The Alpha Quadrant

Blog migration

2009-10-11T21:00:00.000+03:00

If you've been reading it on blog.josiahmugambi.com it should remain so.. though for RSS feeds a minor change but be needed.

http://josiahmugambi.wordpress.com

Random Flora & Fauna

2009-10-09T15:27:00.002+03:00

1, originally uploaded by jmugambi.

I have been continuing with my photography education so here is some natural beauty from within Kenya...

More photos here

Lake Naivasha

2009-10-01T17:09:00.000+03:00

Is Lake Naivasha drying up ?

Wao pia ni Members: Phishing

2009-09-11T10:53:00.005+03:00

It looks like the conmen are at it again with an (obviously) suspicious looking website that looks quite similar to Equity Bank's website.

Real: http://www.equitybank.co.ke/

Fake (visit at your own risk): www.equitybanknig-plc.com/

It makes for a good laugh, as many guys on the Skunkworks mailing list noticed. Look at this extract regarding the Equity Bank CEO:

Dr. James Mwangi, MBS
Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director

Dr. Mwangi holds an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration (Honoris Causa), from Nigeria Methodist University, Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris Causa) Nigeriatta University, and Doctor of Entrepreneurship from Jomo Nigeriatta University of Agriculture and ...

It appears that some did a search for Kenya on the real Equity Bank website content and replaced it with Nigeria.

While this particular instance may appear an obvious attempt at phishing, it should be taken as a warning. Now that 'the fibre has landed', such attempts at cyber-crime will only become more prevalent as more and more people in the country, and the continent get on-line, and scammers attempt to widen their net.

Dr Ndemo @ Skunkworks

2009-08-04T22:21:00.005+03:00

The PS for Information and Communication did a talk at the 4th Aug meeting at Telposta towers 4th floor. There was also Joe Mucheru (Google Lead, EA) and Bret Bullington, a VC working in the Silicon Valley.

Quite an interesting talk and discussion thereafter, with lots of challenging and thought provoking remarks from Dr Ndemo.

Some highlights that stood out for me:

Digital Villages - data gathering at sub-location level (this could mean several hundreds, thousands of DVs) - such information would range from education levels, to types of soil, vegetation, population, sicknesses, and potential applications are numerous (would avoid such generalizations as 'my constituency performs poorly because we are marginalized' and would instead allow for facts to be presented). Solutions for social problems too, and entrepreneurial opportunities. Incidentally, the first Digital Village was at Kagundo and despite no training offered there, soon afterwards, there were people lining up to fill in PSC forms downloaded online.

Local Content - 'We are through with (creating) infrastructure, we now need content'
The Freedom of Information Bill when passed into law, will allow a lot more Government information to be available (online)
Information on product pricing - how many times have you spent time looking for a particular product all over from shop to shop while you could conceivably do that from a single website.
Examination questions (KCPE, KCSE, CPA etc)
Bible in local languages
A kenyan 'youtube'for local music, videos - lots of user generated content - can be used especially to preserve local languages, cultures, history, stories (e.g. Lwanda Magere).
There will be lots of opportunity for local music/video/movies/advertising especially when digital terrestrial television becomes mainstream (think a capacity of several hundred channels to choose from).

'What is wrong with us'
This was quite challenging - Kenya is hosting AGOA. There are 6000 items which can be exported to USA duty free. How many of us can name 5 of these without reference.
Vietname despite being a smaller country than Kenya last year had more exports to the USA under a similar agreement to AGOA than the whole of Sub Saharan Africa.

'Productivity' and 'Break even' (and probably many other ideals) are not in our language. We need to measure our productivity, track our progress, use technology (ICT's) to improve our productivity (as a nation).

Collect Data -> Information/Knowledge -> Analyze Information -> Intervention

-

The Government won't make you rich.

There's lots of opportunity in educational content

Every problem is an opportunity.

+++++++++++++++

Some more summary I missed out (thanks to S Ndungu )

We can add a few summaries
[pls pardon any misquotation, there was alot of info passed and im drawing this frm memory] :

-There was a promise by Alex Gakuru/ICT board for support of IT community through a 3 stage funding by the World Bank

1) training for a 1000 software managers - to be determined by a criteria
2) provision for 1,000,000 laptops to kenyans - to be determined by criteria
3) i cannot remember the third point - but it has to do with support of IT/ICT/Development projects [which I would assume includes the support for content generation for local use]

DR. Ndemo

-The digital villages did not take off as expected. The youth despite the urgency to create jobs did not respond to calls for training and taking up ownership/running of the digital villages

[the northern part of kenya (that claims to be marginalised) - only 8 participants showed up --- 8 participants !!]

-One of the reasons for digital villages was to make available "content" for kenyans through gathering of grassroots statistics like population, facts, economic dynamics - etc - In turn, due to support for electric self sufficiency of these digital villages [solar, wind, etc] - the owners can garner income thru:
mobile charging, photocopying, printing government documents [like P3s, job applications for government], hosting workshops,
folks can call thru Voip to distant relatives, cyber cafe services - and etc etc

(thru such services, the digital village provides justice, reduces corruption, collects information, makes business, creates youth employment)

-The current events for building infrastructure like the fibre is inline with the vision 2030 for Kenya. The government cannot help you set up an enterprise - it can only enable you to do so thru such projects as fibre, and creation of friendly policies that protect your intellectual property, enables your work [eg software] to have value, etc etc

-The vision 2030 covers 3 main pillars - aside from the popular 'economic' renaissance

->economic pillar
->social pillar - equity [not the 'members' bank] but equal opportunity for all
->political pillar-politics to be issue based, politicians to take risks and not fear lack of re-elections
-example - politics based on popularisms e.g passing the "maternity leave for men" bill make politicians popular but affect our economy...

CONTENT

-Dr Ndemo talked about preachers appearing on our own version of 'youtube' so that those of us in diaspora can catch up with home sermons. This also includes those who pretend to work in the office and love the gospel - they can catch up with more constructive episodes online.

-The provision of local and accurate videos online for example traditional dances that can be sold to those studying culture. This can be sold !
I know of a Kenyan studying in Japan a few months ago who was hired by a kindergarten school to show the kids an 'african dance'. [pics on facebook]
He found a kikoi in a crafts shop that had maasai patterns. Then he and a friend performed an 'isikuti' dance in maasai attire.
But how could they ever know the difference ? The kids were quite happy to see an 'African dance'.

-We can also throw Kamaru and Mike Rua, Sukuma Bin Ongwaro etc on our own version of youtube and charge subscription for those in 'diaspora' - think USD. 5 dollars for 1000 kenyans for a period = USD 5000 dollars.

-In summary the world needs our content - and we need our content

-Digitising of government information and putting it online for easy availability. This alone can create numerous jobs and revenue.

Dr. Ndemo talked of trying to do a research one day to find out the number of Internet users.
He was directed to a mountain of files [am sure you have a picture,,, the dust, the makonge strings, the musky odour] and he was told to look through those.
Now imagine if this was searchable through a computer database after categorising and serialising the documents [jobs].

-Registration of phone numbers - to identify a user to a number

-Product information online and pricing, aside from availability - eg for pharmacies, electronics etc.. this can save one alot of driving around.

-Exams, pass papers, research papers provision online, online assignments - you can charge per download [or per click :) ] thru deals with institutions like the university.
Students globally are always repeating the same things we did 15 years ago... why not charge for content provision.

-However, Dr Ndemo warned on pricing - charge cheaply and the masses can afford. ksh 2 X 1 million = 2 million.
-The problem with some content/services pricing is someone trying to pay their rent/car loan with a few big sales - this discourages buyers, and encourages piracy

-Digital TVs - provision of over 1000 channels . This provides a huge market for advertising. I was also thinking - what about building the database ?

-The AGOA issue is well covered by Josiah on his blog

http://blog.josiahmugambi.com/2009/08/dr-ndemo-skunkworks.html

-And yes its true - there is no native word for 'enterpreneur' or 'breaking even' or 'positive productivity' in our languages

-Example of some of our decisions : Policies such as land division are flawed. The farmers have subdivided their land so-o much that they are no longer viable to support food for the normal 1 year of crop production

-It took some of us 40 years to realize that coffee and tea are no longer profitable [think small scale farming] - we stick to various businesses that barely break - when in reality, their time has passed.

[google "the 5 stages of small business" - the last stage is not very good news for those of use with small businesses, but changes do happen and will happen - we need to change too]

Bret Bullington

Bret is from silicon valley and is on kenya for a while. Joe Mucheru called him a capital venturelist [who could actually fund/promote your ideas].

Bret's short speech advised us not to re-invent the wheel because most of the opportunities we are looking at now have been tried and tested in the USA since the advent of computers in the 70s, the internet bubble in the 80s and now the age of the portability.

We should look at what is working else where and try it here. [This reminds me that Japan began as copiers, now they are the leaders.]

He advised to borrow ideas and sell them in our own country. For example, he quoted two German brothers whose keeness [is there such a word?] is to 'borrow' new ideas and adapt them in Germany.
They took 'facebook' and tried to introduce it in Germany. A television company bought 'their' idea - and they moved on to fetch and adapt another,, and another,,,

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And from Alex Gakuru:

Adding my contribution to this 'crowd-sourced' blog entry:-)

> -There was a promise by Alex Gakuru/ICT board for support of IT community
> through a 3 stage funding by the World Bank
>
> 1) training for a 1000 software managers - to be determined by a criteria

see below

> 2) provision for 1,000,000 laptops to kenyans - to be determined by criteria

I am a member (representing FOSS and ICt consumers) in
multi-stakeholder steering committee appointed by the PS that is
jangling with the 1 million laptops implementation
parameters/framework. Included also are hardware vendors(Intel and
HP), Microsoft, banks, universities, University students, World Bank,
telecommunication companies, ICT Village, community ICT development
organisation, among others, led by the Kenya ICT Board.

Polished detailed will be publicly announced once the committee
thrashes out the many surrounding issues. This is a Ministry of
Information and Communications initiative, being implemented by the
ICT Board with participation of diverse ICT stakeholders. Paul Kukubo
Chairs this committee.

> 3) i cannot remember the third point - but it has to do with support of
> IT/ICT/Development projects [which I would assume includes the support for
> content generation for local use]
>

Thanks for making time for skunkworks meeting...
We were pleased PS Ndemo found time to speak to us.

Kenya now has a grant US$ 3 million (Kshs 240 million)
over next 2 years from the World Bank.

