wait a sec, why you hating CS?? Atleast it works and Kamal has a heart for Kenyans, obviously he could employ Indians or whoever he wanted. If you have a beef with Kenyan coders me included, go to the learning institutions where we get this crap to begin with, where we get papers, where mwakenya rules. No one comes with a master piece all at a go (though that PB page is a serious joke). when *Ihub_ started, i thought it was a real tech hub until i got kicked out by the well connected big ‘coders’. see? now how do you blame CS of having bad coders when you people step on their heads and suppress them whenever they show up. You are not helping at all.

-ps. am not a CS employee but i kinda like their style good or bad and you need to move on. there are very many other companies that employ kenyans too. what about those?

Sema spagz… Sorry about the iHub storoz.

I will talk about other companies too to make you happy. Just remember, when you are ‘on top’ (like CS), you get more scrutiny.

You started well.That Kenyans have got a  mentality that Foreign is best.However you totally lost me. I really cant get what your issue is. That you feel that Craft silicon does not deserve the awards they have won?Or that you feel you can do better yet you are not recognized for that?

Would you be knowing that CS products are  best used outside the country than locally because of that very mentality that you had highlighted wen you started… Maybe the way forward would be to bring together people  in this IT industry to do a combined efforts to deliver solutions that will benefit Kenyans than to do attacks that eventually leave Kenyans more doubtful and  running away to Foreign products.

I also suppose that wen you identify a weakness in a software created by a particular company, you should utilize those loopholes and save Kenyans and you will earn your money and respect because otherwise I am left wondering what the issue is with CS.

I do acknowledge that you are a programmer but that does not entitle you to look down upon other programmers. You are a part of the puzzle. You can not meet the market needs alone. Let CS do banking. Do your part as well. If possible join in. Kenya needs diverse talent. Even if you were the best, you would still need a hand.

wow!

Hey its
me Kamal Budhabhatti, CEO Craft Silicon. I was sent a link to this discussion
and felt like adding a few comments. First of all I would like to acknowledge
the fact that some of our customers have faced some issues like the PB example
you gave. I do apologies since the ultimate responsibility ends with me.  Like any other growing company we take any
comments, complains or criticism positively. We control 80%+ Kenyan software
exports and support close 200+ enterprise customers spread across 40+ countries,
plus with a large employee base ( 250+) we do face serious challenges both in
terms of quality and security.

I
have always believed in Kenyan programmers, I am a programmer too. I have all
my faith in Kenya. One more time, I would like to mention that the next googles
and facebooks of this world are not going to come from usa and europes of this world. They would come right here from Kenya.

I
know you idd salim. You are a great programmer. Kenya is proud of you. I am
sure there are many other jewels like you in our country. We should all work as
a team, since we are competing against developed and more experienced nations
of the world.

I
think there should be a place ( physical or virtual ) where all of the
programmers meet with a vision and take up the task on how we can really put
our country on top.Good Evening,Kamal Budhabhatti.

Your article starts well but the way you have finished it to me illustrates sheer arrogance. You are are extremely and highly rated as a programmer but that does not give you a ticket to look down on the ‘spaggeti’ coz they look up to you  for direction as a homegrown guru that they can relate to.

In the spirit of synergy, of lifting up kenya as a tech hub. You should do more that just criticize. Start from the source, who teaches this programmers? who certifies them? Dont we all know clearly well of the so many ‘universities’ that have wanna be computer science lecturers who lecture wanna be engineers and developers who end up just adding on to an already under developed workforce. If its keeping it Pro, lets go back to the basics. differentiate the boys from the men and then illustrate the hardened, tested and certified self made masters of this industry.

Finally thanks for the forum.

punchline> “hello, am a bug…lmao!

Idd most of what you say is correct but I fail to see how and why the government comes into this situation.  As a coder/marketer/farmer etc what you sell and the services you offer is what makes you stand out.
You have a shitty product/service then you lose.
In all industries charlatans/conmen abound, but the in the long run, they get outed. (not saying CS are though) 
Government arresting below par coders, not today mate!

This is how Idd salim should be talking hope he’s reading this. True leader with alot to show n not bragging. Show wht u got in terms of s/f and we will show u the bugs….. and for code’s sake stop complaining  !

[...] [HelloWorld-Solex-Sysadmins who know can't spell Dyslexia.] every time I have spoken about insecure banking systems and insecure banking technologies that make it easy for  all the current Bank Fraud we see in [...]

