MarcForrest.com

Category: On The Marc

  • My, how times have changed

    Well, what a week this has been for South African internet consumers. We have literally gone from 0 to hero in 1 week, no thanks to the likes of Mweb, FNB, Afrihost, PayPal; only to mention a few.

    Last week this time we were all raving about how we could now get uncapped ADSL for R219 a month. That was big news. We now can use the internet to its full content. I’m not talking about torrents and downloading of dodgy programmes. We can now, view Youtube without having to click pause, we don’t have to check our cap every 3 and half minutes, and moan when on the 15th of every month, we can’t check our internet banking. Now, we can surf without any worry. This is huge in our country, and with Telkom doing tests on 8MB ADSL lines, we will soon start seeing a shift in the way we work.

    But today, for me, was one of the biggest achievements in our internet history. The fact that now we can receive money, without complications, and have the ability to sell products on the web without having to apply for merchant accounts. We can now use PayPal. We can now receive money, flawlessly & securely, which we can then deposit into our bank accounts, and withdraw from an ATM. This is a huge step. This now allows Tant Sanie from down the road to sell those delicious jams she has been making for jarre. She can now market her goods across the world, and become that super jam star she always wanted to be :)

    In all seriousness though, I am excited to see how we going to progress in the next 6-12 months in South Africa. I think we in for a brilliant ride, and I reckon the competition from broadband providers is going to force the mobile operators to drop their data rates too much much lower than the R2 a meg we seeing now. Yes, they have the advantage of being able to connect remotley, but sooner or later they gonna have to come to the party. I’m predicting 50c a meg before the end of the year :)

    A big big big thanks to FNB & Paypal for the invite today to the PayPal event. I am honoured to be part of this ground breaking initiative in South Africa. Also a big thanks to Vincent from Cerebra for the invite and help with the flights etc. Finally a HUGE massive thanks to eBucks who sponsored me a Avis Point to Point chauffeur from the Airport & back to Centurion. I think without dear Andries my driver this morning, I may have gone a bit mental in that silly silly Joburg traffic :)

  • Big Big Brandplus for eBucks

    Disclaimer: I was in no way asked to write this post, or compensated in any way

    I have always loved eBucks. The fact that I am getting rewarded for spending money makes a huge difference to me. Every year I used to accumulate my eBucks till December then “splash out” on a Woolworths Gift card which we would use to help buy kids presents and things around Christmas time.
    When the opportunity came up to attend the South African PayPal launch next week, I really wanted to make an effort of getting to the event. I wanted to be part of this ground breaking event, so I went through all the options of getting up to Jozi for the day. At first there was a slight possibility I would have had a sponsored flight, but on Tuesday morning I had a brainwave.
    I know Kulula has partnered with eBucks so you can use your eBucks to buy plane tickets. So I went onto the eBucks site, and searched for flights to and from Jozi for the day. As I was searching for flights I saw Kulula had a special on flights from Durbs to Lanseria for R299 each way, which would work out to R600 return. I contemplated hauling out the credit card, but then checked my eBucks balance. I had a balance of about R560 in my eBucks. Just short. So I went through the process of purchasing the tickets,with the intention of part paying,  and to my surprise I found that I qualified for a 20% discount. Bingo !!
    So I used my eBucks to buy the ticket to Jozi, which worked out 100%, and in essence cost me “nothing”.

    Then yesterday afternoon I tweeted about my score:

    Seriously, about 10 minutes later I got the following tweet reply from @eBucksRewards:

    How awesome is that. Coming from small town like Ballito, where I only have to deal with 3 car traffic congestion, I was rather (petrified) worried about having to deal with Jozi traffic. So now. I have a Avis Point to Point transfer picking me up at the airport, dropping me off at the PayPal event, and then dropping me off in Centurion where I will spend the night.

    Now that’s a BrandPlus in my books. Well done to eBucks for listening and using twitter to engage with their clients. This is how social media should be used, and I think they doing just the right job :) Thanks eBucks.

  • Jamie Oliver’s TED Talk

    Many of us know Jamie Oliver for his awesome cooling skills, and TV programmes, as well as his great cookbooks, of which I am sure we all have a copy lying around somewhere.

    Jamie was invited to speak at the TED 2010 conference in California last week, and the topic he spoke about was “Teach every child about food”

    Being a father to 3 gorgeous children, the video is an eye opener about the food we eat and  feed our children. America has a huge problem with obesity, and to be honest, South Africa is not far behind. I’ll be the first to admit, that I’m overweight, and watching the video of his talk, really made me think about what we eat. Watching some of the American kids in that video was quite heart sore to say the least, where they weren’t even able to tell the difference between a tomato or a potato.

    Spare yourself 20 minutes, and sit down and watch the video of Jamie Olivers Ted talk. It really is an eye opener, and makes you think about the food we eat, and feed our children.

  • My interview with Rueben Goldberg on Classic FM

    A couple of days ago, we interviewed Reuben Goldberg on izimvo. When we first asked him for the interview, he sheepishly said, only if I can interview you. Shaun and I pulled straws, and I got the short one (and it was my turn after his interview with Aki Anistasiou). I am really not a fan of my voice, and cringe when I hear it played back, so I was kinda dreading the interview. I have to admit, it really wasn’t as bad as I expected when Reuben phoned me last week Wednesday to do the interview.

    The interview was finally broadcast last week Friday on Reubens show, The Internet Economy, on Classic FM in Jozi. I downloaded the podcast of the interview, and had a listen. I have to admit, although the cringe of the voice was still there, it sounded a lot better than what I expected. Towards the end of last year, I took a Toastmasters course at work, and I really think it helped with the interview, and there were a lot less um’s and aahs, that what I would have had before. So all in all, I’m pretty happy with the outcome.

    If you would like to listen to the interview (don’t judge me ;) :) ) you can listen (or even download if you like my voice that much) on Reuben’s Internet Economy page on the Classic FM website, or you can directly download the MP3 from the site. Here’s to the next interview :)

  • Support the Heartman on the Heart & Sole tour

    I’m sure by now you may have heard about Geoff “the Heartman” Brink (madman) who is UNICYCLING from Durban to Cape Town. Yip thats right. One wheel all the way to Cape Town. 1700km. That just sounds silly. All of this to raise awareness for Landmine victims in Africa.

    Pix: Hatman

    Having met fellow Durban blogger, and general cool guy, Fred Hatman, who is driving the whole project, I know these guys will do it. I think they both so motivated to get to Cape Town. So far they been doing pretty well and are around the Kokstad area, after about 10 days of Unicycling. Thats pretty good going I think. But they struggling with a bit of cash $$$. They need a couple of us to chip in and help with their traveling cost’s. This includes costs for fuel, airtime accommodation and general living expenses.

    There are a couple of ways you can join in and help the guys along their crazy journey, so if you got a few rands to spare, please help the dudes out. I am chipping in my bit, so I challenge you to help where you can :) To help contribute you can do one of the following:

    • Do a deposit into the Tour account. Details on the Hatmans blog on the post -> http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=2254
    • You can also buy “donation credits” in bundles of R10, and stand a chance to win a Toni Rowland CD. You can use your credit card to pay using this site -> http://www.grandpolarstore.com/ and choose the Heart & Sole tour
    • Bid to but the Heartman’s original Unicylce, with free lessons thrown in. Bidding starts at R999, and I think at the moment, bidding is sitting at about R1200. For more info check out this blog post -> http://fredhatman.co.za/?p=2291

    So that’s it. Please try and see if you can spare a few pennies to help the chaps. It’s all for a good cause :)