CARAVAN RECORDS presents – Mzungu Kichaa ft Professor Jay and Mwasiti
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21:45 Which is the Best University in Kenya?
» All about Africa and specifically Kenya A question of which is the best University in Kenya will probably draw biased opinions depending on which college one went to or is in now. Historically University of Nairobi being the oldest and with relatively well developed infrastructure gets the honors of being the best University in Kenya . But there are people who [...]
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18:08
Kenya Cup Scores
» Rugby in Kenya Kenya Cup Scores
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16:35
Saturday
» MREMBO My saturday has been lazy, cozy and wonderful. Hope yours was the same. Nothing beats an unstressful Saturday where I get to be lazy do things at my own /family pace and still manage to get some house work done. I did two batches of laundry, went window shopping with Big Al and Nikh for paint and [...]
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15:00
Racks & Balconies
» Diary of a gay Kenyan
Here's a spicy treat for all you boys (and gals). George and I met up
with an old friend of mine here in London this afternoon and I
convinced her after some drinks to flash her ample cleveage.Let me know what you think - there are more pictures, if you ask I'll
post them here...I call her Paprika.
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13:53
Micro-BPO's in Kenya
» For Love and Money Micro-BPO's in Kenya
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12:29
A Wearable Flexible Solar Panel Vest
» AfriGadget This is a proposed way to maximize the usage and efficiency of the KVA Flexible Solar Portable Kit by Dominic Wanjihia. Dominic was awarded one of the Flex Kits at the recent Maker Africa Faire in Accra after showing off some amazing new ideas.
One of the cheapest form of transport in Kenya is the “Boda Boda” literally meaning “Border-to-border”, a bicycle ride from one countries boarder immigration offices through no-mans land to the immigration offices of the bordering country customs office.
This mode of transport is non discriminatory and is used by people of all walks of life. from school children, market goers, workers, business persons, etc. The popularity is partially due to the speed and convenience as one does not get stuck in traffic. In the Lake basin town of Kisumu there are estimated to be over 500,000 BodaBoda’s. In the whole county, in excess of 1,500,000
The BodaBoda rider normally works from as early as 4.30a.m. to as late as 10.00p.m. depending on security in the area. He relies greatly on his mobile phone for clients to call for his services. His peak cycling times are early morning, lunch hour and dusk as persons head home from school and work. Translates to 4 – 5 hours in total daily riding time.
Due to the lack of know how and the complexity of electronics, the lack of power storage (i.e. a battery, and the cost) the Cycle dynamo is only effective for charging items and lighting while he is riding. Also, due to space or lack of, cost, insecurity and theft, attaching “Hard” Solar panels to the bikes has never been a viable sustainable option.
However, with the introduction of the Flexible Panels I believe wearing the panels on his back eliminates all these constraints. It also means he is generating power from sun-up to sun-down, an average of 12 hours a day.
Attaching the flexible panels on his back ensures:
- His phone is always charged guaranteeing customer accessibility
- He has light at home from the LED’s so saves on heavy power bills
- He always has an emergency light with his – LED
- The panels will not get stolen
- One can also offer charging facilities to client being carried
Other users
The BodaBoda is not the only potential user of the Flexible Panel by wearing it. Anyone spending long hour’s outdoors is a candidate. The farmer, fisherman, hawker’s and peddlers, city council outdoor workers, tourists, campers and hikers – just to mention a few.
Attaching the Panel
It can be attached in a variety of ways. Velcro, Pop Buttons or simply attach Rucksack like straps so it can be worn with any garment. In the latter case the small pouch containing the controller and battery is attached to the back of the panels with Velcro.
If you would like to get in touch with Dominic, you can reach him at dwanjihia@yahoo.com or by phone at +254722700530
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8:19
Mapping the traffic, not the roads…#ars09
» Afromusing Over lunch, kinda distilled Ethan’s talk re:mapping the cloud. On the internet where we do not have to be cognizant of the roads…it is more meaningful to map the traffic.
Read his essay here and you can catch the rest of the cloud intelligence symposium live stream here.
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London's burning
» Diary of a gay Kenyan 
Just witnessed the arrival of fire engines attending to a fierce blaze
at a business premises on Dudden Hill Lane NW10. Brings back
memories of that horrific Nakumatt inferno.
