Items by kipsang

The 411...

• Iron Man II – Official Trailer 2…

  Posted: March 12, 2010, 11:37 am by kipsang

  AUTHOR’S NOTE: Scarlett Johansson is so fine!

• A Total Different Look At Abortion…

  Posted: March 11, 2010, 8:21 pm by kipsang

  A worried woman went to her gynecologist & said, “Doctor, I’ve a serious problem & desperately need your help! My baby isn’t even one year old & I’m pregnant again. I don’t want kids so close together.” So the doctor said, “OK & what do you want me to do?” She replied, “I want you [...]

• The Life Of A Software Developer…

  Posted: March 10, 2010, 9:58 am by kipsang

• IT Twins…

  Posted: March 10, 2010, 9:42 am by kipsang

• Top Ten Skills in Demand in 2010…

  Posted: March 9, 2010, 10:33 pm by kipsang

  Top Ten Skills in Demand in 2010… By Linda Leung. In the Global Knowledge/TechRepublic 2010 Salary Survey, conducted at the end of last year, one of the questions put to respondents was “What skill set will your company be looking to add in 2010?” The skills listed by respondents  include perennial favourites: security, network administration & Windows [...]

• Esther Arunga Sues Parents…

  Posted: March 5, 2010, 4:39 pm by kipsang

  AUTHOR’S NOTE: Esther, go ahead & live your life but suing your parents is going overboard… I hope your eyes get opened & see the great love your parents who nursed you from infancy have for you! The first commandment with a promise is you respect your parents… Sorry to get personal but I see [...]

• Esther Arunga on Capital Talk (K24)…

  Posted: March 5, 2010, 4:21 pm by kipsang

  AUTHOR’S NOTE: Comical relief indeed! Jeff, you’re always excellent in comical interviewing! On a side note, there is more than meets the eye… Esther is unbelievably ludicrous! She almost comes out as Hellon’s concubine (notice when she says “Our house in Runda was raided”). What achievements has she got to her credit to enhance her VP [...]

• What does Google say about programmers?

  Posted: March 1, 2010, 6:30 pm by kipsang

• The Tech Commandments…

  Posted: March 1, 2010, 6:01 pm by kipsang

• Localhost…

  Posted: February 27, 2010, 10:40 am by kipsang

• Innovation which leads to Green Revolutions…

  Posted: February 22, 2010, 7:50 pm by kipsang

• C.P.U. Inside Keyboard…

  Posted: February 22, 2010, 6:51 pm by kipsang

• C.P.U. Inside Keyboard…

  Posted: February 22, 2010, 6:51 pm by kipsang

• What Does Kenya Really Need?

  Posted: February 22, 2010, 3:30 pm by kipsang

  DEVOLUTION OF POWER. We’ve been asking for a new constitution for a very long time & God knows we need it. The current constitution carries in it all that’s wrong with Kenya: a very ineffective judiciary, subject to the whims of the politically correct; a f*&^%d up toothless electoral system; an imperial presidency; very poor, or [...]

• I.T. Support made simple…

  Posted: February 16, 2010, 4:15 pm by kipsang

• Misunderstanding?

  Posted: February 16, 2010, 1:18 pm by kipsang

• Software Tester…

  Posted: February 15, 2010, 2:28 pm by kipsang

• The Making of Avatar Using Advanced Motion Capture Technology…

  Posted: February 12, 2010, 1:07 am by kipsang

• Philosophies for IT people…

  Posted: February 12, 2010, 9:47 pm by kipsang

• The Chinese Nokia N95…

  Posted: February 12, 2010, 9:18 pm by kipsang

  DISCLAIMER: Reposted with permission from The Diary of A Kenyan Campus Girl. The original article can be found here… Before you read this post, I want to apologize for making myself 24 hours older. My birthday is actually tomorrow, on the 23rd. I had completely messed up my dates & living one day ahead. I woke up [...]

• Code Monkey…

  Posted: February 11, 2010, 12:53 pm by kipsang

• The new iPad from Apple…

  Posted: February 11, 2010, 9:34 am by kipsang

  Just have a look at this instrument… A type of mini-computer in form of a slate with a very sleek Graphical User Interface (G.U.I.). It’s Steve Jobs (C.E.O. of Apple) dream device. I’d like to share some of the iPad’s features: The large multi-touch screen on iPad lets you see web pages as they were meant to be [...]

• Innovation at its best – Google…

  Posted: February 10, 2010, 9:42 pm by kipsang

  Smart Internet search will be done with a mobile device in the near future. A mobile device with a touch screen, built-in-camera, scanner, WiFi, Google Maps (hopefully Google Earth), Google Search, Image Search etc…

• If you printed the Internet…

  Posted: February 10, 2010, 9:08 pm by kipsang

• What does Google say about different countries?

  Posted: February 10, 2010, 5:26 pm by kipsang

• Developer v/s Tester…

  Posted: February 10, 2010, 5:19 pm by kipsang

• Drive Safely…

  Posted: February 10, 2010, 5:04 pm by kipsang

• What happens to IT Professionals after Death?

  Posted: February 10, 2010, 4:42 pm by kipsang

• World’s First Solar Powered Stadium…

  Posted: February 10, 2010, 4:18 pm by kipsang

  In 2009, Taiwan finished construction on a solar-powered stadium that will generate 100% of its electricity from photovoltaic technology. Designed by Toyo Ito, the 50,000-seat arena opened to welcome the 2009 World Games which features many sports not included in the Olympics such as parachuting, tenpin bowling & rugby sevens… [...]

• Drug Dealers & Software Developers: Coincidence?

  Posted: February 8, 2010, 7:17 pm by kipsang

  DRUG DEALERS: Refer to their clients as “users”. “The first one’s free!” Have important South-East Asian connections to help move the stuff. Strange jargon: “Stick”, “Rock”, “Dime bag”, “E”. Realize that there’s tons of cash in the 14 to 25-year old market. Job is assisted by industry’s producing newer, more potent mixes. Often seen in company of pimps & hustlers. Their product causes [...]

• M-Pesa Fraud – Agents Beware!

  Posted: February 5, 2010, 8:26 pm by kipsang

  Tricksters & dishonest people have always existed in our midst. It is definitely naive to imagine our techno-savvy way of life is an exception to the old age social patterns. This afternoon, an M-Pesa agent was a victim of a new line of M-Pesa fraud. On Febuary 1st, 2009 in a peri-urban setting about 24 kilometres [...]

• Hitler responds to the Apple iPad…

  Posted: February 3, 2010, 10:32 pm by kipsang

  AUTHOR’S NOTE: Many thanks to my good friend, Paul Maingi, for giving me the link to the video… You’ll wet yourself watching it!

• M-Pesa Customer Complaint…

  Posted: January 28, 2010, 4:28 pm by kipsang

• Small Talk…

  Posted: January 27, 2010, 5:47 pm by kipsang

• Get Unlimited Internet For 7 Days At K.Sh. 999…

  Posted: January 26, 2010, 7:33 pm by kipsang

• Most Popular Account Passwords…

  Posted: January 22, 2010, 3:41 pm by kipsang

  AUTHOR’S NOTE: According to a new analysis, one out of every five Web users still decides to leave the equivalent of a key under the doormat: they choose a simple, easily guessed password like “abc123″, “iloveyou” or even “password” to protect their data. This suggests that hackers could easily break into many accounts just by trying [...]

• I’m Still Waiting…

  Posted: January 21, 2010, 5:02 pm by kipsang

• The Twitter Phenomenon…

  Posted: January 19, 2010, 7:15 pm by kipsang

  AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ve come across some nice infographics from Samuel Degremont on information flows before the Twitter era & after Twitter. I am copying these graphics below. As you can see from the graphs, Twitter has changed the flow of information & news quite drastically. What do you think?

• Iron Man II – Official Trailer…

  Posted: January 14, 2010, 8:14 pm by kipsang

• Iron Man II – Teaser Poster…

  Posted: January 14, 2010, 7:28 pm by kipsang

  AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is the teaser poster for the upcoming Iron Man II. Looks like War Machine will play a big part this time round. Makes me look forward to this sequel even more!

• Kenyan Internet Service Providers Poll…

  Posted: January 12, 2010, 9:11 pm by kipsang

• Outsource Our Jobs? Why firms are afraid of BPOs…

  Posted: January 6, 2010, 1:06 pm by kipsang

  Even as Kenya’s business process outsourcing industry continues to grow, companies that are meant to be its consumers are becoming its competitors as they shun outsourcing of non-core functions… Full story: http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/676830/-/qxo0jiz/-/index.html

• Facebook, Youtube maybe free (but not really)…

  Posted: January 6, 2010, 12:46 pm by kipsang

  - Facebook monthly electric bill = US $ 1,000,000/= & adds new servers every few days because users’ appetites for adding photos keeps growing. - Youtube monthly bandwidth consumption = 25 PetaBytes (1,000 TeraBytes). I don’t have the exact amounts but the above is a harsh reality of operating such services. Though their financial standings show as [...]

• The Humble Beginnings of An Engineer…

  Posted: October 21, 2009, 7:32 am by kipsang

• Microsoft Security Essentials…

  Posted: October 17, 2009, 9:56 am by kipsang

• The Real Cost Of SMS…

  Posted: October 17, 2009, 9:13 am by kipsang

  DISCLAIMER: Reposted with permission from Mwangy. The original article can be found here… SMS is a wonderful product/service which is available on all GSM networks. It is a very useful tool that has gained tremendous uptake & has found a myriad of uses both commercial, entertainment wise & as an informational tool. At the current lowest rate of  [...]

