Computing Trivia

Unlike PCs that present nightmares for Gīkūyū writers, Android inadvertently solved the keyboard constraints that the typical PC presents. The two letters ī and ū in Gīkūyū require a tilde (~) above the letter. The Android keyboard (am using 5.1) offers a way out if you can tolerate the bar instead of tilde.  To get ū, press the letter u and hold for a second. You will see the following letters  displayed from which you can chose:  ū ü ù û ú In a similar way, you can select i and press the key for a second to get ì ï ī î í from which you can chose the desired letter.  If you want upper case letters, press the shift button first↑. Hence you can get  Ū and Ī. Cheers as you gleefully enjoy your vernacular. Above everything, the Messiah is coming soon . Prepare well 

It appears to. But hold it: Is it node.js at fault or your good self? Its probably you, dear earthling. yet again, you got mixed up and now, when you type > node main.js , it rudely answers: 'node' is not recognized as an internal or external command ! After going all over and getting excruciatingly detailed help on how to set up a PATH statement in Windows (as if you were a students of Computer 101), you are ready to pull out all your (remaining?) hair (its actually easier to cut by the way, and less painful). However, check this most simple possibility: You clicked the wrong button during your installation. Watch and learn: 1. Step 1: Download the 32bit or 64bit node.js installer file 2. Launch the installer and you get the following: 3. Problems may occur in the next screens that looks like this: 4. If you click on the little arrow in each button, its important to read the options offered as illustrated below:   The options are: W...

If you deliberately or accidentally change an Acer Aspire V5-471 (probably other Acers as well) boot setting from UEFI to BIOS, then you may be in for a shock when you try to start the laptop. You may get the message Operating System Not Found  on the top left corner of your screen or something similar. Ideally you can press F2 during booting and get into booting settings and change them but in my case F2 does not work! Nothing works - neither a bootable DVD, bootable USB drive or whatever else you throw at it to try to get the machine to wake from coma. You could spend a year searching various forums. You will learn very little. Some will call you dumb for messing up your BIOS settings. The answer came from a very smart guy from Nakuru, Kenya called Weru (it means Savannah as in Savannah Institute for Business and Informatics ). Open the machine's casing. Pull out the motherboard. Remove the BIOS button battery. In the laptop motherboard above, the battery in the r...

Orange Kenya should pay me for publicizing their tariffs. They are so bad at publicity and promotion they should get the price for the worst marketing among telcom companies in Kenya. Strangely, they collect the emails (or should collect) of those who register SIM cards but have no clue what to do with all that data. TKL - please show a bit of innovation! So here's the "Time based" tariffs of Telkom Kenya (so-called Orange Kenya): http://www.orange.co.ke/en/internet-on-modem/ You can buy a one-week "unlimited" bundle for KSh. 990. The bundle is not really unlimited because there is a Fair Use Policy limit of 10GB. If you exceed that limit before the 7-day period is over, speeds drop to 256kbps. The 30-day package  (KSh. 2,990) will get you only 20GB in 30 days. You can load up airtime via PesaPal by going to Lipa na MPESA on your phone's MPESA menu and selecting Paybill then give the business number as 220220. When asked for the account numbe...

Once upon a time, a Java app called Meneno Engine was created that now peacefully resides on Sourceforge. Its mission was to translate English words into Kiswahili or vice versa. Then in 2014, an Android app to do the same job was created. Egerton University graciously funded the development of a new word list harvested from high quality Kiswahili language texts. A new version of the Maneno Engine app should be available for download next months (April). Watch this space. Maneno Engine dummy screens: Icons? On the way. They are floating down the currents of the heavenlies where they come from.

There are many instances when you want to obtain information about the specifications and capabilities of your processor whether in a PC/laptop or in a phone or tablet. One interesting tool that can help you is CPU-Z. As an example, in order to use HAXM emulator accelerator, the processor needs to have EM64T (Intel® 64), and Execute Disable (XD) Bit functionality enabled. How can you tell if it has? You can install and run CPU-Z. The screenshot below is from the PC version of CPU-Z. In the "Instructions" section  you will find EM64T and VT -x are activated hence HAXM is good to go. The image below is from the Android version of CPU-Z: Notice it has a menu for device specifications, system, battery and thermal properties. Best wishes with your hardware hacks.

After trying the VirtualRouter for a while, it got inebriated and started giving out the error that "A device attached to the system is not working." After unsuccessfully trying to repair or re-install, I dug deeper and discovered that indeed a device was not working. Somehow the built-in WiFi card was turned off and couldn't be turned on with the F3 key (on this laptop its the F3 key that switches  wireless networks on &  off ).  However, if you visit the Network Sharing Centre , select Change Adapter Settings then right-click on the WiFi adapter and select Diagnose , the diagnostic tool should report that your WiFi network is off. It  should either turn it on automatically or give you the option to turn it on. VirtualRouter turns your PC into a WiFi hotspot. No need for those gadgets that do a very lousy job trying to be hotspots. The software is entirely free. The shared connection could be your modem or LAN.