Internet and Technology

Article by Spec India

Mobile is considered to be the fastest means of communication and marketing. And as the population of UAE is tech savvy it has the highest mobile and smart phone access. As per a survey by telecommunication regulatory authority (TRA) says that the majority of mobile phone users in United Arab Emirates use Blackberry devices to avail the Internet facilities. Blackberry is a very regularly used device as the internet access is 37 percent of the time and iPhone utilized 16 percent of the time.

With the advent of advance 3G in the market there is increased competition and a drop in cellular rates in very short span of time. As the technology in mobiles and computers are frequently upgraded, the mobile buyer stands to an advantage, as before buying any mobile phones the users consider latest technology, features, model, and utility factors and off course the price range. SMS texting, Video, SMS, Audio, Internet Surfing, Ringtones, Games and much more are checked before buying by most of the mobile user.

The increasing trend of mobile usage is creating a need for companies to service their businesses and clientele through multiple applications. There are many companies who are much inclined to use iPhone and smart apps services to track sales happening across the region.

The importance of the mobile phone in the UAE cannot be exaggerated. For an instance an Arab from Jordan who was working in UAE since many years was asked in meeting in media field and he quoted that “we build contacts; the countries judge us by 3 things – 1) the quality of our outfits, 2) the quality of our cars, and 3) the quality of our mobile phones.”

As per a UAE economist: UAE on record has the world’s highest growth rates in its mobile phone market over past 15 years mainly due to its high per capita income and comparatively advanced services. Another aspect is quick growth in many economic sectors in last 10 years. All the above positive signs indicate the UAE shall leap in the use of mobile phone and telecom sector in the coming years.SPEC INDIA is an ISO 9001:2008 software solutions company based in Ahmedabad, India. SPEC INDIA is having expertise in Corporate Software Development, Customize Soft Ware Development possesses 2 decade of experience in delivering customer satisfaction in software development area. For more detail please visit http://www.spec-india.com/

TITLE:

COMPUTER FOR THE BLIND IN IRANAND ITS ROLE IN JOB OPPORTUNITIES FOR THEM.

Author:

Aliasghar Assadi

INTRODUCTION:

History Of Using Computers Between The Blind In Iran.

The more time passes, the more we are involved within a computerized society and everyone either becomes interested or is made learn technology to become or remain up to date.

And the blind as an inseparable part of the global society cannot be as an exception to this rule.

In Iran, the campaign urging the blind to learn computer is rather a young movement and it almost started in the late 90’s.

The first time a company namely Pactus started making accessible hardwares/softwares for the blind.

Their products consisted of applications working under DOS operating system and special Perkins-like keyboards and Braille viewers.

Since their products were very very expensive, we don’t know any blind person that could have purchased them unless using complex methods of being benefited from subsidies.

As a result, the only method the blind could see their products was to attend rehabilitation

centers using Pactus softwares and hardwares purchased using governmental aids.

Their software package was something that we can call it almost a Persian version of Office

package include a library for the blind to study hundreds of books on the Braille viewers,

editor for creating documents and printing them, bidirectional dictionary (English-Persian and vice versa), and a simple version of Chess game.

They have tried to update this package step by step and now it works under windows XP with more achievements.

From the very beginning, the most popular of their products was the keyboard braille giving the blind user to type Persian characters as if they were using Perkins Braillers.

Especially they were welcomed in public schools for the blind like where I work.

their softwares were self-speech using recorded audio files making their application database considerably large.

And they enabled the blind to do basics of computer works.

In early 2001 the blind knew Jaws for Windows as the best screen reader and consequently they became very seriously familiar with computers.

Mahna as an NGO for the blind and the deaf, was the first NGO that began computer training and workshops for the blind in Tehran.

They taught the first generation of blind computer users that undoubtedly were and still are the most successful generation of computer users in Tehran.

Saf (Science and Art Federation) played the same role in Isfahan, another Iranian city but they were more facilitated than Mahna since they vastly used subsidies as a governmental organization and they are still getting ahead in their way.

they developed their projects to other cities including Tehran and they recorded the first audio books for the blind in Iran as self-education of computer technology.

In fact, the first generation of computer users either in Tehran or Isfahan led the training process of the blind computer users and even this has become a serious job opportunity for them.

the computer education has been followed by other organizations and now it is seriously followed in public schools, too.

The basis of this education is upon softwares and Braille Viewers are not general at al.

Instead, the most used-hardware are embossers.

They are used simply by NGOs or rehabilitation centers to afford the daily-increasing requests from the blind students to emboss their documents specially for academic uses.

Now the Iranian blind people specially those familiar with foreign languages seek new doors for their education and knowledge enrichment by finding new friends abroad.

