February 2012 - KICTANet

Re: [kictanet] Blocking of Domain Names and Legal Frameworks sorrounding the domain name industry..
by meshack emakunat 23 Feb '12

23 Feb '12

In my opinion an upsurge in the domain name "environment" should not be viewed as a negative thing rather it is only a healthy competition that may result to new innovations.

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Re: [kictanet] Blocking of Domain Names and Legal Frameworks sorrounding the domain name industry..
by meshack emakunat 23 Feb '12

23 Feb '12

In my opinion an upsurge in the domain name "environment" should not be viewed as a negative thing rather it is only a healthy competition that may result to new innovations.

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Re: [kictanet] R.I.P. John Michuki
by Charles Mutsi 23 Feb '12

23 Feb '12

The Kenyan version of Dick Cheney. Conservative, seasoned government bureaucrat turned businessman turned politician. And ruthless as hell. You either loved him or hated him. And either way he felt nothing. One thing is for sure, he had an impact on our times. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

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Re: [kictanet] R.I.P. John Michuki
by Matunda Nyanchama 22 Feb '12

22 Feb '12

Our sincere condolences. His effectiveness was not in doubt. He showed that it is possible "to do" and solve even what appears to be intractable problems (matatus menace, Nairobi River, Mungiki, etc.) Just imagine as a country we had 7 Michukis in cabinet (Health, Finance, Education, Transportation, Security, Agriculture+Environment, Commerce & Industry) and where the nation of Kenya would be. RIP Michuki. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matunda Nyanchama, PhD, CISSP; mnyanchama(a)aganoconsulting.com Agano Consulting Inc.; www.aganoconsulting.com; Twitter: nmatunda; Skype: okiambe ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Be prepared to face ICT Security failures & know how to respond when they happen! Call: +1-888-587-1150 or info(a)aganoconsulting.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk I have a workstation…" - Anonymous ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail, including attachments, may be privileged and may contain confidential or proprietary information intended only for the addressee(s). Any other distribution, copying, use, or disclosure is unauthorized and strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and permanently delete the message, including any attachments, without making a copy. Thank you.

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Re: [kictanet] Could growth of the Mobile phone industry in Africa be affecting uptake of ccTLDs?
by Barrack Otieno 22 Feb '12

22 Feb '12

Listers, Just wondering aloud, whereas the mobile phone industry is a boon for the African continent, could it be stiffling growth of the domain name industry take an example we have over 10 million mobile phone subscribers, i dont know how many are using online services, there has been rapid growth over the last three years unfortunately the same case does not apply for the domain name industry, with all this apps being developed do we need domains and domain names? within the current scheme of things how can we spur content developement?, i know content can still be accessed using mobile devices but to what extent?, i will appreciate your thoughts on this subject -- Barrack O. Otieno +254721325277 +254-20-2498789 Skype: barrack.otieno http://www.otienobarrack.me.ke/

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There role in vision 2030?
by robert yawe 22 Feb '12

22 Feb '12

Hi, Over the weekend I had to hand around a "jua kali' garage and as I watched the hard working Kenyans at work I wondered what role has been assigned to them in achieving the pillars of the Vision 2030? Regards

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Re: [kictanet] Blocking of Domain Names and Legal Frameworks sorrounding the domain name industry..
by Barrack Otieno 21 Feb '12

21 Feb '12

Listers, Considering the fact that ICT plays a critical role in our present environment, we are likely to see an increase in the number or websites and domain names that will be registered this is likely to bring about a myriad of issues. My concern is we may see an upsurge similar to what happened in the mobile phone industry, the question i have therefore is are we prepared from a legal perspective for possible conflicts that may arise should there be such an upsurge ? are our courts prepared for this kind of cases or shall we resort to out of court settlements, what lessons can we learn from the recent issue between google and mocality as an industry, i know it was easy to point fingers and blame but again is it possible that the staff involved engaged in malpractices our of ignorance which may have been due to the fact that there is no law, or statute for data protection and no clear dispute resolution mechanism , if this were enshrined in the law, it could be to educate the masses on the same. I will appreciate your thoughts.. Barrack O. Otieno +254721325277 +254-20-2498789 Skype: barrack.otieno http://www.otienobarrack.me.ke/

