hitting the wire*

CITi getting its act together!

Before you read further, a disclaimer - I'm an unpaid CITi board member, so my views are biased to some degree! ;)

We appointed Jenny McKinnel last year as Exec Director as we felt that of all the people we'd interviewed she had the knowledge, experience, work ethic, respect and passion needed to put CITi back on the map and make a significant positive impact on the ICT industry here in the Western Cape. She has not disappointed us and has been furiously networking among other ICT bodies and industry players to start facilitating and building relevant initiatives. She needs all the support she can get, and if you are in IT or ICT, I'd urge you to consider signing up as a CITi member.

rgds,

Dave

A recent mail from Jenny to those of us in the industry:

Cape IT Initiative (CITi) launched a new membership programme this month and would like to invite you/your organisation to become a CITi member before end March 2010. (Membership fees are low: R 240 pa for an individual or company employing less than 9 people; R 1 000 pa for up to 50 staff and R 2 000 pa if more than 50 staff.) (Mail back YES and we'll email you the relevant forms.)

Rather than list the benefits of becoming a member or make promises about our future plans, here is a list of some of our achievements during the past six months, which we believe highlight our commitment to addressing challenges faced by IT and communications technology companies in the Western Cape:

• Convened the Third Software Engineering Colloquium on 16 March 2010 with the IEEE South Africa Chapter. This event, informed by input from software engineers, brought industry, government and academia together to discuss a wide range of issues of common interest and concern. Key action points (relating to, among others, ICT Skills, Marketing Cape Software, Accreditation, Rewards & Recognition, and ongoing support of the Agile and cloud communities) were agreed out of the Colloquium. CITi will be overseeing these in 2010 together with the nominated agenda leaders (www.capese10.org)
• Launched an IT Heroes & Pioneers campaign on 16 March, which will go live online at end March 2010. This ongoing campaign aims to grow the pipeline of learners and students who choose IT and IT entrepreneurship as a career by telling stories of Cape entrepreneurs and companies that have had successes (even small ones)
• Held eight “CITi Café conversation” industry round tables – held in Cape Town, Century City, Durbanville and Stellenbosch in February 2010 – aimed at exploring a revised Hybrid Hollywood “Cape Software Factory” reference model for the technology eco-system in the Cape (Photos on http://citicafe.ning.com)
• Established an ICT Skills working group in November 2009, which was continued as part of the “ICT Skills Crisis” working group for the Colloquium, and which is in the process of being converted into an “ICT Skills Forum” working group which will meet on a monthly basis for the rest of the year, to find workable solutions to issues related to the skills pipeline
• Channeled funding to the Bandwidth Barn’s “Velociti Y” programme which is an ideas stage entrepreneurship programme that assists entrepreneurs with business ideas to develop their idea into a feasible business plan
• Channeled funding to the Bandwidth Barn’s “My Mentor” programme which assists ICT businesses in crisis/facing a challenge or opportunity with mentorship interventions
• Held numerous industry events, including workshops on “How to protect your IP” and “How to write a business plan for VC funding,” numerous presentations on ICT skills, and bringing local IT and telecoms companies together with visiting foreign delegations
• Hosted meetings of various specialist software interest groups including SCRUM, SPIN, UX Forum and others
  

Some of our committed projects to be launched in the next few months include the following:

• Setting up an Exhibition and Showcase of successful Cape IT businesses, innovations and research projects at 32nd International Conference on Software Engineering which will be held in Cape Town from 2-8 March 2010; inviting leading industry players to a cocktail party with visiting delegates; and other initiatives to bring learners and students to the exhibition with a view to growing the skills and entrepreneurship pipeline by celebrating success stories
• Launch of an ICT Skills & Careers portal by April 2010, continuation of the work of the ICT Skills work group and conducting/supporting ICT Skills and ICT Industry Research studies
• Placement of 50 ICT learnerships funded via Isett SETA but managed by CITi/BWB
• Lobbying for a reduction of bureaucracy related to accessing R&D Funding and for the creation of an Interim R&D Fund or Regionalised R&D Fund.
• Assisting Creative Cape Town in developing the bid book section on “IT and design” for the City of Cape Town’s World Design Capital 2014 bid.

Receiving your membership support is also very important for us because we are required to meet certain paid membership targets in order to receive the grant funding that enables us to fund Bandwidth Barn support programmes like Velociti Y, Accel, My Mentor, etc, and to fund our other initiatives and projects (listed above.) CITi members will also be part of CITi’s Stakeholder Forum and have an opportunity to elect board members and give input into the organisation’s strategy.

