Innumerate Jerk

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 power utility, has a "reserve margin of just under 15%".  He bases this on (his figures): "South Africa's full operational capacity in 2005 was 37500 MW with a reserve
margin of just under 15%. Peak demand in 2005 was 36146 MW."

Now, forgive me if I'm dumb. Or perhaps the calculator I am using is b0rked.  But last time I checked (twice!) that represents a reserve margin of 3.6 percent.  Hardly the "just under 15%" that this asshat is claiming.

Perhaps we need to send Alec Erwin back to Grade 4?

No.  On second thoughts, given the state of the South African school system that would hardly solve the problem, now would it? 

Original article at: Creamer Media's Mining Weekly Online, South African Mining News :: News Today 

Win2osx in the poo

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 database without warning, leaving them without any of their data or backup's, causing them to be down since last Friday. The hosting company then loses or ignores the email they get directly from Apple's lawyers, stating that the matter has been resolved.

Just another case of people acting with their heads put on backwards, which is what happens when corporations prescribe rule-based behaviour over human judgement.


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How many hoops?

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.

Upon returning home I started the hoop-jumping... The insurance company need the car to be deregistered by the registration authorities. Can't be done. According to their records, the car is still owned by the bank. The car was fully-paid-for over 10 years ago! The registration people need the original registration certificate and a letter from the bank saying that the car is paid-for.

So: start trying to get the needed documents out of the bank. For a start the address they have for me is 10 years and two house-moves out of date. Why is this so? I have dutifully notified The Bank of every address change. The answer, as I am sure you already know, dear reader, is that The Bank is not one company, but a fat, hairy, dysfunctional, multiglomerate mudball. Just because I notify The Bank of an address change does not mean that The Bank's Credit Card Division, nor their Home Loan Division, nor their Vehicle Finance Division, nor any part of The Bank gets to know of this outside the actual Bank Branch you deal with. Funny: to me they all look the same; their letters and statements all come with the same letterhead; they all appear to me (the Dumb Customer Schmuck) to be One Organisation. Just another Theory vs Reality reality.

To cut a (two-week!) long story short, I eventually got the registration certificate out of the bank, nad their letter saying that the car has been paid-for. Toddle over to the municipality with the application for deregistration, only to be told, "You can't deregister this car. You are not the owner (the bank!) You first have to change ownership."

"OK. Give me the Change of Ownership Form."

While completing the form I am filled with a strong sense of the surreal. I mean, here I am, copying various identification numbers about the car from the registration form, which was printed by the licensing department's computer where the details are stored. And I'm copying them onto a form that I'm about to hand in to the licensing department, where they are going to re-capture those same details back into the self-same computer system! So that we can fill in another form, copying those same details, to put back into the same computer system to say that the car no longer exists (in some official sense.)

Anyway, after all the copying, the lady behind the counter captures the form, only to tell me, "I'm sorry, we can't change the ownership of the car because itstagged as a stolen vehicle."

Well, hell, YES! That's why I'm there trying to deregister the damn car!

I must have looked quite wilted at that point, because the normally-unsympathetic supervisor lady took pity on me. "Give me the forms, and I'll phone [Registration Central] and get them to untag it so that we can change the ownership, and then they can re-tag it as a stolen car. It might take a few hours; I usually have difficulty getting through to them..."

Kudos to Mrs Kapp of Knysna Municipality, though! She finally got the whole mess sorted out in under 30 minutes.

Now remind me again: Why were we all (officials included) fighting this stupid computer system? Makes me ashamed to tell people that I;m a software designer by trade.

Oh, and just in case you think the hoop-jumping is finished, don't hold your breath! We have now only got as far as submitting the paperwork to the insurance company. Wait for their hoops, coming soon!

Open Letter to Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri

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 turn you, through your department, demonstrate your utter and complete failure to grasp what this "Internet" thingie is about. You try to regulate those of us who create content, whether in the form of websites, web-based applications, or simply blogs like this one. You try to stop us from creating small, neighbourhood-scale networks in order to protect Telkom's monopoly-position.

