JOF Views

Nigerians, Vote 'em Out.

2006-12-31T06:14:00.000+01:00

If you are a Nigerian, i urge you to vote out all those kleptocrats that have succeded in marooning the economy and social structures of this nation. Those who have ultimately turned this nation into a Failed State.

All those who are in power with no vision for the future of the nation, but mission to loot the treasury.

Nigeria as of today is practising what i call a Kleptocratic system of government, forget all those democrazy bullshit. Right now things are more crazier than they are under the military regime, just ask any sane Nigerian on the street.

In case you don't know what i mean by Kleptocratic system of government, below is a text from wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kleptocracy (sometimes
Cleptocracy) (root: Klepto+cracy = rule by thieves) is a pejorative, informal term for a government that is corrupt in its
management of public funds in the sense that its management is designed to
primarily sustain the personal wealth and political power of government
officials and their cronies (collectively,
kleptocrats).

Characteristic:

Kleptocracies are often dictatorships or some other
form of autocratic government, or
lapsed democracies that have transformed into oligarchies, since democracy
makes outright thievery for direct personal gain more difficult to sustain in
the long term and still remain in power. Some kleptocracies are a reponse to jingoism, and
frequent bullying in the government
place itself.

Kleptocratic governance means that the economy is
subordinated to the interests of the kleptocrats. Distributive states that
derive their wealth from the extraction of natural resources (e.g.
diamonds and oil in a few prominent cases) can be particularly prone to
kleptocracy.

Redistributive economies that derive their wealth through taxation of
their population have a natural limitation on how far they can extend the
kleptocratic policies on their population without destabilizing their government
through extending their grab to their own supporters or driving the income
producers away from the country or making them withdraw their labor or capital.

The creation of a kleptocracy powered by dictatorship typically
results in many years of general hardship and suffering for the vast majority of
citizens as civil society and the rule of
law disintegrate. In addition, kleptocrats routinely ignore economic and social problems in
their quest to amass ever more wealth and power.

The classic case of kleptocracy – in this sense – often given, is the
regime of Marshall Mobutu Sese
Seko, who ruled the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (which he renamed Zaire) from 1965 to 1997. It is
said that usage of the term kleptocracy gained popularity largely in response to
a need to accurately describe Mobutu's regime.

Some observers use the
term 'kleptocracy' to disparage political processes which permit corporations to
influence political policy. Ralph Nader called the United
States a kleptocracy in this sense of the word during the 2000
presidential campaign. A more accurate term for this type of corporate
influence over a state is plutocracy.

The
protection society has against kleptocracy is largely dependent on the
effectiveness of the rule of law to prevent
political leaders abusing their powers, the free flow of information (necessary
to properly identify kleptocrats) and ability of the population to remove
corrupt leaders from office. Many such protections are included in legal
documents such as a constitution or a bill
of rights and are also found in the United Nations Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, Article 17.

Transparency International ranking

In early 2004, the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency
International released a list of what it believes to be the ten most
self-enriching leaders in recent years.[1]
In order of
amount allegedly stolen (in USD), they are:
former Indonesian
President Suharto ($15 billion – $35
billion)
former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos ($5
billion – $10 billion)
former Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko ($5
billion)
former Nigerian President Sani
Abacha ($2 billion – $5 billion)
former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević
($1 billion)
former Haitian President Jean-Claude
Duvalier ($300 million – $800 million)
former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori ($600
million)
former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko ($114
million – $200 million)
former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Alemán ($100
million)
former Philippine President Joseph
Estrada ($78 million – $80 million)

For your own sake and that of your future generation, Vote 'em Out of Power (Office).

But that can only be possible if they don't render your vote useless , i hope you know what i mean here.

Pictures at the PDP National Convention 2006

2006-12-16T22:55:00.000+01:00

At the selection of PDP Presidential Flag bearer in Abuja for the 2007 poll.

Nigeria: A nation without a future(plan)!

2006-05-11T03:40:00.000+01:00

Whao, it's been a year since i started blogging.

Talking about issues, affecting one’s daily life is really a good way to let out the feelings one get for living in a frustrating environment like Nigeria.

An environment where daily life is fraught with(unemployment, unstable/irregular power supply, fuel, strikes, ethnicand communal clashes, bribery, corruption, government mismanagement of resources, poverty, 419ers, bad Internet credibility, hunger and lately

Nigeria’s version of ETA (MEND, MASSOB, OPC )) makes me cringe with fear about the future.

