Download South African postal codes list for free

I’ve seen various requests for the postal codes of South Africa (or zip codes) to be made available in a downloadable format but couldn’t find any available for free. 
There’s the official South African Post Office (SAPO) page that allows you to only search for the one you are looking for: Search by location name or by post code
As well as the listings on SouthAfrica.co.za

So, I decided to create my own and make it available to all for free download here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/201gi68niys161n/SapoPostalCodesSouthAfrica19Nov2011.xls

Did you know that there are 16,740 postal codes in South Africa?

Please post comments if you notice any errors or omissions.

Compare airline tickets online in South Africa

So, Tweeple were looking for online sites to book air tickets in South Africa – probably now planning their end of year Christmas holidays in Cape Town or Durban. 

These are the main airlines in South Africa – you can either click on each link and manually compare prices one-by-one or scroll down to an aggregator that does the fetching of the prices and you can compare all on one page
(Note: that some aggregators add a lot to the price… so, I usually use the aggregator to get an indication of price, then go to the direct site to do the booking):

List of airlines (in no specific order):
South African Airways (SAA): www.flysaa.com
British Airways (BA): http://www.britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_za

Kulula/ComAir: https://www.kulula.com (get up to 50% off if you have a Discovery Vitality card)
Mango Air: http://www.flymango.com  (get 10% off if you have an Edgars Club card)

Virgin Atlantic: http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/za/index.jsp (no domestic flights)

South African Express: http://www.flysax.com Liquidated on 27 Feb 2008
1Time Airlines: https://www.1time.aero/aqueduct/1time/Booking Stopped operating on 2 Nov 2012
Velvet Sky: http://www.flyvelvetsky.com Ceased operations in February 2012 and was liquidated in May 2012




Aggregator sites:
http://www.travelstart.co.za
http://www.domesticflights.co.za
http://www.flightsite.co.za/flights
http://www.travelsupermarket.co.za/bookings.html 
        
A lot of these aggregators are “skinned” which means that they all query the same search engine disguised as different sites – the main search engine seems to be the TravelStart one.  Each “skinned” site gets a commission for the bookings.

International travel flights:
Check where you are sitting on the plane:  http://www.seatguru.com

Update on 16Nov2011: Register for ExpertFlyer Seat Alerts feature, and be notified when the exact seat you want becomes available! See here for a list of supported airlines (South African ones are listed): http://www.expertflyer.com/sessionlessSeatMapList.do Free for 1 alert at a time.

Updated on 19Nov2012: Register Updated links to airlines that have been liquidated

Looking for a hotel?:
If you are looking for hotels, then this is a great site: http://www.octopustravel.com/hotels/za

How to add subtitles to an avi file and burn it to DVD

I have been battling to find instructions on how to add subtitles to an avi file so that I could make a DVD and watch it from a DVD player.  This forum on VideoHelp.com put me on the right track and I found another way of doing it with free software that I already had installed on my computer.

I used FormatFactory and its embedded help  gave the instructions as follows:

Launch FormatFactory and drag and drop your file into the FormatFactory window.  A window will appear where you can select the output format of the “conversion”.
I left it at avi (‘All to AVI’) since I want the output to still be avi but with subtitles:

Next, click the “Setting” button:


Go down to the “Additional Subtitle” section and then click on the Ellipsis (3 dots) which will allow you to navigate to the subtitle (.srt) file.
Click ‘OK’ ‘OK’; then “Start” button to start the conversion.
Wait for a long time…

Then the converted avi file with subtitles is created and can then be burnt to DVD using your favourite burning software eg: ‘Nero Vision’