ManTalk Worldwide in partnership with the TechKln Community held an informative zoom session discussing various topics in tech. The session hosted experts in the industry to talk about their fields of expertise in tech, to give a direction to those wanting to know more, and on how to break into the tech industry. As it is always said, you know one is an expert in a subject matter if they relay information about it in the simplest and easily understood way possible; and we believe they did.

As a TechKln community member, these are my takeaways of the session: -

Topic 1: Tech Digital Literacy

by Stanley Ndagi, Software Engineer & Technical Copywriter

One is considered literate on a subject if they have the 'know-how’ on the subject. And in technology, it's termed digital literacy. Assessing your literacy level is the first step to beginning your journey in the tech industry. Below are well elaborated digital literacy levels to guide the assessment.

1. NOOB – An inexperienced person or a newbie

2. Consumer – Uses Technology comfortably for example phones, laptops. They can at some point be opinionated about different technologies.

3. Enthusiast – Opinionated on specific areas in tech and well informed on trends.

4. Tinkerer – Very curious and well informed on the tiny details of an aspect in tech.

5. Advanced – Understands an aspect well enough and can create configurations.

6. Creator – Uses technology to create consumables such as websites, mobile apps.

Topic 2: Where and How to Begin should you want to be a Programmer

by Winnie Rotich, Ruby Engineer

There are countless myths around 'being a programmer' which instil fear unto those who want to pursue this path in tech. The myths include; you need to be a genius to code, coding is boring, you need to be good at math, it’s too late to learn to code, all programmers are nerds and lonely people, women cannot write good code, you should have learned to code much earlier e.g., in high school, etc. All these are untrue and anyone can be a programmer.

So how do you begin coding? First, by learning the art of researching. Researching and making the internet your friend is key in this career path which will help in problem-solving. Secondly, you need to understand what programming is. Just like venturing into any field, knowing what you are getting into is key. Third, you have to have a clear intent of why you want to be a programmer. Is it for the money? To challenge stereotypes? For fun? Lastly, lay down the foundation by learning the basics of programming. These basics cuts across all the programming languages.

Next; with the basic knowledge, you need to pick your path e.g., Front-end, backend, DevOps, Mobile, games. Then find resources that match your selected path. YouTube, courses platforms such as Udemy, and programming platforms are great options. After that, get a support system for example communities, mentors, friends, and forums. Lastly, go beyond the basics to challenge and practice what you have learned for example by taking on projects and participating in coding challenges available on platforms like HackerRank.

Coding is hands-on, one needs to practice while they are learning. You can be intentional about this by setting milestones and working towards achieving them. Having required tools such as a good computer is essential as well.

Topic 3: Technical Aspects of Creating Software

by Duncan Muraya, Software Engineer & Consultant

In creating software, the use case of the software has to be laid out well. What are the targeted users? How frequently should the users access the solution? How much data should they be given access to? These factors taken into consideration will help determine which platform the solution will be hosted on. For example, the web platform holds solutions accessible via browsers, mobile platforms, providing instant access via a mobile application among other platforms.

Factors such as the scalability of the software have to be considered as well to cater to future needs. Depending on the type of software solution to be developed, from simple to very complex, the languages and infrastructure used in developing these applications are chosen.

Lastly, the standard and security of the data in these applications must also be taken into consideration to ensure data safety and no nefarious data manipulation.

Topic 4: Skill Development, Academics & Career Progression

by Anthony Mwawughanga, Senior Software Engineer & Payments Engineer

Skill development is key in the software engineering field. These are ways on how to sharpen your skills as a software engineer:

1. Practice! Practice! Practice! – this cannot be stressed enough. The more you practice a new concept the more confident you become. As an engineer, you can do this via various online platforms available e.g., HackerRank.

2. Learn from good programmers – good programmers can be found through tech communities, friends, and mentors. The advantage of learning from them is that they will give you an easy way to understand various concepts and also help hasten your learning curve.

3. Learn the art of code refactoring – performance optimization is key when writing good code. As you increase your knowledge, let your code reflect your growth. The advantage of refactoring your code is that it helps you analyze what you have been learning. You also get to review and find better ways of writing existing code.

4. Read books on code quality, software methodologies, architecture, and system designs.

5. Make sure you have the correct knowledge to apply to the problem at hand.

6. Lastly, gauge yourself by attending technical interviews.

On Academics, computer-related undergraduate programs can prepare anyone to take on tasks in the programming field. Some of the key areas to keenly take on with importance include:

1. Data Structures and algorithms – Be well acquainted with how they work, where to use them, and their shortcomings.

2. Time and Space Complexities – These affect the overall performance of a program.

3. Resource Management - This helps determine a language and appreciate how the declaration of variables affects resources.

