Cross Roads

Proposal on the establishment of Work Spaces Introduction Walk casually into any cafe in Kampala or most our our cities for that matter, and the chances are, the conversations you hear will be about business or politics. At the center of many of this meetings, a well prepared meal often serves to calm the nerves to release the openness necessary for trade to take place. Look around these places and you will find someone fidgeting with a mobile device or urgently typing away on a notebook computer. Put all these things together and you have a recipe for a good business idea. The Idea The presence of wireless hotspots is not new nor is the idea of allowing guests access to the facilities for brief meetings. What we suggest is the creation of strategic business spaces in every cafe or restaurant to make business more accessible. As the name suggest and the three images, the spaces would merge already existing ideas to help put in place an idea that is r...

Quantifying Relationships In social media circles, these guys have a corner of the market if not the whole block. Having interacted with some useful monitoring tools like Commun.it , i have made a list of necessities that in my view help define what twitter does specifically and what social media does in general. Commun.it in my view is probably built with a database at its core. The database links with your twitter page and begins to classify your information in several categories. 1. People who follow you: Followers 2. People you follow: Following 3. Messages you send or Tweets 4. Messages you like Favorite 5. People whose messages you favorite 6. Messages you re tweet 7. People you reply to 8. Message and key words within those messages Commun.It then gathers all this information and defines the responses into broad categories Influencers (based on how many follow), Engagers (based on how many interact), Community Participators (capitalizing on the desire of p...

There three things at the heart of most businesses. These are some of the thoughts as created by Martin Bell . You need to think about your clients , your services or products and the technologies that you employ in serving these clients or in offering these services. Anytime you increase one of the above, the other two are also indirectly affected. If i get a new client who needs a service you are not providing, the chances are you will either add that if it is in your scope or at least help find that service for your client. If you add on your services, the chances are your clients will also increase. This works the same for your technologies. Do you use MAC only? Add Windows support, you are likely to get more clients.

Donkey and Elephants I was asked to weigh in on the Republican cause and suggest a strategy for the future. A little history first. I suppose i have the right to weigh in on the debate i was a direct beneficiary of the faith based initiatives which were part of the Bush Years. When i arrived in the U.S, my vision was to become a great preacher, wave my and in the air and have the masses fall Under the power of God. This changed when i joined a ministry in the Southern part of Texas, where i was quickly handed a rake and broom and thrust in the predominantly and fiercely pragmatic American life. I was awakened and rather shocked that i was doing this in a Christian Ministry. The group i was a part of had two major influences practical ministry was at the heart of the school. Not long after, we were in the neighborhood cutting the grass and clearing the yard for a single mother, and picking up the trash. I found out much later, that there is a strange link between the things we do ...

Rebels and Sons. Much has been said about Uganda's Rebel MPs and the battle for position in the Movement (National Resistance). I have written before attempting to make a case not for the weakness of the Movement necessarily but for the strength of the previous regimes. My argument all things considered was that even with the challenges that exist such as with Corruption, Bad Governance and Incomplete Social Metamorphosis (as spoken of in the Mustard Seed), we have paid little attention to the strength of the regimes that ruled prior to the movement. While intricate and intimate conversations about the inner workings of the ruling party should be left to the experts a little advise is necessary for those who we will for now refer to as sons. King Lear offers an interesting story for those who desire a full view of politics and the power of pleasantries. The King like many rulers often suffer from too much attention. This makes it very difficult to manage relations and to make d...

Desktop Ubuntu Desktop Ubuntu Banshee Blam Feed Reader Blue Fish Editor Chess Evolution Firefox Browser Gpodder Podcast Client MonoDevelop OpenOffice.org Spreadsheet OpenOffice.org Word Processor Project Management Scribus Sound Recorder Take Screen Shot Terminal TomBoy Notes Xara Xtreme Banshee Works a lot like the rest of the team...but was downloaded to see if there is a tool in Ubuntu that can get access to the IPAD and tis music. FYI Ubuntu has a different file system structure and can often help you to understand Apple's File Structure. Blam Feed Reader There are times when i want to access information in small bits and in a classified manner. This feed reader has standard categorized blogs that cover most of the Linux based technologies and that can therefore be used to keep afloat with the issues. Blue Fish Editor My dual boot environment means that i have to often have a copy of one version of software in one system and ...

