The Designer Boys News

Internet Explorer's lesser-known equals

2010-02-02T15:51:00.000+02:00

When it comes to web browsers, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Google's Chrome get all the attention. But they're not the only web browsers on the market, nor are they necessarily the best.

While you've probably never heard of Flock, K-Meleon, and Maxthon, these three alternative browsers offer features so innovate that once you try them out, you just might feel compelled to add them to your permanent stable of web browsing tools. Read on to find out why.

Flock
Flock (http://www.flock.com/versions) bills itself as "the social web browser," and it has more hooks with popular web 2.0 technologies -including social networking sites - than any other browser.

With Flock's "Accounts and Services" sidebar, for instance, you can aggregate and communicate with your friends from most of the popular social networking sites - including Facebook and Twitter - while you surf other sites.

And because interacting on social networking sites often involves uploading images, Flock has some ingenious tools to make your life easier. With the Photo Upload feature, you can either drag photos from your computer or select multiple images from a folder, and Flock will resize them and send them on to Picasa, Photobucket, or TinyPic.

If you have a blog - whether on a hosted site or one that you created yourself with a popular package such as WordPress - you can add blog entries directly from Flock using the browser's built-in Blog Editor.

Taken together, Flock's social networking features are so handy that you quickly wonder why the big names in web browsing haven't caught on.

If like many web users today, you're active on Picasa, Twitter, Facebook, and a blog, being able to access all of these quickly from Flock's side panel while you do your other work in the browser pane is both convenient and productive.

Add in links to Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and instant messaging in the same Accounts and Services sidebar, and Flock gives you nearly instant access to most of what you're likely to be doing online today - outside of researching and collecting information.

Flock also makes it easier than other web browsers to take advantage of all that a site has to offer.

Log on to a site that offers content or RSS feeds, for instance, and Flock will alert you to their presence, instructing you how to use the orange feed button to add the site to your list of feeds so that you can get content from the site without having to visit it.

Perhaps the best news is that Flock feels as fast and stable as IE or Firefox. IE users, in particular, will be able to adopt Flock with virtually no retraining, since most of the keyboard shortcuts - including those to access Favourites - are identical.

K-Meleon
If what you want in a web browser is speed, speed, and more speed - along with a healthy dose of customizability - then K- Meleon (http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net) will be worth your time.

This little-known browser was launched specifically to be easy on system resources - and therefore speedy where others browsers are not.

Even during installation, you'll see where the emphasis lies: K- Meleon gives you the option of installing a pre-loader that promises to increase browser load times by keeping a portion of the browser's code in memory at all times.

In use, K-Meleon lives up to its speed-first billing. Even without benchmarks, complex pages load noticeably faster than with either IE or Firefox, as both graphics and text appear almost simultaneously.

Keyboard shortcuts and menus resemble those in Firefox, so anyone familiar with that browser won't be burdened by the transition.

The fully tabbed interface works the same way it does on the other major browsers, too, and a handy Sessions menu allows you to save multiple browser tabs to one shortcut, meaning that if you regularly have, say, 10 web sites open in the course of your work, you can reopen them all with one click.

K-Meleon's other primary strength is its array of customisation options. The browser allows you to set up multiple user profiles so that each person who uses a computer can have a unique browser set up.

There are the usual browser-specific options for appearance, toolbars, privacy, and performance, but these are accompanied by a host of advanced configuration settings, mouse accelerators, bookmark options, and view settings.

Maxthon
Originally developed in China, Maxthon (http://www.maxthon.com) boasts that "out of the box" thinking has allowed its developers to create the best "out of box" experience for new users.

Maxthon is indeed different in some immediately noticeable ways, including its interface, which is bereft of the standard title bar, giving you more browser space in which to view web pages.

Like K-Meleon, customizability is a major focus for Maxthon, but Maxthon outdoes even K-Meleon in this area.

Virtually everything about the interface can be customised. You can, for example, get rid of all menus, toolbars, status bars, and sidebars, leaving nothing but a browser window containing your web page.

In this "no interface" mode, Maxthon is more spartan even than Google's Chrome. The effect is quite striking - and it makes Maxthon a notable solution for viewing web pages on small notebook screens.

Maxthon is also easier to control with a keyboard than any other browser. To start, unlike Firefox and Chrome, Maxthon remembers the last link you clicked, so that if you return to a page, you can simply use the Tab key to move to the next link.

But that's just the beginning. Virtually every feature in the browser is accessible with the keyboard, and a lengthy "Shortcut Keys" configuration menu allows you to specify which keys you would like to use to activate particular functions.

You can even assign the function keys on your keyboard to open specific web pages, and you can create "web aliases," which allow you to open a web site or groups of sites merely by typing a few letters or a word into the address bar.

Maxthon's interface mimics that of IE rather than Firefox. In addition to the standard Favourites, Views, and Tools menus, though, a unique Groups menu makes short work of saving a set of open tabs to a single shortcut.

The browser also comes with some useful tools, including a full- featured form filler, a flexible screen capture utility, a "file sniffer" that can help you find the web addresses of videos, and a "collector," or notepad feature, that can save your thoughts from session to session.

There's a complete skinning system as well, which allows you to change the look and feel of the browser. Add it all up, and you have a browser that should have the major players taking notice. - Sapa-dpa

Advertisers face resistance to on-line tracking

2009-11-11T05:35:00.000+02:00

Madrid - Campaigners are stepping up efforts to curb online tracking of Internet use by firms that deliver adverts tailored to the specific interests of consumers, as polls reveal widespread unease with the practice.

Corporations have always collected personal data on the people who buy their products but in the past this information came from sources such as magazine subscriptions and warranty cards, experts at a three-day privacy conference that wrapped up Friday in Madrid said.

Now it is flowing at breakneck speed into databases from multiple online sources, from dating services to newspaper websites, giving companies the unprecedented power to create detailed profiles of their customers, in many cases without their being aware of it, they added.

"There are so many grey areas in advertising that if the end user knew about it all, it would make their hair grey," said Jorg Polakiewicz, the head of the law reform department at the Council of Europe, a European rights watchdog.

The body is working on a new legal instrument on consumer profiling that it hopes will assist its 47 member states to better protect individuals from abuses, he added. So far only a few member states have legislation in place.

In the United States, Rick Boucher, the Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, announced in September that he planned to introduce privacy legislation to regulate this so-called behavioural targeting of consumers.

The move towards greater regulation comes as surveys in the United States and Europe show that a majority of consumers on both sides of the Atlantic are against corporations are monitoring their Internet use for marketing purposes.

Two-thirds of Americans object to targeted online ads, according to one of the first independent survey to examine the issue carried out by the University of California and University of Pennsylvania and published last month.

In the European Union 60 percent of people are concerned about the commercial use of data, according to a European Commission survey carried out in April, said Willemien Bax, the deputy director general of European Consumers' Organisation BEUC which is pushing for tougher restrictions.

"It is very important that consumers are firmly in control of their personal data. I think it is unacceptable that our profiles are built up and we cannot see what they are," she said.

Some major corporations have reacted to the concerns by imposing their own limits on the use of online tracking of consumers.

Visitors to web pages belonging to Procter & Gamble, the world's largest household products maker, "must opt in to have an online relationship" with the company, according to the firm's global privacy executive, Sandra R. Hughes.

The company also has set up a privacy education web page and it provides consumers with examples of what kind of adverts and discounts they will receive if they agree to provide personal details.

But Jeffrey Chester, the executive director and founder of the Centre for Digital Democracy, a US consumer watchdog group, said such efforts to self-regulate are largely a failure and stricter legal safeguards are needed.

"Self-regulatory schemes are inadequate, they fail to address the key issues," he said. - AFP

Compare broadband prices on new website

2009-11-08T10:59:00.000+02:00

South Africa's biggest broadband comparison website has launched, making choosing the right Internet package easy, simple and quick.

