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

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

The tragic incident of Mumbai, India dropped me into a shock. The next moment of the incident, Indian bureaucrats and media started pointing the ‘confident’ finger at Pakistan. This reminded me of ‘Samjhota Express’ tragedy.

Within couple of hours of Samjhota Express bombings, Indian authorities were pointing fingers at Pakistan. Turned out, the gruesome massacre was the handy work of the Hindu extremists, like Col Purohit. There are countless other, serving or retired Indian military officials, like Lt Col Jayant Rao Chitale and Lt Gen P N Hoon who also train and form the Hindu Suicide Squads. Surprise, surprise! It turns out, besides Muslims; Hindus too can be quite proficient at bombings.

It it possbile to believe Indian Media’s irrational propaganda that Pakistan is involved in Mumbai’s incident?

Let’s look at some blames from India:

1. According to Indian forces, the terrorists reached India through boats. At the time when terrorists entered Indian coast, Indian Navy along with Coast Guards was practicing a defense exercise at the coast. The defense exercise was about safeguarding the coast from external elements or ‘Al-Qaeda’. Now let’s come to the fact that how come its possible ‘The great Blue Waters’ Indian Navy and Coast Guards (who keep hunting the fishermen) could not protect the coast? A group of terrorists in ordinary boats with heavy ammunition and weapons enter through coast, is it possible, rationally?
2. It is said by Indian forces that the terrorists never came to Mumbai before; they planned everything through ‘Google Earth’. Maybe the forces who have made this statement don’t know that Google Earth can show only satellite view of a location. How come the terrorists know all the interior locations of hotels? And then they had taxies to different areas and without wasting time they did it. Interesting?
3. If they have come from Pakistan through waters with heavy ammunitions, and they have even crossed the coast, how could they bring such heavy arms inside the hotel where even a lighter is being detected through scanner
4. According to Indian media, they have found a cell phone of a terrorist with Pakistani contact numbers and Pakistani Identity Card of a terrorist too. Wow!!! They have come for a terrorist attempt with all the evidences. They dropped a Pakistani ID card, a phone and other clear evidences…hats off to the media.
5. Indian Govt. has blamed ISI for the incident. ISI is considered a very strong agency globally and India admits that. How come such an organized agency commits a childish act that makes all loss no gain? This kind of attempt can never gain for anyone, but loss. They only occupied some places for sometimes and got killed.

Then who the terrorists were if not Pakistanis?

Indian media’s spectacular eye has ignored clear evidence, unintentionally and intentionally. Have a look at the picture attached, picture of one of the terrorists involved in this attempt. NOTICE THE RED THREAD ON HIS RIGHT HAND. Tying a red thread or cord around the wrist is a Hindu practice and it is unlikely a Muslim, especially one politicized enough to carry out an attack such as this, would observe it. I think this provides more evidence that this was a false flag operation or at least an attack by a non-Muslim group.
Additionally, the terrorists inside the Nariman House Building were reported to have stocked up on supplies on Wednesday evening, buying not just food items but liquor, among other things, from a local store (Source: http://www.shturem.org/index.php?section=news&id=31585) . Again, it is highly unlikely that a Muslim, let alone a ‘Mujahid’, and especially one politicized enough to carry out such an attack, would consume liquor in normal life, let alone hours before his inevitable ‘martyrdom’.

The ENEMY is nowhere but from your own country (100 groups in a war against India):

Mumbai’s night of terror underscores a phenomenon concealed by the Indian government and intelligence agencies and deliberately ignored by a biased Anglo-American media for a long time: The rise of a virulent form of Hindu terrorism that begets violence from other minorities. Here is a list of almost one hundred groups that are fighting the Indian government. All of them thrive in India. The context for what has happened in Mumbai is stunning only for those unaware how a cocktail mix of wrong policies, official patronage to extremism, and separatist movements have come together to destabilize India.
Here is the list: http://groups.google.com.pk/group/paknationalists/web/100-groups-in-a-war-against-india

Neatly tucked under the well constructed – and expensive – veneer of ‘Incredible India’ advertisements on international television channels is the hottest Indian story: The fast rise of Indian religious terrorist organizations that have penetrated India’s military and politics. The movement is so strong, resourceful and organized that it warrants the label India’s Hindu al-Qaeda.
The arrest last week of a serving Indian army colonel who along with some other officers has allegedly transferred military funds, material and training to terrorist groups is a matter that should not escape the attention of India’s neighbors, since it is directly linked to New Delhi’s new desire for expanding its reach beyond its borders and to serve as the regional policeman for American interests in the Asia-Pacific.

