Hey U!

Published on September 5, 2009 in Other and Travel. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

**This blog post is sticky, so scroll down to see newer content  – Max**

[Diani Beach, Kenya]
GREETINGS FROM the the tranquil, escapist shores of Diani Beach – just around by the 40 Thieves beach bar and the famous Ali Barbours restaurant!beautiful Diani Beach on the shores of the Indian Ocean

So, you’ve dropped by for a visit, eh? Well, come in…make yourself at home. I don’t blog as much as I should (or could) because I’m here in East Africa (primarily Kenya) where data services can, sometimes, be challenging – although that’s rapidly improving thanks to Safaricom’s speedy 3G broadband plus about 4 undersea fibre optic cables landing here at Mombasa on Kenya’s fantabulous, picturesque Indian Ocean coast.

Anyhow, I’m over here exploring, so you might as well explore with me. Right? Go to my Welcome page first because, really, I’m glad you decided to drop by and I want to roll out the red carpet for YOU. (continue reading)

Some quick links around this site:

About Me | Contacts | my IT-related posts | my entire blog Archive | my Africa experience | I LOVE Music | I’m very Opinionated | my Travels

Don’t hesitate to leave a comment or feedback. I plan to seriously overhaul this site with some kool WordPress stuff once I get some spare time and my lappie fixed. Cheers!

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My Visit to the United Nations Complex in Nairobi

Published on February 1, 2010 in Africa and Travel. 0 Comments Tags: , .

[Nairobi (Gigiri), Kenya]
I TRULY BELIEVE THAT outings less planned can sometimes turn out to be the most surprising (in a good way!) experiences in life. Well, today, me and my good pal were just going to the Village Market to pick up some stuff at Nakumatt and the Telkom Orange shop. Then, she called her pal (a real go-getter!) who has an amazing position at the UN here in Gigiri to join us for a bite or a coffee.

Instead, we were invited on to the complex for a bite at its Village Market-like cafeteria. My first impression of the complex is simply this: Wow, it’s bloody massive!! That’s gotta be 50 to 80 acres of buildings (offices, gym, cafeterias, library, etc.), green landscape, conference facilities, etc.

United Nations Office Nairobi (UNON) map

In addition, the 3 cafeterias have a wide variety of vendors serving tasty dishes — just like the Village Market. And the prices are amazing since you don’t pay VAT. I also hear that peeps who drive UN red plated vehicles get something like 30% off their fuel costs if they fill up at the UN gas station. And they also get to shop in the duty free stores — no VAT ever! Damn.

aerial view of the massive United Nations Office Nairobi (UNON) complex

In short, I had a great time at the UN today. It’s such a peaceful atmosphere and you get to see citizens from all over the world who are (ahem) “trying” to make a difference. But alas, what a fu!ked up world we live in. Ooops, sorry for the negativity. Here, I’ll smile for ya. :-)

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I Love Soul Kitchen by The Doors

Published on January 29, 2010 in Life, Music and Videos. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

[Gachie, Kenya]
I LOVE MUSIC!! This is no secret to peeps who know me from growing up in Ottawa, Canada and my “club buddies” in Toronto (Comfort Zone, System Sound Bar, The Guvernment, Life, Film Lounge, Turbo, Labour of Love) and Montreal (Aria, Gravity, Stereo, Sona, Beach Club, Red Lite, Bal en Blanc, Swirl) where I’m absolutely captivated by the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) scene and its pulsating sounds — especially House music with  Dark, Tribal or Progressive elements by the likes of international mega stars like Dj Vibe and local Canadian talent like DJ Myka, DJ Addy, Dan Medland (retired), Creator, Kenny Glasgow and Manzone & Strong.

Rock on…
However, since I was 8 when I left Barbados, the majority of my friends have been white Canadians during my public and high school years and, well, they love Rock music. I’ve always been a big Doors and Jimmi Hendrix fan though. These 2 artists were definitely waaay ahead of their time. Pearl Jam and Smash Mouth also rock my world — pun intended.

One track by The Doors that really excites me is “Soul Kitchen.” The surreal instrumentals are first-rate and the lyrics as well as the vocals gets me so excited that I’m able to forget about all the crazy sh!t going on in the world — for 3 minutes and 33 seconds. Here, have a listen and see if you feel me on this one.

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GMail Defaults to HTTPS access

Published on January 19, 2010 in Other. 0 Comments Tags: , .

