The UK is too cold - I'm off!

The UK is too cold - I'm off
Originally uploaded by ajbrowe.

Yes, I'm heading back to Lagos.



Technorati Tags: Nigeria, Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria, flight

Nigerian Bird Flu - Smugglers Did It?

Nigerian This Day Newspaper reported yesterday some words from the President of the National Poultry Association of Nigeria. His opinion is that the current Bird flu outbreak in Northern Nigeria is the work of saboteurs whose motive is to open up imports of agricultural products into Nigeria which have been banned.

While accusing the smugglers of being behind the development saying that,"the smugglers wanted to use it to call on the fedderal goverment to lift ban on the importation of chickens in the country so that it will afford them the chance of bringing frozen chickens from neigbouring countries like Cotonou, Togo, among others into the country".
Badmus stated that, " I want to tell you that, it is economic sabotage on the part of the enemy of the nation but at thh end of the day it will fails".[sic]

This is, unfortunately, entirely plausible and seems to me to be a dreadfully common thing in Nigeria. Take the fact that Nigeria is having tremendous problems refining it's own oil and there are HUGE profits to be made by fuel marketers importing refined fuel to Nigeria.

Since Bird Flu has yet to be identified in any neighbouring coutries, or in fact anywhere else in West Africa, this seems to be the most obvious cause.


Technorati Tags: Nigeria, Bird Flu, Avian Flu, Avian Influenza, H5N1, corruption, sabotage

26 Fake Bank websites Grind To a Halt

Just thought I'd pass along a bit of news after the Artists Against 419 14th Flashmob over Valentines day. So far 26 fake web sites are now out of service. Whether or not they stay that way depends on the tenacity of the criminals behind them, but at least for a little while they are safe. Quite a few were eventually closed by the legitimate companies that host these websites, which is always the best solution, but there are some which appear to have exhausted their bandwidth Quota which may mean they will be back up and running next month.

The targetted websites were not all Banking or financial sites, there were fake sites for lotteries, couriers and lawyers.


Technorati Tags: 419, fake bank, phishing, scam, Flash Mob, protest

Help Fight Fake Banks this Valentines Day

I want to bring to your attention another Artists Against 419 Flash Mob (as I've mentioned before) even that will be happening over Valentines Day. In fact running 48 hours from 13th February 12:00:01 am GMT just a few hours from this post.

So please help out by joining a peaceful web protest, either by opening the Lad Vampire web page or if you use windows run the Mugu Marauder software. These tools help shut down the fake bank web sites by downloading parts of the websites repeatedly until the sites reach their band width limit or the people administrating these sites take notice of the extra traffic and our protests and close these Illegal web sites.

Obviously you should only do this if you have a broadband connection and 24/7 access. If not you can still make your protest by contacting the hosts of these fake banks, the people who get paid by the fraudsters to run the fake web sites, by email or other means and letting them know you how you feel. The contact details will probably be made available when the flashmob starts on the Current Flashmob page.


Technorati Tags: 419, fake bank, phishing, scam, Flash Mob, protest

Egypt Take Nations Cup 2006

Well, just an update to round off my posts about the Africa Nations Cup 2006.

The hosts of the tournament, Egypt, today faced Ivory Coast in the finals and took the trophy on penalties.

Technorati Tags: Africa Cup of Nations, Egypt, Ivory Coast, football, soccer

Nigeria 1 - Senegal 0 | Nigeria take 3rd place

Nigeria just took 3rd place in the Africa Cup of Nations 2006 in Egypt.

After many missed chances Garba Lawal finally gave Nigeria their goal with 15 minutes to go.

This match also 'celebrated' the last appearance of Jay-Jay Okocha for Nigeria as he now retires from international football.

Overall this game was a lacking in passion, as you can imagine with both teams having lost any chance of the only prize that counts in the tournament.

I will probably watch the final tomorrow with the hosts Egypt taking on Ivory Coast.

Technorati Tags: Nigeria, Africa Cup of Nations, Senegal, football, soccer

Bird-Flu in Nigeria?

According to the BBC the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) issued a press release today notifying the public that Avian Influenza or 'Bird flu' has been detected on a Battery Chicken farm in Kaduna state.

Paris, 8 February 2006 - Today Nigerian Authorities have officially notified the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) of the occurrence of an outbreak of Avian Influenza in poultry on their territory. The notification report is available on the OIE website (www.oie.int).

