Telkom says fixed-line business faces challenges
- M&G
Finally! Telkom's profits drop and the company is starting to feel some heat from competition!
It has taken far, far too long, but I am ever so glad that Telkom is being forced to start up their game and actually start delivering decent service at a decent price to an economically ravaged public.
I have been trying to find a nice RSS over the last few months, but have for the most part, not found anything to my liking.
I would've liked to have my RSS feeds hooked into my browser in some way, but none of the extensions I have found have been very good and I'm not a fan of the Live Bookmarks feature in FireFox.
That leaves one with the choice of using a standalone desktop version and I did find a few that I liked in this realm including a simple one in FeedReader and a more complicated one in Omea Reader.
Using these though requires that I have another application open and that I actually remember to open it. The other downside is that if I am away from my regular PC then I don't get to check out the feeds I am subscribed to.
Enter Google Reader.
Google Reader is the project of Google labs and is basically an online RSS Reader.
I have a little bit of a reservation with it with regards to how it gets the feeds and the impact it has on my bandwidth use (coming from South Africa where bandwidth is an expensive commodity), but doubt it really has any significant impact.
It is a great boon to me in that it is lightweight, functional, I can tag the various articles, it is linked to my Google Account and I can get my feeds wherever I am in the world!
It is still a bit of a pain in that I have to remember to open it every now and again to check (which is kind of against the point of RSS), but I still have to do that with e desktop app anyway and since I'm in my browser most of the day, it's not really a problem.
nother cool feature, although I haven't tried this yet, is that you can actually use Google Reader offline! Yes, offline! As crazy as that sounds, apparently if you install the Google Gears extension for FireFox (and I presume there is an IE equivalent), then you can use Google Reader while not being connected to the net!
So if you're looking for a simple, functional and online RSS reader, give Google Reader a try!
Dedicated Server hosting in SA greatly saddens me :-(
I am used to the slick service I receive from overseas hosts where all product and pricing options are shown up front, a variety of options are available, bandwidth is cheap, all servers are protected by DOS and Intrustion detection systems and the service is (for the most part) quick, efficient and satisfying!
Here, the guys don't even display their offerings on their own websites! You have to request a quote, which takes a while to be drawn up and sent and which comes delivered in a hastily copy-and-pasted document or Excel spreadsheet which isn't very self explanatory and covers more than you asked for, or not enough!
Once you do actually receive it, thoughts of how much your kidney would be worth on the black market cross your mind, as your eyes bulge at the bottom line!
And for this price, you might be forgiven for thinking that the network is secured by top notch Intrusion Detection system, Denial of Service Attack hardware and the like. But you'd be wrong...
Dedicated server hosting in SA saddens me, and I long for the day when someone comes along and does it right. I have felt for many years, that I would like to be the one to do this...
Perhaps I may still...
There are so many great web services out there nowadays with the advent of such services as YouTube, Flickr and my new personal favourite, del.icio.us.
In case you're not aware of what del.icio.us is all about, head on over to its page on Wikipedia.
I have know about del.icio.us for some time, but haven't been actively using it. That changed a few days ago when I decided to get with it and give this blog a kick in the pants, register on Technorati and other such techi things.
I have since converted all my bookmarks in Firefox into del.icio.us bookmarks and will the help of a great Add On for Firefox in del.icio.us Bookmarks am loving my new found bookmarking heaven!
I hate it when software companies feel the need to take a good product which serves a need, and try to make it serve every (even loosely) related need and screw it up in the process!
ZoneLabs has a great firewall in ZoneAlarm. As a firewall it offers everything that a regular user could want with a clean interface and both network and application protection. I love if both for its ability to keep my PC protected from outside attacks and also (perhaps more so) to stop some of my programs doing unwanted or unnecessary Internet requests. And best of all... it's free!
I got a notice today however, that ZoneAlarm 7.0 was available for download.
Being the software freak I am, I always try to keep up to date with patches, new versions etc. so I dutifully downloaded the new version. I saw that it was 3 times bigger than my previous version (6.5) which gave me pause for thought, but I installed it nonetheless.
After installation and restarting, my first annoyance came with extra popups which I didn't want and hadn't expected. After giving those the bat, I opened the program to see if there where any significant differences. Nope. None that were apparent.
