The power of sport

Last night I couldn't help but reflect on the feast of sport we've been indulged with over the past 3 months... First half of India landed unexpectedly on our shores, were welcomed with open arms and jam-packed stadiums and put on a great show. Then the circus moved to England where the T20 world cup saw Pakistan, a country with huge internal strife at the moment, rise above the odds and capture their first major sporting trophy in over a decade. All the while the Super 14 was drawing to a dramatic finish up in Loftus, with crazy dutch-saffers giving English soccer hooligans a run for their money. As I write, up in the mountains of France, a living legend is making his return to the Tour de France, adding another chapter to what is already an inspirational story of determination and courage. But there were three stories in particular that motivated me to blog today.

Last month, South Africa hosted what has become known as the 'dress rehearsal' for the soccer world cup, the Fifa Confederations Cup. To be modest... the event was a huge success. Finally South Africa was able to prove to the world what we saffers have known all along, that we are as capable of hosting and delivering a world class event as anyone else. Words cannot express my pride and my delight at being able to laugh in the face of those nay-sayers who insisted that the world cup would have to be moved because Africans couldn't possibly handle such a task. For those reading this from outside of Africa, you should know that there is a general buzz of excitement thoughout all of Africa, on the streets, in the offices, in the schools... The effect that this tournament is having is amazing to watch. Excuse the miserable cliché, but SA is truly emerging from its coccoon. The added bonus? The cherry on the cake? The performance of our Bafana Bafana! I will gladly put up with the heartache of a hundred last minute losses, just to see a country once again fully behind their team with a genuine belief that they can succeed.

Now on Saturday, the Lions tour to SA came to an end. This is an event that only takes place once every 12 years (I struggle to think of any sporting competition with such a gap between events) and therefore is looked forward to with great anticipation. But I for one was actually really glad to see it end. Now I know this is far from a popular opinion, but to me this rugby tour represented everything that is wrong with sport. From obnoxious foreign press, to arrogant and intolerant coaches, to foul play and accusations of foul play, ignorant and offensive comments from players, accusations of racism, bitching about referees... the list goes on. As an all round sport fan, it actually pained me to watch this tour unfold on and off the field. If I were absolutely ignorant and was forced to judge all professional sport based on the evidence of this series, I'd never watch sport again.

Lets end on a positive note (in fact my inspiration for blogging today). Yesterday I settled into what's left of my couch at 3pm to watch what I expected to be a 1h30min Federer festival. What I witnessed instead was an epic afternoon of tennis. As I sat through the 90-odd minutes that was the final set, I couldn't help but remember the 2008 Wimbledon final, a match that many call the finest of the modern era. Federer is now in my mind the greatest player that ever lived and barring Andre Agassi my favourite player of all time, but after seeing the determination to win, the courage to fight and the way he was gracious in defeat, I am now a Andy Roddick fan. Days such as these are few and far between, but yesterday I really wished we didn't have a need for a winner and a loser in professional sport.

But yesterday was more than a great game of tennis, it was a great display of sportsmanship. The players, the officials and particularly the crowd... there was just this emotion, this aura around that tennis court that was plain to see, even on a television set thousands of miles away. That's precisely what I love about sport, that's why I'll wake up at 6am on a Sunday to watch F1, that's why I'll go watch any live cricket at Newlands, that's why I pay a ridiculous monthly fee for satellite tv, for the magic and the power of sport. Nothing else on earth has the power to unite people of all races, cultures and creeds... Just you wait till next year, bring on 2010!

The Flying Donkeys

This post has been a long time coming but I finally managed some time to write about something that I find awesome in world sport, the sheer passion of supporters worldwide.

Whether you're in morocco, india, ecuador or soweto, you'll always find a small town that supports their local team, come rain or shine. It's those towns that live around their team, buying season tickets and living through the ups and downs with their teams... The team and the supporters are one. Sure this extends to larger clubs, but it's always heartening to see the unwavering love and passion that people show to their small town club.

Take for example a team I came to know about recently, Chievo Verona. A small town club in Italy whose main sponsor is the local town bakery. The team started off from nothing and are now are the proberbial underdog of the Serie A.

