Facebook: The hidden truth

Facebook recently hit the billion, since 2010 when it had "only" 600 million of people privacy has changed a lot on Zuckerberg's site. Here are some 100% real facts that Facebook is hiding from you!

• Facebook is not your friend. Its "real name" policy is enough reason to refuse to use it.
• Facebook makes a practice of telling users to rat on their friends who use aliases. ( any social network that asks its members for information about other people is abusive.)
• At Facebook you are a product, not a consumer.
• Facebook says that a user can't have Facebook's data about him claiming it to be a trade secret.
• Pages that contain Facebook "like" buttons enable Facebook to track visitors to those pages. Facebook tracks the users that see 'like' buttons,
• Facebook exploits its users by conscripting them for ads.
• Facebook's face recognition is illegal as claimed by a German regulator.
• Facebook blocked links to the humor site lamebook which facebook is trying to crush.
• Social networks show people how lonely they are
• Facebook deleted a statement by a human rights group, then said that was a mistake. Then Facebook invited the group to post the statement again instead of undoing the deletion. Demonstration of it's arrogance! 
• Facebook censorship guidelines have been leaked. They include political censorship catering to various countries that do not respect freedom of speech.
• Facebook has turned on automatic face recognition on photos. Facebook says that it only suggests identifications for faces in photos for people who are the user's friends. However, it might run the algorithm over every photo posted and not publicly announce the results.
• Third party apps that demand to access your account's information and your "friends" information and posts. They have access to everything (this is why I don't use third party apps)
• Anyone can get a Facebook user's personal information by buying ads on Facebook.
• People is also known to have blocked many links about controversial issues

That's it. Hope I covered everything. If you have a question leave comment below and I will answer!

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Copyright: Stallman

Internet Blackout

From Wednesday 4th July to Friday 6th July Lebanon witnessed an internet blackout on national scale.
This was due mainly to a cut on the submarine cable IMEWE near Egypt that mainly affected all the country that take from the IMEWE but not as much as Lebanon.
Why will you ask? Because Lebanon's internet capacity is 21Gbps, 19Gbps from the IMEWE cable!
Cyprus gently granted us 10Gbps for free for 2 weeks. (Minister of Telecom)

Now back on how the end users were affected, on wednesday from 4pm til 10-11pm ALL the ISP's were out. There was not a single data circulating! When the internet came back, it was slower that dial up... not a single page was opening normally. Google took 3 minutes to open.
On Thursday, the internet was partially back but was very slow. On Friday same thing (I had to use my 3G connection); but on Friday night (when cyprus gave us these 10Gbps) the internet came back to normal.

And finally I would like to thank the Minister for all his effort to get back the Internet to Lebanon!

That's it for today, I'll update you when something new come out!
Stay Tuned and don't forget to subscribe

Alfa U-Chat

The minister said that he would announce officially new prices for mobile services, but he did not say a single word about them since he announced the decrease of the BlackBerry service price. Instead we witnessed a new service by Alfa Telecom which is as follow:

 -U-chat 17$:  200 SMS and 250 MB of mobile data and 60mins of calls

 -U-Chat 9$: 200SMS, 50MB of mobile data and 30mins of call

And in week end you are free to call one Alfa number (unlimited)

Out of Plan usage are billed for both services as follow: Local Call 0.6$/min; Local SMS 0.04$/SMS and 0.2$/MB

Note: Uchat clients are not allowed to benefit from the following services WAP, Pay as you go, friends and family, sunday promotion, "Ehkineh". 

These are the official plan. Now what they Don't tell you: The unlimited call during the week end are limited to 60 minutes (meaning that your call will drop every 60minutes) and you can only change Once per month

Some are even saying that the unlimited offer is limited to only 60 minutes to ALL the week ends (Need confirmation, this info is not 100% sure) 

A little comparison between the 3 prepaid offers that we have:
Normal Prepaid: 0.36$/min Call, 0.09$/SMS with a possibility to recharge whenever you want, the worst offer
Alfa Waffer Plan: This plan is special because it depends on the card you are buying 
  -9.09$ Card: 0.3$/min Call, 0.07$/SMS
  -15.15$ Card: 0.25$/min Call, 0.07$/SMS
  -27.27$ Card: 0.23$/min Call, 0.07$/SMS
Note that you can benefit from all the services except "Ehkineh", BUT you cannot recharge whenever you want, you have to wait for the end of the month. There is a 4$ Emergency Card where the call is billed 0.4$/min. If you are subscribed to the Friends & Family service and you made a call during off peak hours, the higher discounted rate is applied. (peak hour are quite useless, you are never calling someone at 10pm)
And also you cannot send $ to another number
And finally we have the Alfa U-Chat plan as stated above.
Concerning my opinion I find the best plan to be Alfa Waffer 27.27$, you can call for lower prices, and 27.27$ ought to be enough for a normal user like me. 
For the call lovers I suggest the postpaid plan or the U-Chat 17.5$ plan.






