May 2009 - skunkworks - Skunkworks Site

e-Government Website - New Face
by Lily Karanja 06 May '09

06 May '09

Dear Techies: www.e-government.go.ke is opening a new page......a much better page! Not bad at all......huh! As compared to the one before,ofcourse. Government websites should invest in content, beneficial and relevant content for all. There's a long journey ahead for Government Websites, I hope the people concerned are focusing on these important issues to keep on track and make the needed progress. Lil

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Skunkworks University?
by Kigunda Mbogo 06 May '09

06 May '09

Dear Member, Following the meeting held by the Board of Directors, it was resolved that: - Skunkworks University be established with its headquarters in Kenya, - The Univesity offers professional programs which shall consist of sandwiched (Industrial and Academic) programs such as Doctor/Master/Bachelor/Diploma/Certificate in Ethical Hacking, Digital Forensics, Incident Handling, etc. - You, as a member, will take one or two of these roles: student/lecturer/instructor/supervisor. Relax! this is not a hoax but a food for thought. Shall we bearly remain to mailing list and/or tuesday meetings, or we plan to grow and develop? For example we could establish (not a faculty) but *Specific Interest Groups*like Software Development, Systems Administration, ICT Project Management, Security Wonking, Ethical Hacking, Incident Handling, Networking, Telecommunications, bla..bla.... Kigz.

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Slimed down version of facebook for Developing Countries .. cause you broke a**
by Joe Murithi Njeru 06 May '09

06 May '09

Hello Skunkers, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/technology/start-ups/27global.html What do you think of the above? -- Regards, Joe Linux User: #361092 SIP: joenjeru(a)ekiga.net

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[Fwd: Africa should just stop whining!]
by Michuki Mwangi 06 May '09

06 May '09

Good one! -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [AfrICANN-discuss] Africa should just stop whining! Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 17:38:08 +0200 From: Anne-Rachel Innï¿½ <annerachel(a)gmail.com> Reply-To: africann(a)afrinic.net To: africann(a)afrinic.net Africa should just stop whining! http://www.computerworld.co.ke/articles/2009/05/04/africa-should-just-stop-… By Rebecca Wanjiku <http://www.computerworld.co.ke/users/rebecca-wanjiku> 4 May, 2009 It is considered automatic that Africa lags behind all other continents in technology adoption. So, whenever there is an international meeting African representatives find a story to tell; the digital divide. It has become so bad that leaders just fail to do the right things and just blame it on the digital divide. The government heads fail to adopt technology and blame it on the digital divide. Some Africa representatives attend meetings and instead of striking collaborative deals to benefit their countries; they are busy shopping or just filling numbers in the meeting rooms. And when you ask, they blame it on the digital divide. I recall there was this guy who represented his country at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meetings for three years, and during the time, he did not share any outcome or notes from the meeting with technology forums. It was embarrassing that at one point, a senior government officer attended one of the technology related meetings and had no clue that hi country was represented within ICANN. The representative had just been attending meetings and not even sharing with the tech community or government officers on the recommendations and outcomes of such meetings. What would you call that? The digital divide? There is no doubt that there exists a gap between developing countries and developed countries within ICANN. This gap is specifically manifested when it comes to Africa delegates, they hardly contribute meaningfully to the public forums. ICANN deals with the names and numbers, the technical aspects but Africa is still grappling with elementary issues such as access and policy issues. For instance; when the business group is discussing issues of e-commerce and the amount of information that should be availed online or whether the security agents should be given such information, how does someone with no e-commerce in their country contribute to the debate? But does that mean that Africa has no place in international technology meetings? Why then does Africa fail to take advantage of some of the opportunities? At a recent technology conference, Maua Daftari,Tanzania's Deputy Minister in charge of science and technology expressed her fear that if the Conficker worm hits Africa, it might wipe out the few steps made. What was confusing was that I did not hear her say what Tanzania is doing to promote use of open source technology, if the the reliance on Microsoft products poses the danger she was quoting. In some cases, innovative youth ventures have been stifled by uninformed officers heading important government heads. I recall last year, I had an interview with Laban Mwangi, one of Kenya's most progressive and innovative techie. He shared his frustrations in trying to convince mobile phone companies in Kenya to adopt his point of sale gadget by selling to him airtime in wholesale, which he can then sell to traders in remote areas through his gadget. The idea was shared with the power and lighting company among other important service providers. With the gadget, Mwangi wanted people to sell airtime from any company, pay water and electricity bills among other services. His attempts did not bear much fruit then. You can imagine my shock when I entered one of the corner shops in London earlier this year and found that they use Mwangi's concept. So, Mwangi failed to get them to adopt his technology but do not be shocked if a few years down the line, you hear that one company has been awarded a huge contract to supply what Mwangi would have supplied at a fraction. If we adopted that technology last year; we would have been far by now. So, it is clear that Africa's appreciation of young techie minds is lacking, technocrats have specialized in attending meetings and their technology vision is blurred and most of all; we have mastered the art of whining. We should just get the solutions and stop that digital divide song, how come Africa does not talk of the digital divide when it comes to military hardware and other state-of-the art warfare gadgets? How comes African militaries have one of the highest budgets and are quick to adopt latest technology? Does that mean there is no digital divide in military terms? I think Africa should just stop whining and act! _______________________________________________ AfrICANN mailing list AfrICANN(a)afrinic.net https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/africann

