Shaya Technologies
May 31, 2004
Hello, Hiya and welcome to Cybersurf, your weekly window on the world wide web. I am your friendly cyberhost, Steven Lang.
If you know anything at all about the Internet, you will know that security is a really big issue these days. Vandals, script kiddies and criminals are using the Internet to destroy web sites, servers and PCs. Personally I think they should all spend a long time behind bars.
However, the increasing problems created by these criminals, has been very good news – in some respects – for the Internet security company. We are going to speak to one such company in a few moments, but first I would liie to remind listeners what a patch is.
A patch is a piece of software, usually created and distributed by a major software company that has discovered a fault with a program that they originally sold you. The send you the patch to fix their mistakes, or holes in the software.
The problem with these patches, is they are not always compatible with the rest of your system, and sometimes there are so many of them that you really have to keep on your toes to have the latest patches installed.
Ian Melamed of Shaya technologies, says his company offers a security system that protects your network and is easy to update:
IN: The security system . . . .
OUT: . . . . period of six months.
DUR: 2’15”
Thank-you Ian Melamed, principal cosultant of Shaya Technologies, a South African Empowerment company that is leading the way in Internet Security. To find out more about the company and how it operates, click along to shaya.co.za
Before we go, I’d like to draw your attention to the new Numsa website at numsa.org.za – the design is great – it’s quick, intuitive and attractive – but it probably could be updated more often. Maybe they’re still getting all their material in place – will have a closer look at that site soon.
So with that quick comment, we wrap up Cybersurf for today. Thanks for listening and do make sure that you tune in against next Monday for more Cybersurf.
31 May 2004
10 May 2004
ITU Telecom Africa 2004
10 May 2004
Hello, howzit, SABAR AL GIR and welcome to Cybersurf, a weekly window on the wonderful world of the Web. I am your Cyberhost, Steven Lang – freshly returned from Cairo, Egypt where I attended the Telecom Africa 2004 exhibition and forum.
The two pronged event was excellent – the exhibition, with more than double the number of exhibitors of the previous Telecoms Africa in Johannesburg in 2001, was well laid out, spacious and efficient.
The Forum - with a theme entitled “Advantage Africa” – had its ups and its downs. There were some panel discussions - such as the one on Voice over IP – or how to use the Internet to make cheap overseas phones calls; and the workshop on business models that were really well managed and informative – while others were dominated by pompous, windbags who just like hearing themselves drone on.
Telecom Africa 2004 was also a steep learning curve in acronyms – like which is better: CDMA or GSM? And is CDMA really two and a half G, or is it 3G? Other quick issues sure to confuse – what is fixed wire? What do you call it when fixed line calls make use of GSM; and what about cellphone callls that are routed through a fixed line back-bone?
No – I am not making up all this techno jargon just to show off – these were real issues debated in the forum and in the corridors of the exhibition.
One of the highlights of the Egyptian stand was a large scale model of what they call – the Smart Village – this massive office park which is still under construction, is fully serviced with the latest optic fibre technology and appears to be aimed at setting up a silicon valley alongside the Nile – or perhaps the idea is to follow in the development footsteps of Hyderabad in India.
Included in the “smart” infrastructure is a high speed network for data, voice and video transmission; VPN connect; Voip capability and data centre; cable TV and video conferencing centre; uninterrupted power supply and standby generators
There are many other advantages to setting up in the Smart Village – but in my view the killer app – the one that would really make businesses move to the village is a ten year moratorium on taxes!!!
Only ten percent of the area of the park is open to contruction – this means that just under ninety percent of it will be developed as parklands. Microsoft, Alcatel and others are already there – and so is the ministry of communications – but in my view the one critical element missing from the Smart Village – is the element that would really make it Smart and is the same factor that powers Silicon Valley and Hyderabad - that is a University.
The Smart Village would have been so much more convincing if there had been a University in centre that could churn out computer scientists with serious degrees in programming and computer science.
