Ted TalksThe odd name TED Talks are a collection of presentations on Technology Entertainment and Design or TED for
short. The hundreds of speakers have covered a massive range of subjects. The presentations are hosted in cities all round the world with most
available online.
This is the really impressive part as it allows so many people get free access to these world class speakers. They maintain a top 10 for the
popular talks that all have over a million views.
I happened to watch Rachel Sussman talking about the World's oldest living organisms and was impressed to know that there are three in Southern Africa including the amazing Pyrogenic Geoxylic Suffrutices more commonly known as Underground Forrest which is a tree that only has the very tips showing, the rest of the tree is underground, some are 13 000 years old.
|
|
Buy electricity and check your finesIf you have a credit card and still buy electricity at electricity pay points then you should consider the convenience of doing it online or via your mobile. The mobile option is best as you could find yourself with no power and a PC that can't help much.
The system (Pay City) is not a new one but has been upgraded and now offers a few more services. You can check or subscribe to be told if you have traffic fines and you can register to have you car licence renewed and sent to you, you can also register for this via the City of Cape Town.
Its is always good to be mindful of how you use your credit card online, but its also fair to say that with a little care the benefits far outweigh the risks.
|
|
Looking after your Small Business's booksNo small business begins with a great accounting system. They are inspired individuals ready to take risks and do something they love. Often billing for their work is an afterthought and balancing those books is a chore.
But it is also true that no small business ever became a big one without a good accounting system, so what do you do if you are not small business accountant?
Here are three options.
Use Microsoft Excel or Open Office or a Google Doc spreadsheet, this is the most basic version and at least lets you keep track of income and expenses, as you improve your spreadsheet skills you can do more sophisticated operations, but you can run a growing business like this.
You could get a free accounting program like GnuCash which does do most of what you need as small and growing business, but you may need expert help to set it up.
You can buy a software package and it is not by coincidence that Pastel sponsors the Small Business Awards because they realise that their business can grow when yours does. They are a fantastic South African success story that started here and now operate in over 50 countries and while you must pay for this option, it also allows you to enroll in one of their training courses to teach you how to use the software and the principles involved in running the accounting for your business.
You could choose any of these options, but you must choose something or face your business never reaching its potential.
|
|
Life in a port cityThere are some very clever applications that have been built on the Google Maps platform; I think for Capetonians, the live marine traffic map is both easy to use and very useful if you need to keep track of a ship.
Begin your voyage on the seven seas.
|
|
Looking for a Book?Last week I mentioned that recording yourself reading on your phone would allow your kids to have a story read to them whenever they wanted. Assuming you can ignite their passion for books you may be looking to see where you can find lots of books.
Besides the massive variety available in book stores or your local library, you could also find almost anything from online book stores. Of course these all cost money so a cheap alternative is to look at what Google Books has been busy with.
They are looking to scan all books that have moved into the public domain or for which the copyright holders have given permission to be included. Currently there are over 10 million books available.
Another source is the World's largest library, the Library of Congress in America, they have over 32 million books resting on over 700km of books shelves. Their online site offers lots of interesting options.
|
|
How technology is changing how you wash.To get clean clothes we currently heat lots of water and add detergent. This has implications for water use, electricity consumption
and potentially harmful chemicals in the environment.
The biggest challenge for a good wash is getting the clothes wet enough to allow the detergents to lift the dirt. If you have ever
looked at a drop of water you will know it clings to itself forming a little bead, this is what prevents the wetting. Heating the water
makes it easier; as does the detergent, but now there are some clever ways to do it better. The Eco-bubble creates a very
"wet" effect by breaking down the bonds of the water, it means you can wash with cold water and use less water and detergent so savings
all round.
The Biowash ball goes one better removing the need for detergent all
together. It uses special ceramic beads in a ball to break down the water and clean the clothes. You can re-use it for years before
needing to replace it.
