November 2011 - skunkworks - Skunkworks Site

Steve Jobs Fielded Customer Service Requests
by Philip Musyoki 23 Nov '11

23 Nov '11

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/22/tech/innovation/jobs-excerpt-customer-ser…

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help
by seraphina midega 23 Nov '11

23 Nov '11

On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 23:38 PST skunkworks-request(a)lists.my.co.ke wrote: >Send Skunkworks mailing list submissions to > skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke > >To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks >or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > skunkworks-request(a)lists.my.co.ke > >You can reach the person managing the list at > skunkworks-owner(a)lists.my.co.ke > >When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific >than "Re: Contents of Skunkworks digest..." > > >Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: How not to suck. Read, reasons why we do.... (Peter Muchemi) > 2. Re: Steve Jobs Fielded Customer Service Requests (Peter Karunyu) > 3. Re: Steve Jobs Fielded Customer Service Requests (Paul Kevin) > 4. Re: Steve Jobs Fielded Customer Service Requests (Peter Karunyu) > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >Message: 1 >Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:30:52 +0300 >From: Peter Muchemi <pmuchemi(a)gmail.com> >To: Skunkworks Mailing List <skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke> >Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] How not to suck. Read, reasons why we do.... >Message-ID: > <CAOO0LjAqr5276pu-+JWPeSBh-ba5vvOuGrN_q-5V3LTxE=fS+w(a)mail.gmail.com> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > >I've been there twice and can attest to majority of the items. > >If u live in a 50KM * 50KM piece of land n the middle of the ocean, then >the words of Andy Grove (Intel) come to mind "Only the paranoid survive". > > >On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 10:14 AM, Timothy Mutugi <timothymutugi(a)gmail.com>wrote: > >> @Laban >> >> lol...hiyo shaadi.com haina Mauritian...and then you have to pay... >> >> On 11/22/11, Laban Mwangi <lmwangi(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> > shaadi.com >> > >> > On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 6:25 PM, Timothy Mutugi >> > <timothymutugi(a)gmail.com>wrote: >> > >> >> @Laban, >> >> >> >> How are the Mauritian Women? >> >> >> >> ...in all aspects...? >> >> >> >> Timo. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> - To become a resident, you either need to >> >> 1) Marry a Mauritian and stay married for > 4 years. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> >> Skunkworks mailing list >> >> Skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke >> >> ------------ >> >> List info, subscribe/unsubscribe >> >> http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks >> >> ------------ >> >> >> >> Skunkworks Rules >> >> http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 >> >> ------------ >> >> Other services @ http://my.co.ke >> >> >> > >> _______________________________________________ >> Skunkworks mailing list >> Skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke >> ------------ >> List info, subscribe/unsubscribe >> http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks >> ------------ >> >> Skunkworks Rules >> http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 >> ------------ >> Other services @ http://my.co.ke >> > > > >-- >Peter Muchemi >Software Developer/Entrepreneur >http://www.software.co.ke >+254 722 320986 >

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How not to suck. Read, reasons why we do....
by Laban Mwangi 23 Nov '11

23 Nov '11

Mauritius is an African country that's: - 0.34% of Kenya in area (less than a square that's 50kms x 50kms) - Has 2.5% the population and more than half the GDP of Kenya. - Has approx 1:1 Tourist:Citizen ratio compared to Kenya's 1:40 at best - Income tax is 15% compared to >30% in Kenya - Education, healthcare and welfare is free. (Really! If you are below a certain pay grade, you get benefits such as money to buy water tanks, some electricity units free etc) - Makes power from Bagasse that is cheaper and more reliable than KPLC & KENGEN and mind you they have a higher per capita power consumption because of air cons etc - Cooking gas goes for ~500KES for 13kg cylinder (They have no refinery. It's all imported). No one uses charcoal with the exception of Braai/choma. - Fuel costs approx the same as Kenya (No refinery... again) - Used to have aircon on for ~12 hours a day, fridge, used electric oven, etc for a bill of at most 3000 KES/month - Imports practically all their food (guess ~80%) from za, au, nz, in - It's cheaper to buy longlife milk from South America in Mauritius than KCC.) - An avocado goes for ~80KES, same price for a Passion passion. - Meat from in,nz and za goes for >600KES/KG for low grade all the way to 2,500KES/KG - Worker rights are enforced - Everyone has a job.. really, as a citizen, you can quit and a week later have a different job - Everyone get's a 13th month salary bonus. That's standard. 14th (and 15th in some cases) salary as a motivational bonus. Did I mention that ontop of this, some companies offer a free vacation per year for your family for a limit of say 5000USD? - Everyone's entitled to 24 working days leave per year and on top of that, you get 15 working days as sick days (fully paid) . You only need to produce a doctors note after missing 3 consecutive days. That comes to 39 paid working days as leave/year! - To get a job as an expatriate, the position must be advertised in the dailies, proof submitted to the government than no credible Mauritian applied, and the iff the expat's qualifications are good enough is one hired. See http://www.dig.co.ke/questions/19/requirements-to-work-as-an-expat-in-mauri… - To become a resident, you either need to 1) Marry a Mauritian and stay married for > 4 years. 2) Buy a house (starting at ~ 0.5 million USD for a 2 bedroom villa with no view all the way to ~ 3 million USD) under a special government scheme - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Resort_Scheme and samples http://www.labalisemarina.com/en/the-project/the-concept.aspx Industry: - Registration of a company is a breeze (www.investmauritius.com) - A lot of major clothing labels have factories in Mauritius. - Sugar production is phenomenal. 0.6 million tonnes vs Kenya's 25 Million tonnes (7 times more sugar if scaled to Kenya's size. ). Consider the land area given above.. It has to support the population, tourism, parks, water reservoirs.... Land is farmed all year round and is heavily mechanised. That's why we have a Mauritian company setting base - http://allafrica.com/stories/201109122023.html - Make do with a lot less flora and fauna for tourism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_of_Mauritius - Tourism earnings for both countries are equal - http://www.africagoodnews.com/brand-africa/travel-and-tourism/2230-mauritiu… http://www.tourism.go.ke/ministry.nsf/pages/facts_figures - Internet just works even though they have a single cable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cable_map18.svg - Has an IT hub that's grown from 1 building ~ (15 floors) to > 50 such buildings in a span of 5 years (www.e-cybercity.mu) - Call center industry is huge... Really, it is. For example: - In France, a lot of people get some work hours free to learn something/week. Given that the language of business is English, it so happens that a lot of people in France want to learn English... and Mauritius leapt at this opportunity since they are both French and English speaking. So you have a couple of blokes who learn flash, get some English content into flash and offer a learn at your own pace program. At the end of each module, you get to call in and practice English over the phone. - Here are some numbers: according to http://www.swi-mu.com/bpo-services.html The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in Mauritius has been growing 70 percent a year and is now worth $1.6 billion, employing 100,000 people. And as McKinsey analysts put it, BPO has to grow only 27% till 2008 to deliver $17 billion in revenue and employment of a million people. - Tax haven. http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2009/04/02/is-mauritius-a-tax-haven/ . RVR's there too - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rift_Valley_Railways_Consortium#Disagreements - Financial sector is sensible: - You can get a loan for a wedding, loan for a car, loan for a trip to visit your cousins in France. - You can pay your supermarket purchases using a cheque book. - You can buy a phone on hire purchase (not from the network) What we have is a good educated population. Really! we do. The average Kenyan is more knowledgeable (by parsecs!). We just need better leaders and be accountable to ourselves. Stop paying that cop, stop corruption, make your leader accountable. That's it. That's all it takes. Have an accountable day!