The local rival team Hellas Verona once said that Chievo would play in the Serie A when donkeys fly... Now Chievo are a regular Serie A team while Hellas suck in the third division. The nickname stuck btw, Chievo Verona are 'The Flying Donkeys'

The same sorta passion extends to bigger clubs. As we watch season after season of the big 4 in the premier league, bitching as our teams fail to win everything every season, there are those teams that fight the relegation battle year after year, and dare I say it, the supporters probably get a lot more satisfaction out of the relegation battle and the championship than a top four supporter would from winning the premier league...

It was sad to see the toons getting relegated, I so wished Shearer would just put on a team shirt during that last game to go show them all how it's done, alas... But if anyone caught the last few championship games, you'd be pretty harsh to deny Burnley and their fans premier league status after their performance in the championship and relative heroics in the FA cup.

The pic above shows the contrasting emotions for both teams, but more importantly, the passion of the teams and supporters...

You gotta love the small teams and their fans, maybe it's the underdog thing, but i'll always have a soft spot for the bolton wanderer, the minardi, the flying donkey...

Planet Earth Needs a Bodyguard, not Miley Cyrus!

This is a rant about a couple of things that I noticed in the news this morning that got me a bit riled up.

Firstly, India's Minister for the Environment has rejected any notion that it will cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future, or even consider any sort of emission caps. He also asserted that India's current priority is to focus on poverty alleviation and economic development. This was basically a message to developed nations not to expect any concessions when the major developed and developing countries meet in Copenhagen in December for negotiations on the follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol.

Now, while those are fine priorities to have, the thing that really irritates me is their refusal to realise that if climate change is not halted or at the very least seriously slowed, life will become infinitely harder for the very people they are currently trying to save! Farmers will lose crops to desertification, the monsoon will shift south leading to severe droughts and the sea levels will rise, causing the destruction of thousands of small fishing villages. These will all affect the poorest people disproportionally. How can these people not see this? Instead of investing in renewable energy, they are ramping up production of coal-fired power plants which will be in operation for the next 25-30 years at least! It makes me sick.

And on a semi-related-but-not-really note, just after reading the previous article I saw a headline (I didn't bother going further) that Hugh Jackman and Miley "Hannah Montana" Cyrus will be teaming up for a remake of "The Bodyguard". Now leaving aside my personal loathing of the insane, fabricated hype around Hannah Montana (I mean seriously, this is the most trite and clichéd character being sold to us as the second coming of Judy Garland or something!), the Bodyguard was not a bad movie - why remake it so soon?! Add to that the not insignificant age gap between Jackman and Cyrus which means that the entire love plot is out the window and you realise that this will be not so much a remake of "The Bodyguard" as a remake of "Man On Fire" with a slightly older girl. It's just stupid. And I swear I'll throw up if I ever hear Miley Cyrus sing "I Will Always Love You"!

That is all.

Love, Life and Loss in Simsville

For the past few days I've been following the tale of Alice and Kev, a pair of homeless Sims created in Sims 3 by Robin Burkinshaw, a student of games design in the UK. Robin has created an extremely dysfunctional father and daughter pair and has basically let them loose on the open world neighbourhood of the game and is running a daily picture-blog of what goes on in their lives. The premise is fairly novel, but what really stands out is the way the story takes such interesting twists and turns with a minimum of interference by Robin, following their own AI need and wants. It's an excellent experiment that is often surprises you with the poignancy of some of the moments.

The blog has become quite popular over the past couple of weeks, being featured on the official Sims web page as well as on BBC and various other blogs including Boing Boing. And this is where something I thought was quite interesting started happening - the story started getting some very strong emotional reactions from the readers. Most seem to have formed a very close attachment to the character of Alice (who has quite a rough time of it) and are rooting for and sympathizing with her, almost as if she were real. Some even marvel at the fact that a game makes them feel like that, for example:

Sara
OMG!!! This is SO sad!!! Now I’m afraid for my life…
saw
very nice comment, i am literally almost crying here, this is one of the saddest stories ive heard, even if it is from a computer game!
Sol Invictus
Good god, I feel so sorry for Alice. I know she’s a fictional Sim and everything but everything that’s happening to her is truly miserable. It makes one think of the similarly difficult lives that many among us live out here in the real world.

