Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society

Wednesday 12 January 2005, 6pm

Topics discussed :

• Apple's Mac Mini ; members were of the opinion that it was a good investment for people purchasing their first computer but powerusers were better off with more powerful desktop machines.
• Draft government policies from december 2004: the Draft National Policy on Data Protection and the Draft National Policy on Electronic Transactions
• Updated attendees on the TTCS open source cd project

Wednesday 26 January 2005

The topics for this meeting were:

• TSTT increasing its residential ADSL speeds from 128 kilobits to 256 kilobits for the same price (TT$460).
• TSTT applying to TATT (Telecom Authority) to increase local phone rates
• The closure of the government media company National Broadcast Network (NBN) and the impact, if any, it would have on local television archives held by state owned television stations TTT and TIC.
• Updated attendees on the TTCS open source cd project.

Wednesday 16 February 2005, 6pm

Topics discussed

• CCTT spends $150 million to upgrade its cable infrastructure. so that it can accomadate a theoretical capacity of 500 channels.
• International Domain Name (IDN) support in browsers allows attackers to spoof domain name URLs

Wednesday March 9th 2005, 6pm

Topics discussed :

• the .tt domain, its current status and future viability. This topic was inspired by the informal survey at http://scsee.uwi.tt/tt.html
• Music labels seek higher download prices for online music. How does this affect consumers? And what impact will it have on the very successful iTunes music store operated by Apple?
• Can Wi-Fi hotspots be popular in Trinidad and Tobago?
• There was an update on the TTCS open source cd project. A new layout was shown.

Saturday April 9th, 2005, 2-5pm

In spite of the fire in downtown Port of Spain, we had a meeting at Engineering Consultants with a special guest, Sean Lyndersay who has been working at Microsoft Corporation, USA for nearly 6 years. Currently working as a program manager on several projects, including Internet Explorer 7, Sean talked about working at Microsoft and answered a variety of questions from attendees.

Wednesday 13 April 2005, 7-9pm

Held at Pizza Hut, Valsayn, topics for the meeting included :

• TSTT's new phone rate packages for land lines for residential and business customers called "Smartchoice". Some of the points raised :
  • Many consumers have large landline phoone bills because they call cellphones. This will not change under "Smartchoice" because the various packages of bundled minutes do NOT include calls made to cellphones. It is possible the final phone bill will still be quite large./li>
  • Under "Smartchoice" landline calls to any ISP, other than TSTT, will be billed at TT 20 cents per minute. Members saw this as a blatant attempt by TSTT to not only destroy the competition but also to force consumers to switch to the TSTT internet service which, at the time of this update, is toll free (but not guarenteed to remain this way).
  • This could be an attempt by TSTT to implement the infamous "rate rebalancing" without having to seek the regulatory approval of the Telecommunications Authority.
  • TSTT has offered a discount on toll-free service for the independent ISPs. Basically, the ISPs will pay TSTT to allow their customers to receive toll-free access to their services. Needless to say, the rates being offered by TSTT for that toll-free access "service" are quite high and would likely increase the independent ISP's internet bill if they were to take up TSTT's offer. UpdateThe Association of Independent ISPs (AIISP) has written a letter to the Telecom Authority about TSTT's new pricing plan for fixed lines.
• a new ISP, Greendot offering wireless internet access in Trinidad and Tobago. A representative from Greendot attended the meeting and answered many questions related to their present and planned future services.
• Computer Technician charged with fraud.

Wednesday May 11th, 2005, from 6pm

Topics discussed :

• TSTT's new phone rate packages ("Smartchoice") for land lines for residential and business customers. The AIISP has written letters to the Telecom Authority about the new rate plan :
  • TSTT uses cross subsidies to support predatory pricing to drive Independent ISPs out of business (DOC file)
  • AIISP lodges protest with TATT over TSTT SmartChoice (PDF)
  Also see the TTCS discussion mailing list comments on TSTT's Smartchoice
• The implications of the Telecom Authority's Draft National Broadcasting Code on Internet users: Draft National Broadcasting Code
• MacOS 10.4 "Tiger" released.
• the TTCS OSSWIN CD, a CD of open source software for Windows. A release candidate CD was shown on the laptop, along with the label for the CD.

Wednesday 8 June 2005, from 6pm

Topics discussed:

• The recent crash of the TSTT's GSM cell network
• TATT reviewing concessions for the provision of Wired Cable Television Networks and /or Services
• An Internet project aimed at primary schools has been launched
• The rumour that Apple Computer will switch its computers to Intel CPUs
• Microsoft using XML as the new file format in Office 12
• Next generation gaming consoles: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Nintendo Revolution at E3 2005.
• The TTCS OSSWIN CD, a CD of open source software for Windows compiled by the TTCS.

Wednesday 20 July 2005, from 6pm

The topics for this meeting were:

• New cellphone providers entering the local market: http://www.tatt.org.tt/auction.htm
• TSTT blames customers for cellular glitch.
• The Trinidad Express article : "TSTT targeted in Internet attack".
• Ministry of Legal Affairs Green Paper on "Consumer Protection in the Information Age": http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ttcs_announce/message/447.
• The eight documents made available for public comment by the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ttcs_announce/message/445
• The launch of the TTCS OSSWIN CD: http://www.ttcsweb.org/articles/ttcs-osswin

Wednesday 10 August 2005, from 6pm

Topics for the meeting included:

• TATT writes to TSTT about the failure of the GSM network during the week commencing July 10th, 2005
• TSTT announces compensation plan for GSM customers
• The Trinidad Express newspaper website now supports RSS feeds.
• A Trinidadian working in the USA has released a Kiosk Browser extension for the Mozilla Firefox browser. Read the press release
• TSTT advisory on the MyTob Worm

Wednesday 24 August 2005 - Pizza Hut, Valsayn

Topics included:

• The ongoing email discussion between Peter Wimbourne and TSTT about TSTT's "Smartchoice" packages. See :
  • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ttcs/message/5800
  • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ttcs/message/5857
  • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ttcs/message/5873
• The Zotob worm which affected several large US companies:
  • http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050816-5213.html
  • http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/zotob.mspx
• G4 to show G4TechTV Canada's "Call for Help with Leo Laporte": http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ttcs/message/5869
• Ten years ago this August:
  
  • Microsoft releases Windows 95 on August 24th, 1995.
  • Internet access as we know it today was introduced to Trinidad and Tobago in the third quarter of 1995.

Wednesday 14 September 2005, 6pm

We discussed:

• What the TTCS, TTLUG and FLOS Caribbean did for Software Freedom Day. See: (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ttcs_announce/message/461)
• The delay in cell phone competition in Trinidad and Tobago. See:(http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2005-09-01/bussguardian4.html) for more details.
• The Draft Electronic Transaction Policy: (http://www.fastforward.tt/media/release_detail.asp?id=3560)
• Other miscellaneous stuff: (eBay buys Skype, Kevin Mitnick coming to Trinidad, the iPod nano, Firefox and Thunderbird v1.5b, the seven versions of Microsoft Vista)

Wednesday 12 October 2005, 6pm

The topics for this meeting were:

• Cell phone competition by December 2005: http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2005-10-08/news1.html
• Venezuela to make low cost PCs: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=26714
• TSTT to "employ CDMA technology....for special applications, not inclusive of voice services"
• TATT wants to have the final version of the broadcast code in place by June 2006
• The Draft Data Protection Policy and Bill
• Kevin Mitnick was the featured speaker at a security seminar in Trinidad