A nation where “They Don’t Really Care About Us”. Politicians fight and kill themselves over monies that would have been used to better the lots of pensioners who are on the verge of dying while going for their “pay-at-site” exercise.

A nation where everything goes, the police is your friend as long as you can grease their palms with Naira notes. A country where you see your fundamental human rights go down the drain as long as you can’t keep your mouth shut.

A nation where everyone live in fear because of the unknown assailant – fear of tomorrow.

A nation rated as the most religious nation yet the most corrupt nation. Church crusades are avenues of brainwashing the people for superlative and fantabulous miracles that are solely based on hopeless hopes. A nation where a pastor will tell you to drive a Hummer you have not work / saved for.

A nation where examination malpractices are the order of the day. A nation where the youths slave to get a sheet of paper – certificates (which “used” to be a passport to a hellish job).

A nation where the youth future has been mortgaged for themansions and SUVs of her political office holders.

A nation flowing with milk and honey with nothing to show for it.

A nation under siege.

A nation under perennial attacks from the forces within but un-known to those that render themselves blind in other not to see and speak the truth.

A nation full of ass-kissers; all in the name of sharing in the “National cake”.

A nation where religion is the dope of a hopeless people;
A nation where hopeful people hope for a hopeless nation;

A nation where people shove to cope with the hopelessness of her hopefuls;
A nation where hope for the future cannot cope with the hopelessness of today;
A nation where hope for a hopeless future has obliterates the grieves of today!

Side Note:
Thanks to all the visitors, thanks to Google / Blogger.com, thanks to all the great people that have contributed immensely to my life in one way or the other and above all thanks to God almighty.

Performancing for FireFox.

2006-05-04T20:35:00.000+01:00

Testing Testing.

UPDATE:

Great to know that a nice and cool addon for FireFox does a great job in making the life of bloggers that are non-IE user as stress free as possible.

Performancing for FireFox according to the developer " is a full featured blog editor that sits right within Firefox

Works with all major blog software
Easy WYSIWYG Editing
Trackback, Technorati and Del.icio.us support

Once installed, just hit F8 or click the little pencil icon at the bottom right of your browser window to bring up the blog editor and easily post to your Wordpress, MovableType or Blogger blogs"

PFF is a nice and better response to "Blogger for Word" tool since www.blogger.com has refused to give FireFox users the freedom to post from within a browser/application without using the web interface.

PFF is an Extension for FireFox, and it can be installed from here (you must be using FireFox 1.2 or better).

When will this Nightmare go away?

2006-04-26T18:44:00.000+01:00

We are the 8th largest producer of crude oil, but still yet we have to fight, bribe and swear at each other to get fuel. What a nation, what a shame!

FireFox: Chasing them out.

2006-04-23T18:13:00.000+01:00

Before it used to be them; but now the best thing has come.

FireFox: Chasing murky agents from the web.

Paper Display.

2006-04-23T17:22:00.001+01:00

Give way HDTVs, LCDs and Plasmas, your king is coming.

There’s a report that Universal Display Corporation scientists are working on a super-thin technology that’s capable of displaying TV-like images on super thin paper/plastics.

The technology which uses OLEDs" (organic light emitting devices), a thin film of chemicals, 1/10,000 of an inch thick, that turns an electronic signal into a picture, much like a television does.

When we consider the fact that LED use relatively small amount of energy/power to make a colorful display, with OLED display we maybe a lot closer to a more energy efficient world. At least our world will be a lot better.Yipee, no more ocean surge at the Bar Beach.

By the way, the new technology is less than 5 years away from your palm.

What a world we are living in.

Birth of ProudlyNaija.com

2006-03-16T01:01:00.000+01:00

Am glad to announce the birth of ProudlyNaija.

ProudlyNaija is a community that’s dedicated to showcasing Nigeria in all her “grandeur”.

Topical and historical national issues/events are dissected with a view of informing, entertaining and educating all and sundry.

ProudlyNaija is also a great place to meet interesting like-minded people as well as people with diverse social, political, religious and moral views.

ProudlyNaija seeks to be a melting pot for all Nigerian from all tribe, creed and socio-political leaning.

ProudlyNaija a non-partisan community that does not have a left, centre or right inclination on issues.

