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/ 10 March 2000

In search of the right connection

David Le Page What network to choose? It’s a question that should probably tax us a little more when going on air, even though there are only two choices at present: Vodacom or MTN. The range of different billing plans offered by the two networks tends to make choosing between the two networks seem more […]

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/ 10 March 2000

Index finger of fate points at old-timers

Julia Finch The impact of the second industrial revolution will be emphasised next week when one in 10 stalwarts of the FTSE 100 index is likely to be ditched in favour of new-economy stocks. The casualties could include many corporations – such as Imperial Tobacco, Whitbread and Scottish & Newcastle – whose histories predate World […]

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/ 10 March 2000

‘Irrational Aids debate rides rough-shod

over patients’ Mxolisi ka-Mankazana South Africa is failing in its fight against HIV/Aids at a time when other countries that have less economic, political and scientific clout than we do, such as Uganda and Tanzania, are gaining ground against it. This is despite the appointment by the previous health minister of a special director to […]

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/ 10 March 2000

New tax threat to market pirates

Neil Thomas TAKING STOCK Everybody in the investment industry knows it happens. It’s share price manipulation, an activity that skirts the border of legality depending on its scale and intention. But there’s little that can be done about it – many professional investors would rather nothing was done about it, regarding stock manipulation as just […]

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/ 10 March 2000

Patent Internet insanity

Amazon’s 1-Click system may be neat, but making it exclusive is absurd John Naughton Like many people in my line of business, I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon. It’s by far the slickest, most efficient e-commerce operation on the Web. Unlike many of its competitors, it has cracked the “fulfilment” problem – the […]

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/ 10 March 2000

Politicians unwilling to accept stubborn

science David Le Page Aids has attacked the intellectual resources of sections of the body politic as successfully as it has assaulted the immune systems of many South Africans. The heart of the problem appears to be a profound misunderstanding on the part of the president, successive health ministers and their immediate advisers of the […]

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/ 10 March 2000

‘Prince’ of the beasts

Gavin Evans BOXING It was on a Sunday night, during a dinner party, that Brendan Ingle finally managed to reach me on my cellphone. He’d been leaving messages for me all over London, asking me to contact him as a matter of urgency. Ingle – the Irishman who created “Prince” Naseem Hamed, serving as a […]

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/ 10 March 2000

Quantum leap in signalling

How 007 could send an unbreakable coded message to Moonraker Michael Brooks In New Mexico the light can be truly astonishing. Not because it gives the desert a strange aesthetic beauty, but because it contains coded messages. Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory announced recently that they have written data into single photons, the […]

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/ 10 March 2000

R3bn backlog in national road maintenance

Barry Streek The accrued backlog for the upgrading, maintenance and repair of South Africa’s national roads, excluding provincial and district roads, was estimated at R3- billion at the start of the 1999/2000 financial year, Minister of Transport Dullah Omar has revealed. However, only R775-million was allocated in the 1999/2000 financial year by the Department of […]

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/ 10 March 2000

Report recognises musicians’ rights

Thebe Mabanga The stature of South African musicians is set to be drastically improved. This is if the recommendations of the Music Industry Task Team (Mitt) are successfully implemented. The recommendations are contained in a draft report that has been prepared after a week-long seating for Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Ben Ngubane. […]