Via iGovTT is a link to the text of the opening address to the Caribbean ICT Ministers’ Forum by the CTU President, Hon. Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Technology, Jamaica.
the announcement that Digicel will remove intra-Caribbean voice roaming charges for Digicel subscribers in Caricom territories as of October 1 2013. “Each traveling subscriber will be treated as if he is using his local/domestic Digicel network throughout the region and therefore will be billed accordingly.”
start negotiations with Jamaica and Haita to remove taxation on international calls.
continuing negotiations with Digicel to remove data roaming charges.
engaging with LIME to remove voice and data roaming charges in Caricom territories.
a challenge for Caribbean peoples, Governments and telecoms operators alike to “think beyond voice telephony. Let us divest ourselves of this pre-occupation with voice and pursue what really should be our true goal: affordable and ubiquitous broadband Internet access.”
Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Jamaica and CTU president in 2013, Hon. Phillip Paulwell (credit : http://www.mem.gov.jm/)
Caribbean Telecommunications Union president Phillip Paulwell announced that Digicel has agreed to abolish voice roaming charges for users of the company’s networks when they travel in the Caribbean region from October 1, 2013.
“After some negotiation, Digicel has agreed as of October 1, 2013, on the abolition of voice roaming on Digicel’s network in Caricom countries. Each travelling subscriber will be treated as if he is using his local/domestic Digicel network throughout the region and therefore will be billed accordingly,” said Paulwell, who is Jamaica’s Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining.
Paulwell said negotiations would continue with Digicel for the abolition of roaming on data charges by year-end and for the removal of taxes on international calls in Jamaica and Haiti. Discussions with LIME, the region’s other major telecoms provider, on a plan for LIME to eliminate roaming charges were ongoing, said Paulwell.
“The overall aim is to abolish roaming for both voice and data, and the objective is to achieve this by year end. Those charges hinder affordable communication between Caribbean people, and as we move toward greater regional unity, we must take every opportunity to remove the barrier that keep us apart,” said Paulwell.
Today’s the last day of the The International DOTA 2 2013 Championship Tournament.
DOTA stands for Defense of the Ancients, which was a free mod for Blizzard’s “Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos” and the expansion “Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne”), nearly 10 years ago.
In 2009, Valve (known for the Steam distribution client and the Half-Live series of games) hired “Icefrog”, the maintainer of the DOTA Warcraft III mod to create DOTA 2 built on Valve’s Steam engine. DOTA 2 was in beta for quite some time, with players needing invites to be able to download and play the game. However, DOTA 2 is now out of beta and available on Steam for Windows, Mac and Linux as a free to play game.
Here’s some links with lots more DOTA 2 information:
Dota 2 consists of session-based online multiplayer matches, in which two teams of five players attempt to destroy their opponents’ fortified strongholds. Each player controls a “Hero” character and, over the course of an individual game, focuses on improving their hero’s abilities, acquiring items, and fighting against the other team.
Dota 2 combines the real-time strategy elements of a traditional top-down perspective, while also incorporating the leveling and itemization functions of a role-playing video game. Players are pitted against each other as two factions called the “Radiant” and the “Dire”. The Radiant faction is based at the southwest corner of the map, while the Dire faction is based at the northeast corner. Utilizing one of six selection modes, players choose one of 102 “heroes” – strategically powerful units with special abilities, who, through combat experience, may progress to a maximum level of twenty-five. The heroes’ methods of combat are heavily influenced by their primary property, which can be strength, agility, or intelligence.
The basic setup of Dota 2 places two strongholds containing critical structures called “Ancients” at opposing ends of a geographically balanced map. These bases are connected by three main paths (referred to as lanes), which are guarded by defensive towers and groups of units commonly referred to as “creeps” which traverse their lanes, attacking enemy units and structures upon sight. Players are split into two teams, each consisting of up to five players, to compete as the primary defenders for each Ancient. The overall objective of each match is to battle through the opposing force’s defenses, and destroy the opponents’ Ancient. Because Dota 2 is highly team-oriented, players must coordinate with their teams in order to achieve victory. The towers and stronghold defenses are invulnerable to attacks, so long as the towers nearest to the enemy side still stand, and must be destroyed sequentially – a team cannot destroy the enemy’s Ancient without first destroying all towers leading up to it in any one lane.
