April 2012 - skunkworks - Skunkworks Site

PHP Hammer
by Laban Mwangi 20 Apr '12

20 Apr '12

http://www.flickr.com/photos/raindrift/sets/72157629492908038/ http://me.veekun.com/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/ http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rasmus_Lerdorf

2 1

Amazon marketplace: For your AWS based apps.
by Laban Mwangi 20 Apr '12

20 Apr '12

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/19/amazon_app_market/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/19/amazon_vogels_aws_summit/

1 0

Ipad2 Keyboard
by Jac 20 Apr '12

20 Apr '12

Hi Anyone who know a shop in Kenya where I can buy an ipad keyboard and how much would it cost? Best -- Jackson Gathoni

4 5

An interesting week @ NMG
by Bernard Shiundu 20 Apr '12

20 Apr '12

I was renewing my epaper subscription on Tuesday and it's been an educative experience ... I attach some of the communications below Needless to say - for all of those of us working in user support - there are things to do and things not to do ... Most importantly - have a support line that is actually answered (or invest in Call Centre services if you can't do it in-house!) And of course, I remain not sorted out as of writing But just to be fair - this is the first time I'm having trouble with the service, it has in the past worked well for me .. and I HAVE been promised an additional week of subscription - when I DO get sorted out so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. [Some details cut - to preserve identities] *From:* Bernard Shiundu *Sent:* Friday, April 20, 2012 10:40 AM *To:* 'Support Person II'; 'epapers (KE)' *Cc:* 'Support Person I' *Subject:* RE: Subscription Error - Reminder + Things I have done so far *Importance:* High Hello Support Person II, Thanks for getting back to me. Some issues: 1. The account in question is "my account" <susanekesa(a)yahoo.com>. 2. I don’t know how things stand on your end but from my end the East African DOES NOT have a facility for a one week payment. 3. If I HAD paid for one week – given that the EA is a weekly - shouldn’t the amount have been around 50/= instead of 200/=. Hope this clarifies things. Looking forward to some solution. Thanks *From:* <[mailto:mwangie@ke.nationmedia.com]><[mailto:mwangie@ke.nationmedia.com]>Support Person II *Sent:* Friday, April 20, 2012 10:04 AM *To:* Bernard Shiundu; epapers (KE) *Cc:* Support Person I *Subject:* RE: Subscription Error - Reminder + Things I have done so far Hi Bernard, Trust you Morning is great. Could you Kindly clarify which user name used at registration for East African because from my side you (my account) subscribed East African for one week but not one month as mentioned earlier in the email. we highly apologies for the inconvenience caused Kindly see below Dear Nation Media E-papers, A transaction of KES 207.74 on JamboPay has been successful. Transaction details are below: *Transaction reference: * 999133 *Payee: * my account *Order for: * The East African *Order ID: * 2402_89173_89792 *Amount transacted: * KES 207.74 You can visit www.jamboPay.com <http://www.jambopay.com>for more details. Thanks, The JamboPay team Regards Support Person II *From:* Bernard Shiundu *Sent:* Friday, April 20, 2012 9:34 AM *To:* Support Person I; epapers (KE) *Subject:* RE: Subscription Error - Reminder + Things I have done so far And what I have tried so far without success (I still keep getting the renewal page after login): 1. Switched from proxied to direct internet connection (just incase our proxy cache was sending me data from the cache) 2. Cleared my all of my browser cache+history 3. Tried access from different browsers (Firefox, Google Chrome, IE, Opera) 4. Tried access from browsers above on different PC So there we are. It is definitely not me. *From:* Bernard Shiundu *Sent:* Friday, April 20, 2012 9:23 AM *To:* 'Support Person I'; 'epapers (KE)' *Subject:* RE: Subscription Error - Reminder *Importance:* High Just a reminder that I am still not sorted out on this. Thanks *From:* Bernard Shiundu *Sent:* Thursday, April 19, 2012 3:07 PM *To:* 'Support Person I'; 'epapers (KE)' *Subject:* RE: Subscription Error *Importance:* High Hello Support Person I, As we spoke on phone, the subscription is/was for one month. I have just tried to login but still getting the renewal page *From:* Support Person I *Sent:* Thursday, April 19, 2012 11:24 AM *To:* bshiundu(a)live.com; epapers (KE) *Subject:* RE: Subscription Error Hi Bernard, We spoke yesterday. I have found the account on the database, however, it could not be established the period you wish to subscribe and thus your subscription could not be renewed. Kindly give me a call so that we resolve the issue promptly. Once again, we thank you for the input you have shared to give you a better user experience. I await your call. Warm regards, Support Person I *From:* Bernard Shiundu *Sent:* Thursday, April 19, 2012 11:18 AM *To:* epapers (KE) *Subject:* Subscription Error *Importance:* High I tried to renew my subscription for the African via MPESA/Jambopay on Tuesday 17/04/2012 but instead of completing the transaction the system response was “transaction not successful” Looking at my account ( <susanekesa(a)yahoo.com>my account) I was still being asked to renew my subscription despite the fact that the deduction from MPESA was done successfully. I spoke to a Support Person I yesterday (after a full day and a half of trying to get through and getting quite the phone tour of NMG) and he assured me that this would be done but as of now nothing doing (though I do see that the inclusion of the support numbers to the landing pages has been done – yay!) Any chance of someone sorting me out or better still initiating a refund? Thanks DISCLAIMER: The information contained in or accompanying this e-mail is intended for the use of the stated recipient only. It may contain confidential, proprietary or legally privileged information. No confidentiality or privilege is waived or lost by any mistransmission. If you receive this message in error, please immediately delete it and all copies of it from your system, destroy any hard copies of it and notify the sender. You must not, directly or indirectly, use, disclose, distribute, print, or copy any part of this message if you are not the intended recipient. Any views or opinions presented herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the *Nation Media Group*<http://www.nation.co.ke> *.* To get all breaking news alerts send the word BREAK to 6667 or visit http://mobile.nation.co.ke to read news on your mobile phone. DISCLAIMER: The information contained in or accompanying this e-mail is intended for the use of the stated recipient only. It may contain confidential, proprietary or legally privileged information. No confidentiality or privilege is waived or lost by any mistransmission. If you receive this message in error, please immediately delete it and all copies of it from your system, destroy any hard copies of it and notify the sender. You must not, directly or indirectly, use, disclose, distribute, print, or copy any part of this message if you are not the intended recipient. Any views or opinions presented herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the *Nation Media Group*<http://www.nation.co.ke> *.* To get all breaking news alerts send the word BREAK to 6667 or visit http://mobile.nation.co.ke to read news on your mobile phone.

