My HTC Tether

Maybe someone is wondering, has he won another phone, this HTC Tether? I have won but not a phone nor a competition but an idea to connect from my home town in Mzimba and managed to download a file for my Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

So after the cafes have blacklisted me for using the computers efficiently i.e. getting what I need in a smallest time possible making a lot of savings, I thought I can't go quarreling with cafe people forever (they steal anyway the slower the internet the greater the profit, I give them less profit for I having research on my phone, I go directly to what I failed to get on my HTC from the cafe spending little time possible). I thought either I should building me an ISP right away or find another way to connect to the internet and get my downloads otherwise would unnecessarily lose friends (I wonder though, sometimes you go to a friends cafe to push them on).

Airtel airtime is still expensive and the service still a little poor. This has kept me from using most of the features on my phone. This time I had smaller downloads so it isn't much of a worry but does have potential.

So I got me an Airtel Daily bundle managed to use the internet longer than I have ever done. I managed because being a new installation, I was able to track and turn off automated updates. So there was little background traffic possible. This is not always the case on some computers.

So far, I managed to download sqlbuddy which is about 300kb and was downloading a php interpreter which is a lot bigger 13mb. Started around 87% data remaining on my bundle it exhausted about 67% of,the download. The peak speed I got so far came up to 18Kpbs. Meanwhile I couldn't browse other pages which were painfully slow. So I just left it to the download. Now remains. If I finally top up my data, would I be able to resume where I stopped? Yet to be tested.

Why am I against a Political Councillor?

After my father's death the department of surveys and physical planning has been allocating people on plots we have always known to belong to us. This has happened always when everyone of us the children are off some to work and some to school and my mum is alone at home in Mzimba.

The first time it happened, we found out that most of the important documents were mising from the lands office. Fortunately there was a file which was thought to contain information about an already sold off plot but had information enough to reproduce the documents of all our plots. Even though, this information was available, we have been trying to get the lands office to reproduce these documents without much success.

When we left home having agreed they would resolve these issues with her, they turned against her putting in conditions which on her own she could not fulfill therefore frustrating the process of resolution. Aside from that they decided to allocate some other people on our other plot again not following the laws.

All these actions were done in the name of subdivision of the land and would not have been effected without written documentation and our signed agreement and the approval of a councillor.

These actions appear to be deliberate and seem to take advantage of our absence and the fact that mum cannot resolve them on her own.

This is something I cannot allow, if today I fail for lack money to go to court, I will do so when I do get the money. Those who have built their houses on our registered lands will have to demolish them. No new law has effect on the land registered under the law this land is.

I can do so because I am not ignorant but there are many who are and can't afford to go to court and fight against the monies. Things would be worse for a political councillor than an administrative one who can at least execute his job without partiality.

And for the corrupt officers, I would love they were also replaced in favour of impartial officers who will do their jobs well and avoid much bloodshed rising due to land disputes.

The current law has in place many mechanisms to avoid land disputes if followed.

And I feel most of the corrupt practices so rampant in our nation today were resolved automatically during Kamuzu's era through the same laws a careful study of the laws and ways of governance could be of much benefit for integration of these laws into the current government system.

Making Google AppEngine Portable

Working without a computer has often forced me to depend on small portable tools enough to fit on my flash drive. It hasn't been difficult to carry around a wamp server and a good editor some reference files, even ruby on rails sdk.

It has been a little difficult to put a Google AppEngine on my flash. First the sdk could not install on a flash, it could not access or create applications hosted on the flash disk. As such, if I am developing on an offline computer, I have had to deploy the app through my mobiles 3G tether. I used more than K300 which I could use about less than half to deploy through a cafe.

But cafes most of the times don't allow installation of applications. So left me stranded for a while, to work anything Google AppEngine for its support would give such huddles.

Past few days, working with version 1.37, I decided to just copy the Google folder from the programs files and the python compiler and copied it to my flash drive basing on the reasoning that in its restriction to desktop only was based on common drive letter not fixed to c: since installations can be on other drives yet on the desktop. So copying as whole to the flash drive, I would fool it to think its still on the desktop. I tested it and found that it worked fine and tested it again at a cafe it worked but I had to reconfigure it so it could be aware of the python interpreter folder. All the same I found it worthwhile for deploying my apps.

It still needs to write to registry which could be fixed, I think. This would be probably the reason it seems to lose configuration is the change of drive letter of the flash when used on different PCs.

I wonder however if version recently released allows portability. It could be great to work with it with less huddles possible.

