Author Archives: Marius

About Marius

Owner of Henriska Technology and Project Manager by profession.

Upgrade to WordPress 3.2 having to resort to Manual upgrade mode.

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I have just upgraded this blog to WordPress 3.2 and for the first time in a long while I had to revert to the manual method.  While doing the automatic upgrade, I got a Server 500 error (seems to be a common thing with DreamHost) and was left in maintenance mode.

Getting rid of the maintenance mode was easy – just delete the .maintenance file in the root of the blog.  But the failed upgrade left the upgrade in an unstable state – some files were upgraded while other were still at their old versions.

I then just went through a manual upgrade using FTP and now everything seems to be back to normal running WordPress 3.2.

If you spot something out of the ordinary then please drop me a comment so that I can have a look at it.

Happy reading.

Saying Goodbye with impromptu farewell song.

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Yesterday was my last working day at Old Mutual before I am joining Fundamo / Visa next Friday, 1 July.  The team got together and gave me a farewell (pity some of the team members were off sick).  Although I was only working 5 months with the team, it was one of the most enjoyable 5 months.  The team are very professional and although there was some big debates and sometimes disagreements, it never got personal and I had a great relationship with each and everyone of them.

What a pleasant surprise was it when one of my team members brought out a guitar and sang a farewell song.  I had to video it and here is the clip.  Excuse the sound quality.

Thanks to each and everyone for the nice words.  I will surely miss the team and I just want to wish you all the best with the launch over the next month or so.  Will keep in touch and you better invite me to the launch party.

Classic Photo — Vancouver kissing couple while riot is going on [not kissing but hurt]

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This is such a classic photo … just shows that if you want to make out then nothing is going to stop you.

Update: It has come to light that the couple was not actually kissing but the girl was knocked over and hurt.  Her boyfriend was actually looking after her.  Just goes to show that a picture does not always say a 1000 words … well the correct 1000 words.

Moving to Fundamo (Visa) – exiting times ahead.

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A while ago I blocked about working for a specific company and that reality has come true.  At that point it was just Fundamo (a fairly small South African company) that operates in the mobile banking space.  I worked for them 10 years ago when they were a real startup tucked away in some corner of the Sanlam Headoffice building.  It was always my idea to return to them in some way.

On 1 July 2011 I will be joining them as a Project Manager supporting one of their big customers at a office that is less than 3 km from my home.  I will be joining a company that I have a lot of respect for and also a lot of friends at .. it is like returning home.  Never in my wildest dreams did I even contemplate that I would be joining a much bigger company called Visa .. if you did not hear, Fundamo was bought by Visa earlier this week.

After leaving IBM last year, I spend some time as a hourly contractor working on a very interesting and technolgy advance project at Old Mutual.  It was great working there and the team was great (one of the best I have worked with) but when the opprotunity came knocking to join Fundamo (Visa), I had to grab with both hands. On the one hand, I am sad leaving the OM project but on the other hand, I am so excited to be joining Fundamo (Visa) particularly with the exciting times that lay ahead after their acquisition by Visa. 

See you all there on 1 July and keep the coffee fresh and warm.  Herman I am looking at you 🙂

 

Weekend away in nature

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I spend the weekend away on a smallholding the other side of Somerset West just before you get to Sir Lowry’s Pass.  It was so good to spend the time outside the hussle and bussle of town life and be in a relaxing environment away from everything.  The house is standing on a smallholding amongs all this massive trees.  Although it was raining most of the time, there was some breaks in the rain where we could walk around in the gardens.  Here are some pictures I took.

At the bottom end is a river that run through the property. Here you can see the water making a small waterfall as it runs over a wall.

The house looking back from the river.  

With all the rain and cold it was nice that the house had a fireplace and we had a fire going quickly.  

Good company, some red wine and the nature all around you.  What else can a guy ask for 🙂

SA Local Election – Done the deed in under 5 minutes – some observations and ID stamp picture going back to 1992.

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Must say I was impressed with the IEC at my local voting station.  I was in and out in under 5 minutes with no issues whatsoever.  The one ballot had about 50 parties on it and must say I did not had a clue or have never heard about at least 40 of those parties.  The other ballot paper had about 30 names on it and I recognised probably about 5 of those names.  I just cannot see how the majority of those on the ballots will get any meaningfull votes.

The oher thing I observed was that the DA had a table right outside the door of the voting station.  As far as I know, parties are not allowed to do any cavasing today and under the banner of checking whether your name is on the list, thay came very close to canvasing.

I have now collected a fair amount of stanps and stickes in my ID book.  Here is a picture of it
 

As you can see it goes all the way back to the Referendum we had in 1992 and variuos elections since then. Can you recognised the stamp that was used today? Yes I did remember to blank out my ID number 🙂

Have you done your deed today and what was your experience like?

Company (that is for working at) envy ..

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Is there something like Company Envy?  That is not for their products but for a place to work.  I am fairly sure of it and most of us had this desire to work for one or other company be it Google, Facebook, IBM (did work for them) or even Microsoft.  These are all big companies and are all over the press every day.  We all know how well the employees get treated at GooglePlex and we have all heard stories about other companies.

I have this secret that I have Company Envy and have been for the past couple of years.  There is this fairly small company that is based in the Western Cape which I really want to go work for. I am not going to mention their name but people that do know me would figure this out fairly easy.  Now you may ask, why, surely they not that much different than other companies.  

So why do I want to work for them:

  • I believe in the work they do and think they so far ahead in their field.
  • I know lots of the people working there and they ethical, fair and commited to do the right thing.
  • They work hard but at the same time ensure that there is balance between work and life .. you know that work/life balance thing.
  • They treat their employees as family which is more than can be said for most other companies in this day and age.
  • Only the best gets the opportunity to work there and if you in the fortunate posotion then you know you one of the best.
  • And the list goes on ….

We all have this bucket list of things that we want to do and I do not think many include working at a specific company on their bucket list.  Well it is on my bucket list together with climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and playing golf on the Old Course at St Andrews (done that and ticked off).

I am sure the opportunity will present itself in near future and believe me, I will be ready to grab it with both my hands.

Here’s to dreams coming true …