Paul Jacobson

Great news for Firefox users who search using Google:

Now Google’s faster than ever on Firefox

and Mozilla browsers. When you do a search on these browsers, we

instruct them to download your top search result in advance, so if you

click on it, you’ll get to that page even more quickly.

Like anyone doubted that Ben Goodger’s move to Google would do great things for Firefox and other Mozilla products.

Comments

Well, it is happening more and more.  All those nasty people who wrote all those nasty bugs that have plagued us unfortunate Windows users are turning their attention to the sweetheart of the computer world, the Mac:

Attacks on Apple’s OS X operating system, thought by many who use
the Mac to be virtually immune from hackers, are on the rise, according
to a report from Symantec, an anti-virus software vendor.

"Contrary
to popular belief, the Macintosh operating system has not always been a
safe haven from malicious code," said the report, which was issued on
Monday. "It is now clear that the Mac OS is increasingly becoming a
target for the malicious activity that is more commonly associated with
Microsoft and various Unix-based operating systems."

(via Wired)

Continue Reading »

Comments

I am trying out some alternatives to my usual way of blogging (namely, online).  This is a vanilla email to my blog.

Comments

There is a guide to broadband products available  in South Africa which was available on MyADSL. This guide rates the various broadband offerings in South Africa using factors such as price, reliability and bandwidth. The best product in South Africa, comparatively speaking, appears to be the Telkom DSL Home 384 at R648 (roughly $105) per month and with a 2 GB cap. What is scary about this is that this product, which apparently costs roughly 46% of the average income in South Africa, is considered good value compared to the others.

What really puts this all in perspective is the guide to some of the international products. The product which is rated the highest is a broadband product available in Japan. It is the Yahoo!BB 45M ADSL (I am guessing this is a 45 MB product) and it costs the equivalent of R230 (roughly $37) per month and there is no usage cap. Even Egypt is ahead of South Africa with its 512 kbps offering priced at the equivalent of R255 per month.

I have to wonder if there is any point signing up for broadband in South Africa for general use. Most of the products are only available if you sign 12 or 24 month contracts and they are grossly overpriced. The alternative is a 56 kbps line which is horribly expensive to use during the day anyway. Of course, at the heart of all of this is Telkom’s frighteningly exorbitant tariff structure and their stubborn insistence on protecting their profits. If ever there was a monopoly worth fighting, this is it.

Technorati Tags: adsl, Telkom

Comments

Bloglines has announced that you can track your parcels using a specialised subscription set up for the purpose:

We are pleased to announce our newest feature, package tracking. Now,
you can have Bloglines track the status of your UPS, FedEx, and USPS
packages. From your My FeedsAdd link in the left pane. Then, click the Package Tracking
link in the right pane. From there you can
enter tracking numbers for UPS, FedEx, and USPS packages. Also,
you can do a search on a specific tracking number. Entering a tracking
number will create a subscription in your account that is updated
whenever the status of your package changes.

Very cool!

Comments