Bill Gates launches hunt for top Indian student geeks
BANGALORE, India, Dec 9 (AFP) Microsoft chairman Bill Gates launched Friday a talent hunt for India's top student technologists and urged developers to cash in on the digital age. Addressing more than 5,000 developers at the grounds of a historic palace here in India's high-tech capital, Gates said the search dubbed "Code 4 Bill" recognised India's role in nurturing technical talent.
"This is something we have never done before anywhere," Gates said. "It is aimed at pre-final and final year students. The best amongst the participants will get an opportunity to work with my Technical Assistants Team for a year. "I will get to know them. I am very excited about this," he said.
Registrations for the contest will start in January 2006 and students will be tested for their technical and analytical skills. They will also be interviewed by Microsoft technical teams. "Twenty selected students will also intern with Microsoft India before the final selection," Gates said.
India's software industry clocked revenues of more than 17 billion dollars in the last fiscal year to March 2005 and is driven by a large pool of skilled professionals working for almost one-seventh the salaries of their counterparts in the United States.

New cable link b/w UAE-PK

[WAM News agency reports] Emirates Telecommunications & Marine Services FZE- e-marine- a subsidiary of Etisalat, has announced the completion of a new submarine cable connecting UAE and Pakistan, branching to Oman. The project to lay over 1200 kms of submarine cable, awarded to e-marine by Tyco and owned by Trans World Associates (TWA), Pakistan, was completed ahead of planned schedule. Read the news item here.

PK and Iran linking via fiber optic

Pakistan and Iran have decided to establish a working group to address any operational problems ahead of building an optic fiber link between the two countries within the next one year. The decision was taken during a meeting between Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari and Iran's deputy communication minister Kamal Mohamedpour here on Thursday.

The two countries have also decided exchange expertise and technical know-how in the area of telecom training for which officials from the both countries would visit each other to view the status of training facilities and find ways to further coordination and cooperation. Read more here: http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_11238.shtml

'Vignettes from Tunis': Bytesforall is at WSIS

BytesforAll team Frederick Noronha, Partha Sarker and Shahzad Ahmad are reporting on the World Summit on the Information Society.

The APC blog is your front row seat to the event where our friends are blogging as well. Partha is podcasting here.

World Bank consortium launches Web Portal to update quake damages and relief operation

The World Bank (WB) on Thursday launched an information-sharing web portal on Pakistan quake relief activities and related Information Systems for Earthquakes (RISE). The Web-Portal has been prepared in collaboration of academics, research and policy makers of US and Pakistan universities, multilateral organizations, non-governmental organizations and various government departments. It includes information about 727 villages of Muzaffarabad District and (387 of Tehsil) while 494 villages of Mansehra District(258 of Tehsil) in the largely rural North Frontier Province (NWFP) and Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) in Pakistan. The portal will operate while using most recent portal technology to integrate demographic, geographical and satellite images searchable at village level and overlaid with distances from major roads and epicenter. It will continuously update information received via fax, phone, text-massaging and through www.risepak.com during 8 hours turn around.

Sue, Sue, Sue Google

More people want a piece of the $$$$ pie.

 

Authors Guild sues Google over print program

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/20/authors_guild_sues_g.html

The Authors Guild on Tuesday filed a class action lawsuit against search engine Google, alleging that its scanning and digitizing of library books constitutes a "massive" copyright infringement. 
 

State of e-governance in Pk

The Centre for Civic Education (CCE), with support from the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), released a report on the state of e-governance in Pakistan after conducting a thorough web watch exercise of six official and six political party websites, during the August 15 to September 15 peak local body elections period. Their verdict? E-governance still in fluid state.

More Google News

This past week, Google has been interconnecting a lot of its affiliates with Google - Orkut users now have to login via their Gmail address, and Google's just launched the Google Blog Search, a search box to it has also been provided on the main page - Yahoo for Google! ;)

PTCL charging ISPs 15% CED, violating CBR rules

I nearly missed this new one from Imran Ayub at Daily Times: "In a recent move, the ISPs have approached the Central Board of Revenue, disclosing that the PTCL has been charging 15 percent CED on the broadband DSL service, violating the CBR rules and the government policy." Read the entire news item here: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_30-8-2005_pg5_1

15% GST on computer parts !!!

Just as I have been waiting for the prices on my killer graphics card to go down, yippee, the government hikes the prices up.

The tax-free prices were a welcome and should have remained so. So far computer parts were not what exactly what I call cheap but some how affordable.

