David Wampamba

Category: Human progress

  • You will most certainly love this reading about coding

    You will most certainly love this reading about coding

    If you want to be a relevant developer 5, 10 or 15 years to come, don’t make no mistake and ditch JavaScript.
     
    Avoid the hype of emerging frameworks if you don’t trust your JavaScript vanilla knowledge and skills. Of course many smart developers in your network will put up a strong challenge which will most certainly make you feel irrelevant but man up and stick to what’s fundamentally right.
     
    Don’t take it for granted, if you have strong vanilla skills you would be able to learn and grasp almost any JavaScript framework or library or plugin in less than 72 hours or so.
     
    Have an understanding that competent developers, don’t work solo, they have an ecosystem consisting of teams. You’d rather code a process in vanilla that you understand than copying and pasting some library code in the app but you can’t answer why, what, when and how. Efficient software is developed by patient and efficient coders.
     
    On top of that learn C++ or Java which languages have been around for forever on top of having top notch OOP maturity level. Which any JS library is embracing but sometimes it’s harder to grasp in JavaScript if you don’t compare it to how it’s done in another language.
     
    Since most processes in JS are asynchronous it’s the not the same in JAVA and C++ perhaps giving you a big opportunity to understand both entirely.
     
    Last but not least, relevancy is subjective though the more efficient solutions you put out in production is relative to the large number of human problems you are helping to solve but you can’t achieve that if you don’t learn and practice breaking down complex tasks into simple modules on paper before getting your hands dirty.
  • Learn to develop web applications the modern way – Part 3

    Learn to develop web applications the modern way – Part 3

    In the programming industry like others, you will find many terms(vocabulary) which are not usual in  common speech. In this article of the series about “learning how to develop web applications in the modern way”, allow me introduce to some of those terms. In case you missed reading some parts,  click here to read part one or click an item in the table of contents below.

    1. Prerequisite
    2. Web design vs Web applications development
    3. Extending is smart!
    4. Components of a Web application.
    5. Powering web applications with WordPress
    6. The do list application

    What is extending in programming? 
    In simple terms it’s the opposite of developing applications from scratch. In detail it means a coder will write his/her own application from the start to finish without using and relying on other programmers code. Therefore to extend is when a coder starts with someone’s code to develop an application or feature.
    In Object Oriented Programming paradigm, to extend means to derive/instantiate objects which inherit features in terms of method and properties from existing class(es).
    What are the advantages of extending?

    1. It makes programming a lot easier because you don’t have to write every line of code by yourself.
    2. It is cheaper than starting from scratch which will require a bigger team and tools for the team besides investing in the team to learn how to work together.
    3. Availability of help from all corners though this depends on the choice of framework. Most programmers choose a framework which has a large number of contributors, the profile of the founder, the number of tools in place and how old it is.
    4. Easier learning curve due to availability and supply of learning material on top of a comprehensive documentation.
    5. Ask me how people become better than others at coding and I will tell you that the secrete is hidden in reading code written by others whether good or bad coders.

    My personal recommendation is to spend more time creating solutions than learning how to create solutions. In the upcoming part, share about the basic and major components of a Web application.
    Merry Christmas and a marvelous New year.

  • A brief wonder about Uganda's leadership.

    A brief wonder about Uganda's leadership.

    Democracy.
    – A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.
    – a state governed under a system of democracy.
    – control of an organization or group by the majority of its members.
     
    Where is inclusion or leadership in the definitions above?
     
    But it doesn’t mean we have to act deaf and blind. If you participated in the bush war using the guns, it’s unnecessary to keep fighting in modern society using words and suppression methods to the population. As young Ugandans can feel the pain and see scars that the war left, probably the catalyst to the leadership negative behavior.
     
    Modernity encourages equity on top of the freedoms of speech, financial inclusion, education, inclusive leadership, share of leadership, mentor-ship, communication, health and security and protection that you promise.
     
    In observation the divide between the poor, middle and rich class is increasing day by day. The fear among citizens is increasing day by day and is observed from some who vote for your leadership just for the fear of the war which could stem if you lost.
     
