For all you DIY-freaks & makezine readers out there, check out this interesting “construction manual for a Bathroom Toilet unit” provided by Demotech. It is an online DIY manual that shows how to build a shower-toilet-combination for use in villages…Their website isn’t about toilets only, so there might be something else of interest to you.
The idea behind blogging this is to show that the technology and creative imagineering are already available – what we need to do is to actually build these projects and see if ppl are ready to accept such technologies.
ME I WANT, I WANT, I WANT… :-)
Month: April 2006
wiki-san
About half a year ago, Mzeecedric of m.zung.us finished his final diploma thesis on the “potentials of WiKis on the Intranet” (in german) for use within companies and discovered that this technology or rather: this approach to streamline transferable knowledge is still in its early years in Germany. CG, please correct me if I am wrong on this one, but still, when I – the bloody beginner – think about WiKis and their perfect use for any environment, I come to think of these two basic advantages:
1. WiKis provide a good way to share work.
Whereas publishing of content normally takes time (~ converting Word documents into PDFs or even HTML), anyone can register on a WiKi and edit the content. The benefit? Distributed working. Why should it all be left to one person if at the same time these things could be shared with the whole world?
2. The ease of accessing informations.
Imagine this scenario: you are an engineer or doing some consultant job and are looking for a solution to a bugging problem. It could be a technical issue, or maybe some legal advice that needs to be adjusted to the local scale? Back in the days, this required us to go through different literature. The amount of time spent for doing research on given facts (and let’s say googling isn’t always the best solution) sometimes exceeds the amount of energy pepole want to put into a problem to find a comprehensive solution. Not everyone is a student like me who enjoys doing research or spending 2hrs on Google trying to track down the required information.
Now, with the introduction of Web 2.0 technologies which includes tagging articles and thus information with trackable keywords / tags as well as centralized information pools like WiKis, it seems to become much easier to find what you are looking for. Think of the “click-through-ratio” we know from analyzing company websites and you get the picture – how many clicks do I have to make, how many pages do I have to load until I get my answer?
The next generation of users isn’t used to go to libraries and do some scientific research. The MTV generation is focussed on retrieving information the moment they need it – no one reads all these different PDF files to get an answer. I don’t know if that’s good or bad in the long run, BUT!, it sure is an interesting trend/development and hence our information pools have to be adjusted likewise.
You’re out in the field and there’s no internet access available? Yeah, well that’s the reality. There’s this good friend of mine who did an internship in South Sudan and needed to retrieve some basic information that he normally finds online. However, out there in the desert, there’s no internet available. What to do? ==> Download the Wiki and have it on CD/DVD. Simple as that :-)
The reason I am mentioning all this is because I am looking for good Wiki software that I can use free of charge. My plan is to get this Wiki plattform for EcoSan on the internet. As far as I know, something like that is in the pipeline, but who knows WHEN these websites become available.
My advantages: a) I am a student, I can take time for this and b) I am very passionate about it, so I want this thing to become reality. Let’s see…
the traffic act (cap. 403, section 34)
What’s the rule of the road?
==> KEEP LEFT!
Or: there’s no better sound than the irregular rattling of the valve lifters in my VW’s 1600cc motor.
Talking of cars, Ntwiga’s comment reminded me of blogging this story on how I obtained my driving licence back in those days with Rocky Driving School in Moi Avenue, Nairobi, Kenya, while pointing to this interesting BBC article.
my kenyan driving licence
Just a few days after turning 18, I figured I’d eventually need my own driving licence – a piece of paper that every young teenager with driving ambitions wants to have. For those who could afford the procedure, Nairobi offered a few driving schools, such as Rockys on Moi Avenue. Whereas some ppl prefered Glory Driving School due to their well known connections to Nyayo House (read: you pay extra and get the paper without going for the test), I prefered Rockys. Geeeh, I was so serious about this and of course: no kitu kidogo or whatsoever. Also, my friends in Germany paid something like 1000,- EUR each for the whole course – so I knew about the advantages of doing this in Kenya. But beware, you MAY think that you can drive because someone has allowed you to drive the car before (~ Learners Licence) – but that doesn’t also mean that you know how to drive the instructor’s way.
The instructor for the practical part came in form of a very very very short guy, who had problems looking like an adult in the seat of this Datsun 1200cc pick-up. That is, most of the time he would lean his left arm out of the window and take a regular spit on the streets. Hhrrrrrrrrr…..schhhh…tzz….ppfff….., every junction needed to be marked with his spittle.
