2007-12-29

Die volstruisverestoffer in die geskiedenis

Met die uitvinding van die verestoffer, gemaak van kalkoenvere, het die Amerikaanse Susan Hibbard 'n deurbraak gemaak. Haar storie word egter verskeie plekke op die Internet (o.a. die Amerikaanse openbare diens-uitsaaier, PBS, se webbladsye) onjuis aangehaal. Dit word vertel dat haar bose eggenoot die patent by haar wou wegneem en in sy naam registreer en dat sy in die hof sou moes veg om dit te behou. Dit is weliswaar so dat eiendomsreg binne die huwelik 'n netelike probleem was in die patentreg (soos elders in die personereg) maar die geval Susan Hibbard was meer ingewikkeld.

Volgens 'n artikel in The American Journal of Legal History het Susan se man, George Hibbard, in 1874 'n patent in sy naam registreer vir die verestoffer. Kort daarnee het ene GM Richmond aansoek gedoen vir 'n patent vir dieselfde item. By 'n verhoor om die twee aansprake te beoordeel het dit aan die lig gekom dat die uitvindsel eintlik Susan s'n was. Die VS-patentekantoor het die dispuut toe verander na een tussen Susan Hibbard en Richmond en die patent aan Susan toegestaan. Hoewel die storie van Hibbard se verestoffer wel wys dat mans soms in die 19e eeu gerieflikheidshalwe hul eggenote se uitvindsels patenteer het (miskien soos sommige amper-insolvente individue vandag hul huise in hul eggenoot se naam registreer), illustreer dit eerder 'n verligte houding aan die owerhede se kant!

Volgens die Wikipedia is die volstruisverestoffer in 1903 in Johannesburg uitgevind deur ene Harry S. Beckner. Die Beckner Feather Duster Company se webbladsye maak egter 'n minder omvattende aanspraak:

original South African Ostrich Feather Dusters were invented in Johannesburg, South Africa by missionary, broom factory manager, Harry S. Beckner in 1903...

Let op die hoofletters en die kwalifikasie "South African"! In iedere geval, Beckner is na die VSA saam met sy broer George en het dié maatskappy in 1913 op die been gebring. Vandag word die maatskappy besit deur George se kleindogter Margaret Fish en haar man en word dié verestoffers vervaardig in McDonald, Tennessee, van vere wat uit SA ingevoer word.

Hoewel dié webjoernaalskrywers een van die laaste persone sou wees om die ekonomie deur 'n nasionalistiese bril te sien, kom die vraag tog by 'n mens op: watter hoop het, byvoorbeeld, die SA-regering se planne om verydeling (die vervaardiging van juwele e.d.m.) in die mineraal- en edelmetaalsektore aan te wakker indien ons, na meer as 100 jaar, nog die vere van ons volstruise Amerika toe stuur om daar aan 'n stok vasgemaak te word vir 'n stoffer? Dié tipe denke oor die verestoffer ignoreer natuurlik die subtiele ekonomiese kragte (die "onsigbare hand", indien u wil) wat dinge gemaak het soos dit is. Ministers ignoreer dié kragte ook besonder graag.

Bronne: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/telephone/sfeature/index.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrich_feather_dusters http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5205/is_1999/ai_n19125056 http://www.becknerfeather.com/

Deborah J. Merritt . Hypatia in the Patent Office: Women Inventors and the Law, 1865-1900. The American Journal of Legal History, Vol. 35, No. 3. (Jul., 1991), pp. 235-306.

2007-12-19

Jou wagwoord en Oliver Cromwell

Een van die burgerregte wat gevestig is tydens die 17e-eeuse bewind van die Oliver Cromwell in Engeland, is (aldus Wikipedia) die reg om mensself te weerhou van self-inkriminasie tydens 'n kriminele verhoor. Dié reg is baie belangrik omdat dit die vergryp van gedwonge bekentenisse, dikwels deur marteling, bekamp het. Vandag is dié reg veral bekend uit Amerikaanse TV-reekse en films, waar die uitoefening daarvan in die spesifieke instansie waar 'n mens weier om 'n vraag te beantwoord, bekend staan as "taking the Fifth". Hierdie is die verwysing na die vyfde amendement van die grondwet van die VSA, waar die reg verwoord word m.b.t. kriminele vervolgings.

