The smart way to find lost gadgets

BY JIMMY MAWERERE

Have you ever returned home,

extremely exhausted, and you just drop your gadgets, or keys anywhere? Ever gone shopping in the big malls, only to exit from a different route and you cannot remember where you parked your car?

Well, help is at hand – and it is not in the form of the expensive global positioning systems (GPS)

or radio triangulation! The GPS tracking systems are expensive and must be installed by experts, who are not readily available in your neighbourhood. And they are not mostly accurate and reliable in countries with low technology Welcome to the simple, small, and cheap device known as the TrackR. This small device, with advanced tracking applications,works with Android phones. Most smart phones in Uganda run on the Android software.

After acquiring the device, download a free application on your Android or iPhone and then attach the device to anything you would like to track. You can attach this device to your luggage, wallet, car keys or any other valuable asset.

Unlike the GPS, the TrackR does not require subscription to the GPS. It has a non-limited life span, as long you replace the batteries periodically.

The device works in two ways; it can locate other devices using your phone, and it can also be used to A phone user linking the phone and keys for future tracking locate your iPhone or your ring, wherever it is located.

It is manufactured for comfort as it comes with two sided tape that you can stick to any flat surface. This device will this by double pressing the for comfort as it comes definitely make locating device and the phone will with two sided tape that your objects easy and fun.

Mind your computer

Coffee spills on a computer. This is very harmful to your computer (Internet photo)

BY DOREEN KAJERU

The personal computer (PC) is now assisting us in many tasks at work, school or home.

With the PC on your desk, you can reach all the corners of the world, do business, arrange events, make friends and so many other eventful and important things However, if not used wisely and with care, value for the purchase may be lost.

First of all, one needs to know that despite being a machine and not a living thing, a computer ought to be taken care of. So, precautions like covering it when not in use to prevent dust build-up are essential.

If it is a laptop, get a bag or cover for it. This also helps prevent breakage of the screen and the internal system in case of a fall. 

Liquids should be kept away from the computer because they may cause damage to the internal system when they spill on it.

Know the battery of your computer and study its consumption trend. This will assist you to know when to charge and help you plan for the tasks to be done.

Commanding a computer to perform several tasks at once makes it slower and sometimes causes it to freeze. Therefore, do not confuse your computer; give it commands in an orderly manner.

A computer is a machine but it needs rest too. When used for a long time, it heats up. So give it a break often and do not use it endlessly.

Finally, at the end of a long day’s work, you just want to shut down and run off! Avoid this because all the programmes will still be open in the task bar. So, take time and save your documents, close all programmes that have been in use and shut down properly. This helps the computer refresh, and be ready for the next day’s work.

How convenient is that power bank?

BY DOREEN KAJERU

Planning a long trip? Going somewhere remote with limited or no power supply? Well, the power bank comes in handy.

Power banks are a fairly recent invention borne of the necessity to always be able to access the smart phones.

Because they have very many applications, smart phones tend to drain battery quickly and thus the need to be charged once or more times a day. A power bank does save the day. 

Power banks are portable power ‘stores’. They come in different shapes, sizes, quality and capacities. Just like phones, they too are charged to contain power that is later used to charge the phone.

The flipside is that they are definitely not safe. Think of them more as boosters and stimulants than chargers because overtime the battery of the phone weakens because of the insufficient power supply. Most of them are also slow and may not be able to raise a 100 per cent battery charge.

Ronald Awany, a staff member says that depending on power banks is deadly because they drain the battery and make it phone batteries vulnerable. He says that using a power bank should be the last option to turn to.

With the universal chargers, the battery is removed from the phone and connected to the charger, which is then plugged into the wall. This diminishes the durability of the battery. Further, disassembling the phone parts to get the battery out can also lead to damage to other features.

So, however convenient the power banks may be, direct charging of the phone is the best and most effective way to keep one’s phone battery safe and sound for longer.

UCU to embrace e-Learning

BY ALEX TAREMWA 

E-Learning is basically utilising electronic technologies to access educational curricula outside of a traditional classroom. In most cases, it refers to a course, programme or degree delivered completely online.

