intodimensions.com

ITP.net:

The head of the leading Voice over IP (VoIP) service, Skype, has told ACN that any bans on its use by Middle East countries are likely to be ineffective but may hold back business growth.

In an interview with ACN, Niklas Zennström, CEO of Skype, said: “What I’ve seen in some places is where VoIP is illegal because it’s being used to bypass the national telephone company, with it being used in such a way where you’re connecting telephones to an adaptor that brings the calls out of the internet.

“What we are doing is a different kind of service. You’re using the software, you’re using your computer, so it’s not aiming to be a one-to-one replacement for your telephone.

“I don’t think that those lawmakers had particularly software or Skype in mind when they wrote the laws. Skype is more like any other type of online communication service like email, or instant messaging, or chat.”

According to the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, Skype’s provision of voice services contravenes the country’s Telecom Law. The website is blocked within the Emirates, as it is in several other Middle East countries, including Lebanon.

Anyone found using VoIP in the UAE is likely to have their internet access halted and may be prosecuted and fined. Skype credit cannot be topped up from a UAE account, as many banks will refuse to allow the transaction.

China, having banned the service at first, has since allowed Skype to be used, as have several Middle East countries including Oman.

“Even in places like the US, for example, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has said that Skype is not to be regulated as a telephone service,” said Zennström.

“The same thing in the European Union – the regulators say that Skype is an information service, it’s not a telecommunication service.”

Zennström said that he doubts there is actually a law in place that prevents the use of Skype in certain Middle East countries.

“I haven’t read law and I haven’t had any lawyers investigate it either, but I would be surprised if the law said that Skype is not allowed,” he said.

“If that was the case then we would encourage those lawmakers to actually change that.”

He also expressed scepticism that government action would be able to stop people using Skype. “It is, I think, impossible to maintain the ban,” he said.

“We have users all over the world and we have people benefiting from it everywhere. A lot of the end users’ economies are benefiting. There’s much more cost-efficient communication, which is great for them and great for those countries.”

According to Zennström, 25% of Skype customers are business users, and the service is attracting 250,000 new users a day. Skype will shortly be introducing a new video calling facility, and is working on VoIP for handheld and wireless devices, which Zennström says will allow business users to save money on roaming charges.

From Dubai Consumer Mirror:

A friend insisted that I blog this telephone conversation:

- Hello, can I talk to Paul please?
- Baul?
- No, Paul…
- Baul?
- Paul.. PPPPaul
- Yes, Baul
- Not Baul….Paul… with a P
- Oooooh … B as in Boy or B as in Beoble?
- *silence*

The problem is that the letter and sound “p” doesn’t really exist in arabic. So anything with a “p” in it they hear, and often write, as “b”. They have to essentially learn how it’s spelled since they cannot hear it. That’s often a big problem when you’re trying to tell people what you’re name is, what your address is, especially over the phone.

Just a few days ago I wrote that it really started to feel hot here again, after a few months of relative cool (it was never cold, mind you) and it’s in the news today that the temperature reached 42C. When Crystal picked me up from work yesterday the car showed 48C and that was in a car that had been running for a while and that was cool inside!

CNN:

Swedish authorities Saturday are investigating how a man calling himself a “stateless American” ended up floating on a raft of oil barrels and wood planks in the waters between Denmark and Norway.

The man — who carried no identification, spoke perfect English and said his name was George Williams — was found by a Norwegian oil tanker Friday morning, floating in the Skagerak sea on a raft of four oil barrels held together by a frame of wooden planks.

He told police he had been thrown from a ship several days earlier and now wanted to go to New York, but offered little further information.

He asked to be taken in by Swedish authorities, and shielded his face from photographers when he was taken to a port in southern Sweden.

“If he was thrown off a ship, they must have thrown off the raft for him to sit on as well, so I don’t know,” Swedish marine police spokesman Bengt Albinsson said. “We are trying to figure out the circumstances, but we will have to see how much he wants to tell us.”

BBC:

Camel’s milk and other products like camel’s cheese, ice cream and camel chocolate could soon be hitting the shelves of Western retailers if a United Nations bid to stimulate the rudimentary industry is successful.