4. Application Security – This enables you to code with security in mind

5. People Management skill – This can be learned anywhere but it's essential in your interactions as a developer.

Lastly,

Should I do a master’s degree or a certification?

Master’s and certifications do complement each other and substitution of one for the other may not be the best decision. Master's are in-depth programs that demonstrate mastery of a field while certifications are shorter programs of study but very focused.

Depending on path you are on or have chosen, either will be of advantage to you. For example, in the security field, choosing certification over a master's degree with enable you to be more specialized, but the master's program will allow you to lead especially in large organizations where the security role spans beyond the technical aspect.

Career progression can follow these two distinct tracks:

1. Individual Contributor

   Software Engineer -> Senior Software Engineer -> Principal Engineer -> Architect -> Senior Architect

   Note: With accessible resources e.g., AWS certifications, one can easily move from a senior software engineer to an architect.

2. Management track

   Senior Software Engineer -> Technical Lead -> Engineering Director/ Head of Engineering -> CTO (Chief Technology Officer).

As one progresses, the level of complexity of the problems they solve also increase, therefore it is paramount to continuously grow in:

1. Professional Character

2. Independence – How well you can contribute with minimum or no supervision.

3. Personal Growth Focus – Identifying which growth focus is of importance to you.

In conclusion, the following patterns hinder the growth of software engineers:

1. Poor Code Quality, with no effort to improving the code quality.

2. Failure to communicate when stuck

3. When in leadership; inability to delegate tasks to your juniors and spending too much time chasing new technologies to feed their ego.

Topic 5: Quality Assurance & Product Delivery

by Lewis Munene, Quality Assurance Lead & Software Engineer

Quality Assurance is a part of software engineering. It aims to assure the user that the software being developed meets the expected level of excellence and that it serves its intended purpose well. Quality assurance cuts across the entire software development process, and should not be reserved for the final phase(s). The people majorly involved in quality assurance are Software Testers, Test Analysts, Test Engineers, and Test Managers.

As some software problems are very costly; ensuring the quality of the software should be exercised by all the stakeholders in the software being developed. The responsibility is not equal for everyone involved as some have a higher responsibility than others e.g., the software developers, designers, and testers.

On product delivery, there are two types of products; products developed via contracted work and independent products developed by individual software engineers. Depending on the type of product being developed, the measure of quality varies:

1. For products developed under a contract, the contractor has their end-user metrics, and the software will not be released until it goes through a UAT (User Acceptance Testing) process.

2. For individual products where the developer is the principal stakeholder, you need to have your UAT, and, it is important to note that the software doesn't have to be perfect to be released. As long as it covers the end-to-end user requirements, it is ready for delivery to be used and other improvements can be done later.

Lastly, quality assurance is not only done by non-programmers as others tend to believe. It is much more preferable if it is done by software engineers as they have an understanding of the software being developed.

Topic 6: Security, and Tech Leadership

by Martin Mwangi, Technical Solutions Lead & Cyber Security Consultant

Security covers all aspects of the technology domain. For instance:

• Information security focuses is on securing processed data

• Computer security focuses slightly on software but mostly hardware

• Data security focuses on securing raw data

• Network security focuses on securing the interconnection of devices

• Lastly, Cybersecurity deals with protecting users in cyberspace and also expands to protect their vulnerability.

So how can you get into cybersecurity?

In whatever domain you are in, in the technology field, be it a network, database administration, or programming among others, as long as you are working with security in mind you are at the starting point of getting into cybersecurity. You now need to put in more time and effort.

Career opportunities in cybersecurity in respect to some of the IT domains

1. In Network/ Information security, one can specialize in vulnerability testing, penetration testing, and network audits.

2. As a software developer who is familiar with databases, you can specialize in vulnerability testing, penetration testing, database audits, web application audits, and assessments. You can also take part in bounty programs such as security researching, offered by some companies. Aside from all these, you can create security tools.

3. For tech enthusiasts mostly those who understand technology and risks but do not write code, you can get into systems audit. This is through undertaking the CISA certification. You can also venture into Risk management focusing on overall software/ system risks. Lastly, you can focus on incident response and forensic by doing the CHFI certification and specialize in areas like email forensic, network forensic among other errors that can be a subject of vulnerability.

