Marius – Page 42 – Famous last words of Marius

After all the rain in Cape Town over the last couple of days/weeks I thought a change of scenery is warranted. This is a photo taken early this morning from my balcony of the Hottentots Mountains.

Although you cannot see it, there is snow on the mountains.

Technorati Tags: hottentots mountains, cape town, south africa

What is up with Facebook? Something seriously wrong with its security and privacy.

Posted on 31 July 2007 by Marius — 1 Comment ↓

Something is really screwed up with Facebook today. I have now been able to play scrabble as somebody else. Look at photos of people I have no idea who they are. And read the wall posts and personal details of a lot of other people I have no clue who they are. Everytime I click the Profile/Home or any link in Facebook, information of some random person get displayed.

I could just now go into some random persons profile and Edit his details — no I did not do it.

And this is not just me .. have seen in my twitter feed that Andy has the same problem so have to assume it is widespread.

Anybody got any idea what is going on.

Update: If you do not see your own information then just refresh with CNTRL-F5. More information here.

Technorati Tags: facebook, security, private

RSS feed update – 30 July 2007

Posted on 30 July 2007 by Marius — No Comments ↓

Yes I know I said that I will do this on a weekly basis but my list is getting long so here it is. In future it will appear when I have a critical mass (whenever that may be).

First an update on the F1/McLaren story — see that Ferrari did not like what the FIA ruled — http://www.news24.com/News24/Sport/Formula_1/0,,2-9-2183_2154714,00.html and http://www.news24.com/News24/Sport/Formula_1/0,,2-9-2183_2154714,00.html

Now for the new stuff:

For Eclipse fans — good article on IBM Workplace/Domino — http://www.eclipsemag.net/ecm/ecmfeatures/psecom,id,65,nodeid,3.html
IBM has a new initiative called Global Citizen’s Portfolio — here is a podcast on it — http://greateribm.typepad.com/web_log/2007/07/global-citizens.html
Want to know some Linux history — the 0.01 release — http://kerneltrap.org/node/14002
Vir my Afrikaanse lesers — http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?from=rss_IOLTechHome&iSectionId=2883&iArticleId=3954244
IBM support it employees to work and play in virtual worlds like SecondLife — the guidelines — http://eightbar.co.uk/2007/07/27/ibm-virtual-world-guidelines/ and http://greateribm.typepad.com/web_log/2007/07/in-the-interest.html
And you thought SA DSL was expensive — http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=41670
Amazing video of 3D on your desktop and in Linux — eat your heart out Vista —

And lastly one of my favorite reads — Irving Wladawsky-Berger — Creativity, Innovation and Design — http://www.irvingwb.com/blog/2007/07/creativity-inno.html

Until next time.

Technorati Tags: F1, mclaren, ferrari, ibm, eclipse, domino, greateribm, linux, afrikaans spell checker, virtual worlds, ADSL , 3D desktop, innovation, design, creativity

Pothole saga continues

Posted on 30 July 2007 by Marius — No Comments ↓

Follow-up on my previous pothole post. Here is the dreaded pothole … almost the size of the Kimberley Groot Gat. (Groot Gat is big hole for my overseas visitors)

Why, oh why has my car got 17 inch low profile tires that no other car uses. R1300.00 for one tire. I am embarking on claiming all the costs back from the City of Cape Town who is responsible for keeping our roads in a decent condition. Any advice how to go about this and who to send the bill to will be much appreciated.

Technorati Tags: pothole, south africa, tires, City of Cape Town

Rain, potholes and burst tires :(

Posted on 29 July 2007 by Marius — 1 Comment ↓

As I type this I am as mad as hell. Roads in South Africa is not the best and with all the rain that we had in the Cape, meant that potholes is showing up in places you least expect them. Earlier today I took a side road to the shop around the corner and there was a piece of road under water on my side of the road. I had to go through the water since another car was coming from the front. Unknown to me there was a big pothole hidden under the water. I went through the hole at about 40km/h.