BroadbandChooza.co.za helps users find the best cheapest and fastest Internet packages easily and quickly. The site is designed to be simple to use so those new to broadband can quickly find what they are looking for.

Luke Vincent, CEO and founder says "BroadbandChooza.co.za is a very easy website to use and it will provide a valuable service to current broadband users looking for better broadband deals as well as encouraging more people online by helping them navigate the complex broadband market".

BroadbandChooza.co.za strikes a balance between offering maximum coverage of the market and making it straight forward to find the right package.

The site offers instant live searching and sorting of over 1000 products from more than 40 Internet providers.

Users can focus their search on ADSL, 3G or Wireless access or even compare packages across all three. Results can be filtered by price, speed and data cap.

Internet comparison sites have become a vital tool to help European and American consumers find the cheapest deal and BroadbandChooza is working to give South Africans the same benefits.

Luke Vincent says "in Europe nobody buys anything without first comparing prices on the Internet. There is always a better deal to be found on the online" - Sapa

Worms 'infesting' computers worldwide

2009-11-03T16:39:00.000+02:00

A Microsoft security report released on Monday warns that cyber crooks are digging into computers for weak spots to penetrate with worms - malicious software that steals control or data.

Rogue security software remained the top hacker threat to computers during the first half of this year, but the number of infections was dropping while penetrations by worms doubled, according to the Security Intelligence Report.

"We still see rogue security software in high volume but not on the rise," Microsoft Malware Protection Centre principal architect Jeff Williams told AFP. "What is on the rise is resurgence of worm activity, particularly Conficker and Taterf."

Worms are programmed to replicate themselves, wriggling from machine to machine by hiding in legitimate applications or piggy-backing on USB drives or other portable data storage devices.

Rogue security software, or "scareware," typically spreads by tricking people with pop-up boxes bearing bogus alerts that their machines are infected.

Spooked computer users are then enticed to pay for applications to fix the supposed computer problems. People that fall for the scam wind up paying hackers; providing them credit card information, and installing malware.

Automated scareware blocking in Web browsers and efforts by law enforcement agencies to crack down on companies peddling rogue security software has helped curb the threat.

"When selecting an anti-virus product, do it from a proven provider, not someone you never heard of who just pops up on your screen," Williams said.

Improving defences of computers was seen as a reason hackers are reverting to worms, which were a top bane about a decade ago.

"We see a rise again in worms as profit-motivated criminals are digging deeper, finding more arcane vulnerabilities to execute remotely," Williams said.

A Conficker worm that plagued the Internet at the start of the year was so pernicious that a task force to combat it was formed by computer software and security firms.

Conficker and Taterf worms have reportedly wriggled into millions of machines.

One of the troublesome ways both worms spread is by stowing away on thumb drives, which are becoming increasingly popular vehicles for people to move music, videos, games, files or other data between computers.

"Think about how and where people play online games," Williams said. "What you tend to see is people remove a drive from home or an Internet kiosk and take it back into the enterprise (workplace)."

A memory stick carried in by a worker tends to bypass computer security systems designed to guard against hackers breaking in from outside the walls of a business, according to Williams.

Businesses should establish security protocols for removable media drives, and have new arrivals automatically scanned for malware, Microsoft recommends.

"The criminals out there are becoming more overt, more malicious and more direct in their attacks," Williams said.

"That emphasises the need for multi-layer protections. It is great we have anti-virus software to remove the threats, but clearly it is better to prevent the threat from getting in."

Cyber criminals are moving with increasing speed when it comes to reverse engineering patches released to fix vulnerabilities in software programs or operating systems, according to Microsoft.

Hackers dissect patches to identify weakness being repaired, then craft malicious code to take advantage of flaws in machines with software that isn't kept up-to-date.

"A patch is released and that is what starts these days of risk" Williams said.

"There is a window of vulnerability, so we need to close that window more quickly" he said. "Making sure you are up-to-date on security updates is one strong method of protecting yourself against attack."

Microsoft's security report is based on data from "billions of scans a day" in more than 200 regions of the world. - AFP

Cellphone Cost Briefings to Be Secret

2009-10-17T08:54:00.000+02:00

Cape Town - Parliament's communications committee has decided to call cellphone operators for confidential one-on-one briefings on their cost structures over the next few weeks in an endeavour to determine a realistic interconnection rate.

And there is a strong feeling among committee members -- endorsed by the Congress of South African Trade Unions -- that the entire pricing and cost structure of the mobile operators be analysed to make sure they do not try to recoup the lost revenue from the interconnection rate reduction in other areas of their business.

Both Vodacom and MTN have indicated their willingness to provide their commercially sensitive information to the committee, but only on a confidential basis. They have opposed the committee's proposal to reduce mobile termination rates immediately from a peak of R1,25c a minute to 60c, saying this was below cost.

Karel Pienaar, MD of MTN SA, told the committee yesterday its average interconnection cost was about 96c and it could work within a range of 10% below that. But he warned that drastic cuts that did not factor in SA's development needs would be a "business model shock".

Cell C CEO Lars Reichelt also said the 60c proposal was "too strong and not rooted in reality". He estimated the off-peak termination rate for the major players to be 77c, and proposed a flat 75c assymetrical termination rate from the start of the new year for Vodacom and MTN, and 65c for Cell C.

"We believe this proposal can potentially gain support from other players," Reichelt said.

Others have warned about the dangers of arbitrage if different termination rates are applied.

Both Vodacom and MTN have emphasised the need for a longer phase-in period for the reduction, saying they would have to change their business and investment plans. They said revenue from interconnection fees -- estimated at nearly R3bn for both operators -- had provided the funds for the investment in infrastructure and the achievement of SA's high penetration rate.

The mobile operators, together with Competition Commission commissioner Shan Ramburuth stressed the need for regulatory certainty and for the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) rather than Parliament to determine a defensible termination rate on the basis of a sound methodological analysis of costs.

Ramburuth warned that any figure arrived at arbitrarily would be subject to legal challenge. "We should not be guessing these figures," he told the committee.

However, committee chairman Ismail Vadi said that the committee needed to be armed with knowledge about the costs of interconnection so that it could assess whether Icasa had done its job properly when it decided, together with cellphone operators, on the size of the reduction in mobile termination rates.

Vodacom keen on interconnection rate cut

2009-09-27T07:21:00.000+02:00

Vodacom on Wednesday denied that it was against the reduction of interconnection rates by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa.

"We are ready to reduce these mobile terminating rates as long as the cost of terminating another party's call plus a fair profit is demonstrated," Vodacom's Bob Collymore said.

Collymore said it would be unfair for Vodacom to reduce its rates, as it would cause damage to their business, whereas other operators were reluctant to do so.

"Icasa must orchestrate the rate cut. Last week they initiated such talks, and strong progress is being made," Collymore said. Vodacom also said it sent Icasa its cost structure in order for them to ascertain how to decrease the rate, including the termination costs.

Collymore urged Icasa to apply its mind in determining the cut, so that it did not financially damage any operator.

"Because, this would simply reduce the extent of competition in the industry. It would also discourage investment in telecommunications infrastructure which in South Africa generally benefits the poor and marginalised," he said.

He added that international best practice had been to reduce mobile terminating rates over a period of time to avoid business model shocks.

Contrary to generally expressed opinions, the mobile terminating rate only affected the price of, for example, calls made from a Vodacom subscriber to a subscriber of another network.

"That would not then apply on calls from Vodacom to Vodacom," Collymore added.

He said the biggest single operating cost component for every mobile call was the cost of transmission lines which mobile operators had been obliged to hire from Telkom over the past years.

"This cost must also be taken into account when interconnect rates with Telkom are renegotiated." - Sapa

Cheaper Net access just a click away

2009-08-03T15:52:00.000+02:00

By Edwin Naidu

Cheaper and speedier Internet connection has arrived in South Africa and consumers are already benefiting from the lower costs.