Funds to be used for ICT incubation partner institutions
support. The partners include universities and institutions
that will provide incubator facilities (e.g.land/premises)
The ministry of Information, through Kenya ICT Board,
will facilitate the incubators with industry linkages and
promotion of those facilities

The second component Software Projects Management
Certification. Targeting 1,000 local software developers,
this will support them have internationally recognised
Software Development Standards-will attract business.

The third component will involve assistance on software
Intellectual Property protection e.g. patenting games,
animation, and other local patentable digital innovations.

PS reiterated, there are more local content development.
funds available at the ICT Board.

I asked for the governments plans on O3Bnetwork.com?on the
To assure connectivity throughout Kenya/far flung areas.
(Someone please contribute the response..)

Appreciated Multi Media University's continued support.
Venue was their courtesy donation to skunkworks.
ICT Board was thanked for sponsoring chai and mandazi.

Mr. Jotham Mwale represented MMU - gave vote of thanks.

I hope this illuminates further and that you can make
use of the opportunities presented.

Sincerely,

Alex Gakuru

(The scarcity of) Water

2009-07-22T17:07:00.003+03:00

I did a bit of travelling this past weekend. Urban and rural Kenya offer rather stark contrasts, including forms of shelter, the concept of wealth, and life priorities among other things.

By accident or design, Kenya is still largely dependent on seasonal rainfall for agriculture, something that is unfortunate considering the world we live in. This, coupled with the rather alarming rate of deforestation, makes me wonder whether a place like Nairobi will be habitable in the next few years. Already a biting water shortage has afflicted Nairobi, and many towns, and this does not look to be changing soon. The shortage is not being helped by the numerous illegal water connections.

A case could be made for the implementation of technology that would make it possible to monitor water flow, pressure and potentially narrow down faults in the whole distribution network, but one wonders if that wouldn't just become another white elephant.

In rural Kenya, the folks here are highly dependent on their farms for food and income, and thus during a bad season with poor rains, they suffer. This is unlike urban Kenya where water is used mainly domestically.

I'm pretty sure there's enough brains in Kenya to come up with a lasting solution to this dependence on rain for food..

A few things that could be done, some at relatively low cost :

harvest rain water - I know of one family that has a 40000+ litre tank (and an additional tank of 'only' 10000 L), harvests rain water. This is just one household. Imagine this on a larger scale.

recycle water - Large factories, hotels, institutions

Don't waste it.

Most of the current conflicts and future conflicts are and will be about resources, and especially water.

Mimi

2009-07-10T19:17:00.001+03:00

Happy birthday Me

I thank Yahweh for enabling me to see this day :)

A world of figures

2009-06-11T12:15:00.002+03:00

~KAKA (AC Milan to Real) - KSH 7,195,600,000

~Ronaldo (ManUTD to Real) - KSH 10,278,000,000

~Uhuru Kenyatta's Budget - KSH 867,000,000,000

Fascinating, isn't it?

I'm off to start a soccer club...

This is my desire: to honor You?

2009-05-13T16:03:00.001+03:00

This is my desire: to honor You.

(I question myself here - Is my desire to honor Yahweh in everything I do. This is a hard one, yet how many times have I sang this song?)

Lord with all my heart I worship You.

(With ALL MY HEART ? The things I sing, is it true that I worship him with all my heart, not holding back even 0.1% ?)

All I have within me, I give You praise.

(All I have within me - my talents, my gifts, my body, my soul, my mind, my all) - this is a hard one..

All that I adore is in You.

(Yet sometimes my focus is not on Yahweh, but on other things, yet is says ALL I adore - not some of what I adore, or a little bit of what I adore.)

Lord I give You my heart,

I give You my soul, I live for You alone.

(I must add here, I need His help to be able to give the Lord all my heart and soul, not just a wee bit of it, 'as I see fit' and to live for Him alone - waaaaaaaaaah how can anyone do that alone?)

Every breath that I take,

Every moment I'm awake,

Lord have Your way in me.

(Every breath? Every Moment? Just thinking of that and the sinfulness of man makes this one very hard thing, really how can I be able to do this on my own?)

Traffic & Roads & Rails

2009-04-17T11:09:00.005+03:00

I wonder:

If GK vehicles break traffic rules with abandon, how would we expect mat guys to behave. Last time I checked only the president (and the PM now ?), fire engines and ambulances could skive traffic legally. But nearly every day, I see GK (and parastatal, anything gova related) drivers driving on the wrong side of the road (I had a few plates crammed even) - like on Processional road(?) between State House road and the Nairobi Serena, and at the Museum hill road-Chiromo roundabout where policemen insist on a single lane of traffic to the Museum road.

Perhaps we could safely say that the culture of impunity will be a thing of the past when such things don't happen. I'm afraid though that it might be rather utopian.

Kenyan traffic(and many things as well) is more or less a manifestation of our values and regard for each other. I think I mentioned this in a separate post a while ago. So we really shouldn't expect much improvement until our values change.

At the end of the day, the road is not mine or yours, but ours... but we all seem to be in a hurry to beat the other driver to the next junction (never mind that we might stay there for another 30 minutes stuck in jam), cutting into the other lane without as little as an indicator.

is it a sense of: I can drive faster than you, or my car is better than you.. which at the end of the day results in:

-> an adrenalin rush

-> stress (after several narrow misses) and possibly a bad day or evening

-> a minor scratch here or

-> a major dent there

-> worse

Trying to be sober, considerate and not too accelerator-pedal-itchy is not easy - but it's probably worth trying. Today is Friday (at least not mid or end month) and I think Friday & Saturdays tend to have more accidents (especially when people have a few more coins in their pockets and purses).

RAIL TRAFFIC

There was a large advertisment in the dailies this past week about Nairobi (and environs)getting commuter rail transport. I'm eagerly waiting to see if this will be operational in the 3.5 years that they've highlighted. It would be really be useful in easing jam in Nairobi.

The Kenya Railway Corporation should have completed their website before advertising it on the ad.

Android part II

2009-04-15T08:38:00.002+03:00

Looks like the next major release of the android platform is coming out soon with a few interesting features:

This are some of the user features I'm looking forward to..

Faster Camera start-up and image capture
Much faster acquisition of GPS location (powered by SUPL AGPS)
On-screen soft keyboard
SIM Application Toolkit 1.0 (think MPESA, ZAP)
Google applications
Batch actions such as archive, delete, and label on Gmail messages

Full feature list for both users and developers are here:

http://developer.android.com/sdk/preview/features.html

Nothing about battery life though. The best way it seems is to turn off data and GPS when not using them.

Android Review

2009-04-06T14:50:00.003+03:00

I've got to play with the world's first android based phone, and it's been quite interesting.

The good:

Loads and loads of applications on the market, a good number of them for free. Among my favorites:

Astrid - task list that's more than just that
APNDroid - Easy turn off/on your data connection stays on
Browser - the native browser is pretty cool to use
Bonsai Blast - this game should be on every phone
GMail for Android - very easy to use
Compare Everywhere - I like this one though it's not too applicable outside of the US. Scan a bar code and get a price comparison online.
Tunewiki
Twidroid - Twitter :)

The Not So Good:

Issues with Bluetooth - sending files is a problem
SIM Applications (think MPESA, ZAP) have not worked for me - possibly since the sim application toolkit has not been implemented (as far as I know) yet in the current software release.
Battery Life - especially if you use the phone alot for GPS and data

Other than these it's quite a phone.

Money or Life?

2009-04-03T12:27:00.003+03:00

I've been reading about Money! Yes money...

It seems that the whole world revolves around money:

Yesterday the G-20 nations voted for a 1 TRILLION $ stimulus package (mind boggling figure - $1 000 000 000 000 ) .
There's clamour for Kenyan MPs and other senior office bearers to pay taxes on their full allowances.
Everyone is looking for a side hustle to make that extra coin, even it means spending 18 hours working a day.
The dash in the morning to beat the jam, so as to get to work early, and score brownie points with your boss.. so that maybe when the next appraisal comes round, you might get a pay rise.

I haven't started on hunger and famine in Kenya, and why we can't just blame the unreliable weather patterns.

This book - Your Money or Your Life is quite a thought-provoking book. One of the key elements is that the author doesn't advocate for a lifestyle that revolves around getting more and more and more money. Instead, one's focus should be on how to align money with values and principles. So one of the exercises isn't just tracking every cent you spend, but calculating how much of life energy you use up when spending e.g. 12000/- on a new phone.. Can be very revealing.

I've also added some new words to my vocabulary: Life Energy and Gazingus Pins

Property in Kenya

2009-03-26T08:43:00.002+03:00

Came across this interesting thread on stockskenya.com regarding the rapid rise of property costs in Kenya over the last few years.

Kenya going open source?

2009-03-24T09:05:00.000+03:00

http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/business/Local/Kenya-going-Open-Source-route-1852.html

Leadership - Kenya's Problem or the Problem's most obvious manifestation??

2009-03-23T10:39:00.002+03:00

As promised - here's Sakaja's very thought provoking note on Leadership in Kenya.