It is already widely drunk across the Arab world, but the United Nations says camel’s milk has untapped potential to hit the global markets.

Tasting slightly more salty than cow’s milk, but with three times the vitamin C and up to 10 times the iron content, camel’s milk is touted as a powerful tonic against many diseases and as an aphrodisiac.

Potentially it could provide more food to people in dry areas, and also give nomadic herders from Mauritania to Mongolia a rich source of income.

Many people believe the camel is a dirty animal, but that is not true. If you think there is not a high quality product coming from these animals, that is not true either.

To do that, the fledgling industry needs to overcome numerous humps in production.

A camel typically produces about five litres of milk per day, but that could be easily improved with changes to the low-tech business, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Crystal is working on a new web site - EmiratesBaby.com. It’s all about having and raising children in the UAE. She covers what’s in the news here that may be of interest and things like schools, shopping malls, parks etc. She seems real excited about it.

Magnus started EmiratesMac.com in October and recently moved to new hosting provider. It’s going well for him too. His site covers Apple in the UAE with a focus on Mac and iPod.

It’s really getting hot here again. It’s been nice not having to sweat as soon as you put your nose outside the door for a while… really since November or so, but now the heat is back with a vengeance. And the really bad part is that it’s only begun. We’re just over 30C during the days now, looking at 35C or so. That means we have some 10C more to go to the 40-45C that we’ll have now until when it cools down again.

We haven’t had to put up the shades in the front-window of the car but now we have to put them up again because it gets so hot. We notice it when we take the dogs out that they find it much warmer. We notice it in the AC that now runs pretty much 24/7. We notice it in so many ways…

Gulf News:

du, the UAE’s second national telecommunications operator, will soon offer a switch from Etisalat with the same number, but the code will change from 050 to 055.

So the number is the same, but not really… So same same but different.

Emirates Today:

An Australian group is planning to implement three projects in Ras Al Khaimah at a total cost of Dh20 billion.
The first project involves construction of a golf club, which will have an artificial snow-skiing slope at the Jais mountains.The project also includes three fivestar hotels and 700 villas. Ras Al Khaimah Ski will feature the world’s longest artificial slope, stretching 12km.

Marina Ras Al Khaimah will feature three towers and a hotel, while the third project will be built on a seven million square metre area and will include villas, a wildlife sanctuary and commercial and recreational facilities.

Just what we need… a skislope… outdoors… in the desert

Khaleej Times reports:

Careers UAE 2006, the country’s largest recruitment, training and education show to be held from April 23-25 has registered 32 per cent increase in net space over last year.

This was stated by Saeed Al Marri, DWTC Director-General and show organiser, at a Press conference yesterday.

The sixth and largest-ever edition of the show, dedicated to unearthing and harnessing the best of young Emirati talent, will be held at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC) and will occupy 4,909 sq-m as opposed to 3,704 last year.

Al Marri pointed out that the event has attracted a large number of exhibitors from across the spectrum of business sectors which is indicative of heightened interest in emiratisation across all sectors of trade and industry. “This year exhibitor numbers have grown by 20 per cent, up from 125 last year to 150 this year.”

Khaleej Times also reports:

More than 93 per cent of female employees in the country wish to quit their jobs for not being able to compromise between their job obligations and their families, revealed Attorney Abdulqadir Al Haythamy.

He said this fact was the outcome of a study conducted by the Women’s Committee in the Jurists Association of the country. It is based on a questionnaire covering 150 female employees from different ministries in the country.

The study showed that female employees are not able to strike a balance between their jobs and their families, as taking care of the kids is the main reason that pushes them to think about quitting their jobs. The rest of the reasons varied between feeling bored, routine, lack of appreciation, work pressure, and problems in the work field. As per the study, 86 per cent of the sample wish to resign from their jobs and free themselves to take care of their families if they get a chance to do so, knowing that of those who don’t want to quit their jobs, 20 per cent of them are singles, widows and divorced women, and 80 per cent are financially obligated with debts, or they are working to enhance the family income and help relatives and parents with their salaries.

So there is an increased interested in a “recruitment, training and education show” but at the same time 93% of working women want to quite - how does that add up?