tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-106170492011-09-24T13:14:53.649+02:00taking on the unholy alliance between the kakistocracy and the kakistopolyMikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.comBlogger221100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-90687570585538116702010-12-28T09:36:00.001+02:002010-12-28T09:36:23.781+02:00

White House "deeply concerned" over conviction of former Russian tycoons"We are troubled by the allegations of serious due process violations, and what appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends," the White House said in a statement. " The apparent selective application of the law to these individuals undermines Russia's reputation as a country committed to deepening the

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-35350258147200896132010-07-29T17:39:00.000+02:002010-07-29T17:39:00.131+02:00

Dear Deputy Minister Gigaba,I have read (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=6&art_id=nw20100729143923925C771769) of your determination to "fast-track the passage" of legislation to force internet service providers to filter pornography. Ah yes! The age-old cry of "protect the children". Nothing like it for whipping up votes from frothing at the mouth evangelists.Good luck!No

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-67062773331366988432010-07-29T17:19:00.001+02:002010-07-29T17:23:01.047+02:00

So some shithead deputy-minister wants to ban internet porn. Again. No thought of what this is likely to cost internet service providers. No mention that it is technically impossible to achieve. So once again the kakistocracy is going to ram through some expensive dung-headed legislative rubbish that will achieve exactly nothing. Nothing like the kakistocracy at work! Technorati Tags: porn,

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-70981298034150341422010-07-16T12:25:00.000+02:002010-07-16T12:25:25.208+02:00

Surprise, surprise, surprise! A reply from the DTI to the letter I copied the Minister on regarding CIPRO's Highway Banditry. From no less a personage than a Deputy Director General, too. Thank you for writing to the Minister with your concerns. The Minister has requested that I indicate to you that this matter has been forwarded to the CIPRO Acting CEO to respond to you. As the department, we

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-23856741569536439732010-07-14T16:13:00.000+02:002010-07-14T17:33:38.076+02:00

Update: Also sent to Rob Davies, Minister for Trade and Industry. No reply realistically expected from anybody. 14 July 2010 Chief Executive Officer, CIPRO Re: Annual Returns Sir, See you in court. Your organisation's handling of the matter of annual returns for Close Corporations has been handled in a completely unacceptable, unconstitutional, unfair, uninformative, unfriendly and unlawful

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-29501903595989428382009-10-09T14:51:00.001+02:002009-10-09T14:52:58.212+02:00

ITWeb | Silicon Cape creates real 'buzz'Zille [Premier of the Western Cape Province] said: "We heard a lot about the geeks, and the VCs, but very little about the politicians. And that is because we're usually regarded as a necessary evil."No, Ms Zille. It should read:"...usually regarded as evil."There. Fixed that for ya.

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-27343396285300335632009-06-10T10:29:00.001+02:002009-06-10T10:29:06.234+02:00

The Times - ‘Judges are not above the law’I guess that means that only cabinet ministers and favoured party aparatchiks are above the law.

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-32325275956534892772009-05-06T17:40:00.001+02:002009-05-06T17:40:03.618+02:00

(OK, I'm talking to/about journalists in a country where, despite having 14 official languages, English remains the de facto language of social and commercial intercourse.)This article in the Weekend Post (presumably the Official Newspaper of South Bumfuck, Eastern Cape Province, since nobody's ever heard of it before) yaks on:Spekboom is renowned for its ability to sequestrate carbon, a key

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-87351046476627222182009-04-28T13:26:00.004+02:002009-04-28T13:36:01.907+02:00

The story so far...A local farm got sold to some rich bugger who believes himself personally entitled to limitless squandering of the Earth's resources, who seems to regard his time so much more valuable than the rest of humanity's, that he uses his helicopter to commute back and forth between his house in town and The Farm. A distance that takes under 30 minutes to drive, even sticking to the

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-86968985289742221762007-07-02T05:44:00.000+02:002007-07-02T17:50:56.011+02:00

Here's the content of my most recent email to Eskom (the national mostly-monopoly electricity supplier in SA) in the wake of a 48-hour clusterfuck power-outage. Four times, their halfwit technicians closed the trouble-ticket, claiming that "power was restored". Four times they were wrong.The final straw was when I phoned at 2:30 in the morning (Hey! I was awake; there was still no power; I

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-57577153721643761362007-06-30T17:27:00.001+02:002007-06-30T17:27:53.723+02:00

So the strike is over.The Trade Unions, under the erstwhile leadership of Cosatu, managed to gain salary increases of 7.5% -- up 1.5 points from the 6% the government originally offered.Let's assume you earned R10000/month before the strike. (I'm going to neglect all the taxes and additional "benefits" that might go with the package.  "Benefits" don't put extra cash in your pocket!) 

