October 2010 - skunkworks - Skunkworks Site

Re: [Skunkworks] Open Source Has come of age!!
by KAMAU TIRUS 21 Oct '10

21 Oct '10

Hi Skunkworks; Open source Solution have come of age Just have a look at this HR<http://www.at.co.ke/index.php/hr>solution http://www.at.co.ke/index.php/hr and You can blog about it and other open source innovation at http://www.at.co.ke/blog/ Karibu[?]

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Bernadette Ndege left a message for you on Badoo!
by Badoo 21 Oct '10

21 Oct '10

You have a new message on Badoo! Bernadette Ndege left a message for you. Follow this link to open it: http://eu1.badoo.com/0178721287/in/ePgex7A1gog/?lang_id=3 Some more patiently waiting folks: Justice (Nairobi, Kenya) Flozuh (Nairobi, Kenya) James (Nairobi, Kenya) Paul (Nairobi, Kenya) Michael (Nairobi, Kenya) ... Who else? http://eu1.badoo.com/0178721287/in/ePgex7A1gog/?lang_id=3 If clicking the links in this message does not work, copy and paste them into the address bar of your browser. This email is a part of delivering a message sent by Bernadette Ndege on the system. If you received this email by mistake, please just ignore it. After a short time the message will be removed from the system. Have fun! The Badoo Team You have received this email, because a Badoo member has left a message for you on Badoo. This is a post-only mailing. Replies to this message are not monitored or answered. If you don't want to receive any more messages from Badoo, please notify us: http://eu1.badoo.com/impersonation.phtml?lang_id=3&mail_code=21&email=skunk…

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e-machines on sale
by Dan Muiru 21 Oct '10

21 Oct '10

CPU: Intel® Atom Processor N450 (1.66GHz, 512KB L2 cache, 667MHz FSB) Operating System: Genuine Windows XP® Home with Service Pack 3 Chipset: Intel® NM10 Express Memory: 1024MB DDR2 667MHz Hard Drive: 160GB 5400rpm SATA Media Reader: 2-in-1 digital media card reader Secure Digital™ (SD), ultiMediaCard™ (MMC) Video: Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 with 64MB of dedicated video memory, supporting Microsoft® DirectX® 9 Audio: High-definition audio Built-in stereo speaker Built-in digital microphone Network: 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Certified™ 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet LAN Pointing Device: Multigesture touchpad (circular-motion scrolling, pinch-action zoom, page flip) Ports : 2 - USB 2.0 1 - Headphone/speaker/line-out jack 1 - Microphone-in jack 1 - Ethernet (RJ-45) 1 - DC-in jack for AC adapter 1 - Kensington lock slot Dimensions : 10.17" W x 7.28" D x .99" H Weight : 2.43 lbs. (system unit only) Battery: 3-cell lithium ion (2200 mAh) Warranty: 1-year parts and labor limited warranty. - Genuine Windows XP® Home with Service Pack 3 - Adobe® Flash® Player 10 - Adobe® Reader® 9.1 - eMachines® Power Management - eMachines® Recovery Management - Google Toolbar™ - Microsoft® DirectX® 9 (Mail, Photo Gallery, Live™ Messenger, Writer) - Microsoft® Office Proffessional 2007 - Microsoft® Silverlight™ - Microsoft® Windows Live™ Essentials - Wave 3 - Microsoft® Works 9 - Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (60-day trial) - Norton® Online Backup - Skype™ WildTangent® demo games Price: *Kes 27,000 *

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OT : Article "whiteafrican Erik Hersman and his gang misleading IT techies in Kenya"
by Peter Muchemi 21 Oct '10

21 Oct '10

http://nipate.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=365&p=2002#p2002&utm_source=twitterfe…

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PHP Challenge
by Odhiambo Washington 21 Oct '10

