I went down to my homeland of Antigua and Barbuda for ICTFest 2012 and here is  quick rundown of what happened.

• Learned about Microsoft Windows 8 and MS Server 2012
• Heard the Minister of Technology (Edmon Mansoor) announce that every 5th Former (American equivalent of a 12th Grader) was getting an iPad and Internet connectivity from Digicel
• There is an OECS mandate to create a regional e-Government system for the Leeward Islands
• I took part in two rounds of PC assembly where the rules were to take down a PC in 5 minutes.  Unfortunately both times I was disqualified because the CPU was not removed(first one I got the heat-sink out, but not the CPU and couple of cables; second round: I got everything out with one minute to go and I still got bogged down with damn heat-sink which was not the like the first PC !)  My take away: stick with the big picture infrastructure research, design and development !!
• While there is an obvious push for technology to be part of the Antigua’s future, there was very few Open Source/Free Software presence.  Only a couple of folks asked about the the presence of Ubuntu during Q&A for some of the seminars.
• I also didn’t see any push for Open Hardware development
• Antigua has at least a STM-1 (Digicel ?) of fiber coming into the island. This is equivalent to an OC-3 for the US.

I will put up more as I remember.

An excellent post by my big sister !!!

Highlights :

http://asilomik.blogspot.com/2012/10/what-makes-us-significant.html

MightyText is by far one of my favorite services/apps.  This service allows me to send and receive texts on my PC.   The functionality comes in great when I want to stay at my full PC keyboard, rather than physically picking up my cellphone.

The service installs an App on your smartphone(Android for now) . Then you install an app in the browser(Chrome, Firefox, IE and Safari), and boom !  Your set !

I have used this for tech support and archival purposes. Yes I now have a way of keeping my old text messages !

Great article from PC Adviser in the UK, that speaks to me as I view myself as a “Technology Swiss Army Knife”.

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Largest IT employment gains in four years reported

Analysis shows the most in-demand IT professionals are multitalented ‘walking Swiss Army knives’

Today marks another milestone in my life as a Technologist.  I was asked at the last minute to testify in the Virgin Islands Superior Court on an Internet matter involving domain ownership.  I was sworn in and qualified as Expert witness in Information Technology and Web Technologies.  It’s official !  I am an Expert in the eyes of the Law !!!

I was assured that I did a good job and now can put that under my belt.

Some things to consider if you are going to testifiy in court

• Guys wear a blazer or a suite. That place is has the AC set to high.  After about 30 minutes my fingers began to tingle.
• Do not ramble on.  Answer the question and only the question.  I know us techies like to elaborate, but don’t !  Imagine you are doing one line logic tests.  If asked X then respond Y.  No elseif. No grouped responses.
• The court physical layout are not like TV (e.g Court Judy or Matlock).  In fact it was quite efficient in it’s design and function.  A lot of curves and smart use of space.

Be sure to visit eWaste.VI and sign up on the mailing list to get updates/tips on how to handle Electronic Waste in the US Virgin Islands

Here is how to add a Printer to a Windows XP System from the Command Line.

Here is what is needed

• IP address of the Printer
• Printer Name (your choice)
• Port Name (Your choice)
• Driver Location (can be a mapped drive)
• Name of the Printer, based on the manufacturer(This must be exact)

For this example, I use the following values

• 192.168.1.25
• “LJ_4200”
• IP_ 192.168.1.25
• “\fs1PublicIT_StuffDriversPrintersHP 4200 Driverhpc4200c.INF”
• “HP LaserJet 4200 PCL 6”

Now here is the magic.

cscript “c:windowssystem32prnport.vbs” -a -r VIP_ 192.168.1.25 -h 192.168.1.25 -o raw -n 9100

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /if /b “LJ_4200” /f “\fs1PublicIT_StuffDriversPrintersHP 4200 Driverhpc4200c.INF” /r “VIP_172.16.170.21″ /m “HP LaserJet 4200 PCL 6”

The first line creates a local TCP/IP Port. The second Line creates the actual printer

If everything goes fine, the printer should appear in the “Printer Control Panel”