Good News for South Africans is that SkypeIn is now available in South Africa! SkypeIn allows users to have the own personal number. People call you from a phone or cell phone and you pick up the call with Skype.
Via MyBroadBand website:
Local Skype users can now get their own SkypeIn number and can make unlimited international calls for R 102 per month
Voice over IP (VoIP) provider Skype recently announced that it has extended its SkypeIn service to South Africa. SkypeIn provides Skype users with their own unique number on which they can receive calls on their computer from regular landline and mobile phone users.
“An online number (SkypeIn) is perfect if you have friends, family or business colleagues who don’t use Skype. Anyone can dial your online number from any phone or mobile and hey presto, your Skype rings and you pick up the call – wherever you are in the world,” the Skype website explains.
“You buy an online number and your friends, family or business contacts can call that number and only pay for a standard rate call (if they are in the same country as your online number) – the online number uses the internet to route the call and so saves them money. It makes absolutely no difference wherever you are, you can pick up the call at no cost to you wherever in the world you are logged into Skype.”
SkypeIn numbers cost US $18 for 3 months or US $60 for a full year. This translates into R 141 for a SkypeIn number for three months and R 471 per number for a 12 month period.
Unlimited International calls for R 102 per month
SkypeIn complements the company’s existing products like SkypeOut and Unlimited flat rated calling. Apart from standard SkypeOut credits, South Africans can purchase South Africa 400, World 400 and Unlimited World packages providing discounted call rates to fixed lines.
South Africa 400, priced at $ 14.95 (R 117), gives subscribers 400 minutes of calls to landlines in South Africa per month. World 400, which costs $ 17.95 (R 141) per month, offers 400 minutes of calls to landlines in South Africa and over 40 countries per month.
The most attractive deal is however the company’s Unlimited World service which at $ 12.95 (R 102) per month allows for unlimited calls to landlines in over 40 countries worldwide. These countries include Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the UK and the United States. Calls to South African landlines are however excluded.
For the past couple of days, I’ve been experimenting with a tool called Focus Booster. It’s a simple app with an easy method to help you measure and increase your focus and concentration:
- Firstly, choose the amount of time you would like to complete a particular task. By default it is set to 25 minutes.
- Prepare to do the task, clear your PC desktop of any distractions, and start the timer.
- Continue working until you’ve completed the task or the timer runs out.
- Take a break
- Restart the process with your next task
Tiny app, simple process, but it works for me, and these are the benefits I believe are derived:
- Forces you to plan and think about a single task you would like to perform
- A quick glance at the timer helps you focus, there is something watching you!
- Helps you to persevere, (just another 8 more minutes to go, etc.)
- Provides some type of measurement of how long you can focus, and challenges you to better it. The next version will allow you to record your focus sessions.
Focus Booster is a free application and requires Adobe AIR to run. Download it at: http://www.focusboosterapp.com/ . Follow updates on twitter @focusboosterapp
There are two ways to uninstall Adobe AIR apps on Ubuntu.
1) Access to original .air file
If you have access to the original .air file, run it and it will give you a screen with options to either Uninstall, Run Now or Cancel. Simply click on Uninstall.
2) Use Synaptic Package Manager
A second more easier approach (particularly if you lost the .air package) is to use Synaptic. From the sidebar, simply choose: Status > Installed (local or obsolete)
Discovering this makes me less hesitant to try our different AIR apps, trying to find out which one works best.
For days now, Thunderbird has been showing one unread email, though I couldn’t find it using all the sort techniques I’ve had. Googling shows it’s not an uncommon occurrence. The solution is also quite easy.
Right click on the folder and choose ‘Compact‘.
Takes a minute, but it will reveal the ‘hidden’ email(s).
Source: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird/+bug/116642
Starting from Constantia Nek, we went up to Devillier’s Dam and past Camel Rock
De Villier’s Dam
Here is a list of some of the ExtJS Books, one is already published, others should be out later this year:
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Learning ExtJS
This book has already been published and is available for purchase. As the first and currently only book available, it is quite a useful reference.
What you will learn from this book?
- Create responsive forms
- Look at Web Applications from an entirely new perspective
- Learn to use the major UI components available in Ext JS
- Understand how external data can be consumed by Ext JS
- Query and process remote data into your application
- Use Layouts to bring all of the Ext JS pieces together
- Use Ext JS effects to manipulate the DOM in exciting ways
- Provide a consistent look and feel to your application using Components
- Change the visual style of Ext JS using theming support
- Find Custom Community Extensions to expand your applications
- Create your own custom library extensions
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Practical ExtJS Projects with Gears
This promises to be an exciting book focussing on practical case studies, and also integrate offline usage with Google Gears.
Expected in July 2009
What you’ll learn
- Get an understanding of one of today’s hottest JavaScript frameworks and libraries, Ext JS.
- Develop interesting Web 2.0 “front ends,” RIAs (Rich Internet Applications), and more.
- Create a number of applications from the projects or pragmatic case studies that the author gives you.
- Create an organizer, timekeeper, a code cabinet, and more.
- Get back to basics and back ends using a SQL workbench, Google Gears, and Ext BASIC.
- Pull it all together by designing a game using Ext JS.
- And more…
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ExtJS in Action
Expected in January 2010, although some chapter are available with the Manning Early Access Program
http://www.manning.com/garcia/
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When Mozilla Prism was first launched, I honestly never gave it much thought as to it’s usefulness, or why anyone would want to use it. Today, it is such an essential tool for me. Let me explain.
Getting a printer installed on Ubuntu is easy, plug-and-play generally works. Getting a PDF printer working is also easy. To install it, one has to open a terminal or Synaptic (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager).
In a terminal, enter:
sudo apt-get install cups-pdf
It will ask you for your password when you press enter. Or in Synaptic, do a search for: cups-pdf.
Now one step that has to be done manually otherwise it doesn’t work. In your home directory, create a folder called PDF (all in caps).
After this, you’ll see an option for PDF in the printer’s list, and printing to PDF.
My current laptop is a DELL d630 which I bought through an auction site Bidorbuy.co.za. Purchasing such a pricey product weighed heavily on mind. What happens if I’m conned? What happens if it is not up to spec as advertised? Fortunately, mine was a very pleasant experience, and went through quite smoothly. Here are a few tips I’ll share…
I'm a Web Developer living in Cape Town, South Africa. Interests include: PHP, JQuery, ExtJS, Adobe AIR, Linux, Ubuntu, WordPress, Human Rights, Usability, Multimedia