I was tagged by Cath, so let’s see if you can come up with 8 random personal things that you did not already know..

1. I get grumpy and irritable if I don’t exercise (every day).
2. I cry when I talk to Mia over the phone. Can’t help it.
3. I often cause shit by jumping in, speaking my mind and then regretting it later on. This usually happens in email. I blame digital disassociation.
4. I enjoy cooking, but I suck at baking.
5. I’m a trophy reader. I don’t read much and I don’t really read for fun, so I end up reading mostly famous books. An example would be Atlas Shrugged. I like the idea of Ayn Rand books more than the books.
6. I hate hippies.
7. I’m stubborn and I over-focus. I’d like to think I follow rational principles, but I know it’s often just rebelliousness.
8. I love yogurt.

You know the drill..

• Monday, watched 4 episodes of Scrubs. Really cool series. Reminds me of Dr. Strangelove.
• Tuesday, attended the Neotel WiMax launch event.
• Been thinking of doing some lecturing work again.
• I seem to have started a trend with my bullet list blogging. Guess I’m not the only lazy blogger out there (-:
• Tuesday, upgraded to WordPress 2.6 with SSL.
• Wednesday, I rocked in the spinning class music trivia, mostly because the spinning instructor used the same music for his quiz a while back. Hit Lower Main road Obs with WSE for drinks.
• Thursday, walked up Lions Head.
• Friday to Sunday, looking after Number One.
• Friday, started looking for a new place to live. Went to look at a place in Tamboerskloof. The estate agent commented that the three most stressful things are: divorce, death and moving. 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.
• Friday night, drinks and pizza at Greens with Mia and friends.
• Started reading a new book: The 4 hour work week. A bday gift from Cath.
• Started teaching Mia some Afrikaans.
• Saturday, gym, swim, rugby, braai, Scrubs [5-7].
• Sunday, gym, swim, awesome home cooked lunch, wine, food, fun, friends, Scrubs [8-10].
• My life feels like a Wes Anderson movie.. a mix of Royal Tenenbaums and Life Aquatic. Strange family setup, eccentric characters and the theme of failure, but in a fun/amusing way.

Idea for the week “decision making is the ultimate power”.. from a TED video I watched recently. Have a fun week crazy kids.

I missed my usual Sunday night blog post session. Let’s just say there was enough wine around at the time. Mostly been catching up after a busy weekend. Let’s see..

• I finished the Extreme Networks ECDP course. Next is ENA and then most probably ENS in Dubai.
• Worked on the Teraco switch fabric design and commercial agreements (talking turkey).
• Wednesday was an Amobia exco meeting in Stellenbosch.
• Thursday, watched Semi-Pro, Will Farrel is a god.
• Friday to Monday was Mia time. She’s a good partner in crime and a unique alarm clock… luckily she has a weakness for rooibos tea, Melissa’s rusks and Monsters, Inc. In that order.
• Friday afternoon, Mia and I visited Will for his birthday in Somerset West. Mia locked us out of his house for a while.
• Saturday, made Maltabella porridge and watched the rugby. Traveled to Franschoek for the Bastille day festival. Had lunch with WSE, Cath and Parri.
• Visited Haute Cabriere for sundowners, home of Pierre Jourdan. Awesome views. Great cap classique.
• Sunday, gym, swim, snack at Knead, ice cream at Sinn’s, Deer Park play area where we ran into Dorje. Mia says she wants her own blog.
• Had lunch at Greens with Jonathan and Lynnae.
• Sunday night we had a braai with friends in Llandudno. I suck at Scrabble.
• It’s been a challenging few weeks, but I’m lucky to have very supportive friends.
• Cape Town is a nice place to raise children.

On with the week.

Joe’s extended birthday news..

