The ad-hoc Working Group formed to allow members of the At-Large community to express concerns that they might have regarding the GNSO’s proposed recommendations for new Top Level Domains has released a draft final report. See also the GNSO report on policy for introducing new gTLDs ; questions for ICANN workshop for 29 October needed post.
Author: ttcsadmin
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Gimp 2.4 available
Gimp 2.4, the image editor suitable for photo retouching (its features are often compared with Photoshop) for Windows 2000/XP/Vista (support for Windows 98 has been dropped) is available for download. You can read a summary of what new in this release from the Gimp documentation.
Gimp v2.4 will be included in version 1.82 of TTCS OSSWIN CD ; the Gimp Help files for v2.2 on the TTCS OSSWIN CD will be dropped to make room for Gimp 2.4.
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Google Gmail increases storage and offers IMAP support
Over the weekend I’ve noticed that Google’s gmail increased its mail storage from 2.8GB to 4.4GB. Cool. Tonight, I see this post on Download Squad : Gmail gets IMAP. Switch to my Gmail tab in Mozilla Firefox, click on Settings, and yes!
Google has several documents about IMAP support :
- Getting started with IMAP for Gmail (this page has several other links about how Google implements IMAP
- Supported IMAP client list
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Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.1.1 released
Abode Acrobat Reader v8.1.1 is available for download which corrects a potential security vulnerability with Windows XP and IE 7.0 which also affects Acrobat Reader 7.09.
Download Adobe Reader from FileHippo.com .
While that’s downloading, you can follow this excellent post at stealthpuppy.com on how to silently deploy Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.1 .
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software updates since TTCS OSSWIN CD v1.81
A lot of the of software included on the TTCS OSSWIN CD has been updated since TTCS OSSWIN CD v1.81 was made available on October 5th, 2007 :
- GanttProject 2.0.5
- WinMerge 2.6.12
- Scorched3D 41
- Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.8
- FileZilla 3.0.2.1
- Miranda IM 0.7.1
- XAMPP Lite 1.6.4
- Hmailserver 4.4.1 – Build 273
- VirtualDub 1.7.6
- KeePass 1.09
Should release version 1.82 by the end of the week, although another program has to removed from the TTCS OSSWIN CD since these program updates makes the TTCS OSSWIN CD ISO too big to fit a 700MB CD-R. Hmmm…..which one?
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TATT auction of radio spectrum for Broadband Wireless Access services
The Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT) recently conducted an auction on October 5th, 2007 for radio frequency spectrum in the 700 MHz, 12 GHz and 28 GHz frequency bands for the delivery of Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) services.
Out of five companies which were pre-qualified to participate in the auction, three companies took part :
- Green Dot Limited.
- Telstar Cable System Limited.
- Open Telecom Limited
The other two companies which qualified but didn’t take part were Sigma Communications Limited and Columbus Communications Trinidad Limited. The auction was held at the Hotel Normandie with PricewaterhouseCoopers as the auction manager.
The results of the auction were as follows (quoting from the October 5th, 2007 TATT press release (PDF ; 35K)) :
- “In the auction of spectrum blocks in the 12 GHz band, there was one (1) Winning Bidder. The Winning Bidder is Telstar Cable System Limited, who won all twelve (12) blocks in this band at TT$ 650,000.00 per block per annum. The annual licence fee for Telstar Cable System Limited will therefore be TT$ 7.8 million per annum in total, for spectrum awarded in 12 GHz band.
- In the auction of spectrum blocks in the Lower 700 MHz band, there was one (1) Winning Bidder. The Winning Bidder is Green Dot Limited, who won three (3) blocks in this band at TT$ 177,000.00 per block per annum. The annual licence fee for Green Dot Limited will therefore be TT$ 531,000.00 per annum in total, for spectrum awarded in Lower 700 MHz band,
- In the auction of spectrum blocks in the 28 GHz band, there was no Winning Bidder and, as a result, no award of spectrum blocks.”
Green Dot and Telstar Cable System Ltd are eligible for the spectrum license for a period of 10 years.
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GNSO report on policy for introducing new gTLDs ; questions for ICANN workshop for 29 October needed
A followup post to the Summary of GNSO report on policy for introducing new generic Top Level Domains.
The controversy (as I see it), is the meaning that people associate with certain letter combinations. For example, if the North American Zookeeper’s Institute wanted its own top level domain and met the technical requirements for a registry gTLD, then a .nazi gTLD could be created. Hmmm…….
