Robbed, Beaten & Jailed.

Ok, so finally it happened to me! I was robbed. You can't call yourself a true Trinidadian unless you've been robbed at least once!

On returning home Friday night after a party, the maxi [taxi] we were traveling in was hijacked. A couple, another guy [who was crying throughout the incident], my friend, and I were all robbed and beaten [although I think my friend and I were beaten the most] at gun point along the eastern main road.

After getting into the maxi [which was full at Curepe junction] the maxi-driver later stopped to pick up three [3] extra passengers who sat on the floor - they were the robbers. Somewhere along the line, they got up, pointed the gun and told us to empty our pockets. Music was blasting loud in the maxi so no one outside could hear our shouts; we assume the maxi-driver was in on the robbery. After emptying our pockets of everything [including my watch, wallet - equipped with all cards: id, drivers, permit, rituals and subway cards; my shoes, chap stick and two power mints, my peircings, and my list of things to do tomorrow] and constantly beating our faces with the gun-butt, my friend and I were dumped in a drain that we later found out was in Bon Aire East - Arouca.

Lucky to have been alive and close to home. Hey at least we now have stories to tell our grandchildren. Don't you think my eye looks similar to a pokeball [see picture].

Technological viewpoints & solutions:

1. My Face - Self Healing: there's some faint desire in my mind right now to be Wolverine, an X-men character who possesses a healing factor that allows him to recover from virtually any wound. This is far from far-fetched as proven by nanotechnology and human integration research.
2. Property Retrieval: A Simple installation of an RFID tag in cellphones or setting up a GPS tracking network in Trinidad could aid stupendously in property retrieval after robbery or even suspect apprehension. Of course Trinidad is not GPS ready or at least it's still in the infancy stages of it. One example is AccuTracking, a low cost online GPS tracking service using your cell phone to track the current location of your mobile clients.
3. Suspect Apprehension: Well ATM cameras are there for a reason, but in Trinidad they are just for show and tell. After checking with the bank, I was told that one of my accounts were accessed [with minimal monetary loss]. Upon request of a printout of the details, I was told that I had to wait one week. Upon further request for access to or retreival of the surveillance [for police use], I was told it was a long and drawn out process, I had to get an affidavit of some sort form the court, and I had to pay a fee of $300. Now the technology is there - video surveillance - but no one wants to use it to apprehend the suspects. The police are lazy to investigate, the bank staff are lazy to get the tapes, and this country is just a waste of time and life. No wonder there is a "brain drain" in this country.
   

I guess there are more important things than "bandwidth for all" that this government needs to pay attention to; like crime. It's a pity though that they're looking into neither issue. I know it was partly my fault to be traveling at an unsafe hour, but you can't really call this a democratic country if you can't walk freely at nights or at anytime for that matter.

I live in a crime-powered country and I have no bandwidth to occupy myself with while I stay chroot-jailed in my own home.
:S

hotspots

Looking for wi-fi hotspots in Trinidad? Check out my wi-fi hotspot google map. [The access may or may not be free.] This may not be a complete mapping of access points, since only some locations are currently known. Keep checking for updates.

Enjoy.

[Muzik] Pirates of the Caribbean

I love Avril Lavigne, so I rushed on down to the CD store yesterday to buy her newly released album. It's been so long that I've bought an original CD [with LimeWire around an all] that I forgot how expensive they've become. But I decided to dish out the whopping TT$140.00 just because it's Avril.

I don't know why music is so expensive in Trinidad!!! Is it because of taxes? [I think it cost TT$121 and after tax it was TT$140]. I remember the last time I bought an original it cost TT$120 flat. but still...

When I checked on amazon, the same album cost US$11.99 + about US$3.00 shipping: that's about TT$95 if ordered online in the US and TT$75 if you buy it at a US store [while down here, we pay almost double the price!].

It's no wonder people steal and pirate music now-a-days. :S

Trincity Wired!

So, last night i saw this woman sitting in Trincity mall vigorously typing away at her laptop in the food court [near the cinemas]. At first i hesitated, but couldn't resist, i approached her, and asked if there was free wireless internet access available in this mall.

She promptly replied [in her "Scottish-like" accent]: "yes, there are a few networks you can get on to, but the one that I'm on is free".

I then had a flash back to the last two weeks when i saw some men on a ladder, mounting a wireless linksys router.

I don't know who is providing this access [maybe it is HCL] or if it is really free.

I guess Trinidad is becoming more "accessible", soon we'll be seeing "free wireless access for the borough of port of spain" or "free wireless access for the entire country of Trinidad"! I'd like to see that. It's not quite impossible:
House backs free Web for all
Rhode Island embarks on statewide wireless network

But then again, that's the states, this is Trinidad.

Then there's the security issue, not wireless/encryption security, but physical security - Trincity mall i known to be quite an unsafe mall - in terms of [vehicle] theft, etc. Unless i see an increased patrol of security guards at that mall [i see about one guard posted on the new wing and one on the old wing], I don't think you'll see me sitting down in the middle of the food court using a laptop - for fear of the loss of my data, my laptop or my life.

Too many Tools; Too many Fools

It's true - everyone nowadays wants to establish a web-presence... to gain cyber-celebrity status. I too have jumped on [or at least barely managed to hang on to] this speeding bandwagon. After all it's human nature to want to be noticed.

Currently, it doesn't require you to be a rocket scientist [or more appropriately a code guru] to set up your web presence. there are a multitude of tools that aid you, don't even require you to setup a hosting account, and are completely free.

So I've decided to follow the tech hype and setup a NING! It's the only online service where you can create, customize, and share your own Social Network for free in seconds. This, they say, is a star example of modern web 2.0 application development. It allows for a lot of flexibility, with it's vivid templates, support for the addition of gadgets and other small quirks.

With the amount of tools popping up everyday, I'm running out of ideas for websites. Most of them don't even require that you know an ounce of HTML or other coding/markup languages, simply click next...next...next.

Although convenient, it tends to grow and nurture a nation of fools and incompetent... well for lack of a better phrase: PEBKACs. I Google, therefore I am.

Here are some of those that I've gotten started so far, each using a different tool [for variety]:

• Human Upgrade - my first "site" created using Google's Blogspot


• Vangoh Vagrants - not really a site, but it does allow for a lot of "sitely" things: discussions, photo sharing etc. Created using Flickr


• Ask Jevin - yes like askjeevs, but for love [under construction] This tool is powerful as well. Created using Google Pages


• Explorer's Travelogue - inspired by the movie "the beach". Created using Ning

There's more to come, let just hope cyberspace is capable, or we'll have to start building server rooms on the moon.