[Gachie, Kenya]
AFTER THE FRACAS with the Chinese about Google’s refusal to filter its search results behind the “Great Firewall,” they decided to give its millions of users worldwide HTTPS (HyperText Transmission Protocol Secured) access by default. What does this mean? Well, all of your data communications between GMail’s servers and your computer is encrypted so that anyone eavesdropping will say, “what the heck is this useless gobbledygook?” Once again, Google takes the lead against its rivals (Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, et al) where it matters the most.

Since we’re talking about SECURITY, I’d suggest you take a peek at the OpenBSD project that’s based in Western Canada. It’s an open source Unix-like Operating System (O/S) that’s hailed by many as the MOST SECURE O/S on the planet. It shares a lot of similarities with the NetBSD and FreeBSD projects (which came to life from some of the greatest Computer Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley…BSD = Berkeley Software Distribution), but focuses fanatically on SECURITY. Heck, it’s almost IMPOSSIBLE to hack into a computer system running OpenBSD. Hackers just move on to something that’s a lot easier to compromise — like Windows. Oh, isn’t Puffy, the OpenBSD mascot, a cutie? Don’t mess with him though…he’s armed and dangerous — to hackers. :-) Not even the CIA, FBI or NSA can hack into an OpenBSD system!!!

BTW, the US government secretly envies China for its tight control over its “citizens.” Don’t think for one moment that CIA/NSA/FBI attempts (Carnivore, Echelon, Clipper, et al) to invade your privacy is a laughing matter. The majority of Westerners are so fuc#ing naive most of the time simply because they “elect” their leaders. After watching The Obama Deception documentary (download it for offline viewing via ClipNabber) on YouTube, I really don’t know if “democracy” is all it’s crack up to be.

Related Links:

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Acid Jazz track – The Masterplan

Published on January 16, 2010 in Music. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

[Gachie, Kenya]
HAPPY HOLIDAYS & ALL that Jazz. Speaking of Jazz, I’ve been YouTubing a lot lately to find old tracks from waaay back. Everything’s on YouTube! It’s gotta be the largest repository of music, videos and what not in the history of the world. It’s slogan “broadcast yourself” says it all. Way to go Google!

Anyhow, I want to introduce you to a track called The Masterplan by Diana Brown & Barrie K. Sharpe back in 1990. When I first heard it around ‘92, I was amazed with its style, lyrics, VIBE, and sheer uniqueness. Heck, 20 years later, this track is still FRESH and timeless. Just listen to it and you’ll see why I’m so excited. I lost this track twice over an 18 year period, but now it’s forever in the archives of YouTube.

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Best KDE Linux Distro?

Published on December 24, 2009 in Info Tech and Solutions. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

[Gachie, Kenya]
SO, WHAT’S THE BEST Linux distribution that delivers a high quality KDE experience? Well, I don’t really know since I’ve been a religious GNOME Desktop whore after my first experience with Ubuntu and now Linux Mint 8 (based on Ubuntu 9.10 – aka Karmic Koala) but SEXIER.

Mind you, I did take PCLinuxOS 2009.2 for a spin on a LiveUSB but I was not that impressed with its use (it’s a super reliable distro for Windows new commers though) of KDE 3.5, which looked and felt a little stale. You see, the word on the street is that KDE 4.3.x is AMAZING, and based on the screenshots I’ve seen lately, I’d have to concur.

On the other hand, I’m sort of hooked on GNOME’s minimal and functional elegance. In the past (around 1998 to 2004) when I was Linux distro hopping (Corel Linux, Xandros, Mandrake, the reliable Libranet, Puppy Linux, and Vector Linux), KDE was the superior desktop environment for Linux, and GNOME was out to lunch. But things have changed — big time! — for the GNOME project thanks to the deep pockets of Ubuntu’s backers (and razor sharp focus) as well as Novell’s technical expertise.

Anyhow, I suggest you read this article and decide which desktop Linux distro has the best KDE setup.

Get the best KDE Linux distro

Cheers!

