Random Thoughts from Bennett Kankuzi

B4C Software Engineering launches website

2011-07-07T14:21:00.002+02:00

B4C Software Engineering, a Malawian registered firm that specializes in the provision of quality software engineering solutions to business entities and organizations in Malawi and beyond, has launched a new website at http://www.b4csoftware.com/

Bwalo Lathu, a discussion forum for Malawians launched

2011-06-16T10:20:00.001+02:00

Bwalo Lathu, a discussion forum for constructive dialogue among Malawians has been launched by the Malawian human rights NGO, Malawi Watch. The website is accessible at http://bwalolathu.malawiwatch.org/

Seminar on 'Reporting Africa' for Malawian media practitioners

2011-06-05T06:33:00.001+02:00

There is an announcement of a seminar on 'Reporting Africa' for Malawian media practitioners to be held at the Posts Conference Centre in Blantyre in Malawi on 16th June 2011.

Some of the specific objectives of the seminar include: to explore problems and prospects of representing Africa in local and international media; and to equip media workers with skills for representing Africa positively in local and international media without compromising professional media ethics and the integrity of Africans.

Targeted participants for the seminar are media professionals such as reporters, announcers, presenters, editors, directors, producers, script regulators, and trainers, etc

More details of the seminar can be accessed at http://www.pcmconsultants.com/reporting-africa-seminar.html

PCM Consultants in Malawi goes online!

2011-05-08T16:47:00.000+02:00

Progress Communication and Media Consultants in Malawi is now online at http://www.pcmconsultants.com.

The consulting firm specializes in mediated communication as well as human communication.

Congratulations to PCM Consultants!

Goodwill Funeral Services in Malawi goes online!

2011-05-06T06:44:00.000+02:00

Goodwill Funeral Services has launched a website which is accessible at http://www.goodwillfuneralservices.com

Malawi Watch Human Rights launches website

2011-01-28T11:17:00.000+02:00

Malawi Watch Human Rights, fondly known as Malawi Watch, the advocacy and lobbying non-governmental organization that works in areas of political and economic governance in Malawi and led by Mr. Billy Banda, has launched a website.

The organization's website is accessible via http://www.malawiwatch.org/

Scientific progress should go hand in hand with moral progress

2011-01-17T07:33:00.000+02:00

In his 1964 Nobel Lecture at Oslo, Norway, Martin Luther King Jr reminded us to not let our "moral progress" fall behind our progress in science and technology.

He said: Yet, in spite of these spectacular strides in science and technology, and still unlimited ones to come, something basic is missing. There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers. This is the serious predicament, the deep and haunting problem confronting modern man. If we are to survive today, our moral and spiritual "lag" must be eliminated. Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul. When the "without" of man's nature subjugates the "within", dark storm clouds begin to form in the world.

Adopted from http://www.mountainwings.com/past/11017.htm

Malawi's maize green revolution but ...

2011-01-03T06:01:00.000+02:00

Malawi is basking in an unprecedent maize green revolution. Even in normally lean months like January, maize which is the staple food is readily found in common markets at the unusually average price of 2000 Malawi Kwacha (about 12 US dollars) per 50 kg bag. Normally at this time of the year maize becomes relatively scarce and prices double.

This success is attributed to mainly two factors: the fertilizer subsidy programme championed by the Malawi government under the leadership of Prof. Bingu wa Mutharika and the promotion of irrigation under the Malawi Green Belt initiative which has seen Malawians harvesting maize twice (ie from the normal rain dependent farming season and irrigation based dry season harvest). As a Malawian, I am very proud that the days of hunger in the country are gone. God gave Malawians so many perennial rivers and we Malawians have realised that the rivers we have can be put to optimal use to combat hunger in the country, thanks to President Mutharika's vision of Malawi Green Belt Initiative.

Others have talked about the sustainability of the maize subsidies but for me my major concern is the nutrition value of maize. I am not a nutrition expert but based on my readings in literature, it is well documented that maize is lower in nutritive value than other foods like bananas, cowpeas (nandolo in Malawian vernacular), etc. Malawians traditionally believe that they have eaten when they have eaten a maize flour based food known as nsima. Unfortunately this food is just starch which just provides calories. It therefore my prayer that the government of Malawi to embark on maize nutrition fortification initiative to improve the nutrition status of our highly valued staple, maize. It should be a requirement that all the maize flour sold on the markets should be fortified with right amounts of minerals and vitamins. It is already being enforced that all salt sold on the market is fortified with iodine. So we can also adopt a similar approach to maize flour.

