archives | ranting

dec 12 2008

daylight robbery

in june / july of this year, the competition commission made recommendations that the banks should reduce charges over a wide variety of services. today, 5 and half months down the line, there is another story about this. this seems to be the full technical report...

it still doesn't change the fact that the findings prove we are being ripped off and almost 6 months later nothing has changed.

while these were only recommendations, time-frames were set for their implementation, after which commissioner shan ramburuth would initiate official investigations into the practices.

absa seems to have taken the first step with a r5 charge for their entry-level customers. what does that mean? who is an entry-level customer? what service is this r5 charge for?

it seems that all other recommendations from the competition commission 'require engagement with other stakeholders and banks'. why engage other banks? the whole point of the enquiry into bank charges was to create competition but if the banks are discussing this amongst themselves, what's the chances of more competition or more of the same services and charges?

i'd really like to see the recommendations made by the commission come into effect. i wonder what the time frames are? and whether the commissioner will really follow up with investigations? if nothing happens, we still have the government...

here are two more articles that should get you fuming or thinking about the way you bank:
The cost of convenience just went up
Banks found to be over-charging

Posted by sarah | add a comment | debate, information, ranting

apr 29 2007

the farce in the dark

finally, the cricket world cup is over! last nights game was quite a farce. the tropical, unpredictable caribbean weather made sure of that.

it didn't help that none of the match officials had a clue of what was going on, or so it seemed. i really believe that in those extreme conditions they should've postponed till the next day. seriously, how on earth were sri lanka ever expected to have a chance in those conditions?

and then australia prematurely celebrating, the organisers bringing the stands out for the ceremony - only to be told to remove them by the umpires...

ridiculous. hopefully the next world cup will be better organised and not so looooooong.

at work we had a tournament to see who could guess the outcome of the matches the best. for a chickie, i didn't do too bad. my highest standing at one stage was 3rd place. in the the end though i only managed come in 5th...

Posted by sarah | add a comment | bloopers, ranting, sport

apr 03 2007

another increase

this is insane, the petrol price went up again today.

when i went to the garage earlier in the day, there were queues of cars waiting to fill up. deep down i know one tank of fuel really doesn't make too much of a difference. it would be better if you could buy in 'bulk' before the increase, cause it'd really make a difference then.

sheez man, this just means everything else is going to go up now. when the petrol price comes down (hopefully), do you think the other 'knock-on' price increases will?

Posted by sarah | add a comment | debate, ranting

mar 06 2007

lotto troubles

looks like politics has gotten in the way of the company who is supposed to take over the management of the national lottery from the 1st of april.

what gets me is that it seems to be a case of the pot calling the kettle black here:

It appeared that prominent ANC members held financial interests in both Gidani and Uthingo.

not to mention, as the title of the article states, the numerous jobs on the line...

and as far as transparency goes, Gidani, can the public see the procedures and steps that were taken to decide who was awarded the management of the national lottery? or do we simply take your word for it?

update: seems like there won't be any lotto for the wanna-be millionaires for at least a month... bummer

Posted by sarah | add a comment | politics, ranting

feb 03 2007

right on

yesterday i stumbled across an article about the excessive 'sexy' being shown in music videos. i agree with the columnist, infact i noticed it be rather ridiculous when i saw the black eyed peas 'my humps' video one afternoon with a friend's 8 year old - i gringed! i haven't made a point of looking for it in music videos, i must admit, i don't even watch the looped, 20 music videos on mtv anymore. but earlier today i managed to see the video for pink's 'stupid girls' and i tell you what, she is the coolest person ever! spot on...

Posted by sarah | add a comment | humour, music, ranting

nov 27 2006

unbelievable

i can't believe that this guy has actually received leave to appeal to the supreme court of appeal, because of this. ridiculous!