ProudlyNaija is simply here to showcase Nigeria.

What Kind of Gift is This.

2005-12-28T00:45:00.000+01:00

It’s Christmas celebration worldwide. This is a moment that brings out the best of our gratitude to God almighty that we have been able to sail through the economic hazards and catastrophes that our leaders, both past and present have subjected us into this year.

Christmas and first day of the New Year (January 1) is always marked with some sort of pomp characterized by sumptuous meals (it depends on what and how a family sees it). The most common menu on those days are rice (in all flavour), chicken (for those that can afford it). Those days are our own Thanksgiving day here.

The Gift:
Yesterday (26/12/2005) as I got home my sister anxiously informed me that Minister (a Federal Minister in Obasanjo’s cabinet from my town) gave-out rice to people. I was like and so, because I don’t really dig these people that treat people like goat and chicken (they determine when, how and what their zealots eat). I was thinking those that got those rice must have fought tooth and nail to get a fistful of it, that’s the usual scenario. The next question I asked was “was it thrown on the ground?” (so that people can squirrelly run after them.) But to my surprise I was dumbfounded when she said some children carried them to people’s house, she then showed me the package (one rubber of rice, about 1 KG).

While it was a good gesture, assuming I really need it the same way I need regular power supply. Here in this town we have over a million people, I wonder how many people would have been able to lay their hands on this largesse being doled by Mr. Minister.

My View:
I wonder for how long all these stupid politicians will continue to treat their fellow human beings like a pure water wrapper (they drink, milk and suck the content (i.e.vote),as if they really need it) and throw them into the garbage of penury

We all deserve a better deal than all these “a day out of poverty gesture” (that’s my dads comment on the gift (if you can call it that)). What we need is stable and steady power (electricity) supply, good roads, good health care services, proper accountability and responsibility, prompt payment of salaries, arrears, gratuities of pensioners, responsive behaviour to masses pleas and lamentations as well as beneficial jobs for millions of school leavers (at least they won’t need Mr. Minster’s rice if they can afford to buy from their paycheck, our people don’t need the fish, they need fishing opportunities).

Our people have endured for so long, we have banked our hopes and aspirations on democracy, but sadly what we got is kleptocrazy and lot’s of demonstration of craziness in the upper and lower echelon of our political system.

But if you all (politicians ruling but ruining Nigeria) failed to ease the aggravations you are causing us all, am telling you all here and now that it is getting to a point people called The Elastic (Suffering) Limit. Woe betides you all on that day we rise up to take what rightly belongs to us.

“There are many things we do not want about the world. Let us not just mourn them. Let us change them." -Ferdinand Marcos. (That's for you Nigerians).

Final Note:
Mr. Minister (I hope you or any of your cronies happen to read this) thanks for that kind gesture of yours, but the reality is that we don’t really need such. You all know we deserve a better deal.

Transcorp: Messiah or another White Elephant.

2005-12-09T22:59:00.000+01:00

This is my edited response to this topic on Nairaland.com (a Nigerian forum).

Transcorp can never and will never pull Nigeria out of the economic mess she has been wallowing in for years.

I see this Transcorp thing as a big way of deceiving Nigerians into believing that an economic Messiah has come. When flamboyant people whose motive in life is all about how they can increase their own net-worth teamed together to form a mega-corporation, what you can/must expect is nothing but a big failure.

Nigeria does not need a big corporation to get out of the economic quagmire she’s in right now. What we need is/are SMEs and unflinching support from the government. The US economy is buoyant because they give qualitative support to their SMEs, they value them more than corporations like Microsoft, IBM and Boeing.

SMEs have the potentials of creating more jobs in many regions of a country than any corporation, a small SME also do have the potentials of becoming a big player in her own sector too; Microsoft, IBM, Dell etc are classical examples.

What those founders of Transcorp are trying to do is to compete with foreign multinationals, they will fail woefully because they don’t have what it takes to match these people. Though they may have the financial and political muscle, Transcorp does not have a veritable original economic, development and innovative blueprint to become a world-class player overnight like they planned to.

What Transcorp has succeeded in doing to date is buying lucrative and already money spinning companies like Nicon Hilton, I wonder where the much touted new jobs will be created from when they are buying already running companies. I think they should have aptly call themselves “NigeriaWeAreBuying Corp, (NWAB Corp)”

Mega corporations are not the saviour of any nation’s economy because those that run them are mostly people that are out of sync with what’s obtainable on the street. Enron, Worldcom are veritable examples.