The following excerpt from the Food and Agricultural Organization website regarding maize diets caught my attention:

"In nutritive value maize is quite similar to other cereal grains. In fact, it is somewhat superior to wheat flour and only to a small extent below rice. These are the three cereal grains most consumed by people throughout the world. The problem with maize lies in the diet of which it is a component, a diet mostly deficient in the kind of supplementary foods necessary to upgrade the nutrients ingested in relatively large amounts of maize. Maize-consuming populations would be nutritionally better off if the maize consumed had the lysine and tryptophan genes of QPM or if it were consumed with a sufficient amount of protein foods such as legumes, milk, soybeans and amaranth seeds and leaves. This, however, will not occur in the near future, and therefore other measures should be taken. In this section, a number of possibilities, the results of studies to improve the nutritional quality of maize-based diets, are presented."

More at http://www.fao.org/docrep/t0395e/T0395E0c.htm

My personal review of the Bolt 2.3 mobile browser

2010-12-30T06:40:00.000+02:00

I use Bolt 2.3 on a blackberry curve 8520 and I find it much better than opera mini in terms of ability to display websites as they appear in their desktop versions. Bolt's ability to upload files excellent. Bolt is able to handle AJAX which opera mini miserably fails to do. The ability to use submit and ok when editing a text input area is great unlike in mini opera which can be terrible on simple things like submitting some text.

However Bolt has to improve on stability! It crashes too often. Of course, it recovers from the crashes but certainly it annoys! It also just allows 3 multitabs maximum unlike in mini opera. One other annoying part is its failure to play youtube videos consistently. It normally cuts halfway through and just plays audio and not display the video. Bolt also fails to handle cookies on some websites and I can only login to these sites using mini opera.

Otherwise I use bolt 2.3 more often than mini opera 5.1 on a daily basis because its pros outweigh the cons at least if I compare it with opera mini 5.1 on a curve. I tried to install the UC web browser but I miserably failed to do so on a curve.

My 2 cents!

My favourite quotes by Thomas Edison

2010-12-14T14:59:00.000+02:00

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

“Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.”

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Research Papers Am Reading

2010-11-29T15:55:00.000+02:00

I am currently a PhD student in Computer Science with the University of Eastern Finland under the supervision of Prof. Jorma Sajaniemi up to 2014. I will therefore be alternating my stay between Malawi (my home country) and Finland. In this post and other posts in this blog, I will attempt to chronicle my academic journey by documenting some of the research papers I am reading for assigned academic tasks. So Help me God!

Mental Representations in Programming

Canas J. et al.(1994). Mental models and computer programming. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. 40. 795-811

Sajaniemi J. et al. (2007). A study of the Development of Students Visualizations of Program State during an Elementary Object-Oriented Programming Course. ICER07. ACM Press.

Fix V. et al (1993). Mental Representations of Programs by Novices and Experts. INTERCHI 93. ACM Press.

Ramalingam V. and Wiedenbeck S. (1997). An Empirical study of novice program comprehension in the imperative and object-oriented styles. ACM Press, New York, USA.

Petre M. et al. (2003). My criterion is: Is it a Boolean? : A card-sort elicitation of students knowledge of programming constructs

Petre M. and Blackwell A.F. (1996). A Glimpse of Expert Programmers' Mental Imagery

Requirements Engineering

Bray I.K. (2002). An Introduction to Requirements Engineering. Addison Wesley

Kovitz B.L. (1999). Practical Software Requirements. Manning Publications Company

Lauesen S. (2002). Software Requirements. Addison-Wesley

Leffingwell D. and Widrig D. (2003). Managing Software Requirements. Addison-Wesley

Software Process Models

Boehm B.W. (1988). A Spiral Model of Software Development and Enhancement. IEEE Computer.

Brooks F.P. (1987). Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering. IEEE Computer.

Larman C. and Basili V.R. (2003). Iterative and Incremental Development: A Brief History. IEEE Computer Society.

Empirical Studies in Programming

Davies S. P. (1993b). The Structure and Content of Programming Knowledge: Disentangling Training and Language Effects in Theories of Skill Development. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction 5(4), 325-346.

Soloway E., Ehrlich K., (1984). Empirical Studies of Programming Knowledge. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 10(5), 595-609.

