The g33k's mind..

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2012-02-04T01:13:00.001-08:00

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Shareholding..

2012-01-05T07:51:00.000-08:00

Now am sure a lot of you have dealt in share trading before. Investing your monies, big or small in buying company shares during or after the IPO.
I am no financial guru but i think i am pretty good with numbers, mostly and on trends based on history and predictions.

A couple of weeks ago, i was having some dad moments and my dad told me that i should come up with an application. I almost told him "BUT DAD, AM NOT THAT KIND OF DOCTOR" but now that i think about it, why not? Investment investment investment. As my brother likes to ask me, what are you gonna be doing with your money?

OK, as i said i am no financial guru but i have tried my hand share trading well enough to know a few things that a layman should. I will not talk too much about numbers but a lot more on logic.

Apart from looking at a business's profit history, base of management, the broader the better, history of the company, production, blah, blah, blah... there is power in looking into the future on predictions to determine how well your shares will do in 5 years especially if you are the true type of investor, the long term investor..

Take Eveready shares for example. During its time, it was a great option especially with a large population using batteries for charging gadgets like torches, lamps, pianos, radios etc. Now with the expansion of the electricity grid all over the country, solar power, rechargeable torches, cameras etc, no one is buying batteries hence that in itself will definitely affect the company's profit margins which many at times translates to the money you invested.

Safaricom shares were one of those shares that were looking really good. In university, all your friends are calling on safaricom for long hours, the company's annual profit is in billions, why not, its gonna do well. 3 years later, with the catching up of social media, my friends call me for 3 seconds to tell me to check my twitter or facebook. How much does it cost to call for 3 seconds again? About 2cents, yes. This means a lot more people are using data than airtime and data in itself, is waaay cheaper if you count in terms of MBs and time (math lesson on another chapter).
What does this mean? Someone who used to spend KES 1000 to talk for 2 weeks is now using KES 1000 to surf for a month.
This has its own dynamics, when it comes to internet providers, safaricom, just like all other providers find themselves in a playing ground of more competition and the same market population that now has to be shared, in likes of Zuku, Yu, Access Kenya etc.
This same fate goes for the likes of Access Kenya and most insurance companies. The formula is the same.
Do you remember that people preffer to call than drink beer story? its coming to bite, now people prefer to post on walls and TLs instead of call or SMS. See why the share is going down now? The provider has to be smarter..

Take a company like Kodak for example(i hear they are running bankrupt). Remember when taking pictures was a ceremonious event? The Kodak films and the long production process of the pictures. Today, your feature phone that costs about KES. 4.000 has a camera. Everyone is a walking photographer and who needs a film and photo frame when you can share the pictures in large scale on flickr and facebook and twitter?
Now people prefer to hang handmade frames with art paintings in the house. You can tag your mum on that picture from last christmas on fb coz she is your friend. See how the share has died?

These are just but a few of those kinds. Now for the Nth time, i will insist that i am no guru in this but i am just sharing my logical gut feeling :)

Kenyan Loving

2012-01-03T11:38:00.000-08:00

When I was growing up, I knew there were four races in the world. Black, brown, Chinese and White.

Growing up as well, it was very prestigious to hear or to know someone that has gone abroad to study, live or work. It was living the American Dream. The only dream Africans had.

Very recently, i had an opportunity to share a dinner table with Hon, Samuel Pogishio, the Minister for the Ministry of Information and Communication and we got into a conversation on Kenyans. We both could agree that Kenyans have the worst attitude about their country. Much as Alfred Mutua (gov't spokesman) keeps singing najivunia kuwa mkenya, we all mostly disagree and give other slogans to that tune.

Today, i am here to sing a different tune to that song. Today, today i wanna embrace being kenyan. All our potholes, all our stupid politicians, all our bad education systems, our bad matatus, our bad culture EVERYTHING, I am loving it just the way it is!

It is Until i watched the movie "Zeitgeist" that i truly started to appreciate our BADNESS. There is no place like home they say, and i back them up.

Hon. Pogishio gave a lesson of a book i recommend that everyone reads, "Acres of diamonds". I read that book and i truly appreciated what we have, acres of diamonds.

Have you seen the number of Multinationals setting up business in Kenya? Have you seen the number of people that come to retire in Kenya in old age? Do you think they miss the good roads and the clean air and the good economy and the PERFECTNESS in their world?

Most of the people that move to Kenya love this country to bits, a few still think Africa is a country, Moi Avenue is for thugs and our culture is still in the dark ages.

Today i saw two things that inspired me about being Kenyan. One was this Wageuzi video by a Kenyan guy called Andrew Kaggia that NO, its not Transformers but the creativity is so amazing!

Someone also shared these pictures on twitter that show the beauty of Kenya, beyond what Kaggia called "The world needs to know that Kenya is more than AIDS, poverty and long-distance runners.." many of which you have all seen before of the beauty of our culture and our land, its not much but it is something.

So today i will not be doing any finger pointing at anyone. Today i will be saying, yes, i have been disappointed MANY times, YES, our roads have potholes and our air at times, most times has exhaust smoke and dust but just today, and for the rest of the year,

I AM PROUDLY KENYAN!

A Wrap up of MY 2011.

2011-12-27T12:14:00.000-08:00

This post might be very long, or short. I dont know, i just want to make this post a lot more about me and my year 2011. Its a great pleasure that you are actually reading it.

This year has been a good one for me. Now good is relative, when i say good i dont mean i have made a lot of money, ill talk to my accountant tomorrow about that, but good for me means i have been able to be myself, at my best and been able to achieve a lot of things.

This is the year i started the books2schools.org initiative. An initiative to spread literacy among the children in Kenyan villages, where the majority of children without means are based. A lot of initiatives on children education are basing their work mainly in the Nairobi slums while a whole load of children are out there in the scales of kenyan villages.
In this initiative, i managed to have one running library and a successful computer class at the St. Mathew's Academy in Nyamira County, thanks to a good friend's donation. I made a site visit to the school a couple of days back and the project seems to be doing well. I am in the process of finding a 2nd site for the project.

This is the year i declined to renew my job contract at my 1st full time job at Upande LTD. Having worked there for a year, and being me, i had myriad of projects running this year. books2schools, Akirachix, Mapma3 etc and I felt that i needed more time to concentrate and dedicate a lot of time to make or break these projects. Working at Upande was such an awesome experience, dont get me wrong, and having worked with the team, i learned lessons i can keep to date.

Yes, this is the year i met Bob Collymore, Safaricom CEO. Knowing this guy was awesome, i mean who wouldnt think so? I told this story when i gave a talk at the Precius Blood Riruta this year and the girls were so inspired that most made it their challenge and are soaring to greater heights. Through this network, i got a lot of inspiration boost in some project i am working on and i will leave it at that to say but the least. It was a pleasure.

This is the year i met a very good friend, Athman. Now this is one very crazy and smart guy, (this is his 2nd appearance in my blog, that should say something about his wit). Through Athman, i have learned a lot of lessons that i will keep for a very long time and the best of them all is, "you have to sniff opportunities before they occur. Do not wait for them to hit you in the face!". Meeting Athman has also come with good opportunities and lessons for those who are always wondering why we are like BFFs for 20 years. Bless you!

This is the year that AkiraChix, the group that i am a Co-Founder of successfully finished its 1st term of its training program having 18 students graduating. This was a very profound and proud moment for the core team. A lot of achievements have been met by the team and i have to say that Akirachix is for sure cut for greater heights!

Yes, after many months of denial, this is the year i joined twitter! Yes, now you would think i have been on it since its inception in 2006. It has been a great year, getting to know a lot of people, following some, unfollowing others, being blocked by some... but as someone said, its never that serious. Its the social network.
Through twitter i also met in person some very good and interesting people from whom i learned a lot of things and i will continue to do so.

This is the year i also got involved with the Kenya Open Data Initiative. This project has also taught me a lot and given me a lot of insight. Right now i am working on this project at the Kenya ICT Board and this is all thanks to the fact that I met a lot a lot of amazing people this year that made this possible. Again, i will insist that there is no power greater than the power of volunteering, when you have nothing to loose but still hold on like you own it.

This is the year i Co-founded a startup, Innovation for Africa, made its base and because of bad timings had to move out of it but left it in the very able hands of my partner Nancy. She, friends is the most innovative and creative partner anyone could have to do business with. The bad timing i talk about is on projects that happened at an untimely hour but still had to be done. Either way, i know that i4A is gonna be corner stone!

This is the year i saw, 6 years later, my great friend Christoph. It has been a long time of online communication and being tolerant with different time zones but at last, we got to see each other!

Not everything was very rosy, this is the year that someone used my age, i was then 22, against me. This is a long and most shocking story but again, it has never felt so horrible to be young but i grew out of it and got back to being proud of who i am. I have since grown older, i am 23 now and looks like things get better with age :)
This is the year as well a lot of people thought i was on average 31 but it was a good feeling to the mind but i have since started to act like a 23 year old. Its kinda nice..

Lastly, among other things, this is the year i spent 6 months being a full time consultant, consulting for amazing companies such us the World Bank, Innovation for Poverty Action, The International Small Farmers Tree Planting Program (my numerous Meru Visits), Open World among other good clients.

I made my 1st trip to Egypt, which was a very awesome experience including making many new friends and seeing old ones and above all, making another year of an amazing Maker Faire Africa Event.

In summary dear friends, the year 2011 has been as i said amazingly good to me and i truly hope that you had a very good one too. As we move forward to 2012, I look forward to an even better and greater year and I wish you all, all the best and loads of blessings. Muonekaniwe!