Topic 7: Research, Industry

by Sharon Okwomi, Data Scientist & Researcher

Being in a data-driven generation, pursuing a career in this field either as a data analyst, data engineer, or data scientist is a great idea. To differentiate these titles; a data analyst works with data to provide or feature insights, a data scientist interprets the analyzed data, and a data engineer builds systems that allow the data scientists to interpret the data.

To pursue a career as a data scientist you have to be good at mathematics and programming. They do use tools such as algorithms to interpret data, and Python and R programming languages. For example, analysis done by financial institutions before they offer loans and loan limits is based on different data such as location, personal contacts, credit scores, and social media interactions of the subject.

In research, there is the application of data science majorly in Machine Learning (training a machine to 'think' (draw conclusions) based on various data). To become a researcher in the AI space, having data science knowledge is very critical.

In conclusion, anyone can be a researcher, but to be a research analyst you must have studied to at least a PhD. level of education. There are also available free certifications in this field, and most researchers have used these in pursuit of this path.

Conclusion

This webinar, so summarized here, is intended to be a first in a series to get people up to speed with the tech space and its professional and application landscape. Hopefully we'll have summaries of the sequels published here.

The author, Sharon Olang is a software engineer. She is passionate about solving problems: from theoretical (in Mathematics) to programming solutions, recently using Flutter. She advocates for doing things well. Find her on Twitter and Hashnode.

In the previous parts of the series, we learnt about the internet and the world wide web. We then got a free custom domain from Freenom and deployed our site with Netlify. Here we'll tie the custom domain to your deployed site and make changes via version control.

The steps should be easy to follow and I'll add context where necessary. Feel free to ask questions in the comments section.

The series: DIY your web presence 'for FREE'

Previous post: #3

Tying the domain name and our site together

Add a custom domain on Netlify

Once you are logged in your home page has a list of your sites. By clicking the one, you'll be using, you are redirected to a page with a section similar to the one below.

Click on Number 2: Set up a custom domain. Enter the domain name we "bought" or rather acquired for free and Verify.

Since you own it, click Yes and add domain and you'll have your domain under custom domains. Click Options in the primary domain column and Select Setup Netlify DNS. I touched on DNS on this previous article.

Again, Verify and Yes, add domain in Step 1.

Continue in Step 2 and pause on Step 3.

We'll be copying these four domain names of Netlify's name-server to Freenom. (Please note that these may be different for different custom domains)

Update DNS on Freenom

Click on My Domains under the Services menu on the navbar.

Thereafter, select Manage Domain for your domain. On the 'management' page, under the Management Tools drop-down menu select Nameservers.

Click on Use custom nameservers and copy-paste the Name Servers' domain names from Netlify to Freenom. So that they are the same. (Compare with Step 3 in Netlify above)

Click Change nameservers to complete.

Set up HTTPS

On Netlify step 3; with the name server's domain names copied to Freenom successfully, click Done.

It takes some minutes to show Netlify DNS as the screenshot below. Just reload every so often in the space of 10 minutes. (Maybe longer but it works within 10 minutes for me)

The final step is just to verify the DNS configuration. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. This is done by clicking Verify DNS configuration, and you're done. Head over to your site at your custom domain 🎉.

Please share your custom domain in the comments section. I would like to celebrate with you.

Version Control

In the last article, if you created a GitHub account (or if you have one already), then you can proceed with this section. I will use the index.html file we used to keep things simple. This is mostly foundational; the process is transferrable when dealing with many more files.

Using GitHub

On your browser, navigate to your repository and click on the index.html file.

Then click on the pencil icon to Edit the file.

Here's a simple code snippet that you can replace the file with:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Hello World</title>
    <style>
        body {
            background-color: #2D2D2D;
        }

        h1 {
            color: #C26356;
            font-size: 30px;
            font-family: Menlo, Monaco, fixed-width;
        }

        p {
            color: white;
            font-family: "Source Code Pro", Menlo, Monaco, fixed-width;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>Hello World</h1>
    <p>This is a paragraph</p>
</body>
</html>

Click on Preview Changes. The text with a green background is code that has been added and that with the red background is deleted code. At the end of the file, this time I added a new line too. Click Commit changes at the bottom.

In seconds, your site has been updated.