And yes, there is no group in India as Daccan Mujahideen.

What are the possible reasons to blame Pakistan?

1. To avoid internal disorganization and ethnical riots.
2. The Indian Intelligence have diverted the global attention towards another issue where they would blame Pakistan for this slaughter and use Barack Obama’s doctrine of attacks on Pakistan to encircle Pakistan from both sides.
3. To grab world attention by a local 9/11.
4. For the past many weeks, the biggest story in India was involvement of Indian Military Intelligence officers in orchestrated acts of terrorism against Muslims to create a Hindu-Muslim riot situation as well as to create a justification for war against Pakistan. Many Indian army officers were caught and Indian Police was forced to work deeper into finding more BJP, Bajrang Dal and RSS terrorists in Indian military and Intelligence setup. This story had created a serious panic in Indian military and their Fascist patrons in Hindu Zionists. Something had to be done to divert the attention of the world and Indian public from acts of terrorism by Hindu Hardliners. …..Then comes the Mumbai Massacre.

Clear?

All the facts above prove the involvement of Pakistan wrong. On the other hand, the Indian Govt. has not managed yet to provide tangible proofs.

On a friendly note, I request my Indian friends an open-eyes research and not to believe everything that media says. Pakistan is always with India to fight against terrorism.
Terrorism is a global issue and Pakistan-India are suffering it. India should deal with her internal terrorism menaces as Pakistan is doing so.

Credit: Jibran T. Siddiqui, who further credits : Zaid Hamid, Ahmad Qureshi, Kamran Khan.

This can be read and commented on facebook here.

Tags: attack, boom blast, bullshit, dead, died, hindu, india, mumbai, muslim, Pakistan, pakistani, people, shit, terrorist

Incase you’re going to question the random map on the above image, that is the percentage of poverty in the world right now, as can be shown on the left.

As for the issue of poverty in general. We usually take things for granted, think about our own problems and consider them very big, take a look at the corporate mess for example, you’ll see everyone wants a piece of a pie, but no one wants to pay for it. It’s a normal yet not normal way of thinking.

Take a look at the nature, we’ve eaten it up, without thining about the consequences, we are the selfish beings we thought we are not. yet we stand at a global problem, where food and resources are getting scarce ay by day, and not so slowly humans are dying of hunger, and rot on the land.

What would you say ? If you were one of them ? I honestly wouldn’t say much, because not many would listen, regardless how hard I screamed for help, only a few gifted people on the planet actually take the iniitative to help others.

On this day, I would like to use this oppurtunity to urge people that please for god sake consider what we do, and act, and how we waste the resoueces, we could instead send that to those who need it most. The medicines, food supplies, clothing and what not. We know many people don’t live in a house, simply because they cannot afford it, so they live directly under the sun and the moon. Without shelter, few pieces of cloth, no food and very little drinkable water, the life of one becomes very pathetic. So please, please think about how we can help those who need our support the most. This world is our mother, and the humans are it’s children, that makes the poor our rothers and sisters, and humans look after each other, specially the loved ones, it’s time that we help our brothers and sisters who need us.

Tags: 2008, action, blog, clothing, day, food, help, medicine, needy, poverty, supplies

Notice: Following is the article, that I wrote for Teabreak.

Present day: There is so much hate and frustration amongst that, that it’s easy to miss all the good things that we have been gifted with, good things that we as people and we as a nation have. It’s easy for the reality to be lost amongst so much lies…

I remember when the Earth quake hit the Northern Areas of Kashmir, in October 2005. It hit in the morning and the country was all ready and helping and organizing ways to help people who had been victims.. I remember that, yes I do, I witnessed a whole lot of activity, an activity which was in good will of the nation, which was to help people, regardless of their location, that was the spirit. I remember how camps were organized, how people donated whatever they could.. even the tinniest thing the people might need were donated.

We also witnessed, how people had reacted to this act of nature, we all got together, and no one had even asked ask to, this is what is inside us.. hospitality, the caring for each other attitude, no matter how we are, and who we are..

We also saw how people had reacted to the Tsunami that had hit a big part of South Asia, Pakistan was amongst the first to be there helping other countries and communities to overcome the problems that were surfacing.

Pakistan, my friends may have faded and fainted a bit but it’s still our country, we need to do something positive about it.

Tags: 14th august, independence day, Pakistan, teabreak, write up

This is some of the text that was sent in to everyone from a guy “Ahmed” from our company’s Quality Assurance department. It’s worth a read.

