tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77423068173127467152024-03-05T11:57:48.955+03:00HANDS IN ICTEver wondered where the World will be 20 years from now? Take a look at 20 years back and you will be close to the answer. The question is: Are you going to be there with it? With all these trends in ICT, we need to have adequate knowledge on what is new, how it works and how we can make the most out of it. That is the purpose of this blog. Keeping you in touch with the latest trends in ICT and other General knowledge that will help you better your lifeSam Coolsam Maosahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13066060152889561994noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7742306817312746715.post-37130651931059883662011-04-18T14:44:00.003+03:002011-04-18T14:46:42.068+03:00GOOGLE MAKES YOU MULTILINGUAL<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></u></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">With social networking taking the centre position in today's world, communication nowadays is turning out to be more of textual and graphical than verbal.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">How many friends do you have on facebook or twitter, and how many of them update their status in foreign languages? That is becoming a trend. Did you know that not all of them actually speak what they write? ;)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Thanks to <a href="http://translate.google.com/"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Google Translate</span></span></a>, everyone nowadays can comprehend and communicate in any language!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdUZ14kAZC_TmHUESwL4qHaCWeYCZNKIc4oF9YWsO9R9OG2rB0tnsIKaf_diUMnFWqSAMd7cNlwBs3H1yAod5ojQIF0S2ve8nY5nGNUPnpCAGhlI9Nl_1Re7zPsTkAmTr58wb8vkIz30Tv/s1600/g4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdUZ14kAZC_TmHUESwL4qHaCWeYCZNKIc4oF9YWsO9R9OG2rB0tnsIKaf_diUMnFWqSAMd7cNlwBs3H1yAod5ojQIF0S2ve8nY5nGNUPnpCAGhlI9Nl_1Re7zPsTkAmTr58wb8vkIz30Tv/s400/g4.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Overview</span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Google translate is one of the Google products which enables users to translate words or phrases from their original language. </span><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It works without the intervention of human translators, using state-of-the-art technology instead.</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Google translate currently supports translation between <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">57</b> languages all over the world.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">How it works</span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The best part of it is that Google translate is very easy to use! Its user interface provides the user with a field to input text and choose the source language (language of the original text) and the destination. Leave the rest to Google once you click the “translate”, and you will get the text in a language of your use.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Interesting Features</span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Amongst many features, Google translate comes with the following:</span></div><ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Language Detector</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It is not necessary to tell Google Translate the language of your text, Just type in what you want to translate and provided that it is typed in any of the supported languages, Translate will automatically detect that language, so all you need to do is to specify the destination language.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1CQ_jQRROcJWkSwwj2bquHYINh1rN6o3ybxToRCAcuqBRmw7uK7uxWixZbADxvwowKjvkKywrvUPUgwCYTmURGKtgB9ISDUxGTr2onDO5gJmOkjkZoySE54xZ9Nt2UwUKejZnzTVF952x/s1600/gt1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1CQ_jQRROcJWkSwwj2bquHYINh1rN6o3ybxToRCAcuqBRmw7uK7uxWixZbADxvwowKjvkKywrvUPUgwCYTmURGKtgB9ISDUxGTr2onDO5gJmOkjkZoySE54xZ9Nt2UwUKejZnzTVF952x/s400/gt1.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><ol start="2" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Supported Languages:</span></b></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Google translate currently supports translation between the following 57 languages:</span></div><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; margin-left: .5in; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"><tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.75pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=af" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Afrikaans</span></span></a> </div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.1pt;" valign="top" width="152"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=en" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">English</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 120.55pt;" valign="top" width="161"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=it" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Italian</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt;" valign="top" width="127"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=sr" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Serbian</span></span></a> </div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.75pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=sq" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Albanian</span></span></a> </div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.1pt;" valign="top" width="152"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=et" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Estonian</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 120.55pt;" valign="top" width="161"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=ga" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Irish</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt;" valign="top" width="127"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=sk" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Slovak</span></span></a> </div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.75pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=hy" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Armenian</span></span></a> (Alpha) </div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.1pt;" valign="top" width="152"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=tl" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Filipino</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 120.55pt;" valign="top" width="161"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=ja" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Japanese</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt;" valign="top" width="127"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=sl" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Slovenian</span></span></a> </div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.75pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=az" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Azerbaijani</span></span></a> (Alpha) </div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.1pt;" valign="top" width="152"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=fi" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Finnish</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 120.55pt;" valign="top" width="161"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=ko" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Korean</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt;" valign="top" width="127"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=es" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Spanish</span></span></a> </div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.75pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=ar" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Arabic</span></span></a> </div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.1pt;" valign="top" width="152"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=fr" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">French</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 120.55pt;" valign="top" width="161"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=lv" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Latvian</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt;" valign="top" width="127"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=sw" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Swahili</span></span></a> </div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.75pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=eu" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Basque</span></span></a> (Alpha) </div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.1pt;" valign="top" width="152"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=gl" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Galician</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 120.55pt;" valign="top" width="161"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=lt" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Lithuanian</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt;" valign="top" width="127"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=sv" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Swedish</span></span></a> </div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.75pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=be" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Belarusian</span></span></a> </div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.1pt;" valign="top" width="152"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=ka" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Georgian</span></span></a> (Alpha) </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 