How to use WengoPhone (QuteCom) to make calls with a Diamondcard.us account

These instructions are helpful to those using WengoPhone (QuteCom), as well as Mizuphone, Twinkle, Ekiga. These are SIP softphones.

Congratulations, you have already installed the Stable Version of WengoPhone (or one of the others) [Download]. You are on the way to a world of cheap communication with your loved ones.

First Time You use WengoPhone

First Time, WengoPhone Window

When you open your new WengoPhone for the first time, a window similar to this will appear. Subsequent logins will bring this window back. Hit the Configure a New Profile button (or Modify button if one profile is already there).

Enter the same words you see here in the image, and for the dots, use your PIN code which you got here at
Logging In to DIAMONDCARD.US. If you contacted us, we have sent you this information by email.

pccalltel@gmail.com let us know your QQ, YAHOO, MSN ICQ AIM or SKYPE, and your request for help.

The diamondcard account lets you keep a track of your calls and sms from the online call record by an itemised billing feature.
This is what the Admin Centre looks like..

diamondcard.us "ACCOUNT ID" "PIN" info panel

The circled section is the account id 123456 and PIN 1234567890123 Jot those down and keep them handy for the next step.
Configuring a New SIP Profile
In the WengoPhone window again, after you hit Configure New Profile, this window will appear.

Configure New SIP Profile

Enter your Account ID in the Username field. Your 13 digit PIN which you jotted down, enter in the password field of the software.

anythingYOUlike or i’ma_total_idiot where mine says hgggh

Getting Auditory

If required, click the speaker icon with the cross? If yours is not crossed out, skip this step and see if your sound works.

If you clicked the broken icon, Now you should see this window and the Audio Settings like the one i circled here

Fine-tuning your Audio Settings

Click the Audio Settings button You should get this window now

Audio Settings Detail

You will have to use your intution here because every computer has it’s own audio driver setup and sound card. Use the defaults or try various combinations if they exist, by dropping down the menu bars. Don’t forget to click save of course.

Make sure your Operating System settings for audio input and output are set to the optimum performance. On some systems, you need to find the audio input settings and enable MIC BOOST feature. Do that first, then check the wengophone or similar software to adjust the mic volume. In this image, the icon with the slider lets you interact with that feature by sliding the switch below the mic object. The headset volume is the slider below the object with two knobs under an arch.

You cannot use WengoPhone to make video calls or send sms using your diamondcard.us account or yahoo and msn accounts, unless you sign up with Wengo. Wengo provides a service for pc to phone calls similar but different in pricing from diamondcard.us. Diamondcard subscribers use the online login to diamondcard.us and find send sms on the left panel of that page. Video is not allowed by Yahoo or msn servers if you use any client (application) other than their own one.

Enjoy your new application and we hope your family and friends love you for calling them so often. Please feel free to comment us here. You don’t need a wordpress account, just enter some data and fire away.

Mbeki: The poetic, the funny and the garrulous

Everything is absolutely genuinely original Azanian material

If anyone is unaware of conditions in the country, it might be they haven’t withdrawn tactically from an ATM in some time. Our dear president made this strategic statement pertaining to methodologies required before the obvious can be accepted as truthful (refers to the captioned satirical representation of what is albeit and arguably, an unproven publicly held opinion). This great observation and scientific thesis was revealed to us during a television interview when our then president was asked about rising crime and an economic situation which creates such untenable conditions.

Before you credit any of these public figures with actually having given a flying flock of doves enough to visit this scene, allow me to state, categorically and in no uncertain terms that this is nothing but satire and positively everything but an entirely false representation of the situation as it obtained during the hey day of these illustrious poets. Having said exactly that which I have done, in no uncertain terms and truthfully, might I furthermore say that everything hitherto and  heretoforth backward glancing, sideways and bending over backwards, absolutely and genuinely originated in the south of Africa, and within the borders of the republic. The president in fact didn’t completely deny having implied anything nor having acknowledged the conditions. The foreplay in this GNU manipulated image comprises an official photograph taken on the occasion of one of (former comrade) Trevor Manual’s lovely globalisation-friendly budget speeches. The background afterglow was handed me by a dear friend on facebook. The bank involved in this particular successful robbery, rhymes with “ashma”.

