BBC News article : Trinidad’s music pirates of the Caribbean.
Category: blog
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TTCS pizzalime on Wednesday January 9th, 2008
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society will be having a pizzalime on Wednesday January 9th, 2008 from 6pm to 9pm at Pizza Hut, Roxy Roundabout.
Come join us as we eat and chat about various computing related topics including TTCS planning for 2008. Hardware from the past two meetings should make an appearance.
Contribution of $30 towards refreshments is expected. Copies of the TTCS OSSWIN CD are available for $40TT.
See you there!
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T&TEC plans to deploy broadband over power lines
More details about the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) planning to become a broadband internet provider in an article in Thursday January 3rd, 2008 Newsday newspaper :
…Carol Balkaran, Tariff Analyst at the Regulated Industries Commission (RIC) said TTEC plans to deploy the service utilising a Broadband over Power Line (BPL) Technology Platform which also has regulatory implications for RIC [Regulated Industries Commission] and TATT [Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago].
“BPL is a technology that offers exciting possibilities for TTEC. It can provide a host of internal benefits that can improve the performance of the service provider. If the service is to be offered commercially then it can possibly enhance the competitiveness of the broadband market in Trinidad and Tobago, “ Balkaran said.
BPL, also called Power Line Communications or PLC combines the technological principles of radio, wireless networking, and modems to send data over power lines at speeds equivalent to those of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and cable.
The Federal Communica-tions Commission (FCC) of the US defines two types of BPL. Access BPL deliver high speed Internet and other broadband services over utilities medium voltage (1000-40000 volts) power lines to homes and businesses and In-house BPL which facilitates the implementation of home networks.
In terms of regulatory implications, Balkaran identified three issues that are likely to be of major concern in Trinidad and Tobago. These were technical, cost and revenue allocation as well as cross subsidy issues and Pole Attachment and Open Access, including safety issues.”
Read the rest of the Newsday article : “Spotlights broadband internet service”. Also see the Wikipedia article on BPL.
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Ordering an OLPC laptop from Trinidad
Since the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) has access to a OLPC laptop, I’ve been tinkering with it, updating the firmware and the operating system image file. It has been shown at a TTCS meeting and you can see photos of the OLPC in action in Trinidad at the TTCS meeting.
Until December 31st, 2007, one can get the OLPC under the Give One Get One program . However, when I tried to order one online, I encountered the same problem as CFR : you’re required to create a Paypal account and the online web form is meant for US and Canada donors.
Luckily, I did something yesterday that I should have done earlier : Read the OLPC Give One Get One FAQ . And behold :
“If I live outside of the US or Canada, may I participate in Give One Get One?
Yes, but only if you provide a shipping address within the US or Canada. To participate, please call 1-949-608-2865. International calling charges will apply.”So, I called today (December 31st, 2007), gave my credit card and my P.O Box address in Florida and placed an order. It will be useful to have two OLPCs at TTCS meetings to demonstrate the mesh capability of the OLPC laptops. The official OLPC wiki also has lots of information ,both news and technical details about the OLPC.
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OpenOffice.org v2.3.1 available
OpenOffice.org v2.3.1 has been released. With a new version of Mozilla Firefox v2.0.11 released just last week, look for version 1.83 of the TTCS OSSWIN CD in time for the weekend.
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TTCS submission for Software Freedom Day 2007 receives “highly commended” award
The Software Freedom Day (SFD) Competition 2007 results have been announced by the Software Freedom Day organisation and the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society’s entry for SFD 2007 received a “highly commended” award from the Software Freedom Day organisation!
- Read the TTCS Software Freedom Day 2007 report submitted to SFD
- Photos from SFD 2007 on Flickr
- BitDepth #595 – ‘A slow march to freedom’ Mark Lyndersay’s newspaper column on technology which covered SFD 2007
- 18 minute video on TTCS SFD2007 on Vimeo
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More street map information for Trinidad added to Google Maps
Even more updated street maps of Trinidad on Google Maps since October 17, 2007. There is now street data for nearly the western side of Trinidad and the original locations mentioned in the October 17th, 2007 blog post have more street details added.
See for yourself. Check out the Google Maps of :
- Trinidad
- Port of Spain
- Diego Martin
- San Fernando
- Gasparillo
- Chaguanas
- University of the West Indies, St. Augustine
The street data for Google is provided by Lead Dog Consulting which also has a webpage where you can view street maps of Trinidad AND Tobago
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WinTabber – group Windows applications in tabs under one window
In Windows, I often have multiple Explorer windows open as I cut/copy and paste files between multiple locations. Time is wasted Alt-Tabbing to switch to the Windows Explorer session I need and the desktop becomes cluttered. Often I wished that I could group the Windows Explorer sessions in tabs like Mozilla Firefox does for webpages. There are several freeware multi-tab Window Explorer replacements but I never felt comfortable using those as I preferred the familiar interface of Windows Explorer.
WinTabber to the rescue! WinTabber is a tabmanager that can add tab support to almost any window under windows 2000/XP. Meaning you can group several Windows Applications under one window, with each application in its own tab.
Here’s a screenshot showing three Windows Explorer sessions in one window :
You can run multiple instances of WinTabber to create different groups of applications under one window. For example, Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird :
WinTabber is freeware, although donations are welcome. A very useful application.
WinTabber home page : http://www.wintabber.com/
Added to http://del.icio.us/ttcs
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Tux Paint v0.9.18 released
Tux Paint v0.9.18, the fun open source drawing program for kids is available from New Breed Software for Windows 2000/XP/Vista and PowerPC based Macs (versions for older Windows 98/Me, Intel based Macs will be available soon).
A key feature of the new release is the ability to write and add your own “Magic Tools” plugins. Read the Tux Paint press release for more details.
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TTCS invited to Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards IT committee to work on ISO/IEC JTC 1 matters
At the beginning of November 2007, the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS) invited the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) to participate in a mirror committee for Information Technology.This committee was established by the TTBS to develop national policy positions on various issues and to contribute towards the work of the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (ISO/IEC JTC 1).
The TTBS has recently acquired Participatory Member Status (P-status) in the ISO/IEC JTC 1. This involves mandatory voting on draft international standards and compulsory involvement in working groups and sub-committees.
At the ISO’s ballot to fast-track Microsoft’s Office OpenXML (OOXML) format as an international standard (held in September 2007), the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS) cast an “abstain” vote. It is likely that this issue will continue to be discussed by the mirror committee as another vote on OpenXML is scheduled for February 2008.
The TTCS will be posting the various issues before the TTBS committee to our mailing lists, wiki and blog comments. Do consider them and let us know your opinions on these matters.
Many new P-status members who joined ISO/IEC JTC1 before the OpenXML vote are not voting on other ISO standards. We do not want Trinidad and Tobago to be one of them. See ConsortiumInfo.org post : “..Global Standards Work in SC 34 “Grinds to a Halt”
The TTCS will post more details about the TTBS IT committee as they become available.
About ISO/IEC JTC 1
The ISO/IEC JTC 1 mission statement is “to develop, maintain, promote and facilitate IT standards required by global markets meeting business and user requirements concerning
- the design and development of IT systems and tools
- the performance and quality of IT products and systems
- the security of IT systems and information
- the portability of application programs
- the interoperability of IT products and systems
- the unified tools and environments
- the harmonized IT vocabulary, and
- the user-friendly and ergonomically-designed user interfaces.”
There are eighteen sub-committees (SC) working under ISO/IEC JTC1, but one subcommittee SC 34, has received a great deal on attention on a recent vote related to the Microsoft OpenXML format.
