ITO-Announce October - November 2005

The following resources were added to ItrainOnline during July:

1. Wireless
2. Secure Computing and Online Communications
3. Compressing Files and URLs
4. Recursos en español
5. Suggest a resource

1. WIRELESS

NEW MMTK UNITS ON WIRELESS NETWORKING

Twelve new units on wireless networking have been added to the
Multimedia Training Kit series, a special feature of ItrainOnline.
MMTK units feature full course material, presentations, participant
handouts and exercises. The new wireless units have been developed as
part of a project led by the Association for Progressive
Communications on "Capacity Development for Community Wireless
Networking in Africa". Units cover wireless standards, installations,
information about infrastructure and topologies, and how to make a
"cantenna". Wireless security and network management are also
addressed. These materials do assume a reasonable understanding of
TCP/IP networking and experience as a network administrator.
http://www.itrainonline.org/itrainonline/mmtk/wireless.shtml

OPEN SPECTRUM

The Open Spectrum Foundation aims to promote awareness of "open
spectrum" concepts and to advocate the expansion of the radio bands
available for license-exempt use. Their web site includes reports on
wireless spectrum regulation around the world and news on wireless
initiatives.
http://www.openspectrum.info/

2. SECURE COMPUTING AND ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS

DATA REMOVAL RECOMMENDATIONS

"For the general user, the delete or format command appears to be the
logical method of removing unwanted data files. These methods,
however, are like sweeping something under the carpet: you may not be
able to see it, but it's still there." This guide from Brown
University explains why deleting information does not remove it from
your hard drive, and points to data destruction tools and readings.
http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/CIS/Doc/datarmv.html

PROTECT YOUR PC

"Protect your PC" is part of the UK government GetSafeOnline
initiative, and is aimed at teaching PC users the basics of secure
computing and online communications. Areas covered include using a
firewall, using anti-virus software, updating software, stopping
spyware and using internet telephony safely. The site focusses mainly
on Windows, but includes advice for Linux and Mac users.
http://www.getsafeonline.org/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=1044

VIRUSLIST

Computer viruses are "named" by vendors of anti-virus software. The
same virus may be given different names by different vendors, which
can make finding information difficult. The VirusPool Viruslist
addresses this problem by offering a database of virus name aliases.
The database is not comprehensive, but it is still a helpful starting
point.
http://viruspool.vanderkooij.org/virus.cms

80 SUPER SECURITY TIPS

"Whether your PC is 3 years or 3 days old, it faces the same,
sometimes scary security issues." PC Magazine offers 80 tips for
dealing with the most common problems.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1838690,00.asp

3. FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE (FOSS)

FREE SOFTWARE FOR BUSY PEOPLE

This site not only features an easy-to-read online book entitled
"Free Software for Busy People", it provides free software use
scenarios from a primary school teacher, a city mayor, an Arab
teacher, and a family physician. With these busy people as examples
the site highlights a broad range of practical skills and gives
readers insight to the vast possibility provided by free software
tools. Learn how the city mayor uses "Civic Space" for her campaigns,
how the family doctor uses "OpenEMR" to keep track of her patient
registry, or how the Arab teacher uses Openoffice.org in Arabic, and
plays games.
http://freedomsoftware.info/

LIVECD LIST

Linux "LiveCDs" are bootable CDs/DVDs of a Linux distribution.
FrozenTech's LiveCD List provides an extensive list of LiveCDs and
their primary functions (e.g. general desktop, education, security).
http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

LEARNOPENOFFICE.ORG

These courses in HTML and Flash offered by LearnOpenOffice.org
provide easy step-by-step instruction in the use of Openoffice
Impress for multimedia presentations and OpenOffice Calc for basic
and advanced use of spread sheets. The tutorials are available for
online navigation and in the case of Impress, a flash-movie
presentation takes you through the tutorial with narrated audio and
visuals, allowing a quick and extensive overview of the office
productivity tool. Rather than describing features one by one, each
tutorial is based on a "real world example" to demonstrate how
OpenOffice is used to problem-solve. In order to see the full set of
materials, however, you must register at no cost.
http://www.learnopenoffice.org/index.htm

LINUX: PRE-INSTALLATION TIPS

"No matter which Linux distribution you choose, there are at least 10
things you need to do properly to prepare the operating system for
day-to-day use." This ZDNet guide looks at ten key tasks you should
perform when you first install Linux.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/software/soa/
Linux_Pre_installation_tips/0,39023769,39226014,00.htm

OPENICDL

"OpenICDL is an open source project that aims to develop and maintain
a Free/Open Source version of the training materials used to ready
students for the International Computer Driving License
certification." Materials cover basic concepts of IT, using a
computer and managing files (K Desktop Environment), word processing
(OpenOffice.org Writer), spreadsheets (OpenOffice.org Calc),
databases (OpenOffice DB), presentations (OpenOffice.org Impress) and
information and communications (Mozilla 1.4 and Ximian Evolution
1.4). Materials are available in HTML and PDF versions.
http://icdl.tsf.org.za/courseware.html

4. TECHNOLOGY PLANNING

STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY PLANNING TOOLKIT

Ungana-Afrika have been providing strategic technology planning
services to the development community in Southern Africa for nearly
three years. The processes have been refined through experience, and
are presented here in their current form to assist other technology
support providers to implement technology planning in their own
context
http://www.ungana-afrika.org/resources/techplanning/