Big Day in the Burg

A short film from the creative genius of G. Scott Barkman.

Juanita du Plessis - Tussen woorde

Juanita is a very beautiful lady!!! Here she sings her new song Tussen woorde. Between words (English).

GV Mobile Demo Video

This app in addition to the iPhone, will be available for Blackberry and Android mobiles as well. Neat!!!

GV Mobile brings the power of Google Voice to your iPhone.
GV Mobile allows users of Google Voice to:
+dial numbers (domestic for free and international at a variable rate) via the iPhone address book or typing on the keypad
+send SMS
+retrieve and delete recent call history
+playback and delete voicemails
+take calls from different phones other than your iPhone
+enable or disable the phones that Google Voice forwards calls to
+add or delete phones that Google Voice forwards call to

(GV Mobile is not a product of Google)

Alan Keyes rightly calls Obama a radical communist

Amb. Alan Keyes was a featured speaker at a fundraiser for the Triple A Crisis Pregnancy Center in Hastings, Nebraska, on 19 February, 2009, where a reporter from KHAS-TV interviewed him about his thoughts on Mr. Obama. With conviction, Alan firmly stated that Mr. Obama is a radical communist (which he is) and a usurper (which he has done since he hasn't produced an original birth certificate). And that Obama supports infanticide--the killing of babies born alive after botched abortions.

The story was later picked up by Keith Olberman of MSNBC who spent time on the show calling Alan Keyes names in order to diminish the importance of what Alan said. Alan must have hit a nerve. Go Alan!

Nadine - A Song for the World

Esti van Rooyen - Staan Vas

Nadine sings "Footprints in Africa"

South African artist, Nadine, sings a song she wrote about South Africa, and how she feels about her country.

The video starts with her words: "ek is baie trots op my land" (I am very proud of my country.)

Her message is a very positive one - of love for her country, and optimism about the future. Some may call it naïve, and it probably is.

However, if you take away hope - what remains?

Support her by buying her DVD, which can be found at kalahari.net

Translation of Nadine's song, "Footprints in Africa" (original Afrikaans title: "Afrika Spore")

Deur jou groot woestyn
-- Through your vast desert

Lê 'n reguit lyn
-- Runs a straight line

Loop my spore deur jou hart
-- My footprints reach through your heart

In jou hemelruim
-- Through your skies above

Teen die hoogste kruin
-- Across the highest peaks

Strek ons blydskap en ook ons pad
-- Reach our joy and our journey

As ek jou moes verruil
-- If I had to give you up

Sal ek ween, sal ek saggies huil
-- I will weep, I will shed silent tears

Afrika, jy sal in my agterbly
-- Africa, you will stay in my heart

REFRAIN:

Suid Afrika, ons sal staande bly
-- South Africa, we will remain standing

Suid Afrika, niks sal ons onderkry
-- South Africa, nothing will overcome us

Al sê die wêreld jy is verby
-- Even if the world says your time is over

Gee jy jou beste vir my
-- You give your best for us

Suid Afrika, dis die land van my
-- South Africa, it is the land of mine

AFFIRMATION:

Ons sal onthou waar ons vandaan kom
-- We will remember where we came from

En ons sal weet waarheen ons gaan
-- And we will know where we are heading

Neem my hand, ek sal vorentoe kyk
-- Take my hand, I will look straight ahead

En ek sal onthou om uit te reik
-- And I will remember to reach out

Hier waar ossewa spore rou lê
-- Here where oxen wagons carved their tracks

Dit is die plek waar my voetspore nou lê
-- This is the place where my footprints now lie

Ons sal lewe, ons sal steeds sterwe
-- We will live, we will still die

Ons vir jou, Suid Afrika
-- For our country, South Africa

Nadine - Koe-ma-doe (remix)

Een van Nadine se grootste treffers.

The DVD can be bought internationally at kalahari.net

Ek het die oorspronklike musiek video gekombineer met een van haar konsert optredes.

This is a light hearted song about all kinds of things, mostly love (but not in a serious way) and also a little bit of religion and patriotism.

To give you a few lines as examples:
"when you come to fetch me with your wedding band, make sure you bring everything with you: your bicycle, your picture frames and your tame goose"

"give me a little hug"

"we'll build a little house in second avenue, just like I always wanted"

"this is our very own country"

It's not so common as it used to be. Religion, and specifically Christianity, has always been an important part of the day to day life of a large part of the Afrikaner nation.

The moral baggage of apartheid has almost completely shattered our national pride. However, the new generation of Afrikaners are experiencing a resurgence in this pride, often in response to the racism they experience from blacks in schools and the economic affirmative action policies of the ANC.

Glenn Beck on Obama's 'Change': Socialism

Young student from India

It was the first day of school in America and a new Indian student named Chandrasekhar Subramanian entered the fourth grade.

The teacher said, "Let's begin by reviewing some American History. Who said 'Give me Liberty, or give me Death'?"

She saw a sea of blank faces, except for Chandrasekhar, who had his hand up: 'Patrick Henry, 1775' he said.

'Very good!'

Who said 'Government of the People, by the People, for the People, shall not perish from the Earth?'

Again, no response except from Chandrasekhar. 'Abraham Lincoln, 1863' said Chandrasekhar.

The teacher snapped at the class, 'Class, you should be ashamed. Chandrasekhar, who is new to our country, knows more about its history than you do.'

She heard a loud whisper: 'F*ck the Indians,'

'Who said that?' she demanded. Chandrasekhar put his hand up.

'General Custer, 1862.'

At that point, a student in the back said, 'I'm gonna puke.'

The teacher glares around and asks 'All right! Now, who said that?'

Again, Chandrasekhar says, 'George Bush to the Japanese Prime Minister, 1991.'

Now furious, another student yells, 'Oh yeah? Suck this!'

Chandrasekhar jumps out of his chair waving his hand and shouts to the teacher , 'Bill Clinton, to Monica Lewinsky, 1997!'

Now with almost mob hysteria someone said 'You little shit. If you say anything else, I'll kill you.'

Chandrasekhar frantically yells at the top of his voice, 'Michael Jackson to the child witnesses testifying against him, 2004.'

The teacher fainted.

And as the class gathered around the teacher on the floor, someone said, 'Oh shit, we're screwed!'

And Chandrasekhar said quietly, "I think it was the American people, November 4, 2008."

(Found on the Net)

South African Companies Unlock Sub-Saharan Africa

Versed in the highs and lows of emerging-market development, SABMiller, Standard Bank, and others are expanding across the continent and beyond

A building In Uganda brightly plugs MTN, a South African cellular provider Vanessa Vick/Redux

by Jack Ewing
BusinessWeek
Emerging Market Report December 4, 2008, 5:00PM EST

Name a global economic woe, and chances are Charles Needham is dealing with it. Market turmoil has knocked 80% off the shares of South Africa's Metorex, the mining company he runs. The plunge in global commodities is slamming prices for the copper, cobalt, and other minerals Metorex unearths across Africa. The credit crisis makes it harder to raise money. And fighting has again broken out in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Metorex has a mine and several projects in development.

Such problems might send many executives to the window ledge. Yet Needham appears unruffled as he sits down at a conference table in the company's modest offices in a Johannesburg suburb. The combat in northeast Congo, he notes, is far from Metorex's mine. Commodity prices are still high, in historical terms. And Needham is confident he can raise enough capital, drawing on relationships with South African banks. "These are the kinds of things you deal with, doing business in Africa," he says.

That kind of resolve is typical of South African companies. All told, South Africans have plowed more than $8.5 billion into the Sub-Saharan region, the U.N. estimates, making the country the biggest investor there. Ever since South African Breweries pioneered the African beer market—and then went on to become the global titan known as SABMiller—South African companies have led the way on risky turf. Johannesburg cellular provider MTN was one of a handful of companies to defy conventional wisdom and prove that Africa could be a huge market for mobile phones. South African retailers such as Massmart, Shoprite, and packaged-food maker Tiger Brands are bringing Western-style shopping to Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, and other far-flung locales. And Standard Bank has opened branches in 16 African countries that in many cases lacked even basic financial services. "South African companies are more open than ever to the opportunities in Africa," says Sonal Pandit, portfolio manager for African equities at JPMorgan Funds (JPM).

