RubMinds TechBlogA poet's candid snapshot of ICT events, milestones and issues in Nigeria
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August 16 2010: BCX Networks Ltd (Business Connexion) Nigeria is certified Gold by Cisco Systems having met the requirements for personnel, specialization and and support. The Cisco Gold Certification for West Africa proves that BCX Nigeria is qualified to sell, install and support Cisco solutions in West English Africa.
The S.I. industry has news that BCX, a technology partner, will use products from WAVION and XIRRUS to deploy and achieve a high-capacity wireless mesh (wifi) for every point on the Nsukka and Enugu campuses, even on tree tops and tunnels. It is necessary to stress that WAVION wifi radios are the farthest-travelling and most effective wifi base-stations in the world.
Present at the project’s ground breaking ceremony and award of contracts were the Vice Chancellor of the School and other academic staff and students, Nyimbi Odero, Rodwell Zvarayi. the media and stakeholders.
According to the Director of Information Communication and Technology/Innovation Centre of UNN, Dr. Christian Bolu, the project with Monday’s start-up launch would also mark the commencement of the implementation of the institution’s ICT strategy programme. Bolu stated that the project when fully completed would be the largest university wireless network in West Africa. He explained that Google would pay for the international portion of the bandwidth for three years as well as provide a minimum of 25 Mbps per annum.
Google, one of the biggest companies in the world will partner with BCX, HP and Cisco and will provide at least 25Mbps of international internet bandwidth for about 40,000+ users.
Interestingly, SIWES has reportedly contracted all final-year Elect Elect students to BCX for their Industrial attachment for at least 3 months in the knowledge exchange program, as part of the deal, the media was told.
All eyes are on BCX to deliver the solution according to the scope of work and expectations of the public (in terms of benefits) and the hand-over date/ceremony, as the countdown on the School’s official website points to early August, 2010.
We were unable to contact Olugbenga Akano, the Lead Wireless Expert who reportedly designed the network considered to be Africa’s biggest wireless network, and his team. Nigerians should say a big Thank you to Google, HP and Cisco for supporting education in Nigeria and congratulations to UNN, the first to benefit from this google initiative.
Further reading: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/06/01/how-google-mtn-others-connect-in-n3b-unn-wireless-network-project/
With more than six months of exam results now available, Cisco is able to report that the troubleshooting components of the CCIE R&S v4.0 and CCIE Voice v3.0 lab exams are performing well in validating expert level networking skills. Considering these results, Cisco has decided to eliminate the Core Knowledge questions from the current CCIE R&S v4.0 and CCIE Voice v3.0 Lab Exams. Beginning on May 10, 2010, CCIE R&S and CCIE Voice Lab Exams, in all global locations, will no longer include the four open-ended Core Knowledge questions. The total lab time will remain eight hours. For the CCIE R&S Lab Exam, this means candidates will begin with the two-hour Troubleshooting section, followed by a six-hour Configuration section. For CCIE Voice, candidates will have the full eight hours to complete the integrated exam. At this time, only the R&S and Voice tracks will be eliminating the Core Knowledge questions.
https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-6484
I’m indifferent about this though. I think it didnt make sense in the first place since all were expected to have gone through the riggors of the written exam. All the same, it is a welcome development, focus on the troubleshooting and work on more versions of the Lab so that the cheats can’t find their way through it as often as they used to. Let the #-key maintain it’s respect worldwide. Maybe there’ll be more passers, maybe not.
Unified Threat Management (UTM) to penetrate the Nigerian ICT industry
As SMBs and enterprises continue to yearn for managed security services, UTM has emerged as the most likely long-term solution to their ICT problems. Some of the UTM Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) sell recurrent user licenses to help reduce CapEx and TCO. This alone has attracted the interests of Microfinance Banks, Insurance companies and Start-up businesses. To the best of my knowledge, WAEC and Dangote presently use Elitecore Cyberoam UTM.
Why UTM?
