Oddities of Everyday Life

My, my, my......its been quite a long time since I posted anything. Its not really laziness or the lack of time that has been holding me back, but its more of a combination of both.....haha....after all I'm only human(I think). Well life's been good , things are moving forward at alarming rates and soon I'll be done with school and start working. Just found out that I had some hidden talents that I never really took notice of and they seem to be propelling me forward towards some of the goals I've set for my self. Life as usual throws all the stuff it can find at me, some are good others bad and some a combination of both, oh well with God nothing will faze me. I promised my self this was going to be a small post so I'll have to end here. I have some studying to do for my UNIX course. I will be back soon. Take care.

Obama chooses running mate!!!!

This update just came in to my facebook page from Barack Obama online group at the website and it says
"Friend --

I have some important news, and I'm pleased to share it with you first.

I've chosen Joe Biden to be my running mate.

Joe and I will appear for the first time as running mates this afternoon in Springfield, Illinois -- the same place this campaign began more than 19 months ago.

I'm excited about hitting the campaign trail with Joe, but the two of us can't do this alone. We need your help to keep building this movement for change.

Please let Joe know that you're glad he's part of our team. Share your personal welcome note and we'll make sure he gets it:

http://my.barackobama.com/welcomejoe_facebook

Thanks for your support,

Barack


P.S. -- Make sure to turn on your TV at 2:00 p.m. Central Time to join us or watch online at http://www.BarackObama.com. "
"End of quote here"

This has got me pretty excited and I cant wait to see the reaction of all those who are concerned with how america moves foward in this new era in which we find ourselves in. I will keep you updated.

Excerpt from "All the Kings Men" by Emmanuel Lartey

As the sun fades quickly across the sky
The young lad makes his way into the less well known district of the necropolis, wrapping his scarf tighter around his neck which seems to have no effect on the chilling wind that only seems to sweep across this sector of the city
He passes by a wizened old broad who loudly croaks "arms for the helpless and desolate". Saddened by her plead he drops a few quantis (the official currency across all of Midvago) into her gnarled palm but instead she quickly tosses the coins and grabs hold of his hand. Whispering into his ear she says "The light hits the dark so we see clearly, but the lingering shadows of the dark cannot be friendly". With this she lets go and hobbles away quitely with her demeanor like that of one that has had a great weight lifted from the shoulders. Frightened and yet mystified our young lad continues to make his way deeper into the bowels of the slowly rotting city.

Dairy of a Public Private Eye

It was anothere baffling case. but then you dont hire a private eye for the easy ones.....
I'd planned to take the day off and spend time with a couple of buddies. My buddies travel light and they're fun to have around. one travels in a holster and the other in a hip flask.
My name is Kokoshka, Andrei Kokoshka. What people call me is something else again. i'm a private eye, it says so on my door.
The last thing I wanted this morning was a case to solve, but the dame who brought it was persuasive. most dames are, somehow.
I told her it would cost her fifty greenbacks a day, plus expenses.
I stepped out into the rainy streets and reviewed the facts, there weren't many.
Two saps, jack and joe, drive toward each other at 60 and 30 mph. after 10 mins they pass. I'm supposed to find out how far apart they started.
Questions pour down like the rain. who are these mugs? what were they trying to accomplish? why was jack in such a hurry? and what difference does it make where they started from??
I had a hunch before this was over, I'd be sorry I asked.
first I figured I'd try the Derkins dame, Michelle and I never hit it off, although occasionally we hit each other. Michelle had a face that suggested somebody upstairs had a wierd sense of humour, but I wasn't going to her place for laughs.I needed information.
The way I looked at it, Derkins acted awfully smug for a dame who had a head for numbers and not much else. Maybe she;s got something on jack and joe. the question is, will she sing?
The Derkins dame wasn't talking. someone had gotten to her first and shut her up good. I knew Michelle, and closing her mouth would've take some work.
I need a clue and a drink. one of them I knew where to find. Suddenly a gorrila pulled me in an alley, squeezed my spine into an accordion, and played a polka on me with brass knuckles!
The inside of my head was exploding with fireworks. Fortunately, my last thought turned out the lights when it left.
When i came to. the pieces all fit together. jack and joe's lives were defined by integers. obviously they were part of a "numbers" racket!
Back in the office, I pulled out the files on all the numbers big enough to keep Michelle quiet and want me out of the picture. the answer hit me like a .44 slug. it had to be the number they called "MR BILLION".

