Once a podcast has been found that interests the user, it is necessary to download the free podcast. The vast majority of podcasts will be free, but there will be a few that may cost a small amount of money. The process to subscribe to and download the podcasts is the same in either case. First, a podcast client needs to be found and installed. There are many free podast clients available, all providing a slightly different user interface and range of options. They come with many different names, such as Podscape, or Nimiq, and searching for ‘free podcast client’ or something like it will turn up many possibilities. When the podcast client has been installed, inputting the feed address will allow the podcast to be downloaded. The podcast client will check the address given for a small, machine readable file called an RSS file. This file will contain information about the podcasts, perhaps some text about the individual episodes, as well as the location of the episode file. Once the podcast client has been located the file referred to in the RSS feed, it will be downloaded and stored on the users computer until the want to view it.

Sometimes, of course, access to a personal computer is not available, but it is still necessary to check a certain podcast. Fortunately, many podcast directories offer built in podcast readers in the site. Not only do they often show each recent episode that is available, they may also offer a way to view or listen to those podcast episodes from within the site. By using the viewer contained within the site, it is no longer necessary to even download the podcast episodes. However, the ability to move and share the episodes after downloading is one of the wonderful things about podcasting. The files can be placed on almost and media player, ranging from iPods to the new Play Station Portable. This flexibility is one of the reasons podcasts have succeeded, despite other technologies like streaming music and video. The desire of consumers to have control over technology cannot be over estimated.

These comedy podcasts are usually created by a small team of people who do the work in their free time, as a hobby, not as a source of income. Because it is a hobby, they’re more willing to give the work away for free, for nothing more than recognition, probably in the hopes they can parlay that recognition into a more mainstream job. Some more corporate groups also put together comedy podcasts, however. The satirical comedy web site TheOnion.com puts out a regular comedy podcast, featuring readings from their fake news site.

Placing a comedy podcast on the Internet has several advantages for the creators. They get to showcase their work, easily distributing their art to many people. This following is likely to be be unusually passionate, following the artist with more enthusiasm than the artist’s average audience. The comedian has a chance to be more open with the audience, engaging in a sort of dialogue with them. The comedian broadcasts the files, which enter the computer of the user, already a more personal level than simply hearing the jokester on the radio or on television. Compedy podcast subscribers will often then write back to the podcaster, or leave comments on the blog which often accompanies a podcast site. This can give them a degree of input and connection with the writers of the comedy podcast that is far removed from other styles of comedy distribution.

The writers and producers of a comedy podcast thus benefit from several advantages of the podcast form. It is cheap and easy to set up, and uses a distribution mechanism that is also easy to use. The way the podcast form is designed, as well, creates greater connection between the producer and the subscribers. The comedy writer has a greater ability to interact with the subscribers and to find out what they appreciate or do not. Because podcasting is so simple to get involved in, requiring only a small investment to get started, many amateur comedy writers have begun starting their own shows and distributing the feed. It is likely, because of the unique connection podcasting offers between writer and listener, that we will see at least some of these amateur comedians make the leap to the professional stage.

A computer virus can be regarded as any software or activity that produces unwanted results in computing devices, irrespective of the kind or severity of the resulting damage. While some computer viruses may render a device completely unusable, others may cause financial losses or it can merely be an irritating factor. That is why pranks and even chain letters or spam should be prevented by antivirus software.

Antivirus (or anti-virus) software is used to prevent, detect, and remove malware, including computer viruses, worms, and trojan horses. Such programs may also prevent and remove adware, spyware, and other forms of malware.

A variety of strategies are typically employed. Signature-based detection involves searching for known malicious patterns in executable code. However, it is possible for a user to be infected with new malware in which no signature exists yet. To counter such so-called zero-day threats, heuristics can be used. One type of heuristic approach, generic signatures, can identify new viruses or variants of existing viruses by looking for known malicious code (or slight variations of such code) in files.

Some antivirus software can also predict what a file will do if opened or run by emulating it in a sandbox and analyzing what it does to see if it performs any malicious actions. If it does, this could mean the file is malicious.

Some antivirus programs are actually malware masquerading as antivirus software, such as WinFixer and MS Antivirus. It is therefore advisable only to purchase antivirus software from a reputable antivirus provider and brand.

