14th

August 2015

What the Heck? his year marks my 21

st anniversary as an Internet user. Strangely, however, my biggest fear for the

future of humanity is the Internet. At present, everyone is obsessed with the Internet. Every company

in the world is investing millions in their websites and not one, so far as I can tell, has even the

remotest idea of how it can possibly generate any money. A classic example is iTunes. Apparently, Apple

doesn’t make a penny from the music you download to your MAC. But if you want to put that onto a portable

device you have to buy an iPod, and they make big bucks from iPods. It’s a great plan, but now Norway has

decided that Apple must make its loss-making music library available to anyone, no matter what sort of

hardware they have. France and Germany and the rest of Europe are thinking of following suit. And if the

rest of the world falls into line, that’s pretty much that for Apple. It’s all just

rubbish anyway, because there are countless sites out there in cyberspace where

you can download music for nothing and then put it onto whatever sort of MP3

player takes your fancy. No wonder that so many record shops are going belly

up. Who would buy a CD or DVD these days when with a couple of clicks you

can have it for free? And it’s not just media that are under threat. Why go to a

doctor when there’s WebMD? Why buy an encyclopaedia when there’s

Wikipedia? Why bother with all the hassle of going to a mall when you can shop

online? All the retailers... well, they’ve all had it. The only people I can think of

who won’t lose their jobs to the Internet are those who dig up roads, funnily

enough, nobody seems to have noticed this. One day, of course, you will. The world will wake up and realise

its unemployed and that we’ve all been retrenched by machines. And don’t try to argue that we will always

triumph over machines because we can pull the plug. The problem with the Internet is that you can’t.

You may have noticed above that I used the term DVD and I wonder how many of you know that it stands

for Digital Video Disk. Three letter acronyms or TLA’s as I shall call them, rule our lives, and Whatsapp and

“textspeak” has just made things worse. How many of you are not guilty of the occasional LOL, or

apologised that you’ve GTG, or even had a lapse into a moment of OMW or WTF? - There can be no doubt,

of course, that TLA’s were created so that people at work could save time while talking. This is why TLAs

are so popular in the army. In the heat of battle you can’t use 20 seconds of radio time calling for someone to

“fetch that sort of portable light machine gun thingy” when you can say “Get the LMG” and all is well.

Unfortunately, half the acronyms take longer to say than the words they’ve replaced. Douglas Adams once

joked that the nine syllable “www” abbreviation was the only TLA that took longer to say than the words it

replaces. But he’d obviously never talked to an army chap about an IED. This means improvised explosive

device. - IOW “bomb”. Businessmen are similarly guilty. Instead of talking about work in China (two

syllables), they talk about going to the PRC (three). And what’s more some even refer to the time it takes to

get there as P2P, meaning pillow to pillow, which is just about the most stoopid thing I’ve ever heard. And in

our industry, which is infested with TLA’s, they are definitely a way to exclude the “non-belongers” - like

the DBM is the database manager and PMS is the project management system (LOL) etc. In other words, we

are using three words where one will do, simply so we can use a TLA and therefore exclude others from our

conversation. Being part of the “in-group” is here to stay and so therefore, it seems, are TLA’s.

My least favourite TLA of them all though is PLU — people like us. Anyone who uses this, has no

connection with me, at all. – Have a great week team.

T

14th

August 2015

Stagefright not so scary.

ou may remember that last week we

mentioned that Zimperium recently

revealed the security flaw in Android that

exposes 95% of Android devices, which it said is

close to a billion phones. This bug lets an attacker

send their victim an MMS message that can run

any program it wants to on your phone which

makes it possible for an attacker to take over your

smartphone and steal your private information.

Android and derivative devices after and including

version 2.2 “Froyo” are vulnerable, said

Zimperium.

Not as widespread as first thought

Well, Google said that although the bug is serious,

it does not affect as many devices as Zimperium

suggested. Adrian Ludwig, lead engineer for

Android security, spoke at the BlackHat security

conference last week and said 90% of Android

devices have a technology called ASLR enabled,

which protects users from the issue. ASLR has

been enabled in the default Linux Kernel since

June 2005, and was added to Android from

Version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

Android manufacturers respond

Google and Android device makers said that

measures are being taken to release security

updates more rapidly for the platform. Google said

its Nexus devices will now receive regular over-

the-air updates each month focused on security. At

the same time, the fixes will be released to the

public via the Android Open Source Project.

Samsung also announced it will implement a new

Android security update process that will fast-track

the release of patches when security vulnerabilities

are uncovered.

Alcatel said it will roll out a patch to deal with

Stagefright, while Sony, HTC, and LG have said

they will release patches in August.

