I am an African.
I am the founder and CEO of Skyrove, a Cape Town based Wi-Fi Hotspots company.
This blog is mostly random. It is sometimes serious but most of the time just thoughts that come to mind.
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Lexus GS450h Hybrid Car Acceleration Video
One of the cars we drove on the Lexus Arabella Tour yesterday was the Hybrid Lexus GS450h. See the video to get an idea about its incredibly smooth acceleration as it seamlessly combines power from both the petrol & electric motors to the transmission. The "rev counter" actually shows you the KW output.Lexus Tour to Arabella Estate
Last night the incredible Chris Rawlinson phoned me to invite me to a Lexus Tour sponsored by Helderberg Lexus. Of course, I couldn't say no to Chris, as I owe Chris so many favours already.
So this morning he picked me up at my house, we drove to Somerset West, where we met Aiden Connolly, an Irishman who fell in love with a South African girl and couldn't leave once he discovered surfing on the SA coast. Aiden gave us a run-down picked up the cars. I first drove an RX450h Hybrid SUV from Somerset West to Pringle Bay. From Pringle Bay to Arabella I drove the IS250 Cabriolet with the top down! Then I got to drive Lexus' M3 Killer, the IS-F all the way to 96 on Winery. (The blue one, as Emily put it) All the Lexus cars are amazing. The IS-F has accelleration that can only be described as mental: 0-100 km/h in 4.5 seconds (I did it in 4 with a slight downhill). But I ultimately preferred the RX450h Hybrid SUV. It has an incredible amount of power (0-100 km/h in 7.8 seconds, and plenty of additional woema when you need to pass cars on the road). I also like the high ride height and extra visibility it offers and the rear seats fold down so you can load your surfboards in the back easily. Best of all... It uses less fuel than a typical 1.4 litre hatchback. I.e. a pretty good example of real innovation finally starting to happen with cars in the 21st century.I Got Spammed By The Eggman
Hi dear Sir,My Name is Gregory da Silva, The Famous Eggman of Green Market Square Cape Town. A Comedian Artist Dancer
storyteller, Street Live Performer. Finalist The Best of Cape Town Awards, Best Performing Arts.
Feel free to invite me to your Events, Shows. Visit my Websites: www.theeggman.co.za, www.eierman.co.zaBut it's okay, he sang Happy Birthday for my mom's 60th Birthday Video!What's even more interesting is that he studied Computer Science! It truly is a Silicon Cape...His dream is to have the biggest hat in the world! Good luck Eggman!Surfing First Day
A few weeks ago I won an auction at Breadline Africa's Geek Fashion Show. The prize was surfing lessons AND lunch with Paul Cartmel with the money going to charity.
Today, the Cape Town weather was perfect so I got the family in the car and cruised down to Muizenberg.Paul didn't really bother to give me 'lessons': "It's simple, you just catch a wave and jump up on the board and ride it"Well, that's right, but it's not as easy as it sounds! On the other hand, it's actually not as difficult as I thought it would be.Below are some photos and a video! (me in the surf, then Paul doing a self-portrait, then on the beach, then Paul & Toni at Knead Muizenberg and then Althea and me at Moyo in Big Bay for dinner)(download)
WASP subscribing people illegally to XXXmobi
My wife received this SMS today, out of the blue:
Welcome to XXXmobi. In a moment u will receive a link to access all the latest mobile content. R4.99/day cc 086 110 6472. To Unsubscribe, dial *120*40853#A short while later, the following came through:Welcome to XXXMobi. To download content go to http://xxxmobi.m4me.mobi/menu. Bookmark this page for later use.I really think there is a special place in hell for companies like XXXMobi and the WASPs that facilitate them.What's the best way to deal with these issues WITHOUT spending much time on it?UPDATE:Here are the details of the man behind m4me.mobi:Alan Zimmerman (I wonder if it's the same one on Crowdfund's Investors-to-be list?)082 8xx xxxxM4ME.mobi is NOT listed as a WASPA member.UPDATE 2:Okay, so Alan is the CTO at Mira Networks, which is a WASPA member run by Gareth Ochse. M4me.mobi is possibly a division or even a customer of Mira Networks. I've removed Alan Zimmermann's contact details in the meantime, but they'll go up again if I don't get a satisfactory response from Mira and WASPA. The way I understand it, Mira is responsible for their clients complying to the WASPA Code of Conduct.I've therefore submitted the following complaint:My wife, Althea, received the following SMS today on her phone (074 1xxx xxx):"Welcome to XXXmobi. In a moment u will receive a link to access all the latest mobile content. R4.99/day cc 086 110 6472. To Unsubscribe, dial *120*40853# "A short while later, she received the following SMS:"Welcome to XXXMobi. To download content go to http://xxxmobi.m4me.mobi/menu. Bookmark this page for later use."She had to jump through a whole range of complex menu selections to unsubscribe and only managed to do it on the 3rd attempt!!!I wish for an example to be made.My wife works as a Programme Developer at an NGO in Khayelitsha. She is busy doing her Masters in Disability Studies. We have an 11 month old son.The issue at is not simply the attempted theft of ~R1800 per year, but rather the time that was wasted of a productive South African.For shame!All the Batteries on Earth...
All the batteris on Earth can store only 10 minutes of the world's electricity needs.From Bill Gates' TED talk.No Funding Needed: Bootstrap & Monetize
@adii of WooThemes on stage at NetProphet, Cape Town
The Ideal Founder
"A zealot with an almost annoying passion for their business and who could talk about their startup up every day, all day, easily. They are good at selling. They believe living frugally is spiritual and necessary. Understanding highly technical ideas as well as the bigger picture is something they are good at. They are not usually analytical. They don’t mind that each day is continually different, despite the chaotic nature of such. They know that money matters, but don’t spend too much time worrying about their personal bank account – that doesn’t help sell the product. Blind faith is often used to describe them. So is naivetéy.
They are comfortable with these personifications, even reveling in them and the fact that it makes them an outsider and “strange”. They deplore rules, even when the rules make sense. Nothing is ever accepted knowledge until they have put it to the test. They are almost impossible to manage and are often deemed self-centered. The latter is just zeal misunderstood. Consideration is for people with jobs and they, after all, are changing the world for the better, so you need to get out the way."
- Justin Spratt on Memeburn (Thanks to Erik Hersman for putting this on a 6x6 meter screen!)
Kenya vs South Africa
Kenya is proving more lucrative per subscriber than South Africa - Mobile Advertising Networkvia Erik Hersman -
Henk Kleynhans's Posterous
I am an African. 
