Author: Toby Shapshak

“Going solar” is the catchphrase of the year. Again. But how do you tell the shysters from the bone fide solar installers? And how do you get finance for an off-grid system? Also, without having to become an expert yourself, what exactly do you need? That’s where Hohm Energy comes in, providing a marketplace for finding providers and financiers, its head of business intelligence Matthew Cruise tells editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak in the third episode of Stuff’s going off-grid podcast series. Bring Hohm a little more Energy Also available on Apple | Spotify | Google podcasts

South Africans are good at solving problems. With extreme ‘load-shredding’, we’ve started finding alternatives in true boer maak ‘n plan style. From LED lightbulbs with built-in batteries to backup batteries for Wi-Fi routers, and a new category of small, portable power stations, there is a range of new Eskom-induced technologies. Several innovative South African companies have their own ways of tackling the blackouts. In the second of Stuff’s going off-grid podcast series, editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak meets local firm Syntech. He speaks to co-founder Ryan Martyn​ and CEO Craig Nowitz. Local power problems often require local power solutions Also available on Apple…

With rolling blackouts hitting Stage 6, insurance companies have stopped insuring against some Eskom-related claims. But, if your home solar system was installed by someone without the right certification and not registered with the correct authorities, that system isn’t insured. Nor is your house as a result, warns Chris Liebenberg, Elite Energy’s technical director. Going solar needs planning and research, he tells Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak in the first podcast in a new series about getting off-grid. Elite Energy answers our solar-related questions Also available on Apple | Spotify | Google podcasts

Why is our City Power bill still so high, we asked our solar installer earlier this year. Half of the R2,000 is the connection fee that the City of Joburg’s utility charges to connect you to the grid. Switching to prepaid is a quick way to save a household about R1,000 a month. I foolishly thought I could do it myself and researched the process, before realising I would never have the time – nor patience – to fight my way through the slow-moving municipal system. We hired a queue-for-you team that a neighbour recommended, and it would take about…

“These aren’t the droids you are looking for,” Obi-Wan Kenobi famously said at the beginning of the first Star Wars movie 46 years ago. But it turns out these were precisely the droids, adventure and excitement that the world was waiting for. When it was first screened in 1977, Star Wars was a groundbreaking new form of cinema, using a risky context (set in space) but filled with captivating characters and grand themes that would make it an instant success. Star Wars was not just an epic movie itself – and part of an equally legendary trilogy — but broke…

What is now known as Moore’s law began when Intel co-founder Gordon Moore wrote a 1965 article for the 35th-anniversary issue of Electronics magazine. It was titled “Cramming more components onto integrated circuits”, and in it, Moore, then the director of research & development at Fairchild Semiconductor, stated his now famous prediction about the semiconductor industry. “The complexity for minimum component costs has increased at a rate of roughly a factor of two per year. Certainly over the short term this rate can be expected to continue, if not to increase,” he wrote. It wasn’t until Caltech professor Carver Mead…

When the pope appeared in a sparkling white puffer jacket in internet images, it marked an important turning point in humanity’s grappling with an important new development in society. No, it wasn’t because the aged religious leader had recently discovered modern fashion sense. The consternation was because that image was generated by artificial intelligence (AI). The jacket from premium brand Balenciaga was created in AI image engine Midjourney. “I just thought it was funny to see the Pope in a funny jacket,” its creator told BuzzFeed News. Refusing to give his surname, he identified himself as Pablo Xavier, a 31-year-old…

When Yuval Noah Harari writes about something, it is as if the world’s conscience is speaking. When Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the famous Israeli academic and historian’s essay on why it was so disastrous was published bearing his name in The Economist, a publication famous for not bylining its articles. Last month, the author of Sapiens wrote a stinging opinion piece published in the New York Times with the two founders of the Center for Humane Technology, warning of the dangers of AI. Referencing a 2022 survey with 700 AI academics and researchers, they wrote: “Half of those surveyed stated…

Smartphones have taken over many other functions from other devices, including, most recently, most people’s wallets. Is the end of the credit card nigh, Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak asks Nedbank CIO Fred Swanepoel. After years of rapid progress, fuelled by the Covid lockdown, how we pay has changed, as have the ways banks themselves are operating. As ever, cybersecurity remains one of the biggest trends this year. Is the credit card era over? Also available on Apple podcasts | Google podcasts | Spotify

What on earth is happening at the SABC? President Cyril Ramaphosa has failed to appoint the board of the public broadcaster for nearly six months. It is not only reprehensible but another of the worst examples of our dithering president’s, well, dithering. In the most extraordinary of events, NGO Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) launched legal action on 24 February 2023 to compel Ramaphosa to appoint the new board. They point out at length how the lack of a board, as the accounting authority, is making it impossible to keep it profitable. In an affidavit as part of the summons, former…