The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society and the ISOC Trinidad and Tobago Chapter invite you to a roundtable discussion about the regional Internet outage on December 7 2020.
The date and time of the roundtable discussion will be held via Zoom on Tuesday December 15 2020 from 7:30pm to 9pm local time.
Persons at the roundtable include :
Kurleigh Prescod – Country Manager/Managing Director at Columbus Communications Trinidad Limited
Shernon Osepa – Director, Caribbean Affairs and Development of the Internet Society (ISOC).
Rodney Taylor – Director at Data Processing Department – Barbados Government
Claire Craig – Enterprise Applications Support Manager The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) has refurbished and delivered over 200 computers over the past few months to various schools and students to continue education being done online due to COVID-19.
TTCS donation (with RSC) of computers to Tunapuna Presbyterian Primary School
TTCS donation (in colloboration with RSC) of computers to Belmont Secondary School
TTCS donation (in colloboration with RSC) of computers to St James Police Youth Club
Working with Restore a Sense of I Can (RSC), we received and refurbished over 170 computers. We have also refurbished and delivered 30 computers directly to students and schools in need using machines, parts and financial donations made directly to the TTCS.
Delivering computers to RSC and to persons all over Trinidad.
We want to continue helping students by refurbishing as many computers as we can..here’s how YOU can help :
Donate computers
If you have (preferably) working computers, SSDs, memory you’re not using that is less than 10 years old and running either Windows 7, 8, 8.1 or Windows 10, complete the form at https://ttcs.tt/donate-computers Someone from TTCS will contact you to coordinate pickup.
Make a financial donation
If all you can do right now is make a financial donation to this project, we sincerely need and appreciate your support. The TTCS will use such donations to purchase parts to refurbish computers.
Make a donation to :
Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society, Republic Bank Account #160136544031, U.W.I Branch, Trinidad.
Be sure to email us at [email protected] when you’ve donated so we can acknowledge and thank you!
Several local banks in Trinidad and Tobago – First Citizens Trinidad and Tobago, RBC Royal Bank, Republic Bank and Scotiabank – are rolling out local Visa Debit cards which offer contactless transactions and local online purchases while still offering the ability to be used at ATMs with the LINX logo and LINX purchases as before.
Contactless transactions means that you don’t have to enter a PIN at a merchant’s terminal – you bring the card close to the terminal and it gets approved. Different banks offer different limits on the amount of money that could be done via a contactless transaction.
The newer cards also offers for online payments to local merchants which could be a boon for local e-commerce as more persons with banking accounts can now purchase items and services from local merchants’ websites (or apps).
Also of note is that most banks will offer card holders either notifications and/or will being able to review transaction details via their banking mobile apps and their online banking websites.
Check out the various bank websites for more details :
According to a Tweet by the Honorable Minister of Finance of Trinidad and Tobago, Colm Imbert, the Trinidad and Tobago Government will remove all taxes from “laptops computers, notebook computers and tablet computers.” immediately.
Taxes on other equipment like “mobile and digital equipment, cell phones, software and accessories” will be removed after the completion of the Budget Debate, in or around December 2020.
Taxes are earmarked to be removed on the other devices mentioned on page 35 of our Manifesto, such as mobile and digital equipment, cell phones, software and accessories in the Finance Act of 2020, after the completion of the Budget Debate, in or around December 2020
The TTCS OSSWIN v3.10, a collection of the latest version of Free and Open Source Software for Microsoft Windows 10/8/7 is available for download with 90+ software – ranging from educational software, Internet applications, Desktop Applications, Sound and Video, Graphics and more! Anyone can download and use the software.
Apart from many software updates, three programs were added to TTCS OSSWIN 3.1 : (HandBrake, LaunchyQt (with screen video), BleachBit) and one program removed (Launchy)
You can browse TTCS OSSWIN online at https://ttcsosswin.ttcs.tt/ which features the web interface to learn about Free and Open Source programs in various categories, including screenshots or videos of the programs and a link to the program’s website where you can download the program. The web based UI is responsive, meaning it should be usable on non-Windows small screen mobile phones and tablets.
