Bugatti Veyron at top speed
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so when I got the chance to spend two days in Capetown last week for work, I jumped at it.

here are some pics from around the Waterfront. the first is the great view from my room...whatever. it said harbour facing on the reservation. I didn't know it meant "a view of the back of the harbour buildings".
at least it's a short walk to the Waterfront.

on the second day I finished early at the client so I took a drive out to Camps bay and then off to Hout bay.

via slashdot

Yep, I always knew there was a use for our geek brains besides fixing family PC's.

link: GorillaMask

tell Kevin you know me and you'll get the honour of buying him a drink.

stories like these make me sick to the bottom of my stomach.

they make me want to go out and make this guy hurt in the same way.

I can't believe that some one can be like that.

it scares me and makes me paranoid. 
I can never let my daughter out of my sight.

the only thing I hope for is that the same thing happens to him in prison.

there seem to be far to many of these stories coming out nowadays.
makes you seriously consider raising your kids in another country. seriously.

*bleak*

well at lease the SAPS caught him. one good thing to say.

The lad is a sensation - scores 5 goals in 20 minutes and wins the game
for Kaizer Chiefs! The fans are delighted, the players and coaches are
delighted and the media love the new star.

When the player comes off the pitch he phones his mum to tell her 
about his first day in South African football. "Hello mum, guess what?"
he says in an Iraqi accent. "I played for 20 minutes today, we were 4-0
down but I scored
5 and we won! . Everybody loves me, the fans, the media, they all love
me."

"Wonderful," says his mum, "Let me tell you about my day. Your father
got shot in the street and robbed, your sister and I were ambushed and
beaten and your brother has joined a gang of looters, and all while you
were having such great time."

The young lad is very upset, "What can I say mum, but I'm so sorry."

"Sorry?!!! Sorry?!!!" says his mum, "It's your bloody fault we moved 
to Johannesburg in the first place!"

--------------------

I know it's wrong to say anything bad about South Africa but that's just damn funny.

well I've gone back to gym, so I have no excuse for not blogging!
I know it's a bit late but happy new year everyone. I reckon this is going to be a fantastic year.

the holiday? awesome. it's the longest December break I've ever taken and it was great. I'll post the thousands of pictures over the next few days.

the little one has started creche and it's going well. she's really enjoying it and seems to be learning a whole load.
she can even point out her eyes and her feet when prompted. hey, it's a big deal to us!

I also learned something over the last month: Sailing rocks!
my dad managed to get his hands on a Hobikat to keep out at the dam. now we've finally got something to do on the water when we go out there.
the wind hasn't been great but you get those really nice bursts now and again that tilt the boat slightly and send you flying across the water. it's enough of a rush to make you want more.

PS switch your radio over 99.7 (Radio 2000) for Mo G's big breakfast show. It's all rock with a huge amount of SA stuff.
and they don't just play the number ones. this morning they played Counting Crows - Round here.
if you can get past Ray White and Mo's attempts at humour, it's a great show.

not likely!

tomorrow we head up north to Suncity for two days for our company Christmas party. last year got a bit out of hand so I decided I wouldn't play any golf this time. tomorrow I'll just be spending all my time at the valley of the waves. tough life in Africa!

and then on Saturday we bundle the family into the car and head south to Ballito for ten days. can't wait.
the little one is going to love it.

I probably won't blog much more until Jan so if I don't speak to you all before then, have a great Christmas and an awesome new years.

next year is going to be a great year. I can just feel it.

enjoy!

*thanks Michelle for the picture

*yes this is a spoof site

most of my friends know I hate that big purple paedophile dinosaur with all his singing*, hugging and dancing. he just bugs me. the kids in the show always look far older than they are because they don't actually get to act like kids. they probably spend all of their time learning his damn songs and dance routines and never get to go play for real.

but unfortunately my daughter loves watching his shows which means we end up watching them too. and they happen to be at 6 in the morning!  painful.

well I found heart in this story.
apparently the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued Barney and his bosses earlier this year for harassing a Barney parody web site. and Barney finally decided to back down (aka learn to share).

this is not only a great win for the EFF but for all Barney hating parents around the world.
bring on the parody web sites!

also, the comments now open in the same view using a bit of ajax to fetch the data. it looks cool but doesn't work so well :-).

when you add a comment it doesn't show straight away. don't worry, it is there in the database, the page just caches though. it will be fixed some time this week (hopefully).

the other main change was to the admin area to allow me to add content in a much easier way.

also the RSS feed has finally been fixed. try it out.

if you find any other bugs or have any suggestions, drop a comment below or mail me: eric at bigric dot co dot za

can you believe it's been a year already?
she's gotten so big and so clever in the last few weeks. you can see her mind ticking over trying to figure out how things work. she's a real little toddler now.

as for the party, it was great. she loved it. the weather was brilliant and she got so many toys.
a big thanks to everyone that came.and don't forget, we've still got lots of ice-cream cake and cases of beer left that you buggers need to finish.

here are a few pics but go check out the fancy new gallery for the rest.