21 Oct '10

I have a site that's br0ken because of some deprecated php functions. Any takers who are willing to whip up an instant solution? Here are the issues: 1. Deprecated: Function eregi() is deprecated in /usr/local/www/data-dist/siteA/includes/sef.php on line 533 Line 533 has this: eregi("^(https?:[\/]+[^\/]+)(.*$)", $mosConfig_live_site, $live_site_parts); 2. Deprecated: Function eregi() is deprecated in /usr/local/www/data-dist/siteA/templates/rt_technopia/rt_supersucker.php on line 150 Line 150 has this: f ( eregi( 'index.php\?', $row->link ) ) { if ( !eregi( 'Itemid=', $row->link ) ) { $row->link .= '&Itemid='. $row->id; }} Clues are here - http://devthought.com/tumble/2009/06/fix-ereg-is-deprecated-errors-in-php-5… , that the eregi() function now becomes preg_match() but I am not good with php regexps. Anyone willing to give me the modified functions? -- Best regards, Odhiambo WASHINGTON, Nairobi,KE +254733744121/+254722743223 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Damn!!

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Seeking Redhat Enterprise Linux License
by Peter Karunyu 21 Oct '10

21 Oct '10

Good morning good people, Anyone who can recommend a local reseller of the aforementioned? My contact @ Redhat pointed me to some reseller in South Africa but I am feeling sufficiently patriotic :-) The Redhat website <https://www.redhat.com/wapps/store/catalog.html> says a Standard Subscription costs USD$ 799. Buying online is not an option at the moment.

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Browsing using a Zain phone
by Erick NNN 21 Oct '10

21 Oct '10

I tried searching the archives<http://www.google.co.ke/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-…>, but didn't get any information. Forgive my ignorance, I'm new to the market. I'm using a Samsung GT-S5233A to try and browse, and was getting "No response". I called Customer Care three times, and they say they've activated data on their end. They were supposed to send me new settings via SMS, and I'm still waiting. The only thing that has changed is the error message, now "Service Unavailable" in South C. No response from the customer care email address either. The phone is set to "Zain WAP"; Access name; wap.ke.celtel.com Auth type; Normal User ID; wap Password; <left blank, per Customer Care, new password doesn't work either> Any help will be appreciated. Asante. Erick

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Snippets from Michael joseph Reflections!
by Joel Musungu 21 Oct '10

21 Oct '10

Skunk(ette)s, He came, we saw and we heard and it was good. It wasn't raw and edgy but it was really insightful and eye/ear popping. Here are a few snippets: MJ Says: "INHERITED TELKOM INFRastructure. Old and almost useless network switch was in extelkoms house. Zain started in feb then launched in august in august 2000 but safaricom had been operational for some years and had a staff of 55 that he had to inherit. 5 new hires and 55 old safcom staff from tkl in norfolk towers flat mj is an engineer vodafone inv 20mill usd ata time when one switch was 10mill usd Went with prepaid billing system because they couldn't afford a postpaid platform, in hindsight a good decision. The prepaid billing platform was only 200kUSD Billed per sec when per minute would have made more sense, gut instinct made MJ choose per second billing even though he needed the 25% extra revenues that come from having a per Minute billing. A good gut decision in hindsight though at that moment it was thought to be a mistake to go per second. He decided to hire 200 fresh out of campus to provide free customer service- turned out to be a good decision as most people would not read any manuals or handouts. They fielded as