Posted by sarah | comments (2) | debate, ranting, stoopidity

nov 02 2006

well, well

last week i had alot of spammers attacking my comments. as most bloggers know, it sucks, big time!

when i created the back-end for the comments it was pretty standard. ie. i had basic validation on the comments - supply a name, a valid url and a comment.

the average scum-of-the-earth spammer jumped at the opportunity to nuke my comments. initially it was pretty easy to block them because they were all using one keyword that set them apart from the genuine commentor. but then (and i hate to say it) they got 'clever' and diversified their spamming. so i worked out another method to block them. this was a very impractical way of dealing with it because i had to physically update the comments web page and upload it everytime i changed it.

so, last week - after some serious spamming was hitting the comments - i decided to make a better spam blocking system. i don't use a blogging tool like wordpress or blogger, the backend is completely developed by myself, so i had to develop something to block the spammers.

so now i have a system that is practical and convenient, which i can't go into because i think the average spammer can read... but i think a week later with nothing coming through is pretty good!

what i'd really like to know though, what purpose does spamming comments fufill? is there tons of money it? do people actually see a spammed comment and click through? is it a page ranking thing on google?

Posted by sarah | comments (9) | ranting, tech, web

sep 21 2006

when are things going to change?

i got a call from the bank this afternoon. not just any call, it's one of those marketing calls that i normally don't take... but i took this one. it turns out it was more of a 'we'd like to know what you think of this service' call. ahhh, excellent...

so i let rip. now i have mentioned the bank charges before and how much i am not impressed with the banks. to actually speak with a live person from the bank about this, wow!

i let sandra* know that i think absa thinks i'm a stoopid customer. stoooopid... if they think that i would rather use their credit card than fnb's. why she wanted to know? well, you guys charge me 19.75% debit interest if i spend less than 10,000. if i spend more than 10,000, you charge me 16.25% - effectively encouraging me to get more in debt (quite honestly who can afford to pay back more than 10,000 on a cc every month?). at fnb (and standard bank) the credit card debit interest rate is a flat 17%, no 'rewards' for spending more or less than a certain amount every month... i couldn't find the cc interest rates on nedbank, page not found error!

having said all that i needed to, sandra said she would talk to her manager about this and get back to me. i must admit, i don't know what i expected - it wasn't much though. about 30 min later sandra phones back and says her manager wants to waiver all cc charges this month in a gesture of good faith... i'm like well thanks, but you still don't get it do you? you charge me more than double the interest rate set by the reserve bank and give me less than a quarter (on average) back if i 'save' my money! it's just so mad because most of the banks services just don't warrant these ridiculous amounts of money they are taking from us.

seriously, i'd love to know when this investigation into the high bank charges is going to yield positive results for the consumers?

* not her real name

Posted by sarah | comments (1) | debate, personal, ranting

sep 18 2006

pool

this past w/end ed and i went to buckleys for the 8 ball pool competition we had entered during the week. we got there at 10am for registration... about 2 hrs before anything started happening! we played our first games just after midday and waited another hour for the next draw and then played quite a few games one after another.

there were only 3 ladies that entered and pitched on saturday so my round-robin knock-outs went very quickly. ed did well and we eventually left at around 4pm. on sunday we resumed our competing, but only arrived at about 2pm, as there were new competitors who had to make it through the round-robin to take on the previous days 'winners'.

i was in a different groove to the previous day and kicked ass. i did accidentally sink the white ball on one game (after sinking the black), which - if i hadn't - would've given me 1st place in the women's competition.

then i had to start playing the men and i dissappointingly went out in my first encounter...

all in all i was suprised by my 'skills' ;) alas, i did not win anything as there wasn't a very good turnout...

i do want to mention that i was extremely dissappointed in the organisation of the event, i seriously doubt that anyone who attended this event organised rather shoudily by funscapes will consider attending another one, if there is ever another one.

Posted by sarah | comments (1) | chillin', ranting, sport

aug 15 2006

conspiracy?

i'm of the opinion that the 1969 moon landing by the americans was all fabrication. there's no way with the technology available in the 60's that they were able to do it, safely, without a hitch... since then they've had numerous problems simply just launching a spacecraft never mind launching, navigating, landing, taking off again, re-entering the earth's atmosphere etc. all without any major problems...

i saw 'footage' of this supposed moon landing the other day on the discovery channel. the funniest thing was that when they left the surface of the moon, they seemed to have left some-one behind to film it!

so when i read this story today, i think that they'll never find this footage. i'm also wondering why they don't seem to be bothered by not having found it for a year already? is it because it never existed? plus, if they did find the footage, it'll probably not work because it has degraded over the years. how convenient.