• Monday, we had a pre-GeekDinner to look at the next venue and a burger at Royale.
• The next GeekDinner will be on 31 July. See you there.
• Tuesday, had a burger at Da Vinci’s in Kloof Street with WSE. Try the Milan burger. Very yummy. Finally sorted out my trust documents now that I have closure.
• More Extreme ECDP training.
• Had my hair cut at Pink 23, 39 Roeland street, by a friend: Bianca, +27 21 461 1067, try it.
• Thursday morning, time with Mia. Shopping for new swimwear and shoes.
• Thursday afternoon, drove to Montagu with Anton. Had a nice dinner followed by a morning in the local hot springs.
• Friday was my 31st birthday. Had a fun party at Asoka. Thank you to everybody who showed up, phoned or emailed. Thanks for the gifts.
• Rainy Saturday, just chilling and reading.
• Discovered Cath’s blog.
• Sunday, brunch at Lazari’s in Gardens, watched Marie Antoinette, dinner in Stellenbosch.
• Dropped Anton off at the airport and then watched You only live twice.

I have not been blogging much lately. Go figure. Weekly news summary as usual..

• I entered Amobia in a venture fund competition. Should have some feedback by mid July.
• Added a Crackbook page for Amobia.
• Watched Zeitgeist, 40 Year Old Virgin and Oceans Eleven.
• We had a Frogfoot company photo taken for 2008. Pics at the usual place.
• Completed the Extreme Networks ECSP training course.
• Made a fact sheet for WAPA.
• Walked up Lions Head three times this week. Helps me think.
• I’m getting back into a swimming routine. Helps me think.
• Friday, made a new friend by apologising to an old friend. We avoided each other for the last 3 years.
• Removed two ~nasty blog posts.
• I brewed up Joe’s famous thai green curry on Friday evening. Nice to cook.
• Visited Wellington on Saturday afternoon.
• Anton is in ZA for a week. Had a nice dinner with friends at the Fishmonger followed by drinks at the Akker.
• Saturday and Sunday was Mia time. We watched Babe today. Sweet movie.

Joe’s news items..

• Random quote of the week: “What on earth would a man do with himself if something did not stand in his way?” — H. G. Wells
• Looks like Teraco raised its remaining funding.
• Tuesday, Georg’s home cooked veggie soup and red wine evening.
• Wednesday, downloaded Firefox 3.0 and moved some furniture.
• There seems to be good interest in a Cape Town peering point again. About 11 networks have responded positively so far, including Google.
• Finally found a use for the DMCA. Facebook is pretty quick with removing copyrighted material.
• Thursday, processed some iWeek paperwork. Amobia and Teraco are now Gold sponsors. WAPA will endorse the Thursday morning wireless session and will have a stand in the iWeek exhibition area. If you have not yet registered, go here.. it’s free.
• The Blio PBX passed 100% of the TBR-3 tests including the optional parts. This completes the 4th and final part of the ICASA requirements.
• I attended the 1st Cape Town Pecha Kucha night. The wine was crap. The Moscow Mules were good. The talks were pretty decent.
• Friday and Saturday was Mia time. We went for a swim again. She fell asleep in the car as we drove to go watch some rugby. Mia slept on my chest for most of the game. Not bothered by any of the excitement around her. It really is a magic feeling having her take a nap like that.
• Saturday night was Andy and Georg’s house warming party. Must be Andy’s 6th house warming in two years. All the usual suspects showed up, including my personal shrink, who’s birthday it is today.
• Sunday, had fish and chips at the Waterfront and watched Kung Fu Panda. A fun movie.
• Walked up Lions Head just before sunset and got some panoramic photos of clouds rolling into Camps Bay and Cape Town harbour. Cape Town is Rome.
• I now have a dinner table (again). Guess I’ll have to have a dinner party soon.
• I also have an Ubuntu PC and SIP phone at home now.. all I need is a big LCD screen for movies.

Peace.

News from planet Joe:

• Teraco now has a commitment for 2/3 of required funding
• Entered Amobia in a business idea competition of sorts, should have some feedback by mid July
• Updated the SwimGeek front page
• Friday, went for a walk with Mia on a strawberry farm
• Saturday, gym, swim, food, family, fun and friends
• Sunday, Fathers Day was a complete mess, I was a complete mess
• Ever see people you know are on your Facebook friends list but you can’t remember their names? It’s happened twice now.
• Persuaded the admin of the en_ZA locale settings to use 24:00 time format and make weeks start on Mondays. The power of open source. If a small thing bugs you it can be fixed quickly.
• I’ve taken an interest in peering (internet exchanges) again after the JINX workshop. Busy tinkering with a few ideas.
• Added a Facebook page for Frogfoot
• I registered for this year’s iWeek conference. I’ve been invited to be part of a wireless panel discussion on the Thursday (wireless day).
• Weekend movies:
  • Elf: Good
  • Sex and the City: Not that bad
  • Hot Fuzz: Classic

Have a fun 4 day week. I can see I’ll need to be applying some selective amnesia jedi mind tricks.

