I was in Hyderabad yesterday, to attend a friend’s wedding, umm actually it was a Valima. I enjoyed the wedding  a little and had to go through a major travelling mess.. no kidding.. add to that the effed up situation at the Intercity Bus Stop.

I went with a few other friends from my Dubai work place, and yeah I knew Riaz from there. So it was me, Tauseef and Shahzeb. The first trip from Karachi to Hyderabad was alright, since we hired a car to drop us there. From there on we called Riaz’s friend in Hyderabad, who picked us from the stop and took us to the Hall. We were among the first to get there, so a long boredom session was in place.. Thank you

Anyways, a little later we started see some familiar faces, that was nice we got to do some catching up with folks from Dubai plus it was a bit of help from the boredom session

Once we were done with food and stuff we headed to the bus stop from where we were called back and were asked to travel with the bride’s family, which was a pretty nice gesture.. 15 minutes into the journey back to Karachi this guy starts talking about god knows what, but what I liked was that when I was playing NFS on my iPhone I was gathering up crowd.. iPhone loves crowd. Then this guys starts to talk about iPhone like he knows the world about it, it was easy to shut him up, which was what I thought an accomplishment, but guess what.. he didn’t shut up.. he started playing “Name Place Animal Thing” on voice with kids on the bus.. I was like “F**K No” what followed was a three hour noisy crappy game.. What we were left was a bad head ache, not to mention a backache from the journey.

I would congratulate Riaz on his wedding, Mubarkaan.. and oh I m not going to attend a wedding in a different city on a bus.. unless it’s a very cool one.

Congrats to you bro.

Cheers.

Tags: dubai, hyderabad, journey, karachi, riaz, shahzeb, tauseef, travel, wedding

This post is not written by me, but I do agree to the points raised here.
The original post can be found here. You can also download the ‘Free the internet’ desktop wallpaper here.

Pakistani Citizens Demand an End to Internet Censorship and Intimidation:

On Wednesday 19th May 2010, the Lahore High Court ordered the banning of Facebook across Pakistan. Facebook, a widely used social media network, has over 500 million active subscribers, globally. In Pakistan, over 2.5 million people use Facebook to stay in touch with their friends and family, conduct business, philanthropic campaigns, manage events, and share photos, news, and other content. Some weeks ago, a user of Facebook created a page called “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day”, asking other users to submit drawings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on 20th May 2010. The contents of this page have been considered blasphemous, resulting in a nationwide ban on the entire Facebook domain, instead of just the Facebook page itself. Between the 20th and 22nd May 2010, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority blocked access to over 600 websites.

We condemn all content on the Internet that is abusive and disrespectful of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). However, we also strongly condemn the blanket ban on Facebook and the blockage of other websites. Every citizen has an inalienable right to information and by banning countless websites, Pakistanis have been denied the right to communicate and interact with each other and the rest of the world and their access to information has been curtailed. The blanket ban on Facebook and other websites has also had a very negative impact on Pakistan as countless small businesses, nonprofit organizations, universities, students, volunteer groups, restaurants, art galleries, magazines, and media outlets use Facebook to conduct research, gain knowledge, operate businesses, and share information with their stakeholders. More importantly, Pakistanis have been denied the right to protest and express their condemnation of hateful and offensive content on the Internet as the very platforms that were, in fact, being used for dialogue and counter-argument, have been banned.

On Thursday 20th May 2010, a few members of civil society gathered at the Karachi Press Club to peacefully voice their opinion on the ban. Members of the press turned unruly and started threatening the citizens with contempt of court and blasphemy and labelled them as non-Muslims. A conglomeration of political groups were protesting outside the gates of the Press Club in support of the ban on Facebook. Some journalists attending the press conference informed the protesters about the viewpoint of the members of civil society, resulting in graver threats of violence. All the civil society members present at the Press Club managed to escape narrowly, after some verbal harassment as well as physical jostling.

Article 19 of the Pakistan Constitution guarantees every citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression, and there shall be freedom of the press, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defence of Pakistan or any part thereof, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, 1[commission of] or incitement to an offence.

Pakistani Citizens Against Internet Censorship and Intimidation have not violated the Constitution of Pakistan or committed blasphemy in any way as they have never shown any disrespect towards Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). In fact, they have repeatedly condemned offensive and hateful content against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on Facebook before it was banned, on websites that have not been banned, on electronic media, as well as in print media.

