27dinner | Durban | May 2010

The 27dinner movement aims to bring together informed, networked individuals with a common passion for technology, media and business in an informal but valuable real world space.

On the 27th day of every month of the year since January 2007, hundreds of interesting people from diverse walks of life have collected under one roof over good food and wine to celebrate a common passion for technology, media and business.

These 27dinners have fast become a staple entry in the calendars of South Africa’s smartest, funkiest and most networked entrepreneurs, business owners, designers, developers, geeks, marketers and even good old corporate jacket-and-tie’s.

The dinners provide these fascinating humans with a unique opportunity to share ideas, debate industry hot topics, meet new contacts and even fire up collaborative endeavours. Slowly but surely companies are realising the value of engaging an audience like this in an authentic conversation (Cluetrain Manifesto-style).

We’d love to meet you – regardless of whether you simply want to come along and participate, share your latest venture with like-minded people or even sponsor the event.

Like all infamous Durban “scenes” though, we’re full of apathy. So, with that in mind, get off your butt, sign up and come along to the next Durban 27Dinner. We’d like to thank all of you for attending the last 27Dinner, in February, and hope all of you will come along for the next one!

Our second 27Dinner in Durban for 2010 will be taking place on 28 May 2010 (we took a little poetic licence there and shifted it to the Friday, as most people find it easier to attend a Friday night event!).

For May, we’ve decided to showcase some brilliant Durban women, who are:

Lungile Zondi from http://www.myshuttles.com/ who will be discussing her awesome initiative that’s going to make travelling in South Africa a breeze, especially during the FIFA World Cup 2010!

Briget Ferguson of http://www.myr260car.co.za/ and winner of this year’s Nerdies, will be talking about her brave and quirky approach to a social media campaign

Questions? Cath on catherine.jenkin@gmail.com or call 0820600071 or Briget on garvin@mailit.co.za or call 0823379441

Date: 28 May 2010

Venue: La Bella Cafe, Corner of St Thomas and Essenwood Roads, Musgrave, Durban.

Time: 18h30 for 19h00

The Important Stuff: Cash bar and buy your own dinner! (Hey, I told you we’re low on sponsors :P)

RSVP – sign up on the 27dinner website here: http://www.27dinner.com/ and RSVP to the event here: to be inserted once event is up on website

Lastly, please pass this on to anyone else you think might be interested!

Hope to see you there!

Cath Jenkin and Briget Ferguson

Fast Facts

FNB’s customers can now sell to PayPal’s global customer base of more than 81 million active accounts in 190 markets around the world and move the proceeds to their FNB accounts.
This new service allows customers to top up and withdraw funds to their qualifying FNB accounts from their PayPal accounts.
FNB’s customers simply need to open a South African PayPal account and link it to their qualified FNB account to receive PayPal payments in 21 different currencies. FNB will convert the currency to South African Rand when the money is transferred into their accounts.
This solution also enables customers to top up their PayPal accounts anytime they want to send money or shop online with PayPal’s global base of merchants.

Press Release

First National Bank (FNB) and PayPal today announced that customers in South Africa can now sell to PayPal’s global customer base of more than 81 million active accounts in 190 markets around the world and move the proceeds to their FNB accounts. This new service allows customers to top up and withdraw funds to their qualifying FNB accounts from their PayPal accounts.

“We are especially pleased to make this announcement on the eve of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, as South Africans will be able to join the global eCommerce marketplace. Our agreement with PayPal also enables international businesses and individuals to transact with South African service providers via a secure and convenient payment gateway”, says Michael Jordaan, FNB’s Chief Executive Officer.

“The exclusive top up and withdraw service with PayPal allows South Africans to make payments and receive money internationally without sharing their financial or personal information,” adds Jordaan.

FNB Customers can simply open a PayPal account and link it to a qualified FNB account and receive PayPal payments in 21 different currencies. FNB will convert the currency to South African Rand, when the money is transferred into their accounts.

This solution enables customers to top up their PayPal accounts anytime they want to send money or shop online with PayPal’s global base of merchants.

“FNB and PayPal have a similar focus on innovation, so it makes sense that we would work with FNB to make online payments even easier for merchants and consumers in South Africa,” said Oded Zehavi, head of PayPal’s business in Israel and South Africa.

“With South Africa’s solid financial infrastructure and its status as the continent’s largest economy, we’re optimistic about the future of eCommerce in this market and look forward to working with FNB on the opportunities ahead,” says Zehayi.

