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Sharing thoughts and ideas on business, security and photographyHigh volume banking spam purporting to be from FNB
Posted on June 28, 2012I have received High volume banking spam purporting to be from FNB for the last number of days. The only difference between these messages is the embedded link. Most are just URLs, some though have an x-apple-MSG-load in them.
Message and links below.
From : FNB (ibt@onlinedata.co.za)
Subject : Return on Charges
You are hereby notified that FNB is giving back all accumulated fees on taxable income that have been carried out over a period of one year. This is as a result of the new regulation imposed on banks by SARS. Please note that you have to follow the instructions below to the latter in other to ensure the funds is remitted into your account .
If you have an account with us, Kindly click here now.
Regards,
© 2012 FirstRand Bank Limited.
An Authorised Financial Services and Credit Provider (NCRCP20). All rights reserved.
I have received 10+ of these a day for the last week or more. I have removed the link from the above so it isn’t live. In the mails the link varies between a number of sites some of which are listed below:
http://sushilcheema.com/charge_deposit_fnb_paid2/index dot php
http://sushilcheema.com/charge_deposit_fnb_pays/index dot php
x-apple-msg-load://4CEA18FC-4FDA-4797-8DBD-F85A077F3B3D/
http://istudymedia.com/charge_deposit_fnb_paid4/index dot php
http://digitalarborist.com/charge_deposit_fnb_pays/index dot php
http://createemailcampaigns.com/charge_deposit_fnb_payee/index dot php
Has anybody else been flooded with these?
DSTV mobile application upgraded from Beta to final.
Posted on June 26, 2012DSTV mobile application upgraded from Beta to final. No real obvious changes in the release notes except for the statement below :
*** If you device is running Android 2.1 (Eclair) or your device has a processor slower than 800Mhz, please use the “DStv Mobile Decoder Eclair” version.
Same list of devices supported.
Link to the final application here : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.valups.tivit.app.finaldstv
Review of the iDrifta for iPad/iPhone/iPod touch
Posted on June 24, 2012Full disclosure : I have no affiliation to DSTV, DSTV Mobile or Multichoice. I write this blog in my spare time with no payment from any providers. The review unit was provided to me by the marketing agency working with DSTV Mobile and I thank them for it. I pay the monthly subscription fees on the Drifta devices I am using – including the iDrifta.
The iDrifta is a cute, small, convenient little device. As a Drifta for the iPad / iPhone / iPod touch (referred to as iDevice), this is brilliant. It is however restricted to just those devices.
I have in the past reviewed the original (wifi) Drifta and the USB Drifta. This review now focusses on the iDrifta. If you are wanting to use the Drifta with your PC, Blackberry, Mac, Android and your iDevice then right up front this is not for you. Take a look at the table over here to see which devices work with which Drifta’s to make that decision. If however your are primarily wanting a Drifta to use with your iDevice, then read on.
The iDrifta is about the size of a matchbox. On the top it has an Apple connector, on the bottom it has a micro USB for charging, with a soft loop of aerial around the port. Just above the micro USB is a single LED which lights up when the device is being charged.
What are the differences between the iPad 2 and new iPad (for a South African)?
Posted on June 23, 2012A previous post of mine comparing the iPad and iPad 2 proved to be one of the most visited on the site with over 3500 people reading it. Since the new iPad (aka iPad 3) has been out for a little while now it made sense to do a follow-up.
When it was announced a big deal was made about the screen, and what an amazing screen it is. However that is not the only difference between the devices. As a very happy iPad 2 wi-fi+3G user I wasn’t going to upgrade, and kept telling myself I didn’t need to as there weren’t really any real differences. The chance came along to get a new iPad at a great price and I took it. Looking back, I didn’t realise all the difference between the two.
Below I explore many of those differences – component by component. Take a look at the bottom of the post for a line by line factual comparison to support the opinions presented. The information (in the table) is sourced from a number of websites. Source list with links below the table.
Migrating to Cell C from Vodacom, simple and painless
Posted on June 23, 2012
After 16 long years with Vodacom the time had come. After a number of battles (see here, here and here) trying to get them to respect me as their customer and comply with the Consumer Protection Act, the decision was made. Instead of righting their wrongs, Vodacom chose to let me cancel my contracts early (some 6 months after my CPA compliant against them). I jumped at the chance, done deal. Bye bye Vodacom.
The timing was good. Cell C had announced their 99cents prepaid option with a promise of decent contract rates to come , which have now been announced and are indeed good – for each rand you spend you get an anytime minute, a meg of data and an SMS.. I looked into how to make all this happen and found that it was not as difficult as one may imagine.
