My new gadget

I’ll be working with this new guy for the rest of this year. The two of us will be helping people from the islands of Vanuatu to send emails to wherever, thanks to the Government of Japan, UNDP, OXFAM, VRDTCA and the Government of Vanuatu!

ICOM IC-710 Transceiver, my new buddy!

Love Patrol 2 coming soon…

Today I arrived at work with a sudden thought of dread. Had Wan Smolbag Theatre already released Love Patrol 2 (LP2)? I felt so sure I was left out of the opening that I sent an email to Wan Smolbag asking about the official opening. Not to worry, I received a reply that the opening is on September 5, 2009.

I will try my best to keep September 5 free to attend the opening. I am so excited as I don’t know what I’m gonna look like on screen.

I’ll keep y’alls updated on that one!

Downloading emails from Windows Live using POP3

The unthinkable has probably happend! I dunno, but today I installed Kubuntu 9.04 on my Flash Disk and right now I’m typing this post using my new Linux set up. Now I don’t have to worry about getting a new PC and installing the whole thingy onto it. I just use the flash disk. I feel alive – after all the monotony that is Windows!

Anyhow, the first thing I did after booting into this new Kubuntu system was to load up KRDC and use the rdp protocol to connect to the other PCs that are turned on in my office – and one laptop. It’s easier to manage this because you open up all connections in one Window – each connection in its own tab. Sweet!

Then after checking upon the status of tasks running on the various machines, I focussed my attention on installing Mozilla Firefox. With a simple sudo apt-get install firefox, I left the thingy to do it’s job while I browsed the web in Konqueror. I decided to install Firefox because Konqueror was bodging up text in web pages when I scrolled and didn’t seem to handle AJAX well.

Once I got Firefox loaded, I closed down Konqueror and set my mind to configuring VNC. I haven’t been able to do that yet, since I am still downloading some other software needed to get VNC up and running. I might do it tomorrow.

Anyhow, while the files needed for VNC to work were downloading, I decided to try downloading my Windows Live emails into KMail. Aftergoogling and finding out that KMail was not supported in configurations for doing POP3 downloads, and that I couldn’t do such email downloads from Vanuatu, I dove in and entered some default values. After some fiddling around, I arrived at the following:

For POP3

POP3 Server: pop3.live.com | Port: 995 | Username: <your Windows Live email address> | Password: <your Windows Live Password> | SSL: yes

For SMTP

SMTP Server: smtp.live.com | Port: 465 | Username: <your Windows Live email address> | Password: <your Windows Live Password> | SSL: yes

And there you have it. I can now download my emails from my Windows Live account into KMail and enjoy a stress free live!

Making use of the old

I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me on Monday morning when I arrived at work and had settled down enough to check my emails. There among the list of newly arrived emails in my inbox was a reply to a message I had sent to Dan McGarry, the writer of this column. He had asked me to write an article to fill in for him while he is off to the islands, working to serve a rural cause of one sort or another. I felt inept to write something that will be read by so many people and compared, by some, to Dan’s flawless diction. A deemed challenge but I sent him an SMS to the affirmative.

Anyhow, shenanigans aside, let me say that I like the challenges. It brings out the best in me and fills up my short lifespan with acquired testimonies. And one such challenge is making good use of old and ostensibly obsolete technology. Consider what happened to me on Monday. I used a combination of email, SMS and a Telecard phone call to get a message across to my friend; and then later on to confirm whether the message had been received or not.  All these using very advanced technology involving satellites, pipes, DSLAMs, switches and whatnot.

Let me take you on a fictitious journey to Big Bay, Santo. An apu from Winsau village walks all the way down to the HF radio station in Malau village, to make a radio call to a family member in Luganville. He is told that the family member could not possibly be using such an obsolete piece of communication device in Luganville. It’s the age of mobile phones, so olfala apu would be better off buying a mobile phone instead. He sarcastically asks the radio operator why they still have the radio station at the clinic. Shouldn’t they be using mobile phones instead? Good grief! In his days, HF radios were the bomb in telecommunications!

The mobile and email generation might be scratching their heads wondering; what are HF radios? Basically, HF stands for High Frequency. We all listen to music on FM stations such as Paradise FM and FM107. Have you ever wondered how is it that you are able to listen to the music on your radio, although it’s being played somewhere else? I’ve heard a funny story of one particular olfala bubu who decided to open his radio to check out who was talking inside. To his surprise, he found a cowering gecko which had no idea where it was. He made his own conclusions and tried to put the radio back together.

