SA Rocks tweaks and the great South African Approach

Posted on 11 January 2010 by Nic Haralambous

I love SA. That’s no surprise. But very often new reasons arrive at my doorstep as to why it is that I love being South African.

Justin Slack was that reason last week. I asked for assistance with some design tweaks and received a response from Justin. He was extremely helpful and went above and beyond to help me get through what I had asked him to. The man is a legend for is instant offer to assist me, his unwillingness to stop until the job was satisfactory (to his standards) and his general all-round fantastic approach to assisting me.

So in closing, SA Rocks is trying hard to make a comeback. I am looking for contributions, advertisers, assistance and anything else anyone can offer to make this a fantastic year for SA Rocks.

Popularity: 4% [?]

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Shooting at sunrise – photography

Posted on 06 January 2010 by Nic Haralambous

The below video was sent to me by Simon Davidson. This is his video.

Photographing at sunrise requires a little bit of planning and the ability to wake up to your alarm clock at 5:00am… In this video you will get an inside look at a sunrise shoot which takes place on the Knysna Lagoon in Southern Africa.

The video has over 6000 views on Vimeo which I think is a great achievement by Simon.

Shooting at Sunrise – Photography from SimonDavo on Vimeo.

Popularity: 4% [?]

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“All You Need Is Love” by 156 Countries

Posted on 05 January 2010 by Nic Haralambous

Yes, you read that correctly. People in 156 countries all sang “All you need is love” at the very same time on the very same day in their respective countries. South Africa is in there, as are Zimbabwe and many other African countries alongside the other nations that participated.

I strangely found this incredibly moving and extremely effective. This was all done to raise awareness about HIV in Africa.

Popularity: 4% [?]

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702 takes on zasucks owner Bert Oosthuizen

Posted on 10 November 2009 by Nic Haralambous

Last night I was fortunate enough to be involved in an extremely interesting debate involving the owner of the zasucks blog (I’m still not going to link to that racist blog as I don’t want to promote it on this platform).

Blogs like zasucks helped me start SA Rocks. It’s because of people like those behind these racist and ignorant blogs that I do what I do.

So it was with great intrigue that I was called by 702 talk radio last to sit in on a debate centered around Bert Oosthuizen and the zasucks blog.

The story goes as follows:

Uhuru Guru was arrested this morning at around 06h30 on trumped up charges regarding an alleged offence dating back to 1993. His door was ripped off, his wife was not allowed to make calls, his children’s cell phones were confiscated, his little daughters were were ripped out of their beds, you cannot believe the cruelty!!!!!!!

A massive contingent of police from no less than five different specialist units, ranging from Organised Crime, Cyber crime, vehicle theft, etc; raided his home and confiscated all his computer equipment.

This arrest is motivated ultimately by the State. No doubt it has to do with zasucks.

When they finished the raid, two very grey, shady looking characters sat him down and questioned him about the blog. White, Afrikaans men, to boot.

They were told he would not answer any questions re the blog. They persisted and they were again, rudely this time, told to pack it in.
They then asked him what far right meetings he attended. The answer was none.

Then, shockingly, they started questioning him about no less than Dan Roodt. They were again told no questions about Roodt either.

– source: zasucks blog.

I feel very sorry for Bert’s children and wife who had to be put through that ordeal. I do.

But moreso I am concerned that one man was able to trump up and waste police time on someone like Bert. While these police from 5 different departments were knocking his door down, real criminals were getting away with crimes on people who need protection.

Back to the talk show last night.

I have waited over 3 years to find out and talk with whoever was behind zasucks and I had to wait more than an hour to eventually have my say.

There are a few things that I need to say: Bert Oosthuizen is extremely intelligent. Oosthuizen managed to paint himself in a wonderful light, focusing himself as a victim.

In the entire 90 minutes that I was on 702 the only time the word “racist” was used was when I mentioned. I was extremely frustrated that Bert Oosthuisen was not once called what he and his website are. The appropriate words were avoided like the plague. I had no worries in changing the tone of the debate from one of pat, pat on the back to accusatory.

Bert seems to think that he is a citizen journalist. Let me just say that his delusions of grandeur are absolutely astounding. As a journalist and citizen journalist I am horrified and offended that Oosthuizen can actually consider himself to be a citizen, let alone a journalist in South Africa.

Bert said that he is ashamed to be South African, don’t worry South Africa is ashamed of people like Bert and his readers.

I am not going to get in to Bert’s comments about the media and conspiracy theory that they (yes, the entire media in SA) are out to dupe the Afrikaans public in to thinking there is no crime. In fact, I think crime is probably one of, if not the most, covered topic in SA media.

Oosthuizen seems to think that it’s OK to hate black people but it’s not OK to hate Jewish people. So he moderates the one but not the other on his site. He also claims that his site is not moderated. I’ve personally been moderated on zasucks numerous times.

What of plagiarism, slander, hate speech and inciting of violence? Let’s not get in to that.

He also mentioned that the website can’t be so bad if so many people visit it, well child-porn is massive on the internet and that’s not too good I’d say…

But I digress.

This is an issue that has played on my mind since the inception of SA Rocks years ago. These people still exist in South Africa. It’s shocking, but it’s true. Now, South Africa knows who they are. Clients, work mates, friends, acquaintances all know their names. There is no hiding any more. I think Bert is about to realize that he and his cronies are the exception in SA, not the rule.

Popularity: 6% [?]

