Announcing TTCS FSWIN CD – Free Software for Windows CD available for download

The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS ; http://ttcsweb.org/) announces the availability of the TTCS FSWIN CD (http://ttcsweb.org/fswin-cd), a collection of Free Software for Windows, for download.

Free Software is software that meets the Free Software Foundation’s (FSF) definition :
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html ;

The impetus for the TTCS FSWIN CD came from a request from someone from Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) (http://www.fsfe.org/) currently co-organising Software Freedom Day 2010 (SFD ; http://softwarefreedomday.org/) and was looking for a Free Software for windows CD for SFD teams to use and distribute to the public.

While the TTCS has a TTCS OSSWIN CD, a collection of Free and Open Source Software for Windows
(http://www.ttcsweb.org/osswin-cd/) ; not all open source software meets the Free Software definition.
A list of software licenses that meets the FSF’s definition of Free Software and those that do not can be found at
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html

Hence the creation of the TTCS FSWIN CD since nearly all of the software on the TTCS OSSWIN CD matched the FSF’s definition of Free Software.

What was done :

• All of the licenses for all 92 programs on the TTCS OSSWIN CD were examined. A short list of programs that didn’t meet the FSF definition of Free Software was determined.
• For those programs, Free Software equivalents were located, documented and added to the TTCS FSWIN CD webpages.
• All of the program descriptions for the TTCS OSSWIN CD was updated to mention Free Software instead of just Open Source and used to provide the web based documentation for the TTCS FSWIN CD.
• Webpages and program were assembled together to finalise an ISO of the TTCS FSWIN CD.

Short sentences on what was done, but *lots* of hours involved

The result is the TTCS FSWIN CD – Free Software for Windows is available for download thanks to a mirror provided by the FSF Europe.

Details about the TTCS FSWIN CD, including the download mirror can be found at http://www.ttcsweb.org/fswin-cd/ .

The TTCS will continue to maintain the TTCS OSSWIN CD, in addition to the TTCS FSWIN CD. With our experience of developing multiple versions of CDs, we are looking to develop a TTCS OSSWIN DVD and a TTCS OSSMAC
CD and/or DVD in the near future.

Regards,

Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society at http://ttcsweb.org/ ;
http://fb.me/ttcsweb ; http://twitter.com/ttcs
“networking local computer users!”

Rest of 2009 update

A recap of what happened in the last half of 2009, since the blog hasn’t been updated since then :

• TTCS Twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/ttcs has been updated more regularly.
• Our Facebook fan page has been created at http://www.facebook.com/ttcsweb
• Involved in ICANN’s  (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (http://icann.org/)) policy work  as the secretariat for the Latin American and Caribbean Regional At-Large Organisation (LACRALO ; http://lacralo.org/), a group of At-Large Structures (ALSes) within the Latin American and Caribbean Region.
• TTCS Software Freedom Day events for 2009 included 5 meetings including our first meeting in Tobago. See http://ttcsweb.pbworks.com/SFD2009Report for details including videos and pictures.
• updating TTCS OSSWIN CD (http://www.ttcsweb.org/osswin-cd/)

just to name a few. Here’s to 2010!

TTCS OSSWIN CD v1.99c available for download

The TTCS OSSWIN CD v1.99c (a CD of open source software for Windows) is available for download.

TTCS OSSWIN CD v1.99c Changelog :

• Date created : July 27th, 2009
• File name : ttcs_osswin_cd_v1.99c.iso
• File size : 698 MB (732,170,240 bytes)
• MD5 checksum : c323fc85d82ef26612942664d9b9ed4b / c323fc85 d82ef266 12942664 d9b9ed4b
• SHA-1 : c3c81687 f2b146da abe64ed7 1718c590 941e04fe
• SHA-256 : 84f04bf9 fcf2ba08 ee03ca45 bfff454f 22f78541 06bec39f 09795497 b6cc7c53

Changes from v1.99a

• removed : Neverball, Enigma
• updated : Notepad2, Sumatra PDF, WinMerge, TuxPaint, Tux Typing 2, Celestia, Childsplay, Portable Puzzle Collection, Sokoban YASC, Blender, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Filezilla, Halite, HTTrack Website Copier, Miranda IM, VideoLAN, ClamWin AntiVirus, UltraVNC, Truecrypt, KeePass

A detailed list of the software and versions on the TTCS OSSWIN CD can be found at http://ttcsweb.org/osswin-cd/#softwareoncd

Two more games removed to cater for the increased file sizes of Celestia and the TuxPaint stamp collection.  Goodness, and Software Freedom Day 2009 is just around the corner, if a v2.0 is to appear before then.

TTCS pizzalime on TUESDAY June 16th, 2009

The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be having a pizzalime on Tuesday 16th June 2009 from 7 pm to 9pm at Pizza Hut, VALSAYN.

Come join us as we eat and chat about :

• the Policy on Cinema Exhibition & Video Entertainment in Trinidad and Tobago. http://bit.ly/7i42G
• the “Boosting ICT in the Dominican Republic” event on June 4th-5th, which the TTCS attended. http://is.gd/O4BC
• the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 35th public meeting being held in Sydney, Australia (http://syd.icann.org/) on June 21st-26th, 2009. The Secretariat from the Latin American and the Caribbean Regional At-Large Organisation (LACRALO ; http://lacralo.org/) from the TTCS will be attending.
• gaming news from E3 2009 : http://bit.ly/Z3s6V
• news from Apple WWDC 2009 : http://is.gd/WqD5
• Software Freedom Day 2009

Contribution of $30 towards the food bill is expected. Anyone interested in computing are welcome to attend.

