Items by home to find it
Learning to play
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Kudos to Afrigator
Posted: August 16, 2007, 12:47 am by home to find it
I'm glad to see that, after a break down some time back, Afrigator is up and running. I was a big fan of the blog agrigator from inception but got a bit disillusioned when I notices that the RSS feed (at least for the Kenya section of the site) stopped updating for a long time.
I have just returned to the site after my friend John Wesonga let me know that It had been mentioned in a CNN article along side giants like joost and esnips as one of the the top web 2.0 start-ups outside the US. It was the only one from Africa to be mentioned so kudos to the Afrigator team.
One of the most interesting things that I came across in the CNN article was the amount of funding that it took to setup Afrigator. The article quoted $32000, a figure that i feel really shows the benefit of doing work especially technology oriented work in Africa. When put up against the other start ups mentioned (many of which refused to declare what funding if any they had received) it is clear that Afrigator was the least funded and if I am not mistaken the start up with the second lowest amount of declared funding had something like $1 million. Despite the disparity in funding, the quality of work that has been put out by the Afrigator team is definitely at per with that of their, much better funded, compatriots. It just goes to show that the dream Africa as a center of technological innovation is becoming a reality faster than most think and the cost saving advantage will only accelerate the process further.
I am looking to leverage African technologists in the near future, hopefully I will be able to put yet another tech start up from Africa on the map. -
BDAfrica: The good the bad and the ugly
Posted: August 16, 2007, 12:20 am by home to find it
I have been reading the Business Daily Africa website for some time now as my source for Kenyan business news and I must say that I love the articles that they feature. I they stick to the business facts and for the most part steer clear of the political noise that often clouds the news from others such as its parent company's (nation media) nationmedia.com and the East African Standards eastandard.net.
One major qualm i have with the site though is the number of typos that i keep running into in their articles. I don't believe i have ever gone through an entire issue without finding a significant number of typos. Some of these typos are Rather innocuous such as a missing letter here or there but some are more serious such as miss quoted figure or differences in figures quoted more than once within a single article.
The mistakes take away significantly from the air of professionalism that is created by the clean layout and clear writing style that is employed by BDAfrica.
I would advise that they impose stricter editorial over-site to ensure that the facts are not only properly researched but properly presented in order to prevent loss of credibility. It they feel that hiring a full time staff member to do proof reading would be too costly then they should at least give readers an easy way of sending in typo notification. I'm sure that a number of readers wouldn't mind assisting in this manner given the value of the articles they put up.
While they are at it they might also consider implementing a discussion feature that would enable viewers to discuss the most popular articles. I see this taking a longer term to implement as it might necessitate them moving from the ijoomla platform to a more feature filled platform.
Overall though I think that bdAfrica.com is at the front of the pack as far as Kenyan business news is concerned and would recommend it to anyone wishing to stay on top of Kenyan business news. -
Interesting things happening in kenya
Posted: August 15, 2007, 3:57 pm by home to find it
There are a number of interesting development in kenya of late. One of the most interesting thus far is the launching of KenTv, an IPTV service based in the UK and focusing on the delivery of kenyan content to kenyans int eh diaspora. It is an area that is definately lucrative and I can see a number of individuals really latching on to the service. According to John Wesonga, the service is currently getting over 35000 view per day. Thats a huge number for a site that has just been launched that the is focusing on Kenyan content. The naviagation could use some work though and the 5 minute Nakumatt advertisement is a bit too much if you ask me.
Also, in news just released on bdAfrica, kenTv has just entered into a partnership with the steadman group to provide on demand research sevices to Kenyans in the diaspora. I think this service will be a hit both with kenyan students seeking to do research on Kenyan topics as well as with people seeking to guage the viablilitly of business ventures before plunging in. The turn-around time is good (92 hours) and the price is quite appealling ($3.99 per question with bulk discounts) considering what it would cost to do similar research on your own. Another advantage is steadmans ability to return research result of the entire East African region.