many calls about the then Kencell as they did about their own service. Bought low cost Motorola phones to start and it was almost a disaster as they were overcharged and the service was low on the Moto end. Launched on Oct 23rd 2000. On Monday following the network collapsed due to an mimproperly configured database. In june 2001 overtook kencell in market share. Needed to borrow more money. Paperwork took a whole year to get the money. Shareholders wouldn't sign guarantees so the network was its own security guarantee. Continued aggressive selling but lacked capacity to expand the network while waiting for funds. This led to congestion. Switch was paid and installed in 10 days. Huge mistake: . Awarded the loyal customers with a 200KES giveaway but due to Dial UP from Dubai it went horribly wrong and people were up at 3am calling and congesting the network for a whole 5 days network was super congested. Lessons learned: do not surprise your customers and Use local based companies as far as possible. . Free calls after 9pm- another congestion causing fiasco starting at 9.01 pm. Safaricom has an R&D development team of over 40 members and a web portal for ideas submission. Most of the local hits are not originally kenyan ideas. Sambaza originated in Egypt and Sudan. Mpesa was uk developed and coded by vodafone and rolled out in kenya on a test basis as a proof of concept. This was done in Thika first as a microfinance loan payback method but quickly expanded into its present role. Support servers are based in UK and Frankfurt Germany. Reached one million in 2003, 2mill 2004 and 16.5 million currently and growing by half a million every month. Revenue is down by upto 40 %. BTSs must payback max of 1yr or in 6 months unless they are wrongly placed or are microwave only sites. Site by site revenue is reviewed every six months in terms of originating and terminating revenue. Safaricom has 60 green sites. Looking at new ways of cooling the batteries by burying them as this is 25% of cost of running a BTS. Originated revenue as well as terminated revenue are used to evaluate a BTS location. 2600 base stations total and growing.. Physical maintenance is outsourced. 5000 generators in the network to power the BTS. Remote sites have high vandalism and security is a high concern as they all cannot be manned sites. Michael Joseph says "Revenue share: safcom shud get the majority of the revenue share. Our customer. Our distribution costs. Our infrastructure. We stand to lose the most and gain the least in case you are not successfull. Therefore we will have a great and better share of the revenue. In the case of Skiza, we didnt believe the model will work therefore we gave them a whole lions share of revenue but they had to invest all their own funds and simply ride on our network. they are a great success and a good example of where revenue share favours the other party." "Mpesa is launching pay at the till at Uchumi supermarkets on Friday 22nd October. Retail banking is going to be a dinosaur in 10 years time. MPesa is now the biggest form of paying school fees. Orange money, YU cash and zap are thinking its about money but in truth it is all about providing a service and profit will come in at its own time." Average kenyan calls only 3.2 people so friends and family circle is limited to 3.2. friends and family tariff will not work here hence the tactical withdrawal of the tariff quietly by Orange.This is one way orange made a huge mistake. You must have a measured and tactile response to disruptive tactics and that is why safaricom is slow and measured in responding to the Price wars as they are playing out. " When the righteous Prosper, The City rejoices but when the wicked perish there are shouts of JOY

