Welcome to Invisible Ink

Featured

Welcome to Invisible Ink. This is the personal homepage of Kobus Myburgh, and here he will either entertain you (or sicken you) with petty philosophies, tasteless jokes or his curriculum vitae. Hopefully you will see something here that interests you.

Kobus Myburgh was born in 1975, and has been working in the IT industry for over 12 years and has gained vast experience in managing tertiary education computer systems and users, all aspects of web development and customer care (through his company, NetGold Productions, founded in 2001), usability, accessibility and user experience improvements (through his B. Sc. (cum laude) and B. Sc. Honors degrees through North-West University) and also various other professional qualifications, some of which are A+, ITIL Foundation, ITIL Practitioner in Release and Control, Web development through Working Webs, Software specialist (with distinction) through Boston Business College and attendance of Novell 6.0 CNA.

Kobus has been working in various fields in the IT sector, with a strong focus on training and web development.

A song for every occasion…

I got the idea to write about this from a very special friend. Her suggestion was that there is a song for every occasion, every mood and every whim. Is that true? Let’s find out…

I can only speak from personal experience, and from a few hints dropped from others over time, but there is definitely truth in the Beatles song “Hey Jude” – “Take a sad song and make it better…”.

I wonder why you feel better when listening to a sad song? Or is it only a subgroup of people who feel better when they listen to sad songs? Perhaps it is the thing that subconsciously you feel better because you realize there are people out there who are more sad than you are at that time. Or maybe you are not quite that vindictive. Maybe the song makes you realize that you are not alone. What do you think?

Elton John says: “Sad songs, they say, sad songs, they say so much!” Perhaps that is the reason? When you are sad, you may be more perceptive to the words of the song. You can associate with the words better, you listen better. Could that be it?

But sad songs are for only one emotion. What about happy (feel-good) songs? What about philosophical songs? Religious songs? A very old song, by Katrina and the Waves, called “Walking on Sunshine” comes to mind. When I hear that song, no matter what mood I am in, I am ready to dance. ALWAYS. Bring me the biggest dance floor you can find, and bring it to me NOW! This seems to contradict the statement about sad songs written above. Perhaps two totally different songs can produce the same mood reaction? Perhaps one song can affect your mood in both ways, depending on your current mood, or when you listen to it?

But regardless what your feelings are about this observation, I am sure everyone agrees: music soothes the soul. Music does not only express your mood, but can change it. It can create a perception about you in other people. It can make you smile. You can fall in love to music, or you can have a break-up song. Music is LIFE!

Until the next time…

Open

What does an open window and curtain tell you? As opposed to a dark room with curtains closed? Compare the two.

Open window and curtains. Fresh air and light. It invites you in. And usually, when your window is open so other people can see into your place, the place is relatively neat. You don’t want people to look into your bedroom window when your clothes are on the floor and your bed is not made?

Closed windows and curtains. Stale air, darkness, Wants you to stay out. Your place could be a mess, you could be ashamed of your place. You could, perhaps, be too lazy to clean it up. Or, you could simply be busy with private matters.

Using this physical comparison, we can bring it to bear on your every day lives. Are we open? Are we closed? Are we a source of light for other people? Do we shut them out? Do we keep to ourselves and appear grumpy all the time? Or do we smile and let people into our souls?

Some of us have been hurt so many times and are so untrustworthy, that we do not want to let people inside. This is particularly true of the love scorned.

Are you like that? Closed? Perhaps. What are your reasons? Is it because of being scorned, or perhaps you simply do not know how to invite people in? Whatever your reason is, work at letting people in. The ones you appreciate most will be the light that shines from your eyes if you do…

Vanishing of e-mail?

WebProNews posted this article about an executive at Facebook stating that e-mail will probably go away. I have commented the below, what do you think?

Well, that article hits the nail on the dot. E-mail can’t die. It is so integrated into our daily lives that there is no real way to conceive it to just die. But because I like to play Devil’s Advocate, I will contest this statement (without any proof, all just postulates, so don’t see it as opposing your story or the comments of the hundreds of – absolutely correct – commentators on your post).

The other side of the story goes something like this…

Who’s to say there will not be a new technology to take the place of email in the near future? Maybe Facebook is currently busy developing it. Who would’ve thought about 15-20 years ago that cellphones would all but replace conventional telephones?

