Statcounter shuns cookie bandits!

Today, I read an interesting blog post by Statcounter which explains how they shunned an advertiser who offered them lots of $$$ on condition that they include a spyware cookie on all of their member sites. In a new twist to this issue, Statcounter have just discovered that another wellknown stat provider is allowing spyware cookies to be installed in the browser of every visitor that hits one of their member websites. This unscrupulous stat provider is making money by transmitting data, which was meant to be private, to third party advertisers (nobody knows what they do with this data). All these things happen without the consent and knowledge of the innocent members. As if this is not enough, these cookies slow the loading of the web pages, thereby aggravating the visitors. Surely with time, these precious visitors will shy away from such sites! All this because of these stat providers who team up with cookie bandits.

Personally, I would like to say congratulations to Statcounter for saying "No" to these crazy cookie bandits. This not only gives me more reason to stick to your services but also to spread the word about them to others. My advice to Statcounter is that you continue sticking to your principles because these guys will approach you with more $$$$$$$$$$$ now. Do not get tempted!I pray 4 u.

Jatropha farming in Malawi: Any progress?

I don't like Malawi's overdependence on tobacco as a source of foreign exchange. Tobacco is a very destructive crop not only to the smoker but also to the environment. A list of dangers associated with tobacco smoking can be found here. During my undergraduate days, I remember attending one Student Christian Organization of Malawi (SCOM) meeting where a preacher was denouncing tobacco smoking from a biblical perspective. In his sermon, among other things, he said that if God intended human beings to be tobacco smokers, he would have created a chimney on top of our heads. With due respect to all tobacco smokers, I agree with that preacher 100%. Imagine staying in a house without a chimney or driving a car without an exhaust pipe. The burning of tobacco has been reported to be the main source of indoor air pollution in the developed world. This report further says that tobacco smoke contains about 4,000 chemicals, including 50 that are known to cause cancer. Besides that, cigarettes and other smoking-related materials (matches, etc.) are also a common cause of fires. Apart from causing tremendous harm to human health, the tobacco industry also causes a lot of damage to the environment. Trees are cut down so that they can be used as fuel for curing tobacco leaves. It has been pointed out that for every 300 cigarettes manufactured, one tree is cut down for curing. As a result, almost nine million acres of forests are lost each year.I do not have to go into the environmental effects of all this.I am sure you know them. If not, just google them out.


Nowadays, I get very excited when I hear news about the global anti-tobacco policies, although the masses in Malawi and other developing countries are not happy. In my case, I see this as an opportunity for Malawi to look into other useful crops to replace the destructive tobacco. Jatropha is said to be one of those dream crops. Jatropha is a perenial shrub suited to tropical climates with 50 years life span. It starts bearing seeds after two years of planting. Seeds with shell have an oil content of 32%-35%. This oil can be used for the production of biodiesel, soap, mosquito repellent, organic fertiliser etc. Jatropha has a number of advantages which include:

• Low cost seeds;
• High oil content;
• Increased safety due to higher flash point;
• Small gestation period;
• Growth on good and degraded soil;
• Growth in low and high rainfall areas;
• Does not require special expertise to farm;
• Seeds can be harvested in non-rainy season;
• Plant size makes collection of seeds more convenient;

India is one of the countries that has embarked on a massive Jatropha farming promotion. In Malawi, a similar promotion was reported in 2005. The Biodiesel Association of Malawi, led by Osman Ibrahim was busy encouraging farmers to abandon tobacco and switch to Jatropha as a cash crop. Now, almost two years down the line, I do not hear much about the Biodiesel Association of Malawi and jatropha farming in Malawi in general.When I searched the Internet, I only managed to unearth old news reports. Nothing current! Actually, by now, the Biodiesel Association of Malawi should have put up their own website (like the Indians are doing) where all those interested in this seemingly lucrative crop would get information easily.