<gallery>

*for some reason it's not working so the video has been removed. here's the link rather: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9b9a2IPmUc

I've met in manufacturing plants, talking around machines while they crush and remodel metal.
- in warehouses and distribution hubs.
- out in a field at a proposed theme park.
- under a water cooling tower at the Sasol plant.
- inside the main secure data centre for a bank with the servers that stored every single account. it's a bomb proof building (floating foundations so that it can move) where you literally go through tunnels under the foundations and up into the building. there are no doors or windows on the building so it's the only way in or out.
- and of course at restaurants, coffee shops and people's houses.

but in the last few days I've had my coolest two meetings:
last week I went to the place where credit/debit cards are manufactured, embossed and encoded.
you have to go through some tight security, hand everything in and then don a white lab coat with no pockets..
the reason for the lab coat is to stop you stealing a few of the live credit cards and slipping them into your shirt or pockets.
it's an amazing site seeing all the equipment that does the work and even more amazing seeing how simply it's made. they make two million cards a month! it's a hell of a setup.
the server room has one cabinet, a few firewall machines and a guard to stand there and watch everything you touch and do.
that's his job. just stand there all day and stare at the equipment!

and today ... we met in a hospital theatre!
we do a lot of work for specialists societies and I needed to meet with one of the guys and see the software on the machine in the theatre.
only I didn't realise that it would be while they were operating!
we had to go in through the doctors private rooms, strip and put on scrubs.
unfortunately I'm a big guy so they barely fit me. if I bent down I reckon the pants would have split.
once dressed they led us through to the theatre.
picture the scene, there's the surgeon covered in blood, hammering away, while talking to us.
the patient is unconscious on the table and there's pipes, blood and machines everywhere.
we spent a good half an hour watching the op while talking to to the surgeon and the anaesthetist.
what a way to have a meeting!

anyone else had any cool meetings lately?

]]> 11/21/2006 12:40:00 PM http://www.bigric.co.za/?view=plink&id=413 413

Twee Mint Imperials bliksem vir Jelly Tot moertoe! Jy sien net suiker spat.

"Hoekom help jy nie?" vra Chappie vir Smartie.

"Is jy simpel?" se Smartie.

"Die ouens is fokken menthol !!!"

]]> 11/17/2006 8:37:00 AM http://www.bigric.co.za/?view=plink&id=412 412

KFC have built the first company brand visible from space. it's somewhere near Area 51 in the Nevada desert, is made up of 65,000 one-foot painted tile pieces and took 3000 hours to create. apparently they wanted to say thanks to their little green buddies for the secret spice they gave them! [press release here]

]]> 11/15/2006 7:31:00 AM http://www.bigric.co.za/?view=plink&id=411 411

I registered www.the2010.co.za and www.visit2010.co.za when the SA was named as host and I've been trying to figure out the best to make some money off of it. while talking to one of my clients a few months back he mentioned this idea to me . unfortunately it seems someone already set it up. it's an interesting way to travel though.

"The Associated Press writes about a growing network of people online who've gone a step beyond hotels, hostels and even apartment swapping in their travel planning: They sleep on each others' couches. A number of Web sites have sprung up to help pair travellers searching for a place to crash and hosts with a spare couch.

Sites like hospitalityclub.org, couchsurfing.com, globalfreeloaders.com and place2stay.net are often free, serving only as middlemen and offering tips on how to find successful matches. The sites are largely the creations of 20-somethings bitten with wanderlust and the hope of helping to bring together people from different cultures. They often depend on volunteer administrators to help manage the Web operations."

links:
http://www.place2stay.net/
http://www.couchsurfing.com/
http://www.globalfreeloaders.com/

here's the monstrosity being built on the Beyers Naude off-ramp. I see they've already opened the one shopping centre next to this one.

count the cranes. I see six.

who needs food when there's all this champaign in the world?
we (actually Michelle and Yvonne. I'm a beer guy truth be told) found this brand (Lindiwe) at the wine festival.
mix it with cranberry juice and it's like cool drink.

the view from one of my clients offices. nice hey!

and here's a few of the little one. I bought her some of those squeaky shoes the other day. she was fascinated by them. it's awesome watching her trying to figure them out.

cool retro 70's short below:

]]> 11/10/2006 8:16:00 AM http://www.bigric.co.za/?view=plink&id=409 409

1.We work  weird (night)  shifts... Like prostitutes.

