There were people of all shapes and sizes, with prams, dogs etc. The dogs were the cutest things ever and there were special doggy points for them with umbrellas, water bowls, food and sandpits with toys!!

It was very difficult to stay in a group as the roads were wall-to-wall people and they moved at a pace that was just too slow (even for Liz on crutches!) We tended to break into smaller clusters and chatted to different people at different times along the way. It turned out to be a lot harder to stay together than many of us thought nevertheless, the dogs seemed to have unending energy and could literally have done a few laps. It was an awesome way to get out and do something different on a Sunday. It also gives one a good feeling knowing that it was for charity and done in the name of fun!!!

The doggies all got rosettes which they wore so proudly at the end. Afterwards some of us went to Greenside and had a lazy afternoon of pizza, good company and good wine.

Our first priority is to paint the animal enclosures which is an ongoing project.

The ROCCI (Roodepoort Chamber of Commerce and Industry) business of the Year gala event took place on 7 November at Silverstar Casino. With 23 years of unsurpassed growth, the award ceremony has become a well respected and much anticipated event in the area. The main purpose of the awards is to recognise and honour businesses whose hard work and innovation have created successful business ventures. The panel of judges scrutinised each nominee's business principles, future in the industry, market place, leadership qualities and community support.

In the category of Medium Business of the Year, Educos Vision was awarded first place. Congratulations to all the Bees at Educos for their hard work and dedication.  Liz Bath was also awarded first place as Business Women of the year!! (Contagrats to Liz!!!)

The Awards Ceremony provided the culmination of an exciting and dynamic year at Educos with streamlining of business, new employees and expansion (Training, Outsourcing).

The beginning of spring and the birth of nature.

This morning we picked up rubbish under the hot African sun. I'm pelase to see that we have some new recruits. Joey is a resident of the area and kindly volunteered his time and energy to help us. Thanks to the efforts of people like Joey and my fellow Educos Bees, the roads in Weltevreden prk are beginning to look very spiffy indeed.

Thought of the day

If you're driving in Weltevredenpark and see someone in a green t-shirt, picking up rubbish give them a hoot and a wave!

Our areas include: NORTHCLIFF EXT 1, &19 WATERVAL, ESTATE EASTOWN, MONTROUX, BLACKHEATH, RISIDALE NORTHCLIFF EXT 13 VALERIDENE, NORTHCLIFF EXT 2,6,8 &7, FAIRLANDS, BOSMONT, NORTHCLIFF EXT 2,15& 25, BERARIO, NORTHCLIFF EXT 4,5

The roll-out schedule will be as follows:
Education will take place between 21 Sept - 25 Sept
Distribution of bag and bins will take place between 28 Sept 2 Oct
1st collection of the separated waste will take place on 8 Oct

To see more, go to: http://www.pikitup.co.za/jit_default_1015.html

Hi Guys/Gals

We are having a bit of fun at the expense of our favourite telecoms provider Helkom. Let me explain. We have satellite call centres which are connected via business ADSL's to our main data centre. As usual these connections where very unstable and extremely slow. This caused a huge amount of frustration for us as we need to move voice logs(100's of megabytes) a day up to our main databases for QA and legal purposes. Our company runs on sales and without voice logs we have no binding contract between us and the customer. So they are pretty essential.

Anyway I read a Aprils fools white paper about Avian carrier networks a couple of years ago. Basically it is a protocol that uses racing pigeons as a network layer. This got me thinking about how fast we can transfer the data by racing pigeon. I discussed this idea with my CIO one night having a couple of drinks. When we did the math we found out that we can transfer the data faster by pigeon for certain sites. So we made a project of it. Next week Wednesday is Pigeon VS ADSL day here at the unlimited world. We have the media involved so check the Sunday times for a article on this event.

Basically we will be flying a pigeon with a 4GB micro SD card from Howick to our central site in Hillcrest. We did a dry run yesterday. Here is the stats: Pigeon took 48 minutes to deliver the data. ADSL is still downloading. Telkom got hold of this via the media and is currently in a flat spin. We got a call from Telkom asking us for our circuit numbers so they can make sure we have good service.

Here is the best part. We spend +/- R 45000 a month just on rental for these lines. If we moved to the Avian Carrier Network we will be saving a whopping R 35 000 a month.

Check out the facebook group, do a search for Winston the pigeon on facebook. Also watch the local press for some tongue in cheek articles about our great Helkom.

Links:

http://www.facebook.com/Winston.the.Pigeon

http://www.theunlimitedgroup.com/flying-in-the-face-of-data

http://www.pigeonrace2009.co.za/

http://www.news24.com/Content/SciTech/News/1132/1bc8b09e39b043928317dc769d4196e4/09-09-2009-12-23/Pigeon_beats_Telkom