The currency of the game is gold, which is granted steadily at a slow rate. Gold can be accumulated at a much higher rate by killing enemy units, destroying enemy towers, or killing heroes. Killing units grants gold solely to the player who killed it; killing heroes grants gold to the killer and any nearby allies; and destroying towers gives gold to all players on the team. Killing enemy creeps, heroes, and towers also provides experience, which allows the player’s hero to level up, granting access to more powerful skills and abilities. “Denying” is a feature of the game which allows players to inhibit the enemy’s ability to accumulate gold and experience by killing an allied unit or destroying an allied structure before an enemy can do so. Denying reduces the amount of experience and gold the enemy faction can receive for the kill. Allied heroes may also be denied if they are on critically low health and have a fatal spell applied to them.
Featured across the map are units referred to as “neutrals”, which are not aligned to a faction, primarily located in the forests. Located on the southeast side of the river is a boss called “Roshan” who typically requires multiple team members to be killed. Following his death, Roshan will drop a powerful item which allows for a hero to instantly respawn if they are killed.
Lifehacker posted a link to JerryRigEverything’s YouTube video showing how to open and clean out the Apple iPhone5. Attempting to repair is a challenging technical project but interesting to watch and learn, nevertheless
(screenshot of Autoruns for Windows from the Windows Sysinternals site)
What is Autoruns for Windows? It is a valuable tool to look at the various locations where programs can run when Windows boots up or when you login. There are many (many!) locations where programs, including viruses, spyware and malware can surreptitiously install themselves. With Autoruns for Windows, you can view all of the programs that launch during Windows bootup and select which program you want to disable. Obviously, you have to pay attention or you may disable a critical Windows component resulting in a non-booting Windows installation
You can also use it to troubleshoot offline Windows installs, meaning you can take a suspect hard drive with an installation of Windows and disable startup entries on that hard drive.
The Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) has posted a draft version 2.0 of its Caribbean Internet Governance Policy Framework (CIGPF) document for general review and comments.
According to the CTU:
The CIGPF was first issued in 2009 and is the product of inputs, discussions and feedback compiled from the Caribbean Internet Governance Forum (CIGF), a multi-stakeholder group which has been convened annually by the CTU since 2005, initially in conjunction with the CARICOM Secretariat.
The document articulates a vision and mission for Internet Governance in the Caribbean, identifies key focus areas and recommendations for priority policy and operational actions. The CIGPF is intended to be used as a reference for regional governments and regulators in particular and other stakeholders generally, in navigating the increasingly complex world of Internet Governance by identifying appropriate priorities for Caribbean stakeholders.
This new issue of the CIGPF incorporates updates and additions warranted by new developments in this dynamic field and feedback inputs over the past few years. This draft is being posted now in advance of the 9th CIGF to be held in September in Curacao at which all further comments would be collated to enable subsequent official release of Issue 2.0. Key updates in this issue include:
rewording of the statement of Mission for Caribbean Internet Governance to highlight enhanced emphasis on security and lawful use of the Internet.
refinement of the strategic focus areas on infrastructure to reflect current thinking on the need for universal broadband access and development of critical Internet infrastructure
addition of a specific strategic focus area for “Legal Frameworks and Enforcement” (separate from the Internet Content focus area) in recognition of current global thrusts in these areas
new priority recommendations consequential to the above
other general updates required by new information, technology, social developments or prior achievements.
Version 2 of the CIGPF is a marked-up version which highlights amendments made to the first CIGPF in January 2009, with sections shaded in blue indicating either new text or text appropriately relocated within the document.
Git (http://git-scm.com/) is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. As such, Git to used to manage and distribute the code in many Free and Open Source projects.
This article is inspiring me to consider using Git for our TTCS OSSWIN DVD, the free and open source collection of Free and Open Source software collection for Windows that the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society makes available for anyone to download.
I’ve been the sole lead maintainer for many years now, and I would like others to help
update the text used to describe the programs
add new programs to the collection with descriptions, screenshots, etc