Personally, I am really interested in jatropha.That's why I have this burning desire to know the progress on jatropha farming in Malawi.Has there been any progress? Can someone out there help me?

Baobab uses Opera in the Fight Against HIV in Malawi

The Baobab Health Partnership, a non-profit organisation in Malawi, my home country, has created an innovative HIV treatment system.Baobab runs Opera browser in fullscreen "kiosk" mode on low powered, Linux-based network terminals used to register new patients and tracking patient treatments. Baobab is currently aiming to expand the HIV treatment system to rural health centers throughout the country.

Gerry Douglas, the founder of the Baobab Health Partnership points out that, by using Opera, international standards like HTML and JavaScript can be relied on without requiring expensive hardware. He further says that this sytem can be easily scaled up across an entire country, and perhaps an entire continent. In essence, he meant that this project can spread to the rest of Africa!

This is really something to smile about from the land of the lake.Congrats to Mike, Gerry and all who are involved in this project.

My Blog's First Birthday

A year ago, at 6:49 AM, I posted my first entry on this blog after being inspired by Soyapi Mumba and late Mangaliso Jere (May His Soul Rest In Peace). I had always desired to blog after being entertained by these guys' blogs but my MSc research would not give me a chance for that.As my research was drawing to a close, I started blogging and there is no way back now. Blogging has now become one of my major pastimes. Not only have I made new friends through it but I have also managed to link up with former school mates like Victor Kaonga who used to be one year ahead of me at Rumphi Secondary School (aka RUSESCHO). During the past blog year, I posted 23 entries.My blog site enjoyed 1176 page loads and 573 profile views from all over the world. I am very grateful to all the people that have been patronizing this blog.

One of the events from the past blog year that will always evoke fond memories is my trip to Canada where I presented a paper at the IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence (WCCI 2006) in Vancouver. It was my first time to fly out of Africa and more than that to step my feet on three continents (Africa, Europe and North America) within two days. At WCCI 2006, I also won an FUZZ-IEEE travel grant worth USD750 in recognition of the paper that I presented there. I also enjoyed attending a plenary session by Lotfi Zadeh, the father of fuzzy logic, a field which is fast becoming the mainstay of my research endeavours. This trip also gave me a chance to visit the Munthalis in Brampton, Ontario (Sekulu, abuya,Suzgo and Tapiwa, it was nice visiting you.God bless you abundantly for the hospitality). I will always remember the trip to Niagara Falls.

Now for the blog year that has just started today, I sense in the spirit that great things will take place. Watch this space!

Curtain closed for SAVoIP Network

Marnus van Niekerk has finally decided to wind up the SAVoIP Network after some difficult months.SAVoIP Network came into being after South Africa's deregulation of the telecommunication industry.In his email, Marnus says the projected income from members using their products never materialised-less than 1% of the network's more than 26,000 members ordered prepaid airtime or used the voip facility to call internationally.However, the overheads needed to be covered monthly.The 'outflow' was just far greater than the 'inflow'!As a result, Marnus was left with no other option but to call it a day.

On my part, all I can to Marnus, is that you tried.I wish you all the best in the other business ventures.I hope you will now play an advisory role to anyone venturing in VoIP business in future.

The Robotic Age and its Ethical Problems

The pace of development in robotics is accelerating very fast.While most people think that robots are futuristic, the situation is different on the ground.Robots are being used for automobile construction, automatic transportation of cargo, assisting surgeons in performing operations etc.Robots have also been used in patrolling toxic environments which are dangerous for human beings to work in.While all these developments are good for mankind, several ethical issues are now arising.