A unified shield due to their multiple security features and affordable pricing, the UTM appliances have emerged as a two-way shield, for customers as well as channels. It secures the IT assets of customers and makes the businesses of channel partners recession-proof, offering them sustained sales and services revenues UTM is an outgrowth of security appliances that initially offered basic functionalities like firewall and antivirus. Today’s UTMs offer eight to 10 security features. These features are firewall, VPN security, automatic fail-over, load balancing, bandwidth management, URL filtering, intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, antivirus, and anti-spam. Since they pack so many features at a relatively low pricing, UTMs have always been targeted at SMBs and mid-market customers right since the early days. Some of the brands who operate in this category are Checkpoint, Cyberoam, Fortinet, Gajshield, SonicWALL, StoneGate, and WatchGuard.
END-POINT SECURITY
It has been years since a firewall that enforces policies based only on source-destination-service has been sufficient. Trusted end points harbor malware, are controlled by attackers, and are launching points for attacks. Network security solutions must be in-line and inspect all the traffic that passes through them. They must look for viruses, worms, exploit traffic, and even unusual behavior. IDC dubs these solutions “complete content inspection” firewalls. Many vendors refer to them as UTM, Unified Threat Management.
One aspect of a secure network that is often overlooked is that the computers on the inside of the network are often the danger. It could be an infected computer brought in by an employee or contractor, it could be a poorly patched server that has been compromised by an outside attacker. Even the smallest organizations have to invest in network security solutions to block attacks from devices on the inside of the network. This is accomplished through network segmentation and deploying content inspection capabilities internally. As threats multiply watch for solutions that either sit on top of the access switch or incorporate the switch in their configuration.
Cyberoam Authorized Partner: BCX Networks Ltd, info@bcxng.com, , +234 (0) 702 533 7980/81
Request for a demo/eval unit, test and buy.
References:
http://www.channelbusiness.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2025&Itemid=78
Technology is surely a major backbone of the economy. With no infrastructure in place, businesses are bound to be disorganized and decentralized, culminating in disjointedness, lack of productivity, ineffectiveness, loss of revenue and ultimately declaration of bankruptcy.
Disambiguation: there are clear differences between Internet Service Provider, Service/Network Provider and Solutions Provider / Systems integrator. A service provider provides (on lease, recurrent) internet/mobile/network/backhaul services while the Systems Integrator (SI) or Solutions Provider acts as a vendor and uses products from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs e.g. Cisco, MS, HP) to provide technology solutions or integrate with existing systems. In this article, we focus only on the latter.
Some of the popular OEMs that have partnered with our Systems Integrators (S.I.s) include Cisco, Microsoft, HP, IBM, Sun, Avaya, Nortel, Red-Hat, Allot, Huawei, Systimax, Polycom, Tandberg, NEC, Panasonic, Dell, Intel, Proxim, Alvarion, Radwin, Wavion, Oracle, Nokia and Axis.
The following Technology giants (in no particular order) have paid their dues in shaping IT over the African continent, especially in West Africa and Nigeria. Let me remind you that the instability of another major backbone of the economy, the banking sector, has severely impacted operations in these firms but most of them are still doing very well and adding considerable value to the economy.
Nigeria’s Top 10 ICT solutions providers and systems integrators
1. Business Connexion (BCX Networks, Nigeria). Over 5,000 workers employed across Africa, known for Managed Services/outsourcing/ support, Data Center, Cloud computing, Storage and Voice.
2. Dimension Data (DD or Didata). Global reputation, known for Service Provider, Voice and Data Centre. DD and BCX are considered the biggest ICT firms in Nigeria due to their strong network and financial backing (outside Nigeria) and are therefore capable of handling the MEGA multi-million dollar projects. DD also have an ISP, Internet Solutions (IS Nigeria, formerly Accelon) and therefore provide end-to-end solutions.
3. iTeco (a Member of the Telnet Group). Having been around for a very long time and having produced and mentored directly or indirectly, more than half of the 35+ CCIEs in Nigeria, iTeco is particularly known for advisory services, design, implementation and mentoring. Also own ISP company, iPnX.
4. Weco Systems. Award winning SI with lots of ambition, experience and command of modern technology. Known for Voice, supply of units, Implementation.
5. Resourcery. One of the most popular SIs, known for Data Centre Infrastructure, Video and Voice (see MTN-Cisco Telepresence solution).