However, the much-anticipated data wars that could take the worldwide web into townships and rural areas would only take place after the 2010 World Cup, said technology experts.

"One expects to see growth in townships throughout South Africa as demand grows because of lowers costs," said Suveer Ramdhani, the spokesman for Seacom, the company whose 15 000km fibre-optic undersea cable links southern and east Africa, Europe and south Asia.

"We need prices to come down because if they remain high, there is no incentive for consumer to use the services."

Seacom is the first operator using the cable to provide broadband to east African countries which used to rely entirely on expensive satellite connections.

Ramdhani said the wholesale cost of links to individual company exchange servers - giving access to internet and e-mail - had dropped by 90 percent since 2007, with the cost now R800 000 a month for a link, compared to R1.8 million two years ago. "Prices have come down and consumers certainly are benefiting," he said.

He added that the expectation was strong within Seacom for its cables to ensure that people are connected in townships like Khayelitsha in Cape Town, Soweto and Umlazi or KwaMashu in KwaZulu-Natal, which have been ignored by traditional players, even Telkom.

Seacom's entry into South Africa was expected initially to kickstart a mini-price war that would escalate after the 2010 World Cup when the country's bandwidth requirements, as required by Fifa would have been fullfilled.

An internet expert, who did not want to be named, said bandwidth requirements for 2010 were already taken for use. "When the soccer ends, there will be a data glut, and see real price drops," he said.

Arthur Goldstuck, the head of world wide worx, the internet research firm, said data prices have come down at a supplier level and have yet to be passed onto consumers. "Over time we will see data become cheaper," he said.

On Monday, Muku Sharma, the head of consumer and channel sales at Neotel, announced that the company had launched its own data card, NeoGo, offering customers up to 50 percent more data within bundle, with an out of bundle rate of 8 cents per MB, which is significantly lower than current offerings in the market.

"The NeoGo Data card with its large data bundle at a competitive price is just what the consumer needs and we don't hide our out of bundle rate which at 8 cents per MB redefines market pricing for data cards," he said.

Vodacom and MTN levies R2 a megabyte out of bundle rate.

However, industry experts believe that the barrier to Neotel still lies in the access cost, i.e. the subscription to the service, and while they may have opened the way for more viable broadband services they could struggle because of coverage and signal strength.

Some have labelled the failure by Vodacom and MTN to target the low-end of the market as "information apartheid" since the clients at the top of the usage list are raking in the profits for them.

However, the Seacom cable has given way to optimism that the internet will grow in areas it has not reached. Hillel Shrock, a director at Internet Solutions (IS), said the South African broadband market was changing.

"Seacom is an important milestone for the local telecommunications industry as it is the first time that South African service providers, other than Telkom, will be able to make a long-term investment in the provisioning of high speed, high capacity international connectivity," he said.

Tim Walter, the general manager: product and marketing at Nashua Mobile, said Seacom would be good news for consumers and businesses because it will, over time, help to drive down international bandwidth costs for internet users.

"Up until now, most of the country's international bandwidth through the Sat-3/Safe cables has been controlled by the incumbent operator and slow satellite connectivity was the only real alternative.

"Now, other networks and service providers have an alternate source for international bandwidth that they can turn to."

Internet expert Steven Ambrose said the arrival of Seacom would bring more capacity to the continent, but little relief for the general public. "Internet is not going to get significantly cheaper in the short to medium term. We are predicting a 20 percent value change this year, and potentially another 20 percent to 30 percent next year," he said.

Ambrose said the cost per gig of data used would drop while the actual overall cost in rands and cents will not change substantially.

"However, the big change we will all want is a low/reasonable cost package with no cap or at the very least a large 20 to 50 gig cap for around R300. This will not happen until 2011 at best," he said.

How Shuttleworth's Ubuntu is quietly smashing Windows

2009-06-15T15:48:00.000+02:00

It's been more than a decade since Mark Shuttleworth caught South Africa's imagination by becoming an overnight billionaire, famously giving each of his employees R1 million and spending some of his new-found wealth on a trip into space.

Since then, the IT entrepreneur has largely disappeared off the front covers of our celebrity magazines.

Shuttleworth, now 35, is still making headlines, but these days you're more likely to read them on the Internet, in technology publications or on specialist web forums with hundreds of thousands of followers.

The technology guru has become something of a hero in the world of open-source software by putting his money where his mouth is and continuing to champion the development of Ubuntu, a rapidly growing, free operating system that is rivalling Windows.

Ubuntu is a slick-looking, easy-to-use operating system that comes with all the standard desktop applications, from word processor and spreadsheet to web browser and e-mail, all available free. Not only is it free to download and use, but under the open-source licence the source code is free to view and modify.

And because communities of thousands of developers across the globe collaborate on these open projects, they grow fast. Ubuntu launches a new update every six months, the most recent, version 9.04, being dubbed Jaunty Jackalope, which follows on Hoary Hedgehog and Warty Warthog (clearly these guys have more fun picking their names than the suits behind XP and Vista).

The idea that the basic software that runs our PCs should be free is revolutionising the computer industry, driving down prices and forcing computer giants such as Microsoft to rethink their strategies.

"I feel we are in the middle of a revolution," says Shuttleworth, speaking from Canonical's London offices, where he now employs 200 people full-time to support the Ubuntu project.

"This is an extraordinary year for the PC with the emergence of the netbook, which are very cheap but also very mobile. In the past you always paid more for devices that were mobile, whereas the netbooks are proving that we can deliver a really good basic computing experience in a very light form that can slip into a satchel, for a very low price."

This category of cheap, efficient devices is exploding around the world, says Shuttleworth - and open-source software has made it possible. "We're certainly having a huge impact on the industry."

It's estimated that more than 10 million people now run Ubuntu. In the West, Ubuntu is popular with technically savvy users looking for a more secure and user-friendly alternative to Windows. In turn, they often help their parents and grannies install Ubuntu, says Shuttleworth.

"For folks who have a computer they're not very happy with, it's a good idea to try Ubuntu, because they may well find the problems they've been having get fixed - it's faster and lighter, gets on the web easier and it doesn't get viruses and all those sort of problems.

"I find Windows very irritating. People often think they don't have an alternative, that it's just the way PCs are, and that's not true."

Globally, Ubuntu is also hugely popular in educational and government organisations, not only in developing countries but also at leading institutions. Harvard University, for example, is setting up a huge computing infrastructure driven by Ubuntu.

For Shuttleworth, Ubuntu unites three of his passions - investment, technology and social activism.

"This is a substantial investment for me but if I'm right about where the software industry is going, it's a good investment. It also tickles my interest in technology. In Ubuntu we have the very best browser in the world, we have the most secure web capabilities, we have extraordinary programming languages, we have social media tools; sitting on the Ubuntu desktop I'm completely plugged into Facebook and Twitter and all those things. It's very cool, cutting-edge technology.

"And it is also an extraordinary social change. The fact that we can sell a 24/7 support contract to a financial company that is doing mission-critical work and we can also sell that same contract to a school in Bangladesh to train people free of charge, legally, with no piracy - that is amazing social change."

Despite basing himself in London for the past 10 years, for Shuttleworth South Africa will always be home and he regularly visits. (On his most recent visit, he completed the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour: "It was totally insane. I hadn't been on a bike in 20 years." )

He has strong views on South African politics and in the 2009 elections cast his vote in London, with many other South Africans living abroad.

"I'm proud of the guys who went to the Constitutional Court and proud of the guys for letting us vote. It's important to realise that a good democracy is made up of lots of institutions, and for me that was a great reminder of that," he says.

He remains keenly in touch with the investment and technology climate in South Africa through his venture capital company, HBD, and the charitable Shuttleworth Foundation, both based in South Africa.

