#ManDay. Now you VOTE!

Some very cool submissions for the ManDay campaign. Now. You VOTE. So yours truly and some of the wonderful peeps that took part can go on a Sporting Experience.

Oh - and I'm sure you figured it out. But #ManDay... it's all about the MINI Paceman. They have this... very manly positioning. So they're sponsoring us a day. By us, I mean ALL MEN. A day where we can loaf off, smoke cigars, scratch our asses, watch sport and drink beer. Stereotypes HO! But who wouldn't want to do that?

Anyhoo. Go VOTE FOR ME. Thank you.

#thatisall

#ManDay is coming. What makes a Man a Man? [COMPETITION]

OK! Here's the deal... Men. #ManDay is coming. A day for cigars and steak, not nappies and paperwork. It's on the 20th May 2013. And to prepare for it - I've been asked, to ask you, to help me come up with the Top 5 Things That Make A Man A Man.

We're then going to go head to head with some other bloggers/personalities and if we win. 5 of you and me will get a pimping "sport experience". Those are all the details I got.

I repeat:

• Tell me via Facebook / Twitter or in the comments below what makes a Man a Man
• I'll choose the Top 5
• We go head to head against other bloggers with some crowd voting
• If we win, the 5 best of your submissions and I win a rad "sporting experience".

Let's get to it. I'll collate all the crowdsourcing below. Make it funny. Make me cry. Get all testosteroney on each other. Yee haw!

CROWDSOURCING: THE TOP 5 THINGS THAT MAKE A MAN A MAN.

which we can now call...

THE TOP 30 THINGS THAT MAKE A MAN A MAN.
(the top 5 as entered into #ManDay are in bold)

1. @petrivoges - Most men can do with more cowbell.
2. @petrivoges - Cutting your nose hair with a weed eater. snorting enos and squirting acid in your eyes with your tequila. 
3. @petrivoges - Ability to reverse.
4. @petrivoges - Sleeping through Schindler's List but tearing up when that perfect chop falls on the floor
5. @braaiface - Ability to talk bullshit. Disengage brain, open mouth, say the first thing that doesn't make sense, engage brain!
6. @braaiface - A 5 year absence between mates only requires a grunt to catch up!
7. @braaiface - I'm on it, Guy speak for "it's on the list", but will only happen with beer as incentive
8. @JeanineBornman - Understanding what 'The Matrix' is all about first time round
9. @Johannpollard - Knowing how to properly braai a good steak
10. @Johannpollard - Chivalry. Opening doors for ladies and such.
11. @Johannpollard - Licking the can lid you just opened for said lady. Doesn't matter the contents, got to taste!
12. @Johannpollard - Ability to watch any sport and shouting for a team. Even Curling. Convincing the other people in the room that you understand the sport and are a fan. Yes, even Curling.
13. @Johannpollard - Opening a wine bottle without a corkscrew. Knives, spoons, shoes, swords etc. It can come in handy when you least expect it.
14. @wzwick - Knowing the difference between a phillips and a slotted screw driver.
15. @wzwick - Being able to use said screw driver.
16. @wzwick - Using the weed-eater. Raising it to trim the bushes as well.
17. @wzwick - The removal of bugs and other 'creepies'
18. @wzwick - Knowing what the offside rule is
19. @wzwick - Being able to say "pfft - that's easy, I can do that, hold my beer!"
20. @nickjackson - Telepathic ability to know where the remote is, and to be able to sense the channel being changed while sleeping.
21. @nickjackson - Ability to assemble furniture etc with fewer than the "required" parts. 
22. @nickjackson - Ability to recognise how many layers of clothing the days weather requires.
23. @nickjackson - Confidence that allows them to think that, on a good day, they have a realistic shot at picking up any woman.
24. @nickjackson - Any man will always look their best in either a tuxedo, or jeans and a white t-shirt. 
25. @wzwick - Being able to start a fire with a ball of newspaper and then feeling the need to cheer once the fire gets going.
26. @wzwick - a good throaty burp... woman.just.can't
27. @wzwick - being able to punch your mate for being a dick and then going for a beer afterwards
28. @wzwick - carrying in all 10 bags of groceries in one trip because two trips is for pussies
29. @wzwick - enjoying a trip to builder warehouse (its like shoe shopping for men)
30. @petrivoges - consider farting in public without detection a skill

Man Day is coming...

Cool little campaign I'm getting involved in for the next 2 weeks. Man Day. What could be better. Keep an eye on the blog / twitter feed for details. More info about the campaign here: http://www.manday.co.za.