We think we know the problem that ails Kenya – we have defined it as leadership - but is that really the problem? Is our problem leadership or is Leadership the most visible manifestation of the Kenyan problem? If one is suffering from flu and a terrible cough, cutting off your nose will not rid your body of flu. Your nose might look like the problem but it is just the manifestation of a bigger problem in your chest, lungs and body. We must examine ourselves and redefine the problem that Kenya faces – a problem whose most obvious manifestation is its leadership – the nose. Our problem begins with our individual and societal value system. That it is ok to look for shortcuts in traffic and inconvenience others but it is not ok when politicians look for shortcuts when seeking high office is an oxymoron. That a young man from Kikuyuland is regarded a villain when he hurts Kamau from the next village but is crowned a village hero when he slays Kibet in a cattle raid (and vice versa of course) is ironical. That we allow ourselves to bribe the police to avoid a cash bail, bribe the headmistress to get form one admission yet cry the loudest when politicians receive bribes and steal maize is hypocritical. That we cringe at the thought of our cousins getting married to “that” community but are the first to demonstrate on account of tribal appointments to government. It is easy for us to blame the most palpable suspects – the politicians but the problem begins with us. After all, a community of 10,000 thieves will most likely elect the most influential thief to lead them. It is foolhardy to expect the young class 6 boy, Georgy, who elbows all the weaklings in the lunch line at Kamkunji Primary School to respect other motorists 15 years down the line when he buys a car. It is an insult to your own intelligence to expect Georgy who later bribes a policeman when he is caught flouting traffic rules to refuse a bribe when he becomes Minister of Finance. Corruption, selfishness, greed, tribalism, political sychophancy, dishonesty; all these begin with individuals.
So how do we change this? How can we change Kenya? Where will this change come from?
Change will not come from Nairobi, change will not come from the comfortable board rooms and behind the desks of your offices, change will not come from your school cafeterias or from the heated discussions in our churches and local bars; change will not come from Louis Otieno live or from P.L.O. Lumumba’s eloquent rhetoric. No; those are just but rumours of change. The idea of change will come from the depths of our conscience translated into our everyday actions. This change will begin when we stop looking outside ourselves and begin to re-examine in ourselves that which we criticize in others. Change will happen when likeminded and forward thinking Kenyans look deep into themselves then inspire others to make a change that they already are making.Corruption, selfishness, greed, tribalism, political sychophancy, dishonesty; all these begin with individuals. If we do not reform and change the individuals we cannot change or reform the country. If I don’t change – Kenya will not. No change will not come from the top. I hold that change; true change will come when we like Nehemiah of the bible understand the problem facing our country then go back to rebuild. We must rebuild. Change will come when these forward thinking, likeminded patriots GO BACK HOME AND REBUILD. Recently, speaking to a few young professionals from Makueni, a district faced with starvation, I realized that they knew very well what needs to be done to alleviate the famine situation in Makueni and create wealth. They had excellent ideas and solutions and knew the problems faced in their shagz. The only problem is that their ideas and solutions remain as ideas and solutions discussed over coffee at Java or cocktails at Mwenda’s. The solutions for Makueni are however not the same as the solutions for Kwale or the solutions for Mukurweini or Ikholomani. Professionals from Isiolo know the problems faced back at home and know the solutions. They know the kind and breed of leaders who will change Isiolo. We must go back to our areas of original extraction, back to the villages and towns and tell the people that it is time to rebuild. We must inform and educate those who look up to us in these villages on the true values of leadership and patriotism. We must let our minds be re-taught. We must inspire our different spheres of influence. We must equip them to make a change in their lives and give them the ability to identify and chose leaders wisely. We must aggressively educate our people on the values of good leadership. We must then enable them to create their own wealth and feed themselves. Change will not happen on hungry stomachs. It will not. We must give them hope – empower them so that their 5 and 10year long visions of prosperity will not be clouded by the sight of their hungry 5 and 10year old children. If this happens simultaneously in all 8 provinces, all 210 constituencies, in all the 71 districts (and the 37 more newly created districts) and in all 27,895 polling divisions of our beloved country, then we will start to see real change. We will start to see a true and sustainable revolution. A revolution that cannot be stopped. An empowered people going against the status quo that aspires to keep them poor and buy them cheap. We will begin to see a people who are not voting simply because they need the 200shillings handed out to them – but we will see an empowered generation of Kenyans convicted that it is time to take the destiny of the country into their hands. Change will not begin in 2012 – 2012 will be the climax of the change that will already have begun. We as the middle and upper middle class, we as the educated owe this to history, we owe this to the future generations. It is the responsibility of our generation; a great patriotic responsibility to our beloved land. We must start this NOW. This change, change that will be inspired and driven by passion, designed by the limitless creativity of this generation, anchored on integrity and founded on patriotism and love for our country is imminent. Kenya will never be the same again.

odds and ends

2009-03-20T09:05:00.005+03:00

It looks like my resolution to do a post a week seems to have not taken off (though having had to take a 1 month break from 'everyone' contributed a lot).

My highlights over the last few weeks:

overwhelming wedding :)

Funny guys - MP's actually are thinking of a 1.5M salary (so that they can pay tax hmmmph!) - this when there's famine and a global economic crisis that we in Kenya seem not to have fully grasped.

Saks did an interesting story on impunity - I'll post it here sometimes...

Power Radio 91.1 launched last weekend - I haven't 'touched that dial' for quite a while.

After the MD Band did wonders at the wedding - there's several invites to perform... we're still deciding on whether to do this regularly and how it would impact on MD's ministry.

And on to more techie things:

Barcamp 2009 - (Mombasa and/or Nairobi) - planning is about to start...

Seacom cable goes live on June 27 2009 - Yay!! but wait..... how's our nationwide infrastructure going... and local relevant content..

PLO

2009-01-19T08:45:00.002+03:00

Patrick Lumumba, a person I've come to admire, is a man on a mission. I watched him on various talk shows over last week, and on the news pleading to the point of tears for the country to turn its back on corruption and tribalism. The Triton and Maize scandals have really exposed the political class for what they really are, and as he said, Kenyans are getting angrier by the day. Something will give at some point.

I don't watch news much nowadays - last week was an exception :).

New MD Single - FREEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-09T15:46:00.002+03:00

Download MD's latest single, Sex In The Temple absolutely free:

2009 blogging, Ushahidi

2009-01-08T16:24:00.004+03:00

My first post of the year. Some minor resolutions blogging-wise: I'll try to post at least once a week, on a different topic. Also, by mid year, I hope to have separate blogs for different topics that interest me, or be at least part of a blogging team (like on shabik which is a soccer blog). Maybe get a new blog host, (perhaps in Kenya)?

Meanwhile, the Ushahidi engine is now used by Aljazeera to report on the Gaza conflict. This is more proof that there's loads of potential in Africa... Kudos to the team @ Ushahidi (and thanks for the t-shirts :) ).

Fun, Holidays and Accidents

2008-12-22T13:04:00.002+03:00

I'm writing this post while listening to a radio news report of yet another fatal road accident on our increasingly perilous Kenyan roads.

Over a period of time I've noticed a few things:

On Friday, it appears to me that more drivers throw the rulebook (if there's one in Kenya) out of the window, with more carefree, me-first driving exhibited. As a result more accidents seem to occur on Friday more than any other day of the week.

Now, the Friday after pay days seem to have even more reckless driving exhibited, and probably even more accidents than other Fridays.

It's the holiday season - look at the traffic as a result of general impatience, me-first etc, and more and more serious accidents reported.

So a layman's conclusion can be drawn:

The more likelihood and anticipation of enjoyment that one has when driving, the more likely one is to drive carelessly in one's bid to get to the 'fun' spot...

Is true for you?

Have a safe Christmas.

Barcamp Ghana

2008-12-11T08:54:00.001+03:00

BarcampGhana 2008 will be held in Accra, Ghana on December 22nd 2008. This event will bring people interested in Ghana, on a variety of levels and topics, together in one place for a day of exploration, connection and enjoyment.

Website:

http://www.barcampghana.org/

jipange?

2008-12-09T14:49:00.004+03:00

Not sure that last weekends generation jipange event at Uhuru Gardens...

To me it was just another gig (albeit free) which drew a sizeable crowd (looked like 20k) but when it comes to impart values that would maybe go someway in making a difference in the lives of youth who forma a majority in this country, I feel that a more grass roots, smaller group approach might be more effective.

In terms of HIV aids awareness as one of the pillars - I assume the event was not focusing on that...

Meanwhile some of the youth returning from that event decided to try to jipanga by attempting to rob a lady in her vehicle smack in the middle of the Langata road jam. They went as as far as rocking the small vehicle in full view of other motorists and without a care as to whether they'd get caught. Fortunately, the motorists in front of her realised her predicament and managed to scatter the crowd infront of them, allowing the lady to drive to safety.

Some of the pillars for me look shallow but that's another day's story.

Sex in the Temple II - 13th Dec 2008

2008-12-05T08:45:00.000+03:00

Why I don't watch news

2008-11-26T09:58:00.002+03:00

Might make you want to yell at the top of your voice.

Warning this is a rant...

I simply can't stand their antics - I know people who work nearly 8o hours a week, pay taxes on their hard earned taxes..

Up to 30% of this money goes to the government. MPs draw their salaries and obscene allowances from this cash.

Now which fair 'employer - employee' deal would allow such a state of affairs..

If they have large loans and debts to service, they should jipanga - they are not the only ones in Kenya who service loans and debts - it's just that the rest of us actually PAY TAX while servicing our loans and debts.

Mind you, there are still IDPs from early this year and before, a global recession, but no - tumbo kwanza.

Wouldn't this be classified as impunity?

--

Trust politicians to pretend that they 'don't set their salaries' - who effectively set their salaries last time...?

i don't plan to resume watching news - boring, boring same old stuff: politics. Maybe if media outlets focussed less on politicians, they might just realize that they are not as 'honorable' as they think they are.

The (unforgiving?) job cycle

2008-11-10T22:03:00.002+03:00

(Apologies for the apparent incoherence exhibited in some portions below...)

1.New Job ->
2.Excitement at new job with new colleagues and new tea mugs and new toys / pcs .......
3. routine sets in
4. fatigue
5. The questions start: 'have i nothing better to do'
6. Start look for new job (while oscillating between 3-6)
7. Start new job
.. ad infinitum..

Stage No 3 & 4, one suspects, most covers working people.....

--
At some point, this cycle WILL be broken. A date for potentially breaking this cycle had been pencilled towards the end of this month... But there are many factors/people to consider..... but research must go on.

so school anyone?
--
Which stage are you at?

Obama Mania

2008-11-05T09:34:00.003+03:00

A public holiday, OK, that's pushing it really.

In the US, the election day was not even a public holiday, yet in Kenya, Thursday Nov 6 has been declared a public holiday. Bana, I know quite a few people in the diaspora who are feeling somewhat embarrassed because of that.

A lost opportunity for more commerce to take place, wealth to be created. (except for the local pubs where the frothy stuff will be in full flow).

One of the reasons the US is such a powerful economy is because of work ethic. A good number of public holidays celebrated in Kenya are ordinary working days in the US.

This vision 2030 business requires more working hard and smart, less bumming celebrating. If you must celebrate.. celebrate and work at the same time.

--

There are still IDPs in camps by the way.

There's still the Waki and Kriegler reports that cannot be wished away.

There are still HUGE GAPING POTHOLES on a good number of our roads.

Poverty is still a major issue
--

Change? In Kenya? Nah? Just business as usual - with the usual over-indulgence of all things political. Boring!

Horrible Driving, Rain

2008-10-21T21:10:00.004+03:00

Last Monday evening I counted at least 5 minor accidents over a stretch of about 5 km.

Today evening, there was a pileup on valley road, while I encountered a couple of accidents as well.