I always knew there is something wrong with this guy idd (sic)..If I had a gun and killing wasn’t a sin, I would just shoot the brains out of you idd and funny thing is only water will burst out.I just said that coz where I am from when someone talks shit about u, u go and beat the hell out of them..but that has changed now and we use our tongues well.
One reason u blog and write trash is coz u just want people to know u.. u just seeking attention. If you are such a good programmer, show the world what u have made out of it and let the world be the judge. You are just a techie full of shit hating on those who are successful. They may not be as good as you(which I wonder if you are coz to me, you are NOT) but they are making it BIG. I used to see CS educatioin bus and didn’t know about them but when I did, I have to say I respect Kamal. He is one brilliant guy, an inspiration to us who are the REAL programmers and do not brag about it, we just let our work talk..if you are that good, how come u not CEO of your company??
Some people even the Kukubo’s and Getao’s of this Kenya entertain u coz they are afraid of u writing shit about them.
How come the ones who are BIG in Kenya do not even talk shit or pick on others? That’s because there works speak for themselves.
You should really just stop blogging, go make a million bucks then come and write a blog post about it.

wow! You must be one brave fella. Lemmi guess… You work for CS?

The other questions display your crass ignorance and lack of knowledge. So I wont respond to them.

CEO? Millions? Hahahah. dont make me laugh. Actually, you just made me.

hate mentioning names then…BAM…a name!!! it’s like saying “with all due respect” just before calling someone an ass! well, i don’t know jack about coding and whether CS is guilty as you unilaterally charged them but i am against blanket statements and accusations – which is what your post degenerated into! 

instead of discussing what your post was all about, it’s all ended up being about the ending…

oh, before i forget, the first few paras made a lot of sense!

[...] blog about the problems I have seen at Banking Websites done by CS and try to ‘tell them to style up and secure these [...]

iddsalim talks, thinks and acts as a whining chick. he will still hate on everything from the kitchen to bill gates. just do your codes and let the others do the billions

Let start again.

The article was addressing how we as Kenyans, are messing ourselves up as procurement officers and as coders.

We can’t affect the procurement officers’ ways of procuring apart from not encouraging kickbacks.

Thus we have 2 issues.

Good coders who are overwhelmed with work and thus start producing substandard code due to lack of capacity. This is a mark of success in coding but bad quality assessment.  However bad coding also happens to good coders when ‘goodness’ doesn’t pay the bigger bills. This is a mark of impatience to drive the ‘Kompressor’ .

Bad coders who were never going to produce good code but take on the work for money only. These are the ones who accept the shady terms of shady procurement officers.

So, most procurement officers already have a ‘White is Might, Foreign is Best’ mentality mostly because we were colonised and because of bad coders. 

What we are know is that foreign coders can be as bad as Kenyan bad coders. What procurement officers WILL learn is that foreign coders can be just as bad as local bad coders.

Now CS is raised as an example of a local coding company with ‘bad’ code. You will notice that Idd assumes CS is a ‘good’ coding company, but without capacity hence ‘kindergarten’ coders.

The question Idd is raising to Kamal is why Kamal, and CS as a whole, allow bad code to come out of a ‘good’ organisation?

Kamal’s personal story is one of determination, focus and good will. We have all learnt from it. For that Kamal gets respect, whether we admit it or not from all of us, and we want to see Kamal and CS to succeed so much that we talk ‘badly’ of him.

CS has access to some jobs we will not get as ‘natives’ including some of these banks. This a mixture of family/village connections and that Kamal thinks big and has set up CS to look big. Banks respect that. Idd and I will never get those jobs because entertaining that processes of procurement is hard work and it has nothing to do with good code. But now that CS can afford the processes, surely should they not produce good code?

But we should also ask another question. Do we have the capacity to do work for large corporations considering how fast they suddenly need to move after years of not listening to us and many of us going off to grow potatoes to survive?

Nice comment. Really insightful…

I am still waiting for the issues to be addressed… The insecurity. 

Yeah…Being Subtle is not one of your strong points is it idd??Stop pretending to be the freedom fighter of coders in Kenya.You are all in it for profit.If this is your strategy of getting business(Defaming others),well you surely got the attention, but if you actually believe the crap your feeding your followers.WAKE UP!!!!!

Crap is crap. Mediocre is mediocre. You should see my ‘business’ schedule for the next 76 months. I don’t need any more work/projects/business till 2015.

