Resolving Israel and Palestine

I remember reading a biography of Golda Mere once a female prime minister of Israel. It gives an account of how Israel was resettled after world war 2 Hitler persection. It was resolved to repatriate the Israeli to their land which was a British protectorate at the time.

Among the first zionist in the repatriation, was Golda Mere. It gives an account how the desert land was bought from the Arab and Palestine residents with deeds. How the desert land was reclaimed and made arable. We have also in our secondary schools examples of settlements which reclaimed land from desert lands. Kibutz. Or something like that.

When someone is in distress and left without home what's available to him becomes a home. Though useless to those who already have a home it is precious to him without. One takes very good care of what's precious to them even if the same may be useless to others.

The Israeli reclaimed a useless unhabitable land from the Arabs and Palestines who took it to themselves to sell it. They turned what was useless, precious. And Arabs and Palestine cry foul for losing what they considered useless. So the fight an innocent people and an innocent people fights back and claims more in 6 days. The rest of the resolution follows from the history from there which land rightly belongs to the Israeli and which land does not.

Daniel reminds God of the 70 years Jeremiah prophesied that the Israeli will return back to their land. In Jeremiah's account God tells Jeremiah to buy some land and store the deeds in earthen ware for preservation. Those who bought land on repatriation must have followed this and kept safe the deeds. These deeds give the Israeli the rightful and legal claim to the land that was bought. From my trust in God and understanding of his faithfulness and how he makes things easier, I think the land bought with deeds available should be enough for all the surviving (remnant?) Israeli to fit in.

So there is Palestine and Gaza strip. I think these lands are separated with Israel in between. These lands can't make one state and peace remain. Governing these lands would also be a problem. How can one leader run a land another land when shared resources have to go through an unwilling land. That I think is the major problem which should not be adamantly held on to. At very best Gaza strip can operate on its own as full state and Palestine the same. Yes they are of the same tribes but look we the ngoni's in Malawi are in separate regions and separate countries yet we commemorate our culture together. The chewa's the same. Some chewa's are from Zambia and Mozambique. Look at Swaziland an island of a nation yet peacefully coexisting. The Palestinians, Israelis and world have much to learn how we govern ourselves peacefully and respect our ways.

We have less problems than the world has yet the world forces its solutions on us which cause trouble than solve problems.

Plight of the Teachers

Whenever I speak to my girl on the limited time Zain still gives us, she is almost always complaining about a cough. My brother is well from time to time complains the same. Of course they are asthmatic, and so am I. But I haven't had a cough for a long time. The only time I had it was when I was lecturing at University of Livingstonia. Chalk.

When did we notice this chalk problem, long time. Then people who had worst of the problem were allowed to transfer to other posts. But there have been many unwillingly made teachers, wanting to pursue the career of their choice such that they have abused this right so much that it makes it difficult for those who really need its benefit to get helped. So my brother and my woman are stuck in the career they have been forced into and it hurts their health and they can't get our even in their own field of education to pursue positions that are closer to their choices.

Some where in the search for solutions, nose filters are suggested. But its a solution that would cause students to make life difficult for their teacher. How about whiteboards and their markers? I should think the cost shouldn't be far from the cost of repainting the board and cost of buying new pieces of chalk. Besides the markers may last longer than the chalk and the whiteboard might not need frequent repainting. And further why stick to the past problematic blackboard? Even though the asthmatic are much more sensitive, the non-asthimatic are not left unaffected. Soon or later they might develop a worse problem from chronic exposure. It is not the chemical composition only that causes damage but also the dust itself which is a foreign body when inhaled in the lungs.

If this may be found too expensive still, the cost of their transfer should buy individual teachers portable whiteboards which they may use in the classrooms they teach and a supply of markers for each for their use. And further all for all schools being built now onwards, should have whiteboards in every classroom installed. This is the only way we can completely solve the chalk dust problem.