Using a local repository

If you're new to version control, you can imagine that it could be a bit time-consuming to edit several files and commit changes. That's just one of the problems that this process of using GitHub on the web can bring about. Fortunately, it works for a simple use-case as the one above, especially since you are working solo on this repo. The industry standard, for software development, is to work locally on a copy of your remote repository, for example, this one on GitHub, and push changes over time.

I will point you to this article on FreeCodeCamp or this multistep Atlassian Git tutorial. If you prefer e-books and want to get into the nitty-gritty of things, here's a book by some friends of mine (Alex and Joseph): Version Control with Git and GitHub. You can use the Free Sample to begin with, buy the e-book, or get it in paperback.

Conclusion

This wraps up the main part of #DIY your web presence 'for FREE' series. What's next is a bonus, where we go about creating a blog. See you then.

Here is the site I published and the GitHub repo used.

Now that we have a working understanding of the internet and domain names, let's own one and say "Hello World".

The steps should be easy to follow and I'll add context where necessary. Feel free to ask questions in the comments section.

The series: DIY your web presence 'for FREE'

Previous post: #2

Your free domain and a landing page

When I started out, seeking to have a custom web presence (beyond having an email and Facebook account), I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I could get a free domain. I gravitated to .tk since it is the short form of TechKln, a community I run 💪. I used stanmd [dot] tk for testing purposes; however, I no longer own it. It served me well while it lasted.

Below, I take you through the process of having a domain and a landing page for free. I believe this is the epitome of a free and accessible internet. Anyone can have a place to call home in the World Wide Web!

Getting a free domain

DotTK (please note, the link is not https) claims to be the only TLD domain-name registry that provides free domain names.

What's the catch?

Well, the details about the company are here. Simply put, it is a joint venture with several parties, chief among them; the government of a little known country, Tokelau. The atolls (islands, loosely explained) of this tiny country are right at the international dateline; interesting story here. I think this place is worth a visit. Anyway, I digress 😁

The mission of DotTK is to increase the country's publicity globally. If you did not know of this country until now, we can agree they are succeeding. I'm sure you figured out that .tk is their ccTLD. The knowledge all comes together, right? Secondly, it's also profitable for the country. The proceeds out of royalties of this ccTLD have increased over 10% of the country's GDP (*the smallest economy in the world).

The domains are purchased on freenom.com. You might have guessed it; free domains have some limitations. However, when it's written FREE, it is actually free! Not like others who 'give' a free domain if you purchase hosting or something else. Here's an example that I randomly came across. You can read the differences between paid and free domains here.

Let's get that domain

Head over to freenom.com. There's no Register button here. These are the steps:

• Enter your domain of choice (without the TLD) in the field and :

• Click on Check availability

• Click on Get it now! and once it is selected click on Checkout

Please note that I have selected a free domain out of the 5 TLD's that are free The rest can be found at the lower part of the page at prices claimed to be the cheapest anywhere.

• In the dropdown, Period column select up to 12 months FREE 🎉. Click on Continue.

• The next page Review & Checkout, use Social sign in with Google, and you're done!

  🚨 I found out that Facebook auth is buggy and so is Login with email address. So just go with Google sign in 😉

Landing page

Here we'll be using Netlify.

Quick way to do it

Create a folder and in it create a file index.html. Copy the code below and save.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Hello World</title>
</head>
<body>
    Hello World
</body>
</html>

I'm using the above code snippet to make things easy. If this is new to you, here's a great resource on HTML (Your intro into web development).

Head over to Netlify Drop to drag and drop your folder (in the area I've highlighted in light green)

Voila, it's live! If this is your first time deploying a site, I imagine this feels exciting. Feel free to celebrate then come back to continue 😊.

Click on Sign up for Netlify to claim the site. Use you're preferred choice.

Using Version Control

On the sign-up page, you noticed the three well-known code repository platforms; GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket.

I'll use GitHub going forward, in this tutorial. I'll sign up using GitHub. Past the Getting Started Guide, you have a screen like the one below.

You can drag and drop your folder as we did earlier, or by clicking on New site from Git you can configure automatic updating of your site every time you push to your remote repository (repo).

Creating a GitHub repository

Skip to the next heading if you're conversant with GitHub. Have a GitHub repo with your site's files on the ready.

If you don't have a GitHub account, go ahead and signup here. Once signed up, create a repo, I chose index as the name of my repo.

There are multiple ways to push code to your new repo. You can use either of the ones specified. This is the simplest way:

• Click on uploading an existing file

• Click on choose your files, (optionally) enter a Git commit message and click Commit Message.

