Another level to customer care

www.webfaction.com is true to its motto: agile hosting by helpful humans.
I tried to make a payment online for a python web hosting today and had some generic errors on payment. I was getting red again, another hateful company who will not accept master cards from IPs originating from Nigeria. After complaining to customer care, a dude called David Sissitka got in touch and offered to set up my hosting and I can pay later, wow! When I did not respond on time he sent me another "hello" prompt.
Wonderful, I was registering the site for Bayo and now I'm a customer waiting to happen.

New Year Resolutions

• Complete all uncompleted projects, mostly software.
• Fix my eye glasses and stop punishing my eyes, see a doctor for checkup.
• Not leave a project midway.
• Better accountability, I somehow manage to spend, not loosely but undocumented.
• Document and manage my gently growing assets, thank God!
• Blog more.
• Settle down more, go for several breaks, visit at least 5 interesting places.
• Start a blog of "My success story". Something I will hopefully make into a book in the future if the good Lord spares my soul. Now that my account has left red and is gently rising. I will not like to be like the torrents of Naija millionaires without success stories.

Vmobile-Celtel-Zain

Yes, Celtel is changing name for the upteenth time. This time its going to be Zain. Here we trying to break it to the public gradually so the impact is reduced. Many Celtel operations in other countries already bear Zain and I figure they are going gently on Nigeria just because peope may question the stability of the company.

If your question is "So, will it change?", the answer is YES, soon, very soon.

I mean when you marry a wife, the name always change albeit with a few exceptions. In Africa, marrying a wife is like owning the wife. Yes, I hear the women activists are already on my tail.
I heard Stella when she said her uncle compared Celtel to Nigerian cops, you never know what surprise is up next.
Celtel has evolved from Econet Wireless to Vnetworks to Vodacom to Vmobile to Celtel and now Zain. This is status quo.

Doing business the Nigerian way

12 million litres per month! 12mn!.

Thats the kind of figure the likes of Celtel Nigeria will be consuming by the end of the year due to network expansion.

12, 000, 000 X 12 = 144mn litres per annum, man the world must have a huge reserve of those things.

The pepper (money) part of things now...
144 000 000 X 66 = crazy figure per annum. People in Naija have learnt to transact in dollars now but this figure is still massive.

Now to this interesting piece alluded to Bayo Ligali,

"Today, we operate four networks instead of one: GSM Network (which is indeed our core line of business); a security network; a power (electricity) network and a transmission network. "

The security network, Celtel has about 5000 security operatives guiding installations nationwide, rightly described as more than 8 batallions. Crime rate had been on the rise in the last 8 months and mostly attributed to the lions and termites who were armed and cashed during the last elections and now still have the arms and need to maintain the cash.

I simply can't help but feel we've been wondering purbling for the last 8 years in Nigeria.

Sudan: The good in the evil?

Yesterday I found out that Celtel Sudan has a hundred developers, phew!
Staggering figure if you consider the meager five we have in Nigeria. In fact, I do not know of any full software house that can boast of more than 30 developers on this side of town.

Genesis:
Ordinarily, Celtel would not hire a 100 into IT systems development and the only unit that enjoy numbers in the hundreds is customer care, makes sense huh? Celtel Nigeria is approaching 30million in subscriber base.

I understand there are sanctions by the United States government on Sudan as a result of the crisis in that region. I usually look up most of the info I pick up so I would not be spreading what could culminate in an urban legend. I googled the info and came up with a few links:

In accordance with US export controls and economic sanctions regulations, we are unable to permit the download of Google Earth in Sudan. More information about these controls and sanctions can be found here and here.
http://www.ogleearth.com/2007/04/oh_the_irony_go.html

Interesting article on difficulties being experienced by users of google earth in Sudan.

I could not get too many relevant info but for someone as naive (haha) and geeky as me, I'm willing to overlook my fears of the Dafur crisis and go work at Celtel Sudan for a little while. Sounds like a developer heaven. I could imagine interesting tools like Microsoft VSTS and I envisage lots of gusto! I wish they have a team blog I can look up and see what those guys are up to. I can't imagine the kind of co-ordination it will take to manage 100 fiercely independent humans and what it would take to harness such but it sure feels good.