Its been a couple of weeks since the publication by the Observer article about Deportation . While the responses or comments from the readers varied from anger to more cool recognition of inconvenient truths, something else has emerged with equal and opposite significance-talk about a Dispora Ministry. The vice president of Uganda Edward Kiwanuka Sekandi addressed a group in the U.K where he  spoke of a new ministry in the works whose functions would include the creation of policy documents for those in the diaspora as well as inclusion in parliament or if you please representative and legislative space. This was probably in response to or in addition to some comments which were made by the Oxfam director Winnie Byanyima  at a separate event held in Texas. If this were a chess game and indeed it may well be, Dr. Besigye has done a great job on Deploying his queen in some very strategic posts in global governance. This after a stint in the African Uni...

There are many benefits to having technology but for those that are new to these technologies, the challenge of navigation can be quite daunting. I have created a written summary to make the task a little easeir for you. Writers Web Developers TV Software Support People Social Media Enthusiasts People interested in Personal Development Word Processing News Music Image Editing and Art Mapping Tools Music Game Platforms Financials File Sharing Feed Readers Religion and Faith Download Managers Browsers Summary of Applications The Ipad Desktop

Writers (IBooks, A Novel Idea, Writers...Lite, Moleskine, Be Write HD,Publish) IBooks A pre-installed tool from which you can get access to free books-especially literary classics. Most of Adobe format documents are stored in this application. As well as some relevant manuals from Apple. A Novel Idea After developing an interest in writing, i found a tool that lets you get a birds eye view of what it means to write a good novel and suggests a path way for you to use as you develop the book. Writers...Lite Another tool that lets you create a plan for your book. Moleskine An interesting tool that has the feel of a scrap book. Combine images, Text and good editing to create great experiences. Be Write HD This tool is what i use when i am posting blogs. I can create content and add images and then upload when i finally have my connection. Publish Another tool that lets you create and make sense of your ideas as they develop.

Web Development (JAM Lite!) After learning to use Joomla and developing some pages on this management system, the need to have an application that lets me make full use of my content is an attractive option.

TV (Arirang TV) One of our local channels had about six hours of Korean TV. My interest in Korean Drama means that i was hooked. When I found out there was an application for this station, i was hooked. This application gives you access to Documentaries, News, Music and More.

Support (TeamViewer) This is a great tool for support and is fun to watch especially as it involves controlling a remote computer using an Ipad. It should work for Ubuntu as well as Mac as long as there is a software equivalent on the desktop that needs support and a functioning internet line.

Social (Skype, Twitter, fin, Yoono, Pinterest, Blogger, LinkedIn, Bulk SMS,Tumblr, Viber,TexMe) Skype A useful application for those who wish to chat and enjoy the use of free calls. A little limited with the ipad 1...but hardware changes are possible. Twitter Another great tool to have. It has the same features as the web version but serves as a good take-along-tool. fin Tool to help you integrate all your social media tools in one space. Yoono I first used this application in Windows as well as Ubuntu. It allows you to bring all your social media under the same 'roof'. Pinterest Back then i did not have the application because it had not yet been developped. But it is a must have for all artists and designers. It lets you choose a category so that you can receive updates from specific posts. Blogger I needed this because i am trying to develop my web log. With this tool installed, i can then process content (both images and text). ...

C.Horoscope To develop your interest in The Chinese Zodiac. Simply type in the date of your birth and the application gets you everything that you need. ChineseNewbie A useful tool to help you develop your knowledge of the language. It is useful because it places you right in the middle of everyday situations so that you can learn how to use the language. I would use this application as a template for the design of other language learning tools. News Clocks Need a few clocks on your ipad to help you to function in the global community or village, this is your tool. Planner HD If there are many projects you are working on, you will need this tool for reminders as well as progress reports. While there is a calendering tool that comes pre-installed on the ipad, this additional tool makes things much easier. CalPad Lite Another tool that can be used for the same purpose of planning.