I hope Transcorp will not be just one of those SMEs killers here in Nigeria. Another important fear of mine is that some unscrupulous politicians will even use the company as a front to invest their stolen billions since Baba OBJ has now made London and Swiss banks a danger zone for them, (Bravo Balogun).

When the NSE DG is also a director and one of the “owner” of Transcorp, I wonder how she will be able to sanction the company (Transcorp) when they violate set standards (if there’s any) of NSE.

Meanwhile if you don’t know, Transcorp is owned by “sons and daughter of Mr. President” (that’s what Stella Obasanjo called most of the core members). For a start where did they get the money with which they bought NICON Hilton from?

Anyway, time will tell if Transcorp is a blessing or a curse.

SME Server (formerly e-smith Server and Gateway): A Cool and Nice Linux Distro.

2005-10-28T02:46:00.000+01:00

Solely built for the defending networks be it a LAN or WAN from all the dangers that Internet connected computer networks are been subjected to on a minute by minute basis, SME Server has now become my distro of choice lately.

Since any computer system/device connected to the Internet can/will come under 2-10 probes/intrusions within 10 minutes of been connected. It’s obviously imperative the usefulness of a firewall.

First created by MITEL Networks and based on Redhat 7.2 it's one of the various Linux distros that were designed from the ground up to act as server for small to medium sized enterprises. SME Server converts a normal PC into an easy to administer yet powerful firewall and router that will cater for a company’s IT needs from email, web and proxy workhorse. It also come with the well known statefull packet filtering firewall IPTABLES (work of Paul 'Rusty' Russell). SME Server administration can easily be carried out through a web interface, this makes it administration an easy task for people that are not that so tech savvy.

I first heard about SME Server in 2003, I did downloaded it and run it on a network I managed back then, but I discovered I don’t really like it because there are some features like bandwidth shaping that I want but weren’t or I didn’t know exist in SME Server, I did uninstall it and I used stuffs like IPCOP and Smoothwall instead since I can find and easily get that feature in them.

Fast forward to 2005.

One of my major reasons why I did not use SME was also due to the fact that it was not in the mainstream like ClarkConnet, IPCOP and Smoothwall, but now I know am wrong about that perception. I did some search on good ol’ Google and I did discovered an Australian forum , the forum has a good number of users that are using SME Server.

I managed to burn the ISO that I have downloaded in 2003 SME Server 6.0 from LinuxIso and I installed it. Now I have a “Complete New Song” about SME Server, since my Linux skills has increased a lot since then, I am now more comfortable and at home with it.

What that really made SME Server to standout of the pack is it template features, it enable you to revert back to the original scripts should you screw up with the initial configuration files. Another wonderful stuff I have discovered about it is the software blade features it has, the software blade (secret of getting bandwidth shaping, mail server antivirus) features enable you to add/remove software modules form third parties.

Using the web and file filtering capabilities of Squid, I have been able to block over 5500 websites and lots of file extensions, (am only doing this to protect the systems and network from viruses, am not a censor board chairman).

Although am yet to try the all new version 7 release, infact I don’t really need it since the curent one is doing a great job.

To see the planed future of SME Server visit this link.

In conclusion, I say a big thank you to all those great guys that are empowering people like me to run great softwares that would have cost thousands of Dollars if they where to be released under any other licensing option other than GNU/Open Source scheme.

No Sleep No Rest, thanks to WAEC and NECO.

2005-10-08T21:18:00.000+01:00

It’s not been easy, this blog have been dormant for some time now. Not that am down right lazy but due to running a business in the most unconducive environment (Naija) for young entrepreneurs and business.

I have really been busy trying to register students for the forthcoming NECO GCE Nov/Dec exam. That would have been an easy task if not for the unresponsive nature of  NECOs registration website. The site design is so bad that some people have been reporting their woes getting to the site and losing money and entering the wrong information and uploading the wrong pictures of candidates.

Before now WAEC exam registration hold sway in the Bad Website sphere, WAEC problem arises from wrong planning and design of the website that can make or mar students future and career. Most of the people that registered for the ongoing WAEC Nov/Dec. exam are unable to go for the examinations due to the fact that they were placed in the wrong examination town and center.