Then, one day while driving through Eastleigh, I was supposed to stop at a junction. Why?, I said, why do I need to stop here? – Ati, there’s a stop sign. – Where? – Well, it is SUPPOSED to be there. It was stolen by someone some time ago.
Living la vida loca, the Nairobi way. Me I LOve NAIrobi, REgardless.
On another occasion, this driving instructor taught me how to start the car on a steep hill and thus ruining the clutch and handbrake. The Homo Faber part in me suggests that such starts are killing any car in the long run, but hey, we’re talking about Rocky’s 1200cc pick-up here. So why worry? I did worry, though. I showed him my method of doing this and while we both agreed that his is the better way of starting a car from the spot on a hill, he insisted on telling me his official method, because: “we are trained to do it this way”. (which reminds me of this older woman while doing my apprenticeship who told me “We learnt to press the “OK” button whenever the computer system asks for it”….=> format c:\? OK? YES! – go figure).
Sadly, I sometimes hear stories of ppl being confronted by nasty driving instructors. That’s so obnoxious. Ntwiga, I don’t know if this was the very same instructor, but I believe he was one of “that kind” (my driving instructor in Germany was even worse – he confronted me with racist “jokes”…).
The practical part being somewhat amusing, the theoretical part started to become the biggest comedy I’d ever come across. For those who don’t know the system: in Germany you have these multiple choice tests which are somehow hard to pass and you have to pay a lot of money for getting your own copies that will prepare you for the test. At Rockys, they have some ply wood with a roundabout scenery painted on it and you are given a toy car which you need to *drive” through that scenery while changing lanes and entering the roundabout. While there are stories that some cars are equipped with three wheeles only to fool people (“How can you drive a car with three wheels only?”), there is this particulaaaaaaarrrrr procedure of succesfully completing that test which starts with the 1st rule that you can’t enter the roundabout from any direction but only from one! Now YOU go and try to imagine what some ppl do when they are told for 20 minutes that one can ONLY enter the roundabout from one direction and are then given a toy car to show what they’ve just been told. Yup, you’re guesssing is correct. (…)
Sooo… being the court jester, I couldn’t resist from adding further funstuff and brought this matchbox toy car with me:
a Majorette toy car limo
Who has the right of way? The Presidential Escort, of course!
Hehe…Now you guys show me how the PE goes round the roundabout. Everyone laughs. Haiiiaaaa….you know this typical behaviour when they start laughing once they don’t know the answer. But true, taking the Limo for a ride on this toy scenery just added the extra spice to this comedy. Btw, I left it with them.
The actual test at the HQ of Traffic Police was awesome. While sitting in the waiting room, a traffic police officer entered the room and announced the details of the prociiidjah (procedure). After mentioning all those important details like “you’ll need this, you’ll need that”, he closed his speech with an army styled “DID I MAKE MYSELF CLEAAAARRR?!”. – Yessaaa.
Who knows what kind of customers he normally deals with.
Once they pulled me in for the test, they asked me the usual questions like “take the car and move it from here to there”. Here’s what you’re supposed to do:
“model town”
Oh, I was so nervous, but I passed. Fortunately. Next thing – of course: “Wewe, you wait until we call you”. – Yessaaa!
After about an hour of waiting, they asked me to take the drivers seat in another Datsun 1200cc. I was SO nervous and confused that I’d forgotten about adjusting the rear view mirror. The lady who had been driving before was about half of my size and so while looking in the mirror, I saw nothing but the loading area of the pickup. Haiiiaaa. Well, I realized that AFTER starting the car but tried to hide this from the traffic police officer. That guy in fact was very nice and cool. I asked him about putting on seat belts and he told me straight away: forget about the belts.
Later on I read in my “motor driving book” that it is considered an official procedure to “forget about the mirrors”. Whatever.
The man ordered me to drive from roundabout A to roundabout B on Thika Road and after returning home, he just said: okay.
Ati, ok? Hey, listen, I don’t want to sound like one of those impatient gals, but this is my driving test, dude. How about: congratulations, you’ve passed!… Nooo. He just mumbled: ok.
A few weeks later on I managed to exchange the interim certificate into this red booklet and once I arrived in Germany, I had to pay an extra amount of ~ 100,- EUR to get this thing transcribed into a german version. Mind you, I had to re-do the test, but imagine this: I drove to the test in my car using my kenyan driving licence, took the test, passed it, and drove away with my german licence.
