The website is currently being moved to a new server, so we apologize for the website being down occasionally. While it is being moved, the domain will point to an active mirror. At the same time, the website is undergoing several design changes, and admins are very busy at the moment, so please be patient. A new IRC channel, and better mailing list are on their way :) .
Our second meeting was a success. A meeting report will be posted soon (admins are extremely busy at the moment). Photos will eventually be available too. It's very possible that a Cairo branch of 2600 will start by next month (5/9/03).

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The new URL for this website or its active mirrors is now: http://egypt2600.net

- [8th July 2003]

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The last published "International 2600 Meetup Day" on June 6th got cancelled, as not enough people signed up. A new date for "2600 Meetup Day" has been published on http://2600.meetup.com/ , being July 4th 2003 in Cairo. Once again, I remind people that this meeting is nothing to do with us directly, but as it is not causing us any trouble, since Cairo2600 doesn't exist already, we have no problem with it so far. I'd appreciate a short report from anyone who goes please.

Our first meeting is still going to be held on Friday 1st August 2003 in Port Said. Check the directions page for more info.

The possibility of a Cairo2600 is getting greater and greater, with more and more people from Cairo visiting our website and emailing us. Also we have had one or two now from Alexandria, so that could be the next 2600 in Egypt, after Cairo. Of course if these start up, we offer our webspace.

The possibility of a Egypt2600 T-shirt still exists, but we'd need you to send in some designs!

Other news is that the official 2600 IRC is finally back up again, after about a year of downtime! [ irc.2600.net ] . http://www.2600.com/news/view/article/1682 We might setup an IRC channel for Egypt2600 on that server, but for now we are sticking with the Toronto IRC sever, considering the 2600 IRC server's unreliability. [ IRC: irc.toronto2600.org #2600eg ]

Recently, Egypt's censors have banned 'The Matrix Reloaded'. To read about this visit this site: http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,975116,00.html

CD's may be distributed again at the next August meeting. Email us with suggestions for this meeting, and invite people along. - [16th June 2003]

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The date of the next meeting has been decided. The first meeting will be held on Friday 1st August 2003 in Port Said. Check the directions page for more info. The possibility of a Cairo2600 starting up soon exists. We are also now members of the El-Shella group. This means when we decide, we can reach 40,000 inboxes of Egyptians worldwide! We also now feature on Google. Both these will hopefully secure a better turn out for the coming meeting. We have received another spam email, which we have traced and reported. The possibility of a Egypt2600 T-shirt exists, but is not definite. Send us your designs! Also there is now a translated version of the article printed in Al-Ahram, that was talked about in the last news posting.

Searching through Google, we came across a site mentioning 2600 in Cairo! Apparently it is "International 2600 Meetup Day" on Friday June 6th 2003 at 5:00pm. This is what we're talking about http://2600.meetup.com/ . The exact location in Cairo has not been decided yet. We will try to get in touch with them about this. I personally will not be able to make this date, and would appreciate feedback or a meeting report from anyone who goes! I just signed up to it, and submitted our URL. - [25th May 2003]

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Scanned images of phone cards of Egyptian payphones have been posted. Egyptian payphones by Encrypted_Error were printed in the current issue of 2600 (20:1, Spring 2003). A scanned image of this page is now available on the photos page. An article from the national Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram, was scanned, with the word 'hacker' spelt in Arabic letters phonetically. This completes one of our projects. - [10th May 2003]

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We feature again in the london2600 meeting report. May 2nd meeting report. - [2nd May 2003]

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The First Meeting:

Despite many recommendations to cancel the first meeting, the first meeting went ahead on the 4th April 2003 in Port Said. A reminder email went out to everyone on the mailing list. After waiting at the meeting place for an hour, and four of us had gathered we decided to move on. We walked to the beach and then to a cyber cafe, where we met two others who joined us. Apparently another person or two turned up at the meeting place but missed us, despite the 2600 T-shirt. Overall it proved to be an enjoyable social event for those who attended.

Knoppix CD's and photocopies of the current 2600 issue were distributed. Apparently the main reason for people not turning up, was that they didn't know when the first meeting was, despite it being posted on the site. Others were either busy or couldn't make it for other reasons. We had no trouble from anyone at all either. The history of 2600 was discussed among many other things.

Other meetings were held personally with people high up in the IT sector, government officials... etc, where the legality of 2600 meetings was discussed and other issues. Things look promising and a Cairo2600 may start eventually. Due to key absences and inappropriate timing, physical meetings will restart in the Summer. Dates are yet to be confirmed. Until then meetings can be held virtually, in our IRC channel. IRC: irc.toronto2600.org #2600eg . The channel is open at all times though.

Also hopefully soon the site will have a second admin, who also has contributed by volunteering to translate the website for us.

