What if...

Pluto no longer a planet. That was as of 24 Aug 2006 and I have known today. That gives an example how scientific "facts" can be faulty at times. The average teacher today if a student answers the solar system has 8 planets would they mark him right or wrong? Not all know this I think. That made me think about other things scientist say.
I read the bible. I am a scientist. The simplest definition of science that I was taught in primary school is the one that has stuck in me:

science is finding out the truth about something.

I came to believe in God's because something about the explanation in science couldn't hold up: existence of a living thing by chance.(Do people still hold to this belief? Scientist shouldn't). Suppose a better explanation could be brought up could it weaken my belief? I see so much beauty, consistence and design in creation to just come into being by itself. What do I seek to find out? How did God create the earth? This will surely be known if not by me somebody will find out. He spoke words and things were. But how did they become from words(The process of changing nothing into something)? This is the question i ask as a scientist. Perhaps it could have been thoughts, conceived, planned, visualized and spoken into being as I would plan, write, run a computer program to automatically do something I want to do.
What do I want to say? Age of the earth. Is it multi-billion years ago or few thousands?
Formation of fossil fuels. And presence of fossil dinosaurs. Is there any other time in scientific history, archaeological history, biblical history when the conditions were so right?
I read the bible conditions required by scientific observations to me coincide with Noah's flood. 40 days and 40 night rain. 15 cubits water up covering the mountains. 150 days later the land is dry again.(Gen. 6).
This is why radio-dating could be wrong: Carbon-14. whatever happened seems to have affected carbon so much. The fossil fuel content is mainly Carbon and Hydrogen which confirms the possibility of mass death of carbon rich living things and abundant water reacting by whatever conditions probably heat which could account for the quick drying of the water. It seems undeniable that the conditions at that time affected the content of carbon in the fossils thereby making them seem as if they have decayed for a longer time than they actually have. Are fossils that old then?
Isochron dating. Something does not hold up:
comparing with meteorite radiation: meteorites may give different results taking into account the exposure to radiations and other conditions in space different from earth prior to their existence on earth;
determining the original content of radioactive isotopes: the half-life is usually thousands and milli0ns of years. The gradient of a curve seems to be constant when observed over a short range. In fact the dy/dx at a point is gradient of a tangent line. Exponential functions tend to change rapidly on one extreme and very slowly on the other extreme. how could we decide the change is constant? how long would it take for radioactivity to be low enough to allow the existence of first living things? What if the radio active content was actually already low at the beginning and we have projected it to be like "100%" uranium. That really wrongly projects it to billions of years before doesn't? If the radioactive decay is indeed constant, should there be existence of stable "decay products"? How do we determine the time these elements became stable? Is this accounted for in when dating?
The thing is we don't really know what really happened when first living things existed. We are all trying to find out the truth. Whatever we think might be right or wrong. If there is evidence things can't come into being on their own we search for what could have started everything. And I am sure there still isn't even now. An experiment was able to produce some protein. But did lightening strike the protein and produced a living cell? No body has ever produced a living cell from an experiment. if they will it will be a copy of a living cell that is already there. Does the fact that he is able to produce a copy of a cell prove that the cell existed on its own? Did the cells decide on their own to come together and be a human being? DNA-a series of instructions, a program that instructs the cell to be different from others and work together with other cells to makeup a human being. Did this program write itself? Somebody said the Bible said a woman was created from a rib and some fresh. What could be taken out of a man to create another DNA? some long strand of code. Moses saw this He thought ah, that a rib because probably it was taken from Adam's side where the ribs are.
One thing I find fault with experiments done in a controlled conditions. The results cannot always be as accurate as the way things really work in nature. Thats why we end up creating more problems with things we come up with.
What do I achieve anyway believing there is no God who loves me(John 3:16) who can give His only Son to die so I can have life? I may walk on my own but I eventually come to a dead end when everything in life doesn't add up and because I have disregarded so much that would have given me hope. It's all depression, hopelessness.
I wish you wouldn't always go by what the teacher marks right or wrong but what convinces you to be true. Investigate. Search. Read wide. If you never read the Bible give it a chance search through it whatever questions that have been bothering you. Read science, philosophy books find out what they are "really" saying. Usually reported speech is what distorts things. You will then stand confidently against what they say if you know their faults.
Surely you wouldn't be afraid to speak out to your teacher if he marks you wrong that the solar system has 8 planets now that you know will you?

