Posting comments using WordPress and IE

After my article yesterday reg the problems with writing a post using IE8 (http://manaadiar.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/ie8-affecting-wordpress-performance/), also notice that when there is a comment and you try to respond to it using the reply mode in the comment (after you approve it), IE8 is just showing a blinking text cursor in the reply box, but when you type it, it doesnt do anything.. all other browsers are working fine.. 

Anyone know a workaround for this..??

IE8 affecting WordPress performance

Hey all, not sure if any of the others have experienced this, but i seem to have a major problem using WordPress on IE8.. It buggers up the whole editing, posting mode.. See attached screenshot..

Basically the sentences are not wrapping within the text box provided and also the scrolling is a big problem..

If anyone has come across the same and has managed to fix it, pls do let me know.. Otherwise maybe WP support has a solution..

Regards

Manaadiar

http://shippinginsouthafrica.wordpress.com

http://theworldofshipping.wordpress.com

Awaiting Christmas in Joburg

Even though i am not a Christian by faith, every year for the past 3 years that i have been in Joburg, i look forward to Christmas.. Main reason – THE CALM AND PEACE AND QUIET on the roads in Joburg itself, coz all the folks are down at the coast in their thousands having fun and frolicking on the beaches.. Durban and Cape Town beaches being the busiest at these times..

Driving in Joburg during the festive season is a pleasure with almost no traffic and if there is any during peak hours its just a few cars.. But however the restaurants and shopping malls are quite full during these times, its just the people are on leave and MAINLY the schools are on leave and that makes such a difference on the roads..

Imagine if the public transport network in Joburg is beefed up and people actually use it, it would be such a blessing.. Hmmmm…….. Waiting for it..

Mamma Mia – Meryl Streep – who else……….

Wow, what a movie.. Am talking about Mamma Mia which i watched recently.. True to word my favourite actress Meryl Streep has blown everyone away with her performance.. Specially that split that she does on the bed in the Dancing Queen song sequence.. At 59, she puts girls half her age to shame.. Well done Meryl..

The movie in general was fantastic and the music obviously adapted from Abba gave it the magic touch.. And how good was the locations they chose for the movie.. Absolutely stunning, wants you to jump right into the blue waters (even for someone like me who cant swim haa haa)..

I am told that the Mamma Mia on stage in South Africa was quite good as well.. I didn’t get a chance to watch it though..

But Mr.Bond – Pierce Brosnan – PLEASE DONT SING………………………….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! His singing was awful haa haa, although i think he acted fairly well.. Colin Firth was his usual British self..

All in all a WONDERFUL PERFORMANCE.. Enjoyed it very much..

The Financial Crisis in the USA – A simplified version of how it happened

Hi all, i think this is a very informative piece on how things went wrong in Wall Street.. Told in simple English for the understanding of non-financial folks like me.. Forwarded by a friend to me therefore am not aware of the actual source of below info..

+++

Let’s go through it step-by-step, from the beginning until this weekend when the Government announced a $700 billion bailout of the financial services industry. It’s our tax dollars that will be financing this bailout so I think it’s important that we all understand how and why it happened.

1. It all started in the housing and mortgage market:

Basically, lenders were loaning money to whoever wanted to buy a home. Credit score, income and assets became irrelevant terms as brokers and local lenders rushed to issue new mortgages.

It seemed like a relatively “low risk” strategy at the time to many banks. Reason being, they figured that even if people stopped paying their mortgages, the housing market was doing so well that folks could just sell the house for a profit and pay back the remainder of the mortgage.

And that’s really where the trouble started.

2. Then the Investment Banks Got Involved:

Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) are nothing new on Wall Street. They’re sort of like bonds, meaning there’s a “principle amount” (the amount being loaned) and interest coupons (or payments) that would be paid monthly on the loan. However, MBS’s aren’t single loans. Instead, these loans were really thousands of individual
mortgages all pooled together to create a single, tradable security.