Details on the benefits of CITi membership (including free attendance at certain events and a company listing on the CITi website) are listed in more detail in the Membership Information Pack on our website at http://www.citi.org.za/membership.html.

I would really appreciate it if you would consider becoming a member before end March 2010.

Kind regards
Jenny McKinnell

Executive Director

jenny@citi.org.za

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IT, Software, Sysdev, Telecoms, Web2.0

Even on a Mac.

My Storm colleagues swore I had an adverse effect on laptops, and as I did succeed in killing quite a few, I do still wonder if there is something in their speculation. So, the first thing I did on leaving Storm (and a trail of 3 laptops in the last 4 months) was to buy myself a MacBook Pro and "convert". LIke most recent converts I did get a bit rosy-eyed and fanatical in the first few months. They say that once on a Mac you won't go back and I can understand why - it really does have something that makes working on a PC seem somehow clunky. The thing just works. Usually.

Until one fateful Wednesday morning last month when I flipped open the screen and waited for the usual few microseconds before the trusty beast was up & ready for work... only to find myself staring at a blank screen. Lights were on, but nobody it seemed was home. I tried a hard reset. I tried it a few times. Nada. Fan was running, all the usual noises, but the screen remained stubbornly blank.

Turns out the Graphics Processor Unit had fried itself. Turns out my MBP was out of warranty. Turns out my friend Pete had had a similar problem recently and had been forced to buy a new machine when the quote for a new motherboard came to almost the same price. Panic! But, as it turns out, for no reason. the Digicape tech asked me to wait a few minutes, took my life into the back room and came back to say, "OK, looks like the GPU is fried, it's a known problem, we'll have to order you new motherboard, it should be done within 10 working days". At no cost. As it was, it was back with 5 working days, good as new and all I had to do was turn it on and all was back to normal.

Or so I thought.

A few weeks later there had been one or two hiccups with applications that noticed my MAC address had changed and assumed I'd reinstalled on a new machine, but as none of them objected to me doing so other than commenting on it, all seemed to be fine. Until I turned the MBP off. I don't usually; turn it off that is. I just shut the lid and pack it by backpack. It keeps OpenVPN sessions running, switches to the various Wifi AP's in the various offices and coffee shops I frequent, and I happily go on with work. But this last weekend I decided to leave the MBP at home and give it a real break as the Missus and I were taking a long overdue "chill-out" weekend in Betty's Bay.

Late last night I fired up the MBP to get my head into the week before Monday hit me... and no access to the Net. "Self Assigned IP" says my Network profile?!? Rebooted the AP (and DHCP server). No change. Renewed the DHCP lease. No change. Manually added an IP I know is in range I've assigned the home network. No change. Tired, frustrated, baffled. Reboot the MBP. No change. Grrr. Wisdom sent me to bed. Got to my client's site and guess what - same story! Fortunately Tim Keller had had a similar hassle once before and suggested the change in MAC address of the motherboard may have caused some glitch. He suggested switching the personal firewall on the MBP to allow all incoming connections, force a manual IP on the machine, then renew the DHCP lease and reimpose the firewall restrictions.

It worked. No idea why this only kicked in after I'd had the MBP off for a few days, but it is now solved.

Anyone had similar situations? Anyone offer a logical explanation? Anyone know why I'm still having to disable my firewall to get a "new" AP to assign me an IP address?

IT, Apple

Sometimes significant changes like this saunter silently into our consciousness

FNB were kind enough to invite me to a one-on-one interview with Yolande van Wyk, CEO of Smart Services at FNB in December of last year. I'm meant to have blogged on what I discussed with her and am feeling more and more guilty about just not getting down to it. The chat spun off all sorts of thoughts about banking the unbanked, exchange controls, economics of poor communities etc, as well as the topic at hand which was FNB's "Send Money". I still mean to write something on that, but for now this will have to suffice - sorry Yolande! (at least SwimGeek got his act together there!)

At the time, she mentioned that FNB were working on a number of exciting projects that she was not able to talk about just then. I was intrigued. If the recent Twittering and now the announcement of PayPal coming to SA is anything to go by, I can't wait for what else is in store!

The problem that the esteemed and feared (word of advice - do not mess with these guys) Reserve Bank's exchange controls has imposed on the innovative tech community in SA is that we may come up with awesome web based services or products to sell to the world, but getting people to pay for them quickly and easily is a nightmare. There is a strong impression in the tech community that many bright young minds have exported themselves and their clever ideas to other lands where e-commerce is easier. One of the most valuable things that came out of the launch of Silicon Cape recently was the placing well and truly centre stage of this exact problem.

