KAZEY JOURNAL

Do you happen to hang out in star bucks, Macdonald’s or around a public library where internet browsing is actually free? Well I do, considering it gives me the opportunity to get some fresh air and a chance to check out what the world has to offer.

But beware, it comes at a price, a hidden one !! Free as it may sound, it is an unsecured network, and an idiot browsing the same network could sniff the traffic for passwords and confidential information. This is not funny at all because you could become a victim.

So how do I secure myself from such idiots, who think they have the right to steal and use my information, because I happen to like free surfing?

I use Tor. Tor helps me anonymize my web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and other applications that use the TCP protocol.

It also comes bundled with an application named “Privoxy”, which prevents my computer from automatically sending personal information to websites.

Well so how much does it cost? Well everything comes at a price, and Tor certainly does come with a price too. It does cost me time because it is slow. It is slow because WebPages are transmitted through several servers around the world to get to the computer of the user.

You can download Tor from http://tor.eff.org/download.html.en . So Beware of free wifi hotspots, you have been warned.

According to a news report at Technology times, the federal government of Nigeria has approved a directive that only ‘Made in Nigeria’ software should run on the IT systems of the nation’s public offices and institutions.

Technology Times checks reveal exclusively that the directive comes into force following a Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval by President Olusegun Obasanjo that all government agencies and institutions must run only ‘Made in Nigeria’ software.

Read more of the news report here…..

Opinion:

Did I get the news report right? Or is it the FEC, that are too stupid to understand that saying something like “Made in Nigeria software only” is not only vague but a sign of IT illiteracy? Or maybe it is just me been too excited about the whole news report. Still can’t figure that out.

Things Nigeria doesn’t have.
1. A made in Nigerian Operating system.
2. A made in Nigerian Enterprise Applications besides small-light scale applications to serve different niches.
3. A made in Nigerian hardware that has a Made in Nigerian software-driver to support it

I can go on and on to list, what we don’t have, not to even mention going to the extent of measuring our competency level, when it comes to developing a cutting edge software that can serve the needs of the local market without borrowing a software from overseas, be it from the open source community or the commercial market.

I think this directive is plain stupid and does not help the Nigerian software industry, besides come to think of it, who are we copying from? India? India is heavily powered by Microsoft besides having a very competent IT industry, if I am not mistaken. I know for sure that you are not helping an incompetent industry by patronising it.

I am very certain that this directive would only just promote more outsourcing and off-shoring by Nigerian labeled IT companies.

What Nigeria needs is a solid infrastructure and an effort in skills development through proper education especially in the IT industry.

Songbird 0.1, yet another product of the evolving craze in the web2.0 world has just been released.

Songbird is a Web player built from Firefox’s browser engine, which plays the Web without leaving the web. Songbird can view Web pages, while presenting an impressive futuristic play, save and downloading feature. It doesn’t just end there; it has all the features you would expect in a desktop media player.

It also promises a feature that allows authors to be able to publish play lists and transfer MP3s which also allows author’s, the ability to build digital music stores like eMusic, music subscription services like Yahoo! Music Unlimited, virtual jamming services like Ninjam, playlist sharing services like WebJay and more.

Songbird is open source, and runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and supports user contributed, cross-platform extensions. Quite Impressive right?

So what are you waiting for? Check it out. By the way I am yet to install it myself after downloading it a while ago.

I have used a lot of freeware softwares for enhancing my desktop in the past and reading through Dipo’s blog today. I discovered a very powerful opensource desktop Enhancing software, that just does it, beyound your imagination. The name of the software is SharpE.

Website: http://www.sharpe-shell.org

SharpE shell lets you create your own personal user environment on the display screen, but offers many more options for creativity and personalization.

Requirements
SharpE requires a Windows 2k/XP/2003 operating system.
It will not work on Windows9x Operating Systems!

The Environment
SharpE consists of various components that work together in a modular fashion.

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Protecting information from leaking to the internet is a necessity, especially when you partake in daily risky transactions that involve you visiting sites you do not trust. Tor gives you the assurance that some of your information would not be leaked out.

Website: http://tor.eff.org/index.html.en

Tor is software that contains a bundle of applications that helps secure online activity by safe guarding certain information from leaking from your computer to the internet.

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