2 1

[OT] KPLC Prepaid vouchers
by Kennedy Kairaria 20 Apr '12

20 Apr '12

Skunk(ette)s, Greetings my people. Can someone on the list explain to me like a 5yo how KPLC come up with the calculations of how each Prepaid voucher is worth a certain amount of units. Am asking this because the other day a pal of mine and I decided to top up our units then having paid the same amount he ended getting 3 times more units than I did.(How now you ask?) Am completely baffled. Ken

3 2

ADVERT: Selling Galaxy S for 35k
by JOmoro 20 Apr '12

20 Apr '12

Inbox me for details if u wanna... 16 gb internal memory *6 months used -- Jansen Omoro http://www.behance.net/jomoro/frame

1 0

AIrtel QoS is Crap - Maybe you shud change ur name to Craptel
by Ken Yanski 20 Apr '12

20 Apr '12

How is it that when am calling to a number on their network or any other network, am getting either "The network ur calling is currently busy" and its within ur own network. Then when am calling to a number on Safcom network, am told its mteja. But when I immediately called with my Safcom line to both numbers they go thru without a hitch. I tried again with my airtel line line and its the same shit. I think they even recorded that safcom message to mask their own failings when their network is done. P.S. I don't work for Safaricom or any other competitor

4 3

TP LINK ROUTERS
by Branton Obwari 20 Apr '12

20 Apr '12

Anyone stocking this TP LINK TL -3420 n thisTL-WR1043ND ,contact me offline.

6 9

Samsung galaxy s2 wanted
by Calvin Baron go 19 Apr '12

19 Apr '12

Hi all, Anybody in the list with a good deal for an s2 (new) please email me off list Regards Sent from my iPhone

5 4

Safaricom doing away with its unlimited Internet bundle
by Kevin Mutuma 19 Apr '12