Spohrer J. C., Pope E., Lipman M., Sack W., Freiman S., Littman D., Johnson L., Soloway E. (1985). Bugs in Novice Programs and Misconceptions in Novice Programmers. K. Duncan, D. Harris (eds.), Computers in Education, Elsevier Science Publishers, 543-552.

Sajaniemi J., Navarro Prieto R. (2005). An Investigation into Professional Programmers’ Mental Representations of Variables. 13th International Workshop on Program Comprehension (IWPC 2005), IEEE Computer Society, 55-64.

Pennington N. (1987). Comprehension Strategies in Programming. G. M. Olson, S. Sheppard, E. Soloway (eds.), Empirical Studies of Programmers: Second Workshop, Ablex Publ. Co., 100-113.

Davies S. P. (1993a). Models and Theories of Programming Strategy. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies 39(2), 237-267.

Vans A. M., von Mayrhauser A., Somlo G. (1999). Program Understanding Behavior during Corrective Maintenance of Large-Scale Software. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 51(1), 31-70.

Rist R. S. (1989). Schema Creation in Programming. Cognitive Science 13, 389-414.

Détienne F. (1997). Assessing the Cognitive Consequences of the Object-oriented Approach: A Survey of Empirical Research on Object-oriented Design by Individuals and Teams. Interacting with Computers, 9, 47-

Singer J., Lethbridge T. (1998). Studying Work Practices to Assist Tool Design in Software Engineering. Sixth International Workshop on Program Comprehension IWPC’98, Ischia, Italy.

Sajaniemi J. (2000). Program Comprehension through Multiple Simultaneous Views: A Session with VinEd. Eight International Workshop on Program Comprehension IWPC’2000, Limerick, Ireland, 99-108.

Babies cry more

2010-11-28T08:45:00.000+02:00

All of us have one of those days. Some of us have one of those seasons. Some even have one of those lives. It feels like the world is chewing on us. It isn't, it just feels that way.

I have long realized that life isn't really what it is; it's what we think it is based on relative things and our knowledge level. If you have traveled extensively, you know that in many parts of the world just clean drinking water is a rarity. We flush with clean drinking water. So many of us have so much when you compare it. Those of you who are reading this have access to the Internet, email and a computer. You can see, and you are not reading this from a hospital.

We have so much, yet there is an innate tendency to complain.

I tried to think of the easiest point in our lives to see if we complained then. Babies have perhaps the easiest life around. Babies don't have to go to the toilet because mama changes their diapers. Mama breast feeds them or gives them a bottle, rocks them to sleep, and lets them sleep as much as they want. Babies go to bed when they want. Babies wake up when they want. Babies don't have to work. Babies don't have to deal with bills or bosses. Babies don't worry if their thighs have gotten too fat or if their hair is receding. It's as easy as it gets.

With all of that, babies cry more. Babies cry more, with all of that. Maybe it's not circumstances, but the closer we are to babies (regardless of circumstances) the more we cry and complain. I shall leave you with that thought. Babies cry more.

Malawi holds a youth conference on climate change

2010-11-28T07:19:00.000+02:00

Malawi successfully held a youth conference on climate change for southern Africa from 18th to 20th November 2010 at Cresta Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe.

The conference website is at http://www.sayccc.org/

APCCEM launches website

2010-11-28T07:03:00.000+02:00

The Association of Professional Chemists and Chemical Engineers of Malawi (APCCEM) has launched their website at http://www.apccem.org/ The mission of APCCEM is to promote the application of chemistry and chemical engineering in the socio-economic development of Malawi.

Having done chemistry up to second year of my undergraduate studies at Chancellor College (University of Malawi), I am still fascinated by chemistry as an exciting subject. I always remember the lectures of Dr. Chokhotho and the late Dr Elizabeth Henry. The analytic skills I learnt in those chemistry classes still help me in my career as a computer scientist and how I generally understand issues in scientific circles and public life.

By the way the following story is true: Gotcha!

There were these two fairly average college students taking the required chemistry course at their school one semester. They were both pretty good at chemistry, so by the end of the course they both had A averages. The final for this class was on a Monday. Since they were both doing well, they figured that they could go to a party that weekend up at another school. Well, obviously they didn't quite make it back.

So they decided they would tell their lecturer that they went up to another school that weekend, had a flat tyre on the way back, and couldn't get help for a long time so that they just didn't get back in time. The lecturer thought about it and finally decided to let them take the final the next day. So they went home that night, studied hard, and went to bed early. The next day they went in, the lecturer gave each of them a copy of the final, and put them in separate rooms. So they started the exam. The first page had one problem worth five points, and it was a fairly simple problem dealing with moles and molarity. So they figured this would be an easy exam. The second page also had one question. It was worth ninety-five points: "Which tyre?" Original author of story: Unknown

MAKNET - a discussion platform for Malawi launched!

