Open Office has long been the open source dominator with office applications that rival the Microsoft Office suite. With it being open source, we have benefited from the luxury of free software with great features. Version 3.0 of Open Office has just launched and it is simply great!
The Great Wall of China is an ABSOLUTE must see when visiting China!
Its an absolute marvel and the history behind the wall is simply amazing. Spanning a total length of about 6700 km end to end and during its peak, the wall guarded by about 1 million soldiers of the Ming Dynasty at any single given time.
It was build as a defensive structure to safe guard the empire from attack from the Mongolians and the enormity of the structure is simply mind-boggling to imagine a wall wrapping an entire nation. It is also said to be the only man-made structure that is visible on Earth from the Moon!
The wall was a great cost to the empire and as a result the Ming Dynasty lost millions on building the wall, but it deemed it a necessary expense in assuring the safety of the of the dynasty from raids from the north eastern neighbours.
I saw the wall during a national holiday. I highly recommend that you avoid these days, as the wall is bustling with local tourists who come to share in the oogling of the masterpiece. It makes for a crowded trip and is not desirable.
A tour to the wall at Badaling came with a trip to the Ming Tombs (which is not great), a stop at a silk factory (which was pretty interesting for the first 20 minutes before I got bored) and a trip to a Jade factory (this was very cool and i really did enjoy it!).
The tour cost us CYR180 each and included pick up and drop off at the hotel and an authentic Chinese lunch. We had an English speaking tour guide who was friendly and fairly knowledgeable of the sights. She did try to crack a few jokes that I just didn't get, but all in all it was cool. The bus was air-conditioned and decently comfortable!
I'll post the tour companies details as soon as I find it again ;)
Since my last post, I have been to Beijing and I am safely back in South Africa. I had the most amazing trip and my flights and traveling ended up being quite amusing to me, even though not all glory!
Flight Centre did not help me out after screwing up my transfer hotel and visa, so I did in fact end up stuck in Doha International for 18 hours and have still not contacted me with an apology. I am very disappointed in their service and would not recommend the company to anybody and suggest that you make your own bookings via CheapTrip.co.za instead!
If ever you are stuck in Doha, I suggest that you head over the Oryx lounge. Its on the first floor on the far right hand side of the building. They charge a small entry fee for access to the VIP lounge of QR140, some credit cards allow you free access as a value added service by your credit card provider, like mine did. The Oryx is a great place to chill for a few hours.
It has great ambient lighting, soothing music and loads of comfy couches to kick back in. They serve light snacks, softdrinks and tea and coffee complimentary all day long. They have TV's with quiet a few english channels, a meeting room and free wifi. The bathroom facilities are very clean and very well maintained and it was a real pleasure taking a shower as well. I highly recommend the Oryx to stay fresh during a long transit!
Onroute back home, I left Beijing in the wee hours of Saturday morning, to arrive in Doha just after first light. The airport was busy and I had a total 40 minute transit time from one flight landing to the next flight taking off, so I was pretty stressed out about missing it.
I managed to rush through and get on the flight in time, only to have the flight delayed by 2 hours because of a system failure.
Now, dear Captain Johnson of Qatar Airways, in future... please understand that hearing the words "System Failure" is very unnerving as a passenger on a flight. Further, it would be preferable if you avoid supporting terms like "might be able to fix the problem". Fixing the problem is one thing, but that word "MIGHT" is definitely not the kind of assurance that I want to be hearing while strapping myself into your fueled to the max Boeing just before take-off!
All in all, Qatar Airways is a great airline with great service. The meals were very impressive, the staff were courteous and friendly and even played with the little kids on board the flights.
They are also the cheapest airline to fly to Beijing from South Africa and would recommend that you check out a flight booking on a flight aggregator like CheapTrip.co.za!
The flight cost me R8900 inclusive of all airport taxes and levies!
I’m on my way to Beijing, China, to spend some time with my babes! I’ve been meaning to go for a long time, but circumstances and Murphy made sure that I haven’t made it as yet!
So early evening yesterday, 30 September, I was dropped off at Cape Town International Airport and a few hours later I’m boarding a flight to Doha. It was a pleasant flight, bar the stale toasted roll that I was served as a snack. Chicken, cheese and peppers…yum! The other meals were really good!
After a pretty long flight and me doing a small acrobatic stunt to fit my +PLUS sized ass across 3 seats dodging armrests and managing to stay strapped in with my seatbelt (This feat would make McGyver jealous!), I arrived in Doha about 2 hours ago, just before 7am local time.
Doha International is a kinda funny to pin down in words. It’s a mix between the glam life of Dubai but on a very rundown, unmaintained level. The floors are dirty, the bathrooms are horrible and the airport food court reminds me of a dodgy Gatsby take-away in Cape Town called Golden Dish, but the lights are bright and they have a Range Rover parked in the Duty Free area!
