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Sharing thoughts and ideas on business, security and photographyFollowing the #Afcon2013 players on Twitter (#CAN2013)
Posted on January 19, 2013I spent some time today capturing the Afcon 2013 player list (23 players from each of the 16 teams) and then trying to locate their Twitter accounts. A somewhat arduous task and one that is less than accurate. None the less, it is complete and available for you to follow the players quite easily.
In all 85 players were added to the list : https://twitter.com/jjza/afcon2013 the majority of which are players, with some support accounts added. I have not added the official accounts of each of the team, although have collected some. Will consider adding when see what is coming up on the Tweet feed. (This number will increase as I find more players, and I may not update the post, so don’t be surprised to find these don’t tally over time).
The position is summarised by country below. The top three by Rank are :
- South Africa
- Ivory Coast
- Algeria & Nigeria (tied)
Full list provided below.
Please click-through to the link. Mail me on afcon (at) j-j.co.za if you find additional players I have missed, or recommend any amendments I have tried to ignore spoof accounts and fake accounts, but cannot be sure I have got it all right.
Enjoy the #Afcon2013. And best of luck to Bafana. May things improve after tonight’s rather dismal game.
Website Changed : Activated cloudflare
Posted on January 19, 2013I have read about Cloudflare for a while and it seems to provide considerable benefits. I have noticed that this site is sometimes a bit slow to load and Google certainly thinks so. A potential problem is in Ad revenue as many online complain that Cloudflare has destroyed their ad-sense revenue (drop of 80% plus). I don’t really run this site to make ad revenue and have notice a huge fall off of revenue (despite visits not changing significantly) – so am curious as to what difference this now makes. Previously I wasn’t inclined to go through the hassles of changing the DNS entries etc to make this work, however my ISP has enabled a very easy method of enabling it so I have now turned it on.
If you notice any changes (positive and negative), please share your thoughts in the comments.
Thanks
Afcon 2013 online resources
Posted on January 19, 2013The African Cup of Nations (English #Afcon2013 French #CAN2013)
The tournament is being contested between 16 countries : Mozambique, Zimbabwe, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Togo, Malawi, Uganda, Cameroon, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cape Verde, Algeria, Egypt or Central African Republic . Profiles of each of the teams can be found on LoriiPapa.com.
The tournament kicks off on 19 January 2013 and runs until the final on the 10th February.
The tournament is well represented online :
- Website : www.afcon2013online.com
- Facebook page
- The Official twitter account : @CAF_ONLINE
- iOS App
- Android App
- YouTube Channel
Various unofficial CAF 2013 twitter accounts abound include : @AFCON_SA
Nokia music : when things go wrong #fail (updated : Resolved)
Posted on January 01, 2013For a long time in SA we didn’t have any real choice if we wanted to buy music online. iTunes didn’t support us, the other stores wanted to sell DRM’ed music, the methods to download the music were painful and it really wasn’t much cheaper than getting the physical CD’s instore. Then I found Nokia Music (OVI store). They supported South African musicians, have a decent selection of artists and albums, are reasonably priced and provide further discounts for buying credit up front. Albums average between R60 and R100 each (and often it is the newer ones at R60). Songs between R6 and R10 each. Buy R500 of credit and get R600. So you could get between 6 and 10 albums for R500. Thats good value.
To download your music though you have to use the clunky Nokia Music Player. Worse than iTunes and I never use it for anything other than downloading my music. The problem with it is that it queues your songs for download but they regularly fail. Then it is a manual process of logging onto the website and getting the missing tracks individually. With the Lumia 800 things improved a little (or so I thought). You could now download the albums directly to the phone over wi-fi, no PC needed.
In the meantime iTunes started selling music in SA. I bought a Freshly Ground album for R60 but the rest of their music seemed expensive, sometimes as much as twice the price of Nokia Music (Rihanna Unapologetic Delux R60 vs over R120). I thought I would stay with Nokia music and put up with the hassles. iTunes really worked better, faster, simpler. But we all have our price.