First the government announces tax-reliefs in the budget 05-06, public goes happy, government realizes loses in revenues in tax cut, government resorts back to old dirty tricks......... ;)

Where's ma piggy bank, oh shit, I am still Rs. 1557.75 short. If save Rs. 1 a day how long will it take me to.......

What's with Vista!

It's been some time since "Longhorn" the successor to Windows XP has been officially named Windows Vista.

I ponder does 'Vista' sound catchy or has M$ got a blooper on their hands? Though, the logo turns out to be pretty flashy.

MSDN subscribers can download the Beta right away. I'll try to get my hands on it for a preview for our lovely mag and readers of Spider ;)

PTCL's Games.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Company has agreed to pay damages for the losses during the 11-day Internet disruption due to a fault in a key submarine cable in June, but said it would compensate only the Internet service providers.

In a recent development, top PTCL officials held a meeting with the ISPs representatives, but said the compensation would not match the claims made by the operators.

Read the entire story here.

The statement that PTCL will not be paying the full amount of claims of losses made by ISPs is disturbing, to put it mildly. PTCL screws up, makes businesses suffer losses to the tune of millions of rupees, and boldly claims it will not compensate the companies. How very nice of them.

Top 10 web fads

CNet has a listing of the top 10 fads ever. Bring back memories, don't they? Or you have any of your own craze?

Hampsterdance
Mahir All your base are belong to us
Dancing baby
Hot or not
Friendster
Ellen Feiss 3
Star Wars kid
Blogger
JibJab

Good find: Many-to-many

MANY-TO-MANY: A useful group weblog on social software. See: http://www.corante.com/many/

Courtesy: SA-IT List and Fred@BytesForAll.
 

Dailytimes site hacked

The dailytimes site was hacked today... the message on the site read "hacK3d bY ic3d r0s3
security is ~~ :) This is the end beautiful friend. This is the end my only friend".....

Pakistan cut off from world by under-sea cable fault

Pakistan's Internet and cell phone links with the rest of the world were severed Tuesday by a fault in a key submarine cable that engineers said could take two weeks to repair. Millions of people were affected by the breakdown in the main fibre-optic link beneath the Arabian Sea 35 kilometers south of Karachi, which was detected late Monday, officials and Internet service providers said. The complex repair work may require a complete shut down, potentially causing disruption in India, the United Arab Emirates, Djibouti and Oman, which are also linked to the damaged cable, officials said. "This is a highly sophisticated operation and only specialised companies can undertake such a delicate task under the sea," Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) chief engineer Shahid Ahmed said. "Pakistan has no such ability." The cable is owned by a consortium of 92 countries with Singtel of Singapore acting as its operating agents. "We are holding a multilateral conference to fix the problem and asked Singtel to arrange for the rectification of the fault," Ahmed said. He said Singtel has appointed E-Marine, a UAE-based company, to fix the fault. They had dispatched a ship which may take 18 to 24 hours to reach the site, he added.

'Open Source Adoption' conference

Karachi June 25: PSEB is hosting a conference on Open Source Adoption where international and local experts from Government, Banks, Corporate Sector and Software Houses have been invited to discuss and share their experiences to help you achieve true leverage from Open Source.

 

Registration open to business professionals from the private and public sector. For invitations, please fax your Business Card to 051-9204075 or hosman@pseb.org.pk

www.osrc.org.pk

Night vigil with 'gaali' music

Just came across this interesting article at the times of india site: "HYDERABAD: Apart from the snazzy accent, confident diction and good communication skills, call centre executives can do with an ability to endure an earful of swear words every day at work.For customers can give free rein to their vocabulary from their secure distance. And Indophobia inching higher in the west over the loss of jobs, call centre conversations can turn nasty once the caller discerns from the accent that he is talking to an Indian. "Hearing gaalis (abuse) are part of our job. If you cannot handle them, you can't work here," says the HR manager of a call centre. Agents say four-letter words are casually flung by many US customers. Some of the abuses are not part of what they teach you in accent training classes. Not being familiar with the street language of Tacoma, Texas, call centre executive can be left baffled by some of their conversations, sometimes not even knowing whether one has been sworn at. " read full article here. Anyone here in pk got nasty stories to share with us from a call center?