Of Licensing and Reality

I can't drive a car without a licence. I can't get a licence without learning how to drive. I can't start learning how to drive without a provisional licence. Is a provisional licence irrevocable? I find that it doesn't but it does expire. Suppose it has expired I am I barred from getting another provision licence after previously failing to pass a driving test to get a licence? I find that it would be unfair to do that for some are real quick learners some are damn slow learners. Hundred times Edison failed before he found the breakthrough formula to create the bulb he so much wanted.

If we are going to continue giving full licences to the newbies so many accidents are bound to happen. Look for learner drivers we put even a placard learner. So that learned drivers can drive cautiously with reasonable consideration. Traffic regulators also treat learners with reasonable consideration.

If we shall want fulfilment of every one condition of operation for a mobile operator being established, then no mobile operator can get started for everyone starts at one. It's time provisional licences were made available so that who can try can do so. Of 10 companies trying out to setup mobile operators there is bound to be at least 3 which would be successful. These can be pruned further according to adherence to conditions of licence and other laws of Malawi.

It's time licence regulators revoked licences of the two for once. Only once have I heard Zain being warned. But how many fair trade laws, consumer protection laws have, even operation laws have been violated by the two operators and the rest of the private sector? How much transparency is in the private sector for the government to be the only one to be expected to be transparent. Food for also for Transparency International. For most trouble starts brewing from the private sector which try to twist government arms for its own profit at the expense of real lives. The duty of the government is also to protect people from people without fear, favour, or partiality.

IPv6

In computer science we have always learned of ways of transitioning from an old system to a knew system and these ways are designed to allow for seamless change over without disrupting normal business usage. Some of the ways include running two systems in parallel, gradual change over various system components, backward compatibility and so on and so forth.

For software/hardware changes backward compatibility has, been the favourite. This works better if the newer version of software/hardware has made major changes.

IPv6 has been designed without giving room for backward compatibility. This I think is very un Computer Science like.

There are these problems of so much hardware being dumped prematurely for not being compatible with the new IP addressing system. The ways available for cooperating ipv4 and ipv6 require careful study of the system and skilled expertise to make the change. But does this change stay permanently? Until the company can buy new equipment.

I thought the problem of IP addresses being exhausted is because we are using from the same pool world over. There used to be classes of IP addresses which have now being discarded to allow for usability of classless ips to solve the IP address shortage.

Looking at the local area network design and IP addressing, it is possible to use the 192.168.0.0 network in one organization and the same address block in another. This is a range of IP addresses.
Suppose we take the whole ipv4 range and privatize it at ISP level, then we have a big range that one isp can't exhaust(or not atleast for the time being) for no isp provides to customers of multitude the whole current ipv4 users world wide. If then the ISPs can make the changes to make ipv4 compatible with ipv6, the customers whose use ips just for communication for the purpose of their daily business wouldn't even have a worry of what ipv6 is about.

The only businesses I see being affected by the change are those who provide internet services. And not many businesses do so. If they do, it is usually through dedicated internet service providers. Very few companies indeed host their own internet services.

It therefore remains the ISPs problem.

Further more if the ipv4 pool can be privatised at isp level, the isps have chance of selling their old incompatible hardware to their customers, in favour of hardware which makes using ipv4 and ipv6 easier. It is easier to manufacture compatibility hardware than to configure incompatible hardware to be compatible with ipv6.

How about putting a Nat-device between your hardware and isp instead of rebuilding the whole network on ipv6? Let the Nat-device worry about compatibility not you. Are there such hardware yet? I would love to make one.

Operation Bwezani: Zain, TNM, (Deliberate?) Errors

The problem of communication has been the most critical in my life these days. Considering places I have managed to live with comfort, I find it easier communicating before actually going there. This has been my way of sorting out things even when I was at Mzuzu University managing Ultinets ISP. The way of communicating was not with expensive means but the same free google talk. Sometimes the network was always slow at Mzuni but stable enough for gtalk. Now out of office and out school, I have often found my blackberry 8800, very convenient and cheap than going to a cafe.

