Cybersurf

Finally, I have a broadband connection that I can call my own. I got the home edition 384 DSL with a three gigabyte cap. This means that I can download three gigabytes of stuff from the internet every month.

How is it working so far? Right now, I can honestly say it is fantastic! Download speeds are great, surfing has become much less painful, and now I can easily download video and audio clips while reading world news.

My favourite pastime in the middle of the night is to listen to Brasilian radio stations while reading science stories. This I can now do without any interruptions for buffering. I am very happy with My ADSL – but, I must warn you that the installation process takes a loooooong time. Telkom says there is a long waiting list. It took over a month from the time I placed the order until the epic moment when I first logged on.

The second caveat is the price – bear in mind that South African ADSL costs a lot more than similar services in the UK, Korea, Tunisia, Egypt or most European countries – secondly when Telkom advertises its ADSL service it quotes you the prices of the line rental – it kind of forgets to mention that you will need a more expensive service provider to hook you up to the net.

So if Telkom says that it will cost R450 for ADSL – that might be technically true – but remember to budget at least another two hundred rand a month for the service provider.

If you are interested in getting ADSL you might want to know that there will be public hearings at ICASA from April 11 to 14^th on the pricing structures.

To sum up my initial take on ADSL – it is great, but over priced!

Radical change of focus……

The big news event of this week will probably be the elections in Zimbabwe and you might want to catch up on news there by logging on to some news web sites.

SABCnews.com has sent – Antoinette Lazarus - a dedicated reporter to Zimbabwe for the elections. This is the first time the SABCnews web site has sent a journalist to another country to cover an election. Her reports will be posted in a Special Feature on the SABCnews.com web site.

The Zimbabwean government has a rather antiquated site that says nothing about the elections, while the national parliament has a somwehat more modern look and feel

The MDC party has a strange web site – with one of the most unusual navigation formats I have ever seen. There is an outstretched hand in the bottom right hand corner, and as you roll the cursor over each finger, an explanation appears of what is in that particular section.

By the way – the Peter Pointer takes you to an extensive elections section.

The Zanu site which was last updated in September, only carries a few loose items about the elections. The site is not good.

If you would like the addresses of the sites mentioned in today’s program, please go to the cybersurf blog – type in the following address: cybersurf.blogspot.com – one more time – cybersurf.blogspot.com

That’s it for today, thanks for listening and remember to keeeeep on surfing.

Links

• Zimbabwe Government online
• Parliament of Zimbabwe
• Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front ZANU-PF
• Movement for Democratic Change - MDC

// posted by Steven Lang @ 7:58 am 0 comments

In today’s program, we look at quite a few web sites, but don’t worry about catching all the addersses – I will put the script and the addresses on the cybersurf blog which can be found at cybersurf.blogspot.com.

This weekend I thought – what about a little trip to the Eastern Free State – more precisely, why don’t we visit that little town called Clarens – it seems to be getting a lot more attention these days in the arty community.

So I googled Clarens – yes, you can use the word Google as a verb – it has been decided by popular acclaim.

The results did not disappoint – a mere 99 thousand options – but what did surprise was the fact that most of the options actually referred to Clarens in Switzerland

Apparently, that’s where Paul Kruger died, and the little village in the Free State was named after the Swiss Clarens to honour the memory of Oom Paul.

The Net is great for trivia – isn’t it?

So for such a tiny community in the Free State I was pleased to see that there are quite a few web sites.

For example, you can go to www.clarens.co.za – which is a sort of tourist information site that has a special section on art excursions and painting getaways, in fact the site tells us that Clarens has no less than fourteen Art Galleries plus a number of arts and crafts shops.

The pages tell us about historic Anglo Boer war sites, dinossaur trails, bushmen paintings and local nature reserves

A competing site called www.clarensreservations.co.za also has long lists of things to see and do in the area – plus it gives you contact numbers of various establishments so you can make a reservation for accommodation, a restaurant or a particular tour –

My favourite item on the list?

