Pakistan IT » Internet

Warid, Wateen Headquarter May Shift to Islamabad

Pakistan IT — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 02:22:33 +0000

The managements of Warid Tel and Wateen, the two major telecom and broadband operators of Dhabi Group, are mulling to relocate companies’ headquarter to Islamabad as a strategy to boost up their operations and business with accelerated pace.

Sources in the Dhabi Group told Telecom Recorder that management of two companies have planned to shift their head offices in Islamabad from Lahore for better coordination with telecom regulator, concerned ministry and different operators of telecom sector.

Though operator have its regional office in Islamabad, which maintain liaison with headquarter over policy issues of telecom sector directly but the new management want to establish main office in Islamabad as all four cellular operator headquarters are based in Islamabad.

Sources said the new management deliberated that the relocation of their head office may help them to implement the policies and regulations of the telecom authority with better understand as top brass will look after day to day affairs and operations in the capital of the country.

Previously, they added, the key officials Pervez Shahid and Bashir Tahir were based in Lahore, therefore, the companies head offices remain functional in their residential cities.

Sources confirmed, Zohair Khaliq the Executive Director of the Dhabi Group and former CEO Mobilink, has proposed the idea taking in confidence his fellow board members on relocation of headquarter.

According to them, he said the operations of the company will be streamlined in well connected manner if they are based in capital of the country.

Warid Tel launched its services in 2005 whereas its sister organization Wateen commenced its services in 2007.

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Newspaper from China Warned Google Regarding Hacking Claims

Pakistan IT — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:36:29 +0000

The issue of Gmail hacking has taken a serious turn when the government officials from both the countries involved. The U.S is symbolizing these attacks with the cyber war. China is an emerging super power and having 450 million internet users. So China can affect the global economy of internet.

An official newspaper of china has taken this issue and said that Google may have to pay price for these hacking claims. It means China and its government is rejecting the accusations of hacking.

It is written in the People’s Daily overseas edition:

“Deliberately pandering to negative Western perceptions of China, and strongly hinting that the hacking attacks were the work of the Chinese government. Google’s accusations aimed at China are spurious, have ulterior motives, and bear malign intentions. Google should not become overly embroiled in international political struggle, playing the role of a tool for political contention. For when the international winds shift direction, it may become sacrificed to politics and will be spurned by the marketplace.”

China says that Google is just playing bad politics and this accusation process may hurt Chinese business. So Google should stop this. The friction between the China and Google may affect the U.S-China relations as the whole issue has become political.

In past, the relationship of Google and China was tensed because of the hacking and censorship issue. Google has partially come out of China and it is losing much of its business. The issue has become politicized and it should be resolved soon. The officials from both sides are giving statements that may hurt anyone’s feelings.

The investigation process is taking place and it will soon be revealed that who is the culprit. I personally feel that Google is just blaming China and nothing is in between. It is taking revenge from China for the censorship issue.

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Gmail Hacking Issue Become Sterner

Pakistan IT — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:01:45 +0000

The issue of Gmail hacking is creating tension between both Google and China. It is also becoming the issue of countries and people are linking it with the cyber military warfare. As this is the era of technology and war between countries can be done in many ways. The physical presence is no issue these days. The people from U.S.A and China both are getting aggressive and denying each other’s statements.

As we all know that China is an emerging super power and it is the hub of world’s electronics so there is a factor of jealousy among various countries including west. Officially neither Google nor U.S officials are blaming the government of China. There are many rumors regarding this hacking issue but most of them are focused on China.

U.S.A never leaves any issue that is related to its sovereignty and they do certain investigations for getting into the roots of it. Though it is bit difficult to know who is actually behind the hacking scene but every possible step will be taken by U.S and Google with the collaboration of FBI. The two military officers from china have written a paper regarding this issue and they mentioned many things in it.

