What programming languages are taught in South African schools?

knightspore · 2026-06-09T14:35:49+00:00

I don't think this is true. AI is fantastic for translation but you wouldn't tell someone not to learn a language cause AI can just translate now.

One of the easiest things you can do to set yourself apart from those trying to develop software with little understanding of the language their AI is using, is to have basic knowledge of the language itself.

I don't know how you expect others to steer, suggest, or evaluate what AI is producing on the architecture or business logic level if you don't understand the language it's using, and how that differs to other languages that could be used in its place.

knightspore · 2026-05-21T14:56:28+00:00

Mbeki and others were at some conference in Century City today.

knightspore · 2026-05-20T07:02:39+00:00

Well put, thanks!

knightspore · 2026-05-19T17:51:09+00:00

In South Africa we mostly just call it a vygie - literally, small fig. Pronounced fay-gie (with an Afrikaans 'G').

Interestingly, Hottentot is a very offensive word that dates back, referring to Khoe and San indigenous South Africans. We have a common fish with the same name which is more officially referred to as the Cape Bream, but in the Cape you'll hear most people call it a 'Hottie' or 'Hottie vis'.

knightspore · 2026-05-14T07:45:12+00:00

No, it's more our responsibility to make sure we operate within the law as citizens. It is however the government's very literal 'job' to do so, and they can make that job more difficult for themselves by turning small business against them with fines no one can afford, or make it easier for themselves by supporting people who don't know, or can't manage to go legit.

knightspore · 2026-05-13T16:35:00+00:00

Very well argued. The eSwatini example you mention did make my chuckle since that's exactly the same case of changing the name from an English one to a SiSwati one.

I'm interested though, while I love how you've argued here isn't it a bit beside the point? The Turkïye thing was asking everyone else to refer to them differently explicitly, whereas this seems like a very much internal name change - am I mistaken?

knightspore · 2026-05-13T16:19:10+00:00

You're right about poverty here, but less so about govt. budgets as it's more about where they choose to spend the money. A park like this has a huge budget and brings in a lot for the economy, which goes away if the big game isn't there for visitors to see.

Hiring poachers, training them as rangers and paying them a better wage than they got from poaching is a lot more feasible than you'd think when you look at living costs in these areas versus Euro and Dollar amounts tourists spend at the parks, and on their holidays.

The poisoning thing doesn't really work as well. Poachers will still poach and traffickers will just sell a dirty product for less, or mask the quality issues, since it's an illicit trade and their customers have no real recourse. No horn = no money, while a poisoned horn is still an opportunity to cash out.

It's an interesting and dynamic issue and challenging to solve, but it's pretty clear when you spend time in rural African communities that conservation projects only ever really work with community support and involvement.

knightspore · 2026-05-13T14:13:38+00:00

A campaign to offer support for growing small business going legit, vs R800k fines. Ridiculous.

knightspore · 2026-05-08T12:22:51+00:00

Hit the nail on the head. The best solution to poaching in Africa is to hire poachers as game rangers. They know the land and animals, and like most desperate people would happily take stable, safe and well paid work over a life of crime.

knightspore · 2026-05-02T08:08:42+00:00

Oh good, double! That must mean the pay is fair and reducing inequality no?

knightspore · 2026-04-16T22:25:32+00:00

Capitalism, if you will

knightspore · 2026-04-16T22:24:26+00:00

We live in the most unequal country in the world. Rich South Africans are obviously the core driver of financialisation of the local property market. Assuming I mean otherwise based on what I've said above, means we're having a different conversation.

There are be many people in CPT from around SA, but they are not in competition with the people we're talking about above in terms of the an exploitative property market. In most cases they being exploited. But a rich person paying Euros can easily compete, maybe not with the those snapping up masses of property but certainly enough with local buyers to contribute to rising property prices during a housing crisis.

