I must admit that the brand synergy between Apple computers and Bentley motors is rather interesting, but it really seems to work. Although it only works one way, Apple owners at a Bentley event could be be amusing, yet I don’t think Bentley would get very many sales.

The Core Group’s head honcho (I can’t remember his name) did a nice enough Keynote presentation, which the Bentley owners seemed to like. Although I really felt the urge to heckle him a bit, especially when his “facts” on Apple computers became a bit stretched. I almost sprayed larny Champagne over everyone when he mentioned that Apple invented the graphical user interface.

He of course took some well deserved digs at Windows, so I didn’t mind his “facts” too much.

I kept thinking to myself; “Ubuntu can do that, Ubuntu can do that BETTER, oh please Linux has had that since 1995″. He also didn’t mention all the cool Free and Open Source Software that can run very nicely on OSX, which I found disappointing. But I suppose I was the only real geek in the audience (sans Bentley) so what ever.

I must say one thing. I haven’t ever seem a presentation like that about Linux or Ubuntu. The FOSS movement really need to jack up their act in that arena. I include myself in the uit kak. The presentation really seemed to speak to that exact audience. While Keynote has some nice features, it really doesn’t make a difference. The Core guy blamed Powerpoint for those kak presentations that we all love to hate. Yet if you where to fork out some cash and get Missing Link to do your presentation, his Keynote presentation would look like a toddler put it together, and it would run in Powerpoint.

Now for the sex in the mouth bit that all the perverts where waiting for. I have bad news for you, it has nothing to do with having oral sex in the back of a Bentley while recording the action in iMovie.

No it is about Nicolas Maillart Champagne, OMG!!

I’ve never been a big champagne drinker, I have always though that Moet would make good battery acid. But this stuff is absolutely out of this world.

I pretty much hate wine fundies describing wine, I mean with quotes like; “intricate strawberry flavours and a subtle hint of manure in the nose”. I mean really, who the hell wants “manure” anywhere near their grog.

Ross’s wine review for “Angle’s gwar, Mammie klap Pappie, pap sak wyn”.

“Considering the wide appeal of this wine on the Cape Flats, I’m left with little doubt as to the pugitive appeal of this blend. It’s like domestic violence in the mouth with an aftertaste that is akin to be beaten up by the 28s. There is a distinct aroma of blood on the nose. While the first impression is that of toilet deodoriser, do not be put off. The second sip will numb your brain and you’ll pass out after the third.”

I think I should become a wine guru.

Anyway back to Nicolas Maillart, which has absolutely no resemblance to the above review. I would seriously recommend getting your hands on a bottle. As you can see I’m really not qualified to review wine. Let me describe the experience. Its like climbing into your brand new Bentley, for the first time. The bubbles subtly embrace your tongue as the soft leather seats would embrace your body. You come to realise that impeccable craftsmanship comes in many forms.

http://www.champagne-maillart.fr

Why did I write this? I don’t know, I didn’t even have enough Nicolas Maillart Champagne to get vrot. I suppose that I have proven that one can write about, Apple, Bentley and Nicolas Maillart Champagne (aka sex in the mouth) in one post.

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Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License. Please respect the license conditions

This recipe happened by complete accident, while the general ingredients are not new to the world of soup, I have discovered some tricks which seem to add a warmer,more rounded flavour to a classic soup of this nature.
This is an excellent soup for informal winter evenings with family and friends huddled around the fire.
I find that a heavily wooded white wine or a good merlot go rather nicely with this dish. It also goes well with beer (Castle Milk Stout, Guiness, or a heavier larger)
I use a pressure cooker when I do this, I suggest using one to save on energy.

Ingredients:

5 Medium potatoes (un-peeled).
Half a medium cabbage.
3 or 4 Leaks
1 big onion
3 chicken stock cubes
2 to 4 Chorizo sausages (or your favourite smoked sausage, frankfurter, bockwurst etc.)
500 grams minced bacon.
150ml cream.
Ground black pepper to taste.
Croûtons (optional)
Finely chopped parsley

Note: These quantities are not exact it doesn’t matter in this instance. I prefer my potatoes un-peeled, if you can find potatoes with thin clean skins try leaving them on.

