Tech | The experience that was MS Office 2013!

Hard to believe, but Microsoft Office 2013 has been with us for over 3 years now. Yet it still seems like it was released just the other day. While its overall rating and reception may not have been as overwhelming as it has always been for its predecessors – 2007 and 2010, MS office 2013 does come with a number of positives. We take a quick peek at the big four core applications – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, seeing as Office 2016 is just around the corner.

Cloud features

As part of its launch, MS Office reached a new landmark by going into the cloud with subscription pricing, on-demand installation and automatic synchronization of settings and documents you save online rather than offline.

This pushes deep integration between its desktop applications and your data, stored on Microsoft servers. It also implies that as an end user, you are still able to use office wherever you go – on your PC, your tablet and your Windows phone handset. It's called Office 365, and this method of purchase ensures you are always up-to-date even if there are changes in the software.

Design and navigation

A more subtle innovation is the use of animation that makes normal transitions look more fluid (you can disable these effects if you wish). Microsoft has made several routine operations easier to perform from within the apps.

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint no longer show a blank page at launch. Instead, a landing screen presents templates and other options for creating or re-opening a document – basically, that’s the screen you used to get when you wanted to open an existing document or create a new one from a template. This screen exposes ready-made design options that you might not otherwise consider.

Word

One of MS Word’s most visible innovations is a new “Read Mode” that does away with the ribbon toolbar and lets you view documents as though they appeared within a printed book. In this mode, you can’t edit, but you do have access to find and search tools. So you can perform lookups related to highlighted content.

It also has more innovative sharing options beyond SkyDrive. For instance, you can show your Word document to someone who isn’t running Word by creating and availing to them a link to the same.

Excel

Excel comes with a small Quick Analysis button at the bottom-right corner. You can click the button to view thumbnails of several graphs and chart options, pick one and click to apply it. Not sure how best to massage the data? Excel also offers buttons that generate chart and pivot table recommendations. Oh, and it still does a measly 1,048,576 rows (Sad).

It also comes with additional features such as Flash Fill feature, which can detect patterns (beyond the numerical and date patterns Excel has long been able to recognize), and autocompletes empty fields as appropriately as possible.

PowerPoint

MS PowerPoint has an extra formatting pane that allows the user to make adjusting design elements simpler. Its enhanced media support includes the ability to play more video formats. It also allows one to have background audio play across your entire presentation.

Outlook

MS Outlook 2013 opens with a simple two-pane design consisting of the list of messages and the selected message in the preview pane. You can quickly respond to the message by clicking the Reply button in the preview pane.

Also in this new-look Outlook is a new feature called Mailtips. Mailtips brings possible issues to your attention, such as if you fail to forward an attachment. This is quite handy for corporate environments where IT sets restrictive email policies. Outlook will point out such potential violations.

The Calendar view now includes a couple of days’ worth of weather information – wind, temperature and chances of rain. In this feature, you can search for any city and it will bring the weather – though the temperatures are annoyingly shown in Fahrenheit, to my chagrin. Oh, and of course you have to be online to get this information.

There are reported changes and improvements in Publisher, Note, Visio and several others. I did not see major changes in Visio though, save for a few added templates. Most of them have pretty much the same new tools available in the aforementioned office apps (Word, Excel et al).

On the whole, as seamless cloud integration appears to have been Office 2013’s biggest plus and one may also say that most usability tweaks are generally sensible.

The Cons

For the regular MS Office 2010 user, the improvements aren't exactly mind-boggling.

1) The product appears to have been hurriedly put onto the market. Since its official release, Office 2013 has had over 100 updates released for the various components.

2) The product was strictly released is strictly for Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems (Sorry Windows XP, Vista users).

3) Perhaps my biggest disappointment of all is the perpetual eye-strain that is the trichromatic theme. While office offers different themes – white, light gray and dark gray – they are all essentially the same. 3 (or rather 50) shades of gray. Pathetic. Whoever did the design and final theme vetting must have been colorblind.

