tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66138552024-03-07T14:13:00.859+05:00Babar HaqWell I am going to put here anything which interests me.Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-51319661028878745992017-01-08T21:25:00.002+05:002017-01-09T13:23:13.512+05:00Currency allowances while exiting Pakistan<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }</style>
<br />
A quick Internet research reveals that Pakistan's current laws allow a person traveling out of Pakistan to carry hard currency in two portions. One portion comprises of local Pakistani currency and the other is foreign currency (forex). In case of of local Pakistani currency portion, one is allowed to carry not more than 3,000 PKR. For foreign currency, the allowance is US$ 10,000 or equivalent (in case any currency other than USD). The forex part of the law is well known. It is the local currency part which people are unaware of. Custom officials fully exploit this ignorance and leave the passenger with no other option but to submit to their demands in order to avoid any unpleasant situation minutes before their flight. Following is a typical scenario described by my friends.<br /><br />Recently, multiple friends of mine, traveling out of Pakistan specially Lahore airport were cornered by custom officials into paying bribes. The following situation depicts ignorance and exploitation of common legal issues in Pakistan and highlights root causes of widespread corruption in our society.<br /><br />A passenger walks into the check-in area. Custom officials ask him about the cash he is carrying. Passenger replies with xyz amount. Passenger is informed and pointed to the banner given below. Passenger already suffering from travel anxiety, panics if its more than allowed and wants to immediately resolve the matter. The fastest resolution offered by the custom officials is to leave some amount with them.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIbGxlyiFKgunQn8XaSim9oQDbgHAQjIhbdEnjlri5wdzagy3KjBCIYqLyzD78pxgRDExth6W2VfFv2EHElL8D-xYwOjgXwwbZrc56_tWLoBV3Kv7cEfMzBaWjT-crzdsjnyNM/s1600/20161216_110248.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIbGxlyiFKgunQn8XaSim9oQDbgHAQjIhbdEnjlri5wdzagy3KjBCIYqLyzD78pxgRDExth6W2VfFv2EHElL8D-xYwOjgXwwbZrc56_tWLoBV3Kv7cEfMzBaWjT-crzdsjnyNM/s320/20161216_110248.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
There could be many ways to tackle this. The exact law statement could be posted at the airports. It could be broadcast as a public service message on electronic media. The passenger could be asked to hand over extra money to his relatives/friends if they are still around. Passenger could be asked to deposit it against a receipt to later claim it back. Sadly, the only option offered by our law enforcement agencies is to gift a portion of it to them.<br /><br />Rs.3k is roughly around US $30. It is a very trivial amount to fulfill passengers requirements at the airport, since there are no ATMs across the security zone at the airport terminal. None of the retail outlets (restaurants, gift shops, duty free shop and VIP lounges) at the airport accept credit card as payment. Some times passengers also have to pay Civil aviation authority taxes while checking in (in case there is an increase). What were our policy makers thinking while setting up this limit of US$30.<br /><br />The passenger is to be blamed equally as most of them do not bother to raise this issue on any forum and just continue with the rant "Pakistan main aaisa hee hoota hai" (this is how things work in Pakistan). Also, airport customs is only Law enforcement agency at the airport which does not display any kind of contact information (phone, fax, email what so ever).<br /><br />Never the less, if you are flying out of Pakistan in near future, please make sure you do not have cash worth more than PKR3,000 i.e US$30!Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-86929933317687627122014-04-08T17:00:00.002+05:002014-04-08T17:01:45.339+05:00The courts should have been movedMy article published in PTI's journal "Insaf Ki Awaz" <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/215452091/Newsletter-March-Final">March 2014 issue</a>.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We often see Islamabad being mentioned as one of the better planned
capitals of the world. We, the residents of Islamabad, can testify to
these mentions. Islamabad city is divided into several sectors and
zones. Each sector has a central business hub of its own, commonly known
as markaz (center). Being a new city, certain administration sections
of the city were set up in temporary buildings. In 1980s, after F-8
markaz was developed the government decided to bring district courts
there.<br />
<br />
Initially this worked but as Islamabad's population boomed this
place started looking like a fish market. A place designed to be an open
and airy market could never be affectively used for courts/commissioner
offices. The place started to shrink as lawyers start occupying open
areas to build their chambers. In the current security situation in
Pakistan, these courts became a nightmare. Hence there been multiple
attacks on these courts.<br />
<br />
The trader association of the markaz was the first group of people
who asked for movement of these courts. This was obviously hurting their
business. Early 2013 lawyers started occupying a public park near the
markaz. This ended up in ugly tussle between trader associations and
lawyers. CDA eventually took action and demolished all of the chambers
being built in the park. <br />
<br />
A building was being constructed in G-10 for these courts. However
in 2007, newly formed Islambad High court was established there instead
since its own building was not ready yet. In October 2013, former vice
president of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA), Chaudhary
Muhammad Akram filed a petition in Islamabad high court for shifting of
district courts from F-8 Markaz to the judicial complex in sector G-10.