Now the South Africans are taking their emerging-market expertise well beyond Africa's coastline. MTN has moved into Afghanistan and Iran. Standard Bank in 2007 bought control of BankBoston Argentina. And Anglo American, now based in London but with South African roots, has become the world's fourth-biggest mining company, with operations from Chile to Australia.

The knowhow South Africans have gained on the continent is making their companies attractive to foreigners with ambitions in the region. In March, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China bought a 20% stake in Standard Bank. Britain's Vodafone (VOD) in November took control of Vodacom, a pan-African cellular carrier based near Johannesburg. "Africa is the next China," says Malcolm Perrie, who oversees sub-Saharan Africa for U.S. auto parts maker Federal-Mogul, which aims to double its sub-Saharan sales within five years.

South Africans carry a detailed understanding of the quirks of the local market. Perrie, for instance, grew up in Zimbabwe and South Africa and knows that goods are often unloaded from trucks by hand because retailers can't afford forklifts. So Federal-Mogul ships its Champion-brand spark plugs and other parts in boxes one person can carry. Knowing Nigerians feel insulted when bank tellers sit behind bulletproof glass, Standard instead stations armed guards at its bank entrances in crime-plagued Lagos, which doesn't bother customers. And in Uganda, where many people have little access to mass media, MTN advertises its phone service by painting roadside buildings yellow and blue, the company's colors. Such common-sense solutions may seem obvious, yet South Africans have been faster than others to recognize the opportunities—and more willing to take a risk. French-speaking Democratic Republic of the Congo, for instance, might well have been a logical market for a French carrier, but South Africa's Vodacom jumped in early and is now the leader.

With so many roads in Africa leading to Johannesburg, it would be bad news for the whole continent if South Africa fell victim to global financial turmoil. There's no shortage of reasons to worry. Growth in South Africa, which accounts for a third of sub-Saharan Africa's gross domestic product, likely will slow to 3% in 2009 after averaging 5% in recent years. Mining, an important domestic industry, has been hit by the plunge in commodity prices. The rand has been sliding, creating additional price risks in a country with 13% inflation. And the African National Congress, which has dominated the country's politics since the end of whites-only rule in 1994, has split into rival factions.

Yet foreign economists seem to fret more than South Africans. They don't teach sangfroid in business school, but you may learn it growing up in South Africa, a sometimes jarring mélange of well-manicured wealth and chaotic poverty. The suburbs of Johannesburg look like Beverly Hills or Pasadena, except that the security guards are more heavily armed and the posh houses crouch behind concrete walls topped with electric fence. At a mall called Nelson Mandela Square, shoppers pass a bronze statue of the anti-apartheid leader on their way to the Crabtree & Evelyn outlet.

Despite freeways packed with BMWs and Toyotas (TM), Johannesburg provides constant reminders that it is very much an African city. More than 70% of South Africa's 48 million people live on $2 or less a day, and a quarter haven't even completed primary school, the World Bank estimates. Wizened women with unwashed children on their backs beg at intersections. Men stand by highways with signs around their necks advertising their skills, looking for day work. At a McDonald's (MCD), customers munch on Quarter Pounders at outdoor tables, taking little notice of the rats that scurry around the chain's parking lot.

Understanding the twin aspects of South Africa's sophisticated economy and emerging market complexities surely gives its companies an advantage around the continent. "South Africans do well when they go elsewhere because they're not afraid," says software entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, a South African based in London.

