Pakistan removed from the Internet

Pakistan removed from the Internet by ZDNet's Richard Stiennon -- 4:30 PM Eastern (US).

The telecom company that carries most of Pakistan’s traffic, PCCW (one of the largest communications provider in Asia), has found it necessary to shut Pakistan off from the Internet while they filter out the malicious routes that a Pakistani ISP, PieNet, announced earlier today.

Evidently PieNet took this step to enforce a decree from the Pakistani government that ISP’s must block access to YouTube because it was a source of "blasphemous content, videos and documents".

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority sent this e-mail to their customers:

Dear Valued Customer:
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has directed all ISPs of the country to block access to www.youtube.com web site for containing blasphemous web content/movies.
The site would remain blocked till further orders from PTA. Meanwhile, Internet users can write to youtube.com to remove the objectionable webcontent/movies because this removal would enablethe authorities to order un-blocking of this website.
We're sorry for any inconvenience.
Best Regards
Manager Technical Assistance Center Micronet Broadband Pvt. Ltd. Islamabad

The authority did not specify what the offensive material was, but a PTA official said the ban concerned a movie trailer for an upcoming film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, who has said he plans to release an anti-Koran movie portraying the religion as fascist and prone to inciting violence against women and homosexuals.

In the past twenty five years Geert Wilders has visited Israel about forty times, where he has met with, among others, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert. Furthermore, he claims to have tight connections with the Mossad and to love Israel:

"The past years I have visited many interesting countries, from Tunisia to Turkey and from Cyprus to Iran, but nowhere I have that special feeling of solidarity that I always get if I set foot on the Israeli Goerion-airport."

Geert Wilders caused an uproar by writting at the Volkskrant that:

"The Koran is a facist book which incites violence. That is why this book, just like Mein Kampf, must be banned."

The Government of Pakistan is also keen on banning and censors all internet traffic by means of routing all connections through a central exchange which is administered by the Internet Exchange.
Furthermore Pakistani ISPs are also under orders to block certain websites on their own routers.

A common target by major ISPs in Pakistan was the weblogs hosted at blogspot.com among other important social networking websites.

More Info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Pakistan

DotAsia Organisation announces that .asia domain names are now available to everybody

DotAsia Organisation, the first global “top-level domain” in Asia, officially launched “Landrush” for the ".asia" Internet domain on February 20th 2008, open for registrations by anyone around the world.
".asia" is expected to become a platform for growth for Asia, and a gateway to reach the largest Internet marketplace in the world.

Over 30,000 applications had been filed for ".asia" domain names since October, compared with around 330,000 at the same point in the launch of the .eu domain name in April 2006, due to the fact that its registration had been restricted exclusively to applications from governments and organizations.

Domain name registrar NetNames warned that opening ".asia" to the general public means that businesses are now at risk of losing online trademarks to competitors or cyber-squatters.

"The alarm bells should be ringing for any company which has yet to secure its trademarks in ".asia""

said Jonathan Robinson, chief operating officer at NetNames.

"As of today, there is far less protection for company trademarks and it is open season on the .asia domain name for cyber-squatters, online speculators and competitors."

Robinson added that demand for .asia has been understated, which means that many businesses are likely to miss out.

"As the first ".asia" sites go live we are sure to see a number of high-profile, costly disputes which could so easily have been avoided,"

Applications for the new domain were staggered over three time periods in an attempt to avoid the confusion and chaos surrounding the .eu domain launch.

1. The first period began on 9 October for government bodies and companies with registered trademarks.
2. The second period began on 13 November when registration opened to those companies with an official presence in Asia, regardless of trademarks. Organisations which had already secured registered trademarks could then secure additional domain names related specifically to their line of business.
3. The third and final period has now begun with registrations open to the general public.

A total of 266,663 applications were received by the registry within the first 24 hours, demonstrating great interest from around the world to stake claims in the most prestigious cyber real estate in Asia.
Any domain names with more than one application will be auctioned off to the highest bidder before .asia goes live on 26 March.
Domains with only one application will be allocated directly without auction.
You can keep updated on the ".asia" Domain Auction process at the DotAsia Domain Auctions page:
www.dotasia.org/about/auctions.html

You must apply during the Landrush period (Feb 20 – Mar 12, 2008) in order to be eligible to participate in the domain auctions.
To register a ".asia" domain name, you must go to an Accredited Registrar or their authorized resellers and affiliates.
1001webs.net offers registration of ".asia" Domain names through their Domain registration page at:
http://www.1001webs.net/en/domainsearch_en.html

1001webs.net is associated with Dotster.com, an ICANN Accredited Registrar, to offer through our registration pages all major top-level domains (TLDs) and many country-code extensions (ccTLDs).
We provide through our website secure and fast Domain Name Registration on the Internet, for the following international TLDs and country-specific ccTLDs.
For a list of all ICANN Accredited Registrars for ".asia" domain names., please refer to: http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html

Right-to-left direction languages for Blogger

Blogger has added three new Right-to-left direction languages to its blogging platform.
Arabic, Persian, and Hebrew are all written from right to left and are the first of its kind to be made available in Blogger.

