Update
BarCamp Africa UK was a success with about a 100 attendees congregating at the Vodafone Offices generating very interesting and pertinant discussions . The event had really good reviews furthur updates are on the wiki page

Videos
[barcampafrica-uk.wikispaces.com]
[bit.ly]

Pictures
[bit.ly]
[bit.ly]
[j.mp]

A Number of articles written about event
[bit.ly]
http://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=1047

Trust that little voice in your head that says “Wouldn’t it be interesting if…” ~ Duane Michals

I always have ideas floating around head and most of them i forget and others  i realise i  might never get the chance and time to do any of these so please feel free to take and ran with any of these ideas as you will….

A Female mentoring portal – A portal of females categorized according to career sectors or any additional

catogories to help match mentors and mentees(borne out my realising that i have never had a female mentor )

An ideas exchange portal or group where creative ideas are presented and interested parties can pick and work on

ideas(preference for a group though)

A tool that allows me to aggregate my calender from my phone and various calender into one place

will add to this list and when i remember the rest untill next time

After BarCamp Africa in the US and BarCamp Diaspora also in US.

I think there was a sense from those of us on this side of the pond that we also need a BarCamp Africa in the UK .

Of course there will never  be enough events that will bring together a group of talented entrepreneurs, technologist, charities, engineers, designers, bloggers, artists, with a passion for African development.

So a tweet , a retweet ,a couple of emails back and forth and an organizers meeting later we are on course for an inspiring and action oriented BarCampAfrica UK on the 7th of November 2009 .

Ps.  The Next Organisers meeting is in secondlife ooo! check us out we are making use of all technological avenues open to us .

Find out more about BarCampAfrica UK and register on [barcampafrica.com]

Untill the Next Post see you later

Being an African and a national of a country that belongs to the AU, I have had causeto visit the AU site many times and I have come to notice certain niggling issues with AU site’s [www.africa-union.org] front page.

I must reiterate that the aim of this article is to bring these issues to the attention of the web masters, developer and administrators and thereby helping to improve the usability of the site.
The issue are enumerated below:
1 .When the home page loads initially it runs what I assume is a flash intro of the site. This is in theory is nice concept can become a usability issue and an all round nuisance when the user is not given the option to stop the flash from running fully and be sent directly to the main content pages but has to wait until the whole flash runs to click a link .This is especially a nuisance when that user logs on multiple times or use his back button to get back to the home page.

Many information and corporate sites e.g.Accenture , www.zdnet.comand numerous other sites do because they are increasingly aware of the nuisance this becomes .

2. When the Flash intro loads up, an African map is displayed.When the user passes his mouse over the countries on the map the colour of these regions lighten and the mouse symbol changes to a hand giving the impression that they are links when they are clearly not. At the best I think what should have being done was to display a information on that country as a tool tip when the user passes a mouse over the countries on the map.
3. Lastly there is funny problem with the links provided after the flash intro loads. There are parts of that text link which the user cannot click on. I can only assume here that the problem is that the link area is not wide enough and should be changed to cover a wider area than just barely covering the text provided.
They are small niggling issues but they go long to improving the user experience on the site, decreasing site dropout rate and the perceived quality of the site.
I hope somebody this article comes to the attention of the administrators of the [www.africa-union.org] site.

Got sent this email by a friend, quite funny

PCMCIA: People Can’t Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms

ISDN: It Still Does Nothing

APPLE: Arrogance Produces Profit-Losing Entity

SCSI: System Can’t See It

DOS: Defective Operating System

BASIC: Bill’s Attempt to Seize Industry Control

IBM: I Blame Microsoft DEC: Do Expect Cuts

CD-ROM: Consumer Device – Rendered Obsolete in Months

OS/2: Obsolete Soon, Too.