In an online document, one anonymous robotics researcher points out that the word 'robot' was termed in the 1920s.Its root is 'robota', which means forced labour in Czech.The learned researcher (I wish I knew his name) further says that the moral implications of machine slavery are one of the ethical issues to consider as the robotic age booms.The ubiquitous use of robots might eventually replace low skilled human labouur, leaving people without skills or with little education jobless. This will not be good at all to our society.In short, robotics specialists (I am striving to become one) will be the only people enjoying security in their jobs.What will the rest be doing?Stealing?No!In a robotic environment it will be extremely difficult to steal because robotic guards, complemented by wireless sensor networks, will sort you out.Maybe, witchcraft will work.The end result will be an economically paralysed society.The other ethical issue relates to the the treatment given to robots by humans.When do you switch them on?For how long should they work?At what point do these machines cease to be mere devices for work and become entities worthy of moral protection?Assuming a robot has been trained to do a specific task, is it moral to reset its memory and start it afresh?

In order to sort out these ethical problems, South Korea is drawing up an ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa (BBC).This will cover cover standards for users and manufacturers and will be released later this year. "Imagine if some people treat androids as if the machines were their wives,"said the South Korean robot team official. I laughed my lungs out when I read this statement. By the way, an android is a robot with human appearance. With the rampant promiscuity around, it is very easy for manufacturers to build an android which looks like a very beautiful woman in order to cash in on some immoral minds.Who knows, maybe it is already happening!

Why PhD?

One of these days, I was chatting with a Kenyan friend who has just passed his Masters in Electronic Engineering with distinction.I asked him why he was so keen on doing PhD studies.He simply told me that he wants to use it as a pedestal for making wealth.I immediately told him that he was wrong.It was better for him to relinquish his PhD ambitions and start thinking about innovative ways of generating wealth.His MSc degree is more than enough.I further told him that Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the co-founders of Google, did not complete their PhD studies at Stanford University.And yet all of us can acknoweldge the impact that their products (search engine, blogger, mail,google earth etc.) are making on our daily lives.The History of Google reveals that Sergey and Larry first met as Stanford University graduate students in computer science in 1995. While there, they developed a common interest in retrieving relevant information from large data sets.By January of 1996, Larry and Sergey had begun collaboration on a search engine called BackRub, the precursor to the Google Search Engine.In September 1998, Google was incorporated, after Larry and Sergey put their PhD studies on hold and raise $1 million in funding from family, friends and "angel" investors.Since then,Google has grown rapidly such that it is now the largest search engine on the web.Larry and Sergey joined the list of billionaires in the world in 2004 after Google's initial public offering.In 2006, Forbes list reported that Larry's net worth was estimated at more than 14 billion dollars while Sergey's is 14.1 Billion dollars. These guys are still "on leave" from their PhD studies.With such billions at your finger tips, who can go back there to resume PhD research?It is extremely difficult to do so even when you are a star researcher.It must be mentioned that Sergey and Larry are extremely brilliant.They authored what is widely considered their seminal contribution, a paper entitled The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine.The paper has become the tenth most accessed scientific paper at Stanford University.The story of Sergey and Larry is just one of the numerous examples. Some have quit at even lower levels but still have gone on to become great finance icons of our era. Check Forbes!

Then, why should someone do PhD studies?First of all, we must have an understanding of this three letter word.A PhD is the highest degree offered by most Universities in the world. Professor Pankaj Jalote , in one of his online documents, says that the focus of a PhD, unlike regular degrees, is not learning existing knowledge but creating new knowledge.As a result, this degree is desired by anyone wishing to make a mark. I personally think that the main motive for doing a PhD should be the desire to make a mark in the world of research.Once the mark is made, all these other things will fall in place.PhD research involves two major tasks:(a) the formulation of a question or a problem that is of interest and that can be solved, and (b) providing a useful/interesting solution to the stated problem. The results obtained are presented in national/international conferences, and/or submitted to scientific journals.Sometimes, the life of a PhD student can be very hectic because one has to venture into the unknown in order to create new knowledge.That is why professors always want students who have a good academic standing, self-motivated, hard working and passionate about their research endevours.One Professor told me that if I want to join his research group as a PhD student, my research work should be my heart beat.

