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The lurking beast
2009-08-05 07:40:00
It has been lurking for a while now. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Waiting to catch me unaware. This morning it struck. I was left defenseless. This morning, I had my first asthma attack in two months. Not a bad one, but even as I write this entry, I can feel my breath being short and not getting the same amount of oxygen into my lungs that I normally do. I didn't have my asthma pump with me either. Quite stupid of me actually.  read more »
More About: Life , Cycling , Beast

How to force a Linux kernel panic
2009-07-31 14:49:00
I received a funny request from a colleague today. He wanted to know if I can force a kernel panic on a Linux box. First question: Why? It turns out they are testing some component of VMWare that will be able to detect when a machine has panicked or stopped responding or something. Now, kernel panics are not an easy thing to initiate. The Linux kernel is reasonably strong and it should be able to handle most errors without any effort. The request was made though and I started trying to find an answer. Surprisingly enough, the answer was reasonably difficult to find.  read more »
More About: Force , Panic , Kernel

Windows 7 - Already cracked
2009-07-30 17:09:00
Actually, we should probably not be surprised. Windows 7, the latest incarnation of the famous (infamous?) operating system by Microsoft , has been cracked. The system was scheduled to go on sale on 22 October 2009. This means that pirates will have the latest version of Windows 7 Ultimate long before most consumers have bought a copy off the shelves.  read more »
More About: Cracked

Microsoft Hatred - Linus calls it a disease
2009-07-28 13:28:00
Interesting read over at Ars Technica today. Recently, Microsoft contributed code for it's Hyper-V drivers to the Linux kernel. Yes, you read right, MS contributed code to the kernel.  read more »
More About: Calls , Disease , Linus

Geekworld Re-design
2009-07-28 09:00:00
I've been staring at this page for more than a year now. I have posted a lot of interesting information and invited some friends to blog as well. I think it's time for a redesign. So be on the lookout for a new version of Geekworld... once I have figured out how to update to the latest version of Drupal without breaking everything else... Wish me luck!
More About: Design

You what?
2009-07-24 11:24:00
Had an interesting thing happen to myself and my friend today. Marco was giving me a lift to the offices where we work. After standing still at a traffic light for a few seconds, next thing we know, we get bumped. Not hard, but enough to move us about 10cm or so forward. Not a good way to start a Friday morning. What happened next though, is too good not too share. We both pull our cars off to the side, put on hazards, etc. Marco immediately starts taking pictures with the cellphone of the other drivers' registration numbers, etc.  read more »
More About: Life

You what?
2009-07-24 11:24:00
Had an interesting thing happen to myself and my friend today. Marco was giving me a lift to the offices where we work. After standing still at a traffic light for a few seconds, next thing we know, we get bumped. Not hard, but enough to move us about 10cm or so forward. Not a good way to start a Friday morning. What happened next though, is too good not too share. We both pull our cars off to the side, put on hazards, etc. Marco immediately starts taking pictures with the cellphone of the other drivers' registration numbers, etc.  read more »
More About: Life

Linux for the masses - Why not?
2009-07-22 14:14:00
I just finished reading a blog entry about 'why Linux is not for the masses'. It makes a quite a few good points. Telling a user that he must 'sudo' to the root user to be able to apt-get a specific package is a technical thing. Where I work, I sometimes have trouble explaining to people how to open their command prompt. I would like to attempt to make a counter-argument in this post. For the fun of it.  read more »

Wash that Keyboard!
2009-07-20 14:17:00
I saw this blog entry over at TX Daily where they blog about all sorts of gadgets. You can now easily get rid of all those bits of food and hair and dead skin cells that fall in between those keys of yours. Just wash that keyboard! And if that isn't enough, just put the keyboard in the dish washer. Yes, it's dish washer safe!
More About: Misc , Keyboard , Wash

C&C 4 - Always-on Internet required
2009-07-16 09:26:00
Not too long ago I complained about the lack of LAN support in the up and coming StarCraft II. Now, it seems the game development companies are trying to outdo one another in the 'making gamers angry' department. EA has recently announced that C&C 4, when released, will require an always-on Internet connection.  read more »
More About: Games