Students that picked Ondo West Local Govt. Area in Ondo State as their examination town ended up been asked to go and write their exams in Ifon (about 250KM from Ondo).

WAEC and NECO resort to the use of the Internet registration in order to reduce/remove paper based entries that would have cost them lots of money and much hassles. But they fail to envisage the intense load that their server(s) will come under due to many queries from users.

Thanks be to God I have been through with WAEC registration and the exam is now is it’s last week, but not with some bitter complaint from people like me. Right now it’s NECO registration that am battling with. But when I was thinking am getting through another batch of entries are arriving in drove, this was due to those that are have to hurriedly grab NECO GCE registration form after failing in the just released result of last WAEC May/June exam (about 800,000 – 1,000,000) results were cancelled and withheld

For 4 days now I have not been able to get some good sleep and this has really been taking it’s toll in some ways but am up to the task afterall  I have been used to this regime of little or no sleep since 2002. LOL

Before I stop I will like NECO and WAEC to replan their online registration plan or else they will witness a showdown that won’t be too good for them and their intending candidates.

Hurray, Google is 7!

2005-09-27T09:01:00.000+01:00

The brainchild of two friends, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google has finally transform and
change the way we use the web/internet.

When anyone tells you they need to do some research, you simply tell them (without blinking an eye) to "Google It" first, isn't that wonderful and when they do; am that sure they will get something useful. The web as unwiedley as it is, have been turned into an information goldmine for those that knows the power of Google.

Google is an had i know for David Filo (Yahoo founder), cos if he had foresee what Google would eventually become, he would have gracefully jump at the offer to help them (Larry and Sergey) when they turned to him instead of telling them "When it's fully developed and scalable, (now Google has the most scalable data center in the world) " he told them, "let's talk again." Now Google beats Yahoo hands down in the numbers of queries they handle per day, isn't that wonderful.

But i thank God that he failed to, if David Filo has funded Larry Page and Sergey Brin then am sure Google/BackRub would have been a dead dream by now.

Food for thought:
Whatever you can do today you must not postpone till tomorrow, those smart guys left their Ph.D. program to pursue their dreams, am sure hey have not regreted that step. Now they have some of the brightest Ph.Ds in Computer Science on their payroll.

Never give up on your dreams, just; Think Big, Start Small and Grow.

My Wishes:
I hope Google will finally release their own browser and ultimately the much anticipated OS (Google OS).

The End is Nigh. (9:15 a.m. EDT on June 1, 2014)

2005-09-18T23:56:00.000+01:00

The End is Nigh. (9:15 a.m. EDT on June 1, 2014)

According to this report by Yahoo, the much-anticipated end of the world may finally happen on 9:15 a.m. EDT on June 1, 2014.

Mind you am not a prophet of doom, and don’t stop working because of this report.

Below is the report.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Scared-stiff astronomers have detected a mysterious mass they've dubbed a "chaos cloud" that dissolves everything in its path, including comets, asteroids, planets and entire stars -- and it's headed directly toward Earth! Discovered April 6 by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the swirling, 10 million-mile- wide cosmic dust cloud has been likened to an "acid nebula" and is hurtling toward us at close to the speed of light -- making its estimated time of arrival 9:15 a.m. EDT on June 1, 2014. "The good news is that this finding confirms several cutting- edge ideas in theoretical physics," announced Dr. Albert Sherwinski, a Cambridge based astrophysicist with close ties to NASA. "The bad news is that the total annihilation of our solar system is imminent." Experts believe the chaos cloud is composed of particles spawned near the event horizon of a black hole (a form of what's called Hawking Radiation) that have been distorted by mangled information spewed from the hole. "A super-massive black hole lies about 28,000 light-years from Earth at the center of our galaxy," explained Dr. Sherwinski. "Last year the eminent physicist Stephen Hawking revised his theory of black holes -- which previously held that nothing could escape the hole's powerful gravitational field. He demonstrated that information about objects that have been sucked in can be emitted in mangled form. "It now appears that mangled information can distort matter. "Just imagine our galaxy the Milky Way as a beautiful, handwritten letter. "Now imagine pouring a glass of water on the paper and watching the words dissolve as the stain spreads. That's what the chaos cloud does to every star or planet it encounters." To avoid widespread panic, NASA has declined to make the alarming discovery public. But Dr. Sherwinski's contacts at the agency's Chandra X-ray Observatory leaked to him striking images of the newly discovered chaos cloud obliterating a large asteroid. "It's like watching a helpless hog being dissolved in a vat of acid," one NASA scientist told Dr. Sherwinski. Ordinarily, Hawkings Radiation is harmless. "It's produced when an electron- positron pair are at the event horizon of a black hole," Dr. Sherwinski explained. "The intense curvature of space-time of the hole can cause the positron to fall in, while the electron escapes." But when "infected" by mangled information from the black hole, the particles become a chaos cloud, which in turn mangles everything it touches. "If it continues unchecked, the chaos cloud will eventually reduce our galaxy to the state of absolute chaos that existed before the birth of the universe," the astrophysicist warned. Some scientists say mankind's best hope would be to build a "space ark" and hightail it to the Andromeda Galaxy, 2.1 million light-years away. "We wouldn't be able to save the entire human population, but perhaps the best and the brightest," observed British rocket scientist Dr. David Hall, when asked about the feasibility of such a project. But even if such a craft could be built in time, evacuating Earth might prove fruitless if theories about the origin of the chaos cloud are correct. "A black hole at the center of Andromeda is about 15 times the size of the one in our own galaxy," Dr. Sherwinski noted. "It might be like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire." Speaking under the condition of anonymity, a senior White House official said the president's top science advisors are taking the findings in stride. "This is a lot like global warming, where the jury is still out on whether it's real or not," said the official. "The existence of this so called chaos cloud is only a theory. Americans shouldn't panic until all the facts are in."

