Technology

Virgin America Safety Video

Virgin America – I remember the first time I flew on a plane. I attentively listened to the safety demonstration and read the safety booklet. I made a mental note of the exits and kept an eye on the warning lights overhead to see when I could loosen my seatbelt.

These days, I often have to fly to Johannesburg and I already know the drill. Needless to say, I can go up front and do the safety demonstration myself. These safety demonstrations are mandated by the FAA and if you fly regularly, you will be used to them already.

This is why I really enjoyed the latest safety demonstration video released by Virgin America. If you have been watching CNN over the past few days, you might have seen the video already.

I just thought that it was too good not to share it here too. (more…)

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Google Data Centers – Where your Internet lives

Google Data CentersGoogle Data Centers – Chances are that a copy of this page is sitting on a server in one of Google’s massive data centers. In fact every time you access the Internet, Google comes in to play some way or another.

Obviously the technology behind the Google Data Centers is a closely guarded secret. It was therefore quite a mystery to a couple of IT folks in the small farmland town of Shelby, Iowa when they received a mystery networking device called the Pluto Switch.

But recently, Google has opened the doors of one of their Data Centers to Connie Zhou, making her the first photographer officially allowed into Google’s massive data centers.

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Technology Addiction – The Next Evolution Of Man Or A Global Threat

Technology Addiction bed iphone Technology Addiction – Do you ever get the feeling that you’re too dependant on technology? Do you even think that your technology use is excessive? Now I’m not talking about someone who works in IT. Generally, I have a healthy split between family life, friends and my technology addiction.

Paul Miller took a brave step forward when he spent a year living life without the comforts that technology afford people. Some might argue that such comforts come at a price. But is it worth it that a technology addiction comes at the expense of real human interaction? (more…)

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Facebook Privacy – Securing Your Online Content

facebook privacy securityFacebook Privacy – This is a topic of thousands of blogs posts. It is something we have been warned about time and time again. Almost weekly we hear about social media accounts being compromised.

In all honesty, how bad can it really get? Is that what you are thinking? Who would want to hack my online content? Well perhaps you should ask Mat Honan that question.

We need to be aware of an online culture, where (let’s call them) hackers will try to compromise your on-line accounts just for the challenge of doing so. For others, there is a more sinister agenda behind their motives. Just ask the South African Postbank. (more…)

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Google Project Loon – Cloaking The Earth With WiFi

project loon balloon sky networkI was recently on a business trip to Johannesburg and my flight arrived about an hour before my colleague’s flight. I decided to go get my morning caffeine fix at the Wimpy on the second level at OR Tambo International Airport.

I sat down, placed my order, whipped out my iPad mini and proceeded to ask the waiter for the WiFi password as I wanted to peruse Flipboard while enjoying my morning coffee. Contrary to popular belief, WiFi in South Africa is rarely free. Usually if you buy food at a restaurant you qualify for 30 minutes or a measly 50 Mb of data. (more…)

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Y2K Bug Revisited In The Year 2038 Problem

Year 2038 Problem and y2kBack in 1998/1999 I was working for a logistics company called Schnellecke. They were responsible for supplying Volkswagen with their required car parts as per the Bill of Materials and materials planning for each Volkswagen car (including at that time the new Audi A4 which was also manufactured in the same plant). I can remember an influx of IT personnel (you know, the alien type) that sat behind a terminal and started to furiously type away, doing goodness knows what.

One day, I asked them what the hell they were doing. Man, the doom and gloom that spewed forth was something of epic proportions. I mean, not even a doomsayer could top that! Bank accounts would be cleared out, planes would fall from the sky, nuclear missiles would launch, medical Intensive Care machines would stop functioning, stock markets would crash and life as we know it would revert to the stone ages. Sheesh, that guy had me at “bank accounts would be cleared out”. After that, the rest seemed frivolous. (more…)

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Read more about the article Hollywood Tech Fails, Oh The Shame

Hollywood Tech Fails, Oh The Shame

Hollywood Tech Fails are legend. We all know how Hollywood gets some things wrong. Heck, if you have ever watched a movie where they do something with code or tech or <gasp> hacking, you will undoubtedly sit up and say “What was that I just saw?”.

Looking for something else? Try these links instead:

Well luckily for us, there is YouTube to save the most precious of these tech moment fails. Yeah, I know that there are already many posts out there that already write about these fails, but I want to share a few of my own favorites!

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Finding Paul Miller – A Year Without The Internet

Year Wirhout Internet Paul Miller

I have to say that when I first thought about the journey that Paul Miller took, I was confronted by my own inner demons of what my life would be without the Internet. You see, Paul Miller undertook to stop using the Internet for a whole year. No emails, no Google Maps, no Reddit, no Twitter, no Facebook, no reviews of the latest movie or restaurant or accommodation. He took a brave step back to 5 August 1991, into where we came from… the unknown time before we had the Internet.

On 6 August 1991, the Internet became publicly available. Tim Berners-Lee posted a summary of the project on the alt.hypertext newsgroup. This heralded the birth of a new phenomenon of the human race that changed the world as we knew it. (more…)

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Read more about the article Outlook Online has New Features

Outlook Online has New Features

Outlook online has some new features. When I first signed up for an Outlook.com account, I was reserved regarding how much I would use it. I have had the same GMail account since receiving an invite years ago, and I figured that Outlook.com wouldn’t come close to replacing GMail. Well I was mistaken. The more I used Outlook.com, the more I loved it. I now use it almost exclusively for new mail and contacts.

But a clean looking, incredibly user friendly interface isn’t all that Outlook.com offers. With the migration of Hotmail users to Outlook.com completed, Microsoft have been quite busy! Microsoft has moved an estimated 150 petabytes of email data over to Outlook.com. (That is a huge amount of data).

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