My dying wish at Celtel is to visit Celtel Sudan, in fact I won't mind paying my way. I also remember my Ghanian friend Francois Bonin (MVP) did mention girls in that region are exotic, real live Cleopatras.

Bring it on guys, can't wait for that suggested exchange program to happen!

The love of men shall wax cold

"For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, ... [Iniquity shall abound ... the love of many shall wax cold] ...
Endtime News: Discerning the Signs of the Times

Today in the News in Nigeria:

• Girl arraigned for murder, kills 2 through food poisoning, original target was her boyfriend
• Man stabs girlfriend to death at Ijeshatedo, Surulere,
• Nurse injects baby with substance suspected to be Novalgin, baby dies

Last month in Nigeria, enough horrible crimes as robbers take on banks, killing several in Ketu areas of Lagos state, another bank robbery in Kwara state and Oyo state. Principal witness killed in the North, a muslim cleric who was supposed to testify at an election tribunal. Let me not even go into the killings in the Niger-Delta. Truly Nigeria has changed, these kind of crimes were alien a few years ago.

Well, I attribute a lot of the gun crimes to the politicians in Nigeria who armed the guys to rig elections and gave them money. Now there is no money but they still have the guns. The other crimes I won't claim to have answers to.

Federal Road Safety Commision

These guys have not been doing terribly. They make sure people wear seat belts and carry fire estinguishers. Believe me this is good if you think of the average family owning a 10 - 20 year old car that have seen many "re-wires and mechanics".
well I can't resist putting up these pictures because it appears they live by a different rule.

People put out FRSC car fire with sand.

Ignore My Photo Post

This is how I can get Janice to show up beside my name.

Africa Outsourcing

I just read this post http://nubiancheetah.blogspot.com/2007/01/africa-outsourcing.html, thanks to a referal from Oluwatosin of Ngdevelopers (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ngdeveloper/).
Its good to know some guys out there appreciates Africa still, well the guy is African though. His belief is a vision I share. I got thoughts running wild about how we could get some guys like this to speak at kodearena or subsequent events. The guy did say he is a capitalist/social entrepreneur and I do hope he can use the later for our course :).
Back to the outsourcing thingy, he did leave out a couple of important factors though. Probably because he does not experience these things, remember he lives in DC Metro area. Power is still a major issue in Nigeria and I'm sure Nigeria is a major part of his prophesy judging by our number alone. New kidnapping trends in the Niger Delta is giving us yet a more innocent face you'll say. The roads are still bad after Objs 8 years and the educational sector sucks. The 419 stigma is still there and a google search for Nigeria is not encouraging at all.
http://kehindeadewusi.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_archive.html
There is hope though. I'm suddenly feeling more private sector effects in our everyday life and some more Nigerians are getting statemanly.
Veering off I do like the new president of Nigeria, Yar'Adua. If I say I still like the guy in another 4 years then I'm sure Nigeria will be a swell place then.

Rubbing off the mud

The mud is popularly known as 419 or advanced fee fraud, the mud is Nigeria's battered image.
I tried to buy a web template and PayPal does not have Nigeria listed in its country list, a mammoth country floating on the Atlantic. Well, its for obvious reasons.

I could not get my dial up connection to work and I'm in this cafe called "Heavenly Lifestyle". So much for the name because their customers are the very retarded guys who make up all sort of funny and ridiculous scam letter. Not that I blame the management, but these guys are so proud of their doings they talked about it loudly. A guy goes ahead to mention how he bought his car december last year from a scam he pulled off and how much more his father now regards him, Nna!

Back to PayPal and DNSkin, someone did mail me back because I mailed them about the inconvinience of paying through paypal that has decided makeNigeria's over 120 million people suffer for the crime of a few and luckily someone replied.
I guess i will be able to make my purchase later tonight but I wonder what it will take to rub off the mud.