Hurray, 240-Mbit WIFI Coming Soon.

2005-09-16T04:36:00.000+01:00

A wireless chipset that could deliver (theoretically) 250MB/s of data is now in the offing thanks to the innovative work been done by Airgo Networks, according to this report by extremetech.com.

I hope Access Points(AP) and wireless NIC with these chipset will be available and affordable soon.

One of the main drawback that I personally don’t like about wireless networks is the speed limitation when compared to wired Ethernet, I hope this will change that soon.

And i wish...

2005-09-06T08:47:00.000+01:00

I wish there's 24/7 power (electricity) supply without all the frequent blackout, load-sheddings and low currents.

I wish NEPA(sorry PHCN) could b more responsive when a complaint is lodged with them.

I wish NEPA technicians and officials won't demand for some kickbacks before coming to fix their stuffs.

I wish generator noise and polutions could become a thing of the past.

I wish Obasanjo could get serious with the selling of NEPA than castigating Atiku.

I wish i can stop buying fuels for generators.

I wish all these wishes come true soon.

Introducing Google Voice Search.

2005-09-06T07:42:00.000+01:00

And the goodies keeps coming; Google the undisputed king of search has now done it again, this time around bringing out Google Voice Search.

According to Google this new system work as listed below:

"To try out this demo, please follow these simple steps:
1. Pick up the phone and call the automated voice search system at (650) 623-6706.
2. After the prompt Say your Search Keywords, say your query to the system.
3. Click this link and a new window will open with your voice search results.
4. Say another query, and the new window with the search results will be updated with the new results."

But the unfortunate part is that the new offering is not for people in countries like Nigeria where ordinary “080” call is a burden already not to talk about calling “oyinbo man’s land”.

This ingenuity is unrivalled; I hope the new service live up to users expectations.

Trump: The Blogger.

2005-09-06T05:44:00.000+01:00

Last night a stumbled across Donald Trump’s blog and I was really thrilled to read some of his posts. I have always fancied him for his business acumen and “never die” attitudes. This man bemoans rising fuel prices (oga o…so the rich also cry) even to the extent of proposing Naija’s death sentence, “alternative fuel”. I hope Nigerian leaders will wake up before OPEC fully becomes a byword. Anyway, I dey kampe.

With his recent foray into the educational sector Trump University (online only), you can only expect the very best from this man that like to stage unprecedented comebacks.

Google Desktop Search (GDS) and your Privacy.

