tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295725042010-01-09T10:31:35.074+02:00ICT, privacy, cryptography and security in Africa (well, Pretoria)Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.comBlogger97125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-42345291044182803722010-01-09T10:15:00.000+02:002010-01-09T10:31:35.221+02:00

Die klimaatstatistieke op Wikipedia bly vir my lekker vermaak. Ek het só byvoorbeeld geleer dat Bogotá (die Afrikaanse inskrywing is tans net 'n dop) baie lekkerder moet wees as wat 'n mens eintlik sou dink. Soos dit nou maar gaan, beland ek nou-die-aand op die inskrywing vir Omaha, vermoedelik via The Onion, waar 'n gruwelike omskakelingsfout op die oog val.In die bronkode word die temperature

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-10803341143009080722010-01-03T09:52:00.000+02:002010-01-03T10:25:46.203+02:00

Aucklandse prokureur Tim McBride merk met reg op dat die Nieu-Seelandse polisie se nuut verworwe magte om, met 'n hofbevel, in te luister op alle elektroniese kommunikasie, vergelyk kan word met die installasie van afluisterapparatuur in iedere huis, kantoor, kroeg, koffiewinkel en op elke straathoek. 'n Artikel in die Sunday Star Times beweer dat wetgewing in dié verband op die aandrang van die

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-54827036959940600932010-01-02T23:15:00.000+02:002010-01-03T12:10:32.181+02:00

In Afrikaans as RICA uitoorlê deur kranige familielid op Sake24 beskikbaar.South Africa's rather draconian Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (RICA) has been proving a thorn in the flesh of legal foreign visitors to our fair shores, who obviously have some difficulty in providing the requisite proof of address in the country (

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-33901292012436504402009-11-22T08:17:00.000+02:002009-11-22T08:36:24.643+02:00

Three weeks ago, I attended a conference at the conference and training centre of Eskom, South Africa's government-run power utility, in smart-ish Midrand, near Pretoria. This is quite a large complex, with free-ranging antelope, where Eskom has advanced training facilities and accommodation for conference delegates and trainees. The picture below, shows the pool next to the conference centre

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-70992264660297162542009-11-19T08:14:00.000+02:002009-11-19T08:52:57.435+02:00

Die gewoonte van lomp woordverwerkers uit Redmond om die Afrikaanse onbepaalde lidwoord tot die foutiewe en lelike misbaksel ‘n te omvorm, is 'n hinderlike deel van 'n mens se alledaagse leeservaring. Op Nuus24.com kan 'n mens vanoggend sommer drie variante van die lidwoord ('n, ‘n asook ’n) heel naby aan mekaar sien.Ou Afrikaanse tikmasjiene het blykbaar 'n aparte sleutel gehad vir die lidwoord

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-39732367594212791422009-11-08T17:06:00.000+02:002009-11-08T17:14:42.426+02:00

My personal archives (documents, photographs, e-mail etc.) now comprise three DL discs and I want to place a few copies with friends and family and had been wondering how to properly indemnify them and protect myself. The solution I chose was to wrap it all up in a huge file which is weakly encrypted. This means that if one of the discs is popped into a computer, you won't immediately be able to

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-12692839974309406642009-11-01T12:04:00.000+02:002009-11-01T12:20:08.439+02:00

Ek het hierdie week toeval tot by die nuttige maps.webgate.bg genavigeer. Dít is 'n webblad wat vir selfone ontwerp is en deur die webblaaier van die selfoon toeganklik is. 'n Mens kan daarop per adres soek en dan 'n mooi klein kaart van Google Maps ontvang. Die afbeelding hier onder wys die resultaat van 'n soektog vir die pseudo-adres „Benedictus Kok Street Bloemfontein” op my rekenaar. Dit lyk

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-66288844266702239672009-10-23T07:53:00.000+02:002009-10-26T07:32:46.071+02:00

I paid my Telkom bill this morning and had to reflect on the charges that I am paying to the fixed-line monopoly. The “line rental” is R693 [sic] per month, which is for a 4mbps ADSL line with no service. According to recent reports, average broadband use in the world is just over 11GB per month, so let me add the price of R719 for unshaped 10GB/month of usage from my ISP as well as R70 for an ad

