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Showing posts from November, 2009

Decentralised Nation

One of the internet's greatest strengths is the fact that it is decentralised. With the emergence of cloud computing powerhouses such as Google and Facebook we are seeing the decay of a decentralised internet. Majority of our time online is spent "logged in" to some or other cloud infrastructure which has sweeping power over our personal information. Now i'm fairly lax about Google having access to my personal info because they have been true to their "do no evil" motto and let's be honest, it is alot better being served adverts that are appropriate to my interests. But i think we should all be aware of how Google has softly and gently pulled our pants down and is now carefully bending us over the kitchen table while reassuring us that this is what we want. The signs are there, regardless of how comforting the process may be. The same holds true with politics, any party may have good intentions initially but given enough time with enough power, justi

After the Dota Wars

Heroes of Newerth (HoN) is undeniably the best multiplayer game i've ever played. S2 , the company behind HoN, takes established third party mods and gives them their own engines. Savage and Savage 2 , as far as i know, are based on the once popular half-life mod named Natural Selection and HoN is obviously based on Dota . The original creator of Dota, Guinsoo has also decided to get behind another Dota clone named League of Legends . From the reviews i've read, it seems fairly underwhelming but it does look like it has potential, personally i'm hoping for a native linux build. The person responsible for Dota's success, IceFrog , has been hired by none other than Valve Software . Dota devotees are adamant that this is not the end of Dota, i'm not convinced. I think we should lay Dota to rest knowing that it has left it's mark on the gaming world. Moba Gamers is a good site to keep track of what's happening, I'm off to play some HoN.

Eskom's Firewall

Today we had yet another unscheduled power outage, nothing surprising. After about an hour without electricity, the power came on again followed shortly by a loud abrupt grinding noise which lasted about three seconds and disappeared as suddenly as it started. A number of residents from our complex (myself included) came out to see what the noise was all about and noticed pipes and cables sticking out of a muddied hole in front of the complex near the electricity box. We concluded that it was an electrical explosion. After a few minutes of standing around calling Jacob Maroga all kinds of names the coffin sized hole burst into electrical flames once more. As if 100 Vietnamese guerillas started firing AKs all in unison from a hidden bunker beneath the pavement. I must emphasise that the flames of this wall of fire were hardly the delicate branch licking flames we're used to, these were 1,5 meter tall, lightning charged sprays of destruction. I had no idea that electricity could

Day 1 at The Open Tangent

This marks the beginning of the open tangent. A place for me to rant about the ANC and it's blatant corruption an lack of accountability. A place to make mention of what's happening in the world of open source. A place to for me to make suggestions on how to improve standards and propose better systems for the world. And simply splash out about anything that i feel passionate enough about.