Rupert Jones A cellular phone which thinks it is a cash machine is about to go on trial in Britain. The hybrid handset brings the dream of access to one’s cash any time, any place, anywhere a big step closer. Cellphone banking is not new, but the customer is unable to do much more than […]
Nigeria 99? Chris McGreal in Lagos Soccer Nigeria’s military ruler, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, last week kicked off a campaign to proclaim the World Under-20 Championship a success before a goal is scored. Football chiefs and military men were treated to a spectacle of dancers and speeches about the wonders of “Nigeria 99”. And then the […]
Jack Schofield On the Web, pornography is just a misplaced keystroke away. Last week, Brian Milburn, president of California-based Solid Oak Software, said: “Our researchers have discovered thousands of registered domain names that are extremely similar to those of major companies. We call them `typo’ sites.” The increase in such sites was “an alarming trend”, […]
Piers Pigou When Sicelo Dlomo’s body was found with a single shot to the head on the outskirts of Soweto in January 1988, many assumed the police had had a hand in the execution. Dlomo had become a thorn in the flesh of the security forces and had stayed away from home for several months […]
David le Page Product: ICQ free e-mail software. Requirements: PowerMac or 68K Mac; 486-SX or higher PC; Windows 3.11, Win95 or WinNT3.5/4.0; any Java-enabled computer As the great South African diaspora continues, it becomes increasingly likely that we lingering diehards have not only obscure and happily forgotten relations overseas, but also a number of people […]
These are the bulk of the questions faxed to Magnus Heystek, at his request, before publication. He declined to make any comment. 1. How do you reconcile the fact that your company, Cream Publishing, bought stand 1 with the house for R650 000 while the trust bought stand 2 for R850 000? 2. At the […]
Andrew Muchineripi Soccer The analysis of a soccer match usually centres around the skill, strength and speed of the footballers and the tactics of the coach. Luck is a word rarely mentioned. Yet luck often plays a significant role and the African Nations Cup qualifying tie between South Africa and Gabon at Odi Stadium last […]
If words are cheap for politicians, they are cheaper for journalists. We are free to criticise most decisions while seldom having to live with the consequences of what we might have advocated. Unlike politicians, we can afford to have poor foresight. But we always have excellent hindsight. This difference between politicians and journalists seldom seems […]
Karlin Lillington Computer-generated worlds where people can interact in real-time over the Internet came closer to reality recently. This was the effect of MCI WorldCom’s quadrupling the capacity of its Very High Performance Backbone Network Service (vBNS) in California. “In essence this is a distributed Holodeck,” says MCI’s lead engineer for vBNS, Rick Wilder, referring […]
THE DAVID GLEASON COLUMN Valuing financial services companies is always difficult, especially when they are brand new to the investing public. This is certainly the case with The Appleton Group, a company about to be listed for the first time on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)and whose initial private offering for R50- million has already […]