    Is it what many of you in the army and governance of Uganda fought for? You would need to take a strategic step back and reflect, drawing from the examples of having members of parliament fighting in parliament before the nation, the expense of UGX29M on each individual parliament member to promote the change of article 102b in the constitution in a country where not even the senior public doctors and educators, earn a quarter of the equivalent. Yet the citizens pay taxes on a daily.
    Attached is the picture of Army in Zimbabwe capital Harare after what many refer to as a military coup to overthrow the oldest state leader in the world!
  • What will be able to do in 2018?

    What will be able to do in 2018?

    From experience I know either set your goals for the new year a few months before the end of the current year and be guaranteed some success or end wondering why you’re not developing as some of your colleagues and age mate. Not to mean to compete though, just emphasizing taking full responsibility.
    Last year, I planned to be a better coder, tech trainer, team member than the years before.
    At the moment of this writing am enjoying every moment I spend with fellow founders and employees at Gagawala Graphics limited. A branding agency located in Kampala, Uganda along Nasser road, where I double as a web developer and operations manager. We intentionally work in an open work space, producing crystal  clear prints, graphics, webs and mobile apps. Doubling responsibilities has never been as easy as said however much it’s a joy to see accomplishments in a good timing and through a peaceful way. Ours is a brand where people don’t get bigger salaries but everyone reports at work everyday, inclusive weekends sometimes.
    Towards mid 2016, I met someone who would actually be a fellow coder and great friend. I hadn’t found a challenge before until I met him. We shared ideas about our work and personal goals. You can really see someone energized and ready to face any code challenge in favor of helping businesses improve. He sets himself deadlines and meets them most of the time, he loves to help out friends if they are failing with a code challenge. It’s for Ronkas that I manned up and coded my first ever Hybrid Mobile app, which has taken me about 10 months. Being able to extend WordPress and build a custom API which serves our mobile app, has not only challenged me, it has made me a better coder and a web developer.
    I have also held a couple of tech training classes throughout this year teaching the basics of technology in local communities, to web development at Hostalite Cyber Academy and Metajua a coffee processing company.
    To be sincere am happy 2017 have achieved some and looking to 2018’s task. So what’s in the goals?
    Languages.
    With the availability of internet which looks to get cheaper next year, I hope to use this opportunity to learn some French and Swahili, which will be a big inspiration for the taking on Chinese. China an interesting country that I would love to visit someday maybe to import some tech items to my country or even export skills. I decide to learn French, because I love it and am looking forward to make friends which our neighbors in Kenya and would love to communicate effectively as much as possible.
    Career upgrade
    My path into technology started with selling translated movies to being a typing to serving in an internet cafe as assistant helping clients who were not comfortable to search on their own, repairing and troubleshooting computers and networking them to make sure they share resources efficiently.
    During my free time, I could learn about coding in HTML, PHP and little bit of JavaScript. When I left internet cafes, I co-found a business offering computer repair, network setups and consultation to internet cafes and small offices. Cutting the long story short I was aspiring to be a web designer which have done for some years and now want to upgrade to web and hybrid mobile app development. That said, in the new year I should be a MEAN or MERN stack developer. Able to use Mongo db, Express, ReactNative and NodeJs efficiently.
    Music
    As of now all I can say is that the piano has got 8 notes which are C, D, E, F, G, H, A, B also called 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 keys on the scale. These notes run across the low and high pitch sides whereby the low pitch is the left whereas the high pitch is the right of the piano. The player has got 10 fingers numbered started from the thumb as 1 to the little(pinky) as 5,
    At the moment am able to play the 8 notes as well as the C, D and F chords. Looking forward to a better piano and guitar player before end of 2018.
    I have a feeling I want to communicate and connect with many people of different life backgrounds and my involvement in such things will help.
    Want to advise me anything or wanna share with me your goals, let’s meet in the comments.
     
     
     
     
     
     

  • Our dreams have been awaken!

    Our dreams have been awaken!

