BiblioPolit: Technology

Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

BiblioPolit has its own domain now!

As I said at my Theo-Enthumology blog, this news is not earth-shattering, but BiblioPolit now has its own domain. The blogspot URL that readers usually arrived here through, will still function.

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Telkom to enter mobile market in South Africa

South Africa is by no means a rich country. Yet, somehow it flourishes in the mobile phone market. Currently we have 3 mobile operations (MTN, Vodacom and Cell-C). We used to have Virgin Mobile, but I never met anyone that actually used them.

Later in the year, the 4th mobile operator in the form of Telkom will enter the South African market. Is there really anything that Telkom can add to the market apart from its current monopoly in the fixed-line market? Yes, I know, we do have a 2nd fixed-line operator in the form of Neotel, but have you heard of anyone, except Neotel employees, using them in a private capacity?

Skype and other phones

Is there anyone here that uses Skype?

I think I have used Skype for real calls as much as 5 times in the past 5 years. All business calls. To me it is just another phone, and I hate phones. I use a phone only if I really have to. I certainly do not use it as a socializing device. I find it very restrictive and it puts me at the mercy of the one that called me. That is why I have instituted a call-answering policy (CAP).

When using a cell phone, the number of the one that calls me is usually displayed on my phone. If your phone is set not to send that information through with your call, it displays as "Private" when that call gets through to me. Some phones display "Unknown" or "Withheld" and some display "Private." My CAP is that if a call comes through to my phone with the originating number withheld, I simply do not answer that call. So, as soon as a call comes through to my cell that displays "Private" I shut it down. The reason I do this is that at some point I started getting many spam calls, so-called marketing calls. I got tired of having to interrupt these people within the first 10 seconds and asking: "Are you trying to sell me something?" "Umm, yes?" "I am really not interested. Have a good day! Goodbye!" This became the norm for several months. So I simply stopped answering calls made from phones that do not send the originating number through. I could set my previous phone not to answer calls like this. It was great. My current phone cannot do it. Pity!

I read Joel Stein's piece in the Time magazine (January 18, 2010) today called "Call Me! But Not on Skype or Any Other Videophone."

Talking about video calls, Stein writes: "In fact, even though Skype is the only one of all the cool gadgets that cartoons promised me would exist by 2010, people don't seem nearly as excited as they should be. Only 34% of Skype calls even use video. And when Skype announced on Jan. 5 at the Consumer Electronics Show that we'll soon have videophones on our televisions, everyone went right back to talking about which booths gave out the best key-chain lights."

I remember when Skype first became the hype, I was very excited. It seemed like the answer to Telkom and cell phone hell here in South Africa. Making calls in South Africa are expensive, so Skype became a delight. However, the reality of it became apparent very quickly as we started running out of bandwidth using Skype over the internet. In South Africa we pay dearly for the internet bandwidth we use. Expensive is actually just a euphemism for we pay for our bandwidth in this country! So, beware internet prices when you come to South Africa for the 2010 soccer world cup! In the end, we do pay for that Skype call via our expensive internet rates. So, while Skype is the only gadget that lived up to the promise of the cartoons, I am certainly not excited about it at all!

I find Stein's article very funny, but also very true! He really nails it on the head for me.

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Using the Flock web browser

I have been using Flock for some time now. What is Flock? Good grief! You must be living under a very heavy rock that has you stuck in a very deep, muddy groove!

Flock is a web browser. Ha! But, it is not just a web browser. It is a browser on social steroids!

With Flock, you can be connected to several social networks at once, such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and more. You can also be connected to various media sites such as Youtube, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa and more. Further, it hooks you up with your blogging site, such as Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, etc. Yet further, you can also be connected to your webmail service such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail and AOL Mail. All of this while you do not have one of these sites open as a web page in your browser.

In Flock, you will see all your new feeds from Facebook, Twitter, etc. You will even know when you have new mail.

You can also blog using Flock's own blog editor. In fact, this is the first time I am using the Flock blog editor with this very post. For instance, I simply dragged the Flock logo below from the Flock website to this editor. Voila!

Just like Firefox, Flock is also powered by Mozilla. So, what you think you have in Firefox, you will get tons more in Flock. Many of the Firefox add-ons also work in Flock.

Anyhow, I have done enough plugging for Flock now. You actually need to install it and use it to see what a great browser it really is.

Finally, I also dragged this Youtube video straight from Flock's Media Bar onto the blog
editor.

Cool, huh?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Lost in a cachophany of sound

What do you experience when there is just silence around you? No TV, no radio, no computer, no aircon, no cars, just silence! Do you become anxious? Maybe you even panic?! Or is that a moment in which you can think clearly, reflecting on the events of the day? Perhaps you use such time to reflect on deeper things, like the meaning of life, or your faith in Jesus Christ! As Dr. Albert Mohler writes:

"Our culture now assumes noise and the constant availability of
music, electronic chatter, and entertainment. In many homes, there is
virtually no silence -- at least during waking hours. In some homes,
family members live in isolated environments of independent sound, with
iPods, televisions, radios, and any number of other technologies
providing a customized experience of noise.

"All this takes a toll upon the soul. Psychologists argue that the
development of individual identity requires extended periods of
solitude, reflection, and silence. The Christian tradition has honored
silence as a matter of spiritual discipline and an intentional effort
to flee the noise of everyday life in order to hear what that noise
cannot supply.

"The life of the mind and the shaping of the soul require the ability to
hear, recognize, and understand what would be lost in a cachophany of
sound."