Chiperoni ku Basel

Author: nchenga

  • The iPod Touch is Good Enough

    Lifehacker on Ipod Touch.

  • Basel Rhyhafen



    i went a-photowalking again

  • Upgraded to WordPress 2.6

    A message from the admin: Chip moved to WP 2.6.

    If anything appears broken, leave a comment 😉

    Update:

    Finally, fixed the Terong Related Links plugin, which hasn’t been working for the past months since I upgraded to WP 2.5. I found this fix here and simply replaced the PHP code as described. After activating the plugin, open a blog post and you should see a Related Links in the right-hand sidebar below Related.

    chiperoni.ch › Edit — WordPress

    I’m trying out a new plugin called XML Sitemap Generator for WordPress.

  • Zittel and Sosnowska at Schaulager

    Schaulager is currently showing work by Andrea Zittel and Monika Sosnowska. If you get a chance to go, you should.

    I particularly enjoyed Zittel’s design and architecture-related work.

    And Sosnowska’s Corridor is great.

    schaulager

  • The queue at the Road Traffic office

    Malawi blogger Victor Kaonga writes about the long queue at the Road Traffic office:

    NDAGHA: What I saw at the Road Traffic Office in Lilongwe

    I waited in a similar queue in Blantyre during my visit last year.

  • Mobile Technology and Malawian Farmers

    Cy has uploaded a video discussing the benefits of mobile technology for farmers in Malawi:

  • Workspace of an artist…

    Just a quick note pointing to some snapshots I took on Saturday in Martin Gyger’s studio.

    I visited Martin Gyger's art studio

    I visited Martin Gyger's art studio

    I like seeing other people’s workplaces…

    Martin told me that he will be moving into a new workspace very soon, but before he moves out he’ll organize an exhibition. I forget the exact date but this should be some time in early September. And Martin says he’s planning to take part in this year’s Portes Ouvertes on 18th and 19th October.

    Martin displays much of his work on Flickr. His work is for sale. Contact him directly if you’re interested in getting an original or a print.

  • Portable Power Generator

    your very own energy generator:
    Portable Power Generator

    ThinkGeek :: HYmini Portable Power Generator

  • fring-fring

    in my mailbox:

    Hi there,

    You recently registered to get fring, but sadly your phone was not supported

    Well , good news, the wait is over, and weÂ’re delighted to now invite you to join the fring community!

    Caution: short techie bit coming up…

    Until now, phones running on Java ME software (for example lots of cool Nokia & Sony EricssonÂ’s) have not been able to be part of fring because the technology of these devices is very different from the others in the fring family. One of the main differences is that they handle voice calling in a very specific way that makes it difficult for fring voice to be included.

    …end of Techie bit!

    So, in response to literally thousands of potential Java ME fringsters wanting to become part of our growing global community, weÂ’ve created a special version just for you called minifring, enabling you to connect with other fringsters and all of your online communities from your mobile for free and enjoy the benefits of being part of fring.

    With minifring you can now use some of the most popular bits of fring to keep in touch with all of your other fring, Skype, GoogleTalk, MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, and Twitter, buddies, for free while youÂ’re on the go. You can enjoy the same rich IM-style chat, and real-time presence as other fringsters, so youÂ’ll know at a glance whoÂ’s available, whoÂ’s in a call, and whoÂ’s already chatting. YouÂ’ll see all of your online buddies and phone address book contacts in one convenient searchable list. And youÂ’ll be able to send music, picture, video and other digital files easily and quickly from your mobile without the cost or hassle of MMS, Bluetooth, cables or infrared.

    Best of all, youÂ’ll be able to experience for yourself what fringing freedom is all about!

    Just as with fring, you can connect over any mobile internet connection – 3G, WiFi, Edge, GPRS (and soon WIMAX) And it doesnÂ’t matter which mobile network operator youÂ’re a member of – all you need is a data subscription, and weÂ’ll give you fring.

    And if you get a phone in the future which supports fringÂ’s voice calling, you can seamlessly transfer and enjoy the full fring experience without any hassle.

    To join up, simply visit www.fring.com, click the Download button and follow the step-by-step instructions and youÂ’ll be a fringster before you know it!

    We look forward to welcoming you to the family.

    The fring team.

    Sounds interesting. And it’s good timing. Cos a lot of people are now talking about mobile apps.

    hmm… I can’t find my Sony Ericsson W810i in the list.

    (the apostrophes showed up like this in my mail = authencity)

  • the orange chairs



  • Pattern library

    for future reference:

    Interaction Design Pattern Library

    Designing Interfaces

    Yahoo’s pattern library

    Improving Interface Design

  • Puzzled

    This t-shirt text puzzled me this morning…

    ZIM
    TST
    ERN

    I figured it out after a while but at first I kept associating ZIM with Zimbabwe.

    the window sill

    I’ve uploaded two batches of snapshots to my Flickr stream. I’m a snapshotter at heart and I’m not spending much time correcting or editing my work (yet).

    Unhindered by talent or technical skills, I hope I can at least convey the fun I’m having. I particularly enjoyed Saturday’s photo tour with Diveangel.

    like the colours...

    BTW, there’s a Basel Flickr meetup planned for 27th July 2008.

    the all-steel bicycle

  • The Coca-Cola Index

    Recommended read (via White African):

    AFRICANS buy 36 billion bottles of Coke a year. Because the price is set so low—around 20-30 American cents, less than the price of the average newspaper—and because sales are so minutely analysed by Coca-Cola, the Coke bottle may be one of the continent’s best trackers of stability and prosperity.

    The article is right about the distribution network. Coca-Cola is available in every remote village.

  • VoIP for iPod Touch

    How to make VoIP phone calls from your iPod touch or iPhone using a freeware application called SIP-VoIP

  • Biking in Malawi

    stumbled across this:
    Malawi Travel Guide and Bicycle Touring Guide

    Not very detailed though. The south is less hilly than the north. Ok.

  • posing



  • Data, Stories, Interaction, Products, Connection

    interesting read:


    Some questions marketers must ask: Does this interaction lead to connections? Do our products support our story? Is the story pulling in numbers that demonstrate that it’s working?

  • A reading list for aspiring knowledge workers

    For future reference:
    A reading list for aspiring knowledge workers

    c.f. Definition of a knowledge worker

  • listening to podcasts



    on photography – http://twipphoto.com/

    and learning italian – http://www.italianpod101.com/

  • More CVS commands for humble MarComm folks

    (for future reference)

    To remove a tag and file:

    cvs tag -d "tagname" filename

    cvs remove -f filename

    cvs commit -m "message" filename

    To tag an entire folder:

    cvs tag -F "tagname" foldername

    I started using command line cvs more frequently. These are reminders for myself. In addition to the cvs help.

  • Hong Kong Restaurant in Blantyre, Malawi

    Hong Kong Restaurant in Blantyre

    Chinese restaurant in downtown Blantyre in Malawi.

    (BTW, this is a Chiperoni.ch Internet Marketing experiment….

    If you read this blog post and then end up going to eat at this BT restaurant, please tell the owners where you first heard about it…)

  • Wikipedia in Tumbuka

    stumbled across this:
    Wikipedia in Chitumbuka

  • Natural Medicine in the Tropics

    I just spent over half an hour looking for the Anamed website… can’t believe I haven’t referenced it yet.

    Here’s the link to the Anamed webpage. They’ve published a couple of books on the medicinal use of common tropical plants such as guava leaves, pawpaw leaves, asthma weed and anti-malaria trees.

    Guava Tree Leaf Tea

  • Finding good seats

    in the sardine class:
    SeatGuru

    useful site

  • Back from Blantyre

    I spent a couple of sunny, winter days in Malawi’s biggest city, visiting family and meeting friends.

    IMG_0146

    I’ve started uploading some of my snapshots to Flickr. More to come as I sift thru the GBs of data.

    Travel was uneventful, except for the fact that my luggage took 6 days to arrive in Blantyre. It started out with a harmless announcement by the SAA pilot that he would need to unload some cargo due to overloading. Overloading a plane is a safety issue, and I’d rather wait for my bags than crash into some mountain. Later during the flight, the pilot announced that 23 bags had been left behind. But no worries, the bags would be brought to Chileka on a later flight on the same day. This was the start of various misinformed messages.

    The flights between Jo’burg and Blantyre are always fully booked and a lot of cargo is shipped by air.

    Anyway, my bags finally arrived in good condition. The SAA staff at the Blantyre office were very polite and helpful. And I learnt that I’ll put my camera charger into my camera bag. Instead of my checked luggage.

    Flying back was uneventful as well. Except for a small scare. During the security scan check at Chileka, my camera bag fell right through a defect rung in the conveyor belt onto the floor. Luckily the bag is well-padded and nothing happened to my cam.

    Cam bag = already amortized.

    Another Chileka detail, I’ll not forget so fast: several Blantyre kindergarden and school classes came out to the airport to watch the aeroplane land and take off. Just for fun. They sat on top of the observation deck’s wall, shouting “aeroplane” and stomping their feet on the iron sheet roof of the departure hall below.

    Recurring news topics:

    The attacks on foreigners in some South African townships had many Malawians worried about their relatives. Several dozen buses were sent to bring home fleeing Malawians. For generations Malawians have gone to South Africa to work there. And some have lived all their life in SA. From a linguistic perspective I wondered why the BBC and other media used the term “xenophobic attacks” instead of the “r” word.

    Muluzi’s arrest.

    The Zimbabwe election.

    Internet in Blantyre:

    wifi at Shoprite / Chichiri

    Compared to last year, there are more WiFi hotspots. The costs are high, especially for private customers. The IT marketer in me kept discussing possible business ideas that improved connectivity could entail for Blantyre-based companies. E.g. outsourcing accounting services to Blantyre or working with a creative agency.

    It was good to see BT. A mixture of peanut butter, BBC World Service, Chombe tea, nsima, boerewors, chiperoni, jumping dogs, waiting…