Nevetheless, it is a constructive plan that fits in with the rest of Egypt’s drive to become the ICT centre for the Middle East and Africa. In some respects it is already ahead of South Africa and with broadband costing less than half the price charged by our local Telkom – we could be relegated into second place very quickly unless our ministry of communications gets an attitude makeover.
That’s all we the time we have for Telecom Africa 2004 in Cairo. Be sure to join me again next Monday for more Cybersurf.
10 May 2004
Hello, howzit, SABAR AL GIR and welcome to Cybersurf, a weekly window on the wonderful world of the Web. I am your Cyberhost, Steven Lang – freshly returned from Cairo, Egypt where I attended the Telecom Africa 2004 exhibition and forum.
The two pronged event was excellent – the exhibition, with more than double the number of exhibitors of the previous Telecoms Africa in Johannesburg in 2001, was well laid out, spacious and efficient.
The Forum - with a theme entitled “Advantage Africa” – had its ups and its downs. There were some panel discussions - such as the one on Voice over IP – or how to use the Internet to make cheap overseas phones calls; and the workshop on business models that were really well managed and informative – while others were dominated by pompous, windbags who just like hearing themselves drone on.
Telecom Africa 2004 was also a steep learning curve in acronyms – like which is better: CDMA or GSM? And is CDMA really two and a half G, or is it 3G? Other quick issues sure to confuse – what is fixed wire? What do you call it when fixed line calls make use of GSM; and what about cellphone callls that are routed through a fixed line back-bone?
No – I am not making up all this techno jargon just to show off – these were real issues debated in the forum and in the corridors of the exhibition.
One of the highlights of the Egyptian stand was a large scale model of what they call – the Smart Village – this massive office park which is still under construction, is fully serviced with the latest optic fibre technology and appears to be aimed at setting up a silicon valley alongside the Nile – or perhaps the idea is to follow in the development footsteps of Hyderabad in India.
Included in the “smart” infrastructure is a high speed network for data, voice and video transmission; VPN connect; Voip capability and data centre; cable TV and video conferencing centre; uninterrupted power supply and standby generators
There are many other advantages to setting up in the Smart Village – but in my view the killer app – the one that would really make businesses move to the village is a ten year moratorium on taxes!!!
Only ten percent of the area of the park is open to contruction – this means that just under ninety percent of it will be developed as parklands. Microsoft, Alcatel and others are already there – and so is the ministry of communications – but in my view the one critical element missing from the Smart Village – is the element that would really make it Smart and is the same factor that powers Silicon Valley and Hyderabad - that is a University.
The Smart Village would have been so much more convincing if there had been a University in centre that could churn out computer scientists with serious degrees in programming and computer science.
Nevetheless, it is a constructive plan that fits in with the rest of Egypt’s drive to become the ICT centre for the Middle East and Africa. In some respects it is already ahead of South Africa and with broadband costing less than half the price charged by our local Telkom – we could be relegated into second place very quickly unless our ministry of communications gets an attitude makeover.
That’s all we the time we have for Telecom Africa 2004 in Cairo. Be sure to join me again next Monday for more Cybersurf.
3 May 2004
Cybersurf – Africa Telecom 2004 – Cairo
May 3, 2004
Hello, good morning and welcome to Cybersurf, coming to you this morning from Cairo, Egypt. I am your Cyberhost, Steven Lang - and yes, you heard right - coming to you from Cairo where I am attending the Africa Telecom 2004 exhibition and forum.
The International Telecommunications Union event – Africa Telecoms has already been held in Egypt before and at least twice in South Africa. The whole aim of the event is to have top technology manufacturers display their wares at an exhibition while at the same time there is a parallel forum where business people, government officials and other interested parties discuss policies, strategies, technologies, how to implement and how to regulate them.
The atmosphere here is bullish as Egypt is asserting itself as the new Internet leader in Africa. There is an air of self confidence as the country shows off the considerable strides it has made in recent years.
Later today, the ITU is going to release a fairly positive report about telecommunications growth in Africa over the last few years. The report points to the tremendous growth of the mobile telephone markets in Africa saying that this is the first continent where the number of cellphones has outstripped the number of landlines. It also says that the number of cellphone users in Africa has doubled between 2001 and 2004.