The Shuttleworth Foundation is heavily engaged in the telecommunications debate, and Shuttleworth himself is critically outspoken on the topic of the government's failure to roll out broadband fast enough.

"There is an active and excellent technology community in South Africa, but technology has never really risen to the forefront of what the country aspires to," he notes.

"The broadband impact goes much further than just the technology industry, it goes to the heart of business competitiveness. There are very few things that could have as dramatic an impact on the economy as transforming the telecommunications sector in South Africa.

"I think the (digital) divide will be bridged very quickly when we have an aggressive, proactive, deregulated, competition-orientated and investment-orientated telecommunications policy."

The underwater cables being laid along the eastern coast of Africa are encouraging, he says, but the challenge remains in connecting major urban areas and rural environments.

"I was back there (in South Africa) for a month recently and it sort of drove me crazy having such poor bandwidth. Even if you are prepared to pay for bandwidth in South Africa, it's very expensive for very little."

In London, he faces no such problems. He's laying a 1GB line to his Kensington home "not because I need to watch porn in high-definition, just because I want to see how it changes the way we do things."

When not online, Shuttleworth "remains happily roguish". He reads a lot and is contemplating entering a marathon, despite "never having run half that distance" - but he won't be "riding any rockets" in the near future.

"At a personal level I remain a bachelor at large and any change in that would be an adventure in its own right," he says.

So what headlines will we be reading about Shuttleworth in decades to come?

"When you think of a non-human time-scale, our lives are there to be enjoyed. I do what I do because I love it, it's what I feel I was born to do. I have no interest in leaving an imprint on the landscape. I think in 100 years' time I'll be dead and forgotten, and happily so." - Independent Foreign Service

SA's future broadband scenario

2009-06-13T05:33:00.000+02:00

About a week ago I went up to Mtunzini to visit the cable station that recently finished construction. Seacom is an underwater fibre-optic cable being installed along the coast of East Africa - a tremendous boost for all the countries affected. When it comes to internet bandwidth, Africa has always been left behind, thanks to monopolies and poor legislation with devastating effects on its economies and quality of life. I might sound dramatic, but if one takes into account that the digital divide is currently increasing at an exponential rate, it is not far-fetched to once again call us the "dark continent".

South Africans are not much better off either. Our primary source of international bandwidth is supplied by the very limited SAT3 connection, currently about 130 gigabits per second (Gbs) which is also divided up by major operators such as Telkom. This leads to very low bandwidth actually reaching end users - in fact, ADSL has been available in SA for seven years yet the standard "package" is still a 3 gigabyte (GB) capped connection with a slow 384 kilobits per second (kbps) line. This is not, however, what the rest of the world calls "broadband".

True broadband is at least 4 megabits per second (Mbps) and is theoretically uncapped. True broadband is the ability to use the internet without taking the amount of consumption into account. US citizens use internet TV services like hulu instead of having to subscribe to hundreds of channels. Once we have this attitude we can call what we have in SA "broadband". Seacom might not be that enabler, but it sure does get us one step closer.

Seacom will boost our bandwidth from 130Gbps up to 1.28 terabits per second (Tbps). This increase in bandwidth will theoretically make it much cheaper for service providers to buy wholesale bandwidth. These cost savings can then be passed on to the consumer and make it much cheaper to transfer large amounts of data. Due to past monopolies, SA ISPs had to use Telkom's infrastructure and network, which led to very low margins and high costs for end users. Due to legislation passed last year, any ISP with the necessary capital can now build their own network infrastructure.

Now it is important to remember that "cheaper" internet in SA does not mean that the base cost of having "fast" internet will suddenly drop to R100. No, there are still businesses that are built up around a revenue model that relies on customers spending more than R300. If the price is suddenly R50, those businesses will fold, regardless of how cheap bandwidth might be.

Instead, what we might see in SA over the next year (Seacom goes live in about a month) is a dramatic increase in the amount of "capped" data we can get for the same amount of money. Instead of spending a total of R400 for an ADSL line rental and 3GB data, the same user might now get 5GB or (hopefully) 10GB. A big problem currently is that networks in SA are currently unable to use all the extra bandwidth properly. Telkom cannot easily jump above the 4Mbs it currently offers due poor quality cables and infrastructure. But Neotel and a few cellular operators have started investing in land-based fibre cable, right to the curb in some areas. This means that these players might be the first to actually be able to use the wave of extra bandwidth. MTN and Vodacom have also started to enable 7.2 Mbps HSDPA on its network, which theoretically means that if you wanted the fastest broadband line in SA, you have to go 3G.

So what does Seacom mean for SA end users in the near future? In my opinion, a few things will happen. First (the next 6 months) I believe networks will try to get maximum profits because bandwidth is suddenly cheap. This will lead to increasing pressure from end users, and then we can wait for an ISP to offer a "disruptive product" which will cause all subsequent offers from ISPs to drop tremendously in price. (Telkom and a few other ISPs have dropped the price on local ADSL bandwidth.) The fact of the matter is that ISPs in SA have always been used to low-profit margins and can easily adapt their businesses to once again operate on those margins once bandwidth is cheap. It will only take time.

This is an exciting time for communications in SA ? we are in a perfect storm of situations which can contribute to a sudden reconnection to the world.

Solutions to your file formatting problems

2009-06-02T15:46:00.000+02:00

By Andrew Parker

Through ignorance, many people e-mail or distribute files they have created or worked on using a program on their computer, to someone who doesn't have that software (or perhaps has a different version of it), without realising that it may not open properly, or appear or print in the same way on the recipient's PC.

Editing the file without the appropriate software is difficult, often impossible. Compatibility issues are among the most common complaints I hear; sadly the computer industry's moves to standardise formats across competing products have had little impact to date.

One of the most common compatibility issues bothering users at the moment is the Office 2003 / 2007 saga. If you use an earlier version of Microsoft Office such as Office 2000, XP or 2003, you cannot, by default, open files created in Office 2007. These newer files usually have an "X" added to the extension you'd usually expect, for example ".DOCX" for Word documents, ".XLSX" for Excel spreadsheets. Very irritating for the vast majority of users sticking with earlier versions. The solution: download and install Microsoft's free Office 2007 Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel and Powerpoint from www. tinyurl.com/office2k7update

There is usually a way to open less common file formats on any computer with any operating system, but this may mean buying software. For some products such as Microsoft Office, there are free viewers available online which allow users to open or print documents, but have limited editing capabilities. Adobe's Acrobat Reader is the most common example of a free document viewer. In some cases, programs will open their competitor's files.

For example, Open Office, the excellent free alternative to the entire Microsoft Office suite, will open and save files in the equivalent Microsoft formats, but frequently, with some loss of, or changes to formatting. See www.openoffice.org for more information.

Well, I have a better solution for you: Zamzar. This handy web-based tool converts files among a variety of different formats. It handles common and not-so-common music, video, image and document formats. I recently used it to convert an architect's drawing in the proprietary AutoCAD format to a standard ".JPG" file that any computer can open.

The free version of the service allows users to upload up to 5 files at once, with a maximum combined size of 100 megabytes. One of the best features of this tool will surely draw the attention of some readers: Zamzar can convert a PDF file to a Microsoft Word document, which means you'd be able to convert, then edit most PDF files sent to you.

To use Zamzar, you don't need to install anything on your PC. Simply browse to www.zamzar.com and in the first step, search your computer and select the file you wish to upload for conversion. Then choose the "output" format from a list, enter your e-mail address and a link to download your file will be e-mailed to you. There are some niggles: the website includes pop-up and audio advertising, which fortunately is blocked by most ad blockers, and the email with the link to your converted file can take a few hours to arrive. The converted files remains available for just 24 hours, so remember to download and save it to your computer in time, or you'll have to repeat the process.

