[Zsd-news] Seasons Greetings

[Ian Forbes]

Hi All


THE MOVE HAS HAPPENED

Our move has happened, the dust has settled and we are getting
comfortable in our new offices. There are still some boxes lying around,
most are now empty, but some are still waiting to be unpacked. Even as
late as yesterday we were still re-arranging furniture.

But the move went well. Down time was kept to a minimum with our e-mail
services were off line for less than 3 hours. Telkom had some technical
problems and our moving contractor was delayed at an earlier move during
the day. This lead to some complications on the day and our modems where
down a couple of hours longer than planned and switchboard was only
sorted out on the Monday but I hope the inconvenience was not too bad.

I would like to thank all those who helped with the move, our staff,
suppliers and contractors. A special mention should go to Telkom, or
rather the individual Telkom employees who, after weeks of negotiation
and planning, went out of their way on the Friday afternoon to sort out
glitches that could have had us without phones for a week.

Thank you also to all of those who wished us well with the move. Your
thoughts and understanding were appreciated.



SEASONS GREETINGS

Christmas is upon again. It seems to have arrived much quicker than in
previous years. We decorated the tree at home yesterday, which my wife
tells me is the latest in the season that we have done this since we
have been married. It certainly has been a busy quarter leading up to
the end of the year. I still have half a dozen items on my "to do" list
for today and shopping is only one of them! I am sure many of you can
relate to the feeling. But my aim for the day, the long weekend and the
rest of the break is just to slow down a little and to enjoy it all as
it unfolds, I hope you manage to do the same.

I wish all of our Christian customers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New
Year. For the others who don't celebrate Christmas, may you have a take
this opportunity to have a good break from the work routine. Please
drive carefully if you are out on the roads.


ZSD DOES NOT CLOSE

Well not quite. We will have a skeleton staff in the office on all
business days over the break. However we will close early on the Fridays
before Christmas and New Year.


WHO ELSE IS STILL BUSY AT THIS TIME OF THE YEAR?

One group of criminals who have a major campaign over this period are
the spammers. On the one hand, they expect their turn over to rise over
this period, while on the other hand the e-mail systems that they abuse
are idling which means there is lot more "spare capacity" for them to
abuse.

Unfortunately we cannot stop it all. So please be warned, one of the
chores that will face you on your return to the office is to delete
dozens of spam messages from your mailbox. It does not take too long but
try not to let it spoil you holiday.

I took delivery of some nice new hardware last week and I will be
applying my mind as how best to use it to implement some new spam
blocking  technology. This is just one of our projects planed for the
New Year.


Seasons Greetings


Ian Forbes