There are a few things you should know before you buy this device.

1. It does not support the Google Android Market place. The marketing materials are deceptive in this regard, as I bought this device under the impression that I would have access to the Android Marketplace. It ships with a bookmark to http://kobo.getjar.com, which is, to put it mildly, a little bit less than helpful. A consequence of this fact is that you cannot easily install your favourite apps..
2. You don’t even get the official Gmail app, and you cannot add your Google Account to the device for syncing. You again get a silly bookmark to the mobile web version of Gmail. The device does ship with an Email application, which seems to be the stock generic email app for android, and that should theoretically support Gmail, but I have not tested it.
3. The device is chargeable via Micro-USB, but it refuses to work with the USB charger for my Samsung Galaxy S. Forcing me to keep two USB chargers on my desk. I don’t know who is violating the USB Standard here, Samsung or Kobo.
4. The device is slightly heavier than one would expect in the hand.
5. The loudspeaker is not nearly competitive with a decent smartphone. Get yourself a pair of headphones if you plan on using it for multimedia. A small amplifier may even be necessary, as the loudness leaves a lot to be desired, especially if you have to use it while commuting.
6. Coming from a nice smartphone, the screen of the Kobo Vox is noticeably less crisp, but does not really constitute an inconvenience.
7. Yes, you can play Angry Birds (it is available from the Getjar Store).
8. The web browsing experience is considerably improved after you install the Dolphin web browser and make it the default.
9. I like the rewards scheme, where you get “virtual” rewards for achievements and other reading related activities.
10. Reading PDFs with the psychologically addictive (due to the rewards scheme, and the ease with which you can intimidate your friends on facebook) Kobo reader app is rather hit and miss. I side-loaded (grabbed off the Web) Aldiko, which handles PDFs just fine, and is even capable of downloading from Oreilly and other DRM-free ebook stores directly.
11. You can play videos, but you will get a better experience if you install a file manager and browse your videos using it, rather than the default Gallery app. You can get a file manager from the GetJar Store.

You can find more information about the Kobo Vox here: http://www.kobobooks.com/kobovox .

The Sound of Abuja

Airtel is the current name of the estranged Second Mobile operator to launch its Network in Nigeria back in 2002. The Company started out as Econet, became Vee Networks, and then switched to V-Mobile before people could get accustomed to the new name and then settled on being owned and operated by Celtel for a few years. It spent another few years going by the moniker “Zain” and in 2010, morphed into Airtel.

Upon acquiring the totem, Airtel greeted Nigeria with a glowing marquee of price cuts, an event which attracted significant media coverage and was well liked by the people. Behind the scenes however, more straight-faced business measures were being adopted. For one, the Call Centre operations which had previously been handled by 3 mostly local firms: Bezelyn, CCSNL and HR Indexx were slated for outsourcing to two large firms with Indian roots: Spanco and Tech Mahindra. This move was expected by the affected call centre agents to imply the transference of their employment to the new firms–basically a managerial concern. The average work routine wasn’t expected to change much, the agents were in assured.

Some ancillary concerns of the call centre agents that had been addressed to varying extents, and which had been languishing in recent times were brought to the fore again. For instance, the call centre agents had always expressed a desire to have “official” phone lines, at least to ease communication with their colleagues. They considered it to be a reasonable perk, considering that they worked for a telecommunications company. Most of the agents also did not have identity cards, and those who did still held cards from when the company was owned by Zain.

Towards the end of the first half of this year, curious events began to unfold. A good number of pregnant women got fired under mysterious circumstances, and practically all call centre agents who had gone on leave did not receive their full allowances and entitlements on pay day. Other agents had their pay delayed and no explanations were forthcoming. With no pay, and no explanations, and a few absent colleagues, the agents responded by “downtooling”. An action described as being present at work, but not being very efficient. This happened on the 9th of Jun 2011, and it attracted some attention because the people who were fired were re-instated, and the Airtel management promised to pay back salaries in full and work towards providing phone lines for the agents and producing identity cards for them.

Calm ensued but was short-lived because a fresh controversy arose concerning the payment of bonuses following a profitable fiscal year for the company. The call centres are organised with the lowest rung being the “agent”, directly behind the “Team Lead”, before the “Assistant Manager”, and all headed by the “Manager”. End of year bonuses were received by everyone except the agents, and feeling short-changed they embarked upon a Strike action on the 18th of July 2011. Call centres were closed as part of the action, and again the Management resumed negotiations, promising to pay ₦21,000 (twenty one thousand Naira) as bonuses to the call centre agents.

