Gerhard Potgieter

Not many South Africans know about the ZA Tech Show yet, but its popularity is growing with every podcast.

The ZA Tech Show is a weekly South African technology podcast where they discuss all the latest trends and technologies thats happening in South Africa. The podcast is now at their 10th episode and can be download for free from their website.

The ZA Tech Show is led by a panel consisting of Simon Dingle from Hypertext Media, Duncan McLeod from the FM and FM Tech, Jon Tullett from IHS, Benedict Kelly from Finweek and Brett Haggard also from Hypertext Media.

So if you are a technology junkie and would like to keep up the trends then this podcast is a must for you. Big up to Simon Dingle - founder of ZA Tech Show - and his team for a great weekly podcast, i’m sure you’ll make it big with this show.

So I’m not a big Facebook addict like the majority of www users out there, but once in a while I would log on to Facebook to leave a quick PM to friends abroad or see what everybody is up to. Personally I think Facebook is one great piece of development, and has all the features one could think of except one which was a live chat function.

A while back I saw a leaked video of a live chat for Facebook and and first thought it was a hoax or something, but after thinking about it I realized that this was one feature that would make Facebook stand out even more and something that I believe every user would use if not abuse during work hours.

So this morning I logged on to Facebook and saw this bar at the bottom of my browser, and after looking at it realized that Facebook chat finally got implemented. I must say I’m quite chuffed with the addon, looks good doesn’t bother my browsing experience and is easy to use.

To the left is a picture illustrating the the chat program expanded showing your online friends and a open chat windows. Its as simple as clicking the online friends bar en a small window pops ups showing all your online friends. Then you just double click the friend’s name and a chat window opens and then your ready to chat.

After sending a message you can close the chat window and once you receive a new message it will automatically pop up. Without any windows open the chat applications sits at the bottom of your browser just as a small gray bar with 4 icons.

You also have the option to detach the chat application from your current Facebook page and view it in a seperate window if you feel that doing all in one browser window is to much.

So big up to the Facebook Development team for this fine addon, I’m sure you hits will now sky rocket even more. Just a shame now this will encourage more companies to block the Facebook website for their workers as this means productivity will go down the drain even more now. But non the less still a great addon.

So this is the NanoStation2, it gets described as “The Ultimate CPE for the Global WISP Community” but lets see what makes its manufacturers think that this device is so leet. Firstly this is the NanoStation2, where the hell was the NanoStation1? Me being part of CTWUG I have all my doubt in this little device as all devices I know that really packs a punch in the wireless industry is Mikrotik Routerboards. So lets have a look at the NanoStation2 specs as given by the Ubiquiti website.

• Processor Specs: Atheros AR2316 SOC, MIPS 4KC, 180MHz
• Memory Information: 16MB SDRAM, 4MB Flash
• Networking Interface: 1 X 10/100 BASE-TX (Cat. 5, RJ-45) Ethernet Interface
• Wireless Approvals: FCC Part 15.247, IC RS210
• RoHS Compliance: Yes
• TX Power: 26dBm, +/-2dB
• RX Sensitivity: -97dBm +/-2dB
• Antenna: Integrated 10dBi Dual Pol + External SMA
• Outdoor Range: over 15km
• TCP/IP Throughput: 25Mbps+
• Max Power Consumption: 5 Watts
• Power Supply: 12V, 1A (12 Watts). Supply and injector included
• Power Method: Passive Power over Ethernet (pairs 4,5+; 7,8 return)
• Operating Temperature: -20C to +70C (System PCB optimized for hi-temp)
• Operating Humidity: 5 to 95% Condensing
• Shock and Vibration: ETSI300-019-1.4
• Weight: 0.4 kg

Out of personal experience with wifi networking I dont think this devices comes close to the Mikrotik Routerboard 133c, and just to mention the 133c is not being produced anymore as its being replaced with the RB411 that packs a powerful 300Mhz Atheros Networking processor. And the lack of a high gain antenna puts me off, as 10dbi is not worth it for a CPE. The throughput listed there is hard for me to believe, maybe in a lab at a distance of 5m but still then i have my doubts as a 175Mhz Atheros cpu maxes out at about 14mbps. Sure it has a kinda powerful radio, but that anway illegal in South Africa. If I must take a guess the NanoStation would retail at about R700 - R900 here in South Africa and for that price I would rather buy a custom Routerboard CPE from scoop. All in all the NanoStation looks good from the outside but with the multitude of CPE enclosures you get nowadays there is better designs out there.

Just to sum it up, I dont forsee this device competing with any Mikrotik produk in the near future as Mikrotik has a good OS on their devices and has allot of power behind their devices that overtakes the NanoStation by far.