This year my company has gone on what appears to be a really aggressive cost cutting push, slashing budgets across the board (or so I’ve been led to understand) and retrenching employees from many of our business units. IT got hit quite hard, having 5 CIOs retrenched and only replacing them with 2 positions available as part of the corporate restructuring. Add to this an entire department was dissolved and quite a number of people resigned seeking greener pastures; people who I’m not sure will ever be replaced forcing the work to be distributed amongst the rest of us. The scary thing about all this is that very little information has come down from the top, leaving us “workers” mostly in the dark forced to contemplate the outlook and have the blanks filled in with typical water-cooler and smoking balcony talk. Leaving your people in ignorance in matters such as these is not good for employee and company morale.

But anyways, back to my story. This background is like this: one of our company’s core business functionality runs almost exclusively on 2 application servers (glorified PCs really — lets call them OldA and OldB); each performing a different role. If either of these servers were to tip over there would be a rather large crisis and a lot of screaming people. Thus it was decided a DR solution had to be built and implemented. This task mostly fell to me as a learning experience with the aid of my team. So we had 2 older servers (I’ll call these BeefA and BeefB) that were just lying around, not being used, earmarked to replace the 2 existing servers (don’t forget — glorified PCs) making the existing servers the backup. If you’re still following: BeefA replaces OldA thus making OldA the backup, and BeefB replaces OldB making OldB the backup.

BeefA and BeefB are both decently specced servers. Dual CPU, Dual core, 6x 72GB scsi300 drives, dual gigabit nics; BeefA with 6GB ram BeefB with 2GB. Aside from the RAM either servers is specced well enough to serve both OldA and OldB’s functions; which ultimately was the plan… until yesterday that is. The servers are physically identical, so we could easily move hardware as well. OldA’s\BeefA’s core function was to be done away with and the server decommissioned later in the year, this means that any peripheral functionality would eventually be migrated from BeefA to BeefB, enabling BeefA to act as backup for BeefB. Until the time that this happened OldA and OldB would stand as part of the DRP.

In step the powers that be, and hence I have a brand new server delivered to me along with a “request” to set it up. What? Did I forget to mention that yesterday was also the first I’d even heard of this brand new server? Yea, I really love it when they forget to inform the people doing the actual work. Judging by the forwarded email I received, this server has been in the pipeline since February. Right, so my natural response was “WTF?!” and then “what’s this for?”. Then I find out what this server is actually for, it’s to replace OldB. But wait, what about BeefA and BeefB and the work going into making those the live servers and OldA and OldB the backup?

Bear in mind how I started this post, we now have a nice shiny R60k doorstop. And, all this happening amongst serious budget cuts. I seriously don’t know how this stuff gets past? Unfortunately I’m just a peon, someone who does what he’s told, who hasn’t even been at the company for a year and essentially just a trainee. My opinion doesn’t really count for much, and I’m not about to get myself embroiled in the corporate politics surrounding such decisions.

This is a prime example of some seriously broken communication. Had someone bothered to CC me into the emails (peons aren’t part of the managerial decision circulars) I could have had the opportunity to tell them they’re wasting their money for no good reason. I do hope I’m wrong in all this and this server actually has a different purpose, but I’m pretty sure I’m on the money in this regard.

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Which brings me to my point. What is wrong with people that they can’t be inconvenienced for 10 seconds? Many times I’ve seen people just sit there, completely oblivious to the ambulance or police behind them running full lights and sirens. Are you so important that you can’t give way? There might be someone bleeding to death in the back of that ambulance.

Also, countless times I’ve heard people argue that police abuse their sirens and lights just to skip through intersections and then promptly turn them off. Ever heard of running silent; so as not to alert criminals? Think about it for a second, would you rather surprise criminals and catch them in the act or give them plenty of warning to flee. Of course, this is the ever-present selfishness of our road users shining through time and time again. Of course no amount of preaching will ever cure such an entrenched attitude problem.

Last time I had lost a package it took 4 months to track down. It was stuck in some post depot, just not going anywhere because some retard put a sticker ON TOP OF THE DESTINATION ADDRESS. Yeah, that’s clever. The least they could have done was return to sender. But no, we had to pay to have the package returned and resent. This sort of thing annoys me, mainly because my mate that sent me the package ended up footing the bill to fix what is essentially a screw up on their part.

As to what’s happened to my latest parcel, who knows? Stolen… possibly. Stuck in a depot somewhere… probably. There’s no real good reason to steal my item, it was an old XBOX game that’s not really worth much. Maybe some post office worker really wanted it. Unfortunately this item did not get shipping with a tracking number (even though I paid £5 to ship a £10 item), so trying to find it will be an exercise in futility. I phoned customs yesterday and they flatly refused to help me without a tracking number. I don’t know when this policy changed because I’ve tracked down stuff without a tracking number before — my name has always been enough to find my parcels. They even told me they used to track parcels without a tracking number, but will no longer do it… thanks buddy, you’ve been a great help.