The image was manipulated using GIMP, proving that GNU Linux/open source and Ubuntu really pay off. It’s no wonder  Thabo favoured ubuntu as a cliche only second to African Renaissance. Globalisation coming in at a close third place on the garrulous inventory.

Is The Arch back: Tutu calls it “war crimes” in Gaza

Commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate Israeli bombings at Beit Hanoun, Desmond Tutu released a report following a difficult fact-finding investigation into the November 2006 incident. According to the Mail & Guardian report (15 Sept), the investigation was an especially difficult one, considering the issue of “access”. Not surprising you might say, considering the size of the walls in that region.

Israel declined three times to grant visas to the Nobel peace laureate and his UN-appointed fact-finding team to investigate the killings of 19 civilians in an Israeli artillery barrage, the report said. The team finally travelled to Beit Hanoun via Egypt in May — 18 months behind schedule.

Tutu called Israel’s shelling “a disproportionate and reckless disregard for life” (M&G report) harking back to similar descriptions by the agencies of the United Nations as well as international human rights agencies concerning Israels failed war in Lebanon in 2006. According to a Spero News report, the ADL had many criticisms of Tutu’s report, which is not surprising of course.

On September 15, the South African clergyman who won the Nobel prize for peace, said that Israel may have committed a war crime by shelling the Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanun in 2006, but that Palestinians also were at fault for firing rockets at Israeli civilians. (Martin Barillas for Spero News, 19 Sept)

The Human Rights Tribune released Tutu’s press statement. Here is an excerpt:

Addressing human rights violations suffered by individuals in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories must be the prime motivating force for members of the Council and others with influence in the region. (Tutu cited in the Human Rights Tribune, 18 Sept)

At times like these, one is filled with new hope. I have held the opinion for some years that Archbishop Desmond Tutu had ’swung to the other side’. I was forced to consider that like so many others, he ‘had always been on the other side’. I held the view if you will, that “we was had”. I questioned his loyalty to the cause of the poor when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process started to show it’s nature of being a one-sided affair in which the criminals walked off scot free. What’s more, they kept their position of privilege. What this experiment in forgiveness showed us, is that without penance, criminals ended up laughing. What had been hoped for was peace. But what emerged in time, was quite the opposite. A growing situation of chaos and corruption festered when what people saw as impunity for criminals obtained within the rank and file from that point on.

I had once walked arm-in-arm from the Grand Parade, turned left at Adderley and made my way up to Wale street and was arrested with the ancient Grootekerk and St. George’s Cathedral in sight. I recall vividly having been separated from my closest friends, being concerned for their safety, yet being filled with hope for I was with good company. I felt as though I was never walking alone. At that time, the names of Tutu and Boesak were held uniformly in the highest regard. And being separated from those with whom one was most familiar, only meant you were literally with others whom you respected and for whom one would equally be willing to sacrifice one’s life. Yet, during the course of the next ten years so many changes were ushered in. Criminals were being honoured and victims were being forgotten. One was asked to sacrifice more than one was willing to do. I drew the line at my loyalty to certain individuals. To my mind, Tutu and those who were punching the “forgive and forget mantra” were asking too much of me. They were asking me to do more than forget. I was being asked to step into John Lennon’s “imagine-if” realm.