HIV estimates with uncertainty bounds 1990-2009

2011-12-01T12:01:00.001-08:00

Data thanks to http://www.guardian.co.uk
Motion Chart

Intensity Map

Heat Map

The lady geek, no match?

2011-11-30T13:31:00.000-08:00

A lot of posts and thoughts have been written to express why women are single. Today i read the 1st 2 paragraphs of one and I thought to myself, no I am not that! Yes, the reading ended there.
Over time, i get to interact with a lot of my very smart friends, geeks, most of whom are single and thinking about it, the reasons everyone is saying women are single, are no where near why geek ladies are single.
Ill keep this short, hopefully, and dont start asking me why i wrote this..

1st Impression:
You and I have heard the "I am smart and thats all that counts" attitude. To be honest, i have used it before. Most geek gals are smart, top of the range. Google is their friend so they know every single thing. From breaking news to latest gossip. New trending topic and new facebook page to like, who has moved jobs, latest version releases etc etc. Most of these forget that looking at them from a far, they might just be any girl looking through their computers. Personal grooming. I know I know, dont give me that look unless you are one of those that actually made me change my ways early this year. A whole load of us still pull the free sample tees, Google, Nokia, M-XIT, Samsung, you name it. Its techie and i like it. Dont care about our hair or shoes because at the end of the day we are smart right? Someone said, "if you want me to fall for you, give me a reason to trip and that reason might well be the beautiful lady i see as i walk through the iHub doors".

I am married to my gadgets:
I am guilty of this sin, I mean have you seen the latest Android 4.0? Wait, i have seen the N8, i need new medicine. Ahh the Mac Air, now i need me one of those. Ahh the Dell is called Mark, the Samsung is Nick, bla bla bla. This is the new geek gal. You cant have a normal conversation with her without her telling you she couldn't find John this morning only to realize that John is her new iPad. This type of geek gal has so many gadgetry toys that have been personified so much and of cause easily up-gradable that she looses focus of the real boys.
My girls in this class have no time for you, Mr. Human boy. All you will do is talk, she might end up going dutch on the bill while all she needed was to sit at java with her gadgets and access the world of information at the touch of a screen.

One more bug and we are out:

Ahh, have you met the "I am a developer" at a conference? Well of cause that is why she is there, she is a geek and this is a tech conference but this one goes on and on about all the errors she has encountered lately. All the 404, 504, Server not found can you imagine how ridiculous that is?, the 'Dawa Ya Mende' she used for her latest bugs and how everything works perfectly on her localhost. She cant speak fluent human :) Invite this one out for lunch and you are guaranteed that she will come in an hour later not because, 'he is the man and he should wait for the lady' but because, 'sorry i had a few bugs that needed fixing before the afternoon deadline'. I love my Job, i truly do but these ones are just their jobs. I guarantee the 2nd question they will ask you after how are you is 'how is work?'

I want an accountant:
Having interacted with a couple, no i mean a lot of techie guys, i know what this ones are talking about! Most geek boys are just geeks. Plain and simple. One of the only reasons they would walk up to a lady in a tech venue is to ask if she can program in C, C++, Java, PHP, if she has heard of .NET and how Rails is the new in thing. We once challenged the boys at the iHub to ask the ladies out for coffee at Pete's and one literally asked me if i have used SQL server as his pickup line. Seriously!!
So we want accountants huh? This might work, most of the geek boys i know dating are not dating geek gals but think about it, the accountant is always hidden behind his numbers all day long, reads the economist and reads the menu right to left (unless you are in Egypt when its the other way round)..you know what i mean..

I am working for my future now:

Guilty as charged! I will work till I am 30, make my money now, then meet a guy and have babies. To them, the social life is just like another function in the code, i put it where i need it. Dont get me wrong, most of these are the Diva types, the female version of a hustler. Well composed/ accomplished and very confident. These are the ones that come see you and afford their cab back home. They work hard. The only problem is, these types of geek ladies are the same ones that scare the men away. Yes, yes, we heard of that 3 letter word, EGO, ahh i hear the men are big on it. Dont say no if i offer a lift, lunch, new software etc. My gals here will ask for something once and if its not there in an hour, they will get it for themselves.

You are wondering why I am hating so bad on my besties. Well, being a single lady, I have come to realize this and I just wanted to say, I most of us are not single because we are always angry or bitchy or nagging as most of the other posts say, WE HAVE OUR OWN CATEGORY of reasons.

We all complain that men are not worth our time and all that but to be honest, hate them or love them we cant do without them. I would go on and on about this but this is my advice to all the single geek gals out there and to myself, lets get mingling this weekend, lets try to be normal. I challenge you on a 500 bob clean note if you get 1 new number and a coffee date.

;-)

I hate my job..

2011-10-23T02:26:00.000-07:00

An old woman carrying firewood

Perhaps the words "I hate my job" are the most popular words you would hear if you mix with professionals around the world. I must admit that every single day, i get to meet someone who hates their job and wish that they had quit their jobs like i did but wont because they need the money. For the record, i dint quit my job because i hated it. I loved my job, i just wanted to experiment in doing other things.

The other day i was telling a friend about a new venture I am undertaking for Universities and in her words:

"I wish we had that kind of program when we were in university,

we wouldn't have to deal with crazy bosses who don't pay us nearly enough"

If you ask me, these are very common words especially in Kenya right now. There are cases of people that go to work every morning just to watch movies or music through the day because after all, 'they will get paid at the end of the month and their jobs suck!'

We have all heard the Google 20% time for employees, where the employees are allowed to be creative out of their normal work tasks, rumor has it that GMail is a result of that creative time.

I once worked for a software company about 3 years ago where one of my workmates then was denied the chance to be creative as he had come up with a solution that would save both the company and the client time and money that he actually quit the job, started his own company based purely on that solution and took over most of the company's clients. Yes, welcome to competitive advantages. Most companies are killing creativity in their employees because of doing things according to a certain convention hence leaving them less motivated and doing things just because they have to be done.

Going back to my friend's complains above, its no rumor that Kenyan employees, ill speak for the software developers are not paid anything close to what they should be getting or what their counterparts in other countries get. The famous line used by most employers is, "those are the market standards". For this reason, you find a lot of developers on the hustle day in day out, working after hours just to meet their financial expectations which results to buggy codes, tired minds during the day and over consumption of coffee to keep awake. It is until these developers get to mingle with folk from places like the iHub, Nailab etc that they get to see what deals their friends are breaking and thats where the trouble starts. Most of them keep their day job for the security of the pay at the end of the month but work harder on their hustle.

Now am sure most of us reading this must have read or watched some of those famous Steve Jobs speeches where he says we must love what we do for it to be successful. The only problem with this is, the enabling environment to this, the employers, are not too enabling, they are more disabling. Most of the very big companies making very good profits dont really have these profits reflected in their employees salaries and this is where the problem comes in. People would just not do the right thing because "this is not my company and the owners are making me make them rich, i have to teach them a lesson". Yes, i have heard this a couple of times.

After I quit my job, one year after under grad school, i thought to myself that there should be a system in place that would have students finish college, work for one year, go out on the hustle for another year just to identify what they really want to do and they can focus on that from the 3rd year henceforth. This way, we would have people doing what they really enjoy doing and we would have less complaints. But then again, we all dont get what we want right?

Now this is a note to employers, i wont teach you on how to treat your employees but i would teach you one thing, try and find out what their attitude is, not just towards you but towards doing what they do every morning they come to work.

Teach A Man To Fish..

2011-08-17T01:19:00.000-07:00

When I was 17, Just after highschool, I got a job as an Untrained Teacher, popularly known as a UT in my home Village. Having been just a little over 5 years from this system, i was a Math, Science and English teacher for the upper classes, 4-8. Occasionally i would stand in for the Social Studies teacher but i never dared return a favor to the Swahili teachers, it still is a whole load messed up today. The kids called me 'Madam', they still do today when they see me today.

You must be thinking there is something wrong with that 1st paragraph, especially the 'Swahili' part, so ill go ahead and talk about that 1st.
Both in Primary and Secondary School in the Kenyan System, the 'Disk' is something we are all very well aware of. We are taught to communicate more in English and nothing but English unless its during the Kiswahili class lesson or home for your mother tongue. Yes, this has made us international speakers and a fluent British colony but then can you communicate with the common Mwananchi? Speaking for myself, am very very bad at my Swahili and my English ticks but its something i have grown to be very ashamed of! (am doing something about it though.)
Most of us have made fun of The David Rudisha Kiwi advertisement when he says, "fiatu fyangu finapongara", ok, you are thinking this is funny, but ask yourself, how you would say that same statement? You would probably be like, 'njumu za mine zinaposhine..' one thing am thankful for is, my sheng sucks big time!
When the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel was in the country about a month ago, Kenyans were ranting that she spoke in German much as she can speak English and i remember asking someone if they could go to Germany and speak in Swahili as fluently as she did her German, I know our president cant and our ministers cant do a media briefing in swahili let alone answer questions addressed to them in Swahili. We have become the internationals. This is the reason why i think Google's localization efforts are not being taken kindly, no one wants our national language, we dint grow up with it...