Claim of 10.5m cellphone subscribers misleading

DAWN reports today: "The number of mobile phone subscribers in Pakistan is much lesser than 10.5 million as being claimed by cell phone companies and relevant quarters. The figure, in fact, reflects the collective sale of SIMs (connections) and not the number of subscribers. Analysts in the cellphone industry, while talking to APP, also questioned the claim of phenomenal growth of 110 per cent over the past 10 months."

Really?

Just came across this news item in a news agency: "KARACHI, May 20 (APP): International film, music and software producers on Friday commended the Pakistan government for taking urgently-needed actions to curb the mass-scale violation of copyright. "Pakistan is showing that it takes seriously the need to address its severe levels of copyright piracy," said a joint press statement issued here by the senior representatives of International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Business Software Alliance (BSA) and Motion Picture Association (MPA). "We applaud the Pakistan government efforts for strongly protecting the intellectual property of the musicians, film makers and software developers and believe these will benefit the country," the three international groups unanimously said. The response follows administrative reforms and strict enforcement actions announced by the government in recent weeks. Pakistan Intellectual Property Rights Organization (PIPRO) has been created to oversee copyright, trademark and patent protection issues, while the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested nine persons and confiscated more than 400,000 pirated CDs, DVDs and audio cassettes, besides 10,000 Master Discs (stampers) and closing down six illegal optical disc plants around Karachi."
How come I'm still able to buy the pirated goodies from the shops right across the streets in Karachi even now?

Let's talk telecom...or so they say

Attended a 'dialogue' about Telecom in Islamabad today. True to tradition, the organizers had no clue about the need for AN agenda.

It was as bland as the title suggested: A Dialogue on Telecom Scenario. So much information, so much hype, so much money and so many talking heads yet there is no concept of orchestrating a public speaking forum. The panel consisted of our IT Minister, mighty IT secretary, a cell company CEO, MD PTV and the sponsor newspaper's editors. Each guest spoke for 10-20 minutes starting with "history of telecom"--the editors majorly mixed up their IT with their telecom [always a BIG blunder!] and moving on to issues cellular companies are facing today.

Telecom in Pakistan? I see lots: PTCL, poor customer service, lack of superb HR, regulatory issues, landlines, wirless, cellular [and not only cellular], VoIP, the Internet....so why was the discussion so narrow and cliched?

Questions from the audience? Miserable. Gentleman to Minister, "I have a specific question for the Minister....[breaks into 10 minute monologue about how soon we will push a button to transport from Pakistan to America since this is the 'e' age]....and the specific question is this, there is so much emphasis on 'e', so why isn't the goverment recognizing e newspapers?" The question met with stunned [numb, dumb] silence all around until the poor Minister said he would put this before the Minister of Information. Yee ha, I say!

Secretary IT quotes: Internet is universally accessible in OVER 2000 cities in the country.

Internet Cafes Told To Remove Covered Cabins

From Dawn

Sindh Home Minister Rauf Siddiqui has warned the internet cafe owners that they are allowed cabin partitions in their cafes up to the height of 4.5 feet only. These should be open cabins and covered ones will not be allowed, the minister said. Rauf Siddiqui said that he had been continuously receiving complaints that the internet cafes were so designed that these had totally covered cabins wherein videos were taken of the people inside with the help of cameras which was totally an illegal and immoral act.

Such complaints were causing problems of serious nature leading to creation of moral declination in society, while the fact was that a constructive and positive use of internet did serve as a source for a lot of youth in building up their academic career.

The minister gave one week time to the owners of internet cafes to modify the cafe designs as per standard rules. He said that after one week from May 23, all DPOs and TPOs would check the internet cafes in their respective areas. In case of default, not only strict legal action would be taken against such owners but the punishment would include sealing of their cafes.

And the government realizes they must take this step now, almost a year after the infamous Rawalpindi cyber cafe incident?

TRG DC secretary works in Pakistan

Too much info, too little novelty. Here's one that forced me to say hello to the few who stop by here:

"In a chic downtown lobby across the street from the Old Executive Office Building, Saadia Musa answers phones, orders sandwiches and lets in the FedEx guy. And she does it all from Karachi, Pakistan. As receptionist for the Resource Group, Musa greets employees and visitors via a flat screen hanging on the lobby's wall. Although they are nine hours behind and nearly 7,500 miles away, her U.S.-based bosses rely on her to keep order during the traffic of calls and meetings."

Full marks for thinking cool, Zia ;-) Thanks SQ, for the tip-off.