Most of these accidents, if not all were preventable. A little patience, a little road courtesy, and at least trying to adhere to traffic regulations.

I'm actually shocked that the incidents of road rage are this low, considering how inconsiderate we are about other motorists, and pedestrians. With the current rain, it's just polite to avoid splashing water on pedestrians. Going back home to change clothes thirty minutes after dressing up for work is NOT fun.

The road carnage is avoidable:

by keeping to the speed limits (it saves fuel too) - I suppose that the people who came up with these limits were not picking the figures arbitrarily. Even in developed countries with wider roads, the road speed limit is rarely more than 120 KPH.
Not overtaking at junctions - it is illegal and dangerous - the number of times I've seen guys do this is amazing. And with the narrow roads that are most Kenyan roads... Of course overtaking at bends, hills is dangerous .. but most people at least don't do that.
Avoiding getting emotional when driving, it's not worth holding a grudge against a driver who'll probably end up on a different road.

I've no words for matatu drivers (City Hoppa, Kenya Bus are not any better). They are arguably the most skilled drivers on the road, but they have no semblance of road etiquette. The day we get an urban rail system.....

Another thing I remember from the highway code - overtaking at bumps is illegal.. I wonder when cops will start harassing guys..

The only problem with traffic enforcement is that it is not consistent - always a crackdown here and there.. and there's the whole corruption issue....

Government spending on IT

2008-10-20T11:26:00.002+03:00

Things should be looking up for local software developers in Kenya after new guidelines for IT software were released by the government. 50% of software used in Government should be local. This is great news for local developers, considering that the Government is the largest consumer in the country, and with the increasing automation of Government processes, more and more software will be required. This initiative would also result in more jobs and opportunities for Kenyans.

If we want to be able to export software, we'd better start by developing it and using it ourselves.

Have a look at the Business Daily Story here.

Blog Action Day

2008-10-15T13:43:00.002+03:00

Today, 15th October is Blog Action Day.

Fuel in most parts of Nairobi, Kenya is still at around 96.5 - 104 /- per litre band, yet the price of crude oil is still falling. This, couple with the current financial crunch globally, and as a result, possible reduction in aid to developing nations could mean that development projects could stall.
Thus the world's poorest countries remain at the bottom of the food chain.

One wonders whether it maybe better for debt in Kenya to be wiped out, as a large chunk of the GDP is used to service debts to other countries (some of which it is said are as a result of shady deals). Perhaps that would be more useful than giving aid.

At the end of the day, perhaps it's better for help to 'come from within'. I came across a request on the Skunkworks mailing list by a University studies asking for ideas of how to enable NGO's locate areas of greatest poverty globally using Microsoft Virtual Earth or Google Earth/Maps. Using technology to solve problems in Africa (problems which are mainly poverty related) is something I am passionate about.

Perhaps something similar to Ushahidi.com might work.

Build and Edit your maps of Kenya (and Africa too)

2008-10-02T19:05:00.002+03:00

Finally!

Now with Google's MapMaker, you can edit Google Maps, build your own maps. Fun, fun, fun!

I've spent a few minutes playing around, adding a few places I know that are not on the map, and its pretty easy to use. Its kind of a open approach to building the map since changes any user makes will be moderated by other users so as to improve accuracy.

I'm still not sure ( I haven't checked) whether locations have been geotagged for direction finding, but if not, I guess it will be happening at some point, so the more the locations and sites on the map the better.

Check out the Official Google Africa blog for more details.

nairobi metro

2008-09-24T14:23:00.003+03:00

Trains every 30 minutes:

Nairobi Central -Thika, Athi River, Limuru, Buruburu/Eastlands

It would be very useful and could ease the load on our crowded roads very much.

I know RVR is maybe more intent on enhancing the use of railway lines for transportation of cargo, but commuter transport is viable. I'm still to see a modern city that boasts a good transport infrastructure that does not have a well developed railway system

--

And whats with this half baked patching of roads that borders on hazardous at times? While attempting to patch up Chiromo Road, the contractors have created large craters on the road ( I know they intend to fill them up) that more likely than not, have been the cause of a few accidents. Considering that this is 3 lane motorway, that is not well lit, accidents are bound to happen when large potholes stretch across two lanes.

Orange

2008-09-17T17:00:00.003+03:00

Telkom Kenya finally launched the Orange brand in Kenya. Here's a quick review.

The rates for calls are not too bad though I suspect Zain still has the lowest intra-network call charges. There's also some offers for phones though many people I know were eagerly waiting to see if the iPhone 3G would be one of these. Sadly its not on the list of business phones available. Also the phones available don't appear to be subsidized much, if at all - the Nokia E71 at 39k which is only up to 3k off the price at the few mainstream shops selling it.

There's also no mention of mobile data packages (GRPS, EDGE or 3G) so if these are not available, there's really no point of having one of those high end business/smart phones on their network as one would end up only using the phone for text messages and calls.

Looking at their broadband packages, I don't see anything really new. A friend of mine once remarked he would never pay more than 3000/- for an unlimited internet package so for him, these packages would be on the higher side. That said, rumour is that the livebox offers pretty fast internet. though costs may be prohibitive for some.

So I'm still waiting for a really good reason to switch networks.

moving?

2008-09-15T09:32:00.000+03:00

this blog might be moving to a new location..

Standing your ground, defending your faith

2008-09-15T09:27:00.002+03:00

I just came across this interesting article in today's Nation.

In this day and age where money is everything for most people, it is heartening to read that even in the face of harsh economic times, there are some principled and upright Christians out there.

Quoting the Nation's report:

“I believe that I’m playing my role in building a society that is morally upright. I believe if you can prevent a man from infecting a girl with a disease, you are straight before God and honest members of the society.’ Mr Muriu told the Nation.

IEEE Exhibition 11th Edition

2008-09-12T17:07:00.002+03:00

This year's exhibitions mainly featured IT and renewable energy.

A few of the demonstrations I got a chance to look at:

Hybrid Power using Solar and Biodiesel - combining both Solar and Biodiesel Energy to ensure that a household (or village) has power via Solar or Bio energy regardless of whether the sun shines or not.
Developing Energy from Gravity - looked intriguing - it would be interesting to see this fully developed
Synergistic Hybrid Energy
SCADA system
A solar based mobile charger (more than one variation) - quite useful for those without electricity
Automatic headlight dimmer for two approaching vehicles - I've ranted about headlights before - would be very useful and potential could reduce some accidents.
Automatic traffic offence checking system - reduces corruption maybe ?
Electrical Biogas production (process monitoring and control)
Market Decision Support System - This looked quite interesting - A business intelligence tool that allows a farmer to choose where to sell his produce based on price, and location. Some of the obstacles that the developer Andrew Owuor mentioned include the need for real time market data from markets round the country, for the system to be of use.
iLocator @ Makerere University - provides a virtual tour of the university. Next for the two ladies from Makerere is making it mobile and GPS enabled.
Online Farm information system - providing useful info for farmers round the country
Online Farm Equipments and Machinery hiring system
Building Materials Management - quite useful when putting up your house .
Keeping in mind the events that occurred earlier in the year, several students had voting/tallying systems.
Thermo cooking - using a regular thermos
Mpesa Online Shopping - Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph was especially interested in this one for obvious reasons.
The Dullu Game Project - It looks like more developers are following Wesley in the development of games.
Mobile Real Time NSE data - A very well done user interface on the mobile phone, portfolio management, hourly data.
Using Piezo Electric energy to charge a phone - very interesting yet practical.

Driving in Kenya: the madness of it all

2008-09-09T16:58:00.008+03:00

Speed limits? What are speed limits?
This road typically should have a speed limit of 30 kph (being in a residential area with kids sometimes cycling or walking around), but I've seen impatient people doing > 60 kph on this road, even when there are lots of pedestrians who sometimes have had to jump out of the way.

The Rush to Nowhere in Particular?
You wonder what the rush is, when most of the time rushing only costs one more wear and tear (think brake pads, engine), not to mention (expensive) fuel wasted, increased stress levels, higher risk of hitting someone; basically a waste of energy. One only gains maybe 2 seconds, (and an ego boost maybe) which is quickly lost at the next traffic snarl up:

Ushahidi.com

2008-09-04T17:06:00.003+03:00

The new look ushahidi is now out. From the early (dark) days in January, growth has been rather phenomenal, especially with the support of the various organisations providing funding for the project.

Hopefully this application will adopted by relief and aid organisations world wide as a tool to assist people in need, as well as even governments in terms of crisis.

Get yourself a button and banner for your site.

Kudos to the Ushahidi team!

Beijing Olympics 2008 (argh the timing!!!!)

2008-08-11T10:27:00.004+03:00

I'm looking forward to tomorrow when Jason Dunford will be participating in the heats for the 100m freestyle (18:33 Beijing time or 13:33 Kenyan time), though with USA's Phelps being on a gold medal + world record-breaking spree, it might be better to wait for Thursday's 100m butterfly heats (19:54 Beijing time or 14:54 Kenyan time) where Jason is the Africa champion.
Times for the 100m Butterfly:

Jason's Qualifying: 51.85
World Record: 50.40
2008 best times: Phelps @ 50.89

David Dunford is doing 50m freestyle. (I can't find his entry on the official website for 100m freestyle). Lets hope he also can pull a few surprises... on Thursday (18:33 Beijing time, 13:33 Kenyan time).

Meanwhile, athletics starts on Friday.

The Number 8

2008-08-03T01:17:00.002+03:00

The last lap is usually the most strenuous in long distance running.

Less than one week to go and yesterday we did a full run through of the whole program without too many breaks..

I must say I'm looking forward to this. Number 8 is one of the most gifted poets, spoken word artists, hiphop MC, yet one of the most down to earth people.

Hopefully we should be seeing some of his poetry online, especially after the 8th.

Number8 says:

"I go by the stage name Number8. This is because I appreciate the fact that it is humanly impossible to be perfect, (perfection being symbolized by the number 7), so I’m chasing after perfection like number 8. This is not to say that I’m greater than God (Perfection), but rather implying that IF ever I am to become perfect, I must decrease (John 3:30 “…I must decrease”)."

More on Number 8 here.

Personal Productivity Tools

2008-07-23T17:51:00.002+03:00

I use both Linux (Ubuntu at home) and Windows (Windows XP at work).

WikidPad
I have found this Personal Wiki software pretty useful (once you get the hang of things). It functions like Notepad only that it allows you to create links between various 'Notes' aka WikiWords and thus maintains a hierarchy of documents that you can easily access.

