On the 1st of August 2008, my collugues had decided that we’d go and see ‘Wanted’, after we’re done with all the work that we had to do at office, and since, it was not much work that we’d have to stay back, every one agreed. At around 8pm, we reached ‘Capri Cinema’, which seemed like a crowded place with so many vehicles around it, but still, we tried getting tickets, and it turned out that the whole show had been booked by Habib Bank for it’s employees, which was a blow, and a lesson was learned, we should call in before going to the cinema..

We then headed for Nishaat cinema, to watch ‘Ramchand Pakistani’, even though we knew it would be a good production, given that it came from Mehreen Jabbar, but like many, we still had doubts in our little clumsy minds.. What we witnessed next, was one mind blowing movie, maybe mind blowing is not the right term for this kind of movie, and keep in mind, it’s for people, who would like to see some reality, and good dialogue delivery, it’s not a boom boom dishum kind of a movie, and you’ll not get to see any hot chicks dancing.. It’s a dramatic kind of a movie, and has the reality touch to it..

Oh and I almost forgot, we also got to meet that little kid who acts in the movie, since we got in to the first show in Karachi.

I would any how, suggest not to take minors to the movie, since the dialogues are some what harsh and abusive to be adopted by the little minds…

It’s for sure a moview worth watching and worth supporting.. Get this I watched it twice in two days, both times at the cinema.

Tags: awesome, cinema, jabbar, mehreen, movie, nandita, office, pakiostani, ramchand

I wish I was much better that day.. oh yesterday I mean…

I was supposed to be there early, and sadly I turned out to be the one who entered last from the whole team..

Why you may ask.. damn I wasn’t well, vomiting all around, with my face stuck deep inside the commode ! ok, not that deep inside

Any how, when I reached Copper Kettle II, where the event had been organized the folks had already started, since alot of people had already come, and they couldn’t wait for me.. sob sob When I had arrived, the debate and the topic of focus were the blogging ethics, which honestly very few people follow, right now only a handful of bloggers practice such thing, the others just scribble what ever pleases them, which may work fine for them, but for others it might be something offending.

Since everyone was right there during this time, and we expected no more people, we though it would be best if all the bloggers could introduce themselves,and tell about what they write about on their blogs and what would they love to see happening on the blogosphere in Pakistan, this I believe was a nice thing to do… I said very little though.. I was sick remember

Everyone was asked to grab some food, you know everyone gets hungry so food it was, and for me, just a drink and an ice cream.. couldn’t take anything heavy, and didn’t feel like eating anything either, I’m still on soup. damn !

We all sat down again, talked about things we do other than blogging, about our work and businesses, about technology, music, anything that would fancy either one. For me, this was the only thing I talked about, I wasn’t myself yesterday, due to the face, again, that I wasn’t feeling well..

I hope to write more about the event, gotta get my soup now.

Tags: 2, copper, event, hitea, II, kettle, party, teabreak

The new version of Wordpress you know includes the Google gears implementation, in case you folks did not know that, this is one big help, no kidding..

Your writing and managing the blog becomes much more easier, not to mention effecient.

The link at the top right of the admin page in Wordpress, which says ‘Turbo’ is what enables this option. You will need to download and install Google Gears, which is available for Firefox as well as Internet explorer. sweet..

The new other impressive feature is the Pressthis link. Which is much more sophisticated and categorized  to what you want to put online. Surely wordpress has progressed and groomed itself very well.. awesome.

Here check out this video which has a detailed account of the new features of Wordpress 2.6.

Tags: 2.6, gears, Google, new version, wordpress

Teabreak has been reviewed on SAMAA TV, yes thats one more step to a bigger achievement

Congrats to the Tea Break team, and a big thanks to all our users and audience.

Tags: blog, bloggers, feature, love, media, presentation, review, sama, teabreak, tv

What’s so great about teabreak for me?

I started working on teabreak, once Zair had completed the initial design for teabreak, which was the last one with blue, green, gray and white shades in it..

