Wednesday, April 13, 2011

IT & Telecom Ministry is Seemingly Minister-less, Once Again: ProPakistani

9:16 PM

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IT & Telecom Ministry is Seemingly Minister-less, Once Again: ProPakistani

IT & Telecom Ministry is Seemingly Minister-less, Once Again
Facebook Founder Allegedly Sold Half of his Company for Just 1,000 Dollars
Telecom Services Vital for Businesses: Ameena Sayaid

IT & Telecom Ministry is Seemingly Minister-less, Once Again

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 07:55 AM PDT

IT & Telecom Ministry is Seemingly Minister-less, Once Again is a post from: ProPakistani

TV channels and newspapers are reporting that Dr. Babar Awan, who happened to be the law minister and additionally the minister in-charge of IT and Telecom, has resigned to appear in the supreme court for Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto case.

Official sources have not confirmed us the notification of Mr. Awan's resignation, however, his resignation rendered in the supreme court is considered as valid by the masses.

If, it happens, this will mark an end to Dr. Awan's less than two week minister-ship for IT and Telecom ministry.

During past three years, as we have discussed several times in the past, IT and Telecom ministry has remained either ministry-less or otherwise secretary-less. This situation has left so many organizations to work sluggishly or otherwise with no work/development at all.

It is just not understandable for a common man that why the government isn't able to appoint one man out of 18 million people to head IT and Telecom Ministry.

We recently reported that telecom consumers paid over 36 billion rupees as taxes in just 6 months of 2010-11, however, if government's lack of interest for the sector remains the same, the consequences could be hard to bear for already stricken economy of the country.

Facebook Founder Allegedly Sold Half of his Company for Just 1,000 Dollars

Posted: 12 Apr 2011 10:10 PM PDT

Facebook Founder Allegedly Sold Half of his Company for Just 1,000 Dollars is a post from: ProPakistani

We usually don't cover global tech stories, but this is huge, so we thought our readers might get interested in reading this.

Well, the headline might look crazy to you, but the fact is that Paul Ceglia, initial partner of Mark Zuckerberg (the founder and CEO of facebook), is claiming to have 50 percent financial rights over Facebook, based on his initial investment of USD 1,000 – that he made back in 2003.

This way, Paul Ceglia is potentially the luckiest investor in the history of tech world. He, may get as many shares in Facebook as Zuckerbeg has – based on his 1,000 dollars investment that he made in facebook in early days.

Paul says that he has the copy of contract with at least one dozen emails, which facebook says are fake, to prove that his initial investment is legit and he is rightful owner of facebook shares (exactly equal to Zuckerberg's) valuing around 10 billion dollars.

It all started back in 2003 when Zuckerberg shared his idea of year book (later called as facebook) with Paul and asked him for fund injection, which Paul agreed and paid 1,000 dollars to Zuckerberg against 50 percent stakes in the project.

After several months of this initial investment by Paul, Zuckerberg was able to launch facebook in early 2004, which turned out to be a successful project (though the access to website was limited to Harvard University students only).

Later on, in summer 2004, Zuckerberg seemingly lied to Paul and said that project didn't go through well and he's thinking of taking the website off-air. He offered Paul the the refund of his investment, which Paul claims Zuckerberg never made.

Currently the case is in court, and may turn out to be one of the biggest tech stories of history.

And just don't consider it another ordinary lawsuit, as the tech analysts are taking this incident very seriously, plus a fact that the law firm behind Paul Ceglia, DLA Piper, is a major international law firm that primarily represents technology companies. It is said that DLA Piper takes only those cases which it believes have some value and credibility in them.

Just to add here, in past, facebook had to pay 65 million dollars to Winklevoss brothers (who were without any document proof) in a settlement case when both the brothers had accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea of launching facebook.

You can read complete emails (between Zuckerberg and Paul) and more details on Business Insider and a webcast discussion on TechCrunch.

