‘Congolese Dawn’

November 20, 2008

I just came across this exceptional blog called Congolese Dawn (What a great name! Very Conradian).  It is relatively new and authored by a collection of volunteers currently in-country.  From the Nov 18 post ‘Before the Deluge‘: I’m stood in the Ngiri-Ngiri district in the centre of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of […]

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The Bottom of the Pyramid

November 19, 2008

“These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power…that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.” –U.S. president Franklin D. […]

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Microsoft’s anti-malware package Morro for low cost PC’s in developing countries

November 19, 2008

Has Microsoft finally figured out they’re losing traction in the developing world?  It seems that they’re getting serious about protecting their OS against the big, mean world and no longer leaving the task to third-party players like AVG.  They are introducing Morro to protect Windows against a wide variety of malware including viruses, spyware, etc.  […]

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‘Shipping Containers Perfect for Emergency Waste Water Treatment’

November 18, 2008

Treehugger.com has an interesting article about the use of shipping containers as housing for waste water treatment facilities.  The units were developed by Texas Research Institute for Environmental Studies at Sam Houston State University and PCDworks with funding from the US military.  From the article: The system is able to convert wastewater to EPA acceptable […]

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‘iPhone 3G – Satellite Finder on the Move’

November 18, 2008

For those of you who have never heard of Dishpointer it is an online service that gives direction and angle to satellites nearest your location and plots it all in Google Maps.  The service is free and has a full repository of available satellites.  Now you can fire it up on your iPhone for those […]

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PTSD and the aid worker

November 17, 2008

Michael Kleinman over at Change.org has a nice write-up on the impact of PTSD on aid workers titled Dealing, or not Dealing – Part 2.  I know first hand how when things go wrong in the field the memories can stick with you for a very long time.  A valuable reality check for those of […]

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Sleepbreeze – Portable personal cooling system

November 17, 2008

Humanitarian Tecnology Network has a write-up on an interesting looking gizmo that provides personal cooling in a small, protable unit.  The Sleepbreeze is currently offered exclusively through the company’s website and retails for about $78. Read on… Tweet

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‘Sierra Leone: Collecting Health Data In Areas With No Power Supply’

November 17, 2008

Jeff Allen is in Sierra Leone helping to set up a health information system in Freetown.  He wrote to tell me about the ‘hi tech’ solution they came across for collecting health data.  The traditional birth attendant places a small stone in a hole directly in front of the image of either a healthy child, […]

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‘Broadband in Africa Report’

November 17, 2008

White African has a nice write-up on broadband in Africa.  The conclusions match those which we have come up with in the past but the report also offers some hard numbers.  From the report: The key battle ground in the next five years will be between 3G services (or higher) offered by GSM and CDMA […]

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OSMTrack – Open Street Map App for the iPhone

November 13, 2008

If you are a fan of Open Street Map you will be thrilled to learn that there is now an iPhone App that allows you to record your tracks and upload them directly to OSM.  OSMTrack is only $0.99 and while I have yet to give it a proper shakedown I think it is a […]

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