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Galaxy S3 launched in SA

Friday, June 8th, 2012

Samsung Electronics’ highly anticipated flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S3, was launched in SA last night. The phone has been available from mobile operator Vodacom since the end of last month, but MTN and CellC will now be adding the phone to their contract options after last night’s launch. In South Africa alone 50 000 orders were received before it’s release.

The Samsung Galaxy S III is an Android smartphone that was announced by Samsung on 3 May 2012 and the successor to the Samsung Galaxy S II. The device was released in 28 countries, including in Europe, on 29 May 2012, and in India and Malaysia on 31 May 2012.

If you’re interested in the technical stuff, you’ll find all the technical specs on Wikipedia or Samsung’s website. For objective reviews on the Galaxy SIII, read more on CNET.

Tags: cell phone, Galaxy SIII, mobile
Posted in General | 2 Comments »

Mirror sites at your disposal

Friday, June 8th, 2012

Did you know there are selected websites you have free access to? These websites are known as mirror sites.

In computing, a mirror is an exact copy of a data set. On the Internet, a mirror site is an exact copy of another Internet site. Mirror sites are most commonly used to provide multiple sources of the same information, and are of particular value as a way of providing reliable access to large downloads. Mirroring is a type of file synchronization and a live mirror is automatically updated as soon as the original is changed.

But why the need for more than one version of the same website. A few reasons are:

To preserve a website or page, especially when it is closed or is about to be closed.
To allow faster downloads for users at a specific geographical location. For example, a U.S. server could be mirrored in Japan, allowing Japanese Internet users to download content faster from the local Japanese server than from the original American one.
To provide access to otherwise unavailable information. For example, when the popular Google search engine was banned in 2002 by the People’s Republic of China, the mirror elgooG was used as a way of effectively circumventing the ban.
To preserve historic content. Financial constraints and/or bandwidth prevent the maintainers of a server from keeping older and unsupported content available to users who still may desire them; a mirror may be made to prevent this content from disappearing.
To balance load. If one server is extremely popular a mirror may help relieve this load this server may become overloaded with demand. Alternative download points allow the total number of download requests to be spread among several servers, maintaining the availability of the distribution.
As a temporary measure to counterbalance a sudden, temporary increase in traffic.

SOURCE: www.wikipedia.org

Therefore, before you download huge files from an international server and run up an exorbitant internet account, check whether there is a local version available. The following websites are available to you free of charge:

A large amount of software downloads are available at http://support.sun.ac.za

MIT OpenCourse Ware: http://ocw.sun.ac.za

Mirror server for linux: http://ftp.sun.ac.za

Mirror services available for free via TENET: http://www.mirror.ac.za

The most popular Linux distros are available (Ubuntu,Debian, Fedora, Opensuse, Mandriva etc.)

Complete programming language mirrors are availabla at:

CPAN (perl): http://ftp.sun.ac.za/ftp/pub/mirrors/ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/

CTAN (Tex/Latex): http://ftp.sun.ac.za/ftp/pub/mirrors/ftp.dante.de/tex-archive/

Python: http://ftp.sun.ac.za/ftp/pub/mirrors/ftp.python.org/

Mathematical languages:

SageMath: http://ftp.sun.ac.za/ftp/pub/mirrors/www.sagemath.org/

Scilab (http://ftp.sun.ac.za/ftp/pub/mirrors/scilab/www.scilab.org/

R http://ftp.sun.ac.za/ftp/pub/mirrors/cran.za.r

Octava http://ftp.sun.ac.za/ftp/pub/mirrors/octave

Opensource software:

sourceware.org: http://ftp.sun.ac.za/ftp/pub/mirrors/sourceware.org/pub/

Free Office packages:

LibreOffice: http://ftp.sun.ac.za/ftp/pub/mirrors/libreoffice/

OpenOffice: http://ftp.sun.ac.za/ftp/pub/mirrors/openoffice/

Downloadable antivirus updates:

Mcafee: http://ftp.sun.ac.za/ftp/pub/mirrors/ftp.nai.com/

Symantec: http://ftp.sun.ac.za/ftp/pub/mirrors/ftp.symantec.com
/public/english_us_canada/antivirus_definitions/norton_antivirus/

Adobe Reader: http://ftp.sun.ac.za/ftp/pub/mirrors/ftp.adobe.com/

SOURCE: www.wikipedia.org

Tags: downloads, Hardware and Software Services and Support, internet, mirror sites, selfhelp
Posted in General, Internet | Comments Off on Mirror sites at your disposal

Too many line options to choose from?