When i was in primary school, at least till 7th grade, we were taught subjects like Music, Agriculture, Art and Craft, Business Education and HomeScience. At class 4, i knew what mezzo forte was and i could sing the National Anthem and loyalty pledge like my 4th name. The keys of the piano were 2nd nature to me and the likes of C# were at the finger tips. At class 2 we had a school farm that used to give each student two cobs of maize and some tomatoes at the end of 2nd term (Nyamira DEB primary school). This was run by students in classes 6-8. At class 4 we recycled soap and made new pieces of soap in groups that we proudly took home. At class 6 we recycled news papers and made Paper Mache sculptures. At class 7 we formed a small company and used lessons we knew about profit and loss, of cause with some mathematics, at class 3 we had small farms at the back of the class and i knew about soil erosion and conservation from my agriculture classes. I was a public speaker at class 4-6 to provincial level and here i was able to combine the various skills i had to argue speech topics. At class 7 i was in dramma and our Narrative was the best performing that year at national levels, the year 2000
At class 8 we could only learn Math, English, Kiswahili (which was prohibited to be spoken), science and Social Studies. The rest of the subjects were scrapped off. This is the system today. In highschool, a few of us studied Art and Design, Music or Agriculture.

What am i talking about? is this about me again? No! Am talking about the famine situation and vision 2030! I told a friend yesterday that Kenya is in a position of never going back to the food security that we had years ago and the main reason as he put it, we are teaching Presidents and Ministers and Engineers and Pilots and NO FARMERS! You have probably seen the high rise buildings in the city and the good roads and the as someone put it ' idiotic growing middle class '. Everyone is taking whatever little piece of land they have to build houses, the government is taking it to build roads.
The other day on twitter someone had a picture of their son playing a piano and he said that his son could play the blues harp, a guitar and the sax. Very impressive ha! This is what you could get in an international school and with good education, where children are given options to choose from and to perfect their skills and what they are good at. The other day Alfred Mutua, MUCH AS HE IS A LOOSE SPEAKER, said only 1 out of 10 kenyans can ACTUALLY SWIM, i fall in the 9 *hangs head in shame*, we all heckled at him. A friend from HILLCREST, yes the international school told me THE HIGHEST PAID TEACHER, is the SWIMMING INSTRUCTOR. Yes, the Physics and Math teachers may be close by but the MUSIC TEACHER beats them too.

I once asked a friend's son, who is in an international school what he would like to be when he grows up and he said a policeman or a football player. As i was babysitting for my American friend the other day, i asked one of the daughters what she would like to be when she grows up and she grows up and she said a cook and an artist. Today, go ask a Kenyan Kid, ok ask 10 just to be sure, what they would like to be when they grow up. As Swaleh Mdoe would say, Yatafakari hayo!

I might know the important peoples in society but i am in no position to make the regulations about how we run this country but i know for sure that I can very well point out what i feel needs to be done to achieve greater heights, beat drought, improve the education system, build professionals of all sorts including musicians, artists, hotel chains, instrumentalists and NOT JUST Presidents, Engineers, etc coz to the honest, they are not the only people who would run this country towards VISION2030.

Ingenious Meru Farmers.

2011-08-13T23:53:00.000-07:00

So i have been in Meru for 5 days now and today am packing back to Nairobi. For those of us who follow my tweets, you know very well that i have been up and down in tree farms, fruit farms, vegetable farms and generally all farms. Yes, incase you are wondering, I have been considering farming and now i have a solid basis to start it off ;)

You might as well noticed that i have been writing about gadgets that are here, and how the farmers are actually using smart phones.

This farmer had a Samsung smartphone (sorry the series escapes my mind).

Anyway, the most amazing technology i saw was about using the available resources to make a water sprinkler. Having been part of Maker Faire Africa last year, i definitely know that these are true makers.

The above diagram shows how they have reused up to simple bottle tops to actually make a sprinkler that works! (Wont be going into the details of how a sprinkler works, i know you are curious enough to find out)

As you can see the yellow plastic slice is curved in a way that allows it to spin once the pressure of the water coming through the hole on the bottle top from the hollow pipe hits it. The Aim biro pen has a hollow opening where the metal wire is fitted halfway. With pressure from the water, the yellow slice rises to the top and spins.

Ha! if you do not think that is genius, please go back to the top and read again :)

Ok now room service is here and i have a bus to catch back to the city, its been real being among these awesome people, who are not reflected in the Minister of Energy, one Kiraitu Murungi.

Ingenious Me

2011-08-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

SO, today i had this very important meeting with a very high profile CEO. As you can imagine, i had saved the dress i would wear to that meeting since the day he asked me to talk to his PA.
I woke up this morning, all excited about the day, only to find out that my iron box was, well, DEAD! Yes, long gone are the days that you would knock at your neighbor's door to borrow an iron box and as my friends like to say I am fun-employed, this was 8.30am, no one was home.

I thought of all the possible solutions to my problem, including canceling the meeting but to cut the long story very very short, here is what i came up with:

This is an electric iron box, the simple model we all see..

In the inside of this iron box is a THERMOSTAT ensuring maintenance of a constant temperature

usually fitted with

a temperature control dial allowing the user to select the operating temperatures (usually marked with types of cloth rather than temperatures: silk, "wool", "cotton", "linen", etc.)

This little very important part of the iron box is what normally stands between a good day and your clothes being fried.

So amid my predicament this morning, I remembered that cooking pans (sufurias) are made of stainless steel (the same material normally used for iron boxes) and i had to be the smart ass i claim to be.
I took a sufuria, put in a little water and started heating it. How does that work?

Ingredients

1sufuria of mediam to small size
1/2 a cup of water
Cooking gas
Cooker
a dump cloth (for holding hot material)

Procedure

start the cooker
put the sufuria on the burning cooker
pour in the water and let it boil for about a minute
at this point, this sufuria is hot enough to remove creases from the clothes and the water acts as its thermostat that regulates the temperature. When the sufuria is off the fire, the water starts to cool hence regulating temperature.
put off the gas cooker, use the dump cloth to hold the sufuria, carefully without allowing the hot water to splash on you or your cloth, press this sufuria on your cloth which should be placed on an ironing surface while spreading the pressing for about 20seconds. At this point, the sufuria is cool, put it back for another minute while adding a little water to cover the evaporated water.
repeat the above process until the cloth is of desired straightness.
wear with a smile.

Cons
Problem with this process is you have to repeat it several times for effective results.

Yes, for those who saw me today, i was looking all sharp and the meeting went very well ;)

The Boy Child

2011-07-23T07:42:00.000-07:00

I think we judge men unfairly. Ok i know you are reading this and wondering what is she talking about? Here it is, a few months ago, I ran an initiative called Men's Day, 5th April (I hope to do it again next year) and a lot of women were complaining on why I was doing it. A few said they dint think men should be celebrated and I thought that was not right!

A friend of mine once told me, everyday is about women! Sunday-Sunday, Valentines Day, Women's Day, Mothers' Day, Girl Child day, you name it but there is only one Fathers' Day and not many people remember that.

I have been in arguements where women complain that they are dominated by men in career fields and that they have to be good mothers and good wives and good employers/ employees and that life is not fair. Well guess what, men have to also try so hard to be good fathers, good husbands, good employers/employees and yet we always love to put them down that they cant multitask! huh?!

All am saying is, we should stop seeing men as competition to our lives and to what we do and to our careers, as this is the cause #1 of the trouble because then men become the enemies! And we all know that enemies are always fought and put down.

I read a tweet the other day saying "being a woman and owning your own house and good car with a good job and an awesome life has nothing to do with independence, that is just part of growing up" So i say lets stop expecting too much from the guys, lets grow up and surely if I want a man who drives a Mercedes, I should have my X5 to show for it...

We want equality, Right?

#justSaying

2011-07-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

So the other day i was having a conversation with my really smart friend Athman and i was telling him about this paper i want to write on technology for the marginalized communities and population, what the good Dorothy Ooko and Nokia like to call "the next billion". I will not concentrate on the paper, ill leave it for when you read it, i will only talk about the interesting discussion..
According to my friend, when I was arguing that people in the marginalized communities should be given technology and equipment that suits their environment and not the fancy models that are for the "City Market", telling him that he is the "people" who buy a Porsche for people in Marsabit, in his own words he said:

...and why not?

that means they'll start thinking of building roads.

look... technology empowers.

if i never had a mobile phone i would not worry about a charger. hence would not curse at the government over lack of electricity.

if i had a 3310 nokia, i would never know about ovi store and the apps that can make my life useful.

see? ;)

so i say give everyone in marsabit a porsche 911.. they will build roads so that they can drive them

So, you can all see that i don't need to tell you that this country has forward thinking young people (and no, Gideon Mbuvi is not anywhere near the list of forward or young).

This reminds me of the story done by the award winning Sylvia Chebet of Citizen TV about the people who had network coverage issues, they had to travel far and wide into the hills to make phone calls and guess what, Safaricom moved in to install a mast that has now made the lives of these people easy. Moral of the story, give the people mobile phones with no network connection, someone identifies the problem and makes noise about it and the providers move in. According to the judges at the awards"
“The story highlighted the fact that in spite of the millions of dollars spent on ensuring wide coverage, there are still potential profit centres not yet reached. This story demonstrates that the demand in Kenya is there.”

#ThatIsAll

Huawei IDEOS

2011-07-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

Most if not all of you reading this post have definitely come across the cheapest Android phone in the market, (and i hear its cheapest just in Kenya going for Ksh.8,499 with Ksh.1000 airtime(i saw this on a billboard yesterday)). I owe this post to the good Bob Collymore, I have promised him this writeup for more than two months now but well, here it is now :)

For the past 3 weeks, I have had a chance to work with the IDEOS and for those who know me, you probably know I have a sure gadget love and I might not have the fancy ones, but i get to try those that work well :)

Ill go straight to the loving, now i will not do the usual review, that you will find in the internet, anywhere, google is your friend. I will give you a hands on experience i have had with this smart little thing.