Pas hierdie week het 'n Amerikaanse federale regter in die deelstaat Vermont beslis dat 'n man wat daarvan aangekla word dat hy kinder-animasiepornografie (uiters smaakloos, maar is dít 'n misdaad?) oor die Kanadese grens op sy draagbare rekenaar die VSA sou ingebring het, op gronde van die "Fifth" kan weier om die kriptografiese sleutel (sê maar: wagwoord) wat nodig is om sy harde skyf te ontsyfer, te verskaf. Doeanebeamptes het blykbaar wel inkriminerende materiaal op dié rekenaar gesien maar het nou die sleutel nodig om weer toegang tot die geënkripteerde skyf te kry. Die brandende (indien daar so iets is) regskwessie is of 'n wagwoord (of sleutel) 'n vorm van spraak of verbale getuienis is, en of dit eerder ooreenstem met 'n kas-sleutel of die kode vir 'n kluis. Blykbaar kan 'n mens gedwing word om 'n sleutel of 'n kluiskode te oorhanding indien dít nodig is om getuienis van ernstige belang te bekom en my gevoel is dat daar min verskil tussen 'n kluis- en 'n kriptografiese sleutel is. 'n Mens sien hier eintlik dat die reg wat 'n teenstrydigheid konfronteer wat spruit uit 'n wiskundige innovering - sterk enkripsie.

Lesers wil dalk in gedagte hou dat onder SA se nuwe Wet op Seksuele Misdrywe dit 'n kriminele oortreding maak vir mense jonger as 16 om te soen (om nie te praat van wat nóg in die agterste ry by Sterland mag aangegaan het nie). Hou dus maar stil wat agter die fietsloods gebeur het, hoop dat die staatsaanklaer nie op jóú dagboek toeslaan nie, en vertrou op nulla poena.

2007-12-15

Vodacom sny ten volle betaalde rekeninghouer af

Vodacom sal doodluiters iemand, wie se rekening ten volle betaal is, se diens opskort - selfs al het die persoon 'n dekade se goeie betalingsgeskiedenis (van seker R100 000,00 of méér). Dít is my storie.

Donderdagoggend sit ek in die verleentheid dat my selfoon nie die kompleks se hek kan oopmaak nie want "your service has been suspended". Ek is reeds meer as 10 jaar lank 'n Vodacom-kontrakgebruiker en het in Oktober 'n datadiens (met 3G/HSDPA-modem) by my kontrak gevoeg. Om een-of-ander rede het ek tot onlangs geen faktuur vir dié datadiens ontvang nie. Daar was dan Maandag 'n SMS van Vodacom waarin ek gewaarsku is dat my rekening met iets oor die R200,00 agterstallig is. Dieselfde dag nog gaan ek op Vodacom4me, laai 'n staat af en betaal die volle balans wat aan die einde van Desember betaalbaar is op EasyPay. Dit was meer as R1000,00 waarvoor ek nog geen faktuur ontvang het nie en wat ek dus vooruit betaal het.

Doodtevrede gaan ek aan met die week - tot die hekinsident op 'n baie besige Donderdag. Die diensopskorting behels, terloops, ook dat die diensverskaffer (111) nie geskakel kan word nie en derhalwe moes ek laat dié middag by die blink nuwe Vodacom-dienssentrum by Menlyn instap. Die - baie vriendelike - man daar aan diens het my verduidelik dat EasyPay-betalings drie dae neem om op die Vodacom-stelsel te registreer en my diens herstel. Hy het natuurlik begrip gehad vir my ontsteltenis. Die volgende sake het my spesifiek opgeval aan dié proses.
  • Op Vodacom se stelsel word ek as highly-valued customer (in rooi) aangedui. Sou 'n mens nie verwag dat 'n highly-valued customer één oproep werd is voor s/hy diens opgeskort word nie?
  • In die afgelope 5 jaar het ek meer as R40 000,00 aan Vodacom oorbetaal met EasyPay. Dít is die prys van 'n goeierige tweedehandse motor, maar Vodacom (hulle het my nommer!) kan nie soveel doen as om te skakel en te hoor of ek leef nie.
  • Die werknemer by Menlyn het dit baie moeilik gevind om my EasyPay-betalingsbewys uit te druk (wat op 'n manier nodig skyn te gewees het). Hy het o.a. probeer om 'n skermbeeld (Engels: screenshot) te neem en die kopieer-en-plak in 'n Word-dokument in en uit die Word-dokument probeer druk. Is dít die tipiese toestand van Vodacom se kliëntediens-rekenaarpunte? Is die uitdruk van 'n webbladsy iets waarmee 'n mens tegniese probleme hoort te hê?
  • Is daar in die 21ste eeu nie 'n manier hoe betalings dalk in minder as drie dae kan registreer kan word nie?
  • Dit het gelyk asof die uitvoer van roetine-take 'n verbasende hoeveelheid gebruik van die Start... Run en intik van 'n DOS-bevel (hulle gebruik Window$) behels het. Gits.
Ná dese is dit seker nie moeilik om te verstaan dat ek die baie ernstig oorweeg om my selfoonnommer na MTN of VirginMobile te neem, nie. Gelukkig het my kontrak op die stemnommer reeds in Oktober verval. Waarom het Vodacom nog nie dié highly-valued customer geskakel om te hoor of ek nie belangstel in 'n nuwe selfoon en 'n kontrakhernuwing nie?

GMail - all is forgiven

This week I had to take the step - in spite of some previous difficulties I had had with GMail - to switch all my e-mail to GMail. For several years now I have been running my own IMAP server on a Pentium II sitting in my cupboard at home. This has been my primary e-mail access (using fetchmail to collect my e-mail from various other servers) and has worked better than any other solution that I have known. Unfortunately, power cuts in Pretoria have now become so common (3 or 4 times already this week) that this old solution is no longer feasible. So, I am now using GMail to collect my e-mail and I access the GMail service through IMAP on my desktop and laptop machines with the Evolution e-mail client. Web access is also good, of course. My main question is what to do with my e-mail archives, but for now I think I shall leave them on the home server - available through the excellent and fast SquirrelMail webmail service, if necessary. It should - in principle - be easy to upload the old mail to GMail using IMAP as well but I do not want to trigger a GMail service suspension for "unusual activity" ever again...

2007-10-14

Altbeker se boek oor misdaad in SA

Ek het sopas A Country At War With Itself: South Africa’s Crisis of Crime van Antony Altbeker klaar gelees. Dit is 'n bietjie van die onderwerp af vir dié webjoernaal maar ek wil dit sterk aanbeveel vir enigiemand wat in SA woon of belangstel. Altbeker raak 'n paar onderwerpe aan wat met tegnologie te doen het:

  • hoe eskalerende verdediging lei tot eskaleerde geweld, byvoorbeeld motordiefstal wat moeilik gemaak word deur tegnologie lei tot transito-rooftogte en huisaanvalle;
  • hoe deur speurtak van die polisie afgebreek is na 1994 en die klem op klinkgoed-voelgoed strategieë soos gemeenskapspolisiewerk geplaas is en hoe dít 'n strukturele hindernis is vir die gebruik van DNA-profiele en ander forensiese tegnieke wat kan help om meer suksesvolle vervolgings te bewerkstellig;
  • die rol van maklik vervoerbare produkte van hoë waarde (selfone, DVD-spelers, kontant) by misdaad, en nie net in SA nie; en
  • die noodwendige manipulasie van misdaadstatistieke, nie op 'n hoë vlak nie maar deur stasiebevelvoerders wat deur boontjietellers in Pretoria oor die vingers getik word indien daar te veel aangemelde misdade in 'n gebied is

Ek verskil 'n bietjie van Altbeker oor die positiewe aspekte van selfoon- en voertuigmonitering in die poging om, nie soseer misdaad te bekamp nie, maar meer misdadigers vas te trek, suksesvol te vervolg en (lank) op te sluit. Indien 50% van moordenaars aan hul slagoffers bekend is, waarom lei net 3% (volgens Altbeker) van aangemelde moorde tot suksesvolle vervolging? Sal dit regtig help om die land se dosyne van miljoene (gesteelde) selfone dag en nag te kan volg? Wat daarvan indien toegang tot die opsporingstelsel verkry word deur die kriminele elemente self?

Voorts noem hy in die boek dat SA se 25% van die bevolking wat sosiale toelae ontvang besonder hoog is, maar ek glo nie dit is so. In Australië, byvoorbeeld, volgens die Australian Institute of Health and Welfare is daar sowat 'n miljoen mense (5% van die bevolking) wat bystand ontvang vir ongeskiktheid alleen. Voeg daarby werkloosheidsbystand endiesmeer en ek kan maklik glo dat sowat 25% van die bevolking ook in Australië staatsbystand ontvang. Ek is ook onlangs informeel deur 'n Australiese ekonoom meegedeel dat dit rofweg klop. Dit is egter so dat in Australië die gemiddelde belastingbetaler dalk 'n baie beter kans staan in SA om eendag self (of deur 'n familielid) van staatsbystand gebruik te maak. Ons sosiale bystandstelsel is, sou ek sê, tog totaal disfunksioneel omdat diegene wat daarvoor betaal (belastingbetalers, lesers van dié webjoernaal ens.) geen vooruitsig het om ooit direk daaruit voordeel te trek nie. In ander lande is dit in 'n mindere mate ook só maar by ons is dit besonder opvallend.

Altbeker se boek is nie juis opbeurend nie maar dit sit die kwessies rondom misdaad, vir my, duidelik uiteen en verskaf 'n goeie raamwerk waarbinne 'n mens kan dink en redeneer. Dit is aktueel en goed geskryf.

