Lament of a lifetime

As I watch one of the timelapse videos of the Venus transit, I find myself pondering my mortality, agonizing over lost opportunities, and other forms of crying over spilt milk. As much as I'm disappointed that I was unable to see the 2012 transit due to it having been night while Venus was transiting the Sun's disk, I can cope with that. I knew about it well in advance, and chose not to spend a whole whop of money getting to a place where I could have seen it. (Bearing in mind that my passport has expired, so I'm not sure where I might have gone.)

The spilt milk that really gets to me is the 2004 transit. That one was visible from South Africa. I definitely would have wanted to see it - I've had the astronomy-interest gene since I was little, perhaps as early as seeing (or imagining seeing, or reconstructing a memory of having seen) the first Space Shuttle mission flying over Cape Town in 1981.

But I only found out about the 2004 transit a few days after it happened.

And now, as I watch a video that can never compare to seeing it with my own eyes (with some extra optics), I realize:

I will never see it. I never have and I never will. The next one is in 2117, by which time I'll most likely be dead (or blind).

Let's hope medical technology improves enough to let me live (with sight!) to the ripe old age of 141.

(Or, I can just wait till 2016 and watch the Mercury transit and hope that that experience extinguishes the post-5-June-2012 angst.)

Political certainty or ethics?

SANRAL has failed to raise bonds at a bond auction. The Financial Mail attributes this to "uncertainty". Fair enough, to an investor, certainty is always better than uncertainty, all other things considered equal.

Isn't there a shortcut though? Act ethically - stop mining a captive audience for cash just because they have little option but to pay - and they won't cause political problems for your plans.

I have nothing against toll roads in principle, but I have a real problem with captive states handing over public assets to (quasi-)private interests along with de facto monopoly power. And despite my sometimes-libertarian leanings, I do not want to leave it to the market to decide how many roads should cross a countryside, for the same reason I don't think I would like the libertarian outcome of private nature conservation (I suspect there just wouldn't be enough of it).

But the way SANRAL seems to be exploiting its privileged position leaves a bad taste in the mouth. They are enclosing the commons that we have already paid for (and we continue to do so with the fuel levy we pay regardless of which road sections we use) simply by improving or even merely maintaining a stretch of road - perhaps adding a lane and probably also counting tolling facilities as "improvement". Then they have the gall to tell us that their tolls do not constitute double taxation [PDF]. It all looks, smells, and sounds like pigs feeding at the trough.

So to those of you who are fortunate to be investors, especially any of you who get to have a say in your investments' operations: try agitating for ethical behaviour, for treating customers with a little respect, leaving some money (read: value) on the table to make transactions worthwhile for those customers. (SA steel producers: yes, I'm also looking at you and your import parity pricing [PDF].) Perhaps these variables are ones you have a little more control over, unlike the notion of "political stability".

The value of the last breath of air

A comment about price vs. cost vs. value triggered a lingering thought experiment:

Suppose the intergalactic bypass got built and Earth was destroyed to make room, and you were one of the few survivors of the demolition. Let's further suppose that you were one of two trillionaires (infinitaires even) bidding in an auction for a can containing the last breath of air, that only one of you can breathe. After that, you die; the only question here is whether to postpone your demise by half a minute. There are no heirs (they either are dead or soon will be too), no charitable causes (the poor are dead, so are charismatic megafauna), and no liabilities (the revenue service is no more, and the phone company is out of business).

What is that can of air (as likely to be "fresh" as it is to be a sample taken from a sewer) worth? You might want to say it has infinite value, but I'm not so sure. Life seems of infinite value only if you don't know how much of it you have. Somehow I can't see myself spending my entire personal worth for one last breath of air. OTOH, a cool trillion is pointless if you can't spend it.

So much for the last breath of air. What about the one you're taking this very moment? What is it worth?

