Paul Jacobson

I just got back from Dubai and I am in the middle of writing a couple blog posts. In the meantime I thought I would address a long standing concern about my audio input tools:

This post is dedicated to my brother @asherja and to @allankent who inspired me to change.

More meaningful content to follow …

Support great local talent!

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nik rabinowitz, comedy, one man one goat, humor, humour

I got a kick out of this video on YouTube. It is a video of Trent Reznor signing the first of the 2 500 deluxe, superduper editions of Ghosts I-IV. The video is titled “Spend the day with us: Watch this 2500 times.”:

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albums, ghosts, nin, nine inch nails, autograph, trent reznor

Most of the time when I talk about social media and the law I talk about the fine print and how these services are often not subject to your control and all sorts of things can happen to your pages/profiles without your consent. Most of the time I am thinking more about outages and glitches in the Matrix but there is a far more willful course of action that presents a real danger to your continued use of those services.

Facebook booted Rodrigo Shulz, an “Internet entrepreneur and business angel” who has been around the block a couple times for being a little too vigorous with the service. In a nutshell, Rodrigo is a genealogy nut and was trying to connect with members of his family tree and pass some info on to them about a group he created for a branch of the family tree. It turns out he was being a little too social and Facebook disabled his account about 73 seconds after he was warned to take it easy with all the socialising.

This morning I started adding family members again. I got a 2nd warning email today, and a disabled account email 73 seconds later. Waow… As if you read your emails immediately… Worse than a cease & desist.

This is yet another illustration of how users of these sorts of services use those services at the whim of the providers. You simply don’t have an unqualified right to use Facebook and you can expect to be kicked out or otherwise spanked if you step out of line. The message from Facebook seems pretty clear: be social, just not too social.

Oh, and this isn’t just a dig at Facebook. The next service to pull a stunt could be Google, FriendFeed or some other crowd. One way to see what your limits are is to read the fine print, as much of a pain in the butt that is. You are not in control of your profile/online presence and you need to assume your access could be taken away from you. One option is to look for a service that won’t pull a stunt like that for no good reason and without giving you a decent chance to respond meaningfully.

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facebook, rodrigo shulz, fine print, account disabled

I just read a newsletter my financial advisor sent me to read. It is a JP Landman Political Comment news letter published by B.O.E for its private clients titled “Is the bad mood justified?” and I think it is worth reading because it presents another, arguably more realistic, perspective on South Africa and where we are heading.

The newsletter basically sets out a number of facts that show how the negative view of South Africa by many South Africans (typically whites, of whom only 31% were optimistic about South Africa in February 2008 compared to a national average of 60%) has little basis in fact and has perhaps been cultivated by skewed media coverage of certain issues. For example, I remember how there was media buzz about R4 billion worth of budgeted expenditure that went unspent recently. It turns out that this R4 billion was the unspent balance after R124 billion was already spent on capital expenditure in this country. It represents 3% of the total capex budget of R128 billion.

There are a couple points made which appeal to me:

• “Things were not as clean as some whites’ memories tell them.”
• “Progress does not come from having no challenges; rather it comes from responding successfully to challenges.”
• “In the late nineties SA had a low growth crisis; a 1% economy that looked as if it could not break through a 3% growth ceiling. And now growth is sufficient to lift per capita incomes quicker than Australia, Brazil, Germany, France, Italy, the UK and US. The country responded successfully to the challenge of low growth.”

… and the best was kept for last …

“All that remains now is to put one foot in front of the other, carry on and expect a lot of messiness. Sometimes I think it is our inability to live with messiness that paralyses us. If Whites can make this paradigm shift their mood might not be so bleak. More importantly, they can capitalise on the opportunities. “

So, yes, lots of messiness but none of this seems to justify the negative so many of us have of South Africa. There are still god things ahead if all goes well (yes, there is always an “if”) and perhaps there will be a lot more (white) people who also think that SA rocks in the not to distant future.

(Image: Views of Tidal pool on Rooi Els Coastal Road, South Africa by DanieVDM published under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license)

P.S. It would be really handy if B.O.E would publish these newsletters with an RSS feed … come on, share with the plebs!

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eskom, perspective, policy, politicians, south africa, jp landman political comment, facts, economic growth

So what was Bill Gates’ last day at work like? This inside video may shed some light:

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funny, funny video, bill gates, last day at work, microsoft

Exclusive Books‘ Fanatics is running a promotion for something called The List which is a list of 51 top books. The following disclaimer was stated in the email sent to Fanatics members:

The List cannot be held responsible for wear and tear on the eyesight, spousal neglect or loss of productivity at work. The List will not accept responsibility for bathrooms flooded, doors left open, meetings missed, children left waiting at the school gate, burnt saucepans, spoilt milk, empty larders, unfed dogs, expensive sofas scratched by vengeful cats, dishes left festering in the sink and crumbs found nestling between the bedsheets. Nor can The List be held accountable for the sexual frustration of non-reading spouses forced to rely upon the comfort of strangers. The List will accept no blame for pallid complexions, spreading buttocks, shoulders dislocated by heavy bookbags, or the deterioration of once-magnificent physiques due to lack of physical exercise. We regret that The List cannot be held liable for exquisitely engineered racing bicycles left to rust in the basement, for prize-winning gardens gone to seed, or for ruinously expensive fly fishing gear left unused. The List is not responsible for direct, indirect, incidental or consequential loss of social skills, or for direct, indirect, incidental or consequential loss of interest in social events resulting directly, indirectly, incidentally or consequentially in protracted or irremediable spinsterhood.

It is quite possibly the funniest disclaimer I have ever seen.

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exclusive books, fanatics, disclaimer, the list