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Mobile payments making payment easier

Friday, May 29th, 2015

Just when you thought it was safe to leave your credit card at home, along came mobile payment facilities.

Snapscan, developed here in Stellenbosch, is the best-known mobile payment option at the moment. Apart from SnapScan, PocketPOS, FlickPay and Payment Pebble are also widely used in South Africa.

All these use your cell phone as Mobile POS (point of sale) so you don’t have to carry cash or a card on you. The assumption is that most people always carry their phones with them, but not their wallets. The mobile wallet is therefore an easy and convenient alternative. You also don’t have to queue or get for a waiter to notice you – just make the payment yourself.

You may think this is just another passing tech-fad, but according to research mobile transactions are higher in Africa than in America. Easier, cheaper internet access by cell phone when a computer isn’t available, being the main reason. In 2012 Africans spent more than 57.8 billion dollar just on mobile payments.

Although QR codes (as used by SnapScan) are still used, new technology is already on the cards. Beacon technology uses your location for a different functions.

Snapscan recently developed Snapbeacon, a first in South Africa. Tap a button in the app and a transaction in the shop will be initiated via Bluetooth. If the function has been activated on your phone, it will automatically show a Pay here option.

Snapbeacon is only compatible with specific phones – iPhone 4S and higher and the latest smartphones with Android 4.3 and higher. At the start of April Snapbeacon was available at 30 SnapScan vendors in Cape Town and 20 in the rest of South Africa.

[SOURCES: www.memeburn.com; www.ventureburn.com]

Posted in Apps, Connectivity, Internet | Comments Off on Mobile payments making payment easier

MOOCs 101

Monday, April 20th, 2015

Gone are the days of going to class, making notes and spending hours in a library. Today you can do almost everything online – even relive your student days. MOOCs, or “massive open online courses”, have been around for a while now, but are still extremely popular – and for a reason.

A MOOC is an online course aimed at large scale, interactive participation and open access via the internet. In addition to traditional course material such as videos, reading and problem sets, a community is created for students and academics to interact be means of user forums.

Open, online courses are a fairly recent addition to the field of long distance education and offer a free or low cost alternative to conventional tertiary education – an option previously not freely available to all. Leading universities such as Stanford, MIT, Yale and Harvard offer MOOCs as part of their curriculum and these provide anyone the opportunity to study at a prominent academic institution.

MOOCs have no formal entry requirements or limits on students and millions of eager learners make use of this open platform. Coursera, the current forerunner of MOOCs, claims they already have more than 3 million students.

If you’re interested in expanding your knowledge – whether it’s with something as random as a course on cryptography or a more practical one such as financial planning, have a look at the available courses on the websites below. You’re sure to find something that inspires you.

Also read MOOC News and Reviews’ extensive article on MOOCs, “What is a Massive Open Online Course Anyway?” and have a look at extensive TED talks also has an extensive list of talks on MOOCS.

MOOC-COURSES

https://www.coursera.org/
http://www.saylor.org
http://www.futurelearn.com
http://www.mooc-list.com/
http://www.class-central.com/
http://www.educause.edu/library/massive-open-online-course-mooc

[SOURCE: www.wikipedia.org]

Posted in Connectivity, Training | 3 Comments »

Easy file transfer with FTP

Friday, March 13th, 2015

You’ve probably heard the word somewhere and know it has something to do with files. But other than that you have no idea what FTP is. After all, what would you do with it?

Here’s the good news. You CAN actually use it quite easily and it might prove to be very useful when you need to share huge amounts of data with someone outside the university network. Interested yet?

Ok, let’s start by explaining what FTP means first before we get ahead of ourselves.

File Transfer Protocol or FTP is a standard network protocol used to transfer computer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP users may authenticate themselves using a username and password, but can connect anonymously if the server is configured to allow it. (If you want to get more technical, read more on Wikipedia)

To use Stellenbosch University’s FTP server you will need the address of the server and the password:

ftp server: ftp://tydelik@ftp.sun.ac.za
password: tydelik

Keep in mind that this space is not for storing or backing up data. It’s merely a temporary spot to put files in order for someone else to easily access them. The person on the other side who needs to access the files will use the same information.

