Finding the Geek in every woman November 27, 2011

They say ‘all good things must come to an end’! Saturday past was the last class for Geeky Moms and Mom 4.0 at the RLabs Academy. The morning was filled with laughter and many tears. 2011 was the first year RLabs ran training under the Academy. As both Monique (co-founder of She’s the Geek) and I are very passionate about empowering women and technology equally, that it made absolute sense for us to facilitate the Saturday morning sessions with the women at the RLabsRLabs Academy. It has been an interesting and most fulfilling journey we have embarked on yet. My favorite part of this year has been watching the women find their inner geek! So finding the geek in every woman is most definitely possible.

Geeky Moms October 29, 2011

Ladies having some fun

Table Mountain Campaign Outreach Program Boosts Internet Access for Township Schools September 16, 2011

The Vote for Table Mountain campaign is empowering underprivileged communities in and around Cape Town by providing a platform to learn about the Internet.

The campaign has generated just under 2500 new email accounts and organisers estimate that by 11/11/11, the date that voting for the New 7 Wonders of Nature closes, the campaign will have introduced 5400 learners to email and opened their eyes to the power of the Internet.

The campaign organisers have teamed up with Reconstructed Living Lab (RLabs), a non-profit organization that equips and empowers communities through technology, and together they are visiting schools and institutions in underprivileged communities and allowing them the use of laptops and Internet access.

Thereafter learners are shown how to vote online for the New 7 Wonders of Nature so that they too can be part of the global election to choose the world’s most wondrous natural sites.

Table Mountain is one of only 28 sites on the planet shortlisted to be named one of the Official New7Wonders of Nature, a contest which aims to attract more than 1 billion votes worldwide.

Each lesson involves students receiving a crash course on the Web and how it works, as well as an explanation of what an e-mail is and why people need an account. Thereafter, RLabs informs students about the Vote for Table Mountain campaign, as well as the other New7Wonders contestants and their countries. Their first interaction on the Web is voting for Table Mountain, allowing them to walk away with an e-mail address and a vote.

Rene Parker, Director of RLabs says: “This group effort has changed the landscape when it comes to youth being introduced to new technologies. This has been achieved with the shared partnership between the Vote for Table Mountain Campaign and RLabs.”

To date, RLabs has done 24 sessions in the Western Cape, tallying 3231 votes and creating 2460 new e-mail accounts in the process. With 4 sessions planned per week until voting closes on 11/11/11, they will amass an estimated 7000 votes in total for the campaign.

And in a show of true activism for the Vote for Table Mountain campaign, Whizz ICT Centre, headed by Tembinkosi Qondela, have also made a significant contribution by turning their facility in Khayelitsha into a voting station. This has allowed many Khayelitsha residents, and learners from schools including Nolungile Primary, to create their own e-mail accounts and become familiar with the Internet and vote online for free.

“The Outreach programs are an integral part of the Vote for Table Mountain campaign that enables us to leave a positive legacy behind,” said New7Wonders Campaign Manager Fiona Furey. “RLabs and Whizz are helping us reach the youth who do not have Internet access. When Table Mountain is one of the 7 Wonders of Nature (God willing) they will have a sense of ownership, knowing it is because they voted and made it happen.”

Table Mountain has a great chance of making it into the final 7, but the public need to continue voting as there are only a few weeks of the competition left.

To vote for Table Mountain SMS “Table” to 34874 at R2 an SMS, or visit www.votefortablemountain.com, or vote via Mxit for only 20 cents. If you vote via SMS or Mxit, you can vote as many times as you like!

To vote for Table Mountain, SMS “table” to 34874, or visit
www.votefortablemountain.com.

GROW Bootcamp with the Geeks June 29, 2011

This has been an exciting week thus far. We are all out in Khayelitsha with the GROW Academy at the Bootcamp. The ‘recruits’ as they are called are quite excited and very interested in what they are being taught this week.

Today we have the experts from Woothemes showing the recruits how to get signed up onto WordPress. I have never seen so many smiley faces (actual smiles on faces) when the recruits realised that they were being taught by the best in the business of Web Design and Development.

Tomorrow we have SEO as the topic of the day!

Nothing makes you… March 31, 2011

Come out of hibernation quite like a new toy or toys!

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I haven’t blogged in a few months. But sometimes you have to be a big girl and deal with it. So tonight I came out of hibernation.

My husband has been away for over 2 weeks in Malaysia and I have injured my back, so have been seeing a physiotherapist for the past week. Besides being in physical pain, I have been missing my husband terribly. It seems that whenever I am sick and need a pick me up, he knows just what this girl needs. On his arrival back home this evening, I prepared a romantic dinner with place settings and all. And anyone that knows me knows that cooking is not my favorite past time. I thought I was the one to surprise him, but I should have known that he would have something (well maybe a couple of things) up his sleeve.

I’m sure normal husbands find giving their wives perfume, bags, shoes and other girly items romantic. But fortunately I have become an Apple junkie purely because my husband finds showering me with gadgets romantic. So first up besides the perfumes, shoes and bag he brought back from Malaysia he takes out an iPhone 4 as one of my get well gifts. Of course I’m speechless as we have been discussing getting me one in South Africa but our local branches hasn’t had stock in a while and I was quite content with my old iPhone 3 as it was his Valentines gift to me last year. And I’m quite sentimental and love keeping and holding onto gifts. So I say: “thank you my angel, but you didn’t have to” even though deep down I’m ecstatic to say the least. So while I’m taking it out of the box, he watches me and oooohs and aaaahs just as much as I do. So after discovering that the look and feel of the iPhone 4 is definitely more masculine than it’s predecessor it’s still got that sleekness and style that only Apple can manage (yes I know I am biased).