These figures are very encouraging, creating the impression that Africa has suddenly become a world leader in mobile telephone penetration, but in fact these figures look impressive simply because they are compared to the incredibly poor rollout of fixed line phones in Africa.
Fixed line telephony has in Africa been largely the responsibility of governments and more often than not the private sector has set up and operated the cell phone networks. It can, therefore be argued that if you want to help Africans get access to the latest information technology, let the private sector do it.
However, no-one is seriously arguing that a complete, laissez faire free-for-all would help bridge the digital divide – there is broad consensus that a free market system run under the guidance of a truly independent IT regulator - is the best model to maximise Internet access.
The real problem is that while most African governments do recognise the importance of a regulator and of well defined policies to help promote IT access, only about one third of the countries have actually opened their domestic markets and set up a regulator with teeth. Critics argue that because the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, ICASA has been less than effective in releasing the Telkom stranglehold on telecommunications, South Africa is not one of the select group.
More on this and other issues raised here at the Africa Telecom in Cairo next week in Cybersurf.
Till then, keep on surfing.
…/ends
May 3, 2004
Hello, good morning and welcome to Cybersurf, coming to you this morning from Cairo, Egypt. I am your Cyberhost, Steven Lang - and yes, you heard right - coming to you from Cairo where I am attending the Africa Telecom 2004 exhibition and forum.
The International Telecommunications Union event – Africa Telecoms has already been held in Egypt before and at least twice in South Africa. The whole aim of the event is to have top technology manufacturers display their wares at an exhibition while at the same time there is a parallel forum where business people, government officials and other interested parties discuss policies, strategies, technologies, how to implement and how to regulate them.
The atmosphere here is bullish as Egypt is asserting itself as the new Internet leader in Africa. There is an air of self confidence as the country shows off the considerable strides it has made in recent years.
Later today, the ITU is going to release a fairly positive report about telecommunications growth in Africa over the last few years. The report points to the tremendous growth of the mobile telephone markets in Africa saying that this is the first continent where the number of cellphones has outstripped the number of landlines. It also says that the number of cellphone users in Africa has doubled between 2001 and 2004.
These figures are very encouraging, creating the impression that Africa has suddenly become a world leader in mobile telephone penetration, but in fact these figures look impressive simply because they are compared to the incredibly poor rollout of fixed line phones in Africa.
Fixed line telephony has in Africa been largely the responsibility of governments and more often than not the private sector has set up and operated the cell phone networks. It can, therefore be argued that if you want to help Africans get access to the latest information technology, let the private sector do it.
However, no-one is seriously arguing that a complete, laissez faire free-for-all would help bridge the digital divide – there is broad consensus that a free market system run under the guidance of a truly independent IT regulator - is the best model to maximise Internet access.
The real problem is that while most African governments do recognise the importance of a regulator and of well defined policies to help promote IT access, only about one third of the countries have actually opened their domestic markets and set up a regulator with teeth. Critics argue that because the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, ICASA has been less than effective in releasing the Telkom stranglehold on telecommunications, South Africa is not one of the select group.
More on this and other issues raised here at the Africa Telecom in Cairo next week in Cybersurf.
Till then, keep on surfing.
…/ends
22 April 2004
Freedom Day – 26 April 04
Hello, howzit and welcome to Cybersurf – the Freedom Day edition. This is your weekly web window, when we wax lyrical on the best of the Internet – I am your Cyberhost Steven Lang.
Yes, tomorrow is Freedom day so today is a good time to find out all you can about all the events taking place.
If Freedom day means we have to feel good about being South African, then there is no better place to visit than the South Africa info site – which can be found at www.southafrica.info.
The site bills itself as the official South Africa gateway– and it was put together by the Big Media web site design company for the International Marketing Council of South Africa.
Overall the site has a fresh, modern look and feel. It has the texture of a happy news site – plenty of press releases that look like news articles. All the content has something positive to say about South Africa – particularly about South Africans abroad.