They have also localized the Blogger interface with new toolbar buttons for bi-directional text editing in the post editor and added right-to-left templates that have been rearranged to read more logically from right to left.


The Blogger interface can be changed to one of these languages by using the menu on the Dashboard, from where the default language on Blogger’s homepage can be changed as well. This option is also available via the “Language” link in the footer of most pages and will instruct Blogger to use by default the new language choice from then on to create all new blogs.


Text direction can also be switched on a per paragraph basis from the editor by clicking on the inverted paragraph buttons that will set the paragraph being currently edited to either right-to-left or left-to-right mode.
This way it is possible to write mixed bidirectional posts in different languages.

Source:
Blogger Buzz: Three new languages and a whole new direction for Blogger

Zen Cart

We have included the Zen Cart package in our website as part of the e-commerce offer.

Zen Cart is an Open Source Shopping Cart software developed with user-friendlyness in mind by a group of shop owners, programmers, designers, and consultants, who put the merchants and shoppers requirements as the first priority.

Zen Cart is a spin-off from osCommerce that has become a separate project. It has been extended to utilize a template system to implement system extensions.

Features:

• Multiple customer modes
• Unlimited category depth
• Multiple sales and discounts
• Multiple display mode
• XHTML template system
• Multiple shipping options
• Multiple payment options
• Newsletter manager
• Discount coupons
• Gift certificates
• Featured products
• Quantity discounts
• etc ..

Links:

• Official WebSite:
  http://www.zen-cart.com
  
• Zen Cart's Official Forum:
  http://www.zen-cart.com/forum
  
• Addons:
  http://www.zen-cart.com/Path=40
  
• Reviews:
  http://www.advancedwebdesign.com/zen-cart-review

At the present moment we are able to offer Zen Cart in the following languages:

• English
  
• Spanish
  
• French
  
• German
  
• Russian
  

---

Order a Customized Zen Cart Installation
Contact us and we will set up a fully functional Zen Cart installation. so you can explore the package in advance, hosted free at 1001webs' servers.

PHP 5 Power Programming

Free electronic copy of PHP 5 Power Programming from:
http://www.computer-books.us

Computer-Books.us makes available for free download some of the highest quality computer books.
The author / publisher has generously allowed them to be available for free online.
They are constantly adding new titles so check them back often.

The book is an introduction to the advanced features new to PHP 5 and is intended for PHP programmers who are migrating to PHP 5.
Web developers with programming experience will also find this tutorial very useful in order to begin working effectively with PHP 5.

Within the last few years, PHP has grown to be the most widespread web platform in the world, operational in more than a third of the web servers across the globe. PHP's growth is not only quantitative but also qualitative. More and more companies, including Fortune companies, rely on PHP to run their business- critical applications, which creates new jobs and increases the demand for PHP developers. Version 5, due to be released in the very near future, holds
an even greater promise.
While the complexity of starting off with PHP remains unchanged and very low, the features offered by PHP today enable developers to reach far beyond simple HTML applications. The revised object model allows for largescale projects to be written efficiently, using standard object-oriented methodologies.
New XML support makes PHP the best language available for processing XML and, coupled with new SOAP support, an ideal platform for creating and using Web Services.
This book, written by my colleague, Andi Gutmans, and two very prominent PHP developers, Stig Bakken and Derick Rethans, holds the key to unlocking the riches of PHP 5. It thoroughly covers all of the features of the new version, and is a must-have for all PHP developers who are interested in exploring PHP 5's advanced features.

Zeev Suraski

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

Chapter 1, “What Is New in PHP 5?” discusses the new features in PHP 5. Most of these new features deal with new object-oriented features, including small examples for each feature. It also gives an overview of the new extensions in PHP 5. Most of the topics mentioned in this chapter are explained in more detail in later chapters.

Chapter 2, “PHP 5 Basic Language,” introduces the PHP syntax to those readers not familiar with PHP. All basic language constructs and variable types are explained along with simple examples to give the reader the necessary building blocks to build real scripts.