2005-09-05T01:36:00.000+01:00

Google Desktop Search (GDS) is a really cool tool that bring the power of Google powerful search algorithm right into your PC. With GDS you can search for files/words (and, even words/sentence(s) within a file) instead of using the built in search facility in your Windows PC. Apart from it’s searching capability you can also enrich it by downloading some other useful plugins and alerts (see picture >>) from http://desktop.google.com/plugins?hl=en, and if you will like to develop your own plugins and alerts, you can download the SDK from here http://desktop.google.com/developer.html . Google said you could use any language that supports COM and XML to develop your own plugins and alerts, and you can also embed GDS right into your own application; hmmm… super cool (I wish they could let developers “adsense” that way). If GDS is running when you open Google’s homepage you will seethe following menu: Web Images Groups News Desktop more »

Caveat:
GDS won’t work if you are using a proxy in your Internet connection setting in Internet Explorer except you tell Internet Explorer to exclude http://localhost:4664/ (this is the local address for GDS Server on my system and on most default installations).As with all technology, GDS has its own good/bad side (depending on your perspective on this), and this is its ability to grab screenshots of webpages. Now you don’t need a screen grabbing software, you can easily see all or part of any webpage and web based e-mail that might have been access on a system with GDS installed on it. Just search for a likely keyword that you know must have appeared on that webpage or inbox and GDS will gracefully display a screenshot of the webpage for you, (I leave the good and bad effect of that to your imagination). If you have nothing to hide I don’t think you should worry much about this, else…run.Some people also talk about the search index taking up all the available space on their system, am not sure this is possible, Google herself would have run out of storage space if that is the case (hope you catch my drift here). Am still doing some research on that though.

Conclusion:
Take GDS for a spin today and see if it lives up to the hype or not. GDS main rival right now is MSN Search Toolbar from Microsoft; I don’t really like it though, (too heavy).

NOTE:
GDS as at September 4, 2005 is still in beta stage.

In times like this...

2005-09-01T23:44:00.000+01:00

The storm howled... floodwaters took over what thousands called home, Katrina leave sorrow and anarchy in her wake… (Dear Lord, may your peace be with all people on the face of the earth. Amen).

And here in Nigeria life goes on (their problem is not our proble, abi?), we kept arguing why Obasanjo increased petrol pump price (forgeting that what happened thousands of miles away determine the price we pay for that fuel in our vehicles and generators). Too bad, and am part of the ungrateful privileged , ever eager to bewail why we were born in this part of the world…, quick to point to America where everything work like a charm, never minding the price(s) they and their forebears have paid.

But wait, Katrina was Mother Nature’s handiwork, but here manmade catastrophes like corruption, torture, bribery, non-payment of salary and pension, unstable/unavailable power supply, hunger, assassination, extra judicial killings and other countless avertable calamities are giving us hell on earth.

When will we sail/swim from these self-inflicted Katarina? When will we say the Storm is Over? (Perhaps when all these corrupt leaders are nomore, how long do we have to wait? Only God knows.)

Dear Lord, see to the supplications of all refuges, (from Sudan to Sierra-Leone, from Liberia to Bosnia, from Israel to USA.) Let the earth rejoice in your glory.

And bring to shame the enemies of this nation (Nigeria) into shame and disrepute. Amen.

Dr. Oyibo's GAGUT Theorem: Truth or a Classical 419.

2005-08-29T01:50:00.000+01:00

I was excited when I heard about Dr.Oyibo's discovery. I have also seen the analysis of GAGUT theorem by Prof. Animalu, although it’s beyond my league.

The major emphasis on Dr. Oyibo’s website was Nobel Prize for Physics. The claim that the West is not recognizing his feat is not right I think. Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian, a black man born and bred in Nigeria, he got the Nobel Prize for Literature, Wangari Maathai got a Nobel Prize for Peace. All these people are Africans. I think and I know if Dr. Oyibo’s deserve one he will get it.

And for God’s sake does Nobel Prize for Physics guarantee the genuineness of the GAGUT theorem. Did Newton get one during His lifetime.

Dr. Oyibo’s website did not even have a brief on his background, all that was there was that he was a PhD, which primary school, secondary school did he attend, what was his performance at school in those days. He ought to take some clues from Dr. Scott Williams and even Dr. Emeagwali's well designed website rather than a hurriedly hacked up website (a free domain for that matter).

That Nigerian senators unanimously endorsed Dr. Oyibo for an award is nothing but a replay of their old self. A one party dominated senate is nothing but a club of friends. They might also have been carried away with the feat simply because of Dr. Oyibo’s God based approach to the theorem. I know that’s what even makes the theorem popular among Nigerians and some religious leaders around the world.