6. DCC Networks (member of the Computer Warehouse Group). Also with an ISP provides end-to-end connectivity dependent solutions.
7. iPartners. Popularly known for Security, Voice and Managed Services. Great US backing, tech-wise.
8. G4V. Popularly known for Software/Hardware Integration.
9. Converge Group. Known for Call/Contact Centres.
10. Galaxy Backbone: strategically attached to the Federal Government and handles most governmental ICT projects nationwide. Usually collaborates with most of the top S.I.s.
Worthy of mention are Lagos and Abuja-based Solutions Providers; Quanteq, Micro-Access, Layer 3, NTTS and others.
You have all done well, please be more innovative and expand more so that the nation can realize her ICT dreams.
How/Where to test or buy Sendio Anti-Spam Solution in Nigeria.
Sendio ESP is what I call the “Spammer’s Nightmare!”. The stingy anti-spam solution is very easy to deploy and works on a simple subscription-based Sender Address Verification / Silverlisting technology. Many Anti Spam vendors claim they can eliminate 99% of spam and false-positives. What happens to the 1%? You simply lose business because legitimate business mails are wrongly classified as spam and you do not get to see them. Well before I begin to tell you the many good things that Sendio does, I need to tell you the truth from a Sendio Partner’s point of view: If a genuine email sender sends a business mail at 4:59pm on Friday to a receiver, for the first time, using Sendio ESP at the other end, closes his system and rushes home, he will definitely return on monday morning to find the Sender Address Verification (SAV) message instead of a reply! This means the receiver has probably not seen the message. The message resides in the receiver’s Sendio box until the sender verifies that he is indeed human, only then can the mail be pushed to the receiver. This ensures that the mail was not sent in error and also proves that the sender is not a spammer. Sweet and sour, right? Not exactly.
The SAV is pretty easy to deal with. If a spammer sends an email address with a masked address, e.g. GeNS@gtbplc.com asking you to validate your ATM Debit Card and populates the body of the mail with phishing sites, Sendio says, no problem (if DKIM is not used), and sends the SAV back to the originating email address (not the reply to email address which is usually different). The SAV message goes to GTB of course, and not the spammer! All the sender needs do is click reply, the validation string is a random one and needs not be typed, click send and your mail is delivered to the intendend recipient. If DKIM was enabled then the email would be classified as spam as the spoofed gtbplc.com domain in the sender’s email address will fail the test. Sendio only deals with the to and from string, does not parse the body (contents) of the mail in order to save time and bandwidth.
If a sender is not on your safe senders list, they must explain who they are to the Sendio Interface before hitting your exchange server. This should prevent the so-called ‘Artificial Intelligent’ anti-spam from guessing wrong or right after screening the contents of your email (extra latency). Sendio also includes an optional integrated E-mail Anti-virus protection from Kaspersky and Clam AV. If you are looking for an anti-spam solution that really works 100% for 25 to 10,000 + users, then you have come to the right place.
Deployment is slim easy, you can have a Sendio Box installed with user licenses just before your exchange server in your server room/data center or go green by using Sendio HaaS/SaaS in the cloud where your mail hosts direct your mails to a hosted Sendio Service and back to your mail server. If you are not okay with configuration headaches and integration backlashes, then Sendio is your saviour. Access Bank Plc and Bank PHB, both top Nigerian Banks use Sendio and can testify to seeing little or no spam and better Network Admin utilization compared to any other Email Security Solution out there.
To request a Sendio Anti-spam Solution Trial/Demo or presentation, please contact BCX Networks Ltd, +234 (0) 702 533 7980/81, info@bcxng.com or contact Sendio directly, www.sendio.com.
Cisco Telepresence finally live in 3 states in Nigeria, by MTN and technology partner, Resourcery Limited.
Karl Toriola must surely be proud of his time as CTO of MTN Nigeria. Nigeria’s number 1 Telecommunications company MTN, are the first to launch a 21st Century conferencing solution, Cisco’s flagship Telepresence (often marketed by Cisco’s CEO, John Chambers). Telepresence enables people in different locations to appear to be in the same board room. The users adjascent to the screen has no idea how far the others are as images are clear, sound is real and emotions and gestures can be seen like in real life meetings.
