The SA Public's Silly Priorities

I'm constantly finding myself dumbstruck by the South African public. I find it fascinating (in the same way as an exploding volcano) to watch what we as a country get incensed about, what we find worthy of our attention as a group of people.

We've recently had two large upwellings of public protest about two very different issues: The whole Zuma Spear controversy and the toll roads in Jo'Burg. I've already put in my two cents about both those issues so I won't go into them again. What I interested in is that the people of South Africa obviously feel that these are the most important matters facing our country at the moment.

Seriously? Paying tolls (which happens EVERYWHERE else in the world) and a picture that is in (arguably) bad taste? That is what you think is important? Regardless of what you think of either of those issues, surely we have bigger fish to fry? Don't we have a couple blue whales sitting in the background?

Apart from nebulous concepts like crime, corruption and education there are some very serious, very specific problems that I would think take precedence over anything as trivial as what we get worked up about. For instance:

The DA recently had a match to COSATU’s head office that ended in violence when COSATU supporters clashed with the DA. We should be screaming our heads off about this! The right to protest is one of the basic freedoms that the ANC (and COSATU) fought for and it must work both ways… it’s not just the ANC and its partners that can protest.

Bheki Cele is still a member of our government. After every complaint, report and investigation, this man is still collecting a paycheck out of our pockets. The fact that he still has any form of authority is due a failure of us as a people to call for his head. You think he would still be there if we cried about that as much as we do about tolls?

The death toll on our roads is sitting at about 14000 people a year. 14000 people! We had 900 people killed in December last year. It beggars belief. Sure this is due to number of factors, but it could be significantly reduced by enforcing drinking laws and holding Taxi associations accountable for the maintenance of their vehicles.

All of these problems have solutions; they’re not nebulous policy decisions that are open to debate. All that is needed is the political will to make it happen, but that will never materialize until the South African public hold their elected officials accountable for what they do. We need to make a noise about what really matters to us… not about a stupid little painting.

-Odd

P.S. I really do love this country... I think it's the best place to be in the world, and I'll have something more positive next time :)

“Too many leaders act as if the sheep... their people… are there for the benefit of the shepherd, not that the shepherd has responsibility for the sheep.” –Ken Blanchard

Zuma’s Public Privates

In case you missed it, last week a South African artist by the name of Brett Murray exhibited a painting of Jacob Zuma with his scholng hanging out. This has caused a massive outcry in certain circles and there’s now a controversy as to whether or not the artist had a right to use Zuma’s likeness.

On principal I’m inclined to support Brett’s right to use art as a means of political protest, even if I think the painting is in poor taste, but a lot of people are up in arms about the invasion of Zuma’s privacy… I have a couple issues with that.

First off, Zuma is a public person. As president of our country he is in the public domain and must submit himself to criticism, commentary and satire: that’s just the way that a free media operates. Now, you could argue that his wedding tackle is not part of his public profile but if you look at everything he’s been up to while in the presidency (and before) then it’s not a big stretch (ah-ha) to see where the artist is coming from.

Additionally, if Zuma is really personally mortified by this painting and wants to have it removed then it is his right as a private citizen to request that. Note that I said “his right as a PRIVATE CITIZEN” – this is an important distinction, because he chose to lodge his complaint through his position as president of the ANC. In my opinion, the position of President of the ANC is a public position and so open to satire of this nature. You can’t have it both ways, JC: Either you’re a public personality that is backed by the ANC and open to satire or you’re a private citizen without political powers and a right to privacy.

This sort of situation is precisely why politicians in the first world resign at the first hint of controversy. They do that to avoid further embarrassment to themselves and their political party. With all the shenanigans that Zuma has been through in his political career, can anyone really say that they didn’t see this coming? Really?

