As you know from our post on our recent trip to Cape Town, our good friend Nate Massey from Chapel Hill, NC, came to visit for two weeks in late January/early February. We asked him to write a bit about the work we did in the computer lab while he was here.

I work with computers back in the States, so before my visit, Nate and I talked about the computer lab at the Powerhouse and some upgrades that we might be able to work on together while I was there. Nate had discovered an interesting concept by a company called NComputing. They sell specialized hardware that allows one regular computer (nothing fancy; your standard home desktop computer will do) to drive 11 sets of keyboard + monitor + mouse. Although they’re all powered by the single computer, each combination ends up acting like its own desktop computer: there is a Windows login prompt, and each user can run his/her own programs which appear only on his/her screen. From the students’ standpoint, these terminals function like 11 different computers, and it’s like a whole lab—all driven by a single machine!

The benefits of using NComputing’s power in the Powerhouse computer lab are pretty awesome. First of all, rather than having to maintain 11 different computers, set them all up identically and perform software upgrades on each one, one can just set up a single tower exactly how one wants it, and then the operating system is just shared between each of the many terminals. (Maintenance of 11 different systems is actually even more annoying in practice. The Powerhouse is dealing with donated hardware—for which the church is extremely grateful—but sometimes the systems are older, run slowly and may be in various states of disrepair. Figuring out how to standardize a dozen older computers can be a nightmare!) By harnessing the power of NComputing, it becomes feasible for one to go ahead and purchase a new, solid desktop computer and attach donated monitors, keyboards and mice… and you’re good to go!

From a hardware cost standpoint, it’s a no-brainer. Nate and I snagged a Lenovo desktop from a local electronics retailer for about $475. The NComputing hardware costs about $350 for a set that powers five terminals, so we purchased two sets at about $770 after tax and shipping. We were fortunate to have enough monitors, keyboards and mice at our disposal, plus power cables and cat 5e/6 cables. Total cost for 11 effective workstations (10 terminals plus the host machine, which a student can use as well): $1,245, or under $120 per station! Not bad at all. (Other benefits include decreased space requirements and lower power consumption.)

Later on this spring, Nate is hoping to get another NComputing setup in the lab to replace a few of the standalone computers which we are currently struggling to maintain. He won’t decide for sure until he’s had a chance to work with our first installation for a few more weeks—we want to kick the tires a bit to make sure everything’s running smoothly. But then, we’ll be ready to call our experiment a success and move forward with another! May the Powerhouse and Mamelodi be blessed by the new and improved computer lab.

Filed under: General by Nate Massey on February 20th, 2009. Tags: computer lab, n-computing, web design | 11 Comments

Something I had a chance to experiment with at my former job at WRAL.com was creating 3D panoramic images. The basic idea is, you take 6 shots around a circle, then one up and down. Using some powerful software (I use PTMac), you stitch all the images together into a cube which allows the user to view a scene from your point of view 360 degrees around and 180 degrees up and down. For more technical info on how this is done (for the geeks out there), check out this page. I hope to shoot many more of these in the remaining months we’re here, so stay tuned!

Filed under: 3D Panoramic Image by Nathan on February 19th, 2009. Tags: computer classroom, computer lab, computer school, n-computing, web design | 5 Comments

In early February, the AR team plus our good friend Nate Massey journeyed 9 days to and from Cape Town. We traveled there via the Garden Route that runs along the South African coast, and returned home via the direct route, which meant 18+ hours in the Vito from Cape Town to Pretoria.

The whole trip I found myself continuing to be so impressed by this country’s beauty. In our six months here, we have visited several provinces—Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal—and on this trip made our way across the Eastern Cape, the Western Cape, the Free State and crossing into the Northern Cape, leaving just one province we haven’t at least passed through or explored. And so far, all have been strikingly beautiful in their own way.

We took our time making our way along the Garden Route, stopping over for two nights in the surfer town of Jeffrey’s Bay and two nights with friends of Will’s in George, where we were introduced to a very talkative and ornery parakeet Pauli and were unhappily blasted by sand on the windy beach of nearby Wilderness the next day. Along the drive, we stopped and leisurely strolled about the coastal towns of Plettenberg Bay (see Nate’s short video clip below), Knysna and Hermanus, each lovely; but interestingly, each coupled with the likes of a township or informal settlement nearby—it seems one is not immune to the reality of poverty anywhere. As Cape Town approached, the scenery became increasingly more and more breathtaking, with impressively masculine mountains jutting directly into a calm and rhythmic sea.

Cape Town was the culmination for sure. It is a stunning city and, in my opinion, totally underrated among the cities of the world. We stayed in an area called Fish Hoek for four nights with views of both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans from our guest house and ate seafood, seafood, seafood. Among the memorable things we did were meeting with missionary Floyd McClung (read Allan’s blog post about our time with Floyd), almost getting blown off the continent of Africa by gale-force winds at Cape Point and, my favorite, hiking Lion’s Head Mountain for the incredible view of iconic Table Mountain and its accompanying Twelve Apostles at sunset. The scene was truly incredible.

Back at work this week in Mamelodi, many of our friends at the Powerhouse excitedly inquired about our trip while expressing a longing to “make it to Cape Town someday” as if it were an impossibility. These conversations put us in check, reminding us that to travel is a luxury and not to be taken for granted; indeed, we are incredibly grateful. We were quick, though, to encourage our students not to consider Cape Town a distant dream, but to consider it a goal, even more so than the always-fantasized-about visit to America someday. Cape Town is a gorgeous city within reach, and by bus or even by plane it can be reached affordably. So however imperfectly, we found ourselves challenging our students, little by little, to save to someday enjoy Cape Town and, after all, the beauty of their own country.

If you, too, are interested in experiencing a different bit of South Africa’s beauty—the beauty of God’s hand at work in Mamelodi—check out our latest addition to the blog and download free Mamelodi Stories desktop wallpaper. Enjoy!

Filed under: General and Outside Mamelodi by Rebecca on February 14th, 2009. Tags: cape point, cape town, garden route, george, hermanus, jeffrey's bay, knysna, lion's head, plettenberg bay, road trip, seafood, table mountain, wilderness | 4 Comments