Then it all went wrong. (Although @NokiaRSA did fix it in the end : See update at end)
Vida e caffe coffee capsules (Nespresso compatible) now available
Posted on December 29, 2012A month or so ago I was in the vida e at Canal Walk in Cape Town when I noticed they were selling capsule based coffee machines, as well as the capsules themselves. On enquiry they said that they were compatible with the Nespresso machines. Great, I picked up a box (a rectangular arrangement rather than the tubes we are used to).
Tried them out, they work fine and taste great.
Others have had some hassles getting them to work properly. Read the interesting post (with lots of pictures) over at Square Art (link) here, documenting some problems they had with the capsules, and how to solve the problem.
The capsules are the same plastic ones as the Caffelux which made me wonder if they weren’t just co-branded items produced by Caffelux. Google indeed confirmed this to be the case with a post on the Luxury Coffee website confirming they were producing them for vida e. More info here.
I forget exactly how much I paid for them, think was around R58 or so, and I see they are on the Luxury Coffee website for R59.90 a box. So pick some up at your local vida e, or get them from Luxury Coffee but let us know what you think of them. Both the VIDA ESTRELLA REGULAR (10 CAPSULES) and VIDA ESTRELA DECAFFE (10 CAPSULES) are available.
P.S. Just to sweeten the deal the box came with a voucher included for a free cup of coffee at vida e. Nice touch.
Some Drifta/DSTV Mobile updates you may have missed
Posted on December 29, 2012Expanded coverage
Firstly, coverage has been expanded. The folks in East London can now enjoy the service. This is the first expansion of coverage in quite some time so this is good news. Personally I must confess to having had a concern that DSTV couldn’t attract enough customers to the mobile service and that we may never see an expansion of the service.
Take a look at the coverage map to see if your area is supported : Map
Windows Phone
Secondly, Windows Phone is now supported. This seems to cover devices (mostly Nokias) running Windows 7.5 and up. So this is really the Lumia 710, Lumia 800 and Lumia 900 (WP 7.5) and then (although not stated on the website or the store) the 820 and 920 (WP8). I have seen some compliants online that not all Windows Phone 8 Devices are supported.
More info for Windows Phone is on the DSTV Mobile website (here)
Symbian / Nokia
Thirdly, a whole lot of Nokia Symbian devices are supported. You can download the app from the OVI store if you have any of the following devices :
Touch : N8, C6, C7, E7, E6, N97, N97 Mini, X6, 5800 X-press Music
Keypad: E52, E63, E71, E72, E75, N95
More info for Symbian (Nokia) devices is on the DSTV Mobile website (here)
Recovering from the 1time blues
Posted on November 03, 2012Yesterday was an unfortunate day for many South Africans with the demise of 1time. There was chaos at the airports around the country as passengers were left stranded, some literally at the boarding gates after their luggage had been loaded, others hearing the news while on their way to the airport, and arriving to find closed check-in points and service desks. Twitter was abuzz with the news, reports of tearful employees asking sorrowfully about their jobs.
I was at OR Tambo, for a change very thankful to be flying SAA, observing all this going on around. One of the passengers boarding with me had paid R2800 to get a one-way ticket from Jhb to Durbs on the fateful Friday night. At the boarding gate there were a handful of standby passengers hoping that one of the regular fliers wouldn’t arrive so they would be able to get home. Only a few made it on, the rest were left hoping to catch another flight. A passenger relayed the story of how he flew up Friday morning, the plane only had around 40 passengers on-board, the emptiest flight he had ever been on. The pilot then made a strange comment after they landed. Instead of the usual “hope to see you aboard an xxx flight soon” he remarked that he couldn’t say he hoped to see them on a flight soon, then seemingly realising what he had said cut off the comment halfway through. Seems to indicated that even if the staff had no inkling, the pilots had some forewarning of sorts.