Also the Safaricom IPO is causing quite a stire as is to be expected with $500 million worth of equity in the pot. A number of major financial institutions (Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Credit Swiss, PNB Paribus to name a few), are gunning for advisory roles on the IPO along with a number of major internation law firms. I must say that i was a bit disapointed not to see Merrill Lynch as one of the firms in the running, I feel that they are letting a major entry point into the African market pass them by. This is quite sad considering the growth potential in this market. Setting up relationships early is definately going to be a key determinant going forward of who cashes in on the Afican Renaissance. -
tugo
Posted: August 7, 2007, 4:46 pm by home to find it
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the new keyboard has arrived!!
Posted: July 24, 2007, 10:54 pm by home to find it
This is the first post that i am making using my new mobile iGo key board pictured below. this was definately a fantastic buy! The way that they have structured the keys makes it very easy to type and it holds up the mobile device (a htc excaliber aka t-mobile dash in my case)so that its very easy to see what it is that i am writing. the set up process wasn't too convoluted and once its set up hooking it up when you want is a breaze! literaly a two step process.
I woould definately recommend it for anyone with a phone running windows mobile that is looking to sqeeze more productivity out of their device. with windows mobile 6 you get word and excel built in so it basically turns your smartphone into a mini computer.
The keys of the keyboard are customizable (though i havent gotten to doing that yet) but it works well witht the default configuration and has a bunch of cool functionality that you can access using the two funtion keys that are present on the device.
Once abain i highly recommend the device for the ultra mobile user. I got it on amazon for a total cost of $75 inclusive of shipping and handling costs. -
Book Review: Fooled By Randomness by Taled Nasim
Posted: July 18, 2007, 12:28 am by home to find it
I read this one at the begining of the summer. I would summerize it as an analysis of the natural biases that we as humans have and how the affect out ability to make logical decision.
The author is a former trader who has made his fortune by basically betting ont he impossible, or what others consider impossible but he through a thorough mastery of probability considers quite probable. He does this by buying options on things that other thing will never happen. Since the probability of the even the option is based on it highly improbable to the seller he sells it for cheap. Sure enough many of the options that he buys end up expiring and so he is constantly loosing small amounts of money. But... when he does win, its a REALLY big win and that how he comes out on top.
He is a very well read individual and does a pretty good job of explaining some pretty heft statistics and probability stuff. Its definitely a book that will get you to rethink some of your basic assumptions about the nature of things. But be ware of the authors tendency to rumble on about how brilliant he is and how everyone he meets turns turns out to be an idiot and a disappointment. -
a couple of wonderful new discoveries
Posted: July 17, 2007, 10:44 pm by home to find it
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eat fairly well for under $8 on the upper west side
Posted: July 16, 2007, 10:27 pm by home to find it
For those of you who like me are always looking for a good place to eat for cheap in this wonderful but slightly pricey neighbourhood I found a place called club 71 that a pretty good deal for the price. I got the food you see in the picture for $6.95 plus tax. (side bar: this is the first picture im posting taken with my new Dash. It was at night so the lights not very good).
Here is a picture of the place:
Its at 2061 Broadway, New York, NY in case your ever in the area and hungry -
never buy anything from those time square computer shops
Posted: July 15, 2007, 9:45 pm by home to find it
You know the ones that have all the fancy electronics on the window display with tantalizing prices plastered all over them. Yeah you know the ones... well they are a scam! Avery well tuned one too if i may say so myself. The price they have for the sexy canon camera in the window is actually the one for a crappy useless on that they have on the inside.
On the rare occasion that they do have the actual price written in the window, don't be surprised to be told that they only have the window unit in stock and that that it is for display only. Whatever you buy there is marked up at least 200% and no matter how good a deal you think your getting, rest assured that you are being scammed.
If you remain obstinate and decide to go in anyway please please ask them to tell you the price you will be paying for the gadget verbally. Yes, even if you have already read the little red sticker on the packaging. And do this before the quickly pull out a razor blade and cut open the packaging making the item unreturnable.
My advice though, stick to companies that you can actually sue if the scam you. And if your a staunch bargain hunter, you'd rather even go get your gadget on ebay or something, just don't subject yourself these con-artists.
