1. Stay away from content production

You are a freaking coder not a journalist. You don’t want your users stuck with stale content because clients wamekuchosha na Skype calls or you’ve been stuck behind some desk somewhere for a week with crisps and coke trying to nail that bug. Unless you are partnering with a content producer you want to avoid apps that require you launch Ms Word every now and then after putting it up on the app store. Unless you are writing about it. If your solution is content centric go for user driven content or one that can use a data portal. Otherwise competition judges and VCs alike will give you a wide berth.

2. Target mass market

The more the potential users you have the more it is likely to make sense to the VCs, to the judges and even to you as a startup entrepreneur. You want something that will be highly adopted across age groups and across socio economic boundaries. If you are targeting a very specific niche it must be an app that a very high percentage of that niche will find invaluable and will be able to easily acquire. Do a little research. Find out what kind of devices the target population usually have. You don’t for example want to do an android app for small scale farmers in Kenya. Well you might be able to impress some guys and get funds but what is the reality on the ground? If you have to do so you might first have to organize a conference to tell them what an app is, follow this with a lecture on how to download your app, and why they should invest on a 10k device when they live on under a dollar a day.

3. Be realistic

So you want to generate revenue from your app and you’re thinking “let me charge a dollar per download that’s reasonable”. Welcome to Kenya, where most dreams don’t come true. As a programmer I download software at an average of 2 softwares per week, I download music at an average of 300MB per day and I can’t keep track of the number of websites am registered on. Not once have I spent a dime on any of these. Reason being am Kenyan. Plain and simple. The rates for one are targeted at better off economies. I wouldn’t pay 18k for a Microsoft licence. Omera, that’s an Ideos, a Casio G-Shock Mini and a Fly540 ticket from Nairobi to Kisumu. Halaaaa! Apps are not that expensive but we live in a cheap economy. App stores require credit cards. Until they integrate them with the Africa friendly mobile payment solutions adverts are the way to go.

4. Multiple platforms

This is mostly important for utility apps. Think beyond the native app world. Extend your solution to USSD, SMS, mobile web, desktop and other mobile platforms. As long you as you don’t end up with half assed apps trying to kill multiple angry birds with one stone then the more the merrier.

5. Social Dimension

Everything is going social now.  Even geeks like us who once had only our books to relate to now have tonnes of friends we share experiences with. If am going to play your gaming app I want to let them know my score or even play with them. If am going to read an article on your news app I want them to know what I read and I want them to read it too. And if am going to track my calorie intake I want them to know that too. Am like everyone else. Am simply asking that you honor my lack of respect for my privacy. I beg-o.

6. GUI

To a first time user your app is as good as it looks it doesn’t matter what crazy things it can do underneath. The interface should be well designed it should be straightforward enough for the user to understand it on the go without having to read a 30 page tutorial. No one likes to read when they don’t have to, everyone knows that. If the app should have tutorials they should be short concise points on different activities of the app.

So there’s my 6 cents, knock yourself out.

Anything that stands in the way of execution is either tossed aside or thrashed with all might. Things that are usually distracting are no longer in sight. They become blurred tiny specks at the bottom of a pile of  tasks that are more exciting than anything else. The more challenging the more exciting. Everything else comes second. The stomach can wait a few more hours, the visit to the barber postponed indefinitely. And sleep? What sleep?

Every bit that works properly is followed by a eureka moment building up bit by bit to the final moment where the world changes forever. And then the moment comes , the climax, every piece coming up together to form a whole,  a wonderful creation, a step into the future…tears, satisfaction, and an eerily strong need to show love. And then the stomach rumbles, the urge to visit the barber comes back, and the bed looks more enticing now more than ever before.

The next day the appreciation is very encouraging. But looking around the world hasn’t changed yet: a reminder that that was just a step, more effort is needed, bigger ideas and a stronger will. So the innovator recoils back to reality…a moment passes…and then a spark!

