Haha, talk about embarrasing… gees this reporter will definitely have a story to tell when he/she gets home. Wonder if it had anything to do with Obama’s speech on Gay Rights? Don’t think so but nice to see that President Obama is chilled enough to go with it and even asks ‘Whose duck back there?’

Listen carefully after around 18/19 seconds you’ll hear it.

Now as we go along we are starting to see the $80-$100million Microsoft put into their marketing for Bing and Internet Explorer 8, do doubt some of it will be saved for when Windows 7 launches.

Anyway, take a look at the ads below they are pretty funny and do remind me of my folks sometimes (except the vomiting one!)

A couple of years back there was talk about how everything would be connected to the internet from your microwave, kettle and fridge… this haven’t quite come to the fore front yet but one thing that is now connected and available for sale is your little bathroom scale!

Gone are the days of checking your weight and marking it off every day but keeping it from your friends, now this little bugger sends your information to the internet. This can be kept personal if you wish but there is a grouping feature for friends or family. The service willalso suggest healthy items to eat or that you should work out. The one benefit could be for weigh-less groups who can monitor each other and help each other out.

This scale will be on sale in November for $119 and $20 for a 3 month weight loss subscription. Not sure if you need the subscription or not.

Image every day on Facebook your status – “Daniel weighed in this morning at 105kg, 2kg’s heavier than yesterday!”

It could encourage people quite a bit to shed a few kilos, not sure how the girls would take to everyone knowing their weight.

Mike Stopforth posted this story on his blog about how a couple of years back first saw the list in the Mail & Guardian and how he wanted to be on this list and now he is (reason being cause he likes free lunches!), now I seem to be in his shoes 3 years ago seeing the list and been jealous – I want to make this but more importantly I want to make a difference.

Mike attanded a lunch where Prince Mashele of the Institute for Security Studies delivered this speech that I really think most people should hear/read and that if it doesn’t challenge you to your core I’m not sure what will.

This is a must must read!

Here is the speech:
Master of Ceremonies, Mr Songezo Zibi;
The Editor-in-chief of the Mail and Guardian, Mr Nic Dawes;
Representative of Xstrata South Africa, Mr Eric Ratshikhopa;
The 300 influential young South Africans;
Invited guests;
Ladies and gentlemen,

I am humbled by the honour to address the cream of South African youth today.

To be selected by the Mail and Guardian amongst 300 Young South Africans people must take to lunch is a confirmation of the prestigious position you occupy individually in our society today.

As a collective, you are the best that our country has in 2009, and what we will have in the foreseeable future. You are to South Africa what an emerging sun represents at dawn.

I need not remind you that you are all youth leaders in different fields of our social, political and economic life. Those who are worried about South Africa’s future look at you for national inspiration and hope.

For that, you all deserve a round of applause!

While I am aware that you are here to celebrate your individual success stories, I would like to take advantage of your collective presence and pose a question I think future generations will ask later on in your lives: Where were you, and what did you do when South Africa began to degenerate?

I raise this worrying question because I agree with the assertion made by Roberto Mangabeira Unger in his book, Democracy Realised, when he says:

The perversion of economic growth and its fruits begins when we attempt to make up for the scarcity of public goods by producing more private ones, and to find in the private consumption a barren solace for social frustration. (1998:7)

Who amongst you would argue that we have not yet reached a perverse stage in the evolution of post-apartheid South Africa, where the public sector is the worst preferred, and the private sector the most preferred?

Should anyone doubt if this is true, imagine how an average young South African would reply to the following questions:

• If you had a choice, would you like your mother to be treated in a public or private hospital?
• If you had the means, would you take your children to a private or public school?
• If you had a private option, would you go to the Department of Home Affairs for services?
• If you lived in a townhouse, would you trust the police or ADT to secure your private property?
• If you had to negotiate an ethical business transaction, would you prefer to talk to a politician or a private entrepreneur?

Those who would choose the private sphere as their answer to these critical questions must immediately be alerted that they are active participants in the construction of a private sub-state in South Africa!

A private sub-state is populated by people who choose to kill their conscience by conveniently turning a blind eye to the ills plaguing society. Yet the wealth and incomes generated by these private citizens owe a great deal to the sweat and toil of the suffering workers and the poor.

In his famous book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter Rodney lamented this situation in post-colonial African states, focusing on the middle class. He said:

They squander the wealth created by the peasants and workers by purchasing cars, whisky, and perfume. (1972:19)

As the South African middle class, I am not sure if you do not, as Walter Rodney observed elsewhere in Africa, “squander the wealth created by the peasants and workers by purchasing cars, whisky, and perfume.”

But I am certain that, if the champions of the private sphere were to succeed, it would essentially mean the hastening of the very social perversion that Roberto Mangabera Unger wrote about.

The tragedy, however, is that at the peak of post-apartheid South Africa’s economic success in 2007, the Bureau of Market Research at the University of South Africa estimated the size of the black middle class – the so-called Black Diamonds – at 9.3 million.