Data - Price down, usage up.

odacom recently released it latest

quarterly update, reporting tremendous

growth in data traffic (45.7%) and data

revenues (34.8%), underscoring that its big story is

data. The mobile operator also reported that its

average effective price per MB of data decreased

by 9.1% over the past year. It is also interesting to

look at this figure in the context of Vodacom’s

increasing data revenue, active data subscribers,

number of active smart devices, and the increase in

average smartphone data usage over the years.

1. The average price per MB of data on Vodacom

is almost 43% of what it was in June 2011.

2. The amount of active (human) data subscribers

has also risen from around 12 million in June

2012 to 17.7 million in June 2015

3. Smartphone average data usage on Vodacom’s

network has increased from 84MB per month

in September 2011, to 408MB in June 2015.

Y V

14th

August 2015

Smile, its good communication.

ell, since I have finally got as far as

page 3 without one of my traditional

“smileys” in sight, it might be

appropriate to do a whole column on them now

(and get a lot of them in at the same time) Smileys,

or Emoji, the cutesy images that litter text

messages, have quickly risen to become pop

culture icons and businesses have taken note.

Some business applications of smileys have come

in the form of effective campaigns to connect to

the demographics that use them most as well as

some borderline silliness.

On the effective side, brands such as McDonalds

and Coca Cola have recently incorporated smileys

into their advertising. Coca Cola went so far as to

register web domains using popular smileys, and

slapping the addresses onto billboards. Then

there’s the matter of Sony securing the rights

to make an Emoji movie.

Silliness aside, Research conducted by The

Atlantic found that 76% of all adults make use of

smileys (so it seems I’m in the majority), and the

practice has quickly slipped into the workplace

According to socio-linguist, Lauren Collister,

smileys are revolutionizing language. Specifically,

in emails, they act as discourse particles, a word

that has no semantic meaning but adds intention to

a statement. Other studies agreed, finding that the

use of smileys wasn’t necessarily used to convey

emotion, but rather as signal of tone: to mark

jokes, or soften or strengthen statements that could

be easily misread. And as communications

between people, companies and clients

increasingly moves to a more informal online

space (away from cold, toneless emails), the use of

smileys is expected. There’s a whole range of

smileys you can use in your Gmail, just click the

smiley icon at the foot of your “compose” screen.

Stick a smiley into your emails, its good

communication.

Apple is killing voicemail.

pple is currently testing a voicemail

service that will see its voice-driven

personal assistant, Siri, handling your

calls and messages. This is according to a report

by Business Insider, which says testing has been

happening for several weeks. The way the system

would work is when an iCloud user is unable to

take a call, Siri will answer it and relay

information about where you are and why you

cannot answer. Siri would also then transcribe the

message to text.

According to Business Insider, the system will

work using technology already in use by Siri to

transcribe voice commands. Siri is expected to be

upgraded with the roll-out of iOS – but the Apple

Voicemail functionality is only anticipated in

2016. You can expect other manufacturers to

follow suit – or maybe even get there first?

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A

14th

August 2015

No Communications DG.

n a more serious but equally important

note, the Director General in the

Department of Telecommunications,

Rosey Sekese has been placed on precautionary

suspension.

Minister Cwele of Telecommunications and Postal

Services said on 3 August that leadership problems

causing “paralysis” at the department would be

investigated. Cwele said he is “attending to the

ongoing leadership challenges which are

negatively impacting the department’s ability to

execute its functions timeously”. In particular,

Cwele said he would consider placing the

department’s Sekese on a “precautionary leave of

absence” amid the probe. Reports have claimed

that Sekese is purging the department of those who

oppose her.

A statement released by the DTPS on 7 August

stated that “After considering the reasons and

applying his mind, Minister Cwele has decided to

place the DG on precautionary suspension for a

period of 60 days while the Public Service

Commission conducts its independent inquiry.”

“The Minister has accordingly appointed Tinyiko

Ngobeni as the Acting Director General until

further notice.”

Telkom going open source.

elkom said in its latest annual report it will

make “around 200 of our exchanges

available to Internet service providers on

an open access basis during 2015” in an effort to

stimulate access to broadband. While the project is

still in development, Telkom spokesperson Jacqui

O’Sullivan provided information on the

company’s plans. She said Telkom is looking to

run pilots based on data uptake to fully realise the

profitability of its exchanges. “We believe this

would be the right basis through which we could

create an environment for open access in future,”

said O’Sullivan.

Telkom is initially rolling out this initiative in

areas where it is easier to determine the total cost

of service to refine the model. “We will look at

rolling out open access once we have constructed a

repeatable model for this.”