WWW: World Wide Wait

MACINTOSH: Most Applications Crash; If Not, The Operating System Hangs

PENTIUM: Produces Erroneous Numbers Thru Incorrect Understanding of Mathematics

AMIGA: A Merely Insignificant Game Addiction

LISP: Lots of Infuriating & Silly Parentheses

MIPS: Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed

WINDOWS: Will Install Needless Data On Whole System

MICROSOFT: Most Intelligent Customers Realize Our Software Only Fools Teenagers *[not a microsoft hater but its funny all the same ]

RISC: Reduced Into Silly Code

 

Its being too long since i l blogged but i have ideas floating in my head so this  is a placeholder to remind of what i want to do when i get round to it

Potential blog items

• Ghana Election  hot the different political oponenets used technology to garner support
• Again on the different technologies on how i followed the ghana election using
• Why I missed using blog.co.uk instead of word press based on the social networking aspect of the it
• Drupal sitemap xml for 6.x

Ranting about the poor usability of the fckeditor setting page on drupal 6

1.Fields to ‘include/Exclude’ why couldnt they just have 2 text areas 1 for includes and another for exclude – i get the impression that they just couldnt be bothered

2. The include/exclude drop down i was assuming would toggle to show in the ensuing text area   the fields that were include or excluded  unfortunately they just serve  to indicators for saving included or excluded files making it a a usabilty nightmare for anymore who want to rack which files are either included or excluded

I know its open source but guys seriously

Ideas for Barcamp spill over Presentation

• Talk on the Life Hack using flickr to host your images to retrieve on request
• Lessons I learnt in my two month stint a Test Analyst
• Forum: Moderate discussion on how porgramming is taught in our institutions , personal experiences and what could be done differently
• Forum for Life Hacks :Moderate a Forum to bring to the forefront Life Hacks that others have picked up over the years/months/weeks

Update

Finally decided on the ->Forum: Moderate discussion on how porgramming is taught in our institutions , personal experiences and what could be done differently

I will write up the discussions an ideas that came up soon-ish

Reposting a blog entry from one my favourite blog posts its non IT Though.

I really really hate cover letters. They restrict my breathing and cause traffic jams in my usually uncongested neural pathways. No matter how hard I try to sound unique and interesting, something about the process makes doesn’t quite ring true. Maybe it’s the formulaic nature of it all. Or that every recruiter believes keeping it short and to the point is crucial since no one has the time to bother with more than one A4 page anymore.

So, this is my ode to the cover letter (I will abide by some basic rules but essentially do away with all the pomp and ceremony that generally gets me nowhere). I am writing it as a blog entry that I’m hoping will one day be a part of the Twice archive. And if not, it will find a home at

http://vimbaikavhumbura.blogspot.com

WHO AM I – THE SPEED DATING VERSION

Bearing in mind that the reader may need to get back to work soon I will give the abridged version of it here. More detailed notes and insights are available on request. Born in Zimbabwe, raised in Swaziland, educated in Cape Town and Brighton I am a bit of a rolling stone. All four places complete my sense of home – which makes for interesting political debates and fights during cricket matches. I have always had a fascination with making things, from knitting to T-shirt design, papier mache piggy banks to cheesecake- still trying to master that one. I love the process of creating new things and the feeling of knowing that there is no other one like it in the world. When I’m not making stuff I dream of making stuff, which is probably why I’m a bit of an insomniac, really. So, I can speak English and Shona and passable basic Afrikaans, French and siSwati. What this means is most people need to be pretty creative to swear at me. I love to sing and dance (but try not to in the office as I’m not really an X Factor candidate). I’m fascinated by words: poetry, prose, hip hop. I collect remixes of my favourite songs. My favourite place in the world is the middle of the Namibian desert, and no, not because Angelina had a baby there. Visually I’m impressed by film making above all other forms of art.

My very first school report read: Vimbai is too talkative. Some might say I have the gift of the gab. I have since refined this skill into some impressive public speaking and presentation skills. I can chat about anything from Brian Lara’s batting average to why Sarah Palin will not be the next Vice President of the USA, and why Rex should not win Big Brother. I like to have opinions and share them occasionally. Despite the picture we’ve painted so far, I generally prefer to listen that to talk…you learn more that way. And I’d rather read or listen to the new Roots album than watch TV, unless there’s a good movie on.

So, that’s my attempt at unique and interesting. Did I mention I like chocolate?

