Posts Tagged ‘Gino’s’
FireId/MXit Start Up Tour
Posted on: February 17, 2010
To be honest, I was very nervous about this tour as soon as I found out that I would be meeting people like Dave Duarte, Justin Stanford, Herman Heunis, etc – names that I’d read about all over the net, but as soon as Justin introduced himself to me and I met the rest of the “tourists” who were already there, I was put at ease – great group to tour with.
First thing I saw as I stepped out of the elevator at the FireId office was the basketball hoops in the canteen, and I thought “awesome”. The FireId offices are pretty much what you would expect from a Silicon Valley Start-up company – think google/facebook – except it’s in the Silicon Cape. Boardshorts/casual slacks, t-shirts, and barefeet seem to be the uniform. The place just has a very relaxed atmosphere about it, from hammocks in the team offices to little quotes on the entrances to each developer decorating their own space to the use of lava lamps for their test/release cycle management – which I imagine fosters lots of creativity.
So about the company: FireId is a mobile two-factor authentication company. Yea, I had no idea what that meant either until I went on the tour. Basically, you know how when you do your banking online, as soon as you enter in your username/password you get an sms with an OTP (one time password)? Yea, that’s what they do, except the whole thing happens on your mobile phone instead of online, and you don’t get an sms – which is really handy when there’s no network service – the app itself generates the password, and because it’s offline fraud is reduced. They are not limited to online banking only though, “it is applicable anywhere individual authentication is required” as their website says.
We were given a bit of background info on where FireId started (in a Stellenbosch University dormroom), where it is currently, and where they see the company in the future by the CTO and founder, Malan Joubert, with a bit of help from Justin Stanford (one of the FireId Directors) and Jenny Dugmore (the “very useful” CEO) on explaining the more technical side to the non-techies in the group. It was also great watching the interaction between them, and seeing their passion for the company.
With lots in store (such as thier cloud services), expect to see the FireId name more often in the near future.
Our second stop was at the MXit offices. We were greeted by a very enthusiastic group in the lobby, then urshered into the boardroom where the CEO, Herman Heunis, gave a brief presentation on MXit. First thing I checked when Herman started his presentation was whether he was wearing shoes, and indeed he was, but not the nice, leather, business-type shoes you’d expect from your traditional CEO, instead he was wearing Ed Hardy’s – so cool. Anyway, it was yet another inspiring story – seeing how MXit has gone from a simple Instant Messaging platform, to a full multi-media, social-networking platform. And there’s still so much more to come. We also learned that MXit was originally named “kajumba”, which is a swahili word for a hut or home, displaying MXit’s value of community. One thing that stood out for me in the presentation is how passionate Herman is about using MXit for social development – he talked passionately about social-networking platforms’ responsibility towards its users reagarding education and social upliftment…Community!
After the presentation and the tour of the office we were treated by MXit to lunch at Gino’s restaurant – and as I said on my mxit/facebook statuses, I have probably spent more time at that particular restaurant than I have in my flat…seriously! The lunch was great – got to talk more with the group from MXit – among them their Technical Director, Marketing Manager, M-Cormmerce Executive and others – and we also got to know the other tourists in the group as well.
All in all, a successful tour indeed, and a reminder of the creativity, talent, and inspiring stories that are increasingly coming out of South Africa. Thank you for your hospitality FireId and MXit, and to Dave Duarte for organising the event.
On Tuesdays I have VisionK in the evenings, and when I told my small group of learners that I had been to the mxit offices earlier that day, they were so impressed – all of them are on mxit, and i’ve already gotten a few friend requests from them. I think I have a shot at being the coolest leader this year (hee hee…)
This post is part of a weekly worship blog carnival, so do stop by the worship community for more setlists and sermon recaps from around the world…
Morning
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I went to cape town this weekend to go visit my mom so was not at the morning service. I did however visit the Hillsong church in cape town and it was awesome. I had a bit of a mishap with the trains trying to make it back to Cape Town for practice and almost missed church but I did make it in time, thank God.
Evening
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O come let us adore Him (John Wade/John Reading)
How great is our God – Brad Klynsmith
Wholly yours – David Crowder* Band
You said – Reuben Morgan
Jesus, we enthrone you – Paul Kyle
When I survey – Chris Tomlin version
Kevin was leading today, and it went a lot better than last week team wise. We had a smaller team though, 1 bass, 1 drummer, 1 guitarist, 2 vocals.
For the next six weeks we will be going through the six pillars – or main values – enGAGE stands on. Today was the second one – “Growing in Community”.
The main text was on Genesis 27: 1 – 40 as a picture of how community does not work, and Acts 2: 42 – 47 and 4: 32 – 35 as a picture of how community does work. We then broke up into different groups and discussed community with a focus on different verses.