The Generalization Of Africa By The World's Press

Just this morning I stumbled upon an article on the web where its said that the SONY coporation or rather a product of the SONY coporation was responsible for the escallation or cause of the Congolese war. Tantalum which is a refined product of coltan was used in the production of transistors for the Playstation 2, and according to reports, the high demand for the PS 2 caused the price of tantalum to rise thereby causing rebels in the Congo to use prisoners of war and abducted kids to mine the mineral. That being said, the way the story line read, it was as if the whole of Africa was at war or something. It is only after further reading that one finds out that the situation occured in the Congo. I just cant seem to find a reason why whenever a story is being reported about an African country it is always generalized to the whole of Africa. Please to all journalists who report on Africa, I would kindly like to inform you that Africa is not one country, its a continent made up of severeal different countries who are equally diverse and unique in their own way. Generalizing a situation that happens in one country to the whole continent does not in anyway help the people of the continent. This only goes to show how ignorant most people are of Africa and its people.

Stuck In the Doldrums

"Sigh"........yet another day gone by and still no word from Barclays. I was supposed to recieve a call from either the university or the bank itself stating the length of my internship period and the branch at which I would work at, but it seems as if it might not be coming on after all. But no worries I have another internship lined up at africaonline, even though my friend there has not called back yet I will still wait and pray and see what happens this time around. I mean come on what has a guy gotta do to gain a little working experience in this country apart from offering free services to unscrupulos company officials who only see you as an errand boy or something of sorts. I mean is it this hard to find internship in ghana?. Maybe I think I will create a website where all students and fresh graduates can go to that will link up companies in need of interns and the interns themselves together, add a little bit of Web 2.0 and I just might be on to something. I will keep you guys all posted on any developments

The World and Its Oil

Well woke up today and heard the same old news blaring out of the tv. Talks on the oil price spikes and the war in the middle east and all the usual stuff the foriegn networks like to chatter on about. But the really striking thing in all this is the way Americans are handling the oil situation. I mean I have seen articles on how people move closer to their work places and about how some web services tell you where you can get the cheapest gas to buy depending on where you are at a particular point in time. I guess gas is probably at $4.30 to $4.50 a gallon and its got a lot of people crying foul. Some states have even gone to the extreme of considering whether or not to cut the distance school buses will travel to pick up kids. But I guess the fact most people forget to point out is that judging buy what Americans are paying for fuel as compared to other places in the world I would say they've got a pretty good deal going on. Here in Ghana gas goes for as high as $6.00 per gallon and in China and India its bordering on between $5.35 to $5.50 a gallon. Yeah you might hear of a few protests here and there but in Ghana people have taken a more laid back approach. I guess you could say that Ghanaians are pretty much calm people who like to roll with the punches and dont complain much. Anyway looking at the way things are going if the speculators dont ease up on their speculating I'm very much sure that oil will soon hit the $200 dollar mark by the end of august. So my little piece of advice to Americans is that try and think of the little ways to conserve energy, I dont mean go all green and what not but try to think along these lines. If you leave your bluetooth on your cell on, your battery runs out quicker, and when this happens you will have to charge your handset more often, and the more often you have to recharge your handset, the more electricity you will use up, and the more electricity you use up the more demand there would be on your supplier, and the more demand on your supplier means the more oil that will be needed to keep those turbines rolling and to make more electricity. So in our own small way we can help to reduce the cost of oil by just using our heads a bit.

EzWich: "A step in the right direction or a farce"

Just last month the national Bank Of Ghana announced that it was introducing a new payment system named "EzWich" that will allow for people to receive and make payments electronically by the use of a smart card that can only be used by a biometric identification system that only allows for transactions to be made by scanning the thumb of the card holder and comes with the full backing of all commercial and rural banks in the country. This prevents theft and fraud and makes the whole payment transaction easier. But one might ask "will this system be effective much less catch on with the public?". Lets take a look at the current situation with the so called national identification system whereby all citizens where required to be issued with identification cards that are linked to their voter's id number as well as social security number. Up till now it seems as if the project is still stuck at its launch phase and every single person I know and have talked to about it says they thought the whole idea was scrapped and even though its a laudable idea, the logistical enormity of the whole thing will just not make it possible. So this brings me back to the EzWich system, will it work? or will it just turn out to be another failed project of the government. Let me hear your thoughts on this post. Kindly leave a comment.

