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Martin Carstens: Staff reporter

Martin is obsessed with technology and the future. His work life includes positions at UK based Hotcourses.com, Discovery Invest and currently, Memeburn.

RECENT POSTS

• mmMule: Deliver things and have an adventure, do some good

  "For mine is a generation that circles the globe and searches for something we haven't tried before. So never refuse an invitation, never resist the unfamiliar, never fail to be polite and never outstay your welcome. Just keep your mind open and suck in the experience."That quote from the cult movie, The Beach embodies the whimsical spirit of mmMule, a startup that rewards you for delivering things to people on your travels.mmMule is essentially a crowdsourced courier service. As it ...

• WordPress. Joomla. Drupal. Yawn. 25+ powerful CMSes for hipsters

  It's estimated that WordPress, Joomla and Drupal combined, constitute roughly 70% of the CMS market. Probably for good reason too. All three are highly customisable, extensible and have massive loyal -- some say cult-like -- user communities.CNN and Time run on Wordpress. Joomla boasts big clients such as eBay, Barnes & Noble, Ikea and Pizza Hut. Ever heard of a little site called The Economist? How about The White House? Drupal have those covered.Clearly, if you're cool you wouldn't ...

• Cheat sheet: The Facebook IPO

  Chances are, anyone in your office even remotely interested in tech or business is going to be talking about Facebook's IPO today. If you're feeling a little out in the cold, don't worry. We've got your back. Here's everything you need to know about the Facebook IPO in a nutshell.The social network’s initial public offering consists of 421 233 615 shares.Shares will start trading at US$38 apiece. Predict the closing price.There are two classes of Facebook stock. Class A stock ...

• New press shots of Samsung Galaxy S III accessories revealed

  Courtesy of the folks over at Mobile Fun, we are able to give you a closer look at some of the accessories for the recently announced Samsung Galaxy S III.

• Eight startup sins and how to avoid committing them [Net Prophet]

  Starting a business baby, starting a business. It can be a wild ride. Sylvia Gruber co-Founder and CEO of Rubybox broke down her experiences with Rubybox into eight, bite-sized tips for burgeoning startups.Gruber is big on keeping things basic and personal, simplicity is key -- often the most difficult and the most important aspect to get right.Rubybox is a monthly beauty box subscription service that provides its subscribers with beauty product samples. The service allows for business-to-business opportunities by ...

• The Cameroon Startup Challenge: Is the next global company in Cameroon?

  Sanaga Ventures and VC4Africa are turning their sights to Cameroon to uncover the most innovative web, mobile or hardware-based startups. The Cameroon Startup Challenge offers a cash prize of US$5 000 and an opportunity to receive mentorship and incubation at ActivSpaces, Cameroon’s leading technology hub.“Innovation can come from anywhere in the world, and the next global company might very well be from Cameroon. We want to do what we can to make that happen”, says Ben White, founder of ...

• Mobi.lity — A lifeline for railway commuters

  When civil engineer Justin Coetzee took a position as a public transport planner, he decided to leave his car parked at home and started taking the train to work in the morning. His daily route opened his eyes to the inconsistency of railway transport in his hometown of Cape Town, and in South Africa as a whole.The given timetable is unreliable. Commuters do not know when they will get to work or arrive home, nor are they privy to ...

• SA govt runs to MXit to engage younger crowd

  It has become commonplace for politicians to engage audiences through social media. Whatever your views may be on the efficacy of, or motives behind these campaigns, one thing is clear, the public can engage with candidates and those in office like never before.MXit is a South African social media success story, the largest network of its kind in Africa. On the eve of Freedom Day, a significant South African public holiday which celebrates the country’s first post-apartheid elections, MXit hosted ...

• Linked Content Coalition — The answer to online copyright law woes?

  SOPA/PIPA/CISPA/ACTA. Intellectual property (IP) and copyright laws are hot right now, but none of the proposed laws are sticking. Why? What should be exercises in altruism usually provoke incendiary public outcry as these laws either threaten the fundamental tenets of the internet that made it what it is today, or reveal underlying motivations rooted in greed.Legacy IP and copyright laws awkwardly extrapolate to the Information Age. The power has shifted. No longer do traditional media companies have the final ...

• Premium WordPress theme developer WooThemes hacked

  WooThemes is a bona fide South African startup success story. The premium WordPress theme developer was already raking in over US$2 million in sales in 2010. The latest news from WooThemes is less rosy. Adriaan “Adii” Pienaar, WooThemes co-founder released a statement today, confirming that WooThemes were the target of a recent “very malicious & severe hack, which has been the reason for WooThemes.com being offline for this time.”Pienaar notes that despite possible data loss related to recent user accounts, ...

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