Reader Blog

By Julie Reid My mother was a remarkably intelligent, though unashamedly outspoken and un-politically correct woman. One of the things which irritated her most about the public rhetoric of the post-1994 “halo period” was the politically-correct tone of discussions; in the media, between politicians, among public figures and so on. Remember those days? When we […]

By Mohamed Fayaz Khan The recent news that the PSL (of all organisations) is considering banning the vuvuzela from all future PSL games came as a shock especially after the vociferous support it received from Safa and all “true” South African soccer supporters in the run-up to the World Cup. If one recalls, Fifa actually […]

By Muggie van Staden If you run a business chances are you already run part of your business “in the cloud”. And if you don’t then you will, in the very near future. The growth of cloud computing — or Internet-based applications and services — is becoming so pervasive that analysts such as Gartner expect […]

By Gary Mathews When I finished primary school, I was sent to boarding school in the hope I might complete my education. It’s possible the primary reason I was shipped out was that my mother tired of my shenanigans and wanted to get rid of me. Either way, I ended up in the last year […]

By Wesley Lynch As the after-effects of the global recession continue to suppress demand, many businesses are discovering the benefits of an online strategy. A great example is British retailer Marks & Spencer. Hard hit throughout the recession, M&S reported mildly resurgent figures for the first quarter of 2011 in July 2010, mainly on the […]

By Wesley Lynch The e-business provider arena has grown into an enormous, complex industry with numerous specialist areas in the last 10 years. And yet providers continue to claim one-stop shop status and fail to carve out clear niches. As a result many top-flight projects stutter and fail as teams are forced to hire more […]

By Dr Pieter Streicher The fall-out from the ban of bulk SMS in India serves as a dramatic reminder about just how entrenched those 160 characters have become in the daily lives of both people and businesses the world over. When the Indian government banned application-to-person SMS messaging, people immediately stopped receiving notifications that transactions […]

By Matthew Tagg Figures from the IDC show that piracy went up a percentage point in SA between 2007 and 2008 — amounting to R3.1 billion in industry losses. While many people justifiably bemoan the spiralling piracy rates occurring across the world, it’s unlikely that we will see any changes in the numbers without a radical […]

By Nomfundo Walaza I first questioned the notion of “keeping the peace” several years ago while I was still practising as a psychologist. A refugee girl, who was sexually abused by her adoptive parent, was referred to me for counselling. She believed that her adoptive “mother” knew, about the abuse, but did not want to […]

By Gareth Knight New international submarine communication cables are starting to ring the continent, bringing with them the promise of cheaper broadband across the continent. That means Africa will soon have the infrastructure to compete more effectively in the online space than it did in the past. But Africa has missed out on several years […]