1. That can’t happen.
2. That doesn’t happen on my machine.
3. That shouldn’t happen.
4. Why is this happening?
5. Oh… I see…
6. How did that ever work?
7. “svn blame”
8. One day, just ONE day, we will write proper unit tests…

A (blatant) copy/paste explains their reasoning:

The primary reason for starting this project in 1998 was to provide an affordable alternative to the domain name prices of the time. Back in the late ’90s a .com domain name could easly set you back as much as $100! Today the Internet is a very different place with a .com domain being available for as little as around $8. Even in the primary market we served (South Africa), co.za domains are just R50 per year and org.za domains are free for non-profit organisations.

Unfortunately just as the Internet has become a better place (cheaper!) it has also become a worse place in the last 14 years. Today the admin overhead of managing domain names registered purely for spam or scamming purposes has made running a free, community serving project such as ZA NiC just not fun anymore. And that is our secondary reason for ceasing new registrations.

Just because we will no longer be taking new registrations, it does NOT mean any existing domains will cease to function. Domains registered before 31/10/2012, with valid and responding nameservers, will continue to be served by us indefinitely. The modification system for keeping contact and domain name details up to date will also continue to work as it does today.

Despite the statement that existing domain names will be left alone, the announcement means that the future availability of this site’s domain name in the future is no longer guaranteed.  As such… any suggestions for an alternative name, just in case?  (Some research indicates that the .nom.za domain namespace is designed for personal names of South African entities, so something in there would be my first choice.)

I have no idea who the original author is; if anyone knows, please let me know so that I can properly credit him/her.

So, here is: How To Care For Your Introvert…

1. Respect their need for privacy.
2. Never embarrass them in public.
3. Let them observe first in new situations.
4. Give them time to think, don’t demand answers.
5. Don’t interrupt them.
6. Give them advance notice of expected changes in their lives.
7. Give them 15 minute warnings to finish whatever they are doing.
8. Reprimand them privately.
9. Teach them new skills privately.
10. Enable them to find one best friend who has similar interests and abilities.
11. Don’t push them to make lots of friends.
12. Respect their introversion, don’t try to remake them into extroverts.

The destination this time was somewhere I’d wanted to go for a long time but hadn’t managed to get around to — Cape Agulhas, the southern tip of Africa.  After leaving Cape Town at around 11:00 and making a lunch stop en-route, I snapped this pic with the mobile phone camera around three hours later:

(You may need to click on the image to load the full size version if you can’t read the text on the plaque.)

After exploring the area, I took the scenic route back — cut across a dirt road from Bredasdorp to Gansbaai, and then followed the route along the coast through Stanton, Hermanus, Kleinmond and Betty’s Bay (bringing back pleasant memories) before hitting the N2 again at Gordon’s Bay and following that home.  (No photos, sorry — the light was fading by this time.  Maybe next time…)

Total distance travelled: just a touch over 500 km.  Just short of the road distance between Durban and Johannesburg.  Not bad going.

Up next: grab some mates and head off to Ronnie’s Sex Shop!

Yes, that’s a veld fire in the District Six area.  Obviously, we don’t know what caused it, but as everything in Cape Town is extremely dry after some pretty intense heat that we’ve been having lately, it probably wouldn’t take much for a cigarette end carelessly flicked out of some motorist’s window to set that off.

Of course, this being Cape Town, the wind blew the fire across the road:

Now, for those unfamiliar with the area, just behind that other building in the office park lies the N2 freeway.  Hate to think what visibility is like for those motorists right now.

And then of course, the smoke plume gets blown over towards the CBD:

Two things to consider: the aforementioned visibility problem on the N2 (which you can’t even see in the above shot!), and the fact that it’s now 15:30 and people are starting to bugger off from work.

Rush hour this afternoon is going to be FUN.

(At least I leave the office at 18:00 and drive AWAY from the fire…)

(Image courtesy of The Daily WTF.)

1. The driver picks the music.
2. “Aww, I like this song!” trumps rule #1.
3. If you stop at a township, you have to take a shot.  Pun not intended.
4. No car flirting in the Transkei, there are only trucks on the road.  [Ron -- this also applies to anywhere on the N3!]
5. Fist pumps are acceptable, and indeed welcomed.
6. Don’t say “I’m going to crash early tonight” when still on roadtrip.  ”I’m moeg” will suffice.
7. If you are not the driver, you don’t need to see.

I’ll add more as I think of them.  If you have any good ideas, feel free to leave them in the comments below…

1. Buy packets of biltong in bulk.
2. Bring packets of biltong upstairs to Development.
3. ?????
4. PROFIT!

Development, naturally, doesn’t mind one bit.