Then I was assaulted by another popup from Outlook and was surprised to find that ZoneAlarm had installed a mail filtering add-in to Outlook! I had not expected this, nor asked for it, nor being told about it anywhere!
I consulted the change logs and documentation and saw no mention of this. I also found no way to turn it off, which, seeing as I already use SpamBayes to fulfil my SPAM Filtering needs, was rather unacceptable!
I searched the Internet for clues to this predicament and found no end of complaints about this problem. I did find a solution for disabling the plugin but by that stage I had already decided to roll back to the previous version.
This whole process involed about 1 hour of my time what with downloading, restarting and installing, and now I am back at square one and have to "teach" ZoneAlarm all over again because it deleted all my settings in the rollback process.
My Conclusion:
ZoneAlarm 7.0 (free) seems to represent no significant improvement upon ZoneAlarm 6.5 (free) and is 3 times the size, indicating uncontrolled software bloat. It also includes this unnecessary mail filter component which requires more hassle to disable than what it's worth, and is not as functional or configurable as other mail filter packages out there.
My Advice:
Stick with ZoneAlarm 6.5 (free) for your firewall needs and use a separate software package for your mail filtering needs (I suggest SpamBayes for advanced users). When a new version of ZoneAlarm comes out, wait a few weeks and search for any forum postings about it. Only if there are no untoward issues reported during this time, then install it.
In this day in age of throw away society and the rapid pace of development, humans as a species are generating enormous amounts of waste which is not bio-degradable nor of any practical use after a certain time.
Things like fax machines, telephones, computers, mobile phones... that are outdated as soon as you've bought them and are generally cheaper to replace than repair a year or two later!
I'm sure that some of you, like myself, are loath to throw away old electronics which you know could be useful to someone or have some value if only in the metals and components they contain.
Recently I've needed to do a cleanup of such items and did a bit of searching around to see what could be done with them. Most 1st world countries are well on their way in tackling this issue of e-Waste and while South Africa is a bit behind, I am glad to say there are solutions for us as well!
The motto of most anti-waste movements is Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Reduce speaks to trying to use less throw away products and thereby reducing the amount of waste generated. I hope most of us try and do that anyway. Reuse speaks to selling old stuff or giving it away to worthy causes. Sure thing, but that only helps if it is working and if it isn't so outdated that they'd just throw it away themselves! If this is the case, then the only option left to you is: Recycle!
If you have equipment such as this, I urge you to visit this site about e-waste and the recycling thereof and find out where you can take stuff in your area.
I was extremely happy to hear that PikiTip (The JHB metro waste disposal company) offers a service whereby you can take equipment such as this, to normal garden refuse sites and place it in a special bin! They will then pass it on to Reclam who will recycle it.
You can get a list of PikiTup sites participating in this program on the e-Waste website, on PikiTup's website or by phoning PikiTup's call centre.
The Woodmead Garden Refuse Site is my next stop when next I go through to JHB and I will have a smile on my face when I gleefully toss my old dud monitors, phones and printers into the bin, knowing that at least there is some life left in them!
In the current stage of development I find myself, I am very interested in ideas and how to turn them into successful ventures.
I also find it extremely interesting reading about other people who have done the same thing (eg. The Google Guys).
A like minded associate of mine and I have been discussing such ideas over the past while and he recommended I read an article by Paul Graham about startups.
(Paul Graham and his fellow founders started a company called Viaweb in the US which eventually was bought by Yahoo for approximately $45mil and is today known as Yahoo! Store.)
I have just finished reading it, and can highly recommend to just about anyone thinking of starting a startup (In my book, that should be everyone, so read it even if you have never thought of it!)
It is very true, delightfully funny, and inspirational!
Have you heard of the concept of Web 2.0?
It is a concept referring to the new trend in collaborative technology and the Internet (As always, it can be far better explained by Wikipedia than by me, so check out Wikipedia's definition here)
With the web development I'm working on at the moment, it has been a particularly hot topic for me and I have been investigating various tools and technologies to implement in my upcoming site.
As such I have been looking around at various Web 2.0 articles and came across this video on YouTube (created by a Professor in Cultural Anthropology) which I found both enlightening and inspiring!
Watch it both for its succinct look at the evolution of digital text as well as for its thought provoking look at collaboration amongst the human race with the Internet as the medium.
PS Make sure you have your sound on, as the music adds a lot to this video