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FW: Re: Snippets from Michael joseph Reflections!
by Joel Musungu 20 Oct '10

20 Oct '10

Erick, Maybe in 2000 it was possible. Cant tell for sure if he was serious or fibbed on that one but pricesw in 2000 and prices now are miles apart. Generally I think he handled himself well. Doesn't strike me as the kind of man who can be talked into a fix! Message: 3 Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 17:00:44 +0300 From: Erick Njenga <eriknjenga(a)gmail.com> To: Skunkworks Mailing List <skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke> Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] Snippets from Michael joseph Reflections! Message-ID: <AANLkTikndiOUQxYV0Jg=pMKGcu8btR1hwPnJ2joPPn+_(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" I streamed the talk and IMHO it was excellent. Just wondering out of curiosity which switch goes for 10m USD. On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 4:43 PM, Joel Musungu <nabiimfalme(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > Skunk(ette)s, > > > > He came, we saw and we heard and it was good. > > > > It wasn?t raw and edgy but it was really insightful and eye/ear popping. > > > > Here are a few snippets: > > > > MJ Says: > > > > ?INHERITED TELKOM INFRastructure. > > Old and almost useless network switch was in extelkoms house. > > Zain started in feb then launched in august in august 2000 but > safaricom had been operational for some years and had a staff of 55 > that he had to inherit. > > 5 new hires and 55 old safcom staff from tkl in norfolk towers flat > > mj is an engineer > > vodafone inv 20mill usd ata time when one switch was 10mill usd > > Went with prepaid billing system because they couldn?t afford a > postpaid platform, in hindsight a good decision. The prepaid billing > platform was only 200kUSD > > Billed per sec when per minute would have made more sense, gut > instinct made MJ choose per second billing even though he needed the > 25% extra revenues that come from having a per Minute billing. A good > gut decision in hindsight though at that moment it was thought to be a > mistake to go per second. > > He decided to hire 200 fresh out of campus to provide free customer > service- turned out to be a good decision as most people would not > read any manuals or handouts. They fielded as many calls about the > then Kencell as they did about their own service. > > Bought low cost Motorola phones to start and it was almost a disaster > as they were overcharged and the service was low on the Moto end. > > Launched on Oct 23rd 2000. On Monday following the network collapsed > due to an mimproperly configured database. > > In june 2001 overtook kencell in market share. Needed to borrow more money. > Paperwork took a whole year to get the money. Shareholders wouldn?t > sign guarantees so the network was its own security guarantee. > > Continued aggressive selling but lacked capacity to expand the network > while waiting for funds. This led to congestion. > > Switch was paid and installed in 10 days. > > Huge mistake: > > ? Awarded the loyal customers with a 200KES giveaway but due to > Dial UP from Dubai it went horribly wrong and people were up at 3am > calling and congesting the network for a whole 5 days network was super congested. > Lessons learned: do not surprise your customers and Use local based > companies as far as possible. > > ? Free calls after 9pm- another congestion causing fiasco starting > at 9.01 pm. > > Safaricom has an R&D development team of over 40 members and a web > portal for ideas submission. Most of the local hits are not originally > kenyan ideas. Sambaza originated in Egypt and Sudan. > > Mpesa was uk developed and coded by vodafone and rolled out in kenya > on a test basis as a proof of concept. This was done in Thika first > as a microfinance loan payback method but quickly expanded into its present role. > Support servers are based in UK and Frankfurt Germany. > > Reached one million in 2003, 2mill 2004 and 16.5 million currently and > growing by half a million every month. Revenue is down by upto 40 %. > > BTSs must payback max of 1yr or in 6 months unless they are wrongly > placed or are microwave only sites. Site by site revenue is reviewed > every six months in terms of originating and terminating revenue. > > Safaricom has 60 green sites. Looking at new ways of cooling the > batteries by burying them as this is 25% of cost of running a BTS. > Originated revenue as well as terminated revenue are used to evaluate > a BTS location. 2600 base stations total and growing.. Physical > maintenance is outsourced. 5000 generators in the network to power > the BTS. Remote sites have high vandalism and security is a high > concern as they all cannot be manned sites. > > Michael Joseph says > > "Revenue share: safcom shud get the majority of the revenue share. > Our customer. Our distribution costs. Our infrastructure. We stand to > lose the most and gain the least in case you are not successfull. > Therefore we will have a great and better share of the revenue. In the > case of Skiza, we didnt believe the model will work therefore we gave > them a whole lions share of revenue but they had to invest all their > own funds and simply ride on our network. they are a great success and > a good example of where revenue share favours the other party." > > "Mpesa is launching pay at the till at Uchumi supermarkets on Friday > 22nd October. Retail banking is going to be a dinosaur in 10 years > time. MPesa is now the biggest form of paying school fees. Orange > money, YU cash and zap are thinking its about money but in truth it is > all about providing a service and profit will come in at its own time." > > Average kenyan calls only 3.2 people so friends and family circle is > limited to 3.2. friends and family tariff will not work here hence the > tactical withdrawal of the tariff quietly by Orange.This is one way > orange made a huge mistake. > > You must have a measured and tactile response to disruptive tactics > and that is why safaricom is slow and measured in responding to the > Price wars as they are playing out. > > ? > > > > > > When the righteous Prosper, The City rejoices but when the wicked > perish there are shouts of JOY > > > > _______________________________________________ > Skunkworks mailing list > Skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke > http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks > ------------ > Skunkworks Rules > http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24 <http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94> &t=94 > ------------ > Other services @ http://my.co.ke > -- Thanks and Regards, Erick Njenga Nyachwaya, M: +254-725-008-790 <http://www.facebook.com/ErickNjenga> <http://www.twitter.com/ErickNjenga>

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change
by james ratemo 20 Oct '10

20 Oct '10

I wanna change my subscription. Change my email address to jamrats2001(a)yahoo.com. Thanks -- James Ratemo ICT reporter, The Standard Newspaper, P.O Box 49990-00100, Nairobi Cell Phone: 0724960649 OR 0731960649 Other Emaili-jratemo(a)standardmedia.co.ke or jratemo(a)gmail.com Website:www.ictcradle.com. Twitter accounts: kenyacurrent and jratemo Skype account:ratemoj Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? No one.

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