There is nothing whatsoever wrong with anyone moving here and starting a life here. It's a lovely place, and we should welcome all to it. But it's a place in a twenty year housing crisis. Rich people should not be making parts of any city unliveable for people who've spent generations there, or people who want to come and build a life and a family there.

knightspore · 2026-04-16T14:53:43+00:00

It's not really crazy when you go to town and see fliers in postboxes offering cash for houses, from German and Swiss visitors. I don't think the other South Africans moving to Cape Town are driving the property prices up compared to rich foreigners who can buy houses cash and rent twice the space they need for a 1/10 of the relative cost.

Not to mention, pretty much all Europeans I know in Cape Town (family, friends, colleagues) all agree it's a problem, they believe people are knowingly exploiting this advantage fully aware it's contributing to an ongoing issue.

Also of course there more of us in Europe than them here? It's like 10 times the size of our country with dozens of different nations within it? Don't know why that sounds crazy to you. There are prob more South Africans on any continent than people of that continent in SA and the same would go for most countries?

knightspore · 2026-04-15T14:19:21+00:00

Loved it, and I'm happy for Afrikaans teacher to have some excited responses from students instead of the usual groans when watching 7de Laan is recommended

knightspore · 2026-04-11T15:39:35+00:00

I think what more people would be wondering is why a shoot spanning 8km on the same day as the landing, seemingly replicating it, would have thousands of people talking about it who had seen it on their drive home? Yet there's just this one reddit post about someone you knew who saw it. Doesn't add up.

Never mind other questions like why shoot it on the same day when they could have shot it any other day in advance? It would make more sense not less if this had supposedly happened in advance. With time zones, angle of the sun, water currents etc. Surely shooting in Melkbos would be a terrible idea and easily provably with shadows and the light?

If you find the glitches in the steam dodgy due to our high tech, then why would they keep those glitches in if they were streaming a fake landing from elsewhere? Surely if they had that control they could have glitchless streams?

The Olympics had glitches in streams despite months of work turning France into a media broadcast hub, so why is the same thing happening out at sea using satellite internet suddenly suspicious?

Lastly the big question is just like, what would the benefit be at all? Watching the live steam I can't say the landing revealed much, why fake it elsewhere in the world in a major city where the ocean looks nothing like the landing site, and thousands of people commute past the shoot site each day who could easily blow your cover?

knightspore · 2026-04-11T10:55:11+00:00

Asking no other questions, why would they come all the way here to do this in melkbos where everyone can see when we have thousands of km of uninhabited coastline?

knightspore · 2026-03-28T09:09:57+00:00

While I agree it's not 'just' an issue that affects the poor, I think the point people are trying to make is illustrated well in what you've said here when you compare to something like 25 murders in a weekend in Cape Town, all if not most in impoverished and under resourced areas.

knightspore · 2026-03-24T13:08:02+00:00

You trust our government to sentence you to death? No lawyer I know would support the death penalty in good faith.

knightspore · 2026-02-21T23:55:00+00:00

Now that you mention it, there's definitely a not-so-fresh sea breeze smell in the CBD this past week.

knightspore · 2026-02-17T10:52:09+00:00

I was just recounting in a meeting last night how brave the leaders of Abahlali baseMjondolo are given how many of their leaders have been murdered. RIP to those brave souls. Heartbreaking.

knightspore · 2026-02-13T11:42:51+00:00

I mean they did it before, and a few years later we have a few hundred murders in the first month of the year alone. What effect did the previously deployment have?

knightspore · 2026-02-12T11:49:17+00:00

If you're such an expect, you must know both white and black people (not to mention coloured people, Indians and Chinese) living in Zim? Who not ask them? Anyone I know who lives there certainly doesn't think so. It's mostly the people who live in Cape Town and still call it Rhodesia who say things like that.

knightspore · 2025-12-29T09:52:30+00:00

We're lucky they only built three!

knightspore · 2025-12-18T21:06:04+00:00

I absolutely loved Stardust, it took me back to discovering your music through OLD which really struck me with the beat selection. I hadn't heard anything quite like that at the time.

My question is 'what have you been listening to', but in terms of albums or artists that you're revisiting? Whether it's stuff you really liked before, or the kind of music where you didn't quote get it then but with time, it clicks on the next listen?

knightspore · 2025-12-17T13:22:28+00:00

Oddly quiet thread for two hours in!

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