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2010 is the year of Desktop Linux

Published on December 10, 2009 in Info Tech, Opinions and Solutions. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

[Gachie, Kenya]
YOU MAY NOT know it, but when you cruise the Net to read your mail on Yahoo, GMail, Hotmail (ran on FreeBSD before Microsoft purchased it), Mail2Web, or from your ISP (via POP3/IMAP), you’re mostly using a free mail server (qmail, Exim, Postfix, or Sendmail) that’s either running on Linux (CentOS, Red Hat, Debian, SUSE, Slackware, et al) or rock-solid BSD Unix variants such as NetBSD, FreeBSD, or OpenBSD. And what do you think Google is running their profitable multi-billion dollar Search engine business on? Linux!

Great Linux desktops a plenty…
Yes, we know Linux has been a huge success on the server side of things. But thanks to free sexy desktop user interface projects such as KDE and GNOME — as well as Xfce and Fluxbox for older PCs — Linux looks just as good (or better) than XP, Vista, Mac OS X or Windows 7. And things are getting better each and every day.

As a result, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, PCLinuxOS, OpenSUSE, SimplyMEPIS, Puppy Linux (great for old desktops and laptops that run XP slooowly!) and other distros are stepping up to the plate with fabulous desktop solutions for the home or office user. Anyhow, I expect to see some great developments from KDE (4.x) and GNOME (version 3.0) in 2010 that will make more users abandon Windows for good.

Related links

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From Ubuntu to Linux Mint

Published on December 7, 2009 in Info Tech, Opinions and Solutions. 9 Comments Tags: , , .

[Gachie, Kenya]
WELL, IT’S OFFICIAL, I’m now a big fan of the amazing Linux distro called Linux Mint. You see, it’s based on the fabulous work that Ubuntu (which is based on Debian) has already done; that is, making Linux easy for the masses to use, install and manage — just like Windows XP (I hear Vista & Windows 7 are a “lengthy” nightmare to install).

My "sexy" Linux Mint 8 desktop

So, you can look at Linux Mint as a more polished (take a peek at my Mint 8 desktop above!) and kinder, gentler version of Ubuntu that simply does EVERYTHING right out of the box, like:

  • Playing any video or music format (DivX, Windows Media Audio/Video, Ogg, and tons more that I didn’t know existed).
  • Detecting your Nokia celly so you can connect to the Internet with it (on XP you have to download Nokia PC Suite to do this!).
  • Detecting all of your hardware and installing the proper drivers during the install process without you even noticing.
  • Setting up Flash in Mozilla Firefox right off the bat.
  • Ditto for Java!
  • Plus lots of other “little” things that make you say, “Wow!”

Suffice to say, I heart Linux Mint. Really. Things just work on my laptop — or on any other old or new system that I’ve test driven it on. Ya don’t believe me? Well, take a peek at the following screen shot where I’m running the ever popular (and FREE) Evolution email client that was given to the community by Novell. It can connect to my GMail via IMAP or POP3 — and it’s sooo slick. By the way, it’s touted as an Outlook killer in every way — except for all those annoying Outlook bugs. Well, you know deal when you’re using Microsoft products. Oh, Evolution can even connect to a Microsoft Exchange mail server, too.

My Linux Mint 8 desktop with the "Outlook killer" Evolution mail client

Of course I do this to show peeps down here that Linux Mint is a better alternative to Windows from this point of view:

  • Your system is responsive and runs fast since it’s not saddled with layers and layers of archaic, proprietary Windows “technologies” that have, unfortunately, become a nightmare (or headache) for Microsoft in order to maintain backward compatibility — ie. millions and millions of lines of bloated Windows programming code going back to Windows 3.1, 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista and now Windows 7. I truly feel sorry for Microsoft on that note! Have you ever wondered why Windows XP, Vista or 7 takes up so much damn hard disk space?
  • No chance in Hell of catching a virus, trojan, or worm that’s so prevalent on the Windows “platform”. I really believe Symantec, McAfee, Kaspersky, Esset, Trend Micro, Panda, Grisoft and other well known Windows antivirus software companies just love the insecurity that’s built into the Windows architecture starting from the late 1980s to the present — all the way to the bank. If they had to depend on Linux, OS X, or a popular BSD Unix variant like NetBSD, FreeBSD, or OpenBSD, they’d all go out of business. No sh!t.
  • Easy system updates and software installation thanks to its remarkable Debian lineage.

Related links

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Google Voice: Free Calling Has Arrived

Published on December 1, 2009 in Info Tech and Solutions. 0 Comments Tags: , .