Telecom Services Vital for Businesses: Ameena Sayaid

Posted: 12 Apr 2011 10:00 PM PDT

Telecom Services Vital for Businesses: Ameena Sayaid is a post from: ProPakistani

Ameena saiyid Telecom Services Vital for Businesses: Ameena Sayaid Pakistan has strong telecommunication networks in its urban and rural cities for rapid and affordable communication among people, helping to bridge gap among communities of distant areas and creating a sense of strong nationhood among the masses.

This was stated by Ameena Sayiad, President Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry in an exclusive interview to ProPakistani.

Cellular phone companies have deployed their network extensively from metropolis to small villages, which showed the huge subscribes' base that recently crossed 100-million mark, she said.

"This number of 100 million is huge, in fact it outnumbers the figure of 70 million TV viewers in the country. Hence, telephony services are very vital in diminishing the isolation of the people in rural areas and created a binding among people-to-people connection," Ameena said.

"Thanks to organizations like USF, farmers in the far flung villages are enjoying facility of mobile phone services, which was previously impossible. In fact it took life times for individuals to to get wired-line telephone connections even in the major cities" she said while referring to the service affordability and accessibility of the people that made closer to each other while living at distant places.

She mentioned that the telecommunication network of Pakistan is tremendous and invaluable as compared to different other utilities such as electricity, gas and water – which are hardly available to people of Pakistan.

The multinational companies operating in the country now have opportunities to explore different urban and rural markets in the – thanks to the telephone services, which are easily available in nook and corner of the country, Ameena further said.

There is a lot of potential in oil and gas exploration and mineral minoning sector in Pakistan, while agriculture based businesses have tremendous potential in rural areas. All these business activities are carried out in deserted place therefore it is important to get connected with people by wireless telephones, which will further play a vital role in the business with the advancement to video-conferencing services.

President OICCI explained the contribution made by telecommunication operators to Foreign Direct Investment, Corporate Governors, Business Practices and activities of Social Corporate Responsibility (CSR) in the country.

Cellular operators have landed substantial FDI in the country, which spurred economic activities and generated hundred of thousands of direct and indirect employment. They have also contributed heavily to relief activities for flood affected citizen in past year, she pointed out.

Telenor is a member of OICCI so far but different operators will soon be part of overseas chamber, she mentioned. "Currently, Nokia is taking interest to be member of one of the oldest and prestigious platform of overseas companies."

The telecom sector has witnessed tremendous growth, made life of people easier and helped business achieving success, she concluded.

8:50 AM

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Show, don't tell

13 April, 2011

Using a headline I borrowed from a smart colleague in DFID, there is an article by me in the current edition of the Public Service Review, which focuses on on international development. You can download a PDF of the article here.

My article begins with a quote from Brian Eno:

We expect that the next big thing will be a bigger version of the last big thing. What we don't expect, yet what is most likely, is that the next big thing won't look important to us at all – until it's so important that we can't ignore it."
Brian Eno, Prospect, 26th November 2010

There are some interesting articles elsewhere in the same edition looking at the role of the private sector in development, and a rather eclectic mix of other articles.

See the post online, read comments by others, or add your comments.

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5:34 AM

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eHow of the Day

How to Develop Employee Core Competencies

Development of employee core competencies takes specified focus from a manager who is intent on improvement. Pushing your staff toward success often means you will have to evaluate each employee separately to find points that need improvement. While annual performance evaluations are an important part of the process of improvement, more is needed in order to complete the cycle of growth within the professional environment.…keep reading

Computer Tips From A Computer Guy

Rotate Your Desktop Wallpaper Automatically with Photos from Flickr

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 04:17 AM PDT

Desktop wallpaper sets the mood for all we do on our Windows-based computers. But, even the best vacation photographs grow stale after a while. To keep energy flowing while behind a computer screen, we should change our desktop wallpaper often—or at least periodically.

