Category Archives: housekeeping

Technological graveyard

I’m looking to replace my current laptop which still works okay but looks to be an outdated dinosaur (Windows 98, Office 2000, 2 GB hard drive, 48 MB RAM, Intel-MMX, floppy disk and CD-ROM – which I used primarily for MS Encarta and MS Flight when I bought the laptop, has USB ports – but can’t read flash disks)

Now 6 years later, I am looking at much-improved specs machine (40 GB 512MB DVDrw, 1.7GHz, no software). It’s not state of the art, but that would be too expensive and computers have a short technological half-life.

I was thinking of all the gadgets I have used and discarded in my lifetime – communications (answering machines, pagers, cordless phones, car phones, modems), music (LP’s, real player, cassettes, mini discs), entertainment (VHS, gold disks, camcorders, hand-held video games, still camera) etc.

Who knows which of the items we use today – laptops, DVD’s, satellite dishes,- will be around in 6 years time. E.g. is dvb-h the future for TV’s? Only time will tell.

Drip Cycle

0000 can’t believe two hours have passed and the drip is finished. Finished reading Next (a gift from AfroM) and I now start reading this week’s Time. They can’t start a new drip because wrist is swollen where the vein has had enough. Note: Nurses seem more callous at night. Are they tired or more hardened to the calls of patients at midnight?
0012 Nurse disconnects drip – releasing me to go to the toilet. “Always carry your phone with you” – is something you are advised when you check in as phones tend to disappear, usually if you fall asleep during visiting hours. The toilet lights are off at night and there’s no switch but using my Nokia screen – there’s no need for a light.
0017 Back to bed. Not really sleepy and I don’t use the mosquito net
0028 Mosquito buzzes my face. There’s a myth that Nairobi mosquitoes don’t transmit malaria, but I don’t wish to complicate my recovery/treatment by proving this out and I clumsily put the net down to cover the upper half of the bed and fall asleep
0145 Doctor comes in with a nurse. They make a new cut in my left hand and insert a tube to attach a new drip. Drip in right hand is removed and sealed with a bandage.
0200 Another nurse comes and connects the drip bottle to the new tube. Back to sleep.
0530 Use toilet but this time I use the urinal – it’s a paper gourd that they bring round and is good for two flows. When on drip and drinking fluids throughout, one needs to go to bathroom a lot
0625 Nurse comes in to administer blood pressure, pulse, and temperature tests
0632 Get SMS from Couch Tato telling me when I might find a rare DVD I am looking for. (Does he ever sleep?)
0640 new jug of drinking water delivered by a waiter.
0800 Watching CNN news: I must find out what the differences are between Sunni’s and Shiite’s.
0821 Breakfast brought in. Even though I am supposed to be on a low-fat diet, they keep bringing some fatty foods. Take porridge, Weetabix, banana, and tea leaving aside the boiled egg and sausage.
0852 finish breakfast – takes longer to eat with the wrong hand
0937 finish reading Time magazine
0955 Take a shower, and get new gown & shorts as my bed is changed. I am not able to walk about because my doctor shows up. She examines me, is happy with progress but asks that a blood sample be taken tomorrow morning after which she’ll consider discharging me
1000 Back to bed. If I had my Celtel line I’d be able to make more daytime calls, but stuck with Safaricom and waiting for whoever calls. I get a call from the office
1005 Drip reconnected. Must finish my Lucozade bottle by tomorrow when I leave. Hate this stuff
1145 Finish reading a chapter of a manuscript and use paper toilet before visiting hours start
1150 Dietician brings suggested menu/foods for my recovery after I leave hospital and we discuss what is acceptable and what’s banned
1205 Have to use the toilet. This time I ask to be disconnected and walk to the bathroom. Getting sloppy, this is the first time I have left my phone behind. I rush back to find its still there
1210 – 1215 first visitors of the day – and one brings another bottle of Lucozade
1220 Itch on my right hand and realise it’s a mosquito bite from last night – I hope it drank saline instead of my blood.
1222 Lunch arrives
1225 More visitors. My sister is first and I send her downstairs to buy the newspapers (perks of being in the hospital) and a Safaricom airtime card. They’re here as I eat lunch. Have a wide discussion about the poor state of roads, book publishing.