"Because Nasa's equipment was not compatible with TV technology of the day, the original transmissions had to be displayed on a monitor and re-shot by a TV camera for broadcast."

Posted by sarah | comments (1) | ranting

jul 26 2006

10 digit telephone numbers?

from october, all south africans will be required to dial the full ten digit telephone number, ie the usual telephone number plus the area code.

this is in order to create more telephone numbers because apparently available numbers are running out in gauteng. now what does that really help? it's not like they are creating new area dialling codes and potentially a ton more telephone numbers. if all numbers are taken in the 012 area code, how are more numbers going to be created by simply asking the citizens (or forcing them) to dial the telephone number plus the area code? can some-one please clarify this for me?

it seems to me that our telephone call costs are going to go up because we will no longer be making local calls, we'll now be making national calls. is it possible that icasa and telkom are in cahoots with each other to make as much money as possible before it's too late?

how is it possible that americans can continue to dial local telephone numbers when they have more people and more landlines than us?

Posted by sarah | comments (3) | ranting

jun 12 2006

what to do

i've thought about the increasing levels of crime. please don't tell me the stats say that crime is decreasing, because it isn't... there have been a spat of robberies in duynefontein recently - residents and police are linking it to the eskom drive to get people using energy effecient light bulbs and warm blankets on their geysers. the houses are being marked according to the difficultly the robbers would experience in the robbery attempt. so violence could be possible. i'm not saying eskom is involved, there is speculation that the people employed by eskom to distribute these items are involved.

this sucks. this is a place where i have grown up and known for most of my life. it's a sleepy town, where when you drive through it there aren't many walls around the yards. garages are left open with no-one in sight and lots of 'goodies' to be seen... there's hardly been any crime in this town and in one evening last week more than 8 houses were robbed!

earlier, i was reading carte blanche's site at the recent stories section (i went there to read this - unrelated) and came across this expat story and later clicked through to see some expats posts and their stories...

i am stressed out about crime. my world revolves around ways to keep my stuff safe from criminal elements and working hard to get my stuff.

so what's the solution? these people don't have stuff and want stuff. should they get a job and buy their own stuff? are they illiterate and unemployable? do they need further education? are they hungry and needing to feed their families?

there could be a ton of reasons why my stuff and your stuff gets stolen. there has got to be a solid first step to getting our society working better than it is right now. should we emply more police and build more prisons? what about all the corruption (case dockets going missing in murder cases)? why does it seem like only carte blanche is asking these questions and all other forms of media are not? why are we so tolerant about it? should i buy a gun? and why are criminals walking around so freely (brazenly) while we increasingly become prisoners on our homes?

there's got to be a solution, i don't feel positive about south africa's future when i read about all the crime. i love this country and i always hope for the best, but lately i'm seriously worried about our future...

how do we make our country a better place for everyone?

Posted by sarah | comments (2) | crime, debate, ranting

may 18 2006

f*^@ers

this morning, after ed had just done 2 snoozes, i heard a police siren. not a full on one, you know the one where they do a 'wooo' just to get your attention? followed by pounding on our front door.

i yell 'careful baby'. the cops enter and tell us some-one was trying to take yoghurt or something out the combi, it's open please go and check. it turns out the f*^@ers got the radio and were going through the site box filled with the guys coffee and sugar...

anyway, cop goes through to the back yard to check if they came that way. they can't see anything or anyone, they leave. "ask the old people in the bush", they recommend.

why do people do this? it just hacks me off because i've worked hard for the 'toys' i have and then some f*^@er just rips it out the dash! urrgh

here's the irony. our neighbours dogs (one has 5 of them) are barking all the time, but there was not a single peep while the car was being broken into!

it's time to move back to melkbos.