“The launch of PayPal sees FNB take another step forward as South Africa’s most innovative financial institution. It responds directly to our ‘how can we help you?’ brand promise,” concludes Jordaan.

The PayPal service will be offered in partnership with FNB and has received approval from the Exchange Control Department of the South African Reserve Bank.

For more information, visit www.fnb.co.za or www.paypal.com

The bat, called “The Mongoose“, has been specifically been designed for Pro20 cricket. The blade of the bat is 33% shorter than a standard cricket bat, while the handle is 43% longer. The bat apparently also provides about 20% more power to the batsmen using it.

It’s great to see innovation been made in Cricket, and especially in Pro20. This bat definitely looks like it could be a game changer. For more info on the Mongoose bat, check out the informative information on the Wikipedia Page

I had read up quite a bit on the ship, and was absolutely blown away to see it arriving this morning. She leaves Durban this evening, and docks in Cape Town on Thursday, before carrying on with her rest of the round the world journey.

The boat has 17 decks, and is 72m high and 345m long. Queen Mary 2’s facilities include fifteen restaurants and bars, five swimming pools, a casino, a ballroom, a theatre, and the first planetarium at sea. They even have kennels on board if you fancy taking your pooch along for a sea cruise !!! To get a better idea of the size of this monster, check out this image below, that compares it to a couple of everyday objects. To read up a bit more about the Queen Mary 2, check out the Wikipedia article

I took a couple of shots, which I have posted to a Flickr set.

Here are the Lyrics to their featured song “Enter the Ninja” (from LyricWiki)

[Hook]
I, I, I
I am your butterfly
I need your protection
Need my samurai
I, I, I
I am your butterfly
I need your protection
Need your protection

I’m a ninja, yo
My life is like a videogame
I maintain when I’m in the zone
One player one life on the mic
I’m in the dark

Yo, ninja, go

No fuckin around I’m cutting down
Anyone in my path
Tryna fuck up my game with razor sharp
Lyrical throw stars
Killin’ my flow

Hos! Ska!

Wild, outta control

Ninja skop befokte rof taal
Rough rhymes, tough times
Met fokkol kos, skraal
Till I hit triple seven at the ATM
Straight famine or feast,
When you’re living on the razor edge
Stay sharp, sharp
Rolling with the $O$
High energy
Never seen zef so fresh
Uh, when we mic check
Hi-def flow’s best

Motherfucking the best
We not like the rest
My style is UFO
Totally unknown
You can’t fuck with my new Zef flow
I’m hard to miss
“You can’t do this, you can’t do that”
Yo, fuckin’ who said so?
I do what I like
Too hot to handle, too cold to hold
You can’t fuck with the chosen one
I-I-I want the knife
I’m a Ninja

Hook x2

Ninja is poes cool
But don’t fuck with my game
Boy or I’ll poes you
Life is tough
When I get stuck
When my time is up
I push through
Till I break-break-break
on through to the other side
Fantastically poor with faces like a stalker

Ninja is hardcore
Been cut so deep, feel no pain
Its not sore
Don’t ask for kak or
You’ll get what you ask for
I’m like a wild animal in the corner
Waiting for the break of dawn
Trying to get through the night
Just a man with the will to survive
My blade swing freely
Decapitate a hater with amazing ease
This is not a game, boy
Don’t play with me
I work my light sabre like a wild fucking savage
from the dark side danger
Yin to the yang
Totally Hi-Tek Ninjas
Motherfucking big in Japan
I seen the future, but I never got nothing in my hand
Except a microphone, big dreams and a plan
Fly-talking, sky-walking
Like a ninja

Hook x2

Fuck, this is like
The coolest song I ever heard in my whole life
Fuck all of you who said I wouldn’t make it
Who said I was a loser
Said I was a no-one
Said I was a fuckin’ psycho
But look at me now:
All up on the interweb
World-wide, 2009. futurista
Enter the ninja
Yolandi Visser
DJ Hi-Tek
Die fokken Antwoord

I, I, I (I’m a ninja)
I am your butterfly
I need your protection
Need my samurai
I, I, I (yo I’m a ninja)
I am your butterfly
I need your protection
Need your protection

I, I, I (I’m a ninja)
I am your butterfly
I need your protection
Need my samurai
I, I, I (a motherfuckin’ ninja)
I am your butterfly
I need your protection
Need your protection

Standard Bank have chose a Rockstar theme for this year, so I’m pretty sure we will see those luverly dancers back in action, as well as the cricket of course. Last year I blogged most of the games in Durbs, and I will be back in action this year, assisted by Justin McCall who will also be covering some of the Durbs games.

