The Malawi entry in Wikipedia has grown considerably over the past year.
For example, there’s an entry on Malawian music:
Music of Malawi
and Malawian English.
If you’re from Malawi or doing research on a topic related to Malawi… check the pages to see if you can contribute any useful facts and references.
What would computing be without progress bars?
I spent this weekend re-configuring my Ubuntu installation. It’s been about 6 months since I moved from Windows and I’m more than happy with Ubuntu and the Gnome desktop. I may try out Kubuntu sometime. Or try setting up an Ubuntu server.
I’m still a newbie user but I’m slowly getting the hang of things as I go along.
workaround for Firefox 1.0.7 upgrade:
execute sudo apt-get remove firefox firefox-gnome-support mozilla-firefox mozilla-firefox-gnome-support. Then, once that’s finished, run sudo apt-get install mozilla-firefox mozilla-firefox-gnome-support.
source:
The Firefox 1.0.7 upgrade in Ubuntu Hoary
The toy museum in Riehen is showing African toys made from tin and wire:
Museen Basel
Riehen Info
According to a newspaper article, the above show focuses on toys from West Africa.
A couple of years ago, a friend and I were discussing an idea to import these very original, handmade toys. I have seen some great toys in Blantyre.
It also explains why some wire fences disappear so fast… kids finding new uses.
a random bottle shot…
found this so-called meme map on Web 2.0 via Read/Write Web.
Web Design Cheat Sheets for Illustrator, Photoshop, and co.
via Swissmiss
Some useful tips to keep in mind if you’re moving Powerpoint slides from
Mac to PC and back:
the numbers say it all:
source: Om Malik’s Broadband Blog » SkypeBay done for $4.1 Billion.
My comment:
i hope Skype won’t change for the worse. Cos I like the tool and use it often.
I’ve finally downloaded and installed Drupal to get an idea if this would be a possible CMS for a small web project I’m planning to start.
Installing the basic modules and setting up the MySQL database was straightforward. No problems here.
What I’m finding more daunting is the CMS interface itself. There are a lot of modules and settings. And it takes some time to grasp the concept and terminology.
For example, it took me a while to figure out how to create a simple menu. I found this posting that suggested using the so-called Menu on-the-fly module. I guess, I would have expected this to be part of the basic install. Or maybe there’s another simple way that I’m missing.
I haven’t had a look at how to change the design of a theme or how to build my own theme.
Drupal offers a lot of options and additional modules. But at this point I’m worried that the CMS interface is too complex for the end users I’m planning for. And probably too much effort to customize for a small web project.
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 …)
Shop window in Basel.
Note for non-German speakers: Erfolg is German for success.
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
info (at) triangel-basel.ch
opferhilfe-basel (at) gmx.chAddresses for other Kantons are available here
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.
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
Mark your calendars. There’s a blogger BBQ planned for July 24 in Konolfingen near Bern.
See Blogger-Bräteln 2005 for all relevant details.
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.
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
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
Remember the movie “The Terminal” with Tom Hanks…
BBC Africa has this report on a man that lived for 13 months in the duty free area of Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi:
Tipps für Corporate Blogging [in German]