    One of the reasons we started a community Mobile Digital Hub, is to introduce as many people as possible to technology in Uganda and around the world. Fulfilling this that task won’t only teach most Ugandans about technology, it will also encourage learning of many important skills for life.
    We discovered that most people who applied for the training were older than 19 years and had either little education background or none at all. When we introduced them to internet, and they learned how to carry out simple research with the internet you could see each of them one searching something of their own interest. One of them was searching about money lending businesses, the other was searching about the best schools in Uganda perhaps because she has a daughter who could start to go to school soon.
    On the graduation day we gave out both certificates of completion and participation, we also received a lot of feedback from the learners. [Photos coming soon]
     
     
     

  • A millionaire despite offering a world changing product for free for over 20 years.

    A millionaire despite offering a world changing product for free for over 20 years.

    Today I would like to publish about the creater of the web who happens to inspire me a lot because I resonate with his works.
    If you don’t know him, his real name is Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee from United Kingdom, born on June 8th, 1955 and a professor, computer scientist, engineer and public speaker widely known as Tim Berners-Lee.
    I think during his early days of employment there was a challenge to share and update information not only by the researchers where he used to work at CERN. In 1980 he proposed a solution which would for decades be change the entire planet.
    So he proposed a project based on the concepts of hypertext, to solve this problem among researchers.
    Though HyperText Markup Language was achieved in 1990, a decade after his proposal, he provided it to the world free of cost without any patents and licenses whatsover. In my personal opinion, I doubt if google, facebook and numerous popular web platforms would be in existence the HTML invention and being free of charge. Would I be able to send emails and blog?
    Some sources say his networth is $50M, rich enough to retire. The challenge we face today as young men and women is our ability to put in a lot of efforts to solove a problem we all face and open it to world for free.
    Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee has never put it to rest, at 62 years, a World changer he is still an advocate for the web, he has never made HTML private, he still teaches and talk to people.
    A take way from all this. People matter.
    Photo credit to http://olayemiogunojo.com

  • Ordering for a new logo? Here are some tips for you.

    A logo is a sensitive symbol of our causes and businesses/organisations. Most of the time they communicate our character in the market, so they are subjective.
    In this article, I would like to share one important consideration for anyone planing to make a logo by themselves or order one from professional graphics designers. The critical part of the logo today is ease of use on numerous devices and technologies.
    Some years ago that flexibility wasn’t much of a requirement because logos could be mostly shipped on print media.
    Technology growth is quickly changing that. In that a logo should now be produced in various versions characterized by dimension and color.
    Therefore a new logo or even a old but revised one should at least have three basic versions:- the standard version, alternative version and mobile version.
    The standard version
    This version is what you are likely to get if you design a logo for yourself or even from a professional designer who doesn’t care much about the other versions.
    Pros
    It is in full color.
    It is big enough(dimension) which makes it good for any print.
    Cons
    It may not work well on small devices like mobile phones, tablets and websites.
    The alternative version
    As much as it’s important, this version is usually ignored by many logo owners. It is also called the negative or grey scale logo.
    Pros
    It comes at a dimension of the standard logo though in monochrome.
    Being monochrome it can be used in most of the partners’ media especially the mobile, web applications and websites.
    Cons
    Since it’s monochrome, it can’t be used anywhere if your logo originally comes in more than one color.
    Mobile version
    The mobile version is a small logo in terms of dimension(width and height) made in both full color and monochrome. It is an important logo for mobile applications and websites. If the standard logo is complex i.e has many symbols which may not be visible shrink mode, effort should be taken to remove some of those symbols in this version.
    Pros
    It will fit and represent the brand on the widely used devices today.
    It is good to be used as an icon, for a mobile application and website fav icon.
    Cons
    It is not good for print media.
    Bonus: It is good discipline to always have the original editable versions of the logo and any graphic for your brand. Without them flexibility is not paramount as you stand a high chance of color and dimension inconsistency in the future publications.
     

  • Hail to the KING

    In other news google has published updates for the Nearby Communication API, allowing offline peer-to-peer communication among Android devices.
    What does that mean, it means there is a chance we could use WhatsApp and other Android chat applications without having an active internet connection.
    In Google’s google android blog stackoverflow.com is referenced as a recommendation for developers who may face problems while developing the apps integrated with this new API.
    No wonder some developers in my circles nick name it StackOverBro.
    Stack Overflow, or stackoverbro in our language, is a network of Question and Answer websites visited by 116 million people on a monthly basis and my appreciations go to Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood the developers and co-founders.
    Are you a software developer? What have you developed, what does it solve and how many people have been helped so far?
    Until then.
     