Posted by sarah | comments (4) | crime, ranting

may 17 2006

unacceptable

the striking security guards went on a 'rampage' through central cape town yesterday. mayhem, war zone... the use of words in this article pretty much summed it up. i just happened to bump into a friend who works on the foreshore last night and was told that the way it was described on the news and news websites was pretty accurate. he ended up having to get another a friend to come pick him up in town because there weren't any buses running.

the way the strikers behaved yesterday is unacceptable. no doubt there are some among them who think that through this violent behaviour their demands for their increase will be met. maybe it will be, but it shouldn't. this violence shouldn't be rewarded. sawatu has to pay for the damage that their members caused. the negotiations have to be realistic and fair, seriously some of these people are earning peanuts for the work that they do. however, that does not mean that their behaviour yesterday was acceptable, it wasn't!

Posted by sarah | add a comment | politics, ranting

may 09 2006

spotlight on the 'thieves'

here's a informative article about banks and their ridiculous charges.

"Transaction fees are charged on every payment between individuals and dealers from different banks. However, only 2% of the transaction fee goes to Bankserv - the banks involved gobble up the rest."...

i'm hoping this enquiry into the banks actually wields some results. they can't keep taking so much money away from us for the kind of service alot of us have to put with!

oh and right near the end of the article there is this gem:

Banks would rather like to think they compete on the basis of service delivery, not charges."

lol. get real guys. your service sucks and your charges are too high. it's time to stop being so greedy!

Update:

Nedbank increased its headline earnings by 82.9 percent to R1.026 billion for the three months to March 2006 when compared with the same period in 2005. source

increased by 82.9 percent, that's massive! are you wondering (like me) where that massive increase in headline earnings came from?

Posted by sarah | comments (4) | ranting

apr 20 2006

about time

i've been bitching for awhile about the stoopid banks and their astronomical charges. it looks like there's been quite a few complaints from consumers / customers... and now the banks are going to be investigated. yay!

a little over 2 months ago i took absa up on their offer for a gold cc instead on the normal silver one. i checked out the pros and cons. the yearly fee was abit more but the interest rates were much more favourable. so i got my silver card sliced and took possession of a shiny, gold card.

a month later i checked my cc statement to check that absa was playing ball with regards to the interest charges. to my complete shock i noticed my debit interest had increased by about 3% instead of descreasing by about 1,5%... i went to their website and doubled checked the info regarding this and saw that i was actually being 'swindled' (the website now reflects their new charges - applicable from march 2006). i then went to my nearest branch of absa and asked the enquiries lady "what the hell?". i was then told that at the end of the previous month absa credit card division changed the interest rates across all cc's and there is now a flat interest rate of 19.75% for gold cc's (that's ridiculous by the way, credit interest rate is 2.75%. where is the love, absa?). then i am told that if i spend more than r10 000 a month the debit interest rate decreases... basically if i get myself more into debt, my bank will lower my debit interest rate. that's just super cool of you guys man! oh, and thanks for the heads up.

i promptly approached another bank about a gold cc. my application was successful and i am now the proud owner of a gold cc at another bank with better interest and debit rates. good bye to you absa...

slowly but surely you are forcing me to do business with your competitors.

Posted by sarah | comments (5) | ranting

mar 02 2006

koeberg sabotage

what a load of crap! anybody with abit of common sense knows that it's just not possible (it helps if you also know some-one who works at koeberg).

i've been told that there are at least 2 security checks before you actually even enter a main building at koeberg. sure you can drive up to the parking area in koeberg without a second glance from anyone. it's a nature reserve aswell as a nuclear power plant. people actually cycle, hike and even go horse-riding there!

you might say "but greenpeace climbed the walls". i would say "whoop-dee-doo" to that. i've walked up to those fences, i've even slid down the dunes there without getting shot at (i did get asked to leave the area). those fences are about (and i might be wrong) 1-2 km away from the koeberg buildings.

to get into a restricted area is alot harder than entering the 'main' building. staff are searched thoroughly. the questioning of the security measures at koeberg are unfounded, ask anyone who works there.

our current mayor says she had her suspicions about there being sabotage on the reactor. yet koeberg was mystified by the governments claim of sabotage.

sabotage - my ass.
bolt - my ass.
setup for political gain / escape - for sure.