Daggerfall now freely available
2009-07-13 14:08:00
Not too long ago (5 years or so), Bethesda decided to release The Elder Scrolls: Arena as a free download to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Elder Scrolls series of games. To celebrate the 15th anniversary, they have released The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall as a free download as well! Take note that this is released 'as is' and it means you need a working emulator like DosBOX to get the game up and running on your Windows XP/Vista machine. This is great news for someone like myself who has already planned his next birthday present. This would be a great way to catch up to most of the story! You can check out the official Bethesda blog for more details regarding this release. What are you waiting for? Go grab those games!  read more »
More About: Games

Two years have gone by... and I'm looking forward to the next 50!
2009-07-07 11:00:00
Today is my second wedding anniversary. I am technically on leave, but I couldn't force myself not to tell the world about how much I love my wife! Thank you for two years of friendship, hardship, endurance and the unequivocal love that we have for each other! I love you very much!
More About: Love , Years , Forward

Asteroids - The Movie?
2009-07-03 08:15:00
We've seen a whole lot of different games being turned into film franchises. Some are successful, others are not. I liked the Tomb Raider films for example, while the films based on the Street Fighter universe were not that successful (or good).  read more »
More About: Movies , Movie , Games , Asteroids , The Movie

StarCraft II - No LAN capabilities?
2009-06-30 16:29:00
Apparently, there has been a lot of Star Craft II news floating around on the web for the past day or two. So I started trawling through the different titbits until I found this interview by IncGamers, where they are speaking to Rob Pardo and other designers behind the new game in the StarCraft franchise.  read more »
More About: Games , Blizzard , Starcraft

Michael Jackson dies
2009-06-26 07:53:00
I was going to blog about cycling this morning (again). Had a good session, even though it was 2 degrees celcius outside and I got here in a reasonable time. Took a shower, walked out, and saw the Gym's TV flash the headline:"Michael Jackson dies". The news said that Jackson died of a heart attack in his rented home in Holmby Hills.  read more »
More About: Dies

Wolfram|Alpha Easter Eggs - My own findings
2009-06-24 14:13:00
So by now, most of the hype surrounding Wolfram |Alpha , the 'computational knowledge engine' has died down. It's an interesting search engine developed by Dr. Stephen Wolfram and it can do amazing things with numbers.  read more »
More About: Eggs , Easter , Easter Eggs

Left 4 Dead on your cellphone?
2009-06-24 09:47:00
This is strange beyond belief. Would you like to play the latest and greatest games on your cellular? I am not kidding, there's a company called OTOY that promises this technology soon. Techcrunch was able to demo the technology before the launch.  read more »
More About: Mobile , Games , Left , Dead , Cellphone

Games pricing - A pleasant surprise
2009-06-22 13:52:00
I was reading this article over at Ars Technica which reveals that the publisher 2K Games is about to release a combination game pack for the Xbox 360. They are bundling Bioshock and Oblivion for the Xbox 360. The price? $40 for the Xbox version and $30 for the PC version.  read more »

Cycling with my wife
2009-06-19 07:42:00
I don't really want to turn this into a cycling blog, but so far, it almost looks like that is the direction I'm headed. Don't worry, I'll still keep everyone updated on the gaming and coding in my life, but cycling will now just be a part of my blogging, as much as it is now a part of my life. Including Sunday, I must have done about 60km's on the bicycle this week. Believe me though, compared to some of the people out there, it's nowhere as much as you think. Still, it is an impressive looking number For me at least.  read more »
More About: Cycling , Wife

Twitpocalypse!
2009-06-10 16:53:00
Just yesterday, I blogged about Twitter and their massive growth rates. Well it seems that massive growth could be the end of you, or services that depend on you. Check out Twitpocalypse, a site that reckons, most people are using integers for their unique identifiers, in this case, the unique identifier for each 'tweet'. An integer can go as high as the number 2,147,483,647. Which is a big number.  read more »