Conversation with a spammer

I'm eating homemade pizza with one hand and entertaining myself with a spammer in Gtalk with the other:

 cuteyxtinaz3:  hey there
 Sent at 6:42 AM on Friday
 me:  hi
 cuteyxtinaz3:  well hello i've been sitting around sooo bored and figured i'd say helllo.... hope i didn't bother u
there is like no one online to talk to anymore... 22.f here how bout u??
 me:  no it's all turtles
 cuteyxtinaz3:  oh ok so whats up????
 me:  my dog says hi
 cuteyxtinaz3:  it's so lame on here now i can't stand it
 me:  what are you going to do?
 cuteyxtinaz3:  well l have an idea if u wanna have sum fun!!! i was gonna get on my cam and "relax" a lil u should cumm join
l joined this really great sitethat is just like fbook but w/o the annoying kids.. wanna see??
 me:  yeah sure no problem how much $$$ do you want
 cuteyxtinaz3:  lt only takes asec. to signup and it's 100% free 2!!! http://twurl.nl/cdytpo just click the ''Join FREE'' at the top of thepage
once u signup u'll be allgood and u can join my private chat and tell me what 2 do
 me:  why don't you take some of those skimmed credit cards and shove them
 cuteyxtinaz3:  yeah u do need a card of sum kind but they wiII not charge u a penny!!!!!!
 me:  you fail the turing test
 cuteyxtinaz3:  l can't wait this is going to be sooo much fun. wait till u see what i'm wearing right now lol i think u'll like it;)
 me:  yeah i bet it's a nice hypervisor
 cuteyxtinaz3:  are u in hun??? i'm going to go get some "toys" but ill brb and hopefully u'll be in when i get back hurry uppp
 me:  yeah sure just my card details to nigeria
they need it

It looks like this script just doesn't care at all what nonsense I write. Next time, I'll try typing gibberish.

UPDATE: They really don't care how you reply. Even ELIZA is smarter. This time it's in MSN:

(23:34:32) gabriella: hiiii i've been looking for u!
(23:34:50) berndj@prism.co.za: of cousk qcuwy qsnakz di
(23:35:01) gabriella: Hey there, hope ya dont mind chatting with a spiteful horny girl, so how are u??
(23:35:21) berndj@prism.co.za: nquq ydy ajaje fllw uw cyaabef
(23:35:31) gabriella: yeaa I know it's random, but my dbag EX cheated on ME so I'm on a MANhunt haha... I got ur username on a hotmail male directory, I'm gabby, you are? ;)
(23:35:56) berndj@prism.co.za: d'q iivuw wv ojve uv uehv lsa
(23:36:09) gabriella: I see.. where do you live? I am bored in my apartment...and this usually gets me in trouble ;) esp since I'm single and sexually deprived :-(
(23:37:18) berndj@prism.co.za: ia uch u veuhejs vjhdjvhdj Bakje ve kvjdv
(23:37:28) gabriella: R ya signed up to any online dating sites?? You seem cool. i just took sum naughty pics and put them on my comehookup page.. want to see? haha
(23:37:50) berndj@prism.co.za: u ckeciej jcveruz ak sfakjk e!
(23:38:00) gabriella: k, here, lemme know what you think http://t.co/olhORKK .. you might have to make a profile if u dont have one already. It takes seriously 1 minute and its completely free.

And almost simultaneously, another:

(23:39:19) ethylherafbui@hotmail.com: Watcha doin??
(23:40:09) berndj@prism.co.za: i't kjuq ksuucw kjvial kjakkei
(23:40:20) ethylherafbui@hotmail.com: have we chatted before?? im 23/f u ?
(23:40:50) berndj@prism.co.za: kiuw laus gujanbu we!
(23:41:00) ethylherafbui@hotmail.com: i'm sorry ... i get to be forgetful at times!! how're you?
(23:41:12) berndj@prism.co.za: sduwa!
(23:41:22) ethylherafbui@hotmail.com: Just finished taking a bath..long day been kind of busy but i'm feeling a little naughty now! so what's up?? ... want to have some fun? ;)
(23:42:08) berndj@prism.co.za: ei do markvo kajviw generatskbuye
(23:42:19) ethylherafbui@hotmail.com: long day i was in the shower forever just playin around and it always gets me horny lolz .. gonna change my clothes want to see ? ;) lol
(23:42:33) berndj@prism.co.za: laiud wiha
(23:42:44) ethylherafbui@hotmail.com: I'm kinda horny lolz :x wanna play on cam ??
(23:43:20) berndj@prism.co.za: nastidana wekali - ukrino navawu
(23:43:31) ethylherafbui@hotmail.com: nice place..never been ..maybe one day ;P

3D flowers

The muse to post has been on strike, so you'll have to endure some more garden photography.