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Eating raw meat (Bibim bap)!
Posted: July 7, 2007, 6:55 pm by home to find it
I went with a couple of friends to a Korean bbq place yesterday in K-town (32 and broadway) and ordered this meal called bibim bap that consists of beaf and vegies that have been mixed together with a scrambled egg on top.
Unbeknownst to me, the version that of bibim bap that i pointed to on the menu was different from the one that my friend had recomened to me. This perticular version is not only served raw ( as is almost every thing else at the place), but is supposed to be EATEN RAW!
Now there is a bbq place in the center of each table at the place so that you can cook the food that they bring to you to your hearts content adn at first i was convinced that was probably the way to go but after some hesitation and having my food carefully stired by the very nice lady who served us, i decided to embrace the spirit of adventure and give the raw beef a shot!
surprise surprise! it was actually reeally good! it tasted nothing like what i expected and didn't have the weird consistency of raw meet that i had expected would make me gag. I finished the entire bowl which was not small as you can tell from the picture. I definately recomend the meal to anyone looking for something new and exciting to eat. After eating it, eating my first jelly fish seemed like a relatively small step. All in all it was a revolutionary evening for my pallet :) -
july 4th, and the unheralded kenyan chicken
Posted: July 5, 2007, 9:48 pm by home to find it
so this was the week of july the 4th. we got wednesday off at work and spent most of monday doing community service at this school in harlem. the story there is pretty interesting, the long and short of it is that a friend and i ended up painting desks in the wrong school and get blasted by yet another overly krunk new yorker, allot of these people here need to take a chill pill. its not like i would go and just start doing home improvements (or is it school improvemnts) in some random school. she was acting like repainting defaced desks was the crime of the century.
anyway seeing as two of my work days were unceremoniously taken away, i now have 3 day to finish 5 days work, I aint compaliniing though. went to coney island jana... it sucks... but the company was good so i had a good time. there was a hot dog eatting compe there (which i missed do to oversleeping... i had gone to bed at 4 on tuesday, another night on the town :). The winner though ate 66 hotdogs!!! in 12 minutes!!!! (correction, he didn't eat them, he swallowed them bila chewing i tell you). that stuff is dangerous! apparently is actually a recognized sport and they have a league and everything! its called M.L.E. Yeah you guessed it... Major League Eating :) only in america i tell you.
Oh, i was talking to an iteresting friend the other day and the converstation the otherday and somehow the converstion drifted into fast food and how much we miss kenyan fast food, stears (swoon), Nandos (double swoon), and the ultimate KENCHIC!! That kuku mfalme just has no compe on this planet! anyway it came to me that i haven't read any praise for kenchic and them and i figured i should just give a shout out to all those who know that there is only one kuku mfalme and its the king of all kukus on this planet. -
yet another wonderful evening in the city
Posted: July 1, 2007, 10:58 pm by home to find it
New York has once agin lived up to its reputation and treated me to yet another memorable weekend, I had a blast having dinner and going out with a couple of new and old friends, i had people come in from out of state and we all had a merry time. I forgot my debit card at a lounge in meat-packing jana, but i am sure it will be safe and sound when I go to pick it up in about 30 minutes. i doubt any of the people in that part of town would bother with my little moneys :)
I have decided that, rather than keep trying to figure out an easy way of calling a perl script (running on cygwin) from a c sharp application, i will just re-write the entire file parser in c sharp. I think it will be easier and will make for a more solid solution because everything will be bundled together nicesly into ac sharp solution that can be installed anywhere. I have already started re-writing it and am currently going through the steep learning curve phase. Hopefully it passes soon.
apparently according to a blog post by assidous chris khaemba, (aka sodi :) my former principle will be moving to south Africa to lead the African leadership institute! its a big loss for bush, but i am sure he will be a valuable asset to both institutions int he future.
Blah blah blah
Fish cakes
Alas a fish cake.
Yet more fish cakes
Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.
The end of the fish cakes