Office (Office HD) This category only has one member. I used it for all my document processing needs. There are documents which are often created and saved in .doc format or .docx format. If this is the case, these documents are can be saved directly into a folder in Office HD. The ipad recognizes the application that you have installed and so offer ou the choice of saving it here. Documents that are created in Adobe Format are routed to the default Ibook reader. Office HD has come in handy and has served as my Resume Storage space. What this means, is that i create one document which i edit based on the specifics of the job description. I can then saved the same as a .PDF document and then send it to an email of choice as an attachment. Very useful application if you ask me!

News (Al Jazeera, POLITICO, New Vision) Al Jazeera I got a copy of this application in order to get access to more of their programs such as Head to Head, Witness, Empire and more. It is also a good tool in order to stream the content from the channel. POLITICO I must confess that i only developed an interest into this application after hearing it mentioned on MSNBC. It gives me well designed content on about three main pages of well written stuff. In addition to this i can get some video as well as some professionally taken photos. New Vision A locally designed tool for the use with the local daily.

Music (Garage Band, TuneIn Radio, DJ Rig) Garage Band This is top a top of the line application with multiple instruments and effects and much more capability if you can add the hardware and link it up to your studio. It is a must have for Disk Jockeys and Producers as well as music lovers and those who want to learn an instrument. TuneIn Radio I have this radio and use it most when i have a good internet connection. The radio allows me to 'visit' other countries through the eyes of good journalists and radio personalities. Another great feature about this application, is that it allows the user to record a program and listen to it later (a good tool for my intelligence gathering friends). DJ Rig Once of my most recent downloads. Still learning a lot more on how to use it. Current features are useful but can be upgraded.

Image (Art Rage, Idesk Lite, Animation HD, Photo Crop, Photo Re-sizer, Drawing Master, 3D Art Gallery, MyPics) Art Rage As an aspiring artist, you would be wrong to ignore the influence of technology on art. This is one of the best tools on the market for those who wish to experiment with different types of brushes, pens, pencils and more. These projects can then be transferred into the picture editor or emailed to friends for preview. Idesk Lite This is a useful tool to have in addition to your word processing application. I use it for professional presentations to add a little bit of an edge. Animation HD A good tool for creation of animation. It has standard tools for the user to profit from motion tweening and more. Users who require a little more can subscribe to more using the internet. Photo Crop As its title says, it is a good tool for cropping images. I often recommend a good image editing tool for all those with a knowledge or background in web de...

Mapping (OpenMaps) The map feature that is provided with the ipad is quite exceptional. OpenMaps differs in that it is built to help you access Open Street Maps a service built on an Open Platform and designed to be updated by users in real time.

Health (Mosquito and Mosquitoes Pro) The two applications are supposed to help repel mosquitoes by producing a frequency that only the mosquitoes can hear. If i know about the resilience of all African residents, i have no doubt that my flying relatives have devised a method of countering these sounds using ear plugs. Please try this software in addition to your treated mosquito net.

Games (Scrabble, Car Racing, Chess, Monopoly, Crossword) Scrabble I got this tool out of love for the game. A useful tool for the family as well as for dual play. Language is a useful tool for communication and can open up your world to new experiences and new people. Car Racing The children in my neighborhood like this game. Although i would not necessarily put them behind the wheel of a car, it is a great way to get them interested in Technology. Chess I wan introduced to the game of chess in my first year of High School. I often try to have a copy of the game on every possible piece of technology. A useful to for students of strategy. I have often compared it to leadership in which you have to identify the rulers in your field and distinguish them from the pawns. This will help you to learn the value of position and placement. The game on the whole is well designed with some attractive graphics. It also allows you to save your games. In addition to this th...