Like all cases in Pakistan its still under hearing. Media has also
brought this issue into limelight multiple times.<br />
<br />
After last terrorist attack on these courts on 3rd march 2014,
incumbent government (PMLN) briefly talked about shifting of these
courts. Sadly they announced that courts cannot be moved until Islamabad
high court building is completed. Common sense suggests that Islamabad
high court should be immediately moved to a temporary building to make
space for f-8 courts. Instead government has decided to further fortify
f-8 court premises ruining our capital's beauty.<br />
<br />
Some offices in that markaz are not interested in moving the courts
as this will raise their office rents. Sadly, they give more importance
to personal interests over national ones. Our individualist approach
worsens our problems. Residents of Islamabad have given a clear mandate
to PTI in 2013 elections. They look towards them to pressurize the
federal government to move these courts at the earliest. </div>
Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-23749400531301374322013-09-25T12:37:00.002+05:002013-09-25T12:56:08.237+05:00Inaccessibility of Pakistani embassy in Riyadh<div style="text-align: justify;">
According to <a href="http://dawn.com/news/1024366/pakistanis-remit-record-14-billion">this</a> report, Pakistanis residing in Saudi kingdom are the highest contributors to
foreign remittance Pakistan receives. They contribute 29.5% of the
total according to the statistics taken from last fiscal year. Despite
this high remittance rate, the quality of service the Pakistani Embassy
Riyadh provides to its people is very low. They struggle to get answers
to simple queries like What are your working hours? How to get a new
passport? etc. The embassy fails to cater to such queries even through telephone and web.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If
you go to their website via Ministry of Foreign affairs portal, there
is a static page with lots of telephone numbers. Their main phone
number is always busy during working hours. During non-working hours no
body picks it up. If you try any of the other numbers, it connects you
to
the exchange and asks you for an extension which never gets through. In
my umpteen tries, I have never been able to talk to a human. Numerous
people have raised this issue on web forums, but to no avail.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is not
difficult to to fix this in todays IT era, when VOIP
call center solutions are easily and cheaply available. Another cost saving
solution could be to divert all such queries calls to Pakistan and setup a
call center there.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Internet is the perfect tool to resolve such scenarios. <a href="http://www.pakconsulatejeddah.gov.pk/">Pakistan consulate Jeddah </a>has a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/PakConsulateJeddah">facebook</a>/<a href="https://twitter.com/PakConsulateJed">twitter</a> account which responds quickly
to all the queries. They also have a very informative website. Recently an appointment system is announced to avoid passport
application queues. A FAQ guide available on their website is
not that helpful but at least it answers some of the basic queries. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Unfortunately, Riyadh
embassy sadly does not provide any of these. Email is some thing still very
alien to them. Even if there is an address listed some where you can be
rest assured that you will never get a response.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I do accept the fact that our embassy is over stretched and
under resourced. Keeping in mind how much we contribute to our country's
economy, this excuse is completely unacceptable.Some advanced countries
embassy's after office hours route their calls to their foreign office
in their home country. I do not expect that from our embassy, all I
am asking for is a simple yet efficient way of getting in touch with the
embassy.</div>
Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-51091588683023803072012-10-15T15:25:00.000+05:002012-10-15T15:42:37.420+05:00epassport.gov.sa Passport portal review <style type="text/css">
<!--
@page { margin: 0.79in }
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in }
H1 { margin-bottom: 0.08in }
H1.western { font-family: "Arial", sans-serif; font-size: 16pt }
H1.cjk { font-family: "DejaVu Sans"; font-size: 16pt }
H1.ctl { font-family: "DejaVu Sans"; font-size: 16pt }
H3 { margin-bottom: 0.08in }
H3.western { font-family: "Arial", sans-serif }
</style> <br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The URL
"<a href="http://epassport.gov.sa/">epassport.gov.sa</a>" on several billboards around Bahrain
causeway intrigued me to visit the site. Advertisement itself was in
Arabic except for the URL. This portal could turn out to be a big
blessing for expatriates in Saudi. It takes a couple of clicks to
sign up for a new account. Well this was true till some time
recently, now once you sign up you have to visit the passport office
to get your account activated. :(
</div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There are two major tabs
to explore: 1) E-services 2) eDashBoard</div>
<h1 class="western">
eDashBoard</h1>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
eDashboard provides you
with all kinds of personal information. The options you get
are</div>
<ul>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Address
</div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Dependents
</div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sponsorees
</div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Driving License
</div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Vehicles
</div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Traffic Violations
</div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Labor Importation
</div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Passports
</div>
</li>
<li><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Travel Records</div>
</li>
</ul>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I find the last one
(Travel Records) very interesting/fun since it provides details of
each and every exit/entry you made to the kingdom. This includes
date, carrier, flight number and destination! This is quite helpful in filling immigration and visa forms as they often require such information. </div>
<h1 align="JUSTIFY" class="western">
<u>E-<u>services</u></u></h1>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
E-services portion is the
more useful one. Outstanding feature of the portal is that you can
issue single exit/re-entry for your dependents, more details below.
There is also an options to print your exit/re-entry visa, not sure
if its valid for traveling though. Once you register you also start
getting SMS alerts every time a dependent of yours exits or enters
Saudi Arabia. You will see following services under the eservices
banner:</div>
<h3 class="western">
Query Traffic Violations
</h3>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Simple and straight forward.</div>
<h3 class="western">
Query Available Funds
</h3>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
(This is the amount you submit for
various government services for example)
</div>
<ul>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sponsorees Deposit
</div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Vehicles Deposit
</div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Driving License Deposit
</div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Passports Deposit
</div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Labour Deposit</div>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 class="western">
Query Health Insurance
</h3>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Simple and straight forward.</div>
<h3 class="western">
Query Hajj Eligibility
</h3>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Simple and straight forward.</div>
<h3 class="western">
Sponsoree Services
</h3>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
(maids, drivers e.t.c)
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
*Dependent Services (Coolest)
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It shows you details of your dependents
with photos (for males only) like Iqama number, Iqama expiry date,
birth date, information on any valid exit/re-entry visa. On top of
that, you can also generate single exit/re-entry for your family
online. Just deposit the money using SADAD or any other payment
method and you can generate a single exit/re-entry for your
dependents. Currently, it does not has the option to generate
multiple exit/re-entry visa online. Though, you can view/print them.
