HTC Flyer.

Blogger now set up on the HTC Flyer. Watch the Tech blog for the review.

G&C Net network.

Internet Cafe Network.

This is the planned network for my Internet Cafe in Hluhluwe town.

At the moment we manually log people onto the network, either through the fixed work stations or through the wireless network. The customers have access to the HP 4500 Deskjet for their printing, scanning and faxing. There is also on each work station a web cam and headset for use with programs like Skype.

The network is controlled by the D-Link router for the main access to the Internet. This would have a public side web address assigned to its dynamic IP so that I can access my router, server and security cameras from the Internet. The router will need to forward certain ports to the server so that can happen.

The router at the moment is also the wireless gateway. I would like to set it up so that either the server will be the controller for the public wireless network or to buy a router that can use the DD-WRT to control the wireless access.

The work stations are running Natty Narwhal. Updates are installed as they become available. The server is running Lucid Lynx. All the server options are currently installed. This is includes some that I am not going to use, like the mail server, but I wanted to see how they worked before I fine tuned the install. I would like the server to run apt-cacher so that the updates for the various workstations and for my laptop only need to be downloaded once. I would like to see if it is possible to set the server to run as a DNS cache server to speed up the access to the Internet. I am not entirely sure yet how this works.

There is an idea in the future to run thin clients for the Internet Cafe, this depends largely on money, as usual. There are also various plans to expand the capabilities of the Cafe with regards to printing, laminating and binding. The idea is to run the shop as a one stop business services location.

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No Eskom 12 hours and counting.

So here we are 12 hours into a Eskom power failure. No word of course when it will come on again.

I want to know if the speed with which Eskom has rolled out thier network has affected the quality of the work or if this is just how things are going to be.

Eskom will of course say the quality of the work is the same as always, and is world class.

Maybe it is because I now live in a rural area and not JHB, I would like to believe this. In fact I would like to belive anything as long as there is something that can and will be done about it.

But here we sit, with the food slowly going off. And stewing in our sweat. Lest I forget to mention we cannot shower or bath unless we have electricity to power the pump.

Ahh here comes the rain again. That will cool things down a bit.

The power came on between 21:30 and 22:30.

I was asleep so no exact time.

I hear through the grapevine that Eskom did not even go out till 16:00 on Sunday afternoon, although this is pure hearsay at the moment.

Cell C.

Cell C I live in Hluhluwe. Can you help me?

Let me start at the beginning.

I had a particularly frustrating Friday.

I kept trying trying to return a missed call. Tried and tried in fact. For 45 minutes.

Then phoned the Cell C call centre. After getting through various voice menus, I explained my problem to the agent. Who did not listen or for some other reason then repeated the problem back to me incorrectly.

Sigh.

Repeat.

Agent repeats problem back to me again, correctly this time. Then asks me to confirm my cell number (caller id anyone). And then my ID.

Agent then wants to know if I have a pen and paper handy. I go to get and of course my call gets dropped because of the wonderful reception out here.

At this point, to save myself all the stress, I think "If is important they will call back."

Trevor is going to here all about this. As soon as I get electrity again.

For that saga see the next post.

Software Freedom Day

To all software users:

It is that time of year, when we celebrate Software Freedom Day.

Use the link in the title to head on over to the organizations website.

This year the special day is the 18th of September 2010.

For local South African action check out the team page.

Facebook Event.

Go be Software Free on the 18th of September.

Malema, The Constitution and the 'Shoot the Boer Song'.

The Constitutional Court has banned the singing of the struggle song, commonly known as 'Shoot the Boer'.

This means that NOBODY may sing this song. Not for any reason. This is despite what political parties may want. Until that court order has been changed. By appeal or what ever means.

If you respect the rule of law, as any functioning society must, then you would not sing this despite what may have happened in your history. Until and only if the court order is changed.

The laws that are enforced inside our society are the only instrument that prevents our society and our country from sliding into anarchy.