4) As earlier said, Excel is still supporting only 1,048,576 rows. Granted, we know it is not supposed to be a primary data manipulation interface and all, but an improvement certainly would not have done the users any harm.  

5) The meeting alerts in MS Outlook do not have open options. I guess the end user is expected to go all the way to the calendar in case they wish to see the meeting details. Double-clicking the reminder opens the entire invite to show all the details though.

6) MS Picture viewer is gone, and has since been replaced by Windows Live Photo Gallery. A little more complex than the old picture viewer. The former was more convenient for fast actions like cropping and editing, though the latter comes with more options.

7) The calendar no longer displays multiple calendar months. With Office 2010, one could easily immediately see the preceding and next month without having to click to move back or ahead. The MS Office 2013 Outlook calendar only shows one month. 

Tech | Of elections, VPNs and the future of Internet Access

On February 18, 2016, Ugandans woke up to the unfortunate realization that they had been blocked from accessing major social media platforms following an order from Uganda Communications Commission (UCC). 

Micro-blogging websites such as facebook and Twitter, as well as Whatsapp were the most affected platforms for most GSM subscribers using MTN, Africell and Airtel internet data. Viber, YouTube, Google plus and a few others were not touched, largely because their usage via mobile phones was not deemed extensive enough to pose any serious risks.

As usual, Ugandans went scouring the internet for potential workarounds, and once the first breakthrough – via VPN – was made, the rest was history. By the end of day 2 of the blockade, VPN software related downloads had soared to over 1.4 million!

For most IT junkies, VPN technology was not exactly something new. They have been using VPNs to remotely access sensitive systems that include mobile, security and financial systems. Others have been surfing anonymously, with the principal aim of bypassing network filters to access websites that are restricted at their respective workplaces.

Financial institutions, security systems and telecommunications firms mainly use VPNs for purposes of availing remote system support and for secure integrations with third-party services as one of their several security precautions.

What is a VPN?

Simply put, VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. It is essentially a group of discrete computers networked together over a public network – the internet. Basically, it is a seemingly secure network that opens up access possibility to several other networks, some of which would have blocked by the end user’s ISP or workplace local area network (LAN) settings.

Many businesses use VPNs to connect remote datacenters, and individuals can use VPNs to get access to network resources when they are not on the same physical network. A VPN also serves as a method for securing and encrypting their communication when they are using an untrusted public network (lifehacker.com).

Your choice of VPN

This will depend on a number of factors. They could range from the purpose for which one needs the VPN, the infrastructure, or the device one intends to use. For most Ugandans affected on 18th, the principle reason everyone wanted a VPN was to access social media, and largely via their handset.

Most of them had no idea about which precautions they needed to have in place. All that mattered was finding a way around the albatross that was the UCC directive. Of course they also needed something they would not have to pay an arm and leg for. So most, if not all opted for the free options or those that attracted a minimum cost.

This automatically limited the number of options they could have used. Many turned to one of TunnelBear, VyprVPN, WiTopia, Cloud VPN, StrongVPN, Tor (this is basically a browser, so will not work for whatsapp), Ipredator and proXPN. Most of these are available on Google Playstore (perhaps UCC’s ban would have been more effective it had been put on Playstore).

While VPNs are largely said to be secure, a critical look reveals some VPNs are more secure than others depending on the different properties each VPN has been set up with. The properties largely have to do with security level implementation (such TLS, SSL, SSH, SSTP and many others)

The Pros

When you use a VPN, your ISP (and the government, in case it’s poking its nose around) will only see the network (VPN IP Address) you are connecting to. They will not be able to tell which websites you are actually visiting. The ability of any third party to intercept your communication stops at the VPN.

The following are some of the core advantages of using a VPN;

1) Unblock websites and bypass network filters. VPNs are great for accessing blocked websites or bypassing Internet filters. This is why there is an increased number of VPN services used in countries where Internet censorship is applied.

