hard copy version of your Flickr album

get a printed version of your Flickr photos at:

Qoop*

This might be useful for friends and relatives that live very *offline*.

via kottke.org

(* what a company name! I wonder how it is pronounced… I think you should always consider what the name sounds like over the phone, or in an international context, or when the press decides to write negative headlines and makes use of word plays …)

blogging to resume at chiperoni.ch

The editor is pleased to announce:
After a forced pause due to a traffic accident, blogging will resume very soon at chiperoni.ch.

A useful Basel address if you need help and advice with insurance, legal and other issues following an accident:

Opferhilfe beider Basel
Steinenring 53
4051 Basel
Tel. 061 693 44 40
Fax 061 693 44 34
E-Mail
info (at) triangel-basel.ch
opferhilfe-basel (at) gmx.ch

Addresses for other Kantons are available here

Idi Amin film in production in Kampala

Saw this at BBC Africa:

The Ugandan film industry has been given a great boost by the decision to make the film of Giles Foden’s book The Last King of Scotland in the country, its actors have said.

The film, which centres on the life of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, is currently in production in Kampala.

source:
Uganda boosted by Amin film

Quite ironic that Uganda’s film industry is now benefiting from such a brutal dictator.

On Microfinancing

zapped into this TV report on microfinancing:

Mikro-Kredite

Basically, microfinance provides loans and insurance to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans.

An alternative and maybe more effective way to fight poverty…

These two institutions were mentioned in the report:

OikoCredit

Procredit Holding

[update] Another similar institution is:

Opportunity International Bank of Malawi
see also Mike’s blog entry

“What if someone offered you double your salary?”

CNET on the Indian IT Job Market:

Turnover in the software services industry runs at about 15 percent a year on average, and can exceed 30 percent at some companies, according to various sources.

Relative to their counterparts in the United States and other developed nations, workers at Indian companies are both plentiful and inexpensive to employ. This cheap labor, however, has led to explosive growth and, in turn, to unprecedented competition for qualified employees. Double-digit raises are the norm.

[…]

“The total number of engineering students in all four years of college is over a million at any time,” […] “So you see, this is our problem, and this is our opportunity.”

“The real issue here is the growth in the salary levels. The salaries in India are still growing at 18 to 20 percent annum,” […] “The stickiness of people to companies is very low. A little bit more stabilization is needed.”

The above article reminded me of this entry.

Kenyan Bloggers

On Kenya Unlimited:

In response to the continued growth of the Kenyan Blog Webring (KBW) kenyaUnlimited set out to create an online meeting place for the diverse Kenyan visions, minds and voices that inhabit cyberspace.

via Blogshop

How Java saved Africa

stumbled across this report from the JavaOne conf a couple of seconds ago:

But did Nokia’s decision a decade ago to adopt Java technology just force Pres. Bush change his mind about the amount of U.S. aid to Africa?

Here’s Gage’s tale, presented at Sun’s JavaOne developer conference Wednesday: Social cause fighter and rocker Bono, of the band U2, has so far coaxed thousands of concertgoers to cell phone text message the White House about increasing aid to Africa. Sun’s Java programming language gets right in the middle of the charitable work. And voila, the U.S. doubles the dollar amount. Without No. 1 cell phone maker Nokia’s commitment to putting Java in all its phones, there would likely be few participants.

kind of *too* far-fetched feel-good-about-Java for me.

source: News.blog at CNET News.com

FAZ article on Howard Rheingold

The FAZ* recently published a page-long article on Howard Rheingold and his predictions.

Es sei eine ganz andere Welt, in der jeder die Möglichkeit habe, auf seiner Website seine Meinung zu verbreiten: “Und es wird immer schwieriger diese Welt von einer zentralen Stellen zu kontrollieren.”

In a nutshell: It’s not so much about what new technologies are evolving, but rather the ways and means social communities are using these to interact and behave…

Other remaindered links pêle-mêle:

Flickr has 775,000 registered users and hosts 19.5 million photos, with growth of about 30 percent per month.

Skype is number one in the North American VOIP business – and spending 0 $ on advertising.

On Blogosophy: Don’t mention the skiing looks back to the blog age: Is there any proven evidence that blogging existed at the start of 21st century?


*not available online = this publication may lose significance and influence in certain social communities in the near future

[update] re: FAZ-article – it seems i was a little fast in my criticism that the article is not available online. Here it is.
Thanks Mlle. A.

Links on Corporate Blogging

I’m kind of collecting advice on corporate blogging (with no particular goal in mind). A couple of background links I’ve found useful:

  • The Corporate Weblog Manifesto by Scobleizer (update March 2018: removed link due to malware warning)
  • Ten Tips For A Better Weblog
  • Onlinejournalismus.de

Über-blogger Scoble also provides advice how to react to negative comments. If you know of any other good links, please leave a comment.

The Writing Process

Found this article on writing at kottke.org:

Poynter Online – Writing Tool #50: The Writing Process

The article describes the steps required to produce great writing:

  • Sniff around
  • Explore ideas
  • Collect evidence
  • Find a focus
  • Select the best stuff
  • Recognize an order
  • Write a draft
  • Revise and clarify

Podcast with Meg Hourihan, Blogger Co-Founder

currently listening to Halley’s interview with Meg Hourihan:

download the podcast here

I’d forgotten about the Segway parody at 0sil8.com

[update June 9] quote from her Tuft profile:

Companies like Google advertise for employees with computer science degree, but as Hourihan herself points out, “On paper I don’t qualify for what their requirements are, and yet they bought my company. Looking at different types of experience and different types of backgrounds is important.”

Having founded two pioneering high-tech companies in the past five years, Hourihan’s English degree may seem a bit incongruous. But she doesn’t think so.

“My career path in technology is not at all an aberration,” she explains. “Many women in technology come to technology later and don’t come through traditional academic, undergraduate degrees.”

The BBC Asks…

What’s it like to live in Africa?

here’s an interesting view from a Ghanaian living in the Netherlands:

My view is that political independence is meaningless until it is linked with economic independence. I think the best place to grow up in this world is in Africa and the worse place too because of the mixture of governance. There is no stage that is so interesting and indeed makes me happier in my life other than those days I vividly remember in my childhood. Independence from colonial rule is relatively good for Ghana for it has already happened and irreversible but I think my life could have been much better if we were still under colonial rule.