My Gran

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Tim Keller

That’s my gran right in the middle. She passed away last night.

We all thought it was coming. She certainly knew it was. Still, incredibly hard to realise.

I have more memories of my gran than I could possibly write down, but two will stick with me for the rest of my life.

The first was about ten years ago. Gran was a few years into her heart problems and had begun to pack up her house. Each visit brought with it more trinkets and whatnots to be handed-out to all and sundry. One day, at such a gathering, someone asked her why she was getting rid of almost everything she owned.

“Well I don’t think I’ll be around much longer you see.”
Silence.
“Oh, you can’t think like that.”
“No no, I’m really quite comfortable with it”. There was a glimmer of keen longing in her eyes. “The Lord has a place for me and I’m really looking forward to meeting Him.”

I’ll always remember that my gran never feared the end of her life. In fact, she was quite comfortable with the very tempory nature of her time here on earth. More comfortable with it than anyone else I know.

The second memory is more recent. It was late afternoon on December 19th, 2009 and Amy and I had just been married. We were about to walk out from the dining room to our guard of honour before driving off on honeymoon, when we saw my gran still sitting at the very back of the room.

By this time her mind had gotten foggy and she wasn’t entirely sure about her surrounds. She must have been exhausted after a whole day out, but as we walked back across the room her eyes lit up. As we sat down she looked at us and said “Thank you for a lovely day. I feel so priveleged to have been invited.”

I’ll always remember her kindness and humility. And I’ll remember her inner, God-given peace.

Even as her mind let her down and her body became frail, she never complained about her ailments. Nor did she ask people to pity her. She took it in her stride and kept her eyes on the goal.

So, farewell and congratulations Gran. You made it home. We are so happy for you.

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Wrangling Lion Mail for Gmail

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Tim Keller

In light of Gmail’s awful redesign – I’ve decided to move back to Apple Mail (on Lion). Its a fantastic app, but it does need a fair bit of tweaking before its ready to replace the (old) Gmail web UI.

Here’s what you’ll want to do:

  • Read Alan Hogan’s comparison of Sparrow and Lion Mail if you’re still unsure about Mail.app.
  • Follow the Jamie Talbot’s setup guide for Lion mail
  • Setup a gmail-like priority inbox using Erik Hansen’s great smart mailbox tutorial.
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Innovation to Imitation

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Tim Keller

“Hello, Windows 8? This is iPad. You win.”

That’s Paul Thurott tweeting from //Build/ (yes, the forward slashes are required) where a developer preview for Windows 8 was released this week. You can almost feel the simultaneous relief and collective glee of the Windows community as their mainstream OS becomes cool again.

Apparently the above was actually tweeted in jest:

Made a joke yesterday. Here’s what I really think. iPad, Win8 tablets, and Amazon tablet will all own some part of this market. Obviously.

Interesting choice: iPad, Win8, and Amazon tablets. Notice how only one of those devices actually exists in the market? The Amazon tablet remains a rumour and, while there is no official release date, it seems like Windows 8 is only slated for a September 2012 release. Yes, that’s a year from now. A year.

Microsoft struck gold with DOS, Office and Windows in the late eighties and dominated the consumer technology space in the nineties. By surveying what competitors were releasing and responding rapidly with a commodity solution, they were able to monopolise the industry.

But their game plan hasn’t changed ever since. They’ve applied the same basic strategy to every innovation that has popped up on their radar. Sometimes this has found disastrous results, while in general they’ve just been so late to the game that their imitation is outdated by the time it reaches market.

So let’s consider some innovations (in this case by Apple) and the number of days it took Microsoft to imitate them and bring a product to market:

  • 1984 Macintosh (GUI) to Windows 3: 2995 days
  • 2001 iPod to Zune: 1848 days
  • 2007 iPhone to Windows Phone 7 Series System Series Seven: 1228 days
  • 2008 MacBookAir to Windows on Ultrabooks: 1339 days
    (not strictly a Microsoft imitation here - more-so Intel trying to prop up Microsoft’s business in an attempt to ward off ARM)
  • 2010 iPad to Windows 8 Tablets (assuming a Sept 2012 release): 882 days

Put simply: Microsoft has accelerated their rate of imitation to meet changing industry demands, and this has become the sole-focus of the corporation. When last did something industry-changing came out of Redmond?