But really, FM broadcasting – which is used by FM stations – uses a different frequency band called VHF (Very High Frequency) in the general radio spectrum. VHF uses frequencies ranging from 80 – 108MHz. Some FM stations use their frequency as part of their name. For instance, FM107 broadcasts using frequency 107MHz.

Now, having told you about something you already know of, I can maybe tell you about HF. Frequencies used in the HF range are from 3 – 30MHZ. We lay people are more familiar with HF as shortwave radio.  One very important thing about shortwave or HF is that, under optimal conditions, it can be broadcast globally. It is ubiquitous! The people who have been working with radio spectrum will tell you that the higher the frequency, the shorter the distance it can travel (although there are occasions when VHF can travel very far – but the reception is at best sporadic in nature). Ah, now I know why I can’t get FM107 on Aniwa! It also explains why as a kid, I would be awe-struck by the funny sounding Chinese or Indian broadcasts I would catch when scanning the frequencies on my grandpa’s shortwave radio.

Let me just tell you about another broadcast method called Amplitude Mode or AM broadcasting. This technology is used by Radio Vanuatu to broadcast their development programs, entertainment, public announcement, news and everything else to the people of Vanuatu. In this case they use Medium frequencies (300 kHz to 3000 kHz) or Medium Wave. You may have heard your radio announcer saying that they are broadcasting live on 1125 kHz frequency. Medium wave signals can follow the curvature of the earth at all times. It doesn’t care about caves, hills and oceans, so it is favorable for reaching out to the country.

So what is my point? I want to point out that Radio Vanuatu has utilized a very “old” technology to keep the population up to date with what is happening in the country and around the world. I would also like to point out that such seemingly obsolete technologies have co-existed with faster and more secure technologies for the purpose of improving communications.

We have witnessed the use of VHF and MW broadcasts to address issues affecting our people and the people have used mobile phones and land lines to call in to the broadcast stations and be heard by a wider audience.  We see the use of HF radio by marine vessels and remote outposts to report on important locations, events and statistics.

And very soon, we will be witnessing a very ingenious application of HF broadcasting. The villagers who have neither heard nor seen email in their lives will soon be relying on it thanks to shortwave or HF broadcasting. UNDP and OXFAM have made respective commitments to work with VRDTCA in deploying this technology under the codename “yumi konek”. The base station has been established at Manples and an Internet Café has been set up to route emails going to and from the remote stations.

It is an inexpensive setup that involves HF antennas, HF transceivers, modems, and laptops running an email program called Wavemail. No need for ADSL or dialup setups in the islands. One can send emails from the Internet Café at Manples to their families back in the islands. It enhances one-to-many communications where a chief can communicate with his village. A Pastor can send prayer requests to his congregation. Youth around the country can form networks without the need to meet face to face. Farmers can sell their goods and be in control of the flow of information regarding their buyers. Women can organize a gathering without having to pay too much for communications.

And the beauty of it is that you don’t spend only a few minutes trying to get your point to so many people. You can spend hours formulating your correspondence before sending it to the people who matter. And for our apu man’s peace of mind, he doesn’t have to strain his ear over a ‘mofael-fon’. He can dictate what he has to say to the operator in that special way which his family member can understand.

And after all is said and done, we can rest assured that the old technologies still have a place in our lives. The hype of the new technologies cannot remove the appropriateness and usefulness of the old. Because where the new fails, that’s where the old picks up.

Experiencing WSB

Many of us ni-Vans love to watch a play by Wan SmolBag Theater. We have come to cherish them as the outlet for addressing issues that we would otherwise be uncomfortable to talk about. They have produced plays on issues such as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, the issue of arranged marriages, the idea of Women and Children’s Rights, preservation of our turtles and other marine life, issues like shame and ignorance, and many, many more.

In December 2002, the whole troupe was awarded the Pacific People of the Year award, by Islands Business, for their outstanding efforts in helping the grassroots of Vanuatu. At that time, I was doing my third year in Computer Science at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology. I remember how my heart filled up with pride when I heard about this. Not because I had anything to do with it, but because I was proud that there was a group of people from my country being praised right across the Pacific Region for outstanding humanitarian work. And I wished that my life had veered into WSB instead of University!

When I returned to Vanuatu, I made sure I would go to all stage productions, and watch all their video productions. And ever since, I have been an avid fan of WSB. My favorite videos so far have been “Eni wan i luk Rose?” and “Las Kad”, and my favorite plays have been the Blanksands Community Play, “Las Kad” and “40 Dei”!

“Eniwan i luk Rose?” is about a girl who ran away from her island because her parents had arranged for her to wed her “custom” husband, who had killed his first wife. She disguises herself as a boy and escapes to town and hides at her sister’s house. She is later found out but her sister lets her live on in Port Vila.

“Las Kad” is a very thought-provoking play. It was the first WSB play that ever had a real-life effect on me. It addressed so many issues in such a very different way that I left the WSB haos not feeling entertained like I’d been every other time. This time, I left thinking about the vanity of living in a society rife with corrupting influences brought on my drugs, forced marriages, hidden loves, drinking, black magic, unemployment, decisions, decisions and decisions! Both the stage and DVD versions have had very deep impacts on my life.

“40 Dei” is the most recent play and although not as thought-provoking for me as “Las Kad”, it showed to me some issues I experience in my church. It is a religious play and addresses the lives of people having to deal with their Christianity and life at large. It is so full of malice that I was constantly marveling at how Jo Dorras (the scriptwriter) managed to pen all these dialogue without sounding like a cliché!

And I talk about malice because of the way young Mathew has to constantly battle his friends and his drinking problem. How he has to be tied to the mother of his child just because of a one-night stand. How the hypocrisy of church members can ruin a young woman’s life – to marry her off to a potentially corrupt politician, just because he paid for the church’s sound system! And these are real issues.

But my experience with WSB doesn’t stop at the fan level. In 2008 I was very, very, very privileged to take part in the second season of their popular TV soap, “Love Patrol 2″. I was cast as a thieving, raping, treacherous, unscrupulous and lousy escaped prisoner who, with an accomplice, wrecked havoc around town and corrupted a young kid along the way.

Although I didn’t enjoy portraying a sicko, I enjoyed my time with the team. Tremendously so! For the first time in my life, I was in front of a professional cameraman, acting out a character in a story, in a WSB production.

I remember going through the script at my house late into the night, locking myself in the bathroom and trying on different versions of “You got what I asked for?”, only to fall down in laughter because I could not sound convincing enough!

And then there were the read-throughs where all participating actors would sit around in a circle and read through the script from Episode 1 Scene 1 to the last scene of the last episode. I wasn’t present in all read-throughs, but whenever I came and participated, I really enjoyed watching how each actor and extra was responding to the other. Most of the time it was comical!

Then the rehearsals! This is the worst part, at least for me, because this is when the director (Peter Walker) would have a really difficult time trying to sort out from which side of a shot we would be talking or moving in from, what sort of voice level we should use, which way to look, and if the character had to have sudden mood swings, how should we deal with that. At times I would laugh but I realized that the director was taking this seriously so I’d stop laughing and try to look like an angry, escaped prisoner.

Then come shooting time. I recall fighting something similar to stage fright when shooting my first scene. It was a scene where I was in a prison yard, with me walking off from a prison wall to a visiting friend and ask if he had what I had asked for. I tried not to show that I was shaking and not look like I might run off the set there and then! There were all these crews and full-time WSB actors standing around waiting to see what I would do. I was genuinely scared that I’d ruin that first shot – not only because I was nervous, but also because we had not rehearsed it this way!

After I’d gone through the motions, said my first line in a professional production and heard the director yell out “That’s good, let’s do one more!”, I started to ease up and feel at home. Then we went through several takes of that one shot, then moved to another shot. By the time we had finished my first scene, I was relaxed and at home. Not only had my wish of joining WSB come true in a sense, but I was actually taking part in a production that would be aired regionally.

From then on, it was easy to do what I was told to do because now I knew that there would be more than one take of a particular shot, in which case I would improve on a previously bodged shot. I stole in a house, saw my friend kill a security guard, influenced a kid to steal, and did other stuff with glee at acting in a production with WSB.

Not only did I enjoy the acting, I also had fun mingling with the cast and crew. They are a funny lot, is this WSB people. The ladies would complain about small things like actors not caring about their costumes, or someone eating more than a plate of food – just like any mother would. And the guys would pull off practical jokes on themselves – sometimes being caught by the ladies, in which case everybody would laugh it off out of sheer embarrassment, yet true camaraderie.

To date, I still reminisce in those experiences and wish that WSB might cast me in a future production again. I’ve enjoyed watching their plays, videos and DVDs and would really love to be part of a stage production one day.

At present, WSB is working on “Love Patrol 3″. I wish you guys all the best!

Thanks guys!