They must start by sending SMS to 92567 with the word NUM. The SMS can be dispatched free of charge, Qtel said.
They must then click on the link that they receive and then just follow the instructions to download the application. The application is free of charge and supports all major handsets, including Nokia, Blackberry, iPhone and Android, although user experience is different for each handset.
“It is the only official application approved by Qtel and customers are advised to use it rather than any of the unofficial number change programmes,” the spokesperson said.
Customers must then choose “Change numbers” and RUN the application. All their numbers will be analysed. They can choose then to update all numbers or select the update for each contact specifically.
The spokesperson urged customers to download the application immediately to update their phone contact list as the number change took effect early this morning. Qtel said it had already dispatched thousands of text messages to customers, providing the link to the free renumbering application.

We haven’t received any news regarding Vodafone’s response on this. We’ll let you know if we come across anything from Vodafone. Subscribe to our feeds.

Ashley went home and posted on her Facebook page, which is set to private. Keep in mind that she was off the clock, and that she never mentioned the customers by name (or any other identifying factor). Her manager apparently decided to read her Facebook Wall, and didn’t like what he saw. The company fired the girl a couple of days later that they chose this route because she “violated a company policy banning workers from speaking disparagingly about customers and casting the restaurant in a bad light on a social network.”

Public outcry over this is loud. There are hundreds of messages being left per hour on the Brixx Facebook Fan Page. People from all over the World are outraged that the company would fire an employee for invoking her right to Freedom of Speech on her own personal time, in a semi-private place. As I already said, the customers weren’t mentioned by name, nor were they identified in any way. Ms. Johnson simply expressed her displeasure over the situation, as any of us would.

I don’t pretend to know what the employment laws are in North Carolina, but I cannot believe that they extend to firing an employee over something they post on their personal social networking page during their personal (off-work) time. Her comment likely would not have harmed the company in any way. However, the manager’s decision to fire her just may lose them one heck of a lot of business. Many people are calling for boycotts, and word is spreading like wildfire. Perhaps the people higher-up at Brixx better take a closer look at who they have managing their restaurants, and the policies they have for dealing with employees who aren’t on the clock.

After all, this was a free country the last time I checked.

Oh, and have you joined the community on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube yet?

Although, the story did have one more twist in it. Later, Engadget reposted a picture of the iPad that they received the night before the iPad’s announcement, which also contained a photo of the exact same “found” iPhone. So, if all of this is old news, why am I telling you this again?

Well, here’s why. The iPhone 4G has made its way to the Gizmodo hands. There, they have examined the phone thoroughly and have discovered a few interesting things. It is indeed the next iPhone. Not the “final” release, but it’s official. When plugged in, the phone shows up in iTunes, Xcode, and System Profiler, but they say it has different product identifiers than the 3G or 3GS. The device has Apple written all over it. For one, there is the genuine Apple logo on the back of the phone, and contains Apple-labeled components inside.

There are some significant upgrades to the iPhone as they can see. For one, it has the much wanted front facing camera! Looks like Apple finally decided to incorporate that! It’s claimed as thinner than the current 3GS. From investigating, the inside components are much smaller than previous models, and does contain a larger battery. The display is running at a higher resolution than the 3GS, and there is a second noise canceling mic on the top of the phone. It’s looking like Apple is moving towards the metal casing, to possibly match the iPad look. Nice move in my opinion. I can’t wait to see the final product!

But the main thing that is interesting us today is: what is the next iPhone going to include? What’s it called? Now one name that I came across on Engadget was the iPhone HD. And that would be a good name, just Apple would have to have an HD camera or HD display for that to happen. And the most likely name for the next iPhone is the iPhone 4G, and that is because 4G is slowly being implemented in some places (WiMAX). And I’ve seen specs for the WiMAX technology and, WOW, they say it’s 10x faster than 3G (basically like an 8 Mb broadband connection). Which is amazing. What are the thoughts of the community? That’s what I’d like to know.

This interview should be a dose of GREAT NEWS for those working toward the V4 R&S Lab.

On February 4th 2010 Divin John became CCIE #25905 on the FIRST attempt.

Divin, thanks for taking the time th share a bit about your success in the R&S lab.

What made you want to become a CCIE?
I always wanted to know how the internet worked. I always wondered what are the missing blocks to the puzzle. So Hence after my graduation. I took up CCNA and CCNP training. I kind of wrote all 5 papers and got certified as a CCNP. By then the recession had struck and there were no jobs available. So I thought rather than wasting time searching for a job, I would start preparing for the CCIE Routing and Switching Track.

When did you start the journey?
I started preparing for the lab in March 2009. That’s immediately after I got my CCNP certification.

What kind of study routine did you use?
I used to read a lot. Routing protocols always interests me. And I made it a point to read the entire blueprint couple of times. Making sure I got all nitty-gritty details on the technology being read.

Did you take an earlier version of the lab? If so, how would you compare the previous version to the current version?
Nope. This was my first attempt at the CCIE RS Lab. I have heard that the lab is become more real world than the previous version. It involves a decent amount of troubleshooting which requires presence of mind and knowing the technology well. You won’t be able to troubleshoot something, if you aren’t very clear about the protocol specifics and its interaction with other protocols.