A false positive is identifying a file as a virus when it is not a virus. If an antivirus program is configured to immediately delete or quarantine infected files (or does this by default), false positives in essential files can render the operating system or some applications unusable. The end result is just as unwanted as the results produced by a virus and such software can therefore be placed in the same category as a computer virus. Certain antivirus firewall software, such as the AVG Free Version has a reputation for false positives.

Running multiple antivirus programs concurrently can also degrade performance and create conflicts. It is sometimes necessary to temporarily disable virus protection when installing major updates such as Windows Service Packs or updating graphics card drivers. Active antivirus protection may partially or completely prevent the installation of a major update, however disabling protection even for a short period, can create the opportunity for a virus to execute its code. It is therefore advisable to reboot a computing device and run an antivirus scan, before doing a system or software upgrade.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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The podcast client thus allows the user to view information on a wide range of topics from their computer, without even using a web browser. Just like blogs let people find writers they enjoyed for any niche topic they were interested in, podcasts let people do them same for audio and video. Its as if a thousands of radio and television channels were created to serve every possible interest, and more were made every day. Using the podcast client to access and download the files makes it as easy to keep up with the sites one likes as it is to publish the feed.

Following a few weeks of interesting debates in the public domain, presentations from selected industry groups to the portfolio committee on communications at parliament, policy direction on Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs) from the Department of Communications (DoC) and even the Competition Commission with its investigation into suspected price-fixing, it is now time to examine how other industry players, excluding the telecoms operators, are likely to be affected if changes to (wholesale) Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs) are introduced.

Who wants what?

The cut to MTRs has a few dimensions, with very different demands from role players:

• Parliament: Immediate cut of 65c per minute to 60c per minute, with a further cut of 15c per minute
• for the next three years;
• Department of Communications (Doc): As per the Government Gazette of 13 October 2009, lower interconnection rates, specifically the mobile termination rate to a cost-based rate;
• Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA): “60c per minute is a likely interconnection fee, and may well be reached by two cuts of around 30c per minute each”;
• DoC (again): “… wanted to see interconnection rates … drop by 30c, from R1.25 to R0.95 by the
• end of November 2009.

How did it all start?

One could argue that inefficiencies and excessive pricing in any industry would, in most cases, result in exploitation of these aspects in a capitalist system, even in regulated industries such as telecommunications.  Consider low-cost airlines competing in many cases against state-owned airlines.  South Africa is a prime example of opportunistic exploitation of a sub-par airline industry.

In telecommunications, Least-Cost Routing (LCR) is one such system; it exploits inefficiencies in pricing and offers arbitrage opportunities.  In Cellular Least-Cost Routing (CLCR), how are savings achieved by calling a mobile number from a fixed-line phone?  At Telkom’s current tariff of 166c per minute (all figures are stated excluding VAT), compared to a Mobile-to-Mobile (MtM) tariff of say 130c per minute, the saving is 36c per minute (here we assume a call at peak time).  Let us, for argument’s sake, assume a reduction in the Telkom charge of 166c per minute to 101c per minute, primarily due to a cut in the MTR from the current 125c per minute to 60c per minute.  If the MtM tariff changed to 90c per minute, then the saving is 11c per minute; still a saving, so one could argue there is still a business case for LCR, or then CLCR.

The voice market in South Africa

The total voice market in South Africa is worth about R92bn per annum.  Vodacom is the leading voice network operator, with market share of 38.9%, followed by MTN at 27.3% and Telkom SA at 26.0%.  In our exercise, we have excluded Neotel (the second network operator or SNO) and emerging voice players that recently received I-ECNS licences to provide voice services.  The reason is simple: we do not have sufficient operational or financial information to make an objective assessment of the market share of these emerging players, including Neotel.  The only company for which we have adequate information is Vox Telecom (Vox) as it is listed and discloses limited voice-related information.

We make the following observations:

• In voice services, both Vodacom and MTN have higher market share than Telkom;
• We also note that Fixed-to-Mobile (FtM) revenue is the single-largest line item in Telkom’s revenue;
• Please note interconnection revenue is defined as receipts by Telkom for:
  • MtF calls and
  • calls from other fixed-line operators that terminate on the Telkom network;
• If we assume Telkom accounts for 90% of total (call charges) revenue in South Africa, then the other fixed-line operators have a combined revenue base of less than R1.5bn, including Neotel.  For Neotel, we estimate two-thirds of its annual revenue (currently) is derived from data services.

Author:

Johan Snyman
Nedgroup Securities
October 28, 2009

Article Source:

AmpleTech South Africa