Tech

Two weeks ago I wrote an open letter to the DA after engaging with Brandon Topham and other DA leadership on Twitter.

You can read the letter HERE.

This morning I received Brandon’s response in my email, and I am posting it below. He has touched on some of the issues I raised that will/would fall in his local government sphere of responsibility should they win Tshwane. As he has indicated many of the points I raised fall under a National Government level, and not local.

Below is the letter, with some comments by me in (italicised brackets).

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A Foreword For  The Regular g33q.co.za Reader

g33q.co.za is not a political blog. I tend to steer clear of controversial issues that have no bearing on the technological  slant of my blog. I respect my readers right to differ from me on issues that are not technology or IT related. This is a blog where we are tech-heads first and foremost.

With this entry I am making an exception though, partly because our local government elections have entered our realm of influence, the on-line one, and I am choosing this medium that our political parties have embraced to take the fight to them.

UPDATE: The DA has responded via Brandon Topham to this entry, you can read it HERE.

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Over fourteen years of working for and with various managers and teams I have witnessed many negative manager archetypes, people who are effective leaders often in spite of themselves.

As many managers as I have worked with, so many management styles manifested themselves. This post wil focus on some of the negatives that have directly influenced myself and my co-workers during the course of the past fourteen years.

I will not cite specific examples, since I consider many of those who have provided examples by their failures to be my friends, and in some cases some of my colleagues might get into trouble for airing their grievances to me.

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The Media tribunal is staring the media in South Africa in the face. I have pondered the implications of  Media Tribunal for a while now. I have an opinion about what it will mean to the unofficial press, the unregulated media that is  so prevalent.

Bloggers and Microbloggers

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Every IT guy with a few years on the job has had the honor of sharing his knowledge with someone new to the field. Often this is simply helping out a tech who is in a bind because you “saw this before.”

I had the rare pleasure and honor of being entrusted with the training up of a junior tech over the past two years.

What this has taught me is that mentoring a proby is about more than just passing on IT skills, you often learn a lot too… continue reading…

Look, for a work seeker being able to append an MCSE qualification together with the A+ and N+ that accompanies it to their CV is probably a good thing. It affords a slight advantage over other candidates who have nothing to add to their CV but experience.

Well let me state clearly – I will ignore the MCSE on your CV as of today, along with your N+ and A+ that you paid lots of money to earn. I will throw CV’s of raw MCSEs out in favor of unqualified candidates with even a few months practical experience.

Want to know why? continue reading…

I thought I’d regale you with a tale of three hours spent sorting out a client’s home network.

One of the techs was sick this week, so I inherited this callout. I have been to this client before, and his printing has been an issue before – more on that later on. continue reading…

Everyone knows and trusts the big brand names. Dell makes good if clunky laptops – they used to be ugly too but that has improved. HP used to be the standard if you were looking for a reliable printer. Mac is the place to look for a designer gadget.

You get the picture.

Over the years other brands appeared on the horizon, and some cemented their place as makers of good reliable hardware – Sony, in particular, seemed to hit that niche of designer laptop and everyday usability that used to be the domain of the Macbook.

And now Samsung is chomping at the bit to become one of the best IT vendors out there… continue reading…

Hey Everyone. I am painfully aware that I missed a day of posting. The reason for this is that I have been working very hard on some ideas for the future of SaGeek, and I thought I’d share them with you folks.

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I sat on this one for almost two months. Should add a “Geek Food” section to the blog, maybe a “Sandwich of the Month?” Eventually I decided against adding a fullblown section to SaGeek, for now. I love me some good eating though, and this sandwich is one you just have to try, so without further ado – one of my favourate sandwiches…

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