I think that this is an example of how modern games are really stretching the established boundaries of video games, and importantly how the general public views them. I'll be posting a more comprehensive discussion of why I think that video game worlds are actually becoming increasingly like our real one in a couple of days, but in the meanwhile I recommend you head on over to Robin's Alice and Kev blog and take a look for yourself. And be sure to read a few of the comments as well, it's half the fun!

The Smartphone War is Heating Up!

The past two weeks have been extremely eventful in the world of smartphones. New phones have been released or announced by most of the major cellphone vendors, all vying for a share of the fastest growing sector of the industry. In fact it is the only sector that managed to actually grow in the second half of 2008. You know, just about the time when the current worldwide recession began! Even this year, with the recession in full swing, the growth is still expected to be in the double-digits.

And one trend that seems to be emerging across the market is the rise of touchscreen phones. Those are always the ones that generate the most buzz before release, and are consequently in greatest demand. The manufacturers have certainly noticed this and are obliging us with a veritable feast this year! Every one of them has at least one high-end touch operated smartphone that is already in the market, or will be shortly.

Just as a note before I begin, since I'll be looking at fairly high-end phones, when I say "standard connectivity" I mean at least 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 and GPS. So with those facts giving some context to this discussion, allow me to introduce the contenders!

Apple iPhone 3G S

This "new" iPhone 3G S from Apple is, let's be honest, a faster iPhone 3G. There are some other hardware improvements like more storage space (16GB or 32GB), a digital compass and a better 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, but these - while welcome - are pretty much baseline features for high-end smartphones these days. In fact Apple isn't even trying to hide that fact by naming it the iPhone 3G S, where 'S' stands for speed. No really, it does. Even the marketing team that brought you the brilliant Mac vs. PC ads and those super slick iPhone ads could not come up with a better name than that.

Indeed, most of the improvements in the 3G S look like they are simply meant to bring the iPhone on par with its competitors in a checklist of features, thereby allowing the admittedly outstanding software and user interface to take centre stage. Previously missing software features such as cut/copy/paste and multitasking will be enabled for all iPhone users via a software update as well.

As pretty much every new smartphone being released is touted as an "iPhone killer", clearly this is the phone to beat. The iPhone 3G S will be released on the 19th of June in the USA and in July in South Africa from Vodacom.

Palm Pre

The Pre is the the latest phone from one of the earliest smartphone and PDA companies, Palm. The company has had a rough couple of years but they have come back with a bang. The new operating system, WebOS, leverages well known Internet standards such as javascript to produce an experience that is seamlessly integrated with the Web.

This is the phone that everyone hopes will finally begin to slow the iPhone's meteoric rise and challenge them to come up with more than simple iterative improvements. And with Palm being a Silicon Valley company well known for innovation, like Apple, it is quite possible. Feature-wise the Pre has all that the iPhone does, with the addition of a physical keyboard and the ability to run multiple applications simultaneously.

The Pre was released last Saturday, the 5th of June, and the reviews seem to indicate that the WebOS foundation is a worthy challenger to the iPhone's OSX, but some issues with the hardware and the dearth of 3rd party applications available at launch left some wanting more.

Nokia N97

The world's largest cellphone maker sure has a lot to prove with this new addition to their N-series multimedia smartphone lineup! With the other manufacturers nipping at its heels, Nokia has had to act fast to keep its position at the top. Released worldwide on the 9th of June, the N97 is a touchscreen enabled smartphone that runs the Symbian S60 v5 operating system.

It has the standard connectivity and comes with Nokia's response to the iPhone App Store installed - the Ovi Store. Since the store was launched only 2 weeks ago the selection of apps is limited at the moment, but will grow as more Symbian developers submit their apps for inclusion. The slide out landscape QWERTY keyboard with the angled screen is unique, and the widget based home screen and large amount of memory have been praised in early reviews.