Our Demands

1. The right to freely express our opinions without fear of threats and violence
2. An end to Internet Censorship and en-masse banning of websites

Endorsed By

1. Uks Research Centre-Islamabad – Tasneem Ahmer, Director
2. Shirkat Gah – Women’s Resource Centre – Fauzia Viqar
3. Aamir Raza Memon – Center for Peace & Civil Society
4. Pakistan ICT Policy Monitors Network
5. Bytes for All, Pakistan
6. Digital Rights Institute, Pakistan
7. PeaceNiche, Karachi
8. I.A. Rehman – Human Rights Activist
9. SAFMA

Tags: anti-censorship, free, freedom, the internet

Good things and bad things happened just about the same time. boinkers..

The good first.. Paras Amir Ali Allana who I know through flickr and Raheel Lakhani was in town recently with here family.. And since she’s a friend how could I not show her around, even though I haven’t seen this place much.

We went to a couple of places, including The Toy Museum, a full ride of MRT line (though it wasn’t intentional), then it was for a 3d movie experience, I took them to see G Force, and then the bungee which was my favourite, and then to round it all up, we ate at Lao Pa Sat. It’s a matter of one’s taste but Paras’s sister didn’t quite like the food there, which obviously made me think I should’ve taken them to some other food place I guess, but anyhow.. the day was fun.

Some days later I find out, my website and blog is being marked bad by google. some malicious links had been reported.. I was like woahh.. hello… bring that thing down.. I looked up, checked properly, verified and then requested a review… which was pretty quick and my website status on google was restored ( ).

Anyhow, it’s about only 2 days to Eid, and some how it doens’t really feel like Eid, but I did make a Eid card to put online. You can leave a comment about it on this page, it’s facebook page or the deviantart page.

Also now that I have my fish eye lens, telephoto lens, wide angle and macro lens I think it’s alot fun to do photography.. Also I m going to attend the GCT in the morning…

Here are some photos I took recently.

Tags: blog, bungee, camera, crap, down, Eid, fish eye, fun, Google, lens, macro, maza, naureen, paras, tafreeh, telephoto, visit, website, wide angle

I have been really pissed about people ripping off my artworks recently, with the recent patriotism in Pakistan, alot of people had started doing something or the other about our online image.. I m really happy about that, and I wish all these people who start something like that all the best.. where I do draw the line is why the F*** do you have to steal some one else’s artwork to do just that.

I saw a rise in such incidents, where not only mine, but works of other artists were not only ripped off by known websites, but wannabe artists as well.. Whats more at some places it was being used for profit reasons. I count myself as a patriotic person (in a limited way), and I don’t think stealing is one of the things I’d like to do.. and stealing my work is no good thing, infact stealing any one’s stuff is no good.. specially if they make a living out of it.

My artworks have been online for quite some time, and I don’t watermark my images because it takes the beauty away, but if you like one of my works, and want to use it at some place, you know you can just ask for it, I m sure we can come to some terms to work on. But no… some people just take things for granted..

Please people.. respect the effort one puts in their work.. and stop stealing.. and then calling some one else’s work yours… it’s not !

Tags: artowrk, cheating, copying, Pakistan, patriot, plagarism, quaid, shitness, work

Again it’s been a while since I scribbled on my this little space here, but trust me when I say I’ve been occupied with lots of work lately, not to mention the tension that surrounds you as you approach the release date of your product.

This tension builds around each and every member of the team, but then we have to fight it out to bring out the best in us.

Anyways, We’ve approached the website development stage, which honestly is the part I m loving, it didn’t quite start out right, but it’s in the right direction. Something the users wanted, yes we’re doing just that.

I m hoping everything goes as planned now

Also Ramadan Mubarak to everyone, it’s our second Fast here in Singaland going strong

I’ve also successfully and regretfully forgotten to wish two important people their birthday. One is Uzma, who is one of my closest friend, and she’s super effin pissed at me :S Secondly my uncle.. whom I should’ve wished.. just slipped out of my mind… again you see guys I m occupied with so much shit.. I couldn’t get you folks on time, I m really really sorry.

Tags: azeem, howzat, ramadan, uzma, work

Let’s do a little recap here.. shall we.

I went to Pakistan recently, and had a good time, which included the Tweet up, which I didn’t quite write about. It was one of the best things I attended in Pakistan since the Bloggers meet up. I met some more people, some really awesome ones, took really crazy (birdie poop) pictures, and socialized.