Furthermore, when Sheryl said email will vanish, did she mean it will vanish like dinosaurs did, or did she mean it will vanish like the Illuminati did? Or even vanish as the KKK in the USA or Apartheid in South Africa? Just think about that… Does “dying” really mean “extinction” in this case?

Now, I didn’t attend the show, or listen to the broadcast, but I am just speculating here: could she have meant “conventional email sent via a computer” would die out? Could she have said that “email will die out in favor of mobile technology”? While these mobile devices certainly all have messaging technologies, and has a “handle” or “nickname” that has the format of an “email address”, does that necessarily make it an email?

And now, let’s go back to the other side for a bit… (sorry Sheryl)… If you take the official definition of email, according to one source on the net: “Email is a way of sending messages from one computer to another.” or another: “Email is the exchange of computer-stored messages by telecommunication”, it could be postulated that even an SMS is an email. So is an MMS, so is ANY other method of receiving a notification via electronic or telecommunications media.

So – will email die? Completely? NEVER, unless they can devise a way to send a message via telepathy. With the human mind sending signals between neurons via “action potentials”, which are considered by some as electrical impulses, that opens up a whole new debate…

Go figure…

Karma? Luck? I don’t know…

Do you believe in Karma? Is she a bitch on high heels? Or is she just and fair? Does she “exist”? I don’t know, and quite frankly, I believe that is for each to decide for themselves. I have often heard “What goes around, comes around” or “She got what she had coming” and things like that – this would suggest that Karma is indeed a bitch, if treated inappropriately…

I am not 100% sure – but based on my general feelings, I agree that you attract the response you send out to the world via your attitude. If you’re a kind person, people will be kind to you in return, well, generally speaking of course. If you trample people, they will trample you, or die trying to, depending on your disposition.

Now me, I am generally kind, and I am having it pretty good in Karma’s books. I have not had any serious problems recently. Am I doing something right? I don’t know. But I do know that I have been blessed twice in two days with excellent service. First my car repairs on Friday, and this morning, great service at my hair dresser’s. Maybe I am doing something right afterall :-)

Of course, you can argue that this is expected, as you pay for the service, but still – we have become so complacent that service is bad, that we are starting to accept bad service as the norm. It doesn’t have to be this way…

When thinking back about this all, I figured what had at least a part in the good service I have received in the past few days – friendliness. I realised in hind sight that I was friendly (well, I am almost always friendly, given, but recently it was more than usual – the reason for that is a story for another day). Being friendly got me friendliness in return. Simple as that. Karma.

Perhaps we should stop seeing the fault in everyone else when we receive bad service, and start looking at ourselves. Hmmm?

Life

We are very sad today – our friend Jaco was taken away in a car accident this morning. SJS will not be the same without Mayor around. Mayor, friend, you have enriched our lives.

The collective sadness we feel today at SJS is so overwhelming. Everyone is quiet, keeping to themselves. Nobody is posting much, so I thought about this:

If we assume that there are at least 50 people mourning Jaco’s departure, and that all departing people are mourned by at least 50 people, this would world is a sad, sad place. Every day millions of people die. Considering South Africa as on July 2009, 16.99 of every 1000 people die per year. With a population of almost 49 million, that means around 832000 people died in the last year in South Africa alone. That would make 41 million people mourning the death of a loved one througout the year.

Well, this post was not meant to be negative, depressing or even 100% accurate, but I think you get the idea. When we’re sad, we’re often sad for our own loss, as the person who left us for eternity is in a better place. His or her job on earth was complete. It is not for us to try and figure out why.

The point of this post is, that even though 41 million people mourn every year about a loved one lost, that same 41 million people rejoice every other moment in time about the joy that people brought to their lives while they were alive.

Don’t cry because it is over, smile because it happened. Yes, harder to achieve than to say, but we have to try, otherwise nobody will ever be happy…

So – let’s celebrate Jaco’s life, for who he was, what he has meant to all of us, and what we’ve learnt from him…

Can you ever know someone completely?

The question that I pose is: Can you ever know someone completely? My answer is – I certainly hope not!

Why would you want to know someone completely? What is in it for you? No more enigma, no more surprise. No more thoughts of “what’s next”… How boring it must be!

Given, you need to know at least a few little things about a person you want to marry or otherwise spend your life with, need to find out the things that you can’t live with and the things you can’t live without. You have to know the fundamental differences and similarities between you. You need to know if your potential mate is an axe murderer. Wanted by the police? For sure, you need to know that. What about HIV status? I am sure that is high on everyone’s list.