With my HTC Legend the cost of operation has been a little expensive compared to the blackberry. TNM network advertised a good solution(net mobile unlimited) which would put the blackberry out of business looking at the range of smartphones available which offer a wide variety of functionality than the blackberry. Unfortunately, the 'unlimited' as limited as 20mb is to a phone. I finish it in 4hrs just browsing and no downloads on my HTC. If I do tethering, it finishes in around 1 minute. So yeah, very limited and expensive. (maybe its success is little because people were promised much and get so little.)

I thought Zain would think better to introduce an unlimited data bundle with their 3G. So then those who can't afford the BMW of phones(blackberry) or would rather prefer the Mercedes Benzs and the rest of Phones could also be happy with an unlimited data bundle. But I guess they already have a mind of their own.

I should say that these smartphones are very under utilized and expensive on volume bound data plans. There battery life also reduces as so much power is used to try to synchronize in the background when the volume is exhausted.

The 20mb at K80 is much better pricewise than at  K150 but it is not easy to find out how much one is using for the Zain bundle than it is for tnm. As such, it is better to remain with what is accountable than to use something blindly. Both are supposed to expire in 24hrs and are used in less than 24hrs. How does one know he is using what he has bought? So in the end the cost of blindly using a service is much worse than using with full knowledge and acceptance for at least you use it with trust and peace of mind having considered all the risks.

So Zain advertises that they are cutting down the price by 56% it becomes very comparatively welcome and also a fulfillment of the promise to increase talk time to 200 minutes a day which our colleagues in India use 400 minutes. The advert puts out 56% slash down but the tariff is in fact 56% increase. Yesterday, I thought it was a mathematical mistake, but I today, having spoken to their call centre which is at their head office in Lilongwe, I am not sure it is a mistake. I visited the former head office in Blantyre and was directed to Chichiri shop where  it was confirmed that the highest charge was 39cents per minute. He could not tell me their standard rate but insisted on telling me according to my tariff plan.

In my economic use of communication tools I made calculations for the tariffs of all telecoms providers and found that the most expensive was the Zain peak tariff on macheza. But coupling with family and friends and off peak it was bearable and almost economic looking at the fact the communication with other networks was comparatively lower and not far from the home network tariff. The most expensive has been, in my observation having converted all tariffs to Kwacha, K33 and the lowest K9. Access communications must have started at K30 for this may have been perceived as being on the lower side than the competition.

Taking the K33/min as previous price and increasing by 56% I find K51.48. This much closer to their current tariff per minute. But if I slash this down by 56 percent, I get K14.52.

Here is the most accurate presentation:

On rewardz, 1 min costs 23 points and 1 sms costs 10 units. In Kwacha:

1 min costs 23 x K1.40 = K32.20

56% increase is K32.20 + (K32.20 x 56/100) = K50.23

56% decrease is K32.20 - (K32.20 x 56/100) = K14.168

So that means the previous price was between K32.20 and K33, since the current 56 percent increase is between K50.23 and K51.48.

This means that the decrease should be between K14.168 and K14.52. In other words we should be paying around K14 during peak hours and even lower off peak.

Why have I chosen K1.40 not K1.60? I think it suffices for K1.50, which is wholesalers price of 1 unit, gives 1 min costing K34.50 whose 56% increase is K53.82. So the cost of one unit is between K1.40 and K1.50.

Does having many companies to encourage competition help? TNM has advertised their tariff to be K22 off-peak and K52 peak-time emulating Zain's error. I guess they expect that after advertising there is a large population that has not noticed the blinding difference so that the fewer population that does notice this should be easily frustrated. Clever? No cheating themselves. People are not happy. They have complained and no nobody is listening and nobody is taking action.

Is CAMA seeing this? When people remain silent it is just means that they suffer in silence.

Does Macra allow these two networks to keep licences of operation after all their exploitation they have done on the citizens of this nation? It is bad to do business this way. There are many laws of fair trade violated and whoever is responsible for enforcing fair trade laws do something please. It does not have to take an individual to complain for a regulatory body to take action. But just the regulatory body to observe laws being broken and make corrections. If they are deliberate violations or violations out of ignorance, correction is still important though retribution might be different. Zain has had a warning before. It's now a different company but most management and probably legal advisers are the same and if the company keeps records, it is aware of the warnings for change of ownership does not discard the company's previous records.