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Missing Link win category award in World’s Best Presentation Contest

Posted on 30 September 2009 by Nic Haralambous

Above is the presentation that won Missing Link – South Africa’s resident presentation legends lead by Rich Mulholland – the award for best presentation in the “Education” category of the World’s Best Presentation Content 2009 on Slideshare!

You can follow PresoRockGods on twitter and visit Missing Link to find out more about them!

Popularity: 4% [?]

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I Feel Rocking because…

Posted on 29 April 2009 by Nic Haralambous

picture-11There are many South Africans using Twitter at the moment and that number is growing, immensely.

I have been trying to find a way to make use of Twitter for SA Rocks. Initially I’ve been pushing SA Rocks content through the Twitter stream but I think that’s a bit spammy.

So today I launch something a bit different, something experimental and new.

I’m pleased to introduce you to @ifeelrocking.

I Feel Rocking is something I am starting to get people to start talking positive, letting other people know why they feel brilliant living in SA, why their day is going well, why they feel on top of the world and such things.

So to give you some examples, if you are on twitter simply send a reply to @ifeelrocking :

@ifeelrocking today because the sun is out and it’s Winter.

@ifeelrocking today because I just got a raise.

@ifeelrocking because I just had my second child.

And such things.

The trick here is that I will try my hardest to aggregate my favourite “I Feel Rocking” tweets, emails, comments in to a new blog post every day with links back to your twitter profiles.

So, get rocking, get happy and get positive.

Those of you who are following SA_Rocks on twitter right now, don’t freak out, you are automatically following ifeelrocking as I’ve simply adjusted the account.

If you are wondering what’s happening to SA Rocks on twitter, it’s gone. I don’t think posting updates consistently of new blog posts works. So let’s give this a go.

Popularity: 6% [?]

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SA Rocks on FM4 Austria

Posted on 20 April 2009 by Nic Haralambous

picture-18I was interviewed for an Austrian radion station, FM4, recently.

There seems to be a growing interest in the SA Elections coming up on Wednesday. Zuma is a focus and the ANC is under scrutiny.

I was asked to speak about freedom of speech in SA, in blogs in SA as well as priorities in the country, major concerns and issues as well as a few other topics.

Click to listen to the audio file from my interview only. Right click, save as, to download.

You can also head over to FM4’s website and listen to a chunk of the show. It’s actually surprisingly interesting and insightful.

Popularity: 8% [?]

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Find places of interest in SA

Posted on 16 April 2009 by Nic Haralambous

Plak is a new service that has just launched for South Africans trying to locate places of interest.

picture-15

And I quote:

Plak is 100% free of charge. It is a Google Maps Web application for South Africans to locate places of interest (Hopefully it’ll also become a useful resource for tourists planing trips to South Africa). It also allows those who are logged in, to place Plaks on the map of South Africa.

“Plak” is an Afrikaans word and it means to stick or to squat (My Afrikaans isn’t very good, so please forgive me if I got the translations wrong).

Also, especially for those South Africans with a sense of humour, the word “Plak” rhymes with the word… ermmm… “Kak.”

Now you never know how quickly technology might progress and what sort of support Google will roll out for Maps but right now, as Plak states, Google “doesn’t contain very comprehensive information for South Africa. Unfortunately it is also true that Google Maps doesn’t support Geocoding for South Africa. However, it is true that Google are constantly upgrading and expanding their Maps service. So hopefully, given some time, things will improve.”

There is a Plak Blog so head over there for more information about the service.

Popularity: 6% [?]

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SA Blog Awards here I come

Posted on 02 April 2009 by Nic Haralambous

I decided on whim to purchase my ticket to CT and will be leaving at 5pm today to make the incredibly long and difficult journey to the Cape whilst sitting in a seat, on a plane, watching “Bones” on my laptop.

I decided that after many years (in the only world, 4 counts as “many” years) of blogging it was about time that I head down for the Blog Awards this year. There are many people that I can finally meet in real life, really. And I think that all-in-all it will be a great party if nothing else.

I am not expecting and awards and am merely making the trip for the experience. If I win, that’ll be cool but I think it’s more about meeting many people and getting down to CT for me.

To every SA Rocks reader who voted I’d like to say thank you for firstly getting this blog through to the finals and past the nomination phase and then for voting for SA Rocks (if you did).

I will be sure to post all of the pics and vid that I manage to take on my Zoopy profile as well as here.

Popularity: 8% [?]

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Reprobates and bloggers – The Digital Edge Podcast

Posted on 31 March 2009 by Nic Haralambous

I’m still not convinced by the validity of the Podcast in the local market. Yet Saul and Jarred continue to try and prove me wrong. They’ve been doing a relatively good job of it lately and even went as far as to invite me on to the latest episode of the Digital Edge.

You can download it or listen to it live by heading over to the Digital Edge website.

From the site:

We speak to Nic Haralambous of SA Rocks, Seth Rotherham of 2Oceansvibe, Exmi from Expensive Mistakes Cheap Thrills, Shaun Oakes of Shaun Oakes.com, Jason Bagley from the Incredible Connection blog and finally Se7en from Se7en.org. We round up that line up with a summary of the blogosphere by Justin Hartman, head of blog aggregator Afrigator.

Nothing particularly groundbreaking came out of the bloggers interviews: We are all egotistical, we all like to win stuff, we all brag, blah blah blah. It’s riveting blogger “Days of our living lives online” sorta stuff.

Definitely worth listening to. Do it.

And thanks to Saul and Jarred for having me on the show. Always a good boost to the ego hey?!

Originally published on nh [dot] com

Popularity: 8% [?]

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