Get to grips with South Africa before 2010

South Africa is a growing major tourists destination. This has been made possible by great achievements that this country has gained. South Africa had a peaceful transformation from the Apartheid system. The country boost several Nobel prize winners, including the world renowned statesman amongst them, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. South Africa has just celebrated 10 years of democracy, and the country is playing a vital role in the development of Africa through AU and NEPAD.

South Africa has the highest number of higher learning institutions in Africa. Technological developments are one of the best and are able to compete globally. To find out about what to expect when you have decided to go South in your next visit, click the the following reviews. These are some of South Africa's Travel Services that offer a wide range of services for your business and pleasure. Do not wait for 2010, surf these fantastic sites and book your visit now.

Travcare
Protea Travel Services
Caraville Travel International

Web Revolution and Interoperability

The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) has a dedicated working groups that are developing and maintaining XML (Extensible Markup Language) & SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol).
Their goal is to design a set of technologies fitting in the Web architecture in order to lead Web services to their full potential.
The W3C has come up with common protocols that will ensure interoperability and revolutionalise the Web, hence the XML and SOAP.
XML is a web language that doesn't have a fixed set of tags (unlike HTML). It is straight forward, easy to use and supports many different applications. It can be extended and adapted to meet many different needs. (For further reading, visit http://www.W3.org/TR/REC-XML)
SOAP is an XML-based Web services protocol (messaging framework) intended for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment such as the Web.
Bussiness benefits in that applications are able to communicate with each other to deliver sophisticated added-value services.

Profit counts in business - Metropolis

Metropolis dropped its business-to-business (B2B) division when it got rid of its Information Management businesses because they were failing to make any profit. The way dot-com companies are seen worldwide is the main reason. The cost of building the infrastructure was higher than anticipated, says Metropolis. B2B provided news on the business market with emphasis on technology and related matters. The local market was too small to sustain B2B.
The idea was to build a critical mass of users within our vertical communities by providing have-to-have products and services to our customers, said
Jason Xenopoulos, former CEO and Executive Chairman of Metropolis, adding that revenue would be derived on a commission basis as well as by advertising and services provision.

Metropolis is a listed Internet media and content company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as Metropolis Transactive Holdings. Its B2B ran eight vertical sites.

Metropolis is known for its iafrica.com consumer portal and says it will now focus all its attention on the iafrica.com (a business-consumer portal) which proves to be lucrative.


Other Links:

http://www.findarticles.com
http://www.mediatoolbox.co.za
http://www.mfgtrade.com

African Tech leader campaigns for OSS

Mark Shuttleworth is a UCT graduate. The Internet and computer games developed his interest in technology. Shuttleworth devotes much of his time searching new opportunities in global technology. He spent about R20 Million to visit space. That was made possible by the selling of his Thawte company (www.thawte.com) that became the first to produce a full-security e-commerce web server that was commercially available outside the United States. He then founded the Shuttleworth Foundation which played a crucial role in the Go-Open Source Campaign, joining forces with companies such as CSIR and HP. The campaign will run for two years and has a total budget of R18m.

Open Source is a computer software that is freely available to any user,
for installation, modification (source code is freely available) and redistribution. It is built by volunteers worldwide and has no restraining licence conditions.

Shuttleworth Foundation has 10 reasons on the importance of Open Source.

Create your own family

Become god using your creative skills and your computer. Create the Sims whole family. This family can be infants, teenagers, up to adults. It could also have and raise children. Watch them grow. See them dying. Their life depends on you. You could make them to be very successful and fortunate, or you could mess up everything.

The Sims 2 game by Electronic Arts also enables you to build a three-story nicely decorated house which can accommodate up to eight family members.

As a player you will also be able to observe the Sims’ family faces as they chat with each other, watch television programmes or check the time on an alarm clock by zooming in using the 3D engine. There is also a film-making mode that enables you to create your own movies, choosing actors, creates a set or location and place the camera at suitable angle.

http://www.sacm.co.za
http://www.eagames.com/redesign/games/pccd/sims/home.jsp
The Sims 2

Final Drive

Be the next Michael Schumacher. Fasten your seat belt and drive on a high speed car. You could only do that if you are driving the new Nitro. This is not a new car model that you will find in an up market car dealer. This is a computer game called a
Final Drive: Nitro. The race track is your computer. And, as the fastest driver on track, you are guaranteed to win because Nitro has Nitrous boost to outrun opponents. You drive in amazing tracks of the future, with power slides and high-flying jumps. Winning also earns cash points to upgrade your ride. You also have an opportunity to test drive advanced cars.