The song is banned because it promotes hate speech and violence towards another 'ethnic' group.

Now I believe that the AWB and the supporters of ANCYL president are a minority. What should the rest of South Africa do about people like this? They are the ones who are threatening to destabilse the whole country. When will the ordinary people of this country DO something?

I have read a lot about this and the death of Eugene TerreBlanche, both online and in the print media. There seems to be a lot of opinions going around. This is one situation that will divide South Africa in the media if nowhere else. How many of these people would have chosen a side if they had not been asked by the media? I like to think that most people would prefer to get on with their lives. Most people adopt a live and let live attitude.

In the end no matter what you or I believe everybody has the right to their own ideas.

Every one who lives in South Africa has to respect The Constitution. Not only when you want but all the time, even when it is not working in your favour.

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Software Freedom Day

Software Freedom 2009.
Date: Saturday 19 September 2009

Place: Department of Science and Technology, Pretoria

Time: 09:00 - 15:00

Go learn about open source software.

There will be tons of helpfull people around doing all sorts of interesting things to demonstrate the full capabilities of open source software.If you have ever had any questions about open source software then this will be the place to find the answers.

Lots of fun to be had!

Click

here

if you need a map.

Open Source

I have recently joined the open source community in SA. I have also started another blog on the

OpenZA website,

this is where you can read about my blunderings into open source.

This is a great thing to get involved in. Most of the users I have had dealings with use open source operating systems but there are people who also use propriety systems who have other open source software, anybody is welcome, so come on over, and do not be shy. Interact and broaden your horizons.

Maybe by the time you have spent sometime there you will chuck the old OS in favor of FOSS software.

Till later then.

Late night musings.

Good day.

A post with no purpose at all really.

Looking over the way South Africa is working now a days, I start to realize that the topics that are of such importance to the politicians, usually are their topics because they think that the people who they want to vote for them think they are important.

Now read that ten times fast, and don't expect it to make any more sense when you are finished than it did the first time around. If that first paragraph does not warn against the dangers of late night blogging when tired then maybe the rest will.

I am watching Road House, will I am writing this. Hmmm nothing like 80s foreplay. Back then the sex was dirty and everything else was clean. Maybe I should be tweeting this so that all of those people out there who missed such a classical part of movie history can catch up. Looks like I was only just right about saying 80's.

Harmless fun really. The bad guys in the movie like this seem like slightly disobedient boy scouts.

Moving on.

Well that has just about exhausted my writing for tonight. At least the creative part.

Besides the movie is just getting to the good parts. Good old fights.

Perhaps I will ad something a little more significant tomorrow.

Google and the cloud.

Cloud computing is the "in" thing to be talking about at the moment, so here goes.

For those who do not know what it is you can go find out here.

A lot of the tech orientated people seem to think that this is going to replace traditional computing methods. While this may be true for those of our friends in the developed world, especially with companies trying to save as much money as possible. There are several reasons why it will not work in the developing country.

Chief among those reasons in the undependable nature of the internet connection.

Second, and by no means less, most developing countries and certainly the one the author lives in, still charge by the amount of data. And also cap their users.

Go figure.

These are the two main barriers to using the cloud for everyday work.

I have to use it and the frustration that come from not being to access the information immediately has led me to keeping duplicate records on my hard drive, defeating the object.

I have recently started using a lot more of the services on the net, in particularly Google. I like the ease of use that cloud computing offers. No license, no installation. The computer management is also very simple. Only a few programs to maintain and so far no conflicts with outdated systems or software.

Some of the articles that I have read raise the issue of security. If the company who is offering the service cannot give some guarantee of security, I assume that people will just not use them.
While everybody has security issues, users especially corporates, will want to be reassured that the information is relatively safe.

The cloud is a very good place to store non-sensitive information, and/or information that needs to be available to lots of people on various geographic locations.

I suppose like most things we will have to wait and see how things develop. I do know one thing for sure, I will be making a lot more use of the "greatest invention" ever.