Sharepoint Services » My Life

My WordPress site has been hacked

admin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:05:08 +0000

So i was hacked. Really Really frustrating having to reinstall and backup and test everything but as you can see im back online. What i really dont understand is how it benefitted the hackers. A couple of iframes were inserted into my pages which were basically to Russian Porn sites. However the pages themselves didnt actually render anymore, it broke the wordpress engine completely.

Ah well, Courtenay 1, Russians 0.

BTW, if you come to this page having the same problem, check this blog out:

Fix if Your WordPress Site is Hacked

my 2009

admin — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:44:29 +0000

So in january last year i posted a little to do list for 2008. Two amazing things happened in 2008 to make it the best year of my life, but also not much getting completed!

1. i moved to australia to work
2. i met the girl of my dreams

These took a lot of time up in adjusting to a new country and well… girls will always take a lot of time. Some of the things im most proud of in 2008 were which were on my list:

1. Learning to kiteboard
2. running 389km in total
3. learning guitar properly, now i need to practice it!
4. a little salsa dancing with my new lady Tam
5. dived the great barrier reef.

I accomplished a lot last year including setting up a home and some sort of life in Sydney, Australia. This took a lot of hard work. In the last 8 months of my living in australia i feel i have setup nicely and i want to expand my horizons here in the land down under. Some of my goals and wishes for 2009 include:

1. focus on business opportunity: generate a secondary income stream to help me pay off some home loan debt
2. plan my 6 month world travel for 2010
3. do a backflip with my kite
4. buy a car in australia
5. become a sharepoint MVP

Im just limiting them for now, 2008 taught me that i shouldnt try to take too much on… and with that its back to work!

bored in durban

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:34:47 +0000

my brother and i got a little bored whilst we’ve been in durbs…

I am a kiteboarder

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:22:56 +0000

Ive done it. after many weekends of dragging my kite through the water, being stuck out a sea relaunching, hitting a telephone pole, getting stuck in the tree, paying $220 to fix my new kite, i am finally standing up on my board and going WAY too fast for my own liking

i have the battlewounds to prove it, but on sunday i actually got up onto my board. it was wicked, i fell every 50 metres, but there were 50 metres of utter joy! hopefully ill get some shots of me up on the board sometime.

PS. This is NOT me yet. but it will be… moowahahahahaha

SPBands – rocking tunes to listen to working

admin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:01:38 +0000

Ive always been a music lover, but recently with my move to a new country ive found cheaper broadband and thus more free music!

some bands ive really been enjoying recently:

zebra and giraffe
the thrills (saw them live)
camera obscura
newton faulkner
the black keys
the zutons
the duke spirit
one night only (thanks nic)
the fratellis
the hives

South Africa from Australia – My Reasons for being in Sydney

admin — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:28:18 +0000

I wrote this email to a friend of mine back home once he mentioned the whole leaving South Africa to Australia. Many people are doing this journey and mine was purely to travel and see new places. Now looking back it may be something else:

Many people since ive come over here have mentioned the whole getting away from crime and for your safety… its a logical thought progression, moving to australia and then bombarding everyone with mails about how great it is. Initially this all started as a new adventure, a new beginning and possibly opening some doors to travel a bit more and see the world while we’re young. I never moved because of the crime, goverment or anything else…. but now im here, i realise the situation i lived in. Looking from outside the bubble i realise what a mess we live in. Even with all the safety factors, i think the travel stress, the pressure we put ourselves under to be earners, richer, hard workers as south africans is nuts.

Okay, so yes, my salary is a whole lot better here. But life is so much better. Everyone is happy, because nobody has stresses. There is no hype to have the latest GTI or to afford a holiday house in ballito. Those are stresses for so many in SA, not to mention the stress of SA under the factors of crime, safety, politics rioting etc etc. The structure that this goverment has built in Australia makes life easy. Its easy for me to live, and fun. For instance, i just moved into a house which for me is just perfect. I have a beachfront which i can compare to miami’s florida beach, but on a far smaller scale. Somewhere i can get away to easily after the days work or on weekends. Similar to durban’s beachfront except durban you cannot live there: its dirty, its crime ridden and not as beautiful.

Then with all of that, i can be in a corporate environment in 30 minutes on an express bus to work in North Sydney. Suddenly i can come to a place where i have all the opportunity yet i dont need to stress myself to have to drive a GTI to work, i sit on the bus with all the other 20 – 30 year olds, on a bus system which is dead on time, in a traffic system which flows because people abide by the rules. There is no negativity amongst the australians about goverment, lifestyle or anything else. That results in a life stress free and most positive people. And when life is stress free the office becomes an awesome place where we can get to work, drink coffee at 8am in the morning and i can watch the ferries come over the harbour. In actual fact i can take the ferry to work from Manly where i live, catch two trains and be at work at 845. On that ferry i can listen to my ipod or talk to strangers, everyone is so friendly! Because i have flexi time thats not a problem. Just work a little later, and get back onto a bus which will take me home safely, quickly if i want.