According to this report, the outbreak affected a commercial layers unit kept in battery cages, in the Kaduna state (Jaji village), in the northern part of the country.

Stamping out, quarantine, animal movement control inside the country, and disinfection of the infected premises are the control measures undertaken by the Nigerian Authorities so far.

The OIE/FAO r efe rence laboratory for Avian Influenza in Padova ( Italy ) has characterized the isolate as a highly pathogenic H5N1 and has further analysed its genetic composition. Investigations are being carried out in order to define the degree of genetic homology with the currently known H5N1 strains.

The OIE, together with the FAO, will take immediate action and coordinate a common response to this event. A team of experts will be sent to the affected area in order to assess the situation and provide technical advice to the national Authorities.

The OIE will be updating regularly the evolution of this situation.

http://www.oie.int/eng/press/en_060208.htm

I wonder if it's possible this has reached Kaduna without affecting other areas in Nigeria, or even other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.

This is especially bad news as in Nigeria in particular Chickens are EVERYWHERE even running around the streets!

Technorati Tags: Nigeria, Bird Flu, Avian Flu, Avian Influenza, H5N1, Kaduna

Didier Drogba stops the Nigerian Super Eagles | Ivory Coast 1 - Nigeria 0

Well, having made it through to the Semi-Finals unbeaten I hoped to see Nigeria reach the final, but it wasn't to be.

A mistake of judgement let Drogba take on the Nigerian Goalkeeper unopposed and score the only goal of the match through goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama's legs.

Apart from that lapse I felt that Nigeria could have taken the game in extra time.

I suppose the consolation is that Ivory Coast are the only remaining World Cup Qualifying team in the tournament, and they advance to the final. We wait to see later today whether it will be Egypt or Senegal joining them. An all West African Final would be good, but Egypt as the host nation has that advantage and are expected to win todays other semi final match.

Nigeria will face the loser of todays second match in the 3rd place playoffs on Thursday 9th Feb. The final takes place on Friday 10th Feb.

Technorati Tags: Africa Cup Of Nations, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Côte d'Ivoire, football, soccer

New Hardware Found Wizard appears on every boot to install an unnecessary Printer driver

Just came back from a friends house. They called me over to try and sort out a problem with their computer not booting. Well I did all my diagnostics and traced it to a faulty RAM module which I discovered by using memtest on the Knoppix DVD. As they had two modules installed, both 256Mb, It was possible to boot the computer with just one of the modules installed. That process took just an hour or so, and the computer was now booting fine.

Next problem to sort out with the computer is a strange error where Window XP insists on trying to install a new Printer Driver when the only printer connected is fully working with all drivers installed. I tried giving it the drivers for the printer, that didn't work. I tried giving it drivers for basic hardware like LaserJet 4, that didn't work. I spent a long time trying to find solutions on the net. Microsofts Knowledge base let me down again, it's only suggestions were to find a new driver from the printer manufacturer or remove a key referencing the LPT port from the registry. Neither of which worked.

In the end I found the solution, and I am so happy I decided to record it here for anyone else stuck in this situation to find.

My Solution:

Open Device Manager,

Click View->Show hidden devices.

Then look for the ghost/non-existing/unnecessary driver (Since mine was a printer I found Unknown Device under Printers)

Right-Click on the device and select Disable.

Reboot.

Although the issue that caused this problem hasn't been solved, the irritating problem of the New Hardware Found Wizard at every boot has gone!

Now I hope this is helpful to somebody else.



Technorati Tags: Computer Problems, Windows XP, Hardware, Printer, Knoppix, memory

Nigeria in Semi Finals

Nigeria and Tunisia faced off today in the Quarter Final of the African Cup of Nations and it was very very close. A goal a piece at the end of extra time and it came down to penalties. After 8 rounds the game was settled at Nigeria 6 Tunisia 5. Goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama was the hero of the day saving 3 penalties as well as taking one himself.

Because the game went on so long I had to keep switching over to BBC One to see the beginning of the Rugby. Unfortunately Wales were beaten quite severely by England. People keep making excuses about injuries and suspensions, but you could see the magic of the 2005 Six Nations Grand Slam winners was still there somewhere. Anyway let's hope the next game against Scotland at 'the Millenium' a week tomorrow gives us something to smile about.