Wlan

Were are WLAN's mainly located?

WLAN projects are setup in large city centres and in local communities to spread the cost of broadband. The largest and fastest free broadband system is Norwich city centre. They have speeds upto 40 Mbps.

ICT in Africa

There is a lack of ICT in Africa because of:

Bad power supply
Bad Telephone Lines, or non existent
Not enough foreign currency to import technology
Lack of computer literate personnel

What they need are people who can use the equipment including training.

In the 1980s half of the computers were donated

This failed because there was a lot of money wasted on equipment that was not used and that these less economically developed countries depended on other countries for IT help

These people are lacking the skills in All areas... including, but not limited to:
Programming
maintenance
consulting
operation use from basic to management
not enough training centres

The major business skills that are lacking are: Long term business plans that are not being used properly and that people need to learn how to use what is already there rather than buying new stuff

ID Cards

Say No To ID Cards- Activity 10 / Page 34
What are biometrics?

The Home Office says that:
"A biometric is a unique identifying physical characteristic. Examples include facial recognition, iris patterns and fingerprints."
Biometrics is not simple. Biometrics is the science of measuring and statistically analyzing human body characteristics, such as faces, iris patterns, fingerprints, voice recognition and so on. Features of them are not always unique, and so biometrics works with the statistical probability rather than offering definite identification.
The idea is an added "safeguard" to prevent another person from using your ID card. A fingerprint is much more difficult to forge than a signature. But that relies on biometric data being checked every time the card is used. Each check against the national database will be recorded.
What biometrics will be used?

This is not yet certain. The Act allows the recording of any biometric. It is likely that facial image, fingerprints and iris patterns will be used. Other biometrics include retina scans, voice patterns, hand measurements and even ear shape.
Why should we have ID cards?
The Government claims its decision to introduce its identity scheme is based in part on the fact that many countries are starting to put biometrics into their passports. The decision to introduce biometrics into some existing identity documents has therefore already been made, and the majority of the population would soon be using biometric identity documents (in the form of passports).
The Government has suggested that the Identity Cards Act 2006 will tackle a number of problems, such as terrorism, identity theft, illegal immigration, and benefit fraud. It has never explained how. NO2ID says an identity register and ID cards are mostly irrelevant to these problems, but they will restrict freedom, privacy, and civil rights for everyone.
How reliable are they?

Not reliable enough! The government's own tests on a sample of 10,000 volunteers, including more than 1,000 disabled volunteers, showed that:
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Facial scans worked for 69% of the "quota" group and 48% of disabled volunteers. That is three in ten of the quota group and more than half of the disabled who were unable to use the facial scan technology.
•
Fingerprints worked for 81% of "quota" group and 80% of disabled people, but was more successful for young people. Two in ten in both groups failed.
•
Iris scans worked for 96% of "quota" volunteers and 91% of the disabled group. Some glasses wearers failed the checks unless they took their glasses off.
•
0.62% of the disabled group could not enrol using any of the systems. There are 8.6 million registered disabled people in the UK. So if the volunteers are representative, at least 53,000 will not be able to give a usable biometric.
•
Black participants and participants aged over 59 had lower iris enrolment success rates according to the study.
I think that we should introduce ID cards, because it would help the government stop crime and ilgegal activity(s).