Method:

Fry the minced bacon until very crispy.
Boil or microwave the potatoes.
Dice the potato and fry in the pot in a little oil or the rendered fat from the bacon,until slightly browned.
Roughly dice the cabbage and add to the potato along with the bacon.
Add the chicken stock which has been dissolved in boiling water.
Add the chopped leaks and a diced onion (raw un-fried).
Add a few litres (depending on quantity of ingredients) the water should be around two thirds to the quantity of ingredients already in the pot.
Seal the pressure cooker and cook for around 30 to 40 minutes.
While the pressure cooker is steaming away, slice the sausage and fry until very crispy.
Once the pressure cooker has done its magic, open the pot and using a stab-mixer, blend the content of the pot until everything is a liquid.
Stir in the cream.
Add the fried sausage.
Serve into soup bowls sprinkling the parsley and croûtons for garnish.

Update: 25/05/2008 – The pin code used to unlock your decoder will normally be 9949.

The Article:

There aren’t very many comprehensive howtos on installing KU-Band geostationary satellite dishes as used by DSTV users, on the internet. Well hopefully I can help. There seems to be a distinct absences of info on how to DIY install satellite dishes.

This is for a dish connecting to PAS7 /Intelsat 7/10 from South Africa.

I connect to free to air channels, DSTV is just too expensive. I can’t wait for some competition in South Africa, to give multichoice a real kick in the pants. At the moment I have settled on Botswana TV (BTV) which has some nice programs (their news is horrible) but you do get BBC World when they aren’t doing their own programing.

I bought a cheap 60 cm Ellies (ElSat) dish kit at Mica in Cedar Square, Builders Warehouse were R100 more expensive. Mica ripped charged me R430 for the kit.

The dish kit came with “almost” everything you need. It would have been nice if they included a Co-ax cable with F-Connectors for the satellite finder.

My 15 meter cable was also stuffed, which added to my frustration, so I had to get a new one.

I didn’t have to get a decoder, I have two ancient decoders which where given to me. You can pick up a cheap DSTV decoder at Cash Converters or buy a new one for around R400.

The old decoders don’t have very good signal detection, the new ones are better, but I still managed.

The process:

First get a GPS co-ordinate reading of your location.

Then visit this site for the exact settings for your installation

http://www.satsig.net/sf.htm

Get a cheap directional compass and roughly point your dish in the direction indicated.

There are many conflicting bits of info on the degree at which your should be mounted. Mine was 36 degrees vertical, 84 degrees from magnetic north, horizontal. (I’m using lay-mans terms here, cause I is one) The LNB is set to 20 degrees, the bottom of the LNB is at about 4 oclock to the dish.
The El-Sat dish has very poor vertical degree marking, so its a bit of a guess.

Next, rig up you satellite finder device. You’ll have to make up a short co-ax cable with two F-connectors, Ellies don’t supply these. (You’ll need to buy two F-connectors when you get the dish or satellite finder).

I rigged up my TV and the decoder with the best signal detection in close proximity to where I was doing the installation. I had my assistant watch the signal on screen and scream when something changed.

Sitting on the roof, getting a lekker sunburn, I carefully moved the dish around until I got a nice high pitched sound from the finder.

Before you begin this, set your decoder into a know channel, otherwise its signal detection doesn’t seem to work. (I’ll include the BTV channel at the end of this article)

Once I found a nice signal, both in the audio finder and on the decoder , I carefully tightened all the bolts. If you bump anything you’ll have to start again.

You should be able to then saddle all the loose cable and start playing with your channels.

I’m not going to tell you how to set you channels, because every decoder is different. My decoder is ancient. It has “Alexander the Great wuz here”, scratched on the back.

You can find the stuff broadcast on PAS 7 here:

http://www.lyngsat.com/intel68.html

And here:

http://rory.sharp.fm/rites/2006/01/freetoair_tv_channels_on_pas71.html

I found 13 channels of God-TV, including sermons direct from Lagos Nigeria. I didn’t find it so cool. BTV is about the best that you are going to get.

BTV settings on your decoder:

Frequency: 11625

Symbol Rate: 15000

FEC: 3/4

Polarity: Vertical

For the suckers people getting DSTV(they have multiple frequencies by the way):

Frequency: 11594

Symbol Rate: 27500

FEC: 5/6

Polarity: Vertical

So have fun and remember that you can actually do this your self. If you really stuff things up you can always call an installer to do it for you.