Neighboring Mozambique is a good place to see how South African companies are remaking business in the region. The capital, Maputo, remains a city where most people live in houses with mud-brick walls and rusty metal roofs, and sidewalks are crammed with vendors selling everything from fresh papaya to bootleg DVDs of High School Musical 3. At a shiny mall next to an abandoned bullfighting arena, a motorized Santa Claus stands at the entrance to South Africa's Shoprite on a warm afternoon, greeting customers stocking up on rice, cornmeal, and fake Christmas trees. Downtown, Durban-based home furnishings retailer Mr Price sells brightly colored bedding, crockery, and furniture.

And on a bumpy road that hugs the coastline, there's a shining South African-owned big box store called Game. Aside from a few local touches—palm trees in the parking lot, signs in Portuguese, and a whole aisle devoted to ceiling fans—the store looks like a discounter in Ohio or Oregon. A mix of expatriates and wealthier locals fill their carts with Frosted Flakes (K), Hannah Montana bedsheets, and Sony (SNE) TVs.

But creating this oasis of consumerism hasn't been easy. Construction was delayed for months while officials held out for bribes. The store's spunky manager, Ana Paula Florentino, refused to pay. "If you give them your finger, they want your hand, and if you give them your hand, they want your arm," says Florentino, who as a child fled the former Portuguese colony on the eve of a brutal civil war that lasted from 1975 until 1992, making Mozambique one of the poorest countries on the planet. Rather than depending on the local phone network, she transmits sales and inventory data to headquarters via satellite. It's challenging to manage personnel in a country where many have never held regular jobs. Workers must learn such basics as the importance of laundering their company-issue red-and-white striped shirts—and skipping the traditional two-hour midday siesta.

The role model for many South African companies is SABMiller. The brewer was active in neighboring countries for decades, then began expanding aggressively after the end of apartheid, when the U.N. lifted economic sanctions. Betting that its experience in such places as Angola and Zimbabwe suited it for other emerging markets, SAB acquired beermakers in Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

The brewer, now based in London, proved South Africans could compete internationally. "SAB has been an inspiration," says Peter Wharton-Hood, chief operating officer of Standard Bank. He and his colleagues are trying to do for banking what SAB did for beer, though they admit they were slow to appreciate the opportunities on their doorstep. "We didn't take Africa as seriously as now," Wharton-Hood says. "There was significant pessimism about the prospects for the continent."

That's an important point. News reports about Africa tend to be dominated by war in the Congo, pirates in Somalia, or chaos in Zimbabwe. In fact, Angola, Mozambique, Uganda, and other countries have grown markedly more peaceful recently, even if government institutions still leave a lot to be desired. "In the last 10 years we have seen a dramatic increase in political stability and a reduction of conflict," says Clive Tasker, CEO of Standard Bank's Africa operations.

The opportunities aren't lost on outsiders. Standard faces competition from the likes of London-based Barclays (BCS), which took over Johannesburg's Absa bank in 2005. Companies from other emerging markets are bringing to Africa their own experience in dealing with difficult environments. In telecommunications, MTN and Vodacom often bump up against Zain, from Kuwait. Brazil-based builder Odebrecht and oil company Petrobras (PBR) have been expanding in Angola, exploiting the fact that both nations speak Portuguese. And a Chinese outfit is building Congolese roads and other infrastructure in exchange for access to mineral deposits. From within Africa, Nigerian institutions such as United Bank for Africa are proving to be worthy competitors outside their domestic market.

Executives in Johannesburg, however, see the growing competition as just another hazard of doing business in the region. "South African businesspeople have managed enormous risk over the last 20 years," says Michael Spicer, a former executive vice-president at Anglo American who is now CEO of Business Leadership South Africa, an industry group. "They are incredibly flexible."

Business Exchange: Read, save, and add content on BW's new Web 2.0 topic network

Doing Business in Africa

The continent is famed for its unstable politics, shoddy infrastructure, and underdeveloped markets. But Africa offers plenty of opportunities for companies able to grapple with such challenges. That's the premise of a new book called Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Can Offer More Than You Think by Vijay Mahajan, a business professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who also co-authored the well-received The 86% Solution.

