Virtual Bartender

It is a cold day and will even get colder tonight. Times like this makes me feel like not stepping out. Now, it is a friday and a man needs a beer after a hard week's work. I have decided to stay in and have a few beers served by myVirtual Bartender.

Dare I say that she is gorgeous and I like the way she plays with the head, I mean the head on the beer. Forget it.

Dancing Car

There are a number of things I really like about living in the UK despite a other annoying things like the weather and racism. There comes a time when you simply feel that it is all worth it in the long run.

On tuesday I
downloaded a dancing car: "For a moment, I was in a 1987 time warp, standing in a toy aisle and picking out a new Transformer toy for my son.

But then I woke up, and realized the action was coming from a new U.K. television ad for the Citroen, in which a real car turns into a Transformer and does a dancin'-fool groove thang in the streets. Very cool. If you were/are a Transformer kid (they were introduced in '84), don't miss it.

Why England should have walked last night

Guardian Unlimited: "The England team had a ready-made answer to the Spanish racists who piled into the Bernabeu last night to grunt monkey noises at their black players: to walk off the pitch in protest.
By doing so, Sven-Goran Eriksson's side could have taken the lead in the fight against a malignancy that has infested stadiums all over Europe in recent years - a malignancy that Uefa has shown itself to be unable or unwilling to eradicate"

Racist Football

For some us living in England yesterday's game between England and Spain just went further to prove that Europeans are racist. Hooliganism and racism is rampant in European football, in nearly all the European countries black players are racially abused.

The shame is FIFA has done nothing about it apart from issuing pointless warnings and making official enquiries that amount to sweet FA, no pun intendedThe Kick racism out of football campaign has been running as long as I have lived in the UK and yet this disgusting behaviour continues unabated. In my opinion, this is a deep rooted problem in European society as whole. It is rotten to the core with racists!

ADS PULLED FOR RISQUÉ BUS-INESS

I was watching BBC breakfast news when the female newsreader, smirkingly narrated the story about how New York transport officials were impressed when the hip-hop clothing label Akademiks announced that it wanted to buy advertisements on the sides of buses in the city, promoting the benefits of literacy.

But it turned out that the benefits in question weren't the ones the authorities had in mind.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority vowed yesterday to start removing the adverts after being informed that the slogan plastered over 200 city buses - "Read books, get brain" - refers to a slang term for oral sex.

Reuters Financial News puts it bluntly asRead a book, get oral sex. The advertisements that ran on about 200 buses across the city in recent months carried posters displaying a suggestively posed woman in hot pants kneeling among a pile of books beside the snappy slogan 'Read Books, Get Brain.'

Akademiks expects to post revenue this year of $75 million.

Cool, smart advertising!

Thou shalt have sex, and enjoy it.

The controversial book, It's A Sin Not To Do It, written by two theologians, Roberto Beretta and Elisabetta Broli, who write regularly for the Italian Bishops' magazine, promises the reader answers to 'everything you wanted to know about sex but the Church (almost) never dared to tell you'.
Bullet points on the jacket cover underline the central message: 'Sex? God invented it. Original sin? Sex has nothing to do with it. Without sex there is no real marriage.'
Another chapter likely to raise eyebrows unearths theological justification for post-coital masturbation for women who fail to achieve orgasm during intercourse.
The authors are now awaiting reader reaction.
Forgive me for I have sinned. I shall, from now on, endeavour to satisfy my fleshly cravings more frequently and enjoy myself while at it.

GOD HELP AMERICA

This quote fromThe Mirror is funny but true: "There's only one headline in town today, folks: 'It Was Osama Wot Won It.'
And soon he'll expect pay-back. Well, he can't allow Bush to have his folks whoopin' and a-hollerin' without his own getting a share of the fun, can he?"

Government and NGOs

ZAMBIA: Proposed law regulating donor funds causes friction: "Zambia is considering a law that could compel NGOs to account for donor funds allegedly being used to criticise the government.
President Levy Mwanawasa announced at a public rally on Tuesday in the northwestern district of Kabompo that authorities were closely monitoring the activities of NGOs and some churches. "

The Post (Lusaka) reported that the VICE-President Lupando Mwape has directed police to arrest NGO officials who go into his area without his permission.