District Councillors

The Laws of Malawi have given a great chuck of responsibilities to the district councillor which most without understanding, have neglected the position and I should say we are at a dilemna to get back or these responsibilities which have match retarded development in the towns and districts.

While most of these responsibilities are seen as duplication of most of responsibilities in the district commissioners office, the presence of the councillor and the district commission was a benefit as they automatically checked corruption at district level.

Some have reasoned with the availability of MPs, it is again a duplication of political responsibilities, I somewhat agree and I feel it wouldn't be a good idea to make the position of the councillor a political position though the position is still much required.

The thought to make it political must have arisen at the thought that during the MCP era, the MP was elected into the party by the community in much the same way as the councillor. So on the turn of events into the multi party era, electing MPs through political parties it might have been thought the councillors be elected in the same way.

Looking at history at how the parties have sidelined other individuals not belonging to the party, it would be chaos at district/town level as the arrogance of the partisan councillor might highly disregard the roles of different departments in the district commissioners office which interface with the councillors. This will erode development at a faster rate than has been when the civil servants had almost no authority with the invasion of the partisan positions.

At low level like town or district level the partisan MP had less responsibility or authority over activities affecting individual citizens. With a partisan councillor, I fore see much disputes concerning land issues, much disregard for town and physical planning than has been already, much favoritism based on party membership.

I see the councillors office as an interface between the people and the district commissioner who is more like a government envoy in the district and the district commissioner the interface between the people through the councillor with the government. The district is much closer to the people to understanding their problems and the district commissioner much closer to the government to report, administer duties of the government in the district.

The difference therefore before the MP is the reprentative of the people on the issues of concern in parliament, while the councillor is an administrative position interfacing the people together with the district commissioner on issues of district administration.

I would therefore prefer an administrative non partisan councillor than a partisan one.

I have taken long to speak on the issue as I thought it would bring political confusion with the elections in advanced stage. But I have taken this chance while misappropriation of funds is being resolved for there is room for reconsideration for the position.

I believe instead of creating more political problems we are wise enough a nation to come with creative and fair ways to resolve our national issues without much influence or copying from the western or other forms of government.

Of Numerous Programming Languages in One Head

My Curriculum Vita is packed with many programming languages than most would ever expect. Is it just a claim to booster it or reality? In reply I should say those are languages I have successfully and productively used before. But it does not necessarily mean they are the only languages I know nor does it mean I can't use other new languages. How possible is that?

I started programming when I was in first year while we get started on computer science in second year at college.

Looking at already written working programs, I learned by trial and error experimenting with my own code. This wetted my appetite for programming and gave me ideas where to look and what to catch from the coarse work.

I studied about what great programmers wrote of their path to greatness I looked at the necessities of each module in the route map how I benefit from it.

As a programmer, I had to learn and understand my tool to the very core and all aspects of it. That included network engineering. Though networking was offered among the modules, there was not much practice allowed.  I should say my experience in the two Internet Service Provider has covered much of the required practice and more. I have practiced my knowledge and perfected it having learned from two great engineers Dr. Busiso Chisala and the brother Richard Chisala.

Most other modules become more important in implementing various algorithms and solutions to computing problems. So programming became to me not just knowing a language but the workings of a computer and various problem solving algorithms so that the primary thing becomes understanding a problem, and forming up a solution and finding away to implement it. Among ways of implementing is a programming language, chosen depending on various considerations and trade offs which include platform compatibility and also interoperability with other existing computing solutions to co-operate with the new implemented solution.

So knowing just a language becomes useless. So how do I jump into a new language and use it productively? Every language has a syntax and semantics. Understandind the similarities, differences, strengths and weakness of a new programming language has proved worthwhile for me.

So for one day Google Appengine was introduced. For the rest of the day I knew about the competition, I formed up a problem and its solution; for a few moments that evening wrote my own hello world; During the night searched up the framework documentation ways of implementing my solution. I was too tired to work that night. So I rested till morning. I did not even find time then for I had to get to Sunbird Capital Hotel as soon as I could so I couldn't miss a thing. At around 8am, I started the implementation while listening and participating to the activities of the day. I got a normal lunch, by 4:45pm I was done. But had to make a few final changes to make it look better after clothing it with the CSS. Broke a page in the process.

All the same the Application share a job won first prize. The original design with improvements is hosted at http://sharemwjobs.appspot.com.

The first public release still have some technical glitches but would hopefully be unveiled sooner.

While the final release is in process, I see no reason why people shouldn't use sharemwjobs.appspot.com to play around with it and even seriously share jobs for it has full functionality already.

So try it. Share jobs at http://sharemwjobs.appspot.com/

© Kondwani C. Hara