo into something people love to you use.

So far we’ve received great feedback, but there’s still loads to do!

At the moment we’re tying up some bugfixes and user interface improvements for another interim release (thanks to everyone for their feedback!), whilst working on some major new additions to Kindo, which will bring:

  1. pruning to your tree (to simplify you will only see blood relatives - think pruning a rosebush ;-)
  2. a full profile page for each family member
  3. the ability to invite your whole family from one page, or to remind family members to join Kindo!

Once we’ve done that, there are some really cool features in the pipeline which we’re not gonna talk too much about now ;-)

In the meantime, we’d love to hear more from you:

  1. What do you want to see on Kindo?
  2. What is missing from Kindo?
  3. What improvements could be made with the interface?

More soon… ;-)

Shalk Burger is so tuff…

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/9/18
in General
. 0 Comments

For you rugby fans out there:

When Schalk Burger does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up; he’s pushing the Earth down.
When Schalk Burger goes swimming he doesn’t get wet, the water gets Schalk Burgered.
When the Tokoloshe goes to sleep every night, he checks under his bed for Schalk Burger.
Schalk Burger counted to infinity - twice.
Schalk Burger invented every colour. Except pink. Percy Montgomery invented pink.
Schalk Burger’s hand is the only hand that can beat a Royal Flush.
Schalk Burger gave Mona Lisa that smile.
Schalk Burger can slam a revolving door.
Some kids p*ss their name in the snow. Schalk Burger can p*ss his name into concrete.
Schalk Burger’s calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd; No-one fools Schalk Burger .
Schalk Burger can speak Braille.
Schalk Burger’s tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried. Ever.
Superman owns a pair of Schalk Burger pyjamas.
Schalk Burger owns the greatest Poker Face of all-time. It helped him win the 1993 World Series of Poker despite him holding just a Joker, a Get out of Jail Free Monopoly card, a 2 of clubs, 7 of spades and a green #4 card from the game Uno.
Schalk Burger sleeps with a night light. Not because Schalk Burger is afraid of the dark, but the dark is afraid of Schalk Burger .
Once a cobra bit Schalk Burger’s leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.
Schalk Burger divides by zero.
When Schalk Burger exercises, the machine gets stronger.
Schalk Burger doesn’t use pickup lines, he simply says, “Now”.
Schalk Burger sold his soul to the devil for his rugged good looks and unparalleled rugby ability. Shortly after the transaction was finalised, Schalk Burger spear-tackled the devil and took his soul back. The devil, who appreciates irony, couldn’t stay mad and admitted he should have seen it coming. They now play poker every second Wednesday of the month.
Schalk Burger can kill two stones with one bird.
Schalk Burger once devoured a whole wheel-barrow full of clay to prove to a friend that the expression “Sh**ing bricks” wasn’t just a figure of speech.
The only time Schalk Burger was wrong was when he thought he had made a mistake

;-)

Go Bokke!!!

Texan spiders spin ‘monster web’

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/8/31
in General
. 0 Comments

Check it out:
_ BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Texan spiders spin ‘monster web’
Hat tip to mishcake ;-)

Job post: Business Analysts needed at openads.org, London

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/7/23
in General
. 0 Comments

Hey there

If you know any business analysts looking for an exciting gig/role, then please get in touch with me ;-)

Job description below, can send word doc if you like.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Business Analyst – Job Description

Openads is seeking a highly skilled Business Analyst with a level of technical expertise, to work within the Product Management group.

Candidate will help formulate and define the scope and objectives of systems and technology. Based upon user needs and a thorough understanding of the business and industry requirements, the candidate will assess and present the business case. Must help assess the implications and impact of deliverable on the current and future business environment.

Working closely with the Product Owner, the candidate will be responsible for translating the project vision and consequently lead developers to solve business requirements. The analysis of business and user needs, then translation of those requirements into system specifications will be an important aspect of the job. Will also be required to build relationships with users, functional managers and consultants regarding specific deliverables.

Must be happy to pick up knowledge and expertise quickly in a fast-paced environment. Ideal candidates will have experience in the advertising industry and Agile Project methodologies.

