I’m excited to show you pre-announcement screen shots of the latest version of Ovi Maps with 3D view, 3D Buildings and Routing and Navigation for both Car and Walk mode.

Here are a few screen shots that I just took using the service for the first time, with my first impressions:

Ovi Maps Homepage defaults to Cape Town. This must be done by using my IP as I have not set up any other profiling information regarding my location.

Ovi Maps requires a browser plug in to be installed.

Ovi Maps Map View Options, include the standard that we have to come love on Ovi Maps on Mobile, Map View, Satellite and Terrain.

Check after the break for more screen shots, including the 3D Landmarks of Cape Town.

Ovi Maps 3D and 2D Toggling is made easy by the button on the top right-hand corner.

Ovi Maps More… Allows for management of Night Mode/Day Mode toggling, inclusion of 3D Landmarks and the ability to set the default language of Ovi Maps.

That’s right, those 3D buildings are of Cape Town’s foreshore and include the CTICC, MetLife and the Cullinan Inn. How cool is THAT?

Ovi Maps Navigation with Turn by Turn Directions for both Drive and Walk Mode.

Ovi Maps Good Stuff Content Sharing. Here I have added Urban Khana HQ to the map and it is now publicly available globally to view and navigate to. I particular like the function “Share This Good Thing”, which gives you a URL to share on the Ovi Platform.

Today, Kulula strikes back with another brilliant mockery ad that will once again give Kulula the edge in humorous advertising that we have come to love from them.

Click on it to make it full screen.

South Africa finds itself months away from hosting what can be considered to be the greatest sporting event on the calendar next year, the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Months ago, the country was laced with skeptics and rumours that FIFA has instantiated a back up plan to move the World Cup event to Germany were rife and only supported by the typical propaganda loving media. FIFA and the South African President later made announcements that these rumours were untrue and FIFA had further backed their pledge to host the games in South Africa.

Since then, we have all been stuck in traffic jams as we scramble to complete a 20 or 30 year transport overhaul plan in a space of 4 years, by introducing the Gautrain, new highways, road resurfacing and the nightmares caused at airports are no secret to most of us. Stadium development strikes, crime and property price increases are only a few of the issues that we have had to deal with.

The truth is, though, that in less than 250 days, our flag will fly high above our stadiums proud. Proud that we have risen from turmoil that we experiences here less than 20 years ago. Proud that we as a nation have taken an infrastructure designed purely for a sub-sector of our population and opened it up to the masses and managed to make it work. Proud that we as a nation sing a national anthem made up of five languages. Our flag can fly proud knowing that we, the people of South Africa are proud to stand under it.

The truest achievement that we will witness when Sepp Blatter makes the announcement that the World Cup is open is the achievement of knowing that we have risen. Well done South Africa!

Its an absolute marvel and the history behind the wall is simply amazing. Spanning a total length of about 6700 km end to end and during its peak, the wall guarded by about 1 million soldiers of the Ming Dynasty at any single given time.

It was build as a defensive structure to safe guard the empire from attack from the Mongolians and the enormity of the structure is simply mind-boggling to imagine a wall wrapping an entire nation. It is also said to be the only man-made structure that is visible on Earth from the Moon!

The wall was a great cost to the empire and as a result the Ming Dynasty lost millions on building the wall, but it deemed it a necessary expense in assuring the safety of the of the dynasty from raids from the north eastern neighbours.

I saw the wall during a national holiday. I highly recommend that you avoid these days, as the wall is bustling with local tourists who come to share in the oogling of the masterpiece. It makes for a crowded trip and is not desirable.

A tour to the wall at Badaling came with a trip to the Ming Tombs (which is not great), a stop at a silk factory (which was pretty interesting for the first 20 minutes before I got bored) and a trip to a Jade factory (this was very cool and i really did enjoy it!).

The tour cost us CYR180 each and included pick up and drop off at the hotel and an authentic Chinese lunch. We had an English speaking tour guide who was friendly and fairly knowledgeable of the sights. She did try to crack a few jokes that I just didn’t get, but all in all it was cool. The bus was air-conditioned and decently comfortable!

I’ll post the tour companies details as soon as I find it again

Flight Centre did not help me out after screwing up my transfer hotel and visa, so I did in fact end up stuck in Doha International for 18 hours and have still not contacted me with an apology. I am very disappointed in their service and would not recommend the company to anybody and suggest that you make your own bookings via CheapTrip.co.za instead!

