Global Skype Blackout Continues!: ProPakistani

Global Skype Blackout Continues!
Microsoft and HEC in Pact for National Launch of ‘Strategic Education Alliance’
Hardees Pakistan is Finally Getting a Website
Zong Gives Scholarships to UET Students
RIM Taking on iPad with PlayBook
SCO, SCOM and Ufone Sign Interconnect Agreement

Posted: 23 Dec 2010 04:36 AM PST

Global Skype Blackout Continues! is a post from: ProPakistani

Millions of people around the globe including Pakistan continue to get affected by an outage at the free internet phone service Skype.

Users from Japan, Europe and the US all reported problems, which started at around 2030 GMT on 22 December.

The company said the fault had been caused by critical parts of its network being taken offline.

It is estimated that Skype was losing around half of its daily 20 million calls, when the problem first occurred.

A spokesperson for the firm confirmed the problem was ongoing but could not say how many customers were affected.

In a post the firm said that the problem had been caused by a series of supernode failures. These "act a bit like phone directories", the firm said, routing traffic between users.

"If you want to talk to someone, and your Skype app can’t find them immediately (for example, because they’re connecting from a different location or from a different device) your computer or phone will first try to find a supernode to figure out how to reach them," it read.

"Under normal circumstances, there are a large number of supernodes available. Unfortunately, today, many of them were taken offline by a problem affecting some versions of Skype."

This may take a few hours, and we sincerely apologise for the disruption to your conversations. Some features, like group video calling, may take longer to return to normal.

Skype is is one of the key applications of the modern world and any disturbance affects millions of life

Microsoft and HEC in Pact for National Launch of ‘Strategic Education Alliance’

Posted: 23 Dec 2010 04:34 AM PST

Microsoft and HEC in Pact for National Launch of ‘Strategic Education Alliance’ is a post from: ProPakistani

A well educated population is vital to ensure a successful future. To harness the power of education and Information Technology, Higher Education Commission of Pakistan has launched a countrywide education alliance with the Microsoft.

In essence, the education alliance between HEC and Microsoft will provide centralized IT services to the universities and degree awarding institutes across Pakistan while maintaining the highest standards in the use of Information and Communication Technology across the higher education sector in Pakistan.

The alliance will consist of Faculty Connection, Microsoft Student Partner program, Imagine Cup, Technology Lab Integration, Students to Business interaction (S2B) portals and MSDN Academic Alliance. This will be achieved through the Architecture planning and deployment of Microsoft technology, on-going technical support to Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) and proactive guidance for Service Improvement.

Commenting on this major development in the country's higher education sector, Kamal Ahmed, Country General Manager, Microsoft Pakistan, said,

"Microsoft believes that Information and Communications Technology (ICT), combined with education, provides the path to individuals, communities and nations to achieve their potential. The Education Alliance with HEC provides the framework for a comprehensive joint public/private implementation plan that supports Pakistan's objective of achieving education excellence. It is aligned to the key strategic aims of transforming education, fostering local innovation and enabling jobs and opportunities."

Discussing the merits of the alliance, Anwar Amjad, HEC's Director IT, said,

"This is a great opportunity for institutions of higher learning in Pakistan to gain access to a broad spectrum of technology and enable the country to move towards a knowledge-based economy, ultimately benefiting the country through socio- economic development."

A key objective of the alliance is to establish the basis of a long term, on-going partnership that will also allow for regular review and measurement to ensure that all activities of Microsoft within the educational programs remain aligned to the long term.

Since it is always fruitful for the state sector and private enterprise to work together to combine expertise, knowledge, experience and resources to ensure successful and sustainable education transformation, Microsoft will help the HEC and HEIs to attain their goals by transforming education, fostering local innovation and creating jobs and opportunities through this alliance.

This blends perfectly with the HEC's stated objective of equipping university students and faculty with the latest technological access across Pakistan. The HEC is also committed to bridging the digital divide by bringing Pakistan at par with the developed nations of the world where technology enablement for the students is concerned.

Hardees Pakistan is Finally Getting a Website

Posted: 23 Dec 2010 03:45 AM PST

Hardees Pakistan is Finally Getting a Website is a post from: ProPakistani

Hardees Pakistan is going to have a website soon. Firm has signed the contract with 'The Konsultant' for website development while the design has already been approved.

