Post Amazers work on the new Exorcist

Asif Iqbal of Post Amazers has sent in this news: "Post Amazers did visual effects for a hollywood block buster releasing today across united states 'Exorcist the begining'.This i think is historical as the first ever pakistan company to work for Hollywood, we are also finishing few shots on another blockbuster, I will give you details once it will be released."

Eight names from the company appear in the credits, including one of the chief technical designers. Very, very interesting :)

Messenger on-the go

Finally a web based MSN messenger. No need to install the client software.

Just the thing I needed to run on my Symbain OS. Great way to keep in touch as long as you have access to the Internet from anywhere on the Earth :)

http://www.e-messenger.net/

South Asia Tribune blocked--again!

Access to South Asia Tribune is blocked once again. Can anyone confirm this?

Something's fishy on Yahoo!

Nauman Afzal, our open source writer, sends this warning for Yahoo! users. "I just received an e-mail from someone claiming to be from Yahoo Administration. On close observation, I found it to be a phishy email as it required me to follow a link and enter my username and password in order to reconfirm that I will be using this account in future. If I entered those details, it will be captured! The pretext given was that since Yahoo! has upgraded to 100 MB and a lot of accounts are lying dormant therefore, a reconfirmation is required. How did I find out that this was a "phishing" attempt? Well I guess Peter Lavin was kind enough to warn us about this menace (many thanks to him) simply because the link address was: http://yahooadmin.8m.com/yahoopage.html Anyone with a little knowledge of the Web would ask “Why would yahoo use 8m to host its own webpage?" I just want to share this with everyone and warn them to be careful in case they receive a similar mail."

New look

Nice new look. Blog really seems to be moving and growing with time.

Guess what percentage of our GDP is spent on IT?

At present: ", a little over 5 per cent of Pakistan's gross domestic product (GDP) consists of the services sector out of which 2.5 per cent is the financial services sector, while 3 per cent is the information and communication technologies (ICTs) sector. To measure how far Pakistan has to travel as a comparison benchmark, it must be understood that USA's ICT Sector alone is over 50 per cent of that country's GDP. "

Teledensity in Pakistan?

Local discounted call provider: "REDtone International Bhd said it has been awarded a long distance and international licence from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, the first such licence for the group since its listing on Mesdaq in January.
With the licence, valid for 20 years, REDtone (www.redtone.com) will be able to offer voice telephone, data and IT services in Pakistan, the company said in a press statement today.
REDtone said the country has tremendous potential, with a teledensity penetration of only 3% and a population of 150 million. " Doesn't the Ministy of IT&T claim a much higher tele-denisty in Pakistan than the one as claimed by REDtone? Would anyone know the teledenisty in pk according to government figures? Tee Emm?

Pakistan's First Wireless Broadband Service

NetSol Technologies, Inc: "a developer of proprietary software applications and provider of information technology services, today announced that its majority-owned subsidiary, NetSol-Akhter, has substantially completed the roll out of it wireless broadband infrastructure in Karachi, Pakistan.
The company plans to offer wireless broadband services for domestic and corporate customers at speeds up to 512KB per second for 1GB of data beginning at Rs. 500 (approximately $8.60 U.S.) per month with a maximum speed of up to 2MBs per second costing Rs. 20,000 (approximately $344.25 U. S.) per month for 32GBs of data. The wireless broadband sector in Pakistan is estimated at over $100 million. "

Just-in: Win 98 Balochi Tutorial

Yahya Noor from the fishing port town of Gwadar has sent Spider a Balochi tutorial of Win98. He says: "I used Macromedia Director to create this tutorial and now I am planning to launch it for Balochi Spoken People, and my next projects include MS-Office XP, Urdu Inpage, Software Troubleshooting and Operating and Software Installation."

Urdu version of Microsoft Windows

Urdu version of Microsoft Windows: "The Urdu version of Microsoft Windows would be introduced in Pakistan soon as a majority of its people have a problem understanding and writing English, said Information Technology Minister Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari. The move was aimed at improving the literacy rate in the country, The News quoted him as saying. According to government statistics, 50-55 per cent of the country's population was literate but only eight per cent of this population could read English. "

Spider Yahoo!Group by a fan

A fan has started a Yahoo!Group for Spider readers.

Lifestyle PC

Wired carries a flashy ad for a compact computer case [PC in a cube] which targets fashionable/mobile people. According to the ad, you can carry your pet in it too.

Interestingly, Habib IT has showcased its own line called XC Cube [in red color] at the ITCN Asia. Their website doesn't carry any info on it [checking the price on the phone] so no specs available.

PC Mag carries a useful article on these X boxes. Think Geek has pics.

Give me access or give me death!

No link here, just a comment on how I was in Bahawalpur for two weeks, teaching at Sadiq Public School. Although my students knew what the Internet was, less than 30% of them had access; yet, amusingly enough, approximately 60% of the senior class was taking a course in A-level computer science, studying networking, Flash, HTML and Web design, and of course, C++.

Just found that slightly interesting. Frustrating, since I couldn't check e-mail for a week or so at a stretch, but interesting nonetheless. Any other schools in the country offer computing classes at that level (i.e. in high school)?

Porn is vital to freedom claims Rushdie

Raising yet another controversy: "Indian-born writer Salman Rushdie claims that porn is vital to freedom and supports his argument with statistics about the volume of porn traffic on the internet in Pakistan.

Rushdie argues that a free and civilized society should be judged by its willingness to accept pornography. His views are to be published alongside images of American porn stars in a book called XXX:30 Porn star "

Blogs vs. Discussion forums

Azeem asks: What is the difference between blogs and discussion forums? From all perspectives.

Zunaira says:

- Both involve publishing online.

- Blogs started out as specific to one user who invited comments. Now,
the line between group blogs and discussion forums is blurry.

- The fundamental difference between the two being, blogs are focused on hyperlinking and networking the Internet (as well as the blog world itself) at large. Why is there a market for blogs? Because people want to make sense of the information being thrown at them, edit them according to their preference and rant in cyberspace—without moderators and other 'corporate freaks' who were begining to put a password on every public platform in a supposedly free world (cyberspace).