With its 3.5mm jack, you can connect the standard size earphones. For me, the most amazing part is that using this jack, i can connect to my:

i use my IDEOS to connect:

and keep the neighbors awake (what happened to that noise pollution bill?)

2. This is for certain the most amazing feature of this phone! With its tethering properties,

this phone is able to act as a Wi-Fi hotspot that can connect up to five devices (at least those i have tried), with speeds like,

this is an actual speed test using speedtest.net

yes! this is a screen shot i took a couple of minutes ago when i was playing my radio, surfing on my phone for things i can do there, and connected on my laptop to write this blog. Thanks to the 3G technology :)

3. The IDEOS runs on the 2.2 froyo android OS which can be upgraded (unlike its mother Huawei u8220 which runs on v1.5, cannot be upgraded and costs 4 times as much!!)

4.The other thing i definitely love is when you get the notification of low battery, you also get an option to see the processes that are taking up the battery life. now that is accountability!
Speaking of battery, a lot of us keep complaining about the battery life, but as i always say, the manufactures should EITHER package ALL SMART PHONES with an extra battery OR package ALL SMART PHONES with an extra battery but then again, they are smart phones, they have to keep thinking and running all those processes to remain smart (they almost beat women at multitasking, they can tell you your: time, location,music,status update as you shop in the market(android market of cause) all at the same time :) )

These for me, are the most outstanding features, the rest (e.g the android market :) ), to be honest, you can find in other phones which most of the time are of greater value.

Am seriously hoping that this phone wont disappoint me because i dont get to even praise myself this much! Ok, the Cons, the camera is very crappy (well thats why i have a nikon with 26x optical zoom, so no worries), being used to massive phones, its kinda small but well my hands can adapt..All in all, to be very honest, this is the best bargain for an awesome smart phone running on android that you can get! So go for it!

Things political..

2011-05-14T03:13:00.000-07:00

Knowing me, I have a wicked way of using analogies in trying to express myself. Knowing me again, I rarely go political unless otherwise.
I have been reading Paul Collier's book, Wars, Guns and Votes and I must say, i wanna meet this guy at least once in my life. In his book, Collier talks about the bottom billion and how democracy in these masses is dependent on bribes and buying your way out. Its all about the more the generosity, the better. Irony, in developed worlds, a bribe to the voter means the end of your race..

Having read this, here comes my analogy:

YOU are like a shop keeper, say with a kiosk or groceries shop.

THE POLITICIAN is like your good customer who is buying say milk.

SCENARIO I
Now if the buyer comes in and pays for their milk and walks away then that is the end of that transaction and after that you dont owe them anything and they dont owe you anything. The deal is closed soon as they step off the counter.

SCENARIO II
If the buyer comes in, takes milk without paying BUT with a promise of paying at a given time, you and I both know that they will work very hard to make sure that they deliver the payment by a certain given time. But again, you gotta choose your debtors wisely.

Where am I going with this?

If your politician comes to you during elections time and asks for your votes, If you genuinely select the best candidate without accepting any bribes, this guy will work hard to make sure he/she delivers on the promise in 5 years, here, word takes precedence.

BUT IF, your politician comes to you and buys you out with a bribe to vote for him of cause he is spending his money to get there:

they will spend the next 5 years trying to recover their spent money and lets face it, we know that that money is mostly loans from banks and am sure by now, you and I know what that means to the CDF funds..
in this case, the guy wanted to buy something, votes, he found a willing seller, you, and the transaction was done in cash, are there any sweeter deals? I mean cheques take forever to clear... Any business man knows that at this point, the deal is done and till next time, in the next transaction, this guy really owes you nothing!

If you read and think about the above very carefully, you will see where am going with this. You must be thinking that maybe i should have left this post for 2012 but am in the salon trying to kill some time besides, its never too early!! VOTE WISELY.

The mindset..

2011-04-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

Isaac Newton once said, "If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants."

Today i had a heated discussion with a few friends and i feel that i must share my thoughts about what i think...I am not a very big fan of women getting things on a silver platter but I am a big evangelist of women working hard for what they have and what they can get. Long gone are the days when women would sleep their way up the ladder or up getting something (I never believed in this idea anyway), Today I can see women hard at work and doing very well in what they do. We have various women rocking this world the Akirachix are my best bet, Ory Okollo, Juliana Rotich, Dorcas Muthoni, Dorothy Ooko to name but a few, influential women doing influential deeds. I know all these women in person and no one complains about it :)

A man cannot do anything without strings attached, or so i hear people say, or, or so i noticed some people think. For a long time I have had issues with one thing:

If you see a foreign man sitting with a kenyan girl in a nice restaurant, people always think they could not be talking about anything other than sexual negotiations and exploitations.

If a foreign man is seen sitting with a kenyan man, that man is smart, they are definitely discussing very serious business. Its investment, its stocks, its starting a serious business, its, its...

This breaks me :( I have been in a nice restaurant discussing very serious business and funding and money and strategy and investment and stocks and initiatives with a lot of serious directors and CEOs that have helped move a few things here and there and yes, i did notice the extra nice service but of cause i tip my waiters, i understand the 10% policy.

The other day, i was having lunch with a friend who happens to be white and a few of my friends might have seen us and believe me i got three complains that now am hanging out with foreign guys and i have stopped wanting to hang out with kenyan guys. Here i am thinking WTH, when i was having lunch with my kenyan friends, no one raised an eye brow. These friends even insisted that this friend of mine was hitting on me. Little did they know that this is someone i am doing a very serious project (that will hit your ears soon) with, he is also a very good friend of mine.

Someone told me today that I am naive, that girls are naive in believing that they can have coffee at Java or dormans (some of the nice coffee houses in Nairobi) with older men while they are discussing serious business. He went ahead to argue that before you know it you will be getting offers of these men wanting to buy you a house in Kileleshwa or a nice car to enhance the business deal, they say that it can never be a clean deal...

A song comes to mind Travie McCoy and Brunno Mars, billionaire and i particularly love the part where Travie says "ill be playing basket ball with the president and dunking on his deligates.." So then the question comes to mind, who is the judge of when and at what age one should start to mingle with the who is who in society? I mean, the CIOs, the CEOs the MDs.. Then i say, the reason why we are so underdeveloped at times is we have set bounds to ourselves, bounds that are encapsulated with the excuse of age. People have pushed women to be shy to explore the upper bounds of their limits with the excuse of they are either women or they are too young. We have all become shy to exploit our potential because we are just too afraid of what people would say..

My parents brought me up to know that somethings come easy, but went ahead to say that, good things dont come easy, we all have to work really really hard to get there. I sincerely hope that If we all did not get this lesson from our parents and heed it, we will get this from here.

To me, I believe there is no such thing as you are too young to be exploring this or you are too young to be achieving this. If i have to drive that dream car, live in my dream house, have my dream achievements tomorrow, well so be it because i know right very well that, i would have worked very hard for them.

I once met a USAID director (in his late 50s) and he gave me a lesson I will never forget, "No one will ever bring to you what you want or need. You will have to work very hard, go ask for it and prove that you are worth it above everyone else."

Jack of all trades...

2011-04-19T12:16:00.000-07:00

Everyone says that the times of their lives was when they were students at university or college. This is that time in life away from any responsible eyes on you, when you can make mistakes and easily move on with no one to worry about you.

I recently graduated from the University of Nairobi with a BSC in Computer Science (sad that i missed Dr. Kate Getao by two years) and these two reasons, (recently graduated and Dr. Getao) have led me to wanting to write this.

In my 1^st year of computer science, i remember what the students used to rant more about, the fact that we were studying loads Physics and Mathematics than actual operation of computer hardware and directly writing programs. To be honest, to date, well at least till my graduation in September 2010, no one taught me or my classmates about this, most of it, we learnt on our own and I must say that some of us are pretty good at it.

Today, at the #connectedke conference that went down at the Coast (wish someone had extended an invite to me), i had the pleasure of virtually following the occurrence of the events on twitter and something came to my attention. Some of the people attending were bitterly complaining about the curriculum offered in the Kenyan universities and how that curriculum does not prepare students for industry... My good geekmate Jude would normally say, let me break it down for you!!

Been there, done than, but now I see it differently. The industry is wide, far far wide, in computing, I remember once telling 1^st year students when I was a student representative, you could work at a hospital, in banks, in software companies, become a entrepreneur, in the media etc, etc. I feel that in the 4 years of being taught the fundamentals of computing, Universities cannot be expected to mold every student to fit the industry like one's skin. In the contrary, i feel that this is the part that the students must play, to find out what goes on, and learn how to adopt the skills gained in schools with what is in industry, trust me i do that everyday, reason why i love my job. I agree with Dr. Getao's remarks that said its is not up to the universities to develop industry fit students, am sure she would concluded this statement saying "but it is up to universities to give students industry fit skills".

We all like to quote the most famous and rich men and women in history. Take Bill Gates for example, we all definitely know that he dropped out of college, went out there, started a company and now, part,if not all of his technology dictates alot of how we carry out computing today (yes i also have a windows laptop, we all start somewhere). Am sure he dint stick around too much to be given the nitty grittiest of industry, he became the inderstry he wanted to see (See what I mean with application? Hint hint, Mahatma Gandhi)

Warren Buffet, one of the richest men, still carries out his accounting manually with pen and paper even when the industry dictates that financial services are best and easily done using all those fancy accounting softwares. With this we can all see that, its more about what you find fit for you and the directions you wanna take in life. I like to say, its about what works for you..