What kind of content should we be sharing on @PigspotKZN : Poll
Posted on November 03, 2012There are often comments and complaints on what people are sharing on @pigspotkzn, so here is your chance to have your say and tell the community what kind of information you want to see shared. The poll will stay open for a week depending on the response rate.
Just untick the items you don’t want.
Thanks for sharing, and please feel free to comment on this post to tell us your thoughts.
Justin
Zacon presentation : Game Hacking : Ross Simpson
Posted on October 27, 2012Unfortunately I missed Zacon this year, again! So far have only heard good things about it. Picked up on Twitter a short while ago that Ross Simpson had presented on “Game Hacking” and had made his presentation available for download, along with a number of the tools referenced. Makes a most interesting read and provides a good history to game hacking and introduction to those who want to get further into it.
Go and download the presentation and take a read here : http://hypn.za.net/zacon4/
Thanks Ross for supporting Zacon, and for sharing a most interesting presentation.
Security considerations for Cloud Computing (ISACA publication)
Posted on October 13, 2012ISACA has released their latest book on cloud computing : Security Considerations for Cloud Computing, earlier in the week I received notification that my personal copy is with FedEx on it’s way to South Africa for me, one of the perks of being an expert reviewer on the panel for the publication.
This guide is Another publication in the Cloud Computing Vision Series, Security Considerations for Cloud Computing presents practical guidance to facilitate the decision process for IT and business professionals concerning the decision to move to the cloud. It helps enable effective analysis and measurement of risk through use of decision trees and checklists outlining the security factors to be considered when evaluating the cloud as a potential solution.
There are five essential characteristics, three types of service models and four major deployment models taken into account relative to cloud computing. To ensure a common understanding of these models, this publication describes the characteristics of each characteristic and model.
This guide is meant for all current and potential cloud users who need to ensure protection of information assets moving to the cloud.
If you are making any significant use of Cloud Computing I would recommend you get your hands on the publication. It’s free for members to download, otherwise $35 for a hard copy, $70 for non-members.
App.net The future or just another twitter wannabe?
Posted on October 13, 2012Back on 2nd September, after having heard about it on twitter and in tech circles, I finally got around to signing up for app.net. I had briefly checked it out before, but given the $50/year fee hadn’t bothered. Is time around I decided that I wanted my @jjza handle on app.net and that the $50 wasn’t that much of an investment to reserve the name. Since then the price has fallen to a more reasonable $36 and early adopters given an extension to their original subscription period.
App.net is still very much under development and after signing up I didn’t really use it much. Then along came Netbot, a rehashed twitter client specifically for app.net and iOS / iPad and its pretty darn slick. So now I have started using App.net a bit more.
There are still not a lot of users on board, although the numbers are increasing rapidly. At the time I signed up there were around 20 000, I’m not sure of the latest count. This low user base was even more apparent when I had Netbot search my twitter follower list and give me the option of following them on App.net. The results were disappointing but at the same time it was good to see a few familiar faces like Erik Hersman, Paul Jacobson and Steven Fry on there.
App.net is still evolving, new features are being added all the time, and Netbot is a really slick client, I like the 256 character limit rather than the 140 of twitter, though honestly can’t tell you if there are any real benefits. I guess that will be figured out as we to along and for now I will cross post stuff between App.net and twitter until a critical mass of followers emerges.
If you make it over that side, follow me : https://alpha.app.net/jjza
Please share your thoughts on the new platform.
Working with CSV files on the Bold 9900
Posted on October 13, 2012Recently with the implementation of a Security Information and Event Monitoring (SIEM) tool in our organisation I have started receiving a number automated reports on a daily basis. A number of these are useful to me as Key Performance Indicators of security status of the organisation.
When these arrive on my Blackberry I need a way of having a quick look to see if there are any immediate problems to deal with. Unfortunately my Blackberry 9900 running OS 7.1 with the full Documents to Go still can’t open CSV files.
Enter CSV Table Pro.
