This a quick heads up for all that use Microshit Network’s Messenger (Live) – there is another one of these stupid IM virus thingers on the loose. This one is similar to the skype virus that was doing the rounds recently. A friend sends you a file (usually a photo they want to post on Facebook or similar) and want you to have a look at it and give them permission to publish it (the skype one was a link you had to click that set off a download). When you open said zip file, there’s file that looks like a photobucket link which is actually an executable file that launches the virus. I scanned the zipped folder and the next thing the folder and the chat window that sent the wretched thing disappeared … I smelled something that smelled like a rat and ran a virus scan – the nett result was 159 trojan fuckers of which Clamwin was only able to erradicate 8, the rest of the invaders sit awaiting trial in my quarantine folder … there’s a better chance of South Africa getting red of all the Zimbabwean refugees and illegal Nigerian aliens than there is of these fuckers leaving my PC without a fight … so … much as I look forward to road trippin’ to Cape Town in the morrow, I really hate what awaits me when I return.

Any and all that receive messages from me via MSNM Live (which I have uninstalled, I don’t know how deep this thing is rooted), please do not accept transfers from me; ask me nicely to rather mail you the file and if I refuse, tell me to fuck off – it’s my evil twin spamming your IM.

Well, I’d better blog something about this before it’s well past too late. Another geeky do is upon us and this one has been dubbed “Eccentric Eggplant” – I don’t care what they call it, as long as that’s not on the menu … no matter how eccentric the bloody thing is, it remains the most acquired of acquired tastes. Anyhow … I get sidetracked so bloody easily … I have the attetion span of a … hey look … a kitty.

Any old how … back to the post – as stated, we have another Geek Dinner coming up in Cape Town and teh_VN and I shall be road trippin’ for the second last time this year to teh_madacity with teh_wikidnickers and some of her furry fwiends in close accompanyment.

We convene at Ferryman’s Tavern at the Cape Town Waterfront on Wednesday the 28th and if I’m not mistaken there are still a few seats available for late bookers. Sponsored wine seems to be the norm and I am sure much Jagermeister and Tequila® will be consumed too. Some people will be speeching some, but that’s not really all that important – we’re there for the party. teh_VN is speeching much on the Google Summer of Code and what we can expect from Joomla 1.5

Great fun was had by all and high fives all round to be expected the day after and the blogosphere over. Thursday night we are at the Baxter … yaaay … finally going to see The Most Amazing Show and Corné & Twakkie had better be ready – teh_terrible_tonsils from George are taking over … sk3wl1ng your n00bs and pwning your mada(city).

Old news for a lot of you I am sure, but I was scratching around on the W3C website when I noticed this…

Now while this does not mean that Firefox is leading the pack if you take into account that IE6 & 7 come from the same stable and that those that use IE7 “upgraded” from IE6 or (god forbid) to Windows Vista, it does show that our favourite Mozilla browser keeps growing in popularity and is slowly but surely capturing more and more of the market. Also note that the percentage points lost by IE6 are not all accounted for by IE7.

Unfortunately Opera and Safari are riding a slow steady see-saw at the bottom of the log. Lack of performance by Mac’s browser could also well be due to the popularity of Firefox – remember that Firefox is not just available for machines that use the Windows OS, but OS X and Linux too.

For those that have not yet caught on to what the implications are of this … web designers/developers use these statistics when designing sites to guesstimate which browsers to optimise for. Sure, we can use CSS hacks, conditional comments and multiple style sheets to ensure that we capture the full audience out there and we test websites in as many of the aforementioned browsers as possible – at least the ones that care about accessibility and compliancy do. It also makes our jobs a little easier. Statistically, 70% of the traffic to this blog comes from Mozilla users … that says something about who uses which browser. I sometimes have tiny niggly issues/flaws when viewing a site in Opera for instance – and I mean really really tiny … with Opera constituting only 1.6% of the potential readership of that site, does it really matter that there’s a one pixel gap there that shows up a dark background behind and can the hours spent trying to fix it really be justified? However, if it’s there in IE6 but not in Firefox, I’ll surely fix it even if it takes me days to sort out.

For those that read this, are not developers or use the other browsers – to find out just what exactly makes this browser so damn popular … here … Get Firefox

OK, that’s it … I really love what I do for a living, but enough’s enough.

This office is all mayhem and I am not getting everything done by myself, so I am appointing an assistant. The position will be for a junior level designer.

Requirements:

• Computer literacy – please, I don’t want to train someone how to Copy|Paste
• Photoshop experience – some at least
• Some experience in a vector based application – Freehand, Illustrator or (god forbid) CorelDraw
• Presentable
• Afrikaans & English speaking
• MUST BE BASED IN GEORGE

Advantageous:

• Portfolio (of sorts)
• HTML & CSS – sorry Dreamweaver experience doesn’t count
• Fireworks experience – maybe even Flash, but really not a requirement
• Own transport
• Ability to make a good cup of coffee – don’t stress, everyone gets a turn, but bad coffee won’t be tolerated
• Good reflexes – if someone throws something at a wall in anger you might need those ducking skills
• Tequila® drinker – you’ll need it

Not negotiable:

• Sense of humour – you will be working in an office with two pretty strung individuals who swear frequently and solve almost every potentially volatile situation with humour … no time for egos here and stiffs don’t cut it
• Patience – you’ll need lots of it
• Ability to work under pressure

That’s it. As stated, this is a junior position for a younger person. I don’t care much for qualifications, but also do not want to end up spending as much time on training as it would have taken me to do the job myself.

Salary is negotiable. Person to start as soon as possible. Wage negotiations will be entered into with candidates that make the shortlist only. Initial employment will be on a month-to-month contract basis for the first three months. If you’re interested and have enough hair on your teefs, contact me by means of the –>CONTACT FORM< -- on the main site. Please be sure to leave a return email address and enter the word "Assistant" in the subject line. Please leave a brief description of your background and a contact number in the message field.

If you're not interested, but know of someone who might be and/or might qualify for the position, please point them here.

Peace!!!

Well I can’t believe how time flies. It feels like just the other day we were at 27 Dinner (27/10/07) and now we’re almost headed back down to Cape Town for the next Geek Dinner and maybe *camp.

This video of the recent 27 Dinner is finally up at Zoopy – sjoe!! … these guys really can-do. I just hope they bring a flashlight next time, because that floodlight of theirs ain’t too nifty – I was blind for half the evening.

Anyhow, click on the image to watch the video at Zoopy Рspeakers are: Charl VN, Yours Truly, teh Wikidnickers, Henk Kleynhans and Rafiq. As always Dave Duart̩ in no short supply (no pun intended)

Watching this made me really look forward to the Geek Dinner. Simon actually commented that we should arrange a Geek Dinner in the Garden Route and I had to inform him that we’ve had two thus far. I really do think that we should have one soon before I start suffering from Stormhoek withdrawal syndrome.

Incidentally Gardenrouters should be on the lookout for everyones favourite wine – Stormhoek really is coming to town shortly … well actually nationally, but I thought a mention would be in order. We have a representative locally who will keep checking stock levels at some of the local branches of national grocery chainstores – keep those peepers open.

Anyhow .. good job Zoopy, thanks again Duarté and all involved in orkanizing a great event and watch out Cape Town – the geeks are roadtrippin’ again and this time we bring the bus … a sk3wl bus … we’re in your Mother City – sk3wl1ng your n00bs.

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Now playing: Machine Head – Supercharger
via FoxyTunes