– U.S. – Egyptian business relations at an all time high; more than a dozen companies from across the globe have now set up offices in Egypt – focused around technology and research and development

The strength of the relations between the U.S. and Egypt on a business level has never been better, and Egypt is primed to increase the volume of its IT/ITES exports to US$1.1 billion by 2010.

This was the message communicated by His Excellency Dr. Tarek Kamel, Egyptian Minister of Communications & Information Technology at a special luncheon hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU), and the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt (AmCham Egypt), in Washington, DC. Also attending this luncheon were Mr. Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Mr. Richard Patterson, Vice President of Global Delivery, IBM.

During the visit to New York and Washington, DC, Dr. Kamel and Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) officials met with senior business executives from top Fortune 100 companies like Board Chairman and CEO of IBM Corp. Samuel J. Palmisano to discuss new business, technology innovation and future opportunities to collaborate in Egypt.

Egypt has been highly aggressive over the past decade in delivering on major infrastructure, bandwidth, educational and telecommunications projects to drive increased interest in companies looking to establish major global service delivery centers in the country.

“Egypt is now at the new crossroads for next stage in the IT revolution,” said Dr. Kamel. “With a long history of innovation, we are a young, energetic country with a population that grew up in the technology world, so we’ve keyed some of the specific goals as a nation around technology — being a hub for innovation and research, cyber security and cross-border collaboration.”

Egypt is located on the paths of most optical cables linking Africa and Asia with Europe and North America. Egypt has also developed fiber connectivity with its neighbors, which makes it a prime location for transient traffic to the region. With the only direct connection from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt is also strategically positioned to be a manufacturing, logistics and distribution hub for Europe and the Middle East.

“Many people do not realize that we are a multi-stakeholder country – English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch and Arabic are all common languages that are currently serviced out of Egypt. So many companies across Europe and the Middle East come to Egypt and are very comfortable with the language, culture and communications,” Dr. Kamel continued.

A.T. Kearney recently positioned Egypt as sixth on its 2009 Global Services Location Index, an improvement of seven ranks from 2007. Cairo was also ranked in the seventh position amongst top 50 emerging outsourcing cities across the globe in a study prepared by Global Services – Tholons. Currently, companies such as Microsoft, Vodafone, Teleperformance, Wipro, SQS, Valeo, and Alcatel all have offices in Egypt’s Smart Village, a 600-acre technology business park in Cairo. In May of this year, Delta Rasmala relocated its own Egypt headquarters to Smart Village.

“Global IT and telecommunications companies find that our Egyptian market provides real opportunity and advantages for investment including competitive operational costs, political stability, and highly qualified human resources,” Dr. Kamel stated.

Egypt continues to make progress in combating software piracy as highlighted by its reduced software piracy rating in the sixth annual Business Software Alliance (BSA), IDC Global Software Piracy Study. The report sees Egypt’s 2008 rating drop a further one percent on the previous year, with levels reducing to 59 percent, and a total fall of 10 percent since 2003. This is the fifth consecutive year that Egypt’s piracy rates have fallen and these rates are well below other countries such as Morocco, the Philippines, and Bulgaria.

Egypt is primed for business growth driven by tax, customs and financial sector reforms. Egypt was named as leading global economic reformer by the World Bank in its ‘Doing Business 2007′ report.

Earlier this month, Cisco and ITIDA announced that Cisco was going to be adding a brand new customer service and support center in Egypt as a means to serve its customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with employees that could communicate in seven different languages.

“Egypt is now, more than ever, at the crossroads of where technology, culture, innovation and business meet. Through the appropriate legal and regulatory reforms which can accommodate deregulation and development of the telecommunications sector, the government of Egypt has helped put laws in place around e-commerce, intellectual property and investment to help incoming companies truly maximize their profitability,” said Dr. Kamel. “New tax and customs reforms were implemented by the government, according to which the highest personal tax rate was cut from 32 percent to 20 percent and the corporate tax rate cut went from 42 percent to 20 percent.”

“Much of Egypt is now connected by main roads, power generation has improved considerably and Egypt is enjoying a remarkable talent pool as investing in human capital is part and parcel of the government’s plan,” Dr. Kamel continued. “Egypt’s human resources have always been one of its greatest assets, with its almost 330,000 college graduates yearly – 31,000 alone focused on engineering or science – enjoying excellent multilingual capabilities.”

Egyptian leadership is also focused on collaborating with companies to advance the penetration of the Internet in Egypt and to get the nation on the forefront of technological developments, while at the same time focused on protecting and supporting its youth in using the Internet as a means of creativity and innovation.

“The dreams of our generations are great and so are the challenges, stretching hands of cooperation and collaboration is the only way to envisage a better world. It is high time to put differences and discrimination aside, to bridge all the gaps by exchanging expertise with openness and maturity needed to push the technology forward, build on what was achieved and innovate for the future. As change is the wave of the age, innovation and creation is the future, and our role is to secure it for the coming generations.”