Microsoft Vista: Start Here

Thursday 22md Feb 2007 and Microsoft is launching Windows Vista. It’s a little past 11 a.m. and I’m lounging at the Civic Center, Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Victoria Island Lagos.
It takes the like of MS to afford Civic Center, its lovely with a grand view of the ocean so close it’s breathtaking. Some motor-boats sit nearby by that’s by the way. The place is so good looking I sent an s.m.s. to Stan, “Come over, this place is enchanted”.



Jim Ovia: MD, Zenith Bank (Left)







The launch gains momentum as FRANK Edoho of “Who wants to be a millionaire” climbs the podium. There was a recital of the National Anthem by a lady that made it so romantic. For some time, I wasn’t sure it was the Nigerian national anthem.

Frank introduced himself. Of course we all know who he is. He goes on to tell how people have found it difficult to dissociate him from “Who wants to be a millionaire”.

“One day”, he begins. “I was walking along the marina looking for the Nigerian Stock Exchange and waits to ask for directions”.

Frank: “Excuse me, where is the Nigerian stock Exchange”;
Stranger: “Em, Frank, I don’t know that one o, can I call a friend?”

Victor Okigbo, Marketing Mgr of Microsoft Nigeria (Dreadlock RastaJ) gave a little speech, some MS advert held people spellbound and then the truly interesting Chinenye takes the mike. After a rhetoric that made everyone sober, he goes ahead and talks about how he was a teacher 20 years ago and asked J.S.S. 2 kids to draw the layers of the earth’s atmosphere. A lad goes ahead and labels his 3 layers Earth, Sky and Heaven to the amusement of all. He goes on and relates this to how little of original things we’ve had in Nigeria and how given the right mindset we can achieve a lot more.

Chinenye, Country Manager, Microsoft Nigeria

Akin Akinwolere did a short Vista demo. He shows off the new search features, the 3D windows Presentation Foundation, the cool one, adding more memory to your system using a flash drive, security etc More MS Vista features

Everything was all charged up again when Jim Ovia of Zenith bank made an appearance, more men in black really. For some time I thought it was El-Rufai that came in. People gave him a loud ovation as he goes on and mentions how he intends to self-install Vista on his pc. He also got a signed copy of Vista Ultimate, signed by Bill-G.

The very interesting Chinenye is back and speaks on how he gets a BSA (Bandwidth Separation Anxiety) once he is disconnected from his mail for a few minutes. He talked some more about how technology has changed the face of doing business and the future. He wraps it up with a very beautiful Igbo piece, “What an elder sees sitting down, it takes a child climbing a palm tree”.

Vista: WPF Demo

June, the first female presenter demoed the new features of Office 2007. She selects some text, selects formatting options and its cool the previews that comes up as your glide over the formatting options. She showed off the new Ribbon control and all the tabbed menus. Everyone wows away as she demos conditional formatting and the all new “context based grammar correction” A guy behind me was so thrilled he sighed, “Nna, this people don finish everything”.
Office is definitely a good buy if you can afford it.

Very few was said about Exchange 2007, probably for fear of boring the not-so-geek audience.
MS partners in attendance included HP, Zinox, Infographics, Bi-trax Axxent. Altogether, a good day at the exclusive Civic Center.

Closer and Closer

I noticed I've been in high spirit throughout this week; Francis Ibikunle mentioned how he stumbled on KodeArena 2006 from a google search. He would like to be one of the sponsors of KodeArena Reloaded.
Francis gave me Mr. Toyin Ogunseinde's contact, he turned out to be a truly interesting person. I'm sure he must be a very busy man but out of his Omatek hours he managed to reply my mail twice in 2 days. He thinks he will have a booth for KodeArena at his next ICT show in Lagos sometimes in April and he intends to help with sponsorship. He adds he will use the about 3500 email addresses of who is in Nigerian ICT to our benefit, great!.
See why it feels like Christmas in May? Hehe, its actually Xmas around the corner.

No Anticlimax!