The list of gTLD that could offend someone based on their thoughts of morality, religious beliefs are potentially limitless. Governments which object to expression of certain ideas could also object to creation of certain gTLDs because of the ideal the gTLD gives recognition to. Some examples :
- Should a group be allowed to get a .god gTLD for example? Or .jesus gTLD? Or a .mohammed gTLD?
- What about a .casino gTLD? Lots of persons object to gambling.
- Or a .freetibet gTLD?
- Or .gay?
- Or .porn?
- Should a group outside Trinidad and Tobago create a .tnt or .trinidad gTLD?
- Should a group/country outside Trinidad and Tobago object to a local group here applying for say a .trinidad being formed? What if the word “tnt” is a racial slur in another language? What if it offends religious sensitivities in other country?
How to make this equitable to all? That’s want the policy for introducing new gTLDs is trying to do. As such, the proposed recommendations #6 and #20 re: new gTLDs are the ones generating the most controversy
- #6 : “Strings must not be contrary to generally accepted legal norms relating to morality and public order that are recognized under international principles of law.”
- #20 : “An application will be rejected if an expert panel determines that there is substantial opposition to it from a significant portion of the community to which the string may be explicitly or implicitly targeted.”
What are your thoughts on this? Read the reports on the proposed policy and edit the wiki page
at http://ttcsweb.pbwiki.com/New-gTLDs with your proposed questions for the ICANN workshop for October 29th, 2007 (edit the page by clicking on the “edit page button” ; the password is “ttcswebwiki”)If you’re willing to meet in person to debate/discuss this issue over the 20-21 October weekend, email me at admin a.t ttcsweb d,ot org. If enough persons are interested, the TTCS could arrange to meet on a Saturday or Sunday.
Relevant links :
- TTCS New-gTLD wiki page
- The summary of the report on the Introduction of new Top Level Domains (PDF ; 191K)
- The Actual Report on the Introduction of new Top Level Domains is available in two parts :
- A working group mailing list has been setup at : http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/gnso-liaison_atlarge-lists.icann.org
- NCUC/At-Large – gTLDs – Freedom of Expression meeting at ICANN San Juan 2007
- Full transcript of NCUC/At-Large gTLD – Freedom of Expression meeting at ICANN San Juan 2007.
- New Geo-TLDs – More Consumer Choice or More Consumer Confusion? at ICANN San Juan 2007
- IP Justice campaign re: gTLD at http://ipjustice.org/wp/campaigns/icann/gtlds/
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Updated street maps of Trinidad in Google Maps
(Update 24 June 2008 : see Google Mapmaker enabled for Trinidad and Tobago )
(Update : 23 October 2007 : added links to hybrid versions and image of hybrid Google map of Port of Spain)
Just noticed that there are updated street maps in Google Maps for Trinidad. The street maps are more detailed in certain areas of Trinidad (sorry Tobago, no updated satellite imagery or street maps so far) and some of the streets are labelled along with several landmarks such as schools, shopping centers and police and fire stations. Neat stuff!
Check out the Google Maps of :
- Trinidad
- Port of Spain. Hybrid version of Port of Spain showing satellite imagery with street names.
- Diego Martin. Hybrid version of Diego Martin showing satellite imagery with street names.
- San Fernando. Hybrid version of San Fernando showing satellite imagery with street names.
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Fastforward : “ICT and me” brochure
There is a new brochure on the Fastforward website called “ICT and me” (PDF ; 6.6 MB).
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TTCS meeting on Thursday 18th October 2007 from 6pm at TSTT’s office in Port of Spain
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be having a meeting on Thursday 18th October 2007 from 6-8pm at TSTT’s offices at 116 Edward Street, Port of Spain.
At this meeting, we will be meeting with Mr. Joseph P. Herde, the Head of Broadband Marketing and Sales at TSTT, to discuss TSTT’s new broadband ADSL2+ service called “Blink Broadband”.
Space is limited for this meeting. Persons interested in attending this meeting are asked to “register” for it by sending an email to admin at ttcsweb d.o.t org with the subject line “want to attend meeting with TSTT” and your full name and a telephone number
Do you have questions you would like to ask TSTT about Blink Broadband?
You can login to the TTCS wiki and add your question(s) to this page: http://ttcsweb.pbwiki.com/questions-for-blink-broadbandSuitable questions will be collected and used at the meeting on the 18th October 2007.