After the frisson of a new Apple launch wears off, the reality is more prosaic. So it is with the Apple iPad, which has many faults beyond merely its unfortunate name. Here’s my ITWeb column on the subject.

My previous column at The Daily Maverick, Break the banking cartel, argued that the banks are unlikely ever to solve the problem of a generalised, cash-like, electronic transaction infrastructure that addresses the entire market, both rich and poor, local and foreign, buyer and seller, banked and unbanked.

Lest that argument be interpreted as a denunciation of bankers in general, I thought I’d question why everyone believes politicians when the latter blame the economic crisis on the former. Bankers are a product of their legal and regulatory environment. Hence, In defence of bankers.

Here’s a column based on the talk I gave at the amazing gathering of splendid people known as GeekRetreat last weekend. It argues that the most important hurdle to a universal online and mobile payment system that serves all South Africans is one law, namely the law against deposit-taking by non-banks.

Also published this week, a report on GeekRetreat for TechCentral, with details on two of the technology ideas that emerged.

(For some reason, this wasn’t published when it should have been, last week…)

How long can a columnist avoid the subject of our great leader of youth, Julius Malema? I don’t know. My experiment in this regard came to an end today. So here it is, published by The Daily Maverick. The alert reader will note some evidence that there was some discussion this morning about what the headline should be.

Ever since the first “2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Special Measures Act”, no. 11 of 2006 was passed, and FIFA began calling for volunteers for the Confederations Cup rather than employing people like civilised companies do, the whole World Cup thing has left a sour taste in my mouth. It’s annoying to watch your government hijacked, and your country and its people exploited, by people who think they’re too good for the rules by which the rest of us play.

So here’s an idea: Boycott FIFA.