The dilema and rants of “Service Provider” quality of support and services is one we go through day by day. This morning I awoke to a rant by a Tweep on the costs of certain bank services, in this case US$2.5 (UGX 6,500) for an over the counter withdrawal. I smiled because I has been […]
Mac Conversion for Windows Guy – Baby Steps
Ha ha ha, most would balk at the thought, have I gone over to the dark side? Have I lost my mind or has the evil empire taken control over me? Many would ask other would run scared to the hills, but well I have decided to make the switch mainly because of the battery […]
Guide to Verifying Simcard Registration in Uganda
On March 5, 2012, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) launched a simcard registration exercise see my coverage at http://wp.me/pXn3W-4H. On February 28, 2013, all un-registered simcards will be switched off by the telecom providers so there is a concerted push to register the simcards. Estimates put registration at about 50%, but that number is to be put […]
Fixing Orange Uganda Modem Issues on Windows
I have been having alot of trouble with my Orange Uganda (http: Modem (Model E173), since my laptop running Windows 7 would not see the modem despite installing Orange Internet Everywhere. I tried installing, un-installing, even had a terse exchange with their support staff via twitter (https://twitter.com/orangeugandaltd/status/290720191099310080) where the only option was for me to […]
My first Symfony 2 Web Application – The Journey – Installation
Happy New Year, 2013, its finally here … Well in 2012, I should say I had Symfony 2 envy, almost akin to a high school crush, so after suffering in silence for so long I have finally decided to jump in with both feet. I am developing a simple website which is esentially a set […]
HTC Desire HD – My Journey
This is a review, a journey of enlightenment (that sounds so Zen), learning, and eye opening experience for a techie who has not used a smart phone at all. I am still in love with the Samsung SIII, and that is essentially my next smartphone …. but in the mean time I will love what […]
Backup vs Murphy’s Law – My Take
This blog post has been inspired by events, not to me, but to a colleague of mine. Our discussion, was interesting, funny and insightful, but I thought hey why not share my experiences and what I use to teach others how to live a safer, “backup” driven life. I live on Murphy’s law, for those […]
Display Contents of Different File Formats Word/Excel/Powerpoint/PDF/RTF as HTML
This is a typical problem which I also raised on Stack Overflow (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11061929/php-extract-text-from-different-file-formats-word-excel-powerpoint-pdf-rtf#comment14475398_11061929), but there seemed no single resource around the web to solve this particular problem, so since I have solved it I thought it would make sense to provide an approach and a solution, it can be refined better with time Problem: We have […]
The Poor Man’s Job Queue
Not all software development projects are treated the same, some have access to modern tech Virtual Private Servers (VPS), Zend Server (http://www.zend.com/products/server/), Memcached, Gearman and all the other goodies I can only dream of. You have a box with LAMP, and you cannot install anything else. This is an example of how we got around […]
HTML Web Toolkits – Twitter Bootstrap
Well it seems like I have been doing a rip and replace of most of the “homegrown” components that we are using in our environments as we gear up for the new year. The latest to fall to the axe is our HTML + CSS + widget collection that has been growing over the years […]