Simplified Education with ICT, One of the Sucessfull Project Developed to Improve Qulity of Education in Tanzania

Tanzania cannot afford to overlook the importance of information and communication technology (ICT) for improved access, equity, quality and relevance of education. In our inter-connected world, knowledge and information are becoming corner stones for the development of a society, as is the ability to communicate. It is our duty to prepare our children so that they can benefit from and contribute to our country´s development in the information age. We must therefore take advantage of the full range of ICTs, from radio and mobile telephony to computers and the Internet, to build the foundation for a well educated and learning knowledge society. 

Simplified Education with ICT Company Limited - SEDICT (T) - A Tanzania registered Organization aiming To develop a quality improvement system for management education materials in Tanzania that will help to enhance the quality of schools and simplify the learning and teaching process through simplified visualization of different core subjects in both levels of education in Tanzania and to administer the information & Communication Technology (ICT) Education, Course contents and MIS System for providing compulsory Information & Communication Technology (ICT) / computer education to the Students of Government, Non-Government Schools and Related Academic Institutions across the Country.

  

    The Objectives and functions for which the company is established are:

(a).  To build capacities through training, consultancy, support, research, elimination of information gap, management, conservation & planning and other related community based issues.

(b).To administer the information & Communication Technology (ICT) Education, Course contents and MIS System for providing compulsory Information & Communication Technology (ICT) / computer education to the Students of Government, Non-Government Schools and Related Academic Institutions across the Country in a phased manner

(c).   To expand markets for ICT products for Educations provision and delivery also aims to train & develop local expertise in the field of quality assessment in management education including facilitating the establishment of required Infrastructures as well as courseware for the School.

(d).To promote and disseminate Information Technology culture among existing teachers in the State so that the benefit of information technology can be percolated at every school level.

(e).To develop a quality improvement system for management education materials in Tanzania that will help to enhance the quality of schools and simplify the learning and teaching process through simplified visualization of different core subjects in both levels of education in Tanzania

(f).    To assist the Ministry of Educations and Vocational Training (MoEVT) in formulating and implementing strategy, procedures and guidelines and for the adoption of Information & Communication Technology (ICT)'education in Academic Institutions in Tanzania.

(g).   To provide and/ or arrange to provide all technical assistance & help to create, organize, and maintain centralized data-warehouse, information-repository, and software-library to be shared by all schools. To facilitate inter-school coordination in all IT related matters and to devise modalities for information sharing.

For more information about the Project Email Us through info@sedict.co.tz  or Visit our Site www.sedict.co.tz

Follow us on Facebook www.facebook.com/sedictTanzania

Read more: http://mustudentsblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/simplified-education-with-ict-one-of.html#ixzz3I4f7Vjh7

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Smart Answers to Stupid Interview Questions

A job interview is a weird experience. Sometimes you to go a job interview and meet wonderful, sparky people you could talk with for hours. Other times you show up and your first thought is "I wouldn't work in this toxic waste dump for ten million dollars."
The traditional interview format is a big part of the problem. Somebody came up with the standard, lame interview script sixty or seventy years ago and it's still going strong.
The standard interview script is brainless and insulting and it doesn't even do a good job of separating the best candidates from the worst ones. Still, people who are afraid to try new things don't dare deviate from it.
You know the script I'm talking about. It's the one with these three stupid interview questions in it:

• What's your greatest weakness?
• With all the talented candidates, why should we hire you?
• Where do you see yourself in five years?