Then the future of washing, no chemicals and almost no water and no heating. The Xeros
uses thousands of nylon beads that get in everywhere and when in a 100% humid environment become absorbent and will remove stains. The
beads are reused many times before finally being recycled. While this is a very promising prospect the machine is still a prototype. I
wonder if the idea is still so strange that many manufacturers simply don't believe consumers would buy it.
|
|
Face in SpaceIf you have given up on trying to be popular on YouTube now that Justin Bieber has taken that spot with over 250 million views (highest ever) of one of his songs or resigned yourself to never having more friends on Facebook than Lady Gaga (she has over 13 million the most on Facebook) then you will need to find something else to make yourself stand out.
How about putting your face in space?
NASA as part of its final two Space Shuttle missions is offering you the chance to put a photo of yourself in orbit, it won't really do anything except to allow you to say that you have a picture of yourself in earth orbit.
If astrological vanity appeals to you then visit NASA and upload you mugshot. The next mission is set for November and neither Justin Bieber nor Lady Gaga are on board (yet!)
|
|
How to know what to believe online?There are simply too many types of consumer electronics to make a choice without either spending lots of time talking to sales assistants or being prepared to make some poor selections. While the internet offers a great opportunity to see what's available it does not always mean you will know which is best.
Here are a few sites that may make that task a little easier. Consumer Reports is an American publication that reviews almost anything you can think of. It is a subscription site, but if you are planning on spending R10 000 for an appliance then the R50 subscription for a month is worth it.
Which is a UK publication which also independently tests a very wide range of products. In order to not be bias, it carries no advertising and instead relies on a subscription. Both are very good, but the UK option may have more of the products you would find available in South Africa.
Lastly there is South Africa's National Consumer Forum, which while it does not have product reviews; it is a great place to get information if you have either not got great advice or service.
|
|
TeleconferencingMeetings are never fun and having to travel to get to them is even worse. Big projects require lots of people and if they are not all in once place it makes everything that much easier, this is where tele or video conferencing can help.
Its fair to say nothing beats being in the same room during a meeting, but here are some options for when that is not possible.
The best quality and most expensive option is to use devices created specifically for this. A mobile option for anyone with a Smartphone (anything with a large colour screen these days qualifies) would be to use the conference option on the phone to call more than one person (each call costs the full amount, but the quality drops with each additional call). You could use a service that has you call a central number and enter a conference number to connect just those that you plan to talk to. This is also an easy option as it works well from a regular phone and can be arranged with the only cost being the cost of the call. Lastly there are software driven solutions which use internet data as a means of connecting. If all the people required for the meeting have a good laptop and fast internet access then a software option is best as you can share video and documents as well as talk to everyone.
A search of Teleconference solutions should give you plenty of options to choose from, all of them hopefully saving you from having to travel anymore than you need to.
|
|
Get directions in Cape TownThere are quite a few good options for getting around town using GPS devices, Google has added theirs to South Africa a while back, but
as we get closer to the World Cup kick-off you can see some additional things. The street view option should be only days away but
while we wait you can take a look at Cape Town in 3D.
It is 3D in that Google has mapped the terrain and building shapes and taken additional aerial photos then combined them with the
satellite images to create a virtual city to walk around in. Take a look at the picture of our office building with
Table Mountain in the background. In fact if you need to find you way round the City, why not get directions from Google. I have
created a route from the Grand Parade to the new Cape Town Stadium. It tells me it should take about half an hour to cover the 3kms.
You can view the 3D version after installing the plug-in (it’s about 11Mb) into your browser or by downloading the Google Earth Program (about 20Mb).
|
|
Buying a solar geyserThe State would like to install 1 million solar water heaters by 2014. It’s a tall order given that since Eskom first offered the subsidy to convert to solar, less than 5 000 have.
The reason for doing so is simple, domestic use accounts for about 2000 MW of energy currently which if reduced would be like opening a new power station. The bulk of new low cost homes energy consumption goes to water heating costs, by ensuring new houses have solar we have some time to convert and replace the normal geysers and hopefully avoid the blackouts.
If you are now ready to make the investment in a greener technology or simply get some cash back from Eskom or want to spend less on your monthly electricity bill, the decision as to what system to use is still going to tricky.