Maybe a carefully crafted art piece by Father
A unique design in his spiritual image
Blessed, granted life, and a higher purpose

Perhaps just an expendable piece of several billions
Packed in a world with infinite copies
Each copy with a copy of me

Or am a variation of you in a different skin
Connected to you, part of whole
Might say I am you
Might ask who are you?

Yes, we’ll slow down in a minute, after we overtake that guy,
One more minute, two more, darn there’s a lot of them,
Sit tight, it’s a bumpy road, he said he’d fix, if we voted him in again,
We already did, that was four years ago, and he wants our votes again.

Oh look, it’s traffic police, is that a new guy? No, it’s Odhiambo and Macharia,
We’ll give them a hundred, they’ll split, they’ll let us through.
Jambo Odhiambo, Jambo Macharia, it’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?
Here’s a hundred, have a good one.

This is our stop, it’s okay , we’ll transfer you to a direct bus,
We’ll pay them your money, you’ll get a seat we promise,
Beba beba, your fare is paid, grab a seat, we leave in a minute,
Hold on, the road gets worse.
Where’s your money, who paid, when,
I don’t have your money, give me your money, or hit the road.

Oh look, passengers by the road, we have to stop for them, and the others further down,
Move move, a Kenyan needs your help, don’t be greedy, this space can fit more,
Hurry hurry, beba beba, come on in,
There’s a seat for you, it’s a direct bus, it’s only 30/-.

Free will is defined as the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. Sam appears to have made the choice to have a Bond 7 Whiskey from the 17 drinks that were available. He chose to make a move on the girl instead of going to talk football and drinking with his friends. He also chose to go with the approach he thought would give him the highest chances of getting lucky with the girl. And it all worked out. Question is, did Sam actually make these choices of his own free will? Isn’t it possible that every choice he made were determined by chemical reactions in his body, his genetic makeup, his environment; factors which are beyond his control?

Can it still be said to be one’s choice when there are determinants at play, beyond the subject’s control? Consider this: scientists have found that about 1 in every 2 people have a gene – DRD4 or the thrill-seeking gene – which makes them more likely to cheat on their partners or be involved in gambling and alcohol addictions. There have been a number of other genes associated with other behaviors that have long been thought to be people’s own choices, like a gene that gives people a religious predisposition, the alleged gay gene etc. Although scientists are still divided on some of them what is becoming clear is that at least some of our choices are made at the genetic level. We practically made them as soon as we were conceived.

And it’s not just the genes that determine our choices, it is the environment we grow up in, level of intelligence, the moral code implanted by the parents and guardians, every one of them beyond our control. That’s why a kid brought up in the middle of Saudi Arabia will naturally become a Muslim even unto old age when he thinks it’s his own choice, a way of living that gives him a completely different moral code from what he would get if he was born in a mostly Christian nation like the USA or a secular nation like Sweden. So naturally we would ask if we can hold people responsible for their moral positions. Is it possible that we have no control of who we are? Is it possible that everything can be determined from equations?

Since Einstein, scientists have been in search of a theory that describes everything – literally called the Theory of Everything. This theory would be able to give us a picture of everything from the tiniest building block of matter to the universe itself. The possibility of such a theory existing might shove us back to the drawing board on the very meaning of life. Given that humans are just biochemical entities, the ability to reduce everything to an equation makes everything deterministic.

There’s some sort of security that accompanies the feeling that we are the makers of our own destiny, that our choices have direct consequences on the paths our lives take, that we are completely in charge of our lives. So it becomes very unsettling when it appears that human behavior, his actions and inactions can be sought from equations. The idea that all it takes is a good calculation to figure someone out and tell what they will do next or even chart the course of their lives with good precision puts an asterisk on life itself. What is the point, if it is all figured out? And yet my mind is made up on this. I know, it probably doesn’t matter what I decide , because I may not be actually making a decision in the strictest philosophical sense of the word. From the way my human mind works, and it’s limitation to process time one second per second I think of a past, a present and a future and think that I have a hand in how the future manifests. Perhaps that is a greater illusion than that of free will.