Mobile number portability

Just came across this editorial in today's DAWN issue: "Mobile number portability: MOBILE phone users will find some respite thanks to the proposed introduction of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) for which Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has constituted a supervisory board that plans to implement the scheme by January 2006. A central database administration which will house a database of mobile subscriber number references is being developed to implement this portability facility. MNP, which allows mobile phone users to switch mobile phone operators but retain their existing number, is available in many countries of the world but its proposed arrival in Pakistan was being strongly resisted by two of the largest mobile operators, perhaps because they feared a loss of the market share. However, PTA was not convinced by their arguments and has gone ahead and decided that the facility will be made available next year which it believes will boost fair competition among all mobile phone operators.This decision is one that will benefit consumers who are already frustrated by the poor service current mobile phone operators are providing. Despite certain mobile phone companies being threatened with severe legal action, not to mention heavy fines, if their quality is not improved, consumers periodically face frequent problems in connectivity, poor network services and other customer-related issues. Many who complain of such problems are hesitant to switch over to another company because they do not want to switch their number, a concern that will no longer apply once MNP comes into force. This will also force mobile phone companies to ensure better service to their customers or face losing their subscribers to better companies. Either way, it seems the customer is in a win-win situation — provided PTA is able to ensure that the implementation of MNP goes through smoothly."

Why do you blog?

I am asking bloggers this question: Why do you blog. Please answer here.

Adobe & Macromedia

This news is specially interesting for the designers - graphic, web whatever! - as the two giants Adobe & Macromedia have merged together. Well, not merged. Adobe has bought Macromedia for over 3 billion US Dollars. That's right, that's a 'b'.

Adobe has also announced that the although the Macromedia products such as the famous Macromedia Flash etc will be maintained and built upon, the Macromedia brand itself will eventually be phased out. Now we be buying Adobe Flash!

Adobe website Macromedia website

Network busy?

Yesterday, Mobilink's network crashed (yes, again). Although Telenor has launched and Warid is due to offer its services this year, Mobilink is the largest cellular service provider, and one cannot expect all Mobilink users to switch over to other cellular service providers. However, PTA's just announced it plans to suspend Mobilink's license within 30 days and impose a Rs. 350 million fine on the company if they doesnt respond to a show-cause notice (source: Dawn). While Mobilink has added another dialing code (0301), it hasn't made much of a difference, and the crash yesterday is only proof of that. One can only hope (in vain methinks) that this threat makes Mobilink do something about their utterly horrendous service.

This is Pakistan

In blog directories {(1), (2), (3), (4) }, services, rankings, we do not see tangible evidence of blogs by Pakistanis. However, during my hunt, I have seen Pakistan blogsphere growing exponentially. Blogging is also not an economic hobbyhorse here yet but one can see some business blogs, sponsored ads at some. Though, English is a predominant language at the Web but look for it and you may find blogs in all languages including Urdu.

Light Within intends compiling a list of blogs by resident and non-resident Pakistanis. This does not imply that these are the best or busiest blogs published by Pakistanis, although in some instances, they might be, nor is the list conclusive. The list is intended to showcase blogs by Pakistanis. Moreover, blog worth attention will be reviewed here.

Leave your blog URL in comments here. Also, add any other Pakistani blog that you might have noticed.

E-mail scans

Just when one thinks that the government can do nothing more to shock you or make you want to bang your head against the world, especially regarding their decisions for the IT sector, they go around and do something like this.

What does this mean in terms of internet security in Pakistan? Does the government really think that tracking e-mail accounts (and that too for a month) will help solve e-crimes? Dear God, is there no end to this madness?

Those who don’t write the blogs, don’t read the blogs

Blogs on any topic under the sun have created millions of online communities. Those who have blogs read other’s blogs for ideas or simply to reciprocate – that is how bloggy fraternity is proliferating. The problem is with the overwhelming majority of Web users that don’t have blogs yet. They don’t visit the blog sites at all, exceptions and chance apart. Which is why blogosphere is smaller than the entire users’ base, though it is thriving, nonetheless? Solution: Every user should have a blog, more so in Pakistan.

Oh boy whose happy, it's Billy boy ;)

Bill gates received an honorary knighthood from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on March 02 at Buckingham Palace, for his charity donations through Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and his contribution to high-tech industries in Britain.

You can read his official statement of glee :) here.

There you go Bill Gates KBE.

Windows XP Pro x64 Edition coming soon

Finally, for all those Athlon 64 owners. Microsoft will be releasing the highly anticipated 64-bit version of Win XP for the desktop by April.

