Posted by: Reality Bites on November 5, 2008 at 3:43 AM
Pakistan is no doubt the richest nation for OOB (out of box) ideas. Once I met this gora who said to me you know , what your country has? I asked what? He said, the instantaneous OOB approaches everywhere; but I am feeling sorry (Gora said) they do not have enough resources to convert these ideas into industry practice so that they can also emerge as “Google” or “I – Phone”, whatever.
I always bring the above mentioned discussion in my mind, when I feel something discouraging with in my country and feels proud that how people assess us. Continue Reading This Story
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Posted by: Muhammad Ali Raza on October 30, 2008 at 5:49 AM
It’s so natural to love free things…! But, it’s unnatural to get quality products for free, especially software. as people says “Free main tu bukkhar bhi nahi milta”. Though Pakistan is heavily crowded by pirated software, but we all know its not legal, and must be stopped.
So, for those who want free legal software, and that too of immense quality, let’s get familiar with OPEN SOURCE applications. But in case you can pay money to buy licensed software, you can skip this post, as you may get hurt in the end.
Let’s take Microsoft Office as an example, which costs you plenty of dollars to get registered. Also, its EXE files are not editable. Normal computer users are not concerned if EXE files are editable or not, but what if you are a programmer and want to change the layout of your Microsoft Word and its colors? Or let’s say you want to add a feature to Microsoft excel; Can you do them yourself? Answer is big NO. The reason is that its code is not editable.
However, this is not the case with open source. Let review following definitions to better understand what exactly is open source software?
“Open source application is a computer program in which the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design free of charge.”
Another good definition is that “Open source software is a licensing model for software which gives free access to the source code of the software to allow interested parties to modify or contribute to the software as they see fit. Commonly created as collaborative projects and shared at no cost.”
You must be wondering why I am telling you all this. The reason is very simple. Most of us are copying software valuing thousands of dollars without any fear. There is no harm in it, as no one is going to catch you - but this is ethically wrong. So why to indulge ourselves into criminal activity, when there are alternates available? In fact lot better alternates.
And let me tell you something, there is open source software available for each and everything. Yea, these open source applications are being used in kids’ remote control to cars to Boeing 747 cockpit. In ps3 to Nintendo DS, mobile phones to desktops servers. (By the way ProPakistani.com is also on a linux Ubuntu server, which is lot more secure and efficient than of our previous Windows 2003 server)
To further tell you about open source applications available, let me quote Distrowatch Database (they keep record of open source application distribution etc)
DistroWatch database summary
- Number of all distributions in the database: 582
- Number of all active distributions in the database: 327
- Number of discontinued distributions: 183
- Number of distributions on the waiting list: 168
Now let’s talk about Desktops - In Pakistan people fear from using Linux because they think its old type of thing and hard black screen and all things run from there.
My friends, things have changed! Linux now a day is more users’ friendly then of Microsoft Windows. Linux is bug free comes with free support, as well as it is customizable.
Good thing is that there are tons of Linux versions (they call it distributions), such as if you are a network administrator you can chose those distributions which are good for administration tasks, if you are musician, we have just best thing for you also. In case you are a geek we have another special build distribution for you - for students in school and colleges we have treat for you people also.
In latter posts of this series, we will talk more about Linux, especially Linux UBUNTU, which made its place in people hearts in very short time.
So stay tuned for more information.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on October 27, 2008 at 2:42 AM
We had covered this Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) market review few months ago, however, changes take place in days now. As the energy crisis continue in Pakistan, in fact it has gone worse, people are again rushing towards UPS markets to get themselves electricity backups.
Thanks to winter, general people may not require UPS units as they did in hot summer, but businesses, students, and those who want to remain in tact with their electrical devices are in crucial situation due to unannounced and long run power failures.
Okay, I am covering only UPS market review, hopefully I will bring forward Generators’ market review as well in coming days, but lets focus on options and prices for UPS units in this article.
We saw two very significant things, one that UPS market is undergoing tremendous rush, and same is the case with prices. By the way, these prices went down in month of Ramadan (as there were no power outages then), but once again UPS businesses have gone high.
We noted that average cost of a Rs. 10,000 UPS has increased by almost 30 percent when compared to prices in May-June 2008. Retailers say this increment is due to the fact that manufacturers have increased prices of raw material on pretext of higher production cost due to higher imports of accessories.
A survey of retailers unveiled that UPS with a capacity of running two fans and two lights is hot item, and its sale has gone as high as 30 percent. It merits mentioning that this is least powered UPS available in the market, and is mostly used by small to mid sized shopkeepers and home users.
It merits mentioning here that there are two types of UPS available, imported ones and locally assembled. Retailers said that buyers prefer locally made UPS units for two reasons. 1 – They are inexpensive, 2 – Imported UPS units come with no warranty, hence more risk for buyers.
As the demand is increasing, there are more people getting involved in making of these local made UPS units. This retailer named, Hafiz Imran confirmed that there are tens of UPS manufacturing plants working in Rawalpindi. By the way, Daily Time lately reported that there are around 45 manufacturing units of UPS are working in the different parts of the Karachi only as cottage industry. The wholesalers have doubled their orders in order to meet the growing demand.
It was also reported that there comes lots bugs and after sale complains due to ordinary quality and unqualified technicians who make these UPS units in lesser time.
With UPS units, there come batteries, which are used with UPS units to keep your electrical devices alive – and scenario is not different of batteries as well, as prices have gone high here too.
So this is what the market has been undergoing, now check out these tips that you must consider before buying a UPS
Things to consider for Buying a UPS
- Try to put minimum load on UPS, that is don’t try to put all electrical devices on your UPS, instead make sure that only power critical devices are on UPS
- Once you have decided what items you will be running on UPS, calculate their power load. For this, don’t rely on UPS shops, instead ask for electrician in your colony and let him calculate the power load that you will be running on UPS. For instance, a computer with 17 inch monitor is likely to require 400 to 450 watts. Similarly, calculate your entire load and make sure what power do you require from this UPS.
- Go into main electrical markets of your city, instead of your corner electrical shop. Check around in couple of shops for the rates for the power your need. Let’s assume you need a UPS of 1000 Watts, then ask around what quotes you get.
- Please note that there are NO OFFICIAL RATES, so you will have to do little research to save you couple of thousand Rupees
- Please make sure that battery is nothing to do with your UPS. Your batteries will be responsible for backup time. So if you purchase a low ampere battery, it will give you lesser time and vice versa.
- Once your UPS is ready, make sure that it is giving output of exactly what you had asked for. For this purpose you can keep along your cousin or friend who knows a little about electrical meters, ask retailer (shopkeeper) to verify that this UPS is giving out proper voltages.
- If you are planning to use computer with this UPS, make sure that UPS unit supports it. For this direct the shopkeeper to make it computer complaint. (They make little configuration changes in your UPS, which prevents your Computer rebooting when electricity goes down.
Prices for UPS Units with Built in Dry Batteries
These UPS units come with built in Dry Batteries, and stabilizers. Means you get a once pack solution and simply take it home. But make sure that back-up duration for Buil in Dry Batteries’ UPS units is between 10 to 15 minutes only - Meaning that these are mainly for computers and for just saving your files and allowing you enough time to shut down your computer. (In case you need more backup time, then check for below given UPS prices that come without Batteries – and you can add up batteries to get more back up time)
Continue Reading This Story
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Posted by: Muhammad Ali Raza on October 12, 2008 at 12:47 AM
I don’t want to write too much about this topic, but yes I surly want, in fact I demand my readers and authorities concerned to please do some thing about this or we will get destroyed…
I just saw a 10 years old kid coming out of a net café after watching porn (even and that net café doesn’t have internet connectivity).
My question is what this kid will have in hands after few years? What is going to be our future?
My Request to Net Café owners: Please look for other businesses, Allah has promised the livelihood and you gonna get it. Please don’t use ill means
My Request to Parents: You love your children more than anyone, keep an eye on them
My Request to FIA/ PTA/ Police: Don’t play with future of Pakistan, Please save us.
My Request to fellow bloggers and readers: Please spread the word, it counts
7 Comments
Posted by: Bites85 on October 10, 2008 at 3:20 AM
Post by Bites85 of Newz on Fire
Mobile Phones surged into Human beings rapidly, and soon they got addicted to this technology marvel. There are almost 2.7 billion mobile users around the world, ranging from teens to tycoons. Every single person loves to hang out with this device – or say, they simply can’t think of life without it.
In Pakistan cellular industry has shown rapid growth, especially in last few years… As per PTA stats, there are 89 million mobile users in the country, which were only couple of millions some years ago. This clearly depicts that how gigantic Telecom Industry has become.
Every company is trying to beat its nemesis – and efforts are clearly seen to beat each other in this corporate battle. Where these cellular companies brought tons of investment into country, and played constructive role in bettering lifestyles, at same time the tussle between cellular companies has actively spoiled our youth. Every single boy and girl has a mobile phone and they are found texting and talking on their cell phone all the times.
Let’s discuss the impact on youth of various services and packages that cellular companies offer
Night Packages:
These days every company is providing very inexpensive (or even free) calls at night. These calls are like Rs. 5 and, hence are affordable for even an average teen. They talk all night long with their (girl/boy) friends. Use their pocket money to buy credits. At times, even they cheat their parents, and use mobile without their permission. Many boys and girls also talk to their so called lovers. Which can be basically termed as a teen crush?
A study done by a British institute revealed that late night mobile chatting makes teens tired and mentally distorted - as they have to wake up early. Consequently they can’t concentrate on their studies and are often found sleeping in their classes.
Sms Craze:
Messaging, messaging and messaging is what the teens do these days. It’s a symbol of being cool. The one who got more messages is considered the cool one. Teens forward jokes, romantic lines, riddles and even immoral adult messages. SMS Craze in teens can be judged by the typing speed and their accuracy to type messages on little dial pad. They just thumb the mobile and don’t stop.
Pedia Services:
Ask any question through sms is the newest service especially for the teens. Thanks to this service teens can now more efficiently cheat in their papers and quizzes. Zongopedia and ASK Telenor are two services. You can easily send a question through sms. Soon you receive answer and get good marks. It’s just another way to make money for these companies by ruining the careers of teens.
Wap/EDGE:
Now days you don’t need to turn on your pc on to use internet. Internet is just a click away thanks to wap/EDGE enabled mobiles. This service is good for the people who really need it. But teens normally use it to waste their time. First are the messengers which don’t let teens sleep at night, then comes the facebook and other social websites to keep them awake.
Un registered Sim cards:
The last thing which is the biggest menace is the un-registered sim cards. It gives you the passport to do all the wrong things because no one can catch you. I can bet that every single teen has a un-registered sim card. Our government tries so hard to block them but our teens are much smarter. You can talk to anyone, black mail them, do what ever you want.
Let me tell you a shocking thing about un-registered sim cards. I am doing my 2nd year from Army Public School & College, Ordnance road Rawalpindi. Yesterday there was a bomb blast threat at our school. Administration evacuated all the classes and asked the children to run to ground, and latter they were asked to leave for their homes earlier than routine time. Afterwards, they searched the school but it was just a rumor. Today through my close sources I got to know that it was a prank call made by a 7th class student from Saint Mary’s school Tulsa road Rawalpindi… He used an-unregistered sim card. Sadly he was caught by the authorities and God knows what they would have done with him.
MMS/Videos
There are hundreds of examples, where MMS and Videos of their lovers were captured by teenagers and what happens next is a topic that i am feeling is not good to touch… but one can imagine the seriousness of the issue!
Conclusion:
So who is responsible for all this? Cellular companies? Or we ourselves? Cellular companies are just doing their business. There goal is to make more and more revenue. As a business entity they don’t need to care about anything. In fact mobile companies encourage teenagers to call their lovers, for example in one of Telenor’s TVC, one guy asks another “Itnay minutes Aaliya ko mananay kay liye kafi hain na?”
So its we who let them spoil us. We are getting addicted to this device. Our parents should keep a check on us, at the same time we should save ourselves by controlling our desires. Think about it
6 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 12, 2008 at 10:14 AM
In current telecom scenario of Pakistan, innocent subscribers are feeling tremendous pressure and harassment with growing fraudulent activities using cellular communication. It is of common practice that an SMS message that contains information about lucky draw award is received by innocent subscribers who unconsciously reply to such message and losses his balance in return. Besides that some obnoxious calls from a deceiver invites subscriber to come to particular location for award of prize money which ends up in loss of hard earned money of those innocent subscribers.
In the past Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has taken several measures to cap Spam, Unsolicited and Obnoxious Calls and text messages. Until now authority had tried to aware telecom subscribers to report such activities to PTA’s complain resolution number or helpline of respective cellular companies, in order to take action against such callers/spammers.
Lately, PTA has been trying to block unwanted calls on cellular phones in a more organized manner. For the purpose authority gave a tender advertisement in papers, asking solution providers for installation of SPAM filtering devices.
PTA website has revealed about a meeting that was attended by PTA officials and representatives of cellular service providers, in order to identify the critical issues relating to spam, unsolicited and obnoxious calls. In the meeting unsolved spamming problems were discussed that are increasing due to mobile generated fraudulent activities.
Currently Mobilink is offering a service that allows its subscribers to filter SMS (Text Messages), while Ufone is also offering Ufone call block service.
PTA thinks that this is not enough, and there should be an industry standard in order to block such unwanted calls and text messages. For the purpose, PTA also held a meeting with Tekelec (that provided SMS filtering services to Mobilink) to discuss possible solutions for the problem.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, after a deep look into the matter may direct all cellular companies to install such equipment that will filter all unwanted calls for cellular users.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 4, 2008 at 10:48 AM
Businesses in Pakistan are now making themselves ready for internet; many of them have already proved their presence on internet. Similarly, Print Media organizations in Pakistan are excessively investing their time and workforce to make themselves available on internet.
Newspaper readers, specifically Urdu newspaper readers have multiple options to remain updated with happenings in conventional way. They can now read newspapers online exactly the same way as they appear in print version.
Daily Jang, Dawn, Daily Jinnah (Jinnah is currently offline due to maintenance) and Daily Express update their e-versions daily. Good thing about these papers is, that you can access back dated newspaper editions as well. You would be amazed to know that Daily Express has record of every edition published since July 22, 2006, rest of papers offer 7 days’ record.
- Dawn: http://epaper.dawn.com (Free Registration Required)
- Jang: http://ejang.jang.com.pk/ (Free Registration Required)
- Express: http://express.com.pk/ (No Registration Required)
- Daily Jinnah: http://epaper.dailyjinnah.com/ (No Registration Required)
- Daiky Waqt: http://www.dailywaqt.com/ (No Registration Required)
So give these free online resources a try, and let me know if there is any other paper also offering its e-version.
Meanwhile, check following scan of front page from Dawn from 2020 (Got this image from WCCFtech.com)
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on August 19, 2008 at 7:07 PM
As we see internet usage tremendously growing in developing countries, which have normally confined bandwidth to share with its users. Pakistan is one of such countries, which is putting a lot of (traffic) pressure on its international gateways, which at times exceeds the available limits in terms of capacity, consequently slowing the browsing amongst the masses.
Technology Review has published this article which reveals that computer scientists in Pakistan are building a system to boost download speeds in the developing world by letting people effectively share their bandwidth. The basic idea behind the research is develop a system that chops up popular pages and media files, allowing users to grab them from each other, building a grassroots Internet cache.
Here is the selected excerpt from article
In developed countries, Internet service providers (ISPs) create Web caches–machines that copy and store content locally - to boost their customers’ browsing speeds. When a user wants to view a popular website, the information can be pulled from the cache instead of from the computer hosting the website, which may be on the other side of the planet and busy with requests. Similar services are offered by content distribution companies such as Akamai, based in Cambridge, MA. High-traffic sites pay Akamai to host copies of their content in multiple locations, and users are automatically served up a copy of the site from the cache closest to them.
Umar Saif’s team at LUMS is developing DonateBandwidth, a system inspired by the BitTorrent peer-to-peer protocol that is popular for trading large music, film, and program files. With BitTorrent, people’s computers swap small pieces of a file during download, reducing the strain placed on the original source.
DonateBandwidth works in much the same way but lets people share more than just large files. When users try to access a website or download a file, a DonateBandwidth program running on their machine checks first with the peer-to-peer cache to see if the data is stored there. If so, it starts downloading chunks of the file from peers running the same software, while also getting parts of the file through the usual Internet connection. The software could allow people in countries that have better Internet connections to donate their bandwidth to users in the developing world.
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