I'm finding myself using it more and more to note down things instead of Notepad++ (which incidentally replaced the default Notepad). That way, all my 'notes' are in one location and I only need to start up WikidPad to access them.

Its open source too.

Google Desktop
If you have sufficient RAM on your PC, this would be pretty useful. Hitting Ctrl twice pops up a Google Desktop search bar allowing you to search for items on your computer (or your gmail if you've enabled it) and better still, allows you to run applications if you know at least part of the name.

08/08/08

2008-07-18T09:43:00.002+03:00

Irritations: Full beam while other vehicles are around at night

2008-07-12T23:24:00.003+03:00

This post has just been coming ....

Sometimes I wonder if people who do not dip their headlights while driving at night behind another motorist realize that they are potentially increasing their chances of being in an accident. The effect on your rear view mirror serves to disorient and blind you.

Not to say the guys who do not dim their lights when a vehicle is approaching in the opposite direction at night. With the craters on the roads, it complicates driving at night: dodging potholes, and having some dude (tte) with lights so bright that they could help the three blind mice see.

Aargh!

GnuCASH and personal finance management

2008-07-09T23:43:00.003+03:00

I have finally moved to Gnucash for management of my personal finances, after my trial license for MS Money 2008 (US Edition) expired.

This means that I now completely use FOSS software for all my personal software. I had done a post on this about a year ago, and the missing link was financial management.

Gnucash is pretty simple to use once you get the hang of it. Some stuff can be a bit manual - e.g. automatically setting up tax on personal incomes (possibly due to the business oriented nature of the software), but one feature I like a lot is the ability to have multiple accounts open at once and switch between them at will.

I opted not to migrate from MS Money, but start from a particular date to make it easy for myself.

I would recommend Gnucash for anyone looking for a FOSS alternative to the commercial accounting packages out there.

Fun vs Work

2008-06-26T23:15:00.002+03:00

I have been wondering when I will be able to turn my fun/part time projects into a full time income thing.

A friend of mine remarked recently that we need to figure out how to work out how part time software developers can get round to producing really innovative, disruptive and market changing products. Someone who develops fun or part time projects, would probably be able to do really good work, as a result of the passion.

Still figuring out this one.. but soon..

After Barcamp Nairobi - Saturday June 21 2008

2008-06-23T14:11:00.004+03:00

Was extremely fatigued on Saturday after the barcamp. Spent 10 hrs standing more or less and another 3 hrs after that clearing up.

Was great though!

About 228 people in total.

3 rooms running 30 minute sessions in parallel.

Lots of help from various sponsors and volunteers.

Being only the 3rd Barcamp organised (the first one was only 15 months ago), the growth and interest has been phenomenal.

It was great to see that the Government is very much interested in developing ICT further. The next few months should be interesting...

More photos.

Barcamp Nairobi - Saturday June 21 2008

2008-06-16T09:52:00.001+03:00

June and August

2008-06-11T14:52:00.002+03:00

There are two events that I am heavily involved in over the next 2 months.

June 21 - the first Barcamp of 2008 in Nairobi will be at the Jacaranda Hotel. Head over to the wiki and signup, especially if you want a free T-Shirt courtesy of Ushahidi.

August 8 - Mission Driven Ministry Presents Number 8. If you have ever attended the Poetry Nights every 2nd Tuesday of the month @ the Junction, you will have come across his poetry and spoken word.

More details about this on the blog and on facebook.

iPhone 3G

2008-06-09T22:52:00.000+03:00

$199
8GB
Kenya is on the map
Can't wait

Barcamp Nairobi - Saturday June 21 2008

2008-06-09T09:08:00.002+03:00

0900 - 1700

A barcamp has nothing to do with Beer :)

Erik has a comprehensive writeup of the plan for the day.

Head over to the wiki and signup.

It's free so that everyone, especially students can attend, but we are still looking for sponsors to cover the costs of putting it together.

Fuel Tracking vs Euro/Dollar from Sept-April

2008-06-03T13:00:00.002+03:00

I have been tracking my fuel consumption and came up with this chart (google docs + gadgets) that shows the trend from Sept last year to late April. I will update it with up to date data as soon as I can... Since I don't fuel daily (of course) the graph may appear spiked at some points.

Later, I am thinking of including the fuel stations I fuel at, and then mash this up with google maps to give a good idea of where to fuel in Nairobi (or not to fuel)..

Egypt III

2008-05-17T14:22:00.004+03:00

I hate the bakshish business. People asking for tips for anything and everything (its rude) - arrrrrrrrgh.

The roads are good, but the drivers.... I actually saw traffic lights that were working - but only on my last day. Most places don't have any.

I enjoyed visiting the Giza Pyramids (being a Stargate fan) though there's a lot of littering within there.

For Kenya, I think with modern roads, and good local and international internet connectivity, there's loads of business opportunities out there - and not just the usual BPO business.

Egypt II

2008-05-14T16:38:00.002+03:00

Looks like its not just Egypt with 'interesting' drivers. Look at this Business Daily story on Dubai.

Yesterday we nearly hit some dude standing in the middle of a THREE WAY highway with vehicles whizzing past at 100+ Kph. I have not seen traffic lights (I wonder if they would be followed anyway) anywhere yet.

Egypt

2008-05-12T20:53:00.000+03:00

The driving can be freaky. I thought Kenyan driving was crazy, but this is overboard. I think I could count the number of cars using indicators. If you have ever played the likes of Lotus II (that old classic) and WRC on Play Station, you might not be out of place driving in Cairo. It can be chaotic.
That's what do u get when you get relatively good and expansive roads and drivers interested in giving Lewis Hamilton a run for his money, combined with a disregard for speed limits.

The weather - hot as expected.

What interests me is even with mostly desert, there's lots of modern buildings, industry all over. Makes me wonder why we shouldn't be having these in Kenya, with all the natural beauty and great weather we have.

change and music

2008-04-28T20:23:00.002+03:00

One of the music bands I enjoy listening to and worshipping with is Delirious?. Being part of a music group, I have realised change in life is inevitable as new visions are born and giftings discovered.
Delirious? drummer Stew decided to 'retire' from the group - wants to have more time with family and focus on his other gifts, and his local church.

I've enjoyed the videos I've watched of the band - especially his expression while playing his drums... thoroughly enjoying himself while worshipping...

The Heron has landed

2008-04-25T09:28:00.004+03:00

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (codenamed Hardy Heron) was released yesterday world wide. From the reviews online, it looks to be even better than its predecessors and has gone even further in making it easier for novice users (one can just install it like an application on MS Windows using wubi).

If you are in Kenya - get it from http://mirror.ac.ke/pub/linux/Ubuntu/hardy/ (hopefully should be available soon).

+ Easy to use, no viruses, and best of all, it is free.

For gamers, I came across this article.

Check out the article from the Wired Blog that takes an indepth look at it.

english - technology - terms

2008-04-20T23:14:00.003+03:00

Safaricom charges Sh12.60 per megabit for a bandwidth of 700 megabit units while Celtel charges Sh10 per megabit for a bandwidth of 500 megabits. The higher the bandwidth, the faster the connection.

From this Business Daily article

What's wrong with this statement?

Spyware Problem: Install Ubuntu!!

2008-04-20T23:05:00.003+03:00

Just came across a story on the Business Daily on computer spyware as you work.

Funny though that I rarely encounter that much spyware or viruses - when I use windows (at work). Best way to reduce the chances of viruses, spyware and other nasty things online is to watch where you surf.

Needless to say when I use my Linux @ home, I only read about spyware.

Liverpool vs Chelsea

2008-04-08T23:46:00.002+03:00

I was looking forward to Arsenal vs Barcelona Final .

But looks like I shall have to wait for another season. Wenger I'm sure is seething about two refs right now. Arsenal looked rather fatigued in the second half - signs that Wenger needs help with a shopping list (I can help :) in creating one).

Liverpool vs Chelsea is going to be boring but maybe not. Chelsea hehe memories of Luis Garcia.

Watch this space [Walcott] though.

{Sigh} when will that trophy ever be lifted by Arsenal, and mind you while playing beautiful soccer. Coz for me once soccer becomes kick and run I'll stop watching it.

OOXML

2008-04-03T10:45:00.000+03:00

Some (priceless?) imagery

More here (some really anti OOXML stuff).

Uta do? Kenya's culture of impunity

2008-04-01T10:01:00.003+03:00

It looks to me that Kenya has a prevalent 'don't care', 'uta do?' mentality.

Uta Do?
Watch how you and I drive or walk or bike.
It is illegal to overtake at a bump or at a junction. Yet I'm not sure you can find any Kenyan driver who has not. Zebra crossings, traffic lights are hardly followed. Guys (nearly) always run red lights. The list is long.
Lack of courtesy - scrambling into the lifts even before the people inside have disembarked.

Mta Do?
Then get to governance (or what we think is governance). It's usually a case of 'I'm the big man - I can do anything'. Case in point our cabinet scenario being played out. I hardly watch news, preferring to read stories online or in papers because at times, the smugness displayed gets rather under my skin.
Some one grabs a plot - mtado? Someone siphons some funds - mta do ?

So tuta do?

Update: OOXML ISO Vote

2008-03-31T08:40:00.004+03:00

The OOXML standard looks to have been passed with a slim majority in favour.

Funny thing: A certain Microsoft evangelist, made a call out of the blue on Saturday to a friend of mine waiting to see if I had blogged about this outcome (incidentally, I had posted this entry earlier in the day). This is before the official announcement of the results. Anyhow I shall reserve my comments on this. Sounds like gloating to me though.

At the end of the day the issues remain the same for me concerning Document Standards:

Vendor Independent (be it Microsoft or IBM)
Truly Open
Interoperability
Independent of Operating System

We now have two standards globally with the ODF and OOXML.

What I would hate to see happen is the Kenyan Government, in their quest to develop proper ICT policies for the country, being coerced to support a particular vendor.

Kenyan abstains from voting on OOXML Standard

2008-03-29T12:44:00.003+03:00

Kenya changed its vote from Yes to Abstain.

The initial vote back in September 2007 on whether or not to fast track was a YES.

I had blogged about it here (with lots of responses from the pro-OOXML side of things).

Lets wait see how the final tally comes out.

Personal Development - Task Lists and TV

2008-03-12T22:15:00.004+03:00

I recently began to slowly apply some of the basic things I've been listening to and reading from the likes of Jim Rohn, Dennis Waitley and Brian Tracy.

