Wow :

Google Map Maker is a Google Maps service that allows you add or edit features, such as roads, businesses, parks, schools and more. Using Google Map Maker tools, you can visually mark locations and add detailed information about these locations. Once you have submitted content, this information may be edited by other users or moderators. At a later time, this content may be published in Google Maps for others to see and use.”

Google Map Maker is enabled for Trinidad and Tobago (and several other Caribbean islands). Read the Google MapMaker Getting Started Guide and begin adding content to Google MapMaker Trinidad and Tobago

(Hat Tip : Digital Inspiration)

The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS ; http://ttcsweb.org/) will be having a meeting on Saturday 28th June 2008 at Engineering Consultants at 112A Edward Street, Port of Spain (corner of Oxford and Edward Streets) from 2PM (Doors open from 1PM).

The topic of the meeting will be IPv6 - What is it? Why do we need it? How do we use it?

At this meeting, we will be having a presentation from Mr Andre Thompson
who attended a recent ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers) meeting. See our http://www.ttcsweb.org/ipv6 page for more information on IPv6.

Contribution of $20 towards refreshments is expected. Please CONFIRM if you are ATTENDING OR NOT at http://mobaganda.com/ttcsmeetingonipv6. Thanks!

The TTCS OSSWIN CD v1.92, a collection of over 100 Free/Open Source software for Windows is now available for download and includes Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and OpenOffice.org 2.4.1.

• Date created : Tuesday June 17th, 2008
• File name : ttcs_osswin_cd_v1.92.iso
• File size : 690 MB (723,623,936 bytes)
• MD5 checksum : 7780c52fb4957fa4cc0f32c63ea7a6f4 / 7780c52f b4957fa4 cc0f32c6 3ea7a6f4
• SHA-1 : b74d7b6f af26662a 0acb8f88 b4b96009 1fcb24c5
• SHA-256 : 025a1ab8 846d854b 07040fa2 75d655b2 8c664c88 10afe73a d37e3bb1 c1343d02

Changes from v1.91

• added wxDownload Fast
• updated OpenOffice.org, Sumatra PDF, ConvertAll, Treeline, Maxima, Portable Puzzle Collection, Sokoban Yasc, GIMP, Mozilla Firefox, Filezilla, Halite, Miranda IM, VirtualDub, CoolPlayer, VideoLAN, ClamWin Antivirus

Visit the TTCS OSSWIN CD page for download locations.

Spotted in the Trinidad Guardian Thursday June 12th, 2008, pg A3 :

Charged for turning off computer

Could turning off a computer be a criminal offence? It was for Ministry of Legal affairs cashier Avinash Bahadoor who appeared in the Port of Spain Magistrate’s Court, yesterday.

The charge said Bahadoor intentionally turned off a computer in the Register General Department, knowing full well it was unauthorised. Bahadoor of Tableland, was also charged with intentionally stopping the lawful operation of the computer.

The incident allegedly occurred at the ministry’s South Quay, Port of Spain, office on August 21, 2006. Bahadoor pleased not guilty to the charges.

I assume this was under the Computer Misuse Act, which would make this case the third time someone was charged under this act.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) recently began an ad campaign in the local Trinidad and Tobago newspapers. The text from the two ads are below :

Do not put your business at risk by using PIRATED SOFTWARE

Would you trust the information technology security and and quality provided by pirated software?

Pirated software is not secure. Apart from technical mishaps, it can allow viruses and malware to infiltrate, which could damage your PC or even your business’ entire network

Do you know that using pirated software reduces your employees’ productivity and efficiency?

Your employees will spend time and effort in solving technical problems deriving from the use of pirated software, which will impact their productivity and efficiency; increasing your costs and decreasing your profitability

Do you know the legal risks you and the company you represent face by installing pirated software?

Pursuant to the law (In Trinidad and Tobago unauthorized copying of software is considered a violation of the law that could lead to civil and criminal penalties of up to $100,000.00 [T.T] for each computer program copied and imprisonment for up to 10 years), if a company uses software unlawfully, it may be liable for violating copyrights. This is so, even when management is not aware of the unlawful use at their facilities.