I could go on and on and on about this, but all am saying is, being a fresh graduate, i appreciate the skills i gained in university, i might not be using them word for word, but i must admit that i am smart enough to know that at times the logical is more important than the physical, all students should be..

Friends of ours..

2011-04-09T07:36:00.000-07:00

When you are a lady my age with a 9-5 job and an income, the shoes come cheap and the boys dont come easy. Your job is your friend and your laptop is your companion. All the friends you had in your university life get a life that is busy with deadlines and work and seeing them becomes a myth.

This is that time when in the life of a 23 year old you have that money you never thought about when in campus and now you can actually afford a trip to the Maasai Mara, the fancy shoes at deacons, and a good meal at the tribe without feeling any bankaches. This is also that time in life when you regroup. You wanna hang out with those that share your lifestyle and hope that the man who will ask you out comes driving a nice car or the girl of your dreams is the fancy uptown girl with a fancy lifestyle withing your means. President Obama said, there is no lie in hope, well..

We all have friends, those we hope for and those we care about. At times i also dont like that i read much more into ideas and things and words but maybe i will stop after writing this post. For weeks i have thought about how not to write this for fear of offending someone but then again i thought, why not!

Your best friend is that one person you expect to understand you. The one you can call randomly and say hi to without expectations. This is that friend whose hurt sinks deeper than anyone else'. This is greatly because these are those people you expect to get your weakest nerve and not wanna trample all over it.

There is that friend you were really tight with. Just as a friend. Not really your best friend, but the one who also understood you till he/ she got hooked up. Then you know, its time you also get hooked up or move on. You still keep contact though, well a little distant now but then again, get a life!

Then there is this friend who was not from the clique but that breakout friend. You spend more time with them and often talk about them. Your regular chaps think you two are into each other, but they are just those nice people you know and intend to keep it that way.

Have you then had that friend who does something so stupid that as much as you keep convincing them and yourself that you have forgiven and forgotten the incident, it just dont seem to go away. These friends fall into two classes, those that hang on and wait for the better and those that have the pride and fall off your flock.

There are also the regular in-betweeners. You totally love them around, but then again you dont mind them being absent during that hang out session. You just dont care too much about them.

Lastly, there is that friend who is not really your friend, but whom you tell yourself that given a chance, they would be your best friend for all time! Kinda, like, Sorta the forbidden fruit :) you hang out when around, often chat when online. You never get the real chance to hang out but then again, if you think about it, these are those you open up to and often tell that secret you wouldnt tell your best friend..

Friends will always be friends. A song comes to mind, and it somewhere says, friends will let you down, friends wont be around...
Talking to a good buddy of mine the other day, he said, he is in that point of his life when friends are more about the logical than the physical. Its that stage in life when its more important for your friends to remember your birthday, your graduation etc than for them to actually buy a gift. When it has become increasingly important for your friend to send you that simple SMS asking how you are doing than for them to spend a month trying to organize buying you dinner. This is that time of life when the money dont really matter.

All am really trying to say is i love my friends and i just wanted to get this thought out of the way..

Mobile Number Portability #MNP

2011-03-31T04:54:00.000-07:00

I tried to start a rumor that the Communications Commission of Kenya #CCK was trying to pull a prank on Kenyans with the whole idea of MNP, starting on April 1st 2011 #foolsDay but so far no one has retweeted my post or commented on it, well i think Kenyans are busy people. I have my reasons for thinking this but for the sake of all the excited souls i hope i am wrong. I like to keep time, my 2pm is 2pm not later, can be earlier, but as most of my foreign friends say, this is Africa and there is this thing that Africans own very dearly, #AfricanTime, NO! am not any less of an African because i keep time, unless this is the standard of cause. The reason am going on and on about this, is because i have this strong feeling that April 1st might actually not be April 1st, well, i stand to be corrected :)

Maybe i should start with a definition to enlighten you folk, MNP is a service that enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another. This service has been implemented globally and of cause it has its ups and downs, most likely ups!
Kenya has a whole load of Mobile telephony service providers, with no bias listed with their CEO as:

Safaricom- Bob Collymore

Airtel- Rene Meza

Orange- Mickael Ghossein

Esser's Yu-Atul Chaturvedi

Normally i would start arguing that i cant see no lady name in the list but after my last blog, i guess am in no position to wanna argue on this, moving on...

There have been price wars left right and center over the past few months, of cause the players knew what they were getting into. Aitel would argue that they were hitting the low figure because they wanted to maintain market popularity and because they can, while Safaricom would argue that they would not hit it low because they already had a market share to protect, that they were content with hence their concern was to provide quality, not quantity. Just read somewhere that life is like coffee, Author unknown, so when it comes to coffee, to be honest, id rather one that keeps me alert than one that fills my cup with coffee scent, argument for another day. The rest in my own view (Orange and Yu) try to find a middle ground. Opportunists is a strong word, but i would say they like to find the loop holes is the two bigger players and try to work on that to attract customers, paraphrasing the swahili saying that says "the fight of the grasshoppers, the joy of the crows (vita vya panzi, furaha ya kunguru)" #food for thought..

Getting to the real deal now, MNP. Who will loose and who will gain? A study has shown that by 2011, there were 21m kenyan mobile subscribers. I guess this is a much accurate figure especially after number registration (what happened to those who dint register BTW? hmmm..(story for another day)).
Safaricom boosts with having the largest market share in this having 17.6 million representing an estimated market share of 75.9% , this means that the remaining 4m subscribers are distributed, unevenly, among the other three players.

Safaricom is also leading in the service of mobile money transfer, M-PESA

which as well has 13,+++ subscribers as of February 2011. What does that mean, even if Safaricom had 12m dedicated mobile users, say all these 12m were on MPESA, then there are about 1m users from other networks that are just piggy backing on the money transfer service. Its also worth remembering that the other subscribers also have their own money transfer systems, there is Airtel's ZAP

and others which if you asked me, is a case of mismanagement of ideas, reason why they have not hit the market with any blows, blog for another day

I could write a whole page about the importance of Mobile Money Transfer to the Kenyan community but am sure you already know, but think of it this way, do you think given all the convenience that mobile money transfer poses, someone will be willing to just move? Oh, i know why that is not clear, maybe i should mention that even if you retain that number that you have been holding so dearly to, you loose the network provider, be it Safaricom or Airtel etc, that means, you miss all the services that you enjoyed while on that network. (just like a student changing schools, yes you are still a student but no you dont enjoy the saturday siesta, or wednesday beef stew of the previous school. The schedule changes.)

Do you remember when some of the providers offered "free calls (which you had to pay a subsidized rate for, FREE!)", of cause on day 1 the graph projection was amazing and as time went on by, these dropped drastically unless otherwise. But do you also remember that at a given point the network was so clogged that even if you were willing to pay for your calls then nothing could work! The infrastructure is just not good enough to handle the traffic! One of the providers now is even offering free airtime, "Get free airtime worth KSH 150 when you spend KSH 2 between today and Friday.." what i spend 2 bob and in return i get 75 times more? I mean practically getting paid to spend, awesome! The un-awesome part is, how many people actually tried this? I dint. You see lately some of the subscribers spam you with so many text messages so whenever you see a text from them you ignore it and realise a little too late that it was a nice offer. So my question here is, if i dint spend 2bob to get 150 bob in three days, would i be so willing to PAY KSH 200 to start enjoying the service of the other providers? Some people dont spend all this in half year! And no,am not talking about you and I. Its actually cheaper to buy another SIM card! I know i know, of cause there are gonna be a number of users that will jump ship but i know a greater % of these would be out of curiosity

All am saying is, looking at all these dynamics, I guess a large amount of people will remain with their network provers and life moves on. I have nothing against the idea, I mean its really good that people have options, my only concern is, people have not been educated about the pros and cons of this migration. I would normally expect adverts running on the media educating people about all these on this last week, both from the CCK and from the mobile players themselves, but well, lets just say am lucky that i am a digital native!

So people, as we make the change tomorrow, lets try do it sometime after 12 just so we are sure we are not being pranked by no one, and try and get educated about this before you move, remember the student story but again if the new school has a saturday siesta, wednesday beef stew and monday tea and buttered bread, why not?!

The lady child..

2011-03-07T11:48:00.000-08:00

There has always been a fight for the girl child. Since i was young, i have always heard about the girl child, the girl child. Today is the eve of World women's day, of cause i have to respect this day, my mother works very hard and on this day i have to honor her, my sisters, friends and all the women out there who are great achievers.

Today is the day Kenya's poll says that 64% of Kenyan's would vote for a woman president and i just wrote a tweet to Martha Karua assuring her that, I/We have got her back, dont you agree?

The fight for the girl child has for ever been very strong, being a co-founder of AkiraChix (top picture(a few gals missing)), a girl group that is fighting hard to increase the number of females in computing and due for a Certificate Recognition tomorrow (on women's day) by the US ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger, for all the hard work, I know the struggle for the girl child and equal rights too well.

My good friend Jamilla would always say this when asked about the girl child and opportunities, "Let the girl child prove that they are worth the chance, let them work hard and give us no reason to choose a boy over a girl. We will not give any mercy votes!!" Harsh hah!! Yes, i thought you would think so but, I am always forced to agree with her, am sorry. For me, there is no spoon feeding, we are always crying for a level ground, lets work for that.

Look at Kenya, when the people say that they are ready to vote for a female president, who comes to mind? Martha Karua of course! Now i really dont care about all those names they have branded her but lets face it, she has worked really hard to get to where she is right now(or why do you think they call her iron lady?). Martha Karua, as i have known her for a long time is a very hard working lady lawyer who stood by her word when all other politicians kept going back on their words and got into crazy scandals!