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7:51
My Life Thus Far
» Delusions of Grandeur soundtrak: silence
+ yes, when was the last time i actually wrote something of substance? what have i been doing with my life? do i still keep a blog? yeah, ok… i’m using it, not abusing it… let’s go already! this is going to be rough, so be prepared…
+ i used to write all the time when i was younger. sometimes i just go back to those entries and read; i wrote about nothing, but i remember how i felt that day… when i stayed up 72 hours to write that grant proposal, the day i found out they messed up my graduation paperwork, my last day at umbc… good times. i don’t know why it’s so hard for me to write now. i don’t know why it’s so hard for me to just let the words flow. i don’t know when i started to become so concerned about what people think when i used to not care what people thought at all. what happened to my younger self?
+ in short, my boss doesn’t like me i think. since vacation, i have been working like a dog; i just go to work and work, i barely sit down at all. i would look for another job, but i’m seriously doing the school thing, so it’ll only be a couple of months. let the insanity begin.
+ yes, i went on vacation; after the whole ‘thing’ went down with my boss (which i will never speak of again; i’m too pissed and upset to even think/talk about it), i told him that i was taking the next week off (out of the three weeks of accumulated vacation that i do have). i probably came to that decision around a tuesday, so everything happened in quick succession after that. i called naj and asked her if the next week would be a good week for her; we were talking about having me come out to san diego to come visit her all summer, but i didn’t realize how much of a workaholic i really am. once i got the go ahead, i found a decent deal on tickets (for something so last minute) and i was out of that piece. even though it was only for two days (flew in monday, flew out thursday… hey, there’s a reason why they were a decent price, ok…), it was the best time i’ve had in a long time. i hadn’t seen naj in awhile and it was good just to talk to her (especially in the low-humidity sun) and catch up. i think she understands my family situation more than anybody else i know, mostly because her family is pretty much the same way. i even got to walk around UCSD, which my adviser impressed on me to go ahead and apply. i wasn’t sure since it’s all the way on the west coast, but i like the campus and the area around it (naj lives around), so i’m gonna do it.
+ the school apps are going good but slow. i’m studying consistently for my gre’s, contacting programs and people (i met with my adviser before vacation; she was excited for me, which got me really excited… sometimes you gotta have people that remind you that you’re not crazy, you know?). i just want to succeed, i just want to move forward.
+ talking about moving forward, abbs is finally graduating. i know it’s been an ordeal with her stuff (you know what i’m talking about girl), but i’m so happy for her because i always knew she would finish. and i’m happy that she’s happy and she’s going to be moving on.
+ let’s see, what else: it seems that Y and i are in limbo… there is no other word for it. i don’t know what we’re doing. we hang out fine, but there is something else there. even naj says she’s always seen in (since middle school…. daaag woman!). but i just don’t know; half of the time, i’m debating and the other half, i think it’s silly. it is kind of… a little. anyways, more on this later.
+ i was watching some daria (you remember that charming animated show that used to come on mtv) and then the movie: daria: is it fall yet? i loved that show, i loved the sarcasm because i was one of the people that just *get* it. i used to feel like daria; i didn’t want to let people in because i didn’t want to get hurt. maybe i’m still like that a little bit, but i think i’m starting to get a little bit better at it. but daria, some good memories from that show.here’s to writing sooner than later and stopping impromptu hiatuses. cheers.
peace.
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5:09
Ars Electronica 09 – The beginning
» Afromusing *Apologies for my absence on the blog… lets just say twitter sorta affected the blog, and I pretty much took the month of August off.
Moving along…
I arrived at Linz for the Ars Electronica festival, not knowing what to expect. I had seen Georgia’s pics from last year, but really, I did not have any idea what this would be like. There is a ton of stuff going on. From animation showcases at the OK Platz, to one hour talks on Digital Art History, video installations, sculptures, performance art…Its a smorgasbord of nerdy, artsy and avant garde pieces. [Well, that video shows the 'Earth Angel' and that was definitely Avant Garde to me. Its a "sustainable pleasure" hand-crank powered device].The Golden Nica award was presented to several winners. I was very happy that HiperBarrio got an award for the new media training workshops they are running. Congratulations are very much in order for the whole team.