The bottom line to all this? Well, I might be driving like my grandma these days, you know – slow and always using the indicator – but deep inside my drivers heart, I still share this I-will-survive-the-roads-of-Nairobi-spirit. And the advantage: I know where to get my spare part deals ;-)
Notizen eines Tages
1. Auf dem Weg zum Bahnhof bietet sich folgende lustige Beschäftigung an:
wir zählen die Kleinwagen mit Gedöns am Rückspiegel.Pro Diddl-Maus gibt es extra Punkte. Meine Begleitung heute vermutet einen direkten Zusammenhang zwischen blinkenden Handy-Anhängern, Rückspiegelgedöns und Berufsgruppenwahl (Bürokauffrau oder Arzthelferin?).
2. Die BILD Zeitung beim Bäcker zeigt einen verschlafenen, unrasierten Oliver Kahn. Schlagartig fallen mir Dittsches Worte von letzter Nacht ein: wir müssen etwas gegen die Soziale Kälte in Dland tun. Ab auf die Bank mit dem Kahn, da gibts wenigstens warme Decken.
3. “Ausstieg in Fahrtrichtung rechts…äh…links. Der Metronom. Schön.
Aber nicht Uelzen.
Ich sach ma so: die Stadt Uelzen hat den Charme eines Flures im Finanzamt.
Zurück zum Metronom. Das Zugpersonal suggeriert das Prinzip des job-rotatings – Zugführer gegen Schaffner, dann klappts auch besser mit den Ansagen.
4. Ankunft in Lüneburg. Ein Glück. Willkommen in der neuen Welt. Zurück in der Zivilisation.
5. Nach einer konfusen Shoppingtour einen Abstecher im Lokal zur goldenen Möwe gewagt. Am Tresen neben mir ein ca. 19jähriger, der sich ne fette McFlurry Portion mit Smarties bestellt. Na guten Tach auch. Heimlich male ich mir aus, wie neben den Burgern Werbung für SchönheitsOPs MP3 Player angeboten wird. Die Zielgruppe wäre zumindest vorhanden. Point Of Sale. Bitteschön.
6. Besuch in einem “Erotikgeschäft für Frauen”, in dem eine Kommilitonin jobbt. Ich sehe eine ca. 40 jährige Kundin, die eine halbe Stunde im Laden verweilt, um sich dann mit diversem Spielzeug für 94,- EUR einzudecken. Ich wundere mich über die Selbstverständlichkeit, mit der die angebotenen Artikel großzügig gekauft werden – und über die recht hohen Beträge.
Während ich noch darüber nachdenke, werde ich gebeten, der Besitzerin bei der Bestattung eines toten Meerschweinchens zu helfen. “Wo soll ich denn damit hin? – In den Müll…”. Ja nee, is klar.
7. Bei C&A in der Herrenabteilung gibt es günstige Sakkos, leider nicht in meiner Größe. Dito H&M. Dito Karstadt. Vor allem H&M, also wirklich, ma soogn: wieso ist XL bzw. Größe 106 immer ausverkauft?
Bei C&A noch Bekanntschaft mit einem älteren Ehepaar gemacht, bei dem die Frau ihrem Mann ein furchtbar häßliches, tomtatenfarbenes Sakko mit Karomuster andrehen möchte. Ich kann mich nicht zurückhalten und gebe meinen Kommentar ab: ja schon schön, aber bitte, nicht diese Farbe. Aus Anstand erwähne ich natürlich nicht auch noch, dass das tomatenrote Sakko die gleiche Farbe aufweisst wie die rotangelaufene Glatze des armen Ehemannes. Notiz an mich selber: Frech kommt weiter, aber gegen den guten Geschmack einer Ehefrau komme ich einfach nicht an.
8. Irgendwann am Nachmittag wage ich die Rückfahrt im überfüllten Metronom. Neben mir zwei ältere Damen aus gutem Hause, die sich angeregt über einen expandierenden Kiosk in Uelzen unterhalten, während sie genüßlich ihre Fischbrötchen von GOSCH-Sylt aufmampfen. Vor mir ein Gothic-Pärchen, beide jeweils sehr vertieft in ihre Fantasy-Romane. Ich schaue aus dem Fenster, genieße den Ausblick und erkenne, dass ich für die relativ kurze Zugfahrt keine Lektüre brauchen werde. Die schönsten Geschichten schreibt das Leben.
Später dann erwische ich mich dabei, wie ich schon wieder Details für meinen Kenia-Aufenhalt plane. Deutschland – so nah und doch so fern. Kenia, so fern und doch so nah. Bald.
9. Ausstieg in Fahrtrichtung rechts. Der Schaffner schnackt lieber mit seiner Kollegin als nach meinem Semesterticket zu fragen. Egal. Ich steige aus und laufe nach Hause. Die Zugfahrt erinnert mich an meine Zeit in Frankfurt – morgens mit der U-Bahn vom Dichterviertel zur Konstablerwache, abends zurück. Ich denke an meine Freunde in den anderen Metropolen dieser Welt und überlege, welches volkswirtschaftlche Volumen der tägliche Pendlerstrom in einer Stadt wie Nairobi hat.
10. Der FTP Server im Wohnheim streikt immer noch. Nachdem die Waschmaschine ihren Dienst versagt und meine 1,50 EUR in 50 cents Stücken ergebnislos verschlingt, starte ich den Server neu und mounte die Festplattenpartitionen.
Ein Erfolgserlebnis, alles klappt.
11. Ich sitze am Rechner und tippe diese Zeilen. Ich denke an Baggi in Kathmandu, an Tembomoja und ihr Visual Basic for Applications Problem, an Mbuzimoja und den Regen in Nairobi, an Irena und ihre Schwierigkeiten, und an Mwendes Worte letztens, drüben in ihrem Blog: “We are blessed.” So true.
uhuru kitu gani?
sense of delight
Who designed the old KBL/Tusker logo? How illuminated are Nairobi’s streets nowadays with those adopt-a-light lamps? How much does a Coke cost nowadays? What isn’t availaboool @ Nakumatt? What’s the normal fare for taking No. 23 from Kangemi to City Centre? What’s the ecoscan situation in Kenya? In which state are those sewage treatment plants? What are Bertiers, Katarikawa, Kangethe, Maube, Oswaggo and other (older) artists doing these days? What are my friends doing? What do they look like now? How much is 1minute of internet access in a cybercafé? How fast is the average ADSLine in Nairobi? What does the average mobile phone in Kenya look like – will it have a WAP browser or just simple sms functions? Any new joints/kantini I need to discover in NBO? How much money will I need to survive one day in our expensive Nairobi? Will there be any thugs trying to steal my beloved mobile? Will I be aboooool to eventually obtain this novice licence from ARSK for my 5Z4 call sign? What, where, when, who….
These and other questions will hopefully be answered soon, especially since I booked my flight to Kenya. May 9th until 31st, 3 weeks in May that will hopefully secure me an interesting placement/internship for my final (diploma) thesis. YEAH! :-)
Solo Computer, the details (part II)
AfroM of AfroMusing asked me to compile the feedback on the technical questions she received from ExpLAN Computers Ltd. on their SOLO computer project. I also tossed in some questions to inquire what this is all about, and – apart from all those juicy details that we are now supposed to blog – Paul Richardson of ExpLAN Computers Ltd. not only answered these questions but also presented us with a very comprehensive understanding of how things work out in field. In other words: the man knows what’s needed and has spent an enormous amount of time trying to understand what works and what doesn’t. This is about hardware and software playing together, understanding what ppl out there really need in terms of basic computing and having an understanding for the context under which these developments are to be seen.
So let’s just have a look at Paul’s answers:
Rechargeable Batteries: The Solo computer (Solo) will be run using a separate power-supply in a box with high-temperature rechargeable cells, capable of receiving charge up to 70degC. Also in this box is a processor and charge-switching system. The power supply monitors what is needed to run the computer and will make up any deficiency in direct solar-power by mixing in some charge stored in a battery. Hence, you would typically have enough energy in a completely full unit to run a Solo computer for about 2.5 hours.
Variety of Power Supplies: The Power Supply can receive input from any source of electrical power, either constant-current or constant-voltage (between 6v – 30v DC). Think of generators which are connected to static bicycles…
CPU: We are no longer expecting to use the ARM-7500 processor in the production units. ARM processors are mostly used in portable devices like mobile phones, and consume less than 0.5 watts. Frankly a USB port uses more power than our processor! A pentium processor consumes typically 70watts or more. The AMD Turion processor was designed for use in low-energy laptops and is available in versions using 35w or 25w.
Touch Panel: There are three main technologies used for touch-sensitive screens and the choice of touch-screen type will be made later:
- resistive (4-wire or 5-wire). These have the active surface on top and can be scratched by dirt on a finger or stylus.
- capacitive.These have the active layer underneath, but can only use a finger because it needs the human body to drain the capactive charge. The problem with this is that genetics has dictated that the average African finger is 50% wider than the average European one! So Africans using capactive screens often complain that they can’t see the pointer!
- Surface Acoustic Wave. There is no touch-sensitive surface. Instead there are sensors at the edges of the screen which detect where a finger, stylus or stick is pointing. SAW screens are about twice the price of a 4-wire resistive.