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-5317208312444790212009-10-20T23:24:00.000+02:002009-10-21T00:15:45.400+02:00

A friend's frustrating attempts at correspondence with Telstra, Australia's lumbering telecoms giant, has galvanised me to reprise my occasional series about customer service. He has been finding it impossible to get any reaction from Telstra about his serious billing problem by e-mail and his calls to their “customer service” numbers are simply terminating in Tagalog or Cantonese voicemail

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-63532600634607470262009-10-16T06:33:00.000+02:002009-10-16T07:07:30.490+02:00

On Tuesday, had been invited to Cape Town to take part in hearings of the Parliamentary Committee on Communications on South Africa's mobile interconnection (or, mobile termination) rates. I deviated a bit from my written submission but I hope that I impressed three things on most members of the committee:the situation is not new, and had been unfolding under their (and the regulator's) noses for

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-7149092132479025982009-09-25T07:27:00.000+02:002009-09-25T07:59:50.499+02:00

Just to show that I don't pay several hundred rand per month in fees for absolutely nothing, Standard Bank was kind enough to send me the following spam earlier this week. How do they expect me to take an e-mail from “Standardbank” that addresses me only as “Dr,” seriously? Somehow, I do not remember where I put the Tardis.The message continues to be misleading and, generally, not helpful. The

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-77541109583348795402009-09-20T15:25:00.000+02:002009-09-21T22:30:09.090+02:00

Die parlement se portefeuljekomitee oor kommunikasie (PPKK) het verlede week vergader oor Suid-Afrika se skokkend hoë interkonneksietariewe, die gelde wat betaal word deur telefonieverskaffers aan ander netwerke vir die terminering van 'n oproep op die netwerk waaraan die geskakelde nommer behoort. In spitstyd is dié tarief R1,25 vir die selfoonnetwerke, m.a.w. die netwerk van die geskakelde

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-30570996295815202372009-09-16T09:18:00.000+02:002009-09-16T23:29:52.695+02:00

It was announced yesterday that call to South Africa's new Presidential Hotline 17737, instituted by President Zuma, would be free from all operators. This is clearly an enormous mistake as everybody (and there are more than one million citizens per operator) with time on their hands can now just call the Hotline and tie up the lines for people like me. This morning, after having navigated

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-87583745111097365492009-09-06T08:37:00.000+02:002009-10-03T11:44:17.247+02:00

Die gebruik van 0861-inbelnommers in Suid-Afrika grief my al 'n geruime tyd. Eerstens is 0861-nommers oor die algemeen nie uit die buiteland (en/of deur Skype) bereikbaar nie en indien 'n mens dus nodig het om 'n betrokke instansie van oorsee te kontak dan sit jy sonder 'n spaan. Voorts kos hierdie nommers altyd soveel as 'n binnelandse langafstandoproep - selfs al bel jy van langsaan. 0861-

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-631607851707946702009-08-31T12:45:00.000+02:002009-08-31T13:27:30.129+02:00

Ek het vandag my eerste veldervaring gehad met RICA, die Engelse afkorting vir Suid-Afrika se Wet op die reëling van onderskepping van kommunikasies en verstrekking van kommunikasie-verwante inligting, Wet nr 70 van 2002 (in Engels: Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act). Volgens dié wet moet enige gebruiker van 'n SIM-kaart sigself

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-41310129107096698952009-08-10T04:15:00.000+02:002009-08-11T05:56:44.976+02:00

While making travel bookings in Australia over the past week, I have been amused yet again by the "nations" that populate assorted drop-down lists for the Country field of many web forms. The image below shows some of the jewels garnered from the websites of Jetstar, the budget airline subsidiary of Qantas, and VroomVroomVroom, a car booking site.Have Soviet drivers ever been welcome to rent

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-28001052858779130312009-07-27T00:13:00.000+02:002009-07-27T00:23:48.475+02:00

My tax advisor just forwarded to me the reply he got when enquiring about the money that SARS (the South African tax authorities) owes me.The following recipient(s) could not be reached: eFilingAssist on 2009/07/23 03:16 PM The message could not be delivered becausethe recipient's mailbox is full. That is, for a country of 50 million people, they did not think to

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-59756726820544902492009-07-25T08:35:00.000+02:002009-07-25T08:44:10.219+02:00

LaTeX is used by most mathematical scientists, like myself, to typeset most of their writing. At a one-day workshop in economics yesterday for example, at the University of Sydney, most of the speakers had done their slides using LaTeX. The basis of LaTeX typesetting is a source file which consists of plain text which is run through the LaTeX engine to produce a PDF or other display file. This

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-64612356160377800652009-07-01T10:33:00.000+02:002009-07-01T10:54:48.097+02:00

Because television was introduced in South Africa mercifully late (1976), many of us still grew up with an excellent selection of radio dramas and serials. The most popular station was Springbok Radio, the “commercial” bilingual broadcaster (all stations were state-owned). It had fantastic radio versions of The Avengers; Father, Dear Father as well as local classics such as Test the Team and Só

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-92134907913578709742009-06-25T23:14:00.000+02:002009-06-25T23:41:47.559+02:00

In hierdie webjoernaal is al heelwat berig oor Suid-Afrika se lae landlyndigtheid of teledensity. Landlyne is natuurlik konvensionele telefoonlyne, van die tipe wat natuurlik wêreldwyd ook vir Internet-toegang van die ADSL-tipe gebruik kan word. Telkom, wat pas aangekondig het dat hulle opgeblaasde notering in New York beëindig gaan word, het steeds in praktyk 'n monopolie oor die verskaffing van

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-54653701720336038412009-06-24T06:18:00.000+02:002009-06-24T06:29:20.522+02:00

I am writing this from the airside Vodacom Connect Zone at Johannesburg's main international airport (formerly Jan Smuts Airport), while waiting for my flight to Bloemfontein. The Connect Zone is simply a communal work station with desk area and electrical outlets (for South African as well as European plugs) and several special devices for charging cellphone batteries. Kudos to Vodacom for this

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-14152913461581793522009-06-21T10:48:00.000+02:002009-06-21T11:09:06.718+02:00

DSTV is die Telkom van betaaltelevisie - 'n monopolie wat deur die Suid-Afrikaanse owerhede (in beide gevale, OKOSA/ICASA) in 'n skoon kombers toegedraai en warm gehou word terwyl die verbruiker steun en kreun. Ek het al meer as tien jaar lank aaneenlopend 'n rekening by DSTV/Multichoice maar ontvang vanoggend 'n kort SMS waarin ek ingelig word dat my rekening agterstallig is en ek 'n R50-

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-80816091452394971912009-06-18T08:39:00.000+02:002009-06-18T08:49:41.758+02:00

Die uitstekende span van www.translate.org.za het die Suid-Afrikaanse openbare vakansiedae as ICS-lêers opgestel en beskikbaar gemaak vir insluit in enige kalender-programmatuur - soos Google se Calendar, Thunderbird en (vermoedelik) Outlook - wat die ICS-formaat ondersteun. Tot nou verskaf Google ons vakansiedae (jammer, Namibiërs, ek weet nie wat julle gaan doen nie!) nie as een van die

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-69097289859683937312009-06-13T11:43:00.000+02:002009-06-16T17:51:25.089+02:00

A colleague has introduced me to Seth Godin's blog. Godin is a best-selling author and speaker and used to blog under the slogan This Is Broken about disasters in customer service and the customer experience. I have decided to collect a few examples of my own, in an occasional series.Exhibit 1 is from the website of the Watermark Hotel in Brisbane (archived version at http://backupurl.com/x3wwqm)

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29572504.post-45364582611529948482009-06-08T23:26:00.000+02:002009-06-08T23:34:19.885+02:00

Daar word vandag op Fin24.com dat here van die SABS by vervaardigers van verdagte toiletpapier aan die Wesrand. 'n Fabriek vervaardig blykbaar rolle wat te min papier op het, en boonop ontbreek die perforasies. Volgens die woordvoerder van die SABS"Perforations allowed the paper to be easily torn and also helped the regulator to measure it."Is dit net ek wat die gedagte aan 'n kantoor in Pretoria

Petrus Potgieterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15865825153406975684noreply@blogger.com0