But is it still okay to talk to Assad? Well it’s not going to be first time that diplomacy has been attempted with Assad and yet the death toll is approaching 10,000. That’s 10,000 human lives sacrificed because one man wants to stay in power? What a shame for our civilization. How do the talks and the sanctions help? Sanctions have very little effect when it comes to leaders determined to stay on. There are many dictatorships that have survived sanctions before.

China and Russia remain to be a stumbling block in change. While they position themselves as respecting countries’ sovereignty their whole point is just to stand against America and other western countries on influencing regime change no matter how inhuman the said regime is. They’ve vetoed two UN resolutions calling for Assad to step down. They also stood against action in Libya and against Kenyan post-election violence being referred to the ICC.  What an embarrassment Russia and China is. But their action this time over Syria is actually not favored by the Arab region. They’re messing up their own diplomatic ties.

In Zimbabwe we have a leader who is 88 years old, been in power forever and is even blocking a change in the constitution that is overall good for the nation. Reason being that the new constitution would stop him from vying for the presidency again. This is a leader who has caused great economic woes to his people and his rule saw the Zimbabwean dollar inflate by humorously high levels of up to 231 million %. At the height of inflation 80% of the population was living on less than a Euro a day and 50% was malnourished. When did it become okay to stand back and watch in the name of respecting sovereignty while millions of people are tortured so one man can stay president?

John McCain a U.S republican senator for Arizona has come out boldly in support of air strikes on Syria. Many politicians have tried to dissociate themselves from him because military action is not very popular among American voters right now. It’s true that air strikes will definitely result in loss of innocent life so this may not be a good option. However, when Assad decided it was okay to sacrifice thousands of lives to stay president he became a terrorist. If Osama could be sought and killed in his hideout without casualties then Assad whose location is well known should be easier to deal with. I say let’s take the bastard out. Let’s respect our fellow humans’ lives. Talking to Assad will not take us anywhere. It didn’t work with Ghadaffi, it didn’t work with Bashir, it didn’t work with Gbagbo.

I say strike, influence, change. We are all humans, the reason we appear to be of different cultures is because of the silly boundaries we’ve created. The boundaries have resulted in the Arabs treating their women like second class citizens while elsewhere they’re empowered and free living their full potential. It has resulted in parts of Africa starving to death while other parts of the world die of obesity. It has led to leaders torturing their people and shutting them up making themselves gods while in other parts simple mistakes by leaders end their rule because its people’s voice is powerful enough to execute that change, and they have the freedom to do so.

What’s the point of boundaries, sovereignty, citizenships? How do they help us move forward as a species? Despite being the most evolved species we still live in packs like wolves. We are one society: humans. The sooner we recognize that the better off we’ll be. For we’ll no longer let the neighbor torture others and declare sovereignty. Sovereignty my ass.

Over the past one week my greatest headache has been moving data that is locally stored on the android app to the web. I designed the app to regularly store data on an sqlite3 database knowing that this would easily be exported to a MYSQL database online. Apparently that wasn’t the hardest part. There are several softwares that you can get online for easily converting sqlite3 to MYSQL which you’d then be able to easily import to your database using phpmyadmin or something. However the app since the app that am working on requires that once a user presses Export on the app he/she can immediately view the data on a web interface. So manual exporting is not an option here.

The database is first exported to an SD card, then uploaded and processed by a PHP script.

For data backup we have the following class:

try {

File sd = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory();

File data = Environment.getDataDirectory();

if (sd.canWrite()) {

String currentDBPath = “\\data\\com.blabla.bla\\databases\\dbname”;

String backupDBPath = “dbname”;

File currentDB = new File(data, currentDBPath);

File backupDB = new File(sd, backupDBPath);

FileChannel src = new FileInputStream(currentDB).getChannel();

FileChannel dst = new FileOutputStream(backupDB).getChannel();

dst.transferFrom(src, 0, src.size());

src.close();

dst.close();

Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(), “Data has been backed up at: “+backupDB.toString(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

}

} catch (Exception e) {

Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(), e.toString(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

}

}

Uploading to db we have this:

private String Tag = “UPLOADER”;

private String urlString = “http://yoursiteurl/uploads.php”;