-Odd

“The first 20 stories written about a public figure set the tone for the next 2000 and it’s almost impossible to reverse it.” –Charles W. Colson

Blizzard Blackout

Like most of the internet, I've been playing Diablo 3. Like most of the internet, I’ve been having trouble playing Diablo 3. Maybe I should give some background information for anyone who isn’t keeping up-to-date with gaming news.

Diablo 3 is a mostly single player game published by Blizzard, but as with all other Blizzard games you must be constantly connected to their servers play it. This is a DRM initiative that Blizzard has put into all of its games and it mystifies me for a number of reasons.

Firstly I’ve already bought this game. I paid money for the original box, I didn’t pirate it or get a copy. I bought a SINGLE PLAYER GAME, but to play it by myself I need to connect to Blizzard servers. I’ve been lucky that (touch wood) my internet connection has been stable for a couple days, but what if it wasn’t? If I had no internet connection then I would be forced to buy a pirated game (when I would rather buy original). I’ve ranted about that before so I won’t belabor the point… much.

How does it make business sense to do this? On one hand you can make a single player game that has only an upfront cost – once it’s being sold, then the only additional overheads you have are marketing, maintenance and patch development. Blizzard then adds these DRM servers into the mix: They now have to pay for all those servers, the bandwidth they use and people to manage and maintain them. That must cost a terrible amount of money. Somehow I don’t think they’ve looked at the cost evaluation of how much their DRM is saving them piracy wise vs how much it costs them to implement.

The thing that irritates me most about this DRM system is that it is failing. You can go now and check the social media site of your choice and find hundreds of people complaining that they cannot play their game. Why? Because Blizzard do not have enough servers to handle the load. Amazing. I bought an original copy of a SINGLE PLAYER game… and I can’t play it because of an initiative that is supposed to encourage me to do that. DRM is supposed to make it better to buy original than pirate…. Something is very wrong.

Blizzard have been very apologetic and have said that they are provisioning additional servers, so we must just hang on a bit and everything will be fine. I don’t think they can use that excuse. If anyone should know how to handle server load, it’s Blizzard. These are the same people who run World of Warcraft (which currently has 10.2 Million users) for Newton’s sake. Add to that the fact that Blizzard has to know the preorder numbers for their game and you arrive at the conclusion that they willfully screwed the pooch.

They KNEW that implementing this DRM would require them to have servers. They KNEW the number of people buying this game at launch. How could they NOT know that they wouldn’t have enough?

Blizzard: You screwed up. Fix it.

-Odd

“All that's left of proud Tristram, are ghosts and ashes.”

P.S. The game is awesome. Really super awesome. I just wish I could play it consistently.

Third World Internet Lament

My illustrious brother recently visited us from down under, full of amazing stories of technology from the first world. It was awesome to see him again (it's been 4 years since he was last out here), but it was sometimes difficult not to strangle his bragging self.

Hearing what sort of infrastructure and services they have in the first world (even one that is on the other side of the world from EVERYTHING) really put our own situation into perspective for me. My boet has a 4mb line at home... for home use... privately. Our businesses are seen as super-advanced if they have that kind of speed!

Australia is also improving their network speeds by rolling a full fiber-optic network. Back at home, I'm pleasantly surprised if my exchange stays online for more than two days running.

We also have a dearth of gadgets in South Africa. I've been meaning to start a podcast for a while now, and in the interests of such I'm trying to get my hands on a midlevel microphone. Something like the Samson Meteor... think I can find in SA? Think I can find something comparable? Think I can find a shop that sells ANY sort of microphone? If you answered no to all of those questions... you're both extremely cynical and absolutely right.

I love this country, I think we have the best weather, people and scenery in the world... but I do sometimes wish we could catch up to the first world just a bit. Maybe just make the attempt? I'll take false hope, really... anything?

-Odd

"The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow" -Bill Gates

Avengers Assembled

It’s been a couple weeks now since The Avengers came out… so I think I've given you all enough time to go and see it, but in case you haven’t: SPOILER WARNING!!! If you do not want details on what happens in The Avengers, stop reading now and come back after you have seen it.