At last i get the response to the question of why Google was the one which got the open data project  from Kenyan ngava and not an indigenous firm in line with the Vision 20Neva

Actually, I know the 2 Kenyan coders who worked to put this up, working all the way to 4.30 am on the day of the launch. These two drive the cars of their choice, own homes and have worked for large corporations in Kenya for the last 10 years.

They suffer with the rest of us when bad code is done and they have to be called in at any cost to ‘fix’ the problem. I guess because they are good, they make the millions.

As usual, good coders are invisible when good code arrives and is on time.

Afro, I dont even know why you responded to such a negative person. He is clearly one of these ‘nothing-will-ever-work’ Kenyans…

Wow, I just had a look at Paramount Bank’s speed figures. As Ian Mbugua would say… PATHETIC! http://pagespeed.googlelabs.com/#url=http_3A_2F_2Fwww.paramountbank.co.ke_2F&mobile=false

Interesting article and good topic that you have sensitized on.I went through the Link that you posted about Paramount and I agree it needs working on but is this how you air out your rants. Now with you talking about
 ”The main problem why alot of companies prefer to take foreign over local
is just an effect of the negative/downward spiral effect.”

How are you helping the situation when you are trash talking the LOCAL company like that. Were you looking for a job there and denied?or are you trying to defame the company to get your outfit recognized? Whatever the case is it doesn’t matter…. I think this was just a way of you spilling your arrogance and looking for attention;trying to show the world that you are a guru and the rest the world is of “spaghetti coders” . Boss I’m a coder myself and I know I am better than you. I can assure my c.v is way bigger than yours(Yeah talk is cheap , I know and you are a  pro at that). If you are as good as you say then by now the C.E.O of C.S would have known of your prowess and of course hired you because every company wants the best.
When you say this:
“The good coders never see the light of day. They are under a 1000kg
blanket. We cry everyday when we see people applauded and awarded for
buggy HelloWorld Apps. But the time is near. The time is now. The battle
lines have been drawn.”
This shows how much you are dieing to be recognized and boss its your work that sells not your arrogance.So if you want your outfit to gain recognition try out do CS with your Perfect coding(not)  or any other software company around then you can revert back to writing this article and name drop all you want.

I have gone though your C.V ,spoken to people that have worked with you and from what I get, you are just overrated.
By the way I work for Temenos and I didn’t go throwing my peanus around, its my work that put me there

Well, what can I say… Typical Kenyan. CS CEO hiring me and all. But then again, maybe that is what you are. An employee. A slave. A small thinker.

When I’m driving Mercedes E220 on Zero Loan….. it would be pointless arguing with you… Let me stick to my Slavery and leave you rotting under the 1000 blankets that are driving you to you miserable coding life and aimless ranting.

heheheh.. Next joke please…

Chris rock defines a nigga as someone who brags about doing things NORMAL PEOPLE just DO. E.g. Driving a car on Zero Loan. Kwani people still take car loans? 

Nigga is someone who brags about what Normal people do hahahahahaha ake you cheap ass out of here.. Kwanza you talk of Bragging and you just did that on this POST..  Wulalalala and as I say Nyani haoni Kundule… yeah just like you think you code better and brag about it then you must be a Nigga too. Sit you ass down and shut the fuck up….

Ok sugar. I see it is beyond you to get the diff between bragging and pure genius. Trust me, there are people who are that good. But i guess any better than you is just bragging.

Hatujisifu. We are thaaaat good.

I have forgotten more IT than you will ever grasp. And I am just beginning.

That said, I will engage you no more. This seems to really be giving you a purpose in life. Finally.

As in seriously, you have issssuuuueeeeeesssssss! Read this honest blog about you: http://walalahoi.ning.com/profiles/blogs/idd-salim-is-schizoaffective,
Instead of whining, be the difference.. at least CS is making the lives of thousands of kenyans better (their employees, families and so on).

Seriously!!!! You call that a blog. I don’t know about you dude but that’s what I call crap.

“I see it is beyond you to get the diff between bragging and pure genius” hehehe me like.

And the killer blow… drums roll

“I have forgotten more IT than you will ever grasp. And I am just beginning.”

Now that’s what I call a clean KO

Man, I mean really really, the netbanking system is not secure at all! I tried accessing the login page https://www.paramountbank.co.ke/bhome/login.asp using secure http but it fails. We are doomed. Moreover, i wonder how a bank secures it’s users with only 128bit encryption, I can easily decrypt it with my *nix box. Name them Idd, they need to up their game.