Neotel's handy little carphone

I finally know an actual Neotel customer – me! After four months in new offices without landlines, I took the plunge and bought a prepaid Neotel phone (on the left) for R399 from the shop at Menlyn Retail Park where the RICA process of showing an ID and proof of address was irritating but particularly quick. The phone comes with a 012 geographic (Pretoria) number and works on the Neotel CDMA cellular network which has reasonable coverage in Pretoria. There is no monthly fee for keeping the 012 number, which is great.

The phone actually works like a normal retro cellular phone and charges from a normal USB port, which is convenient. I cannot confirm it but I think that there is cell handover since I was able to sustain particularly long calls while driving through the city. The call rates are very inexpensive (compared to SA mobiles), essentially always slightly lower than calls from a Telkom landline which makes it a great option for calls to landlines and abroad especially. Due to what are supposedly ICASA restrictions, the phone simply stops working once it leaves Pretoria and in Johannesburg I was unable to make calls and incoming calls simply went to a “subscriber not available” message. It was slightly annoying that the phone's display showed the same network statistics that it showed while actually working in Pretoria! Frankly, Neotel seems a great option for many including those frequently calling the office, home or mom from the road. The device has a headset jack for those preferring handsfree use. The battery doesn't really last the day if use is intensive.

Android-paniek in die voorstede

Die afgelope week of vier raak ek stadig gewoond aan 'n Android-foon van Samsung, die Galaxy Y Pro met sy relatief beskeie prys van sowat $200. Daar was die gewone gesukkel (ook bekend aan vroeë iPhone-gebruikers) aan die begin met die beantwoord van oproepe endiesmeer maar vandag het dinge 'n dramatiese wending geneem toe ek skielik geen klank meer had in oproepe nie. Dit het „net” sowat 'n uur geneem om uit te werk dat die mikrofoon nog gewerk het indien die eksterne luidspreker van die Speakerphone-funksie aangeskakel was, m.a.w. dat die probleem nie die reën van die dag of die klein bier in die laatmiddag was nie.

Eintlik was alle normale klanke weg, o.a. die ligte klikgeluide wanneer 'n mens gewone handelings op die raakskerm uitvoer. Duidelik dus 'n probleem met die programmatuur en gelukkig het ek onthou dat iemand geskryf het dat hulle toepassings van die foon begin afhaal het. Met die eerste probeerslag het ek WhatsApp wat al elders vir my probleme veroorsaak het, verwyder en siedaar – my klank was terug en ek kan rustig slaap!!

Bandwydte 100/100 in Boedapest

Ek het hierdie week die Corvinus-universiteit in Boedapest besoek en by my lessenaar die Internet-spoed getoets. Dit is sowat 100 keer beter as my kantoor-Internet in Pretoria op 'n goeie dag! Kan iemand my vertel waar ek in Gauteng so iets kan kry?

Kindle-friendly PDF from LaTeX

My latest reading device is the $79 Kindle (6" no-touch screen, with ads) which is super-light and small enough to fit in a larger shirt pocket. Today I used a LaTeX template from the blog It's Forty Two (copied at paste2.org/p/1806643) to turn an existing 100 page document into a 300 page PDF that reads quite nicely on the Kindle's small screen and presumable will display well on other tablets, e-book readers and smartphones. The LaTeX package lscape and the command \resizebox were useful to get some of the diagrams to fit the page. I have not tried this for a document with many (long) formulae and I suspect it would be considering putting the entire doc in landscape mode!

Vodacom's prepaid accounting very poor [resolved, for now]

Source: ITWeb

Update: Vodacom called me within 90 minutes after I posted this message on HelloPeter.com and sorted out the problem, very politely and in Afrikaans. That's good service! I still believe they have issues with their systems, though –possibly related to the way the different access methods interact with their main database.

I am very dissatisfied with Vodacom's prepaid accounting system. On Saturday 2011-06-25, I transferred R389 from my main telephone to my data number 079 344 5422. I got an SMS message on both phones, saying that the transfer was successful and giving the reference number as 111C2Y1X10GGXT. Yet when I do a balance enquiry via *111# on the recipient number (which I have tried about ten times) I still get a balance of about R29 some twelve hours later. The receiving number can make and receive calls so it is active on the network. How is this possible and where is the plethora of government watchdogs and consumer authorities if something like this is even possible?

When I logged on to my main account on Vodacom.co.za this morning, I briefly saw my old (pre-transfer) balance on the screen. I am sufficiently technical to understand how this is possible but how can they allow it to happen?

My reason for urgently needing Vodacom data is that my Telkom ADSL line has been down for nearly four weeks now. The two companies are starting to resemble each other – a generally excellent network combined with customer service and accounting systems that are very, very shoddy. Perhaps Vodacom should stop spending money on changing their colours and start fixing their systems!