19 Apr '12

QueenB Feeling the pressure...this is good for the competition.:-) Why Unlimited Internet is a Big Revenue Drain for Operators<http://tommakau.com/2012/04/19/why-unlimited-internet-is-a-big-revenue-drai…> The announcement by Safaricom that it’s doing away with its unlimited Internet bundle did not come as a surprise to me. I had discussed the historical reason behind the billing model that is used by ISP’s and mobile operators in a *previous blog post here<http://tommakau.com/2011/02/14/free-lunch-ending-for-isp-customers/> * in Feb 2011. The billing model used in unlimited Internet offering is flawed. This is because the unit of billing is not a valid and quantifiable measure of consumption of service. An ISP or mobile operator charging a customer a flat fee for a size of Internet pipe (measured in Kbps) is equivalent to a water utility company charging you based on the radius of the pipe coming into your house and not the quantity of water you consume (download) or sewerage released (upload). What will happen if the local water company billed users by a flat rate fee based on per-centimeter radius of pipe going into their homes rather than volume of water consumed? A user with a pipe of radius that is 1% more than the neighbor enjoys 2% more water flow into their house (do the math!). The problem is that their bills will not differ by 2% but by 1% based on the difference in radius of the pipes. A 2% difference yields a 4% difference in consumption but a 2% difference in billing. The result is that a small group of about 1% users end up consuming about 70% of all the water. This figure is arrived at as follows: A marginal unit increase in resource leads to a near doubling of marginal utility. This is a logarithmic gain (Ln 2=0.693 which means that 69% of utility is enjoyed by about 1% of consumers) . This is the figure issued by Bob Collymore the CEO of Safaricom who said that 1% of unlimited users are consuming about 70% of the resources. This essentially means costs could outstrip revenues by 70:1. This does not make any business sense. Not even a hypothetical NGO engaged in giving ‘free’ Internet through donor funding can carry such a cost to revenue ratio. As to why ISP’s and mobile operators thought billing by size of pipe to the Internet could make money is beyond me. *Bandwidth Consumption Is Not Linear* One mistake that network engineers make is to assume that a 512Kbps user will consume double what a 256Kbps user does and therefore advice the billing team that billing the 512Kbps twice the price of the 256Kbps can cover all costs. This is not true. There are things or activities that a 256Kbps user will not be able to do online, like comfortably do Youtube videos. A 512Kbps user will however be able to do Youtube without a problem. The result is that a 512Kbps user will do much more Youtube videos as the 256Kbps user becomes more frustrated with all the buffering and stops all together attempting to watch online videos. The result is that the consumption of the 512Kbps user will be much higher than double that of the 256Kbps user. Other than Youtube, websites can detect your link speed and present differentiated rich content based on that. I’m sure some of us have been given an option to load a ‘basic’ version of Gmail when it detects a slow link. The big pipe guy never gets to be asked if he can load lighter web pages, rich content is downloaded to his browser by default while the smaller pipe guy gets less content downloaded to his browser in as much that they are both connected to the same website. The problem here is that the difference in content downloaded by the two people on 512K and 256K link is not linear or even double but takes a more logarithmic shape. *Nature Of Contention: Its a Transport and not Network problem* The second mistake that the network engineers make in a network is to assume that if you put a group of customers in a very fat IP pipe and let them fight it out for speeds based on an IP based QoS mechanism is that with time each customer will get a fair chance of getting some bandwidth out of the pool. The problem is that nearly all network QoS equipment characterize a TCP flow as a host-to-host (H2H) connection and not a port-to-port (P2P not to be confused with Peer2Peer) connection. There could be two users with one H2H connection each but one of them might posses about 3000 P2P flows. The problem here is that bandwidth is consumed by the P2P flows and not the H2H flows. User with the 3000 P2P flows ends up taking up most of the bandwidth. This explains why peer to peer (which establishes thousands of P2P flows) is a real bandwidth hog. So what happens when an ISP dumps the angelic you in a pipe with other malevolent users who are doing peer to peer traffic such as bit-torrent? They will hog up all the bandwidth and the equipment and policies set will not be able to ensure fair allocation of bandwidth to all users including you. So some few users doing bit-torrent end up enjoying massive amounts of bandwidth while the rest doing normal browsing suffer. That explains why some users on the Safaricom Network could download over 35GB of data per week as per*comments*<http://www.the-star.co.ke/business/local/71869-safaricom-to-scrap-unlimited…> by Bob Collymore. Please read more on how TCP H2H and P2P flows work *here*<http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.98.4474&rep=rep1&t…>. Many ISP’s engage engineers proficient in layer3 operations (CCNP’s, CCIP’s, CCIE’s etc ) to provide expertise on a layer 4 issue of TCP H2H and P2P flows. You cannot control TCP flows by using layer 3 techniques. IP Network engineers are assigned the duties of transport engineers. Good luck with that Mr-CTO-in-an-ISP-wanting-a-fair-access-policy-for-your-customers! At the end of the day, there will be a very small fraction of ‘happy’ customers and a large group of dissatisfied and angry customers. The few happy customers flat rate revenues are not able to cover all costs as the unhappy customers churn. If on the other hand these bandwidth hogs paid by the GB, the story would be very different. This is what operators are realizing now and moving with speed to implement. Safaricom is not the only one affected by this; Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile in the US are all in different stages of doing away with unlimited service due to their unprofitable nature. Sent from my iPhone

8 15