Ever wondered what IT technicians did in the Middle Ages? Well, this might be it.
General
IT in the Middle Ages
Friday, August 8th, 2014
Meet the techies: Mandy Wanza
Friday, August 8th, 2014
It may be a cliché, but dynamite comes in small packages – and this couldn’t be truer when it comes to Mandy. If you hear a click-clack of heels in IT’s passageways, you’ll know that this small package is on another mission to get things done.
Mandy started at Information Technology in 2006, mainly just to help out, but was given the opportunity to join as permanent staff member in 2008. After these eight years, she’s the only woman left among the seven service desk guys, but this Snow White holds her own.
The road to IT had a few twists and turns and it started in 1999 with an application to UWC for a BA degree. Mandy planned on studying Journalism, but she soon found out that it wasn’t quite what she wanted to do. Being a journalist for your school’s newspaper is quite different than studying journalism and doing the real course work. It wasn’t long before she changed her major to Psychology – which was really her calling. Unfortunately she had to give up her studies due to personal reasons.
This year she and Adrian celebrates their tenth anniversary and they have a daughter in grade 4 at de Kuilen Primary. Outside IT she spends most of her time with my family, something she believes in doing as often as possible.
“I call myself a jack of all trades.”
“I was in the retail industry for a while I guess that’s where I got my niche – to offer good customer service, and to pay attention to detail.”
She’s even applied her skills as a dental assistant – “quite an interesting experience”.
“But I needed more job satisfaction, so I enrolled myself in some Basic computer classes, and I guess that’s where my journey began.”
Currently she is a helpdesk agent, and her core duties are to answer calls, log the incidents, do 1st level support, but her job description goes a bit further than that. She also does network administration and software enquiries and is responsible for the Microsoft IT courses, which includes the registrations, bookings, administration, and course enquiries. And that’s her role at IT in a nutshell.
“The best part of my job is the satisfaction that you get when you are able to solve a user’s problem. I guess that is probably our main goal at the end of the day!”
The less pleasant aspect of the job is when all systems just stop working and receive hoards of calls from users demanding answers.
In spite of the stressful moments, there are lighter moments. Like when she facilitates a remote session (VNC) with a new staff member. “”They get such a fright when the mouse moves on their machine, the reaction that you get is priceless.”
“”Being in the IT environment has taught me so much. It’s a place where I have learned to voice my opinions and to swim in the deep end. Every day challenges you, and at the same time it creates a learning curve.”
| IT SERVICE DESK CONTACT DETAILS
Phone: +27 21 808 4367 |
Snap and shop!
Friday, August 8th, 2014
Have you ever wondered what the cryptic image (see right) at some restaurants, coffee shops and markets is? Here’s a hint – it’s not some secret code of a society you don’t belong to. On the contrary, it’s something useful guaranteed to make your life somewhat easier.
SnapScan is a smartphone payment app developed right here in Stellenbosch by technology start-up company FireID, located in Tegnopark – Stellenbosch’s own Silicon Valley. The guys from FireID realised that a cashless society, where payments were easier and faster to make, is became a necessity.
In 2013 SnapScan won the South African App of the year and it has been featured on Business Insider’s Top 12 African Start-ups list. In May of this year it joined in partnership with Standard Bank.
SnapScan benefits both the customer and the merchant. For the customer it provides an alternative for cash and credit cards, it’s faster and is meant to be more secure.
You no longer have to wait to have a payment processed at a terminal or risk carrying a credit card with you. You simply take a picture of the merchant’s unique QR code (the cryptic image) with your phone, enter your pin and the amount you want to pay. After the transaction is completed the customer and merchant receives an SMS notification to confirm.
The merchant never handles your credit card or details. Your card details are stored securely on your phone, encrypted and protected by a pin you select yourself.
It doesn’t cost you anything, no sign-up fee, setup, installation or monthly fee. All you need to do is download the app from the Apple or Google Play store, fill in your card details and you’re good to go. The app is available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry.
For merchants the application is easy and fast. All they need is a cell phone and they can process payments, whether it’s a coffee shop or an informal trader at a market. The Big Issue, the non-profit magazine sold at intersections, vendors have recently been enabled to use SnapScan.
Not too bad for something starting out only in a number of stores around in Stellenbosch – from 600 merchants at the end of 2013 to 12 000 at present. So what are you waiting for? Start snapping!
More info on SnapScan:
https://www.facebook.com/SnapScanApp
http://www.getsnapscan.com/
[SOURCES: http://mybroadband.co.za, http://www.techcentral.co.za, http://www.2oceansvibe.com, http://ventureburn.com]
I’m not Billi Gates!!!