These irritations are clearly designed to encourage users to pay for the ad-free and prioritised versions of Zamzar, but I make do with the free version for my occasional use.

Cheaper Internet access is coming soon

2009-05-29T16:16:00.000+02:00

By Suren Naidoo

The cost of telecommunications and Internet connectivity is set to be slashed soon when the 17 000km SEACOM fibre-optic undersea cable comes online next month.

The cable landed quietly in Mtunzini, on the Zululand coast, in March and is on track to go live on June 27.

Speaking at its Mtunzini Cable Station near Empangeni yesterday, SEACOM CEO Brian Herlihy said that much progress had been made in the groundbreaking $650 million project.

"With the system substantially completed and testing already under way, we are one step closer to delivering on our commitment. SEACOM is set to become the first project to provide eastern and southern Africa with equal and open access to inexpensive bandwidth.

"This is going to have a huge catalytic economic impact on South Africa and, more especially, East Africa, connecting several countries in the region to the rest of the world via hubs in London and India.

"In about a month, southern and eastern Africa will finally get truly connected to international broadband networks.

"Readily available bandwidth will result in lower telecommunications costs and new opportunities across many sectors, in particular the call centre and business process outsourcing industries.

"This means that South Africa will finally be part of the high speed internet highway with true broadband capabilities - such as HDTV and multi-media over the internet - in the near future."

Herlihy said critical portions of the subsea cable and land-based infrastructure had been completed on schedule.

SEACOM would offer wholesale internet bandwidth - several times the current availability - to companies such as Neotel, Telkom, MTN and Vodacom.

Facebook blocks hackers

2009-05-19T07:22:00.000+02:00

Facebook on Friday was blocking links to bogus websites set up to look like the home page of the popular social network in a "phishing" attack by hackers.

"We're aware of the attack and are already blocking links to these new phishing sites from being shared on Facebook," the Palo Alto, California, company said in a statement.

"We're also cleaning up phony messages and wall posts and resetting the passwords of affected users," it said.

Facebook did not say how many of the 200 million users of the social network had been affected in the latest hacker attack.

An unknown number of Facebook users received a message on Thursday from a friend's account urging them to visit websites such as "151.im."

The sites were realistic-looking replicas of the social network's log-in page but were actually controlled by the hackers. The bogus page would capture password information when a user logged in.

Facebook said it believed the latest attack was related to a similar scheme two weeks ago known as "fbstarter.com".

Online social networking services are prime targets for hackers because they provide trusted gateways into users' networks of friends, according to computer security specialists.

Hackers can use breached social networking accounts for "nefarious purposes" such as infecting computers with malware, malicious software, that steals valuable data or commandeers control of machines, according to Internet security firm MarkMonitor.

Facebook advises users to shun messages, posts or links asking for log-in information and to always make certain they are visiting the social networking website's legitimate address of facebook.com. - AFP

Don't blame us, says Telkom

2009-05-16T06:18:00.000+02:00

Telkom has rejected claims by Tim Lowry, Managing Director of MTN SA, in which he reportedly blamed the company for its own network and capacity shortcomings as according to Telkom - an "attempt to deflect attention from MTN's own failure to adequately service its customers".

In a statement, Telkom said: "It is ironic and unacceptable that every time some of the mobile operators are made to account for their network availability and reliability, blame is conveniently apportioned to Telkom.

Over the last few weeks (the period for which the mobile operators have reportedly been asked to explain their network quality to Icasa), there were no extraordinary circumstances or network problems on the Telkom network that could have contributed to the problems encountered by MTN or the other mobile operators.

"Also, delays in messaging and dropped calls is not a function of Telkom's access or core network but a reflection of the switching and transmission capacity of the mobile operators' network dimensioning practices.

"Another factor that needs to be considered is that the deployment of mobile broadband networks requires significantly more bandwidth and network capacity which, in turn, could impact the quality of service of the mobile networks," Telkom stated.

"In view of these considerations, perhaps MTN must be challenged to prove to the public that the dropped calls and SMS issues can be directly correlated to Telkom over the past month," Telkom added.

It said it must also be remembered that the mobile operators had the right to self provide since September 2005 and that Telkom is no longer the sole provider of all their network capacity requirements.

"In addition, it must be emphasised that the mobile operators, and not Telkom, are fully responsible for the end-to-end performance of their respective networks.

They do order links from Telkom at a specific Service Level Agreement (SLA). This may be at either 99.5 percent or 99.95 percent availability levels.

"Telkom has been consistently designing and providing these links to the operators at the mutually agreed service levels with all our mobile operators.

"In fact, Telkom is proud to highlight that we have achieved our service level agreements regarding network availability with all three mobile operators over the last 12 months, with the only exception being the month of November 2008 where we were 0.007 percent outside the SLA for MTN.

"This has been achieved even if we take into account that whatever network failures were encountered are usually outside our immediate control. These include weather conditions, construction activity, theft of cable, etc.

"Notwithstanding these factors, as already mentioned, Telkom has not only maintained its SLAs with all the mobile operators but has also provided links to the mobile operators in a prioritised way as dictated by them over the past 24 months.

"This performance must also be seen in the light of Telkom currently providing in excess of 105 000 E1 (2 megabit) links to the mobile operators, with a 34 percent increase in link provisioning to the mobile cellular operators occurring in the past year," Telkom said.

The revolution is one question away

2009-05-12T06:18:00.000+02:00

The inventor of one of the most widely used science programmes gave the most detailed demonstration yet of a new search engine that many experts predict could revolutionise the way information is used on the Internet.

Stephen Wolfram, whose Mathematica programme is widely used throughout the science world, gave the details of his new computational search engine, named Wolfram Alpha in an online presentation. The company says the technology will go public on May 18.

Unlike Google, which automatically indexes billions of web pages to answer users' search queries, Wolfram Alpha uses sophisticated algorithms to attempt to understand user questions, and then uses the resources stored in its expert-curated database to offer up answers and relevant information.

"The idea is to try and bring expert-level knowledge to everyone," said Wolfram.

The result is very different from Google, which primarily points users in the direction of web pages. Wolfram Alpha, in contrast, displays information that it calculates by itself and shows in useful formats, offering numerous options for users to dig deeper into the subject.

It can answer questions like how high is Mt Everest, what is the fish production in Italy, and what was the weather in London on the day John F Kennedy was killed. But because it relies on verified data in its system rather than an ad hoc search of the Internet, there are big gaps in its knowledge, especially in pop culture and information that frequently changes, such as film showings.

"We are just at the beginning," said Wolfram, 49. "I think we've got a reasonable start on 90 percent of the shelves in a typical reference library."

Experts like Tom Simpson, on the blog Convergenceofeverything.com, said that rather than displacing Google, the new tool reflected the growing reach of emerging artificial intelligence and "a step towards a self-organising Internet" that intuitively understands what users need from it. - Sapa-dpa

Rogue security software growing threat

2009-04-11T06:06:00.002+02:00

Hackers are increasingly hiding viruses in bogus computer security software to trick people into installing treacherous programs on machines, Microsoft warned on Wednesday.

The software giant said in a security intelligence report that "rogue security software" is a growing threat as hackers take advantage of people's fears of worms such as the notorious Conficker.

"Rogue security software is the number one threat worldwide," said George Stathakopoulos, general manager of the Trustworthy Computing Group at Microsoft.

"If you think about the Conficker case, how many people went looking for a security solution and downloaded rogue malware?"

Rogue security software referred to as "scareware" pretends to check computers for viruses, and then claims to find dangerous infections that the program will fix for a fee.

"The rogue software lures them into paying for protection that, unknown to them, is actually malware offering little or no real protection, and is often designed to steal personal information," Microsoft said.

Two "rogue families" of scareware were detected in 1.5 million computers, according to Microsoft. Another form of scareware was found on 4.4 million computers, a rise of 66 percent from the previous six-month period.