120.55pt;" valign="top" width="161"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=mk" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Macedonian</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt;" valign="top" width="127"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=th" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Thai</span></span></a> </div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.75pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=bg" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Bulgarian</span></span></a> </div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.1pt;" valign="top" width="152"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=de" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">German</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 120.55pt;" valign="top" width="161"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=ml" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Malay</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt;" valign="top" width="127"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=tr" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Turkish</span></span></a> </div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 8;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.75pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=ca" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Catalan</span></span></a> </div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.1pt;" valign="top" width="152"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=el" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Greek</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 120.55pt;" valign="top" width="161"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=mt" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Maltese</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt;" valign="top" width="127"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=uk" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Ukrainian</span></span></a> </div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 9;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.75pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=zh-cn" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Chinese (Simplified)</span></span></a> </div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.1pt;" valign="top" width="152"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=ht" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Haitian Creole</span></span></a> (Alpha) </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 120.55pt;" valign="top" width="161"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=no" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Norwegian</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt;" valign="top" width="127"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=ur" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Urdu</span></span></a> (Alpha) </div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 10;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.75pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=zh-tw" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Chinese (Traditional)</span></span></a> </div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.1pt;" valign="top" width="152"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=iw" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Hebrew</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 120.55pt;" valign="top" width="161"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=fa" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Persian</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt;" valign="top" width="127"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=vi" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Vietnamese</span></span></a> </div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 11;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.75pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=hr" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Croatian</span></span></a> </div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.1pt;" valign="top" width="152"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=hi" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Hindi</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 120.55pt;" valign="top" width="161"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=pl" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Polish</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt;" valign="top" width="127"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=cy" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Welsh</span></span></a> </div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 12;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.75pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=cs" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Czech</span></span></a> </div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.1pt;" valign="top" width="152"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=hu" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Hungarian</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 120.55pt;" valign="top" width="161"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=pt-BR" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Portuguese</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt;" valign="top" width="127"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=yi" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Yiddish</span></span></a> </div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 13;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.75pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=da" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Danish</span></span></a> </div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.1pt;" valign="top" width="152"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=is" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Icelandic</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 120.55pt;" valign="top" width="161"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=ro" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Romanian</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt;" valign="top" width="127"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 14; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.75pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=nl" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Dutch</span></span></a> </div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.1pt;" valign="top" width="152"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=id" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Indonesian</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 120.55pt;" valign="top" width="161"><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?sl=ru" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Russian</span></span></a> </li>
</ul></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.4pt;" valign="top" width="127"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMZNQeIUWy5svr1OBKAHKcgzFHWDsdDIjVjDiiq6VjsSQcFPTwWYDzYxLcRsxW-rzGTs0mhlCtc2C8I9-AvNTJYLYaDq3qyFA0mrKeF0eA5vGYEkpG8nyKpgcwE11pwA4TCM1VjLRRcUdp/s1600/gt2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMZNQeIUWy5svr1OBKAHKcgzFHWDsdDIjVjDiiq6VjsSQcFPTwWYDzYxLcRsxW-rzGTs0mhlCtc2C8I9-AvNTJYLYaDq3qyFA0mrKeF0eA5vGYEkpG8nyKpgcwE11pwA4TCM1VjLRRcUdp/s1600/gt2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMZNQeIUWy5svr1OBKAHKcgzFHWDsdDIjVjDiiq6VjsSQcFPTwWYDzYxLcRsxW-rzGTs0mhlCtc2C8I9-AvNTJYLYaDq3qyFA0mrKeF0eA5vGYEkpG8nyKpgcwE11pwA4TCM1VjLRRcUdp/s400/gt2.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3; text-indent: -.25in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 13.5pt;">3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Input text phonetically</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt;">Many languages are difficult to type if you don't own a special layout keyboard for that script. When translating from Russian, Hindi, Serbian, Greek, Arabic, Persian or Urdu, you'll see an "Allow phonetic typing" checkbox near the input area. This feature allows you to type these languages as they sound in English - for example, "aap" for "</span><span style="font-family: "Mangal","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">आप</span><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt;">" in Hindi. When you press space, the word will be converted to Hindi script, and its translation will be displayed below. The phonetic typing feature is on by default; uncheck the checkbox to turn it off, when you want to input Roman characters. Phonetic typing does not interfere if you are using a native-layout keyboard for such languages.</span></div><h3 style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt;">4.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt;">Read and listen to your translation</span></h3><div style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">If you're trying to translate to a non-Roman script, you'll see a <b><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">Read phonetically</span></b> link next to the translation. Clicking this link will spell out the translation in Roman (Latin) characters. This feature is currently available for Armenian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Georgian, Greek, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Macedonian, Maltese, Russian, Serbian, Thai and Ukrainian.