Wikipedians Leave Cyberspace visit Alexandria

In Alexandria, 650 Devotees Bemoan Vandals, Debate Rules;
Deletionists vs. Inclusionists

By JAMES GLEICK
August 8, 2008

Alexandria, Egypt

The ancients ranked the Lighthouse of Alexandria, a 400-foot tower of stone, as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Just down the road, they overlooked a library that, beginning in the third century B.C., represented the greatest storehouse of knowledge anywhere on earth. The Great Library was the real wonder -- we can see that now.

The library's ghosts led Wikipedia to choose Alexandria last month for its largest gathering ever in meatspace. (In cyberspace the Wikipedians never stop gathering: It's a continuous round-the-clock rolling workfest.) The library managed to gather up most of the world's books, tens of thousands of papyrus scrolls -- and then it burned, not even a partial catalog surviving the cataclysm. Two millennia later, the Wikipedians are the library's heirs. Their online encyclopedia, going on eight years old, is many times more extensive than anything in print, comprising 2.5 million articles in English. Wikipedias have sprung up in 263 other languages, including Sanskrit, Choctaw and Twi. Wikipedians believe (and I do, too) that bits, being abstract, will outlast paper.

More at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121815517776622597.html

1 month free for TE Data customers

A friend of mine on another group sent me this information. I had also read it in the Business Today, Egypt or the Business Monthly.
Kim

Just wanted to let everyone here who has TE Data (not sure about other companies, but you can always ask) if you were subscribed during the Internet cut in Jan/Feb., then you can call up TE Data's customer service at 19777 and they'll give you a free month. I just found this out since I needed to find something on their website, where it was advertised. It took about one minute for the customer service guy to add my extra month, so free is always good.

-Rose

Rose is correct that everyone who subscribed during that period will receive a free month (excluding any fee you pay for renting a router, etc.). In my experience, I didn't have to make a special call to receive the free month. When I called to schedule for bill collection, as I do every month, they informed me that the month would be free, other than my router rental and collection fees. Also, many of you may be happy to know, if you do not already, that TE Data has just reduced their rates. They also did this automatically and told me so when I called to schedule bill collection. The cost of my connection was reduced by about 25%, but I don't know if this is the same for all packages. Thank you to Rose for pointing out the free month.

Melinda

How to dial a number for Egypt

The Country code for Egypt is +20 (or 0020) if you are dialing from outside Egypt. Affix this before the rest of the Number.

How to dial the rest of the Number?

Jack puts it very well when he says:

There are 2 things to remember/realize

1. your mobile number is prefixed with a 2 digit "city code" or "area code" plus a "0" that indicates a "long distance" number

The ones I know of are 010, 012 and 016

If you are from the US, think of this as your area code.
If you are from elsewhere in the world, think of it as your city code.

Coming to dialing a landline number in Cairo from your mobile phone :

No matter what your mobile phone number is, if you are calling a land line, you need to tell it what city you are calling to.

So, the "city" code for Cairo is "2".
You need to dial ZERO first, to indicate a "long distance" or outside your "city", then the city code.

So to dial a landline in Cairo you dial

02

If you wanted to call a number in Alex, which has a city code of "3"
you would dial:

03

2. The 2nd thing to remember is that recently (6 months ago?) the government added a new number to the FRONT of land lines in the Cairo area.
Phones in some parts of the city , a 2 was added. In some parts, a 3.

So in Zamalek, Mohandaseen, Agouza, Dokki (and I think downtown) a phone number that used to be
735-1234
is now
2735-1234

So, if the number you have for the bus station (or anybody else in Cairo) has only 7 digits, you need to prefix it with either a "2" or a "3"

FURTHERMORE, if you are dialing from a mobile, you need to prefix the city code "02"

So to call the fictional number I mentioned earlier.

735-1234
you need to prefix the new 2
2735-1234

and then the city code.