Well it just won't work - the network will simply route around your obstacles, and probably sink Telkom as a small side effect. I'm not going to enlighten you here as to the hows and whys; read the damn article.

In the meantime, ignore the best opportunity for empowerment, upliftment, education and job-creation at your peril. Keep your boot on the necks of the downtrodden. For perhaps you do understand that Internet access to the poorest-of-the-poor will be your downfall, as it routes around your position of privilege.

Telkom Logic

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 Service department... (all names fictional to protect the helpless)

Telkom [bright and perky]: Good day, my name is Ruwayda, how may I help you?

Me: Hi, I'd like to order ADSL, please.

Telkom: Certainly, sir. What is your phone number.

[I give them my number and spend a minute or sol listening to the clicking of a keyboard while they check whether ADSL service is available for my local telephone exchange. It's not.]

Telkom: I'm sorry sir, but ADSL is not available on your exchange, so I'm not able to take your application.

Me: I know, but I would like you to take my application anyway.

Telkom: OK, sir. [Proceeds to note the application. Fast forward to a couple of days later; I receive a call from a More Senior Person.]

TelkomMSP: I'm afraid that we have to reject your application, as there is no service in your area, and we don't expect to be able to provide service in the foreseeable future - there is not sufficient customer demand in the area.

Me: So how do we demonstrate demand, because I know of quite a few people in the area who would jump at the chance to get ADSL.

TelkomMSP: Well, if we could get enough applications on file, that would do it.

Me: But you keep rejecting applications because there's no availability!

TelkomMSP: Yes...

Me: So you'll never have any demand.

TelkomMSP: Yes, but we cannot accept applications where we are unable to provide the service - its policy.

Laugh or cry? You decide!

Eskom's Response

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 CHARGES

With reference to your e-mail correspondence received on 21 July 2005. Our response covers your first enquiry regarding the network charges and subsequent four points which you listed in your second e-mail.

Voltage query

The Customer Service Area Manager responsible for your area, Tobie Nortjé, will respond to you directly within seven working days regarding your enquiry.
Mr Nortje is investigating the matter.

Sharecall Solution

Eskom makes use of the Sharecall solution whereby the customer pays the equivalent cost of a local call and Eskom is responsible for the remaining cost, irrespective of distance or duration of the call.

Offering a tollfree service attracts pranksters who make nuisance calls. These nuisance calls create unnecessary volumes on our system and results in legitimate callers waiting longer for their calls to be answered.

Since implementing Sharecall, we have experienced a significant reduction in the number of prank calls. We are now able to answer 80% of our incoming calls within 30 seconds.

Follow up service

We apologise for not having called you directly on your cellphone. We attempt to contact our customers in more than one way to ensure that we follow up successfully and therefore make use of land lines, cellphones, e-mails, facsimiles and text messages, where possible.

In terms of voice-mails, our Contact Centre strives to attend to them within 30 minutes and endeavours to contact every customer who leaves a voice-mail message.

Network Charges

The monthly network charge is an integral part of the tariff for an electricity supply. Eskom does not guarantee an un-interrupted supply to customers at all times and no refund of the tariff or part thereof is made when an interruption of supply occurs.

The network charge is made up of capital for the network on the infrastructure, operations, maintenance and refurbishment. The fact that an interruption in supply has occurred does not affect payment of these charges.


I wish to assure you that Eskom is committed to ensuring the delivery of a high standard of quality of supply and service. This commitment is for the benefit of our customers and forms the cornerstone of our customer service philosophy.

Yours sincerely


Contact Centre- Customer Service
Western Region

In other words: Dear Mikro2nd, please drop dead.

I am still (2 weeks later) waiting for Mr Nortje to get back to me.

BTW, legal advice is that they're wrong about the network charges. I can't say more just yet, but watch this space!