See you there!

Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows Server 2008 SP2 released

Microsoft has releases Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 for download.

Download :

• 32bit versions of Vista SP2 and Server 2008 SP2 (download size : 348.3 MB)
• 64 bit versions of Vista SP2 and Server 2008 SP2 (download size : 577.4 MB)

The 32 bit versions of Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 are combined in one standalone installer. Likewise for the 64 bit versions of Vista SP2 and Server 2008 SP2.

Read more at Vista Service Pack 2 at Microsoft TechNet . You must have Vista SP1 installed in order to install Vista SP2

Read more about Windows Server 2008 SP2 at Microsoft TechNet.

More details about Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 at the Windows blog .

(Hat Tip : OSnews.com)

TTCS OSSWIN CD v1.99a released

The TTCS OSSWIN CD v1.99a (a CD of open source software for Windows) is available for download.

Changelog :

• Date created : May 17th, 2009
• File name : ttcs_osswin_cd_v1.99a.iso
• File size : 695 MB (728,850,432 bytes)
• MD5 checksum : 35d478553621b9691e1235b0bfb04eb9 / 35d47855 3621b969 1e1235b0 bfb04eb9
• SHA-1 : 1a5b2452 b646f16d 1561e45b c3b77812 5406ee50
• SHA-256 : 3733e730 138a5c61 b1a72972 aadf2d91 fd87436e 3dc59b1e abf40256 c9d85d86

Changes from v1.98b

• removed : SuperTux, CrackAttack, tsWebeditor
• updated : OpenOffice.org, Treeline, Maxima, Portable Puzzle Collection, Sokoban YASC, Dia, Mozilla Firefox, Filezilla, Miranda IM, XAMPP Lite, Hmailserver, PDFCreator, ClamWin AntiVirus, UltraVNC, Truecrypt, AutoHotkey

What happened to v1.99? It was released, but before the changelog and website was updated, it was discovered that some of the webpages were not included. So if you managed to download v1.99, my apologies.

Three more programs were removed to cater for the increased size of OpenOffice.org v3.1.0. A reminder to work on the webpage interface before 2.00 is released.

Adobe releases security updates to Adobe Acrobat Reader & Acrobat for Windows, Mac and Linux

On May 12th, 2009, Adobe has released security updates to Adobe Acrobat Reader and Acrobat for Windows, Mac, and Linux. From the security bulletin at http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb09-06.html :

“A critical vulnerability has been identified in Adobe Reader 9.1 and Acrobat 9.1 and earlier versions. This vulnerability (CVE-2009-1492) would cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. A second vulnerability has also been reported that appears to affect Adobe Reader for UNIX only (CVE-2009-1493).

Adobe recommends users of Adobe Reader 9.1 and Acrobat 9.1 and earlier versions update to Adobe Reader 9.1.1 and Acrobat 9.1.1. Adobe recommends users of Acrobat 8 update to Acrobat 8.1.5, and users of Acrobat 7 update to Acrobat 7.1.2. For Adobe Reader users who can’t update to Adobe Reader 9.1.1, Adobe has provided the Adobe Reader 8.1.5 and Adobe Reader 7.1.2 updates.”

Read the security bulletin for download links : http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb09-06.html

TTCS tech meeting on Windows 7 RC on Saturday May 16th, 2009

The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be having a meeting on Saturday, May 16, 2009 from 1pm to 5pm at Engineering Consultants at 112A Edward Street, Port of Spain (corner of Oxford and Edward Street).

At this meeting, we will be looking at the release candidate of Microsoft Windows 7 by installing Windows 7 RC on at least two machines

You can download the 32 and 64 bit versions of  Microsoft Windows 7 Release Candidate at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

Please CONFIRM if you are ATTENDING OR NOT at http://www.mobaganda.com/ttcsmeetingonwindows7rc

See you there!

TTCS pizzalime on Wednesday 13th May 2009 from 6pm

The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be having a pizzalime on Wednesday May 13th, 2009 from 6pm at Pizza Hut, Roxy Roundabout.

Come join us as we eat and chat about :

• proposed Trinidad and Tobago Government Policy on Cinema Exhibition and Video Entertainment in Trinidad and Tobago. This policy is targeted  “to the proprietors/ businessmen, administrators and law makers involved in providing availability to, and regulation of such availability of, film and video entertainment products to the public of Trinidad and Tobago.” and applicable “..to all persons exhibiting, intending to exhibit or otherwise making available motion pictures, video games or any form of video entertainment via rental, sale or arcades to the general public.”  Read blog post for more details.
• Windows 7 Release Candidate. There will be a TTCS tech meeting on Saturday May 16th on Windows 7RC
• Software Freedom Day 2009 planning.
• .tt ccTLD consultations
• Government to create ICT company?

and more. One attendee will receive a book about the popular Linux distro Ubuntu, along with the latest version of Ubuntu v9.04.

Contribution of $30 towards food bill is expected. See you there!

TTCS meeting on Saturday 9th May 2009 from 11am

The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society will be having a meeting on Saturday 9th May 2009 from 11am to 4pm at Engineering Consultants at 112A Edward Street (corner of Oxford and Edward Street)

This meeting will be a planning session for Software Freedom Day 2009, planning for upcoming meeting on Windows 7,  activities of  TTCS within ICANN and discussion of other TTCS activities.

See you there