Spanco and Tech Mahindra (it is a bit confusing who exactly is in charge) informed the agents that the current salary structure could not be sustained, and the agents would have to accept a 60% pay cut, or a 50% reduction in workforce, as well as changes to their working schedules, raising the working hours to 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, no breaks, 6 days of annual leave and a maximum of 12 days of sick leave per annum. This deal was presented to the agents early September and it appears that no official notice was served, which culminated in 3000 people showing up at work on Friday the 30th of September 2011, surprised to receive notice of termination of their appointment, and receiving 1 part of a multi-part text message informing them that the call centre will be closed at midnight because an agreement could not be reached between the management of Airtel and the call centre outsourcing partners (Bezelyn, CCSNL and HR Indexx). One of such texts read as:

Dear Call Centre Agent, the Management of CCSNL would like to inform you that our contract with Airtel expires today and therefore we would like to inform you t

It is a multi-part text message which was not completely delivered.

Currently, customer care calls emanating from Nigeria are being routed to Ghana following the closure of the two call centres in Lagos and Abuja.

Airtel’s most official sounding response to the entire storm is as follows:

Artel Call Centre Shutdown: The True Position

Contrary to the rumours and outright falsehood being peddled across certain social media platforms, Airtel Nigeria has not sacked any of its employees and does not have any intention to cut staff salaries. Airtel employees remain committed.

Regarding the recent call centre shutdown, the contract of an agency to one of our partners expired yesterday, September 30th. About 40 percent of call centre workers are employees of this agency. Despite the contract expiration, several employees of this agency will be re-absorbed into the system. So, the issue of mass sack, salary cut and poor benefits are outright falsehood.

Airtel is committed to realizing its vision of being the most loved brand in Nigeria and will continue to ensure that the dialogue between its call centre partners and their employees is fruitful and productive.

We also remain passionate in our quest to continue to provide our customers with the best service experience.

This statement is however at odds with the facts as at Midnight of 30 September 2011:

• The privileged agents who have official lines were removed from the Airtel Staff Closed User Group which allowed colleagues to communicate with each other free of charge.
• The official lines were stripped of all benefits, and functioned like regular phone lines.
• Affected staff email accounts were deactivated.

Ever so often, In consuming technical literature, I find myself derailed by the vast hole in my familiarity with much of the jargon of Computer Science.

In my head, I am familiar with a decent amount of theoretical computer science. Programming paradigms are not strange to me. Design patterns, while not exactly the palm of my hand are near enough to only require added concentration to get me where the author of some literature I am reading wants me.

This morning, however, while looking for a less gruelling way to manage a variable list of objects that would eventually be used as a representation for a histogram in memory, I come across a bunch of terms that I can’t make up my mind If I understand in sufficient depth or not.

One of them is “Closure” (in a literature about programming languages). The only recollection of closure I have is that of a Professor on the fringe of lunacy, back when I was an undergraduate taking Abstract Algebra lectures in a class of 150 people crammed into a lecture room designed for 50 people, whilst the ambient temperature was a bustling 32 degrees Celsius.

Something tells me the two are related, but my ability to visualize the abstract algebraic notion is limited by the aforementioned learning conditions. I could quote the notion to you, but I have never thought about it in a context other than algebra, and even then, it seems to be invisible to me most of the time, that is, I get along just fine without remembering it, which is to say my life doesn’t seem to be influenced much by abstract algebra.

I find it much easier to understand concepts framed in a computational context, so this may yet be my opportunity to better understand closure.

Then there is “Generics”. This conjures images of generic pharmaceutical drugs, the kind we are used to in Nigeria, and weirdly, it also brings up images from the movie starring Will Smith: I, Robot– The scene in the robot factory where Will Smith is looking for the errant robot suspected of committing murder among rows and rows of practically identical robots in formation awaiting further processing in an assembly line. Generic — representative of a class of objects. Here we go.

Did I mention lambda calculus? Greek symbol, and a cornerstone of modern mathematics all rolled into one. It drops the temperature of my spinal chord by the right number of degrees and cycles it back up and then down at the appropriate number of hertz too.

A decent amount of tangential reading will probably ensue, and I need to justify why I need to sacrifice the practical aspect of just getting the darned code segment working, which is definitely possible despite these weaknesses in my grasp of the theory behind it all. I can only hope it is a wise idea to understand what is happening at a deeper level of detail, because it affords you more room for creativity when you encounter stranger difficulties in another situation.

