Sep 24th, 2008 | Etc | 11 Comments
It started with the perceptive ProPakistani people noticing how Google has never had an Islam themed doodle on their homepage, and Dr. Awab picked up the discussion the next day.
I personally think that Google not showing any Doodles for Islamic events has something to do with their “Do No Evil” policy 
Seriously though, while Google can not be forced to cater to each segment of their customer base, especially since doodling is the secondary responsibility of the guy who creates them, but given that → continue reading
Mar 31st, 2008 | Etc | No Comments
Whirled - which is an interesting mix of casual games, social networking, online role-playing and user created content by Three Rings (the people behind Puzzle Pirates) went public beta a couple of days ago. It was in closed beta for more than one year (I got an invite through my Puzzle Pirates mates pretty early). Check it out - I will update this post later.
Mar 22nd, 2008 | Pakistan | 9 Comments
I, the good cop, mailed a long rant to the PTCL Broadband manager, Mr. Ali Raza Baloch, last week, after getting his email from the helpline.
He forwarded my complaint to a couple of relevant people, asking them to help me out, but that didn't happen.
Meanwhile, a friend, the bad cop, sent a written complaint to PTA - the PTA people wrote a letter to PTCL, and PTCL called my friend, and promised they will upgrade 'tomorrow' - which happened to be a local holiday, so 'tomorrow' never came.
Today, my friend went in person to the Broadband office, spent two hours there, met Ali Raza face-to-face and explained the situation to him. Ali Raza contacted his team, found out that my friend's upgrade was stuck in Islamabad somehow, and got the wheels in motion for him. My friend did manage to get my connection upgraded in the process though - so when I woke up today, I found my modem connected at 510kbps.
So, for anyone who is desperate to get the promised upgrade, you can be proactive and follow the same route instead of waiting for something that PTCL owes you but is reluctant to provide. I'm getting about an 80% throughput - 410kbps or so, which is good enough for jerk-free Youtube, and the upload speed of 300kbps is helping me save a lot of time as well. 20$ for 512kbps is still about 6 times more expensive than the 50$ for 6mbps that my American friends enjoy, but I hope we will get there eventually. Thank god for competition.
Mar 21st, 2008 | Pakistan | 8 Comments
As far as I remember, Facebook does not give away free ad space, so I was surprised to see this ad in the picture for a Pro-Pervaiz group named “GEN. MUSHARAF IS THE RIGHT LEADER FOR PAKISTAN” on my Facebook homepage.
The ad says:
Pervaiz Musharraf - He has fulfilled yet another promise by holding fair and transparent elections. Bringing in the real democracy.
The group description says (typos are theirs, links are mine):
We support the President as he has given Pakistan and the Pakistani’s a sense of dignity.He has given us economic boom and sustained growth of the GDP..And he remains with the saying,”Saab Seh Pehlay Pakistan” Yet he fulfilled another promis by holding Fair & Transparent Elections in Pakistan. He has brought in true Democracy as well.
Now, I can grok Musharraf lovers gathering on Facebook, but actually spending money to advertise to me I just don’t get (and don’t like either), especially since my political affiliation is ‘Apathetic’ on Facebook. Isn’t he getting any FREE press coverage these days?
Perhaps I should set my Facebook location and networks to some place in the Antarctic region, and I’ll get to see some igloo ads instead of this stupid advertising. Go check the group out though, it will hopefully open up your heart and make you love our President.
PS. The more I try to stay away from political posts, the more they seem to hound me. Sorry.
Feb 29th, 2008 | Pakistan | 11 Comments
I heard the (semi-verified) rumor that PTCL is doubling its bandwidth from tomorrow (1st March 2008). They will be dropping the 256k package, and bringing all costs 1 step down, so the new rates are going to be 512kbps for 1200Rs. and 2Mbps for 5000 Rs.! That is a step closer to the rates that should have been the last few years.
With the frequent bans (youtube last week, blogger/blogspot today), I can't see what we will do with all this extra bandwidth, but it is generous of PTCL nonetheless. Lets see if link.net knows how to limbo.
UPDATE: It is official now! [link] They are also removing the download limits.