To view a video of Mahajan discussing his new work, go to http://bx.businessweek.com/african-business/reference/

Ewing is BusinessWeek's European regional editor.

Petula Clark - Downtown

The eHarmony Shakedown

by Michelle Malkin
Friday, 21 November, 2008 -- Townhall.com

Congratulations, tolerance mau-mauers: Your shakedown of a Christian-targeted dating website worked. Homosexuals will no longer be denied the inalienable "right" to hook up with same-sex partners on eHarmony. What a landmark triumph for social progress, eh?

New Jersey plaintiff Eric McKinley can now crown himself the new Rosa Parks -- heroically breaking down inhumane barriers to Internet matchmaking by forcing a law-abiding private company to provide services it was never created to provide. "Men seeking men" has now been enshrined with "I have a dream" as a civil rights rallying cry of the 21st century. Bully for you, Mr. McKinley. You bully.

Neil Warren, eHarmony's founder, is a gentle, grandfatherly businessman who launched his popular dating site to support heterosexual marriage. A "Focus on the Family" author with a divinity degree, Warren encourages healthy, lasting unions between men and women of all faiths, mixed faiths or no faith at all.

Don't like what eHarmony sells? Go somewhere else. There are thousands upon thousands of dating sites on the Internet that cater to gays, lesbians, Jews, Muslims, Trekkies, runners, you name it.

No matter. In the name of tolerance, McKinley refused to tolerate eHarmony's right to operate a lawful business that didn't give him what he wanted. He filed a discrimination complaint against eHarmony with the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights in 2005.

To be clear: eHarmony never, ever refused to do business with anyone. The company broke no laws. Their great "sin" was not providing a politically correct service that a publicity-seeking gay plaintiff demanded they provide. For three years, the company battled McKinley's legal shakedown artists -- and staved off other opportunists as well. The dating site had been previously sued by a lesbian looking to force the company to match her up with another woman, and by a married man who ridiculously sought to force the company to find him prospects for an adulterous relationship.

This case is akin to a meat-eater suing a vegetarian restaurant for not offering him a rib-eye, or a female patient suing a vasectomy doctor for not providing her hysterectomy services. But rather than defend the persecuted business, the New Jersey attorney general intervened on behalf of the gay plaintiff and wrangled an agreement out of eHarmony to change its entire business model.

The company agreed not only to offer same-sex dating services on a new site, but also to offer six-month subscriptions for free to 10,000 gay users, pay McKinley $5,000 and fork over $50,000 to New Jersey's Civil Rights division "to cover investigation-related administrative costs." Oh, and that's not all. Yield, yield to the grievance-mongers:

Additional terms of the settlement include:

-- eHarmony, Inc. will post photos of same-sex couples in the "Diversity" section of its website as successful relationships are created using the company's same-sex matching service. In addition, eHarmony, Inc. will include photos of same-sex couples, as well as individual same-sex users, in advertising materials used to promote its same-sex matching services;

-- eHarmony, Inc. will revise anti-discrimination statements placed on company websites, in company handbooks and other company publications to make plain that it does not discriminate on the basis of "sexual orientation";

-- the company has committed to advertising and public relations/ marketing dedicated to its same-sex matching service, and will retain a media consultant experienced in promoting the "fair, accurate and inclusive" representation of gay and lesbian people in the media to determine the most effective way of reaching the gay and lesbian communities.

I have enormous sympathy for eHarmony, whose attorney explained that they gave in to the unfair settlement because "litigation outcomes can be unpredictable." The recent mob response to the passage of Proposition 8, the traditional marriage measure in California, must have also weighed on eHarmony management's minds. But capitulation will only yield a worse, entirely predictable outcome: more shakedowns of private businesses that hold views deemed unacceptable by the Equality-at-All-Costs Brigade.

Perhaps heterosexual men and women should start filing lawsuits against gay dating websites and undermine their businesses. Coerced tolerance and diversity-by-fiat cut both ways.