I also got to hang out with awesome folks there the same day (Anum Vighio, Imran Hassan, Umair Khan Jadoon, Taimoor, Sana Saleem, Aly B, Haris Nadeem, Enk, Byte Connector, Ayesha, Salman.. did I miss anyone ?)

Anyways, a few days later, infact the day I had to fly I also pulled out enough time to do a mini interview for CIO Pakistan, I felt good I did that

Anyways once back in Singaland, I had to finish up loads of work that piled up sometime last week, I stayed 3 days at office just to finish up work …. shweeeeeepp…. forward to yesterday.

We went out for fireworks wagera since it was National day here, but sadly reached too late.. anyways I ditched Hamaad and Saad, and went for Reverse Bungi which I enjoyed greatly, really really greatly Had food later, and celebrated Fraz’s birthday.

Also I m still up and haven’t slept yet, and it’s about 7 effin AM… gotta hit the sack now.. later.

Tags: 7am, alyb, anum, balach, bloggers, bungi, byte, CIO Pakistan, enk, friends, fun, hamaad, haris, Imran, national day, Rabia, reverse, saad, salaina, sana, singapore, taimor, Tweet up, Tweople, umair, work

I was thinking of all the things I’ve learned professionally and at what level of capability, some times even considering not to learn, all in the goodness.

A few years back I preferred to freelance rather than take up a job, now I would say I m comfortable with both. When I first started off with jobs, Hassan Sarwar was working at a advertising/web/crap company ‘Dreams Quest’ these guys were looking for a senior web designer, and so I was called in and joined immediately, I wasn’t really impressed by anything there, but just the fact that I’ll be working with a team and a friend. One fo the most important things I learned was that people there sucked big time, no kidding. I ended up quitting the job some time later, and going back to freelance, Hassan had done so earlier than me.

It was quite an experience and I had decided I’ll work with people who consider value of the work that I do.

Again while freelancing, I decided to do my blog, and put it up, Hassan at his new work place opened up this blog, and other guys at the work place noticed it and were pretty impressed ( ), needless to say I was sitting in an interview room again, only this time it was a very cool place to work. I took up the job, and still cherish the time I spent at Creative Chaos. About 9-10 months later I decided I wanted to go and work for a company that had work to do other than the websites. What turns out is that one of my other friends was working in Dubai, UAE, and these guys were looking for artists too, and since I had spread the word I was free, I was in touch with the guys again, before I could leave Creative Chaos, I had 3 more jobs at my disposal. I opted to move to Dubai, not only because it’s nice to see places world wide, but also I wanted to see the place I was born.

What happens here is not something many employers would appreciate but, I left the company (Illusio Pvt Ltd) in a month, due to a strong political influence in the company a plus the crappy political thing they had running in the company, and add bad management to that. While I was going to leave this place I had another offer from a company “Peanut labs” who also wanted me to do their website (which as of now has been screwed to quite an extent) as a freelance project, let’s go back a little on this, while I was in Creative Chaos, I did a website “TimeSvr” as a freelance project, and since the CEO of TimeSvr and another company “Xuqa” which was co-owned by Peanut labs,  was the same, he offered me a job, which I declined since I wanted to go to Dubai. So anyways coming back to where I left from, Peanut labs offered me a job, I decided to take it up (yes good money was involved in that), so I flew back to Pakistan and started off. A few months down the road and a decision is made that the whole Xuqa team and later the Peanut labs tea was being moved to Singapore (WOW going out again ), being in Xuqa, I was moved here first, been enjoying since.

If you’re thinking why I wrote this.. just cause I felt like it

Tags: creative chaos, dream quest, dubai, game ventures, good, illusio, jobs, karachi, office, Pakistan, places, singapore, work, world, xuqa

I m not going to write much on my life in this post, I m going to write about Tea Break here.

For me the project Tea Break started when Asim Imtiaz and me used to sit only rooms apart and me and Zair sat inches apart in Creative Chaos. Asim got me into this project since he had seen me working on freelance projects that had turned out beautiful. Anyways the moment Asim told me about the idea, I knew I was going to be a part of it, but I never got to make the design of the first version since I was busy with some stuff, and Zair managed to bring the first design online.

The second design we pushed online, which is still online as I write this post, was made by me, I did the design and most of the front end code, then Asim had all the development fronts covered, Zair helped me a tiny bit with the CSS, and Ammar was the mastermind when it came to market our little baby that was Teabreak.