So the full dialing instructions from an (Egyptian) mobile phone would be
02 2 735-1234



Basel adds :
Egypt International code: from USA or Canada 011 then 0020 from rest of the world 0020 except Bahrain (maybe they have changed it not sure) just one zero i.e., 020

Greater Cairo City (Cairo + Giza + Qalyoubeyyah) code 02 and Alexandria City code is 03 ... etc

Mobiles codes Vodafone 010 and 016, MobiNil 012, and Etisalat 011

It is a coincidence that Egypt international code is +20, i.e., zero at the end so a whole number in Cairo would be +20-2-87654321 by eliminating the zero before the city OR mobile code and adding the international code

0020
03
34567890

=

From abroad: +20-3-34567890 (from mobile or landline)
From Cairo: 03-34567890 (from mobile or landline)
From Alexandria: just the 8 numbers of the person u r calling, i.e., 34567890 (from landline)
From Alexandria: 03-34567890 (from mobile)

To call a mobile number:

From Cairo to Vodafone number: 010 or 016-7654321
From abroad: +20-10-7654321

Exception Exception exception exception exception
for the numbers of the "Smart Network" like 19519 Pizza Plus or 19991 McDonald or 16516 Cairo Yellow Cab (Taxi), you just dial the number no matter where you are in Egypt or what mobile operator you are using, just dial the five digits and you will be connected to the nearest office or branch.

HOWEVER, sometimes when you use your mobiles, and if the service is for Cairo only, you dial 02-19019 from your mobile.

Abandoned anchor cut Gulf Internet cable

From Yahoo News

By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer
Fri Feb 8, 2:24 PM ET

CAIRO, Egypt - An abandoned anchor was responsible for cutting one of the undersea Internet cables severed last week, causing disruptions across the Middle East and parts of Asia, the cable's owner said Friday.

A FLAG Telecom repair crew discovered the anchor near where the fiber-optic cable was severed Feb. 1 in the Persian Gulf, 35 miles north of Dubai, between the Emirates and Oman.

Weighing more than 5.5 tons, the anchor has been pulled to the surface. The company did not immediately explain whether the anchor moved and snapped the cable or whether the cable itself was drifting when it was sliced.

It remains unclear exactly how any of the cuts occurred.

It also was unclear whether FLAG knew what vessel the anchor belonged to. Rough weather was reported nearby at the time of the cut, but conditions have improved since.

Meanwhile, a second FLAG repair ship continued work on two undersea cables that were cut Jan. 30. They are about 5 miles off the north coast of Egypt, near the port city of Alexandria, and run between Egypt and Palermo, on the Italian island of Sicily.

Repairs at both locations are expected to be done by Sunday.

One of the two Mediterranean cables was owned by FLAG. The other, identified as SEA-ME-WE 4, or South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 cable, was owned by a consortium of 16 international telecommunication companies.

Egypt's telecommunication ministry said no ships were registered near the location at the time.

The cuts slowed businesses, hampered personal Internet usage and caused a flurry of Internet blogger speculation, including mentions of sabotage. Government authorities and FLAG, which stands for Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe, have refused to comment on the speculation.

Reports of additional cuts in Middle East Internet cables could not be confirmed.

FLAG, in a statement posted on the company Web site, said it has surveyed the cable cut off Egypt with remotely operated robots.

The FLAG spokesman said this week that it was laying a new cable underwater between Egypt and France that would be "fully resilient" against cuts such as last week's and "provide a diversity in routes."

He did not say what that resilience entailed, but said it would take months to set up the new cable.

"It is difficult to comment right now on this," said a FLAG spokesman, reached over the telephone. "We are doing our own investigation."

He spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with company policy.

Ovum analyst Matt Walker said undersea cable networks are highly vulnerable to deliberate attack and need enhanced security.

"If ports, railways, gas pipelines and other types of networks are being secured against possible sabotage, we must similarly increase the security of undersea optical highways," Walker said.

The cuts also underlined the threats that Internet disruptions could pose to organizations and businesses worldwide. Large-scale Internet disruptions are rare, but East Asia suffered nearly two months of outages and slow service after an earthquake damaged undersea cables near Taiwan in December 2006.

"The economic cost of losing, or even just slowing down, international communications is extremely high," said Walker. "This risk has to be factored into the calculations behind the investment level and design of undersea optical networks."

FLAG said it has fully restored circuits to some customers and switched others to alternative routes.

State Telecom Egypt said it sealed a $125 million contract Jan. 31 with French-American telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent, for a new 1,900-mile-long undersea cable between Egypt and France.

Named TE North, it will link Sidi Kerir on Egypt's northern coast to the French port of Marseilles.

It will have multiple times the bandwidth capacity of existing cables and enable Telecom Egypt to "expand international connectivity, providing diversity from existing cable routes." Egyptian media have said the new Telecom cable would take more than 18 months to complete.
___
AP Business Writer Matt Moore contributed to this report from Frankfurt, Germany.

Egyptian Faithful Crave New Islamic Gadgets

Egyptian Faithful Crave New Islamic Gadgets

An Egyptain salesman holds up a digital Koran in Cairo. Cairo residents, already summoned to prayers five times a day by a chorus of scratchy loudspeakers, are now clamouring for a new line of portable electronic devices to show their devotion to Islam. Photo courtesy AFP.

by Ines Bel Aiba
Cairo (AFP) April 18, 2007
Cairo residents, already summoned to prayers five times a day by a chorus of scratchy loudspeakers, are now clamouring for a new line of portable electronic devices to show their devotion to Islam.

Digital Korans, automatic prayer reciters and headphones dispensing religious advice are all part of the growing wave of outward religiosity that is increasingly defining daily life in Egypt.

"As a Muslim, I find that hearing these prayers bodes well for the rest of the day,"said Osama Abdel Hamid, an economics professor at Cairo University, as he searched through a busy car parts market for an electronic prayer-reciter.

The little black speaker box that appeared a few months ago is catching on quickly among Cairo's cab drivers, who wire it up so that the prayers pour out the moment they open the door or turn the ignition.

It's slightly more pious than the "It's a Small World After All" jingle that are heard from taxis when they hit the brakes, melding with the constant din of horns and shouting in the city of 16 million people.

Mohammed Mahmud, a seller of car parts and gadgets in the city's Tawfiqiyah market, says the Chinese-made devices have become very popular in recent months.

"You can also put them in elevators," added Mahmud, from his stall in one of the city's oldest markets, where fruit and vegetable sellers are slowly giving way to the peddlers of the trinkets, noise-makers, and assorted kitsch that adorn Cairo taxis.

The little black speakers sell for only seven Egyptian pounds (a little over a dollar), but Abdel Hamid, the economics professor, admitted he was actually looking for a better quality Thai-made model since the Chinese one he bought "fried after about an hour."

The devout can find a more upscale model in the "Ayat," which was recently exhibited at the GITEX exposition in Dubai, the largest information technology and communication fair in the region.

Resembling a fancy pair of earphones, the Ayat can give the wearer advice, in Arabic or English, on the number of prostrations necessary for each type of prayer. It also plays Koranic verses.

"The idea came to me on a plane when I was listening to my iPod," said developer Sherif Danesh, an Egyptian living in California's Silicon Valley.

"Many people of all religions are hungry for information on their religion these days," he told AFP by e-mail. "The availability of small portable inexpensive audio and video devices is making it very easy to access such information anywhere, anytime."

Putting Koranic verses and prayers into electronic format can be a fraught enterprise, however, as a number of manufacturers discovered in 2005 when Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa condemned the use of verses as ring tones.

Gomaa, one of the highest authorities for Sunni Islam in Egypt, described it as "a devaluing of the sacred book."

Danesh said he was careful to get the necessary approval before developing Ayat, and said he had already sold several thousand of the devices, which cost 380 pounds (67 dollars, 49 euros).

The proliferation of Islamic gadgets cuts across markets, ranging in complexity from an alarm clock for the five daily prayers with a built-in compass pointing towards Mecca, to an entirely digital Koran accompanied by the hadith (traditions) of the Prophet Mohammed.

At 1,200 pounds (210 dollars), however, the electronic Koran is pretty far outside the average Egyptian's reach.

Many see the gadgets as part of the public piety that increasingly pervades Egyptian society, where the vast majority of women wear religious headscarves and an increasing number of men sport the "zebiba" -- a prune-like bruise on the forehead that supposedly comes from vigorous praying.

Dalal al-Bizri, a columnist for the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, sees the devices as evidence of the importance of appearances in contemporary Islam.

"It's a religion whose followers seem to need to touch, to feel the beyond -- much like the pagans they once condemned," she said, adding that such outward displays betray "an insistence on belief, as though some deeper conviction was lacking."

Sociologist Saad Eddin Ibrahim, on the other hand, thinks the trend is more indicative of the "naivety of the consumers and the intelligence of the merchants."

"It also says a lot about how quickly the Chinese economy reacts and adapts to the desires of the consumers -- whoever they are," he said with a smile.

Source: Agence France-Presse

From TerraDaily