Posted by sarah | comments (3) | debate, ranting

feb 23 2006

it's not punk'd

so phunkd got nominated for a sa blog award, in the best group blog category. if only the group would actually blog, phunkd might just qualify for the category it has been nominated in!

anyway, the reason for the post is because somehow phunkd became punk'd.

mistake! this site has nothing to do with the ashton kutcher punk'd show. there's nothing really 'punky' about the site either. it's a non-word so to speak and i came up with the brilliant name years ago (2000), before punk'd was on the air...

i would add more links to the famous person's website but our internets is really crap because the power is very erratic here in the western cape at the moment. i can't even upload tiny little pictures. and how i want to...

so just to clarify:
it's phunkd as is funked...

Posted by sarah | add a comment | ranting, web

nov 18 2005

why, oh why?

i've been wondering why i'm the only one posting on the blogger... i couldn't come up with anything really good though.

ed reckons it's because there's a picture of a baby (with cooties, sp?) on the page? i'll remove the picture if that'll make at least one of you post!

Posted by sarah | add a comment | humour, ranting

oct 21 2005

chain emails

we all get them and most of the time it's a bunch of funny pictures / funny stories / stories of people being stupid, but alot of the time they're mails containing some warning for women to be careful because something bad is going to happen if you; go to your car, go clubbing, take the stairs... etc.

i don't usually pay much attention, but it's the other 99 people you've sent it to that might and they'll forward it to 99 people they know and it just snowballs...

today i got a very informative powerpoint presentation on what the ladies should do protect themselves, some things mentioned were:
- use your elbow it's awfully handy and can do alot of damage
- if your handbag is what they want, throw it away from you and run in the other direction.
- use the lift rather than quiet stairwells
- run! even if they have a gun. 4 percent of the time they will hit you and even then it won't be life threatening. run! etc.

then it went on to explain that a serial killer is playing a recording of a baby crying to get unsuspecting do-gooders (ie. woman) to come out of their houses late at night to, er hmm, kill them.

most of the mails i receive are from woman, if not all, and i have been making it my business to make sure that they're not sending 'scary' false information to alot of other people by checking the story out on snopes.com to see whether or not it's a urban legend / hoax or simply the truth.

if it's a hoax i "reply to all" and send a link with abit of information from the page. i try and be polite about it, but i also try and make it very clear that people shouldn't be sending these false messages around the web. the serial killer story has been circulating the web for roughly 2 years...

the picture is from this hoax that has been sent around the web since 2001.

ps. if you have ever sent me a chain email, this post is not meant to offend, just help you make the right choice before forwarding it to everyone on your contact list! check it out before you send it on.

Posted by sarah | comments (1) | information, ranting

may 11 2005

those damn ads

lately the terrible casino ads on iol have been driving me nuts, as much as i tried to zone out the constantly, annoying flashing text in those ads i couldn't. so i would resort to quickly scanning the top section of the article and then quickly scroll past the ad to continue reading the rest of the article. if it was a long article, i would be able to scroll the ad out of eyesight in the browser window.

but now i have aardvark and i don't see those annoying ads anymore, just a white space where they used to be. yay!

this is how my iol now looks:

it has many other uses, but for me the removing of those ads was the best feature
(note: unfortunately, you cannot remove embedded flash file ads)

some of the aardvark key features:
* clean up unwanted banners and surrounding "fluff," especially prior to printing a page
* see how the page is created, block by block
* view the source code of one or more elements

Posted by sarah | comments (2) | ranting, tech, web

may 03 2005

bastards

the w/end was really nice, even better was that monday was a public holiday...

what sucked is that on monday ed (and partners) discovered that the workshop had been broken into. 15k of equipment has been removed, plus some hired equipment.

i hope those thieves get what is coming to them. ed is going to post a reward, hopefully one of the crew will rat on one of the others? maybe they're insecure about it or nervous one of the others isn't as trustworthy, it's worth a shot.

i am thankful that nothing else was removed from the workshop after the robbery on saturday, as ed only found out yesterday (monday), because the workshop door was left very damaged and wide open.

if only they had waited until this w/end because today was (and is) the day that the insurance kicks in because they're installing an alarm and hiring a security firm...