Source: MarketWatch

No more telling Mom you can’t talk because your cell phone is “about to die”–it soon could be charging itself as you speak.

The Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge, England, is working on a prototype system that would eliminate the traditional cell phone charger.

The system collects energy from ambient radio waves emitted by antennas, TV masts, Wi-Fi transmitters, and the like. This might all sound uber-scientific, but we’ve been using this technology for years. Have you ever exited a store, only to hear the beep, beep, beep of an accusing alarm system? Many retailers use radio frequency identification to prevent theft and track inventory. Like RFID tags, the Nokia phones would catch radio waves across a range of frequencies, harnessing them for power.

Nokia’s goal is to get cell phones to harvest about 50 milliwatts of power. Currently the prototypes are able to harvest up to 5 milliwatts, but at least 20 milliwatts is needed to keep phones running in standby mode indefinitely without the need for a recharge, the U.K.’s Guardian reports in an article on Nokia’s research.

We’re not quite sure what features 50 milliwatts could power: music playing? 3G Internet browsing? As consumers increase their business- and entertainment-related dependency on cell phones, Nokia might have to adjust its 50-milliwatt goal. For a more functional lifestyle device, the phone would need to be paired with a solar-paneled case, or even an occasional wired charge.

The Nokia Research Centre has said the technology will take three to five years to develop. Though this would presumably be the first time electromagnetic radiation is applied to a mainstream consumer product, wireless charging has already hit the market. This month, Palm introduced a wireless charger, the Touchstone, for its much-anticipated Palm Pre.

The Touchstone uses a method referred to as inductive charging. The electric toothbrush is one of the most common devices that applies this technology.

Source

Google has developed a way to help companies move onto Google Apps–and away from Microsoft’s Exchange e-mail software–without forcing a migration to the Gmail user interface. Google’s Dave Girouard discusses how Google is making a play for more and more business customers for Google Apps.

Microsoft’s Outlook has been the dominant e-mail client within the business world for years, and Google’s new Apps Sync for Outlook plug-in acknowledges that some business workers just aren’t ready to give up that familiar interface, even if their CIOs are anxious to get everybody onto Google’s version of the cloud. Businesses who have already signed up for Google Apps Premier Edition–as well as Education Edition customers–will be able to roll out this plug-in across their networks and allow Outlook messages, contacts, and calendar appointments to sync with Google Apps.

Google is trying to expand its presence inside the world’s corporate IT departments with products like Google Apps, which the company says offers a cheaper and more reliable alternative to traditional IT software companies. Quoting data from Forrester, Google’s David Girouard, president of Enterprise products, said companies who chose to use Google’s hosted Gmail service save about $17 per user per month as compared to companies that build and host their own e-mail servers.

However, there apparently is a sizable enough number of workers that refuse to move off Outlook, meaning that IT directors who want to sign up with Google were forced to maintain a Microsoft Exchange server to placate those folks while moving everybody else to Gmail. An alternative where Outlook users are connected to Gmail through IMAP got the job done, but at the expense of a severe performance hit, said Chris Vander Mey, a senior product manager with Google.

Now, they can let those people continue to use Outlook but allow IT managers to move completely away from Exchange servers. “We’ve made it pretty easy to exchange your Exchange server for Google,” Girouard said.

Google’s eye is squarely on Microsoft’s cozy position in the enterprise when it comes to products such as Google Apps. Around 1.75 million businesses are using Google Apps, Girouard said, although he declined to clarify how many of those businesses are Premier Edition customers.

CIOs invited by Google to a press event in San Francisco were naturally bullish on Google’s version of cloud computing, and downplayed any concerns about security, reliability or the loss of a competitive advantage when it comes to giving up control of their IT.

“At most businesses, IT is not core. I’m not in the IT business to make money, I’m here to enable (my company) to win,” said Bob Rudy, vice president and CIO for semiconductor designer Avago Technologies in San Jose.

The plug-in only works for Outlook users on Windows; Mac users on Entourage will have to wait.

Source: CNET

Microsoft might have cracked the Holy Grail of game control – by having none at all.

Today it unveiled a new technology that allows gamers to use their own bodies to control on screen action, under the name Project Natal.

A small device containing cameras and a microphone not only can recognise vocal commands, but can ’see’ players’ movements in 3D, tracking gestures and converting them to in-game movements.

A demonstration video showed a player using a fighting game without a controller and another gamer using only her hands to turn an invisible steering wheel in a race game. Early days yet, sure, and could be quite some time before the technology could mimic the deft touches possible with a controller, but promising progress nonetheless.

The massive media contingent introduced to Project Natal today was stunned by what could be a game changer for the industry. Head and shoulders above Sony’s aging EyeToy technology and solidly beating out Wii’s motion-sensitive controllers, Natal is still solidly in the development stage, but is already in the hands of serious Xbox partners.