Case 1 : NASA
When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that the pens wouldn’t work at zero gravity (ink won’t flow down to the writing surface). To solve this problem, it took them one decade and $12 million. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C. And what did the Russians do…?? They used a pencil.

Case 2 : Japanese cosmetics company
One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case of the empty soap box, which happened in one of Japan’s biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soap boxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent a whoopee amount to do so. But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he did not get into complications of X- rays, etc., but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

Moral
Always look for simple solutions. Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problems .
LEARN TO FOCUS ON SOLUTIONS NOT ON PROBLEMS.

Loved it

Tags: big, company, japan, moral, nasa, small, solutions, think, thoughts

I feel I should post this, just because, a few people do read the blog, maybe it could help them sometime, just maybe.

You could save a life.

STROKE: Remember The 1st Three Letters… S.T.R.

My friend sent this to me and encouraged me to post it and spread the word. I agree.

If everyone can remember something this simple, we could save some folks.
STROKE IDENTIFICATION: During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall – she assured everyone that she was fine and just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. (they offered to call ambulance) They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food – while she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Ingrid’s husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital – (at 6:00pm , Ingrid passed away.) She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today.

Some don’t die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead. It only takes a minute to read this… STROKE IDENTIFICATION:

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke…totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough. RECOGNIZING A STROKE Remember the "3" steps, STR . Read and Learn! Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. Now doctors say a
bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions : S * Ask the individual to SMILE . T * = TALK. Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (eg "It is sunny out today"). R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS . If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call the ambulance and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher. NOTE : Another ’sign’ of a stroke is 1. Ask the person to ’stick’ out their tongue. 2. If the tongue is ‘crooked’, if it goes to one side or the other that is also an indication of a stroke. A prominent cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved. ….and it could be your own…..

I thank my darling, for sending this to my email, I generally don’t email forwarded messages, hence I shared it on my weblog.

Tags: blood, care, clot, concern, death, health, life, mental, negligence, stroke, thoughs

I’ll use today’s post, just to thank everyone, who’ve been there for me all this while !

My Parents.
The most important people of my life, without them I probably wouldn’t have had the life, I have today, thanks for taking care of me while I was little, and nourishing me, and guiding me through this path of life, and then supporting me when I took my stands ! Thank you very much, I know I will never be able to thank you enough, but still, this is just a little token of appreciation from me !

M Girl.
Yes that M girl I’ve known since grade 5th, and fell for her love in grade seven, thanks for coming in my life, and changing things, my view and perspective. I know you’ll always be here for me, and I’ll always be there for you !

Asim Saeed.
The one guy I trust most apart from the above two, not only is he a friend I’ve known for years, but both of us have actually been through almost the same things, we’ve been happy together and we’ve been in bad times together too. I know i never say thanks to you, since that’s our rule, but for once, I m really grateful !

Hassaan Sarwar.
Another of my greatest friends, with lots of things in common and he’s a guy, I’ve been hanging out alot ! Even though I haven’t done much for him, he’s done alot ! Thanks man ! I wish you all I can for you and your band and career

Najam -ur- Rehman.
This dude, whom we (Hassaan and me) refer to as our stripper boy, is one hell of a dude to be around with, since he’s in Dubai working his bums off, we’re really missing him…come back home !

Arooj Zafar.
This is one lady that I don’t know in person, but she sure is a person who brings the little smile on my face, that I wish I’d always have on my face (though it sometimes looks odd), thanks for bearing to all my stupid jokes and text, I really appreciate you being here !

Uzma Ghazanfer Ali.
Uzma, a girl I came to know through an art community (deviantart.com), and since then we’ve been friends, throwing odd jokes at each other, fighting over nonsense and helping out when time called ! Uzey, girl thanks for dropping on my page

Creative Chaos Staff.
I m thankful to them for accepting me into their system and looking at my horrible work ! I thank them for being supportive and helpful all the time, I really enjoy being there, thank you all !

Ansaruddin Wasif.
He’s an inspiration, and that’s not something to be surprised at ! This guy has the work and talent like no other, and his work has alot of times inspired me ! Thanks for the inspiration and heads up Ansar !

Phahim.
This funky fella, met him only a small amount of times, but I know he’s inspired me too, and lots of time, check out his work to know why I m thanking him !