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HP
by Phares Kariuki 23 Nov '11

23 Nov '11

Their chairman uses a Mac at home... http://read.bi/w1wUfs. For a company that fired the former CEO for suggesting a shutdown of the unit, this is awfully hypocritical. I wouldn't buy a computer from a company that would not eat it's own dog food... -- Regards, Phares Kaboro Kariuki

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How do i stop my Safcom modem going off
by Nick Wambugu 23 Nov '11

23 Nov '11

I need to keep my MODEM on permanently as long as I have loaded it, but it keeps going off sometimes even in the middle of a download. How do I do this? * * *Kind regards,* * * *WAMBUGU Nick*

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Just a thought on a .co.ke domain
by Paul Kevin 23 Nov '11

23 Nov '11

Just a thought, Kenyas domain .co.ke is very helpful in cocoa business and in drug bizz..... so why isnt there http://www.pepsi.co.ke/

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Calling all Network Engineers, fans & enthusiasts
by John Gitau 22 Nov '11

22 Nov '11

Good day, We have noticed with concern the lack of a group that addresses and brings together network engineers and enthusiasts. It is a rapidly changing environment that we strongly feel would benefit from more collaboration. To this end, we'd like to invite you at the IHUB on Saturday the 19th at 2pm for the first meet up. We plan to call the group 'East African Network Operators Group' (EANOG). The idea behind this is to ensure continued education and collaboration on the latest technologies affecting your career to help you make your network more secure, reliable and better performing. Our <weekly/monthly/quarterly> meetings will feature top-notch technical presentations on various topics and a chance to learn and share experiences with your peers and more. We would like as wide a participation as possible. So if you work in a data center, some service provider, mobile, hospital, bank or your networking is limited to a string and a few cups:-) please join us. Just for us to gauge the interested numbers from this list, or to even know if it is a waste of time please throw in a comment or two with your ideas and confirmation to attend in reply to this e-mail. Riyaz on our first draft had beer thrown in. Unfortunately due to the cost of fuel and the dollar :-) you'll have to pay for it:-( Regards, JGitau

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Keylogger for Ubuntu?
by Timothy Mutugi 22 Nov '11

22 Nov '11

Dear Friends, Which keylogger would you recommend for Ubuntu? Please indicate one that you have used and found to be quite reliable. Timo.

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Intern Wanted
by Jared Koyier 22 Nov '11

22 Nov '11

Hello I'm looking for an intern for a very short stint. Bsc Computer Science or IT student either in 3rd, final year or just graduated. The intern will be working in a purely Windows environment, you will need to prove some basic understanding. Most important is the ability to learn fast. Send CV to me by COB. Keep it simple. PS: for the experienced guys on this forum, please do not complicate this thread with numerous questions Regards Jared Koyier

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Job Vacancy: Mobile Applications Developer
by Allan Ouma 22 Nov '11

22 Nov '11

Hi All, Wingu Solutions is once again hiring new staff to expand our team. We are looking for Mobile Applications Developers, any platform. For more details please look at http://wingusolutions.com/vacancies.html Allan Ouma P.O. Box 12731 Nairobi 00400 Kenya

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