Paul Jacobson

I’ve been toying with the the idea of getting myself one of the mobile, USB broadband thingies for when I don’t have wifi access available. I see that both MTN and Vodacom offer 3.6Mbps HSDPA access.

I have been using the 3G connection available through my N73 (I have a 100MB package which is proving to be more expensive than shelling out for a 1GB package) but I am beginning to think it is a better idea to go with one of these USB devices, even if that means another contract.

What are your experiences with these devices? Are they worth it or should I stick with my current solution? Does it make a difference whether I go with Vodacom or MTN?

Update: Ok, I think this pretty much answers some of my questions:

Telkom’s ADSL 4 Mbps service produced an international upload speed of 252 Kbps and a local upload speed of 301 Kbps.

Vodacom was however not too far behind with an international upload speed of 230 Kbps and a local upload speed of 238 Kbps.

MTN however limits its HSDPA upload speeds to 64 Kbps. Its international average upload speed of 59 Kbps and local uplink speed of 57 Kbps may frustrate some users.

Technorati Tags:
mtn, vodacom, mobile broadband, usb, hsdpa

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I came across this video of a talk given by iCommons chair, Ronaldo Lemos, at Google in November last year. The talk is titled titled “Cultural Production and Digital Inclusion in Developing Countries” and I thought I would share it with you.

It is quite a thrill to have the opportunity to work with people like Ronaldo and the other directors of iCommons (including, but certainly not limited to, Larry Lessig, Jimmy Wales, Paul Keller, Tomislav Medak and Catharina Maracke) and I am really looking forward to watching this talk in its entirety (no, I haven’t watched all 52 minutes just yet …).

Technorati Tags:
presentation, ronaldo lemos, ronaldo, lemos, google, cultural production, developing countries

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Ever wonder what happens to your blog posts when you click “publish”? Take a look at this item on Wired titled “The Life Cycle of a Blog Post, From Servers to Spiders to Suits — to You.

(Source: Boing Boing)

Technorati Tags:
blog, lifecycle, what happens, publication

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This looks like a really handy resource, particularly for people in the USA. This should also be a handy reference for jurisdictions influenced by the US law on fair use. The Citizen Media Law Project has published a Primer on Copyright Liability and Fair Use:

While there is no definitive test for determining whether your use of another’s copyrighted work is a fair use, there are several things you can do to minimize your risk of copyright liability:

• Use only as much of the copyrighted work as is necessary to accomplish your purpose or convey your message;
• Use the work in such a way that it is clear that your purpose is commentary, news reporting, or criticism;
• Add something new or beneficial (don’t just copy it — improve it!);
• If your source is nonfiction, limit your copying to the facts and data; and
• Seek out Creative Commons or other freely licensed works when such substitutions can be made and respect the attribution requests in those works.

(This extract is from the primer which was published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. Source: Social Media)Technorati Tags:copyright, primer, introduction

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Interesting sight on the Helen Zille blog today:

Is this political espionage or just some random hacker attack on the person who happens to be the leader of the official opposition to the ANC and a critic of the incumbent and outgoing regime … ?

Just curious …

Technorati Tags:
anc, blog, helen zille, hacked, da

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