... bastards!

Posted by sarah | comments (3) | ranting

apr 12 2005

hype

i've often wondered how a crap song can be played on a radio station. more than once. i think it's got to do with money. the record companies pay for that crappy song to be played on the radio, alot. hoping to convince you, the listener, that it's actually popular. you might even think that lots of people have requested that song. nobody wants to be unpopular and not like what 'everyone' else is listening to, so you join in...

luckily i have a strong will and will not succumb to the record companies idea; that if i heard a crappy song 10 times in one week i'd actually 'crumble' and start liking it, hell, i might even go out and buy that crappy artists' album!

so when i stumbled across this article on bbc news, it just reaffirmed that they really don't care if the music is good, as long as there is hype (a number 1 hit for example) then they're happy and 'rolling in the dosh'.

granted it is a business. the artists need to make money, buy mansions and other expensive stuff. not if it's crap though.

seems i might even be right:

Mr Holmes said it would take several thousand additional sales to push a song from number 20 into the Top 10 and onto Top of the Pops.

With songs costing about 79p-99p each online, that would be money well spent for some labels, he added.

Posted by sarah | comments (1) | music, ranting

mar 24 2005

not again

arrgggh. 5fm has actually gone and done it again! they're changing their line-up and ditching some more of the foundations that made them the best national radio station in sa.

barney simon and derek the bandit are the latest victims, with alex jay and mark pilgrim being some of the initial victims, way back in 2002 and 2003.

mark pilgrim was the saving grace for me after alex jay got axed, even though i only got to hear his show on the odd occassion if i didn't sleep in on w/ends.

i must admit that i vowed to not listen to the station after alex got the boot, but they weren't that bad yet. now i can not say the same though. in my opinion, the music being played and the personalities are far less superior. i'm sick of switching that radio station on to hear yet another horrible r&b / crap pop tune, again!

there is not a single other radio station that could compare to what 5fm was when alex, mark, barney and derek were all part of the line-up.

the only dj's i like on their current line-up are zuraida and kevin fine and as luck would have it, their shows are during times when i am not near a radio or i am sleeping!

so, i better start sorting out the cd's in my car...

update: new line-up mentioned here, nothing about barney and derek getting the boot though.

Posted by sarah | comments (5) | music, ranting

mar 22 2005

i wonder

i've been meaning to post about my horrible experience of registering my paid off car into my name and no longer the banks.

i got all the documentation together and i went there pretty early on a saturday last month, only to be confronted with a queue of 13 people in front of me. this particular saturday i had to get to another place in durbanville and then be back in melkbos for an appointment at 11:45am. so i had about an hour to stand and wait for my turn. an hour, 2 tellers this should happen right? there's only like 5 different forms that they could possibly process and most of the people in front of me looked like they were simply renewing their car registration.

half an hour later and the queue hadn't moved at all. this pissed me off to no end. now did the guys in the front not have the right documentation, therefor holding up the rest of us? if so, why were they even being seen to? i don't get it... they should have an efficient system in place by now with all the money they're making on speeding fines, licences and registration fees? surely the tellers know what's going on? pink form, ah, enter this number, tab, type something else, tab, tab, type, tab, enter... there you go. or not? why not?

anyway, i left my spot in the queue and went to durbanville where there was another queue. i did make it back to melkbos with a few minutes to spare though.

so the following week, i bravely head out to the traffic department again. this time the queue is horrendous, something like 20-30 people. i've had a late night and standing in a queue of this size is the last thing i wanna do. so i leave, not before checking that i do infact have all the right documentation... seems like they require a roadworthy certificate too. aha well, thank goodness i checked!