The code jam has dominated our talks for several weeks, even now that its over. It feels so fulfilling given the challenges we faced: Delayed pay-packets, a 6 week plan, the politicians who nearly seized our first day, the participants (mostly students) who showed up without laptops (we should have known that, those are expensive in Nigeria right?), the car I damaged the second day, the support we got anf the ones we didn't.
Even though we're still so broke as I type but we're presenting the cheque tomorrow after announcing a winner today. The spirit is just so great. We take walks around talking about KodeArena 2007 which we already dubbed "KodeArena reloaded". We already have plans to archive the current site http://www.kodearena.com as http://www.kodearena2006.com. kodearena.com will always host the most current version. KodeArena will be registered as a non-profit, non-governmental organization and we foresee a first prize of no less that N100,000 for the next edition mid 2007.
And the comraderie is great! People looking at our Sponsors page believe its sponsored by multinationals. Krapt software is another name for Bayo Opadeyi, Conquest creative aka Tunde Famakinwa, Kradlepoint aka Bode, Stan Madueke, Gbenga Faniyi and me decided to keep our faces bland :D, its a case of putting a company on the face and not the reverse :). Yea, Parkway project gave money and expertise, Leapsoft's Essien was the toast of day 2, Softcraft's Dapo made the code session rock, Diran gave good company and made the wireless network possinle, Pat made sure we had food in our tommies, Ope, Remi ... and no one left early, it was as if these thing has been long delayed.
Now I know people are intrisically "good". Everyone seems to have a plan to make things better in a little way. The guys on http://www.ngdevelopers.net who didn't come showed great love and those who did come made the day swell.
Stay tuned for KodeArena 2006.

KodeArena 2006 : 8 days to go

Moral is just right today, we spent yesterday combing the hotels in Abeokuta and getting price lists for the rooms. We're thinking we should make this info available online so that those whom we cannot host will know beforehand.
Gbenga was thrilled at the number of hotel in this seemingly small town: mostly 2 and 3 stars. and Bode wondered how the make money We rated Gateway hotel a 3.5/4 star cause they have the most add-ons; a large parking lot, beautful poolside, a gym, large grounds, shopping malls all surprisingly well maintained by s state government. Dusnar Hotel is alrite too, a large ground and parking, reasonably cheap rooms ($40 - $200 a night) compared to gateway's $60 - $600. We could not help noticing that a meal at Gateway is what others charge for rooms :). Dusnar has fewer attractions but the environment is serene and equaly accessible. continental sutes has a small parking lot as well as the other hotels we've seen and rooms range from $40 - $60.
Rooms at Wemby Suites right down the road from Splashers HQ are second most expensive and all rooms are booked beyond the event dates of 8th and 9th December.
Akin is helping collate the hotel room costs and it will be hosted later.
Some more guys indicated interest in the event: Niji an ex-Unaabite is coming in from Jos Plateau state and so is his colleague Chykes from ado-Ekiti. Bayo invited some more friends from PH and I'm beginning to worry about providing refreshments for our guests :) but this is something we have to pull through.
Yesterday I mailed William Makassa in South africa and there is a chance he will come in. I know he has links with Canonical amd Mark Shuttleworth of Ubuntu Linux.
I presume Dapo has nt gotten a response from Microsoft but I'll wait till I talk to him today. I will be catching up with office job for the rest of today and continue publicity tomorrow, maybe a little fund raising.
I wil send reminders to promising sponsors; we've started feeling the heat, hehe.

On KodeArena 2006: 9 days to go

We've resolved to keep the hype up till D-Day. Dapo sent a mail to Microsoft today and we're hoping to get banners and some giveaways items from them, the web team created a page to view registered users, those who do not mind of course. Today the web team continues work on Faqs page. Tunde continues work on fixing up speakers, Stan's team worry about the structure and questions of the code sprints. I sent a mail to NGDeveloper.Net yahoo group.
I did notice that Shina of Leapsoft and Wazobia linux opened the mail I sent yesterday, promising. We sure hope they sponsor a few drinks and that reminds me, we'll need a DJ but maybe Sese will be boss of the mic.
Today, I'll probably spend my break getting room prices from nearby Hotels, the web team will probably host the Faq page and add some news item. I got a digital camera and will still try to get as many as possible to capture the event. We'll be updating content on the site and NGDevelopers.Net throughout the event.
Stay tuned.