</span></div><div style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">For many languages, you may see also a speaker button near the translated text. Click this icon to hear a machine-generated spoken version of your translation. This feature is currently available for English, French, German, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Italian and Spanish.</span></div><div style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">An experimental text-to-speech system (TTS) is available for several other languages, powered by the eSpeak open-source speech synthesizer: Afrikaans, Albanian, Catalan, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Latvian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese and Welsh. You may notice significant differences in speech quality between the experimental languages and the other available languages.</span></div><div style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">5.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">Instant Translation</span></b></div><div style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">You do not have to finish typing and click “translate” for the translation to take effect. As you continue typing, translate automatically displays the output text in the destination language.</span><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";"> </span></div><div style="margin-left: 0.5in;"></div><div style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">6.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">Search Translator</span></b></div><div style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">Sometimes the best results for your search query won't be in your language. To make your search truly global, try our "Translated Search" option in Google Search. It determines which languages have the best information for your query and translates web results from those languages back to yours.</span></div><div style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">7.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">Communication translator</span></b></div><h4 style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Gmail</span></h4><div style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">What if you receive an important email – but it's not in your language? If you use Gmail, it can automatically translate foreign email messages into your own language. Just enable the feature in Gmail Labs. <a href="http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139503"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Here’s how</span></span></a>. </span></div><div style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><img class="screenshot" height="212" src="http://translate.google.com/about/images/tour/mail.gif" width="400" /> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7742306817312746715&postID=3713065193105988366" name="chat"></a></div><div class="item"></div><div style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">While in Gmail, you can also have a multilingual chat with your pen-pal from overseas. Add the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/talk/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=89921"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Google Translate Chat Bot</span></span></a> to your conversation and break down the language barrier.</span></div><div class="item"></div><a href="http://www.google.com/support/talk/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=89921"><img class="screenshot" src="http://translate.google.com/about/images/tour/chat.gif" /></a> <br />
<h4><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Google Groups</span></h4><div class="item"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">Ever wanted to have a discussion with people from across the world? Take a look at the translate features in <a href="http://groups.google.com/?hl=en"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Google Groups</span></span></a> – you can post messages in your language and see responses from users from all over the world, translated into your language. We love the feature and use it on our <a href="https://groups.google.com/group/google-translate?hl=en"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">own discussion group</span></span></a> to connect with our users. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="tryit"><i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Try it now:</span></i></span><span class="tryit"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Visit the <a href="https://groups.google.com/group/google-translate?hl=en"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Google Translate Discussion Group</span></span></a>. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div><h4><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Google Moderator</span></h4><div class="item"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">Want to have a multilingual debate? Use <a href="http://moderator.appspot.com/?hl=en"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Google Moderator</span></span></a> – it automatically translates questions and comments from other languages to yours. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="tryit"><i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Try it now:</span></i></span><span class="tryit"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Visit <a href="http://moderator.appspot.com/?hl=en"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Google Moderator</span></span></a>. </span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7742306817312746715&postID=3713065193105988366" name="docs"></a><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div><h4><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Google Docs</span></h4><div class="item"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">Translate entire documents, and phrases and words within documents, in Google Docs. Learn how to <a href="http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=159659"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">here</span></span></a>. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="tryit"><i><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Try it now:</span></i></span><span class="tryit"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Start a document in <a href="http://docs.google.com/?hl=en"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Google Docs</span></span></a>. </span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7742306817312746715&postID=3713065193105988366" name="youtube"></a><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div><h4><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">YouTube</span></h4><div class="item"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";">Want to attract an international audience on YouTube? With a few clicks, you can transcribe your videos automatically and add translated closed captions. Learn how to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/static?hl=en&template=captions_about"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">here</span></span></a>. </span></div><img class="screenshot-border" height="247" src="http://translate.google.com/about/images/tour/youtube.jpg" width="400" /> <br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";"> </span></div><div style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy";"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt;">Not just text translation!!!!</span></u></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt;">You thought this supports only typed in text translation. With <a href="http://translate.google.com/toolkit"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Google Translate Toolkit</span></span></a>, you get more: </span></div><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt;">Traslate webpages</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt;">Translate and publish wikipedia articles</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt;">Upload and translate documents</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt;">Plus much more.</span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt;">In my next post I will take us deeper into a more advanced section of Google translate, the translate toolkit. Expect it soon.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 12pt;">So the next time someone communicates to you in a social network in Japanese don’t panic!!! Grab your translate.google.com in a new tab and keep the conversation going!!!! ;)</span></div>Sam Coolsam Maosahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13066060152889561994noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7742306817312746715.post-6543898569163896072011-04-12T11:46:00.001+03:002011-04-12T11:47:55.287+03:00ADSENSE: THE DO'S AND DON'TS TO INCREASE COST PER CLICKHaving already explained how adsense has become the surest way of earning money online through hosting ads, you should know by now that the strategy that google uses to pay out is the Earn per click. This means that google pays you every time a guest in your website clicks on an ad that you have hosted through AdSense<br />
<br />
In their previous blog posts <a href="http://adsense.blogspot.com/">Inside AdSense</a> explained what RPM is and how it's influenced by what users do when they come to your site.<br />
In this post, they are explaining some of the things that you should and shouldn't do in order to maximize the amount that you earn in the Cost Per Click (CPC) in your website. Check it out!!!<br />
<a href="http://adsense.blogspot.com/2011/03/dos-and-donts-to-increase-cost-per.html?spref=bl">Inside AdSense: The do's and dont's to increase cost per click</a>Sam Coolsam Maosahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13066060152889561994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7742306817312746715.post-23246064601071163452011-04-12T11:21:00.001+03:002011-04-12T11:24:35.981+03:00MAKE MONEY ONLINE WITH GOOGLE!!!The internet is slowly overtaking the physical market in business. Are you going to be left behind? People are making money and promoting their businesses online, a trend which seems to gain momentum every single day that passes.<br />