It isn't the interviewer's fault that they ask such thoughtless and uncreative questions. Somebody told them to. I wouldn't count out an entire organization just because somebody uses some of these dog interview questions, but if everybody in the joint is stuck in the same sixty-year-old interview-script time warp, you may want to keep looking.
As a manager, you don't have to ask the standard, stupid job interview questions when you interview candidates.
As a job-seeker, you get to decide how to answer stupid job interview questions when they come up. You can go the good-little-sheepie route and give the standard answer, like this:
THEM: With all the talented candidates, why should we hire you?
YOU: Well, I'm hard-working and I've got a lot of experience, I'm loyal and thrifty and never come late to work, and besides that I walk old ladies across the street.
People tell us all the time "I went to the interview and the words that came out of my own mouth horrified me. I felt like a brown-noser and a suckup. I don't talk that way in real life. I fell into the script and I couldn't climb out!"
We've all been there. You're likely to fall into the good-little-sheepie job seeker script by accident if you don't prepare yourself in advance. You can get off the script and stay human in a job interview, and you'll be happy if you do.
For starters, if you shake up the script and give your interviewer an answer s/he wasn't expecting, you'll force him or her to think. That's good. You'll be more memorable that way, and if the interviewer is horrified that you'd step out of the box, what does that tell you?
It tells you that you don't want that job anyway.
Here are our three stupid interview questions and a choice of two answers for each one. The first answer is the standard sheepie answer, and the second one is for use when your mojo is high and you feel like busting a frame and growing your muscles a little.

Stupid Interview Question: "What's your greatest weakness?"

SHEEPIE ANSWER: "I'm a hard worker, and I can be too hard on myself and other people when I think that either me or somebody else could give a little more to a project."
HIGH-MOJO ANSWER: "I used to obsess about my weaknesses. I used to think I had a million defects that needed correcting, and I read books and took classes to try to improve on them.
Gradually I learned that it makes no sense for me to work on things that I'm not great at, and it makes no sense for me to think of myself as having weaknesses. These days I focus on getting better at things I'm already good at -- graphic design, especially."

Stupid Interview Question: "With all the talented candidates, why should we hire you?"

SHEEPIE ANSWER: "I've been working in this arena for sixteen years and I've got a great track record."
HIGH-MOJO ANSWER: "That's what we're here to figure out, I guess! I can't say that you should hire me.
There might be somebody else who's perfect for the job - you've met the other candidates or will meet them, and of course you know more about the needs here than I do.
I can say this - if this match is meant to be, both of us will know it."

Stupid Interview Question: "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

SHEEPIE ANSWER: "Working hard here or in another Financial Analyst role, with luck moving up to Senior Financial Analyst and being more involved in strategic investments than I've been so far."
HIGH-MOJO ANSWER: "Exploring one of my passions, undoubtedly -- maybe in Finance, or my interest in ecommerce or in an international role. I have a lot of passions!"
You get to decide how far to turn the mojo dial in every interview. You already know how it feels to sit in the chair and play the Good Little Job Seeker. What would happen if you stepped out of the box on your next job interview, and played yourself?

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Hacker sentenced to three years for breaching police sites

After pleading guilty to computer fraud for hacking into several police Web sites, John Anthony Borell III was sentenced to three years in federal prison on Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
Borell, 22, is from Ohio but was accused of breaching the Web sites of police agencies in Utah, New York, and California, and a municipal Web site in Missouri, in early 2012. According to court documents, the intrusions caused thousands of dollars in damage and forced the Utah police site to be down for nearly three months.
Apparently, after the attack, Borell made several comments on Twitter and other Web sites, which helped law enforcement officials in their investigation.
Borell is said to be a member of the loose-knit hacking collective Anonymous, which has taken credit for numerous online attacks including on the US Department of Justice, Lockheed Martin, Bank of America, and more. Reportedly, the attacks on Utah's police Web sites were done in protest of proposed US anti-piracy legislation.
In addition to his prison sentence, Borell has also agreed to pay $227,000 in damages, according to the Associated Press.
 Source:CNET

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DID YOU KNOW THIS??Google's robo-cars mean the end of driving....!!

How Google's robo-cars mean the end of driving as we know it

Why waste your drive time doing the actual driving, when technology can be your chauffeur? The century-old auto culture is on the verge of radical change, and you can thank Google for where it's headed.

