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Connectivity

From tarred hemp and Indian rubber to optical fibre

Friday, November 20th, 2015

The internet began to emerge in the late 1980s and early 90s. However, the infrastructure supporting it has been around since 1839.

Today most of our Internet traffic is carried via submarine cable systems from Europe and the United States.

A submarine communications cable is a laid on the seabed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean. Before internet, however, submarine cables were used for other types of communications, for example telephones and telegraph.

After the introduction of the telegraph in 1839, establishing a submarine line across the Atlantic Ocean became the next challenge. Samuel Morse accepted this challenge and in 1842 he succeeded in sending a telegraph through a wire insulated with tarred hemp and Indian rubber, which was submerged in the water of New York Harbour.

Laying-undersea-cable-Cape-Town
Laying an undersea cable in Cape Town (Photo credit: Telkom)

The first submarine cable system in South Africa was launched in on 27 December 1879 and for the first time we were directly connected to Europe. This was done via Durban and Zanzibar to Aden with the East Coast cable of the South African Telegraph Company.

Today’s cables use optical fibre technology to carry digital data, which includes telephone, Internet and private data traffic.

“Modern cables are typically about 25 millimetres in diameter and weigh around 1.4 kilograms per metre for the deep-sea sections which comprise the majority of the run, although larger and heavier cables are used for shallow-water sections near shore.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_communications_cable)

Over the past 15 years four submarine cable systems have been installed in South Africa for telecommunication – SAT-3/WACS, Seacom, WACS, and EASSy.

The most recent addition was made in May 2012 with the West Africa Cable System (WACS). The 17 200 km fibre optic submarine cable starts at Yzerfontein on the west coast and ends in the United Kingdom. (More about the WACS launch)

[SOURCES: www.mybroadband.co.za & https://en.wikipedia.org]

You might be suffering from FOMO

Thursday, August 6th, 2015

Are you compulsively checking your phone for e-mails, Twitter notifications or Facebook updates? You might be suffering from FOMO.

In a previous article we mentioned that the word hashtag has been added to the Oxford Dictionary last year. Believe it or not FOMO made the cut in 2013 already. Google defines FOMO as follows:

FOMO ˈfəʊməʊ/ noun informal

1. anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website.

“I realized I was a lifelong sufferer of FOMO”

Although FOMO isn’t directly attributed to social media, it does aggravate the situation. Fear of missing out (FOMO) is merely the modern terminology for “the grass is always greener on the other side” (Psychologies magazine, 18 June 2012)

With so many options and choice available to us, it’s no wonder we feel dissatisfied with our lives. Fortunately a few years back we didn’t know we were missing out, but social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn make it impossible for us not to see what our peers are up to – socially and career wise.

However, social media hardly ever gives a realistic portrayal of someone’s life.  Who tweets about their sick cat, problems with plumbing or the howling dog next door? We’d rather show our extravagant holiday, meal at an upmarket restaurant or the expensive wine we’re drinking.

According to a nationwide survey done in June 2012 by a pharmaceutical firm, over 62% of about 3 000 respondents aged between 15 and 50 years said that they live in “constant fear” of missing out on something more exciting that what they are doing.

But how do we prevent ourselves from becoming swept up in the hysteria of social media and this constant nagging feeling that we’re missing something? GQ  and Nir and Far have a few ideas, but it all boils down to living and enjoying your life the way you want to and stop trying to keep up with the rest of the world. So why not rather suffer from JOMO (Joy of Missing Out)?

PS. YOLO is an acronym for “you only live once”. Similar to carpe diem, it implies that one should enjoy life, even if that entails taking risks. More on Wikipedia.

[SOURCES: www.forbes.com, www.wikipedia.org]

 

Happy SysAdmin Day

Thursday, August 6th, 2015

sysadminIf you’re reading this on the internet, your PC is secure, without a virus and you can check your e-mail every few minutes, your sysadmin has done his job. Together with the rest of the IT department they make sure that everything’s running smoothly. Unfortunately the only time we realise how important their work is when something does NOT work.

