There is an increasing number of people who use computers more often than they use papers especially in offices for keeping records, doing calculations, data processing, composing and even chatting.

Due to the way these machines help people to be more efficient and effective, many individuals are now keen on acquiring computer skills to be able to use them more regularly.

This need has raised the demand for ICT courses. And in a bid to cash in on this, many colleges – some inadequately prepared to offer market-aligned computer courses – are leaving the hapless learner unsure of what to go for when looking for a college that meets the basics.

When looking for a computer course that will equip you with the right market-relevant skills, you’ll find courses across a range of subjects; from general computer skills and hardware trouble-shooting to office software, business and financial programmes, website design, internet skills, desktop and web publishing, multimedia, digital photography, networking, databases and programming.

Within these, there will be a finer focus on perhaps the computer architecture or peripheral devices, a programming or scripting language such as C or Javascript, network cards and the network operating system, data and information flows with a suitable database to support such activity, or managing resources for computer-based projects.

Many short courses which students or working class want to take run over semesters that coincide with school and university terms. Therefore, the best time to look out for new courses is around the end term. Some colleges also run more intensive tuition that involves a week of full-time classes during school holidays.

Look for courses that will reinforce your career. If the outline provided by the training institute doesn’t describe the course content in detail, you may need to speak to a career counselor who will match your needed computer skills to your profession. After all, it is important to get a clear picture of what you’re paying for at the outset.

Don’t assume you know what’s covered in a course just by looking at the name. Web publishing isn’t the same as website design, for example.

You may notice some colleges and training centres advertising the International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL). This is a programme that assesses basic computer skills such as managing files and using word processing, spreadsheet, database and presentation software.

It is a useful means of recognising and rating your level of computing skills. Alternatively, studying to pass the ICDL is a good way to fine-tune your basic skills even if you only use your computer at home.

Unless you’re an IT professional, experienced computer user or someone looking for a career in IT, certified courses that are often expensive and lasting many months or years, will probably make your eyes glaze over.

They’re aimed at advanced users and professionals who want to refresh their skills or learn how to use new technical things. You’ll often need to prove your skills or complete some pre-requisite training before enrolling. These courses tend to be the most expensive and lengthy, but you’ll often receive recognised certification on completion.

But before paying up, a little investigation is important. It is worthwhile checking the number of students in the class, whether they have a computer each and the professional experience of the tutor. Some colleges only employ teachers with training certification, which may ensure a better experience on your part.

The teaching methods are also important. In any computer courses, practical, hands-on classes are best. You can re-enforce what you’re learning then and there. You may find classes with a large number of students, usually more than 20, using a projector connected to the tutor’s computer to demonstrate tasks.

Alternatively, some courses use a system that allows students to switch their monitor over to view what’s happening on the tutor’s screen. Similarly, the teacher is able to flick their monitor over to any student’s machine to check their progress.

On registration, remember to ask what you can take home at the completion of the course. Besides the certificates, manual and training discs are handy resources to have when problems occur on your home computer. So look for a course that gives out a manual or other take-home support material.

By SAM WAMBUGU Nation media group

It was a big blow to the man who, like other cell phone users, banks on the gadget to keep contacts of hundreds of friends, relatives and businesses, diary, reminders of anniversaries and meetings.

Luckily for him, he had Mobile Tracker, a programme by the phone company that helps track a lost cell phone to its user. His biggest challenge was dealing with the police at Kasarani police station who, he said, did not seem to know the existence of the technology that has been around since 2007.

“What left me baffled is the realisation that no police officer was aware that such a technology exists,” Mr Kamau told the Sunday Nation.

The cell phone was tracked and a suspect, who had sold it, arrested.

The persistent theft of cell phones has had players in the information and communications industry racking their brains to come up with ways to combat it.

Samsung and East Africa Data Handlers seem to have made a breakthrough in the tracking technology.

East Africa Data Handlers developed Ujanja three months ago to track stolen phones and laptops. Managing director George Njoroge said the Ujanja technology has so far helped them recover 20 stolen cell phones and four laptops.

And Samsung marketing manager Gloria Anampiu said they have been helping the police deal with crime with the technology, something that police spokesman Eric Kiraithe hailed as a positive development.

Mr Kiraithe said cell phones have been useful in helping the police track down suspects.

Computer applications

Mobile Tracker comes with the handset while Ujanja can be installed in any 3G phone. These phones have a wide range of features and an operating system that supports computer applications.

Both programmes have similar ways of tracking a stolen phone. The user activates the device on the phone and provides numbers of two persons who will be notified as soon as the stolen phone is activated. It automatically sends text messages to the two numbers.