<br />
The greatest news is that with this trend, internet users now have ways to work and earn online. However, one has to be very discreet here: With word going around everywhere how you can make money online, many people have been coned in different ways. This has made people to lose trust in any kind of "Make money online" word that goes into their ears. This is because most of these adverts turn out to be scams, whose aim is to exploit you and take the little you have with a promise of adding more to you.<br />
<br />
Worry no more, all is not lost:<br />
<br />
In the midst of all the scams of online marketing, there lies beneath a true giant in the internet industry: <a href="http://www.google.com/">GOOGLE</a>. Did you know that the major source of income for google is online advertising? And did you know that google is literally the owner of internet? (Almost all traffic that flows on the internet goes through google's strong hands).<br />
<br />
Thanks to google, you can now easily earn money just by hosting adverts in your website!!!!!!!!!! You think this is another scam? You are wrong. Check this out:<br />
<a href="http://www.google.com/adsense"><u><i><b>Google AdSense</b></i></u></a><br />
<h3>What is AdSense?</h3>Google AdSense is a free, simple way for website publishers of all sizes to earn money by displaying targeted Google ads on their websites. AdSense also lets you provide Google search to your site users, while earning money by displaying Google ads on the search results pages.<br />
<h3 style="color: black;"><u><b>AdSense outlined</b></u></h3><table><tbody>
<tr> <td width="140px"><br />
<center><img src="http://www.google.com/adsense/www/en_US/tour/img/adsense.gif" width="80px" /></center> </td> <td valign="middle"><ul><li><b>Get <a href="http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=9902">paid</a></b> for displaying targeted Google ads on your site</li>
<li><b>Customize ads</b> easily to match your site's look and feel</li>
<li><b>Track your success</b> with online reports</li>
<li>Read how publishers found success with AdSense in our <b><a href="https://www.google.com/adsense/static/en_US/Success.html?sourceid=aso&subid=ww-en-et-storefrontEN_v2_SuccessStoriesLink&medium=link">case studies</a></b></li>
</ul></td> </tr>
</tbody> </table><br />
<h3 style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b>How does it work?</b></h3><h3 style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><a name='more'></a> </b></h3><ol><li>Choose the type and placement of ad units to be displayed<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Specify where you want ads to appear</li>
<li>Choose what types of ads can compete for those slots</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Highest-paying ads display<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Advertisers bid on your inventory in a real-time auction</li>
<li>Always show the highest-paying ad</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Get paid<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Google bills advertisers and ad networks</li>
<li>Get paid through our reliable payment options</li>
</ul></li>
</ol> This is just a tickle, and you probably want to know more. Visit <a href="http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=guide.cs&guide=29574&ctx=share">AdSense Overview</a> for complete details about the Google AdSense program and how you can make the most out of it. People are becoming millionaires for just spreading word! Are you going to be left behind?<br />
<br />
<u><b>Quick Links:</b></u><br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=29574&topic=29585">What is AdSense </a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=29574&topic=29587">Product Overview</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=29574&topic=29586">Success Stories </a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=29574&topic=29588">How to Apply </a> </li>
<li>Looking for a guide to start or manage your AdSense account? Take a look at <a href="http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=25731&sourceid=aso&subid=ww-ww-et-hc_newbiepromo_0">Newbie Central</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.google.com/adsense/g-app-single-1?sourceid=aso&subid=ww-ww-et-ASGuide_hpbutton">Sign Up</a> for AdSense</li>
<li><a href="http://adsense.blogspot.com/?utm_source=asos&utm_campaign=ww-ww-et-left_nav&utm_medium=link">AdSense Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/insideadsense?utm_source=asos&utm_campaign=ww-ww-et-left_nav&utm_medium=link">AdSense Videos</a> </li>
<li> <a href="http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=22045&hl=en&sourceid=aso&subid=ww-uk-et-ashc_left_nav&medium=link">AdSense Webinars</a> </li>
</ul>So by the time you finish exploring all the above links you will be well annointed with knowledge on AdSense, and I bet you will like it. Why wait? Just finish these simple steps and start earning<br />
<br />
<u><b>What you need:</b></u><br />
<ol><li>Internet Connection (There is now Adsense for mobile)</li>
<li>A website (If you don't have a website, google makes it even easier! Just create a free blog with <a href="http://www.blogger.com/">blogger</a>, then keep advancing your blog by ensuring that you get adequate traffic to your blog, and you have followers. Watch out for another post on how to increase traffic to your blog as well as the minimum requirements for your adsense account to be verified in your blog ;))</li>
<li>An Address (where your google payment will be made)</li>
</ol>After that, the rest is just smooth: Earn every time a person clicks an ad link in your website<br />
<br />
This project is like a reward to bloggers. If you love blogging like I do, then view this as a gift from google for doing what you love!!!!!!!!!! Cheers and see you when your account is full with ad dollors<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Are you looking for a cheap way to advertise your products online? Google has never forgotten you either. Watch out for another post on <a href="http://adwords.google.com/">Google AdWords</a></span>Sam Coolsam Maosahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13066060152889561994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7742306817312746715.post-91401293989952632592011-04-08T11:16:00.004+03:002011-04-11T15:14:31.039+03:00CNN HERO: EVANS WADONGO<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">Every year, CNN recognizes people who have done something to change other peoples’ lives and awards them as CNN heroes.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">In 2010, Kenya was not left behind, since a 23-year old Kenyan guy was among the top 10 CNN Heroes recognized and awarded on 30<sup>th</sup> March, 2011 in Los Angeles, California.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXHZEahEMMexK_ZkBXNMw-9By6ei6PxutrDCYdEguEjfW-G1IdSkGgDtoAHovMa5o3PY4C6uOSW54Wl1iavWdNkIf7G3qrvRBqpA4ZImiJemwJRJc3GbQ8A2DhYKHgDPCYxTXNOHmXwxAO/s1600/wadongo.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXHZEahEMMexK_ZkBXNMw-9By6ei6PxutrDCYdEguEjfW-G1IdSkGgDtoAHovMa5o3PY4C6uOSW54Wl1iavWdNkIf7G3qrvRBqpA4ZImiJemwJRJc3GbQ8A2DhYKHgDPCYxTXNOHmXwxAO/s320/wadongo.PNG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wadongo's theme photo at the CNN Hero Awards</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;"><span id="goog_1525265597"></span><span id="goog_1525265598"></span>Evans Wadongo is the Kenyan CNN hero who has taken a deep look into the darkness in Kenya and come up with a cheap way to bring light to the country and help alleviate poverty as well as save the dreams of young Kenyan School kids which are being shattered by lack of light as well as irritating smoke.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;"><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/index.html">View the Top 10 CNN Heroes in 2010</a></span></i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">Below is a tribute video for the CNN hero Evans Wadongo:</span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dw0xGhxsG6ke2vu6SaAGWSsQivIj8-tPhbu86FFEi67EPhZog7T0-GnnbsP6E42Ke-mbvJIvFZpIUFl_NYvfQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">Let me echo to you a little sad story of what happens when darkness sets in across Kenya, as told by one of the MCs in the CNN Heroes 2010 Award ceremony. I don't know about you but it certainly happened to me, so I am a witness to the true story:</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">"As darkness sets in, school children gather around kerosene lamps, others around the fireplace to do their homework, while some more others have no privilege at all and are forced by circumstances to ignore their homework. There are others who go to school at night because they have been working all day long.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">Whichever the condition, it does not get any better. Smoke burns their eyes and learning comes to its abrupt end when the fuel burns out. This also marks the end of their beautiful dreams in life since most of them never get the chance to continue studies, given the high and ever-shooting price of fuel at the expense of their school fees."</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">However, if we had a couple of minds in Kenya thinking seriously about the situation, we could find a way to rescue these locked up and shattered dreams.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">The first young mind in Kenya has already thought about it and has a solution: Evans Wadongo has finally made the children to say goodbye to this horrible situation by making for them a small lantern using scrab metal, small solar panels, cheap batteries and LED lights (Pure application of Physical Electronics).