Every year on July 31 it’s the annual System Administrator Appreciation Day when system administrators are recognised for the work they do behind the screens to keep companies up and running.

So what does a sysadmin do exactly? According to http://sysadminday.com/ –

System administrators are always on call, whether it’s updating your company’s antivirus software or repairing a corrupt SQL database. Here’s a bunch of other tasks they do:

  • A sysadmin unpacked the server for this website from its box, installed an operating system, patched it for security, made sure the power and air conditioner were working in the server room, monitored it for stability, set up the software, and kept backups in case anything went wrong. .
  • When your network connection is safe, secure, open, and working, you can thank your sysadmin.
  • A sysadmin worries about spam, viruses, spyware, as well as power outages, fires and floods.
  • When the email server goes down at 2 a.m. on a Sunday, your sysadmin is paged, wakes up, and goes to work.
  • A sysadmin plans, worries, hacks, fixes, pushes, advocates, protects and creates good computer networks. Why? To get you your data, help you do your work, and bring the potential of computing ever closer to reality.

So think about those who work behind the scenes once in a while. Not just when the internet or e-mail’s down, but also when you’re able to work seamlessly every day.

Also read 5 ways to ensure a good relationship with your systems administrator.

 

 

Register for Wi-Fi access

Tuesday, July 14th, 2015

If you are required to work on more than one SU campus and need an internet connection, there’s something you have to keep in mind.

To use Wi-Fi on the Stellenbosch, Tygerberg or USB campuses you will have to register your devices separately on all three campuses. If you’re already using Wi-Fi on your home campus, it doesn’t mean you’re automatically registered for others.

To use the Secure of  MatiesWifi SSIDs elsewhere, register your device by e-mailing the following information to help@sun.ac.za:

  • Building
  • Room number
  • Username
  • Asset tag of the laptop or a description of the device
  • Network card address (also known as the MAC address)

Please switch off your device

Friday, June 26th, 2015

Sounds familiar?

A few years back phones didn’t have the option to just easily switch to flight mode. You were asked to switch off your device completely. With flight mode at least you can still read your electronic copy of Grey on your tablet or compile that e-mail before you forget what you want to say (your phone will save it in your Outbox and send when it connects again). And you can do all of this during landing and take-off without being scolded at by a flight attendant.

Flight mode is a setting on your phone that turns off the mobile network, Wi-Fi, FM radio, GPS and Bluetooth connections on your phone with one click.

In other words – all the apps requiring any kind of network connection will be switched off while still permitting use of other functions that do not require signal transmission (e.g., games, built-in camera, MP3 player, etc.) Full list of functions that will work in flight mode.

Because your device will stop trying to connect to a cell phone tower or a Wi-Fi spot, you will save quite a bit of battery power. Apart from using this mode for when you’re flying, it can be very useful if you want to preserve your phone’s battery life.

To get the most from your phone’s battery life, switch to flight mode before charging – especially if you have limited time to charge. This way your phone will charge a little faster than usual.

You can also read more on other uses for flight mode on Gizmodo.

To turn flight mode on or off (Windows)

  1. On Start, flick left to the App list, and tap Settings Settings icon.

  2. Tap Flight mode, then turn it on or off

Turn flight mode on or off (Android)

  1. If your screen is dim, touch the screen to wake up the watch.
  2. Swipe down from the top of the screen.
  3. Swipe from right to left ← until you see Settings , then touch it.
  4. Scroll until you see Airplane mode.
  5. Touch Airplane mode to turn on or off.

Turn on flight mode (iOS)

Go to Settings > Airplane Mode and tap the slider.

You can also swipe up from the bottom of your Home Screen to open the Control Center, and tap the airplane icon.

When airplane mode is enabled, you’ll most likely see an airplane symbol in you device’s notification bar.

Note that names might differ on phones, but include flight mode, aeroplane mode, offline mode, and standalone mode

Read more on why (and if) we need to switch off our electronic devices on Wikipedia.

 

 

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