We now know the economic difficulties the black middle class has fallen into, when the Reserve Bank raised interest rates sharply and the global economic crisis began to hit home.

Even if we were to combine the struggling Black Diamonds with the entire white population, we would still have to confront the painful reality that more than half of our country’s population live in poverty and cannot afford the services provided by the most preferred private sector.

It is these objective socio-economic conditions that divide our nation into ‘us’ versus ‘them’. Those who are cushioned by the comfort and opulence of the private sphere continue to withdraw further and further into their private cocoons, while the poor are left to their own devices.

But the two worlds do, in many ways, interface in a manner that reinforces and continues to widen the chasm between the haves and have-nots. Those who have the means feel threatened by those who do not. The propertied class fortify their private spaces to protect themselves against the property-less.

It is against this background that British cultural theorist Terry Eagleton wrote the following in his book entitled After Theory:

It is not hard to imagine affluent communities of the future protected by watchtowers, searchlights and machine guns, while the poor scavenge for food in the waste lands beyond. (2003:22)

When Eagleton made this profound observation in 2003, he probably thought he was a prophet whose words would come to pass like a religious prophesy that waits for centuries to pass before it is proven right.

Little did Terry Eagleton know that, three years down the road (in 2009), a fellow like me would address 300 Young South Africans, among whom there would be those who already live in communities protected by watchtowers, searchlights and machineguns while the poor scavenge for food in the waste lands beyond.

I say all this not because I am bent on spoiling your special day, but as a desperate attempt to point out your historic responsibility towards the broader society.

• If you are a famous young writer, and you do not write about the plight of the poor, history will ask: Where were you, and what did you do when South Africa began to degenerate?

• If you are a prolific young journalist, and you say nothing about corrupt politicians who embezzle public funds, posterity will ask: Where were you, and what did you do when South Africa began to degenerate?

• If you are a flourishing young entrepreneur, and you do not contribute to the improvement of the lives of the destitute, future generations will ask: Where were you, and what did you do when South Africa began to degenerate?

• If you are a singer, and you do not sing in defence of the downtrodden masses, history will also pose a question to you: Where were you, and what did you do when South Africa began to degenerate?

It does not matter what kind of work you do, there is a role you can and must play to stop the perversion of our society. Your success will mean nothing if it is not connected with the general advancement of society!

For those of you who are Black and whose success is connected to the struggles waged by the masses of our people, Frantz Fanon has an important message for you:

… we who are citizens of the under-developed countries, we aught to seek every occasion for contacts with the rural masses. … We aught never to lose contact with the people [who have] battled for [their] independence and for the concrete betterment of [their] existence. (The Wretched of the Earth, 1961:150-1)

If you do not take Fanon’s call seriously, the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ that already exists in our society will deepen its roots even further. You will fortify your private spaces without success. Criminals will not fail to reach wherever you live. ADT will not be enough to prevent the theft of your luxury sedan, the murder of your family members or the rape of your mothers, sisters and daughters.

We should indeed be wary of behaving as if the poor are powerless. When the gap between the poor, the middle class and the rich is allowed to widen its yawn, the poor always – and sometimes brutishly – have a way of outsmarting those who think they are educated and know it all.

Politically, the poor possess the disruptive capacity to disturb the untenable tranquillity of the educated elite. The destitute have it within their power to take over society in ways that leave the middle class kicking and screaming from the margins as if they are little children crying for help. As Roberto Mangabeira Unger reminds us once again:

The excluded … will not wait. They will strike back through politics, especially through the election of populist leaders, threatening to recommence the destructive pendular swing between economic populism and economic orthodoxy. (Ibid: 82)

Once this has happened, the educated class will be dismissed with derision, as if they have nothing to offer society. Society will be forced to celebrate mediocrity, and the slide into hopelessness can only be faster.

When mediocrity prevails, there will be circumstantial heroes whose heroism will be defended even if it means embarrassing society. Indeed, this hastens society’s collective descent into the abyss.

Once the poor have taken over, having been abandoned by the champions of the private sector, the public sector becomes a realm where corruption and inertia reign supreme! African and other countries that have gone down this road have, unfortunately, failed to make substantial reverse.

When the destitute strike back at the indifferent middle class and the rich, abnormality becomes normality; scorn is poured on sensibility; and rationality is subjected to demeaning ridicule.

When politics has reached this stage, the relationship between the authority of the office and the office bearer becomes tenuous. This is precisely what Herbert Marcuse refers to in his seminal book, A Study on Authority, when he says:

The dignity of the office and the worthiness of the officiating person no longer coincide in principle. The office retains its unconditional authority, even if the officiating person does not deserve this authority. (1972:16)

• Who amongst you does not know a youth leader whose authority does not coincide with that of his office?
• Who amongst you does not laugh or get embarrassed when some of our leaders speak on national TV?
• And who amongst you does not wish that some of our leaders were something close to Barack Obama?