But honestly, before getting married or otherwise hitching up, does it really matter if she had a Barbie doll when she was 7? Or that he had his appendix removed when he was 16? What about having 2 false teeth? What about being Victor Lodorum in school? NO! You don’t need to know this before committing! That is the fun of being with the one you love – you get to learn something new, every day!

After all, you want to do this for your entire life (the commitment, I mean). Well, at least most of us do. Most of us do not think – “Hey, I will date this person for a while, until I am bored” and those that do, have decided already that you can know someone completely right from the start. Skip the boredome! Leave something for the future. Grow old together, and die old, one day, thinking – I wonder what colour dress that Barbie doll had on?

Ciao!

Love eternal

Ah, the ever elusive concept of eternal love. Does eternal love between lovers exist? The short answer is YES. But what about the long answer? ABSOLUTELY! Well, technically speaking the one answer is short and the other one is long. So bite me!

But before you can really know for sure about eternal love, you have to ask yourself WHAT is eternal love. How do you practise it? How do you get it?

You practise it by being absolutely dedicated to the one you love. Consider everything you do and say in such a way that you would be happy if someone did that to you. Scold them? Would you like to be scolded at? Cheat them? Would you like to be cheated upon? Ignore them? Mistreat them? Make them sad? Make them cry? That is the simple recipe, and I have the answer, straight from various religious sources: Do unto others as you would want done unto yourself.

So easy in theory, isn’t it? :-)

My first hate mail and job offer…

Don’t you just love it when people show the signs of their poor upbringing and absolute lack of intelligence? Hehehe…

Well, I have just received my first hate mail. It goes like this…

Please contact Dick Dugler from Dick (TM) PTY LTD
Telephone number: 101111
E-mail address (as given): suck-my-d*ck@industries.net
Fax number (if provided): 101111
Subject: Job Offer
Body: Howz about you suck my erect p*nis? Faggot

Well, let’s see… First of all, he works at the police station, hence the number 10111 (LOL). However, this retarded “policeman” has problems counting. There are only 5 numbers in the police hotline, and only 4 of them are the digit 1. I guess he lost all his counting fingers when his inbred dog mistook them for frankfurters.

I have to say though – being able to register a domain such as industries.net for his personal hate mail needs certainly indicates that this “policeman” is very rich with lots of foreign investments, and he likes to travel quite a bit. It is evident from the fact that he owns a company called Network Solutions, which, from my knowledge gathering, is a Limited Liability Company web services provider located in the United States and is owned by General Atlantic, a large global growth investor company, who owns well over 50 companies (http://www.generalatlantic.com/en/companies/all). Looks at some of these companies! This is so impressive! It would be really ridiculous to believe that this man is anything less than a director of this group of companies! So – I have to say – I am very much impressed with the mettle of my retarded board member.

And would you believe! He is offering me a job! WOW! And nothing less that to suck his honorable erectness. Wow. Now all I can hope for is that I don’t need a tweezer to find it – I am so excited! But I believe he must be one of the “biggest” men around, you know, because, wow, nobody would advertise their manhood in his e-mail address if he was Stuart Little, right? Yeah – I wonder if I should accept.

… 4 hours passes …

Okay – now that the excitement and exhiliration is over, I have decided not to take his job offer. Not only did his e-mail address had a hard bounce, his mailer daemon responded with the following error message: “No such user: suck-my-d*ck”. So it means that this guy has been playing me! There is no job openings for personal d*ck suckers. I feel so wronged! *sigh*

Well, now that I am over the worst of the disappointment, I started to accept my fate. This person is actually sort of an idiot. Why do I say such fowl things about a prospective employer? Well, see, that’s simple: He has no d*ck to suck, which is evident from his bounced mail, and, well, he should’ve figured I am not his type, because his girlfriend likes me… ;-)

The influence of the stars and universe

What about astrology? You believe in it? You really do? Think it is has an effect on you, who you are, who you should date, what you should eat and what work you should do? You better believe it!