     
     

  • Empowerment through each one, teach one concept.

    Empowerment through each one, teach one concept.

    If you are a son/daughter of the ghettos or rural areas in Uganda and across Africa, and made it out there, I guess you have a great story to tell.
    I’m sure you shared a pain that will never be forgotten for your entire life as much as \ things are better now. This is manifested when I find a young man or woman or child who is doing his or her best to make a living or learn a skill which can give them an alternative way of living a life.
    Currently as I type this, I can recall the 2 to 4 years I spent using internet cafe and computers of my friends. In the process, I seemed to be selfish to some, aggressive to some and a good person to some. Fortunately, some years fast forward am happily running digital agency which also offers printing services in Kampala, check out gagawala.com
    This is where it all begins. I’m able to earn a living and as well as help 6 others earn. But that’s not all, the businesses, organisations and individuals we serve are also able to sustain their ideas and businesses, which maintains the employment and service delivery in the country.
    What this improved a little more?
    If am able to earn, help my family of 4 of us have food and afford electricity bills every month, as well as help 2 children go to school, how can I help others to also improve both personally and on the financial front?
    I started teaching about technology to individuals and groups in my free time for free. Of course, I have done this already in the communities but it’s on an irregular basis due a couple of reasons.
    Teaching small groups or individuals seems to be a little bit easier because you get to attend to attentive yet eager to learn.
    On 4th June, 2017 I had the first official class to which a team of two young youths from Democratic Republic of Congo, living and studying in Uganda attended. Andrew and Rogers are both artists working in communities performing beatboxing drills and teaching people of the communities how to beatbox. You can catch up the two in the video below and learn more about their work.
    https://www.facebook.com/AmaniLeo17/videos/1927054020911956/
    During our training session with them, my friend Mutebi Ivan Junior and I taught them how to use internet, YouTube in particular to promote their work. Through the process they were able to create a YouTube channel and upload their performances and workshops, they also learned how to use gmail to communicate. We set a target to save money together so that by October 2017, they can acquire their first ever smartphone which could enable them serve more in the communities as they inform the world about their work. Hope to meet them again soon to review their progress.
    I’m happy about the efforts engaged by everyone on this day, the feedback I get from these life changers is tremendous and encouraging me to learn more and support numerous others.

  • Kansanga, first Ugandan town to publish local content online?

    Kansanga, first Ugandan town to publish local content online?

    In 2016, I had an opportunity to attend several web and blogger meet-ups in Kampala, Uganda.
    With hospitable people, Uganda has over 1000s of tourism businesses contributing millions of dollars to the economy of the country.
    Tourism is enabled because of the nature of the country which is gifted with rivers, lakes, hills & mountains, very unique and miracle making hot-springs, wildlife and abundance of the biggest bird species on this planet!
    However, every part of Uganda has something that the world doesn’t know about or will never know about unless it’s shared on internet where over 4 billions of people end up for information.
    I live in Kansanga, a township which is only 6KM away from the city center of the capital city, along Ggabba Road.

    Through this town Pope Francis passed from Munyonyo to go to Kololo and meet the youths congregation on in his visit.

    Kansanga a home to 2 big international universities; Kampala International University and International East Africa University. A home of several Banks, fuel stations, and a lot of malls with restaurants, clubs for entertainment and gardens good for hosting special events.

    Kampala International University
    Kampala International University main branch in Kansanga

    I believe that all of this information is worth uploading on the internet.
    Thus I took the initiative to build the first website of this township, which will allow the locals and anyone to contribute anything about Kansanga for free of cost. Of course there will be a challenge to moderate and maintain the hosting of the website online.
    I have a small business strategy in place for guidance.
    I would encourage everyone to participate as well as the people living in other towns to copy the idea for their own towns.
    Here is the link of kansanga.com clicking sign up, it will take you less than one minute to to get a free account and start your contributing.
    Also find out more about Kansanga on wikipedia at the following link => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansanga where our website is also referenced, putting us in a good position to develop this idea.

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