What materials did you use? What was your impression of the materials?
-> Cisco Press Books
Routing TCP/IP Volume I [Brilliant]
Routing TCP/IP Volume II [Brilliant]
CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide [Good, Easy to Revise.]
MPLS Fundamentals [Nice Book with all the configuration snippets. But I hear MPLS Configuration on Cisco IOS Software is a better book. Never got the time to read it though.]

Vendor Workbooks
INE Vol 1 (Advanced Technology Labs) – The thing i like about these are. They cover everything needed for the lab. The explanations are nice and to the point. They kind of let the student know WHY? HOW? And WHAT IF? to all the questions. It did answer all the questions which popped in my mind.
INE Vol II (Full Scale Labs – 8hr) – Humongous labs. Full fledged labs. It was scary initially. But after a few labs it kind of became methodical. And there were some questions in there, which sent my confidence to the graves. But all in all… a very good product.
INE Vol IV (Troubleshooting Labs) – What can I say?  Good product but its highly unrealistic. To troubleshoot these you need to know every bit of information that goes into the working of any protocol.
INE Core Knowledge Simulator – Thanks to Anthony Sequeira. I kinda got this added to my INE account. It helped me a great lot in my Core Knowledge section of the CCIE Lab.
How does it feel now that you have passed?
How should it feel? It feels great. Being 1 in 21000 odd people is great. It feels great when the hard work pays off.

Do you have any words of wisdom for those studying for the lab?
Learn the protocols. Tabulate what could go wrong. Steps needed to solve a problem. You should practice NOT to panic in the lab. One panic attack and your 2 hrs will fly by and you would have paid for THE most costly lunch. The lab is doable. So you shouldn’t get deterred by what people say. Have self confidence. In the end of the day, if they are going to screw something in the IGPs, and you have mastered all the IGPs, you should breeze through the TS section.  The same logic applies to all protocols. Give importance to every topic on the blue-print.

Are you going to work toward another track?
Yeah I am. I am planning for either Security or Voice. I haven’t made up my mind. Voice mostly. Let’s see what how everything plays out. J
Best of Luck to everyone preparing for the CCIE Routing and switching (v4). Hope you get all those !!!!

CONGRATULATIONS Divin!!!!!

A total solar eclipse is a spectacular natural phenomenon and many people travel to remote locations to observe one. The solar eclipse of August 11, 1999 in Europehelped to increase public awareness of the phenomenon, as illustrated by the number of journeys made specifically to witness the total solar eclipse of October 3, 2005and the total solar eclipse of March 29, 2006. The recent solar eclipse of January 26, 2009, was an annular eclipse (see below), while the solar eclipse of July 22, 2009was a total solar eclipse.

In ancient times, and in some cultures today, solar eclipses have been attributed to supernatural causes. Total solar eclipses can be frightening for people who are unaware of their astronomical explanation, as the Sun seems to disappear in the middle of the day and the sky darkens in a matter of minutes.

[For more info - Wiki Solar Eclipse]

LIVE FROM USTREAM 15th JANUARY 2010 Solar Eclipse
Live TV : Ustream

After thinking about it for a bit, I’m updating this post: The link was to www.snjpc.com. It’s an online casino site, and while I dislike giving them hits it seems worthwhile to say that they, or their hires, are doing this sort of blog cracking.

How they managed this, I am still trying to determine. The mysql logfiles

cd /var/log/mysql
mysqlbinlog *.0* | grep wp_links

show no inserts, the mysql instance is only available from localhost (firewalled to boot), and system logs look good. Checks for rootkits and similar are negative, firewall logs are clean, and I am puzzled. Props to this page for mysql tips.

One piece of evidence – they seem to have borked wordpress, probably on purpose – if you invoke the theme editor (or plugin editor) you get

Sorry, that file cannot be edited.

which is patently false. My working hypothesis is, for now, that someone managed to either inject an exploit into Debian’s wordpress package, or found a generic WordPress exploit. I am continuing to investigate and take various measures to prevent a reoccurence. This sucks.

Oh yeah, swapped themes for a while as part of the cleanup and diagnostics. Let me know what you think.

Update: Added paragraph naming snjpc.com

Update: A fresh download of WordPress 2.2.2 from Debian or wordpress.org produces the same result… interesting. So either the default WP is broken, or its a config file/database problem. Debugging continues…

Update: Looks like the problem is related to the list of files passed to thevalidate_file_to_edit function. It looks like the first file passed is the wp-config.php, which on Debian is a link to the system file in /etc/wordpress. Hmm, maybe that’s how they got the MySQL access information… You can hack around this by adding the following to theme-editor.php. Change this:

if (empty($file)) {
$file = $allowed_files[0];
}
$file = validate_file_to_edit($file, $allowed_files);

to the following. This overrides the file list that was passed in, so you have to change the index to match the file you want. Other than that, it totally fixes the problem. Hmm…

if (empty($file)) {
$file = $allowed_files[0];
}

$file = $allowed_files[3];

$file = validate_file_to_edit($file, $allowed_files);