Wacdesigns | Technology, Web 2.0 and Life

This Saturday i attended the first BarCamp in Mauritius, which was a great initiative from the organizers(Pierre Bernard). Even though some of the persons that should be attending did not come, it was really great and everyone that attended the session was really satisfied by the level of discussion and presentations that took place.

The first presentation was on Ubuntu Linux release performed by Malcolm(hobbyist bater bis). He detailed several aspect of the OS as it is becoming more and more popular for it’s ease of use and growing community support. And the possibilities for anyone to have access to a free operating system that enables any user to perform basic PC operating. With slides showing Firefox 3.0 installed by default on the latest version and Open Office with is a pretty good free alternative to Microsoft Office.

Then came the intervention of Vincent(bloggeur solidaire humorist), on how to install, manage and optimize a new WordPress installation. His presentation started with the installation of the WordPress zip file in a virtual directory that is used by his Apache server on a local machine. He created a new database using phpMyAdmin and then finalized the installation explaining the purpose of a good prefix for your WP Tables, which is by default “WP_”. After the installing we shown how to use plugins and widgets to enhance your WP Experience and you pages presentation. There was also a small debate on SEO Optimization on WP and how to enable permalinks or clean links to be better reference by search engine. It was a good introduction to WP and how i can be use to perform day to day blogging on the web.

OpenID Mauritius, this conference was performed by our Organizer Pierre Bernard, who will be the representative of OpenID in Mauritius.  He discussed on the advantages of using OpenID compared to have multiple authentication information for each website you are using. OpenID will be keeping all your authentication in one and only one location so that you need to remember only one password the one of your OpenID account and you should be able to have access to any of your favorite websites. You can find a list of comprehensive sites that are using OpenID here.

There was several other small brainstorming and discussing mainly on the use of the different video streaming technology used for making web conference on the web. SEO: the good, the bad and how it the mystification about how it actually works. There were also some discussion about a possible creating of some Linux Ubuntu user group to show people that there are other OS out their that can suit their needs too without the hassle of having to pay a license.

Hoping that you enjoyed this little resume about the first BarCamp that was held in Mauritius. We are hoping of doing another one in August to celebrate the anniversary of BarCamp. As soon as i can hold of the photos i’ll update this post.

Update: 23.06.2008

You can also have access to the minutes of the BarCamp available in french on Bernard’s Blog with video’s and photos

This is the first barcamp in Mauritius. It has been organized by Mauritius Network, and will take place from the 20th to the 21st of June 2008.

For information on what is a barcamp

BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — often focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats.

Read more here.

On the menu of this rendez-vous:

• Blog Creation
• Web 2.0 Application Demos
• Multimedia Workshops
• Historicals of information technology
• and much more…

You can register for this event here.

I went on a little Journey in the south of the island sometimes back, and took some pictures:

You can share your comments on the pictures.

Here is a map of the journey and the different checkpoints

I just bought a Lenovo 3000 N100 6 month ago. Now it’s time for some review on this piece of hardware.

The hardware specification is as follows:

Model: N100 0768-FFG
CPU: Core 2 Duo T5600 1.83 Ghz
Memory: 1Gb DDR2 PC5300
Hard Drive: 120 GB HDD (Fujitsu) SATA
Screen: 15.4″ WSXGA+ 1680×1050 Glossy
Optical Drive: DVD-RW Matshima
GPU: NVIDIA 7300 Go 128 MB (dedicated)
Network/Wireless: Intel Wireless 3945A/B/G, Realtek 10/100 Ethernet Card, Modem and Bluetooth
Inputs: 84 Key Keyboard with Two Button Touchpad with Scroll Bar
Buttons: Power, Lenovo Care, Power Up and Down, Mute, and WiFi/Bluetooth On/Off Switch.
Ports:

• Four USB 2.0
• Four-Pin Firewire
• 4-in-1 Card Reader
• Ethernet
• Modem
• VGA Out
• S-Video Out
• Microphone
• Headphone
• Security Lock
• Power Connector

Integrated Camera (1.3 MegaPixel)
Fingerprint reader
6c Li-Ion

It was delivered with Windows Vista Business Edition. And some other software that makes it run slower than it should. Thus after the 1st month having Vista on it, i decided to downgrade back to Windows XP SP2 Pro. And this is just so fine. Beware before doing this operation make sure that you download any Driver that are needed. Since the set is not delivered with a driver CD. I found all the drivers on the Lenovo website.

Here are some stats and test that i did.

Using CPUz(http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php)

Super Pi Calculation (http://www.overclock.net/downloads/28044-definitive-super-pi-thread.html)

Will be coming soon… let me get some time.

Happy

Halloween 2007 to everyone !!!

Goodbye are always sad, but last week we made a little party for the departure of Noelette from the Vinivi Team. here is a small video introducing all the members of the team.

[kml_flashembed movie="Vinvi the Team" width="425" height="335" wmode="transparent" /]

It’s been while since i last wrote something on my blog, and also make some changes, these last month have been quiet busy. I first step to get back to the blogging community is to get a lighter look for my blog, and start writing some more post. since i have been doing many interesting things lately.

So how does my new theme look like ? ( I still have to make some changes thought to accept some ads and so on )

This morning, I woke up early as usual… had a good night sleep and all
Got to the office, did my usual morning check and opened my mail.

Suprise, suprise I see that i am really needed :>

Yes….
I am still alive…. after so much time without a post, where have i been.. of course in front of my Workstation… working… but now, i have decided to show you guys what i have been doing so far…

The next post will be a pretty comprehensive one, about the work that has been done on vinivi.com

Today i went to do some water skiing again. The weather was a bit rainy in the morning and i was making up my mind on whether do go or not… finally after half an hour i saw that the sun was coming out again so i decided to go.
First on the list the mentoring lesson before going in water, making sure everything is fixed up properly

Then get in the water waiting for the boat to come.

Then the fun begins, starting with the stick first and then going to the rope…

Finally… back onshore to get some rest

I am planning to go tommorow if there is not much wind, i’ll be able to do some windsurfing or hobbie cat. Till then hold I’ll try to hold on to my ski