soqko.com, east africa’s new jobs marketplace November 4, 2009
Posted by Mutongoria in IT, news, programming, systems, web, windows, work.add a comment
soqko.com, east africa's new jobs marketplace
This new website caught my eye and I loved it at once!
home | shags | gichagi March 7, 2009
Posted by Mutongoria in self, work.Tags: connect, gichagi, home, seacom, shags
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I am writing this under my mother’s roof. Somewhere between the Aberdares Ranges and Mount Kenya. My safaricom modem has been super-behaving and am quite pleased at the service am getting. Its actually performing much better than it does back in Nairobi city.
This is where I was born – and part of where I grew up twenty-something-odd years ago. That anniversary is coming around towards the end of next week. This is, therefore, a time for reflection, thanksgiving and planning. Gishagi is Kikuyu for village. but usually it is meant to mean home- as in home where you come from. This is especially the case where one works far from home. If you hear some one saying they are going to gichagi – it doesn’t mean that they are going to visit a village – it means its time to go to That village.
This is my ‘That Village’. I like this place – I know a lot of people here. Some have known my parents longer than I’ve known my parents.
My parents were not born here. There moved here working to develop their careers. Working in the civil service for several decades teaching at te local school. That government money has taken me n me siblings through school and campus. Gave us a roof over our heads and food on our table.
I have countless things to thank the Lord for as I reach this othe milestone in my life.
Am glad that that EDGE is working like this here, it means that the possibilities for using this technology are quite enormous! But its means a lot to me today in this place. Am a programmer who soon wants to become an internet entrepreneur. This is what i need.
In other news, the seacom cable reached the east african coast today. it means a lot to east african content developers. perhaps one day speed will not be a factor in developing web applications
catch up November 24, 2008
Posted by Mutongoria in IT, self, web, work.Tags: asp, odbc, php, wordpress
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So I’ve been away for a week!
its been that long?
yes it has.
Sorry bwana – niliwakosa sana. Mpo vipi?
Actually, i never left
been online all this time but tied with assignments projects and idling on facebook.
that is solved now.
I have suspended my facebook account.
yes I have!
Instead of always watching my back at the office … facebook should be illegal anyway …
so I’ve left facebook tou join … YOU!
Isn’t that nice?
by the way I have been working on wordpress – crazy sh*t if there ever was.
But it was great and i should be doing very well very soon. – financialy.
Yaani, tear wordpress apart and put it back together- wiht exceptional user features – with an additional custom-made content management system integrated.
Also did some work with SMF [simple machines forums] – setting up a custom template to go with a matching wordpress magazine theme.
So you see, I’ve been quite busy – by my love for my peeps is there still.
nest i wat to creat a directory with coursers. different institutions – similar and same and different courses. then ratings, searches, advertising, subscriptions and some nice profits!!
i’ll make some wordpress tutorials soon – when there is time.
I’m loving it more and more each time.
I am thinking I should change my biz website to wordpress! yes I know we work great together. I wanted to redo it full flash but after seeing the whale hunt i thought … who has the time? But if I get one hot client I promise to do one for the fans.
i am now having an ongoing affair with ASP. yes I know she is bad but sice 90% of computers inthe world run windows … please understand. But I’ve set up all our servers to also run PHP. Connecting to ms sql erver is more sh*t but i hacked it with ODBC!
gotta go now.
nawapenda wo!
PHP on IIS served warm with MS SQL November 18, 2008
Posted by Mutongoria in IT, web, work.Tags: asp.net, IIS, mcp, odvc, php, sql server
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I am rebuilding an application that had been done on ASP and the only thing that I’d claim to be enjoying is learning new tricks the hard way.
But yes, I am one of those people who enjoy some good old thinking everything and I really can complain. First, am connecting with ODBC which is a little slow and can give you some timeouts if you are not careful.
Come to think of it; am delighted to learn that you can create a view in MS SQL server and then query that view in your code! For the uninitiated. A view is a query. If you don’t know what a query is you may want to read another post. You can store that query and then pick from it in your code. make another query from it.
The things I can do with this thing are endless!!!
Am already thinking about caching huge user databases. Syncing with domain controllers for users and the possibilities are endless. … and they can result in some amazing applications. Bill Gates may not have been the worst wolf after all.
But besides that, I still think that much more could have been done to make IIS a friendlier application development environment for develiopers. Lie microsoft would have spent some time making developer resources available and allowing developers to connect easily to databases of their choice!!
Any how, me thinks that the time is right to delve in to ASP too; particularly ASP.NET 2.0. SAm still using IIS and think that it would be too much of a hassle to move all my million and one applications to ASP 3.5 right away. That means going to class in January for that MCP[Microsoft Certified Programmer] that I have been thinking about – especially now that I work in an office where theh boss can pay for it … mhmhm.
which reminds me – that application I was building may not be getting built after all.