Also once again we feature on the April meeting report on the london2600 website. : )

In the current 2600 issue (Spring 2003) 4 pictures of Egyptian payphones were printed, submitted by Encrypted_Error. A scanned image of this page will be posted on the photos page soon. - [2nd May 2003]

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The idea of distributing Linux CD's free at the meeting is going ahead. Also thinking of distributing e-books at the meeting, but copyright needs to be sorted out before we do that, so it may or may not happen. Photocopies of the US 2600 mag may also be distributed, but we also need to sort out permission and so on beforehand so that may or may not happen. Unfortunately we will not be able to provide a translated version by the first meeting. The site also received it's first bit of spam recently. Apparently other 2600 sites have received the same or similar spam. Not impressed. We've had a couple more people join the mailing list. Upon further research it doesn't look like Egypt has an equivalent of the 'Computer Misuse Act', or anything related really. If anyone has details, would they please email us.

We also featured as a topic of discussion at the last london2600. Check out their last meeting report. - [18th March 2003]

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A newer and better picture of the Missallah (our meeting place), has been submitted. Also thinking of handing out Linux CD's at the first meeting Free! So turn up! The first email has been sent through the mailing list as well. Some information has been found about the laws in Egypt, but there is still a lot to be investigated. - [6th March 2003]

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Important.

In a recent meeting that included Government officials, high up in the government of Egypt, the topic of hacking was discussed. Whether the meeting was mainly focused on this or if it came in by the side we don't know, as this info has only been passed to us, and we weren't actually there. The Egyptian Government is criminalising all hacking in Egypt and their websites too. As far as we know, someone in the meeting raised the question: "But what about ethical/moral hacking?", and it was followed by a negative response. To them hacking is hacking. Whether is constructive, benign, useful or in any other way has a positive impact doesn't come into it apparently. Exactly how the conversation went we don't know though, so this information maybe slightly inaccurate. This does put some pressure on us to shutdown, even before we have started, but we knew there probably would be some kind of opposition before we started and chose to accept this.

In response to this, several meetings will be held shortly before the first meeting, if possible, with several trustworthy government officials, which are likely to give us unbiased, but realistic information and ideas. This way, we are seeking government approval for our meetings, rather than trying to tackle them. Hopefully this shouldn't be too hard a job, seeing as this group is completely legal, and what can be illegal about meeting up and having a chat about something people are interested in? News on these issues will be posted as soon as possible. Of course we have the full support of 2600 behind us. - [4th March 2003] Hot!

Later edit:

We must emphasise again: A 2600 meeting is *not* just for "hackers", but for artists, technologists, engineers, lawyers and even the security authorities etc etc. !! Check out the list of types of people who have attended london2600 meetings to get an idea.

"Ignoring the benefits/problems of technology is not an acceptable strategy in the 21st century and spreading some ethics/common sense amongst young people who are fascinated by the computer and telecoms technologies should be seen as positive by the "authorities"." - A london2600 member. - [4th March 2003] Hot!

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If anyone has details on the law in Egypt please help us on answering this question: Is there actually an equivalent of the Computer Misuse Act law etc in Egypt, or does it all come under the vague category of "security"? Email us. - [4th March 2003] Hot!

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If you are a technology journalists/writer in Egypt we encourage you to come to our meetings! - [4th March 2003]

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A translator for the site (and possibly magazine) has been found that is willing to do the work : ) . - [4th March 2003]

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We are thinking of changing the layout/structure of this news page, to make it more readable and organised. Have an idea? Contact us.

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Recently photographs have been submitted, of every type of Egyptian payphone that could be found, to 2600. Hopefully they will be printed in the next issue of the US magazine. If not they should be up fairly soon on their payphones page. - [Pre March 2003]

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In the current 2600 paper magazine (Winter 2002/2003), there is a photo of a payphone in Alexandria photo by Tom Mele. For some reason it is not up on their payphones page yet though. To see a scanned version (from the original magazine) click here, or check out the Photos page. - [Pre March 2003]

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We now have links to our site on the london2600 and the toronto2600 site. Thank you : ) . - [Pre March 2003]

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We are currently looking for someone fluent in both English and Arabic, that has a technical knowledge and some time. We're looking to translate the 2600 magazine into Arabic and selling it or distributing it somehow in Egypt. Check the Projects page for status. - [Pre March 2003]

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Got some web designing skills and are fluent in both languages? Why not help setup an Arabic mirror of this site? Email us. - [Pre March 2003]

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The idea was put forward to try get a government grant towards translating the US 2600 magazine into Arabic as part of the 'Alexandria Library Project'. If you have any useful contacts contact us please. Check the Projects page for the status of this issue. - [Pre March 2003]

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Recently Toronto2600 have changed domains. It used to be http://www.to2600.org/, but now it's http://www.toronto2600.org/. IRC: The server changed from irc.to2600.org to irc.toronto2600.org . The link on the Links page has been updated, and the IRC details in the top left hand corner of this site is also correct. - [Pre March 2003]