The new OS will take full advantage of the 64-bit capabilities of the Athlon 64 (and the new 64-bit P4) and lead to a noticeable performance increase.

Check out the homepage for more information.

The Red Couch

This I got vis Blogsphere News Box: Recently, recently, Robert Scoble and Shel Israel have published a draft of the first chapter – Village Blacksmiths of the Information Age of a book they have been writing about business blogging titled The Red Couch (Though they’re contemplating changing the title). Yes, they should change the title.

Excerpt: Every few years, something comes along to change the way everything is. In the middle 1990s, it was the Internet. Previously, email, computer networks, PCs, fax machines and copiers altered our lives. The continuum of change extends all the way back through TVs, phones, trains, the telegraph, electricity, the printing press perhaps to when the wheel was first rolled out. Draft chapter of the book is here and it is very interesting.
They’re looking for feedback including reviews, comments and revisions.

Cross posted at Light Within

Telecom, telecom

Special features on telecom have appeared well before Intl Telecom Day this year. The News carried two reasonably interesting pages last Sunday while DAWN carried an advertising supplement today [not online yet]. The Nation ran three articles, two on WLL on its Business pages. PTCL has also been mass mailing an article titled 'Roti, Kapra aur Broadband' to all newspapers, with two appearances today [DAWN, Nation] and one last week [business recorder].

Read these from cover to cover in hopes of getting more than mere market indicators. A good time to ask: Are we getting dazzled by all the 'estimated' stats alone? Where's the hardcore analyses regarding what actual benefits one can obtain from a 'telecom revolution'. What does broadband boil down to in a country like Pakistan for instance?

President dotcoms

Its been a long time coming. The Prez of PK has a website and BBC reports he's thrown a little party to celebrate his dotcom day.

Designed by J Walter Thompson's web partner, its a cute PR excercise which offers an auto-bio, wallpapers [!], and the chance to see what emails he will respond to. Make the most of it, Prez! Think they've left something out? Hotline numbers anyone? ;-)

Provincial Ministers do it better?

A classic 'mission' at Spider was to argue against official blocking of pornographic websites. Responsibility lies with parents, teachers and end users--not goverments. So this news comes as no surprise:

"Pakistan's Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications has said that it has accepted defeat in its "battle" against pornographic material available on the Internet."

The good Minister persists that it is now up to Provincial governments to prevent prongraphic content from reaching users in their territory. I advise all rational people to refrain from throwing their hands up in frustration and instead say a little prayer that those officials have their plates full with disaster management, environmental conservation, education+health, and any other constructive activity where our taxes are spent well!

Microsoft to Recall Xbox Cords Due to Electrical Issue

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, said on Thursday it will recall 14.1 million power cords for its Xbox video game console after a defect gave some users minor singe burns and scorched carpets.

Robbie Bach, chief Xbox officer for Microsoft, told Reuters the recall covered all Xboxes made for continental Europe before Jan. 13, 2004, and units made for the rest of the world before Oct. 23, 2003. Read the article.

Monitoring Students

In a country where students bunking classes is considered 'something that cannot be dealt with' by Pakistani teachers, perhaps something like this is needed?

According to this source: "Security clearance has been given for the direct India-Pak fibre link between Amritsar and Lahore.

The Daily Times quoted the Pakistani Information Technology and Telecommunications minister Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari as saying that security clarance was needed for the formal approval of the project. He said that talks with India regarding the project is already going on and the link is likely to be set up soon.

Earlier, Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited had been given the contract to prepare the feasibility report on the proposed fibre link. The project would be operational within six months and would cost between 150 million to 200 million rupees, to be shared equally by the two sides.

Experts believe that this proposed low-investment fibre link will strengthen the IT and telecom industry infrastructure and internet services in both India and Pakistan. (ANI) "

Google is now a domain registrar

Google is now an ICANN-accredited registrar of domain names, providing it with yet another potential line of expansion. The fast-growing search provider is approved to sell names in seven top-level domains (TLDs) including .com, .net, .org, .biz., info, .name and .pro.

PTA to suspend cell phone companies' licenses

From Dawn:

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority may suspend the licences of two major cell phone companies if the reports of its secret survey, which is starting on Feb 1, establishes poor quality of their service.

They said the survey would be completed by Feb 15 and action would be initiated on its recommendations. The survey was being launched on customers' complaints. The PTA had already served notices on the two companies for their poor quality of service, congestion, wrong messaging, frequent call drops and fake billing.