2007-09-13

Minister knip draad

Diegene wat hoop op 'n spoedige einde aan SA se peperduur Internet- en telefoniepryse is hierdie week 'n gevoelige slag toegedien. Die Eassy-konsortium (waarvan Neotel, Telkom en MTN saam 27% besit en wat ook deur die Wêreldbank befonds word) staan gereed om 'n kabel wat SA en die ooskus van Afrika, Europa en Asië sal verbind, by Mtunzini aan wal te bring. Die Ministerie (of, is dit, Misterie?) van Kommunikasie onder Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, bekend vir haar uitspraak
I don't want a sector to be monopolised by people who do not look like me

het aangekondig dat meerderheid plaaslike besit vereis sal word van alle ondernemings wat kabels na SA wil lê. Of sy regtig die bevoegdheid het om dié vereiste te bepaal al dan nie, die bedoeling van die regering is duidelik: vreemdelingevrees en kleinlike patriotisme (of is dit rassisme?) is belangriker as ontwikkeling. Intussen plaas die regering hul hoop op die sogenaamde Kigali-protokol, 'n NEPAD-inisiatief om breëband-Internet in Afrika te bevorder en 'n werkswinkel hieroor het amper begin. Ek kan net voorstel dat Suid-Afrikaanse ministers ook hulle Duitse motors deur 'n NEPAD-komitee laat ontwerp en aankoop.

2007-08-10

Somalia: anarchy, calls

Somalia has not had a recognised government since 1991. Not totally surprisingly, the country has a vibrant and unregulated telecommunications sector. According to a BBC report from 2004 some of the highlights of the Somali market include
  • a three-day wait for installation of a landline;
  • US$10/month for unlimited local calls (VAT is irrelevant, one presumes);
  • 150Mbps Internet in central Mogadishu, 11Mbps wireless elsewhere.

All of this seems like science fiction to the hard-pressed South African consumer. In fact, National Geographic reports, earlier this year, that the waiting time for installation of a landline in the capital is now 8 hours. According to a World Bank report the number of landlines in Somalia had increased seven-fold in the period 1991 to 2002. Compare this to SA, where the number of landline subscribers has declined since 1995 in spite of an interventionist government, crocodile tears in Davos etc. Every African knows the immense entrepreneurial flair that pervades our continent but few Africans believe that we are blessed with particularly efficient or wise governments. Somalia shows how well things can work in Africa when entrepreneurs are in charge and not bureaucrats.

2007-07-02

Power and "universal service"

A very persuasive posting by Russel Southwood of Balancing Act today points out that "universal service" agencies, who - according to the World Bank - are sitting on $4500m of unspent funds, should use this money to simply expand the power grid in rural areas, especially in Africa. According to Russel the cost of providing power generators for mobile base stations in areas where there is no or an unreliable electric grid, makes these base stations around 10 times more expensive than those in developed aread. SA's agency apparently has a new executive who is (sic) feeling the shoes of Ms. Cassandra Gabriel (Chairperson of the Board)... The only other item of news from 2007 on USA's homepage is about the relocation of offices in March - and one can only pray that the move went well. This agency is well placed, given the lack of action from the other regulators, to undermine the telecommunications oligopoly operating in South Africa. Will they?

2007-07-01

Pylpunt en Pallo Jordan

Enkele weke gelede het 'n Internetsoektog my toevallig attent gemaak op die bestaan van 'n plek met die naam Pylpunt. Die soektog het verband gehou met iets in die omgewing en ek het vir die snaaksigheid na http://maps.google.com/ gegaan en die naam Pylpunt ingetik. Siedaar - dis 'n plek of kruising langs die N1, net noord van Pretoria, so 15km van waar ek woon. Waarom vind ek dit snaaks? Omdat ek skielik besef het hoe belaglik die politici van SA is indien hulle dink dat dit 'n magtige daad is om oorspronklik Afrikaanse dorpe herdoop na vlou moutbiere of vermeende Ndebele-opperhoofde. Amper al wat vir my eintlik saakmaak is of die plek se naam in die Google-databasis is. Die tyd toe dit primêr saakgemaak het hoe iets in 'n stowwerige lêer in Pretoria aangeteken is, is lankal verby. In die terminologie van Thomas Friedman, is ons politiese opperhoofde nog in die sfeer van die olyfboom (kleinlike stryd oor plaaslike kwessies) waar ek en Google in die sfeer van die Lexus (globale uitnemendheid en samewerking) is. Die Internet het veroorsaak dat Google en soortgelykes die databasis beheer en versprei en nie kleinlike burokrate nie. Wat 'n bevryding! En, sal die leser vra, indien 'n mens die voorgestelde nuwe naam vir die Jakarandastad (Snor City, Mor City) intik? Wel, dan wys GoogleMaps 'n gehuggie by Ghanzi, in Botswana.

