Chips Trip is up and running again!!!

It has been a while since my last post, and the Zimbabwe internet speed is partly to blame! The Vacation in Zim was the same old, but it was great to catch up with friends and family and do a bit of fishing. Been back in Joburg since the 15th of Feb and the plan now is to start looking for a job! World Cup Cricket is also starting on the 13th, so it’s going to be a great tournament for anyone supporting AUSTRALIA. Come on AUSSIE…

M10 the Greens (aka The Hatch)

The final pack up has been a shocker… But it’s good to finally be leaving! This lingering around has got a bit much. There have been loads of lasts (like the last drink at the rat, last sleep at the hatch, etc…). It’s been a great four years, which has definitely left its mark.

 

Drawing inspiration from Lord of the Rings quotes!!!

It has become a tradition since first year to watch motivational clip’s from movies before an exam. A famous scene that we watched a lot was the helms deep battle where this quote comes from:

“Yes. Yes! The horn of Helm Hammerhand shall sound in the deep, one last time.”

And given that this is my last exam at Rhodes this definitely applies… It’s going to be good to be finished (or in Lord of the Rings style; to ride out and meet them)!

Exam Lunch…

Gregor found these great German vienna sausages (typical), so we have been eating them constantly for lunch over the past few days! They are perfect for a quick lunch…

It’s a pity we didn’t find them earlier on in the year! Damn…. (Ya mom i know they are probably not the most healthy food, but its exams)! Also finally cracked Gran’s the Romans said it all quote:
CERVISIA POTA, PULCHRITUDO CERNITUR, translated it’s : I’ll have another, Barman!

South African Bank Fee Charges!

I carried out a research project on:

BANKS APPEAR TO BE GENERATING MORE INCOME FROM CHARGING FEES THAN FROM THEIR MORE TRADITIONAL FORMS OF INCOME

Abstract:
Banks’ strategy is changing in focus from traditional (on-balance sheet) to non-traditional (off-balance sheet) forms of business. Fee charges fall under the category of non-interest income (or non-traditional bank business) which is replacing interest income (or traditional bank business). A comparison between non-interest and interest income is undertaken for the big four banks of South Africa, which confirms that this shift is taking place. Competition is also analyzed based on an international comparison of fees and market concentration. Within the big four banks of South Africa there is very little competition in pricing of fees.

Basically the results showed that the banking environment in South Africa is not competitive in the national payment system (NPS). In South Africa, five of the biggest banks account for 89.2 percent of the value and a further 97.7 percent of the volume within the payment system, showing their dominance of the payment system. Therefore this case shows the clear lack of contestability in the custodian process, which definitely raises fears of cartel arrangements (or Collusive oligopoly).

I mention this because today the Competition Commission’s banking enquiry public hearings into bank fees and the national payment system (NPS) began. Nedbank was the first to present their views. It was interesting that they spoke about reducing their fee charges (but wait last year they charged the highest fees)! So essentially all Nedbank’s reduction means is that they are now in line with what other banks are charging!

Figure 7: Country Comparisons of Number of Banks, GDP Per Capita and Population Density Per sq Km

 

An interesting trend captured by figure 7 is that the developed countries have a lot more banks in their financial systems than developing countries. It is also interesting to note that South Africa is one of the more developed countries of the developing countries and has the least amount of banks after Morocco, indicating that it is perhaps under banked.

Procrastination: The Thief of Time or Mother of Invention?

It is extraordinary how exam time gets the creative juices flowing.  It is unfortunate however that my most brilliant inspirations are seldom of any use in the exam hall!  One such stroke of genius is the plan developed in conjunction with other experts to terraform the planet Mars. (Please be advised that the details have been forwarded to the patent office and legal action will be taken in the event of others using this idea).  The imminent threat of being hit by a comet in the next 250 million years makes this an urgent priority!!!  Not enough is being done to raise public awareness about this issue and i have made it my personal mission to rectify this deficiency. Humanity has exploited the resources of the earth for centuries, but think of the untapped wealth of the solar system. As i always say; Earth First! we will strip mine the other planets later!!! Or sooner as is my hope!

Price History of New technology

The PS3 has not been released yet in the US, so it will still be a while before it hit’s the South African market. I thought it would be interesting though to blog about the price of the XBOX360, which is R3699.00 for the Pro System (at Makro). Games seem to range from about R400 – R600. I thought this would be a nice way to keep a record of the current release price. This could therefore allow for future comparisons, for example; how the price is reduced overtime, as well as whether or not competition will have an affect on the pricing of both consoles. Perhaps giving an indication of when the best time is to purchase these new products.

Sure time of year and other releases of better technology come into play and the opportunity cost is going to be small (and a real study would be very complex). It is still something that has always interested me. The same can be said about Microsoft’s Zune player soon to be released vs. the Ipod (R2995.00 for 30GB).

Above is a graph on the pricing of the playstation 2 from 2000 to 2006. As expected the price has dropped over time, with it taking a big dive because of the looming release of the playstation 3 in 2007!!! I also looked at the price of the first 10GB ipod release in 2001 which was $499 whereas in 2005 the release price of the 80GB ipod was $399. But in the years between this the top prices have been around $499 for the top capacity ipod. Perhaps a conclusion from this is that technology prices for new release products are quiet similar over the years. However when is the cheapest time to purchase these products?

ABSA just doesn’t do simpler, better, faster!

Last night I tried to access my account through an ABSA ATM only to find that I apparently had “insufficient funds”.

However, two days before I had x amount in the account with a cheque still pending (and I had not accessed the account in those two days between). Neither had I reached my daily or monthly limit.

I contacted the stop card line (which I found at the bottom of the ATM slip) where I spoke to an operator, who in fact confirmed that there was NO problem with my account and who tried to convince me that the problem was from my behalf and not ABSA’s.

This morning I went into the ABSA branch in Grahamstown to enquire about my account. To cut a long story short and a morning of waiting around for my account to be opened, ABSA had in fact lost the cheque and had frozen my account. However I was given no prior warning that ABSA was going to freeze my account, and I still had to wait for an entire morning to get it opened again.

It is my money! With all the bank fees that we are charged for electronic payment etc, you would think that the system would work a bit more efficiently. After all am I not a client here that is supposed to be looked after? Is it really so difficult to call a customer to let them know that their account has been frozen? If I would have been away from friends or family who lent me some cash last night – what would I have done? I still have no idea as to what has happened to the cheque (apparently I’m going to get a letter in the mail since this is of course the most effective means of communication nowadays)!

I’m the customer here. It’s ridiculous that I have to run after my bank, when they have clearly made a mistake. It is also ludicrous that they can just freeze an account without giving the customer notification or even trying to notify me. I am considering a switch to a simpler, better, and faster bank one that keeps me inspired, motivated and involved!

Submitted a complaint on HelloPeter, follow up to come…

Blue Stingray (Dasyatis chrysonota)!

After many debates and lots of hours wasted by myself and Ross on the internet, in the library, at book shops, the ichthyology department etc… We can now conclusively say that the ray in the picture below (the one Ross caught) is a Blue Stingray (Dasyatis chrysonota). I can’t believe I’m saying this but Ross was right!!!

Watching time fly…

Looking at the calendar in my room today showed two things firstly organization (i.e. crossing the days off as they go by and not any deep psychological hatred of time as has been implied before). Secondly it showed that 2006 varsity year is almost finished…

Can’t believe how quick it has all gone by (time at varsity in general and 2006)! I still remember first year Orientation week clearly!