Category: Technology

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Legging it with the Green Net and Tony Turton on the Umzimkulu

Legging it with The Green Net and Tony Turton

Legging it with the Green Net and Tony Turton on the Umzimkulu

Legging it with the Green Net and Tony Turton on the Umzimkulu: Legging is a method of moving a boat through a canal tunnel or adit containing water. This method of navigating through canal tunnels and adits was commonly used in canal tunnels during the 18th and early 19th centuries.

It is still in practise today, on the mighty Umzimkulu River in KZN, South Africa.

Formal and fun day out with The Green Net.

And, that’s how we got home after a rather huge day upriver. On the good ship Umzimkulu. Sporting The Green Net (green warriors – more about them later) and none other than the world’s own River Raconteur – Professor Antony Turton! Also along for the alluvial educational ride was Selvan Chetty (ANC Chief Whip), Rowan Clark (Engineer), Louis Essery (KuluCrete), Vicky Wentzel (Tourism)…all supported by the land unit operated by Helmut Hansen (Green Net).

Professor Turton

Tony Turton is an encyclopedia. His store of knowledge on rivers and estuarine systems is startling. In the beginning, not many of us knew what he was talking about. But by the end of that boat ride, we all knew exactly.

This is Professor Anthony Turton…

Tony Turton speaks to The Green Net at The Spiller's house in Port Shepstone
Tony Turton caricature
Tony Turton on TV again
Tony Turton way out on the border way back when
Tony Turton on TV again
Tony Turton on TV again
Tony Turton on TV again
Professor Anthony Turton
Tony Turton the cold war spy worked with/against Gorbachov
Tony Turton way out on the border way back when

The Green Net

The green terrorist group known as The Green Net is a lethal women-run organisation that is seemingly afraid of absolutely nothing. If you check their Facebook pages you will see pictures of these girls getting deep down in dirty rivers and other environmental hotspots all over the south coast.

Helen Dodge, Dianne Hayter and Joan Gallagher are the main conspirators. Backed up by a wide network of very interested and motivated allies. Some in very high places.

Their initiatives are well-supported and widespread. Gardens all over the place – teaching people how to utilise the soil, and resources, to the best possible results. Environmental concerns such as the berms at St. Helen’s Rock. And myriad more things.

All of these you can check out and get involved in at their comprehensive website on https://thegreennet.org.za. Which has recently received an all-new content lady named Donna Monk who has already dived right in. You can contact The Green Net from their website.

Marketing by The Green Net website team

From Donna…

“If you have products or services that are green in nature, The Green Net website team will gladly list your items on their online superstore for you. Sales will pay a negotiated commission to The Green Net.”

The Green Net website is filled with content and news. And this all-new e-commerce enabled store is gonna rock it!

Get in touch with Donna on +27 83 395 5544 to chat possibilities and options.

The Sardine News is a media partner for The Green Net.

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Sonar tagging Zambezi Sharks with Calum Murie

Although Zambezi Sharks are on the top of our hit list, these blacktips are also featured.

Sonar tagging Zambezi Sharks: Calum Murie could have been anything. But he chose to spend his life chasing huge sharks around with sonar tag in hand, ready to abuse the first full grown Zambezi Shark he sees. In the name of science, research and conservation, Calum’s motivation for this career path runs deep and his commitment is exemplary.

  • Although Zambezi Sharks are on the top of our hit list, these blacktips are also featured.
    Although Zambezi Sharks are on the top of our hit list, these blacktips are also featured.
  • Jason Morkel gets right in on the action. Zambezi Sharks don't scare him!
    Jason Morkel gets right in on the action. Zambezi Sharks don’t scare him!

And so it was that Calum enlisted the crew and facilities at the BCSS (Bazaruto for Scientific Studies) this September, to get some more tags installed in some Zambezi Sharks and other suspects. The tags are monitored by sonar listening stations set out up and down the coast between Pemba and Cape Town. So if one of Calum’s tagged sharks goes on leave and heads off for a holiday, Calum is gonna know about it.

This behavioural study of horizontal movement is aimed at supplying decision makers with the correct information regards shark activity along our coastline. Sadly, there have been over ten shark attacks in the Inhambane Estuary just down the coast from the BCSS. It’s the poor crab ladies who are getting taken the most. They are sitting ducks working in a metre of cloudy water at best.

And so Calum is fiercely chasing Zambezi’s, the prime suspect as usual. Although bronze whalers are also on our shark tagging list for being a suspicious character. Calum is also after Tiger Sharks, but we have not been successful at this as of yet. Hopefully we can find a small one somewhere!

You can actually get involved in our shark tagging exploits if you like. The success of the project that Calum is running, has opened up more funding for his studies. More listening stations are being deployed in association with the BCSS and Dr. Mario Lebrato. And we now have another batch of tags to deploy. At over $1000 per tag, we have got responsibilities!

The BCSS was built in order to facilitate research and conservation. So if you are aligned with these objectives, get in touch to join the team for a week or two. Rates are very reasonable. And you get to stay with us out here on the edge of the whole world!

Get in touch on umzimkulu@gmail.com to make arrangements.

You can keep up by staying on top of The Sardine News’ various channels…YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.

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Last chance at Windows 10 for FREE

Windows 10

Last chance at Windows 10 for FREE

If you, like me, ended up with one of your machines not upgraded to Windows 10, before the cut off date way back then, there is another way out. Way out. Well yes, a way out of the nonsensical Windows 8.x operating systems, for sure. And also, to get past the bloated Windows habit of building resources continually, in systems even before 8.x.