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PCK - The giant stirs
by robert yawe 21 Feb '12

21 Feb '12

Hi Listers, It is with a positive outlook that I write this post which has been necessitated by two observations this week for which I will humbly not take credit. 1. On Sunday while passing near Tuskys Langata Road I noticed that PCK has opened a new outlet to offer specifically EMS and ParcelPost services 2. On Monday in the local press PCK had a full page advert indicating that they will be offering e-government services at all its outlets country wide. I am sure that the second event is as a result of Dr. Gitau's practicality in serving her customers, you and I. Keep it up and I look forward to seeing PCK back on its feet, unsupported. Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

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Fwd: [Skunkworks] How Swift-Global's Mabeshte became millions of times better than KDN's butterfly
by Brian Munyao Longwe 20 Feb '12

20 Feb '12

FYI - makes good reading ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Doe Smith Kamau KipNg'etich Jones <skunkworks.ku(a)gmail.com> Date: Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 6:38 PM Subject: [Skunkworks] How Swift-Global's Mabeshte became millions of times better than KDN's butterfly To: Skunkworks Mailing List <skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke> well, Mabeshte is just-so-obviously-much-better than Butterfly. Its a good thing KDN gave it to swift-global. KDN din't know how to manage butterfly the way swift-global does... in fact, KDN did such a bad job, that swift-global had to rebrand it to Mabeshte. Me and swift-global are trully "mabeshte" :-). You see, Mabeshte is so much better than butterfly because...... 1) Butterfly was cheaper .... but eww!! who wants cheap things!? excuse me, but I like to live above my means. Butterfly had a monthly unlimited bundle that cost 2320..... but how was it cheaper if Mabeshte sells unlimited internet for 24hrs at 50 bob (i.e 1500 bob a month) ???? -> well... it turns out that you will never spend just 50bob on mabeshte to get their net. Oh nooo.... there's the 10bob transaction fee charged for the paybill payment..... and to that, add the 50bob cred you'll spend calling support coz their system won't automatically email/text you a username & pass to surf through mabeshte. If you're lucky, u may have to spend 100bob if the system “completely missed” the mpesa sms for some reason.... ...in fact, its taken 5hrs and a bamba 50 for me to start surfing on mabeshte to send this email. and as for reversal of a botched payment.... it could take up to 60hours for swift-global to initiate it … ( and, as my collegue experienced it, you may have to send them instructions [with screen-shots] on how perform a reversal) and how is that a good thing.... it turns out that the longer it takes for you to receive an mpesa sms, the sweeter it is when it gets there :-) and while the monthly payment to butterfly was apparently “more convenient” than paying 50bob daily to mabeshte, I like the way mabeshte helps me impress my friends because I appear to have money in my mpesa all the time :-), hehehehehe Additionally, calling their support number (020692100) will first give you a pre-recorded "hallo"... and then give you a dial-tone which is actually charged as if someone picked up the phone!! my friends now think i'm on post-paid!! Swaga aje aje!! try it now and see! Just call, get to dial-tones, hang-up, and see your cred Disclaimer: tested on safcom. 2) Butterfly was faster.... And yes... Swift-Global, in all their intelligence, know that capping speeds to 64kBps (kiloBYTES, not kilobits) helps reduce global warming and surges Kenya towards realisation of the vision2030 and Konza City.... …. and butterfly did the opposite... you see .... it was just *TOO* fast. And y'all know too much of something is deadly. When surfing at a butterfly hotspot alone (or late at night), butterfly indecently gave me its all!! can u imagine!! that's very, very.... veeeryyy "tabia mbayaaa".... hebu imagine that i would clock 1.5mBps (megaBYTES, not megabits)!! JEEZ!! It was so much that it was my slow comp that was the bottle-neck … not the network!! and that's just wrong!! It made me feel really bad that KDN would mock my decade-old laptop with speeds that could have possibly killed it!! I mean.... how dare they!! ati 1.5mBps!! !!! NKT !!! swift-global's speeds... sigh... their capped speeds mean that the average ebook or mp3 will take 20 minutes to download, giving me ample time to focus on more important things.... like family.... or other even more important things... like solving world poverty, or eradicating world hunger and famine, or helping the flowers in my garden cross-pollinate... or trolling on the skunkworks mailing list.... Very important things indeed!! and while I could stream at 720p or 1080p on butterfly, my comp could barely render the stream properly given its low specs.... but swift-globals cares for computers like mine, and cap their speeds to force me (and everyone else) to stream at 320p, which is good for my computer. Moreover, the capped speeds give me ample time to do other "important things" as I wait for the buffer to fill up! Kudos switf-global!! 