Firstly the costs; a regular geyser suitable for a small family would cost around R5 000 to R8 000 to install. A solar version of similar capacity would cost from R12 000 to R20 000. The rebate from Eskom ranges from R4 000 to around R8 000 depending on efficiency. This is were its gets tricky, the more efficient systems are much more expensive and despite a greater rebate, you still have to have
the cash to install the system while waiting up to 8 weeks for the rebate to be paid.
The best time to make the investment is when you are replacing your geyser, but I think there is merit to consider doing it when you buy a new property (you rarely know what shape the geyser is in) and even when selling as the perceived saving for the new buyer would persuade them to pay more of your asking price and invariably more than the installation cost.
In some cases you can also convert your existing geyser. This is quite a cost effective option but not as effective as the new systems.
There are no simple answers as some units require your geyser to be on your roof while others leave the geyser in the ceiling, and then
there are different systems for heating the water which are quite technical.
Eskom's website is useful for seeing what price bracket you can afford; use the size of the rebate to determine the efficiency of the system and then contact the listed companies and compare their proposals to fit your needs.
An additional help which I think should get insurance companies to also support the switch to solar is that the more hi-tech systems are able to let you know when there is a problem to avert a burst geyser as well as inform you when you need to do maintenance. They also allow you to program the temperature settings to not keep the water so hot all the time.
If you are still not in a position to do the switch there is something simple you can do to save energy and money. Turn the thermostat down. It’s often set between 55 and 65 degrees Celsius which on its own would burn you. So turn the temperature down and don’t use the cold water. This works best if you only run one bath a day or if the family showers during a short space of time. The reason I say that
is that your geyser fills up as you use it and the cold water that gets added reduces the temperature of the water already in the geyser.
|
|
On your YikeFrom the country that gave us bungee
jumping, black water rafting and
the human hamster ball comes the Yike, a bicycle, sort of.
The plan is to get people from A to B in a smart powered and street friendly way. The Yike is a
battery powered two wheeled vehicle that can best be described as a kind of penny farthing that you
sit on backwards. The entire thing folds up to fit onto a train or bus or the boot of a small car and
can easily stored in your office.
The makers say you can charge it in 20 minutes, drive for 10km at a top speed of 25kph while carry up
to 100kg. And the whole thing only weighs 10kg. Catch is the price, over R35 000 when they finally
roll off the production line.
|
|
See the World Cup stadiums from your desktopSouth Africa is ready to welcome the World's soccer fans to the first World Cup held in Africa. You may have tickets to some of the
matches, but very few of us will get the chance to visit all 10. Well you can do a virtual tour using specially created photos that
create a 360 degree view.
You can now scan around the graceful bowl of the Cape Town Stadium without even
going to Green Point, you can see the zebra shaded seats of the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.
You can look around the home of the Blue Bulls in the very blue Loftus Versfeld or the massive
Ellis Park. You can see the
brand new stadiums built for PE, Polokwane and Rustenburg or visit Bloemfontein and finally you can marvel at the 300m arch flying over the Durban Stadium or take in the view from the top. We will
be adding the beautiful Soccer City later this week too.
There may be just over 50 days to go till kick off, but you can visit all the stadiums right now.
|
|
Doodle for GoogleIf you would like to have you work displayed to millions and possibly billions consider doing creating a version of the Google logo that show a love of football.
You can be as young as four but no older than 17 to take part. Details and entry forms available from Google.
|
|
Remotes, remotes everywhere but no controlTV gets more interesting with the advent of TopTV on 1 May. It's another competitor to DsTV. It's not the first as there are religious services available using their own decoders, but it’s the first competitive commercial offering. South Africa is behind but still on track to switch to digital broadcasts in the next few years. What does this all mean? You TV room is going to start looking like a control room.
Let's assume you have DsTV, TopTV and the SABC channels. You would want to be able to watch them on you new telly and use your surround sound system. You would want to be able to record shows and play console games. Maybe you would like to access the internet via the big screen too.
What was the promise of the ideal TV setup now has you potentially having to handle 8 remote controls to cover your bases. You will need remotes for the: TV, Sound system, DsTV, TopTV, SABC, DVD player/recorder, Games console and Internet terminal. Crazy.