To avoid having to deal with call centres I chose to go into the Vodacom walk in customer centre in Gateway shopping centre. I explained what I wanted to the consultant and he suggested the best approach.
First thing needed was to convert my postpaid account into a prepaid account. He wanted a copy of my ID and proof of residence and within a few minutes it was done. All free minutes etc were lost in this process, but since I was leaving Vodacom I didn’t really mind.
Next stop, the Cell C shop. Again no major challenges this side. I purchased a starter pack (for 99c) and an airtime voucher (R70).
The agent then RICA’d my SIM after being supplied with the now standard ID and proof of residence. He then showed me the instructions on how to do the number port (printed on the back of the SIM pack).
Simple.
All I needed to do was to send an SMS from my old number and then the process would be started, and within 24hrs I would receive some confirmation SMSs and at that point insert my new Cell C SIM card, load my airtime and Bob’s your uncle.
First snag. I tried to send the SMS but it failed. No airtime on the Vodacom prepaid SIM. Damn, I should have seen that one coming. No problem, a few hours later bought R5 airtime at the local Spar and send the SMS.
Within a few minutes I had the reply telling me all was underway, and by the next morning there were more confirmation SMSs to tell me to go ahead and insert the new SIM. With the old SIM the phone was showing NO Service, so clearly had been deprovisioned.
I popped in the next SIM and it worked a treat. Cell C SMS’d me all the new settings needed for SMS, MMS etc, applied them and all was great.
After that it was just a matter of getting used to the new voice mail services, balance enquiry and the like. Everything is running just great now. Very happy to have moved.
Summary of Drifta compatibility : Which Drifta to get
Posted on June 23, 2012Now that there are 4 Drifta devices on the market it can be a little confusing as to which one to buy. The assumption often can be that each new one is better than the last, and this is definitely no the case. In truth, though each is slightly different in size and shape, they all provide the same functionality (mostly), same picture quality, and where they have a battery, similar battery life. The choice really comes down to which devices you want to use the Drifta with. The table below summarises this. Click on the device name for link to a full review.
| Walka | Drifta (WiFi) | USB Drifta | iDrifta | |
| Standalone | Yes | No | No | No |
| iPad/Phone/Touch*3 | No | Yes | No | Yes*3 |
| Windows PC | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Mac | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Blackberry | No | Partial*1 | No | No |
| Android | No | Yes*2 | No | No |
*1 There are limited devices which are supported by Blackberry and this support is Beta only. Be careful, newer Blackberry devices are not supported. (Link here to supported devices)
*2 Android support is also not universal, it is device specific. Many devices are supported but check before you buy. (Link here to supported devices)
*3 If your iDevice is jailbroken you will play Cat and Mouse with DSTV as by default the application won’t work. With a little help from a friend it will work on current versions (and some past versions) but going forward there are no guarantees it will work. (Link to jailbreak information here)
iDrifta quick start guide (images)
Posted on June 17, 2012Images of the two pages of the iDrifta quick start guide included with the device. The full unboxing of the device can be found here. Review to follow.
Click through for the two pages of the guide.
iDrifta unboxing and some initial comments – with lots of pictures
Posted on June 17, 2012Review of iDrifta here. Unboxing continues below.
I was confused last week when my mom called me to say that a parcel had just been delivered to her house for me. I asked her to open it for me since I wasn’t expecting anything and didn’t have a clue what is was. I was quite delighted when she told me it was an iDrifta. Neither DSTV mobile nor their marketing company had told me there were sending me one for review so it was really an unexpected surprise. This is the second time they have sent me one of their new products to review (the USB Drifta was also provided for review) so thank you once again to DSTV mobile for being so kinda as to send this through, and for the nice red ribbon and accompanying letter. Just in time for Fathers day 
This post is the “unboxing”, the review will come later. I called their call centre earlier to activate the device, but now 3 hours later it’s still not activated. I don’t much feel like spending more time on the line to the call centre (that last call was 15m+) so decided to write this up instead and try again with the call centre later. Enjoy this for now, will link to the review later.
ISACA 2012 conference happening from 10-12 September 2012, registrations open soon
Posted on June 17, 2012
The ISACA South Africa 2012 conference is happening from the 10-12 September. Diarise the dates, get those purchase requisitions in. If you are wanting to present at the conference then mail Nadine (admin@isaca.org.za) – the speaker lineup is being finalised shortly so hurry up to make sure you don’t miss out.
