Fair usage policy!!!! They must be kidding.

All service providers in Egypt are now providing offers with small asterik beside. It simply means one thing: Fair Usage Policy Applies.

There is a small note: They are kidding. Neither the "unlimited plans" are unlimited nor the fair policy usage is clear. For example, in Etisalat Egypt - In the Green Line unlimited, the Fair usage policy changes according to the plan:

• Unlimited All: 3600 Free minutes to any mobile or landline in Egypt; 1000 free SMS to any Mobile in Egypt; 3 free GB data. (3 GB is unlimited data !!!!)
  
• Unlimited Voice: 2700 Free minutes to any mobile or landline in Egypt
• Unlimited Etisalat: 2000 Free minutes to any Etisalat Line 

Even all are named unlimited, the number of minutes change dramtically between different lines!!!!
On the contrary, the unlimited in Skype service: "10,000 minutes per user per month, with a maximum of 6 hours per day."

Can you please Egyptian companies stop using misleading words and provide real information and real unlimited plans.

Second Google Doddle for Egypt - Celebrating Naguib Mahfouz Birthday

Google is celebrating Naguib Mahfouz birthday by providing a custom doodle for today. This is the second one tailored specially for Egypt after the children contest logo.

I love the fact that Google is now giving more care to Egypt and Arab countries with special products and logos for them like Google Ejabat.

Is Duabi shine is fading? It seems no

I just made a conversation with a friend who has been in Dubai in the last two weeks. He told me that Dubai is not as media shows it. The malls are still crowded. Hotels and parks are fully occupied. Tourists are coming from all over the world and shopping is working very fine.

So please people, stop thinking that Egypt will got the opportunity and take the shine from Dubai. We are still years behind them in everything. At least in corruption. We have to work harder and to prove that we are a better or at least a semi good alternative to Dubai and other Gulf countries.

OpenDNS comment on Google DNS

The new Google DNS services raised a lot of red flags around as if it is highly adopted, then Google will own everyone internet history.

The best reaction was the comment of OpenDNS founder on Google DNS. Those are some important points:
"Third, Google claims that this service is better because it has no ads or redirection. But you have to remember they are also the largest advertising and redirection company on the Internet. To think that Google’s DNS service is for the benefit of the Internet would be naive. They know there is value in controlling more of your Internet experience and I would expect them to explore that fully. And of course, we always have protected user privacy and have never sold our DNS data. Here’s a link to our privacy policy."


"Fifth, it’s not clear that Internet users really want Google to keep control over so much more of their Internet experience than they do already — from Chrome OS at the bottom of the stack to Google Search at the top, it is becoming an end-to-end infrastructure all run by Google, the largest advertising company in the world. I prefer a heterogeneous Internet with lots of parties collaborating to make this thing work as opposed to an Internet run by one big company."

No Comment. Period.

Google to announce its own DNS servers

As a way to enhance the internet speed, Google revealed its public DNS servers. The new servers mainly - according to Google words - for enhancing:

• Security
• Speed,
• And, Validity.

But what is the DNS? It can be considered as the "Internet's "phone book". Every time you visit a website, your computer performs a DNS lookup. Complex pages often require multiple DNS lookups before they complete loading." 

The service itself is a value added service for subscribers who experience very slow DNS from their ISP - like some providers in Egypt but in the other side of the coin, the new DNS service by Google will give Google not only your search history, but also your browsing history as each web page you opened will pass through Google Servers.

Mentioning alternative DNS services, I should mention OpenDNS that offers multiple services based on DNS servers, like web filtering.

The DNS servers are: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
To setup your computer for the new DNS click here.


(via Google Code Blog)

Dubai crisis: The summary

For any one who doesn't read the papers or know the details about Dubai crises, here is a summary.

Crises cause
The current crises happened when the Dubai government, the owner of Dubai world, announced that the company (Dubai World) "intends to ask all providers of financing to Dubai World and [its subsidiary] Nakheel to 'standstill' and extend maturities until at least 30 May 2010". This announcement meant that the company will not be able to pay the $3.5-Billion loan that is due in December. This also raises that fear the company might have problems with paying the other $60-Billion Loan that form about three quarters of Emirates loan.

Panic reasons

• Banks will be affected by the crises as they owe the company money.
• Some banks might tight lending and stall the global economic recovery.
• The company might sell many assets around the world which might cause prices problems.
• The fear that the whole truth is not yet clear (Different firms says that the company financial system is not as transparent as it should be).
• The world has not yet healed from the global recession.
  

Current situation

• The news says that Abu Dhabi will assist Dubai World to bypass the current crises but nothing confirmed yet.
• After the initial shock, Stock markets around the world are recovering as most banks will not be affected by the crises.
• The company announced that Nakheel is the only company that has problems.
• Some countries are in fear of mass lay-off by Dubai companies due to the crises.
• There are fear that more black holes will appear around the world.
• The most affected stock markets are the Middle east markets.

Update: 2/12/2009 - 23:11
Egypt banks' exposure to Dubai World only $20 million (via arabfinance)
Analysts expect that Qatar, Egypt and Morocco are going to attract capital, business and tourism after the Dubai dept crises. (via arabfinance)

For me, it seems that the world is watching and now one is going to take action soon. 

References
Wikipedia Dubai World Page.
Telegraph Dubai's financial crisis Q&A

Two geeks conversation (fun)

I had a conversation with a friend today. The conversation was started when I read his current status: "Want to restart my life... a normal reset won't do it, I need a full out of box restore"

20:30 me: I think if you bought an original restore DVD, most probably you will work :P

  But you might need to change the hard

 Maged: yeah, i think i may need to change the heart

20:31 i mean the hard :D

 me: May be

  ;)

  How is life ya man

  :)

 Maged: do you think that there is a place where i can get a low level format ?

 me: ?

  This might corrupt the heart (hard)

  High risk format

20:32 It is better to replace it

 Maged: it is already corrupt ya rayes

 me: Or change the board to be able to do hot swap :P

 Maged: has lots of bad sectors that don't want to be erased or re-written

20:33 i am thinking of working from a life-CD

  and ignore the heart completely

  i can boot myself on a life-CD right ?

 me: But in this case, you cannot save data

 Maged: who needs to save memories

  better keep them unsaved

20:34 and live everyday like a new boot of a life-CD

 me: The hard will be in read only mode

 Maged: i would better disable the hard completely,

  i don't even want to read from it anymore

 me: I think you might need to do shutdown for a while

20:35 And may be a defrag to the harddisk

  Will work after that

  There is no need for full format

 Maged: do you think so ?

 me: And removing unwanted applications will boost the performance ;)

20:36 Avoid guest log in

  This might work

  Believe it

 Maged: i disabled all other accounts

  it is just my account now

  but i can't remove the spyware

  it is almost everywhere

20:37 me: And a firewall that disable external trojans

Disclaimer: This conversation is a real one.