If the mere ability to follow and understand contemporary literature is not sufficient in itself, then the face-saving advantage of not looking like a twit among experts should surely do the trick?

Ah, vanity. Always the hidden persuader.

I admit to being over-emotional about this subject, but the trend is quite clear. Nokia doesn’t stay true to its word. So with tears in my eyes, I have to teach myself to love Android, and spare myself the pain of more disappointment from Nokia in the future.

A very capable and flexible OS is being shutdown, to be replaced by one willfully crippled by it’s designers under the influence of the Telcos, and as a clever ploy to sell apps for every feature not bundled into the device.

This is one step backwards for technology, 3 steps forward for capitalism.

[There, I've let off some more steam]

I Taste Good, and I Like to Move It!

You may or may not be aware that .ng (Yes, I am a proud Nigerian) domain names have been available to the public for quite a while now, and demand for them is growing slowly but steadily. However, people who have had need to get a .ng domain name may not have had as smooth an experience as is obtainable say for the more popular .com and .org names. Part of the problem comes from a lack of information about the quite strict policies surrounding the namespace.

I shall attempt to cast some light on the situation, so you at least know what to expect before you leap. I cannot claim to know much about the policy concerning other top-level domain names, but I do know a fair bit about .ng, since I have been working to bring the infrastructure of one accredited registrar up to speed. The policy documents are also available at the NIRA website (linked below), but admittedly, they are a bit of a drag to read, like most such documents.

Anyway, the first thing you should note is that the .ng space is not as liberal as you might imagine. Among other things, you are not allowed to register an “offensive” domain name. Offensive is defined as any name present on a list drawn up and revised from time to time by the NIRA Board. I am currently not aware of any such list, and this leaves quite a loop hole in the policy, but as far as my experiene goes, your good judgement is probably right, and this may not be a strictly enforced policy.

Next, .com.ng, .org.ng, .name.ng and .mobi.ng are the most liberal TLDs. Pretty much anyone is allowed to register a domain name in this space, but unlike the global “.net”, you cannot register a .net.ng domain name unless you are a registered and licensed network (telecom) service provider in Nigeria. All the other top-level domains have their own restrictions.

The .sch.ng domain names deserve special mention.

.sch.ng

This top-level domain space has been partitioned into about 37 sub-domains. One for each state of the Federation of Nigeria. What this means for you as a school trying to register a .ng domain name is this: You cannot get “yourschool.sch.ng”. You must get a domain like “yourschool.yourstate.sch.ng”. Thankfully, the state names are mostly two letters. I shall append a list of all the States and their abbreviations at the end of this post. If your school is in Benue State for instance, this means your domain name will be “school.be.sch.ng”.

The reason for this hierarchy is to avoid conflict between schools with similar or identical names, but with different proprietors and in different states clashing needlessly about ownership of their domain names.

States and Their Codes

Tell you what, grab this PDF. I am in no mood to mark-up a table in HTML

http://nucco.org/files/nira_third_level_state_codes.pdf

I’ve owned these for three months now, so I figured I’d pen a few notes about it. If you’re considering one, the short answer is “Yes”.

Now follows the why.

As bluetooth headphones go, the Nokia BH-214 ranks among the cheaper bunch. The fact that you are considering it probably suggests that you were attracted by the price. That is not all this device has to offer though. It’s design is rather unique in that there are no visible wires on the device that are not user-replaceable.

Nokia BH-214 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones

The wire that takes the sound from the flat, slightly playful looking device pop out from the top, and can be replaced with any standard 3.5mm headphones. The supplied set are the best fit though, since any other pair would leave you with an unwieldy mess of wires.

The fact that the actual ear pieces are replaceable with any pair of standard 3.5mm headphones comes in handy often because the default set are not exactly groundbreaking in terms of sound quality. I often plug in a set of Sennheiser CX-300 whenever I want to listen serious music, using the BH-214 as my phone’s remote control and as a hands-free microphone.

Thus far, we see that the Nokia BH-214 is a reasonably priced bluetooth stereo headset with an interesting and durable design, but not too great sound quality with the default ear pieces. That describes the device quite adequately. However, I should point out that the sound quality is not exactly a deal-breaker, but having owned and used a Sony DR-BT20NX and a Nokia BH-503 to date, I perceive a noticeable lack of vibrancy to the sound output of this tiny device.