While I have reservations about such decrees from politicians, I think the issue about the good work being done by the NGOs, and the tremendous opportunities being opened up by them for public service in various fields should be discussed in depth. In various discussions , a sharp contrast is often made between the dull and confined routine of the bureaucrat working for the government and the freedom and initiative of the social activist serving the NGO.

The successful NGO tends to extend its operations, and, in doing so, it has to come to terms with the very problems of funding, management and accounting that bedevil the work of the government.

The acquisition and management of large funds requires both time and effort. The move from social activist to fund raiser and fund manager has been made with ease by many, but it has also brought about some change in their orientations. The prime movers of successful NGOs do not like to talk about the sources of their funding, preferring to dwell instead on the work their organisation is doing and the work that remains to be done.

The successful NGO needs to have administrators, accountants, project officers and field staff. Their terms and conditions of work have to be specified in a more or less formal way. Even the most dedicated promoters of social causes have to make some concessions to the demands of bureaucratic routine.

I think this what the Vice president is trying ensure although he seems to resort to draconian measures.

Modern organisations have certain common characteristics, whether in the public or the private domain, in the governmental or the non-governmental sector. Here, as important as the sector in which the organisation operates is the scale of its operation. It is at this point that the NGO seem to replicate, not just the ways of functioning but also the forms of organisation of agencies of the government. This cannot be an argument against the existence or even the expansion of voluntary activity in the social field outside the government's ambit. Such activity plays a vital part not only in the regeneration of society but also in the health and well-being of democracy. The public will no doubt appreciate the good work that is being done by the NGOs. But they, in their turn, must be ready to submit themselves to the same exacting scrutiny and assessment that they expect the public to exercise over the work of the government.

Four More Years

So it all finally boils down to this, Dubya is back four more! The

Silicon Valley - Dan Gillmor's eJournal provides a glimpse of the pending gloom. Is this sour grapes or reality?

"There's no secret about what's coming. We don't have that excuse this time.
Here comes more fiscal recklessness -- as we widen the chasm between the ultra-wealthy and everyone else, cementing a plutocracy into our national fiber, we'll pay our national bills on the Treasury Bill credit card for the next few years. Many economists expect a Brazil-like financial crisis to hit the U.S. before the end of the decade. If we muddle our way though the near term, we'll still have left our kids with the bill.
Here comes an expansion of the American empire abroad, a fueling of fear and loathing elsewhere on the globe. This is also unsustainable in the end. Empire breeds disrespect.
Our civil liberties will shrink drastically. This president and his top allies in Congress fully support just one amendment in the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment's right to bear arms. Say goodbye to abortion rights in most states. Roe v. Wade will fall after this president pushes three or four Scalia and Thomas legal clones onto the Supreme Court. Say hello, meanwhile, to a much more intrusive blending of church and state.
The environment? We'll be nostalgic for Ronald Reagan's time in office.
This is not sour grapes. This is reality."

Zambia Open Business Forum

The advent of Internet technologies provides a wide array of opportunities for everyone with the time and energy to persue their dream without the cost associated with conventional business.

I have began developing theZambia Open Business Forum inorder to encourage more Zambians to take on the challenge of entrepeurship. The
"The Business Forum is engaged in the development, marketing and delivery of services and publications for businesspersons and other professionals engaged in or investing in web-based businesses.
The service is designed to help businesspersons and other professionals learn about, build and conduct business on the Internet. The service is aimed at people with all levels of business and technical experience."