The design is similar to international website of hardees and the domain will be a sub domain on www.hardees.com

The site will also be hosted on Hardees's international server and all updates will be done by The Konsultant.

There will be online chat forum as well and will be operated via The Konsultant platform offering 24hrs chat support, products updates and special offers.

Unique code will be given to chatters for special offers and will be communicated to the branch instantly – so the chatter can go and avail the offer within 7 days.

More details of the website will be available to general public soon.

Zong Gives Scholarships to UET Students

Posted: 23 Dec 2010 12:06 AM PST

Zong Gives Scholarships to UET Students is a post from: ProPakistani

Zong continues its support of education in Pakistan with the ZONG Scholarship Program for the talented students.

Picture shows Amer Siraj, Regional Director S&D, ZONG is presenting cheque to Gen (R) Muhammad Akram Khan, Vice Chancellor, University of Engineering and Technology of Lahore.

RIM Taking on iPad with PlayBook

Posted: 22 Dec 2010 11:18 PM PST

RIM Taking on iPad with PlayBook is a post from: ProPakistani

Research in Motion (RIM), the firm behind Blackberry, is taking on Apple in the battle of the pads by bringing on the PlayBook. Samsung has already jumped into this foray with the Galaxy Tab.

The Playbook will run on Blackberry Tablet OS (created by QNX) which will offer full support for OpenGL, POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface [for Unix]) as well as standards such as HTML5. It will also have the ability to handle Flash content with support from Adobe as well as Adobe AIR Apps.

This will be the first time that Blackberry has ventured outside the mobile phone realm. According to the people associated with its development as well as various analysts, it will be targeting the professional user segment of the market which has been the niche market for Blackberry.

According to RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis, it will be an incredible gaming platform for publishers and players and it will let the users get the full web experience.

It will be the first professional tablet with a 7-inch (17.8 cm) 1024 x 600 capacitive multi-touch display, a Cortex A9 based dual core 1GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM and two cameras, a 3 mp front facing camera and a 5 mp rear camera for video conferencing.

No storage capacity has been mentioned as yet although it is safe to presume that 16GB and 32GB units will be developed. It will be capable of playing 1080p HD content, will be equipped with an HDMI port as well as a microUSB jack, WiFi (802.11a/b/g/n) and BlueTooth 2.1. The device weighs in at a 400 g, is 0.4 inches thick and will measure 5.1 by 7.6 inches.

With regards to the interface, the tablet will offer an amplified view of what is already on your blackberry, as described by Lazaridis. The OS will likely be a mix of Blackberry OS (which will of course help users familiar with operating Blackberrys) and webOS. It will also allow multi-tasking via a card type menu.

Blackberry users will be able to pair their devices with the PlayBook via Bluetooth to view e-mails, use the calendar, as well as share, sync or duplicate data.

RIM has also informed that it will be releasing a software kit to enable third party developers to begin making applications for the PlayBook.

Whether it will be as popular or trend setting as the iPad, only time will tell. The expected release date for the PlayBook is early 2011 and no price has been mentioned.

The specs are as follows:

7-inch LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
1 GHz dual-core processor
1 GB RAM
Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD video recording
Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
HDMI video output
Wi-Fi – 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
Ultra thin and portable:
Measures 5.1"x7.6"x0.4" (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)
Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)
RIM intends to also offer 3G and 4G models in the future.

SCO, SCOM and Ufone Sign Interconnect Agreement

Posted: 22 Dec 2010 11:00 PM PST

SCO, SCOM and Ufone Sign Interconnect Agreement is a post from: ProPakistani

Special Communications Organization (SCO) and Pak Telecom Mobile Limited (PTML) cellular operators with brand name of SCOM and Ufone, have signed renewed Interconnect Agreement at HQ SCO Rawalpindi.

The ceremony was graced by the Director General SCO, President/CEO Ufone and other senior officials from both sides.

SCO is the largest telecomm operator providing landline, GSM, WLL, Internet and data services in the most difficult areas of Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJ&K) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). Ufone, one of the major GSM service providers has network coverage all over the country including AJ&K and GB. SCO has already signed first ever Roaming Agreement with Ufone enabling SCOM customers to use their parent network across the entire length and breadth of Pakistan.

Signing of RIO based agreement between SCO and Ufone will be mutually beneficial for their respective valued customers. Both sides expressed their greater satisfaction and stressed on the need to further expand bilateral relations to serve the people of the area in a more befitting manner.