However, I am not sure if the immigration is willing to except those
print outs.</div>
<h3 class="western">
Query Vehicle Insurance
</h3>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Simple and straight forward.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-14890019644956338092012-04-23T12:25:00.000+05:002012-04-23T12:56:18.662+05:00Pakistani embassy, Riyadh<div style="text-align: justify;">
Recently, for the first time I had the chance to use one of the services offered by our Pakistani embassy in Riyadh. My passport was out of pages so I had to get a new one. The purpose of this post is not to bash our embassy for all its inefficiencies. In fact I want to appreciate it for doing a good job and suggest a few improvements. My guess is they entertain around 500 passport applications a day. Handling such a crowd (keeping in mind our nation's attitude) is not a simple job.<br />
<br />
Now, the Pakistani embassy in Riyadh can also process applications for <a href="http://www.dgip.gov.pk/Files/Passport.html">computerized passports</a>. <a href="http://www.nadra.gov.pk/">NADRA</a> has developed an automated system to handle passport requests in Pakistan and it seems like they have replicated exactly the same system in Riyadh embassy.<br />
<br />
I had to take a day off from office in Dhahran to go to Riyadh for this. They follow a "token" system. I had been told that I have to be there early in the morning to collect my "token". Tokens usually finish by 8+ am. There is only certain number of passport applications that can be processed in a day so the tokens are limited. I reached there at 7:45am and the token number I got was like 100 +. The guy handing out the tokens advised me that this would turn up some where around 11am. So I went for breakfast, came back around 11am and waited till 2pm. This is when my turn came. Once your number actually turns up, the whole process takes only 15 minutes. All this unnecessary wait causes severe congestion at the premises which results in a lot of unpleasant incidents.<br />
<br />
There are a lot of ways this can be controlled. In today's high-tech world, implementing a simple appointment scheduling system over the phone/Internet is not difficult. In fact both methods can be used in parallel. A quick search on Google showed me a couple of open source solutions as well. Yes, the solution to the problem is that simple. This will avoid all the crowding at the embassy and also help people plan their visit.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately there is no way to convey any feedback to the embassy. There is no comment/suggestion box at the embassy and no working email contact. Currently they have two websites. One is linked via the new (ugly) renovated <a href="http://www.mofa.gov.pk/">Ministry of Foreign Affairs portal</a> and the other is <a href="http://www.pakistanembassyriyadh.com/">this</a> old one. It looks like the consulate is currently using the old one. The contact email address on them is parep_riyadh@yahoo.com. No matter how hard you try you will never get a response from this address. In fact they have actually removed the address from the older site now.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
There must be a way to get in touch with Ministry of Foreign Affairs in such cases where local embassies cannot be contacted. Would definitely expect better performance from mofa under the leadership of our highly qualified foreign minister <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hina_Rabbani_Khar">Hina Rabbani Khar</a>. </div>Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-27058413679301675302012-03-05T12:31:00.002+05:002012-03-05T12:43:56.743+05:00Mediatomb (dlna) on SAMSUNG (46") LED UA46C5000<div style="text-align: justify;">Finally, I decided to get rid of my CRT tv and replace it with a Samsung (46") LED. A nice contemporary tv. To watch movies on this tv, I didn't need a separate dvd player anymore, I could hook up my usb drive and use its media player to play movies. This wasn't enough for a lazy person like me. The effort of copying the movies to a USB and then playing it was cumbersome for me.<br /><br />At the same time, I had also bought a desktop machine as an "always on" server. I almost never used it on its direct attached (CRT) monitor but accessed it remotely via ssh. It runs my web server and I do all my downloading on it as well. I found that Samsung LED TV has a vga port as well so a computer can directly be attached to it. So I decided to attach this desktop to my new t.v. This would also enable me to access Internet (youtube) on my tv. I also got hold of Microsoft wireless keyboard/mouse to fully utilize this architecture. These keyboard/mouse work flawlessly on Ubuntu. Surprisingly, Microsoft is good with these kinds of accessories :) I also noticed an Ethernet port in my t.v and hooked it up directly with the PCs Ethernet port using a crossover cable. I assigned them some 192 series ip and was happy to see that I could ping my tv from my linux box :)<br /><br />Life became easy for me but I wanted more. Every time I wanted to watch a movie I would have to get hold of the keyboard/mouse. I wanted to skip this step. This reminded me of the Ethernet port. I looked up my t.v's manual and discovered that its a certified "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Living_Network_Alliance">dlna</a>" device. Samsung tvs come with a proprietary software "myshare" which can be loaded onto a Windows PC and the tv will recognize it as a dlna device and start showing all the movies in its media player. This could be done over the wireless network but 1) it would chock my tiny wireless dsl router 2) I would have to buy a wireless dongle for my tv. Aslo since I had already connected my pc to the tv over ethernet I would just go ahead with that.<br /><br />Since I do not have a windows machine anywhere near my house :) I started researching for a dlna server on linux. All of the ones I tried would show the movie in Samsungs media player but clicking on it would give me some media not supported kind of error. All the movies were in avi format. I was looking for some thing which would just work as I was in no mood of conquering another of those open source's steep learning curve. I saw a lot of people talking that "<a href="http://mediatomb.cc/">media tomb</a>" and saying that it just works. Installing it was just a apt-get install. Installation was simple but same issue surfaced: unsupported format. Doing some more reading made me look for the right configuration file for mediatomb. This landed me no where. Even <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/mediatomb/forums/forum/440751/topic/4398387">this</a> configuration file didnt work. Eventually, I found <a href="http://www.sgvulcan.com/working-mediatomb-config-xml-for-samsung-ue37c5000/">this</a> one and it worked. The only change I had to make was to mention the ethernet IP I want it to bind to. It plays avi files well, the only format I would need. My samsung remote's regular fast forward buttons do not work I have to use the arrow keys. I guess I can live with that.