Starting a business takes guts and hard work: "A great idea for a business may be a jumping-off point, but it takes more than an idea to birth a business.
It takes money.
The challenge, whether it's to start a business from scratch or to expand an existing one, is to figure out where you want to go and how you want to get there.
But remember: Nothing is written in stone.
'There are no hard fast rules in starting a business,' said Nita Black, managing director of Financial Services Exchange. "

Beg, Borrow or Get a Grant

Entrepreneurial Resources Subject Tracer Information Blog:

Entrepreneurial Resources (EntrepreneurialResources.info) is a Subject Tracer Information Blog developed and created by the Virtual Private Library. It is designed to bring together the latest resources and sources on an ongoing basis from the Internet for entrepreneur resources "

Transcript of Google CEO's remarks at 35th Internet Anniversary

At the 35th Anniversary of the Internet event in Los Angeles, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is speaking with UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock. Here is a partial, rough transcript of Mr. Schmidt's remarks.

We allocate about 70% of our resources to our core business and 30% to "other" because we never know what that other will become. We also ask our employees to spend 20% of their time on exploration, and those tend to be complementary to our core.
Our agenda tends to be driven by a bottoms-up process not so much traditional strategic planning. Google is trying to solve the next problem not the last problem.

[ Question: Was it serendipity that made google what it became? ] I think the word is luck. The principles from which Google was built do exist in other indstries. Ours is a reproducable model, and others may end up reproducing it and solving other problems. We're just seeing the beginning of this.

Good management is not that complicated, it's about leadership. Some managers need to micromanage everything, but that doesn't produce creativity. If you can figure out a way to tell a story, that's how people learn. they have a beginning middle and an end. if you have the right kind of people and the right kind of values, that can work. The great thing about high tech is that labor is very mobile, and if you want to deal with other people, you are forced to deal with them as peers and equals.

There are many uses of the net that are not touched by Google. Peer to peer, and the majority of email traffic. It's very important that people work on internet monitoring, internet scaling, all of the next generation projects -- I don't think any single one is of dominant importance.

We're in a real time world where people who need to collaborate can do so instantly. That has a downside because evil people can collaborate quickly, as well as the good guys, but the overwhelming effect is very positive.

Software businesses, intellectual property businesses have good cashflow if they're run right. A friend who went to business school once told me the only rule you need to know is DNROOC. Do not run out of cash. For us the decision to go public was viewed as a neccesary thing but not something we needed for our operations. People were surprised about the fact that the decision to go public was such a last minute thing, which it was -- we made the decision hours before we filed. We then went through the whole process which was of course widely covered and entertaining in lots of ways. At the end of it, we flew back to our offices and went back to work. Following Monday we had a one hour biefing about what we felt we did right or wrong. We had one of the executives announce the "end of the IPO," and we haven't talked about it since.

The company is about end users changing the world, the good and bad things they're doing out there. It's not about the IPO.

Information on the internet has a very long tail (Ed. Note: referring to Chris Anderson's recent article in Wired.)There are very few things that the entire world is interested in at the same time. The vast majority of people out there are very much engaged in their own daily lives, in a local context very different than yours or mine.

The other thing to remember is that the average person does not want to debug their computer. We prefer instead the idea of a person typing something in and Google -- or someone else -- figuring things out for you. But very few things are organized around that principle of simplicity; we love and appreciate the complexity in technology but people using the internet really don't want that. When you see an ease of use breakthrough, it's such a wonderful thing.

Got Some Soup?

Of all the weighty questions facing the Football Association today, by far the most important is: who threw the soup at Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson?

All the main suspects went to ground this morning, refusing to own up to the offence - or even clarify the flavour. First reports suggested pea soup, but tomato has not been ruled out, and there have even been suggestions that Ferguson was actually hit by something a lot more solid ... like a sandwich.

As yet United's manager - normally happy to accuse Arsenal of most things - has not entered football's hottest debate, which was sparked by his unexpected change of clothes before sunday's post-match television interview.

The usual suspects


Sol Campbell

Suspicion immediately falls on him because he shares a surname with a Soup Company. And his blood would have been brought to the boil following the penalty awarded for his mistimed tackle on Wayne Rooney. Campbell rarely loses his temper but a carton of steaming broth coupled with the sight of Fergie in his puffa jacket might have been too hard to resist.