WHY I WANT TO WORK AT TWICE

Ideas, ideas, ideas. It is my favourite way to shock people to suggest that people get dumber every generation. A favourite author of mine wrote: Too many morons, not enough Michelangelos. I really don’t think this is true. It’s just easier in most cases to wait for someone to give you the answer. I think there is a lot of power in this. The Church did it, then politicians did it. Now its global brands that tell us how to behave and what choices we should be making on everything from baby food to where to go on holiday. Brand designers are at the top of the pile here. We are the ones who tell the brands what to tell the people to think. And the key to this is persuasion and self awareness. At Twice, this process is clearly and simply laid out. Idea, relationship, action. No fuss, no strings. The best kept secret is the one that’s left in the open. Twice is a company that constantly produces results for their clients so the real secret must be in the execution. This is what I wish to learn.

WHY I’M IRRESISTIBLE

For me branding is the difference between a turkey and a peacock. Something that seems obvious, but that can be broken down on many levels and tweaked to achieve different results. Essentially they are the same bird, one just figured out a way not to be eaten. I’m still working on this thesis and would love some feedback on the premise. The facts and figures of what I’ve done so far that may be useful in a company like yours are basically that:
-I like to think and to do
-I know how to work with people and how to talk to them
-I think inside AND outside the box
-I love to muck in

I suppose that’s pretty much it. They say you shouldn’t give too much away on the first date and I hope that I’ve sparked you interest enough to discuss things further in person. I’m available at your convenience (though this is a bit of a text book ending to the cover letter, sometimes there’s no need to mess with a classic).

By Vimbai K

Repost

BarcampLondon5 is full. Lots of people who wanted to go couldn’t get tickets. We figured: why not have our own, extra, mini-barcamp? The British Computer Society kindly volunteered to host, so it’s on: we’ll have a one-day barcamp on the Saturday (27th).

This will only be on the Saturday and there’ll be nowhere to sleep: apologies to those who can’t manage a trip to London just for the day.

The BCS are also providing tea and coffee throughout the day.

When?
Saturday 27th September, 9am-9pm

How?
We’re issuing tickets now through Eventwax. Go!

Where?
First Floor
The Davidson Building,
5 Southampton Street
London, WC2E 7HA

Map

Suggestions……

In need of quick design for a website, if you are like me and you probably developing the website as a favour to a friend or family member but don’t have enough time for drudging out designs your best bet is a free online CSS templates that you can download and personalize for use:

http://www.freecsstemplates.org/

http://www.free-css-templates.com/

[www.free-css.com]

Else if you need to put together a simple a quick and easy website which you give over to user to take control of the content then your easiest bet is using word press as a Content Management System Mark Kirby has an excellent tutorial on his website [mark-kirby.co.uk]

If you want to add an album to your website but don’t have the space or bandwidth I suggest use online photo social sites like and Flickr and use the API’s to retrieve images on demand Or just hotlink from your Facebook albums. A bit dodgy but it works!

I wrote a tutorial on how to use flickr API which I presented at Bar Camp Brighton 3 http://etheldcofie.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/flickr-api-how-to-perform-authenticating-using-php/

If you need to knock out your own custom social netwrok for your friends, family or people with similar interest( chocolate loving geeks perhaps !) then use Ning.com. It is great platform that allows you to create your own social network and even register a domain that points to your customized social network.

This section will be updated as often as i can with short cuts and life hacks… watch this space

Program for simulation of mutual exclusion with the use of semaphores

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION

In operating systems the problem of mutual exclusion is very often encountered because of multiple processes that access, modify certain shared resources such as data structures .The operating system need to ensure that these shared data structures are not accessed and modified by multiple processes at the same time causing incorrect results for the processes involved. One of the solutions to the problem of mutual exclusion is to use semaphores which as defined by http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com as a protected variable (or abstract data type) and constitutes the classic method for restricting access to shared resources (e.g. storage) in a multiprogramming environment.

Semaphores have two basic functions, P():checks if critical section is filled then blocks or allows process as appropriate() function: checks when a process leaves critical section and removes it from semaphore queue.