2) Online anonymity. Through a VPN you can browse the web in complete anonymity. Compared to hide IP software or web proxies, the advantage of a VPN service is that it allows you to access both web applications and websites in complete anonymity. Browsers like Tor may serve the purpose effectively.

3) Enhanced security. When you connect to the network through a VPN, the data is kept secured and encrypted. In this way the information is away from hackers’ eyes (lifehacker.com). This is largely effective for private corporate companies that usually put a lot of emphasis on security.

4) Remote access and convenience. In case of a company, the great advantage of having a VPN is that the information can be accessed remotely even from home or from any other place. This is one of the ways in which having a VPN can increase productivity within a company as it ensures effective remote support.

5) Masking your physical location. Most VPNs are hosted in different countries that may be seen as traffic sources. It is one of the reasons government agencies have been unable to track and net people it considers security threats, such as social media critics like Tom Voltaire Okwalinga (TVO).

A VPN will turn you into an instant globetrotter, and anyone trying to track your movements will only be left guessing. During the recent elections, people were accessing the supposedly blocked social media from places like Pakistan, Venezuela, Sweden, Nicaragua and the US. Places they have never been to, physically. The folks that reign supreme at UCC were left with enough egg on their faces to feed the proverbial 5,000.

6) Reduced maintenance costs. Once a VPN network is created, the maintenance cost is very low. More than that, if you opt for a service provider, the network setup and surveillance no longer becomes your primary concern.

The Cons

1) The design and security implementation for a virtual private network can be complex.  This means that it requires a professional with a high level of understanding for the best type of VPN configuration and some of the security issues that can occur when using a VPN.

2) Internet trolling and location masking. Depending on which side of the fence you sit, this too may be a disadvantage. A disgruntled former employee can decide to soil a company’s reputation and will not be easily traced.

3) Access to restricted web sites such as pornography, dating and gambling sites as well as social media. In the wake of VPN technology discovery by many a non tech-savvy Ugandan, one social media addict expressed delight at the fact that they could now access pornography at the workplace without interruption from their smart-aleck IT guys.

This could become counter-productive in the long run. The newfound joy of bypassing supposed restrictions may result into reduced workplace productivity. The age-old adage that says forbidden fads are always sweeter suddenly creeps in, and an employee ends up spending more time on restricted sites than they should. This eventually results into wastage of company resources – time, money or otherwise.

Culture | The influence of deity allegiance on societal names

In many African cultures, societal allegiance to one's deity plays a significant role in Child naming. Many names have indirect reference to God.

Among the Banyankole/Batooro/Banyoro/Bakiga and related tribes in Western Uganda, you will find names like "Atuhaire" (variantly spelled as Atuhairwe, meaning God has given us - a child), "Asiimwe" (God be praised), "Tumusiime" (Let's praise God), Byamukama (All things belong to God) and many others.

Further south, among the Banyarwanda, you are likely to find names like "Nshimy'imana" (I give thanks to God), "Habyar'imana" (It's God that helps us give birth), "Ndikumana" (I am relying on God) and others.

In Chichewa/Chinyanja (Malawi/Zambia), people have names like "Mulungu" (God).

Across to West Africa, and particularly among the Yoruba, most names that reference God begin with "Olu". So you'll find names like Olufunke (God has cared for me), Olufemi (God loves me), Olusegun (God’s victory), Oluseyi (God has made this) and many others.

The Igbo equivalents start with "Chi", and include names like Chidi (God exists), Chibuzo (God leads the way), Chidimma (God is good), Chikere (God created), and Chinedu (God leads).

Dan A.  

Tech | Safer Internet Day: How prepared are you?

In February every year, the world celebrates what we now know as Safer Internet Day (SID). Organized by Insafe (a European network of Awareness Centers), its principle objective is to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially among children and young people across the world.

Internet safety is quite a broad subject whose scope of potential effects may range from privacy compromise and misuse to financial loss, emotional and physical harm. Back home, we ask: How have you prepared yourself to ensure your own internet safety?

