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Friday 24 April 2015

My Great Hopes for OS Development in Nigeria



The world of operating system development can seem so far removed from that of normal, daily programming.

In the world of normal, daily software development we deal with terms like functions, variables, libraries, threading, exceptions, reflection, and many more.

In the world of OS development, you are introduced to terms like boot sequence, interrupts, kernel, paging, system calls, bootloader, and many more.

My new hobby for the next few months (maybe years) would be making available the necessary knowledge and tools needed for OS dev.

I will be doing this with the help of my friends, most notably MobileXP.

We would start from the Android OS to the Linux kernel (they are both open-source and readily available), then, we would see where that takes us.

We would start from basic things like customizing your Android phones (like creating custom lock screens, home screens, launchers...) to customizing the kernel. One of our major aims would be to port the Android OS to a device that didn't come with it.

Most of our publications will be @ bytedevs.wordpress.com (except we decide otherwise).

My hope is that in the coming years creating an OS would be as common as writing an app or building a website in Nigeria.

You know, it doesn't always have to happen outside Nigeria, we too can do it here.

By the way, shout out to Mike for the video.

Friday 17 April 2015

My Great Leaps

It was Lailah Gifty Akita who said "There is nothing better in life than commitment to personal development and lifelong learning."

If there is any habit I am most proud of, it is the unquenchable desire to always know more. Not just to get more knowledge, but to constantly acquire that knowledge that takes you to another level - a leap. And not just the knowledge, the deep understanding also.

Sitting down at the Karabow office I find myself reminiscing, counting the great leaps I have experienced in my intellectual life, leaps that have helped get me to where I am now.

1. Learning programming (sept 2008): the very activity that fills my being.
2. Learning C# (Dec 2009/Jan 2010): it opened the door to learn other C-like programming  languages
3. Learning web APIs (Aug 2013): it opened my eyes and mind to understand, on a deeper  level, how this connected world of ours truly works.
4. Learning mobile, starting with BlackBerry (Oct 2013): so I didn't have to feel like an ancient  dinosaur in a modern world.
5. Learning CIL/MSIL (Nov 2013, what a leap): it opened the door into creating tools like  compilers, transpilers, runtime environments.
6. Learning OS Development (Jan 2015 - date): it opened the door into a whole new world of  creating platforms like operating systems, custom ROMs.

Judging from these leaps, it becomes apparent that I may soon find myself in the world of hardware development. I CAN'T WAIT. It is my earnest desire that one day we will wake up and realise that what used to be done only by the "oyibos" is now being done in Nigeria. When that day comes I hope someone will be able to point to me and say "Frank was one of the people who started this African scientific revolution."

I remember my early days as a programmer, having MANY people to look up to. I am very humble, but this is the truth: I AM ON A WHOLE DIFFERENT LEVEL NOW!

I thank God for this undying desire for self development.

Friday 3 April 2015

Hello World


Hello World! We bring you greetings from Karabow - a place where reality is made up of dreams.
Karabow is a Nigerian technology startup that has the audacious goal of pushing back the frontiers of technology in Africa.
We are a group of young dreamers who believe nothing is beyond the ability of an African. As a continent Africa has produced great statesmen, great athletes, great musicians, great writers. Karabow is here to add great scientists and engineers to that list. This is the passion that burns within us.
At Karabow, we are poised to make a big difference in the field of computer science, with emphasis of mobile and web technologies, including their hardware components. Karabow is a company always on the move. At any point in time we have a number of products under development across the fields of hardware, software and web technologies. We will be releasing more information on our products and projects as time goes by, but it would suffice to mention two very big projects we are working on.


First, we are working on these cool devices. The picture above shows some early samples of our devices. A lot has changed since then, and we will be unveiling their new looks in weeks to come. Most of our mobile devices are rich and powerful smart phones. They come with features you would expect in a smart phone. But they also have other cool features. In addition to these, we are always dreaming up features we will like to implement. As it is beyond the scope of this article to discuss these features, we will leave that for coming articles. We want to do something really special with our devices.


The other project we will be touching is what we are calling Melon OS (see above), our operating system. We are well aware of the fact that developing operating systems is a very rare practice in this part of the world. We are privileged to have access to relevant information and tools required for the development of an OS. We are basing Melon OS on Android initially but, as we increase in knowledge and manpower, we will begin to deviate from Android. This deviation will allow us implement features that cannot currently be implemented on Android, features which may include the ability to run Windows apps. Melon OS will remain compatible with Android apps.

A brief history. Karabow was founded on the 4th of April, 2012 by Wisdom Kwati. He currently serves as the CEO of the company. On the 15th of April, 2013 the company was incorporated. Office work started on the 1st of December, 2014. 2015 will be our first operational year. It has been a wild and interesting journey up to this point, and we owe all we have managed to do to divine providence.


We have great plans, and you should have great expectations. We are all out to make this country (and continent) proud, and we wish to have your support, even as you patronise our products.
It is our sincere hope that in the future, when people talk about the great hi-tech revolution that rocked Africa, Karabow will be mentioned as one of the agents that made that possible.

Hello World! We bring you greetings from Karabow