They said the companies had already been given enough time to remove these problems, therefore, no leniency would be shown if the survey found them persisting with shortcomings. The PTA might also impose heavy fines on them, they added.

The sources said the firms were trying to capture more market at any cost before the launch of service by two new companies this year. "In a bid to capture more clientele, these companies have been compromising on service for long," they said. "The PTA is very sensitive to its obligations and will do every thing possible to protect interest of its customers."

P.S: If its supposed to be a 'secret survey', why are they discussing it with the press? Mobilink for one has already been fined in the past, but instead of being repentant, it has proceeded to provide the worst service in its history. If they had spent the crores on improving their service, instead of on their 'Indigo' advertising campaign, they could have boasted of at least some satified customers. I wonder if a satisfied Mobilink customer actually exists..

Blog togs

Bloggers who are found of blog buttons and stickers (who is not) must visit blogsticker.com and find over 1877 blog stickers there. What is more, anyone can make own in Blogsticker Factory or add one. I found this:

BSA to crack down against piracy

According to Daily Times, Business Software Alliance (BSA) has announced that they will be taking strict action against national and multinational companies after the 60 day truce period ends on January 29th. According to a BSA study, Pakistan's software piracy rate is 83%, which causes a loss of US$16 million to Pakistan's IT sector. What puzzles me is how Pakistani multinationals can spend billions on advertisements and sponsoring a gazillion shows, but can't purchase licensed software. However, buying licensed software is still not an option for the common user - its high time BSA realizes that unless they don't lower the cost of the licenses, no one will give up paying Rs.40 for Windows XP.

Give me an iPod Shuffle and nobody gets hurt.

Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, launched a bunch of new Apple products at Macworld Conference and Expo. First up on my shopping list is the Flash based iPod Shuffle. Coming in two sizes - 512 MB and 1 GB and costing $99 and $149 respectively, the iPod Shuffle claims to be smaller and lighter than a pack of chewing gum. It doesn't have a screen, but with such low prices, no one will really care. One can also fill up the iPod by connecting it to the PC via the USB port.

Apple also launched the Mac mini, a $499 budget PC, consisting of a processor, hard drive and optical drive. The Mac mini is truly mini - its 6.5 inches wide and 2 inches tall! Apple also showcased iWork, iLife's new version and Final Cut Express HD - tools designed to make the Mac user's life simpler and easier.

So who wants an iPod?

E-Mail Icon Generator

Visit here to generate icons for GMail, Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo!, AOL and many more...

Mind mapping software

This a free Java-based tool which is supposed to help you organizing any idea that you may have. See the Screenshots here.

World’s First ‘Paid to Blog’ Network

Bloggers finally have a new way to make a fast buck with their weblogs. BlogKits.com has launched the BlogKits BlogMatch Network, an opportunity for anyone who owns a blog to be matched with businesses, marketers and/or advertisers looking to partner with niche-filled, content specific, quality blogs. There is a possibility of wining an iPod as well.

Watchout: Project 'Jawbone'

Must-read story about audio tech startup called Aliph who's Pakistani CEO Hosain Rahman's success in California and The Adaptive Headset for mobile phones that's making waves [it reduces background noise while you talk]. The company website states its focus is on speech processing products for govermental and private organizations. Verrry interesting!

Pakistanis in Ahmedabad

[Jan 4]The Press Trust news story states that interaction between scientist across the border has been limited, and rightly so. "Pakistan participated for the first time in the 92-year-old Indian Science Congress, being held in Ahmedabad. The four-member Pakistani delegation will be presenting three papers in the congress, Dr Anwar Nasim, chairman of the Pakistan's National Commission on Biotechnology and a member of the delegation, told reporters in Ahmedabad." The Commission was created by Dr.Ata-ur-Rehman in 2001.

In September 2004, The Nature carried a more sensational lead on a similar event stating that verbal collaborations have ended "more than five decades of scientific impasse between the two nations." I think the two need to look at 'education' for any collaboration, even if its bound to be research on malaria and agriculture as per the news story.

2005.

Happy New Year to all SPIDER readers, contributors and the people who make SPIDER happen. Here's to hoping that this year will be spam free and that good things will happen in Pakistan's IT sector. Wishful thinking, but wishing is good.


P.S: The January issue of SPIDER is on sale now. Let us know what you think about it at letters@spider.tm