Click for more photos

It wouldn’t be revolution.org.za without some revolutionary message. Although I haven’t decided which revolution it is yet.

I decided to have an anti-consumerist xmas and decided to make my gifts. Making gifts seems to be very old school these days and to many people is like bringing a packet of soup powder to a bring & braai.

My nieces got Walnut, a traditional rocking horse. My father gave me a rocking horse, that he had made, for my second christmas. Seeing that my brother in law’s wood working endevours amount to breaking up wood for a braai. I decided that this would be a very treasured gift. The problem is that father xmas got all the credit for it.

My sister got a solid poplar chopping board.

Walnut gets his name from the colour of wood stain that I put over the poplar and white meranty. He took a little more time to make than I expected, but I completed the project before D-day. The most expensive part was the water based wood stain and floor varnish that I used as a finish.

So in all, I didn’t send any money overseas. I had more money for beer. My nieces not only got Walnut, but the gift of sharing (because I only made one). My sister got a chopping board and two toddlers with even more to fight about now.

Body – Eastern Cape poplar.

Pickups – Squire Affinity P-Bass.

Neck – SantaFe.

Hardware – SantaFe.

Finish – Dark sun burst – old shellac.

I started this project at the beginning of the year. The finish took months to dry, I wanted a crackle effect, to give the look of old antique shellac, so I over loaded the lacquer coat, it worked out.

This is my second guitar, the first was a rebuild of a Cort G254, so I don’t really feel that it was my own. Seeing that I play bass, I decided to build one which is distinctively my own. I took style and design inspiration for classic motor cars, especially KC’s 1948 Bentely I was also inspired by the lines on the new BMW 3 series and the Mercedes Benz S Class.

I wanted an mix of old world elegance and modern, clean lines. Most of the vertical lines follow a 25 degree angle.  The inset scratch plate is match booked poplar, I must say that the scratch plate gave me the most hassles. The poplar warped at the slightest change in weather and cracked. The thumb rest and inset on the top of the top pickup is African emboya, which I inherited from my father, he bought about 200 kilos of the stuff.

I designed this more for the aesthetics than the predicted sound, although I must say that the poplar has given the bass a bright twangy sound, despite the kak pickups.

I bought a cheap SantaFe P bass for the platform, I can’t build necks yet. I was very surprised at the build quality of the SantaFe, they would make great instruments to pimp, just add some good pickups, nuts etc. and you’d have a very nice axe.

Photos here.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License.

Intro (Executive summary):

I’ve always loved spaghetti bolognese as we call it in South Africa. It’s not really Italian as I’ve been lead to believe, but what ever it is actually called, its a simple tomato and meat sauce.

After years of experimentation, I have independently developed my own recipe. It has many external influences, so I can’t completely take credit for it. If its similar to your recipe, don’t sue me (you yanks out there) I promise I never held up your grandmother and forced it out of her, OK!

This recipe is highly adaptable and scalable to the intended audience (Linux speak, sorry). It is highly forgiving so if you don’t have a certain ingredient or if add too much or too little of something it should still be fairly edible. I think that most of the ingredients are fairly easy to come by. I hate those recipes that require two pubic hairs from a Siberian orangutan, a pound of the yeti’s toenail clippings and the juice from an Antarctic wild fig.

I recommend using a pressure cooker, otherwise expect this to take up to 4 hours to prepare (but that gives you a lot of time to get vrot on the red wine). If possible try not to eat it immediately, it tends to mature. Leave it in the fridge overnight and warm it up the next day. However, if you simply can’t help yourself and you eat it straight out of the pot, in a tree house away from the rest of your family, you won’t be disappointed.

You can add some fresh chopped garlic to this, I don’t like garlic.

Items needed (infrastructure requirements):

1 x pressure cooker, 5 to 10 litres should do.

1 x gas stove. (the plebs with electric stoves will still be able to pull this off, however I do recommend throwing the electric garbage thing out of the nearest window and visiting your gas stove dealer).

1 x tin opener (or buy those lazy-person ring pull tins).

Some spoons (duh).

1 x colander (drainer thingy for the beans and spagehitti… you twit).

