NUBIAN KNIGHTS NETWORK: Thursday, January 28, 2010

QUOTATIONS OF "BLACK"

"Whenever I use BLACK it relates to some history of Africans in that particular place. It’s the idea of the color BLACK as a metaphor, or as a representation of African-Americans. It’s the notion of BLACK- BLACKNESS - and all its other meanings in relation to the history of race..."

- Fred Wilson

"Most of my fortitude to continue doing the work comes from the moral outrage I feel about the injustices that Black people endure disproportionately daily."

- N. Abdul-Wakil

"In the end, what matters is not skin shade but pan-African consciousness. Loving your complexion, your nose, lips, hair length and texture, no matter what the politics or trends decide, and simply be. That's the problem with us (African folks). We're still learning how to love ourselves. So used to glorifying others and putting others first..."

- Dredlocks Tree

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Apple iPad Faulters In My Opinion
Still Eyeing The Nokia N900

This isn't usually isn't the focus of Nubian Knights Network, but wanted to make a few comments about the Apple iPad anyhow.

First, the hype surrounding this device has been incredibly and monumentally HUGE to say the least if you're been following all the tech websites and blog reports. Ok! So the iPad is here now and from y perspective it is just okay and will be interesting to see whether it lives or dies. I watched the keynote address by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and as usual he delivers a stellar performance. Beyond that I'm always practical in assessment in how any device can be useful to me.

First, I've never been a Apple fan boy. I will say I LOVE the design and implementation of Apple products, but never to the point of actually buying a product. I find their devices incredibly rigid from an upgrade or tinkering perspective. You have to buy everything through them and most things cost an arm and leg. Apple always has a shrewd marketing campaign of why you need to buy their devices. However, I look at technology from a rational stand point for myself and I'll say quickly that the reason why I never embraced the iPhone is because:

(1) No physical keyboard

(2) No slot for removable flash card media (secure digital [SD] or micro secure digital)

(3) No removable battery (so if the battery dies you can replace it, or if one is a heavy mobile tech user, you may want to carry a second battery and swap that into your device should your first battery go down during your day due to a low battery failure).

(4) No multi-tasking capability (the ability to move between multiple software applications)

Now we come to the new Apple iPad which Steve Jobs claimed in his keynote speech is a logical device that fits inbetween the smartphone and the laptop markets which the netbook market has failed to do. While I like a lot of what the iPad does during the demonstration, i is an oversized iPod; but if you're going to increase screen size (and offer an optional keyboard) then you need to scale performance.

To that end:

(1) Why are there no USB or firewire (IEEE 1394) ports to connect external device?
In fact, there's a special and optional Camera Connection Kit which gives you two ways to import photos and videos from a digital camera. WHY does one have to purchase this device???!!!! IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUILT IN!!!

(2) Why is there no built in camera?

(3) With optional 3G and wi-fi capabilities for the iPad, why is there no option to plug in a USB headset or bluetooth headset to make phone calls?

(4) Why is Apple in the bed and tethered with AT&T Mobility once again (and not with Verizon Wireless or one of the other networks)? It has been widely reported that AT&T's wireless cell network has been overloaded due to people using their smartphones to download data which involves the general Internet along with Facebook, Twitter and the like. And the kicker is that most of the overloads are coming from iPhone users on the AT&T network. The iPad just exasperates the network more with it's (optional) built in 3G abilities.

I give apple credit or making a earth friendly and "green" device, but as functional task device it is limited. In my opinion it wouldn't be a device that fits in my life in between a smartphone or laptop. At this point I'm still looking to purchase the Nokia N900 smartphone and be happy with that.

Nokia N900 Internet Tablet/Smartphone

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez Forgives
Haiti’s $295 Million Dollar Debt

The ManilaTimes.net
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

CARACAS, Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) said that Petrocaribe, Venezuela’s cut-rate regional energy alliance, will forgive quake-stricken Haiti’s debt. Haiti’s debt with Venezuela is $295 million, about one-third of its global foreign debt of $1 billion, according to International Monetary Fund figures.

“Haiti has no debt with Venezuela—on the contrary, it is Venezuela that has a historic debt with Haiti,” Chavez said as he made the announcement.

Chavez was referring to the support that Haiti—which obtained its independence from France in 1804—gave Venezuelan independence leader Simon Bolivar in 1815 and 1816 in his quest to free his country from Spanish colonial rule.

Chavez made the announcement at the closing ceremony of a meeting of foreign ministers from leftist countries with the ALBA trade alliance, a Cuba and Venezuela-supported regional common market founded in 2004.

Petrocaribe provides preferential oil pricing for its Caribbean members, with Venezuela picking up 40 percent of the cost if oil is selling over $50 a barrel.

When oil prices are above $50, member states will have up to 25 years to pay the bulk of the debt at a one percent interest rate, with two years grace.

Haiti, struggling to recover from the January 12 devastating 7.0 earthquake, received in the past days 225,000 barrels of Petrocaribe oil sent through the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Both Haiti and the Dominican Republic are Petrocaribe members.

Other Petrocaribe members include Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, SaintVincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as founding member Venezuela.

Separately, ALBA foreign ministers approved an aid package for Haiti that includes sanitary, energy, financial and educational assistance.

The ministers also expressed their concern over the “excessive foreign military presence” in the Caribbean nation, with no clear parameters over its “authority, purpose, role and length of stay.”

Their presence “threatens to further complicate conditions on the ground and . . . international cooperation” for Haitian reconstruction, the ministers said.

They called on United Nations to take a central role in coordinating emergency efforts, and emphasized that the Haitians must take the lead in their country’s reconstruction.
AFP