1405 Back to the toilet. As I am washing hands, I drop my phone in the sink. I scoop it up and take paper towels back with me where I strip, dry, and clean the phone which seems to be intact.
1440 Still reading a newspaper but no drip running. I go to the nurses’ station to ask to be reconnected to drip.
1500 Still no one. I ring my buzzer and when nurse responds, ask again to be reconnected to drip. There seems to be a slacking of work as nursing shift ends and another begins as those going off have to prepare extensive reports.
1520 – 1530 New nurse comes and attached new drip bottle
1540 Start reading Foul about corruption in the soccer administration world. It’s a great and someone should give a copy to our sports minister who’ trying to sort out Kenyan soccer. Other countries like Antigua and Jamaica have gone though what Kenya is going through (interim committees, normalization committees, suspension, and threats) FIFA does not appear to like government interference and prefers to deal with local sports administrators however corrupt they are.
1550 Waiter comes round but I decline afternoon tea. Other patients are asleep and I ask him to turn off TV, which is now showing an (annoying) kids variety show.
1650 Still reading Foul when first evening visitors arrive. Some visitors are interesting, others are tiring. For many, I have too repeat the story of who I ended up here. I engage some visitors in constructive talk; get advice on recovery while others have nothing to say. Still pick up some tips – I may get my full allocation of Stanbic IPO shares, and while this hospital has no internet for patients (am told), Kenyatta National Hospital (of all places) is a wireless hot spot
1830 I get a late visitor. Near the end of visiting time, guards don’t let in more visitors (except VIP’s) but my buddy assures me she can get past any time as she has a stethoscope in her car she wears.
1850 My boss visits. He’s on leave, but working on other projects. He advises me to enjoy the enforced rest and avoid dealing with office matters
1900-1920 Watch the 7 PM news as I eat dinner. Chicken again though not as fatty this time.
1945 Go to bathroom again
2000 Drip is reconnected. Lie back and drift in and out of sleep. TV still on with Spanish soaps with bad accents, and later the 9PM news. I try and remember the name of the movie where Wesley Snipes or Steven Seagal’s characters’ rip drip tubes from their arms, fight people sent to kill them and flee from hospital in a wheelchair.

0015 Wake again TV still on. Busta & Diddy’s “Pass the Courvesoir” video is on but not as interesting to watch three years later.

Transition into 2007

2006 was a great year thanks to blogging.

Looking back

  • High point: the great people I met through the KBW buffet park meet ups
  • High point # 2: getting invited to the digital citizen indaba in South Africa – my first real visit to another African country and I got an idea of what to expect at the 2010 World Cup.

Low point: getting booted from adsense by Google – which happened just as I was getting used to having blogging provide some supplemental income through advertising. Thanks to Stocktrends and Alex Gichira (Ed. Business Post) for their support of my efforts since then.

Traffic

  • Used statcounter (& still do) but it doesn’t provide much historical data so I also signed up with Google analytics in September.
  • 43% visitors of visits are from within Nairobi – which is surprising since the target audience is Kenyans in the diaspora and most of what I write should be apparent to people here in Nairobi. Still, it’s encouraging.
  • Fewest visits on Sundays – means most of you read in the office!

Top posts

  • Kenya exam results online (highest traffic [4X normal] was recorded on 28 December – not to read my banking summary for the year but to locate KCPE exams results online!)
  • No drugs at NSE
  • Where to buy shares
  • Money transfer within Kenya
  • Bank rankings June 2006

my faves  in terms of the comments and feedback I received

  • Safaricom success
  • No apologies
  • Idea exchange & barter trade
  • Training Kenyans for outsourcing
  • Where to buy shares (part ii) redux

Changes in 2007

Fewer posts: the amount of information posted by new bloggers and sites – such as nairobist, stockskenya, pesa tu, riba capital, cold tusker (now investing in Africa), hisagal, odegle nyang and others (see my blogroll) is a blessing for everyone. For me, it’s less to do, less news to bring up, and I can focus on more research and longer posts.

More techie; I owe so much to blogging so I must improve by learning more tech stuff and experimenting with more tools. I hope to have more photo posts this year and try out new templates (many people don’t like the black background). However, bankelele is not eligible for blogger beta as it may be too large to migrate.

Kioskelele: 2007 will be the year to take the plunge into the informal sector / entrepreneurship by starting a kiosk/shop/SME and continue to diversify my income. These opportunities are not there forever and we have to take them on otherwise we will regret forever why we didn’t follow our dreams. Still looking for the right location in the city that is accessible and suitable.

More savings: So far so good but a book I read recently (the “automatic millionaire”) said saving should happen automatically – i.e. money grows when you can’t see it/have no chance to intercept it & use the money. Only problem is that standing orders at Kenyan banks are so expensive – and it’s wrong to have 5 – 10% of money intended for savings be eaten up by bank charges. I found a bank which was much cheaper, but they sometimes forget to remit the money into the account!