Then after a few minutes of me thinking that I don’t remember my back pain quite so strongly, out comes another box and this time it’s none other than the iPad 2. If I thought I was speechless with the phone I had and still have no words to describe my reaction. When I asked what’s this for he says: “knowing what a woman wants is easy and so is taking care of her needs but knowing her desires is a whole other ball game”. I have to admit I didn’t see that one coming. But it’s not polite to look a gift horse in it’s mouth, or so I’ve heard. Now I already have a iPad, which was last years birthday present from my husband. The iPad 2 is slimmer and comes with 2 cameras. And I must say it looks a little girly, which I love!

So what does a girl do with 2 iPhones and 2 iPads? Theres a saying that goes: out with the old and in with the new. For the 2 older devices I will find them a good home, someone to love them and cherish them. And my new toys, well let’s play girls!

I almost forgot to say that we never got to the romantic dinner I so lovingly prepared, as I haven’t stopped playing with my new toys and my poor husband was so jet lagged that he fell asleep while still asking me when are we going to having dinner I’m logging off now to go put the food away and pack up the place settings. If the dinner is not too dried out we can try again tomorrow. I wish there was an App for keeping food fresh…

This blog post was published via WordPress for iPad.

Lock up or Lock Down? December 9, 2010

Marlon Parker (founder of RLabs) has embarked on a very challenging task.

Read more on RLabs and Marlon Parker websites.

Office for Mac 2011 and then some… November 1, 2010

The new version of Mac Office – the first major revision for the suite since 2008 – also includes Outlook as its e-mail client for the first time, replacing Entourage. This is probably the best news for most PC to Mac shifters. Over 1 billion PCs and Macs run Microsoft Office and Office for Mac, making the Office franchise the most used productivity suite worlwide. The latest offering for the Mac builds on Microsoft’s drive towards allowing one to work the way you want, where you want.

A few of the features to look forward to are:
1) The improvements to Outlook. Outlook for Mac 2011 allows you to see your calendar from within your email, as well as allowing you to read and save related emails in a single thread.
2) The new Office Web Apps let you post, edit and share Office documents from where you want with nearly any computer with a browser, allowing you to co-author a document with multiple people in multiple locations. (this is useful for collaborations)
3) Messenger for Mac 8 enables you to communicate in real-time with audio and video support, and Remote Desktop for Mac 2 so you can drive your Windows-based PC from your Mac.

This product is available in stores since 26 October locally, the suite comes in two editions at retail, both available with either a single user license, or a multiple user option – Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 (ERP: R999-R1299) and Office for Mac Home and Business 2011 (ERP: R2499-R2699). For better alignment across platforms, the Office for Mac 2011 pricing and edition options, map closer with Office for the Windows operating system.

This has to be the most intensive and thorough Installation and Overview Video yet to be viewed.

Source: She’s the Geek

Office : Mac 2011 October 29, 2010

Received the Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 today! Going to install it and see if its all what its made out to be.

Source: She’s the Geek

Inside at the MXit API Launch October 29, 2010

This morning we sitting in Stellenbosch at the MXit API Launch. After arriving, registering and having a cup of coffee we were set for the morning. Lots of people were taking photos and I assume they are from the media. There were also the MXit team wearing their T-Shirts with an “M” on it and were all ready to help and make you feel pretty welcome.

Now MXit as we know it has had loads of publicity both good and very bad and others just really bad. The Ceo Herman tells us that publicity is always good for MXit.

I must admit that listening to Herman speak you cant help but be impressed with their vision and values on creating products to service its own community. Users don’t have to leave the MXit world. There is a wealth of apps inside this world that exposes the user to various possibilities that they don’t have access to elsewhere at such a low low or no cost to the user. The only costs the users will have to incur is the data charges attached to their mobile handsets.

Next up will be the explaination of how by opening up its API, MXit is welcoming everyone to join in developing apps or games to enhance the users experience on MXit.

To become a partner with MXit you register on: code.mxit.com

Important to note is that in the process of partnering with MXit:
- Your IP will always be owned by you.
- Your revenue share will will include 70% of Moola generated
- Another way to generate revenue is to run link in with the advertisement

A few basic benefits of MXit:
Free messaging
Instant messaging
Data costs insignificant
Presence and status
Multi-group communication
Muti-media enabled
Location based info is available
Extensive user information available
Viral effect and social networking

The future of Mxit:
Enhance API
Multi-player games
Trading platform
CRM using MXit
Closer TV and radio interaction
New forms of mobile advertising
Create multiple sub-communities on MXit
User pills and market research
Social development in Africa
Location based services (LBS)

Source: She’s the Geek

Accidental Billionaire… October 26, 2010

Last night we had an opportunity to watch The Social Network at Ster Kinekor in Cavendish Square, Claremont. There has been many opinions and comments about this movie since the trailer was released earlier this year. As part of our daily work at RLabs is to tell people about Social Media and introduce them to various social networks, thus it was good to get the background and history of Facebook. Most of the people we train proclaim that Facebook is their favourite social network. We hope that all our trainees will set aside 2hours of their time to go and watch the movie.