Archive - Nov 2007

Date

Real life interrupts

For those of you who have been following this blog, I just want you to know that I will be away from the "editorial desk" for a few days. And since this is a one-man show at the moment, that means that there will be little content this week.

I hope to be back with something worth reading next week.

Ed

CHOGM not Uganda's spotlight

The Commonwealth Heads of State Meeting of 2007 is being described as a success. During the three-day summit, the organisation suspended Pakistan from its ranks and produced a climate plan. These are both modest achievements with little international impact except to remind the world that when it comes to human rights and the environment, the Commonwealth can still be a relevant association.

Opening Africa: Adopting Web Standards on the Continent

The Web Standards debate is a heated one. There are experts around the world who advocate global standards adoption, but for Africa it is not that simple. The "standards" being evangelised are not supported by all browsers. Should we all throw Internet Explorer out and move unanimously to Opera? Can't we all just get along?

Web Standards are a good thing and Africa needs them. If the world were a classroom and the continents its students, Africa would be lucky to get a passing grade on a Web Standards test.

Editorial update: new contributors and Nowpublic.com

CitizenUganda has made some great strides in a few short weeks. Following a successful upgrade to our publishing platform here, it is time to make some changes to how our content is produced and syndicated.

Upgrade to Drupal 5.3 complete

The upgrade to Drupal 5.3 is complete. This being our first upgrade, the drama was inevitable. There was a moment when everything was wiped off the database. This was followed by panic, yelling, blood letting and self-flagellation.

Thankfully the restoration process went according to plan and the site was back up in less than half an hour.

Uganda on Amazon

Amazon has been sending me a ridiculous amount of junk mail (they call them newsletters) lately. The company figures that because of my past purchases, they have a good idea of what I might be interested in. Well, lately I am interested in literature by Ugandan authors. Given the recent international success of Strange Fruit by Monica Arac de Nyeko, now may be a good time to reacquaint myself with the country's crop of writers. And Amazon can help me, right?

Wrong.

Breaking away from templates

The development of a blogging community usually has a couple of stages. In the first stage, bloggers discover the power of the medium, particularly its ability to help them distribute their ideas. The second stage is when the community begins to attach the same importance to presentation as it does to expression.

Reclaiming the African brand

Vanity Fair cover You have probably heard about Bono's Vanity Fair issue on Africa. The Irish rocker caused quite a stir when he chose to use 21 celebrities and 20 different magazine covers.

Going offline to make some changes

Hi,

on Saturday morning at 7am (PST) I will be taking the site down for a few hours. I know, I know, I hate to do it too, but it will be necessary for the changes I have in mind.

The primary issue is to see if I can get the site to render correctly in IE6, or as I call that elder browser, the web developer's ball and chain. I know it's not nice to denigrate the work that has been done by lots of people over the years to make this browser what it is today, but look at what it is today!! Not standards-complaint. Thanks Microsoft.

Blogging in Uganda (Part 6): Ugandan Insomniac

Ugandan Insomniac
For something that is supposed to come naturally, sometimes sleeping can be a difficult task. Imagine being wide awake at night while others purr and grunt in blissful oblivion. That can be frustrating, and only more so if you have a partner sleeping like a baby besides you. And snoring. Loudly. Most people might reach for the bottle of sleeping pills. For at least one person though, that frustration is being channeled into a blog. Lucky us.