<br /><br />All in all it was a good decision. Now to watch movies all I need is my tv remote :)<br /><br />No wonder my wife bought me a t-shrit saying "I am not handicapped, just lazy"</div>Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-43011014085118737162012-01-25T16:09:00.005+05:002012-01-25T16:49:25.350+05:00Firefox jre plugin for ubuntu 10.04 stops workingA couple of days ago in my efforts to join a webex session I realized that my firefox java plugin was not working. Then I remembered reading some where that Sun Java is being removed from ubuntu for some xyz reason. Details in the source links at the end.<br />As always my first level of support is freenode server, ubuntu channel on irc :) There everybody actually laughed at my 10.04 :) since most of the people are after the latest and the greatest. Never the less I finally managed to find a link giving me everthing step by step. So here is what I did to get my java firefox plugin back.<br /><br /><ol><li><code>sudo apt-get purge sun-java6-bin</code> (Please note it will uninstall all softwares depending on java)</li><li>Put the line<code><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;"> </span>deb http://www.duinsoft.nl/pkg debs all</code> in the file /etc/apt/sources.list</li><li>import the gpg key with the command (all on one line)<br /><code>sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 5CB26B26</code></li><li><code>sudo apt-get update<br /></code></li><li><code>sudo apt-get install update-sun-jre</code></li></ol>Everything starts working.<br />Source:<br />https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Java<br />http://www.duinsoft.nl/packages.php?t=enBabar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-13694534851393373422012-01-24T12:27:00.004+05:002012-01-25T16:25:37.720+05:00VOIP using dual mode IP cordless phoneMy first exposure to VOIP (voice over internet protocol) was back in 2001 while working on my final year university project. My buddy <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hasnainj">Hasnain</a> and I were implementing a protocol <a href="http://www.packetizer.com/rfc/rfc2848/">PINT</a> (PSTN/Internet Interworking). We implemented it on Linux using Kdeveloper in C++/QT.<br /><br />That is when I switched to Linux for good as well. Since then I also have been using gnomeeting and have seen it grow into <a href="http://ekiga.org/">ekiga</a>. Once I moved out of Pakistan, I started using ekiga regularly to call home using diamondcard.us as the service provider. That is the default voip service available with ekiga. Diamondcard.us voice quality to Pakistan was not that good so i also subscribed to another service connect2pakistan.com. I was overjoyed to find that my Nokia e51 has a built in voip phone. Therefore I was able call any one on my contact list via voip with a single click. Sadly, it drained out my battery life very quickly.<br /><br />On the other hand, I had a regular cordless PSTN phone lying around at home. It would be days before it would be used. Eventually one day it just died. I think the reason was lack of use :) This gave me the idea of having a cordless phone which would be my sip phone as well. <a href="http://gigaset.com/">Gigaset</a> came up to be the first result on google. Some time back it was bought by Siemens. The only problem I saw in their phones was that they were mostly over kill for my needs. It had tons of features which I would never need. Never the less I ordered one from Amazon since IP phones are not available here in Saudi. Here is what I got myself http://www.amazon.com/Solution-Accounts-C610A-IP-1-Handset-Telephone/dp/B004SBDQMG<br /><br />I think this is the first time I have got myself something known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Enhanced_Cordless_Telecommunications">DECT</a> based cordless phone. Interestingly these kind of cordless has 3 items. One main base which connects to the wireless router and PSTN line. The cordless and its charging station can be placed any where at home since it communicates with the main base over wireless. The phone is extremely easy to configure via its web interface. It can be configured to use up to six VOIP service providers. Users can configure prefix dialing based rules but I choose my connection every time a number is dialled. It has a lot of other stuff which I do not think I will ever use like face-book, email and also built in answering machine. Weather update on the home screen is pretty cool though.<br /><br />Since the VOIP connections are always connected you can also get local numbers by providers to be diverted to your phone. For example connect2paksitan.com offers a Pakistani number for around $5 a month. The best part is that the voice quality of the phone is amazing both over SIP and fixed line.<br /><br />I identified two problems upon setting up the phone. Since normally this kind of equipment comes with adapters I assumed that it would be 110/220V but sadly since it was ordered from Amazon US it was 110V only. Can live with this especially in Saudi since Khobar/Dammam normally has both sockets in most homes.<br /><br />Secondly callers number would not appear on the screen every time there was an incoming call. Googling made me realize that CLI settings in these phones are region based and since this was for US it wouldn't work in Saudi. So obviously my next step was to look our for gigaset's support. There were two thing I did. One I sent an email to gigaset support via their main web site. Secondly searching gigaset support middle east came up with linked-in profile of the CEO of gigaset Dubai. Well i added him to my linked in.<br /><br /><br />Next day interestingly the CEO did add me to his profile. So I instantly sent him an email explaining my problem. By evening I was on phone with gigaset support Saudi Arabia :) After he got all the details of the phone and where i bought it from :) he sent me a firmware file which i uploaded to the phone. There it was CLI working like a charm.Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-17452207220032539902011-04-26T16:30:00.002+05:002011-04-26T16:38:32.641+05:00vpnc auto-connectFor some reason my vpn client (vpnc) in ubuntu keeps getting disconnected. The worst is that I had to connect a couple of times before it would connect. So I wrote this tiny bash script to let it dial until it connects :)<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">#!/bin/bash</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">while true ;do</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> sleep 5</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> pid=/var/run/vpnc/pid</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> PID="$(cat "$pid" 2> /dev/null)"</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> if [ -z "$PID" ]; then</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> /usr/sbin/vpnc-connect /etc/vpnc/netapp.conf</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> else</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> echo connected</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> break</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> fi</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">done</span>Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-76607773998894193052010-08-07T12:47:00.003+05:002010-08-07T15:20:15.965+05:00Download torrents using command line in linuxI have been using btdownload-curses for some time to download torrents form linux command line. Recently for some reason it kept failing. Upon investigation I found out that <a href="http://libtorrent.rakshasa.no/">rtorrent</a> is a much better option. In ubuntu installing it is as simple as<span style="font-style: italic;"> sudo apt-get install rtorrent</span>.