</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">Mr. Wadongo has already made about 14000 such lanterns, freeing about 50000 Kenyan pairs of eyes from the horrible kerosene smoke, hence saving about 50000 dreams in Kenya and he still goes on!</span></i></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">Who is Wadongo?</span></u></i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Consolas; line-height: 115%;">Evans Wadongo</span></i></b><i><span style="font-family: Consolas; line-height: 115%;"> was born 11 March 1986 in the Western Part of Kenya and he grew up there with his four brothers. He went to a rural primary school-Bisunu Primary school, where he used to walk over 10 km daily to reach the school. His home and school had no electricity. Evans is the youngest of a family of five. Both his father and mother are teachers. </span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: Consolas; line-height: 115%;">Evans braved the odds to join Kakamega High School where he managed to graduate with top marks, and was listed among the top 100 best students in Kenya. He later joined <a href="http://www.jkuat.ac.ke/">Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology</a> and graduated in July 2009 with a <a href="http://www.jkuat.ac.ke/programme.php?id=4">BSc in Electronics and Computer Engineering</a>.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: Consolas; line-height: 115%;">While at the university, Evans was an active member of the <a href="http://www.rotarythika.co.ke/jkuat/">Rotaract Club</a> (part of Rotary International), where he participated in various community initiatives, including the donation of clothes to children homes and street clean up campaigns.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: Consolas; line-height: 115%;">He joined <a href="http://sustainabledevelopmentforall.org/">Sustainable Development For All-Kenya (SDFA-Kenya)</a> a non profit in 2006. SDFA-Kenya was officially registered by the NGO Coordination Board in June 2007 and its primary focus is environment, education and economic empowerment. Evans was the founding Chairman. SDFA-Kenya adopted the ‘Use Solar, Save Lives' programme as its main focus program as it combines the three aspects of education, environment and economic empowerment. Apart from being the Chairman of the organization, Evans doubled up as a Project Manager from 2006 to 2008. From 2008 to July 2010, Evans was the Chairman and Programs Director. He is currently the Executive Director and Chairman of SDFA-Kenya and the President of SDFA-US.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: Consolas; line-height: 115%;">Source: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evans_Wadongo">Wikipedia</a></span></i><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas; line-height: 115%;"></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas; line-height: 115%;">Here is the story of the Hero, as told in <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/02/11/cnnheroes.wadongo/">CNN</a>:</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: Consolas; line-height: 115%;">The youngest of four children, Wadongo grew up in a home that stressed the importance of education -- his father was a high school teacher. But years of exposure to smoke while studying by kerosene and firelight left Wadongo with eyesight problems.</span></i></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: Consolas;">With a lack of good light to study by -- Wadongo often had to share one lantern with his siblings and other family members -- he remembers the frustration of unfinished homework and poor exam performance.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: Consolas;">"I couldn't compete effectively with other kids who had access to lighting," he said. "In every home in the village it was the same. Many children drop out of school for these reasons ... so they remain poor for the rest of their life. All along I was asking myself if there is anything that can be done to improve this situation."</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: Consolas;">In 2004, while attending <a href="http://www.jkuat.ac.ke/">Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology</a>, Wadongo found his answer. He was fiddling with a dorm experiment involving the timing of LED (light-emitting diode) Christmas lights when it struck him: The environmentally friendly light source could be used to light rural homes.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: Consolas;">"I knew it would have to be sourced by the sun to be useful to people in rural areas," he said, "but had never seen a solar panel small enough for individual homes."</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: Consolas;">Then, while walking home from visiting a friend, Wadongo stumbled upon a broken-off piece of a discarded solar panel. With it, he was able to light a small number of LEDs. His project -- <a href="http://sustainabledevelopmentforall.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=4&Itemid=10" target="new">Use Solar, Save Lives</a> -- was then born!</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: Consolas;">Source: <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/02/11/cnnheroes.wadongo/">CNN-Nairobi</a></span></i></span><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">Where Did the idea come from?</span></u></i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">I thought I was alone when I said that I am a witness to the horrible true story but I was long. It so happens that Evans went through the same.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">"I used to see the disparities", recalls Wadongo, "in terms of performance for kids that are in the village and kids that are in schools with access to electricity."</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">He continues, "Teachers would give you homework and expect you to have finished early the next morning, with no understanding whether you had kerosene at home or not. You have to use kerosene lamps because you have to read, and in order to produce enough light you have to put it on a table close to you. The consequence is that it produces a lot of smoke. This happened to me and the smoke entered my eyes, making me to develop eye problems."</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">Wadongo recalls how he saw kids in the village drop out of school due to lack of money to buy kerosene. In the Samburu culture, for example, children are supposed to take care of their herds during daytime, coinciding with official schooling hours in Kenya. This leaves only the option of scheduling classes at night, hence necessitating the need for light.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">"This is the real motivation that made me to try and come up with a way to find a solution to that problem", explains the CNN Hero, better known to us as Wadongo.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">Mr. Wadongo has named his solar powered lanterns "MwangaBora", a Swahili Phrase meaning "good light".</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">Since 2004 when he started the project, Wadongo has designed and distributed over 14000 lamps all over Kenya, reaching out to over 50000 people in Kenya. His target is that through this project, each child can have his/her lamp.</span></i></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">How Effective is the Project?</span></u></i></b><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;"></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">Here is the strategy that makes Wadongo a real hero: By distributing the lamps cheaply to Kenyans, they can safe a lot in the money they could be spending in Kerosene. Look at it this way: in a week, a family uses at lease a litre of Kerosene in lighting alone. If one litre costs Ksh. 90, that makes the family's expenditure on Kerosene Ksh.360 per month, i.e Ksh.4320 per year. After getting the MwangaBora which uses the freely available solar energy, the family does not need kerosene anymore and this amount could go to savings. After saving, the family can invest this money in an income generating activity. This makes Wadongo's project an effective tool to eliminate the poverty cycle which most of the Kenyans encounter.</span></i></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">He is your Role Model!</span></u></i></b><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;"></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">Wadongo is not just a CNN Hero, he is my hero and I bet he is yours too. Though his seems a very simple project, it is surely a unique thought that no one could think of before. This is the true reflection of life: There is that idea you have had at the back of your mind but you ignore it thinking it is so simple and anyone else can come up with it and implement it: Wrong! If we let out our minds just like Wadongo, the "Dark Continent of Africa" into a "bright continent"!</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">Imagine a Kenya where this is the song in every young mouth:</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;"> _________________________</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;"> This Little Light of Mine,</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;"> I'm gonna Let it Shine,</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;"> This Little Light of Mine,</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;"> I'm gonna let it Shine,</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;"> This Little Light of Mine,</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;"> I'm gonna Let it Shine,</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;"> Let it Shine, Let it Shine, Let it Shine</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;"> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</span></i></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">Know More about Wadongo and Help!