Senior Colonel Ye Zheng and his colleague Zhao Baoxian said:

“Just as nuclear warfare was the strategic war of the industrial era, cyber-warfare has become the strategic war of the information era, and this has become a form of battle that is massively destructive and concerns the life and death of nations. The targets of psychological warfare on the Internet have expanded from the military to the public”

China is also going through the censorship issue regarding facebook and twitter and from this we can know that there are certain restrictions over freedom of expression in China. We cannot comment on it because this is a personal matter of China and they better know what they have to do with it.

Now let me tell you a bit about the place named as Jinan that is in China and some unknown people are accused from that place for hacking. If you see Jinan from Google earth you will notice that it is same as other cities of China having low level construction. It is also having university and lot of railway lines.

Google says that in Jinan there might be servers of computers who have hacked Gmail accounts or there might be a laptop of a hacker from where Gmail accounts have been compromised. Now this cyber attack is considered as a military cyber war and many of military officials from U.S have accepted this.

Now the investigation is going on and we have to see the real culprit behind this, but as I told you before that this issue has become diplomatic and it might affect various countries relationship because of the involvements of senior U.S officials.

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UBL WIZ Card, An ACCA Prepaid VISA Debit Service

Pakistan IT — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 14:30:54 +0000

UBL Wiz is a Prepaid VISA Debit Card. It is an internationally accepted VISA Debit Card that allows spending online and at shopping outlets in addition to cash withdrawals at ATMs.

UBL Wiz Card can be used everywhere VISA cards are accepted. Whether you are using it online, paying for petrol, shopping or dining, you are accessing money directly from your prepaid card, without having to visit the bank.

UBL Wiz is the 1st Prepaid VISA Debit Card in Pakistan. It is instantly available at selected UBL branches with the facility of re-load, allows you to spend online and at shopping outlets and withdraw cash at ATMs. It is also accepted at all VISA locations internationally.

Available to all CNIC holders

All valid CNIC holders in Pakistan can own a UBL Wiz Prepaid VISA Debit Card. An individual can purchase up to three cards at a time on his/her CNIC – one of each category, i.e. a person can have a single UBL Wiz Ladies, UBL Wiz Teen and UBL Wiz Travelers card at any given point in time.

24×7 Toll Free Contact Centre

If you have any queries or need assistance with your UBL Wiz card, you can talk to an agent at our 24 hour Contact Centre at 0800-11-825. You can also use the telephone next to all UBL ATMs and be instantly connected to our customer service representative via a hotline facility.

UBL Wiz – Your ATM Card

UBL has its own network of 336 ATMs in 85 cities, which continues to expand by the day. Moreover, UBL is also part of the 1 Link, MNET and VISA networks. These allow you to use your UBL Wiz across Pakistan at more than 3,000 ATMs displaying the 1 Link and MNET logo and at more than 2 million ATMs in 150 countries. The UBL Wiz card is also accepted on all VISA certified machines displaying the VISA Plus sign.

Online Shopping

UBL Wiz provides you convenience and security to shop online. In order to activate your card for online transactions, you will need to sign up for the facility and enable your card.

Other Facilities
Mini Statement Payments

You can get a free of cost mini-statement that shows the recent transactions on your Wiz Card, at any time through UBL ATM’s.

UBL e-statement facility

UBL e-statements give you the flexibility to choose how frequently you want to receive your e-statements i.e. daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or semi-annually. This facility is available absolutely free of cost for Wiz card holders!

Balance Enquiry

You can check the available balance in your account at any UBL, 1 Link or MNET ATM and get a slip of your account balance.