2.They pay you to make the client happy...   Like a prostitute.

3.The client pays a lot of money, but your employer keeps almost every penny... Like a prostitute.

4.You are rewarded for fulfilling the client's dreams... Like a prostitute.

5 Your friends fall apart and you end up hanging out with peoplein the same profession as you... Like a prostitute.

6.When you have to meet the client you always have to be perfectly groomed...  Like a prostitute.

7. But when you go back home it seems like you are coming back from hell...Like a prostitute.

8.The client always wants to pay less but expects incredible things from you...Like a prostitute.

9.When people ask you about your job, you have difficulties to explain it...Like a prostitute.

10.Everyday when you wake up, you say: "I'm not going to spent the rest of my life doing this."

       Like a prostitute  ........

it seems Brazil has been chatting to their buddies China, North Korea and Zimbabwe about the best ways to protect themselves against this thing call "THE INTERNET!!"

 "The Brazilian senate is considering a bill that will make it a crime to join a chat, blog, or download from the Internet without fully identifying oneself first. Privacy groups and Internet providers are very concerned, and are trying to lobby against the bill, but it seems they won't have much success." From the article: "If approved, it will be a crime, punishable with up to 4 years of jail time, to disseminate virus or trojans, unauthorised access data banks or networks and send e-mail, join chat, write a blog or download content anonymously." [via link]

it's like saying, well knives can be used to hurt/rob people so lets make everyone in the country fill out a form before they use one.

one day when all the kids have grown up and moved into high up government roles, this sort of crap won't happen.
why? because they'll have used the internet as a tool to learn, socialise and work.

why can't all governments be more like Australia?

here are a couple of pics from last weeks taxi strike.
I went to fetch our domestic from Diepsloot so that she didn't have to walk.

I got past the first robot by going over the pavement to avoid the concrete and bricks.
unfortunately when I turned around to come back again, the tyres had been lit and guys were throwing stones at cars.
in the end it took me an hour and a half to do this little trip.

 "The BBC is reporting what is claimed to be Britain's first "web-rage" attack. A man drove seventy miles to assault his victim with a pick-axe handle after they exchanged insults in a Yahoo! chat room." From the article: "Det Cons Christopher Creagh, of the Metropolitan Police, said: 'This is the first instance of a web-rage attack.' Det Sgt Jean-Marc Bazzoni, of Essex Police, added the case demonstrates the importance of protecting one's identity on the internet.
'Mr Jones had posted pictures of his family on the web and had chatted to Gibbons on an audio link,' he said. 'It demonstrates how easily other users can put two and two together and also shows how children could also find themselves in danger.'"  source: slashdot

I bet a lot of people have wanted to do that but had the sense to treat the online world separately from the physical one. idiot.
and now with the MXiT story about the pervert posing as a teen you've got to be really careful what you say and to who.

OK, I also think it's time for me to limit how much I say and show here.
I'd hate to have a stalker..a.haha a haha...whatever.

Huge 'launch ring' to fling satellites into orbit

"An enormous ring of superconducting magnets similar to a particle accelerator could fling satellites into space, or perhaps weapons around the world, suggest the findings of a new study funded by the US air force. Previous studies have investigated the use of magnets to accelerate satellites to the high speeds required for launch. But most have focused on straight tracks, which have to gather speed in one quick burst. Supplying the huge spike of energy needed for this method has proven difficult. The advantage of a circular track is that the satellite can be gradually accelerated over a period of several hours. And the setup is technologically feasible and cost effective, suggests a recent, preliminary study of the idea funded by the air force's Office of Scientific Research."

this is from an article on newscientestspace.com.
as cool as it sounds, the picture alone makes it looks so cheesy that I battle to even contemplate the scientific aspect of actually shooting something into the sky at 23 times the speed of sound.
plus how the hell would you stop it once it gets to space?

Matt (aka the rocket scientist), any ideas?