Source: FT, Sep 14/Sep 15, Life&Arts, page 21
The 10 email commandments
Tim Harford’s ultimate guide to getting things done in the 21st century.
Well worth reading! Go out and buy your copy of the Financial Times (Weekend) now.
Best of all is the 10th commandment:
„(…) Is any of this advice right for you? Your job description, colleagues and home life are different. You are different. Figure out what advice I should have given you, and do that instead.“
Contrary to the UK, there was no debate on Syria in Parliament in Germany.
All the German politicians are currently spending all their time wooing voters (with the Bundestag election coming up, three weeks from now) so people rather think and talk about important topics like potholes in German roads, and underpaid German doctors, instead of uninteresting and far-away topics like war in Syria.
Which voter would ever be interested in 1,400 dead Syrians when there is a pothole in the Autobahn in front of him?
I never read a book by Robert Fulghum, but I guess this one I should recommend.
C’est la vie.
E: Unfortunately, I ran out of EAHP business cards. So what I have to do while at http://durban47.icann.org in Durban, South Africa, is giving away Redvers Consulting Ltd business cards with my name on them. I hope that is fine with you. Redvers is a name related to South Africa, anyway, if I remember correctly what you once told me.
D: Actually I’m quite happy that you’re handing out Redvers business cards at ICANN events – just helps to get the Redvers company name in front of more IT people. Yes, the British general, Redvers Buller was quite a popular British general in the Zulu and Boer wars in South Africa. You might want to bear in mind that although he was popular among the British, he may not be so popular with any Zulu or Dutch people you may meet.
E: Well I was talking to a very nice IT guy of Zulu origin last night, at the Gala Dinner. Since I didn’t realize all this background, perhaps giving a Redvers business card to him at the end of our half-hour conversation killed it all.
🙁
This is an observation on the economic side of accessing the internet while in Africa.
option a) Use your existing European SIM card. Don’t bother to learn about local telephone or IP providers. In my case, this means using T-Mobile. They charge me 0.79 Euro (plus VAT) for every 50 kBytes of 3G internet access, post-paid with my monthly T-Mobile subscription. So this means if I download 20 Megs, it is very easy for me to do it. I just have to pay 316 Euro.
I tried this option when at Nairobi airport, on July 7th, for a few minutes. Yesterday, I also talked to a guy from The Netherlands, staying at the same hotel as I am, in Durban, South Africa, and he is paying a similar price.
option b) Go to a local shop in Tanzania, or Zambia, or South Africa, and buy a local SIM card for wireless access with a local telecoms company. This is pre-paid, so you simply pay upfront.
So this means:
| T-Mobile (Roaming) | 20 Megs | € 316 total cost |
| Tanzania (Zantel) | 100 Megs @ 10,000 Tshs | € 5 total cost |
| Zambia (Airtel) | 50 Megs @ 20 Kwacha | € 3 total cost |
| South Africa (Vodacom) | 100 Megs @ 100 Rand | € 6 total cost |
Any questions, anyone? Call me now in South Africa using my local number +27-796-746409 (same one that I am using for internet access).
Also have a look at §138 Abs.2 BGB (German Civil Code).
… getting closer to Durban all the time. We did 1,860 kms at an average speed of 31 km/h. Dar es salaam to Kapiri Mposhi. Friday, July 12th to Monday, July 15th.
Felix, Louis and Conor. Spent 60 hours with them. I miss them already.
First view on entering Zambia on Sunday morning. Sweet memories. I suddenly felt as if I had never left Cologne, Germany.
Conversation overheard on Facebook
– Please say hi to President Obama when you see him. Best regards from his old friends in Germany. He was hiding behind a thick pane of glass when he was in Berlin the other day, in June. I hope he will behave more sensibly in Tanzania
– LOL. I am dreading the withdrawal symptoms of spending several hours with no electronic device anywhere near me.
– 50 years ago, President John F. Kennedy was in Berlin, and held a historical speech. It wouldn’t have been half as impressive if he had hidden behind a pane of glass at the time. I wonder how Obama will choose to appear in Dar es salaam this week.
– „Ich bin ein Dar es Salaamer“?
To me, the fascinating thing about the internet is that it helps me to communicate. That’s why I am using emails, Twitter, XING, LinkedIn, Facebook, Yahoogroups, Flickr, the like. And yes, this blog, too …
There is one kind of communication that has become a little overlooked in recent years. (I am not talking about ordinary, non-digital, face-to-face communication. I like that, too).
I am talking about text messaging, also called SMS by some. Sometimes, text messages are a great way to communicate. Forget about smart phones. Forget about WhatsApp. I am talking about a plain old text message, 160 characters, nothing else. It goes directly to a person’s mobile phone, it is clear, concise and will even work on your grandmother’s mobile phone which hasn’t had a software update for 20 years, and never will have one.
One of the pioneers of this kind of communication is Reiner. Three cheers to www.rusch-hour.com
Hip, Hip, Hurray!
The Government is closing Public Television. Do not let them do it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl-GOKPNsI8&feature=youtu.be
For those of you not fluent in Greek, do switch on the English subtitles. And take heed to what is said, e.g. at 4:10 „This is a profound violation of the constitution. This is a deliberate stretegy, a direct shot at democracy. Not even the most extreme autocracies dared to put an end to the right to inform and broadcast on public television.“
And who is to blame? I think the Euro is to blame. Do away with it!
But carefully. Don’t let the scrapping of the Euro be another direct shot at democracy.
The recent NSA story from the US, involving data retention and sniffing, reminds me of the „Network Revolution“ book I want to pick up from David in Dar. So that’s another reason for coming to Dar in July, to catch up on recent developments regarding the NSA and PRISM.
The book’s title is „The Network Revolution – Confessions of a Computer Scientist“, by Jacques Vallee, from 1982. So it was written more than 30 years ago, but it is definitely a must-read for President Obama, and anyone else interested in the PRISM story of June, 2013.