Telepresence is NOT exactly videoconferencing but employs the underlying technology, these two terms should therefore not be “inter-changed”. Telepresence, the most advanced visual conferencing solution to date, is very expensive (costs millions of dollars) to set up and requires huge pipes of bandwidth with low latency (preferably fibre). Very few companies can afford to implement Telepresence in different locations, it is therefore wise for Service Providers with Fibre (IP/MPLS rings) backbone to implement and lease to users (See AT & T Cisco Telepresence video below)
| » Reduce travel related costs |
| » Recover time spent travelling to and from meetings |
| » Eliminate security risk associated with travelling |
| » Increase productivity as time spent travelling can be channelled to more productive use. |
| » Make important decisions faster |
| » Hold important project meetings, negotiations, executive interviews etc can be held as often as necessary eliminating the constrains of travel |
MTN Nigeria Telepresence Sessions cost 60,000 naira per hour and seats a maximum of 6 individuals (2 minimum) per location (I guess that amounts to 10,000 naira per head). I mean you ship 6 men down to the hotel in Lagos and ask your business partners to arrive at the Abuja and PH venues 15 minutes before “kick-off” time, having paid 24 hours before, they set your meeting up and off you go. They give you 2 extra hours if your meeting lasts beyond 4 hours but I don’t see why anyone would sit at a virtually real boardroom for 6 hours!
Hey before you start cursing and fuming over reduction in per-diem, travel allowance, hotel back-runs etc, remember that Telepresence will keep you close to your family, reduce the risk of travelling, increase productivity, save you time and set up more impromptu meetings. You can even interview top prospects (including a new football coach) – HR Managers, take note. Kudos to MTN for taking the big risk as usual to be the first to deploy a solution that will make Nigerians proud.
SECURE EMERGENCY ICT STRUCTURES AS CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
By: Christopher Odutola
Case study: BCX Networks Ltd: iLab, iCafe and iOffice
COMPANY BACKGROUND
Business Connexion, arguably Africa’s leading integrator of innovative information and communication technology (ICT) solutions, has delivered practical and cost-effective solutions to government and business across Africa since the mid-eighties. Business Connexion was founded in the year 1980 as a limited liability company, the company’s track record spans over 30 years and includes the design and implementation of several enterprise networks across Africa.
The 5000-strong team of ICT professionals, which are based in offices across Africa, have an extensive track record of delivering solutions to African governments, utilities and parastatals, and to the private sector across Africa. The company has delivered ICT solutions to clients in the Financial services sector, Telecommunications industry, Mining and Exploration sector, Government Ministries, Healthcare sector and to Petrochemical companies throughout Africa.
BCX Networks Ltd (www.bcx.co.za) provides a comprehensive range of solutions to clients, encompassing traditional detailed Telephony Solutions, Contact Centres and State-of-the-Art convergence solutions, broadcasting solutions and general networking infrastructure using Hawkstone Solutions and Products.
In order to deliver a world class service Business Connexion nurtures strong relationships with many of the world’s leading ICT companies including but not limited to Avaya, Cisco, EMC2, GFI, HP, IBM, Netapp, Wavion, NEC, Radwin, Proxim, Infosys, Microsoft, Nortel Networks, Northgate HR, Novell, OpenText, Riverbed, Sage, SAP, SAS, Sendio, Stratus Technologies, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, Systimax, VMware and Websense.
Over the past few years BCX has achieved many accolades relating to services, products and solutions it has delivered to customers.
Specifically over the last two years BCX was awarded the following niche market achievements from CISCO and other High Profile vendors….
2007 Cisco Global Partner Summit
Cisco Security Partner of the year for Emerging Markets: Middle East and Africa Region
2007 Cisco Local Partner Summit
Cisco Gold Partner of the year
Cisco Public Sector Partner of the year
Data Centre Partner of the year
Product Manager of the year
Customer Advocacy partner of the year
2008 Local Partner Summit
Public Sector Partner of the year
Customer Advocacy partner of the year
Data Centre Partner of the year
2009 Global Partner Summit
Public sector partner of the year
Data Centre Partner of the year
2008/9
Top IBM Business Partner
Leadership in IBM BladeCentre Solution Deployment
Outstanding IBM Information Infrastructure Storage Solution
As such BCX has had to be innovative and professional in its delivery of solutions to African challenges and hence the following information is critical in all projects.
