theblackbottom

By: Kimberly Bryant

When I was first introduced to computer programming, as a freshman in Electrical Engineering, Fortran and Pascal were the popular languages for newbies in computing and the Apple Macintosh was the new kid on the block. I remember being excited by the prospects, and looked forward to embarking on a rich and rewarding [...]

Source: The Guardian
In 2009, businessman Femi Akinde needed to travel quickly across Nigeria. Without immediate access to the internet, it took him a day to book a plane ticket. Finding a number to make a phone reservation took time; connecting – on erratic phone lines – even longer; and bank forms had to be filled in [...]

NPR
by Amy Standen
July 23, 2012 from KQED
If there is a founding ethos in the world of high-tech startups, it’s this: The idea is everything. Facebook’s initial public offering might have seemed like the perfect illustration. A simple concept, conceived by a college student, became a $100 billion empire in just 8 years.
But if you look [...]

M
From The Washington Post
Seven in 10 American adults online are using video sharing sites such as YouTube, with minority users leading the way, according to a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
And much of the video streaming is being done on mobile devices, according to a separate study, which reported that YouTube [...]

Decades ago I read a book by the French philosopher and anarchist Jacques Ellul titled the Technological Society (in French La Technique: L’enjeu du siècle). It was revealing book for me. Ellul observed how production techniques in the Western world took on its own self-reinforcing rationality.
Stated another way, the techniques we use to create machinery [...]

SXSW Interviews Tristan Walker Head of Business Development for social-networking website Foursquare. Foursquare is a location-based social networking website for mobile devices, such as smartphones. Users “check-in” at venues using a mobile website, text messaging or a device-specific application by selecting from a list of venues the application locates nearby. Location is based on GPS [...]

Source: IPS News
Frequent power cuts have led people in rural areas of Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal to turn to solar energy for electricity.
Promoters of solar panels say more than 80 villages in Senegal are already benefiting from this renewable energy source; in neighbouring Mali, more than 150 communities are enjoying solar power.
According to solar [...]

Article By:Huffington Post
Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder and former CEO, has died at the age of 56.
Apple has posted this statement on its website:
Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work [...]

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, and educated in the Cleveland Public Schools, Adam Banks received his BA in English from Cleveland State University, and his MA and PhD both in English from Penn State University. Professor Banks is currently Associate Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Media at the University of Kentucky, where [...]

We love seeing this exciting Korean designed technology introduced on the African continent, but we will be even more excited when we see this kind of technology produced on the continent by African themselves.

The world’s first solar-powered netbook
was recently released in Kenya.

Wilma den Hartigh
Source: Media Club South Africa
The world’s first solar-powered [...]