Author: Brett Venter

Ukraine’s government has issued an unusual call, situating us all firmly in the future. The government, while coping with Russian forces actually present in the country, is also contending with cyberattacks. They’ve asked, via various hacker forums in the country, the country’s hackers to rally in defence of Ukraine. “Ukrainian cybercommunity! It’s time to get involved in the cyber defense of our country,” reads a post from one of the country’s forums. Reuters reports that the country’s government is taking applications from hackers via Google Docs. Potential volunteers are being asked what their specialities are, as well as for references.…

We’re not sure if you’ve heard, but there are some awfully interesting times going on in Ukraine at the moment. And those times aren’t confined to American and Russian troops preparing to cause damage to neither of those countries. Websites in the world’s newest geopolitical hotspot are taking strain, thanks to ongoing DDoS attacks. Monitoring company NetBlocks reported on Twitter that several Ukrainian government websites “…have just been impacted by network disruptions; the incident appears consistent with recent DDOS attacks”. DDoS – FORMAT c:/Ukraine/V:USSR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmdnqIX6r4k The DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks began yesterday, escalating before tapering off. A NetBlocks…

If you had anything besides love on your mind last Valentine’s Day, you would have noted that South Africa’s labour department and Huawei aren’t getting along. That’s because the Chinese tech company, according to the Department of Labour, employs a 90% foreign workforce. The allowable limit, according to SA’s laws, is just a 40% complement of foreign nationals at any company. Huawei, in a new statement issued yesterday evening, has signalled that matters are proceeding in a favourable manner for all concerned. By which they mean, nobody’s going to court any time soon. Which might well be the best possible…

2021 was a rough year. We get it. Heck, we all lived it. But Samsung had a very specific problem last year — its Galaxy S21 FE handset was delayed. And then it wasn’t. And then it was again. The upshot was that this handset was only announced in January 2022, and only launched internationally on 11 January. That was… a bit late. And not ‘a bit late’ like missing a meeting by a few minutes. It’s more like ‘Why did you even bother turning up’ late. Which is a pity. The Galaxy S21 FE is a great smartphone. Make…

Keep on some Spotify hardware in your car? No, not your cellphone. Spotify doesn’t make that. It does make the Car Thing (or pays someone else to), a device we first saw in April last year. But, like, in mid-April, so there was no chance it was a joke. Initially, the $80 (R1,200) in-car audio device was available by invitation only. That’s changed, but it hasn’t changed enough. Anyone can now buy one, for $90 (R1,350), provided you live in the United States. So it’s less a case of ‘anyone’ and more one of ‘Americans’. But many Americans will tell…

It’s been almost a decade since Elon Musk came up with the idea for the Hyperloop and then threw it out into the world. In that time, several entities have attempted to exploit the idea. There have been test runs, and some, like Virgin Hyperloop, have even conducted passenger tests. But although the company under Richard Branson’s banner has taken the step of sending its former head on a trip in one of its pods, sadly, that’s as far as it goes. Plans for passenger transportation are being abandoned, with the result that 111 staff are being made redundant. Overhyped…

As these words are being written, we’ve had one of Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphones in our possession for about… two hours. That’s not a lot of time, but you can get a fair amount done in that period. You can have at least five terrible dates. You can go for lunch (twice). Or you can attend roughly one standard meeting where you’re not actually needed but are roped into anyway. Two hours isn’t enough to decide whether a smartphone, even a smartphone as slick as Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra, is worth buying. But it is long enough to get…

Predictions have flown for absolute ages around possible Apple-made augmented reality (AR) hardware. So far, the only thing it has consistently done is not show up. That might change, as soon as the end of this year. You know, instead of 2023, when everyone’s actually expecting it. A report from Digitimes (via MacRumours) claims that Apple’s AR headset prototypes have recently passed second-phase engineering validation tests (EVT 2). These tests ensure that the hardware meets the company’s standards, in terms of design and spec. Apple pirates say ‘AR!’ Apple View – Seeing is believing. See more 8K images on my…

We’re quite used to seeing things blast off from Earth en route to the International Space Station (ISS). We’re a little less accustomed to seeing what happens when cargo arrives. That changes today. Check out this brief video showing the careful connection of the ISS’ Canadarm2 robotic arm and Cygnus cargo spacecraft late last night. The operation, shown in the tweet below, looks like a slow, sedate one. But that’s deceptive, mostly because of the size of the object in the back (Earth). The fact that everything concerned is moving at the same speed (a little over 27,000km/h) also makes…

It’s hard to work out, unless you’ve been conditioned from a young age to think that exercise is fun. The rest of us need motivation. That motivation often comes in the form of music. We’ve also been conditioned to believe that every montage should be a musical number. But exercise equals sweat and sweat melts headphones. Most headphones. The Jabra Elite 7 Active in-ear buds should survive anything you can throw their way. Except for maybe a 16kg kettlebell. They’re tough, but not that tough. But, at R3,300 a pair, they really have to be quite decent to justify the…