Johnny « Hackers For Charity

This came as a shock when we heard the news this morning. We were not immediately familiar with the names of the victims, but they may have been customers at The Keep or the training center. Either way, we are saddened by the news, and our prayers are with the families of the victims. This happened five minutes from our home at the road in front of Kakira Sugar Works, just past Bugembe.

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/18725-two-american-evangelists-perish-in-jinja-accident.html

What an amazing celebration!

From a new school in Uganda:

“We need a computerized way to handle:

* student registration
* student grades (recording, posting, etc)
* student emails

It would be great if all that were web-based, and it would be even better if it could integrate with Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions software we use for accounting so that we could allow students to see their financial status.”

I’m looking for suggestions about (open source?) approaches, and also looking for someone to be the point person to interact with the school contact.

Thanks, everyone!

I wonder if anyone out there can help us. We need to host some charity web sites that are being built here in Uganda. Does anyone have hosting they could donate? We don’t need tons of space or bandwidth, but the host will be used solely for charity sites. Ideally, I’d like to hand over a cpanel to the charity, so a “reseller” arrangement might be best. If we can’t find a donation, I could use help finding a good provider.

Also, I have a local charity that has web host problems and I need a web-saavy volunteer to help them get their site back online. Thanks!

I spent a lot of time downloading while I was in the US. Every hotel I stayed in was blessed with a blocked pipe thanks to my non-stop download queue. The bulk of what I was downloading consisted of Windows and Mac updates so I could baseline them and start providing monthly software updates to the community.

When I first started working in Uganda, I was stunned at how viruses snuck into every corner of the IT landscape and even more surprised at the devastation they caused. As an organization, we’ve done our best to keep treat the symptoms. We did A/V scans, quarantines, data recoveries, system updates and A/V updates but really we weren’t making a dent in the problem. I began to realize that most of the systems we were working on were hideously outdated and the primary reason for this was that there  wasn’t enough bandwidth to download all the service packs, security patches, application updates and A/V updates required to keep the systems safe.

Today, after several days of pulling all the packages together, we’ve released our first set of DVDs that will update Mac and Windows machines with all the latest updates. The Windows version is nicely automated, but the Mac updates are a pile of DMGs for now. (Anyone know a better way to update Macs other than chucking a pile of DMGs at our clients? Let me know.)

Next, we’ll work on A/V updates, and I’m looking for something that will automate that process as well so we can automate the download and installation of updates. Again, let me know.

My only fear with this little project is the inevitable: I just know that some unscrupulous people will get a hold of these disks, duplicate them from their virus-infected machines and try to sell these freely-offered updates for profit. My hope is that we’ll remain a trusted source for these packages and that we can make some dent in this problem.

Here’s the email that I sent out to the community.

————-

Hey everyone! Hackers For Charity is offering free operating system
update disks to anyone that needs them. The disks are free for the
asking, but we are requesting a donation of 20,000/= (if you are able)
to help us offset the (rather significant) costs we incur in
downloading the updates and creating the disks.

There are two sets of disks right now: one for Windows and one for Mac.

The Windows disk includes an installer which will automatically assess
your system, determine the updates that need to be applied and
incrementally upgrade your system to the latest version, after several
reboots and restarts of the program. The Windows disk will currently
update Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2003, Windows 7 and Office
2003-2010.

The Mac disk does not contain an auto-installer, so updates must be
applied manually. We are looking for a solution to this, but for now
updates are listed in categories by OS X version and application.
Novice users can simply install the latest operating system update,
while more advanced users can delve into the various application
directories. The disk will currently update OS X 10.5 (Leopard), OS X
10.6 (Snow Leopard), OS X 10.7 (Lion), iLife, iWork and all auxiliary
Apple applications. In addition, this disk contains the latest version
of iTunes for Windows and Mac as well as the latest updates for the
iPad 2 Wi-Fi and the iPhone 4 (GSM versions only). Note that if your
iPhone has been unlocked and/or jailbroken, you should not apply these
updates as you will lose your unlock, perhaps permanently. Older
versions of OS X, to include OS X 10.4 (Tiger) as well as Power PC
versions are included on a second supplemental Mac DVD, provided on
request.

Each disk can be re-used by multiple computers legally, as there are
no licensing issues since the updates are provided free from the
respective web sites.

Our plan is to update this disk every month and provide the updates as
a service to the community. We also are working on an anti-Virus
update disk to provide updates to the various A/V products.

If you’re interested in any of the DVD’s, stop by The Keep any time.
We’ll ask you to fill in a form with your name, phone number, email
address, organization name/web site and email address.

Thanks everyone.

Have a good day!

It seemed like a week of nothing but iPhones. Here are three of the five I worked on this week.So many staff and volunteers are coming with “unprepared” i* gear and it’s been fun getting them off and running. We were happy to provide service to: Bujagali Energy Limited Bujagali Hydropower Project, Arise Africa and the Orthodox Presbyterian Uganda Mission. Check them out if you get a chance!

Wow, the community continues to astound me. Dave@Derbycon stepped up and has basically saved hack3rcon with a Platinum sponsorship, a sponsorship level of $2500 or more!

As they did before with their donation of con bags to hack3rcon, once again, a hacker con has bailed out another hacker con, even though they are technically competitors.

I’ve never seen anything like this in any other community, and it’s a real testament to the solidarity of the hacker community.

Thanks to Dave and everyone else at Derbycon! We really appreciate you guys!

We’re really falling short for hack3rcon this year. We’re seeking sponsors to help us make this con a reality. If you know anyone that might consider helping, please have them contact 304Geeks ( 304 geeks board {at} googl egroups {dot} com – no spaces ) or send funding to PayPal@304geeks.com or: 304Geeks, P.O. Box 75364, Charleston, WV 25375.

Thanks for getting the word out. I’d hate to see the official HFC conference fail due to lack of funding..

Thanks to some generous members in the hacker community, we have a couple of auctions happening on eBay right now.

The first auction is for a San Francisco 49ers VIP Game Day Experience on Sunday 13 November. The fan package for two includes:

- Two (2) lower box seats at the San Francisco 49ers versus New York Game
- Two (2) VIP passes to the pre-game tailgate party in the VIP Pavilion tent
- Meet and greet session with a San Francisco 49ers alumni player
- Two (2) commemorative San Francisco 49ers gift bags

*****All proceeds from this auction are for Hackers for Charity*********
Milton Security will also match with a donation to Hackers for Charity of the final auction price, up to $500
More info on Hackers for Charity can be found here: http://www.hackersforcharity.org/

Thanks to Jim at Milton Security for donating the tickets!

This auction is here: http://www.ebay.com:80/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280752018391

The second auction is for a special edition white HFC shirt signed by many of the speakers, goons and founders of ToorCon.

This auction is available here: http://www.ebay.com:80/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280752747840

Thanks to everyone involved in these auctions and be sure to check out the auctions before time runs out!

I’m sitting in Dulles airport for the next ten hours. The first leg of my trip back to Uganda. I am in transit in more ways than one.

Location:Saarinen Cir,,United States