The conference is being held at the Wanderer’s Club in Illovo. It’s right next door to the Protea hotel if you need accommodation, and is also served by the Gautrain and their buses, with a bus stopping right outside the hotel gates.
Hope to see you all there.
Nespresso compatible coffee pods at Hirsch’s (updated with first thoughts)
Posted on June 07, 2012
Posted from WordPress for BlackBerry.
Excuse the poor quality of the picture, the Blackberry camera isn’t really suited to taking closeups of small newspaper adverts.
This afternoon I saw in our local community newspaper (Highway Mail – 8 June 2012) that Hirsch’s were advertising “Fits into a Nespresso” coffee pods. Branded as “Cafe Luxe coffee pack” they come in sleeves of 10 capsules. Priced at R39.99 its about a rand per cup cheaper than the original nespresso. Not sure if it’s worth the difference but I haven’t tried them so shouldn’t comment on the quality.
This coffee comes in 5 flavours :
- Decaffe
- Lungo
- Mild roast
- Medium roast
- Dark roast
I am intrigued. If anyone has bought or tried this coffee please let us know.
Update :
I see that the online Espresso Shop also stocks these capsules. They have pictures of the capsules, also priced at R40/pack of 10, along with an FAQ stating that these are fully compatible and won’t damage your Nespresso machine. More details at their website here.
Update 2 :
I bought some of these capsules to try out. I used the first one this morning. Will provide more feedback as I go along:
- The capsules are in rather colourful, but plain and function box.
- You can slide the box open to remove a capsule without having to damage the box in any way
- The capsules feel plastic rather than a thin metal
- After putting the capsule into the machine it was a fair bit more difficult to close the Nespresso machine (and pierce the capsule)
- Once in and pressing the “make coffee” button some clear water come out before coffee starting pouring out. I haven’t seem this before with the normal Nespresso capsules
- The foam on the coffee wasn’t as “rich looking” as with the normal coffee
- I tried the medum roast blend (the orange box), and it was ok-ish. Perhaps slightly bitter, but nothing special. Neither good nor bad.
- When I took the capsule out after using it and examined it, the cap which normally has the lattice piercings in it was pierced but somehow not as cleanly as is normally the case
After just one cup my initial thought is that I probably won’t buy these again. For saving R1/cup it isn’t worth it, especially with the niggles above. Still, have 49 more cups to go, so more feedback to come.
Update : If you come across this post through a random internet search, you may want to read this later post, it is a whole lot more useful. (Not so compatible Nespresso pods)
Lonehill Estate – Lonehill Estate : Great album and a bargain at the Nokia store
Posted on June 03, 2012I’m rather enjoying Lonehill Estate’s new self titled album. Having heard a few tracks on the radio (Technoband, Daans and now Look Good) and been pleasantly surprised to find out it was our local boys I decided to pick up the album. This morning at the local mall I had a look around and neither CNA nor Checkers had a copy (though I did get the Parlotones Journey Through Shadows from Checkers).
On Twitter @lonehillestate themselves suggested I get it from @Look&ListenSA. This evening I checked out the online store and found the Album for R100, which wasn’t too bad. I always fill a little reticent paying close to physical prices for downloads so was going to give it a skip when I thought to check out the Nokia Ovi store. Delight. The full album (here) for R60. Bargain. Sold! I am now happily listening to the album.
Always worth shopping around, even online. Worth noting that their previous EP, Phone Home, is R100 on Nokia and only half the price at Look and Listen online. So Nokia isn’t always the cheapest, though generally I find them to be so.
Click through for the album track listing
Comrades Marathon 2012 – 15kms to go – the faces of winners
Posted on June 03, 2012
Comrades 2012
Comrades is somewhat a major event in KZN each year. Apart from being one of the biggest races in the world, it has a tradition. I recall going every year as a child to the race, a short 2km walk from our house, to support and watch the leaders coming through. I have memories of the route lined with people cheering on these amazing athletes as they came past at high speed, already having run 70km or more. The likes of Bruce Fordyce and Alan Robb. The image above is a collage of pictures I took this morning at just that spot. More of the pictures have been posted on Google Plus here.
Click through for details of who is in the pictures with links to their race details.
More Android love from DSTVmobile. 19 more devices. Well done DSTVmobile!
Posted on June 02, 2012Another update has been made of the Beta android application for the Drifta. You can get it here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dstvmobile.app.decoder
This application now works on a wide range of Android devices running on Android 2.2, 2.3, 3.x and 4.x (with hardware buttons). So Gingerbread, Honeycomb and IcecreamSandwich are all supported now.