Priest loses custody of triplets fathered by donating sperm - accused of abusing those children

By Carolyn Peirce
Examiner Staff Writer 10/30/08

A Catholic priest found to have sexually abused two of his 6-year-old triplets lost custody this week to the woman who gave birth to the children using his donated sperm and another woman’s eggs.

The state’s second-highest court held Monday that Fernando Cristancho, 52, of Bel Air, is unfit to parent the triplets, two boys and a girl, and granted custody to Dalia Fernandez, 57, the woman who gave birth to them using in vitro fertilization.

The decision affirmed the ruling of Harford Circuit Judge Emory Plitt Jr., who said Fernandez deserved the children because she was a de facto parent acting as their mother even though she was unrelated.

Plitt’s decision had been called into question when the state’s highest court ruled against the de facto parent doctrine in another case during Cristancho’s appeal, saying only extreme circumstances overrule a parent’s right to custody.

“One of the constitutionally protected rights is for a parent to have say with regard to [the custody of] their children and to overcome that, you have to show some sort of unfitness by the parent,” said J. Richard Moore III, Fernandez’s trial attorney who is now a master in Harford. Masters make recommendations in family and juvenile cases that are sent to judges who make the final decision.

Moore said the intermediate appellate court upheld Plitt’s ruling because the sexual abuse was proof enough that Cristancho was unfit, even if the de facto parent doctrine was tossed.

“Plitt took into account that the court might rule in that fashion,” Moore said. “So, he also found that Cristancho was unfit ... and basically made the opinion bulletproof.”

Cristancho’s’ attorney Laura Bearsch said the appeal was based on discrepancies in what the boys reported and a Department of Social Services investigation that was “really, really full of errors.”

Bearsch said the boys were never interviewed alone, and authorities were “picking and choosing” what to believe. Cristancho never was criminally charged with sex abuse, she said.

According to Monday’s opinion, Cristancho asked his Platonic friend Fernandez to travel with him to Colombia in 2001 and undergo the in vitro process, because he had taken a vow of celibacy.

Church officials learned of the children’s birth in November and fired Cristancho from his position as assistant priest at St. Ignatius Church in Forest Hill. His relationship with Fernandez soon dwindled.

According to the opinion, one of the boys disclosed the sexual abuse in 2005, but the family’s doctor told Fernandez that police wouldn’t believe the boy because of his age.

When the boy told the same story in 2006 to a baby sitter, police were notified along with the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Department of Social Services.

Cristancho also was accused in 1997 of sexual misconduct with a young woman who wasn’t a minor, for which he was fired from the Parish Council at Good Shepherd Church in Alexandria, Va., according to the opinion.

cpeirce@baltimoreexaminer.com

Boeing Talks With Striking Machinists Break Down

SEATTLE — (AP)  Boeing Co. and the leader of its striking machinists union say talks aimed at resolving a five-week walkout have broken down.

Boeing chief negotiator Doug Kight said the company was disappointed as talks broke off late Monday afternoon. The walkout is in its 38th day.

The president of the Machinists Union, Tom Buffenbarger, said by phone that the talks broke down over "the future" but declined to provide specifics.

Talks between the two parties resumed Sunday for the first time since 27,000 machinists went on strike Sept. 6 over issues that include job security, pay, retirement benefits and health care. The union also has concerns about provisions on outsourcing and subcontracting.

Boeing's Kight says the company wants its commercial jet production workers back at work but can't "sacrifice our ability to continuously improve productivity and our long-term competitiveness."

Gov. Sarah Palin Biography Video

The Cindy McCain Story

Newt Gingrich Slams Reporter Ron Allen About Sarah Palin

MSNBC reporter Ron Allen asks Newt Gingrich:

"But to be fair, her resume is not something we're familiar seeing with presidential candidates."

Gingrich blows him away with a hot rebuttal.

Where To Go On Holiday In South Africa...