One megastar to come out singing its praises today was director Steven Spielberg, who was introduced to the ground-breaking technology just two months ago.

“The gamer in me went out of of my mind,” he said. “It’s not about reinventing the wheel, it’s having no wheel at all.”

Creative director for the project, former general manager of Electronic Arts’ Chicago studio, Kudo Tsunodo, came on stage and the Natal-toting console recognised him and loaded his avatar instantly. He manipulated pages in the Dashboard and danced around a bit, aped (albeit a bit shakily) by his avatar.

An assistant came on stage and played a block n’ ball game, Ricochet, quite effectively without even touching a controller. Even a paint program was used with only vocal prompts to change colours on the palette and to save the resulting image (no Van Gogh, just for the record).

Fable 2 creator Peter Molyneux was next up, introducing the crowd to Milo – a digital character that responded to voice commands to such a degree that his behaviour changed as he detected different tones of voice.

The Lionhead studio employee used in the live demonstration even drew a picture on a piece of paper and ‘passed’ it to Milo. The gadget had scanned it and the paper appeared in his hands. This final stage of the demonstration came across as hugely contrived and heavily scripted, but closer-quarter demonstrations will take place throughout the show, so it will quickly become clear just how close Microsoft’s Holy Grail actually is to game-time reality.

Source: NZHerald

WASHINGTON (AP) — America has failed for too long to adequately protect the security of its computer networks, President Barack Obama said Friday, announcing he will name a new cyber czar to press for action.

Surrounded by a slew of government officials, aides and corporate executives, Obama said the U.S. has reached a “transformational moment” when computer networks are probed and attacked millions of times a day.

“It’s now clear this cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation,” Obama said, adding, “We’re not as prepared as we should be, as a government or as a country.”

He said he will soon pick the person he wants to head a new White House office of cyber security, and that person will report to the National Security Council and the National Economic Council — a nod to his contention that the country’s economic prosperity depends on cybersecurity.

While the coordinator’s exact title has not yet been decided, Obama addressed concerns that the person might not have the budgetary and policy-making authority needed to force change. The coordinator, he said, will have “regular access to me.”

As many as a half dozen candidates — from the public and private sector — are being considered for the post, according to officials familiar with the discussions.

Obama’s announcement comes as the Pentagon is poised to create a new cyber command to improve protection of military networks and coordinate its offensive and defensive cyber missions.

Government officials have grown increasingly alarmed as U.S. computer networks are constantly assailed by attacks and scams, ranging from nuisance hacking to more nefarious probes and attacks, including suspicions of cyber espionage by other nations, such as China. Officials earlier this year revealed there was an attack against the electrical grid, and computers at the Pentagon were infected by a virus.

Even the president was a victim.

……….

Source: AP

Spam now accounts for 90.4 percent of all e-mail, according to a report released Monday from security vendor Symantec. This means that 1 out of every 1.1 e-mails is junk. The report also notes that spam shot up 5.1 percent just from April to May.

Symantec’s May 2009 MessageLabs Intelligence report reveals other disturbing trends, as well. Rather than just hijack disreputable Web sites, cybercriminals now favor older and well-established domains to host their malware. The report says 84.6 percent of all domains blocked for malicious content are more than a year old. One type of domain now especially vulnerable to threats is social networking, since most of the sites’ content is created by users.

“Spammers using better-known and thus more widely trusted Web sites to host malware is reminiscent of the spammers who rely on well-known Web mail and social networking environments to host spam content,” said Paul Wood, Symantec’s MessageLabs Intelligence senior analyst. “The trustworthy older domains can be compromised through SQL injection attacks while newer sites are more likely to be flagged as suspicious–a temporary site set up with the sole purpose of distributing spam and malware–and thus faster to get shut down.”

Where you live also determines when you’re spammed, says the report. For people in the U.S., spam hits its peak between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. and then drops overnight. Europeans get a solid stream of spam throughout the day, while users in Asia-Pacific countries find most spam waiting for them in the morning. One reason for this trend, says the report, is that most spammers are at their busiest during U.S. working hours.

The popular CAPTCHA program, which asks the user to type in a series of random characters, is no longer proving as effective as once hoped. Many Web sites have relied on CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) to ensure that accounts are created by actual human beings.

But criminals have now succeeded in generating profiles with random names, apparently by using automated CAPTCHA breakers. The report notes that some major Web sites are now exploring other ways to block automated accounts, such as using photographic images that a user must analyze.

Spam levels had dropped for a short while last year after the closure of several malware-hosting Internet providers. But spammers have since bounced back from those losses by rebuilding their networks.

Symantec’s MessageLabs Intelligence gathers research on spam and other malware from global data centers that track e-mails and Web pages. Symantec releases a new intelligence report each month.

Source: CNET NEWS