They try to learn new languages, take online courses and so on even if very limitedly.

——————–

      Work Experience For The Blind Using Computers:

The first open door for blind advanced computer users was to become computer teachers but this vision is rapidly developing.

low-vision users have found job opportunities as typists or clerks using magnification

softwares like Zoom-text or Magic.

In very rare cases, the blind could make temporary income in repairing computers for other blind people or even for sighted people.

And some others are working as translators that undoubtedly this job has become possible simply when computers entered their lives.

They work at home or offices.

In any manner, these job opportunities are very limited and still don’t make a remarkable percentage of occupied blind persons.

——————–

      problems the Iranian blind confront in using computers:

When we talk about computers in Latin-based languages like English or Spanish, since the operating systems including Windows know them rapidly and since the assistive technologies including TTS, OCR, and screen reader softwares and so forth are available from different brands for the blind speaking such languages, this is not a serious issue to talk about such softwares but the issue is making progress in the quality of such softwares.

But for Farsi, the language of Iran, the subject is different and it is availability of such softwares. Up to now, there is no acceptable, high-quality Farsi TTS or OCR.

So what?

Pactus was the first company claimed making a TTS for Farsi working with Jaws.

While their software was almost 550 dollars, it crashed many times.

Another company working on this project is “AIR Soft” and they produced the first Farsi TTS that was so cheap that everyone could buy it.

Their first software has many many bugs that some could be prevented and some others need a lot of work since they refer to the specifications of Farsi language.

The problem of making a Farsi TTS is that contrary to Latin languages like English, the vowel sounds are not written in Persian and the font system is not a standard national one.

So what can be done?

some believe that we may use a big database of recorded words that is not wisely since it will be quite slow, almost will cause crash and slow down the webpage reading process for the blind. So the best way is using the phonemes of Farsi like designing TTSs for other languages.

Farsi has at most 190 phonemes that can be recorded to make a TTS using a synthesized voice that can be very similar to human voice.

the most innovative idea in my opinion is what the manager of a new computer company once told me and it is giving the software artificial intelligence and training it to recognize the Farsi grammar.

This way the software will recognize the pronunciation of a word while it can be pronounced in 2-5 forms depending on the position it has in a sentence.

Another technology that can help the blind specially to convert the printed materials in to text or even audio files is OCR (Optical Character Recognition).

This normal technology for the West is a wish in Iran too.

Depending on Farsi specifications this one is somehow complex to be made too.

The non-standard fonts used in many cases and the right-to-left writing style of Farsi

in addition to the format of its alphabet that makes its recognition for OCT softwares very

hard, are the main issues in developing such a software in Farsi.

Another issue is accessibility and up to now there is no rule to make the software producers make their products accessible for people with disabilities.

Lack of such softwares in addition to the high prices of available products in the Iranian market is another serious issue.

A new legislation has been ratified in the parliament to support disability rights but technological needs have been ignored in this case.

Once Pactus was the only company working on assistive technology and as a result, the price was high and illogical but the new companies are entering the market and making a balance in prices.

Besides, the government must support the blind in this case since it is almost natural to see such softwares in high prices since a basic factor in reducing the price is the number of users of a software that naturally is limited in the visually impaired people market.

One movement might be campaigns to urge the government to consider blind needs seriously and to consult them while making blind-related decisions in general.

Pursuing such a purpose made the blind sign an open-letter written for Iran’s president to order a Farsi TTS and OCR to those companies working in this field for many years.

We have tried to convince the government that having a Farsi TTS and OCR doesn’t mean necessarily to invest for the blind community but for all the society including the economic sections that such technologies would enormously reduce the time spent for recording audio files for talking systems or archiving the hand-written materials as digital archives.

Another solution for the blind can be a vast comprehensive outline to teach them programming so that they can both localize softwares and create new ones suitable for their mother tongue.

One of the movements in this case has been classes in Mahna held once to teach principles of programming and also hardware basics but they were cancelled due to financial issues of this NGO.

Another thing is the efforts a group of volunteer blind people made to hold the first computer conference with an outlook to blind perspective as a national conference and the second one as an international conference that both were quite successful.

Anyway, the computer movement for the blind is still young but very active.

So we must wait to see the results in coming days.