Maintenance costs: will there be any local dealers that could repair these computers when they brake?
We do not expect Solo computers will be sold by the usual concept of a “dealer”. No existing dealer could yet handle the sort of technology inside a Solo, and most will be based in cities or towns that have some mains electricity. So they have the wrong skills in the wrong place!
The Solo design incorporates a number of redundancy features. So if the keyboard breaks then you can use the mouse with an onscreen keyboard or a touch-screen to send a message asking for a new keyboard.
Since there are no internal moving parts and very few connections, it is difficult to think what a service-engineer could repair “in the field”. If there is a catestrophic failure caused by (for example) dropping the screen on a rock, then only a Manufacturing Base or a designated field-agent could possibly be able to install a new screen.
A Solo isn’t built from the same sort of parts that are found in PC’s
Operating Systems: Currently our prototypes are running *both* Debian Linux and RISC OS. They are both standard operating systems with the usual 7-layer model of network protocols, and based on the Berkley network stack.
If the computer is running Linux, then the user environment would look no different to any other PC or laptop running the same version of Linux. The Solo is a “full” computer, not a palmtop with a cut-down functionality and reduced user-interface.
The same would be true if it ran RISC OS.
Hardware Upgrades?
The Solo design does not have the usual concepts of a single hard-disc and a single block of RAM. We have a 5-layer memory system wich has different types of solid-state memory, which use different levels of power. Hence we have no concept of the computer being “off”. It simply transfers data into an appropriate type of memory and shuts off all user-processes.
We expect that most Solo computers will be manufactured with two or more externally-available memory slots capable of taking a Compact Flash card, microdrive or other type of solid-state device. If the user wants more storage, then they can insert a larger media-card.
the invention?: Hopefully the average user will be totally unaware of “what theinvention is”! They should just regard it as a standard computer in a slightly unusual wooden case. We’ve spent the last 8 months with one programmer working on the code to drive the video-output stages. Low energy CPUs are usually designed to drive a screen the size of that on a mobile phone. They have neither the resolution nor the data bandwidth to address a full-size computer screen. So this is an extensive amount of development work.
What else could be made of wood or sustainable materials despite the computer case?The case of the Solo power-supply can also be wood. And we’re working on a solid-state light which might use wood too.
However, a more important environmental issue is the use of lead and tantalum in the manufacture of circuit boards. There are no restrictionson this in countries of the Developing World. But in Europe it is now illegal to throw away such computers into a land-fill site.
That’s why companies give old PCs to charities who pack them into containers and send them out for use in African primary schools. (!!!) When they fail, the African school digs a pit behind the classroom and throws them in. So in 10 year’s time, it will be the African teenagers who are suffering from brain damage because such “heavy metals” can’t be removed from the
drinking water. Compared with that problem, the use of environmentally-friendly wood in the case of the Solo is very much a side issue.
==> that was my initial question, not the use of environmentally-friendly wood but getting this cradle-to-cradle design to the PCB level and finding a solution to this bugging issue of heavy metals pollution in the developing countries which needs to be addressed much more. Surely, finding a solution to this situation isn’t the duty of engineers that are trying to build a computer for these countries, but still, it’s the most interesting part for me. I think we’ll need a free Wiki on the inet for intelligent materials pooling – an overview of materials, availabilities and pricing that could provide some solutions to the lead, tantalum & Co. material flow management.
I like their approach and their down-to-earth understanding for what’s needed. The bottom line seems to be that although the technology is already available, it takes time, money and definitely a lot of passion and a healthy business plan to get this from the prototype level into production. On the other hand, as marketing requires a lot of funding, let us continue promoting this good initiative and do some viral marketing through the blogosphere. Or as Paul puts it: “We are a Design Team, not a sales outlet. So we have no admin staff to handle sales and marketing. Every hour we spend answering questions to individuals is an hour less in actual design-work.”
eyespot
Eyespot is just another sexy AJAX-driven website that does cool stuff for you. As mentioned earlier, Michael Robertson of Linspire & Co. promoted this sleek website in his newsletter & on ajaxlaunch.com which gives you the ability to do some video editing – online.
nothing to see here :-)
I tried it out, shot a video from the balcony with my Nokia 6230, sent that 91kb file via MMS to the eyespot server and just added one of the free audio files as background music. Nothing big, just a small test to see how this works.
Hence: Eyespot (I spot?) is a neat tool for editing & publishing videos on-the-go + it’s free of charge. Haiiaaa….I think I’ll be using this nice tool from time to time to add more “Kikuyumoja’s Blogcasting Corporation (KBC)” content in future :-)