First off let me say that this is not a movie review. I’m not going to deconstruct it or make a recommendation, I’m going to tell you which bits I liked the most… and it’s difficult to do that because it is all full of awesome.

This movie was spectacular. Absolutely brilliant. It gave me everything I wanted and expected out of a The Avengers movie and if you stop to think about it, that is a massive achievement. I have been looking forward to this for a long time and hyping it up in my head to an absolute fever pitch. The fact that it delivered is almost miraculous.

My top 3 favorite things about The Avengers (in no particular order):

Avenger vs. Avenger fight scenes

I hadn’t thought about it going into the movie, but this is exactly what I wanted to see. Who would come out on top in a fight between Thor and Ironman? Or Captain America? There were a lot of these little team ups that gave me enough of a fight to excite while not definitively answering the question. That’s better because if it had then what would I discuss with my fellow geeks after the movie?

The Hulk

OMG! What a monster! This has to be the best that The Hulk has ever been portrayed in the movies. It must be quite hard for the screenplay to hit the right balance between the tragic nature of Bruce Banner and the awesomeness that is The Hulk smashing things. This movie pulls it off: I felt sorry for Banner while still thinking “man, it would be fun to be Hulk”. Mark Ruffalo is a new name to me… and he’s brilliant.

Joss Whedon: Nerd God

This movie is a great example of what can happen when you have a movie For Geeks, By Geeks. Joss is well known for his facility with an ensemble cast and this is no exception. Everything just works so well together, with the characters and the story constantly playing off one another. If I had to pick one highlight of this movie it is that Joss must now be the golden boy of the movie industry and if there was anyone who ever deserved to be handed a giant pile of money to make whatever he wanted it is Joss. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

 

So those are a few of my favorite bits of the movie… too many awesome moves and one-liners to relate… but you’ve seen the movie… so you know those too ^^.

-Odd

“I love fantasy. I love horror. I love musicals. Whatever doesn't really happen in life is what I'm interested in, as a way of commenting on everything that does happen in life, because ultimately the only thing I'm really interested in is people.” –Joss Whedon

Halo4 vs Democracy

The internet has been buzzing for the last few weeks with the news of the release date of Halo 4. Most of the time this would be of absolutely no interest for me: I’m not a huge FPS fan anymore (not since the original Unreal Tournament) but this release actually has an impact on the real world.

The date announced is November 6 - which doesn’t mean anything to us here in SA, but in the US it’s Election Day. This is a big issue because the incumbent (President Obama) made it in to the presidency largely due to an overwhelming majority of support from the young demographic, and that is the exact target audience of the new Halo game.

There are numerous conspiracy theories floating around that Microsoft (the publishers of Halo) have done this specifically to boost the chances of their preferred candidate (Mitt Romney). It’s debatable whether or not Romney is actually their candidate or even if they would be evil enough to try fudge the election… so I’m not going to go into that.

What I’m taking out of this whole episode is the massive (even harmful) effect that mass media is having on society. This release could have a definite impact on the election of the leader of the world’s current largest superpower. Am I the only one who sees a problem with this?

Since when does a leisure activity override choosing who’s going to lead your country? It’s insane! It’s a mass parallel to Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burnt, which is allegorical to the fall of civilization.

Signs abound that the society we live in is pushing us in the wrong direction. We’re leading completely unsustainable lives fueled by rampant commercialism and mass media on an unprecedented scale. Sure, no one could have foreseen the problems that we’re facing when all these systems were developed but we can see the dangers now… shouldn’t that cause us to reevaluate? Shouldn’t that make us change what we’re doing?

I don’t see any changes happening… I don’t see any political or social will to cause change… basically I see little hope that we can salvage much of the current society before it implodes.

So that’s my gloom and doom for the month… next time will be something more uplifting (I hope).

-Odd

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity” – Albert Einstein