may 25 2010
for some odd reason the south african post office website does not work... and this isn't a new thing. i have been trying to get in for a couple of months now to track packages, upon trying to get in this morning it is yet again not loading. i did enquire about this and they shrug their shoulders, but are aware of it as are many other people... the ironic thing is that it says in their slogan on their banner (which i managed to get of google) "conveniently make online payments"! fail
Posted by sarah | add a comment | bloopers, bloopers, information, ranting, stoopidity, web
mar 23 2010
i read with great satisfaction today that south africa will finally get another player in the pay-tv arena. the newest (and only other pay-tv option) is on digital media. finding out what they are offering is proving hard to find but with options from R99/month and R249/month it is significantly cheaper than their rivals, where they offer a full boutique (without extra's) at R529/month. this is indeed good news and will hopefully give the consumer much more choices...
dec 12 2008
in june / july of this year, the competition commission made recommendations that the banks should reduce charges over a wide variety of services. today, 5 and half months down the line, there is another story about this. this seems to be the full technical report...
it still doesn't change the fact that the findings prove we are being ripped off and almost 6 months later nothing has changed.
while these were only recommendations, time-frames were set for their implementation, after which commissioner shan ramburuth would initiate official investigations into the practices.absa seems to have taken the first step with a r5 charge for their entry-level customers. what does that mean? who is an entry-level customer? what service is this r5 charge for?
Posted by sarah | add a comment | debate, information, ranting
oct 30 2008
i have been so bad at blogging, it's mad to think that it's really 9 months since i have blogged (time span it takes for a baby to develop and pop out). i really did have good intentions of doing so more often and even to back date some stuff.
there has just been no real urge. i have found many other things to do rather. my bad...
this is just to say that i am still around, although busy.
Posted by sarah | add a comment | information
Jan 17 2008
there's alot of pipe laying happening in melkbosstrand at the moment. i didn't take too much notice and assumed the government was upgrading some or other line, but then i spotted a neotel branded truck. it looks like melkbos will be one of the places that neotel will launch it's public offerings to (when they do launch). at the rate these guys are going, i doubt the wait will not be much longer!
Posted by sarah | add a comment | information, tech
nov 14 2007
this so sounds like what happened to ed and i on a flight from cape town to jo'burg. after grounding us for 1 hour, they turned around and said that it was a mistake. scary, nonetheless, when you return to the airport and a bunch of ambulances and firetrucks are chasing the plane as it lands... i think kulula needs to check this out thoroughly, because it has happened before!
Posted by sarah | add a comment | bloopers, information
sep 08 2007
... eat with chopsticks?
... quit facebook?
well, wikiHow will help you out, if those are the 2 topics you need help with.
there are some pretty ridiculous ones though, i clicked on the 'the random article' link under 'featured articles' and got some whack results (1st five clicks):
How to Date a Hopelessly Romantic Person When You Are Not Hopelessly Romantic
How to Shuffle on Heelys
How to Say What You Mean Without Being Mean
How to Watch Tigers in a Tiger Safari
How to Draw Basic Human Figures
Posted by sarah | add a comment | information, web
aug 22 2007
it looks like south africa will finally join most of the world in having access to cheaper, faster broadband... but only in early 2009 and courtesy of the second national operator, aka neotel.
the heading of the article is "Cheaper broadband service in SA soon", i guess 1 and a half years isn't really that long.
yay for neotel! hopefully they can deliver when they say they will!
Posted by sarah | add a comment | information, tech
oct 15 2006
since early september i have been waiting to change my cellphone provider. i was going to wait just a few days because it was supposed to happen on the 18th september - cool, the day my contract expired! but the 18th passed and nothing happened! quite quietly the powers that be decided that it wouldn't happen on that day. i went to a few cellphone shops and no-one could give me a date.
i was assured that i wouldn't have to sign on for a new contract in the meantime. meaning that i would still be connected on my number at a normal contract rate until i signed up on another contract, either with the same provider (belch) or by using mnp and using a different provider...
so i have been waiting and it seems like i won't have to wait too much longer, because the 10th of november has been earmarked for this to actually start taking place, hopefully.
so what's the big deal with number portability? well, basically, i don't have much choice in what i have to pay on a monthly basis regarding the type of contract i want to sign up for at my current provider. i also don't have much choice on the phone that i get with said contract. plus, there's an awful lot of providers offering all sorts of 'freebies' (laptops, hi-fi systems etc) with their contracts that my current provider doesn't offer!
so, it seems like my provider doesn't have alot to offer me does it? that's what i thought and that's why i'm waiting for the mnp to kick in.
what i did discover throughout all of this was that if i am on a vodacom contract but with a preferred vodacom provider (like altech autopage), i couldn't move directly to vodacom. so it's not even about moving from mtn to cell c at all, it's simply about being able to move freely between any provider that is out there!
here's a pretty good faq on mobile number portability.
jun 15 2006
i had heard about virgin coming into the cellphone market in sa. i had no idea they would try their hand at banking too.
this is great news for consumers, let's hope that they can seriously offer better and cheaper service in both sectors. it's about time the big 4 banks and the big 3 cellphone operators caught a wake up call!
I'll certainly be checking it out.
apr 05 2006
i don't normally 'duplicate' info that i saw on another blog but i have do have a different angle...
the pic is of a guy on a sea kayak with a 4 metre shark following far too closely for my liking. it surfaced on the net and made the rounds. eventually some people wanted some answers, surfski.info gladly obliged and according to them alot of people thought the photo was faked.
it turns out it wasn't though!
and, i actually know the crazy guy who is pictured in the photo, it's tracey's ex-hubby. he's being living and breathing sharks for ever and has been based in gansbaai for a while now. he actually took me out to dyer island to do some shark watching a few years back - nope, no cage diving for me.
anyway, i think it takes alot of guts to kayak around the ocean with 4 metre sharks lurking around!