To set up FTP on your PC, just follow these step-by-step instructions on the Microsoft website.

If you need more information on FTP, here are a few sources:
https://kb.iu.edu/d/aerg
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/F/ftp.html

As a user of the SU network there are a few other perks when it comes to free access. You can also use a few selected sites without opening your internet account. Read more about these sites on our blog – https://blogs.sun.ac.za/it/2012/04/20/free-access-to-selected-websites/ and https://blogs.sun.ac.za/it/2012/06/08/mirror-mirror/

Posted in Connectivity, Internet | 2 Comments »

Reactivation: pensioners

Wednesday, March 11th, 2015

All persons using the SU network have to reactivate for network usage (e-mail, internet, etc.) on an annual basis. Pensioners still using SU facilities also have to complete this process to ensure they still have e-mail access.

Over the past few weeks all users received an e-mail notice from helpinfo@sun.ac.za indicating that their username will soon expire. Generally three warnings are sent before the deadline date on 1 April 2015.

Since pensioners pay for access themselves and not by a department, the payment method differs somewhat. Payment can occur by credit card or cash. Credit card payment can be done securely online (see below for instructions) or at the cashiers in Admin A.

However, from February 2014 all banks made an additional 3D-authentication for credit cards being used online compulsory due to security reasons. In the meantime a grace period was given to bank clients to give them enough time to register their cards for 3D-authentication. This grace period has now expired.

Due to this new built-in check by banks, pensioners might be confronted by the following error message:

“Your payment in the amount of R284.00 could not be processed successfully. | U betaling vir die bedrag van R284.00 kon nie suksesvol verwerk word nie.”

“Reason / Rede: Transaction Failed. Restricted transaction due to 3D authentication merchant risk setting. Please return to merchant website and use an alternative payment method or card. (10205)”

Unfortunately this part of the payment process falls outside Information Technology’s jurisdiction and pensioners need to resolve the issue with their relevant bank, in particular the credit card division. Bank websites should also have information on the application procedure for 3D-authentication. More information is also available on PAYGO.

Reactivation with your credit card

Open Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
Go to http://my.sun.ac.za
Click on Staff
Click on PENSIONERS
Click on Reregistration

Posted in Connectivity, E-mail | 2 Comments »

3G at a price

Friday, February 27th, 2015

Is your cell phone’s sneaky behaviour taking a bite out of your pocket? By applying a few guidelines you can save yourself from a 4 digit cellphone bill.

1. Set data limits and limit your account with your service provider.
Practice caution when using certain providers’ 3G bundles on laptops. Some of these do not protect the user against overspending.

The risk of overspending occurs when users are under the false impression that their 3G package is safe to use until the package runs out. This is not necessarily the case. Higher costs can occur when the initial bundle’s capacity is exceeded and a much higher tariff kicks in. The user will then, without knowing, pay the higher tariff.

Users are strongly advised to limit the amount they want to spend or traffic they want to allow. (All this information can be found on your service provider’s website.) On Android your mobile data limit can be changed in the settings.

Also activate SMS and email notifications when your data bundle is close to its limit. In this instance prepaid data is a considerably safer option.

2. Don’t set your e-mail to synchronise automatically. Rather use the manual option and Send and Receive when you need to check your e-mail.

3. Also take care when using sites and apps like Facebook, Instagram Pinterest and YouTube as they use a lot of data.
Apps can be restricted not to use background data when mobile data is activated. Certain apps enable you to compress content (for example Google Chrome) Onavo is a 3rd party app you can use on your phone to do this compression.

4. Set software updates to manual.
The risk of overspending is increased by software updating automatically and therefore generating more traffic. To avoid overspending ensure that the settings of your software updates are set to manual. You’ll be able to choose when and where it’s done and how much data is being used. If you need to do software updates on your phone, only use your WiFi.

5. Another risk 3G users need to be aware of is the excessive cost of data overseas.
Wireless in hotels is usually much more affordable than the local service provider’s roaming data options.

6. Preferably switch off the 3G facility when it’s not being used.
3G users are encouraged to monitor their traffic and data usage on the 3G control programme, as well as the service provider’s website.

Posted in Connectivity, General | Comments Off on 3G at a price

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