Month: June 2006

Baobab Family Project

Ich muss das jetzt einfach mal posten hier…. ein Videomitschnitt der ARTE Tracks Sendung vom 06. April 2006 über das Baobab Family Project in Mombasa, Kenia, welches im April bei YouTube.com hochgeladen wurde.

This video is about the Baobab Family Project in Mombasa, Kenya, someone recorded from the french/german tv channel ARTE and uploaded to YouTube. Andreas Triebel, the founder of this NGO at the coast, came to Kenya the other day, fell in love with the country and its people and saw a need to actually do someting about these many orphans and homeless young mothers. He consequently invested all his money and built a children’s home that aims to give the children a perspective, shelter and lots of love. Kudos and respect to him for this great task!

The reasons I posted this here is because a) Jahcoustix, one of the musicians in the video who contributed his earnings of a concert in Bremen earlier this year to the Baobab Family Project, is an old friend with whom we have been schooling back in the days, b) I would like to see even MORE of these projects being pulled up by ordinary wanainchii who could equally create something like this (just think of Wangari – a lonesome fighter during all those years) and c) I would still like to see the GoK ease up their daily bureaucratic hassle of NGOs and their work.
While I agree that some NGOs are heavily overfunded and wasting a lot of mbeca on overhead expenses (which has spoilt the general opinion on their work), others are struggling hard to be acknowleged for their work and are doing this purely on humanitarian grounds without asking for any allowances or the typical “what’s in it for me?” questions (and you know I could endlessly elaborate rant on this inherited cultural phenomenon where people put “money first, work later” and wealth-accumulating-schemes in the foreground which is SO counterproductive for the mutual growth of a nation… just like those Agwambos talking politics on Mashada & Co. – what a waste of intellectual capacity!).

Google AdSense

The sheer joy of working on a clear, bright, sharp and detailed new TFT flatscreen display instead of an old, blurry, huge, (though also relatively flat) CRT monitor (that heated up the room and blocked 1/3 of my door-turned-table) made me reconsider some minor changes on this blog and, in particular, the sidebar on the right side.

In other words: I’ve added mbecasense to my blog in form of Google’s AdSense programme. And of course I would like you to kindly take notice of that change so that I can soon afford the annual membership for Muthaiga Country Club will get a paycheck like Bankelele which will help me buy even more Tusker & mbuzi choma. But this article says “Don’t ask others to click on Google ads”. So, I never told you.

You can send me money, though. ^^

Since about 59% of my visitors still use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (MSIE) as their standard browser, I’ve also added this “Get Firefox with Google Toolbar” ad which should encourage MSIE users to eventually switch to the better alternative.

Now, when we look at the results of the (relatively simpooool) javascript that generates the ads, we get something like this for each browser:

ga_safari.jpgga_opera9.jpgga_ff.jpgga_msiejpg.jpg
Safari // Opera 9 // Firefox 1.5 // MSIE 6.0

Ati?

So, why does that image thing only work with MSIE?
Another thing is that some links ARE indeed interesting despite of their advertising character. Being forced NOT to click on ads in my own blog (not for cheating but because I am attracted by their content!) makes me wonder…Google, please, how do you explain this to your paying customers?
The reason for implementing GoogleAdSense isn’t of course the paycheck only (which would require me to implement this much better, like Mental does on his blog / ~ in between the posts or even on single posts) but the interesting ad-content which will be associated with my website.
However, I think Google AdSense really makes sense if implemented wisely and is way much better than those nagging pop-ups we had back in the days as well as modern popunders, flashlayers, streaming ads, intertistials, splitscreens, superfx and so on… If this thing works out and Google doesn’t kick me out for any strange reasons, I will try to implement more ads in between the posts as my template provides enough room for those.

AOB: Talking of browsers, I just installed the Opera Mini™ 2.0 browser on my Nokia 6230 and…it works! 94kb of good software that ad real value to this gadget…
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flickrupdate

The downside of being a Mzungu in dowtown Nairobi, equipped with a digital camera, is that you look like a stupid tourist.

The advantage of looking like a stupid tourist in downtown Nairobi is that you can hide under that image and take various snapshots…

@Kimendero of democracy: welcome to the Blogosphere! Welcome to the rest of the world where freedom of expression is a valued human right :-)

videre 2.0

Bibi TFT eventually arrived and has sent Mama CRT into aaaarrry (early) retirement :-)

videre 1.0
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(left) Gericom CT1997PF 19″ CRT, 130 Watts power consumption (!), 5w/5w standby/active-off, 20.2kgs, really BIG, too dark for image editing (even with Gamma corrections, etc.), TCO’99…

videre 2.0
Grö�enänderungSANY8169.JPG

Yakumo 17 XPT 17″ TFT, 8ms, 500:1 contrast, speakers (lol), 4.0 kgs, 48w, 2w/2w standby/active-off, 3 years pick-up guarantee, TCO’03, EUR 139,- ….

And the most important reason for the change: my EYES! What a blessing now….

the Chronicoool

Speaking of Dan and his artworks that inspired me and many others out there, I just had a quick stroll through his early journals and came across this:

chronicle1.jpg
The (Karengata) Chronicle / Nairobi, Saturday, October 12, 1985 / Price 3/50 (!)

An article by Nick Russel from 1985 – eternalised in Dan’s sketchbook.
Nick, editor & publisher of the Karen & Langata Chronicle since 21 years, recently commented on the Nairobi lowdown story and nowadays runs an online edition of the Chronicle.

@Nick: have you ever thought about installing a free blogging software such as the WordPress release on your webspace and maybe even joining the ever-growing Kenyan blogosphere?
The basic idea behind using a blogging tool is that it a) makes it easier to publish content on the internet, b) interact with your readers and c) you won’t need any IT guru in the background to fix the layout of your pages. Sijui about your webspace deals, but WordPress (as a start) is free of charge and just requires a MySQL database in the background. An alternative solution are the free, “ready-to-run” blogging services like wordpress.com or blogger.com as used by many other bloggers throughout the world. Another advantage is that you can easily switch the website’s layout by using (style) templates (again, free) or even adjust it to look like a newspaper (instead of a diary). This, I think, is easier to maintain and better than any pure content management system (cms) that otherwise requires lots of adjustments and technicooool knowledge. Hope this helps! :-)