So in the end I’m just going to forget about the money I’ve lost and order another copy (I really want this game). Even ordering a second copy will work out cheaper than if I had tried to source it locally. Oh well, I guess you can’t win them all, I just hope whoever has my NGB is enjoying the damn thing.

Between the 1st and 29th of December last year 1 277 people perished grimly in traffic accidents. Pedestrians made up a large number, passengers, sadly, accounted for 420 deaths, while drivers brought up the rear at 341 casualties. I’m certain in most incidents stupidity was a major factor.

Not so long ago I wrote a blog about retarded peds. I received some criticism for that entry, though negative, I found the source highly amusing. No skin off my nose, my opinions are my own, and I have no problems expressing them regardless of what others may think.

The above quote comes from a rather amusing article by David Moseley. It seems he shares my sentiments and is able to express them far better than I can.

The obvious ommission in the article though, is how many are alcohol and cellphone related?

Uninet finally earned my eternal enmity and ire when they decided to disconnect me with absolutely no warning due to “non-payment”. I actually had to contact them to find this out. Their reason was that I was not paying them enough but they agreed that I had paid them for that month — I was paying the price as advertised, not the price they want to charge me (which is 50% more). Can anyone else see the problem with this? Dual pricing schemes…

After 2 and a half years of loyal patronage I promptly cancelled my Uninet connection and ordered DSL. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back I guess. I’m still now even having fights with them as they think I haven’t cancelled, too bad I don’t have a contract with them and have always been on a month-to-month basis — which is one of the ridiculous reasons they want to charge me 50% more for an identical service.

So… that’s the end of my story, a very abreviated version I might add; I could quite literally fill books on the general crap and dealings I’ve had with them.

To Telkoms credit, a week after I ordered they contacted me to tell me I could go ahead with the self-install and my line would be activated 7 days hence. So 6 days later I picked up my router, plugged it in and no line sync. Well there was still 1 day to go right? So the next day, still no line sync. I went to Telkom Direct, picked up the self-install kit and filters (you don’t need these to get line sync) and asked them what the situation was. I spent about half an hour with a consultant while she phoned around Telkom for me to find out what the problem was as my line was already listed as activated. After all that she came back and told me that they were working on the exchange and my line would be working Monday afternoon. Yay… I stood there for a good 30 minutes to get a 5 second response.

That reponse had me a little worried though, when Telkom tells you they’re working on the exchange, it can often mean months before your dsl is working. So I didn’t hold out any hope of having my DSL fully working by Monday. I was however quite surprised when I got home from work on Monday to find my router had obtained line sync.

So all-in-all just under 2 and a half weeks from order to installation to activation to full working DSL. From some of the horror stories I’ve heard, the process was relatively fast (within Telkom’s 3 week target at least) and painless. DSL lines do pretty much have the highest priority in Telkom at the moment though.

So in a follow up to things that annoy me, here’s one about stuff that goes on at my gym — and I’m sure it’s safe to assume this isn’t a special case.

• Why do you have to stand in front of me, mid-rep, obscuring my vision of the mirror? No, the mirror isn’t there to inflate my ego and cushion my vanity (though for some I’m sure it is), it’s there so that I can check my form and not injure myself. So please move, a single step sideways will suffice, it’s not like you’re doing anything important at the moment.
• The whole free-weights floor is open, so why did you take the bench directly in front of me? I like the mirror, it feels awkward doing exercises with no mirror to use as a point of reference. You could at least move it sideways slightly, but don’t worry if you don’t, I’ll move mine sideways.
• How old are you? Did your mommy never teach you to put stuff back when you’re done? I don’t like hunting around for that specific weight you selfishly left on the other side of the gym. Also, did no one ever teach you to count? It’s not hard to put the weights back in the right spot; it only takes about 30 seconds to learn the layout of the weight racks. You’ll be stunned to notice that the racks are ordered.
• Why are all the plates, unceremoniously dumped in piles on the floor, often enough right next to the weight tree? Sure, dump a plate or two on the floor, the next guy will probably use them, but every single one of them? That’s a good 30 plates or so… the weight tree looks rather lonely.
• If you’re the last one using the machine/press put the plates back. Sure, leave the weights on the leg press when you’re done, it’s easier for the next guy to take 2 plates off than put 10 on, but if you’re the last person using it (I go at night, and leave just as the gym closes), it’ll only take you 2 minutes to put all the plates back. Yes, the gym personnel get paid to do that for you, but in all likelihood one them had just put those plates away. It’s a courtesy thing.
• Why abuse the equipment? It’s not necessary. Sure if you think you’re going to fail badly and injure yourself, drop that weight! The only person you’re impressing by dropping a 50kg barbell from chest height every set is yourself. Same goes for machines, it’s not necessary to just let go of the bar/cable/lever and just let the plates slam down; besides, keep doing this and you’re going to injure yourself if you’re not careful.
• One bench please, don’t put your stuff on one bench and then do your sets on another bench. People don’t always know that that stuff belongs to you, so they can’t ask you to move it. If they’re different types of benches, by all means, use both benches, but don’t moan when someone grabs the one you’re not using at the time.
• Like the one above, please don’t use all the spare benches. It’s nice that it takes two of you to spot the one guy doing the exercise, and another two to take up some of the spare benches while providing moral support. But seriously, if the gym is full or you’re sitting on popular benches, all you’re doing is taking up space and annoying people.
• Who’s having a baby? It’s not necessary to moan and grunt that loud.
• Cellphones? Are you so important that you have to sit there for half an hour talking really loudly on your cellphone? Get off the bench, you’re not using it, and you’re only annoying the people around you by talking as loud as you are.

