Cuil search engine

I'm a news-hungry person, particularly IT developments. So when a juicy piece of news such as a new search engine out to challenge Google for top slot hit the wires, I wanted to be one of the firsts to get to know what's all about--some april fool thingy in july?

On scanning one of my several newsfeeds I read and probed deeper if there was any story in this. There was none. Not that it is a hoax, but more like a little kid of 4 telling his dad, "I'll whip you". My hands-on test of Cuil was, of course, my name. Pooof--it turned up several Kiswahili language news items containing the word "makundi" (meaning, groups). Way down there was only one site related to the search I had submitted. There were 4 tabs. Going to second ("Next") tab, more of the irrelevant fetches, plus (Ouch! How?) the same site listed on the first tab. When I enclosed the phrase "Daniel Makundi" in inverted commas, Cuil fetched only one result. I yawned. And for change tried Google for the phrase: The entire first tab had relevant results all the way, and it took much less time compared to the younger challenger.

I'm told the effort is being funded by a consortium that have put up tens of millions of dollars. Tough luck. I don't see much future of the Cuil, apart from gratification of google-haters: and there must be mighty few of those, 'cos Google isn't just a search engine, it is a pack of handy freebies (Desktop, Picasa, Earth, Sketchup, Docs etc etc.), it's so many other things.

I don't see much improvement in the next few days, and I can see plenty of unhelpful reviews on the blogospheres and news.

Zimbabwean dollar...

I'm told with this 50,000,000 dollar bill you can get a decent meal for two.
Wallets have gone out of fashion in Zimbabwe, instead they carry briefcases.

Morogoro visit

Earlier this month I attended some training in Morogoro.

The one-week event would begin on some Monday, so travelling from Dar wasn't a big deal. There are lots of buses, big and small. Particularly there are two companies which are fierce competitors--Aboud and Hood. Others include Islam and Saddiq, as well as numerous 26-seater minibuses.

I took Aboud for reason I always take Dar Express when I'm travelling northwards: If there is a breakdown, the company buses plying same route are sure to bring in support or even pick passengers that are in a hurry. The trip was uneventful.

Training would take place at Amabilis Conference Centre. This is a squeaky-clean new facility along Kilakala road that is also a Roman Catholic convent. It was so soothing staying at the facility with its nicely trimmed hedges, well attended lawns and hush-hush environment that makes one feel closer to heavens.

The little I could see of Moro town during late evenings, it's a lively little place. As in other towns, there were lots of pubs. Someone confided to me that most of those pubs belong to SUA lecturers. Internet cafes and stationery shops too. No comment there, no law broken, creating labour.