Global Warming and Our solutions

Early 1900's we thought we have found solutions to transportation, manufactoring, etc because we could now make our own machines and we thought we don't need God any more(We thought if we depend on Him we want progress). We decided that He does not exist, not that He really doesn't but because we thought if we kept to the truth of His existance we thought we won't progress. Little by litte we started finding excuses, though our consciences not willing, to deny His existance. We said Darwin can explains the observations we see. True but He does not know everything still. He suggests a way he thinks things came into being. Should we say because his observations are true therefore his suggestion of existance of things is also true? Its like making a wrong conclusion on the right observations. And we accept it?
So we thought there is no God we started our way. By and by the gases from machines we thought were a solution accumulated and global warming was a result. And now we are looking for solutions. One of them is using ethanol. Here is what a classroom solution brought up:

During ethanol fermentation, glucose is decomposed into ethanol and carbon
dioxide.
C6H12O6 → 2C2H6O + 2CO2
During combustion ethanol reacts with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide,
water, and heat: (other air pollutants are also produced when ethanol is burned
in the atmosphere rather than in pure oxygen)
C2H6O + 3O2 → 2CO2 + 3H2O
Together, these two equations add up to the following:
C6H12O6 + 6O2 →
6CO2 + 6H2O + heat
This is the reverse of the photosynthesis reaction, which shows that the
three reactions completely cancel each other out, only converting light into
heat without leaving any byproducts:
6CO2 + 6H2O + light → C6H12O6 + 6O2

What did we forget? Photosynthesis is a natural process which we may not fully control without introducing another imbalance in nature. That leaves a lot of H2O and CO2 in the atmosphere and more globe warming? may be floods when the H2O condenses.
How do we overcome this? Do we fully understand how nature works? How can we understand the design if we deny the existance of the designer?
2 Chronicles 7:21 says it very clearly:

If my people, who are called my my name, shall humble themselves, and pray,
and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from
Heaven, and will forgive their sins and will heal their
land.

If our scientist humbled themselves and acknowledged God, won't He reveal the design of his creation to them and let them find a solution to our problems?
I think we have been like teenagers going through adolesence rebelling against God cause we thought we thought we have now "grown up" we know everything and can stand on our own. So God said "laissez faire". And we destroyed everything in our world and we are now afraid how are we gonna live on? God's laissez faire was 'cause He loves us and wanted us to understand Him. He says if we let go of our pride go to him say "Father forgive us for we never knew what were doing". He will forget that we did not acknowledge Him and heal our land.

Of Politics and Political Solutions

I watched a play by Nanzikambe on monday 3rd in the main hall at mzuni. It was a nice play touched my heart. I had been prejudiced against these guys their acting shakespeare play in the beginning put me off kind of like I thought they lacked creativity. But watching "Accidental death of Democracy" made me see how much I have missed. their acting is superb! Much, much better than the plays I have watched before by other groups. It wasn't like movies but it touched my emotions.
Thats not the issue here. What I learned from it is. Whatever government we might try to build there will always be a Mr Red-Suit Man(what was his name? Ponyamoto?) who will be jelousy and power hungry and always try to pull down those who fight for the good of others. So whats the solution?
It is sunday today but I do not think what I am going to say has been influenced by what was preached in church. I would have written this days ago but had no time as I was trying to prepare for my end semester exams. But here is what I say:
Daniel 4:25 says :

the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He
wishes.

Romans 13:1 says:

For there is no power but of God. The powers that exist are ordained of
God.

Matthew 6:33 says:

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His rightiousness and all these things
shall be added unto you.

If we ask God to give us good leaders won't He give us? There are always people saying its being lazy to find solutions from God but God is our father and like a father is always please when we ask Him for our needs.
Jesus says(Matt. 7:9-11),

What man is there among you whom if his son asks for bread, will he
give him a stone? Or if he ask for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you,
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more
shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask
Him?

He who gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall have life(John 3:16). Will He refuse us a good leader if we ask Him? No, indeed!

Encounter with Kibaki(The Virus)

I have dealt with several viruses but Kibaki virus was different from them.
Intelligent virus? It seemed to be learning: I delete one file to kill the virus after some time it replaces the file i deleted. From then on it replaces it instantly. I try to rename works the first time but I forgot to do something and I have triggered something else. The renamed file is replaced. Then on every time I rename the file it is replaced instantly. Seemed like some form of intelligence to me. Keeps truck of every file belonging to the virus.
Being made by africans, instead of being angry at it I smile wow! a virus that can give headaches to antivirus makers and its from Africa! So africans can do wonders.
I never used to like Visual Basic programming though I used it in my degree project. But this virus made me love VB(not to create viruses but do do wonders with it).
Anyway, I came up with a script that kills the virus and removes the registry values set by the virus and all one needs to do is scan and remove the remaining files with an antivirus like nod32.
You can download the script here. And you need to download the antivirus(nod32) too to remove the virus completely(need to do a full scan).

James Phiri vs Anonymity

I was looking at what are called metasyntantic variables 'cause now and again I am meeting foo and bar as identifiers when learning a new programing language. In my cryptography course we also often use Alice and Bob as communication parties and Eve as the eavesdropper. I have also come across names like "Jane Doe" in novels. So this all led me to the article on the use of these names especially "John Doe" with this:
The Doe names are often, though not always, used for anonymous or unknown defendants. Another set of names often used for anonymous parties, particularly plaintiffs, are Richard Roe for males and Jane Roe for females (as in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court abortion decision Roe v. Wade).
It reminded me that we have a case here in Malawi which has raised a lot of controversy.
Look at it this way: You want to speak out against somebody who is a bully and you know once you are known that you spoke out you are in trouble. You don't wanna die young. But you know somebody has just to speak out if things are to be OK again for you and for everybody. There should be something in the law to protect you if you take that person to court. Something like hiding your true identity with a name like John Doe(Pseudo-Identity according to Grijpink & Prins). There should be a provision in the law that allows a person to "speak out" provided there is a third trusted party who knows the real Identity of James Phiri(our John Doe). If there isn't such a provision in our constitution it could be we never thought of such a case where somebody's freedom of speech could be exercised if he has a pseudo-identity.
There is also a possibility in which a representative name could be used to advance a "some cause" as we have seen in the quote above Roe v. Wade in which some group of people were speaking out on abortion. I see the case of James Phiri as a representative "Person"(I don't know what best word to use here) trying to question the legality of Muluzi standing again or not. It shouldn't be wrong to have such a representative person. We have had cases by "friends of the court". What's wrong with some 'People' representing themselves as 'James Phiri' to fight for some cause that is to question the legality of Muluzi standing again.
Whether James Phiri is using a pseudo identity or whether he is a representative person the question that I think we should be asking is: Is the cause he is fighting for constitutional(legal or whatever)?
I believe it did not matter if Roe was a real person in the Roe v. Wade case. I also believe there is nothing wrong for a person to sue somebody anonymously as long as he is safe in being anonymous. What about witnesses? They are allowed to testify without the public knowing their identity. Why should the public be interested in knowing the identity of James Phiri now? Lets wait and see what James Phiri has to say in court and support his cause if it is your cause too.