How about the Bibliophile – a special Book and cheese shop. – Never heard of a book and cheese shop before – maybe some interesting sandwhich ideas??

And if that is not enough, a third tourist site uses the following address – clarensgetaway.co.za – This site is a little more modest – advertising only half a dozen guest houses – but it is better looking – more sophisticated.

Then there is also a dedicated web site called www.castleinclarens.co.za that is dedicated to a rather special guest house that looks exactly like rapunzel’s castle – it appears to be very luxurious – but a bit over the top if you ask me.

There are still more Clarens related sites, but I won’t go into all of them here – except that we need one more to help us get to the place.

And a useful site to help you get anywhere in the country is called routes.co.za – it’s a type of generic route maps site. Looks good and shows you exactly how to get to most towns in this country.

Well after that quick buzz around Clarens in the Eastern Free State it is time to wrap up today’s edition of Cybersurf. If you wish to read the script or find the web addresses - go to cybersurf.blogspot.com – one more time – cybersurf.blogspot.com

Enjoy the rest of your day – and remember to keeeep on surfing.

// posted by Steven Lang @ 10:27 pm 6 comments

Perhaps the most happening thing on the internet these days is blogging – we have chatted about blogging several time on Cybersurf, but still South Africans seem a bit shy to take the plunge.

So I have invited Matthew Buckland, the publisher of the Mail and Guardian online to talk to us about this new medium – and by the way if you would like to set up your own blog you should go to http://blogspot.mg.co.za/.

So Matt, why have South Africans been so slow to take up blogging?

INSERT

IN: I think South Africans will be . . . .

OUT: . . . . if I break those Copyright laws. dur: 2’47”

Matthew Buckland, the publisher of the Mail and Guardian online – and since you can now set up your own blog on the Mail and Guardian website – you know know why he is so nervous about copyright laws. Click along to http://blogspot.mg.co.za/

And if you would like to read the script to this program, you will find it at cybersurf.blogspot.com

One more time -Cybersurf.blogspot.com

That’s it for today - Thanks for listening and remember to keeeeeep on surfing.

// posted by Steven Lang @ 11:16 am 1 comments

The week we focus on a type of technology that could be used by the second national operator and should allow us better access to the internet – we are discussing CDMA – a mobile phone standard that can compete directly with GSM, in certain circumstances.

CDMA stands for - Code Division Multiple Access – It is a more recent standard than GSM and there are already several operational editions of CDMA in different parts of the world.

Last week, I attend a CDMA 2000 show-off session. The demonstration was not set up for me, but for ICASA, mainly because the group of companies involved in the demonstration is trying to convince ICASA to change the allocation of the 800 megaherz frequency from broadcasting to telecommunications.

Angus Hay Chief Technology Officer of Transtel, makes the case:

IN: We can get both, much greater . . .

OUT: of telecommunications in South Africa. - DUR: 18”

Transtel, a key player in the Second national operator is serious about using CDMA wireless technology instead of digging up the roads to lay copper wires.

I asked Thomas O’Neill, Vice President, Qualcomm if there is a blurring of the line between fixed line telephony and mobile networking:

IN: Yes, certainly it is . . . .

OUT: . . . . .

So if this new standard is so great for telephony, does it necessarily mean that it is good for connecting to the internet?

IN: Absolutely, one of the hallmarks of . . . .

OUT: . . . . megabitz per second

That was Thomas o’Neill, vice president of Qualcomm – the company that actually invented CDMA.

Now I must admit that the demonstration was very convincing and if I worked for ICASA I would certainly argue in favour of allocating the 800 megaherz frequency to telecommunications – but – this must be only one side of the story – the problem is, that I couldn’t find anyone to give me the other side.

I suspect that part of the down side is in the incompatibility between exisitng handsets which are all on the GSM standard and newer handsets on the CDMA standard.

But before I really get out of my depth, let’s wrap up today’s edition of cybersurf.

Thanks for listening – please join me again next Monday – and till then

Remember to keeeeep on surfing…..

// posted by Steven Lang @ 5:50 pm 0 comments