Chiperoni ku Basel

Blog

  • Chongoni Rock Art Area

    The Chongoni Rock Art Area has been added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites:

    Situated within a cluster of forested granite hills and covering an area of 126.4 km2, high up the plateau of central Malawi, the area features the richest concentration of rock art in Central Africa on 127 sites. They reflect the comparatively scarce tradition of farmer rock art, as well as paintings by BaTwa hunter-gatherers who inhabited the area from the Late Stone Age. The Chewa agriculturalists, whose ancestors lived in the area from the late Iron Age, practised rock painting until well into the 20th century. The symbols in the rock art, which are strongly associated with women, still have cultural relevance amongst the Chewa, and the sites are actively associated with ceremonies and rituals.

    Other World Heritage sites in Malawi: Lake Malawi National Park (which is truly beautiful).

    On the Tentative List: Nyika and Mount Mulanje

    Source: a work colleague that will not reveal their blog address to me

  • Mount Mulanje Porters Race

    The annual Mount Mulanje Porters Race takes place tomorrow for the 10th time.

    The race starts at Likhubula Forest Office and goes up to Chambe Plateau, about 2500m above see level, before proceeding (via the plateau) to Lichenya Plateau and back to Likhubula. Last year’s winner ran this tiring 25km race in 2 hrs and 21 min.

    A couple of related links:

    • Mount Mulanje Conservation Trust
    • Apparently this blogger organized the first race.
    • The Nation on this year’s event (link no longer available)

    And if you have photos, don’t forget to upload them to the Malawi group at Flickr.

  • summer blue

    badi

  • Writing Copy

    Couple of writing tips I found at MarketingProfs.com:

    1. Begin with a story
    2. Use short words
    3. Write shorter sentences
    4. Remove clichés
    5. Use bridges or connectors
    6. Use concrete examples rather than concepts
    7. Pay attention to your verbs

  • MarComm Writing Tactics

    Can technical writers be good marketing writers – and vice versa?

    The above presentation notes are old (from 2002 i.e. definitely Web 1.0), but the question is interesting…

    what’s your opinion on this?

    (update: unfortunately the site seems to be down. Note to myself: write a short summary of the main points for future reference.)

  • Sunny Days

    Summer sports program in Basel from 10th July to 12th August:
    Sunny Days … they haven’t updated the pdf file with this year’s list of courses yet.

    [update] The pdf is up now!

  • trying out Google Desktop

    google_desktop

    I’m currently evaluating Google Desktop. And I must say so far I’m fairly impressed… There’s little things like opening up the corresponding email in Outlook 2000 which blow me over. The install hasn’t affected performance. But this is only day 2… I’m going see how it goes for the next couple of weeks.

  • Bike Tours

    Various bike tours in Germany

  • Flickr photos on Malawi

    There are currently 5592 photos on Malawi at Flickr.

    The photos really show how beautiful this country is. An ongoing tourism campaign.

  • Great Mistakes in Technical Leadership

    some good points in this list of typical mistakes:

    The Technical Lead has overall responsibility for all technical aspects of the project – design, code, technology selection, work assignment, scheduling and architecture are all within his purview. Positioned right at the border of the technical and managerial, they are the proverbial “meat in the sandwich.” This means that they have to be able to speak two languages – the high-level language of the project manager to whom they report, and the low-level technical language of their team. In effect, they’re the translator between the two dialects.

    via Scott Berkun

  • experimenting with WordPress plugins

    yesterday evening I started playing around with some WordPress plugins I’d found.

    I made a small code change in wp-config.php. Everything was working fine… I thought. But this morning I got this error message (please skip the next paragraph if you’re a wp/PHP geek, you’re probably going to throw your hands up in utter exasperation and unsubscribe from my RSS feed for ever and ever and ever):

    Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/chiperon/public_html/wordpress/wp-config.php:65) in /home/chiperon/public_html/wordpress/wp-includes/pluggable-functions.php on line 247″

    Turns out that the editor I was using added a couple of empty lines to the end of the file; quickly resolved with the help of the WordPress Codex.

    So far I haven’t been using many WordPress plugins. SlimStats looks promising. But why add more stats if I already have Webalizer and co? So far the top benefit is that I can see the stats directly from the wp admin panel… saves me 2 to 3 clicks!

    slimstat

    This Day displays old postings I’ve made on the same day in previous years. That’s a bit of a lottery for my readers… ‘cos the old postings will only be visible on days where I’ve posted something in the past.

    I’ve started reading the book “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” and, I think, my continuous use of “…” would be listed as an example of bad, bad punctuation!

  • yet another Flickr tool

    stumbled across Flickrmap.

    An account costs 5 $ per annum.

    I like this:

    If you want to blog about Flickrmap or you’re not able to use Paypal, email us your sob story and we’ll send you a login.

