VIDEO: Audio-slideshow of what Pietermaritzburg has to offer

AS a build up to 2010, the Witness multimedia team (i.e. the Webmaster and I) sort to produce a series of videos showcasing what Pietermaritzburg has to offer foreign visitors. They also aimed to highlight the Harry Gwala stadium, which was to be a training ground for the Fifa 2010 World Cup.

Needless to say I found it very difficult to motivate myself to produce the following as it was a voluntary, unpaid project. But, I'm glad to say that it's finally done and I hope you enjoy it.

AFRICAN STORMS: Things are getting pretty violent in the sky

FOR those of you who live in a cave somewhere warm and are part of the progress-hindering crowd that deny that global warming exists, I have some evidence for you people!

If your cave is well sheltered and extends far and deep into a solid mountain, it would do you good to know that the world has been hit by the most devastating storms in the history of humankind.

Old ladies are literally being lifted off their feet with their umbrellas in the windy streets of Cape Town, and old trees are being uprooted left right and center during storms hell-bent on destroying us all.

Well when I was enjoying the percolated taste of a Nescafe cup of coffee with my family, I was informed that one of these fierce storms hit the greater Pietermaritzburg area. It descended on my humble place of work and literally tore off a large portion of roof – the part right above our R40 million printing press nogal!

There have been chaps banging on the roof for the last couple of weeks now trying to repair the storms damage; but peace, dignity and order has finally been restored and the roof is fixed… until the next Armageddon hits. Touch wood.

The great minds at the office remembered the surveillance cameras that witnessed the storms carnage and released this video a couple of days ago. Witness the horror, and believe me when I say that we must protect ourselves from the Global Warming!

Storms are brewing ... Don’t blow me away

CULTURAL HERITAGE PARADE: Celebrating our cultural differences

AS a build-up to Heritage Month to be held in Durban in September, Pietermaritzburg hosted a cultural heritage parade. The aim was to identify various cultural youth groups in the area and bring together the diverse cultures of our country. It is hoped that this pilot project will become an annual event that Pietermaritzburg will host in 2010.

KZN Cultural Heritage parade: Celebrating our cultural heritage

In all honesty, the event was a flop. They were expecting 3000 plus people to pitch up, yet the only life that could be seen consisted of a handful of school kids, the marchers and a couple of tumbleweeds.

It was held on a Saturday afternoon, the organisers were an hour and half behind schedule and there were several big sport matches  running at the same time on television. It took a lot of effort just to drag myself there.

But, the intenions are good and I hope the project has better success next year.

Until next time,
Happy viewing!

Related videos

MYWITNESS SERVICE: What some users had to say about the service

IN an earlier blog post I wrote about a new cellular service that claims to be more efficient and cost effective than other platforms that offer chat, cellphone banking, mobile blogging and related services.

Since I do not currently own a phone that is WAP-enabled or has GPS, I decided to seek out some people who have started using the service to see whether or not it is ‘all that.’

Here’s what some of them had to say:

MyWitness user’s speak

Related links:
MyWitness – getting started (video)
Jumping on the technology band-wagon (cheap and simple)
Connect anywhere in the world with MyWitness (news article)

MYWITNESS: Cheap & simple cellular services

ONLINE banking, mobile shopping, cellphone blogging and much more are all readily available via several services. Yet all of these become a headache for anyone who was not a part of the ‘cool crowd’ at school. Wouldn’t life be a little bit simpler if all of these were available via a single service? Gmobile has done just that with the release of MyWitness.

MyWitness (which is fully WAP enabled and thus fully accessible from your cellphone) is a server-based platform that provides a very cheap and very user-friendly way of performing a large portion of your online activity – all from your cellphone. It is purely server-based and operates independently from other networks. What this means is that it offers its own unique service and, more importantly, charges its own rates – which is far less than the 40% average that the major cellular networks charge. SMS’s can be sent at 25cents, MMS’s 65cents.

A popular ‘everyday user’ appeal of MyWitness is Gchat, which has the same functionality of Mxit minus the cost – it’s free. The only charge applicable is the 2cents per kilobit of data downloaded to your phone (i.e. being online via your phone), which is regulated by Icasa.

Usually when browsing the web from your mobile information is temporarily stored to your phone to increase speed etc., however the network(s) you use have weaseled their way into charging you for this according to their own rates. The advantage of platforms such as MyWitness is that you are only charged for the data that you actually choose to download. They are able to avoid the sneaky charges mentioned by simply providing access to data.

To put this cost-effectiveness into perspective: one user in Thailand chatted to his wife in South Africa daily using G-chat over the course of 12 days. His entire communication bill? Less than R1 - and that’s because he had to send three SMS’s to his wife (at 25cents each) to tell her to go online. Furthermore, G-chat is compatible with most major IM’s such as Google Talk, so others that you wish to chat to need not be G-chat users.

Other features of MyWitness include being able to ‘shop’ for airtime and cellular related products such as wallpapers and ringtones, Google search the internet, receive the latest news headlines via RSS feeds, share audio files, video and pictures, upload content to your MyWitness blog or website, and do online banking.

If you are not familiar with mobile banking yet it is basically internet banking via a mobile platform (i.e. you use a phone instead of a computer). Registration requires an ID number which automatically creates a personal bank (debit) account. The currency on MyWitness is measured in Goins, which is regulated world wide. In South African currency (ZAR), one Goin is equal to one cent.

If you find blogging sites such as Blogger or WordPress too much of a headache, MyWitness provides the simplest way to set up and maintain your own blog or website. The visual appeal of these sites are really not that bad by beginner standards, and the simplicity of the whole thing is by far the no.1 advantage about it.

Each MyWitness user is provided with 100megs of compressed storage space. This may not seem like a lot but what’s great is that the platform automatically compresses data for you while it travels through the network. In other words there is no need to worry about the technicalities of file sizes. Images (JPEGS & GIFS) for example, are compressed to about 6k - irrelevant of their original size. Also, the original file is restored to its full glory and size when it reaches the other side – without any loss in quality.

The cellphone is fast becoming the ultimate all-in-one tool. This is your chance to jump on the technology bandwagon simply and cheaply. Just remember to get up and exercise once in a while!

Signing up for a MyWitness account will cost you R1.50 and can be done online (from a computer) at http://go.mywitness.co.za. You can also watch a video demonstration online and find additional information and set up instructions at www.witness.co.za.

Video: MyWitness user's speak

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