"That means when users downloaded the software they probably gave away credit card numbers and got infected," Stathakopoulos said. "That's a double hit."

Microsoft releases security reports twice annually. Stathakopoulos expects scareware infections to soar in the first six months of this year because of massive hype regarding Conficker.

The Conficker worm's April 1st trigger date came and went without the bedeviling computer virus causing any mischief but security specialists warn that the threat is far from over.

The virus evolved on April Fools' Day to better resist extermination and make its masters tougher to find.

A task force assembled by Microsoft has been working to stamp out Conficker, also referred to as DownAdUp, and the software colossus has placed a bounty of $250 000 on the heads of those responsible for the threat.

The worm, a self-replicating program, takes advantage of networks or computers that haven't kept up to date with security patches for Windows.

It can infect machines from the Internet or by hiding on USB memory sticks carrying data from one computer to another.

Conficker could be triggered to steal data or turn control of infected computers over to hackers amassing "zombie" machines into "botnet" armies.

Microsoft's report found that as operating system defenses have improved cybercriminals have shifted attacks to software applications people use in their online lives.

Ruses such as bogus software updates or security checks and booby-trapped Web pages or emails are among "social engineering" scams hackers use to dupe people into allowing malicious software past computer defenses.

"We see cybercriminals increasingly going after vulnerabilities in human nature rather than software," said Vinny Gullotto, general manager of the Microsoft Malware Protection Centre.

Stathakopoulos urged people to keep computer applications and anti-virus software updated and to be wary of online come-ons by strangers.

"Use a little common sense," Stathakopoulos counselled.

"If you browse the Web and someone you never met before is offering you a lot of money, it is probably not a good thing ... You wouldn't buy medicine from people you didn't know."

Despite the increasingly wily tactics employed by hackers, the primary causes of data breaches were classic real-world problems of loss or theft of computer equipment, according to Microsoft.

The report, based on data gathered from hundreds of millions of computers worldwide during the second half of 2008, said half of security breaches involved computer gear vanishing, not being hacked.

"For businesses, the security concern is the laptop you left in the cab or the CD-ROM you left in the bar," Stathakopoulos said. "Encryption is so important."

Inbound Marketing

2009-04-06T17:40:00.002+02:00

It seems the latest SEO trend is inbound marketing where you are promised leads to companies that are looking for your services.

Our personal experience is that although you get a very large amount of e-mails in your in box, they are all from companies selling their products. We received about 3000 e-mails and not one lead.

Not only was the whole venture a waste of time, but valuable time was lost going through e-mails that just wanted to sell their products.

Delano Simpson
The Designer Boys

Writing emails that don't get the 'delete' treatment

2009-04-06T16:11:00.002+02:00

By Andrew Parker

Email is so convenient that it's no surprise so many people use it as their primary means of communication, especially in business.

This widespread use has led to the development of standard email etiquette or "netiquette", which encourages polite and readable messages.

With many people receiving hundreds of emails a day, how you format a message may be the factor that determines whether it's read, understood and remembered, or deleted, ignored and forgotten by an irritated recipient.

Don't take this list as gospel, but remember: Although how a person communicates is a very personal decision, those that check their methods against the accepted norms and make adjustments where necessary may find their audience to be more receptive and appreciative, and therefore more attentive.

Here, then, are the Cardinal Rules of Email:

· Keep "message threads" (e-mails and their back-and-forth replies) private. Don't reply to everyone on a mailing list with "OK" or "I agree". Reply privately
instead, to the recipients concerned only. You could copy the original message in your reply and add your notes below the paragraphs of interest.

· Be careful. Want to reply to a group e-mail's sender with some saucy gossip? Make sure you don't click "Reply to all" instead of "Reply" - everyone who got the
original message will get your reply.

· Don't advertise your lousy spelling! Especially in business and promotional communications. Take a second to check your message for spelling errors and typos. You can set most e-mail clients to do this automatically. In Outlook Express, while composing a message, press F7 to initiate a spelling check. If you don't have a built-in spelling-checker, visit www.spellcheck.net which provides a free spelling checker, translation function and a host of other useful tools, including a thesaurus and dictionary.

· Be brief, but pleasantly informative. Curt messages that aren't meant to be harsh at all can come across as cold or unfeeling.

· Never emphasise text using bold and underline and italics combined: it looks very amateurish, which is why you'll never see this in published media such as newspapers.

· When you reply to or forward an e-mail, it's useful to include one or two descriptive words in front of the original subject line so the recipient has an idea of what's in store. You might use words such as "Update:" alternatively "Comments Please:".

· Don't attach files unless you're sure the recipient would be happy to receive them. This is particularly important if you're sending humorous or non-business related attachments to someone's work e-mail address - they could even be fired if the content does not meet with their employer's Acceptable Use Policy.

· Unless your e-mail address clearly states your full name, consider adding a line at the end of your message with your real first and last name. Don't use initials unless you specifically want to. This prevents replies such as "Dear Mr or Ms Smith"

· If you use a signature line at the bottom of your e-mails, include your e-mail address. This makes it easier to copy and paste your address into replies, new messages or the address book.

· When sending a single message to multiple recipients, always insert their addresses in the Blind Carbon Copy or "Bcc:" field. This prevents the crosssharing of private addresses between recipients, because they can't see the other message recipients.

· Finally, never type entire messages in capital letters. This is known as "shouting" ? and it's considered the height of bad manners.

All banks are evil

2009-04-01T15:19:00.000+02:00

Money management websites promising to save the Internet generation from financial disaster made their case to technology trendsetters at South By Southwest Interactive (SXSW) gathering.

"All banks are evil," Mint.com founder Aaron Patzer said Monday while taking part in a 'Finance 2.0' panel discussion.

"Banks are self-serving. Banks are slow moving ... the websites they put out are crap compared to the things we can do online. No good engineer wants to work for a bank; it's no fun."

Mint launched in a test, or beta, form in September of 2007 and the number of users eclipsed one million a day before Patzer took part in the SXSW discussion.

The website's free service securely compiles data from people's accounts in US banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions and then shows people how smart or dumb they are being with their money.

Mint sends users email or mobile telephone text messages if it notices upcoming bills, unnecessary fees, unusual account activity, or other possible money problems.

It also recommends ways for people to save cash.

"Our mission has always been to help people save and do more with their money," Patzer said.

SmartyPig.com on Monday launched software that lets its "social banking" service be added to money management websites Buxfer, Mint, Wesabe, Yodlee, MoneyStrands, Thrive, and Microsoft Money.

SmartyPig is designed as an Internet-age piggy bank and its service provides people Web tools to "leverage the age-old idea of saving up for purchases before buying."

A social component of the website lets friends in communities such as Facebook put cash in friends' cyber piggy banks to help them reach goals.

"We recognise how important it is to securely manage your finances, set goals and help change the credit card mindset of 'buy now, pay later,' that has contributed to the current downturn," said SmartyPig co-founder Michael Ferrari.

SmartyPig launched in the United States and Australia in 2008.

The Internet savings application appeals to "younger, plugged-in" people seeking fun and easy ways to save for specific goals, such as holiday travel or college tuition, according to SmartyPig.

"With all the tools here, the community of people who buy things can be bank agnostic," said Keeping Nickels blogger Nichelle Williams, who was a member of the SXSW panel.

"We can just find the services we want at the cheapest cost. There is a community on Mint.com, and we can galvanise everyone around something like a bank charging crazy fees."

Patzer says US banks will reap tens of billions of dollars in fees on accounts this year.

"A bank is not necessarily there looking out for you," said Murali Subbarao, founder of online service Billeo that enables users to make certain that they pay monthly bills on time, avoiding late fees and damaged credit scores.

Williams said she is bombarded with questions about money from readers of her posts at the personal finances blog.

