Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Microsoft: Africa doesn't need free software

Microsoft has claimed the cost of software is not an important issue in the developing world.

Average annual salary in the West African country [Nigeria] is only $160 (£91).

Gerald Ilukwe, the general manager of Microsoft Nigeria, said "It's easy to focus on cost and say how much is a product, but at the end of the day it's the total impact that's important. You can give people free software or computers, but they won't have the expertise to use it," he said. "Microsoft is not a helicopter dropping relief materials; we're there in the field." Read More

Monday, October 16, 2006

Gorgeous

Gorgeous, I was just googling for some raindrops and this is just something that I came across. It's wonderful to know that in a world filled with misery there is still so much beauty to find and behold. I also love the red on black. I suppose it is a perfect metaphore for the world that we live in. It was prophesied that in the last days there will be many great and terrible things. It's up to us to make life what it is supposed to be and what it can truly be.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Apple-Mac

I've been in the comp-room with the Mac machine. The programmes on that baby are the BOMB! Where have I been all my life? Burried in Windows? What the heck? What's that all about? I wanted to buy a laptop earlier this year. I was gonna have windows, the whole shabam. Thank goodness it didn't happpen because "I KNOW OF A SURITY, THAT THE MAC IS TRUE" (where my Mormon peops at?). Final Cut Pro is the way forward and that Garage Band software, don't forget the iDVD, honey it's crazy up in dir! Okay, am officially a techno freak. Yes Apple has a candy interface but what it can do! oh baby! Okay. That's me for now. I'm spending my last few weeks getting well acquainted with it. So that's me peops, my next best friend is a Mac. Sorta sad how I'm just being sucked into the geek world like this. It's kinds cool as well anyhoo. Just check out the video " Too white and Nerdy" by Weird Al, except in my case it'll be "Black & Nerdy" Damnit! Assimilation is tightening its grip. You know what they say, once u go white you can't go back. HELL NO! I ain't in that deep y'all! Still got al my shiznit going, it's black u don't go back 4 shizzy (*take note that shizzy is now outdated in the Ebonics dictionary).

Thursday, October 05, 2006

White and Nerdy - NML anthem? I feel marginalised...ke ke ke. It's too cool tho so i think it'll pass

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

TV Course

So we've been rolling the tape and taking a few shots of nothing while people on the street tell us to bugger of and quit filming them and then straight after try to get your number. So what's up with that? Any whoo wah. We had fun in the sun and it's amazing how different the pictures you take look different in the lense. Our next lesson was lighting. i think we got to understand some of the concepts but whether we did a good job or not in actually executing the task that we were given (three point lighting) is another question alltogether. So this week we are looking at editing and we are using Adobe Premier. Thought we'd be using Avid Pro but apparantly it's better to be aquainted with the former in order for it to be easier to use the latter. So, it's not a bad rationalisation but it would have been great to use what the pros use but one step at a time right? TV's good though, it really makes you think on how to conceptualise stories according to time frame, scope and medium used for the story telling. It's a good challenge. The downside however is that I got flu which means I'm tired all the time. Not good for production. It's also raining, continuously! I love rain and all but not when I'm sick. So it's back to editing in a few minutes.

Woza Masala

We've started a blog for our television production crew and we are called, Woza Masala - woza for bring on, and masala for mix, so it's bring on the mix coza there is a Xhosa, Indonesian, English and an Afrikaaner in the group. All four of us are in different nations. Cool huh? My sister says the name is crap and unimaginative. but that's okay, it serves our purpose for now. We even have a blog. I have been geekishly working on it for the past few days and I havn't gotten a template that I have been 100% satisfied with, but I guess it serves our purpose as well. You can check it out on http://www.wozamasala.blogspot.com. We're gonna fill it with more posts and stuff so we can keep the notes we've been taking in class and what we would've learned throughout this 6 week period.

It's been a while

So I said i'd come back and tell you more about hte dci, lied. I got too busy and right now I have so much on myplate with the new TV intensive. Anyway, what the last post says about the dci pretty much encompasses what it was all about. I'll fill in the important bits that I found oyt gradually as different topics on their own.