Responsibilities:

• Work closely with Product Owner
Will help translate key requirements from the Product Owner and translate them into a form that developers can work with. Will also aid the Product Owner in making key decisions

• Strategic Planning
Sit between the development group and the Product Owner. Must be able to provide input as required, communicate decisions and strategies and then help implement that strategy on specific projects.

• Process Improvement
Work within and help refine the requirement processes.

• Business Consultancy/Liaison
Play a supportive role in advising areas of the business and technical staff on the implication of new initiatives and ideas on existing applications.

• Business System Selection
Play a leading role in the identification and assessment of business systems solutions for specific projects. Ensure that the solutions are in line with Product Owner’s requirements

• Business Systems Development
Provide input into the development of new business systems through detailed analysis. Write specifications for external parties and internal staff to develop projects.

• Business Systems Delivery Mgmt
Play a lead role in the implementation of projects for business systems solutions. Assist in unit and integration testing, and manage sections of acceptance testing. Ensure components are delivered to satisfactory levels.

• Testing
Will play an active role in testing and identifying defects in deliverables

Mandatory Skills:
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Extensive experience of leading business analysis
• Good experience of process analysis
• Good experience of data analysis
• Ability to resolve issues without clear or predefined solutions
• Motivated, quick thinking and have an interest in learning various technologies.
• Must be happy to work within a structured Agile project methodology

Desirable Skills:
• Experience of Advertising industry
• Experience of working with Agile project methodology, ideally Scrum
• IT Development background
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks in advance if you do ;-)
Gareth

Testing posting to blog with Newsgator Publisher plugin

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/7/23
in GTD and General
. 1 Comment

Trying to get more productive, and posting on at least 4 blogs in the coming months is going to be interesting, so trying out the plugin before going to bed, to see what happens ;-)

Check out Meteor

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/7/13
in General
. 2 Comments

Interesting…
_ Meteor

This demo uses data from the Sixapart Livejournal updates feed, a streaming XML service that pushes the full text of all posts made to Livejournal, as they’re made. Our daemon listens to that stream, indexes all the words in the incoming posts, and counts the word frequency. The number of ‘mentions per minute’ is tracked over a five minute rolling window, and word counts injected into Meteor server when the values change. This page has a Meteor Javascript client that subscribes to the ’sngst’ channel and fires JS event handlers when new messages are received.

Hat tip to Demian

Big kids in the schoolground = western democratic powerhouse?

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/5/9
in General
. 0 Comments

Just multi-tasking while clearing mail, and the stuff about Tony Blair leaving Downing Street is on TV…

And it strikes me that the House of Commons is more like a forum for a bunch of old-school school kids in the playground, all having a go at each other… Don’t know what to say really, other then it’s quite comical.

Snickers Advert with Mr T on YouTube

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/5/1
in General
. 0 Comments

_ YouTube - Get Some Nuts! - Snickers Advert

Quit your jibber jabber!
You aint hurt!
You’re pathetic!
If I ever catch you acting like a crazy fool again, you gonna meet my friend paiiiin!!!

Room for one - using blog to advertise for room-mates

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/4/26
in General
. 0 Comments

This came in via email today…
_ http://room4one.blogspot.com

Once of the more interesting uses of blogs!

And hey, if you’re looking for a room, then respond!! ;-)

we are based 15 minutes away from London Bridge, south east, Eltham

for which it will set you back £350 a month, all inclusive,
send a rough outline of your self to, opuk49@gmail.com

PHP and Web 2.0 Developer required in Putney Bridge, London

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/4/25
in General
. 0 Comments

Official description over here now: http://www.technovated.com/work-with-us/

Still moving… loads of stuff on, not enough time…

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/4/24
in General
. 0 Comments

Have not been able to blog much recently as I’ve been moving into our new place, and as usual, it will take a week or so to get the BT line and ADSL working, which means I’ll be able to blog from home in about 2/3 days…

As an update, closed an important deal for us which we’ll be talking about more when we’ve finalised specifics, am still sleeping on a futon mattress on the floor (doing wonders for my back ‘tho), have some camping chairs in the lounge for furniture (looking for a big ‘ol leather pub couch), and are going to get our Ikea furniture sorted out this evening…

As for Tech for Africa, we’re making progress with the keynote speakers, but no fixed dates yet.