Emulating they way of it's fairness, Zain after having left their customers with negative points for redeeming rewardz which Zain thinks the customers haven't earned (is it a small thing to endure these instabilities during change overs), Zain would only be fair to return to its customers all the money it has overly earned during this period of their mathematical or deliberate error. TNM should also return to its customers what it has overly earned imitating Zain's error.

Further, may they refund all the costs incurred by its customers during their times of instability.

I hope this as fair as fair should be.

Let not men suffer for the sake of companies if companies can't suffer for men. Further, let men not suffer for any reason on behalf of companies. I might add and say let companies suffer on behalf of men as men have for companies.

Something my mum

When I was young I wrote a flower verse for her.
Now I am old. Survived more because of her love. My mouth is dry of anything that more special than I have ever done. But to remember her. She has been a mother of many. Her love is wider than her own family. She has taken care of many. For she has loved them so. There are many who remember her. They have learned much from her. And yet among the many, I have been loved. Her child. Her joy. I love her. My mum.

Of Joblosses and Servicing the Citizenry

There was a time a preaching to establish/privatize a company saying its establishment would create jobs for the unemployed. So companies were privatised and jobs were lost and foreign people worked in our land. Companies were established few jobs were created the rest went to foreign people on our land. Profits went outside our land. Of course costs went high operation with foreigners is expensive. Services dwindled for there was nobody to maintain broken assets as foreigners prefered to work from home.

About everybody I know is at capital hill. For there is no stability in private companies or ngos. Capital hill is clouded.

We are still lacking though on the most vital services and we are very skilled and nobody is employing us. Will the government get the next mobile licence, and the ground line also, and many other services, for we are there and many of us to run it at profit and low cost and high quality. Then we will buy Malawian and the private companies overburdening us with high rates and poor services will lose business and leave. We will once again regain our lost glory when we lacked nothing.

Have we forgotten communication is the oil for economic development? Have we forgotten we need to ensure every citizen is well fed has a good house, good clothing, good health and good food.

We have enough hands to build us good houses, enough hands and creativity to cloth us with the envied nzika wear, enough doctors and nurses and enough equipment just lying around in hospitals because graduates who know how to use them best are in ngos. Enough food already, what is poverty then when we have so much lying around without being utilized?

Test Driven Cryptography: The Strength of the Strong.

So is it the complexity of a cryptographic algorithm? Is it the expense of the cryptographic tools?

Somebody talked about Achilles heal, somebody talked about Samson's Delirah, and all the weaknesses of the strong. The strong are really strong for even their weakness is an advantage. But is strength the size of the muscles or body? For not even the strong can stop the attack of the strong even in their weakness. I saw Samson fall and got the greatest victory. I saw Achilles weakness as his redemption. A freedom from the pains of this world. I saw Goliath fall with one stone of a kid. I saw what was supposed to be strongest cryptosystem designed on the basis of speed complexity crumble down. For matrix factorization is complex but equivalence is not. But hey, of all the keys in the world, who said there aren't good algorithms to search for a key in one step. Suppose one goes a step ahead knowing criteria of selection. And lie in wait with nobody knowing and just use it when he needs to.

So is it the complexity of the algorithm? God created the big and the small animals to add amusement as well. For what is life if it lacks the joy and laughter in it. Who said we should toil all day long when we can seat all day at home playing and chatting with our kids. Should we glory in the curse of ever-toiling? Or discover the blessing of Noah to sets us free from the curse of toiling?

And God made the lion, King of the Jungle, the elephant, the Big one of the jungle. But which one is the strong for a hare outwits them all.

So its not all about the complexity of the algorithm but also the cleverness of the protocol. And who said we can't make this strongest cryptosystem stronger? How about scrambling the length instead of getting the equivalent? So that the public key does not betray the size of the private key.