Front right tire got a major cut in it and deflated immediately. I also notice that the back left has a bubble in it. Will have to pop into the tire place tomorrow morning before work and replace the one and have the others checked out. As far as I can determine it is only the tires that took damage but even that is going to put me back a couple of Rand.

This just shows how bad the condition of our roads in this country is. Just a bit more than normal rain and the roads are full of potholes.

Technorati Tags: potholes, rain, south africa

From my RSS feedreader to the world — 28 July 2007

Posted on 28 July 2007 by Marius — 1 Comment ↓

I have been quiet over the last week due to being very busy at work and nothing really exciting to share. I am going to start something new this week and hope it adds value and you, my reader, finds it interesting.

I read blogs, news and various tidbits of information via a RSS feedreader. The reader I use is Omea Pro from Jetbrains. I find it one of the best out there and it is Free. I receive on average around 1500 feed items a week and I will share some of those with you on a weekly basis. Here is my first lot.

For the die hard Linux users out there of which I am one. Turning Off The System (hardware) Beep — http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2007/07/26/turning-off-the-system-hardware-beep-linux-tutorial/
One of my favorite cartoons is a South African one called Bru & Boegie — this weeks favorite — http://www.bruandboegie.co.za/index.php?date=2007-07-28
Lifehacker is one of my favorite feeds. I use Mozilla Thunderbird and here is some tweaks for it — http://lifehacker.com/software/email/useful-thunderbird-tweaks-282752.php
For the sporty types. McLaren guilty but no penalty — this does not make sense at all — how can one be guilty but not get any penalty — http://www.motoring.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Motoring&fArticleId=3953263
Cellphone masts is not a health risk. — http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=41638 and http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/26/1224255&from=rss
And for those that cannot get away from their work and tech gadgets — High-tech beach for the summer — http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/25/2245258&from=rss

This is it for the first try. Let me know what you think. I will try to make it as varied as I can and highlight, share things that have tickled my fancy.

Technorati Tags: linux, cartoon, bru and boegie, lifehacker, thinderbird, f1, mclaren, ferari, cellphone masts, high tech beaches

Facebook and business

Posted on 20 July 2007 by Marius — No Comments ↓

Having read a posting by Duncan McLoad, asking the question whether Facebook is a thread to business, I want to share my views and opinion.

Facebook is a tool just like any other tool and cannot just be banned because some decision makers do not understand the technology and the value it might add. Yes there must be controls and guidelines around the use of it and what employees may or may not publish on it.

I am fortunate to work for a company, IBM, that operates in this space and make tools and technology available in this Web 2.0 environment. We have a similar tool inside IBM called Bluepages which is of great value in finding people with particular skills. IBM is now selling this same technology in the form of Lotus Connections. However this tool provide for internal community building inside a business. How does a company build communities with it suppliers/customers and this is where Facebook has a role to play.

And not all big companies is against Facebook. I was in a customer meeting a week or so back where the CIO of this customer promoted the use of Facebook and other Web 2.0 technologies and tools like blogging. In his opinion, via these technologies, companies can get an idea of the pulse of their workforce. What is the morale of the people etc? What are the employees talking about, what are their concerns? Some might view this as spying, I do not. Each and everyone decide for themselves what we divulge via Facebook and why should our employers not read this?

On a similar vain. Facebook has also helped me to get in contact with a fellow employee in a crisis situation. Being away from my office I could use Facebook to get the telephone number of this employee, yes he was part of my friends list and luckily for me he published his phone number for his friends. In the end I was able to contact him and he was able to resolve a crisis situation with a customer.

I have used Facebook not just inside my company to build valuable networks but have also used Facebook to get in contact with groups outside my company to add value to the work that I do.

And lastly we must also remember that Facebook is a social networking tool and work/life balance should be important to each and every company. Employees that have a good work/life balance also tend to be happy and more productive employees. Facebook plays a role in the social happiness of people.

See you on Facebook 🙂

Technorati Tags: facebook, business, ibm, collaboration, community, web 2.0, social networking