</span></u></i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Consolas;">You do want the song to continue, don’t you? You can show support to Wadongo to motivate him to keep the light shining:</span></i></span></div><div class="cnninline"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Want to get involved? Check out the </i><b><a href="http://sustainabledevelopmentforall.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=4&Itemid=10" target="new"><i>Use Solar, Save Lives</i></a></b><i> Web site and see how to help.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Sam Coolsam Maosahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13066060152889561994noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7742306817312746715.post-24546344204726811322011-04-01T08:40:00.001+03:002011-04-11T15:09:22.239+03:00MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY<div class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Do you Remember?</span></u></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Do you remember the days when there was no mobile phone technology in Kenya? All we could worry about when we could want make a call is where to get enough coins from so that we could use in the telephone boot. Those days are long gone, and are followed by the mobile phone age. This age has experienced tremendous and rapid development, from the days when the only names in the industry were SAFARICOM and KENCELL.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Today there are four major mobile phone service providers in Kenya: Safaricom, Airtel, Yu and Orange. Come to think of it, this has really helped eliminate monopoly and we have seen price wars that have resulted to reduced call rates to the consumers’ advantage. However, this package of reduced rates comes together with some confusion: Which is my favorite Service Provider (SP)? This has seen most, if not all of us turned into SP prostitutes. Taking myself as an example, I have four sim cards in my wallet and with one mobile, these sim cards have to be given turns staying in my phone. Does this irritate anybody like it irritates me?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">However, 2011 may be the year we say goodbye to bulky Sim Cards in our wallets</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MNP?</span></u></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Yes. It seems the issue of having many sim cards in a wallet didn’t bug the consumers only. The SPs were irritated too! (Who would be at peace knowing that their fiancée is being wooed by other suitors?) The consumers have seemed to follow the price war trend very well, always going for the lowest price. Due to this, there arose the need among each of the SPs to improvise ways to retain their customers and if possible fish more from the other. Price wars have proven ineffective and the SPs have finally agreed to introduce Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service. This service is to be introduced today (April 1<sup>st</sup>, 2011).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">What is MNP?</span></u></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTVGQazoSL-4A3N6JmRLkA9_eggb1nm1Uppd88V5cCFzaqm301RgZaC6vhyO4NE36_lGqSWxtaIrFJ1vskqwKVnaF2yuklkj6NtBj2uFkPsA2gQxRGBwMgKVHSacjHQjNRjZdMMuib82hd/s1600/mobile-number-portability.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTVGQazoSL-4A3N6JmRLkA9_eggb1nm1Uppd88V5cCFzaqm301RgZaC6vhyO4NE36_lGqSWxtaIrFJ1vskqwKVnaF2yuklkj6NtBj2uFkPsA2gQxRGBwMgKVHSacjHQjNRjZdMMuib82hd/s320/mobile-number-portability.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>According to <a href="http://mobiledevices.about.com/">About.com</a>’s blog, Mobile Number Portability or MNP helps mobile phone users to change from one <a href="http://mobiledevices.about.com/od/glossary/g/Mobile-Carrier.htm">mobile network operator</a> to another, without having to change their mobile phone number. <br />
The system of MNP is incorporated differently in various countries across the world. Most countries follow the system of Recipient-Led porting, also known as Donor-Led porting. Here, customers wanting to port their numbers will have to contact the Donor in order to obtain a Porting Authorization Code or PAC. The customer has to then give this to the Recipient. On receipt of this PAC, the Recipient proceeds to contact the Donor. For example, if we were talking about Kenya, and one wanted to port from Airtel to Safaricom, the person would have to obtain a PAC from Airtel (the Donor) and give it to the Safaricom (Recipient) who will then proceed to switch the person.<br />
<br />
MNP enables mobile telephone users to retain their existing phone numbers when they change from one mobile network operator to another. In other words, what this means is that if a user moves to another mobile network, the new network operator would issue him a SIM card that has the same telephone number (including original network code) as his original network's code. The user's number is then said to have been "ported", in MNP dialect.<br />
<br />
<b><u>MNP in Other Countries</u></b><br />
<br />
In order to be familiar with the service, let us look at its adoption in different countries:<br />
Kenya joins three African Countries, namely: Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa to become the fourth African countries to embrace Mobile Number Portability service. Ghana is also scheduled to launch the service within 2011.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuWszZ4i5EBoFCxUSezBH80-nNDdoQQU4BELMFepNUn3A3N0pFKYhpKfBvDgtTAP0utUwCYKTH9jNUaOxmpQ_iZfZg2zrILdI3A8j8jvD3cQnwj9A994E5EtzY4054woEvtcehQydq3Yv7/s1600/Mobile-number-portablity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuWszZ4i5EBoFCxUSezBH80-nNDdoQQU4BELMFepNUn3A3N0pFKYhpKfBvDgtTAP0utUwCYKTH9jNUaOxmpQ_iZfZg2zrILdI3A8j8jvD3cQnwj9A994E5EtzY4054woEvtcehQydq3Yv7/s320/Mobile-number-portablity.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>This technological facility has been available and implemented in several countries for almost 10 years now. Here is a link to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile%20number%20portability">Wikipedia Article</a> that gives a detailed list of countries that have embraced MNP service across the world.<br />
<h4><span class="mw-headline">Japan</span></h4>In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan">Japan</a>, fixed line portability began in March, 2001. <span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS Mincho";">番号ポータビリティー制度</span> (bangō portability seido - commonly referred to as portability or MNP) began on October 24, 2006. Users are able to change cellular phone carriers without changing their number for a fee of 5000 yen. However, e-mail addresses are subject to change, and music/data downloaded may not be used.<br />
The Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) spent three years to put mobile number portability into practice, since its initial workgroup started in November, 2003. As a result, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank accelerated the price battle, but it was of little effect due to already competitive price plans and customer loyalty. Overall, mobile number portability in Japan was not very successful, because of high transition costs for the customer due to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock">SIM lock</a>, the long time it took to establish mobile number portability, allowing operators to fence in subscribers with price plans, and the significance of mobile Internet mail.<br />
<h4><span class="mw-headline">Malaysia</span></h4>In Malaysia, mobile number portability plan to start by mid 2008, according to an article on the National News Agency <a href="http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news_lite.php?id=295374">Bernama</a><br />
<h4><span class="mw-headline">Saudi Arabia</span></h4>In Saudi Arabia, MNP was launched in 8 July 2006, to be the first country to launch this service in the ME region. A centralized number portability clearing house (NPC) solution was implemented by <a href="http://www.citc.gov.sa/">CITC</a>(the telecom regulation authority) and the two mobile phone operators were obliged to implement the MNP solution in their networks and to interface with the NPC. the service was provided to the mobile subscribers for free.<br />
<br />
<b>Europe</b><br />
In the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union">European Union</a>, all telephone providers are required to provide number portability under the <i>Universal Services <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_directive" title="European Union directive">Directive</a> (2002/22/EU)</i>.<br />
<h4><span class="mw-headline">Austria</span></h4>In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria">Austria</a>, number portability was implemented in Oct 2004.<br />
<h4><span class="mw-headline">Belgium</span></h4>In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium">Belgium</a>, number portability was implemented in Oct 2002.<br />
<h4><span class="mw-headline">Cyprus</span></h4>In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus">Cyprus</a>, geographic, non-geographic and mobile number portability is required as of July 12, 2004.<br />
<h4><span class="mw-headline">Denmark</span></h4>In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark">Denmark</a>, portability of fixed line numbers and ISDN was implemented on January 1, 2001. Mobile number portability was implemented on July 1, 2001. In 2006, 238,293 fixed lines were ported, along with 456,159 mobile lines. Considering that the number of fixed lines by the end of 2006 was 2,974,000 and the number of mobile lines was 5.828.000, roughly 7.9% of lines were ported in 2006.<br />