2007-06-06

SA beplan verbod op buitelandse selfone

Die meeste van ons ken die roetine wanneer die sitplekgordelligte afgeskakel word op 'n vreemde lughawe: die selfoon word aangeskakel, konnekteer aan 'n plaaslike netwerk wat dadelik 'n verwelkomingsboodskap stuur en 'n mens ontvang dadelik 'n paar SMSe van Suid-Afrika af en laat weet dat 'n mens veilig aangekom het. Dit is nou maar deesdae deel van die normale lewe - maar nie meer vir lank in Die Republiek nie. Net om besoekers, veral vir 2010, te laat besef dat Gauteng se lughawe (ek kan nou nie onthou wat ons die plek hierdie week amptelik noem nie maar ek verwys na die een net oos van Johannesburg) in Donker Afrika is, oorweeg die parlement in Slaapstad tans 'n Regulation of Interception of Communication Amendment Bill wat - onder andere - sal behels dat buitelandse selfoongebruikers eers hul identiteit, tuisadres endiesmeer aan plaaslike netwerke sal moet verklaar alvorens hul toegelaat sal word om in SA te swerf (Engels: roam), m.a.w. hul selfone plaaslik te gebruik. Indien dié wetgewing aanvaar word gaan duisende mense elke dag in SA arriveer en met skok agterkom dat hulle selfone, anders as in Namibië of Zimbabwe, nie hier werk nie. Soos ANC-LP Luwellyn Landers verklaar in Business Day:
Everyone who uses roaming in SA must register, otherwise there is no point to this legislation.
Presies!Ons kan òf die land in die oë van 6 miljoen of meer toeriste en sakebesoekers per jaar belaglik maak òf hierdie beheersieke wetgewing laat vaar.


Ek was nog in geen land waar my selfoon by aankoms nie gewerk het nie, maar dan het ek tot dusver lusoorde soos Mongolië of Irak vermy... Die voormalige Sowjet-Unie het natuurlik die registrasie van fotokopieermasjiene (ook uit die buiteland) vereis en miskien is sekere lede van ons regering hier weer deur 'n aanval van Sowjet-nostalgie geïnspireer.

2007-06-05

Government chooses cellphone TV standard

The Financial Mail reports in its issue of 4 June on the pronouncement by Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri that South Africa will have to use DVB-H standard for delivering television content to cellphone screens. One has to wonder why the government is involved at all in regulating a matter as trivial as the broadcasting of eGoli to the dinky little screen of some teenager's (who else will have the time to watch?) cellphone. But no, the government not only thinks that it should be involved in this highly trivial industry but that it will also make the wise decision, binding on all, on which specific protocols should be used for the transmission.

Of course, the government should to some extent regulate the use of common resources such as the radio frequency spectrum. But how, in philosophy or in fantasy, can one believe that the government should decide whether any part of that spectrum be used for cellphone television or for, say, wireless credit card processing?

2007-05-28

SA's phone rates - cartel hell?

To the average South African, the cellphone industry looks like a maelstrom of competition and innovation. After decades of having the post office run our telephone network, this is perhaps not surprising. Many are however aware that we are paying very high rates for cellphone calls and believe that these rates need stricter regulation. This posting argues that we might actually need less regulation, or regulation of a different nature. First, how do we tell that we are being overcharged for calls? By looking at what we are being offered cheaply or for free. Who pays for those R2,00 SIM cards in the shop and the shiny phones that are "free" on a contract? You and I do, through the excessive call charges we pay. How many SIM cards and cellphones can you use? Not many. How many minutes could you use? Lots. That is why the networks like the SIM cards and cellphones to be free/cheap.

In SA (and many other countries) the main revenue lies in the so-called interconnect charges that providers pay each other. So, if I call an MTN nunber from my Vodacom phone then Vodacom will pay a per-minute charge to MTN. If somebody calls me from MTN, then Vodacom receives the per-minute fee from MTN. Note that Vodacom actually really makes money if somebody calls me and that would explain a bit about those almost-free SIM cards. How much are these interconnect rates? The Mail&Guardian reports them to currently be R1,25 per minute - as opposed to about R0,20 in India, a country which started GSM mobile telephony considerably later than SA. Incidentally, when cellphones were introduced to SA in 1993, the interconnect rates were just R0,20 per minute. Can anyone point to another mature technology which has actually seen costs rise?

If there is competition, does it matter if high call rates subsidise phones and SIM cards? If there were competition, not really - of course. However, the interconnect charge is filed with ICASA (the telecoms regulator in SA) by the networks and this becomes, in effect, a state-controlled price. The barrier to entry in the industry is infinite since the government is not licensing new providers. One is inevitably reminded of Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (1776):
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.
Many countries (including SA) contrive to regulate mobile interconnection charges based on cost. A comprehensive report by Genesis Analytics for the SA Foundation has concluded that the mobile interconnect charge was substantially higher than cost in SA. Regulation of fees based on average cost to companies of providing a service is however something that should outrage the public. Can the baker sell his week-old loaf of bread at the price it cost him to produce? Can we guarantee to the poorest peasant that her efforts will not be wasted and that she will be able to recoup her cost from the sales of her produce? Of course not. Why do we then accord these luxuries to giant companies with plush office parks and sponsored sports teams?

As this blog entry is being written, further cartel-forming is afoot in SA. The interconnect rates (also called termination rates) are being set for fixed-line providers, among them SA's Neotel - the first official competitor to the much-unloved monopoly Telkom. These charges are going to be very important for the development of competition in the SA market. It is very difficult to see how anyone could justify interconnect rates higher than about R0,09 per minute - the price for which it is possible to call the US using a VOIP operator from SA - but prepare to be surprised...