<br /><br />Had some problems installing it in CentOS 5.5. Finally I found a couple of rpms which could save you the headache. Get the rpms. For some reason I couldn't install them directly using rpm command.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">wget http://packages.sw.be/libsigc++20/libsigc++20-2.0.17-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">wget http://packages.sw.be/libtorrent/libtorrent-0.12.5-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">wget http://packages.sw.be/rtorrent/rtorrent-0.8.6-2.el5.rf.i386.rpm</span><br /><br />Install them using <span style="font-style: italic;">rpm -Uvh </span>in the same order as above.Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-68063030630069128782010-08-07T12:32:00.004+05:002010-08-07T15:19:26.688+05:00TPLINK TLWN321G on CentOS 5.5Recently I had to attach the above USB wireless dongle to a CentOS 5.5 machine. It works out of the box for ubuntu as I mentioned <a href="http://babarhaq.blogspot.com/2009/06/usb-wireless-adapter-in-ubuntu-linux.html">here</a>.<br /><br />For CentOS 5.5 here is what I did to make it work. Got the information from <a href="http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Laptops/Wireless#head-a7388039af96da5400e599133447452d2ca61fb5">here</a>.<br /><br />Installed elrepo repository:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">rpm -Uvh </span><a style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank" class="wiki external" href="http://elrepo.org/elrepo-release-0.1-1.el5.elrepo.noarch.rpm">http://elrepo.org/elrepo-release-0.1-1.el5.elrepo.noarch.rpm</a><br /><br />Imported its GPG key<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">rpm --import </span><a style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank" class="wiki external" href="http://elrepo.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-elrepo.org">http://elrepo.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-elrepo.org</a><br /><br />Install driver<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">yum --enablerepo=elrepo install rt73usb-firmware</span><br /><br />Now we need to disable the default network service for centos<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">chkconfig network off</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">chkconfig wpa_supplicant off</span><br /><br />Let NetworkManager take care of the network<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">chkconfig NetworkManager on</span><br /><br />Reboot. Now move your mouse over the network manager applet in the task bar and you should be able to see a list of all available wireless networks.Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-46375123616769972972010-07-07T15:23:00.003+05:002010-08-07T15:18:07.547+05:00Canadian visa for us-PakistanisSummers in Saudi Arabia are blistering with temperature constantly exceeding 50c. Even the evenings are unbearable. The schools in the kingdom remain closed for the three months of summers i.e. July-August-September. I scheduled my annual leave for Pakistan (my home country) in September as summers is not a good time to visit Pakistan which also has soaring temperatures coupled with power outages. So I was wondering how to keep my hyper active kids busy for these two months. Even the thought of keeping my two kids confined in an air conditioned house 24/7 was not pleasant at all.<br /><br />In such a scenario, an invitation from my wife's sister settled in Canada came as a blessing. My sister-in-law naturalized to be a Canadian a couple of years ago and always missed her family while being happily settled there with her husband and daughter. My wife always wanted to visit her. The whole plan seemed to ideally fit into our situation.<br /><br />Getting visas from Saudi Arabia have always been a breeze. There is a visa agent with in Saudi Aramco core office (Dhahran) which collects all the needed documents, dispatches and collects the passports from embassies in Riyadh. I got a list of all the required documents from their office and started accumulating them. My brother in law, a PHD professor in a reputable Canadian University sent me all the required documents accredited by a trusted lawyer. Me myself got my employment/salary certificate attested from chamber of commerce in Saudi Arabia. I have been working for a multi national company in Saudi Arabia for the past two and half years. I submitted the visa application well in advance. Soon I received a SMS from Canadian embassy informing me that the visa application have been received and it will be returned with in three to four weeks.<br /><br />I was very hopeful that my family will get the visa. Firstly, my brother in law is very well settled in Canada. He is a university professor, also a proud owner of a home and has guaranteed this trip. Secondly, I was not accompanying my family. Thirdly, my family has international medical insurance. Last but not least, my sound financial standings also made my case stronger. Both my kids and wife were very excited for this long awaited trip. To my despair, three weeks later I received an appalling visa rejection letter via the agent. It was a standard rejection letter with the most ambiguous reason highlighted on it.<br /><br />It states "You have not satisfied me, on the balance of probability, that you meet all the requirements of entry to Canada and that you would comply with the laws of Canada if you were authorized to enter [as per Regulation 179]".<br /><br />Interpreting this statement seems beyond my intelligence.<br /><br />I understand that Canada is a welfare state and they are afraid of people entering and not leaving upon their visa expiry. Still I expected the visa officer to be intelligent enough to distinguish between genuine and fraud cases. Why would a family of a well settled professional in Saudi Arabia stay in Canada illegally?<br /><br />All the documentation provided were attested/verified from the highest possible authorities, so there was no question of doubt. The visa officer could not even trust a guarantee letter from its own national university professor. If they are so afraid of people over staying they could always ask for a cash deposit which could be returned once they are back. There must be some other way - a better way then blatantly refusing visas. The most annoying part is that the refusal letter clear states in capital, bold and underlined: "This application is closed and WILL NOT BE RECONSIDERED".<br /><br />Discussing with other resources it appears that Canadian embassies refuse visit visas to Pakistani nationals frequently. Probably most of them receive such ambiguous refusal letters. If they naturalize Pakistanis then definitely their families would want to visit them. Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs should take this up with the Candadian government. If Canada does not want Pakistani nationals visiting it then it should stop accepting visa applications and probably end all diplomatic ties with us and stop naturalizing Pakistani nationals. What a shame for a country who claims to be champion of fairness.Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-83114642772604063892009-07-05T13:27:00.003+06:002009-07-19T17:06:06.066+06:00Website reviewsAs I have mentioned <a href="http://babarhaq.blogspot.com/2009/05/pakistani-government-websites.html">here</a> I am planning to do reviews of some government website. <a href="http://www.timeforblogging.com/2007/05/10/review-writing-elements-blog-website/">This</a> gave me a fair idea of how to proceed.<br /><br />I guess for government sites what matters most is the eservice been provided. No matter how ugly the design or content is, you will still go there if some thing needs to be done. So I guess my main focus would be on the services available on those websites. Currently most of our egovernment sites are static. One reason is that the back end is not IT enabled yet.<br /><br />Never the less hopefully (inshAllah) I should be posting the first one pretty soon.Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-16973443011425973792009-06-01T11:39:00.004+06:002009-06-01T11:55:16.231+06:00Usb wireless adapter in Ubuntu LinuxI had to buy a usb wireless adapter for my ubuntu based laptop since it does not have a built in one. So I went to the local market here in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khobar">Khobar</a> (Dossary tower) and made a list of available ones. Here is what I got:<br /><ul><li>TPLINK TLWN321G</li><li>ALFA AWUS036H</li><li>PLANET WL-U356M</li><li>EDIMAX</li><li>MSI</li></ul>I did some research on the Internet regarding which one would work natively/out of the box with ubuntu. TPLINK seemed to be the best bet. It was also the cheapest option available some thing like SR 50. So I took my chance. What a perfect fluke :) Its working like a charm since then. Lucky me!<br /><br />Here is the lsusb output for the device<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Bus 002 Device 002: ID 148f:2573 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT2501USB Wireless Adapter</span>Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-62691418062896697662009-05-23T14:12:00.003+06:002009-05-23T14:22:08.441+06:00Pakistani government websites<p><p>For some reason I am always digging for our official government websites. Probaly cause first it roughly gives me an idea of how well a certain government department is doing. Secondly cause it always feels good to see our country progressing. Though most of the time I am a little disappointed with the portals.</p><p>InshAllah soon I will try and write small reviews for all these sites which i visit.</p><p></p>Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-57747149724272735782009-05-19T17:01:00.004+06:002009-05-19T17:08:30.726+06:00Corruption (Bribe)I was flying out of Islamabad on April 30th 2009 with my family. The airport was least crowded and suddenly the customs officer stopped me. Well he asked me "Can I open your luggage?". I replied "No" in a cheeky manner. I said I have family with me so please "meharbani karaain". The reply I got was "aap hum per meharabani karain hum aap per kardaain gay". vow even my wife was shocked at this. Well I said no and moved on.<br /><br />At a time when our country is falling apart these guys are still busy doing their stuff. I thought of complaining but was afraid that he might suddenly "discover" narcotics in my luggage. What a pity.Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-15614078530690393082009-05-19T16:54:00.003+06:002009-05-19T17:01:11.023+06:00Saudi electronic bankingIt is always a pleasure to write some thing good about Saudi Arabia. I have always appreciated Saudis electronic/internet banking. Especially the way you can pay bills for almost everything under the sun. I often noticed the word SADAD while making my payments on line so I decided to "google" it.<br /><br />It turns out that this SADAD thing is the result of a very positive initiative taken by the saudi government a couple of years ago. There is a whole <a href="http://www.sadad.com/English/">web</a> site dedicated to this. I wonder why Pakistan cannot implement some thing like this. The idea is not that complicated.Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-87931637542622334052009-03-23T16:31:00.008+05:002009-03-25T11:00:42.980+05:00Contributing to open sourceI always feel that people do not contribute back to open source products. For example <a href="http://saudiaramco.com/">here</a> everybody uses <a href="http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/%7Esgtatham/putty/">putty</a> but I don't think any body have ever thought of supporting the product in any way. In fact you might hear a lot of them grumbling about the features it lacks :) I guess most of them do not even know that the software is open source or what open source means in the first place.<br /><br />For some time now I have been trying to do what ever I can to contribute back to open source. This blog itself is an example. I also at times have filed bugs for the OSS I use. Recently for the first time, I actually donated money to a project which I felt was lacking in linux from the time I started using it. It is fully compatible mail client for <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/default.MSPx">M$ exchange</a>. I have been looking for this since my university days (my <a href="http://www.nuces.edu.pk">uni</a> had exchange which they could not handle and eventually switched to <a href="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/index.html">free mail</a> for educational institutions from google).<br /><br />For the time being I am using <a href="http://projects.gnome.org/evolution/">evolution</a> OWA microsoft exchange support. It has a lot of problems but never the less some thing is better then nothing. A couple of times I thought of using outlook under <a href="http://www.codeweavers.com/">crossoffice</a> but for that I would need a licensed copy of outlook (M$ office). I decided against that when I looked at the cost of Microsoft office professional :)<br /><br />Finally some time back I discovered <a href="http://www.openchange.org/">this</a>. Looks very promising and thats where I have made my first donation to open source. I hope that I will continue doing this with softwares which makes my life easier :)<br /><br />Update 25th March 2009<br />A few days ago gnome 2.26.0 was <a href="http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/134846">released</a>. Native MAPI support is included in this release. So most probably next release of ubuntu code named Jaunty should have it. The only quick review I could dig up of this support is from some one who <a href="http://talk.bmc.com/blogs/blog-carl/steve-carl/MAPI-0.8-OpenChange-Evolution-OpenSUSE-11.1">tested</a> it in February.Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-10396292766348240552009-03-01T17:10:00.002+05:002009-03-01T17:12:35.882+05:00Exit re-entry statusExpats living in saudi arabia know what all this is about. Luckily you can check status of your exit re-entry <a href="http://moi.gov.sa/wps/portal/%21ut/p/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKLN4i39HQCSYGYRgaG-pEQhhFMzNgUIoSkzBFDxNITm5glQixcPwpmhRGCaQhjAi2JgpkdhXBWFML0KIShMKaXkb6vR35uqn6Qvrd-gH5BbigQRBhkemZ6Zpk4KgIA8w2EBg%21%21/delta/base64xml/L3dJdyEvd0ZNQUFzQUsvNElVRS82XzBfRFVV">online</a> now. Though it does not always work :)Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-72310324753111429702009-02-15T15:01:00.002+05:002009-02-15T15:08:09.674+05:00Mobily Internet via Nokia E51 as bluetooth modemWell consulted too many sites to get this working so cant really mention all of them here :)<br />I will just put the main one <a href="http://ubuntuliving.blogspot.com/2007/02/internet-connection-via-nokia-bluetooth.html">here</a><br /><br />AFAIK this was performed on Ubuntu 7.04. So in 8.10 it turned out to be a lot easier.<br /><br />I will only post the differences here :) Yeah they call it laziness<br /><br />In <a href="http://ubuntuliving.blogspot.com/2007/02/pairing-cellphone-with-ubuntu-via.html">step1</a> you just need to left click the bluetooth icon and select "Set up new device". Make sure bluetooth is activated on your mobile and its publicly viewable. It will give you the code which you need to enter on your mobile to complete the pairing.<br /><br /><a href="http://ubuntuliving.blogspot.com/2007/02/setting-up-communications-with.html">Step2</a> remains exactly the same. Be sure to restart bluetooth service after editing rfcomm.conf<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart</span><br /><br />In <a href="http://ubuntuliving.blogspot.com/2007/02/setting-up-ppp-to-use-bluetooth.html">Step3</a> I used <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wvdial">wvdial</a> instead of what this guy is using. Since I am familiar with it. <a href="http://mobily.com.sa">Mobily</a> does not require a username/password but I had to put dummy values since wvidal does not accept wvdial.conf with out it.<br /><br />Here is my wvdial for mobily, Saudi arabia.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">[Dialer mobile]</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Init1 = ATZ</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Init3 = AT+CGDCONT=, ,"web1"</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Modem = /dev/rfcomm0</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Phone = *99***1#</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Username = A</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Password = B</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">New PPPD = yes</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">BAUD = 460800</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Stupid Mode = 1</span>Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-85477607344298776682009-02-07T15:24:00.010+05:002009-03-01T17:10:41.423+05:00Mobily vs JawalRecently due to some unfortunate circumstances my <a href="http://www.stc.com.sa/cws/portal/en/business/bus-aljawal"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Jawal</span> </a><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">STC</span> mobile number was disconnected and I had to change my number. So I had option of going for <a href="http://www.stc.com.sa/cws/portal/en/business/bus-aljawal"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">STC</span></a>, <a href="http://mobily.com.sa/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">mobily</span> </a>or <a href="http://www.sa.zain.com/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Zain</span></a>. Zain is very new and I was in no mood of experimentation. So I was left with mobily vs Jawal.<br /><br />People all around, encouraged me to go for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">mobily</span>. Reason: its economical and services in general are a lot better. So I did.<br /><br />Well the customer service of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">mobily</span> is a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">loooooooot</span> better then <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">STC</span>. Getting connected to a representative in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">thier</span> call center is lightning fast. They are courteous, yes courtesy in Saudi <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">arabia</span>! Their <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">technical</span> know how is not that great, but I can live with that.<br /><br />In quality of network, well they <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">don't</span> score that well. Calling Pakistan is a nightmare. It seems like they are making use of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">VOIP</span> extensively. The receiver will not get your correct number and the voice quality sucks big time.<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">SMS</span> is another problem. Either the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">recipient</span> will not get your message or you will not get their replies.<br /><br />Maybe <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">mobily</span> is economically more viable but if the core technologies (voice/<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">sms</span>) have problems then I think <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">STC</span> wins by large<br /><br />Update 1st March 2009<br />Guess what? You cannot call 0800 toll free numbers from mobily :P Since its a STC service I guess it will never allow access from mobily :(Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-8146232281989313502008-11-23T17:44:00.001+05:002008-11-23T17:46:02.454+05:00DesperationI am desperate to start writing again. I have so many things to talk about ...... Hope I will start soon, inshAllahBabar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-82360143242629434572008-01-30T13:50:00.001+05:002008-06-23T03:47:05.200+06:00Voice chat on LinuxThis has been a big problem for me since I started using Linux as my primary desktop. For the time being the only thing I could use was "<a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.skype.com">Skype</a>" and "<a href="http://ekiga.org/">Ekiga</a>". Recently I found <a href="http://www.jabbin.com/">jabbin</a>, a jabber client supporting <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/talk/libjingle/index.html">libjingle</a> protocol developed by google. I got to it via this article <a href="http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/blogs/how_to_make_jabber_calls_using_jabbin">FreeSoftwareMagazine</a> which shows how to voice chat on Linux with google talk users. Cool!<br /><br />The software is still under heavy development though. At least there is hope :)<br /><br />Update (23rd June 2008)<br />Seems like the above software is "dying" like a lot of open source projects :( The home page has disappeared. <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5118375">Here</a> is another way of voice chatting with Gtalk users on linuxBabar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-43592756581098868202007-11-03T16:25:00.001+05:002009-06-01T18:36:13.739+06:00From OSRC to NetAppWell this is just to let everyone know that I have resigned from <a href="http://osrc.org.pk/">OSRC</a> and joined <a href="http://www.netapp.com/">Network Appliance</a> as a resident Professional Services Consultant for <a href="http://www.saudiaramco.com/">Saudi aramco</a>.