One of this is getting stuff done. Meeting goals and targets.

Its elementary really: since a good number of people go into shopping centres and markets with a shopping list.

Jim Rohn says something to the effect that you should 'finish' the day before you even start it. Meaning you have a plan of what you want to achieve through that day. Then once you have that you plan your week, the week before, the month etc. Then of course do the daily, weekly and monthly, and yearly reviews.

I don't think I am perfect in this - considering how long writing this post has been on my task list. But the key thing is that it got done. I guess with time (hopefully very soon) I shall become much more disciplined.

It's helped out a lot lately though since I get more stuff done in a day.

How much does your TV cost you?

One other thing that I have found rather easy to do is limit my hours in front of the TV. Dennis Waitley calls 7pm - 11pm prime time. When a good number of us spend watching other guys making their money when we could be learning a new skill, finding out about a new culture by interacting with people, or simply reinforcing our vocabulary with a good book.

I must confess though that I wouldn't miss a game featuring Arsenal, unless it clashed with my music or bible study. I however hardly spend more than four hours a week in front of the TV. Sounds boring but in fact its not.

So the TV could be costing much more than the ~20000 KShs it costs to purchase.

Msafara Wheels of Hope - in Nairobi today

2008-03-10T10:40:00.002+03:00

In as much as there has been a political breakthrough, there's lots of stuff that still needs addressing - one of which is spiritual.

Check out the blog for more info.

An extract from the Msafara Blog:

'' I spoke from the life of Daniel & his friends, who lived in the midst of a tense political situation, and yet never compromised. 6 traits in them that I called the “6 pillars of Leadership Integrity”. First was their intentional commitment to walk together (accountability) (1:6); second was their access to a different source of wisdom (God) 2:17 - 19; third was their non-negotiable values (3:17, 18), fourth was their/Daniel’s commitment to tell the truth even at the risk of his life (4:19); fifth was his refusal to accept incentives in the administration of his calling (5:17); and finally was his untainted honesty & integrity (6:5). ''

I wonder if I'd be able to maintain these pillars given Daniel's situation.

The msafara convoy is in Nairobi with prayers from 5.30 pm at the KICC.

Msafara Banner

2008-03-04T08:47:00.002+03:00

Msafara Wheels of Hope - Kesha, Kesho.

2008-02-28T10:55:00.002+03:00

Venues for Nationwide Kesha, 29th February 2008

Nairobi:

ICC (International Christian Center) - Mombasa Road
Deliverance Church - Umoja
Good Shepherd Church - Ngong Road
Solution Center, Mbagathi Rd
Nairobi Pentecostal Church - BuruBuru
Karura Chapel - Limuru Rd
Nairobi Pantecostal Church - Central Valley Rd
Kileleshwa Convenant Community Centre
Parklands Baptist Church
All Saints Cathedral
JCC (Jubilee Christian Church) - Ngara
Nairobi Gospel Centre - Embakasi

Mombasa

Mombasa Pentacostal Church
Redeemed Gospel Church (Malindi)
Full Gospel Church (Voi)

Nakuru

Afraha Stadium Sports Ground (during Msafara)

Naivasha

Naivasha Africa Inland Church
Anglican Church Naivasha
Kenya Assemblies of God
Karagita Bread of Life
Oserian Pefa

Eldoret

Town Hall Pastors

Kakamega

Social Hall

Thika

Christian Church International (Makongeni)

Kitui

Redeemed Gospel Church

Tanzania

Dar-es-Salaam Pentacostal Church

Visit the msafara blog and website.

Msafara Wheels of Hope II

2008-02-25T15:21:00.003+03:00

Todays' prayer focus (from the msafara blog)

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Repentance

Personal Repentance

Personal sin - prejudice, pride, arrogance, hate, tribalism etc. (Psalms 15:51)

Corperate Repentance

Ask God to forgive the Church of pride, divisions, hate, involvement in tribalism and violence, unhealthy competition etc (Mathew 12:25)

National Repentance

Cry to God to forgive Kenya for bloodshed, hate, tribalism, social and political injustice, cheating and rigging, propaganda against others etc. (Ezekiel 18:30 & 22)

Intercession

Church

Pray for unity, restoration and revival (Joel 2:28; Psalms 85:4-7)

Nation

Peace, justice, reconciliation, restruction and economic revival (Isaiah 61:4)

Leaders

Ask God to give us us righteous leaders (Psalms 8:15; Proverbs 29:2)

Spiritual Warfare

Pray against tribalism, occultism, violence, lawlessness, bloodshed and death (2 Corinthians 10:4-6; Ephesians 6:12)

Exalt God over Kenya (Psalms 46; Isaiah 33,5)

Msafara Wheels of Hope

2008-02-21T09:18:00.002+03:00

I just got this by email so I will reproduce it in full:

+

An exciting initiative that’s been recently launched is ‘Msafara – Wheels of Hope’. Msafara means ‘convoy’. The vision of Msafara is to lead 300 pastors and Christians from different churches in Kenya to 5 major towns over 10 days on a mission to unify churches, conduct large scale healing/reconciliation ceremonies and distribute humanitarian supplies.

Msafara is seeking to raise 100,000 hygiene kits to distribute to the displaced across the country. What’s a hygiene kit? Thought you’d never ask! See the list below. If you are able to put together one (or a thousand), please drop it/them at the Nairobi Baptist Church, where the secretariat is housed. Or if you work in downtown Nairobi, you could leave it at the Memorial Park, which is the downtown collection center.

You can contact the Msafara secretariat on 0733-678311, 0722-219330 or info@msafara.co.ke

For more details on how you can participate , please check

http://www.msafara.co.ke and read more on http://greatnessnow.blogspot.com/

+

Also there's going to be a period of prayer and fasting from 29th February to 7th March.

4-0

2008-02-18T21:38:00.003+03:00

Woi :(

Didn't watch the game.

I had better things to do (there's actually stuff that takes precedence over watching or playing soccer - like playing with my band)

Now for Wednesday; I have fond memories of watching Kaka and Co live at the San Siro, but please this Wednesday, please play like Kuku.

Power of Prayer

2008-02-04T11:45:00.000+03:00

A friend of mine forwarded this to me via email:

Amazing Scene as 200 Kenyan Children, On Their Own Initiative, Pray for their Country and Get Miraculous Results

Ever since the children started praying together, the pastor says there have been no deaths, houses burned or even violence in their section of this slum. Adults recite this fact in amazement. The children, however, don't even mention it because it's exactly what they expected to happen. "Pastor told us that there is power in prayer. He said we can change the country through prayer," says 12-year-old. "So that is what we are doing, changing the country."

The entire story is here.

This is the example that followers of Christ should be following. When a child prays, I guess its very innocent and without any 'mindsets' ; just the heart that the Father is seeking.

Plans

2008-01-28T12:14:00.000+03:00

God's Plan, Jer 29:11:

'For I know the plans I have for you' declares the LORD, 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future'.

This verse today has been very uplifting to me. Psalms 29:11 too :)

Prayer for Kenya

2008-01-18T16:46:00.000+03:00

I got this forwarded in my email (I suggest if you have not being pray not even to wait for Jan 25 ). My additions are in RED.

"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, I will hear from heaven, I will hear and I will come and HEAL THEIR LAND." God, 2 Chronicles 7:14

On January 25th 2008 , we are asking Every Kenyan, Every Friend of Kenyans, Everywhere to take time to make a concerted prayer for Kenya.

We want EVERY Kenyan and Every Friend of Kenyans in EVERY CONTINENT on the face of the earth to be praying together on this one day on behalf of our country.

How to participate:
· Spread the word: send this message to Every Kenyan and Every Friend of Kenyans all over the world that you know, Everywhere – txt, SMS, e-mail, phone call
· On January 25th, make a point of setting aside time to pray for Kenya , it does not have to be a long time but it must be a deliberate effort to pray for specific things about Kenya
· You can pray individually, or get together with a friend or friends, workmates, someone on the street, your priest, pastor, congregation, youth group

What to pray for:
- PEACE, PEACE, PEACE
- Whatever else you feel in your heart to pray for concerning Kenya
- pray according to Psalms 85 as well.
- For Peace, Justice, Truth, Love and Reconciliation to prevail
- For YAHWEH's will to be done in Kenya
- Forgiveness and repentance on behalf of Kenya, our various social groupings (ethnic or class)

'Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; when there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.' St Francis 1915

Psalms 85

2008-01-17T15:01:00.000+03:00

O Jehovah, You have been gracious to Your land; You have brought back the captivity of Jacob.

You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; You have covered all their sins.

Selah.

You have taken away all Your wrath; You have turned from the heat of Your anger.

Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause Your anger toward us to cease.

Will You be angry with us forever? Will You draw out Your anger to all generations? Will You not give us life again, so that Your people may rejoice in You?

Show us Your mercy, O Jehovah, and grant us Your salvation.

I will hear what God Jehovah will speak; for He will speak peace to His people, and to His saints; but let them not turn again to folly.

Surely His salvation is near those that fear Him, so that glory may dwell in our land.

Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from Heaven.

Yea, Jehovah shall give good; and our land shall yield its increase. Righteousness shall go before Him and shall set us in the way of His steps.

MD

2008-01-14T22:00:00.000+03:00

Mission Driven

Finally!

We are working on holding a concert (after such a while!) this year in August/September as well as launching our second album. Lots of planning, prayers and work still to be done.

Help us by praying for us. We also will be looking for assistance - musically (equipment, trainers, sound etc), financially and logistically.

:)

Proudly Kenyan? III

2008-01-04T00:35:00.000+03:00

I'm still Kenyan.

Harry has set up amanikenya.blogspot.com as a focal point online for promoting peace in Kenya.

This hopefully can also serve as a central source of information on how to contribute materially to those affected by the crisis.

Prayers are still on for me. I'm born again and strongly believe in the power of prayer.

Proudly Kenyan II - Pray Now.

2007-12-29T19:10:00.001+03:00

Oh God of all creation
Bless this our land and nation
Justice be our shield and defender
may we dwell in unity
peace and liberty
Plenty be found within our borders.

If you are a Christian, you ought to be praying for the country now - the election is too close to call and there's allegations of rigging and delays. We are praying every 30 minutes.

Join up on your knees.

Proudly Kenyan

2007-12-21T23:06:00.000+03:00

Yeah for real

About the Elections

Disclaimer:
I have no political affiliations. The only affiliation I have is with Kenya.