Local Internet service providers said they have not

been informed about the initiative, which makes it

difficult for them to comment. MWEB CEO Derek

Hershaw said they have not heard from Telkom.

He added that they do not know what Telkom’s

plan is, or how it will play out.

O

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14th

August 2015

EDs Feature – Sleep on it, it’s a good idea!

e tend to think of sleep as a period of recuperation, giving us enough down-time to enable our

muscles and thought processes to operate effectively. However, sleep can also have an active

function. As far back as Aristotle, the fact that we dream has suggested to people that sleep could

enhance the mind’s self-communication. And, more recently, there’s been a surge of research into the

consequences of sleep as an active process, rather than just a rest. We now

know that sleep has profound implications for lots of human tasks. Sleep

improves our memory, and enables us to consolidate new information with

the knowledge we already have. Sleep also changes the quality of our

stored information. We are more likely to adjust our memories slightly so

that they fit better with our previous experiences after sleeping. And we are

more likely to avoid misleading background information in making

decisions and judgements. But sleep also has a positive effect on problem

solving. It’s common to feel you can gain inspiration for something overnight. You may have even woken up

in the middle of the night with the solution to a problem, whether it be trivial or life-changing. These

intuitions turn out to be absolutely correct.

A recent study at Lancaster University gave volunteers a set of problems

comprising three words. The task was to discover another word that related to

all three: for example: cake, Swiss and cottage. Half the problems were easy,

and half were hard. One (“sleep”) group of volunteers first saw the problems

in the evening and then tried to solve them again the next morning. Another

(“wake”) group saw the problems in the morning then reattempted them in

the evening. For the easy problems, the wake group solved the problems

slightly more effectively. For the hard problems, the sleep group improved substantially in their discovery of

the answer.

Such word problems are only very simple, but can sleep also improve problem solving for more complicated

problems, and is this just due to improved memory? A key skill in good decision-making and problem-

solving is the ability to adapt the solution for one problem to another related problem. And yet people are

notoriously poor at applying these analogous solutions. Although they were developed thousands of years

later, modern theories of the neurophysiological effects of sleep on the brain are surprisingly consistent with

Aristotle’s view of the active role of sleep. A prominent current theory (as

portrayed in the Disney-Pixar film Inside Out) is that sleep enables the transfer

of information between the hippocampus – the part of the brain that encodes

recent experiences – and the neocortex – where longer term experiences are

stored. If we can effectively incorporate solutions from past problems into our

thinking, we’re better equipped to tackle new problems.

This research gives us some guidance on improving our day-to-day approach to

solving problems. If it is a difficult problem, set it aside overnight, and return to it the next day. Even if

you’ve already made a complex decision, reappraising it briefly the next day is more likely to result in the

best choice you can make. “Sleep on it” is now scientifically supported advice, so there is no problem with

letting Vincent know that you will “sleep on it.” (And if you’re still wondering, the answer is “cheese”.)

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14th

August 2015

Telkom for Supersport.

elkom CEO Sipho Maseko said the

company is looking at becoming a

solutions and content provider, instead of

just providing connectivity. In an interview with

Business Times, Maseko said they are planning to

get the rights to broadcast sporting events like

Premier Soccer League matches.

The change in business model will allow the

company to generate additional revenue from its

current fixed-line connectivity business.

He said the bigger plan is that future Telkom

customers will get one bill for all their voice,

connectivity, and entertainment needs.

Part of Telkom’s strategy is also to increase its

capacity in the IT services market. To achieve this,

it is acquiring Business Connection.

The Competition Tribunal recently approved its

acquisition of Business Connexion (BCX), which

will then de-list from the JSE.

“We are very pleased that the Competition

Tribunal has approved this acquisition, which will

benefit both Telkom and BCX customers,” said

Maseko.

He said that Telkom will now be able to grow

beyond its core business of connectivity by

expanding into ICT services, while reinforcing its

connectivity offering.

Multi(NO)Choice.

ultiChoice, owned by Naspers, offers its

DSTV satellite service both locally and

across the African continent. Its sports

service, SuperSport, is renowned for providing

world class coverage, with many subscribers

calling for a sports only package. We asked the

group if subscribers could obtain a SuperSport-

only package, or a premium entertainment package

without sport. “We understand that some of our

customers are of the view that they’d save money

if they could choose a genre-specific package like

sport, or put together their own package with only

the channels they want. Unfortunately, this view is

incorrect,” said MultiChoice. The company said a

large portion of its costs are from the acquisition

of the rights to broadcast live sports games, and

premium entertainment content.

“Acquiring these rights is extremely expensive,”

said MultiChoice. It said its business model was

structured on the basis of a number of pre-

determined packages. Bundling channels into

packages gave subscribers the benefits of

economies of scale, it said, since the costs of

acquiring content were spread across many

customers on many packages.

