Author: Gugu Lourie
Diplomats from around the world met in Geneva last week for the United Nations’ third Informal Expert Meeting on lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), commonly dubbed “killer robots”. By Sean Welsh Their aim was to make progress on deciding how, or if, LAWS should be regulated under international humanitarian law. A range of views were expressed at the meeting, from Pakistan being in favour of a full ban, to the UK favouring no new regulation for LAWS, and several positions in between. Despite the range of views on offer, there was some common ground. It is generally agreed that LAWS…
EON Reality, the world leader in Virtual Reality based knowledge transfer for industry, education, and edutainment, in partnership with The City of Tshwane announce the inauguration of EON Reality’s Tshwane Interactive Digital Center (IDC). This IDC is a central part of Tshwane’s long term plan, Tshwane Vision 2055, to “break the cycle of generational poverty, inequality, and underdevelopment” as well as to enhance the local business and investment climate in South Africa’s capital city. Tshwane is working on its Tshwane 2055 Vision, which defines how the city will develop and grow towards a becoming a “Smart City”, where effective investments…
David Dunning, University of Michigan In the hours since I first sat down to write this piece, my laptop tells me the National Basketball Association has had to deny that it threatened to cancel its 2017 All-Star Game over a new anti-LGBT law in North Carolina – a story repeated by many news sources including the Associated Press. The authenticity of that viral video of a bear chasing a female snowboarder in Japan has been called into question. And, no, Ted Cruz is not married to his third cousin. It’s just one among an onslaught of half-truths and even pants-on-fire…
Over the last several months, the BBC, the New York Times, and other major news and commercial websites became victims of Malvertising attacks. What exactly is Malvertising? To understand this type of attack, we must go back to the malware basics. By Doros Hadjizenonos, Country Manager of Check Point South Africa One of the most prominent ways malware spreads is by infecting websites and delivering drive-by attacks. When a user visits an infected site an exploit kit is activated. Once activated, the kit checks to see if the machine is vulnerable to one or more of the exploits it contains.…
JSE-listed tech firm Datacentrix is in the midst of a legal tussle with South Africa’s unlisted technology group Dimension Data (DiData) over a tender issued by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DOJ & CD). The company informed investors late on Thursday that wholly owned subsidiary, Datacentrix Proprietary Limited, together with DOJ & CD and 12 other ICT service providers, have been cited in an application brought in the high court of SA by Didata. “The application seeks to review and set aside the bid award involving the provision, implementation, maintenance and support of a Court Recording Technology solution…
The teenagers who were hooked on Pac-Man in the arcades and amusement parks of the early 1970s are getting ready for retirement, but many of them have never stopped playing video games. In fact, it doesn’t look like they are going to stop gaming anytime soon. By Bob De Schutter The percentage of U.S. gamers who are over age 50 has increased rapidly, from just 9 percent in 1999 to 27 percent in 2015, according to the Entertainment Software Association’s annual reports. This is a global trend. In Europe, a 2012 study by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe found…
Google is introducing a new feature to Google Maps that will alert you about upcoming traffic conditions on the way to help you identify the quickest route. Google South Africa said on Thursday that the Google Map app will give you a heads up if congestion lies ahead, and how long you’ll be stuck in a jam. Traffic can be a major issue in Africa’s big cities, and trying to make your way out for a long weekend or get around can be problematic without proper planning. “You’ll also get the option to take alternate routes, including explanations for why one…
South Africans can now instantly compare 26 financial products from 106 financial institutions to be able to save money and to chose the products which best suits their needs. These range from loans (including personal and student loans), cheque accounts and debit cards all the way through to foreign exchange and unit trusts and the number and range of products is growing. Fincheck.co.za is modelled on the successful tech start-up Moneysupermarket.com, a British price-comparison website. Fincheck.co.za is simple to use and is totally independent and unbiased. It provides transparent, impartial and accurate facts and figures about similar financial services products…
The South African technology firm EOH has bought Aptronics, a local high-end data centre and end user computing space business that provides networking, virtualisation, servers, and storage and infrastructure solutions. The company will buy 100% of Aptronics for R194 million in cash and issue of EOH shares. The deal is subject to normal regulatory approvals. Anil Pema, CEO of Aptronics, believes that in joining EOH, Aptronics can bring a much wider range of value-adding solutions to its existing customer base, complementing its existing services. “The cultural fit and shared value systems of EOH and Aptronics made EOH a natural home…
Mario Shiliashki, PayU EMEA’s new CEO, was previously with MasterCard for around five years, where he was leading the eCommerce business globally in what used to be called emerging payments, now digital payments. Before that he was with PayPal for seven years where he spent two years helping to set up the European business. He spent his last three years at PayPal building the Asia business. With a depth and breadth of knowledge in the payment ecosystem, Mario has layered insights into where payments, payment providers and eCommerce is heading. Q&A with Mario Shiliashki, EMEA’s new CEO of PayU, owned by Naspers…