Since some fellow scientist of Dr. Oyibo has challenged him to prove his theorem, I think he should be very grateful that the have at least giving him a fair chance to prove them wrong rather than telling them to prove whether it’s wrong or not. The Holy Bible even asked us to verify all claims so as to ascertain the truth.

Dr. Oyibo will forever be remembered in history if he can publicly prove to the whole world that his theorem is/are true. At least Newton did to the Church and the world in those days.

I hereby caution everyone not to condemn Dr. Oyibo’s theorem since Newton discovery about how the whole universe work radically alter some long held beliefs.

Since I was young I have always thought that the Big Bang must have been as a result of God’s command that God’s issued during the creation process. At least the Israelites that went to the mountain with Moses confirmed that God’s voice was like a thunder.

God is a phenomenon that no man can prove with a mathematical formula, we can only try.

Dr. Oyibo can only redeem Nigeria’s image in the scientific community by proving them wrong or right.

Testing...

2005-08-28T13:08:00.000+01:00

Hello world, straight from MS Word, hope it works.

Driving Without Steering (DWS).

2005-08-28T00:21:00.000+01:00

If this story is anything to go by, come 2008 you too can be in Will Smith league, cruising at 60 mph while playing/watching your favourite soccer game using your windshield as a screen.

If all things goes as planned the 2008 edition of Opel Vectra will transport you to your destination with little or no assist from you courtesy of lasers and video camera ; wow, that will be lovely I know you will say.

How about doing 60 mph and getting this message “This car has perform an illegal overtaking and will be immobilized”; next thing you are brought to a screeching standstill, thanks to the highly effective ABS brake, right in front of a Mark truck doing 100 mph. I hope there will be a super-active VTOL system that will hopefully and gracefully deploy in 0.000000000001 nanosecond in place ; else you can only but imagine the outcome of that confidence in machine.

While I am hoping that the repeat of that I, robot scene will be as widespread as the use of “mobile phones in Nigeria” come 2008 and beyond; I can only but keep my fingers crossed.

While i can only but imagine which OS will power the car’s brain, first and foremost I know it’s going to be a Real Time OS (RT) (which eliminate Windows out of the equation), secondly I know viruses must/ will not be a threat since Intel has started work on a chip/computer that will instantly quarantine itself once it detect an anomaly . The only down side to this is that your car may not be available when you may need it most, please for Christ sake, don’t make this your first and only car. Anyway you can always become Will Smith; Just take control of your life.

Petrol Again!

2005-08-27T09:54:00.000+01:00

And finally finally petrol now retails (officially) for N70 per litre across the nation (Nigeria).

Who are we to blame, Obasanjo, NNPC, Hugo Chavez, OPEC.

Since Obasanjo has vowed to privatize everything, alas this is one of the dividend of privaization, LOL.

Since we now buy fuel based on world market indices, we should now be able to stomach the resultant effect of what is probably going on in Venezuela, at least this should show us that the problem going on around the world is of utmost significance to us now.

For so long we have been able to take for granted the subsidy on fuel prices; now that Obasanjo is running a proper capitalism, we now see that nothing come for free.

I used to think that it’s bullshit for OBJ to be increasing fuel prices anyhow, but now I think they have a “genuine” reason. According to Minister of Information (Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr. Frank Nweke Jnr.,) he said 19 new power stations are now in the pipeline;( e be like say Nigeria go get some Nuke reactor sef, courtesy of N Korea).
The current increase won’t kill us at least, it will only make us “stronger” we have been groaning under this administration and am sure this is not going to be the last straw!

Nigerians, world market now determine our local market this is a true reflection of globalization. OBJ need to educate Nigerians on global economy and world matters.

I hope OBJ and his cronies will stop deceiving us about some “phantom” palliatives and safety, oh sorry un-safety net.

Linux and Nigeria

2005-05-09T13:31:00.000+01:00

Linux is what i like to use, but Windows is the guy that is paying my bills.

You may wonder what this is all about, but if you live in Nigeria where Windows has 95% share of the meagre PC population you will know that it does not make any economic sense to be giving Linux support to people as a means of living.

Most Linux installations i have seen are back-end solutions on servers and i don't think this will change any moment from now.

Most people here are GUI centric, and changing or adapting to a new way of doing thing is very difficult.

I know a day will come when MS will step up her antipiracy war here, then the saviour will be good ol Penguin.