From a philosophical point of view (and I may get a bit of flack from a religious point of view now) you can think of this as a large randomizing machine. A lottery machine if you will. There are a finite number of balls. Let’s simplify it, and say there are only 9 balls. Let’s call the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. No suprises here! Let’s say we have to choose 6 of those 9 balls for a certain lottery draw. Some of our options are 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9 and 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8. What about 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8? Sure

Now let’s assign a characteristic to each number. Let’s assume the following to be true:

  • 1 – Likes coffee
  • 2 – Plays sports
  • 3 – Dances
  • 4 – Loves sleeping
  • 5 – Likes chess
  • 6 – Is romantic
  • 7 – Loves children
  • 8 – Is musical
  • 9 – Has a good sense of humour

As you can see, there are literally only 9 different options here. But, mathematically, there, I think, are 9*8*7*6*5*4 different possibilities here. I will leave it to the mathematicians amongst you to confirm or dispute this. This would mean, from 9 distinct options, you can be provided with 60480 different combinations with 6 digits. This is what makes us all unique.

Now – let’s revisit our chosen combinations above.

  • 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 – A romantic coffee drinker who gets enough sleep, plays chess, loves children and is musical.
  • 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 – A dancer who plays sports and chess, is romantic, loves children and is musical.
  • 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9 – A coffee drinker who plays sports, dances, loves children, is musical and has a good sense of humour.
  • 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 – A coffee drinking dancer, who plays chess, is romantic, is musical and has a good sense of humour.

Do I have proof of this? No, I don’t. Does science have proof of this? I highly doubt it. Does society have proof of this? They seem to think so. Is the evidence conclusive? I don’t know. So why do I believe it? Because it simply has to be. Like God. You can’t explain God, nobody can. But God is there. And the stars are God’s randomizing machine to keep us different enough to keep us interested enough in one another. To keep us learning about ourselves and others, our whole life long!

In our example there are, using only those 9 combinations and choosing 6 of them at any given time, you can make over 60000 distinct combinations. That is what makes us all unique. The stars and galxy – it’s God’s randomizer. The position of the planets and stars at your birth is what differentiates you from another person. Again, do I have proof of this? No – but I believe it anyways…

My mom’s a b**ch

My mom’s a b**ch. The words uttered by a 12 year old on the forum of a popular game I sometimes play online, called TribalWars. He said this, because his mother would not pay for the fees of the game, so he had to play at a disadvantage to other kids whose parents did buy them the so-called “premium points”.

When told that his behavior was not good, here was his response: “I dont think you realize how young i actually am :P Im not old enough to have a Visa card or anything, my dad would buy it, he has bought it once but the bank shut his cards down because he stopped paying bills, and my mom would never ever spend money on a game… I would charge it to my cell but i dont want my dad to owe more money than he already does (My mom being what she is wouldnt by me or my brother cell phones, so my dad had to)”.

I have decided to buy myself premium points, because it just makes the game more manageable and it then takes up less time (which I do not have a whole lot of nowadays). Those with large game accounts without premium points can still play the game, but management of the account becomes tedious.

Now with the bit of history of the game out of the way, I responded to the post as follows:

==========

Hmmmm…

Adults usually have reasons that kids don’t know about for not allowing certain perks or benefits. The reason your dad stopped paying bills could be because he COULDN’T anymore, or because of poor financial control. It could be anything. Your mom, on the other hand, could refuse to do this due to your financial situation (or not, whatever – read on).

My mom raised 4 boys on her own, and she had a very small salary. When I got out of school, as I started working as a waiter to help my mother with little household expenses, not because I was forced to (she never asked a cent of me) but because I started to realize what things cost, and how she was suffering, and hiding it from us kids so that we wouldn’t worry.

We didn’t have cellphones or any luxuries. What we did have, though, was second-hand clothes, food, and a roof over our head. We didn’t want to understand that when we were young, when all the other kids had money for sweets and cold drinks during school breaks. But now that we’re all grown up, we realize exactly what my mom went through, as we have been through similar situations ourselves in our adult lives, albeit for different reasons, perhaps.

Now that I am an adult, I remember all the small things that my mother *did* which I did not notice when I was younger. On pay day, each of us got a small, cheap sweet. Something nice, just for us. Without fail. No exceptions. At that time it didn’t compare well to the stuff the other kids in school got, but now that I think back – she was a FRIGGIN’ AMAZING WOMAN! Even though we considered her a b**ch when we were kids…

So – next time you want to call your mom a b**ch, think about what I wrote here, and you may reconsider your thoughts. Whatever her reasons are for not giving you money, could be a serious reason that she is not telling you, to stop you from worrying.