ZA Tech Show Episode 255 - Too Cool For School

Brett Haggard, Steven Ambrose, Andy Hadfield and a bottle of DMZ Chardonnay get together this week to discuss, at length:

• A report back from Microsoft’s Tech-Ed;
• Why is cool so important in tech today?
• Is the new cutting edge in hardware or software?
• Galaxy S4 coming soon and the question is the battery life;
• How impressive the Kobo store is;
• The content ecosystem and landscape;
• The appetite for 7-inch Android tablets; and
• The possibility of a new Blackberry tablet

Our technology picks of the week are:

• Steven Ambrose picks ‘Fake Follower Check’ on socialbakers.com and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0;
• Andy Hadfield picks on ‘The Internet’, picks @Earth_pics on Twitter and TuneUp in Mac App Store; and
• Brett Haggard picks the new Macheist nano bundle.

Click through to stream or download the audio of the show!

Innovation Prize for Africa Announces 2013 Finalists

I always like sharing any information on African Innovation - tech or otherwise. It's important for us all to realise that the opportunity lies within our own continent, not in the First World. We innovate despite our situation. We have real, practical problems to solve. It's a good place to be.

Here are 10 cool innovation ideas that have been shortlisted for the Innovation Prize for Africa. Big up to the South African contingent. What an awesome collection of #notfirstworldproblems.

CAPE-TOWN, South-Africa, April 25, 2013/ -- Ten African innovators have developed practical solutions to some of the continent’s most intractable problems.  Chosen from more than 900 applications from 45 countries, the finalists for the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) (http://www.innovationprizeforafrica.org) 2013 provide practical examples of Africa’s investment potential. 

The winners of the IPA 2013 will be announced at a gala dinner on 7 May in Cape Town, South Africa hosted by the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business and the Sekunjalo Development Foundation. The winner will receive USD 100 000 for the best innovation based on marketability, originality, scalability, social impact and clear business potential.  A runner up will receive USD 25 000 for the best commercial potential and another finalist will receive USD 25 000 as a special prize for social innovation.  

“As global leaders gather for the World Economic Forum on Africa to discuss approaches to deliver on Africa’s promise, these innovators demonstrate that the best way to build Africa’s capacity is to invest in local innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais, a co-founder of the African Innovation Foundation and the IPA. 

From Tunisa to South Africa, the IPA 2013 finalists are leaders in the areas of agriculture, environment, health, ICT and manufacturing. They include:

Zero-Blade Wind Convertor (Tunisia) – Innovators Hassine Labaied and Anis Aouini from Saphon Energy, a Tunisian R&D start up, developed a wind turbine with no blades that does not rotate – it uses sailboat technology to create cost-effective energy through a back-and-forth 3D motion.

SavvyLoo (South Africa) – Innovator Dr. Dudley Jackson developed a waterless toilet for rural areas and temporary settlements that separates liquids from solids to improve environmental impact, decrease the potential for disease, reduce odour and ensure easier removal.

The TBag Water Filter (South Africa) – Innovator Prof. Eugene Cloete created a water filter that uses electrospun tea bag material to ensure one litre of the most polluted water is 100 percent safe to drink. 

The Malaria pf/PAN (pLDH) Test Kit (South Africa) –Innovator Ashley Uys created a new rapid malaria test that indicates within 30 minutes if treatment is effective.  The test kit is one of only nine developed globally and is the only test of its kind fully-owned by an African company.

The Fonia Husker Machine (Senegal) – Innovator Sanoussi Diakite developed an electric and thermal powered machine that husks 5 kilograms of fonia – a West African cereal – in just 8 minutes.

Novatech Construction Systems (Cameroon) – Innovator Njokikang Faustinus created an efficient construction process. Its flagship product is a manual brick press that more easily produces 3,000 interlocking bricks per day.

Mobenzi (South Africa) – Innovator Andi Friedman and his team has developed a software that provides mobile data collection and field research solution, allowing sophisticated forms of research to be conducted across Africa online or via mobile phones.

Mimosa for Solar Powered Production (Nigeria) – Innovator Justus Nwaoga developed a new way to collect renewable solar energy by using the mimosa pudica weed, an organic African medicinal plant.

Agroforestry Model Farm (Sudan) – Innovator Muna Majoud Mahoamed Ahmed created an agro-foresty model farm in Khartoum that produces innovative sources of income from moringa leaves, seeds and jatrofa seeds. 

AgriProtein (South Africa) – An innovative team of researchers from AgriProtien Technologies developed a new source of animal feed protein that lowers the cost of feed for African producers and farmers.

"We see a strong trend emerging of innovations that have significant social impact for Africa," said Dr.Francois Bonnici, Director Bertha Centre for Social Innovation at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. 

The prize encourages Africans to develop creative ways to overcome everyday challenges. 
The IPA selection committee represents private equity investors, seed funders, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and development leaders who are looking for ideas that move Africa forward. 

The call for applications for IPA 2014 will be announced in July 2013. For detailed information of competition categories, conditions of entry, and submission details, please visit: InnovationPrizeForAfrica.org (http://www.innovationprizeforafrica.org). For highlights and more information, follow the IPA on Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/IPAprize) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/InnovationPrizeforAfrica).