- Discussion forums are seen as an organized platform. Blogs, despite
their dynamic subject matter and capabilities, are viewed as unorganized, informal and even anti-establishment.

- Interestingly, enough you have given me an idea for an article :)
Thank you! On the other hand, bloggers would say "yea, whatever. we
really don't care where you fit us in. we are here to stay."

VoIP News

Nortel Wins Pakistan VOIP Contract: "Warid Telecom has awarded Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT) (TSX:NT) a four-year frame contract to provide a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) next generation network (NGN) in Pakistan. This highly efficient network will allow Warid to deliver high quality National and International Long Distance under license from the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA)."

Coming soon: Tech Talk on TV

A little bird tells me the Ministry of IT and Ufone are joining hands to roll out a 26-episode TV show imaginatively titled "Tech Talk" [Zaki, they stole our slug!]. Who's behind the scenes, Production Underground from Lahore. More when ITCN Asia comes to town and I get to see the team with me own eyes.

Jobs?

Received an email from "LUMS Research Team" requesting IT professionals to fill out a survey Other than get an idea about what kind of salary figures prevail in the industry, this excercise is determing 'Pakistan's case for outsourcing'.

I peeled off the URL and went to Rozee.com.pk Nice website! No About Us page :~( Other jobs related websites I googled out: Jobshejobs.com;Jobjinn.com [not operational anymore];Final Job; Tip Top Job; Pakistan Jobs and Employment

One of the better mailing list I'm subscribed to: PAK-Jobs-IT

Cash-on-delivery & E-Letters

Anyone knows of websites offering Cash on delivery option for payment? I know Liberty Books, eAdab,
and Awami Markaz ['study notes'] are offering the service for Karachi.

On a sidenote: I wonder how many people actually utilize Pakistan Post's E-Letter Service
If you can send your rant on a post card or a letter to:

Pakistan Post E-Letter Centre,
E.Post Division Post Infotech
Post Mall,
F-7 Markaz,
Islamabad-44000

Then wasim@pakpost.gov.pk will email it on your behalf to a 'loved one' abroad. Lets see if his email address still works.

Cyber terrorism

Computer Crime Research Center reports: "John Hamre, Deputy Secretary of Defense (1997-1999) said that on [Al Qaeda's] laptops, which they had got our hands on, there had been all these probing of sites dealing with programming of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and control of SCADA systems within electrical and other power company scenarios.

Osama bin Laden showed the importance of Internet to him when he created an original hacker school at the faculty of electronics in his university. This importance is also displayed by introduction of cyber university in Pakistan to study these SCADA systems controlling water distribution networks, dams, gas and oil pipelines and nuclear power plants." Would anyone know which cyber university is this report talking about?

HEC to establish internet access for UET Peshawar

the Daily Times reports: "The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has decided to establish a network of internet terminals for the NWFP University of Engineering and Technology in Peshawar. The Departmental Development Working Party approved a Rs 35 million project in its meeting on Monday. The main objective of the project is to establish a university intranet that will include all its officials, departments, hostels, remote campuses and affiliated colleges as a part of network that will not only communicate and interact amongst themselves, but will also link universities all over Pakistan. Such a set-up will automate offices as well as improve the academics of the university. The project will also benefit the general public in terms of getting remote access to UET Peshawar for information."

Dubai's new export: the Internet City

Dubai is taking : "its development record one step further: It is exporting its experience.
What's being taken abroad to countries such as India, Pakistan, Iran, Malta, New Zealand, South Africa and Central Asian nations, is the concept of the 'Internet City'. In deals signed recently by Dubai with some of these countries, large campuses will be built to house some of the world's best-known technology brands - such as Microsoft, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Siemens, IBM, Logica, Canon, Cisco, Sun Microsystems and Sony.
The central objective of the Internet City is to establish tax-free economic zones. In Dubai, for example, foreign companies together employ nearly 20,000 people from 185 countries on a bucolic campus. Together, they constitute the world's largest IT tax-free zone, from which they re- export their information and communications technology. Their location in Dubai enables them to target a regional population of 1.8 billion people in some 50 countries with a combined gross domestic product of US$1.6 trillion (S$2.8 trillion)."

Infrastructure

The project site where I am working these days is located near Pattoki only 1.5 kilometers from Karachi-Peshawar National Highway in the rural hinterland of Punjab. It is an industrial hub and the PTCL landlines are there. Pattoki town that has a claim to an international fame due to flower nurseries already can boast of the Internet service. But what surprised me was that it is not possible to connect to the Internet and go online just about 20 kilometers outside the town.

Musharraf's statement

Our dear Musharaf told Intel wallas that: "Pakistan has a fast-growing market for computer and other information technology related products, saying economic measures and policies have resulted in an investment-friendly environment in the country." No word on piracy there.

Pakistan has tightened Internet surveillance: RSF

Daily Times reports: "The current government has stepped up regulation of Internet usage for a crack down on access to pornography and enforcement of tighter security online, according to the recent report �The Internet Under Surveillance 2004� published by the France-based organisation Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF)."

SMEs To Be Provided with Export Information Access Facilities

: "As a practical support to develop export business, the Export Promotion Bureau will initiate a project to extend facilities of internet connectivity, computers and printers to the country's Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). "

Punjab Governor initiates Project

Daily Times reports: the Punjab "Governor kicks off project to link universities to workplaces"

90 Billion$!

New Scientist reports: "Internet gambling is a lucrative and rapidly growing business and some estimates suggest $90 billion will be bet online in 2004 globally."

Communication City Planned in Islamabad

The government has declared that: "A communication city will be established in Islamabad to provide all infrastructure facilities to IT, telecommunication and media companies to promote the export of information technology products." However no time frame or date has been announced. Let's hope this plan doesn't meet the same disasterous fate as the national IT parks did.

Pakistani Players Don't know How 2 Use the NET!