Gabriel Heinze

With a surname like Heinz, there are 57 reasons why he cannot be ignored. As a newcomer to Old Trafford, the Argentinian might not be fully aware of Fergie's famous short temper. Perhaps he thought it was traditional in English football to mark a famous victory by anointing his manager. But surely he would have chosen beef.

Internet Bubble Part 2

The cheerleading for Google from the analysts at leading brokerage firms is starting to sound a lot like the days of the dot-com bubble, when some of the same analysts appeared on TV trumpeting ever higher prices for profitless Internet companies.

Google shares are running like the bulls in Pamplona at the moment. The stock, which went public at $85 per share in August, climbed another $14.97 yesterday to finish at $187.40. Google shares have soared about 23 percent over the past three trading days, driven by the company's admittedly outstanding quarterly financial report last week.

Google marked another milestone in its astronomical ascent Monday, passing Yahoo in market value. Google has a market value of $51.4 billion compared to $47.9 billion for Internet rival Yahoo.

Such an enormous increase in the value of a company over a few weeks recalls the day in December 1998 when Henry Blodget, then an analyst for Oppenheimer & Company, famously predicted that Amazon.com, then trading at $240, would soon rise to $400. It reached that target in three weeks.

There has to be some irrational exuberance at those prices. It's precisely like it was five years ago, it feels like the bubble all over again.

Collaborating for Success

Collaborating on the web
...useless miscellany: "What a great way to collaborate! [Kevin's Stuff] The cool part of it though was how we were able to..."


Mpelembe Network is designed to reach the people who are creating companies, building products and launching new ideas.

Our Community empowers the creative, intuitive thought process of knowledge workers.
It enables individuals to save and share information discoveries or even the deductive paths that led to these discoveries to actively support the collaboration and the natural creation of like-minded communities.

The future is all about ideas. It's seeing what is and imaging, discussing, and planning what could be. It's also about connecting to the people that can help make great ideas a reality.

How quickly do you solve problems or train others? How effectively do
you manage projects when the project members are spread among different
offices in different time zones, or worse, on different continents? How
well do you track sales leads or customer support questions, even when
you are on the road? These questions are not new, but there is a
new way to solve them by using collaboration tools.

Are you willing to collaborate? Perhaps the question is, can you afford not to?

The ways in which people in companies work together and the ways
companies think and do business are undergoing radical and unavoidable
changes. What was once a business approach based on guarded and proprietary information available only to a select few people within an organization has become a business approach based on the need to collaborate – both inside and outside the four walls of an enterprise.

As our global economy becomes more digital, businesses must drive down costs to be competitive and to improve profits. Both the ability and frequency of collaboration leads to improved organizational performance and, thus, profits.

Indeed, to survive, an enterprise must be flexible enough to collaborate externally with its suppliers and partners while fostering that same
environment among its employees. We must collaborate or we will surely
stagnate.

To embrace the collaborative enterprise, businesses will undergo a mind
shift. Traditional organizational structures will have to make way for
an open attitude towards every individual and every organization with
which they work. This is the direct result of the rapid acceptance of
the Internet as the medium for information exchange between employees,
businesses and other organizations, customers and suppliers.

supports distributed project teams with a secure,
Web-native environment that removes geographic barriers and increases
collaboration. Project teams share calendars and workflow notifications,
capture files, documents, discussions, information from third-party data
sources, and anything else relevant to a specific project. Mpelembe
Network gives you the ability to:

1) Build communities around projects and other initiatives

2) Improve communication across the expanded enterprise

3) Support flexibility and creativity for virtual teams and global
management

4) Leverage the Web for knowledge management

5) Gain productivity and efficiency improvements

As the company grows will continue to focus on interactive communication and information sharing between employees, customers, and business
partners working on a common task and on forming a virtual community of
shared interests and goals. Mpelembe Network delivers the information,
insights and networking opportunities that you need to succeed in a world running on Internet time.

Moving On

I was on my way home the other night being too tired to wait for a bus, I decided to use a Taxi. The taxi driver asked for my destination and I replied "Twickenham green". There was a brief silence while in the taxi and then suddenly he mentioned that it is not a good idea to mention Twickenham Green these days. He said this in reference to The evil that resides somewhere near home.

