The Quickening week at MXit and the Will Ferrell box set…

• Monday, upgraded Mia’s iPad, sunset walk around Stellenbosch, photo processing.
• Tuesday, upgraded Mia’s Mac Mini, left the office at 20:00ish, Mia visit.
• Wednesday, dropped Mia at school, gym, left the office at 21:00ish, photo processing while watching A Night at the Roxbury.. pretty lame.
• Watch this: Elon Musk Profiled: Bloomberg Risk Takers.
• Thursday, morning walk to Lanzerac listening to ZAtech Show, Duct Tape Wallet meeting, got Django and our dev environment running on Ubuntu in Virtualbox, left the office after 21:00, beer at Gino’s, photo processing while watching Superstar.. pretty lame.
• Friday, watched Old School again, nap, photo processing.
• I processed about 1000 photos this week.
• Saturday, gym, family outing to AfrikaBurn Park Life at Rocklands Park (Deer Park), Fresh Sauvignon festival at Buitenverwachting with Paul, Jimmy the Fish with Mia and Francis.
• Sunday, woke up displaced from my bed by Mia and Francis, photo processing while Mia and Francis watched Stardust, Mia built 7 floor puzzles while Francis and I took a nap, Goodluck at Oude Libertas with Andrew, Mia danced with Juliet on stage.

Have a fun week, crazy kids.

Chazz Michael Michaels – ice-devouring sex tornado..

• Monday, put new home movies on Mia’s iPad, took her to school, gym, sunset walk to Lanzerac, video processing.
• Tuesday, morning walk, Mia visit.
• Wednesday, dropped Mia at school, Waterstone gym (to read email waiting for traffic), Wembley gym, tea with Sarah, lunch with Cath, bank with Jonathan and Gerhard, Orms to get a replacement polarizer, AfrikaBurn volunteer meeting at the Bijou with Cath, a beer at Georg’s house.

• “No radio, no sleepy songs, no tunes.” — Mia, about car music options.

• Thursday, morning run to the top hockey fields, breakfast at Guardian Peak with Ben, Paul’s house, MXit Thursdays at Gino’s, braai at Debby’s house with Ben and Werner.

• “If there is one thing we like doing.. it’s answering questions.” — Ben

• Friday, got my AfrikaBurn ticket, after work beer at De Akker, Mia visit.
• Feels like my load average is running above 2 at the moment. Work, family, exercise, friends.
• Saturday, woke up with 5 people in the bed, breakfast at Mondeor, braai at Will’s house.
• Sunday, family time, gym, lunch with Andrew, Bianca, Terence, Sherri, Emma at Glen Carlou.. try the Glen Carlou Quartz Stone Chardonnay, a swim at Bianca’s house, photo processing, watched Blades of Glory again.. brilliant.
• New pet hate: people who keep yapping on about their pets.

Have a fun week, crazy kids.

Playing with some video editing..

• Monday, dropped Mia at school, dropped Francis at her gran’s house, some photo processing while waiting for a minor car service, gym, sunset walk around Stellenbosch.
• Managed to get my picture in this story.
• I joined the Waterstone Village gym. Really sucks that Stellenbosch does not have a Virgin Active. It’s been 4 months without a good exercise routine.
• Seems Stellenbosch has a lot of wasps – I sat on a wasp last week and the back of my leg was swollen for 3 days.
• 233 photo albums on FB.
• Seems I’ve become way more selective about the photos I keep. Only about 400 photos in 2012 so far, that’s way under my 10k per year goal. Amusing looking back at my photos from 2010 and spotting all the things I would fix now.
• Tuesday, morning walk to Lanzerac, tea with Paul and Theo, afternoon walk around Stellenbosch and some sushi, video processing.
• Funny how imported beer tastes better in its home country.
• Wednesday, morning walk to Lanzerac, left the office at 20:00ish, video processing, made a video for Jacques, for his birthday.
• People probably think I’m a bit strange when they see my typos – not knowing that I type Dvorak.

• “Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the face.” — Mike Tyson

• Thursday, car service – again, gym, MXit Thursdays at Ginos.
• Friday, woke up in Somerset West, dropped Mia at school, fetched my car, hair cut, after work beer at Jan Kats, dinner with Alan at Wijinhuis, a glass of wine with Kloppies.
• I’m not so sure about that idea that married men live 7 years longer.
• Saturday, fetced Mia, gym, swim, toy shop, lunch with the family at Eikendal, Riesling Rocks festival at Hartenberg with Paul and Ben.
• Sunday, photo processing, backups, Mia, Francis and I went to watch Star Wars ep1 in 3D, Bikini Beach walk.