Remember how, until recently, a certain tablet manufacturer literally had people queuing through the night for a chance to buy one? You can bet that’s going to happen again early next year when the third generation device is released.

So, bravo Microsoft on building (sorry, //building/) what seems to be an impressive new entry into the touch OS arena. However, being a year away from having anything comparable to today’s industry champion is just not reason to announce victory.

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EdTechConf Extended at Elkanah

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Tim Keller

It’s just two weeks to go until EdTechConf Extended at Elkanah House.

Earlier this year we held the inaugural EdTechConf at the International School of Cape Town. 120 teachers, principals and ICT managers gathered together to learn and share best practices for implementing educational technology in teaching and learning.

Dates: Friday 30 September (8am to 5pm) and Saturday 1 October (8am to 3pm)
Venue: Elkanah House (85 Sunningdale Drive, Sunningdale)

Space is limited but registration is still open for a few more days. Register now and avoid disappointment!

My colleagues at Umoya Networks will be providing free wifi to every delegate – so be sure to bring your laptops, iPads and phones so that you can “tweet along” with the conference proceedings.

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Steve Biko, 34 years ago

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Tim Keller

We believe that in our country there will no minority. There shall be no majority. There will just be people. And those people will all have the same status and political rights before the law.

Steve Biko was killed by apartheid police 34 years ago, today. His ultimate sacrifice is every South African’s gain.

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Of Men and Machines

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Tim Keller




Speech by Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator
Music by Hans Zimmer for Inception

Greed has poisoned men’s souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in.

Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge as made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity.

More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all.

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My Mac’s Applications folder

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Tim Keller

Having upgraded my Macbook Air the day OS X Lion came out, I settled down a last night to upgrade my main machine – my 2010 MacBookPro.

Plenty of people have already posted best practices for upgrading to Lion, so I won’t do bore you with a detailed explanation of backing up with TimeMachine and Superduper.

What I did find fun, was making a list of those Apps that I use on a daily basis and will need to install before I can be productive. Hopefully you’ll find some gems listed below that’ll help you in your day-to-day Mac workflow.

Productivity

Development

Design and Photography

Social

Gaming

Unix Nerdary

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8ta tries cheap bandwidth

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Tim Keller

Duncan McLeod reports on TechCentral

Telkom’s new mobile operator, 8ta, has dropped a bomb on rivals Vodacom, MTN and Cell C, introducing a cut-rate broadband product offering 10GB of data a month for R199 on a 24-month contract.

Sure, but it’s all about coverage – and 3G/HSPA coverage at that. And I can not believe that 8ta has a well built-out 3G/HSPA network. I could be wrong.

2G/EDGE is effectively untenable as an access method for today’s internet.  Most web applications (Gmail, Facebook, etc.) are simply too large, asynchronous and realtime to be usable over a bad EDGE connection.

I’ve got a Cell-C speedstick. Apparently it can manage 21Mbps but I’ve never seen anything near that speed. What I have seen is poor quality, intermittent connections, and a drop to 2G/EDGE as soon as I leave city-bounds. Even within Cape Town CBD, there are plenty of dead patches.

I expect that Vodacom and MTN’s bandwidth pricing will eventually be driven downwards by 8ta and Cell-C. In the meantime, I’m happy to pay a little more for reliability and quality.

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Teachers mull technology in education

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Tim Keller

Michelle Jones, Cape Times, reports:

The conference, held at the International School of Cape Town in Wynberg, was attended by 110 delegates from more than 50 city schools. Tim Keller, an organiser, said by referring to cellphones as “mobile learning devices” mindsets could be changed about their use in classrooms.

Absolutely amazing response to our little event in the last month.  It looks like we’ll be doing it again sooner than we thought.  More on that soon.

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Interview with John Maytham on Cape Talk 567

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Tim Keller

Here is my interview on the John Maytham Show, on Cape Talk 567, about the use of “Cell Phones in the classroom”. The studio picked up the story after seeing our article about EdTechConf in the Cape Times.

MP3: Tim Keller on the John Maytham Show

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