Introduction (case study: iLab)
It is inevitable in modern day ICT projects that initial plans will fail and in such cases, the best option is to have a backup plan with minimal effect on the overall budget. Sometimes the entire project can be screwed up due to unforeseen circumstances or inadequate planning and if there is no backup plan the failed project becomes another black hole to the company. Many well-meaning companies have tried in vain to give back to the communities by going the ICT way, providing Internet labs, libraries or centers for schools, higher institutions and rural communities. These deployments are often greeted with user enthusiasm and media publicity but in less than a year after commissioning a huge project, the site is often left in a sorry state. Why are these solutions short-lived and unsuccessful in the long run? The question is rhetorical as the answers stare right at one in the face:
1. Vandalism
2. Corruption
3. Use of sub-standard materials and devices
4. Inadequate planning
5. Lack of Support and Continuity (Management)
6. Inadequate Power and Technical resource
7. Inadequate training and education of end-users and operators
8. Lack of core ICT materials and values
9. Politics
I shall discuss each briefly and proffer solutions accordingly.
Vandalism: At a time when companies are trying to cut costs and justify every financial implication, it is hard to concede investment in ICT to vandalism but this is the leading cause of failed ICT projects in Africa (Nigeria inclusive). A well meaning company tries to build a 100-seater ICT laboratory for a federal university with burglary proof e.t.c., networks the building and sets up a server room; flat screen monitors, UPSes, speakers and other computer accessories, branded and ready for commissioning. The MD/CEO shows up few days later and commissions the project, the papers and TV spread it to all and sundry and an idle mind sits somewhere thinking of how to break in and steal the devices, if possible. The week following the commissioning, vandals either break in through the windows, doors, and roof or seize the guards and empty the Lab or just some expensive devices and make away with them without any trace. Replacement of missing devices takes a while and in the meantime, others take advantage of the backdoor to loot what is left of the building until the project fails completely leaving the community with a dead ICT lab and the public with false information that a lab exists in the school. Vandalism can only be resisted with anti-theft, vandal-proof ruggedized technology. The building itself must be very secure, vandal-proof, fire-proof, the seats properly glued to the classroom floor, the devices quite far from the window, the devices kept in a ruggedized, unbreakable enclosure. The LCD screens, often the easiest targets must be kept in tight enclosures such that only the display can be seen. Finally, fire, burglar alarms and GPS locators must be installed in the lab. The only thing that can be stolen from a secure lab is oxygen! You need a bulldozer to stand a chance of getting away with scraps of damaged devices – the best you can get.
Corruption: Due to corruption, some attendants and ICT lab managers have resorted to using the labs for personal gains. They bring family and friends in and sometimes charge other users and fail to remit the money to the designated channel. I witnessed this in some of the sites I visited in Lagos and some northern states. Sometimes, students don’t even have access to the lab at all for reasons best known to the “man in power”. This anomaly can be corrected by using biometrics to authenticate each and every user sessions. This way, outsiders will not be registered by the authorities and students cannot login to the workstations upon expiry of their sessions. This implies that no one person can hold a workstation to ransom, browsing the internet all day while others wait at their mercy; everyone is provided equal access at specific times of the day (or sessions) and the benefit of having a state of the art ICT lab can at least “go round”. This approach was the deciding factor in the Zambian government picking a proprietary emergency ICT lab solution. The same issue faces the use of legacy ICT labs in modern Nigeria today and poses a threat to the development of ICT skills in our schools and communities.