The full list is below. With the extent of changes I have been a bit lazy to pull out only the new devices. On the tweet announcing this @neilinspace indicated that 19 more have been added from the last version of the Beta, I will take his word for it. The list is now quite impressive, most device owners should be happy, including those lucky enough to have picked up the new Galaxy SIII or one of the new HTC One devices.
Well done DSTVmobile!
Now please can we get some Blackberry love? I know the platform is dying but I really would like some support on the Bold 9900.
Click through for the Full list:
The painful process of recovering from an Identity Theft part 2
Posted on June 02, 2012A short while back I wrote about my experiences with having my identity stolen – and with Truworths, Identity and collection agencies hassling me for payment on accounts which I didn’t open.
As previously described I had some painful experiences with TransUnionITC, who in my opinion, are not respecting the National Credit Act and provide some pretty painful customer service.
Shortly after having lodged my complaint with ITC I received an SMS confirmation that the “trace alert” on my account as placed by the collection agency had been removed. Clearly due process had not been followed so that black mark against my record was resolved.
On Thursday 30th I received two more SMSs, one for each of the objections I had lodged against Truworths and Identity. The SMSs said “The account and payment history that reflected against your personal credit report with TransUnion has been deleted for TU20120502-000214-01/02″. the last two marks erased.
It took them the entire allowable period but they did remove the bad credit references on time. I received no calls back from TransUnionITC managers with respect to calls I made when none of them were available. I received no reply to the questions on my initial objection with respect to them not following the provisions of the National Credit Act. I still believe that TransUnionITC are breaking the law by virtue of not following due diligence procedures in vetting the information provided by their clients (the credit providers), by still prejudicing us (the consumers) by flagging our references being provided to credit suppliers as being suspect when a dispute is going on, and being party to this bullying process going on against the consumers.
I am not sure if I should be saying thanks to them for the pieces of the law that they actually obey, but I am still annoyed with them for treating me as a criminal and prejudicing me while their own staff don’t know the law and they are not obeying it.
The good news, I managed to dump vodacom in the meantime, and have happily and easily moved to a Cell C prepaid option (viva 99c everything). More about that in another post. Still looking forward to hearing from others having similar challenges.
If you haven’t read the original article, it includes extracts of the National Credit Act, highlighting relevant areas for cases like this. Link here.
(Posted from my iPad)
DSTVmobile launch a cute new iDrifta for the iPhone/iPad
Posted on June 01, 2012Update : DSTV mobile sent me one of these to review. Some of my comments below are inaccurate. Take a look at the “unboxing” post here : Unboxing of iDrifta with lots of pictures and comments. Review can be found here.
Today DSTVmobile announced a cute new iDrifta specifically for the Apple iPhone and iPad devices. The iDrifta is styled to match your iDevice and is diminutive in size compared to the previously available Driftas. The new device seems to be powered directly from the iDevice so no worries about keeping it charged and waiting for when you need it. It comes with an inbuilt Apple dock connector so no cables to fiddle with or lose.
Image “stolen” from the DSTV website
Being built specifically for iDevices has both pros and cons. Up to now iPhone/iPad users only had the option of the wi-fi Drifta which didn’t plug directly into the iDevice and required you to connect over wi-fi, losing your internet connection in the process. Since the Drifta client application doesn’t multi task or suspend this wasn’t a big deal. Switching out to check mail or an incoming notification would have killed the client app anyway and you would have to wait 20 to 30 seconds to reload the app and have it pick up signal again, not very practical.
It is doubtful the new iDrifta solves this problem, although you may be able to stay connected to the internet and get your notifications, so switching apps you would have seen a notification and know for sure there is something for your attention.
I often find myself watching sport on the iPad as it has the perfect size screen for DSTVmobile. Any bigger and the picture gets really blocky. Being a bit ADHD I like to do a couple of things at once so after a while I tend to hook the Drifta up to the laptop and surf the net on the iPad. With this new device that flexibility would be lost – you can use it only with the iDevice.
Still, for those who want a Drifta to use on the go with the iPhone or iPad, this looks like a really good option. It will be available in 10 days time from the normal outlets.
As always, officially the device doesn’t support jailbroken iPhone/iPads. It is unclear which version of the Drifta software on the iDevice supports the iDrifta, so the current hacked versions floating around probably won’t work. Buyer beware.
I have sent some questions to Maiyo at DTSVmobile, so hope to provide more information and perhaps do a full review later.
Justin
Press Release below after the jump
What people say
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