Month: January 2007

Net meme time:
(Thanks Aquila):

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every scene, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new scene, press the next button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool…

01. Opening Credits:
Angels
by Robbie Williams

02. Waking Up:
Drowning
by Hootie and The Blowfish

03. First Day at School:
In My Place
by Coldplay
(“I was lost, I was lost, crossed lines I shouldn’t have crossed…”)

04. Falling in Love:
Pussy (Cover by Richard Cheese)
Originally by Lords of Acid
(“I wanna see your pussy, show it to me…”)

05. Fight Song:
One More Suicide
by Marcy Playground

06. Breaking Up:
Haunted
by Evanescence
(Wow!)

07. Prom:
Never Change
by Puddle of Mudd
(Indeed.)

08. Life’s Okay:
Ladies And Gentlemen
by Hot Hot Heat

09. Mental Breakdown:
Driven Under
by Seether
(“Do you think I’m faking…?”)

10. Driving:
American Idiot
by Green Day

11. Flashback:
First Date
by Blink 182

12. Getting Back Together:
Love Supreme
by Robbie Williams
(“All the places you have been, trying to find a love supreme…”)

13. Wedding:
Friends
by Wickhead

14. Birth of a Child:
Let It Die
by Three Days Grace
(Oops!)(“I swear I never meant to let it die…”)

15. Death Scene:
Victim of the Crime
by Phoenix

16. Funeral Song:
Good Morning Joan
by The Cardigans
(“It was bad but just a dream, and you are remembered…”)

17. End Credits:
Run Away
by Staind

Damn scary results I tell ya!

Tags: meme, movie, soundtrack, life, music

So I blog from Europe once more… This blog actually has its origins way back in Finland in 2004, so Europe is no stranger to it.

You can check out the Espoo Diaries which will tell you all about that, here’s Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, Volume 6, Volume 7, Volume 8…

(Careful, it’s pretty addictive…)

Alternatively you can track my current activities using Twitter, a funky little webtoy I’m testing out.

Tags: Germany, blog, EspooDiaries, twitter, Finland,

So I finally decided to follow Hugh‘s meme and throw together a short manifesto of my own that means something to me, and I’m sure many readers will relate.

So here is “The African Information Technology Manifesto”:

If you think bandwidth speeds are going to increase and that the cost thereof will reduce dramatically, forget about it. Telecoms is a monopolistic, expensive privilege. They don’t call this the Dark Continent for nothing.

If you can afford the $250,000 server, you probably don’t need it. If you can’t afford it, you probably need it.

Open source and free software works and will save you millions. Use it.

Open source and free software works and will save you millions. Use it.

Never expect uptimes. Never guarantee uptimes. The electricity will fail.

“One Laptop Per Child” (OLPC) will probably end up being “One Horribly Broken Laptop Per Child”. Yes, we need laptops, but we really need jobs, food, water, electricity and housing, and we need to be taught and motivated to create these things for ourselves.

Black Empowerment should start from the bottom up, but if you start from the top down you’ll get lucrative government business a lot quicker. Bribery may help.

Anytime you allow government involvement expect a 99% drop in productivity. This will prevent disappointment.

Host internationally.

Pray for Google to buy African dark fibre and liberate the continent. Having faith feels good.

Web 2.0 don’t live here. Web 1.0 is “under constructionâ€?.

The digital divide looks is much bigger when you’re on the wrong side.

Markets are not conversations, markets are places to buy fly-infested meat and dodgy fruit and veg.

Tags: manifesto, gapingvoid, HughMacleod, africa, IT

Blood Diamond: the story of a rare pink conflict diamond discovered by a slave labourer (Djimon Hounsou) in civil war-torn Sierra Leone.

It really is a story that needs to be told – showing the different lives of the African people, and how there is so much difference between being a white african and a black african, and yet we’re all in the same boat, trying to get by and survive as best we can.

Leonard DiCaprio pulls off a pretty good Sarf-Efrikan accent. I love the South Africanisms – “bru”, “boet”, “ja” and more (although technically his character is “Rhodesian”). DiCaprio plays the prospector who chases riches in Africa to sell to “Van de Kaap” diamond emporium (Horribly mispronounced in the movie by all characters as “Van Der Cap”). The parallels to current famous diamond producers are exquisite, – almost to the point of parody.

It’s a gripping and entertaining movie – bearing a story similar to what most of us have heard or know (I hope we know at least some of the story of conflict diamonds). It feels good to have one of our African stories told with the respect and enlightenment it deserves. At times it is shocking too – seeing what the rebel forces did to innocent civilians, hearing Leo laying out the “Kaf”-word, and watching the level of inhumane detachment as one climbs the corporate food chain.

This one is well worth watching folks.

Blood Diamond trailer on youtube

Tags: BloodDiamond, conflict, africa, SierraLeone, movie, LeonardoDiCaprio, DjimonHounsou

This one’s a gem:

Irate customer trying to prevent a(nother) Vodacom rip-off:
“I don’t care, just get me someone, even if it’s Alan Knott-fucking-Craig, to take responsibility…”