The semaphores are used to implement these rules: to at most one process uses the shared data structure at a time (critical section) and all processes get their turn with the shared resource

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

This java program simulates the use mutual exclusion using semaphores. The program involves four processes named process 1,2,3,4 who are competing for critical sections A,B,C,D,E,F,G. with a semaphore A for critical section A,sem Z for B,semC for B,sem D for section E, ,sem F for section F and lastly sem G for section G .

The simulation program implements mutual exclusion by implementing these three rules:

1. At most one process may execute in the critical section a time i.e. all processes that request a critical section that is occupied are denied request and are to wait.

2. Request to enter and exit a critical section is eventually succeed: All processes that have made a request for a critical section may be denied a request initially but after a wait will get into the critical section when it is available.

3. Critical section request are prioritized on First come first served basis

HOW PROGRAM WORKS

The program simulates a random request by any number of the processes for any of critical sections and implements the management of these process request using mutual exclusion rules stated above.

The program works by creating four processes, then creating 7 semaphores along corresponding to the 7 critical sections. The implements a P function whose primary task is to check when a process makes critical section request using the counter variable whether or not the critical section is occupied if it is it blocks the process until critical section is vacant else removing process from process queue and adding it to the semaphore queue

The program also implements the V function whose primary duty is to check for a process leaving a critical section decrease counter value flagging the critical section as vacant .This is implemented after a process sends a message of leaving the process

ALGORITHM

Create Processes

Create all 7 critical sections

Create corresponding semaphores for each critical section

If for a process request for a critical section

Then

Check if semaphore counter >0

Refuse permission to enter section for process and request process to hold till critical section if available

Add process to semaphore queue

If semaphore counter =0

Then

Grant permission to enter the critical section

Remove process from semaphore queue

If process sends an acknowledgement to leave the critical section

Then

Decrease semaphore counter

DRAWING OF A SCENARIO OF THE MUTUAL EXCLUSION SIMULATION PROGRAM

DRAWING OF A SCENARIO OF THE MUTUAL EXCLUSION

SCREEN SHOT OF MUTUAL EXCLUSION INVOLVING FOUR PROCESSES AND 7 CRITICAL SECTIONS AND THEIR METAPHORS

I am a developer at work and at heart who had not done much formal testing except to verify that the system I was developing worked [J] .I however moved into a new job which dictated as part of my contract that I had to go through a two month period working as a full time test analyst for the experience .

My reaction: What! No building stuff, no development well at least not at work for the next two months *groan groan* I am going to die before I complete my time I just know [my melodramatic side showing]

So I started my stint praying time would go fast and I wouldn’t realize it. l also acknowledge above my melodramatics that it was probably a good learning experience which will make me a better developer in the long run .

I started out running manual scripts for an online financial system painful yes, by the end of the second week I was fast losing my will to live.

So to keep from going crazy I turned to reading materials on what testing was all about and what made a great tester. There had to be more to testing! Right?

Yes! Right, My perception of testing as developer changed dramatically when I moved to 2 relatively small size projects [less that 10 people ] working as the sole test analyst on the first and as an adjunct test analyst on the second .

So what changed for me?

Being the only test analyst on a project means I had to learn quickly what was required of me , what mentality I was to adopt to be effective in my role and of course how to work smart as opposed to laboriously , what tools would make my work better or not .

Fundamentally I believe I begun to thoroughly enjoy being a test analyst when I bought into the mentality and attitude of a tester.

No it’s not being sadistic it’s the fact that I am the last line of defense for the customer it’s my job to make sure that the customer gets the best product possible [or die trying J]

There will always be something wrong with the system and if it’s big enough to make the users experience or systems substandard then I will find it .oh yes I will ….

..And the love for breaking things especially software

Also automated testing appealed to the developer/programmer in me, I could write/program automated test s that could do a lot of the mundane repetitive tasks and User Acceptance Tests that needed to be done

What I learnt

I took away for my time as a test analyst:

Tact: saying to developer fix this! Fix this Now! Is hardly going to get you anywhere .When to push when to stop when to assert and to smile and let go.

A better eye for detail when I am developing :I have a sort of split personality now when I am working I look at the system through the eyes of a tester and a developer.[I still believe it not right for a developer to double as his/her own test analyst ]

…And a whole new respect for the testers I work with.