Technology

Believe it or not, roughly 95 percent of ATMs in the world are still running Windows XP -- and that's about to become an expensive problem. Machine designer NCR says that only a third of banks will upgrade their ATMs to a newer OS before official XP support ends on April 8th, leaving many institutions little choice but to pay Microsoft for an extended contract if they still want support. At least some banks plan to update, but they're facing both technician backlogs and steep transition costs; estimates suggest the big UK firms might pay up to £60 million ($100 million) each to make the leap. Whether or not your bank joins the modern era, you shouldn't be surprised if you end up footing some of the bill. The U.S. software company (Microsoft) first warned that it was planning to end support for Windows XP in 2007, but only one-third of the world's 2.2 million ATMs which use the system will have been upgraded to a new platform, such as Windows 7 by the April dead...

Makro unveiled the beta version of its online shopping website today (available here – http://www.makrobeta.com/ ) , aimed at providing their customers with a “convenient shopping experience with secure and simple payment methods”. The new Makro online shopping website allows users to deliver products to their home, or collect the goods at the closest Makro store. “Our new website design has a fresh vibrant look with the latest information about our products, a reviews tab and loads more,” said Makro. The new Makro online shopping website is available at  http://www.makrobeta.com/

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg blasted US government surveillance measures Thursday and said he had personally called President Barack Obama to protest. Zuckerberg’s rant on his personal Facebook page came a day after reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) had impersonated Facebook servers to infect targeted computers with malware. The NSA has in recent months been implicated by whistle-blower Edward Snowden in a massive range of digital surveillance programs. “I've been so confused and frustrated by the repeated reports of the behavior of the US government,” Zuckerberg wrote. “When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we’re protecting you against criminals, not our own government.” “I've called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future.” he continued. “Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform.”

Microsoft announced the new Office 365 Personal package in a recent blog post that offers the full Office 365 suite for an individual user at an expected price $6.99 (USD) per month. The Office 365 Personal license gives a lets a user run Office on a single PC or Mac and one tablet. It also offers an annual subscription option of a $69.99 per year, Microsoft said, adding that all prices are estimates only and determined by resellers. “We recognize that there are households of all shapes and sizes and we’re committed to delivering the right Office for everyone – whether that be one person or an entire household,” Microsoft said. Microsoft also said that it will rename its Office 365 Home Premium package to Office 365 Home. Both the Home and Personal options will still include 60 minutes of Skype calling per month and 20GB of additional OneDrive storage, Microsoft said. The changes to the Office 365 personal licenses are set to roll out “this Spring [Feb-May 2014]”, Micro...

With the recent developments regarding potential government spying, both in South Africa and abroad, the privacy conscious Internet user may be concerned about shielding their online activities from prying eyes. The developments referred to above include revelations from documents leaked by Edward Snowden, which showed widespread surveillance of communications networks by the US National Security Agency. This includes undersea cable systems, some of which are used by South African cable operators. In South Africa, the Protection of State Information Bill, also called the “Secrecy Bill”, is waiting for Jacob Zuma’s signature. The President could send the Bill back to the National Assembly for further amendments as he has once before, but based on feedback from lawyers he could just as easily sign it into law. The Southern African Federation Against Copyright Theft (Safact), which is spearheading the prosecution of the first person accused of Internet...

Microsoft South Africa and the Hawks have successfully arrested and convicted local software pirates, the company said on Wednesday (12 March 2014). In co-operation with the Hawks, Microsoft SA’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) executed raids on the premises of various resellers who were identified by Microsoft piracy prevention programmes as being involved in the selling of counterfeit and/or unlicensed Microsoft software. In the most recent enforcement action, around 100 counterfeit disks containing Microsoft software were seized along with a number of PCs, which were operating on unlicensed Microsoft software, the company said. According to a statement released by Microsoft, one suspect was arrested on site, while others were also rounded up. The suspects are due to appear in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court for dealing in Counterfeit Goods, which is an offense that carries a penalty of R5,000 ($460.6) per disc and/or 6 months imprisonment.

Afrihost recently slashed the price of its capped ADSL products, with the cost of data dipping below R2 per GB. This is 40 times lower than what people paid for ADSL data a decade ago. When Telkom launched its first ADSL products in August 2002, the price for a residential 512 kbps ADSL service was R680 per month. Businesses had to fork out R800 per month for the same service. Back in the day users had only one choice for ADSL data – a 3GB account which cost R219 per month. This remained the status quo until April 2005 when Telkom increased the price to R249 for a 3GB account. Apart from a slight adjustment in August 2007, when the price was reduced to R239 for 3GB, not much changed until 2009. In 2009 capped ADSL prices started to plummet – first with Telkom upping their 3GB cap to 5GB, and then with Afrihost surprising the market with its R29 per GB ADSL products. Since 2009 there were regular price cuts, which accelerated over the last two yea...