It's been reported that the Pakistani players participating for the Int'l Satellite Circuit Tennis Championship dont know how to use the net. : "Most of the Pakistani players are unfamiliar with Internet and Fax and they have not registered their names and filled the forms. "

FrontPage magazine.com :: Symposium: The Muslim Convert by Jamie Glazov

Read this interesting discussion on faith conversions. It deals with the conversions of people from Christianity to Islam, Islam to Christianity and Islam to the Jewish faith. The personalities discussed are: "Thomas Haidon, an American lawyer who was raised in the Catholic faith but converted to Islam.
Nonie Darwish, a US citizen of Arab origin, a former Muslim born and raised in Cairo, Egypt and the Gaza Strip. She converted to Christianity ten years ago. and

Walid Shoebat, a former PLO terrorist who has become an ardent Zionist and an evangelical Christian."

Buy computers through your Phone Bills?

the PakTribune reports: "Federal Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari Thursday constituted a committee comprising officials of the ministry and Intel Corporation to prepare recommendations for the promotion of computer literacy in the country.
He took the step following a meeting with Mr John Davies, vice president & general manager solutions group at Intel Corporation, who met the minister to discuss ways 'to best use technologies to transform business processes and increase the competitiveness of the country'.
Kamil Hasan, country manager of Intel Corporation Pakistan, Federal IT Secretary Khalid Saeed, Pakistan Software Export Board MD Dr Amir Matin and other officials of the ministry were also present in the meeting.
The minister directed the committee to submit its recommendations to him within a week to roll out a scheme for provision of computers at affordable rates to the people. Under the scheme, country's telecom provider PTCL will provide a facility, which will enable any of its subscribers to buy a computer and repay the installment through monthly phone bills.
The minister told the delegation the scheme will initially be launched for government servants and employees of affiliated corporations and at a subsequent stage university and college students would also be incorporated. 'We believe this single step will dramatically increase the penetration of PC ownership within the country besides generating tremendous growth in the computer literacy.
He said PTCL would also provide Internet connectivity to users of this scheme to access Internet at affordable rates.
Earlier John Davies shared with the minister the experiences of Intel in promoting widespread compute literacy and PC ownership in 18 countries around the globe. He said various models had been adopted in"

Incentives in the Trade Policy 2004-2005

Daily Times reports: "As practical support to develop export business, EPB will initiate a project to extend facilities of internet-connectivity, computers and printers to SMEs. This will be done through business support centers to be located in existing Export Information and Advisory Centers in industrial and commercial cities like Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi, Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Islamabad, Multan, Faisalabad, Quetta and internet cafes to provide access to business enterprises to browse commercial intelligence or data on the world-wide web. Access to such export information shall also be provided in a user-friendly manner for foreign customers at five star hotels."

Global CD piracy trade tops $4.5 billion

Music piracy pricetag: $4.5 billion : "Study: Over 1 billion illegally copied CDs sold in 2003; 1 in 3 discs purchased was pirated.More than one out of every three music compact discs bought by consumers in 2003 was pirated, according to global trade body the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

And at $4.5 billion, the pirated music market represents nearly 15 percent of the worth of the global record music market, the IFPI estimated.

The IFPI named its top ten offending countries in its annual report, including G8 member Russia and Spain, the only European Union entry on the list.

Other perennial hot spots on this year's list were Brazil, China, Taiwan, Ukraine, Thailand, Mexico, Paraguay, and first-time entry Pakistan, which replaced Poland.

"

The Seer

Finally, I know a little bit more about Wired's fantastic illustrator. Meet Kenn Brown on Shift.com.

Not Even 100 Million$s

Shaukat Aziz has been saying this: "Other South Asian countries earn billions of dollars from information technology but we do not even earn a hundred million dollars, in fact it is between $ 10 to $ 15 million."

Software Piracy

Software Piracy Report:: "Software piracy rates have crept up, and software makers are losing sleep because the problem is worst in regions with the highest market growth.



Take China and India for instance. While the IT markets in these two countries are growing at a blistering 20%�five times the rate in the developed world�piracy rates are also sky-high at 92% and 73% respectively.

These figures top the Asia-Pacific average piracy rate of 53%, and are more than double the worldwide average of 36%.

The losses sustained by software vendors in China and India are staggering. They amounted to US$3.82 billion and US$367 million respectively last year, and are a sizeable chunk of the worldwide loss of US$28.79 billion.

These results are based on a Business Software Alliance (BSA)-commissioned IDC survey, which covered business software applications, operating systems, consumer software and local market software.

Other Asia-Pacific countries which made it to the hit list�s top 20 are Vietnam (92%), Indonesia (88%), Pakistan (83%), and Thailand (80%). "

Fiber Optic Link with India

the Daily Times reports that: "Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, federal minister for IT and telecom, has said the government is currently holding talks with India to establish a dedicated fibre link between the two countries.“Both the sides have shown concerns on security-related issues,” Mr Leghari told Daily Times from Islamabad. “Both the sides have these concerns but at our end, we are working internally at various levels to resolve these matters.”
Emerging telecom industry in the country sees the fibre link with India, if materialises, as a major breakthrough that would benefit the industry to run cost effective operations. “We still have telephonic linkage with Indian via satellite and Internet,” said V A Abidi, secretary general of Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (ISPAK).

Mr Abidi said the proposed fibre link with India would benefit the local industry, which is about to take off in the wake of telecom deregulation.

“It would definitely have a cost effective impact on the operations of long distance international (LDI) companies,” he added.
"

German police track September 11 suspect to Pakistan

German police track September 11 suspect to Pakistan: "
A GERMAN-MOROCCAN fugitive allegedly involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks has been sending email messages from Pakistan to his wife in Germany, according to a report to be published today.
The German news magazine Focus says in its latest edition German police have traced Internet messages from Said Bahiji from Islamabad and Lahore in Pakistan.
The report, which does not quote sources, says investigators have intercepted 14 email messages between March and the beginning of July. " Although it may seem very technical, tracing back emails to individuals is quite a simple process. Check out the Nov 2003 cover story of SPIDER for the technical details.

Will US$5b make mobile calls cheaper in PK?

Why are mobile charges so costly? Our SMS rates are extremely economical but roaming is sky high.

While watching BBC's report on Asian business, I saw about 20 mins on India followed by a 2 minute bulletin annoucing Telenor's US$5b investment in Pakistan. I've heard Telenor might be taking help from Nokia to expand their network. Not confirming this for now.

Century's LDI put off

PTA is playing tit for tat with its Indian counterpart TRAI. 'Agar aap nay kissi pakistani company ko licence nahi diya, tu hum bhi nahi dain gay'--is my guess ;~)

The Daily Times story on Century's [Cybernet owners] LDI licence blues has the official details.

Communities for developers?

I came across Asian Open Source Center which links to Pakistan. I saw the usual suspects for Linux Pakistan there [just a joke, no offence please!].

CGExpanse for digital artists created recently.

Is it that we don't have developer communities from Pakistan or do I simply not know about them?

Long Distance International licenses offered

PTA has offered LDI licenses to 19 players, domestic and foreign. From the press release issued yesterday:

"The companies qualified for the grant of LDI licenses included M/s.AG Telecom, M/s.ARY Communication (Pvt) Ltd, M/s.Bestel Communication (Pvt) Ltd, M/s.Burraq Telecom, M/s.Callmate Telips Telecom Ltd, M/s.Circle Net Comm, M/s.Dancom, M/s.DV Com, M/s.Link Direct Int’l, M/s.Micro Tech Links (Pvt) Ltd, M/s.Redtone Telecommunication (Pvt) Ltd, M/s.Spell Telecom, M/s.Telecard, M/s.Telecom Development (Pvt) Ltd, M/s.Telenor, M/s.Utel Pak Ltd, M/s.Warid Telecom, M/s.Wise Communication (Pvt) Ltd and M/s.Worldcall Telecom."

"Chairman PTA Major General (Retd) Shahzada Alam Malik said that the Authority had made all preparations to grant LDI licenses to the concerned parties in July provided they fulfilled the condition of submitting Performance Bond of US$10 million each as laid down in the Information Memorandum. The Chairman said that the Authority had given 30 days to the successful companies to remit the requisite Performance Bond fee to expedite the process of issuing LDI licenses. The term of the licenses would be for 20 years. He said that the companies applying for LL licenses involving Wireless Local Loop (WLL) service, auction for the allocation of spectrum would be held between July 13-19, 2004."

Google seeks expert computer scientists

Scientific American's latest issue carries a cute box ad about Google's search for 'great people'. Jobs in Santa Monica and New York.

Goodluck?

Got Gmail? Get spammed for invites

As of last month: I've received around a dozen spam emails requesting that the sender be sent a Gmail invite. This one is 'creative':

-------
From: Hassan Latif
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2004 15:47:55 +0500
Subject: hi
Well I guess I'm gonna get busted but anyway..... can you send me a google invitation if you have one? Ok now I'm gonna close my eyez.
bye
-------

The rest are simply: 'hi i noticed you have a gmail account. can you please send me an invitation?'

Any one else meeting same issues with their accounts? The senders are all local names: 'sana', 'saima', etc.

Wired tracks win cash email hoax

Thanks to Isa. The July issue carries a story on the oldest hoax around: forward this email to 20 fans and win cash from Bill Gates. Worth a read.

"None of the recipients reported earnings. But in the dozens of responses, I received a windfall all my own: I stumbled upon the Internet equivalent of a perpetual motion machine. Here was a hoax that had been in circulation since 1997, laden with factual improbabilities and logical contradictions, widely reviled and frequently debunked yet thriving on a Net strewn with spam and other causes of universal cynicism..."

Online Drugs

According to the U.S. General Accounting Office: ", drugs bought online from other countries - including Argentina, Spain, Thailand, Pakistan and Turkey - are more likely to contain harmful substances or inadequate instructions than those purchased in the United States or Canada. Last month, the GAO released a study about online drug sales."

Musharaf for Better Fiber Optic Connectivity

An Indian news channel reports that: "Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was keenly interested in improving communication links with India and was also keen on fibre connectivity, Union Communications and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran, said today.
Maran, who arrived here from Bangkok after participating in the Asia Pacific Telecommunity ministerial conference, told reporters that during his meeting Musharraf had shown keeness in improving relations between the two countries."

Citi banking online

Citibank Pakistan launches online banking
: ", the banking facility which uses the Internet to give customers direct access to a complete range of bank facilities.

Customers can access Citibank online at www.citibank.com.pk from most desktops or laptops linked to the internet, wherever they may be Citibank online allows customers to view their account details and statements online, said a press release issued here on Wednesday.

They can pay credit card and utility bills online and transfer funds between their accounts at Citibank Pakistan. Customers can also obtain updated deposit and exchange rates, make payments from their accounts, redeem reward points on credit cards and send queries online to customer service."

E-Museum for Pakistani treasures

the BBC reports on an e-museum in Pakistan : "Many would scoff at the idea of launching an 'e-museum' in Pakistan, where national museums are constantly derided for their low numbers of visitors.
'They have got to be kidding,' says artist Qaiser Khan. 'Just how many hits do you think they're going to get?'
The e-museum, the first of its kind in Pakistan, hopes to launch in August.
It is the brainchild of the Faqirs, a family counted among the nobility of Lahore that traces its ancestry back to the holy city of Uch Sharif. "

WorldCall selects Intec DCP Real-Time Charging Technology for Billing IP and VoIP Services

Intec Telecom Systems, a global provider of operations support systems for the telecommunications industry, announced that it has signed two contracts in Africa and Asia for its real-time charging solution, Intec Dynamic Charging Platform (DCP). Cameroon's Douala1, the country's leading Network Solution Provider (NSP), and WorldCall Telecom Ltd, a major telecom operator in Pakistan, have licensed Intec DCP to assist in their IP billing initiatives

Internet enabled trains in India

The Indian: "rail ministry has announced that Internet for passengers with laptops and cyber kiosks will be available on select trains from June 30, 2004."

Indian IT Minister in Town

Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran, arrived in Pakistan :on Monday to attend the two-day SAARC Communications Ministers meeting being held here.
Maran, the first Indian Minister to visit Pakistan after the Congress-led coalition Government took over power arrived in Lahore today from New Delhi and later flew to Islamabad.
Ahead of the Ministers meeting, SAARC Communications officials held a meeting to finalise their agenda.
The second SAARC Communication Ministers conference is slated to adopt a new plan of action on issues like complete digitisation of inter-country links, universal access and setting up of a regional bandwidth hub.
The meeting would also discuss issues like bridging digital divide and evolving performance indicators for the telecom sector in the region, officials said. "

ITCN-Asia 2004 To Be Held From Aug 9

ITCN-Asia 2004 : "Exhibition and Conference will be held from August 9 to 11 this year. This was announced by organisers of the event in a statement here on Monday."
The ITCN Asia 2004 will be held at the Karachi Expo Centre Under the auspices of Ministry of Investment and Privatization in collaboration with Ministry of IT and Telecom, Sindh government, Ecommerce Gateway Singapore, CommerceNet Singapore, Jamal's Yellow Pages of Pakistan and City District Government Karachi (CDGK).

Laghari out too?

Has anyone heard about Minister Laghari quitting/resigning/being booted out of MITT?

Trying to come up with his contribution to the IT scene--cant think of any. Maybe I'm too cynical.

Internet freedom?

According to an online report: "China is the worst violator of Internet freedom, says a report by Reporters Sans Frontieres, which also finds that Internet journalists in South Asia are vulnerable to frequent attacks because they lack the legal protection traditional media enjoys.

The report, 'Internet Under Surveillance 2004,' examines the situation in 60 countries and zeroes in on China as the worst violator of online freedom.

It says four countries throw people in jail for posting 'subversive' topics online - China (with a whopping 63 cyber-dissidents in prison), Vietnam (7), the Maldives (3) and Syria (2). "

Telecard to enter Fixed-line Market

Daily Times reports that: "Telecard Ltd. is set to enter the country�s fixed-line telephone market this year with plans to invest more than $50 million over 12 months, a top company executive said Tuesday.

Sham ul Arfeen, head of business development at the Karachi-based telecommunications company, told Dow Jones Newswires that Telecard is aiming for 500,000 subscribers in the first year of operations and more than a million customers over two years once it obtains the necessary licensing.

�All costs included, we are looking at a capital expenditure of $50-$60 million in the first 12 months and maybe a similar amount in the second year,� he said.

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority is expected to award licenses for wireless local loop, long-distance and international operations in August as part of the government�s deregulation of the sector.

Telecard, which currently operates 45,000 public pay phones using local loop wireless technology, is taking advantage of deregulation to enter the fixed-line market. Its planned expansion likely will increase competition in that market, now dominated by state-run Pakistan Telecommunications Corp., with over 4 million subscribers. "

PTCL to double its budget

Pakistan Telecommu-nications Company is set to double its development budget for 2004-05 to around Rs 25 billion to cope with rising competition in a deregulated telecom sector, a company source told Daily Times."

Also: "New projects in the pipeline: He said through the development budget, ongoing projects would continue at a faster pace while several new projects would also be initiated. “Major service projects include VoIP (voiceover Internet protocol) WLL (wireless local loop) and broadband Internet services while in infrastructure development, undersea fibre link and the OFAN (optical fibre access network) would be undertaken,” said the PTCL official.

"

Internet Cafe Laws

Are there any laws on the regulation of the Internet cafe in the offing soon? Would anyone know? Tee Emm

Asian citizens on the Net

ITBusiness.ca reports that: "Asians have become the largest group of Internet users in the world, with an estimated 173 million people accessing the Internet, according to Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC). But surprisingly, this only makes up 4.5 per cent of the total Asian population. "

Also "The Pan Asia Networking (PAN) Local Language Project, an initiative of the IDRC, is designed to get more Asian users on the Net by developing a framework for local language computing. The IDRC, a public corporation created by Canadian Parliament to help communities in developing countries, is spending $1 million over three years on this project, in partnership with the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES) in Lahore, Pakistan. The Centre for Research in Urdu Language Processing at NUCES was established in 2001 to conduct linguistic research, helping to develop computing standards and promote content development for the Pakistani language."

PTCL vs ISPAK again

Daily Times reports that: "Bandwidth rates to be reviewed: In the upcoming board meeting, company directors are also expected to take up the proposal of a 10 percent rate cut on bandwidth for Internet service providers and call centres.

�The company in July last year made a rate cut of 10 percent in the Internet bandwidth, from $6,000 per 2 megabytes per month to $5,400,� said the PTCL official.

For call centres, the cost of International Private Leased Circuit (IPLC) was reduced from $9,900 per month per 2 megabytes to $6,500 per month, he said.

�A similar proposal would be considered for this year,� he said.

ISPs and call centres had raised objections to last year�s rate cut terming it an eyewash and have approached the company this year again seeking a larger reduction this time around.

�If this happens again, this would be another eyewash and joke with the Internet users of the country,� said Wahaj-ur-Sairaj, Co-ordinator ISPs Association of Pakistan (ISPAK).

�We have asked them to reconsider the proposal and enhance the reduction to 20 to 25 percent,� he added.

However, PTCL does not agree and says bandwidth rates are already economical and frequent large cuts should not be expected.

�We are already one of the cheapest bandwidth provider in the region,� said the PTCL official and added that the company�s target was to favour more general consumers than corporate customers.

The relief steps, the official said, were being taken in the wake of competition that the telecom giant would face post-deregulation.

�The company has registered a sharp growth in the past few years so now it is the customers turn to benefit,� the official said.

The company�s 56-year monopoly on land telephone l"

DVD Piracy

Guess which country leads the DVD piracy market? Need a hint?
According to a piracy report online: "Amaral conceded that some of the pirated goods were of very good quality and said this was because they were copied off the original sources. 'Such DVDs are fundamentally ripped from the original sources and manufactured mainly in Pakistan and Malaysia and distributed worldwide.'"

PSEB's conference in Lahore

PSEB wrapped up its IT's Made in Pakistan conference plus exhibition in Lahore where I am right now. Thanks to PC's 'working' Wi-Fi set up, I can quickly write about the highs and lows of today's conference.

The event wound up on panel discussion between Amir Wian [i2c], Saleem Ghauri and Khurram of Techlogix. Interactive and extremely engaging for the audience which had been sitting dormant throughout the day-one wished the day was split up in interactive sessions alone. better luck next time!

The conference was split up in two tracks taking place simultaneously--comprising of company presentations and case studies. My vote goes to the VC funding session where Dr. Altaf Khan spoke about creating a good business plan. Suhaib of TMT Ventures talked about Yevolve's success with the company.

The exhibition showcasing 28 software houses and their products including a booth for Young Entrepreneurs will be open to general public tomorrow.

BBC to reunite Kashmir families

The BBC: is launching three days of internet webcasts on Monday to reunite families separated across the Line of Control dividing Kashmir.
In the first initiative of its kind, families who have not been in contact for decades because of the lack of phone services and direct travel, are being given the opportunity to get in touch with their loved ones.
An hourly video conference between Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir and Muzzafarabad, on the Pakistani side, will be webcast on BBCUrdu.com from 1100GMT until Wednesday.

Telenor News

Morten Lundal takes over as new DiGi CEO: "Morten Lundal takes over as new DiGi CEO

MORTEN Lundal has been appointed chief executive officer of DiGi.com Bhd and DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, succeeding Tore Johnsen who has been seconded to Telenor's new mobile operation in Pakistan as chief executive officer.
Telenor owns a 61% stake in DiGi.com Bhd.
Arve Johansen, Telenor's deputy chief executive officer and head of international mobile, said in a statement yesterday that the group was sure that under the management of Lundal, DiGi would continue to be at the forefront of the Malaysian mobile industry.
Lundal, 39, a Norwegian citizen, takes over on July 26."

A Pakistani Entrepreneur's Success Story

Read this rare success story of a Pakistani guy IMRAN Khan whose company Picsel Technologies Limited softwares allow users to browse documents over the internet via their mobile phones and palmtop computers, and is widely used by Motorola, Sony, NEC, Sharp and Samsung.

Rediff vs Gmail

Rediff has jumped on the 1GB bandwagon too. No more invites? ;~)Btw, we're offering 5 Gmail invites to readers as giveaway from July. Do read about in our next issue--should you still care to Gmail.

Global Website Blackout

Did anyone notice the massive attack on Internet websites: that took place the world over on 15th June 10:45:00 EST Tuesday (which converts to 20:45:00 Karachi time)? According to a news excerpt: "Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and several other major sites faltered as a result of the attack, which started at 10:45 EST on Tuesday and lasted for over two hours. The problems were traced to Akamai, in Massachusetts, US, which provides support to the internet giants though a vast network of distributed servers for all of the sites.
Technical experts said the incident was consistent with an attack on its domain name system (DNS) servers. These servers translate web browser requests for a worded domain name into the numerical information used to route packets of data around the internet.
Akamai confirmed that its servers were affected by 'large-scale, international attack on internet infrastructure'. But the company suggests the attack was actually directed at a number of its customers, and had a knock-back impact on its distributed servers."

Internet Advertizing Revenues to grow to 13 Billion

It says here that: "Internet advertising revenues topped $10 billion in 2003, and are forecast to grow to more than $13 billion by 2006. The growth has been steady from 1999, when it stood at over five billion dollars.

In the United States and Canada, internet advertising revenues increased 7 per cent from 2002 to 2003, while in the Asia-Pacific region, internet advertising revenues grew 11 per cent in the year. European internet ad revenues grew 5.9 per cent. "

'AirBlue' Operations to be Paperless

Pakistan Times | Metro: Pakistan's Newest Airline, 'AirBlue' Takes off to Skies on Friday: "Paperless Operation

Operation of the AirBlue will be paperless, he said by adding that any person who has access to Internet can get reservation from our web-site with PNR numbers and get out the print, which is acceptable even in the airport restricted area.

The AirBlue management had planned eight workshops, four in Karachi, two in Lahore and two in twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The objective of these workshops is to build understanding among all stakeholders of the airline."

Islamic militants take jihad to the Internet

An interesting piece on Islamic Militants is here:
The Internet is becoming an increasingly vital medium for Islamic militants. Whether through websites featuring videos of Westerners being executed or texts inspiring attacks, the Internet has become a key tool for propaganda and for the exchange of ideas among militants. As RFE/RL reports, the latest dramatic example of its use came yesterday when a militant group posted a video of a blindfolded and bandaged US hostage in Saudi Arabia."

Pakistan to participate in ITU Asia 2004 - PakTribune

Pakistan to participate in ITU Asia 2004 - PakTribune: "ISLAMABAD, June 17 (Online): Pakistan would participate in ITU Asia 2004, being held from 7-11 September 2004 in Busan, Korea. "

Under the theme Asia leading the future, ITU Telecom Asia 2004 will comprise a major exhibition, featuring the latest products and services from across the spectrum of the telecom industry from fixed line to mobile, internet, broadband and components and accessories.

Pakistan Post to launch E-Money Order Service

'Pakistan Post to launch E-Money Order Service' - PakTribune: "ISLAMABAD, June 17 (Online): Pakistan Post will soon launch Electronic Money Order Service as part of re-engineering its Management Structure and diversifying its core competencies .
'To meet the needs of the modern day postal users, Pakistan Post would shortly be launching the facility of electronic money order service throughout the country,' said Chairman Pakistan Postal Services Management Board, Major General retired Agha Masood Hasan while inaugurating the three day Postmasters General Conference being held at the auditorium of Postal Staff College ."

Outsource World, UK

Email from Jehan Ara, President PASHA, who is currently in the UK:

Jehan writes:
As some of you already know I am here in the UK at the invitation of the Oxford Internet Institute to participate in a panel discussion on the 17th and 18th of June.

I decided to come here a few days early so that I could check out Outsource World UK to see if things had changed since the last time that Pakistan participated. Today was the opening day and if it was any indication, then I am glad we decided not to participate. They had 4 different events going on in the same hall - Outsource World, Smart Business, Mobile Enterprise and Internet World, each one a very small event on its own and even together they didn't form a very large show. As for buyers, I didn't see many.

There were several country pavilions Romania's being the largest. Other country pavilions included China, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt and South Africa. The Indian companies that were represented were all very small players most of whom i had never heard of before - none of the big companies were represented, nor was Nasscom as an entity. The China pavilion was a very small one. Romanian companies were the largest in number - they are actually quite popular in terms of outsourcing from Europe. Their chunk of the outsourcing pie has grown quite a bit over the past two years especially from Germany. The UK and Germany are now equal in the amount of work that they outsource. The market size has grown by about 67% in the past year and is expected to at least match the US, if not surpass it, within the next year or so.

So although Outsource World doesn't seem to be the show to come to, we need to increase our marketing efforts to the UK and Europe.

Dubai made an announcement at Outsource World today. The CEO of Dubai Internet City says that they are launching Dubai Outsource Zone to add to their existing portfolio of the Internet City, Media City and Knowledge Village. They will provide the infrastructure that is needed for BPO/Call Centre set-ups. Some of the incentives similar to those availabe in their other zones are: 100% tax free, 100% ownership by foreigners, 100% repatriation of funds, Visas for workers on a 24 hour fastrack.

This was announced during the inaugural session. It was said that Dubai provides the environment, the stability and the efficiency required by most customers in Europe and the US. I wonder what this will mean for all of us. Apparently many large companies are already planning to open up offices in the Zone. Just wanted to share this with all of you. That's all for now. Be back home on the 21st and will probably be seeing many of you at the PSEB Conference/Exhibition.
END>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Yahoo 100 MB Mail Accounts

Something to look forward to in a dull and extremely humid day. Finally I too can now get 10 MB email attachments.

Interesting Infrastructure States, an add-on

Got email from a traveler Bear Falugo who intends traveling to Pakistan from China through Khunjerab. Part of it reads, “Shall I be able to use the Internet in Pakistan.”

Reports

Now this is amusing. Sometimes, the obtuseness of Americans as a whole stuns me.

This here isn't much better.

And when I read this, I wish that the parachute hadn't opened. If only because I'd like to see a war on "Iraqi parachutes of mass destruction manufactured by Al-Qaeda".

'The Web'::Special report in TNS

Here's something refereshing [sarcasm intended].

The News on Sunday's special report looks at 'Computer Lifestyle'.
Lots of interesting angles and masala to explore.

Special report: The Web [imaginatively titled ;~)]

Comments?

Haj Data to be made available online

Haj data to be made available Online: According to our religious affairs minister Ijaz-ul-Haq (Can anyone explain how this a** became the 'religious affairs' minister? I wonder if he has ever even prayed in his lifetme.)that experts from Saudi Arabia will soon be visiting Pakistan soon to connect Madina Munawara with Peshawar, Quetta, Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad through networking and the data of all Hujaj will available on Internet. No date has been specified as to when all of this will be happeneing though.

Cyber Cafe news: Misuse of Power

Think twice before entering a cyber cafe now. Chances are you'll be picked by the government hounds on some stupid charges. Just read what happened to our friends at the Peshawer University.

Asia Pacific Media Network :: PAKISTAN: Students, newsman held at cyber cafe: "PAKISTAN: Students, newsman held at cyber cafe
Local police on Tuesday arrested some students, including girls, and a local journalist from a cyber cafe on the Peshawar University campus
Dawn
Thursday, June 10, 2004
PESHAWAR, June 9: Local police on Tuesday arrested some students, including girls, and a local journalist from a cyber cafe on the Peshawar University campus. The campus police arrested the students and the newsman, Mujeeb Khan, when they were busy in their routine work.
Later, they were released on the intervention of senior police officers. NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has suspended the officials involved in the arrests - an ASI Mehr Ali and Head Constable Alamzaib. He was informed about the incident during his visit to the Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday evening. "

PSEB's Internship Project

PSEB has taken the initiative to act as the middle tier between the software industry and academic institutions. In the first phase, PSEB plans to place 1000 students from 75 different universities and institutions in the local software industry. The website has a listing of students who have done internships through them.

The project appears to be quite old but I recently got to know about it. By the way... Hi all!

Henry Olanga to release his music album online

Remeber Henry Olanga from the Zimbabwe cricket team, famous more for his wierd hairdos than his cricketing skill? Well what do you know...he's planning to start his music career sometime later this year now and will be releasing the tracks online.

:-)


Redemption song - [Sunday Herald]: "this engaging fellow, whose album of classical arias (and R�n�B) will be released via the internet this year, has a habit of hitting the right note, in contrast to those who have let Zimbabwe�s malady linger on. "

Interesting Infrastructure Stats

Please check out the bit on the Internet infrastructure stats: 1800 plus cities are now connected to the net...:-O....like hello? do we really have that number of cities in Pakistan to start with? Also is there a technical possiblity to estimate in real time, how many nodes are active at any given time all over Pakistan? All techies on board keep your suggestions flowing on this one please.


Hi Pakistan: "Telephone connections rose to 4.2 million

Teledensity in Pakistan has registered a stable growth over the past few years as fixed telephone connections have doubled from 2.4 million in 1996 to 4.2 million till February 2004, the Economic Survey 2003-04 said. "

At present, four companies are providing cellular mobile services in Pakistan like Mobilink, Paktel, Instaphone and Ufone. In 1999, there were only 0.2 million subscribers across the country but with the introduction of CPP regime (calling party pay) and Ufone entry into the cellular market, a sharp increase in the number of subscribers was observed resulting in a rise to 1.2 million in 2002. Currently there are a total of 3.7 million subscribers in Pakistan.

By the end of February 2004, the PTCL had deployed 5.05 million lines out of which 4.2 million were in service (a capacity utilization ratio of 84 per cent). The PTCL network has a 99.5 per cent digital switching system exchange, an optical fibre cable backbone, subsidiary routes, long distance media, digital radio systems, satellite communications and alternative arrangements with international gateway at Karachi and Islamabad.

Besides, a total of 1,812 cities, towns and villages have so far been provided with internet access. There are more than 1.6 million internet users across the country.

Microsoft South Gulf - Events - Microsoft PDC Launch � Pakistan

For anyone interested to learn about the coming Microsoft's PDC event to be held on the 15th, visit the above link

PSEB's Gaming conference

Finally tracked a URL for the Gaming conference I've been hearing about for the past one week. PSEB is apparently hosting a workshop for animation artists in efforts to create an industry here. No doubt, some one has been whispering the prospects of 'a $$$ billion multimedia industry in Pakistan' and this is one of the first (of last?) excercises to make the revolution see the light of day.

