Monion Solutions

17/07/2018

AMAZON FOUNDER Jeff Bezos worth $150 billion, becomes the richest man in the world, Bill Gates comes in 2nd.

“AMAZON FOUNDER Jeff Bezos worth $150 billion, becomes the richest man in the world, Bill Gates comes in 2nd.”

01/09/2017

ELECTIONS & TECHNOLOGY

The introduction of information and communications technologies (ICT) into the electoral process is generating both interest and concern among voters, as well as practitioners across the globe. Today, most electoral management bodies (EMBs) around the world use new technologies with the aim of improving the electoral process. These technologies range from the use of basic office automation tools such as word processing and spreadsheets to more sophisticated data processing tools, such as data base management systems, optical scanning and geographic information systems.

Some of these tools have been available for some time and their strengths and weaknesses are well known. Every year, however, new technologies and tools that are not as well known are introduced to the market. As this is being written, for instance, there are several voting systems in use that automate the recording and/or counting of votes cast. Other systems verify voter eligibility and voter authentication. Some countries are also experimenting with Internet voting as a way to facilitate voting and to increase voter participation in elections. All of these efforts aim to ensure the credibility of the democratic process and the reliability of elections results.

While these technologies open up new frontiers and offer new possibilities for the electoral process, especially for voting operations, there may be unforeseen risks involved, such as an increase in vote selling or difficulty in auditing election results. Careful consideration also needs to be given to the risks of inappropriate or untimely introduction of technology, especially if it has the potential to compromise transparency, local ownership or sustainability of the electoral process.

Among all of the new technologies being introduced, public attention is focused mainly on those that support electronic voting (E-voting), and the ACE Project has prepared a "Focus On" section on this subject. However, the aim of the Elections and Technology topic area is to introduce technologies that have an impact on a variety of activities related to the administration of elections.

17/07/2017

Excerpts:

Is Ushahidi under siege?

Once considered the shining, living example of a social enterprise, doing well by doing good, Ushahidi, the crisis reporting platform, is facing serious governance challenges that are eroding its reputation by the minute.

Arguably one of Kenya’s most highly rated and globally recognised technology companies, Ushahidi is under pressure from the Kenyan technology ecosystem to fire its CEO and the entire Board of Directors for mismanaging a sexual harassment allegation.

14/07/2017

Top KE Banks team up to launch the modest way of paying your bills in town.

mVisa is the simple, fast and secure way to be paid using your mobile.

Eliminating barriers like transaction costs, gives customers a convenient, secure & affordable experience -via - Sunny Walia Visa GM E.A

13/07/2017

Safaricom is among five new Mobile Operators signatories to the Connected Women Initiative by GSMA, an initiative that seeks to reduce the gender gap in mobile internet and mobile money services and unlock significant commercial and socio-economic opportunities.

The other new signatories to the Connected Women Commitment Initiative include EconetLeo, Orange Cote d’Ivoire, Telenor Pakistan and Vodacom Tanzania. The five companies join with other GSMA operator members in committing to connect millions more women in low- and middle-income countries by 2020.

The announcement was made during the ongoing GSMA Mobile 360 Africa that kicked off in Dar-es-Salaam Tanzania today.

11/07/2017

Big Data is not only and simply data, but is part of a complete process. Companies are in urgent need of managing its acquisition, presentation, sharing, analysis and viewing.

Get the specialists to walk you through the big data universe, examining all its aspects: from strategy definition to methodologies and application, from threats to opportunities.

07/07/2017

Todays world, digital technology is seen as vital for economic development. In the U.S. alone, the internet accounts for about six percent of the entire economy. Digital technology has expanded its role in the global economy in recent years, as both developed and developing nations have become increasingly reliant on the internet.

The centrality of the internet to social and economic life recently led the United Nations to enact a resolution supporting the “promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the internet.” The resolution specifically condemns state efforts to intentionally prevent or disrupt access to information online.

Yet powerful forces continue to threaten the vitality of the internet. In recent years, a number of countries have blocked particular applications, shut down specific digital services, turned off mobile telecommunications services, or disrupted the entire internet. Government officials give many reasons for ordering these disruptions, such as safeguarding government authority, reducing public dissidence, fighting terrorism, maintaining national security, or protecting local businesses.

28/06/2017

A new wave of cyber attacks has once again hit the IT industry, a few weeks after the WannaCry massive attack.

Once again it is a ransomware that is infecting computers worldwide creating chaos. Systems at banks, power suppliers and businesses in Spain, UK, Russia, Ukraine, Netherlands, Denmark and India have been targeted by Petwrap.

Petya/Petwrap/NotPetya ransomware reboots victim's computer, encrypts master file table including rendering the master boot records (MBR) of infected Windows computer, thus making the affected computer unusable. While Petya has not infiltrated as many machines as ransomware WannaCry did in May, it is more dangerous and has the power to create more damage.