“Offering a genre-specific package (for example

sport) will actually end up costing the customer

more than the current subscription for the

Premium package,” said MultiChoice.

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14th

August 2015

“STOP” Means “Opt-Out” !

o a serious Internet user, the EFF is not the

noisy, red-beret and overall wearing

parliamentary party, it is the Electronic

Frontier Foundation, a non-profit digital rights

group which has just announced that it is releasing

version 1.0 of its Privacy Badger add on for

Chrome and Firefox. Advertising companies have

made the non-consensual tracking of people’s Web

browsing habits alarmingly widespread. Privacy

Badger is our answer to that problem. Privacy

Badger is a browser extension that automatically

blocks hidden trackers that would otherwise spy

on your browsing habits as you surf the Web.

The new Privacy Badger 1.0 release includes many

improvements, including being able to detect

certain kinds of super-cookies and browser

fingerprinting - some of the more subtle and

problematic methods that the online tracking

industry employs to follow Internet users from site

to site.

How does Privacy Badger work?

As you browse the Web, Privacy Badger looks at

any third party domains that are loaded on a given

site and determines whether or not they appear to

be tracking you (e.g. by setting cookies that could

be used for tracking, or fingerprinting your

browser).

If the same third party domain appears to be

tracking you on three or more different websites,

Privacy Badger will conclude that the third party

domain is a tracker and block future connections to

it. For certain websites, if Privacy Badger were to

block an embedded domain entirely it would break

the site’s core functionality. In these cases Privacy

Badger blocks the domain from setting or

receiving any cookies or ‘referrer’ headers, but

allows the embedded content to load.

Often, users aren’t aware that they’re being

tracked around the Internet by dozens of different

companies. Even if you know what’s up, changing

browser settings to make yourself safe is

essentially impossible.

The advertising industry has used opt outs that are

better described as “pretend not to track”, with an

emphasis on hiding the symptoms of tracking

rather than actually preventing it. But users still

need a way to opt-out of the non-consensual

collection of their data. To be clear, EFF isn’t

against websites seeking to build businesses

around advertising. More business models means a

more vibrant Web. But advertising cannot come

at the expense of user privacy and the inviolable

principle of consent. Until the online tracking

industry changes its ways, the only option for

users is to protect themselves by installing tools

such as Privacy Badger. Installing Privacy Badger

also enables the DNT flag as a clear signal to sites

that the user wants to opt-out of online tracking.

Privacy Badger inspects third party sites for a

commitment to honour that request under the DNT

(Do Not Track) Policy; if it finds one, it will

unblock that third party by default. That way, web

services that do the right thing by users can

continue to collect anonymous data or show

anonymous ads, while those that don’t will be

foiled by the Badger’s protections.

You can get your copy of Privacy Badger via the

Chrome web store or Mozilla Addons. Download

Privacy Badger now, protect yourself against

invasions of privacy, and help to build a cleaner,

leaner and more privacy-friendly Web for all of us.

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14th

August 2015

Ebola Hero remembered.

bola has left more than 18,000 children in

West Africa without one or both parents,

according to Unicef More than 8,000 of

them are in Sierra Leone. One of the unmentioned

heroes in the Ebola struggle was Augustine

Baker. He has since died of Ebola. The virus also

claimed the life of his wife Margaret and their

three small children are now Ebola orphans

.

"He sacrificed his life working for children," said

Isatu Kamara, a social worker at the orphanage

mentored by Augustine. "We feel the loss so

deeply. Augustine's children, the youngest just one

year, are now being cared for by their

grandmother. Augustine collapsed during a

meeting at the orphanage in February. After his

death, the entire centre had to be quarantined for

three weeks. Thankfully, no one else was infected.

"It's been difficult for us to continue," says Isatu

Kamara, "but we can't just leave all these

cases."Augustine is dead but we must still

continue to work for the children."

"We have been having cases of children being

rejected from their communities. They have been

stigmatised, especially children who survived

Ebola," said Isatu Kamara. "People are scared of

them... They just don't trust that these children are

okay now and they can touch them and go near

them, so they push [the children] far away from

them." It was this sort of work to which Augustine

Baker dedicated the final months of his life.

Augustine's mother says she will make sure his

children understand what their father did for Sierra

Leone. "I will tell them," she said. "They will be

very proud."

Music to cut by. laying music in the operating theatre can be

disruptive and surgeons should think twice

about pressing the play button, according to

a recent small study. Researchers filmed 20

operations at two UK hospitals to observe. When

music was played, operating staff often had to

repeat themselves to be heard - when requesting a

surgical instrument, for example.

For the study, published in the Journal of

Advanced Nursing, the investigators placed

multiple cameras at strategic points around the

operating room to observe the verbal and non-

verbal communications between staff. The 35

hours of footage showed it was usually the senior

doctors in the team who made the decision about

the background music, rather than the nurses.

Music was played in 16 of the 20 observed

operations. Dance music and drum and bass were

often played fairly loudly, with popular tracks

sometimes blasted out, which made talking

difficult. In one operation, the scrub nurse asked

the surgeon to turn the music down because she

was finding it hard to count up how many swabs

had been used.

The Royal College of Surgeons says if music is

played during surgery, it "must not be distracting".

E

P

14th

August 2015

Ebola vaccine is a “Game-Changer.”

A vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus has led to 100% protection and could transform the way

Ebola is tackled, preliminary results suggest.

here were no proven drugs or vaccines against the virus at the start of the largest outbreak of Ebola in

history, which began in Guinea in December 2013. However, the World Health Organization (WHO)

said the findings of a new trial, being published in the Lancet this week, could be a "game-changer".

Experts said the results were "remarkable".

This trial centred on the VSV-EBOV vaccine, which was started by the Public Health Agency of Canada and

then developed by the pharmaceutical company Merck. It combined a fragment of the Ebola virus with

another safer virus in order to train the immune system to beat Ebola. A unique clinical trial took place in

Guinea. When a patient was discovered, their friends, neighbours and family were vaccinated to create a

"protective ring" of immunity. This could be the breakthrough the world has been waiting for.

There is caution as the results are

still preliminary, with more data

coming in. But officials at the WHO

believe the effectiveness of the

vaccine will end up being between

75% and 100%.

Had such a vaccine been available

18 months ago then thousands of

lives could have been saved. There

are still other vaccines being trialled

- notably from GSK and Johnson &

Johnson - although as the number of

cases continues to fall it is becoming

increasingly difficult to prove how

effective they are. Ebola will

inevitably come again.

The hope now is that the legacy of this unprecedented outbreak will be a vaccine that means a tragedy of this

scale can never be repeated.

One hundred patients were identified in the trial between April and July and then close contacts were either

vaccinated immediately, or three weeks later. In the 2,014 close contacts who were vaccinated immediately

there were no subsequent cases of Ebola. In those vaccinated later there were 16 cases, according to the

results published in the Lancet medical journal.

'Promising'

The WHO says it is so far 100% effective, although that figure may change as more data is collected. Close

contacts of Ebola patients in Guinea will now be vaccinated immediately. And since the vaccine has been

shown to be safe, that process will also be extended to include children. Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) is

involved with this research, and is part of a parallel trial for frontline healthcare workers. Medical director

Bertrand Draguez said the Lancet results should spur instant action. "With such high efficacy, all affected

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14th

August 2015

countries should immediately start and multiply ring vaccinations to break chains of transmission and

vaccinate all frontline workers to protect them."

Marie-Paule Kieny, an assistant

Director General at the WHO said on

a BBC News interview: "It is

certainly promising. We have seen

that where rings have been

vaccinated, the transmission has

stopped. "Prior to vaccination there

were cases, cases, cases. The vaccine

arrives and 10 days later the cases

are flat. "It could be a game-changer

because previously there was

nothing, despite the disease being

identified 40 years ago.

"When there is a new outbreak this

vaccine will be put to use to stop the

outbreak as soon as possible to not

have the terrible disaster we have now."

More than 11,000 people have died from Ebola and nearly 28,000 have been infected.

The sheer scale of the 2014-15 outbreaks led to an unprecedented push on vaccines - and a decade's work has

been condensed into around 10 months.

The number of cases has fallen - and in the week up to July 26th 2015 there were just four cases in Guinea

and three in Sierra Leone.

Prof John Edmunds, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, helped design the trial: "The

development has been at an absolutely unprecedented speed.

"This is very good news, these are very significant results, the epidemic is not over and this shows we have

another potential weapon.

"The trial is still continuing, these are

interim results which need

confirming, but there's now light at

the end of the tunnel."

Dr Jeremy Farrar, the director of the

Wellcome Trust medical charity, said

this was a "remarkable result" and

was the product of international

collaboration. He added: "Our hope is

that this vaccine will now help bring

this epidemic to an end and be

available for the inevitable future

Ebola epidemics." (Photos courtesy of

MSF)

14th

August 2015

Our Stupid Brains.

he “rubber hand illusion” is one of the

weirdest and most-studied illusions in

neuroscience. It’s surprisingly easy to fool

people that a rubber hand is somehow their own.

Place a rubber hand strategically in front of

someone, hit it with a hammer, and people react as

if their real hand were in real danger. At the same

time, their heart rate leaps, and they break into a

sweat, physiological reactions that you don’t see

when people take a sham version of the

experiment.

Why do we react this way? The eerie feeling that

you have swapped hands is thought to be caused

by the way our brains combine information from

the different senses, and compare it to our internal

map of how the body should look.

Most of the time, the process works perfectly, but

in cases like the rubber hand illusion, it begins to

confuse two different inputs: the touch on the real

hand seems to correspond to the movements on the

rubber one, so the brain wrongly updates its

internal map with the rubber fake and assumes it

as its own.

We’ve discovered other weird ways to warp our

minds in this manner. Some sound like they are

straight out of Alice in Wonderland. A team in

Sweden, for instance, have shown that a similar

set-up can fool your brain into inhabiting a Barbie

doll or a giant mannequin, so they felt like their

body had shrunk or grown. Others have studied the

“enfacement” illusion; in this case, two people sit

in front of each other while a third strokes their

cheeks in synchrony – slowly leading them to feel

that they are really looking at a reflection of

themselves. When asked to look at photos, for

instance, they are more likely to mistake their

partner’s features for their own.

Perhaps the strangest experiment so far is the

“marble hand illusion”. Rather than using a rubber

hand, scientists tapped a real hand with a small

hammer, while out of sight they played the sound

of a hammer hitting marble. Slowly, the

participants began to feel that their hand was

stiffer, heavier, and harder. Crucially, that also

corresponded to reduced sensitivity in the hand –

they were less likely to break into a sweat when

the researcher moved a needle towards their finger,

for instance.

There is a serious point to all of this research,

since it helps show that our sense of self is far

more fluid than you might imagine. We might

experience something similar, naturally, when

someone mimics our body language – leading us

to blur identities a little so we like them more.

Along these lines, some scientists are looking at

whether these embodiment illusions could alter

things like implicit racism; you might be less

prejudiced if you felt that you had lived in another

person’s body for a little while. (Worth trying, can

I borrow Daniel Craig’s body for a while? – ED.)

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14th

August 2015

Grabber Blackmail Ended.

ollowing the recent arrest of two men by

the Hawks over the possession and use of

a cellphone spying machine, details have

emerged as to what the device was used for. The

two suspects, a top businessman and a bank

employee, were lured to the Irene Mall in a police

sting operation that resulted in their arrest and

confiscation of the spying device, known as The

Grabber.

The Grabber is used for cellphone tapping,

cellphone tracking, and as a cellular locator, and is

reportedly worth over R25 million. The Sunday

Independent reports that The Grabber was used to

bug top politicians, cabinet ministers, and

prominent businessmen who do business with the

government.

The suspects using the device had been in

operation for over a year, according to reports,

using The Grabber to “manipulate and blackmail

people in powerful positions and sway

multibillion-rand state tenders”.

According to The Sunday Independent, the spying

machine was used to rig tenders and gain

information on people in powerful positions.

These are “serious crimes against the state”, and

can lead to 10 years imprisonment, said the

newspaper. The Hawks said an official from the

Department of Public Works is alleged to have

written a fraudulent letter “on a government

letterhead” claiming that the government wanted

to buy the device, which is highly regulated in

South Africa and globally.

From A to Z

oogle has announced the creation of a

parent company called Alphabet, (with

the typical Google style URL

https://abc.xyz/), which will be the holding

company for Google’s many different projects like

Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome, and Android. In

an announcement letter, Google founder Larry

Page said “Google is not a conventional company.

We do not intend to become one. From the start,

we’ve always strived to do more, and to do

important and meaningful things with the

resources we have. Our company is operating well

today, but we think we can make it cleaner and

more accountable. So we are creating a new

company, called Alphabet.”

Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies, Page

said. The largest of which, is Google. “This newer

Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies

that are pretty far afield of our main internet

products contained in Alphabet instead. Good

examples are our health efforts: Life Sciences and

Calico). Fundamentally, we believe this allows us

more management scale, as we can run things

independently that aren’t very related,” Page said.

He said that the group is excited about:

Getting more ambitious things done.

Empowering great entrepreneurs and

companies to flourish.

Investing at the scale of the opportunities

and resources we see.

Improving the transparency and oversight

of what we’re doing.

Making Google even better through

greater focus.

Improving the lives of as many people as

possible.

F G

14th

August 2015

If you want a Six Pack – Avoid them.

rrespective on where you stand on the fat vs. carbs debate on weight loss and health, most of us agree

that alcohol is a big no-no if you’re serious about losing weight. While some drinks, such as a glass of

wine with dinner, have shown to be beneficial to your

health, typically the booze we drink while out with

friends or watching the game at home on the weekend,

does us no favours around the belly.