2010-09-21T17:10:00.000+02:00

The Malawi Knowledge Network for Trade, Policy Research and Development (MAKNET) has a website at http://www.maknet.org.mw/ where development issues affecting Malawi are debated! Registration is free for all interested individuals!

A new software development firm is born in Malawi

2010-04-28T14:41:00.000+02:00

A new software development and networking firm known as B4C software and networking consultants has just been established in Malawi. The firm's website is http://www.softnetmw.com/

The company specializes in:

Software Engineering
Software application development and deployment
Database development: MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle
Software requirements engineering
Independent software testing services
Software maintenance and reverse engineering

Domain registration and web hosting
You can now easily register your .com, .net or .org website with us right here in Malawi at the rate USD1.99 per year
We can also host your .com, .org or .net website at less than 10 USD/per month
We also develop content driven dynamic websites

Computer Networking
Internetworking using the Linux OS
Wireless computer networking
Designing and deploying intranets and Virtual Private Networks
Securing networks

One-to-One Training in
Programming: Java, C++, C, PHP, Ruby on Rails
Operating Systems: Unix/Linux, Windows
Content Management Systems: Joomla, Drupal, Modx
Website development

Happy New Year 2010!

2010-01-01T10:37:00.000+02:00

To all blog readers, I just wish you a fabulous 2010! Thank you for visiting my blog now and then!

Introducing ZIMBIZLINK - business linking services

2009-12-16T15:13:00.000+02:00

You may visit http://www.zimbizlink.co.zw/ - a website specializing in linking business services in Zimbabwe and beyond. The website is modelled on Alibaba.com website.

Link for Department of Mathematics & Statistics at Polytechnic - University of Malawi

2009-08-19T11:49:00.000+02:00

Hereby is the link for website for the Department of Mathematics & Statistics at the Malawi Polytechnic, a constituent college of the University of Malawi:

http://www.poly.ac.mw/faculties/applied_science/maths/

Passing through Chipembere in Blantyre, Malawi

2009-06-17T16:37:00.000+02:00

Photos from Chipembere Highway in Blantyre (Kabula) Malawi as captured on 17th June 2009

Photo credits: Kondwani Kaunda and Bennett Kankuzi.
More photos on Malawi at http://ilovemalawi.blogspot.com

Malawi new cabinet as from 15th June, 2009

2009-06-17T15:59:00.000+02:00

President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi has a new cabinet. What is your comment?

1. President Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika
2. Vice President Joyce Banda (Mrs)
3. Agriculture and Food Security Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika
4. Agriculture and Food Security (Deputy) Magret Roka-Mauwa(Ms.)
5. Finance Mr. Ken Kandodo
6. Finance (Deputy) Mr. Fraser Nkhoma Nihora
7. Foreign Affairs Dr. Eta Elizabeth Banda
8. Foreign Affairs (Deputy) Augustine Mtendere
9. Education Dr George Chaponda
10. Higher education, Science and Technology (Deputy) Otilia Moyo-Jere (Ms)
11. Primary Education (Deputy) Victor Sajeni
12. Development Planning and Cooperation Abi Marambika Shawa
13. Development Planning and Cooperation (Deputy) Daniel Liwimbi
14. Transport and Works Khumbo Kachali
15. Transport and Works (Deputy) Lazaro Kasaila
16. Justice Dr. Peter Mutharika
17. Irrigation Ritchie Bizwick Muyewa
18. Irrigation (Deputy) Gringer Musolira Banda
19. Local Government Goodall Gondwe
20. Local Government (Deputy) MacJones Mandala Shawa
21. Industry and Trade Eunice Kazembe (Ms)
22. Industry and Trade (Deputy) Steven Stanford Kamwendo
23. Lands and Housing and Urban development Dr. Peter Mwanza
24. Lands and Housing (Deputy) Tarsiziu Tony Gowelo
25. Gender, Children and Community Development Patricia Kaliati (Ms)
26. Gender, Children and Community Development (Deputy) Catherine Gotani Hara (Ms)
27. Tourism, Wildife Anna Kachikho (Ms)
28. Tourism (Deputy) Shadreck Jonasi
29. Labour Yunus Mussa
30. Labour (Deputy) John Bande
31. Health Moses Chirambo
32. Health (Deputy) Teresa Mwale (Ms)
33. Youth and Sports Lucius Kanyumba
34. Youth (Deputy) Billy Kaunda
35. Health Prof. Moses Chirambo
36. Health (Deputy) Gloria Mwale (Ms)
37. Home Affairs Aaron Sangala
38. Home Affairs (Deputy) Annie Lemani (Ms)
39. National Defence Sidik Mia
40. Information and Civil Education Lenford Mwanza
41. Information and Civil Education (Deputy) Kingsley Namakhwa
42. Natural Resources and Energy Grey Malunga
43. Natural Resources and Energy (Deputy) Ephraim Chiume
44. Disabilities and Aged Bessie Reen Kachere (Ms)
45. Disabilities and Aged (Deputy) Felton Mulli

