Cock And Bull

• Progress In Bytes

  Posted: February 6, 2010, 9:38 am by Administrator

  I couldn’t wait to get to the office this morning. The reason is because I was excited to see if my downloads completed overnight. Among others, I am downloading Season 5 of “Entourage”, the complete works of George Michael, Celine Dion, Dido, and James Last, and my favorite – a whole 95 episodes of “The Muppet Show”. When I look at the statistics on my computer, I have downloaded 10 GB or data and uploaded 5 GB of data. Part of the excitement is because until a few days ago, Safaricom would sell 1 GB of downloaded data for KShs. 2,500. Now, for KShs. 1,000 you have unlimited internet access for 7 days. In just 2 days, I have downloaded data worth over KShs. 25,000!

  For me, the proliferation of the Internet and the mobile phone are among the top indicators of just how much things can change in a few years. Slightly over 10 years ago, we would leave a 1 MB download to run overnight for 2 reasons; One, because it would take hours, and Two, because it was only at night when there would be a good chance that the download would complete successfully without timing out. It could take up to a week of daily attempts to successfully download a 1 MB software using a computer modem over the Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation’s telephone line. Of course back then having a land line was a great achievement.

  In 1990, I met a girl who had a key like none I had ever seen before. When I enquired what the key was used for, she said, “It is for my family’s home computer.” At that time, I had never seen a computer, and I couldn’t believe that anyone might have one at home. And from her description, I imagined that a computer had to look like a TV, but my deduction led me to conclude that it required an ignition key to turn on, just like a car!

  In 1999, I was ecstatic at buying my first computer – a Pentium 1 with 4.3 GB hard disk. I remember the Dixon my Tech savvy friend telling me, “The hard disk in this computer has so much space that even your children will never fill it with data!” Given that the largest storage medium I had at my disposal was the 1.44 MB floppy disk, that was easy to believe. Now, I don’t have children yet and have already filled hard disks with hundreds of GB worth of data.

  From how we know it today, how different will the world be in 20 years?

• I Bet You Can

  Posted: February 6, 2010, 8:50 am by Administrator

  The other day, I made a bet with a total stranger who didn’t believe that it is possible for anyone to swim 50 lengths of the swimming pool without stopping. And it all started when I mentioned that I like swimming. That is when she asked how many lengths I can make in a pool. And so I said 50 because that was the number that I had done earlier in the day. She called me a liar, and that is when we shook hands on the bet for KShs. 1,000.

  But neither would I have thought that swimming for a long distance was possible had I not lived in Mombasa about 2 years ago. In fact, I would have summed it in the same way that my friend did in an email, “When I go into the pool I’m so anxious to make this lap… and that lap… up to there, then I have chlorine in my eyes and in my mouth and after a few minutes I want to get out .” In the 6 months that I stayed at the coastal town, I would swim out into the open sea each day that I went to the beach. I would swim for as far as my courage and strength would allow me to. In the process, I learnt that the secret to swimming for long or far is to be relaxed; and especially if you are swimming in salty water, and against the waves.

  Now, what is the number 1 secret to being relaxed? Breathe!

  If you breathe effectively as you swim, it can become as effortless as walking, and with a little practice with your stroke you can easily do 50 or more lengths. It is possible to do this because it requires very little effort from your side to float or for your body to move through water. Why? Because of the buoying properties of water. Now imagine, if you were to walk up and down the length of a pool, how much effort would you require to do 50 lengths? Now imagine once again, if you were to walk up and down the length of a pool while holding your breathe, how many lengths would you be able to make? The only reason why many people only manage to blindly churn across the pool for a few meters and come up dazed is because they do it while holding their breathe. For anyone who thinks that swimming is hard work, learning how to breathe while in water totally changes everything!

  If you can breathe effectively as you swim – or as you do anything else for that matter – then it becomes as effortless as walking.

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes