I was taught never, ever, to use the words “under construction” on a website. Also, I ‘ve always believed that those words are almost never, ever, true. And indeed, they’re not technically true now, either.

Having said that, I think I ought to give up my half-hearted attempt to keep this blog current. Because I now write several columns a week for which I get paid, blogging in the sense that I used to write here is not on my agenda. I’ll let others compete with how I make a living by doing it for free.

I’m busier than ever — much busier than I expected to be when I left Johannesburg for the safer, quieter, cheaper and more beautiful environs of Knysna. However, I’m giving a lot of thought to how I can better use this site to tie my various activities together. It needs a major rebuild, both in functionality and design, after years first of loyal service, and then benign neglect.

Until I get around to all that, here is where I hang out:

The Daily Maverick — my flagship column can be found under “opinionistas” down the right-hand side every Tuesday (usually). It covers everything under the sun, though that is not a formal restriction. One column recently racked up 400 comments totalling 65,000 words in just one week, which is among the reasons this blog is losing the battle for my attention. Also, it’s a superb site, populated with some really brilliant writers. It’s as good to read as it is to write for.

ITWeb — my area of specialisation, if I can still be said to have one, is technology and telecommunications. It’s what I studied, and what I wrote about when I first, accidentally, became a journalist. My interest in IT, and my long association with ITWeb continues. Most Thursdays I have a column there.

Brainstorm magazine — I’ve been writing for ITWeb’s premier monthly title, Brainstorm, since its launch ten years ago. I still do, and still have great fun doing it. Besides my back-page column, there’s the White Noise page, which is where I get to take the mickey out of everything and everyone in the field.

CAR Magazine — I’m very excited to be writing a column for what has always been one of my favourite print titles. I hardly ever read anything in print nowadays, but I’ve always made an exception for CAR. It is a great honour to be writing for them now too.

Twitter — having publicly left Facebook years ago because of the noise and clutter (and because Microsoft bought a stake in it), my favourite social networking hangout is Twitter. You’ll find me there daily, as @IvoVegter, arguing about economics, media, politics, environmentalism, history and Manchester United.

In an unusually dull State of the Nation address, Jacob Zuma did mention that he wanted to spend some very large amount of money on a broadband implementation plan. Given the government’s record in telecommunications, this struck me as a stupid idea. Don’t ministers need cars or something? Read Throwing good money after bad on ITWeb.

The 2011 budget presented by South African finance minister Pravin Gordhan includes a R450 million item to implement a national broadband strategy. This money is misdirected. I explain why, and offer a compromise alternative, over at ITWeb: Throwing good money after bad.

In the venerable tradition of nicknaming communications ministers, the new appointee, Radakrishna Padayachie, has earned the hopeful moniker of Jewelweed. This is another name for Indian Balsam, which is reputedly a cure for Poison Ivy. Read the column.

A particular coach and motivational speaker has a nasty habit of not just criticising the work of others, but bullying them and denigrating their characters. I, for one, have had enough of this unctuous fellow. The word “Pecksniffian” alone may make last week’s ITWeb column an entertaining read.

Mobile money has never really taken off in South Africa, despite several attempts at it. There are reasons aplenty for this, so the quesiton now is whether the latest entrant to the market, Vodacom M-Pesa, be the breakthrough? I’m hopeful, but sceptical. Will M-Pesa also fail?

This was a hectic week in which I moved to a rather larger (if much older) house, while entertaining a tenacious bug that kept me coughing and wheezing. I did manage two columns, however, both in a way dealing with mobs.

The first, published at The Daily Maverick earlier this week, expresses my utter lack of sympathy with striking public sector workers. To paraphrase Mark Twain, it’s been the unspeakable in pursuit of the indefensible. Do strikers deserve anything? It got some attention in the mainstream media, resulting in a brief but entertaining interview on E-News yesterday morning.

Another piece of news that made me think of the mob is the ruling that grants South Africa jurisdiction over the domestic activities of foreign-based online casinos. In short, they’re now officially illegal. Punters, banks and carriers of advertising alike will be in the line of fire. The motive? Protecting government tax revenue, of course. The gambling industry used to be shaken down by mob bosses. Now, government bosses do it. They even call it protection. Protecting mob turf was published yesterday on ITWeb.

There are serious kinds of political activism, and there are less serious ones. And then there are those that don’t take any effort, and don’t make one jot of difference. Online petitions, such as this one which appears to express concern about media freedom, are among the latter. So I signed it. Sort of. Read on at ITWeb.

I thought that headline would grab some attention. It is entirely justified by the ITWeb column on internet pornography censorship above which it appears, methinks: I love my pussy.

ICASA, the South African telecommunications regulator, has cancelled a proposed auction of radio frequency spectrum, in bands which would have been useful for wireless broadband services. Its reasons? It can’t decide what technology to dictate, among others. What a mess. Here’s my take, published at ITWeb yesterday: Just sell it already!

Three articles published this week, on wildly varying subjects.

The first, a column in which I argue that the right to strike amounts to legalised blackmail, and it needs to be balanced with the right to fire. It sparked some interesting discussion in the comments over at The Daily Maverick.

Then, I wrote a piece about a local employer who had built a flat for his Malawian foreman, who refers to it as his “asylum” from xenophobic threats to his life. It was published by the Christian Science Monitor.

And finally, this morning, I woke to the news that the South African IT company that I most closely followed during my time as a technology reporter was to be sold to Japan’s NTT. My thoughts on the Dimension Data deal published at ITWeb. For once, I have reason to be nice to the company that was the butt of so many jokes over the years.

Thanks for all the comments on the orange dress. Time for a return to normality, now that the World Cup (and therewith the Boycott FIFA series of columns) is over.

In the first of two comparisons that seemed apt for FIFA president Sepp Blatter, my recent ITWeb column considers his Luddite resistance to simple and effective technology that would improve refereeing and get us to talk about the game instead of about controversial decisions. Read more: King Ludd Blatter