Posted on 01/29/2011 11:57:55 AM PST by fightinJAG
Egypt’s sealing off the country from the rest of the internet has provoked a series of low-tech initiatives aimed at allowing at least some sort of connection.
Yesterday a small French ISP, NDF opened up a dial-up line to allow access to anyone with a modem.
The international dial-up numbers only work for people with access to a telephone modem and an international calling service, which not all Egyptians have.
However, an Egyptian couple have published a comprehensive guide on how to use the mobile phone network to connect to international dial up internet providers.
“In a nutshell we need to dial another international ISP, but since most of our homes back in Egypt have no international phone-call capability we will by-pass this by linking to the mobile-phone network which is by default has international capability but unfortunately a little pricey (~2 LE a minute) but sufficient to make urgent communication on internet,” the couple wrote on their blog.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
You can bet that the Chinese are studying this with keen interest.
Also, Tor useage from Egyptian users has skyrocketed in the last 24 hours (on an order of 10X the number of users since yesterday.)
Would it work with magicjack? My friend in Dubai uses that to make international calls.
This reminds me of the Left Behind books. There are too many smart people who can figure these things out.
I think the Chinese leaders are a very calculating bunch. They are eventually going to figure out that a democracy is actually more stable than a dictatorship, if done right. Mubarak would have been thrown out long ago, without violence, if Egypt were a democracy. The reason the Chinese are not reforming is that they so far have been able to walk the tightrope. At some point, though, they will slip.
seems like they could use a little push if you ask me.
China has had a centralized command-and-control government for at least a couple of thousand years. Democracy never took root there, although it would not be impossible in modern times. Still, their entire ancient culture is not one in which the people have ever had any say in their government, so they would have much to learn if they were to become Democratic.
“Mubarak would have been thrown out long ago, without violence, if Egypt were a democracy.”
Easy to say, but what happens when you have a free vote, and the voters vote in a bunch of dictators - which is EXACTLY what happened in Algeria. Then what? Do you step down to make way for a dictatorship, or...no easy answer. In Algeria’s case, the existing government did not want them to become another Iran...so they nullified the vote - which then led to what was essentially a civil war.
No easy answer in some societies, as much as Obama may think differently.
I hope we are studying it as well!
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