Manufacturers have long promised to make our lives simpler, but their inability to consider the consumer above their own commercial interest means that if you want to enjoy all the new technology you will have to get a new couch for your remotes. You may be able to reduce the numbers by buying you equipment from the same maker so that the remotes will control more than one device or you could get a universal control, but they don't work for everything and the ones that do are really expensive. In the end you will need to choose carefully.
|
|
Talk is CheepTwitter now has over 50 million tweets per day and over a billion per month, that's a lot of text. It sometimes lacks the richness that comes from speech and even a quote can't always convey the tone. So Chir.ps has stepped in to make it easier. Say something and add it to Twitter. Simple.
|
|
Playing games to make a differenceWhile games should all be fun, they can also help make a difference. The most recent is to get
Canadians to not mine their oil sands. Tar Nation is
a novel way to get people to sign a petition and is more likely to get people that may not have
got involved in an environmental issue to at least become aware that the issue exists.
Nokia has published a game for its handsets that teach you about Climate Change by playing a collection of mini
games. Each has a bite size fact about an aspect of climate change the more and longer you play
the more you learn and the issue and what you can do.
These activism games will not solve social problems but when part of the difficulty of making
people aware about social issues, games like these may well get those that are the hardest to
reach to at least engage.Try some more at Persuasive games and the parody of McDonalds
|
|
Making small business matterThe World's biggest digital and IT trade fair happens in
Germany each year and this year it was opened by the German Chancellor, the Spanish Prime
Minister and a spaza shop owner from Limpopo.
The reason was to highlight a program that IT company SAP had created allowing small business to
tap into the digital age.
The shop is so remote, it takes a day to get supplies, the new ordering system
developed by SAP allows the needed goods to be ordered by SMS and delivered.
It is not that the technology used for this initiative was impressive, it was the impact. If a
full day was needed to restock the shop, the sales for that day would be lost and those relying
on the shop for goods would be stranded.
South Africa needs to improve its IT infrastructure and make it far more accessible to develop
let alone compete.
South Africa is behind on its own targets, to catch up we need to compliment these initiatives
and keep pushing big business and Government to increase
access and reduce costs.
|
|
Save electricity, save moneyBy now, you have heard about what can help you reduce your
electricity use and you also know that electricity is going to be going
up by at least 25% over the next three years. Do you just pay or could you still make
electricity savings and so save money.
The short answer is yes; as nothing helps you focus like seeing your money being spent. Efergy creates a range of devices to help you monitor you
electricity consumption. By seeing how many kW/h of energy is being used you can calculate
the cost and for the environmentally conscious the CO2 emissions. It will help with getting
those family members that don't pay to see the effect of their consumption and it will let you
see where and when you use the most.
Some of the devices connect to your PC which let you see how the use rises and falls during the
day. Set yourself a target and it will let you know how well you are doing. Compare results with
others and see if you are doing as much as you can. The units cost in the region of R1 000, but
they won't save you electricity on their own. You will need to decide on a level you are prepared
to accept for convenience and pay for, then it will help you achieve it.
|
|
Making driving saferIt’s ironic that we refer to crashes on the road as accidents when they very rarely are. Bad
driving contributes a big part to the volumes of road accidents around the world. While some
countries require rigorous training and have good enforcement, they can't be everywhere all the
time. Some tech companies are trying to improve it with monitoring.
GreenRoad supplies a device to monitor driving
behaviour. By measuring a range of data from the car including braking, acceleration and turning,
it can calculate how safely the car is being handled. It is able to send this information to a
central computer to manage the problem drivers. The drivers themselves are given feedback by
three lights. A green one indicates safe driving, a yellow one some unsafe driving and a red
light excessive unsafe driving.
By providing feedback to the driver and the fleet owners, companies can deal with drivers that
are simply hard on cars rather than just a risk of causing accidents. The service has shown to
reduce bad driving which in turn leads to lower running costs and fuel savings.
Locally the insurance company MiWay offers
rates dependant on your driving style. The better and safer you drive the lower your risk and the
lower you premium.
Look for more of these devices to be fitted to cars by manufactures as drivers become more aware
of how their driving effects fuel economy and safety; something that in the past was believed to
be determined by the quality of the engineering of the car and engine alone.
|
|