Having discarded further price regulation as a remedy, I propose some lateral thinking about the SA market. In the USA - which uses a system where a mobile phone user basically pays for both incoming and outgoing calls - the average cellphone use among African-Americans (the demographic group with the highest usage) was already well over 1000 (sic) minutes per month, costing them on average under R500, in 2005. This so-called Receiving Party Pays (RPP) system in use in the US has many advantages over the Calling Party Pays (CPP) system used in SA and most countries in Europa and in Africa. For a start, the purchaser of the service (a mobile phone plus connection) pays all of the cost related to running his or her wireless connection and is therefore more directly aware of the cost thereof. It also encourages competition between mobile and fixed-line operators as consumers receive ordinary geographically-based telephone numbers that are indistinguishable to the caller (and hence the RPP system) from normal fixed-line numbers. It is true that a CPP system encourages penetration, at least initially, and that many poor people might be averse to an RPP system on the basis of cost. There is no reason, however, why an RPP system could not be introduced in SA - in parallel to the current system. This could take the form of paying a fixed monthly rate for a number (say on the Pretoria dialling code 012) and to receive calls, for which callers would pay the normal fixed-line rate. Note that one version of this system is already in operation - in the guise of the Telkom home telephone service. There is however no reason to restrict this service to one kind of technology and if one wanted to provide such a service on a wireless basis (as Neotel will probably do), or using VOIP - why not?

The SA Competitions Commission should probably study the Carterfone case of 1968 in which the US Federal Communications Commission opened the connection of any device to the telephone network that did no harm to the infrastructure. Without the Carterfone decisions we might have waited many years longer for the introduction of the fax or the telephone answering machine. I am, incidentally, writing this entry from Perth where I am visiting the Communication Economics & Electronic Research Centre (CEEM) at Curtin University. I am using a Vodafone prepaid SIM card plus one recharge which cost under R240 in total and for this I got 10 minutes of international calls and about 150 minutes of calls within Australia. It seems pretty inexpensive by South African standards.

The Swiss company Cablecom has just announced free calls to all fixed-line phones in Switzerland for consumers subscribing to their telephone service at around R120 per month. My immediate recommendation to Neotel (or perhaps, CellC) is to shake up the SA retail market by offering free on-network calls between their own subscribers in the evenings or, at least, at night and on weekends. Like Skype.

2007-04-29

Own your e-mail address!

The title of this posting is not an offer - it is a very clear instruction. For ten years I have been using an e-mail address in the .za top-level domain (TLD) which is now (after numerous takeovers) owned by South Africa's largest ISP, MWeb. It has all been a mistake. MWeb has apparently not been properly maintaining the DNS records for the domain name which I am using and as a result many servers are now marking e-mail from me as spam. I am also paying about $20 per month in ISP fees just to keep this specific e-mail address. Two months of e-mails to MWeb have resulted in minimal action in this regard. It has however been clear to me for some time now that a reasonable person should want complete control over their e-mail address(es). The following requirements have suggested themselves.
  • Ownership of the domain name. This implies full control over DNS settings related to the domain name. It also implies the ability to create an unlimited number of e-mail addresses for various purposes, under the same domain name. Estimated cost: $12/year.
  • A domain name in a predictable, competitive and well-managed administrative environment. This requirement excludes Camoroon (.cm), Tuvalu (.tv) and - alas! - SA (.za). Basically only international (.com, .org, .net, .info) and US (.us) TLD spaces are under serious consideration.
  • An appropriate domain name. Anything that sounded cool as a student might be very inappropriate for a 50 year old professor. Bugsbunny.com is out and anything with one's surname (all my reasonable ones have been taken) is in. However, it could be that one does not necessarily want to reveal one's surname through an e-mail address and even though my domain name with surname and initials (similar to jfkennedy.com) is available I am hesitant to take it for this reason. The following item is also of concern with the initials+surname model.
  • The domain name should be easy to recall and easy to convey verbally, including over the telephone. A domain name consisting of numbers only could be very good by this criterion - numbers are very hard to confuse in most languages. The main problem is finding an appropriate number that can be easily recalled - first of all, by me. 1917.com would be good from this point of view but - given that one is presumably trying to establish a life-time address - perhaps too narrowly ideological. It is also no longer available.
If the .name TLD were better known it would be a good choice, of course, but unfortunately it is still a bit obscure. To summarise: I am trying to establish an e-mail address (or, rather, a long term domain name for a number of e-mail addresses e.g. darling@1652.com, professor@1652.com) subject to the requirements above. Any comments would be much appreciated.