There’s more, and I can’t remember them right now, I wrote this post in two parts so I forgot a bunch. Oh well, I’m sure there are plenty of others.

So I get to work today and there’s this dumb bitch just standing there in my parking spot… and she wouldn’t move. I was very tempted to mow her down, but I didn’t feel like scratching the paintwork or denting the bodywork as her grossly over sized derrière was sure to inflict a sizable amount of damage.

Now for some “retardedness” observation:

Don’t…

• …cross the road and suddenly step out into my lane, from behind a bus or taxi or something equally big enough to entirely obscure you from my vision! Some roads are narrow and there might not be enough space for both you and me to occupy the same space. I have a big metal cage, you don’t.
• …start crossing the road while looking left. You just stepped into my lane. Look right first! We drive on the left side of the road in South Africa.
• …walk in the road, at night, wearing black clothes, when there is a perfectly good 2m wide pavement. I can’t see you, and I take great delight in scaring the crap out of you when I suddenly swerve around you.
• …walk 3 or 4 abreast, in my lane. See above, most roads in South Africa have decent sized pavements, try use them for a change.
• …stare at me, stuck to the spot, like a deer in headlights. Get your arse off the road so I can make that turn and get rid of the tailgating taxis behind me.
• …look at me, decide you have enough space to cross the road and then casually stroll across the road like you own the damn thing; a granny with a Zimmer frame could beat you in a 100m dash, surely you can at least manage 5?.
• …stand in the middle of the road waiting for a gap in traffic, directly opposite a parked car. By all means stand in the middle of the road, it doesn’t bother me, but when you make a tiny little tunnel for me to go through, I get annoyed. On most of the roads I drive, there isn’t enough space for both my car and you.
• …walk in front of my car and stick your hand out in a stop gesture, and then continue to stand there, blocking me and the 40 other cars behind me. I don’t see a badge of authority on your shirt; was it really necessary to block traffic and inconvenience everyone for your own amusement and pathetic display of power?
• …stand at the side of the road, with a stroller buggy half the size of a bus, sticking into my lane. A couple of things, firstly: why is that thing so damn big? Are you smuggling exotic animals in there? Secondly: do you really want your little runt to join the countless number of stains already on the roads?

These are just a few things I deal with on an almost daily basis on my commute to and from work, especially along Wynberg main road. No, I don’t get road rage, only mildly pissed off with the idiocy that goes on around me. A little bit of thought and consideration for others could drastically reduce road rage and accidents; unfortunately it is this consideration for others that is seriously lacking in the over-selfish society we live in.

Either way, you pedestrians suck, and the next time you scratch my car crossing the road I’m going to slip the clutch and break your leg.

This happens to me quite a lot. It’s annoying.

Is it so hard to read the whole email and answer every question? In point form if you must. I hate trying to communicate with people who have an attention span shorter than a potato.

In my experience (as limited as it may be) local hosting is sub-standard in every way. It has poor service, slow response times (both technical and relational), limited offerings, and the obvious kicker is that it is WAY TOO EXPENSIVE. In terms of cost-value there is no motivating reason for one to use local hosting; the only reason that I can see for the moment is some dependency for local connectivity due to a requirement of your web site/application that is necessitated by design.

On the same track, local web design positively sucks. Our country has not yet embraced ecommerce. It’s rather unfortunate as it is an avenue that is very good for those of us that like to live in the 21st century. Many of the local websites that I’ve had the displeasure of using still use ancient static html or poorly crafted asp littered with abortive animated gifs. Many are still using a predominantly black “colour” based web site with eye-gougingly bright contrasting colours to “emphasise” everything. Let’s also not forget the tiled background images and modified cursors that is still so prevalent in South African websites.

