craniac’s place

This Mirage IIICZ interceptor is the last of its kind still flying and belongs to the South African Air Force museum.

Those who proudly display the old South African flag call themselves patriots, considering those of us that are proud of our country and it’s flag to be sell-outs and suck-ups to the current government. In my opinion the old flag does not represent our country but the previous regime that oppressed the majority of the population and forced our country into the state it’s in today. Displaying it simply shows you have no consideration for your fellow South Africans and no desire to help move this country forward.

As Damien says, “Move on Already!”

Photo by coda

Expressions of Cape Town was a photographic exhibition organised by a group of Capetonian Flickr members. Each of us was able to submit up to thirty photographs, which were judged by a panel of five professional photographers. The best five photographs from each photographer, or fewer if five were not deemed worthy, were printed and placed on boards (one per participant) that were displayed on easels in the Clock Tower shopping centre in Cape Towns V&A Waterfront. It ran frm 12 to 21 October 2007.

There is a bad fire raging on the slopes of Helderberg above Somerset West. I took this shot from my front garden in Strand, approximately six kilometres away from the mountain.

People have been asking how I did this and I should probably have explained when I first posted it, so I’m editing the post now to add a description.

In order to achieve an effect like this one simply needs to use a zoom lens and make a long exposure, zooming out during the time the shutter is open. In this case I used a five second exposure and zoomed in tightly on the green spire. After tripping the shutter I counted four seconds and then zoomed out during the last second. As the lights below were much brighter than the spire, the result is that there is little or no visible light from the spire captured while zooming, leaving the top of the frame nice and dark and getting light trails below.

Many years ago I worked for the Perm, who were pretty forward thinking in terms of information technology. As far back as the late 1970s Perm ATMs were able to immediately use your language of choice because it was encoded on your card and could be read as soon as you inserted it. Other banks and building societies required your first action to be choosing a language. In the 1980s Perm was swallowed bymerged with Nedbank who inherited all the clever IT people from Perm, so Nedbank ATMs could also tell your language as soon as you inserted your card. Admittedly they may have already had that behaviour before the merger. Yet, even today, some other banks’ ATMs still require you to choose a language when you insert your card.

Today I went to draw cash and found that Nedbank have rolled out new ATM software. It looks nice, with shiny graphics and even “cool” little audio feedbacks when actions take place. But, they have regressed 30 years, joining the ATM stupid club, by requiring you to choose a language when you insert your card. What’s next? Reverting to bank books and over the counter transacting? Come on guys, is there anyone awake at 105 West Street?

I’m pretty impressed with Green Cross shoes. On Saturday I bought myself a new pair of shoes for work as the soles of my old ones were getting rather worn and one sole had a split in it that had me feeling rising damp whenever I walked around outside in rainy weather.

I bought a black pair of the 7610 style that feel more like takkies (sneakers) than smart shoes, so they are very comfortable yet smart enough to fit in with my work wear. The reason that I’m so impressed with Green Cross shoes is that I looked in Moneydance last night and found that I bought my last pair in October 2002. I think that close to 5 years of almost daily wear is pretty good mileage for a pair of shoes.

The owner of this fishing boat must be a brandy lover as any South African that watches TV will recognise the slogan from the Klipdrift TV advert.