My futile race against the elements

Today was quite an exciting day for me........I was literally in a race against the weather which at the time was pouring rain. I closed from lectures early today and had to pick up some post as a favor for my big sister who kindly paid for the trip. As I approached the main post office I could feel this cool cold breeze that kept flowing past me and it felt quite good since the sun was really doing a number that day, so after picking up the post I noticed this large looming black cloud that was rapidly approaching with little flashes of lightning and some thunderous claps here and there. I quickly made my way to the bus station (yes I do use the bus and i don't see anything wrong with it....some might say its not cool to ride in a bus, but trust me you learn a lot when you sit in a bus) praying that it would fill up before the rain started, but alas just as the last person was seated this fierce looking cloud decided to pelt us with raindrops as big as cats :-) . The driver seeing this quickly made his way out of the station and the race was on! every single time we slowed down a bit the rain seemed to furiously pelt us as if trying to say we could never outrun it. I mean the road out in front of us was as dry as it could be and behind us the rain was soo heavy you would think it was a curtain of water. I silently prayed that I would get home just before the rain got to me but this was not to be the case since as soon as I got down at my stop, a blast of droplets hit me in the back with such fury that I was winded and got goosebumps all over. Luckily the stop was only a few meters from my house so I escaped from becoming overly drenched...........but guess what the funny thing was?........it stopped raining as soon as I stepped in the house and the sun came out as if to mock me!........life......even the rain is out to get you.

The Perfect Laptop for College

today on my usual rounds around this web of ours, I came across a post made by a perplexed young college student who just could not make up his mind on what kinda of laptop he should have for college. Well in my most humble opinion I think that all freshmen or students in college should have a Fujitsu Siemens laptop. It seems as if this company got its range of somewhat low cost laptops right. I mean I had the privilege of using one for quite some time in school and I must say that it is one of the best well weighted laptops I have ever come across. Most of the time I just carried it around every where I went on campus......sometimes it even felt as if I was just carrying my books instead and the specs on it were quite good. Mine came with an AMD 64 dual core processor with 1gb of ram and 120gb of storage space with the gpu being one of the ATI Raedoen series and it handled everything from gaming to word processing and handled my graphics processing needs perfectly. So I would say to any one in college in the process of buying a new laptop to go for any of Fujitsu Siemens range of laptops......the series type does not come readily to mind but I will do some checking and update this post later on.

The future of web navigation

I sometimes wonder how in 10 years to come the look and feel of web surfing or navigation as some might call it will look....i mean the rate at which technology is moving is quite unsettling and it might totally look different from what we see now. Will it probably look like the internet found in Tom Clancy's "Net Force"?, whereby everything goes totally VR "Virtual Reality" where the user is fully immersed into the online world where your travel experience is based upon the hardware on your machine and the OS you use? For example a Pentium 4 machine will probably show up in VR as a Honda Civic whiles a quad core extreme will show up as a Maserati with a V8 engine. Also the whole consumer shopping experience will change whereby you will see RW "Real World" shops having their virtual counterparts like that seen in Second Life but a bit more immersing. Or will the whole definition of a country change? where one can opt to become a citizen of an online nation and will be subject to all its laws and regulations and will work and play there like in RW?.......i can only imagine what sort of web or children will see....hope it will be much more exciting that the one we have now.....heck they might even change the name from the internet or web to something like "eSphere" or something.

Been away for quite some time

Well what can i say....life does not always turn out to be what it was meant to be but i guess the strong ones just roll with the punches and pray to come out on top. Its been quite a while since i blogged but i will soon be having a lot of free time on my hands....say about 4 months of doing nothing, so if there is anyone out there charitable enough to slip a part-time job opening my way it will be most appreciated.....but not to be too choosy i would prefer something that has to do with writing tech articles for any website....for a small fee of course :-)

Best Comics of all time

below is a list in my opinion of the best comics of all time:-
1. Calvin and Hobbes
2. Spaceman Spiff
3. Garth
4. Spiderman
5. Superman
6. X-Men
7. Batman
8. The Fantastic Four
9. Bloodrayne
10. The Punisher

Short Review of Windows Vista SP1

Well finally Microsoft has delivered its antidote to several of the problems that face Vista users out there with a service pack which is free to download or update from your system's updater. This is the first time that Microsoft has released a service pack via it's update. Even though its selling SP1 cd's, the cost of the disk does not include the fact that it has the service pack update, so technically you will only be paying for the cost of the OS and not the update. With the production of XP to be halted soon, many users who have been waiting for the update will be surprised to see that the changes made does in fact speed up the OS by as much as 23.1%. Noticeable changes can be seen in the fact that it now boots faster and some of those annoying security confirmation have been slimmed down for a much better user experience. I will be writing a full review on the SP1 by the end of this week.

Twitters from western africa

well this is not exactly my first foray into the world of blogging but starting afresh always seems like a daunting task for me. Just today i decided to start this blogging "craze" i once had again and I'll see where things lead me. As a short introduction I'm a 20 year old student in university who is majoring in computer science and sort of has the flair and interest in writing tech articles. Even though i have only written a few articles for some sites www.linkupghana.com...writing has been kinda slow for me in the past few months. well i will be posting a few topics soon on the latest craze in tech for teens and those who are still young at heart