Wednesday, March 08, 2006
How to run Windows under OS X
Of course with the release of the Intel Macs the race is on to run Windows XP natively on a Mac. However, it's fairly simple to run it under OS X - for the princely sum of $25. WinTel is a product which will let you do that, along with their XP installation guide.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Who to vote for? Some remarks on design
It's almost 2pm on March 1st, local government election day. Being someone who doesn't follow politics much and yet wants to make an informed vote I did the only logical thing: I visited elections.org.za to find the websites of all the political parties and see how they rank. Summary: sorely disappointing.
The Freedom Front Plus: Afrikaans only - doesn't cater for any other languages.
United Democratic Movement: this site is visually repellent (and that's the nicest I can be).
They've tiled an image across the top of the page which clashes on the eyes. However, their election manifesto reads really wel
l. United Christian Democratic Party: the only site which addresses the elections directly on the front page - but it was completely insufficient.
Minority Front: site and graphics designed in Microsoft Word. The graphic for "Why vote MF?" reminds me of viagra spam. Good luck to you guys!
New National Party: this one is interesting. Their site is actually just the Western Cape site with most of their core commitments focussed on results for that province. The link to their national site reflects a page which says "This will soon be the new home of the domain www.stanleyisland.co.za." Thanks for the laughs!
IFP: one of the more decent sites. The 3 key words on the front page are: "Honour, Service, Delivery." I've heard that somewhere before.
Democratic Alliance: ah, yes - this is where I've heard that before. Also the only party which has a podcast (!). Can't imagine anything more boring. But, perhaps I'll listen and let you know what I think...
Azapo: probably the most creatively designed site. Black and yellow all the way but politically, I just am not all that stoked about "Azania." Plus I enjoyed the misspelling of "Discliamer" at the bottom of the home page.
The Independent Democrats have the most creative single page - you can download ringtones and cellphone wallpaper - the latter comes in all shapes and sizes of "Patricia for President!" which I find hilarious - and very well done. They're the only site to have a blog (albeit one which has no entries) and a forum (which doesn't work) but I have to give them points for at least aiming in the right direction.
Vryheidsfront Plus is one of the better designs - they even use flash on the front page! (not that it's used to do anything, really, but still - points). You can also view the site on a whole bunch of languages - English, French (!), German (!), Russian (!), Setswana, Spanish (!), Zulu. I'm sure all the Russians in SA are pretty chuffed about that.
The ANC site is pretty decent and that's all I have to say about that.
What interests me the most about all of the parties contesting in the elections is the number of parties with "Christian" in their name. From the elections.org.za page:
AFRICAN CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE-AFRIKANER CHRISTEN ALLIANSIE - ACA
AFRICAN CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY - ACDP
CHRISTEN PARTY/CHRISTIAN PARTY - CP
CHRISTIAN CHAMPION PARTY - CCP
CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY - CDP
CHRISTIAN FRONT - CF
NATIONAL CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY - N.C.D.P
UNITED CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY - UCDP
And throw in the God's People's Party too.
The Freedom Front Plus: Afrikaans only - doesn't cater for any other languages.
United Democratic Movement: this site is visually repellent (and that's the nicest I can be).
They've tiled an image across the top of the page which clashes on the eyes. However, their election manifesto reads really wel
l. United Christian Democratic Party: the only site which addresses the elections directly on the front page - but it was completely insufficient.
Minority Front: site and graphics designed in Microsoft Word. The graphic for "Why vote MF?" reminds me of viagra spam. Good luck to you guys!
New National Party: this one is interesting. Their site is actually just the Western Cape site with most of their core commitments focussed on results for that province. The link to their national site reflects a page which says "This will soon be the new home of the domain www.stanleyisland.co.za." Thanks for the laughs!
IFP: one of the more decent sites. The 3 key words on the front page are: "Honour, Service, Delivery." I've heard that somewhere before.
Democratic Alliance: ah, yes - this is where I've heard that before. Also the only party which has a podcast (!). Can't imagine anything more boring. But, perhaps I'll listen and let you know what I think...
Azapo: probably the most creatively designed site. Black and yellow all the way but politically, I just am not all that stoked about "Azania." Plus I enjoyed the misspelling of "Discliamer" at the bottom of the home page.
The Independent Democrats have the most creative single page - you can download ringtones and cellphone wallpaper - the latter comes in all shapes and sizes of "Patricia for President!" which I find hilarious - and very well done. They're the only site to have a blog (albeit one which has no entries) and a forum (which doesn't work) but I have to give them points for at least aiming in the right direction.
Vryheidsfront Plus is one of the better designs - they even use flash on the front page! (not that it's used to do anything, really, but still - points). You can also view the site on a whole bunch of languages - English, French (!), German (!), Russian (!), Setswana, Spanish (!), Zulu. I'm sure all the Russians in SA are pretty chuffed about that.
The ANC site is pretty decent and that's all I have to say about that.
What interests me the most about all of the parties contesting in the elections is the number of parties with "Christian" in their name. From the elections.org.za page:
AFRICAN CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE-AFRIKANER CHRISTEN ALLIANSIE - ACA
AFRICAN CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY - ACDP
CHRISTEN PARTY/CHRISTIAN PARTY - CP
CHRISTIAN CHAMPION PARTY - CCP
CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY - CDP
CHRISTIAN FRONT - CF
NATIONAL CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY - N.C.D.P
UNITED CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY - UCDP
And throw in the God's People's Party too.
Technorati Tags: ANC, Azapo, DA, DA, Democratic Alliance, elections, IFP, Independent Democrats, NNP, podcast, Christian, South Africa, Tony Leon, vote, voting