Bullet list news from the life of Joe..

• I watched the 4th Indiana Jones movie today. I liked it. George Lucas must have been too busy working on Howard the Duck 2 to have been involved.
• Nu Metro at the Waterfront is pretty lame. Both their self-service ticket machines were broken.. what’s the point of promoting the self help system if you can’t help yourself?
• To the girl at the gym who wears Issey Miyake, please stop, it’s distracting.
• Quote of the week: “Just remember one thing: they rip your heart through your ass”
• We did a site survey for our plan to build a big wifi hotspot in Long Street last week. Always fun climbing around on rooftops.
• Attended the Open Coffee club event at Sinn’s. Hmm.. not sure what to say other than maybe: it seemed a bit “diluted” (not the coffee).
• Mia and I visited the Spier Cheetah Outreach and bird of pray rehabilitation centre. The cheetahs liked Mia, I guess she looked like a nice afternoon snack.
• I think I caught a mild version of Mia’s flu bug, but I’m feeling better again.
• I wrote a short Q&A style article about Amobia for the WAPA website.
• I should be attending the ISPA JINX peering workshop this week.

Have a brave wintery week.

From an email I wrote to an Amobia staff member today.. maybe you find my little story useful..

This reminds me of what our underwater hockey coach used to try drill into us.. kick, turn, kick, pass.

You see, it’s natural to want to pass when you need air.

Most people go: kick, turn, pass,
and not: kick, turn, kick, pass,
the second being a much better strategy and keeps forward momentum.

My point is..
don’t just point out the problem, suggest the solution also.

The wiki can be changed easily, that’s why it’s a wiki. Give it a first shot.

Article about the Blio PBX…

Local PBX product on the market

A quick comparison between Amobia’s rate based last mile links and Telkom Diginet leased lines.

Here we have a list of common line speeds. Telkom Diginet pricing is based on links to the same exchange (cheapest possible). Amobia pricing is worked out for the common scenario where a client wants to connect to their ISP of choice in a single metro area like Cape Town or Joburg.

Amobia offers a saving of between 87% and 16% on monthly recurring costs:

Speed	Telkom Diginet	Amobia Wireless	Saving
64Kbps	R1594	R200	87%
128Kbps	R2226	R400	82%
256Kbps	R2579	R800	69%
512Kbps	R3279	R1600	51%
1024Kbps	R4655	R3200	31%
2048Kbps	R7269	R6080	16%

Let’s see, bullet list news for the week..

• I watched Paris Je’taime at the Labia today: not bad.
• Last night was a pre-house-warming party at Georg and Andrew’s new place. They make a nice couple, hehe.
• On Saturday morning, Mia and I went swimming at the gym. At first she was as stubborn as only her mother can be.. had to do some convincing to get her to swim. She loved it. She jumps into the pool, with her head going under the water like a little otter.
• After Jonathan’s GeekDinner pep talk about doing what Romans do in Cape Town, Mia and I went to see the Noon Gun on Saturday afternoon. We had tea and milk tart at the Noon Gun tearoom and visited Erf 81 to go see some goats, chickens, puppies, pigs, ducks, horses..
• Thinking back, it was one of the most fulfilling Saturdays ever. I guess it took me a while to acclimatise to this parenting thing, but it’s awesome being a dad.
• Mia’s new favourite phrase is: “What’s that?”
• Anton will be visiting Cape Town in July in the same week as my birthday.
• Mia and I attended Georg’s leaving Stellenbosch party on Friday evening at Fandango’s.
• There’s an article about Amobia in the latest iWeek magazine.. “puts us alongside the big guns!”

I’ll upload pics soon.

Have a fun week crazy kids.