Murmurings of the less blessed By Louis Eksteen Real feelings seldom find traction on the anti-social media landscape of today. Either everything’s absolutely fabulous (“I’m sooo blessed”), or so horrifically terrible the world’s going to end. No “I’m just sommer feeling slightly blue today because I stubbed my toe a little bit and it made [...]
Privacy, immediacy and dependency By Louis Eksteen Recent statements by Mark Zuckerberg, co-inventor of Facebook (depending on who you ask), frequently mention an apparently significant move towards protecting the privacy of users. The new Facebook look mirrors the white expanse of Instagram, probably because of its success in giving people an alternative to the blue [...]
The internet is freedom, but at what cost? By Louis Eksteen I love nothing more than to Netflix and chill. My first purchase on Amazon took place on 26 May 1997 and I’ve been with them ever since. I’m a bit off Facebook, but love Instagram to bits. WhatsApp is replacing email and some social [...]
lastminute.comness By Louis Eksteen I’ve earned an unfortunate nickname over time. Last Minute Louis. Totally undeserved, I might add. But I do tend to “sometimes” leave things a tad late. It’s not that I like to be late, I just perpetually think I’ve got more time than I actually have to do this, that and [...]
Emailing robots By Louis Eksteen Over the holidays I brushed up on my ping pong skills with my godson. He had already downloaded an iOS game before we left, which we used in preparation. Real life is different though and where we played, the tables were outside, so wind was always a factor. You can [...]
The machines have won By Louis Eksteen In a kind of cosmic justice of sorts, long-established television is now starting to feel the internet winter. For years only traditional print media was hammered by the internet’s all encompassing advertising juggernaut. These days venerable old media can seemingly only be saved by billionaire philanthropists. Bezos bought The [...]
Voice first, mobile second By Louis Eksteen I can’t stand Siri. Apple’s voice assistant is irritating beyond, because she always pops up out of nowhere when I’m actually trying to do something else. At Toast HQ we often hear someone shouting rude comments at Siri, such as “Shut up Siri!”. So at the moment I’m not [...]
Learning machine systems By Louis Eksteen As the world turns increasingly to a reliance on the automation of repetitive and/or complicated tasks, the role of business managers changes. Rote execution of mundane actions are better served by software. This is well-known and "IT", as it's incorrectly referred to by the C-suite, has already permeated most management [...]
Learning new tricks By Louis Eksteen Paddling at Emmarentia dam yesterday, I regaled my early morning kayak school buddies with my latest midlife crisis. I was in Durban last week and “had to” go around to legendary shaper Spider Murphy’s Safari Surfboards. I walked out with a 9.6" L2Pro longboard, just in time for the holidays. [...]
The Wild West of online ads By Louis Eksteen The humble banner ad originated at Wired magazine when its creator started using this advertising unit on the then-influential magazine's website (HotWired) in October 1994. I remember HotWired well, as I was busy researching the early origins of the web for a varsity project. This was a time [...]