I am really looking forward to it, and will post a couple of the pictures of the games I attend this season.

Firstly my izimvo buddy, Shaun Trennery, whipped up a fantastic Google Chrome extension called ZA Weather. The extension shows you the weekly forecast, automagically based on your IP address. Shaun has used some clever YQL to get the info, and the extension is amazing. This is what our weather will look like this week in Durbs.

The extension also has a couple of other cool features, like rain map, and 1 or 2 more in the pipeline

Download the ZA Weather chrome extension

The 2nd extension, released this morning, is from wunderkind Kishyr, from immedia. immedia are better known for their fantastic iPhone apps they have developed, and they have now just added to one of their most popular iPhone apps, ZATV Guide, and have launched the ZATV chrome extension. Basically, you can see what is showing RIGHT NOW on all the DSTV channels, as well as what is coming up in the next day or so. Added to this, you get full info on the shows that are coming up and showing at the moment. There is also awesome search functionality built into the extension, that allows you to search for a show or movie coming up.

Download the ZATV Guide Chrome extension

All in all both these extensions are awesome, and combined with a couple of others that I have been playing with, I could maybe (maybe) leave the fox behind :)

But, I have come across another one. And this time, I fear it may just be that little bit more addictive. Enter Finger Physics (iTunes Link).

The aim of the game/puzzle is to use your physics knowledge and go through different puzzles, where you need to build things up to a certain height, or get an egg into a basket, all using physics. The game is pretty simple in the beginning, but damn, it gets harder and harder later on. The developers have recently updated the game to include 18 new levels, which brings the total up to 14 stages and 126 levels !!!

I have been playing the game for the last couple of weeks, and have about 7 levels still to go, and let me tell you, they killing me. I get rather frustrated when I am THIS close to finishing, only for the whole thing to come crashing down, thanks to gravity (sucks)

Snap QRCode to download

The game is FREE for today, otherwise its a measly $0.99, which is well, well worth it. Let us know how you get along in the comments below, and if you got any tips to help me finish my last 7 levels….

]]> http://www.marcforrest.com/2010/01/07/finger-physics-iphone-app/feed/ 0 http://www.marcforrest.com/2009/12/07/google-brings-qr-codes-to-the-world/ http://www.marcforrest.com/2009/12/07/google-brings-qr-codes-to-the-world/#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:18:52 +0000 Marc http://www.marcforrest.com/?p=931 I have always been a huge fan of QR codes. There is so much potential in the value that they offer, and that allows you share information about a product/place/person, in fact anything, with a simple image.

Google have seen the opportunity in QR codes and have started offering US businesses that are listed on Google’s local business listings, a couple of free decals which they can now apply to their shop windows, or wherever they want.

The idea is that, if you need more info on the specific shop, you simply load up you your QR code reader, and snap the QR Code. You will then be redirected to the businesses listing on Google. Here you are able to see tons of information pertaining to the business and even reviews on it.

This is such an awesome idea, and I cannot wait until the full potential of QR codes is realised. I think Google are taking it in the right direction :)

Click here to see a couple of the businesses in the US which have been given the opportunity.

If you need a QR code reader for the iPhone, I highly recommend Quickmark, which is currently free in the app store (first 40,000 downloads)

Now I heard they have officially closed down to make way for the American restaurant chain, Hooters. Now most guys will know about Hooters for their um, waitresses. I have also heard the Chicken wings are awesome.  To give you an idea of the stature of women they are looking to employ as waitresses, I found the advert calling for waitresses on a local site called Modelbase.

…Hooters hires women who best fit the image of a Hooters Girl to work in this capacity and believe that the Hooters Girl is as socially acceptable as a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader, Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, or a Sharks Girl.

The Hooters Girl uniform consists of orange shorts and a white tank top, short-sleeve or long-sleeve T-shirt.

Sounds nice enough :)

I came across a pictures, from the East Coast Radio website, of some of the waitresses who will be working at the new Hooters in Umhlangha.

Pics via ECR website

Anybody keen to join me for chicken wings and beer…. :)