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Re: [Skunkworks] [Fwd: Africa should just stop whining!]
by wesley kiriinya 06 May '09

06 May '09

Good article Rebecca! --- On Tue, 5/5/09, Michuki Mwangi <mwangi(a)isoc.org> wrote: From: Michuki Mwangi <mwangi(a)isoc.org> Subject: [Skunkworks] [Fwd: Africa should just stop whining!] To: "Skunkworks forum" <skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke> Date: Tuesday, May 5, 2009, 6:50 PM Good one! -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [AfrICANN-discuss] Africa should just stop whining! Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 17:38:08 +0200 From: Anne-Rachel Inné <annerachel(a)gmail.com> Reply-To: africann(a)afrinic.net To: africann(a)afrinic.net Africa should just stop whining! http://www.computerworld.co.ke/articles/2009/05/04/africa-should-just-stop-… By Rebecca Wanjiku <http://www.computerworld.co.ke/users/rebecca-wanjiku> 4 May, 2009 It is considered automatic that Africa lags behind all other continents in technology adoption. So, whenever there is an international meeting African representatives find a story to tell; the digital divide. It has become so bad that leaders just fail to do the right things and just blame it on the digital divide. The government heads fail to adopt technology and blame it on the digital divide. Some Africa representatives attend meetings and instead of striking collaborative deals to benefit their countries; they are busy shopping or just filling numbers in the meeting rooms. And when you ask, they blame it on the digital divide. I recall there was this guy who represented his country at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meetings for three years, and during the time, he did not share any outcome or notes from the meeting with technology forums. It was embarrassing that at one point, a senior government officer attended one of the technology related meetings and had no clue that hi country was represented within ICANN. The representative had just been attending meetings and not even sharing with the tech community or government officers on the recommendations and outcomes of such meetings. What would you call that? The digital divide? There is no doubt that there exists a gap between developing countries and developed countries within ICANN. This gap is specifically manifested when it comes to Africa delegates, they hardly contribute meaningfully to the public forums. ICANN deals with the names and numbers, the technical aspects but Africa is still grappling with elementary issues such as access and policy issues. For instance; when the business group is discussing issues of e-commerce and the amount of information that should be availed online or whether the security agents should be given such information, how does someone with no e-commerce in their country contribute to the debate? But does that mean that Africa has no place in international technology meetings? Why then does Africa fail to take advantage of some of the opportunities? At a recent technology conference, Maua Daftari,Tanzania's Deputy Minister in charge of science and technology expressed her fear that if the Conficker worm hits Africa, it might wipe out the few steps made. What was confusing was that I did not hear her say what Tanzania is doing to promote use of open source technology, if the the reliance on Microsoft products poses the danger she was quoting. In some cases, innovative youth ventures have been stifled by uninformed officers heading important government heads. I recall last year, I had an interview with Laban Mwangi, one of Kenya's most progressive and innovative techie. He shared his frustrations in trying to convince mobile phone companies in Kenya to adopt his point of sale gadget by selling to him airtime in wholesale, which he can then sell to traders in remote areas through his gadget. The idea was shared with the power and lighting company among other important service providers. With the gadget, Mwangi wanted people to sell airtime from any company, pay water and electricity bills among other services. His attempts did not bear much fruit then. You can imagine my shock when I entered one of the corner shops in London earlier this year and found that they use Mwangi's concept. So, Mwangi failed to get them to adopt his technology but do not be shocked if a few years down the line, you hear that one company has been awarded a huge contract to supply what Mwangi would have supplied at a fraction. If we adopted that technology last year; we would have been far by now. So, it is clear that Africa's appreciation of young techie minds is lacking, technocrats have specialized in attending meetings and their technology vision is blurred and most of all; we have mastered the art of whining. We should just get the solutions and stop that digital divide song, how come Africa does not talk of the digital divide when it comes to military hardware and other state-of-the art warfare gadgets? How comes African militaries have one of the highest budgets and are quick to adopt latest technology? Does that mean there is no digital divide in military terms? I think Africa should just stop whining and act! -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ AfrICANN mailing list AfrICANN(a)afrinic.net https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/africann -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks Other services @ http://my.co.ke Other lists ------------- Skunkworks announce: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks-announce Science - http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/science kazi - http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/admin/kazi/general

