Hans' Milieu

Thursday 19 August 2010 marked the launch of the highly secretive yet painfully brilliant Girl Guides website.

Look I really do love to blog, but I never seem to be able to make the time to do it. Or when the inspiration hits, I’m never near my PC to get the dirty work done. However, that is all about to change!

For quite some time I have considered mobile blogging. Unfortunately, the WordPress mobile website is far from satisfactory. At least, that was the case with my previous Nokia and Windows Mobile devices.

I haven’t mentioned it to you all yet but I have made the move back to the iPhone. Yes I know, I was really negative about my original iPhone 3G back in 2008 (which I still haven’t been paid in full for after I sold it) but that was all pre-iPhone OS 3.0. Now, with my iPhone 3GS and the latest iPhone OS, I feel like I can see colours again!

For years I wished for a WordPress application for my previous phones. With the iPhone, my cries were answered.

The post you are reading now has been compiled on the WordPress iPhone application. It is pretty good. Not perfect, but acceptable enough for me to actually want to use.

For a free application it really is not bad. All I really miss is having the ability to justify my text, check my spelling, insert video, and place and position pictures or photographs into my post. However, those are features I suppose I can do without, for the time being.

Anyway, this was just a short and sweet post about the fact that I am back into the mobile blogging scene. Hopefully this new application will allow for a more organic blogging experience.

Until the next time Milieunairs!

(Update: I bought a new app called BlogPress and have edited this post with it. It cost $3 but it appears to be worth it)

I often prefer to steer away from political and religious debate, especially on my blog. However, today I am making an exception.

I have been made aware of a movement that is taking place. My fellow South African bloggers are taking a stand against the ANC Youth League and the current ruling party for attempting to strangle our right to freedom of speech.

A free press can be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom a press will never be anything but bad.
                                                                 ~ Albert Camus

As a result, South African bloggers have been called by Sipho Hlongwane to join in the protest against the jackboot tactics the ANC Youth League are employing to try and destroy the freedom of the press.

If you support this movement you are urged to spread the word by using the “#SpeakZA” hash tag via social media and by spreading the following statement on your blog:

Read the rest of this entry →

Any self respecting person has owned and built a Lego creation of some kind. Goodness knows that I own my fair share of Lego products, probably more than I would care to admit. Even now, at the tender age of 24, I still find myself browsing through the isles of Lego products available at any and all Toys R Us stores. In all honesty, and I am sure you will agree, Lego has no age limit.

This entry is focussed on stop-motion Lego filmography. A hobby which no doubt exists for people who really have nothing better to do with their time. Regardless, it really is very cool, especially when done properly.

Alex Kobbs is one of these stop-motion Lego fanatics. He has spent the last six years creating a Halo themed 25-minute short, based on Halo’s Zanzibar map, completely out of Lego. How awesomely insane is that?!

The short film is called The Battle of the Brick and features ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ battling it out *Halo fan high five*. The completed video is expected to hit the Web in early 2010, but for now you can have a look at the tantalising trailer:

If  Lego stop-motion filmography is your thing, you can follow the progress of Kobbs’ work at the Kooberz Studio Blog.

That’s not all folks. I have one more fantastic piece of Lego filmography to share with you.

Every gamer and geek who has watched The Matrix will agree that it is one of the best science fiction and action movies of all time. However, you have not seen anything until you see The Matrix lovingly created in Lego stop-motion!

In honour of the 10th anniversary of The Matrix, a group of fans recreated nearly 900 frames of the film. The entire sequence is animated without any additional effects. What this means, is that the short was filmed ‘in camera’ without the aid of wire removal, Photoshop or any additional special effects; other than what can be created with the Lego blocks themselves. Very impressive stuff! The entire project is said to have taken around 440 hours to complete. For more information and additional videos detailing the projects immensity, check out www.LegoMatrix.com.

How cool would a Lego Matrix game be?! *Waits patiently for Travellers Tales to scoop the rights to create the game*

Until the next ‘blocky’ post “Milieunairs”!

 

Well tickle my nipples and call me Bob! South Africa has become the 10th largest user of Twitter in the world.

According to Canadian research company Sysomos, South African Twitter users make up 0.85% of total online Twitter interaction, beating Japan (0.71%), the Philippines (0.64%) and China (0.49%) to a spot in the top 10. Quite impressive for a third world country, hey?

Overall though, the US is the winner by quite a large margin with 62.14% of the world’s users, followed by the UK (7.87%), Canada (5.69%) and Australia (2.8%).

According to the study, Twitter attracts around 55 million unique visitors worldwide per month! Of that figure, 0.85% are South African. That amounts to about 467 500 SA visitors per month. Can you believe that? Almost half a million South Africans log on to Twitter each month. Incredible!

Looking at the popularity of Twitter today, it is amazing to think that it all started as a simple pet project in Evan Williams’ basement, way back in March of 2006. Since that time Twitter has become the world’s most popular social networking and micro-blogging site, attracting celebrity users such as Oprah, and a growing mountain of media and blog coverage. In all honesty, I use Twitter so frequently, that I sometimes wonder why no one thought of it any sooner.

[Sources: News24, IOL]

 

For those who still do not know, you can follow my Twitter here: www.twitter.com/HansHaupt.

 

Until the next time “Milieunairs”!