On arrival, I’m told that my visa wasn’t arranged by my travel agent, so I’m stuck here for 18 hours. Great!
The guys at Flight Centre better pull through for me, cos I’m borderline pissed now!
After MUCH hype, the Google operating system Android has finally launched on a handset. The open source OS, dubbed Android, has been available for many months now, to allow developers to create applications for the OS, even though no physical device was available for it to be tested on!
After much talk about this being the true iPhone killer, the handset has finally launched with T-Mobile. Manufactured by HTC and called the G1, the handset was launched late yesterday in New York by the heads of Google, Larry and Sergey when they pitched up at the official press release in roller blades!
Check out the video of the handset in action!Sphere: Related Content
This July, Street View went international for the Tour de France, and in August, expanded coverage to Japan and Australia. Now, Street View is coming to another new frontier: your phone.
Today we're launching a new version of Google Maps for mobile with the same street-level imagery available on desktop. Wondering if the restaurant in your search results is the one you're thinking of? Just click "Street View" after your search to see the storefront. Unsure about a complicated intersection in your directions? Use Street View to see a photo, so there's no mistaking your turn. You can also launch Street View from any address where we have photography, or simply by clicking on the map and selecting "Street View". You can browse Street View overlaid on the map or in full screen, rotate your view to see more of your surroundings, and move along the street.
We've also added other features to help you search for and get to businesses and locations. You can now read business reviews, so you'll know if it's actually worth driving across town to that store. And once you decide where to go, you can get there on foot using the same walking directions (beta) we recently launched on desktop. Finally, we hope you'll notice significant improvements in search speed with this version, as well as better location accuracy in all versions thanks to this week's My Location update.
Check out this video to see the new release of Google Maps for mobile in action:
The newest Google Maps for mobile is available now for BlackBerry and many Java-enabled phones. To download it to your phone, visit google.com/gmm from your phone's web browser or on the desktop. We're working on bringing all these new features to other platforms as well, so stay tuned. Sphere: Related Content
When the N95 was released, it was all but universally adored. Even today, nearly two full years after it was first revealed, it's still one of the most respected in Nokia's lineup. From the get-go, we knew the N96 was more evolutionary and less revolutionary; after all, the two handsets even look alike. The general consensus this time around is about what we expected: the N96 is a fine phone, and a worthy successor, but probably not worth the high price it's currently demanding. Oh sure, the call quality was stupendous, battery life was satisfactory and the multimedia playback was superb, but some critics were a bit displeased with the fit and finish given the premium price tag. All in all, don't go into the links below expecting any huge surprises -- the N96 is a nicely revamped, high-priced N95, and if that's what you're looking for, there doesn't seem to be any underlying issues that should hold you back from indulging.
Read - PhoneArena ("Nokia seems to have taken more of a lateral step than pushing forward with innovation.")
Read - MobileArsenal ("...doesn't have anything we didn't see before...")
Read - LordPercy ("...an improved, quality phone...")
Read - Mobile88 (4 out of 5 stars)
Tonight, at 7:30pm, during a national address the South African President, Thabo Mbeki has resigned.
This comes on the back of the ANC MEC's request for him to step down as leader of the nation.
Admittedly, he was not a very responsive leader and he did fail to make critical decisions in time, however, we as a nation should not forget the good that he has brought to our nation.
South Africa has come a very long way from our Apartheid era. We are not the most perfect nation and we are not the safest country to live in. But comparatively, our nation has made significant progress under the leadership of Thabo Mbeki.
I have a lot of respect for him for the good that he has brought us, though, hypocritically, I too have been eager to criticize him in his moments of weakness.
I really hope that we remember him for the good that he has brought us! Thank you Thabs, what you just did, must have been REALLY hard for you!
It is with great regret (to me) that the formality of handing over our nation to Jacob Zuma, has started!
This is a quick video review of the Nokia E71 that I found online!
Part 1:
Part 2:
It is really great that Symbian is starting to show signs of maturity across their OS. One of the really great features of the Nokia E71, is the highly manageable alarm clock. We take this feature for granted, but we must admit that we use this feature alot more than quite a few other features on our phones.
Setting up the alarm on the Nokia E71 is slightly different to the standard Symbian S60 layout, in that it is now found in a new folder in the menu and the alarm settings now allow it to be a lot more customisable.
Follow this easy step by step guide to set up the alarm:
- Press the menu button. By default, this is the button with the home icon. See the diagram below:
- Open the Office folder.
- Open the Clock application
- Use the right scroll to open the alarm tab.
- Press the Options button and click on New Alarm.
- Set the time.
- Give the alarm a name.
- Set how often you would like it to repeat, daily, weekly, or workdays.
- Click OK!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