Of foreign adoptions and the Day of the African Child

2009-06-16T11:13:00.000+02:00

Today, its 16th June, a day in which we celebrate the life of an African child. Originating from remembering the massacres of the innocent children in Soweto, South Africa in 1976, we now reflect on the plight of the African child. Indeed we now reflect on the need of the African child to have access to quality education, health, protection against abuse etc. This is because the future of our beautiful African continent lies in the hands of the African child.

Some kids on Chizumulu Island on Lake Malawi in Malawi!

In this post, I would like to share my thoughts of having western 'celebrities' come to Africa to adopt our orphans and vulnerable children. In particular, I would like to refer to a case in which Madonna has been allowed to adopt another child in Malawi. I do not wish to hide that I am one of the many Malawians who are not happy with this decision.

Imagine if all our orphaned children were put up for foreign adoption, what would become of their destiny and indeed the destiny of Africa at large? Obviously as Africans we have our own culture and traditions that can not just simply be ignored for material prosperity in a foreign adopted home. Much as we appreciate that a child needs material care, we can also not ignore the need to protect the African identity of the child. If at all, one is interested in the welfare of African children, the solution is not to just pick one or two kids out of the many thousands of orphaned children out there! What is wrong with helping the kids while the kids are right here in Africa like what Oprah Winfrey does? This idea of 'fishing out a single kid' out of Africa as what Madonna is doing can simply be rated as 'media charity'.

A question then pops up in my mind! Is it that as Africans we have failed to take care of our African children? Maybe we can say so? How? It is very surprising that these kids being put up for foreign adoption are being found in orphanages. If not mistaken, this orpanage syndrome is a new phenomenon across Africa. Why do I say so? Normally, in an African communalistic setting, one is supposed to take care of relatives children as if they are your own children. So even if a parent dies, the relatives of the deceased are supposed to take care of the children. But what do we see now? Relatives quickly send the orphaned children to orphanages. This is why there are so many children in the orphanages now.

Where has our African Umunthu spirit gone? Is this a sign that African cultural values are being eroded? In addition to this, we should go back to our African traditional values that always insist that those who are mature enough are the ones who should get married and have children who they can manage to take care of. Otherwise, we shall keep on having problems of children who lack parental care.

Facebook in Kiswahili is a great idea!

2009-06-15T15:32:00.000+02:00

Just read on BBC news website that a Kiswahili version of Facebook has been released! Honestly speaking, I am thrilled. Long at last, African languages are also gaining prominence as communication medium in the cyber world. I do not know KiSwahili, but this idea is just great! At least to me... What about you?

To google or to bing?

2009-06-10T12:29:00.000+02:00

Of late, this blog has been getting a lot of hits from Bing, the new search engine or rather "decision" engine from Microsoft. So, having gone to www.bing.com, I encounter a simple and clean interface of a new kid on the block in the search engine arena.

Personally I like the simple interface of Bing. In addition to this, provision of preview of websites listed in the search results is a big plus. I do not know if Bing is faster than Google or whether Bing is just a propped up Windows Live?

However, in my opinion, I think Google will this time around have a serious competitor in the search engine world! So whether to google or to bing thats one's choice. But surely only time will tell, who leads the pack!

Picture of victorious Bingu wa Mutharika and Joyce Banda

2009-05-26T14:22:00.000+02:00

Photo of Bingu wa Mutharika and Joyce Banda during the gruelling 2009 Malawi General Election campaign. Bingu became triumphant with over 65% of the votes cast by a huge turnout of Malawian voters. His party the Democractic Progressive Party (DPP) has more than 114 seats in the 193 seat Malawi Parliament. Congratulations Dr Bingu!