Worthwhile to mention where I tracked PSEB's press release from. A Linux blogger Always great to chance across Linux finds such as this. I discovered a nicer one for Red Hat a list of Pakistani LUGs.

The Undead Zone - Why realistic graphics make humans look creepy. By Clive�Thompson

A nice read for all gaming buffs and digital artisits.


The Undead Zone - Why realistic graphics make humans look creepy. By Clive�Thompson: "In 1978, the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori noticed something interesting: The more humanlike his robots became, the more people were attracted to them, but only up to a point. If an android become too realistic and lifelike, suddenly people were repelled and disgusted.
The problem, Mori realized, is in the nature of how we identify with robots. When an android, such as R2-D2 or C-3PO, barely looks human, we cut it a lot of slack. It seems cute. We don't care that it's only 50 percent humanlike. But when a robot becomes 99 percent lifelike�so close that it's almost real�we focus on the missing 1 percent. We notice the slightly slack skin, the absence of a truly human glitter in the eyes. The once-cute robot now looks like an animated corpse. Our warm feelings, which had been rising the more vivid the robot became, abruptly plunge downward. Mori called this plunge 'the Uncanny Valley,' the paradoxical point at which a simulation of life becomes so good it's bad.
As video games have developed increasingly realistic graphics, they have begun to suffer more and more from this same conundrum. "

Urdu e-books

Kitaabghar is posting urdu e-books on their site. About 20 titles so far, and inviting people to submit their 'work' for consideration. Any 'zauk' wallas might want to stop by.

Pir Sahab Online

Remember Professor Nagee B.A. and his wall chalking all around Karachi claiming to get rid of demons from your households? Well he just met his match with Amil Professsor Syed Ali Shah who has just gone online and is also spamming everyone about his magical ways.

PSO launches online ordering system

It's been reported that Pakistan State Oil (PSO), in collaboration with Citibank N.A. Pakistan, has launched a web-based Online Ordering System, the e-Marketplace, exclusively for PSO dealers who can now place orders on the Internet and make real-time payments for their product requirements.

This solution, the first of its kind in Pakistan, has been designed to communicate on real time to both PSO’s database and Citibank’s financial transaction settlement system. The solution facilitates complete order management and financial information.

It will help PSO dealers to view available oil products and their updated prices, prepare and submit orders for product requirement .

Select date and time of product delivery at the outlet, view real-time status and summary of orders and authorize payments to PSO through direct-debits, crossed cheques, credit facility extended by Citibank. PSO and Citibank have become pioneers of web-based Business-to-Business (B2B) online banking services in this part of the world.

PIA & e-ticketing

PIA would start e-ticketing across the world from September. According to the plan, tickets can be bought and the passenger name record (PNR) could be confirmed on the Internet.

Cybercafes and porn ruckus

As picked up by Salman.

"How a discussion gets derailed"
By Khalid Hussain

Hafiz Hussain Ahmad described the cafés as prostitution dens. Surely
this was not the intent of the host who prepared the discussion. He
just stood there and let the discussion be taken out of his hands and
buried in nonsense. Hafiz Sahib then fell upon coeducation in Pakistan
while the mixed audience sat there like fools clearly cowed down by a
semi-literate Deobandi leader more powerful than the President of
Pakistan

Spiffy enough?

Thanks for the push Khalid ;~) Comments enabled for 'anyone'. *groans inwardly at spam bots

What do you think of this template? I ignored the maroon-version of the same look since it reminded me of a school uniform and hospitals. Had my finger on another chic template-Neon green top and white base. But I'll wait for your verdict.

By off topics I meant any thing of mutual interest that can help build a cohesive community here. And, discussing even things like Pk parliament is not a bad idea, particularly when no one else is doing that.

But I settle for what Khalid has suggested.

Off topics? Again, you should emphasize what you mean by off topics? Should we for instance talk about 'drugs', 'pop music' or 'PK parliament'?

I'm all for understanding different cultures and accomodating them but this piece of news came as slightly puzzling. From WorldNetDaily.com
"Recognizing Israel has little support in the world, Arabs and Muslims who back the Jewish state are developing a new website, ArabsforIsrael.comArabsforIsrael.com.

Its developer, Middle East-born author Nonie Darwish, says "now is the right time for Arabs and Muslims who believe in and support Israel to do so."

SPIDER Community: What to discuss?

I suggest this: Every thing that is covered in SPIDER, also every thing that is not covered, also off topics.

I haven't visited the SETI@HOME website in 4 years. Hence, I was pleasantly surprised to see it is brimming with information on the project, right from the front page now. Go take a look. The project turned 5 on Friday 21 May.

While there, I discovered a Grid Cafe : The website is excellent for beginners and professionals interested in grid computing. Bulky video clips (6 to 4 MB) available carrying interviews of founder Ian Foster and prolific people in this field.

Khalid: I completely agree. The Spider website offers nothing except a contact form. Thank you for the generous compliment :~)

Thanks for the link Shirazi. I completely agree that a community for Spider (that doesnt just focus on tech) would fill a great void for the mag. What areas can we look at, that either of you think would interest young and old alike, aside from typical issues?

New from Pakistan:
www.motorinpakistan.com
Published by Najeeb Nayyer and the same group of people who print The Synergyzer, a marketing journal along the lines of DAWN's Aurora.

Noteworthy blogger:
www.hijabiman.com Aspiring Islamic scholar and earnest writer, photographer.

socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/ Social networking, on Spider's June cover, is hot cakes. This blog keeps a track of its technical developments.

Google is spreading the message, lets beat spyware together. Software eng. pay attention.
www.google.com/corporate/software_principles.html
Courtesy: Slashdot.org

Nearly 85% email in the US is spam. Hmmm.

Andy Dehnart, in his thesis, described how David Talbot, founder of online magazine Salon created a community back in 1995. Make them read that, may be administrators agree to let a new community be formed.