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Data solutions Ltd. and Tracking World Pvt. Ltd. have launched Pakistan’s first personal and in-car navigation system titled Pakistan Navigator.

According to a news report in The Nation, the navigator product employs Garmin’s Global Positioning System (GPS) devices as its hardware platform. Pakistan Navigator guides the user from any point in Pakistan to any other point by drawing a highlighted route on the map. It shows the user all the mosques, schools, parks, restaurants, petrol stations, banks, ATMs and many other points-of-interest (PoI) near the users current location or any other chosen location.

Restaurants are also categorized according to the type of cuisine they serve. Once the user selects a PoI, Pakistan Navigator then guides the user in real-time via screen and voice prompts through every road and every turn. An icon of a vehicle constantly moves on the screen, showing the user his or her exact location on the road and a voice prompt says, for example, “In 200 meters, turn right on Mall Road.” The GPS device can be installed in any vehicle, including motorcycles and bicycles, or carried around in hand while walking, the newspaper reported.

WiredPakistan added that the price of the navigator ranges from $399 to $500 and $120 will be charged for the map.

One of the HEC subdomains - apps.hec.gov.pk - appears to have be compromised for the last few weeks. Google reports it as an “Attack site” and shows this warning:

The sub-domain contains a few hundred pages with important information (the one below is supposed to have a list of all HEC-approved universities), and so, the website should ideally be available to the world minus any malware or spyware.

An example infected URL: http://app.hec.gov.pk/universityfinal2/RegionUniversity.aspx  (please make sure your browser is appropriately protected before copy/pasting)

If you click the “Why was this site blocked?”, Google tells you that

Of the 476 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 124 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2008-10-27, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2008-10-27. Malicious software is hosted on 6 domain(s), including 81dns.ru, mnbenio.ru, berjke.ru. 2 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including 81dns.ru, mnbenio.ru.

Emailing HEC about it has not worked so far. Even if it is a false-positive, somebody in HEC should wake up and fix their servers - they can even ask an HEC scholar in the network security field who gets their funding.

(This page appeared during a Google search to help out a researcher friend who wanted a list of our universities)

After a week of online protest due to  an inappropriately worded warning about  working with Pakistanis, the owner/CEO of the web firm RentaACoder.com finally came out on the official RAC forums to announce that the message has been removed, and apologized for any loss of business. He said:

All,

This is from Ian Ippolito, the owner of Rent a coder.  My sincere apologies if your business was negatively affected in any way.  The message had been removed.

A number of Pakistani coders had claimed that the electrical situation had recently gotten out of hand and asked to be excused from their projects without a poor rating.  We researched the situation on the internet and it appeared true and did so and then posted the warning on the site.  After posting the warning, we then received a number of emails saying that the electrical situation is no different than it used to be for many years, and that competent coders have already made other arrangements and are not affected. Since there is a big conflict between what different people in Pakistan are telling us, we have removed all messages until we are able to sort out exactly what is happening.

Again my apologies.

Ian Ippolito

RentAcoder did the right thing to finally take notice and and take the notice off - hats off to them for creating a happy ending - but Ian’s post raises an important question. RAC are looking for precise information on the infrastructure available to the Pakistani IT workers, which is not the same as the one available to the general Pakistani population. Lacking any official source of information, they had to rely on a couple of generic news sites. Shouldn’t it be the responsibility of a body like the PSEB to act as a watchdog and make sure that a truer picture is available to the world regarding the current energy crisis and how we are dealing with it? They don’t need to lie, just acknowledge the fact that even though we have an energy crisis going on, we have enough practice to effectively deal with it.

PSEB should get involved in incidents like this one, and start the re branding process by updating their website’s “Why Pakistan” section, which is very outdated. They should also add a regularly updated source of news on the current infrastructure situation in Pakistan, so that solo IT workers and the smaller IT shops can point their clients to it to verify the existence of the small bubble of relative stability that we are successfully maintaining in the middle of this crisis. Such a measure would also help in retaining existing business streams and alleviating the concerns and apprehensions of potential clients when it comes to Pakistan. After all, PSEB has the slogan: “Promoting the IT Industry Locally and Globally”.  They can start with getting in touch with Ian directly. Any PSEB person reading this?

Chinese are facing a grave threat from the software giant, Microsoft. MS has apparently started a crackdown on pirated softwares in China. The “Windows Genuine Advantage” program, which turns the user’s screen black if the installed software fails a validation test, is making rounds in China.

Anyone can guess what would be the reaction of the Chinese; rage, fury and mayhem. A country with more than 200 million active Windows users, China will suffer badly as majority of the people - like other developing nations - use pirated softwares. In fact, China is the hub of piracy.