“If your handset is stolen and someone inserts another SIM card, your specified numbers would get an SMS message containing the phone’s IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identifier). This should be shown to the police who may utilise the information to catch the thief,” said Ms Anampiu.

In the case of Ujanja, the SMS shows the new number, the SIM card’s serial number and the serial number of the phone being used and the location of the user.

Ujanja software is also installed in laptop computers. In the event such a computer is stolen and a new user connects to the Internet, the East Africa Data Handlers support centre is notified.

“We will see the Internet protocol address being used by the laptop, and we will know to whom that IP address belongs,” he said.

Mr Njoroge said there are some buyers who, when they notice that a handset is stolen, prefer to hand it back to the rightful owner.

The idea of developing Ujanja hit Mr Njoroge after he was carjacked on his way from the airport and lost his phone, laptop computer and other valuables.

“I was very bitter. I really felt the need to know the real identities of the robbers,” Mr Njoroge said.

A forensic computer expert, Mr Njoroge began to research on ways of tracking a stolen mobile phone and a laptop computer.

Smart or crafty

“Together with my team, we developed the application,” he said. Ujanja in Kiswahili means smart or crafty.

The annual fee for the application is Sh1,900 for a cell phone and Sh7,500 for a laptop.

The Ujanja software can be downloaded on the website www.ujanja.co.ke and is also available in retail shops across the country.

Nokia, a leading phone manufacturer, relies on the mobile service providers to track stolen phones after they are reported stolen and the serial numbers are provided. Nokia’s communication manager for East and Southern Africa Dorothy Ooko said when a handset is reported stolen, it is blacklisted on the networks’ computers and disabled.

In East Africa, Zain, Safaricom, MTN and Vodacom share the same database and track any mobile phone on request.

“We believe in the system as it is controlled by the operators in the specific country where the consumer is based. The first thing to do when you buy your mobile phone is to keep your IMEI number safely. Press *#06# to access it.”

When a phone is stolen it is the IMEI number that is used to disable it and render it useless, whether or not the SIM is changed.

By JOHN MAKENI Nation media group

Windows 7 is coming in October. Here are seven reasons to consider switching to Microsoft’s new OS.

When scanning our list, we politely encourage you to ask yourself, “Do I really want to continue using an eight-year-old operating system?” Followed by “Don’t I deserve better?”

Because no matter how comfortable you are with XP, you do deserve an OS that’s both newer and better, and Windows 7 will deliver. Not convinced? Then read on.

You Asked for This

Remember Vista? We know most of you don’t want to, and that’s because the OS fell short of many consumers’ expectations. As a result, many — especially power users — elected to skip Vista entirely, and have continued running Windows XP. Hence Microsoft’s attempt at a redo with Windows 7. This time around, the software giant made an effort to crowdsource feedback from Microsoft enthusiasts by distributing a free beta version of Windows 7 in January.

You complained, you demanded, and in response Microsoft slapped something together to ship October 22. The result? The overall presentation of Windows 7 is familiar enough to welcome XP users, but fundamentally it’s different enough to make you change the way you think of Microsoft. (I can vouch for that, being a long-time Mac user and ex-Windows fan).

Upgrading Won’t Screw You Over

Microsoft has its loyal fans in mind, including those clinging for dear life to XP. The tech giant promises that Windows 7 has been coded to support almost every piece of software that runs on your XP system. If, in the rare case one of your XP programs doesn’t work on Windows 7, you can still run it in a virtual environment called XP Mode. What’s especially cool about this mode is you won’t have to toggle between an XP emulator and Windows 7. The apps running in XP Mode appear like ordinary windows that are part of Windows 7.

Also, the Windows 7 upgrade chart may appear intimidating and confusing, but prior to release Microsoft plans to release a compatibility checker that will automatically scan your system to tell you which version of Windows 7 is for you.

Automatically Installed Device Drivers

This is only a minor improvement, but it addresses a major pain in the ass in earlier versions of Windows. Who has time to scour the internet for a device driver to work with hardware such as a video card or an external hard drive? Life is too short for that garbage work, and fortunately Windows 7 does this chore for you.

Plug in a new piece of hardware, and the OS will find and install the driver for you. XP has this feature, sort of, but it works better in Vista and much better in Windows 7. No more of those annoying yellow question marks. Good riddance.

Piracy

Yarr! We know there are plenty of you out there downloading pirated digital booty, especially in Windows land. But it’s never been convenient to be a pirate compared with being a paying customer. For example, if you’re a legitimate buyer purchasing movies off iTunes, you can easily stream your media to your legitimately purchased Apple TV. If you’re a pirate, you’d have to go through roundabout programs and hardware to re-create the experience.