Using services such as virtual private networks (VPNs) or a DNS-based “un-blocker” such as UnoTelly to access Netflix, Spotify, and other online content services from South Africa is copyright infringement. This is according to Nicholas Hall from Michalsons Attorneys. The problem isn't that you are fooling these services into believing that you are from the United States. Using a tool such as UnoTelly or a VPN is perfectly legal so long as you use them for legal purposes, Hall said. However, it is illegal to access content outside the region that it has been licensed for, Hall said. This is because you are using copyrighted material outside the terms of its license, which is copyright infringement. Or, in the vernacular, “piracy”. Hall is not the only South African technology lawyer who is of this opinion. Director of Web Tech Law, Paul Jacobson, made a similar argument on the firm’s blog last year. “Having the capability to access N...

It sucks to be without internet in the modern day and age, right? In times we live in, internet disconnection for mere seconds alone can account for sudden mood swings. Are you one of the unlucky folks who face recurring internet disconnections or, worse, have no access to internet at all? Guess who is coming to your rescue? It’s Facebook! If the rumored talks between an American based aerospace company and Facebook are successful, Facebook could be sending out its own drone fleet around the globe to help people connect better. It is no surprise that rumored reports of Facebook’s interest in taking over Titan Aerospace surfaced on Tech Crunch this past week. Before you ask, it is estimated to cost nearly $60 million. That’s expensive, but not too expensive by Facebook’s standards. Remember, they acquired Instagram and WhatsApp for a whole lot  more (hint: Billions spent)? Titan Aerospace makes solar-powered drones, nearly 11,000 of whic...

According to the research that I have done, Windows 8.1 Update 1 has been released to OEMs (Original equipment manufacturer), a milestone usually abbreviated as RTM (for “release to manufacturing” or “release to manufacturers,” a step that lets equipment vendors start building reference images for their Windows 8.1 devices in anticipation of an immanent General Availability, or GA, release). A Researcher tweeted   at the end of February that “Windows 8.1 Update 1 will hit MSDN (Microsoft developer network) on April 2, Windows Update on April 8.” All this points to upcoming access to a new and keyboard-and-mouse friendlier version of Windows 8, sooner rather than later. It’s pretty clear that MS is aware that public perceptions of its new flagship OS must improve for Windows 8 to attain a measure of success. It will be interesting to see if the company can truly reverse course, and make Windows 8 less unpalatable to the vast majority of PC u...

The ALT key can help you access alt codes, or characters that aren't readily available on a normal keyboard. These codes can be used to write in foreign languages, mathematical equations, or to add fun symbols to your messages.

Microsoft has confirmed that the next version of its Application Programming Interface (API) DirectX 12 is in the works, and it will be discussed during the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2014 on 20 March. AMD Radeon, Intel, Nvidia have been listed as platform partners, as we’d expect. Quite interestingly, Qualcomm Snapdragon is also a listed platform, meaning that we could see DirectX support in a swathe of mobile devices in the future. The GDC session name is “Direct X: Evolving Microsoft’s Graphics Platform” and will presented by Anuj Gosalia, development manager of Windows graphics. The last major version, Direct X 11 was released in October 2011 alongside Windows 7 and it added a number of important features, such as GPGPU support, hardware tessellation support, improved multi-threading support, and Shader Model 5.0. DirectX 11.1 and 11.2 are only supported by Windows 8 and 8.1 respectively, so it will be interesting to learn what DirectX 12 brings to the party, and ...

Acronym Meaning Primary Applicability ACK Acknowledgement Transport and other layers ACL Access control list Security, application layer ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line Telecom AES Advanced Encryption Standard Security ANSI American National Standards Institute Organization ARP Address Resolution Protocol Link layer ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode Telecom BGP Border Gateway Protocol (routing protocol) Application layer, Routers BSS Basic service set (Wi-Fi) Wireless CAT Category (e.g. CAT-5 cable) Physical layer CCITT (obs.) Standards organization that has been replaced by ITU-T Organization CHAP Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (PPP) Security, telecom CIDR Classless Inter-Domain Routing Architecture CIR Committed Information Rate (Frame Relay) Telecom CLI Command line interpreter Hardware CPE Customer premises equipment Telecom CRC Cyclical ...