News

As reported in one of the local dailies, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has directed TV broadcasters to plan for digital TV using DVBT-2 capable equipment. DVBT-2 is the second generation of of Digital Video Broadcasting and ensures spectrum usage efficiency of up to 50% while providing for better quality HDTV. Uganda joins countries such as South Africa and the UK that have joined this standard. Read more at Daily Monitor

Considering that Uganda is already way behind in meeting the December 2012 migration date, I think this is a good move. The UCC directive may not be warmly welcomed by the existing providers who are using the older DVB-T standard, but I believe, this will open up the market to cheaper alternatives.

Throughout this process, I have been bothered, by the perception among our people that getting digital TV means signing up with one of the pay TV providers like DSTV, Star, Go or Zuku TV. May be the UCC needs to better inform Ugandans that the switch, will only cost one a conversion box or Zero if you already own a TV with a digital TV built-in tuner! By the way, those boxes, now that DVB-T2 is the preferred standard should be cheaper and even affordable when subsidized.

What do you think?

Just a quick one to wish you a great year ahead!

For all of you who keep tabs with what’s happening in Technology, I would recommend this 21-minute film, a very interesting video worth your time

Networked Society ‘On the Brink’

With less than 16 months left, questions are being asked as to whether Uganda will beat the December 2012 deadline of switching from analogue to Digital TV. A couple of posts of interest:
UBC Not ready … Daily Monitor
Government Stops … New Vision

My observations so far:
There seems to be a lot of misinformation about the migration from analogue to digital TV. For example, the general public perception is that this switch would necessitate households to subscribe to a TV digital provider. There’s very little information with the exception of the informational TV ads that were run by Uganda Communications Commison (UCC) a few months back.

There’s lack of any serious pilot testing taking place at the moment. The only broadcaster currently transmitting a Free to Air signal is Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC). With more broadcasters allowed to run tests, I believe most early adopters would begin to switch.

Do you live in Uganda? What do you think?

A couple of items caught my attention this week.

1. Google plus, a facebook alternative was launched by the search company, Google. While it’s currently an invite-only service, Google+ looks very promising and may very well attract those who are not comfortable with facebook’s privacy. You can read more about Google plus at: Google+

With facebook launching an exciting product next week (some sort of Skype?), things are getting very exciting in the social networking space.

2. For Linux enthusiasts out there, many of you already know how ubuntu, the Canonical based Linux distribution, helped accelerate the adoption of the Linux desktop. Well things are no longer rosy, for the distribution, as it slipped from No.1 position to No. 2 on distrowatch’s last-3-month’s rankings. Lots of users have been turned off by the latest Ubuntu 11.04 release which uses the Unity interface that was picked in favor of the traditional Gnome desktop. For those looking at alternatives, consider Fedora, a Red-Hat Linux derivative. Fedora continues to set the trend when it comes to bleeding edge technology. An example is the recently released Fedora 15. Check it out at: Fedora Project

For the folks in the good ole US of A, Happy 4th of July!

Thanks to Brian and his team at Generation Next, the AExBox project was featured on their program of 26 January 2011, with a re-run on the 27 January 2011. The AExBox is a home automation, and entertainment system, that lets you control your house lights, record TV from a remote location. Its also, a next generation home media center

After years in development, the AExBox was last night featured on NTV’s Money Matters programme. Many thanks to Charles Bwogi and Tom Magumba for devoting some time to highlight this open source based product. For those who missed the show, you can watch it on: Youtube

The AExBox, is an entertainment and home automation system. You can read more on it at AExBox

A Happy New Year to All. I Spent part of the holiday with my good friends, Erik and Lynn, who were visiting from the US. Lots of catching up on old times in America, and a bit of travel.

I plan on upgrading the blog in a few days, so check back in a few days for a new site and hopefully some fresh content.

After resisting for a long time due to privacy concerns, I decided to take the plunge into Facebook. I have looked at the alternatives like buzz etc, but seems like the secure social networks are yet to be active. One that recently received a lot of press is Diaspora

On a separate note; I’ve enabled comments to be posted even without being registered, so feel feel to send me a message

Joseph Zikusooka

Create Your Badge

Thanks to the guys over at PC Tech Magazine. The July issue features my interview with the editors, plus and article on open source and Linux software. PC Tech is East Africa’s most contemporary magazine.

PC Tech is available on selected newsstands across East and parts of West Africa. They also have a limited Free download on line at:

Better yet, support them by buying a copy from your local supermarket.