Use of substandard materials and devices: This is obviously no news to us. Contractors are out to milk the well-meaning firms by all means and most of the time, low-quality materials are used in building the facility while cheap ICT components are either substandard or outdated often with no warranty or support. The end result is a faulty keyboard, flickering monitor, burnt CPU, creaking hard disk drive, broken seats, ants-infested tables, cracked ceilings and dead switches. Their short-term solution often outlasts the long-term agenda of the Investing company usually to the anger of the users who immediately form a bad opinion and blame the firm for giving them a “fake lab”. If you prefer an Apple iPod to a nameless Taiwanese mp3 player, you should know that quality outlasts quantity and pick the best, yet secure devices in the market. Not many contractors have good records if you bother to visit their previous installations. It is commonplace to see a 6-month ICT lab with 60% of devices faulty and without replacement. Materials must be vandal-proof, ruggedized and authentic with accompanying seals and warranty. Accept no average products e.g. UPSes and servers with no after-sales support or excellent rating.
Inadequate planning: Sometimes investing firms along with their chosen contractors have good intentions but overlook key factors due to poor planning. It is necessary to do a comprehensive site survey and interview users and operators before rolling out the ICT lab. A rural area without power supply would have to rely on alternative means of power supply, labs should not be situated in dark, insecure places with no illumination at night. Location of the lab must be strategic and not at random due to security reasons to avoid throwing seeds unto rocky soils and thorns.
Lack of Support and Continuity: After-sales support often determines the life of an ICT implementation. You don’t want to be stuck-in-active with a faulty device in the middle of training. Remote or on-site support must be available in order to protect your investment in ICT projects. Continuity plans must also be in place. ICT components are hardly relevant after 3 or 4 years, plans must be in place to upgrade software/hardware or other components of the lab with buy-back options, cheaper upgrade plans and replacement procedure agreed with contractor. Contractors without partnerships with OEMs usually do not do very well to keep this promise.
Inadequate Power: Like vandalism, this is a major issue in Nigeria today. Power is almost non-existent. Plans for alternative means of power supply must be provided. Diesel/petrol – powered generating sets, Solar powered inverters with batteries and wind-generated power plants are options that must be considered for stand-alone implementations especially in rural areas. Unfortunately, most ICT deployments in Nigeria require huge amount of power in order to drive the ICT labs. In a country where power is considerably scarce, the answer is to use energy saving alternatives e.g. thin-client technology, solar powered devices and low voltage specifications. I have, in the past designed a 48-seater ICT lab with two Air Conditioners, printer, giant LCD screen, routers and switches all of which were powered by a 5KVA generator. At a point, the school decided the lab would feed off its giant diesel-powered plant and it so easily did. I was surprised to see some of our local schools having to feed off the local transformer or PHCN pole directly due to the overall power ratings of the lab’s components. I should also mention that alongside cost of internet subscription (which is usually sponsored), power supply is the number one headache for ICT lab managers.
Training of supervisors and users: Commissioning the Lab is half the job done; the second half determines the success of the project in the eyes of the users. If the users are not impressed or do not explore the opportunities presented to them, then the project is just another failure. Supervisors must be trained to use and support all of the technology in the train-the-trainer mode so that they can educate first-time users and if possible impart knowledge based on the software contents of the solution. Unfortunately, most supervisors find it difficult to administer a server and schools have no e-learning software, the labs are more or less like cybercafés (sometimes even free). The supervisor or operator must be trained, practically.
Lack of core ICT materials and values: I sincerely hope other people reason with me that a modern-ICT lab should portray innovation and suspense. Labs now come with e-learning software, biometric authentication for each workstation, headphones and webcams for multimedia, 3G/GPRS enabled routers for use in places where getting internet connectivity will be difficult, secure LCD screen for interactive content and training e.t.c. E-learning Software can be customized to bear the logos and contents specified by the investor. These software can add value to the lab especially when such labs are dedicated to specific topics e.g. Graphics, 3D-modelling, Architecture, Sciences or Accounting. Also, as different people use the same workstations over and over again, viruses (the nightmare of every supervisor/operator) are likely to surface from flash drives, downloaded contents from the internet and external sources and systems are likely to crash. The answer to this is thin-client computing. This is how it works: the robust thin-client server handles all the operations and storage of the individual workstations meaning all documents, and profiles are actually stored on the server, the client only displays the contents to the user at the workstation. What this implies is that if the client crashes for any reason and needs to be replaced, the supervisor does not need to install any software on the replacement unit, upon connecting the client to the server again, all the user profile, programs and files of the faulty unit are transferred in minutes to the new one, minimizing downtime and interruption. Also power consumption is extremely low and management is pretty easy as the instructor controls the display of all the users from his/her central desk to ensure that no one is doing something else while training is going on.
