You can read in the news how CellC seems to be performing poorly.

• Cell C’s signal fading fast
• CellC Downgraded [financially]

I sent them these emails back then, which they said they would forward to management, but probably didn’t. Which leads to the second reason they will go down – their 1) customer service people are useless.
(2) Not to mention they call them “Client Liaison Consultant”s, bleh)

Greetings,

No problem. Someone has to tell CellC what they are doing
wrong or right.

I can tell you one thing. Five free sms per day on your
website just does not cut it.
I have seen this single fact that Vodacom has 20 free sms a
day on their website be the deciding factor when people
choose what network that want to be on. I would seriously
consider changing your insufficient daily limit. It is not
that everyone uses all 20, it is just the fact that you
know it is there if you need it.

It is a pity that CellC is the only network that cannot
provide GPRS to prepaid customers. Here are a couple of
reasons why:
Firstly, the number of applications that require GPRS are
growing. Take mxit.co.za for example, the South African
company that is experiencing rapid growth in its services
worldwide.
Lastly, the million rand industries for ringtones/logos/etc
are usually heavily reliant on GPRS.
CellC is unfortunately missing these markets (and
customers).

Even if you have to bring out GPRS for prepaid customers at
a higher price than the competitors do, it is better than
nothing. In addition, it will prevent you from losing more
customers because of this factor.

You can bring these issues forward to management as well.

I look forward to hearing what comes of my views.

Sincerely,
David De Caires E Freitas

i.e.
3) Their website free sms doesn’t stimulate usage amongst users. (Only 5 free sms)
4) Way behind on their basic GPRS offerings when they should have woken up back then.
Clearly MXit Mobile was going to be huge, one could see it in 2005 already.

On Tue, 6 Sep 2005 10:06:17 +0200
“Customer Services” wrote:
>
> Good Day, David.
> Thank for taking the time to express your views as this
> is much
> appreciated and will be brought forward to management.
> Unfortunately we
> need to advise you of the reason why a Prepaid client is
> not able to
> make use of this services. As you may well be aware of
> the fact that all
> international call are billed in arrears and the use of
> GPRS is also
> billed in arrears we can not offer this service to our
> Prepaid clients
> as the cost for using the service is quite expensive and
> for this reason
> we urge our clients rather to take out a contract, if
> they wish to make
> use of this service.
> For any further assistance, please feel free to email us
> at
> [email]custserv@cellc.co.za[/email]
> Kind regards
> Nazeem Marshman
> Client Liaison Consultant

Look, if you make excuses and don’t listen, you ought to go down the drain. And if someone is giving you advice that would have you cost you thousands of Rands via some “consultant”, I would take it and RESPOND to it!

I can usually spot something that will float or sink before the time.

This was the first email I warned them with:

: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 10:33:55 +0200
To: “Customer Services”

Dear CellC co.

Thank you for responding, in due time.
I would recommend you put this information (about
international roaming on prepaid) on your website, so that
customers like me can find it out without having to waste
human resources.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gradual
disappointments with CellC.
I have been a customer with CellC from the very beginning.
A prepaid customer albeit. Which it seems, CellC has no
consideration for, seeing that there are no services for
prepaid customers.
How can a cellular company be economically viable in South
Africa when they aren’t catering for the biggest market
segment?

Clearly CellC is not attempting to make a good impression
with ACTUAL service.
In times when 3G has been rolled out on other networks,
CellC cannot even provide 2G services for prepaid customers
yet. Absurd.

Never mind the fact that your customers have to PAY to have
their MMS settings sent to them?
Moreover, the fact that CellC MMS gprs does not work on my
simcard anymore is really pushing my irritation with CellC.
(The customer service people do not even listen to
customers, all they do is restate the lines given to them
by management. Might as well have answering machines.)

It is all good and well that you try to have ‘trendy’
adverts appealing to the youth and all. However, at the end
of the day, word of mouth, from people like me can make you
or break you. I have been pedalling CellC amongst peers,
trying to persuade them to use CellC ever since I started
using CellC. Nevertheless, CellC’s disregard for service
provision has made me reconsider. With millions of
customers choosing to go to the major network Vodacom, can
you really afford to lose more?

You should consider that prepaid customers usually become
or recommend your contract customers. I have experienced it
myself.
In addition, the prepaid customers will spawn into your
business customers eventually.
A customer like me, who has spent literally thousands of
Rands on prepaid, would like to know that he is
appreciated. Otherwise, my money could well be spent on a
network that actually has services available.