Stay tuned for it's MTC counterpart 

Telecom minister's surprise

The telecom minister has been telling us for about a week that on Monday 30th of April he will announce a "surprise" for us. Speculation has been going on and on about a price drop in 3G services or DSL:

I was a little bit disappointed by this "Surprise" because I was hoping for new 3G packs, it was only new blackberry services: "New Blackberry Offers: Instead of paying 27$ for 200MB => BB SOCIAL 200MB for 8$ | BB COMPLETE 200MB for 12$ | BIS 500MB for 24$" 
This is an "achievement", I mean a year ago blackberry users were paying 40$ for 100MB. 


Keep your hopes up, the minister, on his Twitter account, announced new 3G offers to be unveiled in 2weeks:

Stay Tuned for more upcoming updates!


Mobile companies just released the new offers on there website, here they are:


BlackBerry Social: With a capacity up to 200 MB , BlackBerry Social offers access to social networking applications, such as: Facebook®, Twitter®, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), and whatsApp, in addition to video streaming. (Notice the absence of email service AND instant messaging) 1.8$/Week+0.08$/MB


BlackBerry Complete: With a capacity up to 200 MB , subscribers can configure 1 external email account as well as access to social networking and instant messaging applications, such as: Facebook®, Twitter®, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), Windows live messenger and Yahoo Messenger, in addition to video streaming. 2.8$/week+0.08$/MB


BlackBerry Prime: With a capacity up to 500 MB , configure up to 10 external email accounts in addition to Video streaming, access to social networking and instant messaging applications, such as: Facebook®, Twitter®, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), Windows live messenger and Yahoo Messenger 5.6$/week+0.08$/MB


BlackBerry Prime+: With a capacity up to 1GB, configure up to 10 external email accounts in addition to Video streaming, access to social networking and instant messaging applications, such as: Facebook®, Twitter®, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), Windows live messenger and Yahoo Messenger 9.8$/week+0.07$/MB

The Blackberry mania

Long have we witnessed in Lebanon some sort of Blackberry "mania".

I find the blackberry pretty normal, not very attractive and very poor in applications. The only thing that I actually like about it is its security system; communication between blackberries is encrypted thus making it impossible to what is being said between two users. Most Lebanese Blackberry owner don't even know this security thing and this is NOT the main reason they have for buying one, but they still don't intend to change.

Why is this? It is pretty obvious for someone who knows the Lebanese telecom situation, but it is another thing for those who don't. Lets see "why" in details.

First thing first, in telecom the word "unlimited" is just a word; nothing here is unlimited. We have only 2 mobile telecom company and they don't compete between each others, it is some sort of Duopoly. This will lead to very high prices: Minute Call = 0.36$; SMS = 0.09$
3G arrived only recently so before there was only a WAP service (10$/month for only 25MB/month) and the Blackberry service (40$/month for 100MB/month). These 2 service being the only one with mobile internet people began to buy a Blackberry so that they could communicate between each other almost anywhere, anytime on a constant basis. People in the buses, class, mall always holding their phones and messaging each other. When I asked my friend "why did you buy a blackberry" he answered: "so that I can send free messages".
This is the problem! We don't have free messages nor anything! We have to pay for every message and every call!
Also I must mention that it is the state that imposes such a high price! Like for the internet, the government has a total control on the prices of mobiles services! They are the one imposing such a duopoly. Don't take me wrong I am NOT blaming the CURRENT government but ALL the government since 1993.

Now that we have 3G we still have blackberry but not as much as before, the epidemic has passed!

Internet In Lebanon

So today I will be blogging about the internet situation in Lebanon and how it evolved from 1993 to nowadays!