[Gachie, Kenya]
MY FAVOURITE WRITER on all things IT is always on the ball with his analysis on events that could change the landscape in this industry. I just wished more tech companies that fell on hard times over the past decade or 2 would’ve read John C. Dvorak’s timely and insightful articles. Here’s another excellent observation on why Google is always ahead of the curve in comparison to its competitors.

Google Voice: Free Calling Has Arrived

Take a peek at how Dvorak sees things that should be obvious to other important players in the telecom business:

Now that Google is behind the latest push for free calls, the whole process will likely be accelerated worldwide. Soon enough we’ll all be wondering why the whole process took so long, and why Google had to be behind it. Where was Microsoft? Or IBM? What about the almighty Apple? None of the CBG (Came Before Google) companies seem to have any telecom vision whatsoever.
Google entered the phone business with Android. The company saw Google Voice as the next logical step in the evolution of its it telephony business. There’s even a Google Voice Android app that gives Google phones a cost-cutting edge. Of all of the major players in the phone space—Nokia, Ericsson, Sony, Samsung, Apple, Motorola—only Google thought of this idea? Ericsson has been in the phone switch business and knew the writing was on the wall. What were they thinking? Nokia was working on all sorts of mesh-technologies, saw thing coming, and did nothing? {source}

For any one who has a PC and is looking for el cheapo phone rates, I urge you to take Google Voice for a spin.

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ComputerWorld: Ubuntu 9.10 Better Than Windows 7

Published on November 30, 2009 in Info Tech, Opinions and Solutions. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

[Gachie, Kenya]
I OWE A LOT to ComputerWorld back in my high school days and in the 1990s for really keeping me up to date on all the important IT developments back then. Boy, I almost forgot about them, but I was pleasantly surprised with this favourable analysis of Ubuntu Linux 9.10 (Karmic Koala) against Windows 7.

5 Reasons why Ubuntu 9.10 is better than Windows 7

Wow, there are 263 comments in response to the article so far. No doubt some addicted Windoze (er Windows) users are going to try to make Linux look bad. But Linux cheerleaders don’t sit on the sidelines any more. They’ll defend their OS of choice until Hell freezes over (not gonna happen with this global warming thingy going on).

So, what’s your take?

ComputerWorld cover - December 1996

Remembering the good ol’ days…
By reading ComputerWorld religiously, I was able to keep abreast of the latest trends with regards to: DB2, Informix, IBI’s PC-FOCUS 4GL, COBOL (gasp!), PowerBuilder, Oracle, VAX/VMS, Windows (unfortunately), Sybase, Unix, Texas Instruments IEF (Information Engineering Facility), Cognos PowerHouse, Lotus’ bad mis-steps with 1-2-3, DEC’s powerful Alpha AXP chip et al. Heck, this magazine used to magically disappear — for a few days or permanently — whenever I visited someone’s IT shop. After all, they weren’t that serious about IT I thought; it’s just that it was “the IT magazine” you had to have in your office if you wanted to look good. BTW, Byte, PC /Computing, and PC Magazine kept me up to date in the DOS/Windows era of computing and all the battles for market dominance between Intel/AMD, and Borland/Microsoft. ComputerWorld on the other hand was more for CIOs and high-end IT decision makers.

ComputerWorld cover- May 1998

A new Information era…
Today, I don’t even read the above magazines in print any more. Thanks to the Internet, I get my full dose of IT news by visiting sites like Linux.com, DesktopLinux.com, LinuxPlanet.com, ZDNet.com, OSNews.com, Oreilly.com, CNet.com, ServerWatch.com, Internet.com along with the granddaddy of all FREE Open Source Software projects, SourceForge.net.

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10 Important Linux Developments

Published on November 29, 2009 in Info Tech, Opinions and Solutions. 0 Comments Tags: .

[Gachie, Nairobi, Kenya]
NOW THAT I’VE become a Linux whore, I thought I’d share a really important post that highlights some key Linux developments courtesy of IBM’s DeveloperWorks website.

10 important Linux developments
everyone should know about

the Linux mascot, Tux, the penguin, is looking to uproot Windows installations -- everywhere!

Are you looking for an amazing Linux Desktop experience? Well, I highly recommend the latest releases of the following FREE Linux distros:

To conclude, you simply can’t go wrong using one of the highly acclaimed Linux distributions listed above. Just download the .iso file, burn it to a blank CD, and reboot your PC. In my opinion, they all put Windows XP and Vista to shame.

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