Google's self-driving Lexus RX450h

(Credit: Google)

Google's self-driving car initiative is moving into a new phase: reality.
Three years after first showing the world what it was up to -- rolling out a Toyota Prius with laser-scanning hardware awkwardly perched on the roof -- Google is moving its big idea out of the lab and into the real world.
Consider recent developments: A spokesman confirmed to CNET that the company was in what were described as productive talks with automakers involving Google's self-driving technology. Separately, Google is reported to be crafting a partnership with auto supplier Continental. And there's even the possibility of Google-powered robo-taxis sometime in the future.


The computerization of cars
Motivation aside, a big change is unde way, and it requires us to start thinking of cars very differently. Vehicles that drive themselves are the clearest example of what happens when cars transform into full-scale, general-purpose computing systems. But it's not the only example. Self-driving and connected cars will bristle with sensors, negotiate with traffic lights, talk to each other about safety conditions, join into train-like platoons, and become members of intelligent urban transit networks.
Historically, the car industry has focused on passive safety -- items like seatbelts and airbags. With the arrival of active safety technology that lets vehicles take pre-emptive action, cars will use data to help them decide what to do when drivers aren't paying attention or don't know what to do.

A lot of this boils down to communication. Sure, cars are getting more computing smarts, but so much of what's promised requires more data, and that requires ways to transmit it. How will that happen? As with personal computing, it will be a bit of a mess, with multiple networking technologies for multiple needs.
Computing today uses a handful of networks for different circumstances -- Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G, and Bluetooth among them. When automotive computing becomes a facet of personal computing, you can expect those standards to carry over. But then you can add some new network technologies designed to serve vehicles. The biggest are the 802.11p and the accompanying higher-level dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) standards, which govern how vehicles communicate with each other (V2V) and with infrastructure (V2I).
That technology, which rides the 5.9GHz frequency range for radio communications, can be used for things like collision avoidance, managing traffic at intersections, and linking cars into coordinated, fuel-efficient groups called platoons. Carmakers, however, are worried about interference on the 5.9GHz band if the US Federal Communications Commission permits other uses of the spectrum.

SOURCE:CNET

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DO YOU KNOW THIS??'Doomsday Plane' Would Save President and Joint Chiefs in Apocalypse Scenario

Breaking News | Celebrity News | More ABC News Videos

In the event of nuclear war, a powerful meteor strike or even a zombie apocalypse, the thoroughly protected doomsday plane is ready to keep the president, secretary of defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff and other key personnel in the air and out of danger. It may not deflect a Twitter photo scandal, but it can outrun a nuclear explosion and stay in the air for days without refueling.

The flight team for the E-4B, its military codename, sleeps nearby and is ready to scramble in five minutes. It was mobilized in the tumultuous hours after planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and southern Pennsylvania on 9/11.

"If the command centers that are on the ground in the United States have a failure of some sort, or attack, we immediately get airborne. We're on alert 24/7, 365," Captain W. Scott "Easy" Ryder, Commander, NAOC, told ABC News' Diane Sawyer as she traveled to Afghanistan with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on the apocalypse-proof plane. "Constantly there's at least one alert airplane waiting to get airborne."

Watch "World News" tonight on ABC to learn more about the Air Force's last line of defense.

All E-4B aircraft are assigned to the 55th Wing, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. The modified 747s can travel at speeds up to 620 miles per hour, 40 miles per hour faster than their commercial counterparts.

The $223 million aircraft is outfitted with an electromagnetic pulse shield to protect its 165,000 pounds of advanced electronics. Thermo-radiation shields also protect the plane in the event of a nuclear strike.

A highly-trained security team travels with the plane.

"The first people off of the airplane are these guys, they'll position themselves appropriately around the airplane," Ryder said to ABC News. "The secretary also has his own small security staff that does similar things. So these guys are predominately designed to protect our airplane, and the secretary's staff protects him, as an individual."

Even though it carries VIPs, their staff and security personnel, the plane is highly fuel efficient. The plane can stay in-flight for days without refueling, a necessity if circumstances demanded the plane's use by the nation's top officials.

A precision tech team mans the sensitive electronic technology found on the plan. There is so much powerful electrical equipment onboard a specially upgraded air-conditioning system is necessary to keep it cool and functional.

