The RMS Queen Mary 2 is to date the largest ocean liner ever built (but no longer the world’s largest passenger ship, a record she held until 2006).She arrived in Durban harbour this morning around 07h30 SAT to much fanfare and local excitement, these photographs are from colleagues who watched the arrival from the harbour area (she was also easily visible from the Derivco building).

RMS Queen Mary II’s current status (added bonus – a webcam on the bridge, even if it’s low quality)
Twitter coverage from @MarcForrest and @tequiladiva

Also see Marc Forrest’s Flickr set.

What a perfect morning. Got in to work early, cleared out my mailbox, went for a 9km run, and back at the office for a great breakfast at 7am!

Posted via email from Ewan’s posterous

1. Our high interest rate – look what a too low rate did to the US world markets
2. Our constitution. We’re not the most tolerant people at times, but we seem to be more open-minded and tolerant than most
3. We are willing to stand up for what is right technically
4. Durban weather (an average of 320 days of sunshine a year *), our beaches and the Drakensberg
5. Summer in Capetown (February in particular)
6. We never lose our sense of humour :-)
7. There are always positive people out there, willing to share their viewpoints to try and dispel some of the unnecessary doom and gloom
8. Braai time – 24th September (next Wednesday) is braaiday, Like we need an excuse.
9. We have an industrious web2.0 group, and we have a habit of rapidly adopting new technology appropriately, despite our 3rd world limitations often getting in the way.
10. If there ever is a global nuclear war, we’re in an excellent global position to survive – or at least be the last to go

References: SA Rocks

I work here.

Since this post keeps getting around 11% of the recorded 1st entry hits on this blog (according to Google Analytics) I think it’s time for an update, and a FAQ to answer the most common Derivco-related questions I receive.

• Firstly, the website is no longer in the “cheese” category :-) The current Derivco.com website is a huge improvement on the 2003 version.
• Yes, it is a fantastic place to work – I’m not being facetious, it really is a world class company. Brilliant people (plenty of highly intelligent geeks), exciting and ever-changing projects, beautiful location and fun environment.
• Yes, Derivco is hiring in all sorts of areas. See the website for details. I am however biased towards Flash ActionScript developer candidates :-)

Since Derivco’s address is already easy to find, check out the office and surrounding Forest Park via Google Earth [alternate link] (choose to run the linked KMZ file if you have Google Earth installed, and it will fly you directly there). If you don’t have Google Earth installed, then install it (!) – or use Google Maps instead (lower resolution though, and not nearly as fun).

Derivco vacancies / positions are not currently listed on the Derivco.com website, but you can find them via Google or on sites such as Career Junction (search for “derivco”).

Derivco Offers Bursaries

Derivco is offering Bursaries for the 2007 academic year for students studying towards a Bachelor of Science degree with majors in Computer Science, Mathematics or Statistics with an average of 75% per subject taken and who will be studying for either their 2nd, 3rd or honours year in 2007.

We are also looking for bursary students who will be studying to their 2nd, 3rd or honours year in the 2007 academic year in the areas below or any other relevant Project Management/ Business related area, with an average mark of at least 65% in the subjects taken.

* BComm IT
* BComm Economics/Finance
* Business Administration

Students who will be studying towards their 2nd, 3rd or honours year in BComm, BA or BSoc Sci in Human Resources Management in 2007 are also invited to apply as we will be offering bursaries in this area as well.

Should you know anyone who would be eligible to apply please contact Vukile (Vukile.McKenzie@derivco.com) or e-mail their CV as well as the most recent copy of their results to bursary@derivco.com.

Please note that you need to be a full time student at a Tertiary Institution in order to take advantage of this offer.

I posted an entry with some of my job interview opinions, experience and suggestions for all those who ask. Use at your own risk: Job Interview Opinions.

Derivco wins IT Company of the Year (KZN) at the Computer Society of South Africa (KZN Chapter) gala event.

Derivco is now a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, and is a platinum sponsor at Tech-Ed 2008. Check out the new Flex derivco.com site.

Derivco will be hosting a SQL Server Enterprise Architectural Summit in December. Speakers are Stuart Ozer, Gert Drapers and Thomas Kejser (members of the Microsoft SQL Server dev team and of SQLCAT – SQL Customer Advisory Team).
See the Derivco site for details and to apply (only experienced DBAs considered :-)

If you have any general questions, post a comment below and I’ll respond when I can. You can also email me directly if you prefer.

Usual disclaimer yada yada applies – I may love working @ Derivco, but I don’t speak for the company or any of its clients. This blog is my personal scribble area, everything here is from my own viewpoint and is often written by an insane Perl script anyway. I am not responsible for any comments left on this site or post either, so don’t get any funny ideas.