Paul Jacobson Life, law and other stuff

Tablet PCs are the way to goPosted by Paul on March 31st, 2005

I have been thinking about great ways to keep up to date with my my mail and news feeds and not have to sit in front of my desktop for half the day and I have decided (perhaps a little late) that Tablet PCs are the way to go.  I asked G for one for Christmas and I got a look that has something to do with flying kites in a storm.  I have heard rumours (albeit fairly old rumours) about an Apple Tablet and that would be something worth waiting for.  Failing that, the Fujitsu Siemens ST5022 looks like a pretty cool option.  Anyone have any thoughts?

(via infoSync World)

Broadband in South Africa ratedPosted by Paul on March 31st, 2005

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

ProBlogger is on fire!Posted by Paul on March 29th, 2005

Darren Rowse, the informative and helpful ProBlogger, is back from his Easter holiday with many many gems to share.  One post which I am going to investigate further refers to Blogaholics and the series on blogging for business.

I also noticed a post which asks whether full feeds are killing comments:

Tris writes a good post
that wonders if publishing full post feeds in RSS might be responsible
for killing comments on posts as a result of less people actually
surfing into actual blogs. Interesting theory - pop over and tell Tris
what you think of his theory.

I think Tris has a point, to a degree.  For myself, I don’t have a lot of time online (except on weekends when it is cheaper) so I tend to download all my feeds and read offline.  It is a little off-putting when the feeds are only partial because I have to flag the post for follow-up and wait till I am online again before reading the full post and even then I have dozens of other posts to follow-up in such limited time.  See what I mean?

Microsoft from the perspective of a Mac userPosted by Paul on March 29th, 2005

We all know the tale of the Evil Microsoft who conquered the land and made almost all the friendly inhabitants slaves to its evil and corrupt software.  This is a story I have relayed (in typical broken telephone fashion) many times and have lately begun to re-examine.  For an interesting perspective, here is a post by a Mac user titled "What Makes Microsoft so ‘Evil’?".  The author, Chelion, looks at a few Microsoft products including DRM, IE7 and Longhorn.  It is a very Scoble-like analysis (pretty fair-minded, I think) and part of his conclusion was the following:

While I appreciate Microsoft’s amazing efforts in creating and maintaining a long list of products, and the good they do in the world. I still wonder why $9 billion is spent on R&D that does not make itself apparent (Apple spends less, and you can see what they come up with). They do an amazing job at making products expandable (at the expense of conformity or a finished feature set), but I can’t get over the nagging defect I come across in every Microsoft product I use.

(via Scoble)

Telkom at it again … and again!Posted by Paul on March 29th, 2005

Ok, this is becoming a very tired story.  It is old news reinvented and I am getting frustratingly tired of telling it and yet it is a story that needs to be told.  Once again, ITWeb carries a story about Telkom’s pricing structure:

Telkom has defended its tariffs as US-based NUS Consulting again says its rates are among the highest in the world.

Last week, NUS Consulting released its latest survey, which says Telkom’s high tariffs “continue to hamper South African organisations in their efforts to compete in the world’s major markets??.

According to the study, an international call made from SA to New York costs $0.74 (R4.44) per minute, compared to a New York to London call of $0.7 (R4.20) per minute. The study cites SA and the US as having the highest international call rates among the 14 countries in which most of South African telecommunications transactions take place.

These countries are the UK, US, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.

NUS Consulting MD George Rahr says while Telkom should be applauded for its 49% and 10% rate cuts for international and long distance calls, these cuts are insignificant when compared with the reductions in other countries.

Read the rest of this entry »

Things you learn about yourself at nightPosted by Paul on March 29th, 2005

Here is a completely arbitrary realisation I had tonight and which I am going to share.  I get really cranky when I am tired!  Sheesh!  I was making tea for G and myself when I mentally told myself to get a grip because I could sense my own crankiness.  One day, I am sure G will let me know how she bears with me in times like this (and worse).

Telkom at it again … and again!Posted by Paul on March 29th, 2005

Ok, this is becoming a very tired story. It is old news reinvented and I am getting frustratingly tired of telling it and yet it is a story that needs to be told. Once again, ITWeb carries a story about Telkom’s pricing structure:

Telkom has defended its tariffs as US-based NUS Consulting again says its rates are among the highest in the world.

Last week, NUS Consulting released its latest survey, which says Telkom’s high tariffs “continue to hamper South African organisations in their efforts to compete in the world’s major markets??.

According to the study, an international call made from SA to New York costs $0.74 (R4.44) per minute, compared to a New York to London call of $0.7 (R4.20) per minute. The study cites SA and the US as having the highest international call rates among the 14 countries in which most of South African telecommunications transactions take place.

These countries are the UK, US, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.

NUS Consulting MD George Rahr says while Telkom should be applauded for its 49% and 10% rate cuts for international and long distance calls, these cuts are insignificant when compared with the reductions in other countries.

If you haven’t dozed off or gone off to add pins to your Telkom voodoo doll, you may have asked why Telkom was so defensive. Well, here is what they had to say:

Telkom media liaison officer Xolasi Vapi says Telkom’s tariffs compare favourably with other Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

“For a long time Telkom has been using international calls and long distance national calls to subsidise the local call rate. We also have the problem of the cost of managing the local loop,?? he says.

Vapi says Telkom’s 28% price reduction in January for international calls was well received and the company has since seen an increase in the use of its network.

Of course the reason for the increased use of the network is because the prices have dropped on the only network we have! Of course we will use the network more, the prices are, like our petrol prices (R5 per litre next week people!) bound to go up again. The increased use of the network has nothing to do with the value we get for the service.

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