so during the week i get a roadworthy certificate (r190.00) and that saturday i head out to the traffic department extra early (no idea what time they open on a saturday as they don't have their times up anywhere and they don't answer their phones either... surprise!). there are 6 people in front of me. i'm thinking 2 hours and i'll be seen to. not even, within 30 minutes it was my turn. i was amazed and stunned. this just made me more confused about my first visit to the department 3 weeks prior, standing there waiting for 30 minutes and the queue not moving at all.

anyway, i get told i don't need a roadworthy certificate (but the sign says i do) otherwise it goes smoothly. but the chick takes my roadworthy certificate that she didn't need anyway, plus i get 'fined' for not registering the car into my name within 21 days. if they were more efficient than i wouldn't have had to pay extra. i would've done this 3 weeks ago!

so they make more money off of me and two-thirds of the time they're are pretty flippin' inefficient. that doesn't feel like money well spent to me.

Posted by sarah | comments (1) | ranting

mar 10 2005

frogs

since the end of last week there has been a drastic increase in the frog population in the pond. the frog clicking noise has been driving me nuts, to the point where i cannot get to sleep because it's constantly clicking... so i have been wearing ear-plugs. that means i don't hear anything anymore, not even the alarm in the morning. that means if ed doesn't wake me, i'm likely to oversleep...

anyway, so frog population zero last week, one this week. or so i thought. after trying to hunt and get rid of the high-pitched clicking culprit on tuesday night with no success whatsoever, last night i succeeded in getting rid of 3 frogs! yes, 3!

but the high-pitched clicking continued. i slept with the ear plugs in and had a restful nights sleep. this morning i leaned over the bridge and looked under only to find (to my horror) 2 more frogs. there could be more, i only saw 2! there is also no way to get under the bridge without actually climbing into the pond. surely there must be an easier way to get rid of high-pitched clicking frogs?

tonight i'll try and get those frogs. i just hope they haven't laid eggs, the slimey buggers!

Posted by sarah | comments (7) | ranting

feb 11 2005

finished

i finally got my java applet working with all the functionality i envisioned... but it's not web friendly at all. what's the point then heh? well, i just don't know...

i'm presenting the assignment tomorrow morning at 11am and i doubt it's got to work in a web page, i flippin hope not. i'll have to check the assignment document when i get home. then i'll start pooping, or not. i've searched and scoured the web for a solution to this but there doesn't seem to be. i compiled the app in WebStart and that didn't help. i created a policy file and that didn't help. i have figured out that it's probably because of the layout...

so do i undo tons and tons of code and basically start from the beginning to get it right? well, yes if i only knew how... i guess, now is a good time to start.

but before i go i need to mention the wind. the-super-gale-force-wind-that-almost-blew-me-off-the-balcony-when-i-opened-the-door... go away, i've had enough

Posted by sarah | add a comment | ranting, tech, web

nov 19 2004

it is misleading

one night when ed and i were watching a movie at the cinema that telkom ad came on, the one where a doctor at groote schuur hospital operates on a kid in tanzania, via telkom's infrastructure. ed was blown away. "wow", he said. i wasn't fooled though and rightly so, because telkom does not currently have this infrastructure. this never happened... the doctor is an actor and the kid doesn't / didn't have a life threatening medical problem.

telkom says:

"It is a story, and I reserve the right to tell a story. If we had put something like 'Imagine in the future', it would have lost all sense of impact and authenticity for the viewer. It was a 50/50 call, and we took it."

authenticity? wtf? i think they'd have more credibility if they had actually said something like 'imagine the future'... cause i certainly knew that what telkom was portraying in that ad was just not possible right now, today!

come clean telkom.

Posted by sarah | comments (1) | debate, ranting

oct 05 2004

change

hmmm, it's been quite a couple of hectic weeks here in sarah-land. it's been a challenge coming to terms with our offices moving in december to black river parkway, right opposite the river club (observatory). the commute there is not going to be pleasant. it sucks because i have just perfected my route through to town... now we go and move (did some-one scream "murphy's law"?). so i'll have to sort out my route to obs now and no, the m5 is not an option unless you are suicidal! it seems more than likely that i'll be commuting through to town and then back-tracking through woodstock via the m4.