A couple of days back, PC Tech’s Joanita Nalubega delved a bit into basic checks and precautions that could help you maintain or improve your browsing experience. Today, we look at a few more that will help you draw a comprehensive safety checklist;

1) Check for, and activate any additional security features (aside from the SSL already mentioned) that may trigger alerts you in case your profile is in danger of being compromised. These include email login alert for social media sites like facebook, yahoo and Gmail, as well SMS notifications.

2) Maximize the use of privacy features and settings on any sites that have these options. Again, social media is the biggest culprit here. Some people put their bio-data out there for every Tom, Dick and Harry. 

You visit someone’s profile and they have crucial information like phone number, date of birth, email and their spouses exposed to everyone. Only people you consider close enough should have access to this information.

3) Certain streaming websites (news, sports and other events) contain multiple adverts that may either be malicious or time wasting. Most of them have actually have provisions for closing the ads without necessarily visiting the embedded links, but these are usually made less conspicuous than the hoax close options that are always more prominent.

4) Turn off the location feature when posting social media status updates unless you are travelling to some place you don't know. It may make it easy for someone trailing you to locate you. Some smart phones have this feature turned on by default.

5) Regularly change/update personal security information such as passwords. Social media is awash with a number of applications and games that require the user to supply their passwords. You never know from which application someone will access your private information. 

6) Apply strict filtering on your email accounts to avoid running into spam emails. The same applies to social media accounts that are now awash with schemers and scammers.

7) Avoid using the same password on all your internet accounts - email, online transaction accounts, social media, forum subscriptions and professional group memberships such as LinkedIn. Granted, we now live in an era where we have tens (and probably hundreds) of PINs and passwords that we ought to memorize, but maintaining the same password for each medium is never a good idea.

8) Install and regularly update a strong anti-virus. Regular checks on trending anti-viruses may help. There was a time when Avast was the in-thing, then came AVG, f-secure, Kaspersky, Symantec (Which is still doing strong, I must add) and many others in between. 

9) Avoid download links that go through additional 3rd application downloaders. What do I mean? I have seen phones that cannot, for example, do direct 3^rd application installations (such as whatsapp). In such cases, the app (or its update) has to be downloaded via a PC first and transferred via bluetooth before it can be installed on the phone. 

In some cases when a user just types "Whatsapp free download" (as an example), they are redirected to a site that requires them to get a third party application downloader first. Some of these are hoax download links that come with malware.

10) Take note of warnings regarding browser add-ons and plugins that may affect your browsing experience. One example here is Internet Download Manager (IDM). Some add-ons slow down, and may temporarily hang or crash certain browsers. This may happen when you are in the middle of a composing an important email and you will end up losing your (unsaved) data. 

Dan A.

Travel | Tamam, Tamam!

South Sudan is not a country that will have you drooling with excitement every time it’s mentioned as one of your next possible destinations. You will have read stories about all sorts of horrendous acts and gruesome murders and kidnaps and you will wish the “South” is removed so you can at least end up in Khartoum.

If it’s your first time, your family will pray for your journey mercies throughout the night. They will spend the rest of the day praying for your safety while you toil for their (and your) future. Your friends will think you are going to make lots of money so you can buy “house” them if you return because South Sudan is such a high risk area that your company must be paying top dollar for you to work in such an environment.

You will hope the stories you have read in Western media were exaggerated, and that South Sudan is some really cool place where you can afford to take a selfie in the middle of the road without some angry teenager accusing you of having snatched the handset from his uncle in the army.

You imagine you are going to have a fairly good time until you get to the airport and some mean-looking Seven-foot chap grabs your luggage and you have to fork out 10 South Sudanese pounds before he can release it to the guy receiving you.

You are dumb-founded. You do not have local currency, but that is none of his business. You will try to forge a piteous look, but he has probably seen hundreds of sorry faces that your attempt at faking bewilderment will come across as a piece of streetwise playacting. He simply doesn’t mind. Pay him and your luggage will be yours again.