  • Don’t Blame the Web When Newspapers Die

    John Dvorak: Local papers have become cookie-cutter products loaded with syndicated material, mostly from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. Filling space in the San Francisco Chronicle with New York Times articles saves money, but many people now just get the Times instead.

  • Famous Blog Dogs

    are you ready to jump?

    If you’re a bit like me, you’ve also contributed your part to the Internet’s dog and/or cat content.

    But there are some dogs out there with a really large fan base. Right at the top of the list are:

  • chip update

    It’s drizzling a little bit in Basel but still beautifully warm… time to catch up with the blogging world.

    2 weekends ago I took the Postauto to the Passwang tunnel and walked up to the Passwang (about 1200m). On a clear day you can see the Alps from here. I walked to Reigoldswil and then took the bus back into Basel. Very enjoyable, very close. Category: Must repeat.

    Remember the Volvo ad with the car full of different sports equipment? That’s a bit what I feel like… A couple of weeks ago I bought new takkies, then I bought my first pair of hiking boots, and yesterday: new swimming togs and goggles.

    I like Europe in summer…

    A couple of interesting links that caught my eye this week:

  • blonk… blonk…

    Blonking along? Apparently this is what it means…

    To blog without notable creativity, inspiration or merit; covering the same ground trod by countless others in the echo chamber; blogging as an alternative to thinking.

    “I was going to write a considered piece about climate change in sub-Saharan Africa, but I’ve just been blonking pictures of my cat.”

    via ballpark.ch

  • PR for tech and software

    i stumbled across this article describing how PR for tech. and software companies is changing.

    The new rules of press releases:

    • Don’t just send press releases when “big news” is happening; find good reasons to send them all the time.
    • Instead of just targeting a handful of journalists, create press releases that appeal directly to your buyers.
    • Write releases replete with keyword-rich copy.
    • Create links in releases to deliver potential customers to landing pages on your website.
    • Optimize press release delivery for searching and browsing.
    • Drive people into the sales process with press releases.

  • Malawi Blogroll at Technorati

    Soyapi has set up a list of Malawi blogs at Technorati.

  • the advantages of outsourcing

    Email it to me. My day starts in 10 hours…

    😉

  • The view from Monte San Giorgio



    The weather was perfect in Ticino. Went swimming and hiking and visiting friends.

  • The Sheep Market

    10 000 online sheep for sale

    via Kottke.org

  • Make your own Camera

    Download the following pdf and make your own pinhole camera:
    Lighthouse in a Tree

    Nice marketing idea!

  • Weekend posting…

    I’ve been lazing around watching sports on TV… instead of going jogging myself. It’s raining, but that’s no excuse for a northener, is it?

    Here are a couple of links that crossed my paths this week:

    Strategic commenting provides a good write-up how you can build a community around your blog thru thoughtful and interesting comments.

    Mlle A. sent me this background article on Online Plagiarism. Beats me why people copy entire blogs word for word … List and quote from your sources, but don’t just copy and pretend its your own. It’s your personal mix of links and views that makes blogging special.

    And then there’s the link to the temporary results of my study on Nutella alternatives. So far one other person has joined me. If you get to try a chocolate spread by another manufacturer, please tag your Flickr pics/blog entry with “Nutella alternative”.

    Buon weekend,
    nchenga

  • Another Malawi blog

    newly started:
    Malawi Wildlife

  • You can’t keep up!

    Kathy provides tips how to reduce the info overload/pressure-to-keep-up stress:

    • Find the best aggregators.
    • Get summaries.
    • Cut the redundancy!
    • Unsubscribe to as many things as possible.
    • Recognize that gossip and celebrity entertainment are black holes.
    • Pick the categories you want for a balanced perspective, and include some from OUTSIDE your main field of interest.
    • Be a LOT more realistic about what you’re likely to get to, and throw the rest out.
    • In any thing you need to learn, find a person who can tell you what is: Need to know, Should know, Nice to know, Edge case, only if it applies to you specifically, or Useless.

    My 2 Pence:
    As a generalist genuinely interested in a lot of things, this is a challenge.

    I’ve reduced the number of RSS feeds to a bare minimum. I’m using RSS to watch the comments and entries at my various sites. And to get my daily Dilbert.

    I use del.icio.us to bookmark interesting sites that I find. This blog itself is also a kind of online bookmark or online scrap book, where I document links, howtos, interesting articles for future reference. I’ve started adding favorite blogs to Technorati’s faves. Although Technorati’s search is still deplorable, I’m hoping it will improve in time.

    I’ve found that Gada.be is a good and fast search engine for tags.

    Currently I don’t have any newspaper or magazine subscriptions. I tend to keep up with news via the web or TV. And I don’t printout web articles except when I know I won’t have access on the plane or train. I use Google alerts to keep up with news from other parts of the world.

    And I agree personal contacts are really the way to find out what you need to know. And reading a book offline.

    Do you have any tips? Best practices?