August 2010 - skunkworks - Skunkworks Site

Web hosting
by vada dava 07 Aug '10

07 Aug '10

Can anyone guide me on the local prices for hosting a jomla or drupal website with about 300mb capacity and the price for registering a .com site?

6 5

car boot sale <advert>
by Rahim Kara 07 Aug '10

07 Aug '10

Great people of skunkville. A cordial invite to you and your kin alike. A car boot sale happens today at the jabavu close. I shall be there jestering with my former technological and geekical tools and softwares. Come hither and find your deals.

1 0

PetrolTracker: SMS commands/language
by saidimu apale 07 Aug '10

07 Aug '10

This is one area that non-programmers can very easily help out in. Even though we haven't decided on SMS as the best interface for this project, I'd like to start a parallel thread that explores this option in the event that it turns out to be the way to go. I'd like to speed up the process and involve everyone as well, so a parallel thread seems like a good idea. The problem we're seeking to solve is this: - what exactly do users type in their SMSes while asking for, or updating, petrol prices closest to where they are? The system will interpret these SMSes and send back a result accordingly. The "language" we're defining needs to be: - simple and intuitive (makes life easier for users) - clear and unambiguous (makes life easier for the system to know exactly what the user meant) - brief (needs to fit in a single SMS) There's only one way to know: real-life testing/simulation. Since everyone on this list travels within the city (and passes by multiple petrol stations every day), let's harness our efforts and see what would work. Let's pretend PetrolTracker is a fully-functioning system: how would you use it? What messages would you send it from your phone, and what responses would you expect? Since we don't yet have a system to receive the SMSes, this thread will do for now. Reply to this thread with what SMS messages you would have send to the system, and also inlcude the response(s) you expect. To try and simulate reality as much as possible, try and type out the message in real-time, i.e. as you are driving/passing by the petrol station. This will help test the practicality of the proposed system. I suggest you save your SMSes as a draft and type them out in this thread... the more the merrier. What do you think? Saidi

11 21

Re: [Skunkworks] Transformer blows in Westlands
by [watchman] 07 Aug '10

07 Aug '10

No, not the movie. There has been an explosion on one of the transformers between Westgate and Sarit. Lights out! -- watchman

9 15

PetrolTracker: locations of petrol stations in the city
by saidimu apale 06 Aug '10

06 Aug '10

We need locations of "participating" petrol stations in the city. It would be great if someone volunteered to harness the info and generate a Google/Bing maps mashup. I put "participating" in quotes because we need to decide who gets to be part of this: does *anyone* who sells petrol qualify? Or only licensed/recognized dealers? Only ones within the city-center? Questions in need of community answers... Saidi

2 3

PetrolTracker: fleshing out the devil in the details...
by saidimu apale 06 Aug '10

06 Aug '10

As we discuss the housekeeping rules (in a separate thread), let's also discuss the actual project scope on this thread. Very few project ideas survive in their original form, most go thro' an iterative refinement. The strength of an idea isn't in its immutability ("unchangeable-ness"), but rather in its ability to act as a good seed for the n-th generation ideas that actually get implemented. >From some of the responses to my earlier proposal for this project (originally an idea from my brother), quite a few other people had similar ideas. Let's decide which aspects of the various projects get implemented, why they should be implemented, and in what version(s). I'll start by outlining my ideas and reasons; please add your ideas and let's come to a rough consensus fairly quickly. Feel free as well to constructively critique other people's ideas. This stage should act as a filter to isolate unworkable ideas, or ideas that really should be a separate project altogether. Ok, here we go: - find out the cheapest petrol prices closest to you - report/update the prices of a petrol station - to simplify the project: - restrict the petrol stations only to Nairobi (for version 1) - the only interface will be SMS (subsequent versions may include other interfaces: web, mobile apps, etc etc) - pros: no one needs a smartphone, or data plan for this. Most ppl are already comfortable with SMSes. - cons: a lot of really snazzy, graphical features need a browser (or a capable smart/phone). But subsequent versions can include more advanced interfaces for phones that can support it. - use twitter's already-existing interface to receive and send SMSes. - pros: free, many good libraries exist, easy to quickly get started - cons: how many ppl in Nairobi use, or know about, twitter? How easy is it to quickly get a user sending/receiving messages on twitter via their phone? - to include as many people as possible: - use SMS as the main interface - allow a very fluid submission/query syntax (e.g. allow SMS-isms, abbreviations, incorrect street names etc etc There is a tension between making life simpler for the end-users (e.g. a forgiving language parser) and making life harder for the developers. It is easier, from a programming perspective, to only allow strict grammar in the SMSes sent, but that will likely make the application unusable for most people (imagine trying to query/submit petrol prices while driving, in perfect grammar!). Whenever possible, I tend to prefer transferring complexity away from the end-user and towards the programmer. These are some of the trade-offs we will have to decide on. Over to the community for a constructive back-and-forth... Saidi

4 8

How to text without a cell phone
by kris njoroge 06 Aug '10

06 Aug '10

Textfree is one of a handful of mobile texting apps that you can find in Apple's App store, Gogii's TextPlus<http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10256199-233.html> among the higher-ranked ones. But only Textfree (for now anyway) hands out an actual phone number, which can later be ported as required by law<http://news.cnet.com/Phone-carriers-brace-for-service-swapping-rush/2100-10…>. Other apps send texts from an e-mail or short code. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20012720-94.html -- "Humility grows a little more each time i genuinely listen to the experience of another human being". Brahma Kumaris

1 0

anyone used www.e-pesa.net ?
by Claire Njoki 06 Aug '10

06 Aug '10

Hi, Anyone here who has used/uses: www.e-pesa.net Rgds, Claire.

1 0

Kaspersky Business Edition
by Josy Ngatia 06 Aug '10

06 Aug '10

Hey guys..... any Authorized Kaspersky reseller or dealer.... Get in touch with me ASAP offlist NB: need Approx 150 Licenses of Kaspersky Business Edition

3 2

Re: [Skunkworks] Online Banking - NIC
by Brian Omwenga 06 Aug '10

06 Aug '10

What does online banking really stand for in Kenya? Does just having a website (online presence) really stand for online banking? Seriously... NIC Bank apparently offers online banking for its Move customers, but their "online banking" service has been down for abt 3 odd weeks. If any of you guys can implement a simple security module for passwords, you should probably approach them and help them out. Brian.

6 10