Juba is searing hot and you will be sweating from every pore of your skin by the time you take refuge in some air-conditioned apartment with a noisy generator in the backyard. Somehow you will have to get used to the noise because there is no hydroelectricity and solar is not as commonly used as it should be.

Every once in a while you will hear sporadic gunshots after 10 PM in the night because every rich guy owns a gun. You cannot tell whether someone pissed them or they are doing routine shooting practice. You just don’t wake up and feel safe and secure even if your apartment is a stone’s throw away from the UN apartments on Bilpam road.

Semi-affluent locals here eat meat with bread, but there is variety of Ugandan food if you can find your way around. There are lots of eateries strewn all over the place, housed in makeshift wooden structures. There are hotels, of course, in case you feel like leaving a chunk of your savings in Juba every once in a while.

A number of market stalls sell Ugandan food as well. Like Mama Walcott’s just off the Juba-Nimule road. I could have taken a few shots, but you just do not take photos anyhow in Juba. All government establishments appear to be out of bounds for any irksome wannabe photographer. Once, I almost sent my chauffeur into panic mode when I pulled out my phone to snap at the porous bridge on the Nimule-Juba road.

There are no Visa ATMs in Juba. You have to carry all the money you need with you and hope it will be enough. There are no forex bureaus either. You either settle for the bad bank rates or look for more friendly exchange rates on the black market.

The Ugandan community in Juba is quite big, so you cannot lose your way unless you are some 15^th Century hermit. Once in a while, you will bump into Balaam Barugahara wearing one of his 15,000 orange T-shirts.

09^th October found me at the Ugandan ambassador’s residence. Every year, Ugandan professionals in South Sudan meet at his place to have their own version of independence celebrations. People meet, make merry and dance to Ugandan music.

For a moment, you imagine you are breathing Ugandan air until people start sneaking out after 9 PM. Then it finally hits you. You are approaching the wrong hours. You are better off holed up in your apartment or else you will have to make it to your place like a commando.

I had overheard someone narrate one of his nocturnal experiences the previous week and you could still sense the fear in his speech. On the fateful night, he was stopped by an AK47-weilding guy near one of the junctions that lead out of the city.

The AK47 man then did a thorough security check on his garments, relieved him of his wallet’s contents before letting him proceed with his journey. But he was the lucky one. Others had not been that fortunate. One was forced to give someone a lift, only for him to be murdered along the way and his car taken.

Another – a Caucasian expatriate working with one of the telecom firms – once had his spectacles stomped on and crushed by an army guy after the latter was asked to assist and pick an item our short buddy could not reach, on the upper shelf of one supermarket. He instantly regained his vision and left the country. He has never resurfaced since.

But it’s not always gloom in the South Sudanese capital. Juba has another side to it. There are sprouting buildings at almost every corner. My chauffeur tells me some of these are owned by Ethiopians, Eritreans and some Ugandans among others.

A quick look at these reveals a number of mushrooming salons and massage parlors too, mostly run by Kenyans. I checked a few of them of them and the service was excellent. By default, they speak Swahili to anyone that does not look like South Sudanese.

"You see that lady over there", said my chauffeur, pointing to a light skinned lady that had just zoomed past us in a pearl white Toyota Nadia. "She used to be a low-end hooker back in the day. She is Ethiopian. She must have finally hit a jackpot with some Sudanese general". He tells me Ethiopian prostitutes sell like hot cakes because South Sudanese are smitten by their cute faces and light complexion.

We once stopped by a traffic cop on one of the morning trips to the workplace.  He muttered some Arabic to our chauffeur before checking on his driving license and signing off with a phrase that sounded like tamam. It was not the first time I was hearing this word, so I asked him what the traffic cop wanted with him.

"He wanted to see my rukhsa (driving license). These traffic cops can sometimes mean to waste our time", he goes on, rather absentmindedly. He tells me tamam is Arabic for any of well, good, or okay. It is sometimes smuggled into formal English conversations. So if you ever happen to be in Juba and someone asks you if things are tamam, don’t give them a blank stare.

Dan A.