This is another reason why many lenders were happy to keep giving out mortgages to folks (even if they didn’t qualify). Local lenders knew that they’d be able to package up all those mortgages and just sell them right to the big investment banks and not have to worry.

The banks then turned around and would trade these Mortgage Backed Securities like they would a stock or a bond – trying to pocket profits in between each trade.

3. Bubbles

The basic assumption in this whole mess was that housing prices would continue to rise each year.

In fact, that assumption turned out to be pretty accurate. According to the S&P Case-Schiller Index, home prices nearly doubled across the country from 2001 – 2006.

That’s because it was so easy to get a mortgage, everybody wanted to buy a home. Thus spurring demand and in turn driving up prices further. It sort of became a self fulfilling prophecy, which in turn became a full-fledged housing bubble.

And just like any good bubble, it eventually had to pop!

4. The “After-Pop”

So after the housing market finally started to tumble, the financial services industry went into a year-long death spiral.

Here’s the basic sequence of events:

• People couldn’t afford their mortgages anymore.
• They couldn’t sell their homes for more than they paid due to falling prices so they defaulted on their loans – this happened to millions of people!
• The big investment banks which now owned all the mortgages suddenly realized that these “assets” were virtually becoming worthless in a very short period of time.
• So the banks had to take massive write-downs on these loans. The way this works is the banks were considering these baskets of mortgages as assets on their balance sheets. Once the assets went from being worth $100 to $1, the banks basically lost 99% of their value.
• When that happened it made it very difficult for the banks to get loans themselves (imagine applying for a loan when all you have is a pack of bubble gum and the clothes on your back – it’s not likely to happen).
• When the banks couldn’t get their own loans they were either going to be forced into bankruptcy (Lehman Brothers) or had to be swallowed up by healthier firms (Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, etc.)

5. How the Government Got Involved

Ever since Bear Stearns went under the government has played a fairly prominent role in this whole mess.

But it wasn’t until we almost saw the implosion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that the government really made its presence felt.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are sort of like “buyers of last resort” in the mortgage market. They were established to maintain liquidity in these markets in the event of the large banks being unable to trade their Mortgage Backed Securities. So in the end, Freddie and Fannie were sitting on trillions of dollars in bad home loans.

And while these companies were private organizations they were however government sponsored organizations. So if the government had let either one of these companies fail then it might’ve made it very difficult for the United States to keep selling debt to big foreign buyers, like China. Remember, it’s our ability to sell our debt to other countries that has been funding our country’s operations (e.g. wars, etc.) for the last several years.

6. How AIG and Insurance Fit In

AIG came into the picture when it began selling “insurance” to the big banks.
This technically wasn’t insurance, but that was mainly due to clever wording on the part of AIG management. Because for all intents and purposes, they were basically insuring the mortgages held by the banks – this type of insurance was called a “Credit Default Swap”, or a CDS.

Basically, the banks would pay AIG a monthly fee and in turn AIG would promise to make the bank whole on any mortgages that defaulted (sure sounds like insurance to me).

At the time I’m sure this sounded like a good idea because everybody assumed housing prices would continue to rise.

Well we all know how that turned out and that’s why in the end AIG was left holding the bag for billions of dollars in bad loans.

7. The Bailout

So that brings us to where we are today: On the eve of the largest government bailout of the private sector in the history of this country. The implications for these actions are vast and complex.

On the one hand, the government has to do this, the alternatives are too disastrous to even comprehend. On the other hand, what type of message does this send to the banks going forward? That it’s ok to engage in risky, reckless behaviour and they’ll always get bailed out in the end?

Source: Article by Wayne Mulligan

History of Diwali – Durban Style

The STORY as related by an authentic DURBANite

One time, couple span jares ago, der was dis one member rite. N e way, dis oke was like one top o xse ! This bra yer had one lukka vrou too rite. Was his ballies favourite lity too. But his ballie was an operator also rite, this ballie had 4 vrous xse ! He had one lity from each vrou too.

His one vrou chune the ballie he must send this bra away for 14 years Other wise there will be speeches with him and her rite.

The ballie chune orite sharp. He chune this bra he mus vy way from the porsie. But his one lity bru chune, what like dat xse, he want to vy too.

So this bra, his vrou and his lity bru chune kick it.

Now they were blying in a different section and this one porridge o gangster check this bra vrou. He chune she is lukka and he wants her.

You knor how these porridge o get when they see bread stekkies. – Ha ha ha!

This ganster o too had nor style so he tried to hash this bras vrou man!

This bra and his bru chune what kind xse! You karn dalla a move ladat! you knor who we are xse ? I chop you one time!

They vied met up with one two other bras and vied to optel the Porridge o’s!

They vied xse, klapped the porridge o’s solid ! Porridge o nevr knew what hit them ! These brus and their other braedo bra’s hit these okes once, they fell twice xse !

N e way after the speeches this bra, his vrou and bru chune vy porsie !

All the other bread o were so happy that the porridge okes gort klapped,

They chune they must have one jol!

Big jol they had xse, fireworks burfee, chuna magaj the works xse!

After that every year the okes have the same jol. They call it diwali xse!

The porridge okes were klapped so bad that they were still seeing stars the next day bra, so that’s why they have diwali one day later. Vaarheid!!

 

For those of you who didnt understand a word of above, here is the English version :

 

Once upon a time, many years ago, there was this guy from North India.. This guy was like an important person.. He had a very beautiful wife also.. This guy was his dad’s favourite son too.. His father was like a Casanova and had 4 wives and had a son from each of his 4 wives.. 

Now one of his wives said to the father that he must send his favourite son away for 14 years otherwise there will be a serious argument between her and the father.. So the father says ok and asks the son to go away for 14 years.. Now the younger brother of this guy says he wants to go away with him as well.. So this guy, his beautiful wife and younger brother go away for 14 years..

Now they are living in a different part of the world and there is a South Indian gangster who sees the wife and wants her.. You know how these South Indian guys go for these North Indian girls.. This gangster has no finesse or style so he just kidnaps the wife..

The north indian guy and his brother say , how can you make a move like this, you dont know about us, we will chop you fully..

They then gather a couple of other north indian guys and go fight the south indian guy and beat him up nice .. They slapped the south indian guy so hard, he didnt know what hit him.. The north indian guy and his friends hit the south indians once and they fell down twice.. Anyway after a couple of speeches the north indian and his wife go back home..

So now all the north indians are happy that they won and they want to celebrate this event and they have a big party.. They have fireworks, burfee, channa magaj (all north indian sweets) etc.. So every year they have this celebration and called it DIWALI..

The south indians were beaten so badly that they were still seeing stars the next day and so thats why they celebrate Diwali the day after the north indians..

Hygiene conditions in Bela Bela

We visited Bela Bela for the first time at the beginning of this year.. We were day visitors at a place called Forever Resorts (Aventura) in the heart of Bela Bela.. We all enjoyed the warm water and specially the Hydro in the place and generally had a good time.. Upon our return to Joburg that night, my younger daughter got a throat infection and got sick with fever etc..

We didnt take much notice of it and took her to the doctor for usual treatments etc.. She got better in due course..

Then last month we went to Bela Bela again, this time with a cousin and her husband.. We were day visitors again at Forever Resorts but stayed at a very nice and comfortable place called Pendleberry Grove (http://www.pendleberry.co.za/) right across the road.. I would highly recommend Pendleberry Grove..

During the course of the day at Forever Resorts we saw some faeces floating in the big pool where there were many people having a good time.. That put us off a lot but we continued in the other parts of the pool and other rides etc.. 

Then we returned home the next day and all through the journey from Bela Bela back to Johannesburg my eldest daughter was violently sick and kept on vomitting.. She eventually had to stay at home for a couple of days to get back to her normal self as she was not eating anything and was on liquids.. Her paed advised that this is definitely the water in Bela Bela as many people who have gone there have come back with similar experiences..

