Ewan's Corner

Ewan McPhail's blog and soapbox – sporadically blogging since 2003

Posts Tagged Local

South Africa’s 2nd Satellite – First Images

Feb 23

Posted by ewan in Local, out there, sci-tech | No Comments

Horison-sensor-imageSouth Africa’s second satellite – Sumbandila (“lead the way” in Tshivenda) – has produced its first official images from orbit (see left).

Launched on 17th September 2009 from Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz rocket, Sumbandila is a small 81kg low orbit (500 km) solar-powered satellite with a Butane propulsion system successfully fired in January. It carries a 6 spectral band imager (6,25 m × 6,25 m resolution) for ground photography and video (agriculture, mapping of infrastructure and land use, population measurement and the monitoring of dam levels etc), as well as an amateur radio transponder (SA-AMSAT) among other experiments.

See the Sumbandila mission blog for details, as well as the Wikipedia article – there is also a Facebook group.

A video taken of Earth from orbit (13th October 2009, moving over Namibia).

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African Skeptics / Science Blogroll and Carnival

Jan 29

Posted by ewan in Local, Religion, sci-tech | No Comments

Skeptical-Hippo_500x500 From Ionian Enchantment – the latest version of the African science and skepticism blog-roll, or a list of “those dedicated to science and reason on the African continent”. I am proud to be included. Definitely something thought-provoking for everyone – and quite a few reasons to get vocal and involved, no matter what your viewpoint is on science, pseudo-science, skepticism, religion, homeopathy, maths, vaccines, general woo-woo etc.

The latest Carnival of Africans – the Phoenix Edition – is well worth a read.

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SA Rocks and ZA Sucks on 702: The podcast

Nov 11

Posted by ewan in Local | 1 Comment

(5717 KB)
Listen on posterous

From SARocks:
http://sarocks.co.za/2009/11/11/sa-rocks-and-zasucks-on-702-the-podcast/
Almost unbelievable, fascinating stuff. There are some seriously twisted minds out there – if ever there was a reason to *not* be proudly South African, they must be it. I’m also happy they are a minority,
Thanks for posting this Nic.
I’m all for free speech, but the ZASucks site crosses several nasty lines – I’m glad it is finally closing down. The (current, final?) entry pretty much says it all.

Posted via email from Ewan’s posterous

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Why I Love My Country

Sep 18

Posted by ewan in Local | 2 Comments

Joining in the meme inspired by EXMI and tracked by Spacebook - 10 reasons I love being South African, and I love this country:

  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

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Matthias Rath and Bad Science

Sep 14

Posted by ewan in Local, sci-tech | 2 Comments

I don’t think I’ve ever had the occasion to congratulate a newspaper – usually exactly the opposite. But for this I think the Guardian (and Ben Goldacre) deserve serious congratulations both for courage under fire and responsible journalism:

Matthias Rath drops his million pound legal case against me and the Guardian.

The Guardian article is also well worth reading for more on Matthias Rath, the vitamin campaigner: Fall of the doctor who said his vitamins would cure Aids.
Speaking of bad science, I was upset to hear the name Danie Krugel mentioned in a news report on the search for missing local girl Kerry Winter (Kerry recently went missing in Dubai in seriously dodgy circumstances, and has not yet been found). Danie Krugel is a charlatan of note and a South African embarrassment, famous for his “Matter Oriented System” or MOS which he claims can locate anything from missing people to diamonds and bacteria using “quantum physics, GPS Technology and DNA samples”. Despite being proved a fake time and time again, he keeps making it into the media. It wouldn’t be so upsetting if he didn’t give desperate people false hope.
Update: Subtle Shift in Emphasis has a great write-up on Danie Krugel, his voodoo science claims and his growing list of public failures. Also a growing list (and surrounding discussion) on the South African skeptics forum.

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Bullet-riddled Corolla

May 12

Posted by ewan in Local | No Comments

A colleague was hijacked last week in Durban – quick thinking saw him leaving the car to the hijackers and happily escaping without harm. He called the Flying Squad who spotted the car in under an hour – a “fierce shoot-out” ensued in Umlazi, and the car was shot up badly from the rear (three hijackers – one died in the car, one died in nearby bushes and the third is still in hospital).
This is the result – his car is being repaired, and insurance want to give it back to him. If it was mine, I’d insist they pay me out – I wouldn’t want the car back, people died inside it!

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Derivco

Sep 3

Posted by ewan in Flash, Local, me, online gaming | 48 Comments

I work here.

Update July 2006:

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).

Update September 2006:

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.

Update March 2007:

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.

Update September 2007:

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

Update August 2008:

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.

Update late August 2008:
Hiring for IT positions is on the go again – Derivco IT is looking for skilled IT people at all levels. Head over to www.derivco.com, email your CV to cv@derivco.com (remember to state what specific or type of position you are applying for) or ask questions here.

Update November 2008:

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.

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