i have changed the look abit here on phunkd. you guessed it... i get bored easy and have far too much time on my hands. not that i'm sitting around doing nothing folks, i am messing around with photoshop and trying to be more creative.

this w/end was a blast, although somewhat tiring and painful. we played fussball till the wee hours of the morning on friday. saturday morning ed and i went to gawie's farewell (he's off to new zealand on thursday) and we had a chance to wakeboard while we were there. i am major unfit i guess because my right leg hurts real bad from the strain of trying to stand up (it took a couple of water-splats to get it right). it was great fun, we are definitely going to do that again!

simon arrives tonight, after being away for about 2 months. we're going to the airport to welcome him home, abit of a surprise happening there (i'm not sure if he reads the website so i won't say what, but will post pics soon)

Posted by sarah | add a comment | chillin', personal, ranting

sep 15 2004

unsolicited bulk email

my colleagues and i received some shifty unsolicted bulk email last week. the dodgy people went to our website and grabbed our details from there and then sent an email to each of us requesting some more information.

it pissed me off so much i did some research.

i found that the email wasn't even sent from the companies that are mentioned in the email, Interactive Direct and Decision Makers (dot coza). it was infact sent from another company called analogue dot coza. salama at analogue dot coza to be exact. i have no doubt that this person doesn't even exist!

what i did find interesting was that my favourite web hosting company (webonline) hosts analogue dot coza. so i sent a mail to them (accounts) and the ispa.

updated 13 oct 2004
on friday stewart from webonline got back to me and told me that they have received other complaints and are following it up, can i please send him the original email? sure. wow, i didn't really expect to hear much from anybody.

i feel like this is unresolved... i have a list of names of the people that own all the domains i mentioned, plus their contact details (address, phone and email). i don't know what to do with all this info though? anybody have any ideas?

Posted by sarah | comments (2) | ranting, tech, web

aug 24 2004

^!@*)? cars

mine blew it's head gasket this morning in traffic. this was not a very pleasant surprise at all.

i was planning on finishing off the payments at the end of this year and then channelling all that extra dosh into a savings account for an investment in property (sometime in the next 20 years with the prices being as ridiculous as they are right now)...

as i type, the car is being fixed. i'm not sure if i'll get it back today though. then what?

option 1
trade the car in for another cheaper, low maintenance wreck. pay outstanding vehicle finance. this option sees me losing a little dosh cause you never get a good price for trade-in's.

option 2
get the bumper scratch (courtesy of a friendly taxi) sorted out and then sell the car privately, a little more dosh will be gotten out of the deal (rather then going to a shady car dealer). but i could be carless inbetween getting rid of old car and getting new car?

option 3
buy new car, second vehicle financing required. get old cars' bumper fixed in meantime and sell when complete. this way i pay 2 monthly instalments (and insurances) for 2 cars . the fixing and selling of old car could take longer then expected and really dent the pocket.

option 4
keep the car, since the problem has been fixed anyway!

anyone got any ideas? ^!@*)? cars

Posted by sarah | add a comment | ranting

aug 12 2004

the long commute

i live about 30 minutes from central cape town, where i work. some days it takes a little over 30 minutes to or from work, other days it painfully takes alot longer. today, for example, traffic was bought to a standstill on the n1 because idiots were rubber-necking a slight fender bender... after slowing to a snails pace to gawk, the idiots then speeded up to carry on with their commute leaving thousands (hundreds?) behind them in stop, crawl traffic. thank you very much idiots!

today's cape times headline: "Rush hour traffic up 60%"

is everyone moving to the cbd because as far as i know unemployment hasn't decreased?

at the end of the year / early next year, we are due to move offices and there has been many a debate on where to move, with the cbd being the safe option. other suggestions are tokai and century city. i would prefer century city but then again some collegues live out by fishhoek and hout bay. they would prefer tokai. every route for the west coast pleb to these sort of places end up in one lane to get to the main route - huge bottleneck! not to mention it would be further away for me and the other west coast plebs, i'd personally be looking at an hour long journey then. no ways josé!

i'd like to kick the ass of the person who designed these one lane joineries (a few times)...

Posted by sarah | comments (2) | ranting