Don’t hesitate to contact us
Telephone : 1-868-623-1272        Fax : 1-868-624-9877    email bsatt@softwarelegal.net

The second ad :

Do not put your business at risk by using PIRATED SOFTWARE

Effective 10th May to 30th June 2008, companies interested in participating in the campaign “Don’t put your business at risk by using pirated software” should, together with the BSA, coordinate their efforts in order to review and if necessary regularize the software
installed on their equipment.

In order to participate, these are the required steps :

1. Register with the campaign, by sending the registration form by fax or E-mail (the form may be obtained upon request from the BSA).
2. Develop an inventory of all programs installed on your computers and of the licenses you have, then send this information to the BSA. A compliance analyst will check it and provide feedback on the differences found, as well as assist you in normalizing your situation if necessary.

This is the best time to get some adviceDon’t hesitate to contact us
Telephone : 1-868-623-1272       Fax : 1-868-624-9877

email bsatt@softwarelegal.net or visit website at  http://www.softwarelegal.net

If you have broadband, you should check out the Boston Globe’s The Big Picture photo blog. To quote from the site :

The Big Picture is a photo blog for the Boston Globe/boston.com, compiled semi-regularly by Alan Taylor. Inspired by publications like Life Magazine (of old), National Geographic, and online experiences like MSNBC.com’s Picture Stories galleries and Brian Storm’s MediaStorm, The Big Picture is intended to highlight high-quality, amazing imagery - with a focus on current events, lesser-known stories and, well, just about anything that comes across the wire that looks really interesting.

The site contains many, many stunning photos. Check them out!

(Hat tip : A Welsh View)

Version 3 of the multi-platform web browser Mozilla Firefox will be released on Tuesday 17th June 2008. The non-profit Mozilla Foundation is attempting to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours on Tuesday 17th June 2008.

(Update : June 17th - after some initial hiccups, you can download Mozilla Firefox 3 . For live interviews with the Mozilla team, updates on the download count so far (and earlier, the problems with website updates), visit http://air.mozilla.com/ )

Firefox v3 has several improvements, not just in features but in the speed of loading webpages. Check out this screencast of some of the features in Firefox 3. There is also a Field Guide to Firefox 3 with many screenshots. To help with the record, visit http://www.spreadfirefox.com/worldrecord and click on the red “Pledge Now” button. You will be asked to select what country you are from (and yes, Trinidad and Tobago is listed as one of the countries) and optionally your email address (for the Mozilla Foundation to keep you informed on Tuesday) and click the Pledge Now button. By doing so, you are pledging to download Firefox 3 on Tuesday.

The http://www.spreadfirefox.com/worldrecord page has an interactive map where you can see the number of pledged downloads. As of 2:00am Monday 16th June 2008, the number of pledged downloads from Trinidad and Tobago is 573. So head over to the http://www.spreadfirefox.com/worldrecord page if you haven’t pledged to download Firefox 3 (and of course do so on Tuesday!)

The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be having a pizza lime on Wednesday June 18th, 2008 from 6pm at Pizza Hut, Roxy Roundabout.

Come join us as we eat and chat about various computing related topics including :

• person charged in Trinidad for turning off a computer
• the Trinidad Guardian redesigned website
• the Apple 3G iPhone
• Business Software Alliance ads in local newspapers

An Amazon Kindle, the electronic e-book reader from Amazon.com will be shown at this meeting.  A OLPC laptop will also be available. Email admin at ttcsweb.org if you wish to purchase a copy of the latest TTCS OSSWIN CD.

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

The web based interface from the TTCS OSSWIN CD can be found online at http://murdochguild.murdoch.edu.au/ttcs/webpages/index.htm

If you’ve haven’t updated your Adobe Flash player since April 8th, 2008 to version 9.0.124.0, please do so as there are several exploits targeting older versions of Flash.

How to tell what version of Flash you are using? Via Adobe’s Security Bulletin :

To verify the Adobe Flash Player version number, access the About Flash Player page, or right-click on Flash content and select “About Adobe (or Macromedia) Flash Player” from the menu. Customers using multiple browsers are advised to perform the check for each browser installed on their system.

You can download the latest Flash Player at http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer. You can also keep track of security issues of Adobe products at the Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team blog at http://blogs.adobe.com/psirt/