Your repo is then updated.

Configure Netlify and GitHub

In Netlify, after you click on New site from Git, you have a 3-step process to complete. Click on GitHub. Be sure to authenticate Netlify in the popup screen that appears.

Select the GitHub account you used to create the repo with the site's file(s) so that Netlify can be installed. Select whether you want Netlify to access all your repos or just specific ones.

I advise that you select All repositories. You'll be redirected to step 2.

Select the repo of choice. If you selected Only select repositories in Step 1; in future instances, you may not see your new repo listed. You'll need to reconfigure Netlify on GitHub every time you create a new repo.

In Step 3, you specify to Netlify which folder is to be used and if there are any build commands to run before deploying. In our case (just having an index.html file at the root of the repo) we need not change anything. Click Deploy site

Tying the domain name and our site together

We're not yet done. We need to 'tie' the site and the domain together.

After the site is live, you'll be redirected to a screen showing you that there are two more steps to go...

Why don't we go through that in the next article? See you there.

Next post: #4

* [the smallest economy in the world](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)

A global outfit

Back in February this year, I wrote an article Reintroducing techKenyans. There I wrote about the community, breaking the post into 4 parts:

• So what's TechKenyans?
• How's the journey been?
• What's there currently?
• The future?

I won't touch on the first two here. Catch that interesting story linked above 👆.

I'll iterate on the last two from the bottom.

The Future? Rebrand

The Why

Kenya is a well-known country in East Africa; mostly known for its horticulture if not tea or athletes. Having Kenyans in the name 'techKenyans' has in the past alluded to an exclusive Kenyan community. At the beginning of formation, the idea was localised (for Kenyans). However, the mentality of being global was always there.

The need for a global outfit became resounding due to the following factors:

• a growing subscriber list from people all over
• non-Kenyan TK's community members could feel transient (as though they are part of us temporarily) sometimes

The second factor wasn't so severe but I think we agree that any community needs to be (and feel) inclusive.

The How

The process needed to be as seamless as possible. The logos and the brand colo(u)rs, I thought, need not change. Plus the initials TK are already in use in swag (hoodie, stickers) and assets (logos). Therefore the ask was simplified to; Let's get a name:

• whose initials would be TK
• alludes to community in some way
• that has a cool factor 😎

Quickly though, Tech Kiln was proposed by Rain during a brainstorming session. A short unique name 🤩. That was a light-bulb moment! I did not want to be skewed to that name nor be limited to the creativity of my close circle so I expanded the search.

Mid last month, I decided to involve the wider community members and other associates in a closed poll. The constraints were clear. In addition to the three mentioned above, the availability of domain names and usernames on social media was a key factor. Moreover; several entities have had to change names due to copyright. All these aspects need to be factored in.

Here's a message I sent out on Slack:

(Call it directed but we always need to work with bounds) Therefore, a poll between these three: TechKiln, TechKlin and TechKln was sent out in private DMs and in the community. TechKlin had been thrown in there since it was easier to pronounce. TechKln, though unpronounceable looked sophisticated.

Why was the poll not public, you ask? TK risked having the domains bought by malicious people. It's a jungle out here 😅.

A lot of suggestions came my way. Below are notable ones:

• Tech Kind (is already a brand name with active domain names, products or services) suggested by Adam Lupu
• Technology Kin (I liked the allusion to community - 'family' but wasn't well-received in TK on Slack and WhatsApp) suggested by Chibuzor Odai Obiora
• TechKenyans International (Adding international could imply global but the name still has Kenyans) suggested by Ken Nzioker

In the end, after more than 20 days, the polls for TechKiln, TechKlin and TechKln stood at 36%, 20% and 44% respectively. I was really vouching for TechKiln and while it's not all democracy, the People spoke. Furthermore, there were some key aspects that favoured TechKln:

• techkiln.com is an active site
• In techkln we could say that _we dropped the i since in TK community, it's not about the I but the WE
• If you google "Tech Kiln" or "TechKiln" so many varied results come up. In contrast, TK website is the first result, when you google "TechKln"

Behold; TechKln

So it's settled TechKln is the name of the community.

On the site: techkln.org, I dig a bit into the word Kiln. The in-depth scrutiny was offered by yet another friend Vyki. They had this to say:

"I really like TECHKILN, KILN is both a verb and a noun. It has a strong meaning of making and building, and a connotation of community as many pottery makers are independent skilled artisans who can rarely afford their own kiln and often use and fund community owned kilns to finish their work."