2007-04-15

Ubuntu Linux 7.04 on Dell D820 laptop

On Friday I got quite a boring looking but nice Dell Latitude D820 laptop (Intel Core Duo processor and 2GB of RAM) with WinXP pre-installed. The most important task was getting a working Linux installation on the machine and a first attempt, with Ubuntu 6.10 ("Edgy Eft") from DVD, nicely repartitioned the hard drive and installed in under 20 minutes but somehow failed to do much with the built-in wireless device. It occurred to me to try the pre-release version of Ubuntu 7.04 ("Feisty Fawn"). I was a bit surprised not to see Gnome Partition Editor in the menu of the live disk - it seems that Feisty prefers to suggest some repartitioning during the installation wizard. So, I deleted the previous Linux partitions using fdisk first and proceeded with the installation which went very well. After that, using the wired ethernet connection, I followed the advice of the appropriate Ubuntu forum and issued the commands
sudo apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter
sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome

at which point (perhaps after a modprobe but rebooting should also do) my WiFi just started working. There are two important things to note: (1) Ubuntu apparently likes it better when you boot with the hardware switch (on the left-hand side of the lapgtop) for WiFi in the on position; (2) running the DHCP client on two devices is apparently not what Feisty wants, so deactivate the wired connection when you want to use the wireless one. At this point I started updating the system and here hit a serious but short-lived hitch: after upgrading the kernel to 2.6.20-14 my system would no longer boot into Feisty. Of course, I just booted to the old kernel and in fact the problem was solved the next day by the release and installation of kernel version 2.6.20-15 which I am using to write this post. With Automatix2 I installed some naughty things like GoogleEarth and xDVDshrink effortlessly and right away!

2007-04-07

Free calls to Malawi and to Zambia

It seems that LowRateVoip is offering 200 minutes per week of free calls to Malawi (landlines only) and Zambia (landlines and cellphones) for users of their MS-Windows client. Using the same client, calls to SA cellphones are also advertised at under R1/minute which is very reasonable. Any current users of LowRateVoip, please comment on this post!

2007-04-06

Naspers as tweede reserwebank van Sjina

Tegnologiewaarnemers hou al geruime tyd die aandeelhouding van Naspers in Tencent QQ dop. QQ is die mees gewilde kitsboodskap-stelsel in Asië (Engels: instant messaging). Die Wall Street Journal berig verlede week dat QQ se virtuele geldeenheid, die Q-munt waarmee oorspronklik net dienste in virtuele objekte in die QQ-wêreld gekoop kon word, nou in die regte wêreld gebruik word. Q-munte kan teen 'n wisselkoers van een-vir-een met Sjinese yuan gekoop word by QQ of op die vrye mark teen 'n wisselkoers wat tussen 0,5 en 1,0 yuan per Q-munt wissel. Sedert die Sjinese owerhede hul kommer uitgespreek het oor die gebruik van Q-munte in die regte wêreld en die moontlike ontstaan van 'n parallelle geldstelsel in Sjina, het die wisselkoers van die Q-munt gestyg. Regerings moet besef dat aangesien bestaande amptelike geld sigself nie besonder goed leen tot anonieme kontanttipe-transaksies op die Internet nie, 'n mens skaars verbaas kan wees indien alternatiewe betaalmiddels ontwikkel word. Dit is nie soveel anders as die gebruik van sigarette as betaalmiddel (eintlik: ruilmiddel) in die plek van kontant in die na-oorlogse Duitsland nie.

2007-04-04

Mbeki lambasts Telkom

In a long interview in the FT the president has a few things to say about Telkom.
Take this undersea cable. They are charging I don’t know so many hundreds of percent more per unit of time than is being charged elsewhere in the world. So we say to Telkom, we can’t be saying, here is a sector of the economy which can attract a lot of people – and indeed many companies around in some instances led by South African companies that have developed big operations outside South Africa, Old Mutual that is listed on the London Stock Exchange – they say we want to do these call centres here… they know this is their country, they know the country the people the language but the cost is … So we say, Telkom you have got to do something about that. And now they are saying now we understand.

And he believes them?
And we also have taken a decision to build a new and much bigger fiber optic cable along the West coast much much bigger much greater capacity than the one that exists now which would radically reduce this cost. …. So there are a number of interventions we are making in this area, including putting the pressure on Telkom to say this it is a level of profiteering that is not right.

Yes, the charges are absolutely phenomenal.

That's right! For once I find myself and the president singing from the same sheet.