Ingredients (sauce code):

- Beef mince – 500 grams to 1 kilo. (You don’t need that ultra lean stuff, regular stuff is OK. The leans stuff tends to absorb more oil, so you aren’t doing yourself any favours).

- 2 to 4 tins of Italian tomatoes, depending on the desired quantity. (These can be diced or whole, don’t get the South African tomatoes from Koo or All Gold, they tend to be too sour).

- 1 small tin of tomato paste.

- a gulp of olive oil (virgin, extra virgin, estate olive oil or plan old plonk pressed in some hairy person’s arm pit, whatever, it won’t make a difference).

- 1 to 2 glasses of drinkable red wine (Shiraz or merlot is best, pinotage or cab aren’t optimal).

- 1 desert to 1 tbl spoon fresh chopped herbs, Basil, Oregano, thyme and Italian Parsely (dried are OK, basil is useless dry. Don’t go mad with the herbs)

- 2 to 3 beef stock cubes (depending on desired saltiness, the cheese adds quite a bit of saltiness , so moderation is the key here)

- 1 or 2 tins of lentils (lentils add a creamy texture to the dish and help thicken the sauce)

- 1 or 2 tins of your favourite beans. (butter beans, red kidney beans, bartolli beans, chic-peas, whatever. Koo have a nice three bean selection, which I use)

- 1 teaspoon course ground black pepper to taste.

- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional).

- 1 cup of grated vintage gruyere or drunken pecorino.(sharp cheeses that are crumbly are best, don’t get a cheese that will go stringy, if you put cheddar into this I will enact a gruesome vengeful act upon your body and eternal soul, just don’t do it).

- 250ml cream (the normal runny full fat stuff is fine, don’t gasp, this isn’t diet food).

- Spaghetti (fresh is best, Woolworths has a nice fresh spaghetti imported from Italy, but it’s relatively expensive).

Method (compile howto):

Brown mince. You have two options here. For a chunky texture, just throw the mince into the pot with some olive oil and brown (when I say brown I mean the colour brown, not grey). If you would like a smoother texture (the way I prefer it), chuck the mince with some olive oil and a cup of water. Stir the mince mush mixture like crazy until BROWN. When the mince is nice and BROWN and a little crispy throw in the tomatoes and the paste. Drain the beans and lentils, wash them under a tap to get rid of the sludge and throw those in. Dissolve the stock cubes in 250ml boiling water and add that. Throw in the red wine, and throw a glass of it down your throat(it always good to be drunk when cooking, you have something to blame if something goes wrong, I learned that from braaing with my brother in-law). Throw in the pepper and herbs and another one to two cups (250ml) water (so it doesn’t burn in the pressure cooker, or RTFM of the pressure cooker as to liquid and cooking time).

Leave it in the pressure cooker (or simmering in a pot) until the tomatoes have dissolved, you should sir the pot from time-to-time to stop it from catching, it also helps the tomatoes to disolve . Now this is fairly difficult to do in a pressure cooker. I go against the instructions of the pressure cooker manufacturer and de-pressurise the pot using the valves (if you are prone to doing stupid things and then suing people, don’t do it, you might injure yourself). However you inspect the contents of your pressure cooker. The tomatoes need to be completely dissolved and the sauce mustn’t be too watery.

Once the sauce has been compiled according to my loose man page like instructions, throw in the cheese and mix until you can’t see little cheese bits. Let the pot stand until it isn’t boiling (as in bubbling) and add the cream. If it is too hot the cream may separate, in which case you had better be completely plastered on the red wine, so that you have something to blame.

If you are going to eat this straight away, I suggest you cook the pasta before adding the cream.

This concoction will freeze very nicely.

And that is basically it folks.

Photos Here

This is my 1968 Mercedes Benz W108 280S (Aggie). It was my first car. Somehow my parents decided that a gas guzling classic tank was a good starter car. My friends thought that I had left the planet. The problem was that I got the car 3 years before I got a license.

In one of my pre-license journeys some silly chick in a Golf 3 skipped a dead robot and T-boned my the concourse classic. That was in 2000. So I drove around with two operational but very dented doors up until mid 2007. I stopped using Aggie as my daily car in 2002 when I got a Corsa Lite (bleh) and then my current 2003 Corsa 1.6 Sport (which is actually a great car) (My current vehicle is a Merc A170 Auto , it’s amazing how the feel of the car is unchanged from my 1968 W108. Keep up the consistency Mercedes Benz!) . This year with the kind assistance of ABSA I sent Aggie to the beauty salon. I had two old doors from another W108 that I found on a farm in the Eastern Cape.