"Give us the phone number of anybody, anytime, anyplace, anywhere on earth, we can get a hold of them," Master Sgt. Joe Stuart, US Air Force, told Diane Sawyer.

It can even communicate with submerged submarines by dropping a five-mile-long cable out the back of the plane. "[We] drop is down and [it] transmits coded message traffic to US submarines," Ryder told ABC News.

Although the extreme amount of survival technology on the plane more than makes up for it, the plane lacks the amenities found in bases on the ground.

"It's like being Fedexed," Gates told Sawyer. "It's fairly Spartan, with no windows or anything."

Even the Secretary of Defense only gets a tiny bathroom with a sink, but no shower. A small trade-off for being able to board this plane as the rest of us dive for cover in a worst-case scenario.

Some more details on the general characteristics of the plane, according to the official U.S. Air Force website:

 Primary Function: Airborne operations center

 Contractor: Boeing Aerospace Co.

 Power Plant: Four General Electric CF6-50E2 turbofan engines

 Thrust: 52,500 pounds each engine

 Wingspan: 195 feet, 8 inches (59.7 meters)

 Length: 231 feet, 4 inches (70.5 meters)

 Height: 63 feet, 5 inches (19.3 meters)

 Weight: 410,000 pounds (185,973 kilograms)

 Maximum Takeoff Weight: 800,000 pounds (360,000 kilograms)

 Fuel Capacity: 410,000 (185,973 kilograms)

 Payload: communications gear permanently installed on aircraft

 Speed: 602 miles per hour (523 knots)

 Range: 6,200 nautical miles

 Ceiling: Above 30,000 feet (9,091 meters)

 Crew: Up to 112 (flight crew and mission crew)

 Unit Cost: $223.2 million (fiscal 98 constant dollars)

 Initial operating capability: January 1980

 Inventory: Active force, 4

ABC News' James Wang contributed to this article.

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US Mission To Mars Starts In Hawaii

Six researchers have spent the past four months living in a small dome on a barren Hawaii lava field 8,000 ft up a mountain to see how they might survive on a mission to Mars.

The scientists came down to earth on Tuesday, clutching recipes but without the space suits they had to wear each time they ventured onto the northern slope of Mauna Loa, an active volcano which last erupted in 1984.

The study area is isolated, yet accessible, and has no visible plant or animal life.

One of the first things they did when they came out of the habitat was to have a buffet breakfast which included lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.

"Based on this study we'll be able to offer a strategy that optimises everything and that is a good balance between, on the one hand not wasting too much time preparing your food and wasting too many resources, but on the other hand, keeping your crew fit and healthy," said Angelo Vermeulen, crew commander of the Mars simulation mission.

The six participants were selected by the University of Hawaii and Cornell University for the Nasa-funded study to prepare meals from a list of dehydrated, preserved foods that are not perishable.

They examined pre-prepared meals similar to what astronauts currently eat, and concocted meals themselves in an effort to combat malnourishment and food boredom.

Members did their cooking in a two-storey dome with small sleeping quarters, an exercise room and a kitchen.

The study - known as Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (Hi-Seas), included an open call for recipes that involved a lot of Spam.

The canned meat, popular in Hawaii households, was a common ingredient in suggested recipes because of its shelf-life.

Team members will spend several days in debriefings after emerging from the dome.

It will take several months to process all the data gathered.

The team hopes to present findings at the International Astronautical Congress later this year in Beijing.

SOURCE:SKYNEWS

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Google Outage: Internet Traffic Plunges 40%

Worldwide internet traffic plunged by around 40% as Google services suffered a complete black-out, according to web analytics experts.

The tech company said all of its services from Google Search to Gmail to YouTube to Google Drive went down for between one and five minutes last night.

The reason for the outage is not yet known, and Google refused to provide any further information when contacted by Sky News Online.

According to web analytics firm GoSquared, global internet traffic fell by around 40% during the black-out, reflecting Google's massive grip on the web.