This is a basic little tool. It let’s you create, view or work with CSV files. While it is a little rough around the edges it is cheaply priced and achieves the desired outcome.
Once installed you can click directly on the CSV from your mail, it will download and then the application will spawn. I found that it then tends to switch immediately back to the mail application and I had to manually switch to CSV Table Pro using Alt Backarrow.
Problem solved. Enjoy
(I had wanted to add a screenshot but my Blackberry security policy prevents screenshots)
Posted from WordPress for BlackBerry.
Hands on with the Blackberry 10 that is coming early next year (Febuary 2013)
Posted on September 22, 2012Last week I was invited to attend a Blackberry function for a “key few” top clients in the country. I accepted reluctantly as others from my employer couldn’t make the event. I guess I had written off Blackberry and on the day of the event our organisation announced that employees for the first time had the choice of getting iPhone’s or Galaxy SIII’s instead of Blackberries.
I have been using a Blackberry for almost as far back as I can remember, for probably the last 10 years at least. The first was a rather clunky device with a physical scroll wheel on the side, a version 7200 or something like that. Since then I have been through many versions, from the diminutive phone-like Pearl through two version of the Bold (9000 and 9900) with an 8520 for a 4 month period in-between the last two.
Blackberry has always served me well when it came to “business” functions like email, contacts and calendar. Over the last 3 years it has also significantly improved in the “social” area as BBM took off like wildfire to replace the increasingly unstable MXIT and as Twitter and Facebook were integrated. Even as I have carried an iPad and various Nokia and Windows phones the Blackberry was still my favourite twitter client as it worked so much better in low signal and erratic signal areas.
In the last 6 months Blackberry has been in a lot of trouble per the global press. The devices were no longer cool, the network had it’s fair share of problems, the Blackberry 10 was delayed. The Playbook tablet was released prematurely with buggy feature deprived software, and looked clunky in comparison to the iPad and Galaxy tablets.
On the way to the event I even tweeted out to my few hundred followers that I was going to this event, using what I though would be my last Blackberry.
The event was at the DaVinci in Sandton. Nice venue. It was in the evening and started a little late. A simple affair, some cocktail tables set up in a room with food and drinks being served. The event started a little late as the key guests were delayed at their previous engagement. The opportunity was taken to catch up with some old acquaintances and make a few more. The mood was a little downbeat with people just wanting to get home.
The entourage arrived. The global executive team. Thorsten Heins (President and CEO), Frank Boulben (Chief Marketing Officer), Carlo Chiarello (Executive Vice President), supported by the South African team, including newly appointed Southern Africa CEO Alexandra Zagury.
Frank came across to our table, introduced himself, pulled a Blackberry 10 all touch device out of his pocket and without much fanfare proceeded to give us a very hands on half hour demo of the device and what it can do. This was so much more effective than any Powerpoint video or presentation and was a masterstroke.
I’m looking for staff : Security, Governance, Risk and Compliance
Posted on September 01, 2012Six more positions are available in the Enterprise Information Security Management team at Transnet, within the IT Security, Governance, Risk and Compliance competency areas.
We have a lot of challenging but interesting work ahead of us. If you want to learn a lot, apply what you have learned, be part of a hard working and performing team, then please apply 🙂
- ICT Continuity Compliance Manager
- IT Risk and Compliance Manager
- Information Security Subject Matter Expert
- Information Security Analyst (SME) x 2
- Senior Security Analyst (inc Forensic & Incident)
These positions are all based in the Johannesburg CBD (Carlton Centre) and are manager or senior consultant level positions.
External applicants must apply by submitting CVs electronically to recruitment@transnet.net by 16h00 on 07 September 2012. Any questions regarding the positions should be sent to linneth.mpete@transnet.net.
Further details for each of the positions can be found here :http://lnkd.in/gyy9FR (Google Plus)
We urge all our employees, clients, members of the public and our suppliers to report any kind of fraud or corruption at Transnet. Call the hotline toll free number: 0800 003 056 or email Transnet@tip-offs.com
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