Tracking Jumbo Elephants with PostgreSQL, Flashcom sucks, Shirky rocks

Short & Sweet
Well, after writing Part 1 and Part 2 about my web hosting nightmare a few days ago, I just feel like writing some random IT thoughts going through my head. The last bit below is a glaring example of how to piss of potential customers before even lifting a muscle.

* Tracking Jumbo elephants via GPS/SMS & PostgreSQL?
I’ve been meaning to send a quick email to another IT pro (software engineer), David Gachuche (see pic on right), regarding the exciting work he’s doing tracking elephants throughout Africa. He got my attention at his New Year’s Eve 2005/06 party in Karen (a town about 15 minutes from downtown Nairobi) when he told me that he was using PostgreSQL – the world’s most advanced open source database – in a serious location-based application right here in Nairobi. I want to get his thoughts on the project, and also to pick his brains about using GPS data points in a slick Real Estate web application that I have on the back burner in the Beta Zone at our Labs.

Get more info here: Using texts to save Kenya’s elephants (BBC) | same article in The Seoul Times | GIS/GPS Experiences with PgSQL?

* Clay Shirky’s Writings About the Internet, Economics & Culture, Media & Community, Open Source
This amazing lecturer from the US is absolutely brilliant. He’s 100% correct on everything he says with regards to wireless, telecom and Internet politics. I’m going to shut up and let you see for yourself. PLEASE (pretty please?) read these gems by him: Wireless Auction Follies | Permanet, Nearlynet, and wireless data | ATT and Cable Internet Access | Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free Content | Weblogs and the Mass Amateurization of Publishing | The Internet and the Size of Government | Web Traffic and TV Ratings | Language Networks.

This is article is my favorite so far because it has huge implications: Customer-owned Networks: ZapMail and the Telecommunications Industry.

Telecom execs from Telkom Kenya, Telkom SA, and similar telecom monopolies with their heads stuck in the sand should read this because they are so behind the times holding their respective nation’s economic prosperity hostage due to sheer greed. And the public just sits back and takes the boot in the ass more or less. Of course we know government is partly to blame because of the huge revenues that fills their coffers – legally or behind closed doors. I always thought a government was to serve the best interests of its people. Oh well.

* Flashcom’s Customer Service SUCKS
I’ve been meaning to write about this new startup called Flashcom that appears to have some amazing CDMA fixed wireless broadand technology that should put the fear of god in Telkom Kenya and VSAT operators. Actually, I see their bloody TV commercials every damn day, and I’m like, “Hmmn, these guys seem like they got their sh!t together.” Wrong!!!!

So I send an email to CustomerCare@Flashcom.co.ke a WHILE back (Feb 15/2006) indicating that I’d like to get more info on their service offering, and if it’d be possible for me to drop by and take the technology for a spin so that I can write about it here. I also suggested that they need to step up to the plate and offer an unlimited data package similar to Africa Online’s iBurst service. If they just do this one simple thing, then all of a sudden, the Internet dynamics in this region will change overnight because, like I said, their technology is sound.

Well, WEEKS later, I still haven’t heard a clue from anybody over there. Like, is that really a legit company, or is it just a front doing some nefariously ILLEGAL activities here in Kenya? LOL.

Oh well, let’s just say that Flashcom is OFF my LIST. See ya…wouldn’t wanna be ya.
Heck, even an employee from Africa Online noticed how crappy Flashcom’s customer “care” is. He’s right! Customers are not going to gravitate towards Flashcom, so his company is safe – for now.

BTW, if Flashcom were to set up shop in South Africa, I’m sure they’d get a boat load of business. Why? Because of this. Heck, I’ve never even dealt with Telkom SA, and I already hate em with a passion. “Die Telkom, die!”

Get more info in my next blog post: Telkom South Africa: Can a Company be this Hated?