HttpURLConnection conn;

And the class:

String exsistingFileName = “/sdcard/dbname”;

String lineEnd = “\r\n”;

String twoHyphens = “–”;

String boundary = “*****”;

try {

// —————— CLIENT REQUEST

Log.e(Tag, “Inside second Method”);

FileInputStream fileInputStream = new FileInputStream(new File(

exsistingFileName));

// open a URL connection to the Servlet

URL url = new URL(urlString);

// Open a HTTP connection to the URL

conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();

// Allow Inputs

conn.setDoInput(true);

// Allow Outputs

conn.setDoOutput(true);

// Don’t use a cached copy.

conn.setUseCaches(false);

// Use a post method.

conn.setRequestMethod(“POST”);

conn.setRequestProperty(“Connection”, “Keep-Alive”);

conn.setRequestProperty(“Content-Type”,

“multipart/form-data;boundary=” + boundary);

DataOutputStream dos = new DataOutputStream(conn.getOutputStream());

dos.writeBytes(twoHyphens + boundary + lineEnd);

dos

.writeBytes(“Content-Disposition: post-data; name=uploadedfile;filename=”

+ exsistingFileName + “” + lineEnd);

dos.writeBytes(lineEnd);

Log.e(Tag, “Headers are written”);

// create a buffer of maximum size

int bytesAvailable = fileInputStream.available();

int maxBufferSize = 1000;

// int bufferSize = Math.min(bytesAvailable, maxBufferSize);

byte[] buffer = new byte[bytesAvailable];

// read file and write it into form…

int bytesRead = fileInputStream.read(buffer, 0, bytesAvailable);

while (bytesRead > 0) {

dos.write(buffer, 0, bytesAvailable);

bytesAvailable = fileInputStream.available();

bytesAvailable = Math.min(bytesAvailable, maxBufferSize);

bytesRead = fileInputStream.read(buffer, 0, bytesAvailable);

}

// send multipart form data necesssary after file data…

dos.writeBytes(lineEnd);

dos.writeBytes(twoHyphens + boundary + twoHyphens + lineEnd);

// close streams

Log.e(Tag, “File is written”);

fileInputStream.close();

dos.flush();

dos.close();

} catch (MalformedURLException ex) {

Log.e(Tag, “error: ” + ex.getMessage(), ex);

}

catch (IOException ioe) {

Log.e(Tag, “error: ” + ioe.getMessage(), ioe);

Toast.makeText(Action1.this, “No Internet Connection!”, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

}

try {

BufferedReader rd = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn

.getInputStream()));

String line;

while ((line = rd.readLine()) != null) {

Log.e(“Dialoge Box”, “Message: ” + line);

Toast.makeText(Action1.this, line, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

}

rd.close();

} catch (IOException ioex) {

Log.e(“MediaPlayer”, “error: ” + ioex.getMessage(), ioex);

}

}

For the above classes to work you must allow permissions for INTERNET and WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE  on the manifest file otherwise they won’t work.

The upload path specificied in the uploading class should point to the following PHP file:

<?php

$target_path = “uploads/”;

$target_path = $target_path . basename( $_FILES['uploadedfile']['name']);

if(move_uploaded_file($_FILES['uploadedfile']['tmp_name'], $target_path)) {

echo “The file “. basename( $_FILES['uploadedfile']['name']).

” has been uploaded”;

} else{

echo “There was an error uploading the file, please try again!”;

}

header(‘Location:process.php’);

?>

Remember to allow group write permission for the uploads/ folder.

Working with Sqlite3 with PHP is a big headache. Most servers default to Sqlite2 even if Sqlite3 is enabled and won’t work when you disable Sqlite2. I don’t know what that is about.  The following solution worked for me:

<?php

$db = new PDO(‘sqlite:databasename.sqlite’);

$result = $db->query(‘SELECT * FROM tablename’);

foreach($result as $row)

{

Echo $row[‘somecolumn’];

}

?>

My goal here was to eventually create mysql queries from the sqlite3 query using PHP and then to run them and have the MYSQL database populated with the data.