As you might already know, Technews, the publisher of SA Instrumentation & Control, has been publishing all its magazines on the Internet for the last four years. This has resulted in a wealth of archived information being stored on a number of highly sophisticated websites.
A search query, available from every displayed page, will automatically search across all of Technews' six online technical publications, providing a wealth of information at the user's fingertips. Users are able to search the archives and sort the results either by title, date, or publication. The company's various buyers' guides are also available online ( www.ibg.co.za) free of charge.
Technews also performed a massive upgrade to the hardware running these websites late in 2003. The benefits of these upgrades include new features on the sites, as well as improved performance and speed of the sites.
For the hardware geeks amongst you, the system consists of an HP Proliant server (sponsored by HP), powered by dual Xeon processors, RAID 5 disk array, tons of RAM, etc. By the time you read this, the operating system will have been upgraded to the latest Microsoft Server 2003 operating system (sponsored by Microsoft SA). The database driving the server is the latest Microsoft SQL release.
There are also a number of sponsored competitions running on our sites. Protea Automation Solutions is the primary 'Breaking News' sponsor on the SAI&C website ( www.instrumentation.co.za). They are sponsoring a regular competition with the most recent winner walking away with a crate of Budweiser beer!
Survey 2004
Technews and the Industrial Instrumentation Group (IIG) are conducting a market survey of companies selling automation and control equipment in South Africa. The survey will use some very clever techniques to guarantee that the information submitted by the participants will be kept 100% confidential. (The techniques are based upon no single company or individual having access to the 'total picture'.)
The survey is open to all 'top level' companies that sell control and instrumentation equipment. By 'top level' we mean those companies that manufacture or directly import equipment. Resellers of equipment (ie companies purchasing equipment from a primary distributor) are not eligible to participate in the survey. I encourage all companies that qualify to participate to do so. If your company has not yet received an invitation with details on how to participate, drop an e-mail to iig@technews.co.za with your company's details.
Many thanks!
The production of this issue actually took place during the last weeks of 2003, so the rest of the 'silly season' still lies ahead for our publishing team. May I take this opportunity to thank every member of our team (admin, accounts, production and reader circulation) for their fantastic contributions to what is undoubtedly the leading publication in this space!
Best wishes to our readers and advertisers for 2004!
Graeme Bell
Managing Editor: SA Instrumentation & Control
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