If you have experienced this personally, it means that you agree with Unger when he says: “The excluded … will not wait. They will strike back through politics, especially through the election of populist leaders.”

If you find this situation familiar, you should then ask yourself the following question: How do I respond to Frantz Fanon when he says: “… we who are citizens of the under-developed countries, we aught to seek every occasion for contacts with the rural masses”?

If you do not ask yourselves this soul-searching question, you might find yourself unable to respond when future generations ask: Where were you, and what did you do when South Africa began to degenerate?

I know that most of you are by now upset with me, that I have troubled your hearts and souls during an occasion where you were invited to celebrate your success stories.

I did this because I am convinced that the Mail and Guardian selected you to be among 300 influential, young South Africans because of the burden history has placed on your shoulders.

Like the Mail and Guardian, I see no person better than you to rescue our society from the yawning divide between the private and the public spheres of life.

I see no other group of young people better placed to lead me in all facets of South African life in ten, twenty years from now. And I also think you have an immediate responsibility to halt our country’s slide into hopelessness.

There is nothing magical you are expected to do that is beyond your already proven capabilities! All you need to do is to intensify the work that made it possible for you to be selected as part of 300 Young South Africans people must take to lunch.

But when you do it, keep in mind that future generations will one day ask: Where were you, and what did you do when South Africa began to degenerate?

Congratulations, and thank you very much!

A while back I wrote about this new system that was being developed in the USA called OnLive, this service would basically stream games to your web browser and allow basic PC’s extra to play decent games with proper graphics etc. All the hard processing power would be done on the servers, this could seriously threaten the likes of Microsoft and Sony.

Now there seems to be a similar service called OTOY which is also based in the USA, can’t tell yet if its part of OnLive but will check it out. Anyway they’ve been also developing the same technology and as reported on TechCrunch they can even stream games to your cellphone, check the video out that TechCrunch showed.

Michael Schumacher is The Stig? Is that want Clarkson and the boys from Top Gear want us to believe? I don’t really and find it quite funny that they got Schumacher dressed up like this!

Take a look at the clip below:

I remember almost 14 years back going to computer expo’s and seeing headsets for games like Heretic and thinking awesome in 5/10 years this will become the norm. Well they never really took off as from my experience the graphics wasn’t that good when looking at it so close to your eyes!

Now I came across this video from Crunchgear and it looks freakin awesome, this guy has mounted a little monitor on a keyboard turned into a gun shape with a mouse that is wireless. Not a bad idea but the awesome part is that he wants to mount these tiny little projectors onto it, 3 of them! Read more about the projectors here

Now check this video out, the capabilities seem to quite large when looking at it. Hope this video is correct and not pulling our leg!

Steve Ballmer spoke at the Executive’s Club lounge in Chicago today or yesterday now for us and spoke about quite a few things but he did make one big announcement…

In 2010 a new Xbox 360 will hit the stores and be equipped with technology that is really really close to “actually”, the console will have a built in camera and a ‘natural interface’ that will be able to recognise movement and voice. This could be linked to a demostration Microsoft did a week or two back with the new Xbox Natal they called it, see video here.

Looks very interesting and 2010 is not far away now… If you like you can see coverage from there event here from TG Daily

**Update – just been checking around and while its a ‘new’ console the Natal will work wilth current consoles it seems and just the consoles in 2010 will have it built it. At least now we know when Natal will go live. Click here to see more on Natal.

Netbooks are the current in thing, everyone talks about them and Asus is making some good money from EEE series of Netbooks it offers. There have been lots of rumours about when we’ll have a touch Netbook available with the likes of Apple and even a Crunchpad one on offer (from TechCrunch).

At the recent Apple Developer’s conference it was thought a Apple Touchpad would be announced this was not the case however. Asus has come to the forefront though with the announcement of its T91 touchpad Netbook.

The T91 will use a solid state drive of up to 16GB and then allow for a further 16GB extension it will even come with a TV-Tuner and GPS plus 3G connection and standard wireless 802.11n. There is no set price but this is definitely going to shake things up as its something I would like and I don’t currently have a Netbook. Television sets are going to start feeling lots of pressure very soon if they don’t start bringing out TV sets with wireless connections built in to access the internet and your local wireless network.

Projectors have been around for a couple of years now with some people even substituting your normal TV/LCD Monitor for a projector. In the earlier years the pixel quality wasn’t too high and if you were watching a movie on it there would be scenes when everything would blur together. Since then its improved alot but not here comes a major breakthrough that will be great for meetings and people with very mobile offices.

This device has been developed by Light Blue Optics, orginated from Cambridge University, and its basically a tiny projector with sensors that allow it to cast an image onto a flat surface but also measure when the image is been touched. With this it can measure when buttons are pushed, move objects around the screen and have totally interactive meetings.

I’m sure these devices will at first connect with your mobile phone/PC but soon be built into your phone/PC – and why not? The Economist has written quite an indepth article on these device, more indepth than I could write so take a read.