Maybe CellC is not quite ready yet, maybe one day you will
have people behind the scenes who actually know what they
are doing. But, till then, I have to reconsider. And put
that CellC Contract application on hold.

Sincerely,

David E Freitas

5 No appreciation for individual prepaid users who are recharging a lot. (Rewards or something)
6 I ripped them about their adverts: all the wasted money on promises, but no action/service helps no one.
7 No understanding of basic business principles.

8 The previous commenter was right probably – their careers are all BEE based. It’s not a charity, but a business, hire people who can make it work, regardless of colour. Else no-one is going to have work there.

Quick resolution?

Want a faster response to your query? Seems if you put it on HelloPeter.com, they will actually call you to help you. Because they don’t want to look bad on their website.

Send free CellC to CellC sms everyday.

About the author

David will tell you if your business is good/feasible in no uncertain terms and with high accuracy and amazing insight.

NEW: Apple, the legends, iTunes brought out iTunes U , U stands for University I guess.

iTunes U has arrived, giving higher education institutions an ingenious way to get audio and video content out to their students. Presentations, performances, lectures, demonstrations, debates, tours, archival footage — school is about to become even more inspiring.

Great, another place where you can get world class information for free.

Isn’t it amazing that the internet can allow me to get content from the top universities in the world, for free, from the comfort of my own country?

apple.com/itunesu/ – University and educational material (MP3′s etc) via iTunes!

Some universities’ iTunes U sites:

• itunes.stanford.edu
• itunes.berkeley.edu
• itunes.psu.edu
• itunes.duke.edu

Mostly American universities.
Who will be the first South African university to have an iTunes.domain? itunes.sun.ac.za? or itunes.uct.ac.za?
apple.com/education will help you.

Google also broadcasts the talks that are given at the Google Offices to the world for free. Again, without technology, those talks would have fallen only on the ears currently in the room. Now anyone can be there, without actually being there.

• Google Tech Talks 1
• Google Tech Talks 2

Check out my previous page: time management i for some more links.

Here is the article
sundaytimes.co.za “The blog graveyard”.
Article seems derived from the original article at The Sunday Times, England – technology.timesonline.co.uk

What’s it about?

“Hey guys, I’m soooo sooo sorry I haven’t written in a while!!” she wrote.

It has been a long wait for any Lohan fans who may be hoping for an update. That entry was posted in October 2003. Lohan’s blog has since taken its place in the Internet’s fastest growing graveyard — of an estimated 200-million blogs that have been started, then abandoned.

The extraordinary failure rate of online diaries and claims that interest in blogging will soon begin a precipitous slide are sparking an intriguing debate about the future of self-expression on the Internet and whether blogs, once seen as revolutionary, are destined to become a footnote in the history of computing.

To the embarrassment of millions of Internet users — from Hollywood celebrities such as Lohan, Melanie Griffith and Barbra Streisand to countless ordinary parents, workers and would-be poets — the evidence of failed diary-keeping cannot be easily erased from search engines that continue to provide links to blogs that have lain dormant for years.

Some Internet analysts call them “ghost blogs”, lingering reminders of a cultish enthusiasm for self-expression that is rapidly wearing off. Others liken the abandonment of blogs to “the suicide of your virtual self”.

Why am I saying this?
Show me how many people have had an active personal’ish site for a few years? A few maybe? Good.

I reckon that if you have something to share…

If it is obtainable elsewhere (another site for example):

If you like it:


• Link to it or bookmark it online. Use del.icio.us bookmarks, some place that other users will be able to find it.
• Make suggestions or comments on what is lacking or can be improved. Or some praise even.

If you don’t like it:

• Make a suggestion to the creators of the site. Maybe something is missing, then you can complete it.

Can’t find it anywhere?
If the site/source is really bad and has no hope of being revived by the author or it isn’t possible to take over the management of the site/source/page, then you have some options:

1. Add it to wikipedia – it’s maintained and will be around for a while. In contrast to your personal domain which ceases to exist when you get bored and stop paying the registration fee.
2. Wikipedia not appropriate? Consider using a Google powered free hosting service like blogger.com or googlepages.com to power your new site/information.
3. Need more tools? Try finding a site that provides or deals with similar information – can you maybe partner with the site or create a new section for it? Please don’t create another forum.. unless you really have to. Learn to search.
4. Lastly, you could get your own domain name and hosting for your website and do as you please.

There are many options, no excuse to pollute the web.
Collaborate to make it better and cleaner. If we don’t do it, who will?

This isn’t specific to blogs, it’s the same for any site, website, forum, what ever you want to call it. A html site is a html site no matter what name you give it.

UPDATE: Get sms notifications of events on ANY calender! In fact, now you can schedule reminders for events on your personal calendar or any other calendar to which you’re subscribed.

NEW: Google calender mobile cellphone version!

Visit calendar.google.com on your mobile web browser.

• Multiple calendars on one account – so you can separate the different parts of your life/schedule (work, home, etc)
• Share events and calendars – You can let a calendar be show to the public or share a calendar with someone.
• Planning an event? – You can create invitations, send reminders and keep track of RSVPs right inside Google Calendar.

Now, the main reason for this post is the SMS/text notifications you can setup for any event! And it costs you nothing!

Staying on schedule
You can set up automatic event reminders, including mobile phone notifications, and instantly bring up anything on your calendar with the built-in search tool.

And they support all three networks in SA – MTN, CellC and Vodacom.

How to enable SMS notifications

• Login to Google Calendar with your Google Account details (same as your GMail)
• Click Settings at the top right.
• In the Calendar Settings page click on the Notifications button.
• Then enter your cell phone details and follow the instructions.
• You’re done. Now any notifications you put on an event will come in an SMS/text to your cellphone. All for free!

Poor Google has to foot the bill for all the SMSs sent. I wonder how viable it will turn out to be?

• Google Calendar Tour
• mycee.co.za – The guy who told me about this cool feature!
• goosync.com – You can sync Google Calendar to your mobile device for free as well.

Some good time management tips too. Especially if you freelance or don’t have much of a fixed schedule.

What I’ve realized recently is that the difference between the average student and the above average student comes mainly down to their time management skills.
This is true for everything in life too I guess.

The guy who wakes as early as they can in order to start their day productively will always have the edge of the person who rushes out at a minute before the hour to get to work.

The person who doesn’t dabble around aimlessly at the end of conversations gets more work done. More work bringing in more results for you.

We have 24 hours in a day. Every day. No one has a minute more, or less, than anyone else. It’s all about how you use it. Those 10 minutes of aimless waiting everyday can add up to hours a month. Hours where you are free to do anything you please.

Growth through audio

Oh my word, driving. If you drive a car to work everyday, you know how much time that can take, especially with all the irritating traffic jams.
So, how can you carry on wasting so much time? “What can I do”, you ask.
Well, what I’ve come to practise is, listening to audio books. Yes, great isn’t it, listening to audio, while you are driving! Kill two birds with one stone.

Whether you use your car radio or a portable device (mp3 playing devices all round, even cellphones can), there’s no excuse to drive aimlessly for hours everyday. Aimlessly includes listening to spam music on commercial radio.
There are many sources of free audio books and the such. I list some cool sites below.

More Info

LearnOutLoud.com – has a good selection of free audio books!
StevePavlina.com – on the forefront of self development and personal management.
ITconversations – More for the technical crowd.
TED – Technology, Education, Design. High Profile Talkers. With Video options.
twit – This week in Tech.
odeo – Millions of MP3s and 1000′s of audio channels—podcasts, music, and more. Listen, download, subscribe… FREE.
Free Academic Podcasts – A list of free lectures from Universities on a variety of topics. This is worth a lot!
PodCast – PodCast.com – free audio about anything. Has a mobile.podcast.com too.

freeScienceOnline.blogspot.com – Great resource for videos on all topics.
www.FreeScienceLectures.com

apple.com/itunesu/ – University and educational material (MP3′s etc) via iTunes!

Google Tech Talks 1
Google Tech Talks 2

freeVideoLectures.com

MobiPocket.com – MobiPocket.com ebooks
cbmcint.org/cmm/ – ChangeMake Minute – The ChangeMaker Minute is a succinct message designed to challenge your thought regarding timeless principles that guide our lives both in the marketplace and at home.

Now, there’s no reason not to expand your mind.

Ah… the backlogged life…… by Greg Knauss.

I found it at 43folders.com.

My entire life has devolved into an endless, grinding slog through my back-log. Everything I do is about catching up, doing the stuff I didn’t get done the day before, plowing through some other goddamned thing that needs my attention. Ending the day without actually adding to the total aggregate is a victory. There are times when it piles up faster than I can shovel it away.

The tools I use to manage information have evolved to the point where I can abdicate the tedious process of gathering it all together to them, and they now do a very diligent job of making sure that it’s all brought to my attention. Endlessly. Maddeningly.

Oh boy, doesn’t this sound familiar?
How many of us don’t work with 3 email addresses, a feed aggregator with 100′s of unread posts, and multiple communication mechanisms? It’s quite scary actually. And how much of it is really important? 1% maybe?

Well, this article does a good job of articulating the situation of a new way of geek.
Yes, I see myself falling into it… but, if you want to get anything done in your life, you have to buckle down and close the browser.
That’s what I’ve been practising lately: Pressing The X.

I think the Internet has become the new TV: a place to spam your time away, learning nothing useful.

Do you think people get things done by browsing? (the new channel-hopping)

So, what you gona do? Stay, or leave?

The choice lies in your… click.

Amazing. There is just no other word to describe what this man, Riaan Manser, did.

The first person to circumnavigate the ENTIRE AFRICAN CONTINENT by bicycle.

37 000 kilometres … 34 countries. For two years, two months and two weeks, Riaan Manser has been sitting on a bicycle circumnavigating Africa. – An African Bike

I’ve been eagerly reading his articles in our local newspaper, the District Mail.
His unique stories are what adventures are made of!

He kept a journal of his journey, and took photographs, which you can find on his website africa 365.

He records some beautiful and sometimes harrowing experiences on his journey through places we will never see in our lives.

I’m sure that 90% of the time, he wasn’t cycling idyllically on tarred roads.

What an amazing feat… can’t wait for the book.

“Without challenge there isn’t achievement”

One man, one bicycle, one continent.
A legend stands.

Rubbish. What rubbish.

Thanks for the waste of time.

5fm == A joke of a radio station.

Nice waste of their money.

——————————————-

Just as an aside (totally off topic):

dreamhostcodes.com – dreamhost promo codes.

Not having power / electricity is just not nice. And it’s going to be happening often here since the one power station is down for a while.

So, it got me thinking… what can you do without electricity?
Finding things to do or alternative stuff to do can be quite difficult…

So, I want to compile a list of things to do when there is no electricity…

• Defrost your fridge – what better time to clean out the ice build up and clean out your fridge than when it is off anyway.
• Listen to radio – battery powered radio of course. At least it’s a little more imaginitive than watching mind numbing TV.
• Talk – to people. In person. Get to know your family. Phone up someone (normal telephones usually still work, as well as mobile cellphones)
• Read a book – get round to that book you have always wanted to read. The good old way.
• Board games – the thing people did for fun before electronics.
• Walk – you know you need it anyway. Do something physical!

Things you CAN’T do without electricty

• Use Milk – sorry, but I don’t think that the pastuerized, homogenized, super-duper-chemically-processilized milk from the shop will last very long without refrigeration techniques.

This means your diet will probably change. No cereal in the mornings without milk; dark tea/coffee anyone?

• Get up at night – want to go to the toilet quickly? Find those matches first.

I’ll definitally convert this to a proper page that doesn’t disappear in the blog archives…

Have you got any suggestions? Comment below!

I feel sorry for the people who have toilets that flush electronically

Links

• Forum titled: “Things you can do without electricity…”
• 43things.com – “Live without electricity”
• dailycampus.com
  

  It wasn’t very long at all before folks started clamoring that we need electricity to SURVIVE. No we don’t. Come on, now, people. Get over it. We need water. We need food. We need heat. We need shelter. We need clothing. We can do just fine without electricity. It’s a convenience that we can take or leave as we see fit. Humanity has survived hundreds of thousands of years without it, and in parts of the world some people still do. Let’s keep things in perspective.

• about.com
  

  Things most of us can do without include electric blankets, electric (plug-in) clocks, electric knives, electric can openers, electric toothbrushes, electric heating pads, electric bottle warmers and those little electric pots that heat one or two cups of water. These ‘little’ things don’t take much electricity by themselves, but compounded over twenty four hours by thousands upon thousands of households, it creates an enormous demand to sustain our ‘comfort level’.

• powerscorecard.org – Twenty Things You Can Do to Conserve Energy
• backwoodshome.com
  

  How do you cook a meal if your gas stove has an electric ignition? How do your children find their way to the bathroom at night if the light switches don’t work? How do you keep warm if your wood heat is moved through ducts by an electric fan? What do you do with a freezer full of expensive meat? How do you find out what is happening in your area with the TV and radio silent? What will you drink if your water comes from a system dependent on electrical pumps?

Luckily your mobile cellphone has a GPRS internet connection & a web browser.

Sooo, I’ve created a WAP page that you can access when you on the road. It lists the things that I find useful for when I am on the move.

So far I’ve got mobile email, maps and za sms.

wap.defza.com

And, the same page viewed in WML:
http://wap.defza.com/index.php?hawoutput=wap

—–
Vodacom free sms.
Added National Lottery results (South Africa)
International news
Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, Gmail
MSN chat.
CellC sms wap.
—–