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Russia Won’t Ban Gmail or Skype Amid Security Concerns

Pakistan IT — Sat, 07 May 2011 13:44:49 +0000

It looks like Russia won’t be banning Skype or Gmail, after all. The Kremlin was reportedly considering blocking both services, along with Hotmail, in response to a major cyberattack that crippled the country’s most popular blog and an independent news site. Some within the Kremlin had believed the services posed a major threat to national security, but some critics had thought the government may have just been looking for an excuse to tighten its control over the Web — ahead of December’s parliamentary elections and next year’s presidential race.

source: AP/HuffPost

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Facebook Strikes Deal to Create New Social Network in China

Pakistan IT — Sat, 07 May 2011 13:39:49 +0000

Facebook is reportedly working with China’s largest search engine to create a new, jointly owned social network. The collaboration with Baidu would allow Facebook to get a foothold in the Chinese market while giving Baidu the chance to capitalize on Mark Zuckerberg’s network-building expertise. The new site would still need to be approved by Chinese’s Internet regulators, who retain final say on pretty much everything. And it definitely wouldn’t be able to use the Facebook.com URL, which remains blocked throughout the mainland.

via: NBC Bay Area

source: Silicon Alley Insider

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Julian Assange Says WikiLeaks Is More Accountable Than Most Governments, Gets a Little Sassy About It

Pakistan IT — Sat, 07 May 2011 13:37:53 +0000

Julian Assange thinks WikiLeaks is more accountable than any democratic government in the world. And if you dare say otherwise, you’ll probably get sued.

That was essentially the message that Assange conveyed over the weekend, during his first public appearance since being arrested in December, amid accusations of rape and sexual assault. Speaking to an audience at a public debate in London, Assange claimed that his whistleblowing organization is more accountable than most democratically elected governments — simply because WikiLeaks relies upon personal donations, rather than corporate money.

“We are directly supported on a week-to-week basis by you. You vote with your wallets every week if you believe that our work is worthwhile or not,” Assange explained. “If you believe we have erred, you do not support us. If you believe we need to be protected in our work, you keep us strong. That dynamic feedback, I say, is more responsive than a government that is elected after sourcing money from big business every four years.”

Things got a little testy, though, when political commentator Douglas Murray took the floor. Murray wasted no time in challenging Assange on the sources of WikiLeaks’ donations, as well as its connections to Israel Shamir — a Holocaust denier who has worked with the organization. Murray also brought up a book authored by Guardian writers David Leigh and Luke Harding. According to the authors, Assange once said that any informant who dies because of WikiLeaks’ published documents “had it coming to them.”

Assange replied to Murray by reminding him that he “is in the process of suing the Guardian” over the book, and asked Murray if he’d like to “join the queue” of people he’s suing. That prompted debate chair Jason Cowley to interject and ask, “How can the great champion of open society be using our libel laws to challenge the press?” Assange, however, was forced to cut the Q&A short, in order to make curfew, as required by his bail.

source: The Guardian

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Google and Sprint respond to Google Voice integration issues

Pakistan IT — Sat, 07 May 2011 13:28:36 +0000

You may recall from yesterday that early adopters were having a variety of issues after activating (or attempting to activate) Sprint’s new Google Voice integration feature. Well, a full day has passed, and we’ve had several calls with GV lead Vincent Paquet as well as Brian Smith, Sprint’s director of product development. Both executives have said that their respective companies have been hard at work on resolutions to each of the issues we outlined Thursday night, and some customers we spoke to yesterday are now back online. Jump past the break for a quick summary of what’s been fixed, and what remains on the to-do list.

Our primary concern yesterday was a voicemail security bug that inadvertently granted management-level access to people that one user called from the Google Voice web app. Google is not commenting on this vulnerability, but has confirmed that it’s not a threat today. The second issue was that some GV customers who were up and running with Sprint integration suddenly found themselves unable to use the service. This issue has been pegged to the removal of an accounting code — GGLVOICE — that some Sprint reps have accidentally removed. The carrier is working to prevent this from occurring in the future, and those already affected should soon be able to call in for support. Next up, some international calls were being processed through Sprint, rather than through GV, even after users activated their integration. This has been tied to the accidental removal of the same accounting code, and Google has offered to reimburse affected individuals (see the update on yesterday’s post for full details).