My group looked at Romans 12:16, 1 Corinthians 1: 10, 1 Thessalonians 5: 13, and 1 Peter 3: 8 and then discussed how we as a church could better live out community. And then we ended the services by praying for each other – lots of stuff about family came up in the prayer session…
Afterwards, as usual, we went to Gino’s for dinner and each of the girls got a rose for St. Valentine’s day…awww…sweet -thanks Dom!
2009 in review
Posted on: December 22, 2009
- In: my life | thoughts
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So I was trying to remember 2009 so that my last post of the year chould be a review of sorts…but I really couldn’t remember anything.
So then I went through my facebook photo albums and the ones that stand out the most are (in no particular order):
1. day in the park/beach – in Jan, Brett decided that for his birthday celebrations he was going to help out with a take-the-kids-from-an-orphanage-out-for-the-day-to-the-beach-and-love-them-day thing…and he invited people to go and help out, and i went, and it was awesomtastic. then in april and again in november some people from our church organised a take-the-kids-from-an-orphanage-out-for-the-day-to-the-park-and-love-them-day thing and once again i decided to join in. and again it was awesomtastic. i’m not the most kid-friendly person in the world…like, i would suck at being a kindergarten teacher, but i really do enjoy spending time with kids and just loving on them and making them feel wanted and loved and adored and listened to and whatever, even if it was for one day atleast they got to feel special.
2. vision k/youth/scripture union camp – as i said, i would suck at being a kindergarten teacher. and i would probably suck at being a middle/high school teacher as well, but if i had to choose, i would go for the middle/high school age group. so i’ve talked a bit about my exploits with vision k this year, and i may have mentioned the scripture union leadership camp as well – can’t remember, but yea, both of those and the youth group at my church have been highlights in my life this year. i truly do enjoy hanging out with youth and finding out where they are and if possible helping in their journey towards adulthood. i’ve been through the teenage years myself, and sometimes i still act like i’m going through them, and i remember how hard it was for me, so any help i can give someone else…
3. turning 25 – i liked turning 25. scary, yet…super cool. like i felt like i was finally an adult in a lot of ways. turning 26 is not scary, but it feels kinda sucky, don’t know if i’m going to enjoy it much.
4. namrock/baptism – so wrote a lot on namrock, and wrote about getting baptised. and definite highlights they were.
5. worship team – lots of memories. lots of laughs. lots of growing. thankfulness.
6. http://tsholo.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/worship-setlist-september-27-2009/ – i’ve been to PE quite a few times, and i always…well, i guess hate is a strong word but…well, it’s the right word. i always hated it. i was ok with like 2 days, but after that i was ready to leave. this year my dad moved to PE, then my sister also moved there. at the end of the year my lil bro is also moving there. so it will just be me and my mom in the western cape (sadness). but yea, the visit in september was so awesomtastic, i didn’t want to leave. and i’m looking forward to visiting again first week of next year…and throughout 2010. PE Love!
7. flatmating – had a super awesomtastic flatmate this year. i learned a lot from her and i totally appretiate the flatmate she was and all the talks and all the laughs and discovering “The OC” together and our late night dvd’ing and sms’ing each other from the other side of the wall and the sharing and all of it, it’s been great Lindz, will miss sharing a flat with you.
8. music and friends – the south african music scene is wow! and it’s even better when it’s live, and it’s shared with friends. new altum, flat stanley, just jinjer, aking, gravity wins again, straatligkinders, irvine, lua union, the lottery tickets, heldervue, black markets riots, 3rd world spectator, saint fearless, the rescue, tree63, the arrows, bed on bricks – just off the top of my head. memorable moments also include: being kidnapped and forced to go to the beach at 2 am when i was working the next morning, sneaking into the botanical gardens after it was closed and having a photo shoot after making a 20 minute video of us talking nonsense, TEAM AWESOMTASTIC, awesomtastic enGAGE dinners at Ginos and awesomtastic cricket watching at Ginos, SUPER inappropriate conversations and the birth of SOKs…and so much more…I really thank God for friends!
and then two more not in the photo albums, just to round it off
9. blogging – nablopomo(?) was really good for my blogging…blogging everyday for a month is not easy, totally respect those who do it year round. good and challenging. blogging has been so good for me though. it’s been a place for me to just spill what’s in my head onto something else and just get it out of my system so that it doesn’t take over. so thank you for reading.
10. God – lots of up and downs, lots of screaming and shouting, lots of late night pop-corn and cookies and ice-cream (He loves those), lots of laughing, lots of reminders, lots of fulfilled promises, lots of pouring on of LOVE, lots of us time, too much ingnoring from my side, lots of forgiveness, lots of convictions, lots of happiness and joy, more love and more reminders, lots of blessings, lots of breathe, lots of guidance, lots of mercy and grace, more love, lots of comforting, lots of more reminders for/to hope, lots of everything. Everything and LOVE!
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and one more that had nothing to do with me but stands out this year was the wedding of the fish and TBV…read about it here.