• How to choose the right software for your company…

  Posted: October 13, 2009, 8:32 am by kipsang

  When I speak with CEOs & CFOs about buying new computer software, they often respond by saying “Our software works fine. We’ve had it for 20 years & never had any problems with it.” In other words, “If it’s not broken, why fix it?” or “We’ve managed just fine with our current manual systems.” Their [...]

• 12 Words You Can Never Say In The Office…

  Posted: October 13, 2009, 8:24 am by kipsang

  We’ve put together a list of outdated tech terms, phrases that you shouldn’t be using at work anymore because they will make you seem old. This is especially true if you’re looking for a new job. For example, on an interview, you should be talking about “cloud computing”, not “ASPs” even though they are basically [...]

• Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change…

  Posted: September 25, 2009, 8:52 pm by kipsang

• The SEACOM Broadband Experience 14th – 18th October 2009…

  Posted: September 23, 2009, 10:38 pm by kipsang

• Operating Systems Poll…

  Posted: September 19, 2009, 10:26 pm by kipsang

• How to Please Your I.T. Department…

  Posted: September 19, 2009, 9:51 pm by kipsang

  1) When you call us to have your computer moved, be sure to leave it buried under half a tonne of postcards, baby pictures, stuffed animals, dried flowers, bowling trophies & children’s art. We don’t have a life & we find it deeply moving to catch a glimpse of yours. 2) Don’t write down anything down! [...]

• Q & A: Mwangy’s Blog…

  Posted: August 24, 2009, 12:21 am by kipsang

  Francis Mark Mwangi (also known as Eng. Mwangy) is an engineering student at the University of Nairobi. One can read his blog here… The 411…: Can you give us a picture of yourself? Mwangy: Alright here you go… though I must warn you ain’t too photogenic. The 411…: When did you start blogging? Mwangy: Its been about a year now. The [...]

• New Measures to Curb Recession…

  Posted: June 10, 2009, 6:53 pm by kipsang

  “Due to tough economic times, we are are looking at new chairs for assistance.” ~ Management.

• Travel in The Amazing Air Bus 380…

  Posted: May 30, 2009, 3:10 pm by kipsang

• Office Timetable…

  Posted: May 30, 2009, 12:42 pm by kipsang

• Interview Questions (Web Development)…

  Posted: May 25, 2009, 11:59 am by kipsang

  This is incase any of you get called for an interview in the same: 1) What is the Cyclic Redundancy Check in data transfer? 2) Which meta tag best points a search robot to a specific title in a website? 3) Among the following resources, which application best deploys PHP functionality in a dynamic website: Joomla? Macromedia Flash? Macromedia Works? 4) Please [...]

• Interesting online game in Swahili…

  Posted: May 20, 2009, 12:16 pm by kipsang

  Visit: http://www.gladiatus.co.ke/

• Protecting Children Online & On Mobile…

  Posted: May 20, 2009, 11:55 am by kipsang

  The World Telecommunications & Information Society Day was held on Sunday 17th May & the theme was on “Protection of Children in Cyberspace…” This led me to wonder how we’re protecting our young ones from mobile content now that there’s a lot of adult stuff sold on mobiles e.g. wallpapers, tips on relationships, dating services etc. Children [...]

• Suspicious E-mails…

  Posted: May 18, 2009, 2:15 pm by kipsang

  Greetings, It has come to my attention that e-mails such as the ones below are circulating to my family & friends: Dear friend, I would like to introduce a really good company that mainly do the electornic products trade. Now the company is doing promotion,all of it’s products are sold nearly as same as their cost. It redeners the [...]

• Citizen’s Watch: Samuel Ngure Kariuki…

  Posted: May 13, 2009, 2:56 pm by kipsang

  Believe it or not, the young man pictured above is the mastermind behind some of the fradulent SMSes you have been receiving on your cellphones. He’s also responsible for fraudulent advertisements that appear on our daily locals, especially in the classified section as well as the lonely hearts column. Buying a car or plot? Looking [...]

• Engineering Mathematics…

  Posted: May 6, 2009, 12:22 pm by kipsang

  AUTHOR’S NOTE: “Skill in manipulating numbers is a talent, not evidence of divine guidance.” ~ Ashley-Perry Statistical Axiom #1.

• T-Shirts for software people…

  Posted: May 4, 2009, 4:28 pm by kipsang

• Antivirus Poll…

  Posted: April 28, 2009, 2:44 pm by kipsang

• Women In ICT: Are We Moving Forward?