<br /><br />OSRC was a typical government organization where people are more interested in pulling each others leg then doing some constructive work.<br /><br />Following are the things I enjoyed/learnt/delivered at OSRC:<br /><ul><li>Gave linux introductory trainings at various government universities(Quetta,Abottabad,Kohat)<br /></li><li>Participated in various open source conferences on behalf of Pakistan government<br /></li><li>Had a wonderful time traveling with my old buddy Sufyan</li><li>Learnt how our government organizations work</li><li>Realzied how corrupt our government bodies are</li><li>Was part of OLPC pakistans team.Jump started them on localization/customization efforts</li><li>Was the first guy to be able to run <a href="http://siahe.com/zekr/">Zekr</a> (open source quarn) on a real OLPC (ofcourse with help from Zekr's creator (Usman) <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Pakistan_achievements">More info</a></li></ul>Probably some day I would go back to the government but this time I would go for a position where I could make a difference. It is really difficult to work under incompetent people.I still believe that OSRC is a wonderful intitiative taken from government of Pakistan if only it can be run fairly.Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6613855.post-24324568312181828732007-08-23T12:50:00.000+05:002007-08-24T10:53:25.113+05:00Warid GPRS on linux with Nokia 6020<div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">For the past few months the only time I would boot in Windows would be to connect my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">GPRS</span> using <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Nokia</span> PC suite.My first few attempts to connect <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">GPRS</span> on Linux were using <a href="http://easyconnect.linuxuser.hu/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">gprseasyconnect</span></a> software. <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Unfortunately</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">warid</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">pakistan</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">gprs</span> service is not listed in their <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">gprs</span> providers drop down list. I tried pretty hard to add <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">warid</span> as a provider by editing their *.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">apn</span> files but was <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">in vain</span>.Finally I planned to work on things manually.<br /></div><br />Luckily my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Nokia</span> 6020 connects to Dell Latitude D400's serial port via <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">DKU</span>-5 cable. I said luckily because I always find serial port stuff easy to configure on Linux, e.g modems. My <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">nokia</span> phone was available to me on my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">ubuntu</span> 6.06 under /<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">dev</span>/<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">ttyS</span>0 which is also known as COM1 in windows.First thing I did was I booted into Windows and opened the dial up connection created by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Nokia</span> PC suite. The number it dialed was *99#.To dial out I needed a dialer. I installed gnome-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">ppp</span> using synaptic package manager and configured the modem to /<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">dev</span>/<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">ttyS</span>0. Now when I dialed out the gnome-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">ppp</span> dialer after initializing the modem would get stuck on sending password.From here I jumped on to even lower level dialer that is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">wvdial</span>. I started out with the default <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">wvdial</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">conf</span> and just changed the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">dialup</span> number to *99#.This time everything went fine except when the mobile tried to create the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">GPRS</span> connection it would fail with a message saying something like "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">GPRS</span>: Invalid <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">GPRS</span> access point".I do not remember the exact message though.Upon googling a little I found a different number to dial *99***1#. The digit 1 represented the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">GPRS</span> setting to be picked up from the mobile. Probably these <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">nokia</span> phones have index number of every <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">GPRS</span> setting you save in your mobile. Wonder why <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">doesent</span> it try the default one.The sad part was that this failed as well.Eventually I found <a href="http://www.gnu-linux.net/t610irda/gprs-wvdial.conf">this</a>. Using this I crafted out a new <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">wvdial</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">conf</span> which got me <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">conncted</span>!<br /></div><br />Here is my final <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">wvdial</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">conf</span> connecting me to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">warid</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">GPRS</span><br /><br />[Dialer Defaults]<br />Modem = /<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">dev</span>/<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">ttyS</span>0<br />Baud = 115200<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">Init</span>1 = <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_45">ATH</span><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_46">Init</span>2 = ATE1<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_47">Init</span>3 = AT+<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_48">CGDCONT</span>=1,"<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_49">IP</span>","<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_50">wap</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_51">warid</span>","0.0.0.0",0,0<br />Phone = *99#<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_52">Username</span> = A<br />Password = B<br /><br />The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_53">username</span> and password are are <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_54">dumy</span> values. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_55">Thats</span> all.Babar Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16537504273848151360noreply@blogger.com3