I once told someone that I will decide whom I'll vote for president on the date of elections. As a friend always says, after 'consultations on my knees' I'll go vote. That has not changed yet.

I think it will be a close race, whoever wins will still need to be able to negotiate so as to get stuff done and move things forward again otherwise things will be in limbo policy wise.

Whoever wins:

I want transport/roads totally sorted out. Bypasses, overpasses, the works - I have had enough with promises. Hence my not watching news too much - i watch i think 15 minutes of news in a whole week. Come to think of it I do much more CNN and Sky News. I read my papers from the back too :) ) No more craters and potholes or jam. I don't see whats so hard with designing proper roads. The stress from the weather that roads outside of the tropics undergo is much more than in Kenya (though i guess our roads have too many cars). And guys must obey traffic lights and zebra crossings.

Telecoms and IT looks promising and the momentum needs to be maintained by the next government. I'm eagerly waiting to see Telkom Kenya in 3 years.

Education - we clearly need more teachers but also more schools and materials.

Security - like the most important thing. I think enough has been said about this. We need a larger, much better paid, trained, siked and equipped police force. I don't think I'd want to hear about more cattle rustling or land related deaths too.

Corruption needs to be dealt with decisively and in such a way as to discourage it.

Some other things that I know will take a while to have

Courtesy: funny that when you are in a lift and are about to disembark, a good number of people would enter it, even before those disembarking are out. Actually slows down things.
Driving habits. why on earth do people get off the road to overtake a car or two when cars are gridlocked. Someone special tells me they are usually in a hurry to get to the toilet.
Kenyans love shortcuts, making killings financially (short term gains with no regard for the future) - maybe thats why we tend to succumb to the easy bribe to get out of trouble. Needs to change.

Move the capital city out of Nairobi. I've blogged about that too. Take what brings people to Nairobi to each town. Or have each town be known for a particular industry - e.g. Kericho is tea country among other things, so a commodities market located there, with all the technological mumbo jumbo. Mombasa, the tourism capital - so the ministry of tourism should be headquartered there.

But there's lots of positive things to look up to. Its a lovely country too. Excellent weather. etc - si baridi kama Helsinki or St Petersburg where a cold coke could be regarded as warm :).

What's your mentality? (Abundance or Scarcity)

2007-12-21T21:46:00.001+03:00

My milestone 200th Blog Post :)

I got a second opportunity to listen to Eric Kimani, CEO of Sameer Group as well as founder of Palmhouse Foundation.

Eric Kimani is a highly successful Kenyan, and is becoming someone I would like to emulate in many areas of my life. There are very few people in Kenya, who having made great strides in their careers and callings, find time to share some of their experiences.

Back to Abundance vs Scarcity Mentality Talk. Eric Kimani had already made this presentation sometime this year( to a gathering of bankers I believe). Googling around, there's quite abit on the subject available online from different people.

He started by giving an interesting story about two monkeys, both of which were caged and one well fed, the other underfed. After a period of time they released the monkeys and each monkey was given a number of bananas to eat. The well fed banana peeled banana after banana and ate them up, which the other banana scurried from end to end, stashing away bananas - and did not eat a single banana. Interesting.

He then quoted Marianne Williamson:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

He then defined the abundance mentality with a couple of words and sentences:

There is enough for all - think jobs, opportunities etc.
Optimism
Thinking big and expecting big

The scarcity mentality:
Your success implies that someone else must fail - success in a job.

This made me think of the land grabbing problem - it's all about me me me me ...
He noted that this mentality is one of the biggest challenges facing Kenya. I agree wholeheartedly with this. Look at how we drive in Kenya, the land grabbing, the selfishness and me-attitude that is very much present, the 'its our turn to eat' politician thinking.

Some of the things about the abundance mentality aree some areas that I have personally been working on:
value systems - what are your standards. One needs to have principles that govern your life. I ought to say some thing today and stand by it tomorrow because its part of what I believe in.
Internal Security

He also mentioned an interesting anecdote: a manager wanted a raise - he was actually about to leave the company. His immediate superior didn't want him to get a pay hike, get this - because he would be earning more than him. That Eric called the scarcity mentality. So true. the senior guy ought to have used that to validate getting himself a pay hike.

One cannot excel at what they do not enjoy - this is so true and is something I very much believe in. Personally I do not think I can last for more than a month doing something I don't like - even if I get paid for it.

Eric Kimani also mentioned the visionary thinking and problem solving nature of those with an abundance mentality. I like the term problem solving. Usually in a good number of organizations, far too much time is spent apportioning blame instead of solving the problem. Jim Rohn says - Attack the problem not the person.

We are undergoing what Eric called the Wisdom revolution. I think our economic systems are moving towards a Knowledge Economy. He said that none of us should anticipate working at the same place till 55. There is nothing like a permanent job. Instead we should consider everything as a project to be done meticulously and with excellence.
I concur - everyone is self employed, even if you work for company X.

Palm House Foundation
This is an educational trust run by a team brought together by Eric Kimani and his wife and have impacted positively the lives of over 100 students by providing for their secondary school education while mentoring them.

This somehow reminds of how Starehe started and now currently runs. I am absolutely thrilled that there's more people setting up endowment funds which more or less can guarantee that a certain number of needy students can get access to education regardless of their circumstances in life.

Was an evening well spent. Visit www.erickimani.org for updates on his next talk. Also consider partnering with the Palm House Foundation.

Flying Blues and Woes

2007-12-18T10:53:00.000+03:00

I have not done a blog post for the whole month of December, mainly because I am planning on a whole new platform...

But for now, a bit of a rant:

My bro came in on a short holiday via KLM (in partnership with KQ and Continental Airlines).

Gets to the airport in Nairobi. Waits for 2 hours for his luggage.

He gets 1 piece only. The other they say has been 'left behind'. He is not the only one missing luggage. Anyway, since its already close to midnight, we decide to go home and come the following day for the remaining luggage.

He gets home and finds that his luggage has been rifled through and a gift box that a friend had asked him to deliver for Christmas is missing (there was an custom iPod inside ).

Next day, he calls to find out if the luggage has arrived. They say it has. We are at the airport early afternoon. He goes in to check his luggage. Finds the 'remains' of his luggage wrapped in plastic bags. Inside this bag were his books (he has a project due early Jan as well as exams) and most of his clothes. The books (being specialised books) cost more than the missing ipod.

Needless to say we were rather mad (and we were not the only ones). Apparently when he went to collect his 'luggage', there were several people who were on the same flight with a similar story.

I suspect that if this is not handled well by KLM, they shall lose at least 2 customers for life.

Funny though that the thieves that did this left his cashflow 101 game intact (electronic version). It might have been more useful to them... getting out of the rat race etc....

My bro has decided he's getting a proper suitcase set complete with biometric scanning, running SELinux and with 1024 bit encryption software. And when checking in, it will be wrapped with reinforced plastic paper (where available).

Some travel tips:

Never check in small electronics stuff (e.g. an iPOD :) - he was in a big hurry and probably forgot)
Have a solid, not easily breakable suitcase
Travel light where possible
Do the secure plastic wrap. At least that way it makes it harder to steal from. (in Johannesburg's Oliver Tambo Airport, they actually ensure that you do that - whether u want it or not.)
Keep your important docs and stuff in your carryon
Don't overshop :) - I learnt that a few years ago from a friend of mine whose bag literally disintegrated under the weight of his china shopping.

More updates to follow...

Now I think I've calmed down.

Mungu ni Mwema lakini.

Marathon

2007-10-31T15:01:00.001+03:00

The Race
Just about recovered from running 21 km in just over 2 hours in the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon

I decided that I shall upgrade from the 10km race which I did last year in a not too bad time (but do I say :) )

I had not done as much training this year due to a variety of reasons but felt reasonable confident that I could manage it in a good time. They say that in a marathon, your legs give way before your lungs :), and sure enough after 13 kilometres, I had to pace down (and take the occasional walk) so as not to hurt myself too much. I finished though. Having some music and Joel Osteen's audio podcast helped a lot since I had something keeping my mind busy.

Some lessons for me
Its a bit like the Christian walk - you may finish first or last ... but just finish. You need to keep drinking water on the way to cool down, and more importantly, to ensure that you do not get dehydrated. Constant spiritual renewal keeps you on the narrow path that is the Christian walk.

There is the 'feel-good' factor that you actually started and finished a 21km race. I did it in 2 hrs 10 minutes and I know I could have done it in less than 2 hrs if my legs did not give way. But it was my first attempt at 21 km.

If you start something finish it. I guess I could have deviated to south B during the race, go pay a visit to a few friends (though they probably would not let me past the door in my attire). Finishing the race is most important thing to do when you have started something that you value.

Next Year
Next year I think I'll be much more prepared. Maybe a 1 hr 30 min - 45 min time to aim for.
But no 42 km for me. That's way too long.... Meanwhile I am looking for a Mt Kenya plot for next year as the next challenge.

Large capped/Unlimited Internet Access for Locally hosted Content

2007-10-03T11:51:00.001+03:00

It is surprising that a good number of Internet Service Providers actually limit bandwidth to locally hosted websites (a purist definition of local content). The trend is to cap bandwidth to the specific service package signed up for irrespective of whether traffic is local or international.

ISPs could potentially save international bandwidth costs by aggressively promoting creation of local content, hosted locally. With a critical mass of locally hosted websites, they would be able save costs by encouraging their clientele to use local (locally hosted) websites which would typically be less costly to access.

This of course requires quality and affordable hosting services locally that are comparable to those offered abroad. Among the main reasons cited by people seeking hosting services include

self service capabilities
high availability
(and of course) cost

Question is whether ISPs will step up.

Blogged with Flock

Italy Part II: Milan, San Siro (Updated)

2007-09-30T22:41:00.000+03:00

I had a second opportunity to visit Italy, only Milan this time though for a week for some training.
Not too happy about staying slightly out of the City Centre, but hotels over this period have been really packed in the centre of the city unless of course one opts for executive suites et al. I figure it must be due to the just concluded Milan Fashion Week.
I had only one day this time to do some sight seeing and top on my list was the San Siro. :). I'm a soccer fan, and AC Milan is my #1 Italian team, with Kaka one of my favourite players.

I was initially planning to do a visit of the Museum and the Stadium - costs about 12.40 euros. But when I got onto the metro, I began to notice lots of AC Milan fan gear, scarves, caps etc. I had checked the stadium's website the day before and there was no mention of a game today.

