December 2009 - skunkworks - Skunkworks Site

Final Call - Innovators demonstrations
by Gakuru Alex 13 Dec '09

13 Dec '09

Greetings skunk(ette)s, As earlier mentioned, this will be held next Thursday (10th Dec) thus tomorrow at noon I shall close the 'registrations.' Many thanks to all that have reserved their slots and sent me .pdf briefs of their intended showcase solutions. ( Please carry your own laptops(There will be free BROADBAND WiFi :~) Much appreciated PS Ndemo (Ministry of Information and Communications) for facilitating this international business interaction. Regards, Alex

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PURCHASE OF SEASON’S GREETINGS CARDS FROM KWAP
by nancy bosire 13 Dec '09

13 Dec '09

** Dear Members, RE: PURCHASE OF SEASON’S GREETINGS CARDS FROM KWAP We are a community-based organization dealing with poverty eradication for women in Kenya. Our members engage in small businesses for sustainability on a day to day basis and we also encourage education in entrepreneurship for business development. Other than self sustainability through small businesses we address issues that may result to poverty which include HIV/AIDS, drug and substance abuse, early motherhood, illiteracy and environmental conservation. We initiate Income Generate Activities (IGAs) annually to sustain our various projects and we encourage you to support this years’ project through purchase of Season’s greetings cards as your companies’ involvement in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for community development. The cards are of high quality and great design. contact me to send you the scanned images, both inside and outside, of cards available. We are selling the cards at Ksh. 200 per card free delivery anywhere in Nairobi. We also have handmade cards that are authentic; to view samples please calls us. We thank you in advance for your kind consideration and for supporting us in the fight against socio-economic difficulties. FREE DELIVERY WITHING NAIROBI. Nancy Bosire Chairperson Kenya Women Against Poverty (CBO) Moi Drive - Umoja Tel: 020 2509111 Mobile: 0721907995/0722875241 info(a)kwap-kenya.com, nancy(a)kwap-kenya.com http://www.kwap-kenya.com .......Empowering Women to self sustain! ...... a KWAP initiative! url: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=50632051154&ref=ts & http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=163461171313 "Your consistent thoughts create your consistent results." " It's difficult balancing optimism & realism, intuision & planning, faith & fact. But that's what it takes to be effective as a navigating leader."

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Courts ordered to get digital in 18 months!
by Gakuru Alex 12 Dec '09

12 Dec '09

This will profoundly improve access to justice in Kenya. --- President Kibaki spelt out the challenges that lie ahead including ambitious infrastructure projects and the computerisation of land records and court proceedings. “I am also directing that lands and business registries be converted into electronic records. I direct the (relevant ministries) to ensure that these systems are in place and fully operational in the next 18 months. I also urge the judiciary to ensure the establishment of an electronic court registry and electronic recording of court proceedings within the same time.” --- http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/821638/-/item/1/-/6hgjygz/-/index.html Enjoy! Alex

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Re: [Skunkworks] 2010 : Kenyan Developers Year
by timrick＠gmail.com 12 Dec '09

12 Dec '09

Aki, Thanks. Am wondering what does the government have plans to develop this?And if so,what estent are they on?Why am asking is,we could be working on something that we will have to compete with the government about? Am wondering! I think we should have a meeting with Kiana hosting a talk on DTV to enlighten more on some issues that he raised on a certain threa(Cant access it since on the phone.) -----Original Message----- From: aki Sent: 11/12/2009 5:46:12 pm To: Skunkworks Forum Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] 2010 : Kenyan Developers Year On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 11:04 AM, James Muendo <timrick(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Interesting ideas coming through. > > > @James, Kenyan Developers thinking 12 months ahead, are now sitting on the biggest boom ever seen in the ICT sector. Their skills. DTB shortage or not, it is an eventuality that supplies will fill the shops so its a question of when not if etc. And the shortage or lack of has its advantages, gives time to developers to match delivery times. 3 serious things that I see long term, I share : - EPG ( the biggest development project ever ). There is an chance for developers to work with agencies and others to standardize on the EPG format. If developers and the project get this right, there can be a mutual agreement on a single EPG channel carrying data, a cost saving system for TV channels. That;s where a marketter comes in. Are the stations interested or will they buy from vendors out there? - A dedicated shopping channel ( An inter-active TV channel that will allow people to shop via TV. ) - A dedicated Entertainment channel ( That content will need menu driven functions, reply via sms etc ) I'm not sure whether to focus on 2010 Developer year or start work on this DTV project with others. Chat sometime next week and see if any progress made on the threads. :-)

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Fwd: [ke-internetusers] Repentant Microsoft re-issues Windows 7 tool as open-source
by Gakuru Alex 12 Dec '09

12 Dec '09

Interesting... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Alex Gakuru <gakuru(a)gmail.com> Date: Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 10:53 PM Subject: [ke-internetusers] Repentant Microsoft re-issues Windows 7 tool as open-source To: ke-users <ke-internetusers(a)bdix.net> Revises netbook upgrade tool after admitting it copied code By Gregg Keizer December 10, 2009 Computerworld - Microsoft yesterday re-released a Windows 7 installation tool that it admitted included open-source code, and has posted the utility's source code to its own open-source site. The move came three weeks after Microsoft announced it had delayed the re-release of the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT) because the software needed additional testing. At the time, Peter Galli, Microsoft's open-source community manager, said that WDUT would be re-issued in the "next few weeks." Earlier in November, Microsoft pulled WUDT after blogger Rafael Rivera accused the company of lifting code from the GPLv2-licensed "Imagemaster" open-source project. Rivera, who writes the Within Windows blog, said Microsoft compounded the problem by not acknowledging the source of the code embedded in WDUT, and by not sharing the source code for its modifications, or for the tool itself, to the project -- as required by the terms of GPL (GNU General Public License). WDUT has now been released under the provisions of GPLv2, Galli said yesterday. However, because Microsoft was forced to split the new WDUT into several components due to licensing requirements, some users must now go through a more complicated installation procedure, Galli acknowledged. Customers running Windows XP must install .Net Framework 2 and the Image Mastering API (application programming interface) before installing WDUT, according to new instructions published by Microsoft. Microsoft originally released WUDT in October, when it touted the tool as a way for netbook owners to create a bootable flash drive from a downloaded .iso file, or disk image, of Windows 7 purchased from Microsoft's online store. Most netbooks lack an optical drive and so can't install the new OS from a DVD. After WDUT's release, Rivera accused Microsoft of taking code from the open-source Imagemaster project. Yesterday, Rivera said that Microsoft had pulled the Imagemaster code from WDUT at the request of its maker. "I suspect he freaked out after half the Internet started linking to the project -- understandable -- and pulled the code," Rivera said on his blog Wednesday. Microsoft took heat from several corners over the GPL license violation. Computerworld blogger Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, for example, blasted Microsoft for the gaffe. "It seems Microsoft still can't resist stealing from open-source software," Vaughan-Nichols said last month. After Microsoft yanked WDUT and announced it would re-release the tool under GPLv2, however, Vaughan-Nichols changed his tune. "Maybe Microsoft is changing their ways when it comes to open source," he said several days later. WDUT can be downloaded directly from Microsoft's site (.exe download). The source code for WDUT has been posted to CodePlex, Microsoft's open-source repository. <http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9142088/Repentant_Microsoft_re_issue…> _______________________________________________ ke-internetusers mailing list ke-internetusers(a)bdix.net http://www.bdix.net/mailman/listinfo/ke-internetusers

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Looking for 2 processor motherboard
by [ Brainiac ] 12 Dec '09

12 Dec '09

Hi, i need one of these within nairobi. Please inbox me details and cost. Regards. -- Someone in Kenya cares about the environent. http://www.cra-africa.info

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2010 : Kenyan Developers Year
by aki 12 Dec '09

12 Dec '09

Gentlemen, Ladies : We are now a point where we should be looking ahead ( most new year resolutions don't make it, the subject line one should not be one of them ) to what we plan for next year. As is so evident from the server contributions thread that a common cause and unity can overcome many things. Moving on, 2 very important events for the calendar next year : BarCamp & DevCon. I've already set aside a personal contribution of Kshs 10,000/- for BarCamp and this amount will be available as soon as BarCamp organizers are good to go. However the above events are not even close enough to what we should be achieving and we are cheating ourselves if we think so. I suggest we also do these : a) Creation of Development community mailing list on new skunks server b) Create budgets ( idea contributed by Murigi ) to allow the events to happen. c) Creation of a prize for Top Developer of the Year ( financial prize of say eg Ksh 100,000 . We will have to find a way for this ) d) Liase more with KICTB or any other agencies who are willing and share the same targets. e) Work done by Strathmore should also be added to the Devs list above I'm going to ensure that the Dev Community idea takes off or if there is one already, will try my level best to support it. ( I've already shelved 3 projects that were due, they can wait. The bigger picture is much worse... ) I've been very critical of local Devs and this was to ascertain where we are at and what happened with the Nokia results hardened my resolve. So don't take it personally, without criticism we think we are perfect? Well SA kicked our a..ses outright on things that would have been done quite easily here. This is unacceptable and a lame excuse for not doing enough. Support each project and please add your thots, way forward, ideas. Combined we can make many things happen through the list :-) Rgds. -- ( the rise of Yoda! Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi... )

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a local laptop factory/assembly-plant?
by saidimu apale 11 Dec '09

11 Dec '09

This is old news (the VIA OpenBook @ http://www.viaopenbook.com/) but it triggered some "new" questions in mind: - how feasible is it for a public-private-partnership (PPP) to setup a fabrication/assembly plant using the reference designs? - would the (eventual) cost be lower than off-the-shelf netbooks? - is the boost to the local knowledge economy worth the risks involved? - would anyone buy the units? Or are Kenyans too beholden to brand names (HP, Toshiba etc)? - is this a camouflaged reinvention of the wheel? - are there times when other factors justify reinventing portions of a wheel? What factors might those be? Engadget's review @ http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/27/via-openbook-hands-on/ If the ICT Board and the Government are serious about kickstarting local this and that, perhaps they should be asking themselves such questions. Or have they already? It would be great if university courses modified the reference designs for a local context and published their results. Or at the very least modifying a simpler circuit board like the Arduino http://www.arduino.cc/ (Wired has a good article about it @ http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/magazine/16-11/ff_openmanufacturing) Saidi

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KDN Survey
by Murigi Muraya 11 Dec '09

11 Dec '09

Passed by the KDN Westlands offices last Friday to request a FTTH survey but nothing doing yet. Nani atanisaidia nisipate butterflies ...

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PAYPAL: deposit money
by Tuma Barua 11 Dec '09

11 Dec '09

hi, how does one add some money into paypal account that is linked to a credit card, in order to pay someone. I have just opened my account and it is reading 0.00. I have to pay someone but i can wait to be paid, in order to pay. regards, Tuma.

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