Although MS deserves the right to exercise its intellectual property rights in any shape, this action looks rather ‘insulting’. Drives against the counterfeit softwares should target the supply chain and not the end-users. More often then not, they are either unaware of the legalities or simply can’t afford to pay bucketful of dollars for a software which is readily available at 50 cents or less.

Chinese high-ranking officials have also taken the same stance. Although they haven’t repudiated the move, still they are wary of the methods used by MS. They think that the company is overreacting on this issue. Yan Xiaohong, Vice-Director of National Copyright Administration said,

“Whether the ‘black-out’ method should be adopted is open to question. Measures for safeguarding rights also need to be appropriate.”

Common folks on the other hand are planning big stuff. A lawyer wants to sue the company for $1 billion.

The move might also threaten the monopoly of Windows in China as users can turn to Linux. The price factor will definitely play its role as genuine Windows software is still out of reach of an average Chinese (though now they claim to be in the ranks of developed countries).

One commenter wrote on ZDNet,

They might generate a little more money in licenses, but, lose the bigger battle to keep China mainly on windows. They need to make sure that people do not chose Linux because they can not afford Windows. Once they get used to Linux, they will not go back to Windows, free or paid.

MS will make more losses than profit, if, it stands firm on this decision. Piracy can only be quashed if the original softwares are available at economical rates. Otherwise, the software giants will continue facing counterfeiting issues, even if they cut the supply chains. I think it’s high time that these companies along with the representatives from the piracy-infested countries work on a viable and practical solution to this problem. We’re waiting for that for a long time now.

Vopium is a Danish-Pakistani venture focusing on allowing almost free calls and messaging services irrespective of your location or network. The Denmark-based company was founded in 2006 by Tanveer Sharif, Imran Sadiq and Brian Sussemiehl who had previous experience with development of mobile applications.

As we covered the company in June, it has acquired up to $6.4 million in VC funding and is faring quite well. They started their operations in Lahore, Pakistan in 2003 (all the techy stuff was developed here) and they currently employ 50 persons. Tanveer Sharif recently told me in a conversation that they are planning to double this figure before end of 2009.

Tanveer also said that VC funding is not always a blessing though it does help in building a successful company.

As for the VC funding, let me assure you that it is not always a blessing. We have raised USD 6.8M last year, and we would love to help other Pakistani companies to achieve financial injections. I am a member of a Danish Pakistani group that helps companies establish themselves in Pakistan, and I am helping companies like Getmore, Youpark, Gatefone etc to get the right people as well as finances.

He also added that despite the current financial and political turmoil and also many scary stories of working in this country, which he refused to narrate, he will continue investing in Pakistan.

We just confirmed earlier today that Descon-IT24 is no more, although thankfully this hasnt affected business or jobs as bad as it could have. The unit was closed recently as the owners wanted to focus elsewhere.

The part of the staff that was looking after the IT operations of Descon group has now merged into Descon Engineering.

The rest of the unit- which was focused on business based on BPO services such as document processing - have moved and integrated into another firm CTO24/7, also in Pakistan.

This was part of a planned jointly-agreed transition, we were told, although we couldnt confirm if the unit was officially sold to CTO24/7. From what I understand, CTO24/7 was started by Amin Ansari about a year ago, before which he used to head Descon’s unit. When Descon’s current owners decided to close the unit, an agreement was reached to migrate the business, clients and the related staff to CTO24/7.

We were also told that the transition is now fully complete. From an industrial-perspective then, atleast the business remains within the country and this transition seems to have caused a minimum disruption.

If you are a RentACoder.com client or service provider, you will notice a ’site wide message’ on most of the RAC pages today warning its users about Pakistan and Pakistanis:

Site Wide Message: (current site time 10/24/2008 8:22:02 AM EDT)

Are you working with a Pakistani? If so, you need to know that most parts of Pakistan are experiencing severe electricity rationing, and electricity is unavailable more often than not. Click here for more important information.

While it is totally fair for the company to inform their customers about the potential pitfalls of ‘renting’ Pakistanis, I was disturbed by RAC’s choice of words and the potential negativity (pun intended) that such words usually generate against Pakistan and Pakistanis. IMHO RAC should try to be politically correct and more sensitive towards its service providers. Some would call this nitpicking, but the news is wrong on more than one levels.

First of all, a Pakistani may be a non-resident Pakistani, and lots of people abroad are “working with Pakistanis”, so it is infact the brand perception of Pakistan that is affected here.

Secondly, though we are facing electricity rationing, electricity is still available at least 14 hours a day from the standard providers (the *ESCOs) contrary to the RAC claim of “more often than not”. Now 14 hours a day may seem like hell to a CA resident, but it is plenty of time to get things done (GTD), if scheduled properly.

Thirdly, if a RAC client is already “working with a Pakistani”, I would expect that client to be aware of this constraint already, after all, you can’t fail to notice if your service provider is unavailable more often than not - I think what RAC meant to say was “Are you considering working with a Pakistani?”.

Most importantly though, I think that a “Pakistani” whose primary source of income is RentACoder (and there are hundreds of such Pakistanis) already know about the power crisis through first-hand knowledge, and he how to deal with it! - after all, load shedding is virtually a part of his Pakistani culture by now! The ‘Pakistani’ in question probably owns a Japanese UPS, a desi UPS (A very cheap UPS developed in Pakistan that uses wet batteries originally meant for LTVs) or a gas generator. Our powerless Pakistani has solved this energy crisis one way or another before attempting to earn his bread on RAC!

I don’t know if RAC realizes or cares about the effects that such deterring official messages can have on Pakistani coders earning their income on RAC, but I do sincerely hope that there is a vigilante Ministry of IT somewhere out there who is keeping an eye on the buzz, who realizes the consequences of such irresponsible news, and who works officially with entities like RAC to make sure that Pakistan is being marketed properly, despite it being the “Most dangerous country of the world”.

PS. I do not have a RAC account. Credit goes to Sohail Abid, a “Happy Freelancer”, who shared this news with me on Twitter. The post was written on my laptop, the one that has a functional battery but is still hooked up to my Pakistani UPS, during the 6th load-shedding spell of the day.

The IT industry of Pakistan bore the brunt of Marriott bombing as Evacuee Trust Complex (better known as Software Technology Park-II or STP II) was severely damaged by the blast. All the soft structure of the building, including the optical fiber links, was blown up and dozens of IT companies had their future at stake.

During that gloomy situation, NayaTel came to the rescue with its state-of-the-art Fiber-to-the-User (FTTU) network. The Islamabad-based company has installed a Gigabits Optical Fiber Metro ring (the first of its kind in South Asia) across Islamabad and parts of Rawalpindi to provide triple play services. This enabled them to act immediately to help the affected companies. Wajid Mehmood of NayaTel gives us some details,

“Instead of waiting for these companies (who were our customers already) to approach us, we adopted a proactive strategy and contacted these companies with offer of emergency help by shifting their accounts to any other location in Islamabad/Rawalpindi on our fiber network. The blast happened on Saturday night and we started working on Sunday for customers shifting. Some of the customers were shifted on Monday and their US customers on Monday evening were pleasantly surprised to see their back offices up and running within just one day.“

He also told me that the company is planning to install the same network in Lahore and Faisalabad, in near future.

The efforts and services of NayaTel during that crisis situation are indeed exemplary. We have such a small IT industry in Pakistan that we have to be each others’ pillars of support during such testing times. As a month has passed since the tragedy, many companies are now back in STP-II as the optical fiber links and basic infrastructure has been restored.

The Wall Street mayhem seems to have spared tech firms, at least that’s the case with Intel. The company has posted a third-quarter revenue of $10.2 billion - a new record for the company.

According to an Oct. 14 news release, the company reported a pretax net income of $2.01 billion, up from $1.79 billion in the year-ago quarter. The earnings per share (EPS) are reported at 35 cents, up from 30 cents in the year-ago quarter.

“Intel delivered the best third-quarter revenue in its history. We are solidly profitable, with operating income of over $3 billion, reflecting strong across- the-board execution and best-of-class products”, said Paul Otellini, Intel President and CEO.

With total assets of $52.72 billion, the semiconductor giant stands firm and stable while the financial markets are taking a severe beating.

“As we look to Q4, it is hard to know what impact the financial crisis would have on end customer demand. We are confident that our product portfolio, strong cash flow, commitment to deploying new technology and market momentum will allow us to outpace peer companies at at time when business levels are difficult to protect,” Otellini added.

Now let’s see what are the earning trends of other tech companies as they are about to announce their financial results in a few days. We also have to keep in mind that the financial bubble has just burst and its impacts on these firms will be visible in the fourth quarter. The annual reports will portray the real picture.

Mozilla will form a new group that will focus on the research and development of developer tools for the open Web.

“We believe that there’s tremendous opportunity for innovation in tools that increase developer productivity, enable compelling user experiences, and promote the use of open standards”, the company said in a news release.

The browser giant has hired Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith, co-founders of Ajaxian, the Ajax Experience to lead its Developer Tools Lab.

The company refrained from divulging any further details.