The wifi was flaky yesterday, this post was supposed to go up last night. Luckily, Ethan was on a decent connection. He had great links in his tweets. Here are the highlights:
Speeds of Time, Bill Fontana – a “sound map” of London by recording Big Ben from throughout the city. #ars09
Eduardo Kac’s “Natural History of the Enigma” – a synthetic, genetically engineered “plantimal”, Eduina – #ars09
#ars09 Iriz Pääbo doesn’t like hockey, but loves the soundscape. Her prizewinning film, HA’Aki
“Skhizein”, by Jeremy Clapin. The story of a man who is 91cm away from himself – won a distinction at #ars09. Trailer: (@Jepchumba & @justabandwidth, this is the piece i tweeted you about)
gorgeous installation – Nemo Observatory by Lawrence Malstaf – at #ars09. Video of the piece – a cyclone visualization:
#ars09 Three dancers, sealed in plastic envelopes, like meat at the butcher counter, very slowly moving within their plastic wrap.
I posted some pictures and 1 video on flickr,These are from the first day, with afew on the opening ceremony on the Danube river. They did a ‘Noah’s ark theme’ so that kinda explains the rhinocerous looking piece.
I will add more later today…and retrieve the blogging mojo
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4:16
Big Brother Africa(4) Revolution Contestants
» A Nairobian's Perspective ! 
Africa tomorrow night(Sunday 6th September 2009) gears up for the unveiling of the 2009 Big Brother Africa 4 : The Revolution contestants/participants. The Ceremony will be aired live across the continent on M-Net's DSTV network.The new Big Brother Africa 4th Season will feature 14 housemates from 14 countries to wit Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique(new), Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Angola, South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria, Botswana, Ethiopia(new) and Namibia who are expected to battle it out for the top prize of $ 200,000. The New Big Brother(IV) Revolution hopes to be a revolution in the sense that there will be new things,social media updates via Twitter& Facebook, double the price money and hope that it will be a success like previous version of BBA which save for the last two created regional celebrities. Tommorow's opening show will feature others the following artistes : Somali Born, Canadian Musician K'Naan .The show has a new re-designed logo (as shown below) :
The show will be hosted by among others Nigerian television star IK Osakioduwa a presenter on M-Net’s flagship Afro-chic lifestyle program Studio 53 which airs locally on KBC .Though i love Channel O's presenter Kabelo in my opinion he did not do much justice to Big Brother Africa 3 so i hope Osakioduwa's presence will hype the show!Keep it locked for the unveiling of the contestants....
BIG BROTHER (IV) REVOLUTION HOUSEMATES:
- Uganda : Hanington Kuteesa & Filbert Okure
- Namibia : Edward Moongo & Erastus Moongo
- Kenya : Jeremy Ndirangu & Edward Muthusi
- Zimbabwe: Itai Makumbe
- Botswana: Kaone Ramontshonyana
- Nigeria : Kevin Chuwang
- Mozambique: Leonel Estevoa
- South Africa: Quinn Sieber
- Ghana: George Wayoe
- Ethiopia: Yacog Yehdego
Accor Hotels 3-Day Super Sale Asia Pacif
icThis list is a teaser, the Girls will be coming next week and eviction is on from this week!Revolutionary -aint
it?
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Pay Per Click Ads Management 101
» A Nairobian's Perspective ! 
Any Company ,individual, seller, service provider...etc seeking to build a steady online presence for their commodity/service needs to understand the basics of Pay per Click Ads. Without doubt pay per click advertisement rake in the most profits and traffic for successful online retailers. An example of a pay per click advertisement forum is Google Adwords which according to this wikipedia article on AdWords grossed Google a profit of USA dollars $21 billion in 2008. Unfortunately most business in Sub Saharan Africa have little knowledge on how these advertisement platforms work and how to build a brand around them with successful keywords. It is therefore necessary that they consult experts in the field in order to know how to effectively market themselves using the internet. I would recommend visiting and signing up with Reciprocal Consulting.com in order for them to be effectively appraised on ppc management and the basics behind it!
Seeing that advertisers spend money to ensure that your adverts are displayed online and that users actually click through ,it is important that they monitor how this money is utilized and in an effective manner. The need to monitor the performance of advertisements especially with the influx of click fraudsters has led to the development of consultation firms such as Reciprocal Consulting . So don't just sign up for PPC campaigns without first getting good targeted advice from internet marketing industry professionals.
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