Download TTCS OSSWIN
You can download the entire collection of TTCS OSSWIN as a 7GB file for extracting to your harddrive or USB storage device (or burn on a DVD). The TTCS OSSWIN collection provides a link to install the software directly and in the case of a program providing 32 bit and 64 bit versions installers, TTCS OSSWIN attempts to autodetect whether you are running 64 bit Windows and presents that installer first. The web interface and all screenshots and videos are included in the collection so that you can browse and install software on a Windows computer without internet access.
Developing a a card like UI (similiar to the current theme of the TTCS website) for the selection of programs in the various categories using best practices in HTML5 and CSS. Still some tweaks to do, but this was a key change
Updating the text descriptions of programs. The goal is to strive to describe in the simplest of terms possible what the programs does and to answer “why should I try the program”
Replacing static photos with videos of the programs in action.
Find Free and Open Source Software for Windows that is useful and easy to use. The curated list of software in TTCS OSSWIN is an attempt to list what is considered the “best” in ease of use and functionality and not to include dozens of programs that do the same thing.
If you’re interested in assisting with this work or want to give comments and feedback, then send a email to [email protected] .
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) has had several calls over the past 2 months discussing how to refurbish computers. Among the things done so far:
documented procedure for refurbishing computers as we want the refurbished computers by TTCS volunteers to be done to a particular standard
developed a inventory system workflow for tracking donors, donated equipment and the refurbished computers
collaborating with Restore a Sense of I Can (RSC), a network of secondary school computer/IT clubs which has 10 year old 50 Dell Optiplexes – some Pentium D but many Core2 Duos with 4GB RAM – to date we’ve collected 50+ computers and working on those.
Several TTCS members have purchased SSDs for these machines.
reactivated the TTCS Slack (a group chat solution) room where a lot of the messaging regarding computer refurbishment is taking place.
However, there are very few volunteers doing the actual refurbishing and we do need funds to purchase things like SSDs and miscellaneous accessories. So, please
Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, schools in Trinidad and Tobago have been closed since March 2020. A measure of on-line teaching has been introduced in the education system, but unfortunately, about 60,000 students do not have computers or other devices to access this material.
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS ; https://www.ttcs.tt/) has started a project to collect unused computers and related equipment to refurbish computers for students unable to access online teaching.We are asking for your assistance in the form of donations of working computer hardware.
If you have (preferably working) computers and/or equipment (such as RAM, small SSDs) that are 8 years or newer that you can donate, please complete the form at
You will be contacted by the TTCS to arrange delivery/pickup.If you have any questions or are willing to assist with computer refurbishing, email [email protected]
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (https://www.ttcs.tt) will be having a online call on Thursday June 18 2020 at 8pm to discuss refurbishing computers. This is a followup call from June 4 2020
Refurbishing computers is the repairing and restoring of (usually old) computers to a ‘like new’ condition for reuse.
Providing a Helpdesk type solution to allow potential users to request technical support. The idea is for requests to be paired with volunteers able to answer such requests
Developing workflow regarding the processing of computers – we have a source of 50 possible computers to recycle and we managed to get a few of them and we’ll share our experiences to date as well as the tracking system developed to date.
Providing ways for potential users of refurbished computers to get Internet access
The June 18 call will be an update on what progress has been made on these areas and on any other issues to consider.
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (https://www.ttcs.tt) will be having a online call on Thursday June 4 2020 at 8pm to discuss refurbishing computers. This is a followup call from May 21 2020
Refurbishing computers is the repairing and restoring of (usually old) computers to a ‘like new’ condition for reuse.
On the last call on May 21 2020 , we outlined the challenges with refurbishing computers and decided on the following three areas:
Providing a Helpdesk type solution to allow potential users to request technical support. The idea is for requests to be paired with volunteers able to answer such requests
Developing workflow regarding the processing of computers – we have a source of 50 possible computers to recycle and we managed to get a few of them
Providing ways for potential users of refurbished computers to get Internet access
The June 4 call will be an update on what progress has been made on these areas and on any other issues to consider.