I had a totally different view of how Teabreak should look and feel to a visitor, they should actually get that tea feeling we want them to have, so I had to come up with a new fresh piece, version 2 was born with a brown theme, more or less like tea or coffee.. a little wooden texture at the top, just to add a little table-ish feel to it.

Now that it’s on and working live, it feels great to be a part of the fresh air flowing in and around me, and the crew, it’s not just that Teabreak has gotten a little larger than it was a couple of months back, we’re also getting some hot reviews from the Industry’s big people, no really.. We’re not the first feed on AllTop Pakistan, just like that.

I think I feel great and proud being a part of this awesome new comer, and guess what, the people who work behind this are way talented than you think, (yes that means me too ).

It also feels really great when you see the people who are submitting their blogs so that they can reach a wider audience, and boy oh boy, it feels even great to see some very popular people signing up, and some people whom you know personally getting on very car you created.

Oh yes it feels awesome

On the other hand lies my PTCL land line, which is all f**ked up, and it ain’t working real good, rendering my DSL pretty much useless… I think I m going to get my DSL unsubscribed and get WiMax from Wateen instead.

It’s been one good journey with Maxcom, and I think it’s still one of the best DSL providers, but in the end PTCL doesn’t really do justice to it with it decade old freakin cables… Thank you PTCL bitches.

Tags: awesome, feeling proud, greatness, hot reviews, jehan ara, p@sha, review, tea tea tea and more tea !, teabreak

Recently the web was a buzz with the news of Microsoft’s giant 46.6 million US dollars bid for Yahoo. HAHA, that would mean they would own flickr.. haha, these people invented MS-Paint, what do you think would have happened ? Besides, what would they name it? MS-Flickr ? Bull shit !

So Yahoo actually rejected the offer, an unsolicited open ‘get rich quick’ kind of offer, but in all my honest opinion, they did good.

Microsoft’s attempt was to compete Google Inc. but in doing so, I m pretty sure they would’ve done much damage to the already damaged Yahoo, Yahoo is now considering Google.. WOW !

Any how, what I read now is even ironic, Yahoo’s shareholders are suing yahoo for not being sold haha !

Geek life track is a random WOW !

Tags: blah, crap, flickr, Google, microsoft, ms-paint, news, random, shit, yahoo

The song remains the same take II (Saturday, December 15th, 2007. 8:15pm to 11:15 pm), an event which gave a little fresh air to my a bit of rusty life. Why did I go there, cause H-N’s band was performing, and what did I see and hear was more than just awesome.

Gunaah

The show starts off late, which is not something new for most Karachites, and then the stage is taken by Gunaah (H-N’s band). They do a fair amount of playing and rocking, making an impression with ‘Keep on rocking in the Free world‘ the G3 version. Even though they started with ‘Nagin‘, an instrumental, from 1950’s, but I honestly thought this would’ve been left for the last. Then they had a cover of Noori ‘Saari Raat Jaga‘ which had noticible mistakes, and hence leaves a big room of improvement. The last track they did was also a cover ‘Psycho‘ by System of a Down, which was loud and rocking, seriously !

Bottom line, I loved Keep on rocking in the free world, and Psycho.

Imran Lodhi

We then had Imran Lodhi take the stage and perform one of his originals, which was nice, turns out Imran is one friendly person himself… Rock on rock on..

Spoonful

Spoonful had then taken the stage with a rather long guy as the vocalist, and I mean seriously tall.. These folks did ‘Born to be Wild‘ by Stephen Wolf, which is one of the songs I really love to hear, and boy they did an awesome job with it ! They even did awesome job with ACDC’s ‘Highway to Hell‘, which is another one of my favourites. Cheers boys.

7 on 3rd

Seven on Third took the light of the stage, starting out with ‘Bleed it out‘ by Linkin Park, which showed lack of skills, but as soon as they hit Metallica, I was stunned and impressed, they sounded almost like original Metallica. I m their new fan, their performance was followed by a small fight between the organizers and the fans of 7 on 3rd, since the band performed an extra song which wasn’t quite as planned due to the lack of time.