In 1993, while the fixed network Lebanese still suffering the aftermath of the Civil War, was decided to install a GSM network. The tender, launched in March 1993 ended in June 1994 with the signing of contracts with France Telecom Mobile International (FTMI) and Ericsson, two networks MIC1 and MIC2.
 In May 1995, the GSM service will be effective with a network deployment, at the time this network has granted two months free usage to its new subscribers to test the service. Cost of service at the time: 5 cents per minute excluding tax, 2 cents of tax granted to municipalities as against 12 cents today. Similarly, while Lebanon since 1982 was connected to the Internet via the AUB (American University of Beirut), the global network will actually be introduced into Lebanese homes the same year, with the creation of an ISP in 1995 and will become operational in 1996. Through 2000-2001, it was in fact directly to ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to provide Internet access (ISP especially significant that only had a connection of around 700 KB / S for all its customers). There was also present in Lebanon, ComputServ, AOL etc. ... so major players through local representatives, without however this being official, as the details of the time this article http://www.ercim.eu/medconf/ papers / catafago.htmlSo it will change from 2000, with the provision by the Lebanese state, via the company Ogero, of connecting means other than satellite connections, and installation of hub particularly in Bir Hassan. Besides the interest "economic" to force the ISP to the state to buy their bandwidth and improve the finances of the state, high prices are passed primarily to customers. We can mention the case of a private university plan fitted by two T1 connections and who paid 60,000 usd per month for each of its campuses.
 This was also the Lebanese state to consolidate Internet connections and better control.These include notably the case of the case "of lesbians from the AUB" or the broadcasting of live scenes of a homosexual Hamam of Tripoli in Northern Lebanon. The ISP sector was then marked by mergers and acquisitions in December 2001 or diversifications including abroad. This period was, moreover, marked by the dramatic growth of "cables", it was actually providing Ethernet Internet on a large scale, but still it was an illegal network, their primary access to the web from unlicensed the state via satellite or via unscrupulous ISP or at least looking at the use made by their customers of their services. Level "security" only two networks worthy of the name, that of BDL (Bank of Lebanon) and ISP (Internal Security Force), connected by a fiber optic network, the rest, the ISPs are largely low; by example, an ISP had its customer database directly accessible on the Internet, or access a computer to a Lebanese trader company, just with Internet Explorer.
DSL service announced in 2005 has been effective in 2008, meanwhile, there was a rise of erzats internet connection "Broadband" from 2003 to 2004So the prices were about as such as we have received DSL: - 128Kbps (download) 64Kbps (upload) 2GB (quotas) for $ 20 - 256Kbps (download)  128Kbps (upload) 3GB (quotas) for $ 30-512Kbps (download) 256Kbps (upload) 4GB (quotas) for $ 50-1Mbps (download) 512Kbps (upload) 5GB (quotas) for $ 75Note that the speeds were THEORETICAL! We usually only received 70% of the promised speed (and again)These prices were due to several factors:- Prices are set by the state and their ISPs have no words to say-- E1 cables were sold by the state to ISPs has $ 1,350 (compared to $ 10 in France)- The connections were mostly via satellite- The single Ethernet cable land we came from Cyprus (our neighbors Syria and Israel loving us so much)- Political corruption (even African governments are not as corrupt as the Lebanese government)
In 2009 an event change all this. Indeed, Lebanon announces that it has signed its participation in the IMEWE (a project of submarine cable connecting India to France serving nine countries on its road; IMEWE = Indian Middle East Western Europe) in December 2010 the day of the inauguration and commissioning of the cable, telecommunications minister stop the project and cancel the inauguration saying that the ISP (Ogero) who will look after the cable has not paid the state the right to exercise control on the cable (everyone knowing that this is just an unacceptable excuse and that this is only the result of greater political problems, in fact the boss Ogero and the Minister belongs to different political parties) The funniest is that after this incident the minister who sabotaged all attempts to pose as savior of the telecommunication sector and Announces 3G for summer 2011 (which will arrive in November 2011) I should mention also that ISPs have only a one-year contract that is renewed each year (hello investments)After a long and interminable wait "salvation" has arrived. The government has changed, the new Minister of Telecom has signed a decree allowing the use IMEWE cable, reducing the price of E1 cable ($ 1350 was $ 300) and packages (packages that are available to end users on October 2011) I leave you the pleasure of discovering these new package here: http://www.idm.net.lb/products/adsl.aspThe problems often encountered lately: frequent disconnection, reduced speed for no apparent reason, quotas still too low, the unavailability of these packages to all regions of Lebanon's infrastructure is weak. (Also changing ISP is equivalent to 1 month minimum of waiting if you're lucky)