Superb. Even though, the 'i' was dropped; this is still at heart to TechKln 🎉

That said, TechKln, I encountered some gotchas. Let's dig into those:

• Previous sites/ accounts: techkenyans.org redirects to the new domain. Social media accounts with the username TechKenyans were swapped and now point to the newly named accounts. That is for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Others like GitHub start afresh.
• Pronunciation: since the spoken word is as important as written how do you refer someone to TK's website or social media accounts. I'd like to hear your thoughts. I simply pronounce it as I would Tech Kiln by saying techkiln as one word without the i or simply spell it out
• Misspellings. The site is techkln.org. SEO will come in handy with the search engine results but in the spirit of future-proofing; techkiln.org and techkln.com redirect to the main site. As for social media, for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; the techkiln usernames point to techkln. Here's an example:

I'm appreciative to Nad for the vouch of confidence. He said (I paraphrase) "A good community will run with the name, don't overthink it"

What's there currently?

• TK swag is available for purchase
• Tech events (#global and #local will continue being featured) This will now cut across different countries.
• The periodic TK newsletter
• Developer tools (for use for free) For example, if you want to publish to Google Play store; you're free to use TK's account for that (T&C apply)
• TK's GitHub classroom (for software development)
• Global toolkit - A live list of technological tools cutting across a number of disciplines
• DIY (Do it yourself) your web presence series - An ongoing tutorial to have yourself a website and blog for FREE!

and many more in the pipeline.

Several individuals were involved behind the scenes and while I mentioned a few, I'd like to say thank you to all of you/ them.

In the first post, I lined up what we have in store within this series. Next, we'll be registering a free domain and linking up free hosting to it! Sweet, right?

But before that, there's a lot to figure out. Let's get to that first. If you are conversant with domains and how the internet works, feel free to get to the next post in the series.

The series: DIY your web presence 'for FREE'

Previous post: #1

First things first, we need to demystify a number of things about how the internet works. I'll use an analogy to explain this.

The internet and domain names

The internet

The internet can be likened to the postal service system without the human element.

In this system, the 'postman' needs to be able to collect your letter and deliver it to the correct recipient. Then your reply can be received via the same system, thereby having a complete communication loop.

Similarly, for the internet, a browser acts like the front desk of a post office receiving what you type (your request) and, in time, you get your reply (a response).

For example, when you type the text *youtube.com on the address bar of your browser and press enter; this request being a domain is received and the webpage that's familiar to most of us containing videos ready to be watched is delivered to your browser.

Under the hood is an interconnection of computers (running varied software programs) called servers with fast computing power and large storage. These servers number in the millions globally and come in with many functions. I'll attempt a summary:

• A name server or DNS (Domain Name Server); interprets the human-readable characters youtube.com to a numeric identification; its IP (Internet Protocol) address

• A routing server; By referencing chains or rules established by network admins called IP tables; a routing server specifies the route data packets (either requests or responses) take to the intended destination

• A web server; receives the requests of the World Wide Web and responds with files (mostly) that were requested

• A hosting server; this is where the files that constitute youtube.com in our case are stored (hosted)

Here's a screenshot of the interactive map of the submarine connection globally.

That's the summary I could afford you. There's a lot more. What's important to us, for now, is the name server, so keep this in mind.

Buying a domain name

What you need to know

Let's first deconstruct youtube.com; 'youtube' is a name the creators of YouTube came up with. 'com' is what is called a TLD (Top-Level Domain). So youtube.com, whitehouse.gov, who.int, web.dev and techkenyans.org are all domains with different TLDs: .com, .gov, .int, .dev and .org. This is just the tip of the iceberg, the internet is vast!

To get your hands on one, you need to get to the 'marketplace'. Yes; there is a marketplace with a bunch of rules. Say, for example; not just anyone can buy a '.int' domain. It is reserved for international bodies. It is called an intergovernmental treaty domain that can only be given by the *IANA. The who now? 😃

The IANA, a department in ICANN, is the policing body in this marketplace. However, not every domain has to be bought from them. Thank God. You can imagine the logistics! There are registries in every country and these, in turn, delegate the work to registrars. Registrars are individuals, companies or organizations in the domain name industry. There are country-level TLDs like '.ke' for Kenya, '.il' for Israel or '.ae' for the Arab Emirates. The jargon is *ccTLD, country code TLD. These are owned by registers, who license registrars to sell them. Registrars do sell beyond their country's ccTLD, but it's unlikely for you to buy a ccTLD from a registrar who is not in that country. When you approach a registrar and buy a domain, you become a registrant of that domain.