Posted by sarah | comments (3) | information, photography, web
dec 14 2005
the past week and abit everyone i know has been asking each other if they know where they can fill up.
i know the closest garage to me is empty. there's simply no fuel.
now i thought that it was only the western cape experiencing this fuel shortage problem but after listening to a national radio station this morning i heard that jo'burg is also a little low on fuel too.
the problem is minor, but big. it's not like we are being boycotted and will never get fuel again. or the country can't afford to import crude oil. it's a glitch in the system so to speak. the fuel companies were told to convert all 97 fuel to the environmentally friendly unleaded 95, before the end of the year.
it seems alot of the fuel producing plants decided to do this at the same time (more or less) and production fell. plus here in the western cape the caltex (chevron) plant in table view was running at a third of it's capacity due to maintenance... pretty much around the same time. hence the shortage in fuel. it seems they are working hard to get it sorted, in some instances they are claiming that there'll be fuel available in the next 24-36 hours. i reckon in a week things will be back to normal.
i've been pretty lucky in being able to find some 95 fuel not too far from where i have been running around. there's fuel at the shell garage on n2 coming back to cape town (as you just get off the sir lowry's pass and just after the gordon's bay turn off). there's also 3 garages in melkbosstrand. i've stopped by the caltex there and they have fuel...
the bp in west beach is empty, don't even bother just yet.
anyone else wanna add info on what and where there is fuel available / not avaliable?
dec 06 2005
it's actually going to happen, icasa is granting the sno a license this friday.
alas, it looks like it'll only be able to start offering services in mid-2006. in the light of this latest info i'm seriously hoping that affordable, uncapped broadband will finally become a reality...
oct 21 2005
we all get them and most of the time it's a bunch of funny pictures / funny stories / stories of people being stupid, but alot of the time they're mails containing some warning for women to be careful because something bad is going to happen if you; go to your car, go clubbing, take the stairs... etc.
i don't usually pay much attention, but it's the other 99 people you've sent it to that might and they'll forward it to 99 people they know and it just snowballs...
today i got a very informative powerpoint presentation on what the ladies should do protect themselves, some things mentioned were:
- use your elbow it's awfully handy and can do alot of damage
- if your handbag is what they want, throw it away from you and run in the other direction.
- use the lift rather than quiet stairwells
- run! even if they have a gun. 4 percent of the time they will hit you and even then it won't be life threatening. run! etc.
then it went on to explain that a serial killer is playing a recording of a baby crying to get unsuspecting do-gooders (ie. woman) to come out of their houses late at night to, er hmm, kill them.
most of the mails i receive are from woman, if not all, and i have been making it my business to make sure that they're not sending 'scary' false information to alot of other people by checking the story out on snopes.com to see whether or not it's a urban legend / hoax or simply the truth.
if it's a hoax i "reply to all" and send a link with abit of information from the page. i try and be polite about it, but i also try and make it very clear that people shouldn't be sending these false messages around the web. the serial killer story has been circulating the web for roughly 2 years...
the picture is from this hoax that has been sent around the web since 2001.
ps. if you have ever sent me a chain email, this post is not meant to offend, just help you make the right choice before forwarding it to everyone on your contact list! check it out before you send it on.
may 12 2005
surfing around today, i came across nationmaster.com. a handy way to graphically compare nations...
i did a comparison on murder rates and south africa came 4th. 1st was india, 2nd russia and 3rd colombia...
dec 02 2004
so a work collegue mailed the asa (advertising standards authority of south africa) and asked them about that ad by telkom that is misleading... asa told him that they have received a few complaints and they're looking into it. that was about 2-3 weeks ago... today, he got a pdf document report of what went down.
first i would like to highlight that once again telkom believes that everybody in sa who has seen the ad is under the impression that what the ad portrayed is something that will happen only in the future and it hasn't actually really happened yet...
excerpts from the asa directorate ruling:
1. complainants (sp?) pointed out the following:
the commercial tells the story of "juma", a tanzanian boy who has "...just turned six...". the commercial explains that this would not have been possible had it not been for the "...emergency operation, performed by cape town heart surgeon doctor anton louw". the commercial explains, "...the real miracle is that juma and anton were three thousand miles apart, thanks to isdn technology". at the end of the commercial the pay-off line "touch tomorrow" appears on screen, and the voiceover states "from telephones, to distant surgery and this is just the beginning"2. response:
the respondent submits that the aim of the commercial is a creative rendition of what technology and the advances in technology can do to enhance the lives of customers. technically speaking, it is possible to have one surgeon direct another to perform specialised procedures using video conferencing, which might be made possible by isdn technlogy in the near future.3. actual complaint:
the complainants believe that the commercial is misleading based on the fact that there is no isdn technology in tanzania, nor has remote surgery ever been performed in south africa. telkom is misleading consumers into believing that the event has actually taken place, when it has not.4. result:
respondent is required to: - withdraw the commercial in its current format - the process of withdrawing this commercial must be actioned with immediate effect - the process of withdrawing the commercial must be completed within the deadlines in clause 15.3 of the procedural guide, and - the commercial may not be used in futurethis is good news, telkom may believe it can do anything it pleases but not today. i can't wait for the monopoly to one day be over...