Deadline Day Submission of Conference papers

Today, I really did not want to make a posting. I have, however, been prompted to make one in response to Cryton Chikoko's comment on my previous posting in which I pointed out that I like submitting my conference papers right on the deadline day. I do this for two reasons, one minor, one major. I will not disclose the minor one because it is a personal secret. The major one has its roots in the way I grew up.

Some years back, when I was doing my Standard 8 for the second and final time at Mzokoto Primary School in Rumphi, Malawi, I used to have a very good English teacher and headmistress.Her name is Mrs Rose Edith Mnyenyembe (Nyamasango). Besides her superb teaching skills, Mrs Mnyenyembe used to be a good disciplinarian and mentor.I rarely saw her whipping anyone.When you are wrong, she would spend sometime talking to you, making you understand that you are wrong, giving you advice and of course some punishment in form of manual work. By so doing, discipline was being instilled. While I appreciate the contribution of different mentors that I have come across in my life, I always hold Mrs Mnyenyembe in high esteem.Under her mentorship, not only did my academic life sparkle, I also developed immensely as a person. One of the things that she used to teach us was that we should never relax in an exam. That is to say, when we finish before time, we must remain in the exam room, reading through our work again and again. She used to tell us that this will enable us to find some hidden mistakes and rectify them before leaving the exam room. We used to follow this piece of advice and it used to work for our own good. When I went to Rumphi Secondary School, I continued following Mrs Mnyenyembe's advice and my results used to be excellent. However, when I was doing my first year in Engineering at the Polytechnic, the University of Malawi, I used to see lots of my friends leaving the exam room before time. For once, I tried to depart from Mrs Mnyenyembe's advice.The consequences were not good at all. As soon I stepped out of the room, I discovered that I made a number of simple mistakes, skipped some questions etc. Although there were still some good thirty minutes left, University regulations prevented me from going back and asking the invigilator for my script in order to rectify my mistakes. As a result, I got a miserable grade. From then onwards, I resolved never to depart from the piece of advice downloaded into my head by Mrs Mnyenyembe while I was at Mzokoto Primary School. At this point someone may be asking-what has this to do with conference paper submission. The simple connection is that a conference paper undergoes several reviews after submission.These reviews are done by experts in the field. A paper is either accepted (passed) or rejected (failed) based on the comments of these experts. In a way, this is an examination. In keeping with Mrs Mnyenyembe's advice, I always like reading through my papers again and again if I finish them well before the deadline. This helps me to correct some hidden mistakes and also to fine tune my paper in order to make it more palatable for the reviewers.

Upcoming Conferences in IEEE Region 8

Septmeber 2007 will be an eventful month for IEEE members in Region 8.During this month, two major IEEE conferences will take place in the region.The first one will be the IEEE Region 8 EUROCON 2007 which will take place in Warsaw, Poland from September 9 to September 12. The submission deadline for this conference has been changed several times.The original deadline was 31 Januray 2007. Then it was shifted to 15 February, then 28 February and yesterday as I was preparing to upload my manuscript, I discovered that the deadline has been shifted to 10 March.Personally, I like submitting my manuscripts right on the deadline (don't ask me why). With this development, I will not upload my paper until the final day (10 March).Who knows, maybe the submission deadline will be extended again.Deadline extensions aside, I am quite excited about EUROCON 2007 because of two reasons. The first one is because all accepted papers will be included in the IEEE Xplore and the EI Compendex, the most comprehensive interdisciplinary engineering databases in the world. The second one is because the best papers will be recommended for publication in the IEEE Transactions, Electrotechnical Review, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, Electronics and Telecommunications Quarterly and in the Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

While Poland will be hosting EUROCON, Namibia's capital Windhoek will host the IEEE AFRICON 2007 from 26 to 28 September. All conference proceedings will appear in IEEE Explore.Although the official submission deadline is 3rd March, the organisers have assured us that they will accept papers until Monday, 5 March.Therefore, they should expect my manuscript on that final day.