Finally got to the stadium after a short bus ride from the Metro Station (I walked on the way back - just too much jam). I was very pleased to find tickets being sold for the game, affordable - compared to tickets prices in the UK. The cheapest at 10 euros for 3rd floor terrace seats to the east and west of the stadium. I opted for a 2nd floor terrace seat to the south of the stadium (above the tunnel) since I wanted to take some photos and my camera really needs an upgrade.

Due the number of people watching the game, I got delayed while entering the stadium and found the game 10 minutes old. It was an exhilarating experience - I only get to watch European soccer in the tube back home.

About the game:
Milan dominated it, but Catania took the lead against the run of play from a counter attack. Kaka levelled it early in the second half from a penalty (video!):
More pictures here

IEEE exhibition

2007-09-17T09:48:00.000+03:00

I managed to visit the just concluded IEEE exhibition on 14th and 15th at the Sarit Centre, and was amazed at how this annual event has grown over the last few years. When I was in University, it was much smaller and only had participants from about 3-5 institutions in Kenya. This year's event had participants from Sudan and Uganda among others.

My favourite presentation was MPAWA, an online payment gateway built on MPESA, done by Martin Kasomo. I'm eagerly waiting to see it fully implemented, as it is something I have always wanted to see out in the market and have not had much time to work on :).

It's also something close to that Whiteafrican has talked about, only that it is not operator agnostic..

All in all, there is a lot of interest from large players (Microsoft, Oracle, Celtel, Safaricom, Google had representatives) in what is happening in universities, which can only be a good thing.

Kenyan Guy 20-Fair Index

2007-09-08T17:03:00.001+03:00

Interesting read on what the Kenyan guy is looking for in a woman:

'a chocolate brown complexion, is of medium build, works part-time and has no children.'

Read more on the from the Nation online.

To me the scary stat is that the chances of a lady landing a dude with the tendency to 'randa randa' is up to 40%.

Software Freedom Day

2007-09-07T23:35:00.000+03:00

Software Freedom Day Symposium - KICC Sept. 14 & 15th

The Linux Professionals Association (Kenya) will be holding this Symposium on Friday and Saturday this coming week. This is the first time I know of that Kenya is marking the SFD.

Theme is Empowering all people to freely connect, create and share in a digital world that is participatory, transparent, and sustainable. (Quite a mouthful! Everyone in ICT should show up for this event. It will be worthwhile)

New Kenyan Capital City

2007-09-07T15:17:00.002+03:00

Seems that Mayor Dick Wathika would not mind a new capital city.

About 2-3 years while visiting Nanyuki, and having some serious nyama, I looked around at the lay of the land, and thought that it would be quite suitable for a Capital City. Lots of 'idle' land owned by ranchers.

Nairobi could remain as commercial capital. The new city should be planned properly from scratch, hopefully with provision for urban railroads and adequate utilities (water and electricity). 2030 ought to include this?

Personally I would not mind moving out of Nairobi (just that everything now is centered and focussed on Nairobi - e.g. Internet Traffic from Nairobi accounts for about 80% of Kenyan traffic).

Lets not rush into this. A proper plan, a proper and timely execution and an absence of corruption is what is needed.

OOXML document format WILL NOT be fast tracked!

2007-09-04T21:43:00.000+03:00

Microsoft has failed in its attempt to have its Office Open XML document format fast-tracked.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136711-c,techindustrytrends/article.html

Microsoft stumbles in Open XML standards vote

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9770507-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

ISO: http://www.iso.org/iso/newsandmedia/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1070

Good!

Now the real lobbying begins.

Italy: Milan and Rome

2007-09-01T21:08:00.000+03:00

Milan - fashion capital of the world. I got to see an alligator skin handbag (handapaga for some people :) ) from Dolce and Gabbana, for 36 500 euros (yes even KSHS would be rather pricey)

Rome - lots of history here. The Pantheon, the Colosseum and the St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City - I wonder how the Swiss guard at the Vatican manage to survive in summer with their rather heavy and elaborate costume.
I thought Kenya had bad driving. Italians have this craze for speed; taking a ride on a taxi can be a scary/thrilling experience especially if the road is somewhat clear. Powerful motorbikes and scooters that seem to be turbo charged seem the order of the day. Not many people ride bikes like in other cities in Europe.

The pizza is great :) after all this is the home of pizza. And the ice cream is top notch. (especially from Blue Ice)

Sweden declares its vote on OOXML invalid

2007-08-31T07:42:00.000+03:00

SIS, the standards body in Sweden, has declared its vote on OOXML invalid. There is no time to start over, so Sweden will abstain.

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070830155109351

Kenya ought to follow suit.

OOXML is defective by design

2007-08-26T16:55:00.000+03:00

I haven't tried this yet:

The entire article can be found here

Self exploding spreadsheets.

To reproduce the scenario :

start Excel 2007 and create a new spreadsheet
insert a value 10 in a cell
insert a value 20 next to it
select the two cells and click on the "sum" button to create a sum of the two cells
save the spreadsheet (xlsx file)
close it and unzip it

The corresponding XML in the main part is :


 
  10
 
 
  20
 
 
  SUM(C2:D2)
  30

Pretty simple XML. Now say we want to edit cell E2 and set a constant value of 40 in place of a formula. But instead of doing that with Excel 2007 interactively, we are going to do it manually :

unzip the file
grab a zip part known as xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml
make the edit described below
put the updated zip part back in the zip package
zip it

The corresponding valid (and carefully changed) XML for setting the constant value of 40 in cell E2 is :

Now open the file in Excel 2007.

The entire article can be found here

OOXML Continued

2007-08-25T20:37:00.000+03:00

Brazil and India vote NO.

There's an article here:

Quote from the article:
"I was a member of the technical group that have studied OOXML specification extensively. I learned that it is unbelievable how ECMA (same guys that put together the JavaScript standard!) can think that a wannabe spec like OOXML is ready for submission. It is incomplete (does not provide mappings with legacy standards, since compatibility is OOXML goal), too long (6000+ pages), fully tied to a single product, uses deprecated substandards, promotes bad practices (embedded binary objects), has clear proprietary hooks (like “formatAsWord95″ XML tags), reinvents the wheel all around (date and color formats etc), and most of all does not have a standards-grade look and feel required for a universal and (virtually) eternal document format (doesn’t have to be perfect, but can’t be that imperfect)."

I guess these are enough reasons to say NO to OOXML ....

US votes yes (with comments). Germany voted YES

My favourite comment:

I would say that in the voting “yes” countries the ballot has been rigged by the votes Microsoft has bought by stuffing the voting committees with Microsoft partners. This has been observed and well reported.

and

In Brazil and in all other countries that followed a process, a NO is inevitable because of the quality of the OOXML specification, and the technical issues you can extract from it.

This week should have more country results out with the final result being announced in early September.

Now Showing - Benta

2007-08-25T20:09:00.000+03:00

I must say I haven't watched this yet despite my friends being on the production - some behind the camera others in front.

STARTING FRIDAY 24th AUGUST
at the 2Oth CENTURY FOX THEATRE .
A MUST WATCH.

PLEASE SEND THIS TO ALL FRIENDS, RELATIVES and your MAILING LIST.

View our trailers:

*"BENTA" (2007)*

Produced by *Et Cetera Productions* in conjunction with *Sisimka* *
Productions.*

View trailer on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snweii2IyFM

*"BACKLASH" (2006)*

Produced by *Et Cetera Productions* in conjunction with *Sisimka
Productions.*

View trailer on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdwLAB865Hs

*"BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY" (2005)*

Produced by *Et Cetera Productions.*  It won the 2006 Kenya International
Film Festival award for Best Actress.

View trailer on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgVAP_QhnaE
regards

Microsoft kills its ‘Get the Facts’ anti-Linux site

2007-08-24T08:59:00.000+03:00

and starts another?

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=670

http://digg.com/linux_unix/Microsoft_Unveils_New_Linux_Hate_Site

Which Transformer are you?

2007-08-16T09:27:00.000+03:00

I found this very interesting, especially after enjoying the movie :).

I AM
69%
OPTIMUS PRIME Take the Transformers Quiz

Kenya votes in favour of EMCA/Microsoft's OOXML

2007-08-15T20:01:00.000+03:00

Just heard that Kenya voted YES.

I am personally sad that this happened, though considering the composition of the committee (a seizable number were Microsoft dealers/partners approx 7 of 12). I hope to get more details on this.

The case for not adopting OOXML remains simple. It is not as open as it is made out to be by the main proponent(s). (visit http://www.noooxml.org/ for more info)

As far as I know, only Microsoft Office 2007 can save documents in this format.

If this standard is to be truly open, it needs to be vendor independent among many things.

More details here:

http://www.dwheeler.com/blog/2007/06/05/

Patrick Oboya

2007-08-15T09:48:00.000+03:00

This dude is going places. Just seen his website (patrickoboya.com) which has a link to a youtube video with him showing off his ball control skills.

Anajivunia kuwa mkenya.

TRANSFORMERS

2007-08-14T22:00:00.000+03:00

If you have not watched this yet, this is a MUST SEE! Opened in Kenya on Friday Aug 10th after making me wait for ages.
As the cliche goes, 'pesa ya ticket iliisha within the first 5 minute'. Action scene after action scene, the graphics work was awesome, a bit of comedy, romance and loads of TRANSFORMING!
I'm seriously considering watching it again while waiting to get an original DVD.

First ever Musical by Starehe Boys and Girls

2007-07-17T21:19:00.000+03:00

Starehe Boys and Girls (Centres) will be performing the Musical - 'Oliver' at the Kenya National Theatre

Times are:
Friday 20th July - 7pm (Tickets 400/-)
Saturday 21st July - 3pm and 6pm (Tickets 300/-)
Sunday 22nd July - 3pm (Tickets 300/-)

I plan to there on at least one of the days :)

I acted in one of the last musicals that Starehe Boys Did in the late 90s :)

SA

2007-07-14T19:52:00.000+03:00

Been out of blogging for more than 10 days due to a short tripI discovered that:

one needs a passport to change money in Johannesburg. (not like in Nairobi where you just show up with the foreign currency and get it changed chap chap without commission and sijui nini)

Barbecue in Afrikaans means braai :)

Roads in Kenya have a lot of catching up to do.

Found the Oliver Tambo International Airport not busy for it's size. Most duty free shops closed at night - i thought these are meant to operate for 24 hours.

Hopefully I shall be found in J'burg in June-July 2010 :)