Plans for m-hi.org

It might have come to your mind why I got a .org for my site being more of a personal site not a non profit organization. m-hi.org that is "aim high" was initially thought up as a forum to stir up ideas especially for young malawians to achieve great things for our nation. My greatest desire is to have Malawi successful in all areas be it health, faith, economy, ICT, etc. I can't think up these things alone I need people with brilliant ideas to come together share them and help each other implement them. Sometimes it might need only one statement that revolutionizes the mindset of a generation and solutions to problems that have been there for a long time could be found. Our Education system is well structured: some do engineering, some do agriculture, some do ICT, some are medical doctors. Each of these can benefit from the other. For example, those who study agriculture could share a design problem for some irrigation pump(eg. Treddle pump) and an engineer could be able to help design the pump for him. An economist with the help of a computer scientist could be able to devise an ICT solution that is fit for our economy(just a thought: Is it economical to buy a computer Quad Core, 180Gig just so that you can create word documents?).
I can use my logic/reasoning I learned from programming in some other areas too. They say some concepts are the same quantum physics, quantum mechanics, quantum computing, quantum cryptography, quantum me(take me as a computer scientist I will give a computer science solution, as a Mathematician, a maths solution; a thinker i will think you up any solution if you give me basic facts. So thats the quantum me measured in different 'bases').
For those of you interested you could email me at ideas@m-hi.org

Things Retarding Development

Our national anthem rightly puts njala, nthenda, nsanje(hunger,disease, envy). I think the root of the former two could is also nsanje. For if there is no nsanje there is progress which means food availability better standards of living therefore no diseases.
I am doing my Masters of Science Information Theory, Cryptography and Coding but it seems people don't appreciate the course even though its being done in very few countries in Africa(I know Malawi and South Africa so far). And as a Malawian I feel privileged that I have done it right here in Malawi while students from other countries have to come here to Malawi to do the Masters Programme which others take it 'Father Ryans programme' and are not willing to take it as their own and so support it.
This is not the only thing. The opposition ,I think for the same reason nsanje, can't work together with the government. But they take every opportunity to frustrate what the government is doing. This would make one think the one party system is better. We could make democracy work too.
The following things contribute to nsanje: greed, pride, lack of patriotism, selfishness and these may be induced by competition(which is it seems defines democracy which shouldn't be the case). To us the people in a democracy we are trying to find a person who can help us. But to the politician(at least the present politicians) they are competing (for whatever reasons) for presidency which in their greed, selfishness and pride they see it as an opportunity to make money(I want this mindset to go. I don't want it in Malawi at least). Because they see it this way whoever becomes the president they wouldn't want to help(Its never in their intentions most of the times). I think the two 5-year term presidency should be applied in the parties too. And I would also love it if the continuance of the party presidency on each term should be determined by how much that leader has helped the government. This would help promote the desire for the Opposition(I think a better word should be used) to help the government in developing.
On the term "opposition": it is duty defining name. If one forgot his duty he is reminded by this 'label' that he is supposed to oppose the government thats why maybe we are having problems with the opposition here in Malawi. I would rather think of them as the helping hand of the government. co-governers/co-government thats what I think the opposition should be.

On Muluzi whether he should stand again: The constitution is meant to protect. Muluzi so far in his presidency has made so many things worse for Malawi. And most of his actions have shown him more of an exploiter than a helper. His intentions for continuing to rule is more for selfish reasons than helping Malawi. Because he has money and lies the constitution is supposed to protect Malawi from his exploitation. Supposed we have a good leader, should he be given a chance to rule again? I think NO! He doesn't need to be the president to help. In fact the succeeding president would be more willing to receive advice from a leader who has been good and has given himself respect by letting others rule. Besides there is a saying "too much power corrupts". Every human is corruptible. We do not know if he will continue being the good leader he has been. And he can't be the only good leader: new people bring new ideas. So Dr Muluzi, sir, mupume otherwise I pray for Red Sea(Exodus 14)

