ikr, imu, jux - Does this generation ever write anything in full?

If you tried to pronounce 'ikr' as a proper word in the title of this article then you must be shocked right now as I was when I learnt 'ikr' was short for 'I know right' and you must definitely be from another generation. 

With the advent of so many social media platforms, many people are increasingly throwing their thoughts out there either as status messages, tweets or wall posts. Those with that much time on their hands go as far as edit pictures and append their thoughts to them. I convinced myself a few months back that this generation are a lazy bunch. With each passing day they give me more reason to cement my conviction. Back in the day when social media and messaging were in their virginity, we invented shorthands that simply made so much sense. You could maintain a normal conversation interspersed with a few shorthands and everyone was still on the same page and things still made sense. 

'ttyl' - talk to you later. We all knew this was way too long and we typed it too often when ending conversations. We shortened it. Nice. Everyone got it.
'brb' - be right back. Made sense as this was also used often when you had to stop chatting and get immersed in something else.
'stg' - something. Makes sense ini? Need not say more.
'imo' - in my opinion. Yes this entire article is imo :)
'imho' - in my humble opinion. I think mainstream english even borrowed this because it was too cool to ignore.
'wtf' - what the fuck. Yep! Our generation hates nonsense too.
'omg' - oh my gosh/goodness.
'roflmao' - rolling on the floor and laughing my ass out.This is so long it makes so much sense to shorten it.

The present generation have taken this shorthand thing way too extreme, cutting everything short except the length of their phones.

'smh' - shaking my head. This I can understand.
'sma' - shaking my ass. Oh goodness. Such an immoral bunch.
'ikr' - i know right. Let me reserve my comments on this one.
'imu' - i miss you. Seriously!!  How the heck do you expect in a regular conversation I decipher 'imu' to be 'i miss you'? It could mean so many things. It can easily pass for 'in my underwear', 'is mary unhealthy', 'is money useless'.. just try googling for 'imu' and get the shock of your lives you short handers.
'jux' - just. This gets more confusing when they merge it with imu. i jux mu. Goodness!! 
'x' - is. x d exams on friday? Are you guys paying for the ink on the phone screen? Will understand if you had to pay per character you had but no its all free.
'TG' - thank God. Nuf said. Even God has his share these days.
'idk' - i don't know. Yes if you type stuff like this I wouldn't know what they mean.
'bff' - best friends forever. 
'fml' - fuck my life. Like I care!! You can fylayw (ha! I have given you a taste of your own medicine)
'bc' - because. This used to nicely be bcos or cos. Now it had to get shorter.
'thx' - thanks. What happened to tnx. Abbreviation spelt out the syllables nicely
'kk' - ok. :) Ok is so long it had to be shortened to kk. Amazing!!

So glad I let this out. It's been eating me up for a while now. 
Stfmna - sit tight for my next article. :)

Budgeting for an App or project - a few pointers.

Like it or not, we are faced at a point in our lives with either having to provide quotations for projects or having to provide budgets for app developments. If you seek the former head off to this article I did earlier. Budgeting is perceived to be a thing for the finance people but what if you are tasked to get it done? Just a few pointers to get you headed in the right direction.

If budgeting for an app seems over the moon, replace ‘app’ with a house and I bet the picture will get clearer.

If you've ever had to build a house (not as the mason) you'd note it is very possible to know exactly how much money will be spent on the building just by having the plan. The blueprints can inform you on exactly how many bags of cement are required for the foundation, how many blocks in total will bring the building up to roofing level etc. The same applies with budgeting for an app. 

You need to clearly define ALL the features of the app NOT an overview or a press description, a comprehensive list of features that need to exist in the app. Once you have done this you now need to 

1. Get the actual cost of developing the app.

This is solely money to be chopped by the software development company. Nothing to do with logistics. You’ll need to get a few developers and/or software development companies to submit proposals. This will give you an idea of how much on the average you need to allocate to the building of the app based on the different rates you received.

2. Are there any non ‘software development’ related costs involved?

Think training. Not the software development company training your staff BUT you training the end users on how to use your app. Apps meant for general public use don't all the time require training. Most specialised project-based (NGOs) apps require training of the intended audience. If your app falls in this category, slap training costs into the budget. Mind you a lot also goes into training. Do you need to hire someone to prepare training material? Do you need to rent a venue for the training? Do you need to print material? Do you need to hire projectors, get food for the trainers and trainees? Do you need to fly facilitators down from Mars? Which space shuttle will you go for, how much, how many facilitators? All these are cost components that fall under just training. There could be more. For training-the-trainer kind of sessions where trainees are required to come from different regions, do you intend to reimburse them for transport? Think holistically of everything required to make the training a success.

3. Other logistics that complement your app. 

There are apps that require third party integrations to make them complete. Maybe integration with a 3rd party SMS platform. You need to cost that. Will you require a team on the ground constantly collecting data? You need to cost that. Will you need a third party company to complete transactions on your behalf, say a payment gateway that does profit sharing or per transaction billing? You'll need to include that also in the budget. Does your app require heavy advertising to make it a success? Budget for it. Decide if you are doing TV, social media or radio ads (maybe all three).

That's pretty much the basic requirements to project or app budgeting. Every multi million project or app goes through these basic steps of identifying all the cost elements that make up the millions.

Please note.. don't dream up the amounts. You need to get out there and obtain real going market costs. Doing this ensures you don't end up with not enough money to get your app completed. It is also good practice to upwardly adjust real market amounts by a small margin especially if your app development isn't taking off immediately. Inflation can make you look incompetent in front of your boss.

There are times when you are given a specific amount to work with regardless. In those cases you need to work backwards and make your cost components fit the amount available to you.

In both cases it is important to keep a spreadsheet of your budget with one extra column for actuals to give you an idea if you overspent or underspent and how to improve on your subsequent budgets.

The UNCOMMON Taxi

Holy smokes!! Wait. Is that a Mercedes Benz S 550 I see dressed in the colors of a taxi? Pinch me please. I don't want to believe I am sleep walking this hot afternoon. No pinch me again for emphasis. 

This is definitely something you don't see everyday. I quickly whisked out my smartphone to check the price of this mansion on the road, of course not before I had satisfactorily taken pictures of this Uncommon spectacle - a very high end Mercedes Benz taxi. In these times when the cedi and dollar don't see eye to eye who would pull off such a crazy stunt. I had to get to the bottom of this madness. In a bid to satisfy my curiosity I drew closer. Curiosity they say killed the cat but today this cat is prepared to die next to this fine ride. 

By now I was standing by the driver's side of this uncommon taxi. No way!! Those who planned this must have really been aiming for the kill. Seated in the driver's seat was this sharply dressed woman. At this point I was both awestruck and confused- pretty much the same way Moses felt when he saw the burning bush. Already a Mercedes S 550 for a taxi is in a league of its own. Now it's being driven by a woman. Tell me if that's not uncommon.  

I engaged the driver in a conversation and within a couple of minutes I had gained permission to take a back seat. I did. Whew!! I swear I'm going to hate my car going forward. Upon a few back and forth questions and answers I learnt this was part of CCML's UNCOMMON campaign. Well they nailed the uncommon right there. She had parked where I met her because they had come to randomly find someone who had been discharged from hospital but couldn't pay their bills, CCML pays the bill and gives them an executive ride home free of charge. I'm blown like a trombone but apparently she tells me it's just the dawn. More to come at sunrise and sunset of their campaign. 

Next I will be digging in to who CCML really are. Watch out for some stories about this Taizi