The Great Drama Queen Conundrum

The Last performance was of The Great Drama Queen Conundrum, I had lost interest in the show a bit, due to the fight, but these guys were good none the less, ‘Foxy Lady’ by Jimmy Hendrix was an awesome work with music, but Vocals, I’d say need work. The vocalist may have made a presentable performance, but since the vocals need a bit of work, things can be daunting to handle.

None the less the show was a run away hit, which rocked the night for any Rock loving bum.

Cheers.

Tags: 7on3rd, bang bang, fight, fun, gig, gunaah, Imran Lodhi, music, night, rock, songs, Spoonful, The Great Drama Queen Conundrum, underground

18th November, 2007. The evening in Khayaban-e-Itehad would have been the normal life for everyone else ! But those who dropped by The Second Floor - Karachi, had the treat of the day. Gunaah’s birthday bash was all that we gathered for and got the joy of listening to three bands, one of those for whom we have special respect as being of the best underground acts in Pakistan.

The show starts with Achanak (the band), performing their orignals and covers from Aerosmith and Aaroh, honestly the covers were far better than the original, though they raped one of the cover too. Surprizingly they got to do more socializing with modern chicks than the other bands

We then had Gravity get the spirits of the audience high and rocking with an awesome start of a classical ‘Tarana‘, they even performed covers from Junoon and Sajjad Ali, but the most rocking acts were their originals. From the covers they did, both sounded awesome, much better than what Achanak could’ve done. They were actually to do all this unplugged, but on the last moment decided to do it plugged and rocking ! And they did good !

Then we had the final act of the day, Gunaah took the center stage ! Started off with Nishaan from Noori and then moved to Bolo bolo and other tracks, but, yes, but the most rocking performance came from their cover of Psycho of System of a Down, and also their original ‘Talaah -e- Noor’, which also has a very special place for me ! I really love that song !

Even with major sound problems and Gunaah managed to pull out a great show, for musicians and the audience alike, and there’s no doubting that Gunaah is here to stay, for a very very long while !

For those who donot know, here’s the current line up of Gunaah :
Hassaan Sarwar - Vocals/Screams, Qumber Kazmi - Drums, Yasir Siddiqui - Bass, Zain Kazmi - Guitars.

 

Tags: act, bass, concert, drums, floor, fun, gig, guitar, gunaah, hassaan, live, music, performance, qumber, review, second, vocals, yasir, zain

Tafiti, is another Microsoft venture into the search realms. The first thing you know when you visit the tafiti page, is that they ask you to get the Microsoft Silverlight plugin, which is Microsoft’s alternative to the already successful Adobe Flash.

The search page itself looks nice and fancy, but not something I’d like to see on a search page, search pages are mean’t to be lean, mean and clean, for easy info retrieval, tafiti on the other hand, uses bulk of graphic data, which I don’t quite enjoy. Some of the graphics are indeed nice though !

Some thing’s I do like about the search engine is the ability to save the search results, incase you might need them later, which is something good, really good. Not only can you see the results, in a normal way, you could also switch to a tree view, which shows results on a tree, which I think isn’t as useful, the text overlaps, and makes is all jumbled.

The other nifty feature is you can divide the results into books, web, images, news, but that’s not new, instead they just make it appear on one page, without reloading the pages. simple.

I could say more about it, but it didn’t work much well for me, it’s in beta stage, and has bugs, and that is real bugs, had problems working !

Since the search is powered by Windows Live Search (formerly MSN search) it’s the same results you’re going to get that you would other wise get from Windows Live search, the only difference is the UI.

I just checked out a YouTube video, it shows a kind of promo for a software, that lets you see email in 3d, bullshit I say !

Email is for a easy, fast and convenient communication purpose, bundling 3d programming into it doesn’t sound useful to me at all.. In fact 3d stuff don’t work well at all with basic software, like Word processing, email clients, calculators, and so the likes of it.

It might look awesome first, but thing how long does it take to get through all those animations or press the ‘ESC’ key before you can actually get to the main stuff.

From the homepage of the software website  :

E-mail is the killer app, but it’s deadly boring. Have fun with 3D Mailbox!

Here’s the video :

Again, it sounds bullshit to me !