Where are all the talented web developers and what are they doing? Clearly not building web sites for ZA companies. It really is a shame, because most companies need a lot of help. Even the big corporates in this country can’t seem to put together a well constructed site that is “intuitive”.

Vottle is a decent example of what a site should look like to an extent; elegant in its simplicity though not without its faults. I bet if you went and talked to you most internet users in ZA and asked them what Craigslist was, they’d give you a blank stare and go back to stuffing their faces while chatting on MSN. It’s really pathetic that trying to sell or buy used stuff online in South Africa is nigh on impossible. The IT industry sort of got it right; it’s pretty easy to get PC components and software via the net locally — if you ignore the exhorbitant prices that is.

This blog was spawned by my love of motorcycles and the piss poor quality of motorcycle related sites that I’ve been browsing the last few days (30~40 of them). They’re around… they just suck. Most are rarely updated and have poor content. Ironically the ones with decent content have really poor design so as to make you not want to use them, which is really great. Let’s not get started on forums; everyone knows what sort of creatures inhabit those.

A while ago I registered zabikers.co.za with the intention of adding something positive to the local motorcycling community. Unfortunately I didn’t get very far, mainly due to my lack of motivation and non-existent web development skills. I also have no draw, nothing unique or new to bring to the table that will attract people. Though I do have a few ideas they all require money, of which I have none to spare.

As an aside, I just had a mate phone me telling me that he saw my bike on the back of a trailer being towed around Cape Town. Lovely… I still haven’t received a phone call to arrange delivery.

I preach to the converted.

The damage:

My front left tyre is finished; it has bubbles on both sides and is clearly unsafe to drive on. The rim is warped and has a pretty large dent in the exact same place as where the tyre bubbled. Fortunately the back wheel on the same side came through unscathed even though it too went through the pothole. I guess my front wheel absorbed enough of the energy. For safety reasons my front and back wheels have been swapped as a temporary solution. There doesn’t appear to be any further damage than that done to the front wheel, though it’s certainly going to cost me enough to repair what “little� damage there is.

The result:

My existing tyres have been discontinued apparently. This means that I can’t replace just the damaged one, but I now have to replace a pair. Damn… So the tyres are going to cost me about R1330 a pop at my current quote. Damn… Add to this R2222 for a new rim and things start getting *really* pricey. Of course there’s also the obligatory balancing and alignment. That will only set me back about R250 combined, which is pretty much peanuts in comparison to the rest.

The alternative:

Get two cheaper tyres and fix the rim. I have low profile tyres, so even the cheap ones aren’t that cheap. I have official Ford rims, which I quite like, so it’s either fix it, replace the broken one, or replace all four. I’m not replacing them, as I mentioned that I quite like them and I’m not sure about repairing it, I’ve had bad experiences with “repaired� wheels as most would know if they’ve read some of my bike posts.

Well either way, it’s going to cost me a fair amount, which is the last thing I needed after just buying the thing. Oh well…

At least I know I’m not the only one going through the same thing. With camera in hand, I went back on Saturday to find and photograph this devilish pothole. I wasn’t there for more than a minute when a car went through this pothole. *Crunch* It sounds even worse being outside the car and just listening to the pothole cost people thousands in damage.

I didn’t bother counting, but in the short time I was there I’d say somewhere in the region of 10 people will be requiring new tyres and possibly rims. This was in the daytime, so the pothole was in plain sight, though you can’t really tell how deep it is (roughly 3�) from a driving position. I also watched 2 cars gutter their wheels trying to straddle the pothole, and plenty more swerve into the oncoming lane trying to go around it. Too many people have no idea where their tyres sit on the road in relation to them, nor how wide/long their cars really are (how often do you find someone parked off centre?).

The especially amusing thing were the people who clearly aren’t concentrating, namely the ones that drove straight through the pothole as if it didn’t exist even though the car in front of them just wildly swerved out the way not even second before. Granted some people have slow reactions… but seriously? This is a high-trafficked road and the cars don’t travel all that fast. Anyways, I did get to see one guy almost lose his wheel. It was looking pretty dodgy as I watched him drive off.

Pothole Location:

In Hout Bay on the section of road between the turning-circle that goes off to Constantia and Chapman’s Peak (M63 — Hout Bay Road), and the robots the head up over the mountain to Camps bay, or down to the harbour (Victoria Ave). It’s situated about 3 meters ahead of the bus stop in the turning circle direction (near Valley Road). If you don’t know where this is, just look up Valley Road in a map book.