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Cheap Laptop...Anyone???
by Shiro Njagi 06 May '09

06 May '09

hey skunks! My friend is in need of a laptop, branded, harddisk space 160GB-250GB, RAM 1GB or 2GB(preferably), dual core 1.4 and above... looking to spend the most minimal amounts of cash possible... anyone with information please holla used or new doesn't matter but should be in good condition...tip-top condition actually thanx good people!

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Call Tracking Software
by Patrick Githinji 05 May '09

05 May '09

Should anyone require a Telephone Management Software, please reach us at Leading Edge Office Solutions on tel: 020-215 88 15 or 0737 996 078. You can also reach us on sales(a)leadingedge.co.ke

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what is error -3002
by joan waweru 05 May '09

05 May '09

Hi, I was resizing a partion and the error message -3002 kept recurring before completing the process. What does it mean and what should i do? Joan Waweru

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Linux environment boosting its defenses arsenal
by Gakuru Alex 05 May '09

05 May '09

Like other Unix-like computer operating systems, Linux is widely considered as secured and well-guarded against computer viruses. Its multi-user environment makes it extremely hard for malware to gain root access to the system files. Though malicious programs that are specifically written for Linux are really small in number, there is still a possibility for them to cause some harm. So, it's necessary to take some precautionary measures. a) Have you ever used an virus scanner on your Linux machine? This article looks at 5 different anti-virus software for Linux. <http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/146346> and <http://www.junauza.com/2008/12/5-known-linux-anti-virus-software-for.html> b) Yesterdays News Flash "Free versionAVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.5 for Linux" <http://free.avg.com/download> c) "Kaspersky® Anti-Virus for Linux Workstation" <http://www.kaspersky.com/anti-virus_linux_workstation>

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what is the besy way to take down the internet!!
by saich 05 May '09

05 May '09

Dear All I am doing an assignment on what is the best possible way to take down the internet . A virus attack is possible but it would mean infecting thousands of hosts over the network.I am open to possible ideas.

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