Finally, many users — notably those on personal accounts with corporate discounts — have been unable to activate GV integration. Sprint has promised a mid-May resolution, and we’ll certainly keep you updated. Users with these issues are still being instructed to share their concerns on the Google Voice Forum, which as of now is finally getting the attention it needs. You can also post a comment below, as both companies have been monitoring here, too. Things are looking much better today than they were yesterday, but our position remains unchanged: Unless you’ve already activated Sprint/Google Voice integration, please stand by until both companies have had a chance to work out these (very significant) kinks. You’ve been able to hold out this long — what’s another few weeks?

Update: Sprint customers on corporate and government accounts (paid for by your employer) are currently not eligible for integration. Eventually, Sprint will enable integration for some of these companies on a case-by-case basis.

Google Voice Forum

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Israel Trying to Develop Relations with Pakistan Through Facebook

Pakistan IT — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 06:49:29 +0000

Social Media especially Facebook and Twitter are very much popular all around the globe. Every one is using them whether he/she is a student, businessman, housewives, religious scholars etc.

Name anyone from any class of life and you will find him a user of any of the above mentioned media.

The popularity is increasing by every passing day. We have already seen that businesses are advertising and winning customers through Facebook whereas recruiters are recruiting potential candidates through Facebook too. Some are making friends while others are searching for their life partners. All this and many more activities like games, information gathering are being carried out through these social networks.

All of the above mentioned activities may not look odd to anyone but what is interesting about the Facebook is that it may be the first time that social media is being used to develop relationships with other country.

As we all know that Pakistan has no diplomatic relations with Israel and infect Pakistan hasn’t recognized Israel till yet but in an attempt to foster relationships with Pakistani people, especially with youth, Israel has decided to use much popular social media Facebook.

They have created a page on Facebook by the name of Israel in Pakistan.

At first, by the title of Page, it looks as if Israeli embassy is working in Pakistan but when you go into “info” tab, only then situation gets little clearer.

The information mentioned on the page is as below:

Since Israel and Pakistan do not enjoy formal diplomatic relations, this online embassy serves to foster friendship between nationals of Israel and Pakistan on Facebook. Hopefully we can soon build real embassies in Pakistan and Israel, Shalom!

Mission

“The Embassy of Israel in Pakistan has created this Facebook page as a resource of information on Israel and provides updates on the Mission’s activities to the general public.”

For the time being they have also allowed user postings on the page and till date 2350 people have joined the page. The page is being advertised rigorously through Facebook adverts. Till now most of the postings on the page contain hatred and racism against Jews & Israel.

Let’s see how much they will be successful in their attempt to develop relations with Pakistan. But one thing that people should do that despite the hatred with Israel they should comment or post in a civilized manner as they are representing Pakistan.

Right now people are posting in an offensive, uncivilized manner which is bringing disrepute for them and country as well.

Moreover this matter should be taken at Pakistan Government level and government should devise a strategy in this regard too.

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Convofy: Social Networking for Enterprises

Pakistan IT — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 09:32:51 +0000

The expansive universe cultivated by Facebook demonstrates the changing trend in networking and social behavior exhibited by the internet populace. Left behind are the days when one would find pen pals in corners of the world; we now find friends through a web medium that not only gives a brief intro, but also provides some assurance in terms of common contacts.

If one is to review the history of Facebook, a common story with the release of the motion picture “The Social Network”, the interesting factor found common is the initial thinking that led to the planting of the roots for this giant. It was exclusivity; a club that only a few could get into, while everyone wanted to be in it. In fact, even Orkut employed a similar technique in its heyday, requiring an invitation from members to join.

However, opening up the club proved to be the best thing for Facebook, propelling it into the heights of the internet world, and of course, making a billionaire out of its founder.

Instead of emailing your friends and family and attaching pictures, you could simply share your life and even your daily routine with your world; all through one portal. As the popularity has climbed, more developers have taken to this one platform to share their wares, from games to markets. And this has meant that the time spent by an average user of the site has also increased dramatically, in some cases, alarmingly.

This is one of the reasons why many workplaces have restricted worker access to social networking sites from the office, with information security and confidentiality also playing vital roles.