One more thing to note here is this; remember the .gov? That's reserved for the US government and its bodies. The rest of the countries use secondary level domains (SLD or 2LD) directly under the TLDs, for example: .go.ke or co.il for example: google.co.il

🇰🇪 For my Kenyan audience: see kenic.or.ke Kenya's registry and their list of registrants.

The purchase

First and foremost, decide which TLD you want to buy. There's a long list to choose from.

So you've decided which TLD you'll buy. Great! You then select a registrar. A simple google search like 'buy .com domain' should do the trick. There are several factors to consider: (not limited to the following)

• Price

• Customer service

• Account management tools

• Hosting services (do they offer this with the purchase)

• Can you purchase with their mode of payment? (Kenyan registrars accept mobile money, like *MPesa)

• Among others like WHOIS privacy protection

In our case, we said we'll get this done for FREE! Over to the next article.

Next post: #3

• youtube.com - Interesting fact: the first video on YouTube was uploaded 15 years ago; video, on Wikipedia

• IANA - Do you know IANN?

• MPesa - The most prominent mobile money transfer service in the country

DIY | Do It Yourself

Have a website like techkln.org and a blog like this one for personal branding, business, calling, bragging rights... or whatever floats your boat 😁

Why?

I'm glad you asked. It can be argued that knowing how to build a website or at least having one, beyond just having a social media account, is one good show that you are tech-savvy. Plus, it is relevant knowledge. I remember how rewarding it was to say I have my own home in the WWW (World Wide Web) on the internet. Hopefully, through this post, I'll see you through to having your own.

What will we do together?

Website

• Register a free domain like md.engineer

• Upload an index file to the domain

Blog

• Create a blog

• Tie the blog to your new domain, like blog.md.engineer

Standing on the shoulders of giants

We will be leveraging the following services: (Their tag lines are in italics)

• Freenom - A name for everyone

• Netlify - The fastest way to build the fastest sites

• Hashnode's devblog - Own your canonical, developers!

Do not feel intimidated with the name developers. Some people say that coding is becoming a literacy in the 21st century. With the number of coding boot-camps, even for teens and kids; I wouldn't argue with them.

However, I am not about to tell you, 'Hey, become a developer. A software engineer!' This is an attempt to break down boulders to fine grain. To pull down the perceived barrier of entry to aspects of technology that could be relevant to you. That's what TK is all about. So let's get to it.

Bonus

• Set up versioning for your blog

This will be a simplistic approach to VC (Version Control) where we'll use git and GitHub.

The series

I have opted to make this a series, the DIY your web presence series, to break these steps down. Chances are you're reading this as the writing is in progress, so feel free to follow TechKln on Twitter for updates or old-school RSS feed here.

Use the comments section below to share your thoughts, feedback and questions. If you have ideas of content you might want to read, hear or watch about? You are welcome to reach out. Hopefully, you have a Hashnode account. If not, DM (Direct Message) me on Twitter, email, messenger, telegram (however you may want to reach me)

Next post: #2

Want to share your own knowledge as a contributor to the TechKln publication? DM TechK or tweet @TechKln You can republish an already written article.

Of PCs, custom build or off the shelf?

You don't have to settle for the specs you read for PCs (Personal Computers) on display at your local stores in the city or town. PCs are rarely on display for that matter. Most customers are in favour of mobility and versatility hence the prevalence of stores selling smartphones, tablets and laptops.

Yet there is a demographic that is after PCs; the gamers, architects, etc. You have three options:

• Find a store that has a PC for you

  This works if you are either not very particular with your needs or you can make due with the default configurations or your wallet can accommodate a specked out PC.

• Build your own PC

  You'd opt for this if you know what you are doing or feeling confident being a seasoned viewer of videos from Linus Tech Tips. The components can be found locally if you search around or can be bought online and shipped 💰

These two options have their gotchas and limitations. This is the situation I got myself into up until I consulted.

• Order a custom-built PC

  Well, well, well...

Where do you go for a custom-built PCs in Kenya?

In case you're wondering, I am not so much of a gamer. The technical team at my church was in the market for a machine, cool ay 😎!

My consulting proved successful. I was introduced to ShufflePCs.