2007-03-29

DSTV-monopolie boer voort

Suid-Afrikaners is só gewoond aan monopolieë dat die meeste mense nie twee keer dink oor die feit dat ons betaal-TV ook deur monopolie (verfrissend, in die privaatsektor dié keer) oorheers word. Ons wonder ook nie veel daaroor dat ons geen kabel-TV in hierdie land het nie - „dis mos Afrika.” Min mense weet dat DSTV eintlik al die tyd geen lisensie het om in SA uit te saai nie - hulle het hier in die tyd van ons regimeverandering 'n lisensie in Botswana bekom, wat hulle die SA-owerhede oortuig het om te aanvaar vir die doeleindes van hulle bedryf in SA. In 2006 het OKOSA egter aansoeke aanvaar om lisensie vir kommersiële satelliet- en kabel-TV-dienste. OKOSA was so gretig dat hulle selfs die sluitingsdatum uitgestel het tot die einde van Augustus om die SAUK toe te laat om hul aansoek in te handig. Uiteindelik het 18 bedrywe aansoek gedoen om lisensies en vryemarkgesindes en verbruikers (soos die skrywer) het reeds begin uitsien na keuse in dié mark en laer pryse. Ongelukkig woon ons egter steeds in 'n tipe getransformeerde Boerassic Park en het die minister verlede week aangekondig (berig en kommentaar deur Anton Haber) dat die OKOSA-proses uitgestel moet word totdat die migrasie na digitale uitsending voltooi is. Die regering se teikendatum vir dié migrasie is 2008 maar 'n mens hoort in gedagte te hou dat nog slegs Nederland hierdie migrasie voltooi het en dat selfs Brittanje nie verwag om voor 2012 klaar te wees daarmee nie. SA se eweknie Brasilië verwag om in 2016 klaar te wees. Die leser sal dit sekerlik moeilik vind om nie met die outeur saam te stem dat daar iets in die drinkwater is nie en dat DSTV dit duidelik reggekry het (hul lisensie in SA gaan volgens berigte wel toegestaan word) om 'n de facto-monopolie in 'n de jure-een om te skakel.

Mag mense wat so rooi soos ek in die son brand nog Multichoice-aandele koop?

2007-03-20

Alcatel goes EASSy

The Highway Africa news agency reports that Alcatel-Lucent has signed the contract to build the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy). EASSy will stretch along the east coast of Africa, from Mtunzini in Kwazulu-Natal to Port Sudan and then connect to major submarine cables running through the Red Sea. EASSy has been criticised (read Just say No to EASSy by RH Alden) for repeating the mistake made on the SAT3 connect up the west coast of Africa in creating monopolies in most countries on connectivity to the outside world. This is a very important point but it is at least somewhat encouraging that South Africa has included three operators in the consortium (newspaper article in Afrikaans) with a fourth to be added soon.

2007-03-05

Fault reporting (at) Telkom

This evening I had the dubious pleasure of having to report a fault on a relative's Telkom line and was initially pleased to see the link to "online fault reporting" on Telkom's website. I completed the form twice and each time got no more than the following notice.



Now, the request to report the fault is reasonable, but no correspondence address is given so I am reporting it here. Incidentally, an article today from MyADSL reports benchmarks for SA's ADSL pricing, comparing rates in this country to those in Morocco (also in Africa) and Australia (also remote from the centres of Western civilisation). It turns out that ADSL users in Morocco and Australia are paying nearly the same as UK users (between 1c and 1,5c per MB) whereas users in SA are paying around 28c (all SA cents) per MB. At the risk of sounding like Carrie Bradshaw: could it be that Telkom is the fault?

2007-02-18

Malawi trumps SA online

My post about Jajah zones (below) mentioned that South Africa was in the same expensive-to-call zone as Malawi, Laos and others. Well, beautiful Malawi (currently dead last on the IMF list of 181 countries by purchasing-power GDP per capita) has moved ahead and landlines as well as cellphones (of registered users) in that country can now apparently be called for free (gratis, mahala) from your PC using the Gizmo Project software. Bravo, Malawi, for trumping the rest of Africa and joining the USA, China and a handful of other countries in the category of least expensive destinations to call! Zambia remains the only country in Africa with free landline calls on Jajah, for now.

Rapport reports today (in Afrikaans) that the SA state is going to spend R1000m per year for the next three years on building the infrastructure for "affordable and universal" broadband access for South Africans. Why? The main obstacle, as I and many others have written, is the grotesque over-regulation of the sector. In my neighbourhood someone (not me, Your Honour) is already giving always-on high-speed access over a wireless network for around R250 per month (several hundred rand cheaper than purchasing a similar product from Telkom) as an exercise in community support that happens to be unlicensed and illegal. S/he is not interested in paying a fee of around R6000 (just under $1000) to apply for a license that will probably not be approved by a regulator that has a history of bureaucratic obstructionism.

2007-01-30

WNNR omhels ODF-standaard

Volgens berigte begin die WNNR die Open Document Format (ODF) bevorder vir die berging van kantoordokumente. Dit het blykbaar 'n ontplooiing van gratis en oopbron OpenOffice op lessenaarmasjiene op die WNNR se kampus in Pretoria behels en 'n mens kan dié organisasie net gelukwens met dié keuse. In die persverklaring maak Dr Sibisi (uitvoerende hoof) dit duidelik dat die WNNR besef hoe belangrik dit is om dokumente in 'n formaat te berg wat in die toekoms so geredelik moontlik toeganklik sal wees. Kan 'n mens verwag dat enige universiteit sulke wyse oorwegings aan die dag sal lê, of sukkel ons al om voorverlede jaar se WordPerfect-dokumente oop te maak?