The various researches done so far have shown diverging results on what would be the best solution for a more open and productive workplace. In fact, a recent Gartner report showed a decline in the use of email communication corresponding with an increase in social network mediums as primary contact platforms. The hypothesis by the report states that social platforms could become the solitary modes in the next 5 years for all forms of communication; email, notes, messages, photos, etc.

Taking into account the global trend, enterprises have to make decisions on how to utilize the social platform; incorporate or segregate. Some organizations have welcomed Facebook openly, relying on the strong member base to promote and market their brands and environment. Others have kept the gates closed.

This is an arena that has become the new battleground for software houses, with Yammer and Salesforce applying the early breaks to introduce enterprise-specific social portals.

The model utilized by these enterprise options is similar to Facebook’s historic model; allowing people of one domain network to connect. In such cases, an enterprise deploys a social platform for all its employees to utilize for all communication, at the office and beyond the doors of the workplace. For a large organization, this is one of the best and low-cost ways to have its people get to know each other, especially in light of the segmentation and segregation that most large entities employ for efficient working processes. Additionally, with Admin control remaining in the hands of the company, the chances of mischief can be minimized.

Convofy

Scrybe, an Adobe Systems Inc. & LMK Resources funded Tech company, (with roots in Pakistan) has become the new member of the social networking arena, launching Convofy.

Being the proud creators of a popular calendaring and personal productivity suite, the new product aims to revolutionize the social networking experience for enterprises. Key features that its founder Faizan Buzdar has been quick to highlight include:

Features:

Microblogging & Status Updates - See your team’s updates in real-time and never miss what your co-workers are sharing. Your team comments on the posts you share, and you see all conversations in real-time. You can talk with your co-workers, not at them.
Sharing Files & Images with Unlimited Storage – Upload and share images or documents with your co-workers or groups without a worry about storage limits. Quickly get your point across using annotations and context.
Sharing Blogs, Articles, Web Links – Create a knowledgebase for your team simply by sharing links and capturing conversations on the signals within those articles. Sharing links is literally as easy as drag and drop.
Sharing To-Dos & Milestones – Share to-do lists and milestones with your co-workers. Multiple people can interact with a task list, in real-time, so everyone in your team is on top of what is going on.
Presence and Company Chat - Know who is online at your workplace and available for chat. You can start a private chat with one person or you can start a chat within a post so all relevant teammates know what’s going on.
Motivational Analytics – The size of the presence bubble tells how actively your co-workers are contributing in to the system. Each post shows who you are most likely to chat with. Your contacts and groups are organized based on your interaction with them.
Employee Profiles – Find relevant information about co-workers and discover domain experts across your organization.
Mobile App – Convofy’s mobile web app is available for any modern device including the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, etc. Stay connected with what is going on at work, even when you are not there.
Private and Secure – Your security is Convofy’s top priority. Work in a private and secure environment in the cloud.
Groups – Create private groups for teams, projects and topics and invite relevant coworkers.
Unlimited Storage – Share away with unlimited storage on Convofy.
Unlimited Users – Your entire company can join your private network. Only a work email address is needed.
Administrative Tools – Claim the data in your company network. Manage and moderate content with advanced administrative tools.
Guest Users – Work with people outside your network, such as clients and contractors by inviting them to groups.
Security Controls – Convofy is safe and secure. Customize password and usage policies. Restrict usage to an IP ranges, or restrict guest domains.
Network Wide Keyword Search – Search the entire network for keywords in one click.
Priority Support – Access to our enhanced support option for any queries from your company.

User experience seems to be the vital aspect considered during the design of Convofy, and the only way to get the complete feel for it would be to try it out. The viral impact of the product has already had several competitors sign up to review the platform, while also enticing large enterprises to join and give their workforce a vital connection tool.

Just like all of us would like our mobiles to be the all-in-one device, Convofy aims to do the same with the office environment. Still early days to predict the success factor, but things are appearing green at the moment.

Take a look for yourself and share the experience: http://www.convofy.com

Have a look at following preview video:

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