Currently, only a small portion of antivirus is able to detect the threat, according to VirusTotal, only 15 out of 61 anti-virus services are able to detect Petwrap.

To safeguard against any ransomware infection:



Always be suspicious of unwanted files or documents sent over an email;

Do not click on links inside them unless verifying the source;

Keep a good back-up routine in place that makes their copies to an external storage device that isn't always connected to your PC;

Make sure that you run a good and effective anti-virus security suite on your system and keep it up-to-date.

01/06/2017

Is Technology Becoming More Fragile?

Technology is fragile. The more useful it becomes, the more fragile it is. The more things technology can do, the smaller and more compact it gets, the more fragile it is. Not only that, it becomes much more wasteful as well.

Let's take, for example, my favourite piece of technology, the computer. The computer is a wonderful piece of technology which I have been fortunate to work with and see evolve from before 640k of ram was good enough (my first computer had a massive 16k of ram) to a palm-sized glass fronted slab with more computing power than we know what to do with (mostly looking at cat videos).

The computers of yesteryear were fantastic pieces of technology, no different in operation from today's computer, just much, much slower and with fewer resources, however, if they broke down they could easily be fixed by just about anyone handy with a soldering iron.

My second computer, an Apple Europlus ][e, was a tinkerers dream and it actually did break down on me (I can almost hear the shocked intake of breath from Apple fans boyz and girlz). Fortunately, the manual which came with the computer had a complete electronic schematic which allowed me to easily narrow down the busted chip. I then pulled another chip from some spare parts and was back up and running before you could say Bob's your uncle.

If a chip on a computer made today, any computer, were to break down then the whole computer would most likely be thrown away and a new one bought. That is the wasteful bit.

The fragile bit is because they are so complex that there are so many more things which can go wrong and they are so tightly bound together that the domino effect is much greater.

29/05/2017

Truecaller targets Kenya in Africa advertising plan

SUNDAY, MAY 28, 2017 18:53 BY MUTHOKI MUMO

Truecaller will start operating Truecaller Ads in Africa, including Kenya.

Swedish firm Truecaller has stepped into the African advertising space as it seeks to monetise its mobile application user base on the continent.
In a statement, the social media firm says it will start operating Truecaller Ads in Africa, including Kenya. This means that companies can now advertise on the Truecaller application, which has about 40 million users in Africa.
“In today’s digital era where consumers spend a considerable amount of their time on their mobile devices, it’s time to engage with consumers in the most concerted manner for the mobile-first community,” said Truecaller’s chief commercial officer, Ted Nelson.

18/05/2017

Technology is moving so fast that society could soon feel the repercussions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Here are some of the disruptive technologies that are set to radically transform manufacturing once again.
In the late 18th century, new manufacturing processes – largely driven by water and stream power – saw major growth in industries such as coal, iron and textiles, that led to profound economic and social change. This is today widely recognised as the First Industrial Revolution.
By the final third of the 19th century, the Second Industrial Revolution had arrived and with it came new innovations in electricity, petroleum and steel that led to many important new products and inventions – the most famous of which was the automobile.
The first two revolutions helped create a more affluent and urbanised society. The introduction of computers and automation has accelerated society further and we are currently living through the Third Industrial Revolution, when industry and society are becoming increasingly digital.
Smart manufacturing is on the horizon, arming manufacturers with data that they can use to increase efficiencies and drive new levels of productivity. Integral to this are disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud, autonomous vehicles, big data and analytics, 3D printing, nanotechnology and biotechnology.
There is a growing argument that these technologies are evolving so fast that the world is already approaching the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The latest Cisco Visual Networking Index offers a statistical sneak-peek into the not- so-distant future. It estimates that by 2020 there will be 4.1 billion global internet users and more than 12 billion global machine- to-machine (M2M) connections (up from 4.9 billion in 2015). While in the Middle East and Africa, M2M connections are set to grow from 200 million in 2015 to 536 million in 2020.
The significant rise in connected devices is paving the way for more widespread and smarter automation in the manufacturing space, which is further accelerated by a new generation of cheaper and safer robots. Over the last century, we have made the transition from people manually building cars to robots assembling cars – and artificial intelligence will continue to be a game changer in an industry typically driven by cost reduction.
If we examine some of the other breakthrough technologies that could potentially form part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution then 3D printers would also be top of the pile. The technology has the capability to replace mass manufacturing with products customised for individual requirements.
The Middle East and Africa is expected to be some of the highest growth markets for 3D printing in the coming years. Spending on 3D printing in the Middle East and Africa market is set to reach $1.3 billion by 2019, according to research from International Data Corporation (IDC).
Like the revolutions before it, the Fourth Industrial Revolution offers the potential to improve living standards and raise income levels globally. Its success hinges on the application of disruptive technologies across many industry sectors – but it seems manufacturing could lead the way.