I had the privilege of being gifted with Wangari Maathai's memoir. I have never read a book with so much passion and felt like it needs to come in seasons, non ending seasons. Wangari worked really hard, got oppressed by the government, left by her husband and at the end of the day, she emerged the Nobel Peace Price winner in 2004. Her mother died on women's day in 2000, sad, but she never stopped to work hard, she made it all in one piece and an achiever.

The one woman to whom this post goes out to, is definitely my mother. When i was young, every night i went to sleep, i asked God that i dint turn out to be such a hard worker like my mum(it was fun to be a little lazy), but as they say, at times God puts a wait notice to your prayers, am still waiting :) not complaining though. My mother's daily routine was waking up at 5am and back to the house 6pm, with 8children to take care of, just think about it and so look at how we all turned out.

Looking at these great women and more that i know, i cannot help but be sad when some women want it easy, double standards, when its ok to be a woman when it suits you and its not cool in other situations! at times i ask myself, who will cry for the boy child? Are we gonna do it too late? When is men's day? I mean i need to celebrate my Papa as well, mad respect for my old man. The saddest part is, not we have started to neglect the girl child, the rightful owner of the struggle and now we have the lady child. The lady child wants to get a job coz she is a lady, she wants to pass an exam coz she is a lady, wants to fail sciences and math coz she is a lady, wants to quite coz she is a lady, the list is so endless but its all terminated by, coz she is a lady..

Being a woman to me, means that i get to work hard and fulfill my dreams. It means that at the end of the day, i gotta come out an achiever, whether or not a man is involved. To me being a woman does not mean that i get an unfair advantage over boys, being a woman means, i get what i deserve because i am qualified!

To all the women out there, who get what they want coz they deserve it, stand up and be counted! Happy women's day and i celebrate you :)

Theory of the Unkown

2011-02-16T12:57:00.000-08:00

A great economist once said, too much currency in circulation in an economy reduces its value, someone re-used this wheel at the era of wiki leaks and said too much information being supplied to people reduces the value of information. Tonight, i proudly want to re-use this theory in communication "the abundance in availability to communication reduces the value of communication". wise, huh :)!

My good friend and geekmate Jude Mwenda would probably start this kind of conversation with the words, “lets face it..”

So, lets face it, social networks/media has greatly improved our communication. No matter where you are, you still have a way of getting in touch in real time. Give this the fancy name of virtual contact/presence, I like it! Who does not?

Going back in history, in the days of the telegram, we learn that in school (and I pray to God that it is still not in the revised editions of the current education system(ill go check)). Growing up taught us/me how to send a postal letter, took days to get there but it did! With the improved communication systems, there was a great improvement in the time factor hence it all became just like we were all there around each other everyday, nothing changes, not even the over sea difference can beat this..

Blur blur blur, I could go on and on about this, I must say I have a pretty good idea about all these forms of communication, the latest: facebook, twitter, emails, skype etc, the older: drum beating, telegrams , letters etc but, lets think about this, there is some power in the unknown, a lot of power.

Having been a great evangelist of chat and chat tools, I have come to meet a lot of people, virtually. When this is the case, there is always something to talk about, there is always something to wake up to because you, on the other physical blind end, have no idea what could be hiding on the other side, meet these people one day and I guarantee that kills it, the communication rates go down as the number of BRBs and ttyl,s increase (I would draw a graph but too lazy, ill do that tomorrow :))

I decided to carry out another study (please don't ask what my motivation was) and the findings were equally amazing. If you meet someone in person for the first time and keep them off your internet activities (facebook, twitter, chat, skype and basically all forms or regular communication(you are welcome to read my blog :)))the rate of communication is always limited but lets face it, one looks forward to that moment they will get a call or a simple text. Soon as these people are introduced to your online all present all available channels, the communication level also goes down as the rates of displeasure increase (another interesting graph coming up),

on this side of the channel, you will always see that the other party is always online but much as you try communicating with them, at times you get a response after several attempts of “hello, hello, are you there, ?, ?, …..” and 78minutes later kaboom,”sorry dear, I was away, did I miss anything?” :) tell me you will look forward to another line of text after this and ill be in shock (is it not better when you dint know all this info like for 78minutes they had to be away while you kept checking your IM for a response? :D)

Someone said I am a critique, I really don't know, lets just say I have a way of always questioning stuff and trying to make sense out of it :). What am saying is, there is some power in not knowing what is revolving on the other side of the world as it gives you a reason of anxiety for the next season. Remember when your father traveled for a few days back in the days and came back with presents for you and you could not wait to see them/him.

If this was a message to my BFF Bob C, it would probably end with #justSaying.

Digital eye

2011-02-08T00:14:00.000-08:00

I dont like photos of me, most of them come out either wrong or so wrong, at least thats never what i see in the mirror in the morning. Yeah yeah, a bad workman quarrels with his tools, thats just me, i have always had a way of blaming it on the low quality of cameras that take pictures of me. I enjoy art and paintings and nature..

To prove myself right or wrong, a week ago i got me a nice camera (cost me a few fortunes but hey, there is just one life right?) Nikon P100

check out specifications here.

Since last week, i have taken a few pictures that i must say am pretty impressed with and so i think i was right, its not me, its the camera :P, enjoy my photography:

This was a toast we had to my brother and sister in-law's 1st year anniversary.

So this happens to be me, not very great but well.

These just looked like they were posing for me.

Yes, there is this banana at work, am Kissi, am allowed.

At the KWS national park, the colobus monkey feet, the fingers look 7!

The hand, 5.

The squirrel eating a nut, this was a cute one

Blond Zebra, made in China :P

Auto focus.

Crocodile teeth, this focus was pretty awesome!

Water lilies, i always knew these are naturals.

This is so far i could say, my best shot!

I said i love art, beads are a category.

And as the sun went down, i retired for the day :)

Baby Steps...

2011-01-14T07:56:00.000-08:00

As a techy, of cause i have been in that point in my life where i have been so stuck that i actually got a brain freeze...
Now i have come to believe the person who stated that the reason why tech people are difficult to deal with is because they do not know how to come down to planet earth that has only one sun and one moon and actually understand that not everyone can be as critical and technical as they are or least, not everyone understands the gibber jabber they are all about (Note to self:..)

I have always had a problem with getting online help and even from fellow developers especially coz i understand that when someone cannot understand something, you just have got to explain it to them like a two year old, they explain it to me like i am Mark Zuckerberg(I wish).

Today i attended a training initiative by ZanaAfrica where we were training about 60 kids on computer use and the internet. Some of these kids were as young as 10 (yes this is Africa and its their 1st time). For a moment, as i was teaching, i could relate to this kids and that time when i was stuck at something or when something was pretty new to me and i had no simple idea what was going on.
I was explaining about emails for the 1st time and it is at that point that it hit me that maybe what these kids really needed was the basics, how and why it is done in a way that they could understand not in the way i could understand, of cause i am at a very different level in that...

To me, it is very important for techies to understand this fact, we are all at a very different level. Three days ago, i was trying to hack and at the same time understand the Kohana framework for the 1st time in my life, i had always wanted to do it but there is this beast thingy called time! I sought professional help from everywhere, all those i thought would help me, well lets just say that i dint get what i needed...

Oliver Caldwell, he is young, probably many years younger than i am, i dint know him much, my 1st encounter was when i was trying out the basic installation of Kohana and all i got was serious errors. He gave me a link to his github repository for some script that could help, at that point, i was resentful, i dint think it would help and i brushed him off for that moment. I reached out to him, i knew if he had written a script that he was willing to share on twitter, he must know kohana well. Oliver a guy i talked to for the 1st time, explained stuff to me in a way that no one had, it was so clear he even helped write out some code and in his words, "it will not work now, but it will if you change a few things.." What was most amazing about him was the fact that he encouraged me not to give up.

What i am simply saying is, at times when trying to help out someone, it is always better if you guide them through, think of them as these two year olds, they will ask stupid questions, they will not get it the 1st time, they will probably disappoint you on the second time, but just dont give up, i have needed help, i know what it means to go down to the basics..

11111011011

2011-01-02T01:44:00.000-08:00

If you are doing good now, that only means one thing, you are the biggest potential to do better.

I hope that one day, someone will remember me for having said this wise words. But again, i was telling this myself. The decade 2000-2010 has been one handful for me, i finished primary school somewhere in 2001 and in 2002-2005 joined high school, days of my life. in 2006-2010 i joined university and i must say in all this transitions i came out a fine person. At 22, lets just say i have achieved beyond a lot of my and others' expectations, no, i will not count all this blessings out here now, today, but i know one thing for sure, i have done well. I have lost a few believes and gained a few, i guess this is what knowledge does to you. Someone wiser than i am once said, The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance, i have been living these words long before i knew this quote. I strife to lean and to know. Over the Christmas season, my dad had a few things to say and out of all these, i took a few lessons with me, "rise to the highest level you can but do not constrain yourself." In his words, it is hopeless to ave a car if every time it breaks down you have to call a mechanic?!! He insists that you have to learn to do things on your own. I would not agree more!
A whole load of people have confidence in me and in what i can do, this has so far been brought about by what i have been to achieve in this past decade, my passion for knowledge is to be able to keep up with the changing times and to not disappoint all the trust and believe in me because I BELIEVE in ME!
For all these reasons, i will not get tired to acquire knowledge and to be a better person, given that i have been doing good. As in Alvin Toffler's own words:

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

Binary, Who ever knew? 10/1/11111011011

2011-01-02T00:31:00.000-08:00

Today is 10/1/11111011011. When i was in university, not too long ago, back in the 11111011010, binary was not the best of my cup of coffee. Me like all the other students, i keep thinking maybe its because of the way it was taught, we were drilled for the exams and not life lessons, or so we thought.
For about a week now, i have had the urge to want to look at it again, this thing aint as hard as it was back in the days, its kinda awesome and as much as i will not be using it anywhere within my job description or in my daily duties, i feel like it is up to me to learn a single new thing every waking day, here is mine...

Definition--Binary describes a numbering scheme in which there are only two possible values for each digit: 0 and 1

DECIMAL	BINARY	OCTAL	HEXA- DECIMAL
0	0	0	0
1	1	1	1
2	10	2	2
3	11	3	3
4	100	4	4
5	101	5	5
6	110	6	6
7	111	7	7
8	1000	10	8
9	1001	11	9
10	1010	12	A
11	1011	13	B
12	1100	14	C
13	1101	15	D
14	1110	16	E
15	1111	17	F

First let's look at how the decimal system works.

The 'dec' in decimal is a prefix that means 10. That is, the decimal system is the base-10 numbering system.

An example goes a long way in explaining, so let's see what the number 2010 really is:
2010 = 2000 + 0 + 10 + 0
....... = 2×10³ + 0×10² + 1×10¹ + 0×10º

What this shows is that each number in the base-10 system is really just a representation of the above expansion.
There are a couple things to note:
- The numbers in front of the ×10ⁿ will always be between 0 and 9 (inclusive).
- There are 10 digits between 0 and 9 (inclusive), hence base-10.

The 2 tells is how many 1000's there are.
The first 0 tells is how many 100's there are.
The 1 tells is how many 10's there are. etc.

If we have 10 hundreds, but we only have 0 through 9 to represent the hundreds place, we "carry" the 1 into the thousands place.

Now look at this: http://www.3acyber.com/eBay/P59-1.jpg

This is a simple counter (in base 10).

It starts at 0000. As you increment, you go to 0001, 0002, ... 0009.
Now the decimal system has only 10 digits, 9 being the largest. So when you add 1 to 0009, you have to return the ones digit to 0, and increment the tens digit: 0010

Then you get to 0019, and you jump to 0020. etc.

The binary system is a system of representing numbers using 2 digits (0 and 1). The bi- in binary means 2.

So picture that counter in the picture having in each digit only 2 numbers, 0 and 1.

So, starting at 0:
0000 = 0
0001 = 1

But now, as 9 was the highest digit in base-10, 1 is the highest digit in base-2, so the ones digit cycles back to 0, and the next digit (the 2nd digit from the right) is incremented to 1:
0010 = 2
0011 = 3

Now what is 0011 saying? We expand this to:
0011 (base 2) = 0×2³ + 0×2² + 1×2¹ + 1×2º

Or simply: 0 + 0 + 2 + 1 = 3

Another binary number:
1100 1010 (base 2) = 1×2^7 + 1×2^6 + 0×2^5 + 0×2^4 + 1×2³ + 0 + 1×2¹ + 0
............................ = 128 + 64 + 8 + 2 = 202

Now if you have a decimal number ABCD,
- the D is the 1's ( =10º ) place,
- the C is the 10's (= 10¹) place,
- the B is the 100's (= 10²) place, and
- the A is the 1000's (= 10³) place

Similarly, if you have a *binary* number ABCD,
- the D is the 1's ( =2º ) place,
- the C is the 2's (= 2¹) place,
- the B is the 4's (= 2²) place, and
- the A is the 8's (= 2³) place

So to convert 2010 to binary, we have to split it up into powers of two. We do this by dividing by 2 to get the digits from least significant to most significant.

First divide by 2:
2010 = 2*1005 + 0

Note that the remainder of 0 in the above represents the least significant digit (the one's digit). In other words, the number look like _____0.

Now we take 1005 and divide by two, and record its remainder:
1005 = 2*502 + 1

Now we take the remainder of 1 and put it in the 2's place: So far the number is _____10

502 = 2*251 + 0

So far the number is ____010

251 = 2*125 + 1
____1010

125 = 2*62 + 1
_____11010

62 = 2*31 + 0
____011010

31 = 2*15 + 1
____1011010

15 = 2*7 + 1
____11011010

7 = 2*3 + 1
____111011010

3 = 2*1 + 1
_____1111011010

1 = 2*0 + 1
11111011010

So the binary number 11111011010 is the base-2 representation of the decimal 2010. To check, let's expand:

111 1101 1010 = 1×2^10 + 1×2^9 + 1×2^8 + 1×2^7 + 1×2^6 + 0×2^5 + 1×2^4 + 1×2^3 + 0×2^2 + 1×2^1 + 0×2^0

= 1024 + 512 + 256 + 128 + 64 + 0 + 16 + 8 + 0 + 2 + 0 = 2010. It checks.

(Ref: Yahoo answers http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100323155643AAiPHMh)

See, this is not so hard after all :)

The growth expenditure matrix

2010-12-19T14:16:00.000-08:00

At 22, I am the last born in a family of 8 with 2 years age difference among all siblings, so trust me when i say, i have seen it all. Today i wanna step out of my comfort zone, (motivated by the millionaire upgrade), i wanna talk finances. Like everyone else, money is not the favorite topic especially when you are not spending it on yourself.
With time, i came to realize a few things about a human being's expenditure behavior. Different people react in different ways in this situation, some take longer to react according to this curve, some take shorter than expected. I can think anything in diagrams, AD-AS graphs and curves, its just so easy! Here is a curve showing a normal graduate's growth expenditure curve.

From the normal curve above, i could almost say its self explanatory, no its not so ill go ahead and explain it:
A-I could call this the point of origin, the mathematicians could say point 0,0. At this point, the only expenses an individual incurs are basic necessities and these are provided for by the parents. If you live in Africa, you would know that expensive toys and dolls do not fall in this category of necessities. At this point, one is not allowed to handle any cash, or if allowed, very little. I could call this the age of 5-12 years

B-At this point, an individual is growing up, has friends who have such and such hence is allowed to handle a little money and is allowed to make a few decisions on what to buy or not. Here, an individual has a little more purchasing power and a little savings. Call this age 13-18.

C-An individual joins college/University, at this point one is seen as a grown up and can take care of themselves. More often, at this stage, one is allowed to move out, go and live far off alone in college hence more responsibility and more money, more expenditure sets in as well. As time progresses, individuals at this stage at times get a few sources of income and they are a little more independent, they can make their own decisions, mama and papa, so far off. Call this, age 19-23.

D-This is what in this theory i would call, time of your life. People say if you never enjoy this time, you might never enjoy at another time. It is easiest for you to get a loan from someone at this stage and never pay it back for years but it is also very easy for someone to get really broke in the future because of this stage. Its critical in all ways, it all depends with who is at the receiving end. The graduate has just cleared school, they have a stable job now that is paying little or more, either way, they have something to look forward to every end of month. The fresh graduate remembers that suit or dress they could not get when they dint have too much bargaining power on parent's money, fancy restaurants set in..trust me it is at this stage of my life that i did not mind buying a bottle of soda at more than 200% above normal rate, i have the money, its mine, there is more from where that came from.. :) although for me this came in when i was about 20, for majority of people, this is age 23-27. This is the time when peer pressure also plays role very well.
E-Why dint anyone warn me that growing up was this hard? Bills to pay, i need to buy a new car, i need to settle down and get serious with life. Wait, where did all that money go to? Responsibilities are setting in, one has to be careful about how they do things. From my own experience, this is the worst time to owe anyone money, it is very unlikely that people at this stage will loan you big amounts of money and if they do, at this stage they talk in forms of time frames and profit, take it or leave it, your call. People at this stage start reading financial books and articles on smart saving, the future, investments and all. This is the time when one knows their serious friends and those who are not (its also a period of shading a few friends). This is also the stage where a serious relationship sets in!Call these ones, 27-30 year olds.

F-Family, school fees, parents need new iron sheets, wife expecting new baby etc etc. The list of possibilities at this stage is waaayyyy endless. You cant define it. but at this stage, the expenditure is watched very carefully and it is kept at a constant, this is the stage where a majority is saving up for the future of the children and the family. Getting a loan from someone at this stage is not easy, unless you are one of the friends kept at stage E above. This stage runs from about the age of 30 onwards. Depending on how your 60s turn out and what kind of a family you brought up, the curve may go up or down in about 20 years. This is a variable that is not defined.

So this is my definition of the growth expenditure matrix. It is totally open to improvement, but i thought it wise to, SHARE :)

CMS, developer or derailment?..

2010-12-18T03:01:00.000-08:00

CMS's(Content management systems) are a great way to get things done. Take Joomla for example, yesterday at my office end of year party, Upande LTD, we had one Whiteafrican in the house. We had a long chat and one of his concerns was, “why is it that Joomla hit so hard in Kenya? Everyone is using joomla in Kenya.” Do you know what my reaction was? “Joomla sounds Kenyan...” (Jumla (joomla) is a Swahili word that means, all together), “...it, made sense to me, I thought this is one of those tools that has everything in it you know all those components and articles and stuff available online and within the tool, you need it you got it, fast achievement”. Now I remember some two years back, when I was in 2^nd year at the University of Nairobi, School of Computing and Informatics (SCI), we were expected to do a Diploma project that accounted for 2units of the entire academic year. One of my classmates did his project using joomla, at that time I really did not know what that was. I did my project with pure code, PHP at that time, it was my 1^st time, I was 20. During the project presentation, one of the panellists in my classmate's panel dint need a 30 minute presentation to realise that that peoject had been done in joomla, by the glossy look and feel, before she could even sit, she asked, “..was that done in joomla?”, classmate “..yes”, panellist “...then we have nothing to do here, you are redoing your project to be submitted next academic year!!” Grade, two Es.

