By Roger Diamond The last decade of inaction, dithering and incompetence on the part of those deciding South Africa’s energy future is going to leave us in the dark — literally and figuratively. Renewable energy generation should already be in operation with massive programmes on research and further installations under way. Yet we sit with […]
Tech
Posted inGender violence, Media, News/Politics, Tech
#itisrapeif
I feel the need to repost this statement here. I hope that all of the survivors of rape who read it feel supported. 8 April 2011 Rape Crisis Statement on the #itsnotrapeif Twitter phenomenon We heard via the online grapevine about a revolting Twitter hashtag topic — #itsnotrapeif — and due to some masochistic compulsion […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle, Media, Tech
Dear Telkom
By Danny Glenwright Dear Telkom, You dirty old monopoly, you. You really got me. I’m actually writing to congratulate you. You were in the running for a few weeks but today I made it official. You have taken the prize for the poorest service I’ve ever received. And considering I’m a journalist who has lived, […]
Posted inLifestyle, Tech
Twitter movie cuts to core of nerd psyche
Hot on the heels of the movie about how Facebook started comes 140 characters or less — the movie about how Twitter started. This is only the second successful production in the social networking genre surpassing straight-to-DVD offerings You’re in MySpace and Dude, where’s my MXit. In keeping with the title, director David Fincher used […]
Posted inTech
Africa’s technology blockers
By Cano Ssemakulu It will always boil down to the money — the one commodity Africa has always lacked, and will always lack. Scientific research within the African context has not yielded results despite the presence of centres of scientific excellence across the African continent. Up till now Africa continues to suffer from solvable problems […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics, Tech
The real cost of renewables
We are at the start of a period of significant investment in renewable energy in South Africa. Renewables will bring many advantages for the country. For simplicity in this blog I will deal mainly with the benefits of wind power, but these benefits will occur with solar, particularly solar PV, as well. The headline cost […]
Posted inTech
Guns are no match for germs
By Roger Diamond Looking into the future is fun, but even more fun is looking at how other people are looking into the future. First, there are the pessimists and doomsayers who are sure the game is all over and we have a few last years of light before the eternal darkness, or something along […]
Posted inTech
Technology blockers in Africa
By Ssemakalu Cornelius It will always boil down to the money — the one commodity Africa has always lacked. Scientific research within the African context has not yielded results despite the presence of centres of scientific excellence across the continent. Africa continues to suffer from solvable problems such as communicable diseases, lack of proper (or […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media, News/Politics, Tech
Wanted: MPs on Facebook
One of the big stories of the week, which did not get much coverage, was one that would have been funny if it was not so very sad. It had to do with the fact that 85% of parliamentarians are not computer literate. This means that only 15% of our elected leaders know how to […]
Posted inTech
Should we reply before or after the RT on Twitter?
When retweeting and then replying to a tweet at the same time, where should one write their response? Before or after the RT? This is an age-old debate that has raged for some time. In fact it has not even raged, it’s been completely ignored. People are doing their own thing. They’ve turned this into […]
Posted inTech
TEDx Soweto — a great day out!
The first TEDx Soweto happened on Freedom Day — April 27 in South Africa — appropriately held at the Apartheid Museum. The theme was “The Age of Participation”. It was a fun and interesting day, with lots of different perspectives and stories — less of a technology focus than the usual TED formula, which I […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
Cats, karakuls and communications scenarios
It was topsy-turvy at two conferences in Johannesburg last week. What you’d expect was not what happened: Delegates at the event convened by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) concentrated on … broadcasting. Those attending the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association included internet and mobile in their sessions. It wasn’t quite the “Negroponte switch” where what’s on the […]