<h4><span class="mw-headline">Estonia</span></h4>In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia">Estonia</a>, number portability is required from fixed operators since January 1, 2004 and should be required from mobile operators as from January 1, 2005.<br />
<h4><span class="mw-headline">Finland</span></h4>In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland">Finland</a>, mobile number portability was implemented on July 25, 2003. The impact of mobile number portability in Finland exceeds that of other countries. In one year (June 2003-June 2004), the combined market share of Telia Sonera, Elisa and DNA fell from 98.7% to 87.9%.<br />
<h4><span class="mw-headline">France</span></h4>In France, geographic number portability has been available since January 1, 1998. As of January 1, 2001, it became possible to change geographic location or operator while keeping the same number. Mobile number portability was introduced on June 30, 2003. However, due to its lack of effectiveness, a new system was launched on May 21, 2007 with two objectives: having a single contact for the customer (the new operator should take all the steps towards mobile number portability) and a maximum period of ten days for mobile number portability to have effect.<br />
<h4><span class="mw-headline">United States</span></h4>In the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States">United States</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Communications_Commission" title="Federal Communications Commission">FCC</a> first mandated LNP among wireline carriers in 1997, as well. LNP was first implemented in the U.S. upon the establishment of the original Number Portability Administration Center (<i>NPAC</i>) in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago">Chicago</a>, Illinois in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998">1998</a>. This service covered select rate centers in the Ameritech region. Thereafter, as switches and telephone networks were upgraded with Local Routing Number (<i>LRN</i>) capability, LNP was deployed sequentially to the remaining <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Bell_Operating_Company" title="Regional Bell Operating Company">RBOC</a> areas. The U.S. FCC since has mandated <i>Wireless Local Number Portability</i> starting November 24, 2003 (in metropolitan areas), and allowed operators to charge an additional monthly <i>Long-Term Telephone Number Portability End-Use Charge</i> as compensation. On November 10, 2003, the FCC additionally ruled that number portability applies to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_telephony" title="Fixed telephony">landline</a> numbers moving to mobile telephones and, on October 31, 2007, the FCC made clear that the obligation to provide LNP extends to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VoIP" title="VoIP">VoIP</a> providers.<br />
<h4><span class="mw-headline">Mexico</span></h4>Mexico is the first Latin American country to have number portability in both mobile and local telephony. The Federal Commission of Telecommunications (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COFETEL" title="COFETEL">COFETEL</a>) applied this law, in defense and regulation of the great monopoly that Telmex has. It was also one condition for Telmex, if the Mexican company wanted to enter to the video market <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_play_%28telecommunications%29">Triple play (telecommunications)</a>. The number portability is available since July 5 of 2008. The handling of the service is handled by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telcordia_Technologies">Telcordia Technologies</a>.<br />
<b>India</b><br />
India is the latest country to launch the service on 20<sup>th</sup> January, 2011.<br />
This is just a sample of the many countries that have installed MNP service. See more details <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local%20number%20portability">here</a>.<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><u>HOW DO WE GO ABOUT IT?</u></span></b></div><div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">You are wondering: Where do I start? This whole MNP thing looks like a mistery!! I won't port because of that</span>. <span style="font-size: small;">Don't worry. CCK got your questions all answered.</span></span></div><div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.cck.go.ke/number_portablity/index.html"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Visit CCK for all your queries Regarding Mobile Number Portability</span></span></a> </span><u> </u></span><b><u> </u></b></div><div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;"><b><u>Technicality Behind MNP Service</u></b></div>So you know how you are supposed to do it: Could you be interested to be a little curious to know what kind of technical stuff goes behind the scenes?<br />
As I may had mentioned earlier, a significant technical aspect of MNP (Mobile Number Portability) is related to the routing of calls or mobile messages (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS">SMS</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_Messaging_Service" title="Multimedia Messaging Service">MMS</a>) to a number once it has been ported. There are various flavors of call routing implementation across the globe but the international and European best practice is via the use of a central database (CDB) of ported numbers. Network operator makes copies of CDB and queries it to find out which network to send a call to. This is also known as <span style="color: red;">All Call Query (ACQ)</span> and is highly efficient and scalable. Majority of the established and upcoming MNP systems across the world are based on this ACQ/CDB method of call routing. <span style="color: #00b050;">One of the very few countries to <i>not</i> use ACQ/CDB is the UK</span> where calls to a number once it has been ported are still routed via the Donor network. This is also known as 'Indirect Routing' and is highly inefficient as it is wasteful of transmission and switching capacity. Because of its Donor dependent nature, Indirect Routing also means that if the Donor network develops a fault or goes out of business, the customers who have ported out of that network will lose incoming calls to their numbers. The UK telecoms regulator <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofcom">Ofcom</a> completed its extended review of the UK MNP process on 29 November 2007 and mandated that ACQ/CDB be implemented for mobile to mobile ported calls by no later than 1 September.<br />
What is all this <span style="color: red;">CBD</span> and <span style="color: red;">ACQ</span>??<br />
<i><u>Portability Schemes</u></i><br />
There are four main methods to route a number whose operator has changed:<br />
<h3 style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-weight: normal;"><img alt="*" height="12" src="file:///C:/Users/SAMANTHA/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.png" width="12" /><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="mw-headline"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">All Call Query (ACQ)</span></span></h3>The operator that originates the call always checks a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralized_database">centralized database</a> and obtains the route to the call.<br />
<h3 style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-weight: normal;"><img alt="*" height="12" src="file:///C:/Users/SAMANTHA/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.png" width="12" /><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="mw-headline"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Query on Release (QoR)</span></span></h3>The operator that originates the call first checks with the operator to which the number initially belonged, the donor operator. The donor operator verifies the call and informs that it no longer possesses the number. The operator that originates the call then checks the centralized database, as is done with ACQ.<br />
<h3 style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-weight: normal;"><img alt="*" height="12" src="file:///C:/Users/SAMANTHA/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.png" width="12" /><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="mw-headline"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Call Dropback</span></span></h3>Also known as <span style="color: red;">Return to Pivot (RoP)</span>. The operator that originates the call first checks with the donor operator. The donor operator checks its own database and provides a new route. The operator that originates the call then uses this route to forward the call. No central database is consulted.<br />
<h3 style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-weight: normal;"><img alt="*" height="12" src="file:///C:/Users/SAMANTHA/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.png" width="12" /><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="mw-headline"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Onward Routing (OR)</span></span></h3>The operator that originates the call checks with the donor operator. The donor operator checks its own database and obtains a new route. The operator to which the number was designated routes itself the call to the new operator. This model is called indirect routing.<br />
In number portability the “<span style="color: red;">donor network</span>” provides the number and the “<span style="color: red;">recipient network</span>” accepts the number. The operation of donating a number requires that a number is “<span style="color: red;">snapped out</span>” from a network and “<span style="color: red;">snapped into</span>” the receiving network. If the subscriber ceases to need the number then it is normal that the original donor receives the number back and “snaps back” the number to its network. The situation is slightly more complex if the user leaves the first operator for a second and then subsequently elects to use a third operator. In this case the second operator will return the number to the first and then it is assigned to the third.<br />
