A very interesting discussion on Slashdot has ensued after last week's debacle around a string of hex numbers (which I posted as well in the interest of free speech).

I did Latin at school. To say I studied it is not entirely accurate. I thought translations were tedious and completely irrelevant, and spent my time learning about ancient Roman culture instead.

I think it's time we reclaimed the word "influenza", because it sounds a whole lot scarier than "'flu". My thinking behind that philosophy is based on the fact that we're about to face another respiratory infection pandemic like SARS (the virus, not the tax department). And, quite frankly, influenza is scary. 5% of the human population died in the Spanish 'flu pandemic (around 50 – 100 million people), and 20% were infected, between 1918 – 1920.

45 days in prison for being stupid. I really like that. I think more people should go to jail for being thick. Sure, we'd have massive overcrowding in American prisons, but at least the clever ones could get things done instead of writing shit about non-celebrities like Paris Hilton … oh, wait …

The Democratic Alliance, ruled for the past eight years by Tony Leon, is currently in a two-day congress to elect a new leader. I hope aunty Helen wins. She's the white man's answer to aunty Patty.

The Lotto was suspended six weeks ago after Uthingo's licence ran out. To this date, despite noises assurances from government that a new operator would be licenced by now, nothing has happened.