Politics: Unfortunately, I cannot help in this regard. Politics can make a gigantic ICT project appear inconclusive and dead even when it is not. A project can be cancelled half-way even while the structure is being constructed. Also, a powerful person who sees no forthcoming personal monetary gains from the project will do almost anything to bring it to a halt. These things do happen especially when implementation takes quite a while, from 3 months to 2 years. While I cannot really help in this regard, my next and last topic can offer an alternative.
Why do companies consider a secure emergency ICT structure?
• While legacy structures require 3 months to 2 years to set up, a more secure, fully functional emergency structure is up in less than 7 hours.
• You do not need to buy a piece of land, you can lease one and relocate your structure in due time, that gives you more time to plan a more permanent alternative and protect your investment.
• Product Branding is very easy with these secure structures (outdoor advertising license required in some cases)
• Pre-networked, pre-installed thin-client technology saves power, time to deploy and provides for ease of operation and support with little or no need for maintenance
• E-learning software, Biometrics for sessions and giant LCD screens are provided
• In-built Cyber-cafe billing, management and monitoring software
• Anti-theft, Vandal-proof ruggedized (stainless steel) fire-proof technology implemented throughout.
• Evidence of longevity and 99% success rate in southern Africa.
Secure Emergency ICT structures can be deployed for Emergency Contact Centres, ICT labs for schools and communities, fully functional remote branches and secure mobile (temporary) offices. Units can be branded all over, inside and outside with logos, pictures and slogans of the Investor. Thus the Corporate Social Responsibility of the Investing Company to the community is almost incomplete without investing in secure ICT labs to reach out to more individuals and paint a better picture about your company in their minds. But when time is an issue, the answer is an equal if not better alternative on the fly.
Christopher Odutola is a Secure Emergency ICT structures (Hawk-stone)expert with successful implementations in South Africa, Zambia and Nigeria. This article was submitted to Communications Weekly and was published in week 1 and week 2 editions of September, 2009.
Features of the First $ 99 Netbook named Bing (Cherrypal Africa)
cherrypal africa $99 netbook
Bridging the digital divide is becoming increasingly cheaper. The latest attempt is the introduction of the Cherrypal Africa, named after one student answered the question – “What’s sweeter than an Apple? A Cherry!” Features: Powered by an Intel Atom N280 processor, the Bing features:1.6 GHz operation 1 GB DDRII memory 160 GB HDD (3) USB 2.0 ports, along with (1) set of earphones SD/MMC/MS card socket WiFi (IEEE 802.11 b/g), built in Microphone and dual speakers, built in 13.3” TFT display with 1024 x 600 resolution, wide-screen 1.3 Megapixel integrated web camera
The $99 netbook is geared toward developing networks and called the Cherrypal Africa, a tribute, the company said, to its “recent community-building initiative in Ghana.” The 7-incher features a 400MHz processor, 256GB of RAM and 2GB of flash memory and can run Windows CE or Linux operating systems.
Is Santa dead or alive scientifically?
There are approximately 2 billion children (persons under age 14) in the world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist (except maybe in Japan) religions, this reduces the workload for Christmas night to 19% of the total, or 378 million (according to the population reference bureau). At an average (census) rate of 3.5children per household, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming there is at least one good child in each.
Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that, for each Christian household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stocking, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, jump into the sleigh and get onto the next house.
www.RubMinds.com
Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks.
This means Santa’s sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second — 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run (at best) 15 miles per hour.
The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized LEGO set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousands tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the “flying” reindeer can pull 10 times the normal amount, the job can’t be done with eight or even nine of them — Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch).
www.RubMinds.com
600,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance. This would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip.
Not that it matters, however; since Santa, as a result of accelerating from a dead stop to 650 m.p.s. in .001 seconds, would be subjected to acceleration forces of 17,000 G’s. A 250 pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo.
Therefore, if Santa did exist, he’s dead now.