My build

I checked out their IG account, whatsapp'd them, got a quote, adjusted it (since I could source some components myself), paid 50% then after ~21 days the build was ready. My build took a bit longer since I was a bit too much on specifics of everything and I am glad they were patient with me in the frequent backs and forths.

With all components shipped and the build all set, they indulged my curiosity so that I could participate in the build 🤯. Finally, as normal procedure stress tests are done and you'll have the numbers sent to you under a catchy alias or code-name for the build. Overall, I was impressed and walked away a satisfied customer; of course, having settled the deficit 50%.

Your build

I was a bit involved in the process but for someone with little to no time to get involved the steps are quite simple:

• Get a quote (Click on Free Quote on ShufflePC's contact page)
• The team will engage to finalize on the details
• Pay up 50%
• The build starts
• Pick it up or have it delivered (as you settled the deficit)

This takes 21 days and the package comes complete with a one-year warranty 🏆.

60 days into the decade and .... (Drum rolls 🥁) 9 years since the idea of TechKenyans came to mind.

So what's TechKenyans?

Originally the name was Technosavvy Kenyans.

The logos then were super simple too.

Please understand my youth then 😄

My vision was to be part of a community where we improve each other's tech-savviness. The premise was (and still is) simple: we all have things we do and technology should be seen as an enabler of these activities (economic, social or otherwise).

The ability to apply specific domain knowledge (domain-specific application knowledge) varies from one person to another. Technology is no exception. It is evident, nowadays, that the more tech-savvy you are, the easier you are navigating this life; this complicated life that is rarely devoid of interactions with machines and software.

How's the journey been?

My association with TK on LinkedIn There's been a lot of activity:

• Leading and participating in communities in campus (like Mictec ) and beyond ( Forloop , Teencode ...)
• Writing multiple blog posts hosted on Wordpress, Ghost, Medium;
• Leading and participating in several initiatives like TK-Jamii (A platform, Gilo and I worked on, quite similar to GitHub pages to enable users, newbies in tech, to have personal web profiles) and
• Forging partnerships with tech communities and events (like FishHackathon );

Here is a timeline of the site over the years:

What's there currently?

TechKenyans' home has been at techkenyans.org. In being true to consuming #local (Kenya Web Experts is the domain registrar and the splash image is by Mutua Matheka (a Kenyan-born photographer).

Other assets like the banner and logo and are the result of Chao's and Lewis' creative juices respectively!

Social

• TechKenyans on Twitter still remains to be the home of tech events and communities highlight both #global and #local.

• TechKenyans is on Facebook too and a few members of the community have ordered TK swag. There are hoodies for now.

  

• TK leverages platforms like Slack and WhatsApp so you can have one on one engagement.

The future?

The near future will see the TK newsletter live! There's a growing mailing list for the TK newsletter accessible via the homepage (Click on subscribe).

The Medium publication has only two posts from me. I'm hoping that shifting over to Hashnode will see increased reads leveraging on their devblog and more community members writing on the publication. This is the first post on the new TK publication .

Of course, the current platforms and efforts are to continue with the 3-forked theme: Technology, Empowerment and Innovation.

Technology | Empowerment | Innovation

Update: Mledger is no longer active!

If you are using Mpesa then Mledger is an app that you definitely need. It packs a punch: Mpesa transactions history, reports, Mpesa cost calculator etc.

Recently I was using the SGR (Standard Gauge Railway) or as others out it: Madaraka Express. I had paid by MPesa (Thanks SGR folks for this convenience)

Aside: The SGR booking process is simple:

• Call any of these numbers: 0709907000, 0728603581/2. They are usually busy so try again and again until you get through.
• Ask about the seat availability for your trip, give your name, ID number and Phone number. They'll tell you the amount and,
• From then on it's automated: you get a message with the Lipa na Mpesa details. You pay, receive a confirmatory message with ticket details and that's it; you are done.
• Now you'll just have to go to the SGR terminal/ station an hour before time (for check-in), print your ticket at the Ticket ATM and you are well on your way.

I formatted my phone just the night before travelling.

I was oblivious of the fact that I will need the ticket message and ay, you know I had that mindset that definitely the SGR system has my records. Guess what were it not for the app, where I retrieved my records, I would not have had the ride. Long story short, the system is "semi-automated" and MLedger saved the day. In other words, saying, I've got your back!

So that's just one use-case, what about the Cost Calculator that allows you to know the tariffs for sending and withdrawing currency and the claimed Bank USSD code search - I can't get to this feature for some reason. Well, there you have it.

TechKenyans is the home of TechKenyans.