However the relatively underpowered processor and resistive, non-multitouch screen are cited as holding the N97 back from achieving its full potential. Also there are some issues raised in reviews that seem to stem from the operating system not being fully optimised to utilise the touch based interface.

Samsung i8910 "Omnia HD"

The i8910 is a beast of a smartphone with all the features one has come to expect, plus it has the distinction of being the first smartphone to be able to record high definition video via its 8 megapixel camera! Running on a modified version of the same Symbian S60 v5 operating system that the N97 uses, it has a lot of things going for it - tons of Symbian apps, a fast processor, a beautiful 3.7" AMOLED (as opposed to a TFT LCD display) touchscreen and a polished 3D interface.

This phone was released about a month ago and is one of the least hyped, but most potent smartphones, in my opinion. However, it suffers from almost exactly the same usability issues as the N97, which can be attributed to the Symbian OS. Perhaps as more Symbian-based touchscreen devices released, the kinks will be worked out and the user experience will become more refined than it currently is.

HTC Touch Pro2

The Touch Pro2 is a Windows Mobile 6.1 (upgradeable to 6.5 when it is released) based smartphone that has a slide out QWERTY keypad similar to the one on the N97. It uses HTC's custom TouchFlo 3D interface which has received lots of praise. The Touch Pro2 can download applications via Microsoft's "Windows Marketplace for Mobile" and the selection of apps is good.

Apart from that it has the expected connectivity, but lacks in the media department since it doesn't have a separate 3.5mm audio jack and has limited video playback capabilities out of the box. Additionally the camera, while adequate, is hamstrung by the lack of a flash.

Other Unreleased Phones

Blackberry Storm 2

RIM's Blackberry line of business smartphones is well known for its vaunted push email service and last year saw the release of the first touchscreen device - the Storm. It was said to simulate the feel of pressing real buttons using its SurePress technology.

That, however, did not turn out to be the case as people found typing on the screen much more inconvenient than on other touchscreen phones. Additionally the lack of Wi-Fi capabilities severely limited it's connectivity options. It was back to the drawing board for RIM and now they have announced that a new Blackberry Storm is on the way, sans SurePress and with Wi-Fi!

Little more is known about this version, but you can bet that the lessons of the Storm have been learnt and that this will be a much more robust smartphone. The expected release is some time in the third quarter of this year.

Sony Ericsson Satio

This phone was announced earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress as the "Idou", but has been renamed "Satio", whatever that means. But naming aside, this looks like it could be an amazing smartphone. Again running on the Symbian S60 v5 platform, this phone has a ridiculous 12.1 megapixel camera with a xenon flash! That fact right there is enough for most fans of phone cameras to jump aboard, but add to that all the usual suspects for of connectivity and media playback and you have a recipe for a great all round smartphone.

Sony Ericsson desperately needs this phone to do well, since the Xperia X1 sold poorly and they haven't had a hit phone in quite a while. The Satio will be released around October of this year.

Samsung i7500 "Galaxy"

The Galaxy is Samsung's first smartphone powered by Google's Android operating system. It uses the updated 1.5 "cupcake" version and has an online app store called Market.

In addition to the standard connectivity, it has an external 3.5mm audio jack, unlike the Android powered HTC phones.It also uses a 3.2" AMOLED touchscreen which means that its battery life will be significantly better than that of some of its competitors. Add in a 5 megapixel camera and 8GB of storage and you have a very tempting cocktail! It's due out in July.

Wrap-Up

So there you have it. The latest and greatest smartphones from the biggest names in the business! There are a few I've left out, such as the HTC Touch Diamond2 and Touch HD, since they were too similar to the ones already included.

I'm sure you have noticed that almost all the phones discussed share a basic set of features and there's usually just one distinguishing feature that sets a particular model apart from the rest. This is how close the race has become! At the moment Apple is dominating this touchscreen market, but if it gets too comfortable any one of the contenders can dethrone it.

The Pre is, like the iPhone, backed by a small but innovative company and can offer a real viable alternative to it both in terms of features and the "cool" factor. RIM is trying to expand its user demographic for the Blackberry from purely business oriented people to the general public and the Storm 2 may be just the phone to do it with. Meanwhile other manufacturers are building on existing platforms such as Symbian, Windows Mobile and Android in the hope that a large enough user-base across multiple hardware providers will entice more developers to make applications for that ecosystem, since that is one of the major draws of the iPhone.