I still maintain that many of today’s heroes are not really such great people. Furthermore, many who have been demonised and or forgotten, were not nearly as bad as is commonly held to be true. By comparison, I’d exchange many of the “heroes” of our latter day struggle with the “demons” from our former one. Without getting into names, let me declare one person who has made it out of my personal “demon list” and onto my “watch list”. Tutu’s position on gender issues is still of considerable concern to me, but I am willing to apply some of his peaceful and non-judgemental ethos, give him the benefit of the doubt that he will come through on the day of action, and label that issue as “pending review”. His report on Beit Hanoun seems (which I have yet to read in full) apparently lays equal blame on those firing rockets from Beit Hanoun and at the Israeli Defense Force for the loss of life at Beit Hanoun. Though this may be true, I am of the opinion that such rocket attacks occur because of a history of failed political initiatives and because of the failure of the United Nations and it’s member states to take firm action against the guilty parties (on both sides of the wall).

When the time comes, he certainly seems to come into his own. He has criticised the TRC follow-up process in recent years. Coming from a person whose name is almost synonymous with the TRC, this is indeed significant. On the topic of his name and what associations it engenders, this is pretty much a regional affair. For in the United States the name of Archbishop Tutu along with former president Carter, have become synonymous with the amorphous label of “anti-Israeli” at best, and as “anti-semitic” at worst.

I am searching for a full copy of Tutu’s report and will post it here, insha’allah. Watch this space, as they say.

April 2009 – WCAR Durban Review

A few of us are working on detailing the history of the World Conference on Racism (WARC – Durban, 2001). We will attempt to follow the lead up to the review conference in Geneva as well as cover the proceedings and outcomes of the review conference scheduled for April 2009.

There has been much reaction to this conference, occurring as it did just prior to the WTC and related atrocities of September 2001. The conference declaration and program of action is seen by most to be an accurate formulation of an historical and current context of racism. It furthermore provides states, agencies and other stakeholders, a progressive much-needed grip on the way toward eradicating intolerance and discrimination. On the other hand, there were some delegates to the conference criticise the conference and it’s outcomes, labelling it anti-semitic. By pure coincidence, these delegates represented the same states which firmly supported Apartheid). The reader is advised to scour the documents below for anti-semitic references. The problems I determined were the mention of “refugees” and their right to return to their homeland. Also problematic for some delegates (apparently) are the discussions relating to migrants and the manner in which they should be protected. Over all, whenever reference is made in the DDPA to anti-semitism, it is in order to express the conference’s declaration that this constitutes the kind of racism the conference aims at eradicating. In fact, some of the DDPA most strongly-worded paragraphs deal with the scourge of anti-semitism.

Our dedicated page, listing a synopsis and related documents will be updated as far as possible http://azanian.wordpress.com/wcar-durban/

The blog administrator is of the opinion that the conference should be embraced by ALL stakeholders, regardless of differences over the outcomes of the Durban I conference. It seems logical that a conference of this nature would see delegates expressing varying viewpoints. Ultimately, achieving a healthy synthesis in the outputs of the conference remains the responsibility of those who participate in good faith. One would imagine that those who lack the necessary political will to see an end to the scourge of racism, will be speedily exposed during the conference proceedings. It is imperative that parties in those states with a history of race-related discrimination and where the social constructs of “racial/ethnic/religious/or other differences” continue to materialise into a tacit system by which access to resources are controlled by a few, to the detriment of the many, be more aggressively involved. Their absence will send a pessimistic message to the many who suffer oppression of this particular kind.

In particular, the Azanian voice is sought in this conference. So far our contributions have been significant though sadly not in keeping with our long history of struggle against racism. Local NGO’s and the voice of local (Azanian) political voices have been lacking. We cannot rely solely on Judge Navanetham Pillay recently as UN High Commisioner for Human rights, to carry our viewpoint into the global arena. She was appointed in 1995 to the International Tribunal for Rwanda and in 2003 to the International Criminal Court at the Hague. In the summer of 2008 Pillay was appointed United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Significantly, Judge Pillay’s native city is Durban (eThekwini municipality) South Africa, and although the UN Watch page suggests that she is opposed to the outputs of the first conference – if this is indeed the case – she appears nevertheless to be doing justice to her post as High Commissioner, maintaining a progressive and optimistic attitude on this topic. Earlier this month, High Commissioner Pillay criticised western organisations and states for threatening to walk out of the Durban II process.