Africa's own Twitter
2009-06-09 14:54:00
By now, most of you know about Twitter , the micro-blogging platform of choice for most social media evangelists. Twitter is good. It's so good that Barack Obama announced himself running for president via Twitter. Oprah is using it. Twitter has more than 6 million users.  read more »
More About: Africa

Fitness Games
2009-06-08 09:15:00
By now, you should know that I am a big proponent for games that take gamers beyond the physical exercise of twiddling their thumbs. I love games like DDR and DrumMania which make you do a little more than just sit on the couch while playing.  read more »
More About: Fitness , Games

E3: Some announcements
2009-06-03 10:15:00
So obviously, as I said last week, the E3 expo is underway in Los Angeles as we speak and this is the biggest platform for game developers and publishers to announce new games, new peripherals and just about new of everything. So what announcements have been made by the big three? I will cover a few here (there will obviously be some more later). Also, I'm trying to link most of the titles to videos, instead of embedding them here. I might embed one or two good ones though.  read more »
More About: Games

PSP Go - How much will it really cost?
2009-06-01 17:09:00
There you have it, it's official. Well, sort of.  read more »
More About: Games , Cost

Endorphins pumping!
2009-05-29 07:47:00
Man, I feel good! Remember earlier this week when I told you that I would cycle to work on Friday? Well, self-fulfilling prophecies aside, I did it, and I feel amazing! I left the house at about 5:35 AM and I arrived safely at my destination at about 6:40AM. Not bad for a 15km cycle. I've taken a shower at the company gym now and I am ready to jump into the day's work. For those geeks out there who feel they need a bit of exercise? Cycling is an amazing, low-impact, cardio-based sport. Might be a bit expensive to jump into, but once you have the basics like a bicycle, a helmet and some safety lights, the road (and sidewalks!) are all yours.
More About: Fitness

Strike all you want
2009-05-27 16:45:00
I can understand why people strike. And while it is generally a nuisance to most of us when the taxis strike (traffic wise) or when public service strikes, it stays being just that. A nuisance. Yes, there are people who use the taxis who are affected by violence or intimidation tactics. I'm not trying to downplay them. I'm saying, in my personal perception, that not as many people are affected by those strikes as what you would like to think.  read more »
More About: Strike

We don't have great expos
2009-05-26 09:15:00
I love this country to bits. I have had many people ask me why I am staying in this country when work opportunities in the UK and Australia are readily available for someone with my skill sets. Truth be told, for all it's problems, I could never leave South Africa. The weather's great, the people are great and there is a big multiverse of cultures to explore. Personally, I'm trying to learn a little more Zulu every day. There are certain things that make me jealous of our foreign geek friends.  read more »
More About: Games , Great

Sick over a weekend... At least there was sport
2009-05-25 08:47:00
I hate being sick. What's worse though, is being sick over the weekend. You get two days that you get to rest, unwind and relax before the rat race for the next week starts again. Now, you end up lying in bed, nose all blocked up, ready to hurl at any moment. Lying down watching Top Gear reruns. At least Jeremy Clarkson makes me laugh... even though it hurts to laugh.  read more »
More About: Life , Sport , Cycling , Weekend , Sick

Google's "Satanic" doodle
2009-05-22 10:46:00
I am almost too afraid to write this post, as with anything 'controversial', you run the risk of making people angry. On the other hand, it's my blog and I can say what I want. So every now and then, Google does these little doodles to commemorate all sorts of different holidays. The most recent one though has sparked a bit of controversy. First off though, let's start with some background information.  read more »
More About: Religion , Satanic , Doodle

Time Sinks
2009-05-20 13:43:00
I just found a nice article on 1UP where they search the world wide webs for the best free games. 101 Free games to be exact. I haven't perused the full list at all (who has time for that?) but I have quickly scanned through it and looked for little gems that can suck up the little remaining time I already don't have. Some of these showed potential but couldn't deliver, while others are just plain amazing. So here's a quick list of the games that have got me intrigued at the moment.  read more »
More About: Games , Time , Sinks