Quit share trading: Not quite, but there will be less trading of shares this year and focus will remain on IPO’s and new issues like Safaricom. It’s not that the brokers are bad, but there are too many shareholders (since Kengen, Scangroup, and Eveready) who occupy brokers’ offices and phone lines from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is too much hassle going there, trying to call in orders – that sometimes I think it may be better to cash in my gains and reinvest them in an Old Mutual fund or new investment club. (The folks at the Kenya capital investment group have posted their investment club constitution which is a good guide for those wishing to start a club)

Fun fact:

From an article in the Economist on the etiquette of bribery.

Q: “What’s the difference between a gift and a bribe?”
A: “Any gift, must be consumable in a single day – so a bottle of wine is acceptable, a case of wine is not.”

Opportunities

Head of keg business at East African breweries. Apply to hr.recruitment@eabl.com by 6/1

ICDCI Investment manager, risk manager, business analyst, investment analyst, risk analyst. Details at their site and deadline for applications to jobs@icdci.co.ke is 19/1

Procurement adviser – public sector & development at KPMG. Apply to esd@kpmg.co.ke by 12/1

Commissioner of domestic tax revenue KRA. Apply through KPMG at esd@kpmg.co.ke by 7/1

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Principal Counselors (4), First Counselor (11), Second Counselors (22), First Secretary (28) and Third Secretary Cadet (64) Posts. Details and deadline is 12/1

Head, Communications Unit at World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) . Details and deadline for applications to icrafhru@cgiar.org is 19/1

Brew Fast

Taken a (just ended) month long fast from beer which was very enlightening in terms of impact it has on life and business networking.

Some Positives

  • Potential to save money over time – anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 shillings a week in theory. But in practice, I still have to spend the money on others I socialise with (see more later)
  • Better health over time
  • No morning hangovers

Some Negatives

  • Too much time to fill, and I get bored and impatient. Before, if waiting for someone in town, before I’d just got to bar have a drink and chat/do some reading, now I’m in the car, on the phone asking, “where are you?”
  • Actually, I am more dehydrated. Beer has a lot of water, and I find myself having to drink more tap water at night now.
  • Networking: so much of our lives are networked in bars with friends and associates. People tell you to network at conferences and workshops, but in bars much more networking goes on, across all sectors, from bankers to teacher, businessmen to nurses, as our guards are down, and people are more relaxed also, people tend to be wary around others who are not drinking with them, or in the same mind-state. . It is also noted that people who don’t drink have other more serious problems, or have to find other outlets to release their excess energy e.g. excessive womanising, worshipping or scheming?. As a result, sitting in a bar, I get so much information for this blog – sample these nairumours/observations I picked up at the end of the break.
    (a) Observed an out of control minister (and soon to be former MP) who has lost touch with reality. He has made so much unimaginable money, he lives a reckless lifestyle and believes he can buy anyone/anything – it’s just a matter of price.
    (b) A former minister has conned a foreign government out of a multi-million dollar contract and is now persona non grata there
    (c)The true story behind CDF woes of an MP.
  • No suitable alternative drinks. Not Coffee (can only do one cup), soda (bad for teeth), juice (quality & availability never consistently available), appletiser (not at 160 a bottle)
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110912/

moment of clarity

  • Lack that spark i.e moment of clarity, that inspires writing, when you are able to combine information or observation with the law and practice.

A dollar a day: dream suspended

I have been running Google Adsense advertisements for a few months now and recently received my first $102 check. I have since been chugging along and looking forward to a next cumulative payment of about $150 when I got this e-mail on Saturday:

From : Google AdSense <adsense-adclicks@google.com>
Sent : Saturday, May 27, 2006 12:28 AM
To : bankelele@hotmail.com
CC : Google AdSense <adsense-adclicks@google.com>
Subject : Google AdSense Account Disabled

Hello _____

It has come to our attention that invalid clicks have been generated on the Google ads on your site(s). We have therefore disabled your Google AdSense account. Please understand that this step was taken in an effort to protect the interest of the AdWords advertisers.

A publisher’s site may not have invalid clicks on any ad(s), including but not limited to clicks generated by:

– a publisher on his own web pages
– a publisher encouraging others to click on his ads
– automated clicking programs or any other deceptive software
– a publisher altering any portion of the ad code or changing the
layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason

Practices such as these are in violation of the Google AdSense Terms and Conditions and program polices, which can be viewed at:

https://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms?hl=en_US
https://www.google.com/adsense/policies?hl=en_US

Publishers disabled for invalid click activity are not allowed further participation in AdSense and do not receive any further payment. The earnings on your account will be properly returned to the affected advertisers.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

I immediately appealed by e-mailing Google, and as I await the outcome, I today found this very timely and useful post from Problogger on reasons one can get suspended by the Adsense team.