A week later, my wife also had the similar reaction and got violently sick and had to be taken to the hospital twice for intravenous drips etc.. This again was attributed to the Bela Bela experience.. 

Also my cousins husband had the same experience – so basically a 50% infection rate.. 6 of us went and 3 of us got sick..!!!!!!!!!

The management of Forever Resorts (Aventura) should definitely take a look at the hygiene conditions at the resort and the water..

If anyone else has similar experiences, pls share..

Democracy in South Africa

Fear not South Africans.. As an Indian living in South Africa for many years now, i notice the apprehension and slight confusion that is surrounding the current political situation in this country.. This situation is all too familiar to me and other fellow indians in SA.. We can draw many parallels in the current democratic structure of SA that resembles what the Indian political system used to go through..

Similar to SA, when India achieved its independence in 1947 we had the INC or the Indian National Congress that was at that time the single largest party.. This was the party that brought freedom to the country and this was the party that carried all the major stalwarts of the then Indian politics like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad etc etc (akin to Nelson Mandela, Albert Luthuli etc).. Although there were many divisions, the Congress Party managed to remain the single largest party for quite a few years.. 

However with the difference of opinions between the major players within the party, the Congress has now many splinter groups.. No single party in India has managed to win an absolute majority for the past 15-20 years and India has been ruled by coalition governments since then.. This is the way the democracy progresses.. Many interim Prime Ministers have come and gone, the parliment has been dissolved several times, many parties have ruled and gone – but democracy still prevails even if it confuses the comman man..

i am not saying that SA would follow the same route, but South Africans must get used to the idea and possibility that SA is a democratic country and such changes are possible and sometimes inevitable.. So fear not.. SA still has a long way to go and am sure SA will make it..

save time using keyboard shortcuts – windows xp/vista

i have learnt to save a LOT of my time using the keyboard shortcuts to open files, folders and programs instead of using the conventional Click on Start Button and navigate from there.. For example you have a folder called Folder1 that you use often, normally people would go

Right Click Start => Explore => My Documents => Folder1 (or more steps depending on where your folder is)

Also if you store all your folders on the desktop that clutters up the desktop also a lot..

Using keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse saves you a lot of time.. Here’s what you do :

Navigate as usual to where your Folder1 is stored.. Say for example it is in your My Documents..

Right click on the Folder1 => Send to => Desktop (create shortcut)

Now you have a shortcut of Folder1 on your desktop..

Right click on that shortcut icon, select properties.. The shortcut tab opens up by default and there the shortcut key shows NONE..

Just press the alphabet that you would like to be associated with this folder.. For example H.. The shortcut key will change to Ctrl + Alt + H.. Click ok which will close the properties..

When you need to open this folder from anywhere, all you do is just press Ctrl + Alt + H together and voila, the folder opens up..

You can do the same for any program as well..

free your computer desktop of clutter

does your computer desktop (the first screen when you see after you log on to your computer – usually where you display pictures of your loved ones etc) look cluttered and confusing and blocking the nice picture you have put up there..??

does your computer desktop look like this

a cluttered computer desktop

with a few steps you can get it to look like this

a clutter free computer desktop

1. Right click on your computer desktop
2. Click on View
3. Select Hide Desktop Icons

all your desktop icons will be hidden..

This only HIDES the Desktop icons from your view.. The shortcuts or folders etc that you have placed on your desktop is still there..

To access it you dont have to close or minimize each of your open programs..

1. Right click on any empty area on the taskbar (the bar at the bottom where you can see all your open programs or folders)
2. Click on Toolbars
3. Select the Desktop option
4. A link will appear (usually right hand corner) showing Desktop and >>
5. Click on the arrows and you can see your entire desktop icons as a list

Hey Presto, clean and simple.. Enjoy