"That’s huge," said GoSquared developer Simon Tabor. "As internet users, our reliance on Google.com being up is huge.

"It’s also of note that pageviews spiked shortly afterwards, as users managed to get to their destination."

A message on the Google Apps Dashboard showed all of its services were hit.

"We're aware of a problem with Gmail affecting a significant subset of users. The affected users are able to access Gmail, but are seeing error messages and/or other unexpected behaviour," it said.

A later message said: "Between 15:51 and 15:52 PDT, 50% to 70% of requests to Google received errors; service was mostly restored one minute later, and entirely restored after four minutes."

Red dots on the Google Apps Dashboard show all its services were hit

When contacted by Sky News, a spokesman for Google directed us to the dashboard message.

"We have no comment beyond this," he added.

Digital expert Phil Dearson, head of strategy for Tribal Worldwide, said the black-out had cost Google an estimated $500,000 (£330,000) just in the few minutes it was down.

"This is completely unprecedented, I've never heard of anything like this before," he told Sky News Online.

"One or two of Google's services have gone down in the past, like Gmail and Google Apps, but they both happened separately.

"It's a massive surprise for all of Google's services to go down at the same time.

"It's probably a physical infrastructure problem given the size of the outage, but it's hard to know at this stage."

Neil McAllister, a writer for website The Register, said: "Exactly how an operation like Google's can even go dark like that, all at once, is anybody's guess.

"Whatever details eventually do come to light, however, expect a lot of amazed - and nervous - talk around the water coolers in data centres everywhere next week."

SOURCE:SKYNEWS

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Opera 16 Next is out

Opera Software, just like Google or Mozilla, decided to make available three different Opera release channels to provide developers and enthusiasts with options to test new features before they reach the stable build, and get some data and bug reports from the community in return.
We are currently still waiting for Opera Dev to be released, while both stable and next builds of the browser are already available. Opera Dev will be what Chrome Dev is for the Chrome browser, and Aurora for Firefox. It won't be like Firefox Nightly though which may get updates several times a day depending on how active Mozilla is.
For now, Opera Next is the cutting edge version of the Opera browser, and it is this browser that got upgraded to version 16 today. This would not really be important but it is the first release with a 16 in front, which makes it somewhat special.
The release is not officially announced yet and it is not clear if it ever will be. If you are running Opera Next, you may receive it via auto-update. If you do not want to wait that long, you can head over to the Opera ftp server and download it from there.
Note: There is no "check for updates" feature built-into Opera (yet). What this means is that you will get the update when it is your turn to get it. The only way to speed things up is to download the latest version manually and install it. The reason behind this apparently is to avoid the servers being hammered by user requests.
A change log has not been posted (yet) and you will be hard pressed finding any changes to previous versions of the browser. There is one that I was able to find out about, but it is not the long awaited bookmarking feature or other features of Opera 12.x that are still missing in Opera 16.
You can enter opera:flags into the address bar to display experimental features that you may enable or disable here. This is similar to Chrome's experimental flag (chrome:flags).

It allows you to enable several interesting features, including:

1. Synchronization (it is not clear how enabling this differs from the sync feature that is build into Opera)
2. Enable Download Resumption which adds a context menu to Opera to continue or restart interrupted downloads.
3. Enable extensions to run on opera:// urls.
4. Disable hyperlink auditing (pinging).
5. Smooth scrolling (Windows only).
6. Enable Opus and VP8 playback in video elements.

There are 56 experiments in total listed on the page, of which some may not be available for the platform you are using. For Opera Next on Windows 7, 53 of the 56 were available while three were not. Changes take effect after a restart of the browser.
Opera Next is a beta version that is still in development. It is very likely that we will see the missing bookmarking capabilities land in Opera 16 before it reaches stable status. (via Deskmodder)
Update: The official announcement has been posted on the desktop team blog. The release includes a number of changes according to it:

• W3C Geolocation API support.
• Form auto-filling.
• Jump List support on Windows 7 and 8.
• Presentation Mode support on Mac OS X.
• Based on Chromium 29.

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