Raheel Lakhani.
The owner of Pakdeviants community on deviantart, I m so happy I know him, why you may ask, he’s the guy who’s going to be there looking out when you’re digging the treasure He’s one supportive guy and doesn’t really takes offence on most things I say !

Fahad Paracha.
This humpy bumpi kid knows photography like crap, though he’s become a good friend, with nice ideas and all, there no reason why he doesn’t deserve gratitude !

Babrus Khan.
This guy has a thousand names ! The one thing I know is I m not going to get bored when I am anywhere near him, his short but cranky stories are going to help you laugh your intestines out ! Cheers bro !

All my relatives and other friends !
To all my other relatives and friends, I thank you for being there for me when I needed you, and I thank all those too, who never card, since it helped me find alternate ways ! Thanks

To all those who didn’t get a mention
I m sorry if I missed your name, but you know how thankful I m to you !

Tags: blessing, friends, gratitude, great people, love, matter, mention, names, people, relatives, thanks

Recently with the knighthood award to Salman Rushdie, there has been quite some stirring in the Muslim world, mostly around Pakistan, Iran and now Malaysia !

Outrage mounted in the Muslim world yesterday over Britain’s knighthood for Mr Salman Rushdie, with protests spreading to Malaysia and a top Pakistani cleric calling for the novelist to be killed.

[Today Online]

With these kind of happenings in the  Muslim world, one is left to wonder, what the hell are Muslims up to, don’t they have brains ! It’s not a surprise that most of these acts of protests and violence, come from people who do not have a sound background, or either they lack the knowledge of such an incident.

I do not in anyway support anyone who goes against my religion, I am in no way a God, nor am I a superior leader or scholar in any way, but I do know there are ways to tackle things the other way, the following are a bit of thoughts  that have been rumbling in my mind.

• Salman Rushdie has been awarded a non-religious award, he is not in any way awarded a religious scholar degree.
• If we Muslim do care about what he has attained, why don’t we work hard, and achieve something even better, have we lost interest, or we got no guts ?
• The queen has awarded him, lets keep it to that, you don’t like calling him ‘Sir’, then don’t !

I mean I know he’s said blasphemous stuff about Islam, and Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H), but shouldn’t Allah do the justice here, he hasn’t killed anyone yet, he said bad stuff, he will be punished, why not stay to that.

We’ve been taught of peace and harmony in all our Islamic lessons, why not just follow them, everything will turn out fine, provided we follow the our own rules properly, and that does not include suicide bombing or killing for honor sake, since that is not at all a part of our religion.

I think it’s time we give knowledge and education a chance, infact it’s time we shed light and made clear ways to adopt and employ on this basic right of every human.

It’s time we open our eyes, it’s time we educate, and get educated ! And live more like responsible and civilized citizens of earth.

Related : Britain says it won’t apologize for awarding knighthood to Salman Rushdie

Allah Bless us all.

Safari for Windows, the web seems to be lit and buzzed up about it… ! So am I !

Apple Inc. surely know how to surprise everyone around web, that is a sure thing !

I was taken back (in a very good way), by Apple’s (Steve Jobs actually) decision of porting Safari to Windows, I believe it’s a good decision, and with such an announcement, a debate starts why Apple’s trying to prove itself in the browser market, its just another default Internet client for a Mac. I am surprised why most people aren’t looking at it’s bigger picture ! The little thing is called marketing, remember with those words some time back, ‘Have you used iTunes, Mac is as easy’ !

What Apple is trying to do is not really gain a market share in the browser world (though that may also be an objective), but their main target is to attract users of Mac.

When they bought iTunes from another company, their intention was to support sales for iPod, which they later released, when they released boot camp, their main aim was to make it easy for people to switch…Well, here’s another attempt at making them switch, why the browser you’d wonder.. ! How many of use use our office applications/programs as much as the browser, how do most people email (webmail), how do most people find information, how do you send greeting cards, how do you make purchases online… The browser ! If you can make people switch on that, and they find it awesome, you’ll probably end up making a fair amount of people to switch to your products !

I seriously think that’s the point, I may be right, I may be wrong, but that’s what I think, for now !

Apple has released a beta version of Safari 3, for Windows as well as Mac, surprisingly the beta is really meant to be a Beta, Apple plays strongly with words I guess ! The beta version on Windows crashes heavily, and in many cases, no text what so ever is displayed.

Their official release is planned for October this year, lets hope for the best.

Cheers to Apple for bringing Safari to Windows, it’ll also be a little help for us designers on Windows, we’ll be able to preview how our web sites are going to work/behave on a mac too. Kudos !