3) Butterfly had tech-smart staff in their tech-support department .... WTF!? who wants to call support and get a know-it-all geek on the other end who speaks gibberish!? How i'm I, a skunkworks troll, supposed to make sense of... "have you confirmed that your computer is configured to receive network configuration data via DHCP"... JEEZ!! what on earth does that mean?! .... well.... ok.... i guess the butterfly tech team knew what they were talking about, and they did resolve down-times within an hour or two.... or ten-minutes. and yes.... they appeared to be well trained... but jeez!! I like tech support people who speak my language... tech support who tell me to "turn you computer off, then turn it back on, then install a good antivirus, then wait 15 minutes before connecting."..... and thats the kind of support swift-global gives!! Seeeee!!!! ... I told you swift-global support is much better! and sometimes, when you call swift-global support a lot (i.e more than two times), you'll get to talk to a woman with ATT!! and thats so cool!! I know y'all like women when they're all fiesty n ferocious :-) i know i do, heheheheh ….. and that's another good reason why swift-global needs to be more expensive. That fiesty tech-support lady is obviously paid a lot of money!! that kind of customer-support service doesn't come cheap!! ….. in fact... I think I'll call support again once I email this :-D 4) Butterfly was more reliable, with fewer downtimes... .... and that was a recipe for addiction to the internet!! Swift-global knows this, and that is why they let their downtimes last days on end. This also helps reduce global-warming, since computers produce less heat energy when they are not being used to browse ( or stream at 720p) … just ask any primary school science-teacher to verify this! and yes.. you guessed it... the down-times give me ample time to focus on important things.... and butterfly was rude enough to encourage internet-addiction by maintaining their network!! jeez!!.... after swift-global took over, one of their “nodes” (a pole with lots of transmitters) was toppled over by strong winds, and stayed like that for months!! and the node i'm currently connected to has had perenial power issues for 1 and a half years.... kudos swift-global :-)!! ... swift-global just knows how to run things. Earlier today, as I waited for a payment to go through on mabeshte (for five hours), I had ample time to do something important.... i.e. draft a solution for world-piece. And as I have penned it, the solution to world piece will start with swift-global handling the world's communications :-)... in fact, whoever named swift-global "swift-*global*" must have known this too! i bet he came up with the name after he got ample time to consider it during a down time :-) later guys.... the fiesty support-lady just picked up :-) _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke ------------ List info, subscribe/unsubscribe http://orion.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 -- Brian Munyao Longwe e-mail: blongwe(a)gmail.com cell: +254715964281 blog : http://zinjlog.blogspot.com meta-blog: http://mashilingi.blogspot.com "Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for, because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything."

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An MPesa moment
by robert yawe 20 Feb '12

20 Feb '12

Hi All, Hope you all had a nation building weekend, just came a cross and interesting issue that is developing in the USA "Obama's latest proposal is a $2.4 billion program to provide cell phones for the poor.Entitlement Mentality Destroying America" Carrying our a simple calculation that fund can equip 25.5 million (8.5% of the population) poor Americans with an android/windows smartphone. I doubt if the objective is to have them become more active on Facebook or Twitter but as a tether. From where I stand, the US government must have seen the benefits of using the mobile platform as learnt from the story of Kenya to meet social programme objectives such as healthcare (m-bima), market information (m-mukulima) and banking the unbanked (m-pesa, m-kesho). On the mobile front we have become inventors more the rest of the world more like Phillips was with the VCR, we hatch and prove new concepts then move on to other areas without innovating. Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

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