KodeArena 2006

This is the biggest thing around. This is our combined Code jam and software developer summit and its happening live in Abeokuta! Really many things are debuting: The first code jam in Nigeria, and who would have thought it would take place in ancient Abeokuta.
Initially we thought it should be a code jam, just a code jam. But during publicity at University of Abeokuta, Nigeria (UNAAB), we realized we may have a larger turnout than the intended 50 and have since decided on 2 mostly parallel tracks.
Since then its been energy everywhere: KodeArena Website has been built, thanks to Stan, Bayo, Tunde, Bode. We also got our first 2 sponsors: Tunde donating 10 crates of drinks and Bode 4. We have since gotten our dream venue of South-West Resource Center, a digital projector, LAN and internet connection all from the same source, thanks to all the people at Gateway ICT and Resource center.
NGDevelopers have been alerted and we have some speakers, yes: Emeka Onwuka of Parkway Projects, Essien Ita Essien of LeapSoft and Wazobia Linux, Jide from UBA and Muyiwa Asagba of Interswitch.
I spent some times today sending out invitations and finding out hotel rates for the website. Bayo, Stan, Bode and Tunde pumped in Faqs for the live site. Bode agrees to visit Obafemi Awolowo University this weekend, Gbenga Ogun State University, Keni (me) University of Ibadan. Some of Tunde's friend are coming in from Port-Harcourt and Vicky is expected to lead a team from Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomosho.
The energy is everywhere, I feel love in the air!

We had a talk about adopting an object persistence framework for development. As a part of standardization and

reducing project delivery time, we decided to review the OPFs we have and adopt one(?) for development.
We considered the following OPF and not so OPF frameworks:

1. Artemis Object Persistence Framework


2. Microsoft Data Access Application Block


3. NHibernate


4. Ado.Net (Traditional)


5. Ado.Net 2.0 Database Factories

We decided to not rate 4 and 5 (ADO.Net and Ado.Net 2.0 Db Factories) since they are fundamental and the others

rely on them.

We did acknowledge the easy of use for small applications and the fact that 5 (Db Factories) can support other

data providers beside SqlServer.

The serial numbers are used as keys.

To rate, we came uo with a number of criteria that have immediate consequences on our everyday coding:

1. Open sourced


2. Best Practises: Not MS Best practices per se. We attached best practice to stuff like not having to hack ugly
   
   codes tp provide some functionalities, e.g. connecting to other databases, creating an object just to return a
   
   bool etc.


3. Out of the box support for other databases beside SqlServer


4. Support for persisting datasets/typed datasets


5. Development speed/Ease of use.


6. Performance


7. Active support/development.

We rate on a yes/no basis only. Yes = 1 and no = 0

NHibernate and Microsoft data application block DAAB tied on point and after some more debate we agreed:

• Since almost all splashers job use a SqlServer backend, all new projects consider it as a first option except:


• The project uses a data source different from SqlServer and is significantly large, we consider NHibernate first. If small, we consider the traditional Ado.Net or ADO.Net Db factories.


• We continue to support Artemis OPF because of legacy projects.

What about Nigerians?

I remember the last time I google Nigeria , it was the same as doing a google search for scam. Today it really got on my nerve.

I wanted to put up a DNN site for a friend and followed a referral on DotNetNuke.com to www.infosaic.com. It was all rosy; I mailed support and got a response in minutes. Sweet, these guys are the bomb man! They must be bad (means excellent) and will definitely have a ton of DNN experience since they are sponsors of the open source initiative.
Then I paid online. In Nigeria we don't have ready access to credit cards. Some banks make arrangements and give MasterCard to customers but its not exactly credit, its prepaid.
Anyway, I made payment for a month to rev the hosting package, got an immediate email with dns information, then waited...I waited.
I mailed support the following day and got no response. Waited another day and mailed and still no response. Why have these guys suddenly gone cold? What happened to the immediate, almost automated emails I’m already used to?
Well, I got this response from a support personnel:

Hi Kehinde,

Your transaction has been voided due to previous fraudulent activities.