The sign-up rate at Mint has tripled since the financial crisis began, according to Patzer. SmartyPig has also seen its popularity climb.

"Our business continues to do better as the economy does worse," said Ferrari, who was on the SXSW panel.

"It has taken this economy to get people to start thinking about the resources that are out there in the blogosphere and start being smarter with their money. I felt the love pouring from Twitter during the last couple days."

Operators of money management websites say they are obsessive about security, shielding computers with "Mission Impossible" like defences and undergoing rigorous auditing.

"Online applications are still charting new ground," Stephens said. "Don't be afraid. I'm not saying banks are the enemy, but if you are smart you can beat the bank." - AFP

Online crime surging in recession - report

2009-03-31T15:46:00.000+02:00

By Jason Szep

Boston - Fraud on the Internet reported to US authorities increased by 33 percent last year, rising for the first time in three years, and is surging this year as the recession deepens, federal authorities said on Monday.

Internet fraud losses reported in the United States reached a record high $264,6-million in 2008, according to a report released on Monday from the Internet Fraud Complaint Center, run by the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center.

Online scams originating from across the globe - mostly from the United States, Canada, Britain, Nigeria and China - are gathering steam this year with a nearly 50 percent increase in complaints reported to US authorities in March alone.

"2009 is shaping up to be a very busy year in terms of cyber-crime," the report's author, John Kane, told reporters in a telephone briefing.

Last year's losses compared with $239,1-million in 2007 and dwarfs the $18-million of losses of 2001.

The most common complaint of 2008 was non-delivery of promised merchandise, followed by auction fraud, credit card fraud and investment scams, according to the report.

Of 275 284 complaints received by the center in 2008, about 72 940 were referred to U.S. law enforcement agencies for prosecution. Those referrals spiked this year with 40 000 in the first quarter alone, said Kane.

"It is our belief that these numbers, both the complaints filed and the dollars, represent just a small tip of the iceberg," said Kane, managing director of the National White Collar Crime Center in Richmond, Virginia.

"Our own research suggests that as few as 15 percent of cases of cyber-fraud are being reported to crime control agencies," he said.

Scammers in the United States comprised 66 percent of complaints referred to authorities, followed by Britain at 11 percent, Nigeria 7.5 percent, Canada 3 percent and China 1.6 percent. Within the United States, the bulk originated in California (16 percent), followed by New York and Florida.

Fraudulent sales on online auction sites like eBay Inc and classified sites like craigslist.com contributed to a 32 percent rise in the hottest area of online fraud - non-delivery of promised merchandise, the report said.

That area alone made up about 33 percent of all complaints serious enough to be referred to law enforcement.

Other important areas included investment scams such as mini-versions of the $65-billion Ponzi scheme committed by New York financier Bernard Madoff in which money from new investors is used to pay existing investors.

About 74 percent of the scams were through email messages last year, especially spam, while about 29 percent used websites. But criminals were increasingly tapping new technologies such as social networking sites and instant messenger services, said Kane.

The report highlights one new "significant' identity-theft scam involving e-mail messages that give the appearance of originating from the FBI but seek bank account information to help in investigations of money being transferred to Nigeria. Recipients of the emails are told they could be richly rewarded by cooperating.

The report said almost 80 percent of known perpetrators of online scams are male. Of those bringing complaints, nearly half are between the ages of 30 and 50. The median dollar loss was $931 per complaint, although the median losses for check fraud reached $3 000 and that for investment scams was $2 000.

IE 8 not a hit with users

2009-03-24T15:40:00.001+02:00

Despite some initial glowing reviews, Microsoft has been flooded with complaints about its new Internet Explorer 8 and has seen early users downgrade to the previous version, Information Week reported Monday.

The software giant is hoping that its new browser will help stem a steady flight of surfers to rival products, most notably the open- source Firefox browser.

According to the latest figures, Firefox now controls 22 percent of the browser market compared to 67 percent for Internet Explorer, which once enjoyed more than 90 percent of the market.

The report said that most complaints regarded printing from websites, search malfunctions, image problems, boot times and the fact that the new browser takes up 4 gigabytes of disk space.

Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 on Thursday, touting its greater speed, security and ease of use. Millions of users installed the free download and by Sunday some 2.59 percent of web surfers were using the software.

By Monday the figure had dropped to 1.86 percent as "early adopters of IE8 are switching back to the more familiar, and -at this point -reliable Explorer 7 browser," the report said. - Sapa-dpa

Internet Explorer 8 sees the light of day

2009-03-20T16:38:00.000+02:00

Microsoft on Thursday released Internet Explorer 8, a new version of its ubiquitous Web browser, adding features which the US software giant claims makes it safer and loads pages faster.

Internet Explorer 8 was available for downloading in 25 languages starting on Thursday, the Washington-based computer software giant announced in a statement.

Microsoft said IE 8 was faster than previous IE browsers and included "leading-edge security features in direct response to people's increasing concerns about online safety".

"Customers have made clear what they want in a Web browser - safety, speed and greater ease of use," Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said.

"With Internet Explorer 8, we are delivering a browser that gets people to the information they need, fast, and provides protection that no other browser can match," he said in a statement.

Microsoft said page load times had been speeded up in IE8 and the new version of the browser blocks "two to four times as many malicious sites as other browsers on the market today".

Internet Explorer is the world's leading Web browser.

According to the Internet research firm Net Applications, IE had a total browser market share of 67.5 percent in January.

Mozilla's Firefox was next with 21.53 percent, followed by Apple's Safari with 8.29 percent and Google Chrome with 1.12 percent.

Microsoft's dominance of the browser market through IE and operating systems through Windows has drawn the attention of anti-trust authorities in the United States and Europe.

Earlier this month, Microsoft said a control panel in its next-generation of Windows will let users shut off IE8 and other built-in programs.

The announcement came less than two months after the European Commission accused Microsoft of unfairly tying IE to Windows.

Opera Software filed a complaint with the commission in 2007 accusing Microsoft of denying Windows users "a real choice of browser".

Mozilla and Google also objected to the bundling of IE with Windows, with Google calling the IE-dominated browser market "largely uncompetitive". - AFP

Something incredible has arrived!

2009-03-19T02:31:00.002+02:00

I just became a shareholder in me2everyone and I never had to pay a single penny for the shares! It can only be described as the gold-rush for 2009. This company is going to be huge and shares will soar in value over the coming months! You can register for free and it never has to cost you a single penny!

me2everyone is going to be a cool new virtual world where you can meet friends, chat, shop, play, watch videos, create an art gallery, open a virtual newspaper, play the free inworld lottery and make money from your own online store! You and everyone you know make the decisions, shape the world, create real incomes and share in the profits. It?s a new place where you meet new people or invite your friends. Learn new skills or expand your business. Find the love of your life or help the planet.

Membership is free and every member automatically becomes a shareholder in me2everyone Limited. Personally I have 100 shares in the venture and I am going to increase my shares very soon. This is an excellent chance for all of us to make some real progress in 2009 and beyond! Please do not miss it.

If you are looking for something really good in 2009: something that changes your view on the world, then you really have to spend just one minute and look at this website.

www.me2everyone.com/314802

Leakage - it's everywhere in cyberspace

2009-03-18T15:43:00.001+02:00

By Robert Greig

What do you call somebody who nods when he says "No"? Confused. And you call the act "leakage" - the unintended contradiction between what is said or intended and what is revealed.

The websites are awash with it.

The opening pages of local corporate websites display mostly a pressure to speak, be heard and be deeply loved. What is actually said, as opposed to what is babbled, is comic. It also represents the triumph of function over design.

Thus the billboard convention fights with the entrance hall one; the menu becomes the bars of a prison and the enticement becomes a mugging. Faced with clients who must say, show and tell all at once in a small space, the web designer ends up wailing "Mommy!" in a corner. And the gobble, assertion, stutter, clutter, wheedle, coo, brag and yap of street hucksters is heard in cyberspace.