Am the dj sho’s been told to stop his music. Gotta call the boss
php on IIS November 17, 2008
Posted by Mutongoria in news, web, work.Tags: IIS, ms sql server, php
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Sh*t happens …. most of it comes from Microsoft. not that he is a bad bad person – just htat for someone who consumes as much computer grabage as he often has to – there has to be a relevant about of ‘toilet time’ to with it.
My current stress is running PHP on IIS 6. connecting to an external database server. Easy? yes after you have made the php finctions to run smoothly … espcially mssql_connect that connect to ms server database.
more later.
Kenya’s top 18 websites – November November 14, 2008
Posted by Mutongoria in IT, news, web, work.Tags: accesskenya, bdafrica, haiya, hits, kenya, nation, online, rich.co.ke, standard, stockskenya, top, visitors, websites
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The battle for Kenya’s growing internet traffic is hotter than ever before. Companies with huge spending budgets are threatening to change the way online business goes down in Kenya. haiya.co.ke is one case in point. There is not much change but its coming i can see the clouds and the crowds.
This ranking considers only one thing – Hits. We don’t care if you look like Cecilia Mwangi or like Pamela Jelimo. Just one thing – Do you have the fans? Here are Kenya’s top eighteen websites for the last thirty days.
- nation.co.ke – The change from nationmedia.com to nation.co.ke briefly sent the media house’s primary website tumbling in the charts but it has recovered nicely since then. The design looks like wordpress. Yes! I said it. WordPress. the urls are very unique but they could be friendlier. The addition of user comments is a great idea that should have been brought in eons ago.
- eastandard.net – Kenya’s other daily newspaper. A change of CMS and an improved template has only worked to keep them a stable number two. Understandable considering who they are fighting with. Please ask posta pay to return the space they grabbed on your banner since …. two templates ago.
- haiya.co.ke – New by East Africa Magazines ltd. Evidence that internet marketing actually works. They have invested load in advertising their website on Google and certain other advertising networks. And this is the fastest entry to the top five ever! Congrats people. I hope that the cash investment shows on the returns.
- rich.co.ke – This is the home of all investing Kenyans. reviews, prices and updates. I still haven’t figured out how this guy makes his money! Googleads?
- stockskenya.com – The old home of stocks reviews, prices and updates second to Rich.co.ke but still and impressive top-five contender.
- bdafrica.com – Another nation media website. The business daily has the best search appearance of any news site in Kenya. Business information
- accesskenya.com – Your are Kenya’s official corporate ISP. I give you that. Is the traffic regular web visitors or its your regular clients monitoring their internet connection graphs?
- strathmore.edu – Catholic sponsored Strathmore is showing strong. The only university with an MIT opencourseware mirror this side of civilization. i have to warn you though, if you do not upgrade soon UONBI will zoom past you!
- uonbi.ac.ke – Good to see the university of Nairobi showing up here. There could be hope for Kenya universities after all! The recent design update is lovely! The place for that other design – which you have graciously removed is … There is no space for such design int he top Ten!! Congrats ICTC.
- drum.co.ke – East Africa magazines ltd has Kenya best magazines stable and they are taking them online with a bang!
- brightermonday.com – jobs – There are a whole bunch of Kenyans enjoying Brighter Mondays because of you. Congrats
- kenya-airways.com – Online ticketing, online payments, unlimited budget for the site .. it’s criminal for you to miss out on the top ten! But the Again – i hear the fuel prices have been unfair on you. I sish you better prices ahead.
- richlive.co.ke – Rich.co.ke stocks prices Live on your computer. Need I say more? The best thing since … well … rich.co.ke! Am lovin’ it!
- popotewireless.co.ke – Why am I suspecting you for routing your internet clients through your website?
- nse.co.ke – Dear NSE, I am sorry about your misfortunes. I hear it has not been well with you and your cousins from abroad have infected you with a strange disease. I trust you will all get well soon. especially your cousin NYSE – I was really worried about him. Hope you have recieved comfort from your many visitors. Your greatest gift is of course allowing others to sell your data. I hope you get better soon. Your trully, Investor.
- bestjobskenya.com jobs – doing good as always. but consider partnerships in the coming months else mtashindwa! Tot a threat, but a promise.
- campusvybe.com – Campus – News views and information and campus life in Kenya. Not recommended for people below eighteen years. Totally unsuitable for anyone above 24. Hope that either a) the site is mirrored ont he campuses or b) internet speeds have tremendously improved since we left campus. Where is your sister site: mwafrika.com? Intrepid is making both of ya look good!