Agapanthus

Iris

These pictures are stereograms: squint at them. I have never been able reliably to diverge my eyes from their focus point, but I have been able to converge them. A ruined Sub. B class photo from 1984 attests to my skill at this. Therefore, these stereo images are made for a converging squint. Don't worry if you struggle with the Agapanthus - the view points are too far apart, so I can see only a part of the flower at a time in 3D. The rest of the flower appears like a confusing mess of blue. The Iris OTOH is a beaut!

(If anyone could effect a more specific ID of the species, I would be grateful for a comment or two.)

Transport Month Week Three Survey - my responses

Recording my responses to Transport Month Week Three survey for the wall of text. Don't have the muse to be more creative.

Which public transport service(s) do you use and why?
Rail transport
How often do you use public transport and why? (daily/occasionally/events only/never)
Occasionally, sporadically daily
What would persuade you to use public transport?
I'd use it more if it were more unlikely that I'd have to wait 40 minutes for the next train, whether due to breakdowns, dogs eating Metrorail's homework, or just the rather rarefied off-peak schedules.
Do you think an after-hours public transport service should be available and, if so, what would persuade you to use such a service?
Yes! It would help if such a service a) existed, and b) was safe to use. Even something like London's notorious/famous "night bus" could help - anything that can predictably and reliably take me home, even if not super promptly.
What is your experience of the Transport Information Centre and what should be done to improve the overall public transport service in Cape Town?

Never used the TIC - sorry. Figure out how to make it more "cool" to use public transport, not such a Hobson's choice. Break the vicious cycle of mediocrity of service and low appetite for its use.

Longer answer: perhaps there needs to be a bit of stick and carrot. Cape Town's roads seem to have become noticeably more congested over the 15 years I've been driving, especially the intersections of major routes surrounding the principal economic nodes. It would be a tragedy if the solution to this consisted (only) of road widening. Instead, we need to get people out of cars and into buses, trains, and (grudgingly) minibus taxis. I think the City knows this. Carrot: more convenient, safe, clean, all-singing-and-dancing public transport. Stick: higher vehicle registration fees, since you can't attack directly via the fuel price. More stick: continue coming down on drunken drivers like a ton of bricks.

My experience of Germany's train system is that even the upper classes have no qualms about using the trains. Why is this not the case in Cape Town? I can suppose the cause is a combination of stations in dodgy or dodgy-looking areas (or rather, stations *attract* dodginess), ugly, dirty, antedeluvian-looking trainsets (the 10M3's are a little better - but not by much), a culture of mediocrity that suffuses Metrorail that results in poor service that only those who have no other choice will tolerate. I don't think many non-train-users know that at least in peak times and if one's travel needs are along the rail corridors, you get where you want to be, quicker.

Perhaps shorter trainsets can help to address the deserted-trains-give-me-the-creeps problem after hours? Not much of an energy saving but maybe if people felt safer, they'd have a greater appetite for rail transport.

I enthusiastically support the City's efforts to wrest control over commuter rail transport from Metrofail, if only for the potential for a culture reboot that it offers.

Thanks for reading this wall of text!

CAPTCHA: nttcr5

UPDATE: "Server Error in '/FeedbackForm' Application. // Runtime Error". Sigh.

Have email disclaimers gone mad?

It might just be karmic justice. Until a few months ago I worked at a company that would like to redefine email as Email 3.0 or something - the product was an email gateway that added branding, business cards, and also those stupid page-long disclaimers.

On Monday I bought a little baby PV solar panel, just to have an electronics guinea pig. Setsolar asked me for my address, email and real life, phone number, all sorts of things. (I wasn't in the mood to kick up much of a fuss.) So today I received the tax invoice by email. Fair enough, and kudos to them for allowing '+' in an email address. But then... there it was, lurking at the bottom of the email (emphasis mine):

Confidentiality Note: This email message and it’s [sic] attachments are the property of SETSOLAR. This information is intended solely for the attention and use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and legally privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

WTF? Since when is an invoice the property of the vendor? And just when did I agree to a contract that seeks to "prohibit" me from unauthorized "review" (???), use, disclosure and distribution? I guess I should now expect NPA to come knocking at my door.