Author Archives: Marius

About Marius

Owner of Henriska Technology and Project Manager by profession.

2008 – The year that was (take 2) and 2009

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I had this long post (hence the take 2 of this one) about how crap and bad 2008 was but then when I read and re-read it, I thought to myself, that was the past and absolutely nothing I can do about it.  Rather write about the good things and what the future holds.

So here are the bulleted list of 2008:

  • Son completed 1st year Chemical Engineering with flying colors.
  • Daughter passed Grade 11 much better than we expected with all the medical problems she had to cope with during the year.
  • Via Geekdinners and 27dinners I met some great people.
  • Worked on various projects (some good, some bad) and got to travel often around South Africa — Jhb is not a fun place to work.
  • Learned a lot about relationships and friendship .. it is not always what it is made out to be. People are not always who they appear to be and can so easily disappoint one when one’s expectations are not inline with theirs.
  • Played some golf — Pearl Valley is probably the best Golf Course I have ever played at in South Africa and I have played my fair bit of courses.  St Andrews Old Course will always be my favorite.
  • Turned 50 but as I am not one for birthdays (hey age is just a number) it came and went with no real fuss.
  • My health is great … even the doctor say so after I went for a full medical when I had some hiccups during the year.  Learned that one’s health is far more important than work and stressing about things one has no control over.

I am not one that make any resolutions about the future … so I will go into 2009 with no expectations, desires, wishes but only to live each day to the fullest and take things as it comes.  Will always try to be there for friends when they need me no matter the circumstances.  Only one thing I will try to do more in 2009 and that is to play more golf.

To all of you reading this, may you have a great 2009 and just always be yourself and be what you want to be.  Do not let other people dictate how you should live or do things.

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Makro service (good) and Canon Powershot SX10 IS

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We as South African complain so much about the bad service that we receive in this country but when we get good service we tend to keep quiet about it.  Today I want to talk about the good (actually great) service I received from Makro.

I receive Makro’s catalogs via email and they advertised a Vodacom Weekender contract for R135.00 plus a Canon Powershot SX119 camera for free. Knowing that you do not get a SX119 camera, I send an email mentioning the mistake and asked whether this free camera is the Canon Powershot SX110 or the Canon Powershot SX10.  Makro responded that it is the SX10.  Knowing that the SX10 cost R2000.00 more than the SX110, I double checked with them and they confirmed that I will receive the SX10.  Now if you make the calculation of R135.00 for 24 months plus connection fee of R202.00 means that I can get a R5000.00 camera for about R3500.00.

I went down to my closest Makro (Milnerton) and showed them the email with the confirmation that I can get a SX10 with the Vodacom Weekender contract.  Not surprising, they said that it is the SX110 and not the SX10 as mentioned in the email.  Not wanting to argue with the lady behind the counter, she was just doing her job, I just left and then send a complaint email via Makro’s website explaining the situation.

The next day I received a telephone call from Makro Milnerton enquiring what my complaint was about.  After explaining the situation, Makro decided to honour the commitment made in the email to me.

Yesterday I again visited the Milnerton store and am now the proud owner of:

and a Vodacom Weekender contract.

Just goes to show that sometimes when one does the effort, you can still find businesses that is true to their word.  Thanks Makro for doing the right thing and I will surely do more business with you.

As you can see the camera is still in its wrapping.  So you might wonder why I did not play with it yet.  I actually want a Canon Powershot SX1 IS and ORMS has agreed to swap the SX10 for a SX1 and I only need to pay the difference of about R2500.00.  The SX1 should be available in SA by mid January so I cannot wait to get it swapped.

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SA Open Golf – Congrats Richard

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My son and I spend the day at Pearl Valley yesterday watching the pro golfers at their game.  Congratulations to Richard Sterne who won the South African Open.  He definitely did not have a bad 2 pay weeks by also winning the previous week.  Just under R5 million rand in 2 weeks .. not bad going. 

Unfortunately I did not get a photo of Richard but got one of Retief, who we followed most of the day.

I played at Pearl Valley about a month ago and must say that I think it is one of the best Golf Estates out there.  Now I only need a couple of millions to buy a house there and become a member :).

Ernie had one of his typical tournaments, 3 good rounds and one crap one.  Ernie, what is going on … ?

This is probably my last blog entry for 2009.  It was really a shitty year which I do not want to have over again.  2009 can only be better and I am looking forward to it.  To all of you that has bothered to read, thanks and have a great Christmas period, if you celebrate it, and may 2009 be a great year.

Till next time when we meet in the cyber world or face to face.

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DTP #12: Cape Town in December

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Went to the V&A Waterfront last night and on the way home decided to go and have a look at the Christmas lights in Cape Town.  What a surprise when Adderley Street was closed off and one big party was going on.  There was a stage with live music going and stalls all along the center of the street.

Holiday season has arrived in Cape Town so to all our visitors, enjoy the hospitality and have a great time.

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Twitter problems.

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Today was my day with Twitter problems.

Some background – I am running Ubuntu on all my machines and have used Twirl as a Twitter client.  Now being on Linux also means that the version of Adobe Air that I run is very beta.  So this morning when I started Twirl, it just gave me an empty screen.  Being busy all day, I never had any time to really look at it.  When I got home, I tried Twirl again and it say that a new version is available and would I like to upgrade.  Like a good boy I upgraded and then the surprise.  Sorry but Twirl needs a newer version of Air which is not available on Linux.  So I am really snookered.

Then I decided to have a look at what native Linux Twitter clients is available and found gWibber (where does this name come from).  Installed it and when I run it I am greeted with this:
mariusb@mariusb-ubuntu:~$ gwibber
/home/mariusb/.gtkrc-2.0:10: Invalid symbolic color 'selected_bg_color'
/home/mariusb/.gtkrc-2.0:10: error: invalid identifier `selected_bg_color', expected valid identifier
error: duplicate REP tables used
Failure loading aff file /usr/share/myspell/dicts/en_ZA.aff
console message: undefined @1: ReferenceError: Can't find variable: addMessages
console message: undefined @22: ReferenceError: Can't find variable: setGtkConfig
console message: undefined @1: ReferenceError: Can't find variable: setAccountConfig
console message: undefined @1: ReferenceError: Can't find variable: addMessages
console message: undefined @22: ReferenceError: Can't find variable: setGtkConfig
console message: undefined @1: ReferenceError: Can't find variable: setAccountConfig
Segmentation fault
mariusb@mariusb-ubuntu:~$

So the only way to follow Twitter at the moment is via the web client. Currently trying out gTwitter and but I do not really like it .. very limited.

So Mr/Miss/Mrs Lazyweb, any advice to get my Twitter addiction without the web client.

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