Those who know me well know that voicemail has always been my achilles heel. I've found it to be practically impossible to keep up with, and made many enemies in the process. Over the last month I've had the privilege to beta test a new service that has freed me from this seemingly inescapable bondage.

Spinvox turns your voicemails into text and sends them to your mobile phone or email inbox. I can now read my voicemails quickly on-screen while at a meeting or having a drink somewhere. I cannot put into words just how fantastically useful this service is. I've even tested it out with a variety of accents, and it hasn't failed me so far. Well… I take that back - on one occasion it did spell my name as Colby instead of Kobia.

This service has been primarily targeted to UK residents and is now in beta in the US. Their pricing plans are somewhat awkward as they charge by number of conversions. Some might consider their pay-per-use model better than a flat subscription fee though.

Either way, it has earned two thumbs up from me.

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As you can tell, I'm on a roll here with global warming and sustainable energy. I came across what might be the future of power generation for Africa through a renewable source - the sun. Fossil fuels are drying up, and global warming is upon us. Renewable energy is the only long term solution to our looming energy shortages.

Enter the “Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation”. This company wants to build an ultra high-efficiency DC (direct current) power grid across the deserts of the middle east and africa upwards throughout Europe including offshore windfarms.

The best solar power technology for providing secure capacity is solar thermal power plants (also called Concentrating Solar Thermal Power, CSP). They use mirrors to concentrate sunlight to raise steam and generate electricity. Excess heat from additional collectors can be stored in tanks of molten salt and then be used to power the steam turbines during the night, or when there is a peak in demand. In order to ensure uninterrupted service during overcast periods or bad weather, the turbines can also be powered by oil, natural gas or biomass fuels. An interesting by-product that can be a great benefit to the local population is that waste heat from the power-generation process can be used to desalinate seawater and to generate thermal cooling.

Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC)

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Okay - before you get too excited, let me just point out that only a few of the supported countries are actually in Africa. All that aside, we can now get to the details. Here's how it works:

• You call a number in IOWA (712 number) - see below for details
• At the prompt, enter 011, the country code and the number you wish to call
• Enjoy!

At this point you're probably wondering if this is some kind of rip-off. Apparently not! A loophole in the law allows telecom companies in Iowa to exploit a fund the FCC set up to assist states in the US where telecom systems are considered weak. The companies are given a fee for every inbound call to Iowa, and that's how they can make a dime or so for every call they receive. At the end of the day, it looks like a win-win situation. I wonder how long this will last.

So where to from here?

• allFREECALLS.net
• FuturePhone.com

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All public schools in Rwanda are expected to join the information super-highway by the end of next year. Already, half of the primary and secondary schools have embraced the new technology, which has been given priority by the Government under its 2020 vision programme.

Out of 2,300 primary schools, 1,138 have at least one computer each, with 400 secondary schools fully equipped and 39 of them having wireless internet access.

The Rwandese Government has supplied the 400 schools with 4,000 desktop computers and 4,000 power units (UPS), in addition to training 2,000 teachers in basic computing.

– Daily Nation

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You’ve probably already heard of the $100 computer initiative, better known as ‘One Laptop Per Child,’ aimed at world’s poorest children living in the remotest places. The possibilities are limitless – consider this… the technology that has evolved in recent years has allowed third world countries to leap frog decades of development. People in the remotest regions of Africa can now communicate effortlessly via cell phones, and the once inaccessible land lines are now being rejuvinated by voice over IP. It is almost difficult to fathom what new developments internet access will bring for our continent.

As you can imagine, the logistics involved in such a project are scary. That magic number – $100 has been a hard target for its developers. The $100 machine will run the Linux OS on a 500MHz microprocessor from AMD, will be wireless broadband-ready, and contain 128Mb of DRAM and 500Mb of flash memory for storage. The only major component missing will be a big hard disk.

This project has had many critics though, but their argument that consumers in emerging markets want full-fledged computers are baseless because the people these computers are aimed for have never used (let alone seen) a full-featured PC before.

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In an unprecedented move, the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission web site now allows you to report corruption occurring in Government and the public Sector. The system guarantees anonymity and confidentiality – supposedly. I just hope we’re not sending these reports to the very people we’re trying to nail. All pun aside, the effort must be commended because this is a major step towards transparency.

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Ever dreamt of becoming a venture capitalist? Enter Kiva… a new web site that allows individuals to make small loans to low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world. You’ll be surprised to find out what a $100 loan will do to empower the working poor. Here’s how it works:

1. Lenders pick a business and make a loan using their credit card
2. Kiva transfers funds to local partners. Partner disburses  loans to each business
3. Over time, partner collects  repayments  and provides business updates at Kiva.org
4. Funders are returned to lender. Kiva lender may withdraw or re-loan

This is not called a micro-credit concept for nothing. Micro finance payments typically accrue higher interest rates, and what this means is that you can put your money to work and help someone at the same time (have your cake and eat it). This is a very democratic way of helping people in the developing world – making sure the money lands in the right hands, instead of corrupt officials and greedy non-governmental organizations. Put your money to work!

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