If ever you are stuck in Doha, I suggest that you head over the Oryx lounge. Its on the first floor on the far right hand side of the building. They charge a small entry fee for access to the VIP lounge of QR140, some credit cards allow you free access as a value added service by your credit card provider, like mine did. The Oryx is a great place to chill for a few hours.

It has great ambient lighting, soothing music and loads of comfy couches to kick back in. They serve light snacks, softdrinks and tea and coffee complimentary all day long. They have TV’s with quiet a few english channels, a meeting room and free wifi. The bathroom facilities are very clean and very well maintained and it was a real pleasure taking a shower as well. I highly recommend the Oryx to stay fresh during a long transit!

Onroute back home, I left Beijing in the wee hours of Saturday morning, to arrive in Doha just after first light. The airport was busy and I had a total 40 minute transit time from one flight landing to the next flight taking off, so I was pretty stressed out about missing it.

I managed to rush through and get on the flight in time, only to have the flight delayed by 2 hours because of a system failure.

Now, dear Captain Johnson of Qatar Airways, in future… please understand that hearing the words “System Failure” is very unnerving as a passenger on a flight. Further, it would be preferable if you avoid supporting terms like “might be able to fix the problem”. Fixing the problem is one thing, but that word “MIGHT” is definitely not the kind of assurance that I want to be hearing while strapping myself into your fueled to the max Boeing just before take-off!

All in all, Qatar Airways is a great airline with great service. The meals were very impressive, the staff were courteous and friendly and even played with the little kids on board the flights.

They are also the cheapest airline to fly to Beijing from South Africa and would recommend that you check out a flight booking on a flight aggregator like CheapTrip.co.za!

The flight cost me R8900 inclusive of all airport taxes and levies!

So early evening yesterday, 30 September, I was dropped off at Cape Town International Airport and a few hours later I’m boarding a flight to Doha. It was a pleasant flight, bar the stale toasted roll that I was served as a snack. Chicken, cheese and peppers…yum! The other meals were really good!

After a pretty long flight and me doing a small acrobatic stunt to fit my +PLUS sized ass across 3 seats dodging armrests and managing to stay strapped in with my seatbelt (This feat would make McGyver jealous!), I arrived in Doha about 2 hours ago, just before 7am local time.

On arrival, I’m told that my visa wasn’t arranged by my travel agent, so I’m stuck here for 18 hours. Great!

The guys at Flight Centre better pull through for me, cos I’m borderline pissed now!

The genius in Dr. David Fisher’s design of the Dynamic Architecture wind-powered rotating skyscraper is quite simply the most exciting green building that you will find around the planet in some time to come. The rotating marvel that this building is, it produces 10 times more energy than it uses up. That means that you could well call it an energy resource instead of something that is traditionally supposed to be energy consuming. Forget about zero-energy buildings, this one gives tons of energy back to us.

Each floor of Dynamic Architecture’s wind-powered rotating skyscraper is a single apartment with the ability to rotate independently, giving residents the ability to choose a new view at the touch of a button – quite a party trick. Wind turbines between each floor will generate a vast surplus of electricity capable of powering the whole surrounding neighborhood. Even to visualize such an existing concept is damn difficult and that is a direct tribute to the creative genius of David Fisher. What most of us still struggle to imagine, this guy came up with it from scratch!

Each turbine has the peak ability to produce around 0.2 megawatt hours of electricity. Given Dubai has an average of 4000 hours of wind annually, with an average wind speed of 16 km/h, the turbines are estimated to produce around 1,200,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per year. Four of the 48 turbines in the building will be enough to power the entire tower, leaving the other 44 to provide surplus energy back into Dubai’s power grid. The final twist in the tale is that the building will be made more like a car in a factory. Each floor will be separately and simultaneously worked upon and will be assembled finally like a little jig-saw puzzle! Yes, the surprises never cease to exist.

• India is the world’s largest democracy.
• Employing over 1 million people, India is home to the world’s largest employer, the Indian Railway Company.
• The world’s largest bus fleet can be found in the streets of Andra Pradesh, India, under the control of the RTDC.
• Chess was invented in India.
• In the last 10 000 years of civilisation in India, it has never invaded any country.
• An Indian mathematician, Aryabhatta, invented the number zero.
• India is the largest English speaking population in the world.

and lastly, Albert Einstein said this about India, ” We owe a lot to Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.”