There was a launch party held when we pushed this major update on the website, and I got to meet some really awesome people that includes Madam Jehan Ara, Ramla Akhter, Munir Usman, Imad Qamar and some I knew from before like Dr. Awab Alvi (who I believe is more blogger than a doc ).

We had many updates to follow after that and we covered many blogging events after that, and the response had mostly been awesome, except some tid bits. When ever I got to speak about Tea Break I did so and people got excited when I told them that I designed that website.

Later after quite some time had passed, we thought we needed to upgrade it a bit, and we starting taking feedback from users and also started building up a database of our ideas and new requirements. During this time, I flew to Dubai, where I had no access to a personal computer, only my office iMac, I obviously wasn’t allowed any work on that, so Tea Break suffered some development time on that, but it wasn’t long till I realised Dubai wasn’t the place for me, so I flew back when I had an offer from this another company ‘Xuqa‘, and the thought that it’s a game development company made it even better, so any how, I flew back to Pakistan, but even then due to my work hours I still wasn’t able to work on Tea Break, then the company decided that all it’s employees are going to be moved to Singapore, which is obviously super nice , so we moved here and again, lack of time followed me, but any how, I found a week end and finally did a design. It looks good to me, but sadly due to the amount of work I already have, I will not be working on Tea Break as of now.

Even though it’s been an awesome experience, I m going to go off the Tea Break experience, since I believe my work (both, paid and for Tea Break) was being effected, I could concentrate on only one thing at a time, and I chose money ( ) , no I m quitting Tea Break at least for a while due to the amount of work I have here at Xuqa (now Game Ventures), also since I couldn’t dedicate any time to Tea Break, I didn’t want it to suffer any more because of me. I m sure the rest of the Tea Break team will find an awesome designer to fit into place. I might join Tea Break at a later stage, but for now I m not working on it, I need to focus on my office work first.

It has been an awesome journey with you guys (Asim, Ammar, Asadullah, Zair), I wish you all the best for the future of Tea Break and it’s child projects.

Tea Break is and will always be in my heart and mind, it’s one of the best things I have done

Tags: ammar, asadullah, asim, awab, awesome, break, deisng, designer, development, game ventures, imad, jehan, loose, main, munir, quit, ramla, tea, team, win, work, xuqa, Zair

I m writing this post a few days after by birthday, which I had on the 22nd of April, and why was is this a late post, because I was occupied by by quite some stuff.

The 22nd of April, even though was my birthday, it isn’t that much of a special day, it’s like the norm. I mean I grew a year older, one more year for being alive. Thank you everyone who called, emailed, messaged me a birthday wish.

I’ve also been occupied by the cricket game we’re building, and I m pretty sure it’s going to knock your socks off. I just got started with the animations part, I m hoping it gets interesting for me to develop and for you to play..

Recently when Adobe Flash CS4 launched, they added up some really good features to it, one such tool they added is called ‘the bone tool’, what does it do ? see here.

Also I had a word with my family lately, and I got to know that my mom’s friend’s parents passed away, please pray for them, may their souls rest in peace. Ameen.

Anyways, I m gonna cut this post short, it’s freakin 5:11 am here, I need to sleep a bit. Ciao.

Tags: 22nd April, adobe, birthday, cs4, death, flash, friends, fun, Happening, life, miss, normal, random, work

Before blogs hit the internet, most of our information sources were either the Newspaper websites, the Newspapers itself, the Television or the Radio, but soon after the idea of blogging clicked, we could find blogs on almost everything, and information was widespread, but it wasn’t long before some one came up with the idea of Micro-Blogging, this some one was ‘Biz-stone‘, their free service Twitter took the idea of blogging further while keeping it short and sweet.

For some reason, the human kind has always found ways to abuse the very things they can benefit from, in this case, let me put it straight, we found this pretty neat service being misused by chatter of what a person does in every second of their lives. Sure if you do it once in a while, or you’re posting about important events, happenings, or some thing of importance it makes sense, but twitter updates like ‘OK so I m going to the toilet’ really don’t help any cause, and surprisingly people with such updates have a long list of followers too. I have a decent amount of followers on my twitter account, but I respect that and don’t quite post how every second of my day goes on, only important updates, some of my blog posts, some important happenings, or some thing out of the ordinary.

I m not against anyone’s posting of their second to second life online, but I think it’s a misuse of bandwidth, which could’ve been put to much better or fun uses.

I thank the people who bought us Twitter, and urge people to make proper use of it.

Tags: abuse, misuse, status, tweet, twitter, twuack, updates, use