Have a fun week, crazy kids.

New office…

• Monday, car service day, got an A3 Sportsback 1.4T courtesy car.. not bad for a 1400, watched Heat with some cous cous salad and Chardonnay.. I did not really want to watch the end, but I’m happy I did.

• “It’s like you said, in the end, all I am is who I’m going after.” — Al Pacino, Heat

• “Ons oe is vervang met skerms en ons siele met prentjies van die see.” — FPK

• I’ve started closing Tweetdeck and only opening it twice a day.
• Tuesday, morning walk to Lazerac, moved offices from Andmar to La Gratitude, fetched my car, Mia visit, Mia’s school parents evening.
• Antihistamine makes me sleep like a baby, but I feel like a zombie the next morning.
• I now have to walk about 5 minutes to get to the office – used to be about 1 minute.
• Wednesday, morning walk to Lazerac, nice lunch at Simply Asia, put different books on Mia’s Tag reader, photo processing, left my phone at home and took a sunset walk around Stellenbosch, beer at De Akker with Izak and the Python user group, beer at Trumpet tree, bumped into Susan, randomly met Ben the heavy metal guitarist.
• Thursday, MXit Thursday drinks, housewarming and first braai at my place, walked around Stellenbosch for Vensters.
• I have to say Vensters sucked a bit – the three shows we saw were pretty lame. They wanted R10 for an arm band to let you into the shows but even after asking the security guys we could not find the place that sold the arm bands.
• Friday, braai broodjie for breakfast, some mobile payments planning, Mia visit, Manuka, Helderberg Nature reserve, Mia and I kicked a rugby ball around the rugby fields at Kirstenbosch, watched Stardust, slept like a baby.
• The new office is crazy and busy and buzzing. Lots of new ideas and optimism. Good fun. Reminds me a bit of..

• “You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning… And that, I think, was the handle — that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave.” — HST

• Saturday, we built some pirate Lego, AgriMart visit.. they have cheaper diesel, wine tour with Mia, Paul and Victoria, Simonsig, Thelema, lunch at Bodega, fetched Francis.

• “I’m Vulcan you know.” — Victoria

• Sunday, Stardust, photo processing, picnic shopping, Mia, Francis and I went to Kirstenbosch to go see Foto na Dans and Flash Republic with Cath, Brooke and LKB.
• Kirstenbosch never disappoints – there is usually a moment as you leave the garden after a sunset concert that really fills you with awe.

Have a fun week, crazy kids.

Which features would you like to see in the new MXit app?

Or, which new features would make you use MXit?

I’m guessing most of the people who read my blog don’t currently use MXit, but I bump into MXit people fairly often and I have some ideas for features. I’m not looking for a long detailed list – I’m more looking for things that are cool and exciting and fun and useful – big impact ideas. Mini disclaimer: I don’t work for MXit, but TrustFabric is part of the same group of companies.

A bit more context: I’m thinking iPhone or Android app here. I guess I’m trying to get the perspective of other geeks like me more than the current MXit user. The following are a few of my ideas – some of them may not be that realistic. Please let me know if you like these ideas and if you would add something to the list.

The Basics
All the things you would expect from a smart phone app: A convenient replacement for SMS. Easy install. Easy way to get started and find your friends. Push notifications, so you can leave the app active in the background. Nice view of past conversations. The only new thing I’d add to this list is end to end encrypted (client-to-client) messages.

Money
A wallet and a payment system in the real world. Read: be able to buy a coffee or movie ticket. Easy payment based on my location would be cool – just a name and a swipe, no reading six digit codes to the person at the till.

Inner Circle
I’d like the app to know which of my contacts are close friends (strong ties) – people I would invite to a braai. It might figure this out from my call and SMS log to start – I’ll tweak it, but I don’t want to work hard at maintaining my inner circle list.

Events
When I arrive at a big event/party, I want the app to be able to show me which of my close friends are there, which of my connections are there and maybe how many of my connection’s connections. It should also help me plan a small event, like an ad-hoc after work drink or a Saturday afternoon braai.

Again, maybe not all of this is useful, but if I had this I might start using MXit, get my friends to use it and even get an iPhone (I like my Nokia E5).

Ideas?

Update:

Would also be cool to be able to share my location with my close friends.