I couldn't help wondering wether this was the main reason I cannot get a hot date nowadays. Even longtime female friends are relunctant to visit me, instead they insist I travel to see them.

A few sundays ago I attended a moving and well-attended public service that was held on Twickenham Green on as a tribute to murdered student Amlie Delagrange.

Rev Mike Starkey from Holy Trinity Church captured the mood perfectly when he spoke of people wanting to "reclaim the green" for the community.

Until that fateful month, Twickenham Green was a pleasant triangle of open space frequented by dog walkers, people taking a short cut between the Hampton Road and Staines Road sides (I happen to live on Staines Road), and others taking their leisure out in the fresh air.

Then on August 19 a dreadful atrocity took place. A young woman, a guest in this country from overseas, was brutally slain by an unknown maniac who had, police believe, been lurking in wait for a random victim.

Understandably, the attack has caused enormous distress in the community. The principal reactions were outrage and sadness at the loss of Amlie, sympathy for her family and fear of further attacks.

The strength of feeling was symbolised by the huge pile of flowers which accumulated on the Green.

However, a few weeks have gone by and Twickenham Green must now move on.

The Search for WMDs

The search for WMDs continues, I mean Woman of My Dreams. While Blair and Bush have failed to find their WMDs and have had to appologise publicly, I'll will be parading my WMDs to the world soon.

I reckon, their strategy was faulty,they relied too much on technology and an inefficient Intelligency service. I'm taking a hands on approach, no online dating, personal ads, drunken parties or bars. This is like looking for WMDs in Iraq, they simply do not exist, you only find what looks like WMDs.

I have produced my own dossier rather than download it from the net.
My dossier will not be disclosed to the public because it contains names of people and places I wish to protect.

Fickle Anglo American

This reminds me of what has happened to me. I'm not angry, just pacified. I'm first angry and then pacified towards people who raise your hopes and dash them the moment the melt your heart or smelt your copper. Take for instance Zambia's besotted copper lover Anglo-American Corporation is Keen On Returning to Zambia'. Hit me again, please.

You abandoned me love does not live here anymore. Ok, let's be friends, or you just want me for my Copper Prices Rally , really.

Now, I know this time around that you are only after one thing. Reconciliation is an attitude or relation, and dwelt upon the fact that it is a mutual affair. But precisely after repentance!

Gutted...

I have been smstext-out. I just received a text today from my love interest stating
Lex, I do not see any future between us only friendship.

After I recover from the shock of this form of new-age cruelty. I will publish my new strategy in finding 'the one'. I like new technology really, because I make a living from it. If she really wants to be my friend, she will respond to my invitation to join my network of friends. It is free to join and free to send smstexts.

Anyone who wants to be a friend is welcome. I believe that friends make you rich. Honestly, I really need the money.

Butterflies....

I'm too engrossed in work to have straight thoughts. I have borrowed a passage from someone that summarises my mood. My source is http://www.pseudopodium.org/ht-20011119.html

There are lemon-yellow butterflies, and there are lemon-yellow Chinese. In a certain sense, then, one can say that the butterfly is the winged, middle-European, dwarf Chinese. Butterflies and Chinese are both familiar as images of sexual desire. Here the thought is formulated for the first time of the previously unrecognized commonality between the great ages of lepidopteral fauna and Chinese culture. That butterflies have wings and the Chinese do not is only a superficial phenomenon. If ever a zoologist had understood anything about the ultimate and deepest ideas of technology, it would not have been left to me to be the first to disclose the significance of the fact that butterflies did not invent gunpowder precisely because the Chinese had done so already. The suicidal predilection of certain kinds of nocturnal moths for bright light is a relic of this morphological connection to Sinology, a connection hard to explain in terms of everyday reason.

It really makes no difference what it is that is to be proved by such means.

The Fool in Love

I do not know what it is about this woman, the young woman. I'm not easily swayed by emotions, this time on my bended knees I plead love.