What SA had was opportunity, opportunity to be an entrepreneur and grow a business. THe systems and infrastructure in construction, IT or whatever field you want is lacking, so business who can get goverment contracts or contract to a monoploy like vodacom, telkom or anyone of those would flourish. But what is a flourishing business earning millions, when all the money in the world couldnt find happiness in SA.

Like you said, its not our problem to fix SA. yes people like us help, hard workers who invest in SA like we are/were are needed. However there are not enough of us, and too many damaging society for us to be effective. You only live once, and im not gonna stick around to be a hero. Its sad, because the flair and culture of us South Africans is unqiue, im sure. You dont see that here. I watched the sharks game here, and the passion, the craziness that is Sharks supporters, or just South Afrcans in general doesnt exist amongst australians really. But perhaps i havent been here long enough.

You’;ve travelled and know what other places are like, sydney is a city where one could settle, start a great family and lead a superb life. Thats something worth investing in. Its pointless investing in a life which is a continual struggle. Then you never reach a point of happiness, or if you do, its not for long, because there are a hundered systems or people that will disappoint you.

thats my 2cents. or 98 cents. sorry long rant. but i feel you bru. I feel the pain of being a south african, because now im sitting outside the bubble going, wow, what a struggle.

My new world

admin — Mon, 19 May 2008 23:49:24 +0000

Haven’t posted for a while, mainly because ive been pretty busy relocating to a new city, and starting a new life in Sydney, Aus. Its gr8 to think that Sharepoint has actually changed my life! I got a sponsored visa at a large MS Gold Partner in Sydney, an opportunity i could not turn down. Ive been most impressed with their organisation, work ethic and friendliness. I finally received my own desk as opposed to the typical contractor rooms ive been sitting in recently!

So here’s to a new start and hopefully some new ideas, problems and solutions on the Sharepoint front!

Nike – Just Run

admin — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:15:10 +0000

Wow – its been a while since i have blogged – and its been great! Ive had a great long holiday, visited mozambique where i did a lot of diving. In this time i decided to buy an ipod and immediately became a fan of all the gimmicks which accompany the ipod.

One of my newest toys (amongst the itrips etc) is the Nike + ipod gadget which is able to plot your running, set goals, input your routes (using google maps), and set and take challenges. And its all setup very simply:

1. Download Itunes – you should have it if you have an ipod
2. Put the sensor into shoe, and the attachment onto the ipod
3. do some exercise
4. plug the ipod into your computer and bingo: it syncs your latest run onto your nike profile

For instance my first run (and next 4 runs) are plotted below:

This is done using a little widget which is provided in code form on your nike profile. There are a number of other widgets which you can use including such things as farthest run, fastest etc

Im very impressed as this combines my exercise fanaticism and nerdiness all in one! i even have the widget on my facebook profile!!

The cost isnt too bad, R399 at Sportsman’s Warehouse, however the shoes which you need (you can only use Nike plus shoes) do come at a price. I got some Nike Air Zoom Vomeros for R999, however they are really comfortable, i feel like im running on a bed of air. Great work nike and apple!

Digspot is growing

admin — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:30:41 +0000

We are finally getting a few more digsmates on digspot which is very exciting. And they seem excited about DS. We have the UKZN media class signing up as part of their social media studies, and big credit as far as I understand, must go out to Michelle Atagana, hope i spelt that right.

So recently I have added mp3 uploads and a cool new search function, but I do plan to expand on that soon.

Future developments will include a CV upload and a superior mini feed. Similar to that of Facebook, but more PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN.

Great. Well go check it out, and please drop us some criticisms, i really do appreciate them

How am i feeling: Positive about life, excited for the future

Web 2.? in SA

admin — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 06:50:25 +0000

I just read another article which talks about the buzz, shiznitz of the web, Web 2.0. As I read it I come across the familiar terms and phrases:

authors of our own content, and connect and collaborate with communities

rich online experiences

Ref: Does Web 2.0 matter to your business? By: Gino Cosme

My questions are:
1. What is the significance of Web 2.0 in SA?
2. What will Web 3.0 be?

The article speaks of when broadband penetration increase in this country and how web 2.0 will take off in a big way in SA. So with SA being so far behind in terms of broadband penetration with roughly 9% of the country online, doesnt anyone think we just going to get left behind? Won’t the world have moved on by the time 30% of SA even logs onto geocities with a dial-up connection. I mean there are those sitting with 8meg lines in the UK for the pound equivalent of R200 a month.

Secondly what will web 3.0 hold for us? So now everyone has a cool little site, with 40 “friends” they havent spoken to since high school, a couple of mp3′s blaring and a couple of screensaver ad’s irritating everyone, what will be next? Do we just keep connecting and collaborating online? Will we not get tired of this so called rich internet experience? Is there such thing as information overload?

I do less and less work everyday because there is so much to read. Everyone now has a right to an opinion, and these opinions are making a difference online for sure. More and more people writing, more and more people acting on these opinions. The ability of for the man on the street to create content is a whole lot easier, but the ability to create interactive content is still left to online guru’s and programmers (like me yay). So with all these static content online, surely we will come to a point where it will be overload? What do you think?