I could go on and on about this story, it was funny, still is. Bottom line, that panellist understood that using a tool like joomla was more than a catastrophe for a computer scientists, we shouldn’t have it easy. At that time it did not make sense, it does now.

Joomla was introduced to me by my brother, he is an accountant, he said he heard that you can do a lot of stuff in a week, who does not want quick work done perfectly, with little or no hard work into it? Wait, were we all not taught in computer class that RE-INVENTING THE WHEEL is evil?

This is another story that is long, but yesterday I had another long chat with another good upcoming entrepreneur, Santos. He is the founder of Eziki.tv. He said something very interesting, “...unless the developer today positions him/herself in a way that will not render them extinct in the next few years, I mean, lets face it. Have you seen how many doctors and non-techies are getting into IT now? A lot of people can now make their own websites and a few basic applications simply by clicking on a checkbox, its just like the robots in China, manual workers are gonna get extinct, soon!” Tell me you dont believe this guy! How true could one conversation be? Hardcore JAVA, PHP, .NET etc programmers are now ditching this for easy quick ways of making things work out. They are forgetting about programming like hell, rubber on the road kind of environment and going for the easy way.

The only way developers are gonna remain relevant is if they start arming themselves with frameworks like kohana, code ignitor and all those fameworks that will help them organise their work more than do their work for them, anyone can let their work be done for them, but we are geeks, we are not everyone.

Yesterday, my brother, he is a Doctor, he called me talking to me about this system that he had thought about, listening to it, it was genius, of cause it was, the guy is a doctor but listening to all the logic and sense put into it, trust me, he thought like 3 developers combined, he had all the algorithms figured out, only thing missing, the code. Imagine if he had one of those CMSs that can do what he needed, no one would need developers anymore.

So more than anything, I am making a plea to all my fellow developers, let us not allow this to happen to us, let us learn and understand the code more than taking the easy way. Am asking that we don't re-invent the wheel but we build wheels that will last for a longer time!!

Social networks injustice...

2010-12-16T10:28:00.000-08:00

I always tell my friends, there is no point of having the president's number if the president either doesnt have your number or will never call you back! what is the point? To me, there is no point of following Bill Gates on Twitter if he will never follow me back or if he will never respond to my tweet! (Bob Collymore CEO safaricom responded to my tweets, twice (i dont know if its really him or its his secretary doing it, bottom line, someone responded), he is worth following ). Its disturbing to see how many people are on social networks just for popularity and masses. a couple of times people follow me on twitter or send me friend requests on facebook, these people have about 10-20 friends in common with me (knowing me, thats almost all my contact list)! I have a bad habit of asking the mutual friend who this guy is, we all do, only to be faced by a response like "i have no idea, he/she just added me and i accepted!", WHAT??!
I realized just the other day that these people actually just add anyone who appears on the friend suggestion column (Why do you think mark zuckerberg won the TIME person of the year? he a smart dude when it comes to algorithms, at least his team is (ill analyse the upcoming facebook algorithms later).) it is after i saw the celebratory messages of people saying how they have 1000 people on their contact lists that i realized, this is just a game :(, the beauty is, i am not about to play it :).
For me, there is no point of having someone on my social network that i really dont feel is valuable whether i know them in person or not. If i decide to be friends with or to follow Mozilla firefox, it will have to be because i feel their contribution to my life and my knowledge base is valuable and i would expect the same from MF if anyone decides to follow me, for me, being part of the analysis or test samples is painful, ask me, i know from the rats in my biology experiments in high school. but again, this is just me...

Soul Searching

2010-12-16T09:44:00.000-08:00

For the past couple of days, i have been doing some soul searching. I know time and again i gave been trying to find the perfect way to blog and to get my blog making sense. I have tried name changes, i have tried content changes but i still dont seem to get it. Today, a thought crossed my mind, my high school tennis coach used to tell me whenever i demanded a new Wilson racket, "it is not the racket that plays a good game, it is you. If you find the essence of wanting to hit that ball and wanting to have it at the right place away from the opponent, then even a spoon will do that, it comes from within. " Strong words i must say, but i have found the essence of wanting to write and that essence is not to have the most fancy name of all or to have a beautiful blog, that essence is to be able to solve the problems i have had for so long, being able to provide solutions to everyone and to myself, a reference page! This is exactly what am going to do. I am going to have fun with this! and most of all i am gonna do what i want this to do, to inform! cheers :) :)

Why the haves have it all..

2010-12-10T11:49:00.000-08:00

It is not my habit to mind what most people out of the tech world do. This is because tech is about what you do not who you know.
I have realized especially in the acting industry, all advertisements are now done by famous musicians, actors or players. I am made to understand that there are people who go to school just to do this. what happens to them if they are replaced with more famous people? These are like the robots in China that are replacing manual workers.
In government, if someone is fired, retires or resigns from one post, they are given another position. How are we ever going to get some people to exercise some powers? The most recent is the appointment of Safaricom's ex-CEO Michael Joseph as the chairman for the tourism board in Kenya by the minister for tourism mr. Najib Balala, eerrrr, what does that tell Mr. Bob Collymore? "Nigga relax, we got you covered till 2030" this is just not how in my opinion i think things should go. MJ retired, let the man go home and enjoy his 10 years in service, how are the University graduates gonna be convinced that there is light at the end of the tunnel without the reality of who knows who?

Why i am not active in twitter

2010-08-11T03:49:00.000-07:00

I just cant be in Twitter, but that is just me,i have an account, yes but i only go there when i get an email saying someone new is following me, at times i cant spell the word right at times i call it tweeter( which i know is just wrong) but i know one thing, i am bringing all the people of interest to me from twee.. opps i mean twitter and following them on facebook, coz as geeky as i could be, there is much more i can do with my browser pages than to follow two stories that are exactly the same especially with the new facebook application that allows one to update their status via twee... aarrgggg i mean TWITTER, this simply means what is on the facebook status is the same status that is on twitter, this is why after opening my facebook, i open this blog to write my new thoughts , am also confused by this post, thats why i wont review it before i post it!

Election vote marking, permanent?

2010-08-11T02:03:00.000-07:00

I know you are thinking, when did the g33k start getting into politics, or manicures, ow yes you are right, am just trying this out! the most hilarious thing for me after the Referendum, apart from the fact that i discovered that over 80% of the 67% YES voters for the new constitution actually voted for a HOLIDAY, at least for the day after, which the president, Kibaki, denied them, you should have seen the people in the city! mad! at the president for denying them the day off. Back to the fun part, the hilarious thing for me is that this time round the election commission decided to use permanent markers to do the finger marks to indicate that one had voted as opposed to the traditional method of dipping your finger in Gentian Violet popularly known as GV. It is funny when you look at someone with this markings for the 1st time, you could think everyone is in the spirit of the pinkie nail polishing, before you notice that oh no, that aint polish but a permanent marker mark.
The bad thing for all the voters is that the permanent markers have stained their finger nails permanently and just like the henna painting used by women for beauty purposes, the only way this is gonna come off is if it grows out with the nail. sorry guy, now that you know, please stop the razer scrubs before you cut off your fingers, take this as a permanent history of the experience of voting in a new constitution, what a way to be reminded of your voting experience!

Mobile developers, platform independence?

2010-08-05T07:46:00.000-07:00

for me, there is really no sense in mobile developers developing applications for specific phones, java, android, symbian etc. what about the other people with other phones? who will make applications for them? well for me, it is important that if i develop a web application, it should be something that can be tried and tested by all users, regardless of what platform they are operating on. this way, one not only has a greater variety of users of their application, but also there is the greater varied response from the different platforms. in the developing nations/countries, there is a rise of cheap China phones that are coming up, most of our mobile users are tricked into buying these imitations of the real phones and really, with the lack of education and user awareness from the big phone companies, there is very little we, as individuals, can do to ensure that originality is enhanced. so what happens to these users of phones whose platforms are hardly known? do we lock out a user from using our life saving applications because we do not want to take notice of the needs of their phone platforms? for me, platform independence is a really important thing that is why i go for web applications. this way, regardless of what phone one is using, the usability of the application is still enhanced, but well, this is just me!

My Favourite destinations :)

2010-08-01T03:22:00.001-07:00

View Larger Map

Version 1.0.1

2010-07-29T11:43:00.001-07:00

ow and i am looking at life with a new eye. the eye that appreciates more and criticizes less, an eye that seeks to find opportunities in every new day, not only for me, but to also make my fellow earthmates' life better, and ow this new eye is owned by a new me!

g33krypt

2010-07-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

and h3r3 i was th1nk1nk1ng l1f3 is all b0r1ng but n0 w3 ar3 all t00 sp0ilt f0r th@. s0 1n my 1st day w1th all th3 hyp3, th3r3 was born th3 geekrypt! a n3w and fancy way for g33ks to just communic@3! who w0uld n0t wanna try this? just lik3 scrabbl3, juggl3s your m1nd b3f0r3 y0u can g3t 1t all r1ght! n0w th@ was an 3ffort r1ght th3r3!

its a g33k's diary

2010-07-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

i tried explaining to my pal rob why i chose this name, trying to put in the fancy words of cryptography and privacy, little did i remember i was talking to a fellow g33k! hey, welcome to the g33k's diary, Enjoy!!!