South Africa lies at the southernmost tip of Africa, between the
Indian and Atlantic oceans with 3500 kilometers (about 2200 miles) of
shoreline providing unlimited opportunities to explore and with a
diverse mix of cultures that includes British, Dutch, German, French,
Indian, Portuguese and Muslim. The two confirmed languages are English
and Afrikaans (a mix of Dutch and German), with 11 ethnic languages
spoken. This will maybe give you some understanding of why South
Africa's people are called the rainbow nation...

Powered by ScribeFire.

PREVIEW: Google Android OS

HTC Dream...!!!

Google Android OS demo.

Dear Mr. Obama

An Iraq Veteran has a personal message for Barack Obama.

Remarks by Gov. Sarah Palin

The Speech!!!

Producing American Energy and Opening ANWR

Congressman Don Young of Alaska, urges the opening of ANWR and the development of American Energy Sources. His bill, HR 6107, the American Energy Independence and Price Reduction Act, would open ANWR and use the approximately $200 billion in federal revenue generated to develop Alternative Energy sources. How much longer can we afford to wait...?

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is a National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska. It consists of 19,049,236 acres (7,708,952 ha) in the Alaska North Slope region.

Convention Night

Debra

Democrats Praising McCain

A little bit on Governor Palin...

McCain * Palin

Yeah, that's the ticket!!!

Why can't they fix the Flash/Firefox bug?

by Rafe Needleman

Latest: Adobe's John Dowdell has a thoughtful critique of this post that also expands on the nature of the bug.

An annoying and long-lived bug is preventing some users from viewing Web videos. There's a workaround, but for many, the cure is as bad as the disease.

The bug is that Flash videos don't play for certain Firefox 3 users on Windows XP or Vista, when using the current Flash player version 9. On YouTube, CNET TV, and other sites, embedded videos will start, but they halt after two seconds. Both Mozilla and Adobe have been aware of the issue since late May, but as yet no solution has been found. For some people suffering from this bug, it's intermittent. For others, it's a consistent block to viewing online videos.

One workaround solution is to install the Flash 10 player, which is still in beta. Unfortunately, many Flash video sites don't recognize that Flash 10 is a valid and current player. CNN, for example, thinks Flash 10 beta is older than Flash 8, asks users to upgrade to Flash 9, and thus won't play at all.

Since the bug is serious and has been known for some time, I called both Mozilla and Adobe to see what's going on. I spoke first with Mike Beltzner, Mozilla's "phenomenologist," aka head of user experience. He pointed me to the record in Bugzilla where they're tracking the issue and gave me some of the issues they think are responsible for this one. In a nutshell, Mozilla thinks there's a miscommunication between plug-in and browser but doesn't know which product is the culprit.

He also took a minute to trumpet Mozilla's open-source philosophy. Since Firefox's code is open, Adobe can look at it to try to determine what is going on. But Mozilla's team can't look into Flash. Beltzner didn't blame Adobe for the bug itself, but he did say that Adobe's traditional closed software architecture is slowing down their investigation. "We hit a wall when it's a closed-source solution," he said.

An Adobe spokesperson, who asked not to be named, said Adobe is looking into the issue but isn't yet sure if the problem is isolated to Firefox 3 and Flash 9, or if there is a third culprit--another plug-in, perhaps--that is throwing things off for the Flash player.

Finger pointing is common in software troubleshooting, and I give both Mozilla and Adobe credit for only generally waving, not pointing, their fingers at each other. Unfortunately, neither team seems to have developers who can reproduce this issue, which just keeps the ping-pong game going.

What I find most interesting is the way the differing philosophies of Mozilla and Adobe are slowing down resolution of this issue. If both companies were open then any developer--at Mozilla, Adobe, or elsewhere--could get into things and start experimenting to find a fix. If both companies had closed philosophies then their engineers could swear each other to the secrecy, swap source code, and together fix the issue. But right now I get the sense that the two very different companies simply are not meshing well. And because of that, I can't play my videos.

Flash 9 works just fine in Internet Explorer.

See also: Two quick fixes for Firefox 3.