Friday, July 25th, 2014We all have our little embarassing moments when it comes to technology. At least we can laugh at ourselves – and these people.
Tech Support: What kind of computer do you have?
Customer: A white one.
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Customer: Hi, this is Celine. I can’t get my DVD out !!!
Tech Support: Have you tried pushing the button?
Customer: Yes, I’m sure it’s really stuck.
Tech Support: That doesn’t sound good; I’ll make a note.
Customer: No, wait a minute, I hadn’t inserted it yet. It’s still on my desk . . . sorry. Thank you.
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Tech Support: Click on the ‘MY COMPUTER’ icon on the left of the screen.
Customer: Your left or my left?
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Tech Support: Hello. How may I help you?
Male Customer: Hi … . . I can’t print.
Tech Support: Would you click on ‘START’ for me and . . …..
Customer: Listen pal; don’t start getting technical on me. I’m not Billi Gates!!!
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Customer: Good afternoon, this is Martha. I can’t print. Every time I try, it says .. . . ‘CAN’T FIND PRINTER’. I even lifted the printer and placed it in front of the monitor, but the computer still says it can’t find it!!!
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Customer: I have problems printing in red.
Tech Support: Do you have a color printer?
Customer: Aaaah . . . . . . . . . . thank you.
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Tech Support: What’s on your monitor now, ma’am?
Customer: A teddy bear that my boyfriend bought for me at the 7-11 store.
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Customer: My keyboard is not working anymore.
Tech Support: Are you sure your keyboard is plugged into the computer?
Customer: No. I can’t get behind the computer.
Tech Support: Pick up your keyboard and take ten steps backwards.
Customer: Okay.
Tech Support: Did the keyboard come with you?
Customer: Yes.
Tech Support: That means the keyboard is not plugged in. Is there another keyboard?
Customer: Yes, there’s another one here. Wait a moment please. .. . . . . . Ah, that one does work.
Thanks.
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Tech Support: Your password is the small letter ‘a’ as in apple, a capital letter ‘V’ as in Victor, and the number ‘7’.
Customer: Is that ‘7’ in capital letters?
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Customer: I can’t get on the internet.
Tech Support: Are you absolutely sure you used the correct password?
Customer: Yes, I’m sure. I saw my co-worker do it.
Tech Support: Can you tell me what the password was?
Customer: Five dots.
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Tech Support: What anti-virus program do you use?
Customer: Netscape.
Tech Support: That’s not an anti-virus program.
Customer: Oh, sorry . . . Internet Explorer.
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Customer: I have a huge problem! My friend has placed a screen saver on my computer . . . but, every time I move my mouse, it disappears.
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Tech Support: How may I help you?
Customer: I’m writing my first email.
Tech Support: OK, and what seems to be the problem?
Customer: Well, I have the letter ‘a’ in the address, but how do I get the little circle around it.
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And last, but not least . . .
A woman customer called the Canon help desk because she had a problem with her printer.
Tech Support: Are you running it under windows?
Customer: No, my desk is next to the door, but that is a good point. The man sitting next to me is by a window, and his printer is working fine!
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Me, my selfie and I
Friday, July 25th, 2014Nowadays practically everyone takes ‘selfies’ – celebrities, politicians, musicians … The word is so widely used, The Oxford English Dictionary is monitoring it for inclusion in it’s online version. In 2012 Time magazine considered it to be one of their top 10 buzz words.
A ‘selfie’ can be defined as a self portrait taken at arm’s length with a hand held device, such as a digital camera or phone. Usually it’s also distributed widely on social networks like Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
Taking selfies became popular in the early 2000’s with the “MySpace pic” – an amateur photo taken in front of a mirror. Flickr started using the term in 2009 to describe the endless stream of photos teenage girls posted of themselves on the Flickr network.
But are selfies really such a recent occurrence we led ourselves to believe?
[Photo: Twitter / @TheRealBuzz]
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin claims he took the first selfie in 1966 during a training mission where he spent 5.5 hours wandering around outside the space craft.
Unfortunately for Mr Aldrin someone beat him to it – a whole 127 years earlier. In 1839 Robert Cornelius, an American pioneer in photography, photographed himself, in what might also be one of the first photographs of a person. Other historical self portraits include Joseph Byron (1909) and the Russian duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna (1914).
Some say this phenomenon is an indication of the self centered society we live in, while others believe it just shows the increasing influence of technology on our lives. Whatever the case, and our opinions might be, ‘selfies’ are here to stay. Until the next technological craze anyway.
[SOURCE: www.wikipedia.org]