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-59081588464999649192007-06-17T02:46:00.000+02:002007-06-17T14:50:25.129+02:00

Dear Ms de Lille,Up to now you have impressed me as being more clear-headed and honest than almost all other politicians in our country.  Up to now you seem to have avoided the kind of 50's-era, Stalinist, top-down, control-freak thinking displayed by so many of your colleagues in parliament -- on all sides of the floor.  This sort of muddle-headedness stems from a profound misunderstanding of

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-12944170106980157032007-05-31T11:08:00.001+02:002007-06-17T10:16:17.278+02:00

Here's something Mr Mbeki and friends could learn from: China ex-food and drug safety chief sentenced to death.Oh, I forgot.   We don't have the death penalty here. I'll bet that David Malatsi and cohorts breathe a huge sigh of relief...

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-17716091374554222012007-03-12T09:32:00.000+02:002007-03-12T09:56:04.183+02:00

Congratulations to the premier of our province on his recent debut into 21st century discourse (by way of his shiny new blog.) A tip, Mr. Premier: post often! Once a week is the minimum. It doesn't have to be a long essay like the one you wrote on Renaming Streets and Airports -- just a couple of lines. Stuff we won't see in press releases.Now to the issue of Renaming Streets and Airports.Out

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-1147434815415689152006-05-12T13:53:00.000+02:002006-05-12T13:53:35.426+02:00

I've been thinking about acquiring a new notebook computer, and looking at various makes, models and options.  Primarily I want "small and light"; I don't really need a super-powerful machine, since, for me, it will never replace my desktop machine, and I hate lugging heavy clunky stuff around.  I have the art of "travelling light" truly sussed, being capable of leaving home for a 5-day business

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-1141057203789910622006-02-27T18:18:00.000+02:002006-02-27T18:23:58.103+02:00

Alec Erwin, our Minister of Public Enterprises, clearly had dismal school results for basic arithmetic.  In a recent article where he responds (at insufferably boring and repetitive length, presumably to distract attention away from the real issues) to press queries about Cape Town's recent blackouts and the entire region's rolling blackouts, Erwin claims that Eskom, SA's state-owned monopolist

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-1140765925527069572006-02-24T09:25:00.000+02:002006-02-24T09:25:25.546+02:00

No that I'm at all interested in OSX , whether on Intel hardware or other, but this looks like win2osx.net has been struck by a particularly asshat manager or lawyer at their hosting company. First they get a DMCA notice from Apple. Bad, but easily and quickly resolved to the evident satisfaction of Apple's landsharks. Then it gets worse - their hosting service deletes their account and

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-1140008123570554342006-02-14T16:41:00.000+02:002006-02-15T14:55:23.613+02:00

How many hoops can bureaucracies make you jump through? About 3 weeks ago my car was stolen in Cape Town. I could do nothing about it for a week, since I was teaching a Java course for a new client. The police were absolutely useless: clearly no effort was going to be made to actually look for or find the car. They were simply filling in the paperwork so that I could claim the insurance money.

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-1132222445053476882005-11-17T11:50:00.000+02:002005-11-17T12:14:07.850+02:00

Dear Dr Matsepe-Casaburri,As a concerned citizen and voter of the Republic of South Africa, I strongly urge you to read the article at http://worldofends.com/.Have your staff print it out for you - I promise I won't consider it a waste of my tax-money - and read it. Read it every morning when you wake up, and every evening before you go to sleep. Keep reading it until you get a clue.At every

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-1127313628748689682005-09-21T16:19:00.000+02:002005-09-21T16:40:28.763+02:00

Telkom - our nations government-owned monopoly (hopefully not for too much longer) telco - has an amazing sense of logic!Several times I have applied for a DSL connection. Now, living as I do out in the sticks, I don't expect much, least of all from Telkom, but having been down this sort of road with the a few times before, I tried a different tactic this time.Me phoning Telkom's Customer

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-1123414715706781502005-08-07T13:18:00.000+02:002005-08-08T15:08:29.426+02:00

So here, verbatim, is the response I received from Eskom. My fault for the delay in publishing it: the letter arrived on 22 July - I've been pretty busy since then.Dear Mr [me]The document is copied below:RESPONSE TO ENQUIRIES REGARDING SMS AND NETWORK CHARGESWith reference to your e-mail correspondence received on 21 July 2005. Our response covers your first enquiry regarding the network charges

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10617049.post-1121944637013538562005-07-21T13:16:00.000+02:002005-07-21T13:17:17.020+02:00

Background for non-South Africans:Eskom is South Africa's government-owned electricity monopoly. Let me stipulate that I live out in the sticks, and so expect a higher level of difficulty with electric power, telephone and internet access than city-dwellers. On the other hand we also pay substantially more for power than said city-dwellers.I have been trying since December 2004 to have Eskom

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12196747651932497845noreply@blogger.com0