AfriGadget: Constrained Creativity May 16
9 comments Latest by Nollind Whachell
AfriGadget is a website dedicated to showcasing African ingenuity. A team of bloggers and readers contribute pictures, videos and stories from across the continent. Inspiring stuff.
This guy made a crude helicopter with scrap aluminum and parts from a Honda Civic, an old Toyota and from the remains of a crashed Boeing 747.
Here’s a guy who made a paraglider out of plastic bags and scrap wire.
A home made welding machine from Nairobi. Kids forced to make their own toys show off their ingenuity. In Kenya they’ve developed bio gas generator that turns methane from a manure pit into cooking gas. And this guy turns mortar shells into coffee makers.
And this one will blow you away: A homemade windmill from very spare parts. Includes a video of the creator at the TED conference.
So much from so little. Impressive.
Over 1 million people use 37signals' simple web-based software to collaborate on projects, track contacts, and organize their business with an intranet.
9 comments so far
Adam 16 May 08
Firefox 3 says its a spam site…
Chris 16 May 08
I can verify Adam’s comment, I’m getting a Reported Attack Site with FF3 as well.
Chris 16 May 08
I went and turned off the security alerts, the site seems to be legit. It’s odd that it’s marked as a security alert.
John 16 May 08
Same here…. FF3 is not liking the homemade helicopters, paragliders and windmills.
hash 16 May 08
Thanks for the post, I didn’t expect to see our little project up here on the 37s blog.
So, short history of the alert you’re seeing: our host had a security breach a while back, we fixed the issues, and are waiting on Google/StopBadware.org to reinstate us. The site is clean.
On another note, we use 37s tools on our (main) project now too, which we’re rewriting from the ground up.
Cheers, and keep up the good work!
sergiob 16 May 08
Security Alert!? Could be the case of the innovative Nigerian entrepreneur Adu Ngobe who single handedly managed to make thousands of dollars out citizens from developed countries with just a computer and an Internet connection. Great example of creativity and limited resources.
Benjy 16 May 08
I remember seeing a show on Discovery or TLC , etc. about Cuba and their similar ingenuity caused by the U.S. embargo and the fall of the USSR . It’s main focus was on how they fashion replacement parts for their cars, which are still mostly 50’s era American cars. They used scavenged scrap metal, smelted it and used homemade molds to forge the parts.
A Guy from South America 16 May 08
The same happens in the software area in third world countries. I live in a country considered as a third world and software development here has its limitations. For instance, most developers don’t have the latest and fasters generation PCs or Macs. I guess a great percentage still uses Pentium IV processors. While developing, this means that we have to be more careful on our code because the compile/deploy cycle is expensive. We do have restrictions in terms of hardware here. I wish it could be easy to buy an iMac for example. I guess with limited hardware you have to be more careful on your code. There’s a great difference between software developers in the third world and ‘first’ world.
Nollind Whachell 16 May 08
Constrained creativity indeed. By limiting yourself, you expand your possibilities (and thus clarify / focus things in the process).
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