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I was recently looking to register a new domain for a project I've been working on. I underestimated the amount of time it would take to find an available domain. What's incredibly annoying is that many domains have been registered purely in an attempt to make money by selling them on (especially .com domains). Let's face it, everyone wants a .com domain.

Here's an experiment to try. Think of an obscure word or combination of words that surely nobody would have thought to register, and do a whois check on it. You'd be suprised at the domains people have registered (I was).

Last year, the South African government announced their intention to roll out open source implementations across all government departments. A move that surprised, but delighted me and many others.

So, when statements are made like the one made recently by Microsoft's director of corporate standards that South Africans were unlikely to benefit from OSS, or do any 'deep' development work on Linux (hello, heard of Ubuntu?), I have to ask myself, where is this coming from? What is a statement like that aimed at achieving? Furthermore, saying that students in South Africa are 'still grappling with coding skills' smacks of ignorance.

While I don't agree with all the government's policies, they should be applauded for the move to OSS and for setting a precedent that other developing countries in Africa may follow. Well done!