  Posted: April 21, 2009, 3:40 pm by kipsang

  Are there opportunities for women in the Information & Communications Technology (ICT) industry? Or is the ICT profession a male affair? ICTs are indispensable tools used by all to deal with the limitations of time, cost & distance? In addition, many are using ICTs to solve problems & create new opportunities. We live in the age [...]

• Women In ICT: Are We Moving Forward?

  Posted: April 21, 2009, 12:15 pm by kipsang

  Are there opportunities for women in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry? Or is the ICT profession a male affair? ICTs are indispensable tools used by all to deal with the limitations of time, cost and distance.In addition, many are using ICTs to solve problems and create new opportunities. We live in the age [...]

• Wanted: Computer hackers to help government…

  Posted: April 21, 2009, 11:26 am by kipsang

  WASHINGTON – Wanted: Computer hackers. Federal authorities aren’t looking to prosecute them, but to pay them to secure the nation’s networks. General Dynamics Information Technology put out an ad last month on behalf of the Homeland Security Department seeking someone who could “think like the bad guy.” Applicants, it said, must understand hackers’ tools and tactics and [...]

• Q & A: White African…

  Posted: April 15, 2009, 4:49 pm by kipsang

  Erik Hersman (also known as Hash) is one of the co-founders of Ushahidi & the founder of Afrigadget. (A short bio can be found on his blog…) The 411…: Can you tell us a little about yourself? White African: I grew up in Kenya and Sudan as a son of missionaries, which as you might guess means that [...]

• 10 Reasons to do Blog Interviews…

  Posted: April 14, 2009, 3:07 pm by kipsang

  Here are 10 reasons why you should think about doing blog interviews, too: 1) Mix things up. It is difficult to be a news beacon, constantly finding the latest of what’s going on before others. Even if you’re great at it, you have to sleep sometime. Someone else may have the inside scoop. 2) Create a real [...]

• Africa: Blueprint to Process E-Waste Developed…

  Posted: March 31, 2009, 11:11 am by kipsang

  Concerns over mounting electronic waste in Africa have led to the development of a framework to help the continent deal with the problem. E-waste – unwanted electronic goods such as computers and mobile phones – needs to be disposed of or recycled carefully to avoid health problems and environmental contamination from component toxic materials such as [...]

• Employee of the Month…

  Posted: March 30, 2009, 10:36 am by kipsang

  “This is the level of dedication we expect from all staff!!!” ~ Management.

• Kenya going Open Source route…

  Posted: March 27, 2009, 4:27 pm by kipsang

  Nairobi, Kenya. March 23. Research by Linux Professional Association of Kenya (LPA) on public software procurement has established that the government is currently spending over K.Sh. 500 million on proprietary software services & license fees. This amount could double next year, if historical trends continue… Full story: http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/business/Local/Kenya-going-Open-Source-route-1852.html

• Murphy’s Technology Laws…

  Posted: March 27, 2009, 3:18 pm by kipsang

  1) Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence. 2) Whenever a system becomes completely defined, some damn fool discovers something which either abolishes the system or expands it beyond recognition. 3) Technology is dominated by those who manage what they do not understand. 4) If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote [...]

• Miscommunication…

  Posted: March 27, 2009, 2:52 pm by kipsang

• Newbies…

  Posted: March 19, 2009, 9:07 am by kipsang

• The Evolution of Mobile Phone Thugs…

  Posted: March 16, 2009, 9:18 pm by kipsang

  AUTHOR’S NOTE: Reposted with permission from Becky. The original post can be found here… I think it has become slightly safer for people to talk on phone while walking downtown Nairobi. After seeing their comrades beaten to death over cheap phones, I guess the thugs have changed tact. But it does not mean that the thieves have abandoned [...]

• The 10 most dangerous species of help desk callers…

  Posted: March 10, 2009, 2:52 pm by kipsang

  I’ve found that having a classification system is critical in understanding users that I.T. Support help on a daily basis. It’s with this in mind & tongue in cheek that I categorize users into the following species: 1) “The Expert”: Userus expertia. “The Expert” user is the curse of most I.T. Support establishments. Experts try out something [...]

• Recognizing What Battles To Fight…

  Posted: February 24, 2009, 11:55 am by kipsang

  Not every battle is worth fighting. Many of the challenges that come our way are smiply distractions trying to lure us from our destiny. When we have opportunities to get upset, maybe somebody is talking about us or a competitor at work is spreading rumours or our spouse says something that they shouldn’t have, we [...]

• How Facebook is taking over our lives…

  Posted: February 24, 2009, 11:02 am by kipsang

  President Obama used it to get elected. Dell will recruit new hires with it. Microsoft’s new operating system borrows from it. No question, Facebook has friends in high places. Can CEO Mark Zuckerberg make those connections pay off? Full story: http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/16/technology/hempel_facebook.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009021910

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes