As promised, we have two more Nairobi Nerds, spilling the beans on how they get their mambo done…
‘How Nerds Get It Done’ is a series of posts inspired by this one and tries to find out exactly how our local elite (as in ‘tech-elite’) get to pull some awesome fetes, such as the ones below… PS: and I thought IT wasn’t capital intensive??

3. Kahenya Kamunyu – Virn Instruments

Pic: Courtesy Africa Knows

Who he is and what he does?
Kahenya is CEO at ViRN Instruments, a ‘small’ web application company that specializes in simple applications and web services. Through this, he has developed Wallapa – Simple Travel, Ukurasa – Simple Reading, Clip49 – Simple Media as well as the very popular Nation Media feature magazine, Zuqka – Be Famous! Offline, ViRN Instruments currently has interests in a new project called Yoghurt v3.0 – Simple Delights which is funded through their Micro Finance arm.

The latest product from his outfit is WebC. WebC is a platform that allows for anyone to monetize their content or access new services for their websites or companies. It comprises of many tools amon them, Metro, which is the one riding the most anticipation… [Afrinnovator]
A self trained Software Developer, Kahenya has 15 years experience is software development in Open Source Fields.

What Hardware do you use in the Office?
Workwise I have 2 HP Compaq 8510p machines. One is a custom machine with the new i7 processors. Runs openSuSE 11.2 the other is a stock machine running Windows 7. Its a test machine and backup machine. I have a HP Desktop with a 21 inch monitor. At work we have 3 10MB Fibre optic cables.

What Hardware do you use at Home?
I have a small Acer netbook running openSuSE 11.2 plus a Zain Modem.

What Software do you use?
OS primarily openSuSE.Google Reader. PHP, MySQL, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail + Enterprise Gmail, Firefox plus a billion addons, Gimp, Barry, Mplayer, XMMS, FFMpeg, Gist. Too many things here… May I add that I spotted this ‘gizmodo’ with a BlackBerry Storm

What would be your dream setup?
Just a new powerful laptop does it for me. But then again, if you can’t buy me a cray machine this would be it:

4 Duo Core HP Processed Machines
8 Monitors (2 X Machines)
More RAM than is legit.
50MBPS FTTE

4. Erik Hersman – Ushahidi and Afrigadget

Who he is and he does?
Founder and Director of Operations at Ushahidi, Erik is an international technology influencer with a keen eye on the impact of web and mobile advancements and technology innovation across Africa. Raised in Sudan and Kenya, Erik brings unique energy and insight to the world of technology and innovation – bridging the gap between Africa and Silicon Valley. \

An avid blogger, Erik writes two different technology-related blogs – AfriGadget and WhiteAfrican, and , a wiki aggregationg information on Web Connectivity around Africa. He is frequently a speaker at meetings and conferences dealing with technology in Africa, mapping, blogging and web application development, including; TED Global, DEMO, Picnic, PopTech, SXSW, Where 2.0 and Web 2.0.

*Ushahidi is a free and open source project with developers hailing from Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Malawi, Netherlands and the USA working on it. There are some significant technological challenges and they are always looking for help.

What Hardware do you use in the Office?
I use a 15″ MacBook Pro as my workhorse. When in my blogging, travel or conference modes I also carry a Nikon D50 and a Xacti video camera. A lot of work is done on my phone while on the move, so traditionally I’ve used an iPhone, but am currently testing out and using the Google Nexus One.
My office is wherever I am, so if at the iHub it’s a fast connection, but everywhere else it’s just the local WiFi or Orange’s 3G+ modem in Nairobi. Finally, I also always carry a moleskin notebook for interviews and note taking.

What Hardware do you use at Home?
At home I run a home made desktop PC as well. I enjoy gaming, not that I have time for it anymore, thus I have a big 26″ screen as well. I run a 1Mb connection at home from Access Kenya that’s served me fairly well.

What Software do you use?
MacOSX primarily, but I run Windows XP on my PC.
As my feedreader I use NewsFire, which is a Mac client-based app.
For Twitter, I use Tweetie on my Mac and Seesmic on my Nexus One.
For email I’ve recently switched to PostBox on the Mac, as it allows for nesting of email threads and has some other cool features that make it worthwhile to use.
I end up doing a moderate amount of graphics work, for this I use either Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. Both are big fat hogs, but they are useful.
I’m in and out of web sites a lot, so I use Transmit at my main FTP client.
Skype is a really big communications tool for me and the Ushahidi team, so I’m also a big user, and fan, of that.
Since I do a lot of talks, I refuse to use PowerPoint and stick with Keynote for my presentations.

What would be your dream setup?
Hmm. It would be a bigger/badder home rig. Maybe done with 3 of the largest Apple wide-screens and with enough video card power to have some fun. I’ve also envisioned a complete tech room that features a “MInority Report” like interface, but that’ll have to wait a couple years I think…

Now, ain’t that kewl! Next up we’ll have a chat with the girls, Juliana and a relatively new surprise entrant…
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