Another small issue, which took some getting used to for me was the smallish power button. If you own or plan to get this device, you will do well to remember that the power button requires a long press, not a hard press as you might think, since the button seems a little hard to press and doesn’t give a strong tactile feedback when pressed. Just press lightly, but hold for about 4 seconds. It also helps if you have an ear piece in your ear so that you can hear the power-on beep.

The Nokia BH-214 sports the usual assortment of lights that are typical of bluetooth audio devices. Blue blinking LED indicates active connection, green blinking LED indicates powered on but not connected, and the red light flashes occasionally to indicate a power on/off event or a low battery warning.

Compared to my previous bluetooth headphones, this set seems to sport a slightly shorter battery life, putting out about 8 hours of continuous playback, which is enough to last me three days, but which has the habit of running out at inconvenient times. This is no fault of the device though.

Lest I forget, the ear pieces are ear buds (rubber cones) and are comfortable enough to use.

In summary, I do not regret spending my money on this adorable device. It does not provide top of the line audio experience, but it is good enough for my (I like to think) moderately critical ear, and the device compensates for that low score with elegant simplicity and a personality which I haven’t seen in any of my toys in a decent while.

Hey there, If you are reading this, it means you’ve successfully followed my blog to its new home. If you must know, I migrated to wordpress because I find it far more awesome that Blogger.

I took the liberty of renaming the blog also to “Gas Cooker”, which is supposed to make you chuckle when you hear it. My reason for choosing that name is quite simply because it makes me chuckle to hear a blog go by that name.

I will also try harder to bring you more home-cooked, hopefully funny, and witty articles every now and then.

Yes, I know this short note is not exactly a fine example of smooth talking. Bear with me, its just an announcement.

See you soon.

The Samsung SyncMaster B2230 looks like a sensible 23" Display, with a HDMI port for hooking up your PS3 or XBox 360 (my wishlist ) , and VGA + DVI ports that enable the device to also serve as a pretty functional computer monitor with a resolution of 1980×1080 (1080p in HD parlance). All the other technical specs usually don’t matter to me. I only care about display resolution and input sources.

It is a good choice if the features I have described above meet your needs. There’s only one problem though. If this monitor will be staying in your bedroom, then you are going to get really annoyed with it whenever you wish to sleep.

I would avoid this (otherwise great) monitor for the following reasons:

• The Standby signal is a bright blue, blinking LED that will frustrate your attempts to go to sleep if you’re anything like me. I can ignore static lighting easily, but a blinking light feels like a nagging invitation to spar, and this Samsung’s light is particularly bright. Bright enough to notice the shadows cast even when your head is facing the other side of the room.
• The poor device puts up too much of a fight when it fails to detect any signal on its inputs. I mean, it would first scan all known inputs looking for something to display, about three times per input. If all that fails, then it starts playing a screensaver that says "check signal cable". Imagine that. And they have the nerve to put a "Magic Eco" sticker on the front. No need to tell you how annoying that is. A 23" Samsung monitor with HDMI that doesn’t have the sense to shut itself off if it has no work to do. (My previous monitor was a 17" Mercury, whose usefully dull LED changed to orange when there was either no input, or when it was in standby. No fussy noises).
• The darned "touch" buttons on the front panel are annoying. Yes, touchscreen phones are nice and popular, but I want to be able to adjust the brightness of my display without having to look for where to touch, or wondering if my touch was actually received by the slow glass box. I want tactile feedback, please, if you’re going to make slow and unresponsive touch surfaces where they are not needed. If I want to watch a DVD for instance, I need to switch to the HDMI input. It usually takes up to 6 "touches" to get the switch made. 6 because far too often, my touches don’t register, or I touch the wrong place.
  

  On the issue of touch buttons, It would be nice if all these hardware manufacturers stopped replacing everything with touch. I’m looking at you HP. The volume buttons on my laptop are there for decoration only because (a) I can’t see them in the dark, and since they are not real buttons, I can’t feel them either. (b) If i try to use them, I can never get the volume setting where I want it, because I do not get any feedback as to how many presses I have registered, until the volume gets too loud, or too low.

I understand some people like the bling. If you like to fill your room with blinking lights while sleeping, knock yourself out, this is a great monitor.

If you prefer the things you use to never draw attention to themselves (except your phone of course), then you will less than happy with this monitor.

If you’re looking for a monitor, there, you just had a review of this Samsung monitor from a grumpy guy who has owned one for 2 months now.

— — Fanen Ahua Random Quote: An idealist is one who helps the other fellow to make a profit. — Henry Ford