Feral Jundi

Monday, September 28, 2009

Technology: Google Translation Tool, and Reaching Out to the Rest of the World

     This is an awesome tool.  Feral Jundi is read by mostly english literate folks from all over the world, and now with Google Translator, we can reach everyone else. And believe me, I get emails from security contractors or individuals interested in the business from all over the world, and this makes total sense to better serve this group.

     So this is how Google Translator (parked at the right on FJ) works. You hit the arabic button for example, and bam, FJ is in arabic!  Although I am sure the literal translations probably get a little mixed up, but either way, it is still a translated copy of FJ.

    From what I gather, my friends who might speak english but cannot read it, use their own translation services to read blogs like this. I am sure a few already use Google Translator, and maybe in the comments section we can get some good feedback about other translation tools.

    But what is cool about this Google Translator tool is that there is a mechanism now on this site that you can use to pump out a quick translation of the site.  That makes FJ more useful and accessible than ever before. Although, if you write back to me, please use this free google translation service, and cut and paste in the email what you want to say to me. –Matt

Monday, September 21, 2009

PMC 2.0: Mobile Phone Applications–Feral Jundi Has Been Mobified!

      You’re probably wondering what I am going on about now? Sorry, bare with me.  It’s called the future, and Feral Jundi has now been formatted for mobile phones.  That means if you have an iPhone or whatever, this blog will fit better and read better on your tiny little screen.  Or at least that is the goal, and I am looking forward to any input from the readership about how to make it better.

   Don’t worry though, and I am not getting rid of the web presence here.  It’s just that mobile phones are increasingly the preferred method for reading this stuff these days, and FJ must evolve.  A lot of the emails I get from folks, are all done through phones, and it is important to go with the flow on this and take advantage of this technology and cultural shift.

    Plus, I want to be that site you pull up while you are waiting at the doctor’s office or bank, and I want it to be very easy for you to do that.  Your time is important to me, and it shouldn’t be wasted trying to navigate through several layers of internet and processing just to get to FJ.  That little bit of free time that you have out there, is the most significant aspect of this discussion, because people are using those little windows of time to do what they do normally at home on a laptop or computer.

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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Cool Stuff: Blasting a Brick Wall with a Vortex Cannon

Filed under: Cool Stuff — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 11:48 PM

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Afghanistan: ‘Alive in Afghanistan’–Combining Ushahidi and Frontline SMS

Filed under: Afghanistan,PMC 2.0,Technology — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 2:07 AM

    This is awesome, and I am really glad to see this technology continuing to be used in interesting and new ways.  Tim from Free Range International gave me the heads up, and this is me enthusiastically spreading the word!

    I talked about this stuff before during the last conflict in Gaza and about using SMS for COIN operations (not that this is military related, but it is still good for the war effort and getting the people enthused), and it is always cool to see what others are doing with the various technologies out there.

    So with that said, I give you Alive in Afghanistan.  Just go to the site and navigate through all the interesting reportage coming from the field.  Now remember, this stuff is being sent in by all sorts of folks with phones or who have access to computers.  I am sure the SMS option will be the most popular do to the remoteness of some polling stations. I could be wrong, but that would seem more logical.  And I hope to see many Afghanis voting in this sucker, despite the threats from the Taliban. –Matt

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Alive in Afghanistan

Alive in Afghanistan is an independent, non-partisan project, formed in response to the huge success of Alive in Baghdad and Alive in Gaza and the result of the hard work and collaboration of many partners and individuals. Alive in Afghanistan empowers Afghan citizens to participate in society by reporting on their political process. Alive in Afghanistan is launching in time for the August 20th presidential elections so that people across Afghanistan can report fairly on the elections and related events through SMS, email, and the web.

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Monday, August 17, 2009

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