Thanks again,

April Sherry
Infosaic Technologies, LLC
asherry@infosaic.com
614.855.7084 x70 (local)
888.855.7084 x70 (toll free)

I was furious, suddenly I realized I was Nigerian. A renowned scammer for all they care. Anyway I was still mad and sent a strongly worded letter back. Got a flimsy response of how I have tried to pay for the same domain name with different numbers. Gosh, I was not even buying a domain name, just hosting.

I soon found this to be the trend, web hosting companies shying away from Nigerians, Sad. Sese had a similar experience where he registered a domain which was not honored after they found he was from Maryland in Lagos and not Maryland USA. Harris also paid for a domain on yahoo and though the money was debited, he never got the domain.

Things happen, Shitty things.

Like I promised the support personnel, I have started tendering my case before courts of public opinion.
If only they had a banner saying "Nigerians not allowed".

Its Bayo's day, and Nigeria's

Today was a good day, 1at October is Nigeria's 46th birthday and Bayo's 46? :-0 birthday? Haha, we spent the first few hours debating who would be older, Bayo or Nigeria since he won't reveal his age. We concluded Bayo would have too many candles on his cake and thats why he does not have any, someone thinks the share number of candles would burn the cake, haha.
So we started out slowly, Keni (me), Stan, Tunde, Victoria(Tunde's sunshine) and of course Bayo. we had some good stuff to eat at sweet sensation, lots to talk about, a lovely environment, sweet food and aroma. I had sukiyaki and some fried rice, delicious plaintain and some etceteras. Stan curry chicken, Tunde, Vicky...I almost got a ride at the kiddies groovy section.

Then we had more company; Fabulous Carlos and some nice ladies; Lively Adun, Adaora pronounced adore-her, cute Omoh and Chichi, company! and more excitement. Carlos is an incredible guy and the girls are lovely and soon we found Carlos knew Sese in school, we sang some birthday songs, abridged so Bayo don't have to answer for his age :) and man, we had much to drink.
Now the girls are sitting in a bunch, we are slowly getting to know them, the first half was coming to an end and we were thinking, well its ok and a bit of fun and then we decided to hit the road, go to Olumo rock. And then it was fun all the way, ancient abeokuta unleashed, good company unleashed, them girls now flowing, gist unleashed and finally pictures. The second half



Here, the party arrives Olumo Rock, where Abeokuta got its name, Abeokuta means a city under a rock.







Here, I play the devil, "If only Tunde will bow, I will give him the whole world he can see from the top of this rock".




The guys covered some distances to make Bayo's and yes, our day bright.












We squat in an ancient 5 bedroom cavern




Traditional drummers




A guy and his family comes for some air





I celebrate the peak with Adun here.




Bayo and Carlos dicusses the future? I mean after conquering Olumo rock, whats next? Kilimanjaro?




Adora and Omoh adores the scenery




I don't know how well it went for Nigeria, but as I type, Bayo is dozing and savouring a beautiful hangover.

view more pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30092685@N00/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99562911@N00/
http://kehindeadewusi.blogspot.com

Database Haiku?

"To this level, i will never descend".

This is supposed to be some geek poetry.

Server is lifeless The customer is distraught Where is the backup?

Performance is slow All the disk drives are busy Where was the where clause?

As leaves fall from trees Drive enclosure falls to floor Time to visit Dice

Dynamic SQL Or SQL stored procedure Which one should I choose?

To be certified Or not to be certified That is the question

Documentation Would be nice to see, said I As snow falls outside

In darkness I lie The pager sounds so shrill I'll make the coffee

The server is built Everything is now installed What was the password?

No changes made I Says the developer to me Void is the table

Robin plucks some seed On the porch while eyeing me Wireless is so fine

See original

Now tell me what in geek heaven that is?