Yesterday was September 15, exactly 3 years after I officially started with my Ph.D. Time is fun when you’re having flies! This means that today I have just under a year left to go, which in turn means that the stress is beginning to pile up.
I apologise in advance if I accidentally bite your head off.
Good Old Ben just sent me this link. I am lusting after a new PDA (T2 or Zire 71), but can’t justify purchasing one because my trusty Palm IIIx (now three years old) is still performing its PDA-duties with unwavering loyalty. However, if the prices on the new modules drop significantly, the equation changes…
Yes children, Bob the Angry Flower explains when to use “its” and when to use “it’s”. It’s not that difficult!
Now if only somebody can also educate the millions of idiot losers (most of them on slashdot) abusing the phrase “begging the question” so often. See here for the correct meaning of the phrase.
My dual 933MHz PIII that was state of the art three years ago has now become quite long in the tooth. Fortunately, Ari has graciously allowed me to use his old workstation (since he’ll probably be spending significantly more time with his new employer). This “hand-me-down” :) has a 2.4GHz P4, 512MB DDR (soon to be upgraded), lotsa disc space, a GeForce4 4600 with 128MB ram of its own and a beautiful 18″ Dell UltraSharp LCD screen. Subjectively, everything just flies!
On Wednesday, August 27, I will take part in the online demonstration against software patents by replacing my web-site front-page with a protest page against software patents. The aggregator might also disappear for that day for the same reason.
Please consider joining this on-line effort!
Because my blog page had emptied itself due to a lack of posting (I think that it got severely depressed), I deemed it necessary to post something to remedy this situation. Because I’m profoundly busy with non-blog things, it’s going to have to be a screenshot.
Click on this DSCAS3 logo: 
to see a screenshot of my super-duper, ultra-useful and quasi-sentient DSCAS3 software. Because I like to irk bigots of any kind, the screenshot is of the Windows version. :)
Die kind
_Die kind is nie dood nie
die kind lig sy vuiste teen sy moeder
wat Afrika skreeu skreeu die geur van vryheid en heide
in die lokasies van die omsingelde hart
Die kind lig sy vuiste teen sy vader
wat Afrika skreeu skreeu die geur
van geregtigheid en bloed
in die strate van sy gewapende trots
Die kind is nie dood nie
nóg by Langa nóg by Nyanga
Unfortunately, even Google yields very little about the San Persistence Hunt. Kalahari Bushmen (the San) still practise this very ancient form of hunting where the hunter will run his, usually antelope, prey to exhaustion.
David Attenborough documented this in one of his “The Life of Mammals” programs. (Thanks Martin!) From this programme synopsis:
There are only four men on Earth who can run a kudu antelope to its death. They are Kalahari bushmen, and this persistence hunt is thought to link modern humans to the earliest form of human hunting.
