Andy's Aplaku Linux user group and learning Centre

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The editor with Ataa Mensah Israel , one of the local dignitaries at Israel Junction near the development

Present state of development

On land adjacent to Israel junction at Aplaku on the West side of Accra my wife's family are building a few office type units. One of these units the writer hopes to help equip as a fully functional Internet Café, Library, and training centre.

I have been out to Ghana and done what I can for the moment. The aim long term would be to help teach youngster's the Linux operating system, about the Internet and web development and as a meeting place for computer enthusiasts and Linux users.

Also there is a desktop educational system called sugar which I have been playing about with, and would be very helpful to younger children. Long term if charity status could be achieved then with the help of funding ,and perhaps acquiring re-cycled computers for free from the UK then so much more could be done

There are a few chop bars in the area for tourists, but little in the way of facilities (especially regarding eduction), for locals on a low income.

Internet building18 X 20 square feet floor space

The Internet cafe building has finished being built but is rather spartan at the moment, and there are a couple of issues; local builders and local building materials have been used and everything seems to be done using nails.

I did not see any tradesman use a screw while out there. The electrical supply is single phase and " lights off " occurs sporadically at any time and for different time periods.

This isn't great for a computer as all systems I have come across require a shutdown sequence of some sort; I haven't seen one yet that likes the electrical supply chopped while its in full flow. Another problem is the red soil dust which gets everywhere , and I have visions of any computer tower getting choked quite quickly due to the dust.

Another slight problem is that the site has no land line for an Internet connection via ADSL. We managed to send over a Panasonic Cf-27 Toughbook , which I helped by adding an extra 128 ram. These units can be obtained very cheaply are self contained and have the advantage with a battery supply of getting around the mains electrical problems. The battery time of an hour is OK since it will at least allow for shutdown.

As you would expect this type of laptop which was used by the USA army is very tough and resilient to the dust.

Inside Internet cafe looking a bit spartan at the moment , the bench shelf could support 5 laptops.

The operating system i helped put on the Toughbook was Antix which works very well on the Toughbooks and I found I could connect to the Internet through a zain USB modem using the PPP dial-up

I have visited the Zain office in Dansoman, Accra and a likely solution to run about ten laptops would be by using their Xbox router which has a SIM card holder, allowing Internet through their cellular network

Long term it would be good if charitable status could be achieved, then it would be possible to acquire re-cycled computers free from organizations such as computer aid