Windows 7 is an OS practically made for pirates. Want to display your movies, photos or music on your TV? Bam! Windows Media Player will do that out of the box if you have a Wi-Fi enabled TV, or an Xbox. No extra programs to install: Windows Media Player seamlessly communicates with your Wi-Fi device to display your illegal content in all its glory on your fancy HD TV.

And sharing media is easy, too. Want to download all of your brother’s music? Bam! HomeGroup, an easy networking feature included in Windows 7, will make that super easy between computers running the OS. Immediately upon plugging in to your network with Ethernet or Wi-Fi, HomeGroup will ask if you wish to join the group on the network, allowing you to set up easy file sharing in minutes.

A Better Interface

The new Aero features, which we covered in our Windows 7 first look, will change the way you interact with your computer. Aero Peek will prove the most useful: The feature displays outlines of all your open windows behind your active window. Each outlined box contains a thumbnail previewing its corresponding window to help you choose.

Gizmodo’s Matt Buchanan, who has been using AeroPeek for six months, provides an excellent perspective on Aero: “It breaks the instinct to maximize windows as you’re using them; instead, you simply let windows hang out, since it’s much easier to juggle them.” Makes sense, doesn’t it, for a generation of multitaskers? Aren’t you tired of Alt-Tabbing over and over and over?

Another feature, Aero Snap, makes it easier to resize and tile windows to fit the available space. (Read more about Aero Snap and Aero Peek.)

Words aren’t enough. You really have to try the OS to understand why these UI enhancements are a big deal. We get the idea that the people dismissing Windows 7 haven’t yet tinkered with it, and we highly encourage you to download the release candidate and give it a test drive. But do it now: The download is only available until August 20.

More Advanced Hardware Support

Technology evolves faster than living organisms, and Windows 7 is also designed to work well with upcoming hardware. Touchscreens are getting more popular in the mainstream (thanks largely to the iPhone), and sure enough Windows 7 includes multitouch support. (Check out a video demoing how it works.) If 2010 is indeed the year of the tablet, as we predict, then Windows 7 just might be the winning OS in that new landscape.

If you’re not interested in touchscreens, think multiple processor cores. At some point when multicore computers are more widely available, affordable and energy efficient, an eight-year-old OS like Windows XP isn’t going to know what to do with all that extra processing power. Microsoft has already hinted that Windows 7 will scale to 256 processors.

That’s more than enough, but you get the picture: This is a new operating system designed for newer systems. You’re going to need to upgrade eventually, so why not do it now, so you can get a good feel for the OS, rather than later?

The 64-bit version of Windows 7 can handle bigger system memory, too, scaling up to 192 GB of RAM, compared to the 4-GB limit for the 32-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows 7, and 128 GB for the less common 64-bit edition of Windows XP.

Oh, yeah, speaking of new devices — Windows 7 is tweaked to better suit those trendy netbooks, too. These puny devices are low-powered and thus limited in performance, and Windows 7 will run better on them thanks to its improved memory management. For example, Windows XP allocated video memory for unseen windows, but Windows 7 does not. It uses video memory only for visible windows. That equates to a more responsive netbook with longer battery life.

It Looks Sexier

A superficial reason, we know, but we’ve become so intimate with our gadgets that their looks are important, too. Windows 7 will make your new PC look new, unlike the boring-as-vanilla UI of Windows XP. Extra detail, polish, gradients and a UI that will clear your desktop of clutter should all make Windows 7 a more attractive choice — (WIRED)

Do you get impatient waiting for your computer to start up? Manufacturers say they’re working on that.

Mindful of how frustrating the wait is, makers of PCs’ basic input/output systems (BIOS) are working on bringing instant-on computing closer to reality with promises of significantly faster boot time.

“People want PCs to be like their toaster. Push a button and it is ready,” says Steve Jones, vice-president and chief scientist of core systems at Phoenix Technologies, one of the biggest BIOS makers.

The BIOS is the first piece of code that a computer runs when it is powered on. Before Windows or Linux can start, the BIOS identifies, tests and gets system devices such as the video display card, the hard disk and other hardware up and running. But running the tests every time the machine powers on can be time consuming.

At Intel’s developer conference last month, Phoenix announced that the latest version of its BIOS could boot in just about a second by cutting out redundant checks and creating a smarter version of the firmware . Of course, that still leaves the time that it takes Windows to start up, but Microsoft has been working on that, too, and claims that Windows 7 starts up in about 20 seconds, compared to the 50 seconds or so for Vista.

The faster boot time will help users, says Nathan Brookwood, a research fellow at market research and consulting company Insight 64. But even with Microsoft’s improvements, he says, it is still nearly a minute before the user is completely up and running.

