Info Zone

There is this unofficial installer for Ubuntu called Wubi, which lets you install ubuntu (with your own choice of desktop to choose from, be it KDE,GNOME and XFCE it all depends on your taste ) from a live running windows installation.

Wubi, is so intelligent that, it only ask you to specifiy the first user, the size of the partition you want to give to Ubuntu and the type of desktop you want to use. With a click of the button and some cup of coffee sitting beside you to kill time, before you know it, Ubuntu is sitting right beside windows so you can dual boot between windows and Ubuntu. No need to take the headace of partitioning your hard drive, Wubi does it for you. This requires a stable and fast internet connection because it downloads the official iso from ubuntu.com but hey even when for some reason the connectivity cuts, it will still continue from where it got to when you start the installation again. Great feature eh?

As said earlier on, this is an unofficial Ubuntu installer so you use it at your own risk but hey so far no one has complained or reported any deviant behaviour. I used it and worked for me like a charm. You can download it from here

Today is the 8th day we have been at the SIMPA Open Summit. The day went quiet tiring because we went on field site to test if there is a signal between an access point we mounted here at wodiv and an access point mounted at Winneba Community Nurses Training school about 1km distance apart.

Our Instructor Victor, has to play a lil bit with the configurations and in no time, those with laptops were shouting, I’m connected, I can receive a signal, Victor, I’m on and there were excitements all over because we felt we’ve done something but truely, we were all spectators. We got to the site even confused, and didn’t know what was going on. Some have to ask why we were there, what we were doing there, etc

From the school, we went over to UEW south campus to do the same testing, but it seems we didn’t succeed having a signal strong enough for internet connectivity.

We came back tired and to kill time, we have to turn the training room into a cinema hall to watch a movie. Wondering how tomorrow’s day will be like.

Today is the 6th day of the SIMPA Open Summit wireless training. The day started a bit disappointing because we went off schedule to go over a session we thought we have finished.

Mr Kwabena Boadu of Arrow Networks took us through the theories of wireless networking and this was a session had on our first day of the workshop. We were told he is here to answer questions and to know if our expectations were met.

There were few questions here there like:

1. What are the cost of WiFi Devices
2. How far can a wireless range go
3. Explanation of WAN Routing

At the cause of the session, we had some friends from unites Nigeria to see what we are really doing here in this small town.

These are people who are using ICT as a tool for developement in their various states or town. For more information about unites Nigeria, check here.
Some really had interesting projects, like

• Using ICT to help reduce teenage pregnancy ( quiet interesting project, I’m really going track that project )
• Using ICT to help the disables
• Using ICT to reduce the rate of abortion and to encourage adoption
• Using ICT to reduce air pollution
• Using ICT to encourage people to invest in the open market
• Using ICT to promote the teaching of sign language right from primary level to the tertiary to bridge the langauge barrier between the hearing impaired and the majority.
• and loads of them

After they’ve left, we came back to continue with our session with Mr kwabena Boadu. Explaination of WAN Routing took us out to see the Blink antenna mounted on top of the roof which receives a signal from another antenna mounted at south campus of UEW to enable us have internet here.

Our last session was how to build a 2.4GHz WiFi antenna, it was quiet interesting becuase most people were really eager to learn how to build it. The most effective hands on practicals so far during the training sessions, I think.