Times have moved forward for laptop users who used to have to rely on connections from some telephone source whether it was a land line or a mobile telephone. Whichever the source, it was in most cases a slow dial-up connection that took even longer on a laptop. Today it is rare for even those using a laptop to utilize a slow dial up connection. Mobile broadband is available for those who need or desire to use their laptop while travelling.Mobile broadband has become a popular service, but it’s important to be careful you select a provider that offers both quality service and a reasonable price. Unlike regular broadband, not all providers charge a flat fee. In fact, many mobile broadband providers charge by the megabyte, and for someone who is very active with their laptop, that can certainly add up. If that is your situation, you want to make sure you find a mobile broadband provider that charges a flat fee based on your specific amount of usage.Those who are unfamiliar with mobile broadband may ask how you use mobile broadband technology. Certainly everyone is familiar with the concept of accessing the internet using your mobile phone, but in order to have a broadband connection, you have to have a special PC card that fits into your laptop or you need a USB modem. Some people tend to stay away from the USB modem because of its tendency to project from the side of the laptop.Although mobile broadband is certainly a good choice for many people who travel frequently away from home or simply need to use a laptop in areas here there is no landline, it is no substitute for a stable broadband connection. A search of some providers that offer flat monthly fees shows that one can obtain a mobile broadband connection for as low as £10.00 per month, the connection speed tends to be under 3 Mb. If you are looking to complete something in a hurry, you certainly will not be able to do so with mobile broadband.Mobile broadband is a step in the right direction from dial-up, but you have to make sure you choose the right provider for your needs. If you do a great deal of work when you are away from any landline connection, you may want to choose Vodaphone which has a speed of 7.2 Mb. Though still not quite as fast as standard broadband, it is comparable to the cheapest plan on O2 at 8 Mb.If you are a regular laptop user, it’s essential to make certain you choose a mobile broadband provider that offers a reasonable rate with a higher speed. This is especially true when you are working online instead of just surfing the internet because if you can’t connect quickly, it is not going to benefit your business contacts and connections for you to use a mobile broadband service. The mobile broadband provider you choose should be able to accommodate your needs for pricing and speed.

Search engines acts as a bridge between millions of web pages and web users. Without search engines, millions of web pages which are the unlimited source of information remain hidden for all of us. Can you imagine looking for information or a webpage on the internet without the help of a Search engine? All our attempts will be a failure if we are not using a popular search engine.

Search engines are the only source to find reliable information, which are scattered, in millions of web pages. Search Engines work continuously to produce valuable search results for the internet users. Search engine crawlers work 24X7 to index all the pages available on the World Wide Web. All these pages are linked each other via links. If one page exists independently, without any links pointing towards it, it will remain hidden from the search engines.

Search engines find a web site through the links placed by these web sites on other websites. When the search engines spider or bot visits a particular page it looks for further links after analyzing the web page. If your website links to some very popular pages will be seen by these Search engines as a valuable source of information. The inbound and outbound links given on your website, your site is providing and the keywords mentioned in the WebPages are also an important source of information for search engines. With these keywords and links and other search engines criteria for indexing web pages, they are able to produce relevant results from millions of web pages.

Search engines regularly update their database with the updated information they fetch from millions of web pages around the globe. The information gathered is stored in a database format for future use. These regular updating periodically make search engines most reliable and updated source of information.

Google and Yahoo are the most trusted search engines all over the world as they have the most regular updates and the algorithms are most researched and up to the mark. Searchboth.com is now presenting Google and yahoo together in your search box. Google and Yahoo results can be seen side by side on a single screen without opening multiple browsers again and again.

Before satellite Internet came along, thousands if not millions of rural Internet users were stuck using dial up as their method of accessing the Internet because DSL providers like phone companies and cable companies did not offer service to users in remote or rural areas. This left people having to rely on notoriously unreliable dial up at a time when the Internet was getting more robust and functionality was geared towards the high speed user. As more websites utilized multimedia functions and downloading of program updates became a daily ritual, dial up users in remote areas found themselves at a disadvantage when it came to Internet parity with their urban and suburban counterparts.

Then along came satellite Internet, which was the first alternative to offer these users access to high speed Internet service. The satellite industry picked up the slack of the phone companies and cable companies and began offering a service that was up to 50 times faster than dial up service with a more reliable always on signal. Rural and remote users took to satellite Internet in droves, partly because they were already familiar with satellite technology. Satellite dishes have dotted the rural landscapes of America for decades because they were the only way people could get pay television reception.

Satellite Internet offers rural home users and businesses the benefits of having a high speed Internet connection that does not rely on landlines to get service. The service is provided through a special satellite dish that is designed to deliver satellite Internet service. The dish is designed to both send and receive signals to the network of satellites that orbit the Earth and provide high speed Internet service for thousands of people in rural and remote areas across the country. The satellite Internet dish can be installed on a rooftop or other area of the property that has a good exposure to the southern sky so the signal is clear.

Once people have satellite Internet installed, they will immediately notice the difference. They have an always on signal that is not reliant on a landline telephone, but rather a satellite dish that is connected to the computer by a special satellite modem. Once connected to satellite Internet, users have a high speed Internet connection that allows them to really get the most out of the Internet experience. Web pages will load faster, particularly web pages which have dynamic content. Files such as music, videos, software and documents download and upload at speeds that can be as high as fifty times faster than a dial up connection.