Your computer must have a 16 MB Video Card RAM to accommodate the 3D hardware acceleration. The processor must be 650MHz or better, with 128 MB RAM. Joypad and and Driving Wheel is supported.

http://www.wildgames.com

Wildcards

Experience a unique twist on classic card games by playing Wildcards.
This cards game has been released by Wild Games. You could play this game alone against computer players. Alternatively, you could play with AIM buddies. To do this you need to get your AIM screen name free at http://www.aim.com. Interesting are the moods that you could give to your character, such as celebrate, congratulate, sulk and grumble.

You also have 12 animated characters to choose from. Your characters have over 100 animated motions (Emotimotions) to perform, showing your fellow players how you feel about the game.
Wildcards has three classic games to choose from, Hearts, Euchre and Spades.

The game can run on windows 98 up to XP, with a 500MHz processor or more. You definitely need an 8MB RAM Video Card to run the 3D Acceleration. You do not need Joystick and Game Pad as they are not supported.

http://www.wildgames.com/ECS/htdocs/Genre_New.aspx?dp=wildgames&bw=low

Is journalism based on computer games?

The growth of internet and the World Wide Web is offering journalism great interactive challenges. Although news stories are still based on the traditional pyramid method, the links that the Net offers is changing all that.
According to Hart (managing editor at the Portland Oregonian), a story is a sequence of action in which a sympathetic character encounters a complicating situation that he confronts and solves. Computer games offer that, often featuring conflict-based scenarios which are good for commercial news. Such interactivity allows surfers to be part of the scene as news happens. Journalists are able to give news in 3D format (that is audio, video and text) as well as providing background information. And, the kind of journalists being trained today are capable of operating sophisticated equipment right on the field, but are also street-wise in getting the story the
old-fashioned way. Although games are about play, goals, obstacles, resources, rewards, and penalties, journalists are able to use them to engage news surfers in a more pro-active relationship with the narrative.
Joe Grimm (Detroit Free Press staff writer) writes that games appear to offer the news media a popular and commercially successful model for delivering news online in a more immersive format.

Links:
http://www.freep.com/jobspage/academy/hart99.htm
http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/papers/Nolan.pdf
http://www.jesperjuul.dk/text/WCGCACD.html

What’s there for Southern Africa in the WSIS?

The progression of technology is high in Southern Africa Development Community’s development goals, and the WSIS provides a platform for development of a common understanding of the information societies, says Dr Prega Ramsamy, the SADC Executive Secretary.

Most SADC countries fall in what the Technology Achievement Index refers to as “Marginalized”. In these countries telecommunications facilities are generally poor and fixed line teledensity is low, reaching less than five percent of the population.
Personal Computers penetration is very low (it ranges between two and 60 PC s per 1,000 people). Access to television and radio is low with less than 20 percent of the population having access to TV and less than 60 percent to radio in the majority of SADC countries.
SADC has identified three important stages for ICT development:
fundamental (provision of basic infrastructure such as electrification and telecommunications), middle (pc penetration) and advanced (internet access and utilisation, and advance content development).

Read more about this story at: http://www.sardc.net/Editorial/Newsfeature/04060104.htm
Other links:
WSIS: THE WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY http://www.itu.int/wsis/
Basic Info about WSIS - http://www.itu.int/wsis/basic/about.html
ICT for Development Platform - http://www.ict-4d.org/Marketplace/en/default.htm

Lower that broadband costs

The South African chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC-ZA) and the Online Publishers Association (OPA) are campaigning for price-cuts for the Internet Broadband by Telkom and Sentech. Broadband enables the user to stay connected all the time and offers high speed connectivity. Telkom is charging R1.75/Kbps for its ADSL while Sentech's MyWireless is R2.93/Kbps (286% and 480% more expensive respectively than Egypt).