Lead article is about how South Africans are going to celebrate 10 years of freedom in Trafalgar square, London, the second story is about Ushaka – a South African musical touring Europe; New York celebrates South African film and in Boston, a South African wheel chair athlete is feted as guest of honour at a baseball match.
There is a section inviting you – the reader - to write to Fifa explaining why this country should host the 2010 soccer world cup.
The South Africa – Alive with Possibility is truly an excellent site especially if you need to find out the positive side of this country.
If you click on the link to “Ten Years of Democracy”, you will see more stories and links about the many events that will celebrate our freedom day. There are links to stories such as: Newtown celebrates ten years; SA’s gay community celebrates ten; Cape Town Opera 10 for ten and profiles on nine South African families – makes you wonder what happened to the last one.?
There are also links to other - Ten Years of Democracy sites such as the UK based Network South Africa which you can find at www.sa2004.co.uk/ - which looks quite a lot like www.Southafrica.info – and then there is a truly excellent history site at: www.sahistory.org.za – it is visually a little sombre – having no fancy graphics, but it has very good content – and always remember “Content is King”
This advice should have been heeded by the people who designed the government web site for ten years of democracy. They even got their own dedicated domain name http://www.10years.gov.za – I really don’t know if they were still contructing it when I looked at it last Thursday but the main page offers you a choice of two sections – “Documents” or “Statements” – I think it is one of the most boring sites I have ever seen.
Anyway, I am quite sure that tomorrow’s celebrations won’t be boring –
If you would like to read the script for this program – you will find it on my personal site at www.stevenlang.blogspot.com . Thanx for listening and remember to keep on surfing
Hello, howzit and welcome to Cybersurf – the Freedom Day edition. This is your weekly web window, when we wax lyrical on the best of the Internet – I am your Cyberhost Steven Lang.
Yes, tomorrow is Freedom day so today is a good time to find out all you can about all the events taking place.
If Freedom day means we have to feel good about being South African, then there is no better place to visit than the South Africa info site – which can be found at www.southafrica.info.
The site bills itself as the official South Africa gateway– and it was put together by the Big Media web site design company for the International Marketing Council of South Africa.
Overall the site has a fresh, modern look and feel. It has the texture of a happy news site – plenty of press releases that look like news articles. All the content has something positive to say about South Africa – particularly about South Africans abroad.
Lead article is about how South Africans are going to celebrate 10 years of freedom in Trafalgar square, London, the second story is about Ushaka – a South African musical touring Europe; New York celebrates South African film and in Boston, a South African wheel chair athlete is feted as guest of honour at a baseball match.
There is a section inviting you – the reader - to write to Fifa explaining why this country should host the 2010 soccer world cup.
The South Africa – Alive with Possibility is truly an excellent site especially if you need to find out the positive side of this country.
If you click on the link to “Ten Years of Democracy”, you will see more stories and links about the many events that will celebrate our freedom day. There are links to stories such as: Newtown celebrates ten years; SA’s gay community celebrates ten; Cape Town Opera 10 for ten and profiles on nine South African families – makes you wonder what happened to the last one.?
There are also links to other - Ten Years of Democracy sites such as the UK based Network South Africa which you can find at www.sa2004.co.uk/ - which looks quite a lot like www.Southafrica.info – and then there is a truly excellent history site at: www.sahistory.org.za – it is visually a little sombre – having no fancy graphics, but it has very good content – and always remember “Content is King”
This advice should have been heeded by the people who designed the government web site for ten years of democracy. They even got their own dedicated domain name http://www.10years.gov.za – I really don’t know if they were still contructing it when I looked at it last Thursday but the main page offers you a choice of two sections – “Documents” or “Statements” – I think it is one of the most boring sites I have ever seen.
Anyway, I am quite sure that tomorrow’s celebrations won’t be boring –
If you would like to read the script for this program – you will find it on my personal site at www.stevenlang.blogspot.com . Thanx for listening and remember to keep on surfing
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