Chapter 3, “PHP 5 OO Language,” continues exploring PHP 5's syntax, focusing on its object-oriented functionality. This chapter covers basics, such as properties and methods, and progresses to more complicated subjects, such as polymorphism, interfaces, exceptions, and lots more.

Using the previous chapter as a foundation, Chapter 4, “PHP 5 Advanced OOP and Design Patterns,” covers some of the most advanced features of PHP 5’s object model. After learning these features, including four commonly used design patterns and PHP’s reflection capabilities, you will soon become an OO wizard.

Now that you are familiar with the syntax and language features of PHP, Chapter 5, “How to Write a Web Application with PHP,” introduces you to the world of writing web applications. The authors show you basics, such as handling input through form variables and safety techniques, but this chapter also includes more advanced topics, such as handling sessions with cookies and PHP's session extension. You also find a few tips on laying out your source code for your web applications.

Chapter 6, “Databases with PHP 5,” introduces using MySQL, SQLite, and Oracle from PHP, but focuses primarily on the PHP 5-specific details of database access. For each database, you learn about some of its strong and weak points, as well as the types of applications at which each excels. And of course, you learn how to interface with them using PHP's native functions or using PEAR DB. All scripts can throw errors, but of course you do not want them to show up on your web site once your application has passed its development state.

Chapter 7, “Error Handling,” deals with different types of errors that exist, how to handle those errors with PHP, and how to handle errors with PEAR. As one of the important new features in PHP 5 is its renewed XML support, a chapter on XML features in PHP 5 could not be missed.

Chapter 8, “XML with PHP 5,” talks about the different strategies of parsing XML and converting XML to other formats with XSLT. XML-RPC and SOAP are introduced to show you how to implement web services with both techniques. Although not specifically for PHP 5, the five mainstream extensions that

Chapter 9,“Mainstream Extensions,” covers are important enough to deserve a place in this book. The first section, “Files and Streams,” explains about handling files and network streams. A stream is nothing more than a way to access external data, such as a file, remote URL, or compressed file. The second section, “Regular Expressions,” explains the syntax of a regular expression engine (PCRE) that PHP uses with numerous examples to show you how these expressions can make your life easier. In “Date Handling,” we explain the different functions used to parse and format date and time strings. In “Graphics Manipulation with GD,” we show you through two real-life scenarios the basic functions of creating and manipulating graphics with PHP. The last section in this chapter, “Multibyte Strings and Character Sets,” explains the different character sets and the functions to convert and handle different ones, including multi-byte strings used in Asian languages.

Chapter 10, “Using PEAR,” introduces PEAR, the PHP Extension and Application Repository. Starting with concepts and installation, the chapter shows how to use PEAR and maintain the local installed packages. This chapter also includes a tour of the PEAR web site.

Chapter 11, “Important PEAR Packages,” gives an overview of the most important PEAR packages, along with examples. Packages covered include Template Systems, the Auth package to do authentication, form handling with the HTML_QuickForm package, and a package used to simplify caching.

Chapter 12, “Building PEAR Components,” explains how to create your own PEAR package. The PEAR Coding Standard and package.xml package definition format, together with tips on including files and package layout, get you on your way to completing your first PEAR package.

Chapter 13, “Making the Move,” deals with the few backward-incompatible changes that were introduced between PHP 4 and PHP 5. This chapter tells you which things you need to take care of when making your application work on PHP 5, and provides workarounds wherever possible.

Chapter 14, “Performance,” shows you how to make your scripts perform better. The chapter offers tips on standard PHP usage, the use of external utilities (APD and Xdebug) to find problems in your scripts, and PHP accelerators like APC and Zend Performance Suite.

Chapter 15, “An Introduction to Writing PHP Extensions,” explains how to write your own custom PHP extension. We use a simple example to explain the most important things like parameter parsing and resource management.

Chapter 16, “PHP Shell Scripting,” shows you how to write shell scripts in PHP, because PHP is useful for more than just web applications. We carefully explain the differences between the CLI and CGI executables in which PHP comes, including command-line parameter parsing and process control. This book also includes three appendices. Appendix A, “PEAR and PECL Package Index,” provides an overview of all important packages, with descriptions and dependencies on other packages. Appendix B, “phpDocument Format Reference,” explains the syntax as understood by the PHP Documenter tool to generate API documentation from source code. Appendix C, “Zend Studio Quick Start,” is an introduction to working in the Zend Studio IDE.