ICT Development in Malawi

We got brains whats our problem?
I keep on asking myself why nobody doesn't seem to find a solution for so many things wrong in our ICT sector. Is it greed(for Service Providers)? Is it fear for the people to speak out.
I wrote once on my first personal website that I wanna be able to browse the internet from my home village in Mzimba. Thanks to Celtel I am able to do that now on my phone though I am still limited to checking a few pages and emails only. Still I wanna browse everything and be able to download software on my laptop when I am there so that my software development isn't limited to location.
High Cost of ICT Services. I wonder why something that somewhere else is very cheap could cost so much here? I don't get it. A domain name. I bought mine about $9 which here is $35 and in Malawi it doesn't matter if it is .org .net or .com. OK at least we gotta promote ourselves but still .mw you get it $50? Are we Malawians so poor to cover the cost of promoting ourselves? Think about the benefits we will get after promoting oursevels. Is that so impossible? Think about about .tk a small Island Tokelau somewhere in the pacific is known world over and I knew about it because they offer their domain free. Of course its a URL redirection but it would allow Victor Kaonga (and me and many others) blog with an identity of a Malawian if we had a free .MW URL redirection to our blog for instance ndagha.blogspot.com(too long) would now be ndagha.mw or at least ndagha.co.mw (as is co.nr and co.cc) and Victor Would be very proud to carry a malawian identity.
My understanding of SDNP as the registrar of . mw would have been the first one to lower the prices and so set a standard on provision of ICT services in Malawi. But despite being a non profit organization they are also trying to compete with other services providers in charging the prohibitive prices. I don't get it? Are they managing to develop ICT in Malawi? How are they justifying their pricing?
Poor service provision. Even though these companies charge so much for their services their services are still so poor that most companies prefer to have their software or other services developed by foreign companies. Money going outside of Malawi. When are we going to stand up and aim high for our nation?
Poor e-commerce facilities. I would like to be able to sell my services outside Malawi through the internet. But how do I get paid for my services? I was hoping pay265.net would materialize into something but I wonder where the good dream has gone(or is it working? I can't use my account).
National Bank allows one to cash credit cards why not allow me to receive money paid through credit cards as well? I think its just a matter of partenering with foreign institutions which offer these services, is it not?
Malawian Policies maybe would not allow money to go outside Malawi any how but it should be able to allow Money to come in. With a Paypal account in some nations one is allowed to recieve money but not to buy that's good enough for me If I am being paid for Technical Support I offer to people from other nations through the internet. But we could do better. I should be able to buy tools that will help my software devlepment so that the quality of software that I develop is at par with those developed outside Malawi and So be exportable. This will now let Bingu ask me to develop the Government Website and keep Malawian Money in at the same time I am bringing in More Money.
Whoever implements ICT Policies please think about these things. Time is not waiting for us. We need to catch up.

Africa Not Cursed! And furthermore, Blessed!!!

Posted this on facebook:
Genesis 9:19-27:
Speaks about Caanan being cursed and even before that it puts emphasis on Caanan(Ham father of Caanan and is repeated several times like this as if we do not know Ham is the father of Caanan - I think to show emphasis). And in the curse only Caanan's name is mentioned. Moreover of A Son of Cush(Africa's ancestor) Nimrod, It says "A mighty one in the Earth", "A mighty hunter before the Lord", and He it seems he was kind of King. The question is if the curse was on the descendants of Ham(That they would be servants of their brothers) How come we find a King among these?
Anyway, In this time we all live under new blessings because of Jesus Christ. The only problem I think is lack of knowledge of what we have in Christ. For instance we let the devil cheat us and take us to hell which belongs only to him and demons because we do not know Jesus has already paid the price for our sins. For them that believed in Him he gave the right, the ability to become the children of God (John 1:12-13). And Ephesians 1:3 says we have been blessed with EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES. and I repeat NOT JUST FEW blessings but EVERY ONE OF THEM.
Believe in Jesus Claim your blessings. What good is the knowledge that you are not cursed if you do not claim your blessings.

I don't feel good today

Does life end when it is beginning? Makes me think salvation is near when there seem to be walls ahead. I thank God for all He has done for me. A few days ago when I stayed late in the lab I wasn't like this. Now its different. Something is gone from me. I can feel it.

hello world!

This is just the begin of my (new) life. I hope to share with you my thoughts on solutions to different problems ranging from IT, may be health, to relationship with Christ. Anything in life that touches me as Christian, Desktop/Web Application Developer, a Scientist(Computer and General), Cryptographer/Mathematician, a Musician, a Writer, as a Human being in general(all that I am that I haven't mentioned).
Looking forward to your comments on the issues I present.