So here she is in all her magnificence.

I used Guilo Sabbatini Auto Stylists, who did a very good job matching the paint (although one can see a slight difference) and doing the required panel beating. I would recommend them, they did however forget to put back some minor items which I now need to buy from Mercedes Benz.

BTW getting parts for any Merc from 1898 up is no problem, you may have to sell a kidney for some parts however.

There are still a few small mechanical issues with the car, but it is completely drivable. I normally take it to German Auto-Haus in Randburg, who while expensive do a relatively good job.

Enjoy the photos.

More photos available HERE.

It all started when I noticed that the spare tube around my mid section a little while ago and started investigating some means of exercise (I’m not gonna give up beer OK). I visited the gym at work and almost threw up. I think running is crap. So just about the only option left was cycling. Which I actually used to enjoy in my mis-spent youth. It is certainly more attractive than lypo-suction, bleh!

So in my usual mentality, I investigated making a bicycle. My sister thinks that I have some sort of OCD, if I can’t make it, it must be broken. But it seems that not too many people make their own bikes and literature is a little thin on the ground.

I then remembered that I had an old 18 speed Peugeot mountain bike stuck away in the store room that the christmas-shoppers hadn’t acquired as of yet. Probably because it was stuffed.

The problem was that the Peugeot was bought in the early nineties, complete with pastel shaded metallic splashes that where as hip as David Hasselhof’s hair style in Night Rider.
I have also always longed for an antique bike, like one of those Humber “dik-wiels”. Problem is that they are difficult to come by in this yuppy fueled activity of cycling and they are normally single speed.

So I decided to make my own dik-wiel with modern kit and a retro look. Easy-peasy and cheap, well not quite.

Did you know that a bicycle has about 100 individual components, and needs every size spanner available, including spanners that don’t exist!

So I stripped the thing that my sister and I had pulled through our rings, twice. Gave it a new coat of limo-black and silver duco and then proceeded to replace almost every component, except the frame, two bearings and the derailers. Not my orginal plan. I have now spent R2500 on restoring this thing, which could have bought me a very respectable yuppy cruiser. Dammit!

So here is the end result. New Humber style saddle, new Shimano cluster, new pedals, new crank, new front cluster, new brake cantilevers, new brake pads, new handle bar, new Shimano grip shifters, new retro looking grips, new brake levers, new cables, new rims, new Continental tyres (I could not get retro tyres) etc etc etc.I also bought a retro looking light set with dynamo, you don’t see the front light in these photos, I’m waiting for the mounting bracket.

As a finishing touch, the red and white stripes are reflective tape.

I now need to get a nice helmet. I think those “Alien vs. Predator” things look kak. A word from the wise, just because everyone is wearing them, doesn’t mean it is cool, OK. Remember white guys with afros…

Pity I didn’t take before photos.

As a side note, I have discovered that my grand father still has a 1948-1950 Carlton racing bike. These where that ultimate hand made british lightweights of their day. Raleigh bought them in 1960 and killed the brand. I’m trying to get my grubby paws on it before the old people give it to the civilian blind (I don’t think that would be very feasible). Photos available HERE.

After about 2 years, with the domain lying dormaint, I have decided to start an Internet bog (a swampy place filled with smelly rotten things and swamp monsters). I decided to use revolution.org.za, seeing that I have it, and I like the name.

So what is this revolution thing I speak of?

- Well nothing, if you are expecting to find photos of Che Guevara brandishing his umshini wami, good luck.

So what can you expect from revolution.org.za?

I don’t know, pay me and I’ll tell you. OK, I have like a million hobbies and no girl friend ( they don’t actually mix). My friend and other carbon based life forms are always asking me to show them photos and stuff on what I’m up to. So here it is. Stuff that I’m intending to put here are:

- bicycle stuff

- Mercedes Benz W108 stuff

- My decadent recipes, stuff

- kayak stuff

- bass guitar stuff

- naked photos … NOT!!!!!

- wood working stuff

- stuff stuff

- profound stuff ( like this… What is it to be profound?)

- links to my loser friends’ stuff