“Every software application today wants to go out there and check for the latest version on boot up, which just gets in the way of what you really want to do. And that is check e-mail,” he says.

Shrinking this digital annoyance is the new quest for PC makers. For most people, computers today have become as much a consumer electronics product as TVs, cellphones and DVD players. That means, consumers expect the same kind of instant response from their computers are they get from other electronics devices.

“If you pick up a phone, you expect to instantly hear a tone,” says Jones. “That’s the future for computers, too.”

Jones says the ‘I am ready for use’ signaling is an important psychological factor for consumers. “Bell Labs worked hard on this. They figured if you pick up the phone and didn’t hear something within 250 milliseconds, then you would be pretty uncomfortable with the device,” he says.

On PCs, that signaling time has been much longer. Boot-up on PCs is split into two chunks: the BIOS boot up, which is the time taken from pressing the power on button to the time BIOS finishes booting, also known as pre-boot, and the time taken for the operating system to load.

Today, this can take anywhere from a minute to nearly three minutes. And that can feel like eternity for users.

“Lots of users today just press the power button and then grab a cup of coffee,” says Brookwood. “If the line at Starbucks isn’t too long, the system will be ready by the time they’re back.”

The BIOS has been part of PCs since the first IBM PC in 1981. The firmware initializes every computer to a point where an operating system can come along and with no knowledge of the machine start running.

“The BIOS is doing a lot more than waking up the machine and handing it a cup of coffee in the morning,” says Brian Richardson, senior technical marketing engineer, for American Megatrends Inc., a major BIOS maker.”It provides a layer so you can buy a PC, take it home, wipe the configuration clean, change it and do it 100 times a day and your OS will still start up.”

Running the hardware checks takes time. About 15 years ago, the BIOS firmware in PCs would take up to two minutes to boot. Finding that customers were becoming impatient with the boot times, PC makers started pressing for PCs to be more like appliances with their ability to be switched on instantly.

“Electronics are not supposed to warm up anymore,” says Richardson. “So we have been trying to shrink the time it takes to get the machine ready.”

BIOS boot times can vary depending on configuration of the PC: More memory and more cards mean it will take longer. Increasingly, operating systems, such as Microsoft’s Windows, run initial checkups on boot to verify system details and ensure the most updated versions of the software is loaded. In other words, the OS is doing some of the work that the BIOS traditionally has done.

“Effectively what BIOS makers are saying is that if the OS is not going to believe us anyway, why bother?” says Brookwood.

That’s why PC makers are pinning their hopes on a new standard called Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. UEFI hopes to improve the intelligence of the BIOS so it doesn’t have to perform all checks every time the computer is powered on. Ultimately, the idea is to run fewer initializations as the computer boots.

Phoenix and AMI say there are some machines already whose BIOS is based on the UEFI standard for quicker boot but it will be late next year before a majority of PCs have it. And unlike the BIOS, which is tied to Intel’s x86 processor architecture, UEFI will not be specific to any processor architecture.

Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 7 operating system has also laid out some criteria for PC manufacturers to get hardware aligned in a way that they can meet the company’s standards. Microsoft has set a criteria of five seconds for BIOS boot time and 20 seconds for the operating system to boot.

That’s still nowhere near the instant-on computing dream and promises of faster BIOS risks setting unrealistic expectations among consumers, says Brookwood.

There’s a way to get instant-on. It’s called the sleep mode.

“People assume they get instant-on with their cellphones but no one reboots their cellphone everyday,” says Richardson. “So one form of instant-on is never to turn it off.”

Another route to quick boot is to do what Dell has done with its latest notebook. Dell’s newly launched Latitude Z offers instant boot to check e-mail, calendar, contacts and the web as part of a mode called ‘Latitude On.’ In it the PC boots from a special chipset running an ARM processor, the same kind of CPU that powers most cellphones, and a slimmed down version of the Linux operating system.

The Latitude On mode comes with its own power on/off button. Users can click on an adjacent power button to switch to Windows OS. That gives consumers options, says Robert Thomson, product manager for Latitude Z at Dell. “When you directly go to the Latitude On mode, you never bring up the main operating system,” he says “And when you turn it off, it goes into the suspend mode, which is not like that of Vista or XP but more like what you see in cellphones.”

At $2000, the Latitude Z laptop is a pricey answer to the problem of a two-minute boot up time for PCs. And it doesn’t give users access to all features and programs that run on Windows OS such as Microsoft Word or Power Point.

That’s why, Brookwood advocates just staying away from the power off button as much as you can.

“Most systems today have the ability to go to sleep as opposed to being turned off,” says Brookwood. “Too many users don’t understand that.”