Visit the Reclaim Karachi Website for information about a citizen-led campaign to take back our city.

Compelling Conversations: Reporting from the Front Lines of Terror

Join us at T2F this Thursday to hear a young reporter’s experiences of Oct 18th 2007. Urooj Zia will talk about the “job” of reporting, political rallies, the “gullible” masses, and the fact that we have nothing to lose but our chains.

Date: Thursday, 1st November 2007
Time: 7:00 pm
Minimum Donation: Whatever you like

Venue: The Second Floor
6-C, Prime Point Building, Phase 7, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, DHA, Karachi
Phone: 538-9273 | 0300-823-0276 | info@t2f.biz
Map: http://www.t2f.biz/location

Seats are limited and will be available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. No reservations.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!!

Have just finished installing Leopard

I have loads of first impressions but for now, an enormous shout-out to my friends, Farah and Omer for their unbelievable generosity and goodwill. You guys have no idea what this means to me. THANK YOU, Farah, for braving the wind, rain, and cold of New York, and THANK YOU, Omer, for the family pack license and for parting with that shiny, holographic, sexy box the day you received it. Altogether too many commas in that last sentence but damn, I’m twitching all over.

Peace!
Reclaim Karachi

In January 2007, when Steve Jobs announced that Apple was dropping “Computer” from its name, I felt – well, strange. Sitting in Moscone West, San Francisco with 3,999 people I didn’t know, I wanted to hold someone’s hand – someone who would understand, without the need for words.

As the famed Reality Distortion Field started wearing off, I started feeling resentful. No new Macs, no Leopard, no software. Sure, we waited 3 years for the iPhone – and there it was – but, but, but Apple is a computer company. Well, WAS.

And so, with the iPhone announcement, Apple got even cooler than before and iPod sales reached an all-time high and blah blah blah, and then one day, Steve said we couldn’t get Leopard on time because everyone in software was busy with iPhone. WTF? When newbies say, “Oh, Apple – the company that makes iPods”, I shoot them in cold blood – in my head.

Apple [Computer] Inc. is our company. We made it live when it was oozing red ink all over the planet. We bought Macs when they were not “hip”. We kept the faith – against all oddds – and even prayed in 1997 when Wired admonished us to. I’m happy about the iPods and the iPhone, really I am. BUT, the real coolness is at the heart of the OS and the mad, crazy dream – the vision that all the other “crazy ones” bought into. You know who you are.

Enough about unlocked phones and ring tones.

This is the real news (Oct 22 2007)

In the fourth quarter, Apple shipped 2,164,000 Macs, representing 34% growth over the year-ago quarter and exceeding the previous quarterly record for Mac shipments by 400,000.

Cupertino: YOU ROCK!

Apple will start shipping Leopard on the 26th of October 2007. I am in the throes of a feverish frenzy and want my copy ASAP.

This is a shout-out to anyone who is leaving the US on the 27th and arriving in Karachi on the 28/29th. Amazon has dropped the price to US$ 109 and is accepting pre-orders. I’ll order via Amazon, the DVD will be delivered to you, and all you need to do is bring it along.

2 free coffees at T2F for anyone who is ready, willing, and able to do the job!

After bitching endlessly about Facebook, it’s about time I give credit where it’s due. Interface and interaction design issues aside, the technology foundation for this site is unbelievably solid. Like, WOW. I don’t know if the code is poetic and beautiful, but damn, it works. In August, a misconfigured server over at Facebook HQ exposed the homepage code, rendering it as text. Didn’t see it and the Facebook Secrets Blogger site has been yanked by Google. Apparently, those who saw it thought the code was pretty darn good.

Crack coders are sexy.

Considering that billions of people use Facebook every minute of every day for stuff ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, it’s truly remarkable that the site does not burst at the seams. The Facebook Platform enables a gazillion add-ons and the fact that people can add and remove these mini applications ad nauseam, bears further testimony to the site’s resilience. And yes, I forgot, people also “use” these apps. Super load balancing.

CSS is also really, really well implemented.

And thank you for all the Safari testing.

A friend recently asked:

Do you think buying an iPhone in Pakistan is a good idea? I’ve asked a couple of people but they’re the types who buy anything new as soon as it’s on the shelves. Remembered you are an Apple person, would like your opinion!

My response:

It is absolutely not a good idea to buy an iPhone right now. When it comes to software, I am an early adopter but experience has shown that it’s best to wait for second or third generation Apple hardware. The iPhone is not “officially” available in Pakistan so support and warranties will be problematic. It’s hacked to work with local telcos so every software update released by Apple will break the unlocks – as did iPhone software update v 1.1.1. Some core features such as Visual Voicemail do not work at all as they are carrier dependent.

I was at Macworld in January and saw Steve Jobs live – unveiling the beauty that is the iPhone. Got to play with it and it was stunning. Having said that, I would wait for at least the next major release of the product before plonking down so much cash. In February, Apple will release a Software Developer Kit for third party developers to write apps for the iPhone – that’s when it’s going to hit the high notes. The guys who write apps for Macs make the platform truly special – that’s what’s going to happen on the iPhone March 08 onwards. It’ll blow everything else out the window. It already does – sort of – but our indie Mac boys will change the mobile computing world.

— sharing this as it may be useful to others considering getting an iPhone in Pakistan —