First, those whose anaconda love must seize us: the banks. Typically their visual welcome evokes columns of type that eerily evoke prison bars. What is loosely called the menu represents a prison of choice to readers. All is on display, like a performance by a bad stripper who wants to go home.

In life, I know, banks are focused, well-managed and complex. Their websites communicate otherwise.

One characteristic form of leakage is the absence of human beings. Customers and staff are banned.

Instead, sites show a few ready-made images from catalogues of idealisations of life.

There are three kinds: the image of the pretty woman lovingly gazing at a cellphone, poor dummy. This stands for love and caring.

Then the sleek, preened hunk having a bash at an intelligent expression. This indicates decisiveness and action.

Finally, and invariably, there is the image of the merry, cute kids flattening fields of daisies.

One bank has the motif of a zebra. This just may be a subtle allusion to black and white people living in our beloved land. (The same zebra, wandering in foreign cities on a tourist jaunt, is the subject of great cinema ads.)

Now it has been corralled behind the bars of a website.

It stands and stares with the resigned expression of a travel-weary zebra that has seen a hunter coming over the horizon with a gun, coming to get his new rug.

Bars - the gotcha! symbol - are the leakage of choice among banks. Similar ones abound in the health care industry.

One provider's site is dominated by a dim image of white and black arms entangled probably for the same reason a bank assumes that zebras are deeply symbolic.

The designer also believed that entanglement, indicating belonging and kinship, was appropriate to health care and should be communicated in the hues of rainbow nation joy but black and white.

Between intention and effect seeps meaning. The leakage here is actually a view of limbs in the orthopaedic operating theatre after the caring professions have taken their cuts.

The second health care organisation is less conventional. It shows recognisable, actual human beings, the staff.

They smile engagingly from a black-and-white photo and wear black shirts.

The photo's geometrical shape has been injected among the organic disorder of bright psychedelic flowers.

The intended message is that the folk are fun. The leaked message is maybe that they do drugs.

Closer examination reveals more seepage.

The cropping of the photo deprives many staff of hair, foreheads, arms, hips and half their faces - this explains the origin of the term "half-smile".

The leaked image is thus that health care causes bodily mutilation. But though mutilated, the staff can also double as smiling morticians.

Thanks anyway, guys, but no thanks.

The web is not all done

2009-03-18T15:41:00.000+02:00

Geneva - Huddled around a vintage computer, four of the creators of the world wide web were blissfully unaware of the audience as they demonstrated how, some 20 years ago, they spawned the exponential growth of the Internet.

In the atmosphere of a school reunion at the European laboratory for particle physics (CERN) last week, the bright-eyed old boys, now middle-aged, reminisced geekishly over computer programming.

Little pink windows popped up on screen and links were created, allowing them to click from one section to the next.

Yet, as impenetrable as the conversation seemed during the commemorative event, their aim in 1989 was to allow thousands of physicists from around the world to communicate and swap research on atom-smashing at a distance.

"We connected up the zoo of machines," explained Ben Segal, one of the programmers and engineers.

Personal computing was in its infancy in the 1980s: different computers often had their own incompatible and complex code-based operating systems or formatting, while networking was cumbersome.

On a now forgotten date in March 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, then a consultant software engineer at CERN, handed his supervisor a proposal on "information management".

The original copy kept by Berners-Lee still has the response the supervisor, Michael Sendall, scribbled at the top of the page: "vague but exciting".

"Mike was the boss who didn't say no," said former CERN systems engineer Robert Cailliau - dubbed by his colleagues the "second user of the web".

"He was crucial to getting it going," added Cailliau.

The document advocating a universal system based on hypertext - the programming language that allows links between pages on the web - contained a complicated diagram with a circle marked "Mesh" in the centre.

"I thought of 'mesh', but it sounded too much like 'mess'," said Berners-Lee, who adopted the name World Wide Web in May 1990.

Rolf-Dieter Heuer, the new director general of CERN, was a German physicist at the laboratory straddling the Swiss-French border at the time.

"I just took it for granted, we didn't foresee the incredible phenomenon that it created."

The lab provided a "canvas" for early web development: it was staffed by engineers who were intent on problem-solving and they were often scattered around Europe and elsewhere.

And, unusually for the time, "there was a computer on every desk," Heuer pointed out.

The project's slogan was "let us share what you know". However, Berners-Lee, Cailliau, Segal and Jean-Fran�ois Groff, a young programmer who was seconded to CERN as an alternative to military service in France, had some convincing to do.

"It was actually illegal until 1988 to 1989 to make an external connection from the lab," Segal said. "CERN is full of smart people with good ideas, and this was just another one."

It took more than a year for Berners-Lee to start developing the web browser. He remembers that when they demonstrated it by simply clicking on a link and a page appeared, the reaction was often a puzzled "so what?".

"After that it took off because people across the planet, random people, started to get involved," said Berners-Lee. "Universality, that was the rule, and it worked."

The key was the outward simplicity.

"The key invention is the URL (website address), it's the thing you can write on a napkin," said Groff.

The first server outside Europe, at the SLAC particle accelerator in California, was connected at the end of 1991.

Berners-Lee later pursued development in the United States and CERN released the software for free in the public domain in 1993.

"Back then there were 26 web servers, now there are 10 to the power 11 pages. That's as many as the neurones in your brain," said the Briton, now 53, who heads the World wide Web Consortium (3WC).

"The difference is that your neurones are going down and the web is growing."

Twenty percent of humanity is connected to the web, according to standard-setting authorities. It is used worldwide for personal communications, entertainment, knowledge, education, commerce, shopping and science, in the office, home and increasingly on the move.

Twenty years on -- six generations in the computer world -- it incorporates more than 30 software standards, as well as audio and video, and even live transmissions.

"The web is not all done. It's just the tip of the iceberg," said Berners-Lee. - AFP

Facebook goes 'Vleisboek' for SA users

2009-03-17T17:19:00.000+02:00

South Africans who logged onto Facebook last week may have struggled if they did not understand Afrikaans.

Some South African users of Facebook were automatically switched to Afrikaans during the social networking site's much publicised upgrade last Wednesday.

Blogs and chat rooms quickly filled with posts from puzzled users, with one renaming the site "Vleisboek".

Said one post on www.mydigitallife.co.za: "Guess the shock I had this morning when I log on to my Facebook page to find that everything is in Afrikaans.

"And there's a little banner that asks me to be part of their new initiative to translate Facebook into Afrikaans whilst these guys have already imposed the Afrikaans version on me without asking me.

"... why not ask first before imposing it on me? Never mind the fact Afrikaans was the only language chosen in the sea of 11 official languages."

Facebook, however, denied it had unilaterally imposed Afrikaans on South Africans.

"When we make new languages available on Facebook, we do not automatically switch our users to the new language unless their browser settings are already set to that language," said spokeswoman Elizabeth Linder in an email interview.

"In the case of Afrikaans, for example, users whose browser settings were in Afrikaans would have been automatically switched over... If users' browser settings are not in Afrikaans, they can choose to switch the language option.

"On rare occasions, when we cannot detect browser settings, we do our best to use other information to ascertain whether or not the user is likely to use the new language. Users can change the language they prefer at any time," she said.

When asked why Facebook chose Afrikaans over South Africa's other official languages, Linder did not provide an answer, writing instead: "By using our translation application, which enables users to help translate Facebook, we are able to translate and subsequently launch new languages as quickly as possible."

She said there was no set number of languages for the site. More than 40 languages had been put on the site and 50 more were currently under translation.

She added: "Our hope is that the number of languages on Facebook will enable... users to connect with their friends, family, and coworkers in the language they feel most comfortable using." - Sapa