In cellular communications the concept of a location registry exists to tie a “mobile station” (such as a cellular phone) to the number. If a number is dialed it is necessary to be able to determine where in the network the mobile station exists. Some mechanism for such forwarding must exist. (Wikipedia explains examples of such systems in the article on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM">GSM</a> network.)<br />
In the US, for example, there are standards for portability defined by the <b>FCC</b> and the <b>LNPA</b>, as well as <a href="http://www.nanpa.com/">NANPA</a> and the <a href="http://www.atis.org/">ATIS</a> which are agreed upon by all member providers to help make LNP as cost-efficient and expedient as possible while still retaining a healthy level security for all providers and in respect of the highest level of customer service. These rules, first defined in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Reports and Orders by the FCC (publicly available at fcc.gov), are further detailed by the <b>LNPA</b> in order to ensure any provider can successfully port numbers to any other provider. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeuStar">NeuStar</a> provides a national database called the <a href="http://www.npac.com/">NPAC</a> (<span style="color: red;">National Portability Administration Center</span>) which contains the correct routing information for all ported and pooled numbers in the US and Canada. The <a href="http://www.nanc-chair.org/">NANC</a> maintains detailed <a href="http://www.npac.com/cmas/documents.shtml#Misc">documentation</a> of the procedure common among US carriers to port numbers as described here.<br />
Providers use <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signaling_System_7" title="Signaling System 7">SS7</a> to route calls throughout the US/Canada network. SS7 accesses databases for various services such as CNAM, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIDB">LIDB</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custom_Local_Area_Signaling_Services" title="Custom Local Area Signaling Services">CLASS</a> and, of course, <b>LNP</b>. Calls to ported numbers are completed when a customer who calls a ported number sends the dialed number to a provider's SSP (Service Switch Point), where it is identified either as a local call or not. If the call is local, the switch has the <b>NPA-NXX</b> in its routing table as portable, so it sends a routing request to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Transfer_Point" title="Signal Transfer Point">STP</a> (Signal Transfer Point) which accesses a local database that is updated by an LSMS (Local Service Management System) which holds all routing for all ported numbers to which the carrier is responsible for completing calls. If routing information is found, a response is sent to the "query" containing the information necessary to properly route the call. If it is not a local number, the call is passed on to the <b>STP</b> and routed until it gets to a local carrier who will perform the "<span style="color: red;">query</span>" mentioned earlier and route the call accordingly.<br />
The routing information necessary to complete these calls is known as an <b>LRN</b> (Local Routing Number). The LRN is no more than a simple 10-digit telephone number that resides in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switch">switch</a> of the service provider currently providing service for the ported telephone number.<br />
When a provider receives a request to port a telephone number from a new customer, that provider sends an industry-standard <b>LSR</b> (Local Service Request) to the existing (or "old") provider. When the Old Provider receives this request, it sends back <i>FOC</i> (Firm Order Confirmation) and the process of porting the number(s) begins. Either provider can initiate the port using a <b>SOA</b> or <b>LSOA</b> (<span style="color: red;">Service Order Activator</span>) which directly edits the <b>NPAC</b> database mentioned before. Providers can also make these requests within the NPAC database directly. If the new provider initiates the port, it is called a "<span style="color: #00b050;">pull</span>," and if the old provider initiates, it is a "<span style="color: #00b050;">push</span>". Once the number is pulled or pushed, the providers must concur the request, and the new provider must "<i>activate</i>" the number using the <b>LRN</b> of the switch serving the customer on the agreed due date. At the point this is completed, <span style="color: #00b050;">the number is ported</span>.<br />
Much of this process is duplicated in <span style="color: red;">intermodal portability</span> (<span style="color: #00b050;">porting between wireline and wireless providers</span>). There are a few technical differences, however, in <b>WLNP</b>—Especially with concern to the time intervals allowed.<br />
<i>NOTE: Wireless Number Portability is available in some parts of Africa, Asia, Australia, and most European countries including Britain; however, this relates to transferability between mobile phone lines only. Canada, and the United States are the only countries in the world that offer full number portability transfers between both fixed lines and mobile phone lines <sup><a href="http://www.blogger.com/Pictures/Local_number_portability.htm#cite_note-1">[2]</a></sup> because mobile and fixed line numbers are mixed in the same <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_code" title="Area code">area codes</a>, and billing wise are identical for the calling party, the mobile user usually pays for incoming calls; in other countries all mobile numbers are placed in higher priced mobile-dedicated area codes and the originator of the call to the mobile phone pays for the call. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong">Hong Kong</a> also fulfills the criteria listed above (no area code in Hong Kong, call billings are identical no matter for calling to fixed or mobile, and mobile user pays for incoming calls). Although Hong Kong government approved for fixed-mobile number portability, this service is still not available</i><br />
<b><u>The Effectiveness of MNP Service</u></b><br />
So now Kenya is joining the rest of the world in mobile number portability. The big question however remains: How will people welcome the service???<br />
Some industry analysts in other countries have severely criticized this form or porting, as it is long-drawn out, breeds inefficiency as well as diluting competition. (So will this mean the end of the ever reducing calling rates in Kenya? <span style="font-family: Wingdings;">L</span> )<br />
The major detriment of the MNP service is the switch time, which varies from one country to another, depending on the infrastructure installed in the country. Prior to March 2008 it took a minimum of 5 working days to port a number in the UK compared to 2 hours only in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA" title="USA">USA</a>, as low as 20 minutes in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland">Republic of Ireland</a>, 3 minutes in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia">Australia</a> and even a matter of seconds in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand">New Zealand</a>. On 17 July 2007, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofcom">Ofcom</a> released its conclusions from the review of UK MNP and mandated reduction of porting time to 2 working days with effect from 1 April 2008. On 29 November 2007, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofcom">Ofcom</a> completed its consultation on further reduction to porting time to 2 hours along with recipient led porting and mandated that near-instant (no more than 2 hours) recipient led porting be implemented by no later than 1 September 2009. Let us see how well Kenya can do on this.<br />
<b><u>Advantage:</u></b><br />
However, looking on the brighter side, the ability of end users to retain their telephone numbers when changing service providers gives customers flexibility in the quality, price, and variety of telecommunications services they can choose to purchase. Number portability promotes competition between telecommunications service providers by, among other things, allowing customers to respond to price and service changes without changing their telephone numbers. The resulting competition will benefit all users of telecommunications services. <br />
Indeed, competition should foster lower local telephone prices and, consequently, stimulate demand for telecommunications services and increase economic growth. (So after all we are not going lose the ever beneficial mobile operator competition in Kenya!!! <span style="font-family: Wingdings;">J</span> ).<br />
Remember not to do anything stupid before you examine it carefully. Just to let you know, the charges for porting from one network to another will be <span style="font-size: 46pt;">Ksh.200.</span><br />
<b><i>Don’t forget to shift your eyes briefly to the bottom of the left pane where we have this poll: In your opinion: How effective is the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service to you? Would you, have you already or would you never ever bother to embrace it? Let me know your thoughts.</i></b><br />
<br />
<b><i>I hope this is not one of the big fat April Fools’ Lie, see you when your number is ported </i></b><b><i><span style="font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></i></b>Sam Coolsam Maosahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13066060152889561994noreply@blogger.com2