Uganda Christian University (UCU) is slowly but steadily adopting the e-Learning system through which students will access course material from their lecturers and submit assignments provided they have access to an Internet-enabled computer.

Ms Dorothy Mukasa, the university’s e-Learning manager told The Standard that course material such as notes, power point presentations, and course outlines will be made available online to ease access for the students and cut on the stationery costs both the lecturers and students incur in the process of attaining and disseminating hard copies.

Mukasa, however, noted that the university will not go entirely virtual, a system in which students and their facilitators have no face-to-face lectures, but will adopt a ‘blended’ approach that allows for both virtual and traditional classroom lectures to thrive.

“E-learning has been at UCU for a long time and has been used by both staff and students at will. But now we have structured it in a way that all faculties will have to integrate their curricula online and that process has already started,” she said.

UCU’s 2016-2018 Strategic Plan includes the introduction of e-Learning and growth of distance learning programmes and the establishment of the e-Learning infrastructure extending them to regional campuses by September 2016.

The plan also seeks to train staff and develop an e-Learning curriculum, a programme that Mukasa said has already been rolled out starting with sensitisation of faculties about e-Learning and later on the training of staff on how to use and benefits from it will commence.

“We shall identify at least three subjects in every faculty especially postgraduate programmes and run them on the system as a trial as we monitor the progress before rolling out the rest,” she said.

Some courses such as Law (BA & MA), Master’s in Nursing Science, Master’s in Public Health and Leadership (Save The Mothers) and Mass Communication (BA) are already partially using the e-Learning system.

The students who are already registered for wireless Internet with the University ICT Services department can access the e-Learning services using the same login credentials if they log onto elearning.ucu.ac.ug.

“If one can maintain the necessary self-discipline, the benefits of e-Learning are almost too numerous to count. You can cover the material when you have time, go over it as often as you need, all without traveling to the classroom.

“There are no transportation fees as you can take the class from any location with internet access,” Mukasa explained.

The e-Learning facility will be hosted in the recently constructed Stephen and Peggy Noll Building.

Allan Galpin gets Shs 50m machine

Zac Tamale, the senior laboratory technician at Allan Galpin Health Centre, operates the new machine (on his right) through a computer.

BY ALEX TAREMWA

Allan Galpin Health Centre has set itself new target following the acquisition of a first of its kind, GYAN laboratory chemistry analyser at a cost of about Shs 50m.

The fully-automated, Belgian-made equipment with standard control that can test over 20 laboratory samples at ago, will, in the words of Zac Tamale, a laboratory technician at Allan Galpin, boost the diagnosis of patients and cut on the number of staff and student referrals the clinic makes to external, more sophiscated hospitals.

“With this machine, we can monitor variations in hypertension, blood
pressure, cholesterol and fat, bone profiles, blood calcium and iron in the
body,” Tamale explained.

In addition to the above list, the machine has the capacity to also look into
liver, kidney and heart related complications. This development comes at an opportune moment when Uganda Christian University (UCU) has unleashed plans of running a medical school in conjunction with Mengo Hospital.

The Allan Galpin Director of Health Services, Dr Geoffrey Mulindwa, said
the new acquisition, coupled with the expertise and know-how that the
centre currently boasts, will help the community around the university
considering that it is the first of its kind in Mukono.
“The clinic now has the capacity to carry out diagnosis on body organs like the liver, kidney and to assist clinicians improve on diagnosis and treatment planning,” he said.

Mulindwa added that “this will, to some extent, reduce on referrals for investigations, improve on timely decision-making to have better outcomes and cut the cost considering that UCU plans to delve into medical education and integrating faith service and learning.”

Its operation temperature is 37 degrees Celsius and has a high precision
diluter with an automatic probe wash cycle in between tests to avoid cross-contamination.

Mulindwa is confident the white piece of gadgetry, which is the size of an HP LazerJet 5200 dtn printer, that is only operational when connected to a computer, would help his staff do many blood chemistry tests for the liver kidney, heart, bone and lipid profiles.