Ernst Kuschke

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Numetro Pwnd by h@x0rs
Took this screenshot of the Numetro homepage earlier today: Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

Posted by Ernst Kuschke | with no comments

Interesting fact of the day
The amount that the US Department of Energy is spending on the development of nuclear war heads for FY2007, namely $23.4 Billion , is just about enough to give each of the 10 million starving people in the USA $2300 for the year. That's more than double the average (monthly) USA minimum wage!! Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

Posted by Ernst Kuschke | 5 comment(s)

Dungeons: Red Bull Big Wave Africa
The Red Bull Big Wave Africa contest goes down every year close to Cape Town at the epic Dungeons. The Billabong XXL Award for the biggest wave surfed on the planet in 2006 was awarded to this monster, surfed by Greg Long at Dungeons: We've been expecting big swell during June for weeks now, but Monday was to be especially big, with swell of about 28 foot (that's just about 8.5meters!). Knowing that the BWA went on amber status, I decided to head out to Dungeons on Monday afternoon to see...

Posted by Ernst Kuschke | with no comments

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My town
Whenever I post photos to my blog, it's always places that I travel to (or screenshots from Visual Studio!) Here are some photos from my hometown, Cape Town , which I think is not only by far the best place to live in South Africa, but undoubtedly one of the most beautiful in the world. On Sunday evening, some friends and myself took a hike on Lion's Head. How many places do you know in the world where you can see scenes like this *in the middle of the city*? Every day, after draining my brain in...

Posted by Ernst Kuschke | 3 comment(s)

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Toilet ISP
If you want wireless broadband at home (who doesn't?), consider flushing a fibre optic cable down your toilet. Seriously - Google tISP is a new innitiative from those inventive guys at Google. There are three innitial packages: Trickle The #2 Royal Flush Download speed (max) 8 Mbps(10X basic DSL) 16 Mbps(20X basic DSL) 32 Mbps(40X basic DSL) Upload speed (max) 2 Mbps 4 Mbps 8 Mbps Price Free $9.95/mo. $24.95/mo. Of course, being Google, it's in beta ;o) (Only availabale in the US and Canada at this...

Posted by Ernst Kuschke | 2 comment(s)

Vista speech recognition
Here's an example of how you can write some (perl) code using Vista's Speech Recognition. (Watch the video-clip before you attempt to do so!) Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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Barreling in the office!
If you live in Cape Town with an office-bound job, and you know that lately the swell has been very decent, as has the weather, it becomes a very emotional affair. Many wave-riders have been spotted wiping away a tear, or just buckling under the pressure, abandoning their offices and heading for the beach with a board! Sometimes when I meander through the cubicles here at 24.com , I hear little sobs! Carlo, a kiteboarding freak, has found a solution that makes it slightly more bearable . Here's some...

Posted by Ernst Kuschke | with no comments

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Google personalisation
Google has gone live with their "personalised experience". If you're signed in with your Google account, your search results will bring back results that are more suited to what you might be looking for. I have no idea how well it works - in fact I prefer getting objective- rather than personalised search results. "At this time, your Gmail and AdWords information will not be used to personalize your experience." hmmm.... interesting... Read more here . Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! |...

Posted by Ernst Kuschke | 2 comment(s)

Find Old Versions of Software
Ever need to do this? Here 's a useful site that keeps them for you. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

Posted by Ernst Kuschke | with no comments

Human-Computer Interaction
There are different kinds of humans, or users, and so there are different kinds of ways to interact with computers. The graphical user-interface was one of the greatest leaps in this field, and ever since, even though gradually advancing, we have made slow progress. This field is coming more to the fore today than ever, and recent technologies like WPF is one sign that interaction with computers are becoming more important for people. The look-and-feel of telling your PC what to do. I have different...

Posted by Ernst Kuschke | with no comments

South African Airways
It's not really my style to use this blog to complain, but I just had to share this one. I booked a flight to visit my parents in Bloemfontein over the christmas period last year, and the only airline that flies there (quite a small town!) from Cape Town is South African Airways (SAA). I always book my flights over the internet - it's more convenient and you generally get a better price. In November 2006 I decided to cancel this flight, and drive up with a friend , so I cancelled my flight via the...

Posted by Ernst Kuschke | 3 comment(s)

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New search technology
Check out haika (beta) : "hakia is building the Web's new "meaning-based" search engine with the sole purpose of improving search relevancy and interactivity, pushing the current boundaries of Web search. The benefits to the end user are search efficiency, richness of information, and time savings. The basic promise is to bring search results by meaning match - similar to the human brain's cognitive skills - rather than by the mere occurrence (or popularity) of search terms. hakia's new technology...

Posted by Ernst Kuschke | with no comments

Search with a human face
Have a look at Miss Dewey , an interesting project by Microsoft. It utilises Flash to give Live search a (kinda sexy!) human face. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

Posted by Ernst Kuschke | with no comments

Internet speed
I'm unsure how our connectivity here at 24.com works, but my bandwidth from the office looks like this: That is good "speed" if you consider my location: South Africa. Most people down here have no internet access at the moment, and the ones who do access from home use mostly dial-up (which is, in fact, totally unusable, and most users will terminate their contract after a bad experience). There are of course alternatives for home: ADSL (various providers) or iBurst (wireless). Both...

Posted by Ernst Kuschke | 3 comment(s)

Windows 1.0
I don't recall when last I saw something this funny . Recognise this guy? Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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