There is a robot presenter on Kiss TV!(TV2.0?)

You have probably requested for a song to be played on radio or tv before. And your song may not have been played because there were too many requests on line or the DJ had his/her own idea of what the play-list should look like. Well, Kiss TV TVR(Total video request) changes that. Imagine using your mobile phone as a TV remote and watching its effect live on your TV screen!

This is probably the most interactive TV song request show on the planet. Here is how it works:

You dial 0711088888(not some highly priced premium call line) then you are notified of your position on the queue of the guys already waiting. Its not a very popular show so you should get less than 20 people waiting. Every time someone selects a song or gets disconnected, you move one step closer to number one and you get notified. As you wait on the line, you hear the current song playing on your phone as you watch it on TV!

When you get to number 1, you’ll see the categories of the available songs on a small window on TV. You select a category by entering the codename of the category that is written beside it. To go to the next page or previous page you press * or # respectively. After selecting the song you want, you dial the short code and that’s it. Then instantly, you’ll see on your TV screen your song being added on the playlist and the play time shown. For example: Will you be there Play time 01:23. When the time comes, it automatically plays.

This is a completely autonomous system and a brilliant use of technology. Way to go Kiss Team. However, it is not a very interactive show, as you don’t actually get to talk to the presenters. Maybe they should also introduce a chat interface like in EATV so that viewers can at least talk to each other.

If there is such thing as TV2.0, this is it. And Kiss Media are the first guys in Africa to implement the technology. Keep it up!

Forget Adsense, Kenyan site owners can now actually earn money online

webPesa is East Africa's ad server intended to make advertising localized and revenue earning simple , fast and efficient. After signup you get your own control panel as an advertiser or a publisher. The best thing about this server is that payment starts at Ksh 500 and advertising for the same price. You however need a safaricom line that is mpesa activated and must be at least a resident of East Africa.
Easily manage your ad inventory.
webPesa Ad Server lets you organize and manage all of your ad inventory under one easy to use interface no matter how many websites you have. It works with all kinds of ad formats, ranging from simple banners to rich media. And it’s designed to deliver your ads as fast as possible, regardless of the number of ads on each page.


Deliver what you want to whom you want.

With webPesa Ad Server, you can manage and target your ads any way you want. Use prioritization controls to optimize how your ads are delivered. Use frequency controls to limit how often campaigns are shown. And use targeting to serve the most relevant ads to your audience. There’s no limit to the flexibility you have over the delivery of your ads.
Measure the performance of your ads.
webPesa Ad Server’s extensive set of reports provides comprehensive statistics on your websites and ad zones as well as your advertisers and ad campaigns. Get detailed breakdowns on ad delivery, conversions, revenue and more.
Benefits to site owners
This is why you will choose webpesa over adsense:

- Payment is by mpesa(whenever you need), no need to wait 2 weeks for cheque.

-Payments start at Ksh 500 unlike for adsense where you have to wait for it to reach US$100(about Ksh 8000)

-Account cannot be disabled without notification on abuse of service.

- Our service iswatched over by the Ministry of Information and Communication.
Benefits to publishers
- Own Control Panel to watch stats

- Choose target traffic

- Advertising rates start at Ksh 500 (cheapest ever)

- Designing of ads free

Mashada. the ultimate web2.0?

If there is only one website management team in Kenya’s cyberspace industry that is always working round the clock to deliver, then its got to be the Mashada admin. I’ve seen the website transform from a basic phpBB powered forum t the country’s ultimate web2.0.

If you need to see a practical example of social media in action then this is where to go.

At the sign up page there is the option of using Facebook Connect.Facebook connect is an application that enables site owners to allow visitors acces their content using their facebook information. After accessing the site, you should be able to invite a limited number of your facebook friends, and even know of any of your friends who are already using the site. Plus, it alos publishes your activity stream on facebook wall.

One of the things that get to strike you at first is the twitter stream on the frontpage. Unlike most twitter streams embedded on websites, this one gives you updates from several users, and you may vote down or up an entry. Brilliant idea! Except that it may not be sensible if the tweets are frequent.

Mashada is in many ways like Haiya, which I reviewed recently, but from the word go, you realize that guys are more talkative here. The forums are well categorized( and “subcategorized”), and you get several responses on posting an interesting topic. Or any topic.

There is always a dozen ,or about, of people chatting in the Kahawa Chat. The chat interface has customizable settings for alerts, status and appearance. The desktop version is flashy, but I didn’t get the mobile version to work on my device. Maybe its the problem with the phone, or maybe the beta version doesn’t actually work. The system comes with normal chat functions like private rooms, customizable font etcetra.And one of the best things about it, you don’t need to sign up in order to start chatting. This is awesome for guys who are looking for a quick chat. But obviously you willl need to sin up to get offline messages and chat history.

Th blog aggregator is also commendable. It reads feeds from selected Kenyan blogs. I however don’t know their selection criteria because I tried getting a blog to be read but I haven’t got a reply yet.

Basically, Mashada is one site where you will not get bored, whether you are a normal person looking to talk politics or you are a nerd with time in his hands. It is not a just a customized open source script that was installed. They clearly know who they want to get there, how to keep guys there,armed with the latest skill on social media and good programming knowledge. Good work guys.

Hacking Vista: Unlock the supersecret Administrator account

Deep inside the bowels of Windows Vista, there's a secret Administrator account, and it's different from the normal administrator account you most likely have set up on your PC. This Administrator account is not part of the Administrator group. (Confused yet? You should be.) It's a kind of superadministrator, akin to the root account in Unix, and by default it's turned off and hidden. (In describing this hack, we'll always use the capital "A" for the secret Administrator account, and a lowercase "a" for a normal administrator account.)

In versions of Windows before Windows Vista, the Administrator account wasn't hidden, and many people used it as their main or only account. This Administrator account had full rights over the computer.

In Windows Vista, Microsoft changed that. In Vista, the Administrator account is not subject to UAC, but normal administrator accounts are. So the Administrator can make any changes to the system and will see no UAC prompts.

Turning on the Administrator account is straightforward. First, open an elevated command prompt by typing cmd into the Search box on the Start menu, right-clicking the command prompt icon that appears at the top of the Start menu, then selecting Run as administrator -- or just use the shortcut you created in the previous hack.

Then enter this command and press Enter:

Net user administrator /active:yes

From now on, the Administrator account will appear as an option on the Welcome screen, along with any user accounts you may have set up. Use it like any other account. Be aware that it won't have a password yet, so it's a good idea to set a password for it.

If you want to disable the account and hide it, enter this command at an elevated command prompt and press Enter:

Net user administrator /active:no