South Africa has some of the heaviest drinkers in the

world, with the World Health Organisation ranking it

29th in terms of litres of alcohol consumed per capita.

According to the WHO, South Africans consume 11

litres of alcohol a year, spread across the entire

population. When looking at only those who actually

consume alcohol, this

shoots up to 27.1 litres.

This is far higher than

some of the world’s biggest drinking nations.

Research has shown that people who drink a lot will struggle to shed weight,

and in the long term are more likely to gain weight. While scientists are

hesitant to say it outright, there are clear links between heavy drinking and

obesity. While not the only factor, our penchant for a “dop” is, at the very

least, helping the country maintain its crown as the fattest nation in Africa.

The average daily kilojoule intake for an adult is around 8,700 kJ (this varies

based on many physical and metabolic differences). In most cases, assuming

you only have one drink, an alcoholic beverage accounts for 6% to 8% of that

number, which isn’t too bad. However, if you are one of the country’s binge

drinkers that make up 36% of the drinking population, a whole bottle of wine

would hit you for almost 30% of your daily requirement, and a six-pack of beer would wipe off almost 40%.

South Africans are also big wine drinkers – while the total kilojoule count for wines will vary depending on

the make and type, typically wines are around 500 kJ

per 150ml glass.

Sugary cocktails and shooters are some of the worst

offenders when it comes to packing on the kilojoules,

though. For example, a classic mojito or a strawberry

daiquiri can amount to over 1,000 kJ, and can stretch

even further depending on the size of the drink. It’s also

worth noting that most of the spirits are mixed with

other drinks (like colas or juices or in cocktails) so they

often go way past the kilojoules listed. So, “make mine

a double” can hold some serious implications for you.

I

14th

August 2015

More fun in South Sudan (With Pics – for the non-readers.)

Norah has been back to South Sudan and this time to Wau. She’s got some fun comments as well as great

pics to share with all of us. (ED’s note – Check the toilet – never complain about my local mall again!!)

Wau is in the west of the country and has not been part of

the fighting. It is also the 2nd

largest town in S Sudan, and

possibly the oldest. It lies on Jur River which is a tributary

of the Nile. There is clay around Wau that is very good for

brick making, resulting in almost all houses being made of

bricks rather than corrugated iron.

Wau is seriously hot in the dry season, about 40, and a bit

cooler in the rainy season, about 30…. The rainy season is

from March to about October when most of the sand/gravel

roads are impassable.

I was instructed to bring back photos from my visit. That

instruction resulted in some interesting events, namely being

stopped by the police and them demanding to delete all the

photos. I gave them the camera and said ‘Delete’. They

then gave it back to me and said to take no more pictures. I

did not, I was too scared and so was my driver. You may not

take photos in South Sudan; rather you may not be SEEN to

be taking pics. (Very courageous of you to send these –ED)

.

14th

August 2015

Wau has another claim to fame. It is the

end of the railway line from Cairo down

south. The last time a train come down the

line was in 2010 with returnees from

Sudan. The railway in Egypt through

Sudan was built by General Kitchener in

order to defeat the Mahdi, who had killed

General Gordon in Khartoum. And of

course Cecil John Rhodes wanted a railway

line from Cape to Cairo.

14th

August 2015

About my work there…We did data cleaning for 3 States

with Wau being the central point. There were some 35

participants over the 5 days. There was lots to do and

little time to waste. The process was the same as last

time. See the Hispian 3 July 2015

The Safari Park Hotel is the only place in town big

enough to accommodate a group this big. The downside

is that there is no AC. As this is cattle country, most of

the participants are used to drinking large amounts of

milk. So at tea times, the big urn is milk and the flask is

hot water….

The upside of my visit was that I stayed at a very nice place, Amarula Lodge, and you get a shot, or 2, of

Amarula on checking in. There is 24 hr power (from generators) with AC (air conditioning) DSTV (all

channels). The food is very nice, very Western. The place was very expensive, but worth every dollar.

Laundry gets done every day, included in the cost.

Wau airport runway is undergoing renovations as it is being used by big cargo planes for dropping supplies to

the neighbouring areas where there is famine and no humanitarian aid can get there by road.

This is an Ilyushin cargo plane used by World Food

Program for food drops. Normally there is a 2nd

ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross)

plane there, but at the time of the photo, it had gone

for maintenance.

The flight to Wau was on a plane piloted and

serviced by a South Africans on a company called

Golden Wings. Hearing a South African accent

made me feel at home. However living next to Wau

airport has its disadvantages.

Yeah, it seems the major “disadvantages” are that you have to dodge falling planes - ED

14th

August 2015

Mobiles Skinned Alive.

ust how closely do we want to be associated

with our technology? We have already run a

few features about robots, but where does

cyborg begin and human end? Well, recently we

heard that computer scientists at Saarland

University are studying the potential use of the

human body as a touch-sensitive surface for

controlling mobile devices.

They have developed flexible silicone rubber

stickers with pressure-sensitive sensors that fit

onto the skin.

By operating these touch-input stickers, users can

use their body to control mobile devices.

The sensors can be manufactured in a variety of

shapes, sizes, and personalised designs.

Depending on the type of skin sticker used,

applying pressure to the sticker could, for

example, answer an incoming call or adjust the

volume of a music player.

“The iSkin approach enables the human body to

become more closely connected to technology,”

the researchers said. (Calle and Jason – remember

our emails? Just HAD to add this smiley – ED. )

Just how fast is “Fast”?

e careful what you commit to in terms of

getting things done quickly, you may just

find that you have over-committed. We all

use a lot of stock phrases to imply quickness:

From "before the ink is dry" through to "at the

drop of a hat". They aren’t the sort of things most

of us think about literally when we say them, but

the Hispian editorial team decided to take a close

look at what stock phrases like "before you know

it" might actually commit you to timewise

("Before you know it," incidentally, is calculated at

400Kph, the speed of a nerve impulse.) Of course,

within the stack of clichés there are considerable

variances, "like wildfire" seems like it’s pretty

speedy, but at 25Kph in grassland, it’s got nothing

on "a bat out of hell" (100Kph for the Mexican

Free-Tailed Bat) or a "flash in the pan" (680Kph

for flame to spread through a pan of powder).

Meanwhile, "before the ink is dry" is an

excruciatingly slow eight seconds for ballpoint ink

to set, while "in a jiffy", the length of an

alternating current cycle, is rather snappy (the

same speed as a finger snap) 0.02 seconds. The

next time you hear about something happening "in

two shakes of a duck’s tail" (0.4 seconds for a

duck to shake its tail twice), you can explain all of

this to whoever is talking, and find yourself losing

a whole bunch of friends in “one fell swoop” (320

Kph for a diving Peregrine Falcon), rather than an

interminably slow “drop of a hat” (20Kph, the

terminal velocity of a falling hat).

J

B

14th

August 2015

Avoid “unknown USB Drives.

USB security vulnerability has been used

in attacks against Windows users,

Microsoft warned in a recent security

bulletin. The bug affects all modern versions of

Windows, from Vista to Windows 10 – including

Windows Server. Microsoft gave the following

details about the vulnerability in security bulletin

MS15–085:

“An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists

when the Mount Manager component improperly

processes symbolic links. An attacker who

successfully exploited this vulnerability could

write a malicious binary to disk and execute it.

To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker would

have to insert a malicious USB device into a target

system. The security update addresses this

vulnerability by removing the vulnerable code

from the component.”

This vulnerability is in the functions that process

.LNK files, which Windows uses to display icons

when a USB drive is plugged in. The .LNK

security flaw can be exploited remotely, but the

latest bug requires that

an infected USB drive

be plugged into a

Windows machine.

Make absolutely sure

that you “know where

it’s been” before you

insert a strange device

into your slot. All USB Flash drives must always

be considered suspect. Also make sure that your

Windows updates and anti-virus are fully up to

date at all times. Our network is always vulnerable

and it’s your responsibility to make sure that all

your team mates PC’s are safe.

Smiley Virus – ED’s LOL of the

week. (I wonder if it twerks?)

Crimeville – Internet style.

s the world grows more entwined with

online living, cybercrime is fast

becoming an issue which can no longer

be ignored. Whether you are an individual, a

business or a governmental institution, there are

ways for cybercriminals to access your private

information.

“The Most Dangerous Town on the Internet” is a

true-life documentary filmed in the Romanian

town of Ramnicu Valcea. This town is notorious

for its cybercriminal activity and has been justly

labelled “Hackerville”. Director Sean Dune, in

association with Norton Security, explores the

motivation behind the activities of these men and

Dune goes the extra mile to reveal a war that most

people are not even aware exists. It is clear this is

an attempt by Norton Security to inform the

greater public of a real concern and they

accomplished this without pushing any form of

product. The documentary has been created purely

to educate the world about the extent to which

one’s online life can be infiltrated, a reality

needing to be disclosed and guarded against.

Check out the documentary at:

http://za.norton.com/mostdangeroustown/index.ht

ml?inid=za_hho_nortoncom_clp_norton-hp-

banner-bcluster_mdt#!/en-GB

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum

and villainy – ED.

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