It appears that FNB have not waited for Government to do something - they've gone ahead and made a plan. Love it.

I'm not an FNB customer, but I'm impressed with them making this happen. Good on you FNB, strength to your arm and more of the same please!

IT

Now is the time to take advantage of Eskom!

The following is from a mate of mine who consults to various national bodies on energy.

"

For the past few years I have been saying it is NOT yet the best time financially to install a SWH unit on our homes. However, in the past month or so things have changed significantly and believe it is NOW about the best time to install for the following reasons:

1. In January 2010 the current Eskom subsidy scheme on SWH units was substantially increased to try and increase the success of the programme (up to 115% increase more than doubling the amount).

2. The subsidy level is due to start decreasing from next year as the price of electricity increase – as the business case improves for the home owner in terms of savings.

3. The current price of units that we would install on our typical up market homes will not decrease in the short term (2-3 years) due to limitations in the SWH supply industry.

4. Electricity prices will at least double (we may be higher as they are applying a much lower increase level for low income homes, and higher for high users)

5. Typically at least 60% of our monthly electricity bills are used by the geysers, i.e. R480/month if R800 monthly bill

6. A good correctly used SWH will save 70% elec costs in a year = R336/month or R4032/year … or a saving of > R8000 in two years!!

Conclusion – the installation of SWH unit on our houses under the Eskom subsidy programme is an extremely good investment opportunity!! So the question is now which unit, how to size it and how to go about doing it.

Firstly how does the Eskom scheme work:

1. Fully described on their good website at …. [http://www.eskomdsm.co.za/?q=Solar_water_heating_Background_information]

2. Full list of suppliers with exact units covered by the scheme at [http://www.eskomdsm.co.za/?q=swh_supplierslist] - if you search on Western Cape to see how supplies here.

3. Important scheme rules are [http://www.eskomdsm.co.za/sites/default/files/u1/ur_solar_water_heating_rebate_from_Eskom__2_.pdf]

4. What we need to do is to get an approved unit correctly installed (which by the way is an excellent way of ensuring they are all SABS approved and good quality as no fly by nights are registered on their scheme) and then submit the correctly completed paper work and we will be paid back in 2 weeks.

5. To claim see 3 steps … [http://www.eskomdsm.co.za/sites/default/files/u1/_Steps_to_claiming_your_rebate_from_Eskom_v2.pdf]

Selecting a unit:

1. The bigger the unit – the more sun energy it will collect for use by your home and be stored to carry through the rainy/overcast days.

2. Install a unit bigger in tank size than existing geyser i.e. if you have a 150lt geyser install a 200lt SWH unit.

3. Work out the one that is the best in terms of size and performance versus price. Please note the Eskom rebate directly related to thermal performance – they pay more if it is more effective in saving electricity and every unit has a different savings value.

4. I have looked through the scheme results to identify which suppliers have done the most (the popular suppliers who have sold the most under the Eskom scheme are evidently Green Power, Pronto Plumbing, Solarhart/Selected Energy, Solartech, Tasol and Totally Solar), plus the make Solar Dome has been personally recommended to me by the Eskom person/engineer who manages the programme. Based in Stellenbosch.

[NB. These are his personal opinions, and a major reason his name is not attached to this doc - there are many others - do some shopping around]

5. They will always need to add a timer on the back up element (Eskom requirement) – I recommend that a Geyser Wise unit is installed as it will give you the best control over the element (talk to me about how to max elec savings)

6. Please always ask for a “tempering” valve to be installed as well (R800), it ensures that even on very hot days the hot water will never be above say 60deg from a safety perspective.

[and from personal experience, our SWH water goes up to 75deg on a hot day - more than enough for a bad scald for an unsuspecting guest running hot water! - Dave]

You need to look through and decide, get quotes, check that it is once listed on the Eskom scheme then install. I am personally going to pay the extra and install the Sunhotsolar (solar dome) system for R16000 after subsidy as it is very big (300lt and 4.6msq panels) with the greatest subsidy by far (>R12,000) so it will really perform well in terms of savings. Note, the indicative prices on the Eskom Website are under by 2-3000. Plus Geyser Wise and tempering valve will add a bit as well. So in the end, total prices less the allotted Eskom discount will leave you with paying R12000 and up …. which should pay off in a year or two …

"

On the strength of his words I am planning to replace our remaining non-SWH geyser before this winter.

Do it this year. Do it now if you can!

And forward this link to as many of your mates as you can think of - share the wisdom.

rgds,

Dave

Renewables, Solar, Energy