Satellite Internet has given high speed access to thousands of rural users and has freed them from the limitations of dial up. Now they no longer have to wait hours for a software update download or minutes for a photo to load. With satellite Internet, all of these tasks can be accomplished at faster speeds than dial up with much more reliability and consistent service. Satellite Internet has brought rural and remote Internet users into technological parity with their urban and suburban counterparts and has given them a more robust and positive Internet experience. 

Flex 3 with Java is a new book from Packt that guides developers in building rich web applications using the Flex 3 framework. Written by Satish Kore, a Flex enthusiast and evangelist, this book helps readers build an end-to-end Flex e-commerce application using all major features of Flex 3.

Flex is an effective, free open source framework used to develop Rich Internet Applications for browsers, desktops, and operating systems. It provides a modern, standards-based language and a program model that supports common design patterns.

Developers will learn to build Flex applications with ActionScript 3.0, BlazeDS 3.2, and Java. This book will help readers mix ActionScript and MXML language to write Flex applications and use Flex Builder 3 and Ant Script to package them. Readers will be able to debug their applications, design CSS files, use data access methods, use RPC services and create custom components.

Flex users will learn to build a sample book explorer application with XML using the E4X approach, and use Adobe LiveCycle Data Services and BlazeDS components for accessing server-side data. Using Resource Manager class, they will localize Flex applications and with internationalization techniques they will be able to customize the application for multiple locales. They will also discover data access methods such as HTTPService, WebService, and RemoteObjects with code examples

Java developers, professionals or system analysts interested in developing Rich Internet Applications using Flex 3 will find this book useful. This book is out now and is available from Packt. For more information, please visit http://www.packtpub.com/flex-3-with-java/book

The online world has no boundaries and can be accessed from all over the world with an internet connection, the potential of doing business online to the world is huge. With only a small investment in domain name, hosting and a website, any scale of business, large or small can start marketing their business to the world through the internet.However, it is sometimes difficult for new companies to target and market their businesses to everyone on the internet as the internet is huge, online businesses can get lost in the world wide web.In addition, local and small businesses may not be ready to do business internationally online. Hence, it is wiser to break down the internet world into countries, then target and market to these segments.Here, we want to highlight the potential of marketing to the internet users in Asia and especially Indonesia. The first thing we should look at is the statistics of Internet usage of the world and funnel down to the internet usage and penetration in Indonesia.Looking at the internet usage of the world by countries by Miniwatts Marketing Group. Asia is leading other geographic regions in internet usage. Asia, with the largest population of the world of 3,776,181,949 compared to rest of the world population of 2,899,938,339. Its no wonder Asia has the largest internet users compared to other geographic countries of the world.When look deeper into Asia and see the Top 10 countries with the highest internet usage in Asia and you will be surprised!Indonesia is ranked No.5 of Asia’s leading internet usage country with over 25 million users in Indonesia (2008). See Internet Marketing Indonesia. Compared to other more developed Asian countries, it’s a surprising lead.This lead is mostly due to the large population of Indonesia. With over 237,512,355 in population, it is the third largest country in Asia based on its population after China and India with a population of 1,330,044,605 and 1,147,995,898 respectively. The forth largest country based on population after Indonesia is Pakistan at 167,762,040.So as you can see, Indonesia should, soon climb to the number 3 spot of the largest internet usage in Asia.  A 5 million increase in one year over 2007-2008 and a 10.5% penetration.It has been announced that the government of Indonesia is targeting 50 million users by 2009 which by no means a challenging task to increase internet usage by two fold or a 20% penetration (with 20% of the population using the internet).Having said that, China has 19% of its population use the internet. Neighboring Asia countries like Singapore has 58.6% and Malaysia has 59% of its population use the internet, not to mention Japan has the highest percentage of internet users achieving more than 73.8% penetration. Hence with the right support in infrastructure and commitment from the government, Indonesia should be able to achieve its target.Indonesia Mobile Phone SubscribersThe government of Indonesia is however very confident that a 20% penetration should be easily achievable in 2-3 years especially when Indonesia has over 80 million in mobile phone subscribers, a 34% penetration in its total population which is expected to increase to 120 million by 2010 according to SMS Marketing Indonesia. With the support mobile technology and trend towards mobile phone internet, plus the increase installation of wifi spots throughout Indonesia. Indonesia internet usage future has great potential.So with all the internet users statistics, Indonesia should see the huge potential in marketing their businesses on the internet for future growth. The increase in internet usage and penetration in Indonesia means that Indonesia is developing, its people are becoming more educated and sophisticated with the increase use of the internet media.