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 info@ttcs.tt
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.
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (https://www.ttcs.tt) will be having a online call on Thursday May 21 2020 at 8pm to discuss the possibility of refurbishing computers.
Refurbishing computers is the repairing and restoring of (usually old) computers to a ‘like new’ condition for reuse.
2020 Call for Code Global Challenge takes on climate change
RSC and Caribbean Girls Hack will be having a webinar on Thursday May 14 2020 at 7pm (local time in Trinidad and Tobago) with guest speaker Shari Chiara, COO of IBM’s Call for Code to talk about Call for Code 2020 initiative and to spur Caribbean developers/innovators to create and submit applications that impact humanitarian issues.
What is #CallforCode ? As the Call for Code website states:
Call for Code asks innovators to create practical, effective, and high-quality applications based on one or more IBM Cloud™ services (for example, web, mobile, data, analytics, AI, IoT, or weather) that can have an immediate and lasting impact on humanitarian issues. Teams of developers, data scientists, designers, business analysts, subject matter experts and more are challenged to build solutions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and climate change. This year the competition will have two tracks. One track is for solutions that help halt and reverse the impact of climate change. The second track is for solutions to mitigate the impact of global pandemics like COVID-19 on communities around the world. Winning solutions are deployed in communities that need the most help.
The Trinidad and Tobago Government launches a dedicated #COVID19 website for all official COVID-19 News and Updates at https://www.covid19.gov.tt/
Trinidad and Tobago new COVID-19 website at https://www.covid19.gov.tt/
The web site (which looks to be built on WordPress) features all of the COVID19 updates issued by the Ministry of Health as PDF files.
Previously, updates were shared via social media as image files and there was typically a delay before such updates were posted on the Ministry of Health’s website at http://www.health.gov.tt/sitepages/default.aspx?id=292 and then only the last update as a image file.
Ministry of Health’s website section on #COVID19
The new https://www.covid19.gov.tt/ website also supports RSS feeds so persons no longer have to be on social media to keep up to date.
You can browse TTCS OSSWIN online at http://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 osswin@ttcs.tt .
Whatsapp has announced that users can only forward messages to one chat at a time. Previously, messages could only be forwarded to 5 chats at once. The change was announced on Whatsapp’s blog post “Keeping WhatsApp Personal and Private” on April 7 2019.
From the blog post :
“Last year we introduced users to the concept of messages that have been forwarded many times. These messages are labeled with double arrows to indicate they did not originate from a close contact. In effect, these messages are less personal compared to typical messages sent on WhatsApp. We are now introducing a limit so that these messages can only be forwarded to one chat at a time…..Is all forwarding bad? Certainly not. However, we’ve seen a significant increase in the amount of forwarding which users have told us can feel overwhelming and can contribute to the spread of misinformation. We believe it’s important to slow the spread of these messages down to keep WhatsApp a place for personal conversation.
This change should appear soon. In Trinidad and Tobago, there are many messages being forwarded to Whatsapp chats. And unfortunately, lots of misinformation related to #COVID19.
Filmmaker Gary Hustwit is streaming his documentaries free worldwide during the global COVID crisis. Each week we’ll be posting another film here. We hope you enjoy them, and please stay strong.
https://www.ohyouprettythings.com/free
Available at https://www.ohyouprettythings.com/free is “Helvetica” a 2007 documentary (80 minutes) “..about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.”