Thursday, June 7th, 2012

Nowadays we’re fortunate (depending on our budgets of course) to have internet access at home. We can quickly Google a recipe instead of scurrying to find the right cookbook or piece of paper you wrote the recipe down on somewhere. Or quickly look up the name of that actor whose name is on the tip of your tongue and you’re convinced your husband has the wrong one.

Unfortunately being spoilt for choice also brings more confusion at times. On top of having to choose the right service provider, you can also choose your line speed. iAfrica explained it for us in simple terms.

SOURCE: www.iafrica.com

Tags: bandwidth, broadband, internet
Posted in General, Internet | 1 Comment »

Why wait? Change now!

Thursday, June 7th, 2012

Every 90 days your pc prompts you to change your password. Which in turn makes you sigh with despair, conveniently ignore the message and postpone it until the absolute last day. And why? Because choosing a password you won’t forget after two days takes some effort and brain power.

Passwords are like taxes, municipal fees and ridiculous bank fees – frustrating, but necessary. (ok, maybe they’re not all necessary, but you get my point.)

Your best solution? Just change it immediately and you won’t be confronted by a looming “your password expires in x days” message every day. To make the process as fast and painless as necessary, we have a few suggestions.

When your pc prompts you to change your password, go directly to http://www.sun.ac.za/useradm. Before you change your password, log out of your Inetkey and Outlook to make the synchronisation easier. If possible, don’t change your password while connected via wireless. Rather use your network cable and deactivate the wireless.

If you only use your pc at home and it’s not connected to the network, the change of passwords will only apply to your email and Inetkey. The initial password on your pc will therefore not be changed unless it’s on the network. For passwords to synchronise correcly, a pc/laptop has to be connected to one of the US domains.

This week 6.5 million LinkedIn accounts were hacked into and this one again emphasises the necessity for strong passwords.

In particular take note of the following:

you can’t use your previous 10 passwords again.
your new password can not consist of your username, name or any variation of your current password.
your passwords have to consist of 8 or more characters.
passwords have to consist of at least 3 characters of the following groups: small caps, capital letters, numbers and special characters. (for example %,$,#)

When you change your password on http://www.sun.ac.za/useradm, also change it accordingly on all your other devices (cellphone, tablet, etc.) If you don’t have your other devices with you and they are connected to the internet at home, ask someone to switch it off for you while your are changing the password. Also immediately switch off your device (pc, tablet or cellphone) after you’ve changed your password successfully to ensure it synchronises successfully.

If you changed your password and it hasn’t updated fast enough on your cellphone or tablet, reset the password to the latest one and contact IT to unlock your account. This will prevent you from having to change your password again.

Tags: password
Posted in General, Security | 3 Comments »

Laptops now more affordable for students

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

Students gain access to the campus network and It systems via approximately 2500 computers in RGA’s. In addition to this access the aim is to encourage students to increasingly use their own laptops or tablets. In line with this initiative competitive prices for laptops were negotiated by means of a country-wide student laptop project. The computers have been tested and approved by the IT-department of the SU and are therefore being recommended to students.

The products are well priced with a considerable discount on the fixed price list of some of the models. All models come standard with Windows 7 and Office 10 Pro – another saving of R1200-00.

Models ranging from entry-level to advanced – four each from both Acer and Lenovo – have been chosen. The specifications are equivalent per category and you can therefore easily choose the brand that suits your needs best.

You can order your laptop online directly from the manufacturers by following the links below:

DISCLAIMER STATEMENT: PURCO, on behalf of the South African universities, negotiated prices with specific suppliers for specific laptops that are now being offered to qualifying students. All transactions relating to the procurement of the laptops will be between the computer supplier and the end-user. Neither PURCO nor the universities are in a position to guarantee the quality of the product or related services.

important info You have to be a prospective or current student with a student number to qualify. If you need any information or additional assistance, please contact us at laptop@sun.ac.za or 021 808 9111.

Tags: Acer, Information Technology, laptop, laptop initiative, Lenovo, student, Students
Posted in General | 9 Comments »

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