One thing is for sure, we live in interesting times. I'd like to hear what you think of all this so do comment!

It's all relative

It is isn't it? What different societies consider good/bad, or rather the standards that provide a benchmark wherever you are...

Having had a pretty long stay in Australia, it'd be a bit unfair to make a direct comparison with SA, SA is a developing country (albeit with pretty developed major cities) and I've been exposed to two highly rated cities in Sydney and Melbourne.

But anyway, it's funny to hear what people bitch about here in aus compared to our seemingly more fundamental problems:

• fek, the trains late by 2minitues
• the bikey gangs had a fist fight in public
• our suburb doesn't have google streetview yet
• i had to wait for a youtube video to buffer today

The initial feeling you have is that the aussies are spoilt and they shouldn't really be complaning but that's really a testament to the fact that Aus is way more developed... It's all relative.

But that's just it, SA has a long long way to go before we can complain about such 'petty' things. The problem of course is that there is a huge gap in SA between the rich and the poor, and really that's gotta be what needs to be addressed first. I've been lucky enough to be on the right end of the stick so far in SA and as much as I'd like to have the luxury of such high end bitching, I know that it can't be priority.

Or can it?

Well, the short answer is no... But I think SA's reaching that stage where there's going to be a lot of rapid development that could sway the answer to the question. We're already at that stage in many respects, drive around Jhb and you'll see, work everywhere! buildings, roads, gautrain, malls, commercial and residential complexes, telecomms. It's awesome!

2010 is a huge catalyst that's put pressure on everyone to deliver, we should never underestimate the effect that the world cup has had (and will have) on SA!

I hope that we keep pushing with this momentum over the next decade or so. If we do, I don't think it's overly optimistic to imagine that we'll be sitting pretty and we can identify ourselves as a world force rather than just Africa's shining light.

Maybe then we can get our own bikey gangs?

A BINGeing competition!

Before I start, I gotta say that I'm really surprised that a lot of brotha's blog topics so far have had a political flavour to them. I really never saw any of us contributors as people who cared about politics so much, flavour of the week maybe, or maybe we've become that mature (boring) all of a sudden =/

Anyway, back to topic. So I thought I'd use the word 'bingeing' before everyone got sick to their stomachs everytime they heard it (although I suspect the term would be - binging). I'm refering of course to bing, Microsoft's new search engine. A friend showed it to me the other day and as far as first impressions go, this one was pretty good. As pro google as I am (believe me, I am - I sound like a salesman sometimes and I'm currently eyeing an android phone), I'm also very pro-competition... So I'm all for it!

I'm not doing a review here, I lack the technical know how (oh ya, i'm lazy too) to do a search engine benchmark. But what I will say is that the interface is quite impressive in its simplicity. It seems that MS has taken a leaf outta google's book there, kudos. I don't quite get the background image but I strangely don't mind it.

Microsoft have been pretty busy it seems, project Natal (I'll pronounce it like Kwa-Zulu Natal) looks like taking on the wii in a big way, except I think (for now anyway) people will take some time to getting used to playing games without a controller. Windows 7 too apparently is pretty awesome from reviews I've heard, besides the cut down version that only lets you run 4 apps at once (fail!).

Anyway, it's about time MS stepped up to the plate. I guess they didn't have a choice with the competition slowly eating away at their share of the market.

As much as the internet's part of our daily lives, I think it'd be a bit more relevant to point out the parallels that I can see now with the above mentioned competition and telecomms in SA:

I hope this microsoft reaction is the sorta thing we can see in SA from Helkom now that Neotel's on the prowl... I know SEACOM is a big step in the impending revolution, it couldn't come sooner! By the by - for those that don't know, Neotel through Tata have a nice stake in SEACOM, so this could be the beginning of the end (touch wood) of the exploitation us Saffers have been subject to for years!

Exciting times with all this competition... B(r)ing it! -sorry, couldn't resist :)