- royalmara.com – This campsite website traffic may be party because it was featured recently on SouthAfrica’s leading broadcasting channel – SABC. Kudos for being the first tourist camp on this list ever.
So there you have it. Kenya’s top eighteen websites. Did I miss anything? Hola!
If you have any predictions for december – sema hapa!
kenya commercial bank website review October 23, 2008
Posted by Mutongoria in IT, news, reviews, work.Tags: bank, commercial, design, kcb, kenya, review, usability, website
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I’d started talking about the Kenya commercial Bank website. It sucks. Here is my take
Homepage:
That thing on the left side … What is that? It is dirty and lacks direction. I.e. there are no links to follow up the stories [banners] on that. How many people know what the kcb foundation is and where is the link to a page that has that information? KCB you are bringing beraucracy online and we will not stand and take it. Online beraucracy ; is the art of using your webpage to make people line up only to be told to go to an alternative queue [link]. That is prime real estate that you should use to persuade potential visitors to become clients – not to give them your own understanding of beraucracy.
Alternatively youcan lese that space to me. would that be check or cash?
Branding – Colours
Last time I checked KCB corporate colours were navy blue and green. Has that changed? I don’t think so. I still see it in their adverts, their posters – especially those for the new system. The website has no navy blue. There is only green and white. And a huge irregular white space right at the middle of the banner! The green is a attractive but its too much. They should have used a different shade or texture in the backgrounds. Something to make the webpage pop out. Right now the page fades into the background. A gray or navy blue with texture would have been amazing.
The banner flash.
Too slow. That is what preloaders are for!
Interactivity
Click here to download the form, then print it out, fill it in and then send it to any of our branches or use DHL. Lets assume am stupid for one minute. I think I’d not want to go beyond the print it out blab bla bla. Why cant people fill it in online and then go and sign at the branch when the documents are ready???
That website needs to offer and receive information from the customers. The only form there is the contact us form that has … wait for it … Nothing!
Electronic banking
They say:
Sometimes there seems not to be enough time in the day to do some of your banking. That why KCB is making easier for you, with a range of services with the objective of saving you time and ultimately giving you the banking convenience that you want. You can now access your money, account details and transaction or send money more conveniently than before.
My answer:
Where is the actual electronic banking.? Where do I click? How fast can I send money? There is a link I love. Login here. Alternatively: Not Registered: Register here.
All in All
There is nothing on the kcb website that would make anyone want to become their client. They don’t have the ‘selling line’
Rating:
Design 4/10
E-commerce 2/10
Information Architecture 6/10
Interactivity 2/10
Content 5/10
Usability 3/10
website content strategy October 16, 2008
Posted by Mutongoria in IT, web, work.Tags: kenya, strategy, website
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The following article about content stategy for websites may appear strange to talk about in Kenya, but believe me it is not.
There are a few Kenyan sites that show promise. Very few.
Content Strategy (with caps) is usually used to describe the broad, professional practice of CS including:
• Client consulting
• Content reuse planning
• Content development project plans
• Editorial Standards
• Identifying and training content authors
• Assigning and reviewing submitted content
• Technical planning for content delivery
• CMS issues
• Content Governance
• Editorial calendar
• Content maintenance and archival plans
In my mind it’s very similar to how I see “site architecture” vs. “information architecture.” Site architecture is usually used to refer to the navigational structure of a Web site, the site’s structural hierarchy. Whereas Information Architecture refers to the professional practice of IA including all the consulting, inventory creation, wireframe development, prototyping, and usability/user experience work that they do.
At one time, these two terms were used somewhat interchangeably, but as IA gained recognition as a broader practice, there has been more distinction between the terms. Content Strategy is not quite there yet, but as more rigor and discipline go into content planning and development (in response to late projects due to late content) progress will be made.
Its proposed that the development of a detailed Web strategy that helps clarify stakeholders, vision, principles, and goals for the clients and his customers. It would provides an actionable roadmap for the webmaster, as well as the many online Web development groups who wish to apply their efforts more efficiently.
Further its necessary to review this web strategy on a cyclical basis to make sure the organization’s Web experience remains strategically and technically up-to-date.
Doug Busher says that Web strategy is the determination of how a business or organization’s web presence will manifest its overall business strategy. Whereas a website can accommodate the needs of its users and contribute to a company or organization’s bottom line without a pre-defined strategy to follow, informed pre-planning and thoughtful execution of that plan can only increase your odds of success.
Many of our projects got content strategy consultants involve helping clients understand the need for a solid web strategy and working with them to formulate one that provides both immediate and long term direction.