The new Windows is touted to be a stripped down racer model of the old Windows. The best was retained. And the worst was worked on. Windows 10 is inherently far more stable than any older version whatsoever. I have yet to encounter a blue screen, although I hear they do occur. Programmes that hang, always come back if you just leave them be, to sort out their arguments with themselves.

Device drivers are a distant speck in the rearview mirror of incompatibility highway. Anything plugs and plays nowadays.

And the syncing between devices actually works. So do the cloud integrations. The add-ons and add-outs.

It all works!

For a really weird Microsoft reason, Windows 10 is now available as a free upgrade and download, to anyone who uses Assistive Technologies. I qualified myself with my real useless close-up vision.

Just navigate to the following link;

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade

Make sure you have a few gigs spare on your data line, and click the Upgrade button.

It’s painless compared to the original roll out. And is the Windows 10 Anniversary version – the latest of everything. It is still about 3gigs so make sure you are prepared for all that data to disappear.

You have until the 31 December 2017, to take advantage of this quirky but Microsoft free offer. I do not think this will ever happen again, so if you need to, do it now!

More tech stories here…

https://thesardine.co.za/category/technology/

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FishBazaruto’s game-fishing video playlist getting bigger and better

Light tackle game-fish is just so much fun off Bazaruto

FishBazaruto’s game-fishing video playlist getting bigger and better

Game-fishing for the camera! It’s real cool when the kids take over and just thump out cool little edits of your day at sea for you! Well this has been happening more and more as the young ones embrace technology – especially cell phones and video. Captain Duarte Rato of FishBazaruto up in Vilanculos, Southern Mozambique, had some real keen and talented young crew on his boat Vamizi this last week – The Watt teenagers – movie makers and fishermen!

Young Benji Watt and his first sailfish is the first clip.

As you can see from these classic clips recently added to FishBazaruto’s YouTube playlist, authentic and quality video is a cell phone or a GoPro away. All these tools come with editing software these days – totally intuitive and built into the hardware. You can trim video right in your phone’s gallery, and assemble the whole lot with titles and if you really have to, put music on top.

Throwing a track over your hard earned authentic sound bytes is a no-no! And you lose out on the copyright of your own material. Any revenues generated go to the artist who originally recorded the song. Use original sound wherever possible. You can bleep out the swearing!

You also don’t need to commentate at all. You can but don’t talk to the camera. Do that afterward with a voice over helping to tell the story. Filling in any gaps. But mostly, the story tells itself, especially if you can tie off a shot and record the whole lot on a wide, and use another phone or camera for the close ups.

Too easy!

Assemble on your phone or your computer. Then upload to YouTube. And this is where all this extra cool new content is coming from! You! YouTube is awash with every fishing video you could dream to watch. Instructional stuff is all over and so well done. Knots. Traces. Fighting fish. You can glean so much from watching these videos. Often they are series’ of themed video- just like a TV show.

So what’s next from us?

Live from the boat! As the season kicks off in Bazaruto this year, there are some spots that have enough signal, to get a live stream going. Both Duarte and ourselves (The Sardine Team are operating up in Vilanculos through to January), will endeavour to get a live tangle with a marlin going.

Stay tuned via our Facebook pages, if you Like our pages, you will be notified when we go live.

FishBazaruto – https://web.facebook.com/fishbazaruto/

The Sardine News – https://web.facebook.com/thesardine.co.za/

Learn more about FishBazaruto at their content rich website over at http://fishbazaruto.com. Duarte and his team update the site regularly – in fact every trip Duarte has done since 2010 or so, is documented on the website. With photos.

As we move into the video age – when everyone has access to the equipment, and the interfaces become easier and more intuitive, it’s gonna be a very colourful – Future of Fishing.

 

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Phoney Phishing with Proof of Payments

Phoney phishing emails can look much like this one - the senders could even be bona fide

Phoney Phishing with Proof of Payments

Please be careful not to open any PoP’s (Proof of Payments) that are coming into your inbox. The attachment is an html file that contains a payload of malicious code for you especially. This is called phishing.

These payloads can be many forms – keylogger, trojan, spyware, malware, virus…the list is endless, and is testament to how fragile and insecure the internet actually is still.

In fact, you by now should be well aware that opening any forms of communication from anyone who you do not know, is NOT ON! But the new levels o

The Sardine News provide many online services, including good old websites. Switching to Web 3.0 technologies is a lot fun!
The Sardine News provide many online services, including good old websites. Switching to Web 3.0 technologies is a lot fun! Click for more info

f deception and cunning, mean you could receive one of these phishing attachments, from an email address you are familiar with. It could be hijacked and used to distribute malicious software for the criminal third party. Who most likely are after your identity. To jack that and ruin your life completely.

 

As you can see from the image, built-in security measures by your mail provider is more often than not, capable of detecting, and at least warning you of the threat. But the effectiveness across all the mail providers is not that hot. Especially with self-hosted mail servers. These are the most vulnerable and have been the channel that criminals favour for their work.

Hence many of us moving right away from @ourcompany and rather chosen to shack up with Gmail, Hotmail or one of the many others available. I would urge anybody or business to rather move in that direction. The internet would become a helluva lot tidier place.