A Telkom poll currently in progress on Telkom’s website shows a 81% “NO” by users asked if they would upgrade to the ADSL 4GB unshaped service.

Internet penetration in South Africa is growing at a snail’s pace. According to World Wide Worx annual report on Internet Access in South Africa, only 7.4% out of a population of 47.5 million is connected. The majority of these users are still mostly confined to the larger cities and towns, and the Internet remains out of reach to the vast majority of South Africans.

P2P Users-Be warned

Rhodes University has issued a stench warning to all those using the P2P (peer to peer) applications on its network to remove it. Failure to do so will result in one’s machine being removed from the network, followed by a disciplinary action. Furthermore, legal action may be taken against any individual (found guilty of being in possession of illegal material) by the copyright holder, warns the University. http://www.ru.ac.za/intranet/policies/p2p-letter.html
The university argues that P2P applications allowed users to participate in a file sharing “community” worldwide. Users are allowed to search the network for files of interest and transfer them to their own computers. This is done without acquiring copyright or license, thereby violating the Copyright Act no 98 of 1978. Such a user also violates the University's Acceptable Use Policy, claims the university. The university advises users who chose not to remove P2P applications to IMMEDIATELY ensure that their computers are not used as providers of unlicensed materials as it will not protect them. Instructions for the settings are available at:
http://security.uchicago.edu/peer-to-peer/no_fileshare.shtml
http://forums.ru.ac.za/index.php?showtopic=8130

Other Links:
What is P2P… And What Isn’t? - http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2000/11/24/shirky1-whatisp2p.html
P2P technology - http://www.p2p- technology.com
P2P Networks Evolve - http://www.technewsworld.com/story/32673.html
E-mail turns to P2P technology - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3694974.stm

Video Piracy is a Crime – Beware!

The internet is seen as the highest avenue of piracy especially for video, games and music. Piracy is the duplication and the selling of intellectual products. Government and business lose millions in revenue every year. Piracy is very high in USA, Europe (Italy, UK, Germany and Russia) and Asia (China & Hong Kong).Blame is put on the increase of computers and internet access and user friendly technologies because of advancement. http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/comm4843/slides/Piracy/.In South Africa, the South African Federation Against Copyright Theft (SAFACT) is doing its best to fight piracy. Maintaining that “Piracy is a criminal offence”, SAFACT is assisted by the Police, Customs, Department of Trade and Industry and the Justice Department (http://www.safact.co.za/). Offenders pay fines of up to R75 000, or face imprisonment of up to five years, depending on the seriousness of the crime.The organisation also blames new technology for the rise in piracy which was at 12% from 95% since the 1980’s.

DRM Reviewed

Alapan Arnab and Andrew CM Hutchison presented a paper titled “Digital Rights Management - An Overview of current challenges and solutions”
in Gallagher Estate, Midrand, South Africa (15 July 2004). They both come from the University of Cape Town’s Department of Science (http://pubs.cs.uct.ac.za/archive/00000139/01/arnab_hutchison_issa2004.pdf).
The paper gives a broad overview and looks at the strengths and weaknesses of DRM, examine legalities for parties concern, discuss the DRM structure and its characteristics whether they satisfy legal requirements. Lastly, it reviewed three DRM systems and whether they meet desired DRM requirements.
The Australian Government has written a Guide to DRM that has been developed to assist creators, producers and traders with the management of their content in the digital environment (The Guide was written for the Commonwealth Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA) http://www.dcita.gov.au/drm/).
The UK Web Design Company (http://www.theukwebdesigncompany.com/articles/digital-rights-management.php)says that in order to come up a solution regarding DRM, a balance between consumers and copyright owners and intellectual property creators on the other in the end.

Links:
Electronic Frontier Foundation: Defending Freedom in the Digital World - "http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/Electronic Privacy Information Center: DRM & Privacy - http://www.epic.org/privacy/drm/default.htmlDigital rights management - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_managementDigital Rights Management - http://www.theukwebdesigncompany.com/articles/digital-rights-management.php

Technoghost Website

Please visit this website for a brief information on
* Digital Rights Management (DRM)
* video piracy
* P2P technology
http://journ.ru.ac.za/2k4students/zongezile/Technoghost.htm