A web strategy must be tailored to the organization and industry/sector, but some common attributes are:
• Consistent extension of the brand across the site or across multiple web properties
• Drawing value from the organization’s products
• Awareness of your site’s distinct audiences, how they will be engaged,
• Prioritization of content/functionality for the audience’s needs
• Identification of conversion paths for each audience type, and how they lend to greater business goals (e.g. increased sales, lead generation)
• Financial sustainability plans for the site (addressing the need for advertising, sponsors, etc.)
The concept of website strategy in Kenya has been very poorly executed and even the known popular Kenyan website leave a lot to be desired in terms of design, planning and execution of strategy.
Kenya’s top 15 websites October 16, 2008
Posted by Mutongoria in IT, web, work.Tags: joke, kenya, top, websites
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First a joke:
Two Kenyans were listening to their transistor radio when they heard the news presenter announcing that the American space shuttle Discovery had landed on the moon. Unfazed, one of the Kenyans retorted: “That is nothing. We Kenyans, we will go to the Sun
Amazed, the other Kenyan asked: “But how? You cannot approach the Sun! Haven’t you heard what happened to Icarus, Daedalus’ son?”
“No sweat. We will not approach the Sun at its scorching best. We will go at night!”
Okay – fine!
Now to some job stuff.
I have just come from a review meeting of our company’s website and we are planning how to upgrade it. We had invited a consultant and she was there to explain her report.
I think I should be writing a few things about web strategy in the coming months and hope you will be there to hear it.
First I was checking out Kenya’s top ten most visited websites according to alexa.com.
1. eastandard.net
2. Nation.co.ke
3. Strathmore.edu
4. rich.co.ke
5. safaricom.co.ke
6. bdafrica.com
7. accesskenya.com
8. haiya.co.ke
9. brightermonday.com
10. stockskenya.com
11. nationmedia.com
12. Kenya-airways.com
13. bestjobskenya.com
14. wananchi.com
15. telkom.co.ke
Well, ladies and gentlemen, those are the only Kenyan websites among the top 100. It is a huge improvement. Last time I checked there were only 9 of them!
Am looking to do a report on websites that are bubbling under – which have the potential to reach the top 15 in the next six months. I have no doubt that the organizations in the list above have the resources and passion to remain at the top. Do you have what it takes to take the position of any one of them? Let me know!
INTRANET October 13, 2008
Posted by Mutongoria in IT, web, work.Tags: cms, drupal, intranet, joomla
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I am looking to build an intranet system. I want something that will awe my boss, but I don’t have year to build it- I could but why do that when there are countless systems that have already been developed that are just as good as anything I could build.
For the uninitiated: A CMS is a software system used for content management. This includes computer files, image media, audio files, electronic documents and web content. An intranet is just a local organizational website that features stuff that are exclusive to the local users [mainly company staff].
There fore am looking to re-use joomla or drupal to create an intranet that will do my organization proud. I like the idea of Drupal (it’s open source and allows great control over your site). Joomla is another open source CMS which tickles my fancy but less so than Drupal.
Most web designers seem to have their own CMS, some more basic than others. I’ve heard they can often be full of problems.
Question is…am I better going for open source or a custom CMS?
With a large budget for development and ongoing support a bespoke system will give me exactly what I need, to the letter.
On a limited budget a CMS like Joomla! could give me a very powerful site with much less hassle. Software is often about compromise. Bespoke is a nice to have but often impractical if not downright impossible.
I’d be wary of taking a custom system from a small provider who are not established simply because if they go missing I will be stuck … and where does that leave the organization??
Just some initial thoughts
Experience has taught me, that things are not as black and white as bespoke and opensource. There are very little that is truely bespoke, most will use some standard components and at the same time very few will use opensource without making at least some minor changes even if this is just changing the presentation layer or plugging in some additional opensource modules.
Which is best? Removing all commercial considerations (time & finances) bespoke will always be better in exactly the same way as a tailored suit will be a better fit than an off the shelf one. In reality however development-implementation time and costs are significant considerations both for implementation and future changes.
The more bespoke something is generally the more expensive and the longer development is/ more difficult for others to pickup the reigns if you choose to switch developers. It can also be a case that you “forget” to ask for/ dont realize you need elements which become apparent after launch. On the flip side, opensource creates challenges of differentiating yourselves from everyone else who uses the same system, compromises are most likely going to be needed, unused elements add additional overheads/security holes etc but they are tried and tested.
I’ve access to a custom built CMS but then ditched it in favor of Joomla. One of the things our provider could never get right was the synchronization of users across websites being done automatically. Joomla does this perfectly, meaning that users on my e-commerce site can log into any of the other websites with the same username and password.
Will update later.