If you do not have time to change your desktop wallpaper, a program like FlickrWall can do it for you. Flickrwall rotates desktop wallpaper on a set schedule by pulling photographs from Flickr.

After a quick download from Softonic, extract and install FlickrWall. Be careful: the software comes packaged with the Bing toolbar. If you do not want to install this toolbar, be sure to uncheck it during the installation process.

Once installed, the software opens for you to choose your options. First, login to to Flickr by clicking the Sign in button towards the top of the window.

Next, choose how often you would like the software to change your desktop wallpaper. Choices range from every hour to every day.

Choose the list of Flickr photos to use. The Explore Top 100 is a good choice, as it changes everyday, but you can also choose to use photos from a specific group or of a specific place.

If there is a certain day's list you would like to use, you can enter a date in the box just below where you choose the list of photos. Leave the box blank for the photos to change with the given day. Most people should leave the box blank.

To have the wallpaper changer start when Windows starts, check the box next to run at startup.

Click Update Now to update your selections, then close the window.

You will see a black W appear next to your clock on the taskbar. You can right-click the W at any time and choose options to change your settings. Or, click next to show a different photo as your wallpaper.

Some users have reported minor issues with the program that were resolved by downloading the latest .NET framework. With Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit, we had no problems.

Overall, the software is small, does exactly what it claims to do, and does so with a moderate amount of speed. If looking for a creative way to change your desktop wallpaper, FlickrWall is definitely a good choice.

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Rotate Your Desktop Wallpaper Automatically with Photos from Flickr

How to Setup and Use a Windows 7 Homegroup

Posted: 12 Apr 2011 05:47 AM PDT

A homegroup in Windows 7 is a means by which users of a home based, generally wireless network, can share resources (hard drives, libraries, printers, etc.) easily and without too much trouble.

Because one computer can only belong to one homegroup at a time, most small home based networks have just one homegroup that everyone on the home network uses. And because everyone has to supply a password before gaining access, security is pretty tight.

Homegroups are not set up by default, so it must be set up before anyone on the network can join. To create a homegroup, choose one of the Windows 7 based computers and bring up Control Panel.

Click on Choose homegroup and sharing options.

If you don't yet belong to a homegroup, and one hasn't yet been created on your home network, you should see the window that says, "There is currently no homegroup on the network." Click on the button farther down that says, Create a homgroup.

You should get this next screen where you are shown which libraries exist on your computer for you to share with others on the network:

Once you have chosen which libraries you wish to share, by checking the appropriate boxes, click the Next button. You'll get a progress bar for a moment, then you should get this next screen giving you the password you'll need to add other computers on your network to your homegroup. You should write it down or print it if you plan to keep using it.

When you click the Finish button, the homegroup setup is completed, and all of the windows and menus will go away leaving you back at the Control Panel window. Then since you probably don't want to keep the computer generated password, click where it says Change the Password.

You should get this popup:

Once you click on Change the password, you should get this screen:

Type in a good password that you'll remember then click the Next button. You should get this screen:

Click Finish and that should be it for creating your homegroup.

Now that you've got a reasonably good password, head on over to one of your other networked computers and bring up Control Panel again, and once again, click on Choose homegroup and sharing options. This time you should get a message telling you that "Somebody on SomeComputer has created a homepage on the network." Of course on your network, Somebody and SomeComputer will be your own name and computer name.

Clicking Join now, should get you this next screen:

Check or uncheck whichever libraries you wish to share, then click the Next button. You should get this next screen asking for the password you just created on the first computer:

After you type in the password and click Next, you should get this screen:

Which means you are now finally ready to see the results of your efforts.

Close down Control Panel and bring up File Manager; note where it shows you your homegroup:

From here on in you can use your homegroup just like any other library, you can also change what is shared on any computer on the network at any time by going to Control Panel on that computer and clicking on Choose homegroup and sharing options. You can also add libraries not on the default list by creating a new library and then clicking on Share with, in File Manager.