Monday, March 19th, 2007
The Aurora Awards for Excellence in Advertising were held last night against a backdrop of the stunningly lit Mohatta Palace in Karachi. The DAWN Group went ALL OUT to honor the advertising industry by presenting 10 Lifetime Achievement Awards, an Institutional Award, and Awards in 4 categories.
Ranting and bitching is fun and finding faults is easy. The event was not without its hiccups but I am not going to mention any here. Planning and pulling off an elaborate event, tastefully, is a hideously difficult task. The stage was beautifully simple and effective, the hosts, Leon and Ayeshah did their thing without being cheesy, the sound system worked, and the gazillion musicians from all over the country came and went without dragging their feet. Being part of APMC, I know how painful it is to manage musicians. I am not a huge fan of folk; I like my eastern music shudh and challenging, but providing a platform to purveyors of a dying art is a noble act. The menu was beautifully designed as was the programme and the attention to detail was obvious and much appreciated. Abida Parveen’s sufi invocations and finale were a special treat. I do wish that those who were being honored had stayed on till the end because a number of people worked bloody hard to make this event possible.
Kudos to Hameed Haroon, my friends, Mariam Ali Baig, Mamun Adil and Leila Mahfooz, and the Great Marketing Department at DAWN
Monday, May 28th, 2007
Sometimes people ask me what my name means and, since I don’t know, I mumble something incoherent and change the subject. Today, my mother did a Google search and the first result that came up was this Urban Dictionary definition:
Sabeen is one of the nicest girls you will ever meet. She is cute, funny, smart and caring. Sabeen's are known to be great friends and they love their families too! The best thing about a Sabeen is probably her personality. They love animals and they love to smile and laugh!
Monday, July 2nd, 2007
T2F has turned my life upside down.
Have succumbed to Facebook but only because there were dozens of pending friend requests and I didn’t want to come across as snotty. Not too fond of Mark Zuckerberg and Kottke claims that Facebook is AOL 2.0. Ewww. Need to read up on the whole closed platform issue.
Just found out that Apple Asia may send me to Macworld 2008
Astounded at the level of discussion on Karachi Metblogs. Under duress, I’d rather troubleshoot Dot.Net code than read the profundities of KMB commenters.
Still trying to comprehend the Twitter phenomenon. What ARE you doing? WHAT are you doing? What are YOU doing? What are you DOING?
I wish I could make you understand ...
C’mon Steve, give us Leopard already. But before you do, kill that disgusting transparent menubar. Best zinger yet.
I still wonder about that Meatloaf song.
A virtual friend in Lahore has started developing for Mac OS X. If there are any indie devs out there who want to join our currently non-existent user group, shout out in the comments. Surely we can make a widget, if nothing else.
Competition is completely, totally, and utterly unhealthy.
Thursday, July 5th, 2007
Shikāyat kyā haé dardé dil ki, Fazli
Agar dil haé to dükhtā hee rahay gā
Friday, July 6th, 2007
The Wall is an interesting idea for social networking but bizarrely implemented. A “friend” writes on your wall and all your other “friends” can see what’s been written. You are meant to respond, not on your wall, but on your friend’s wall. So Facebook’s mechanism for interaction ends up creating a strange half-baked non-versation on your wall. How utterly odd.
I simply don’t get it. Well, I do actually. Techies don’t “get” human interface design and it takes time, money, and insane amounts of effort to fuss over details. And since it’s a Windows world, most people are used to tortuous interfaces and don’t even realize that they are living through a digital nightmare. So, if the users don’t care, why should the developers?
In other half-assedness, why is the primary navigation bar so sparse? Surely a number of default actions and applications could be incorporated there instead of a gazillion links being part of the content. The personalized home page and the profile page could also be better integrated. And what of the myriad hyperlink roll-over effects? Blue text that gets underlined, black text that becomes blue and underlined, blue text that turns into a block of blue with white text, black and gray text that stays black or gray but gets underlined.
Very strange information architecture decisions. Granted, Facebook is an online community with much complexity at its core but it does feel a bit like a mashup of gigantic proportions - Reader’s Digest on steroids - trying too hard to be all things to all people.
The Mini-Feed! Gosh, triviality kee bhee inteha hotee hae. Typical techie masturbation. Capture everything and then display every mundane syllable imaginable - just because you can. It’s in the database so shove it up everyone’s ass. Woke up, scratched left ball, picked nose, poked friend, and so it goes ...
Hud hae! Got to Delhi in the morning yesterday and activated an AirTel cell phone connection at around 6:00 pm. First thing this morning, I received a call from ICICI Bank asking if I wanted a loan!!!! I thought the tele-marketing scene in Pakistan was intense but this is off the charts.
Wednesday, July 25th, 2007
It’s been a few weeks now and I have thought long and hard about the wall. I have attempted to understand, rationalize, justify even, the interface design decisions that power the wall. But all to no avail. I just don’t get it. Context is crucial and it’s completely missing. Content on your wall is on public display and people tend to read linearly. Responses from the owner are nowhere to be seen though, so the writing on the wall has little or no meaning. So, why is it publicly visible then? You can respond on your own wall, but I have been told that Facebook etiquette demands that when a friend writes on your wall, you write back on their wall. BAH. What stupidity.
I admit I have pedantic tendencies but how can everyone in this vast Facebook community be your "friend"? Back in the day, the word "friend" meant something a little more substantial than someone you met 7 years ago while working on a project. But I suppose if we can have a financial institution called MyBank, everyone can be your friend. This is not a valid gripe - am just being cranky.
Given that poking, defenestrating, throwing sheep, adding friends, responding to notifications, and checking whether your "friends" are looking out the window is of enormous significance in the Facebook world, shouldn’t your Facebook home page refresh automatically, every so often? Some Ajax(y) goodness would help.
Then, there’s the whole MySpace vs. Facebook debate. I don’t use MySpace but the notion of a user-defined/designed space is much more appealing to me than Facebook’s rather antiseptic template. It’s neat and clean for sure but completely lacks soul. My page looks exactly like my friend’s page. Actually, I lie. Some of my friends have SuperPoke and FunWall and Horoscope and a zillion emoticons, and I don’t. Just ain’t cool enough I guess. Of course, most MySpace pages are hideous but the potential to make them look pretty exists. This isn’t really a gripe but as a designer, I find my Facebook home page utterly bland and boring. Even my wireframes are more aesthetically pleasing!
If you aren’t someone’s "friend", you can only see a limited profile. Right? So, how come you can see their photos if you click a link from a legit friend’s page? Smells like a privacy breach.
Whilst tagging a person in a photo or a note, the search box returns live results. The regular search box in the global navigation bar has a little dropdown menu. It should have an option for "Find a Friend". Classmates and Co-workers should be a sub-group. Choosing Find a Friend should return live results like tagging. The functionality is there already so why not maximize its utility?
"Drag links [here] to hide them". When will they ever learn? Where is "Here" on a web page? It has no meaning. This text appears in a box with a border and a fill. One would imagine "here" means into the box. But it doesn’t. Whatever ...
The issue, I think, is that websites are morphing into applications and interface design and information architecture principles that worked for regular sites with some transactional components, don’t cut the mustard. I am not ready for a browser-only world. I love my client-side Mac apps, even those designed by the "delicious generation", and can’t abide browser-based apps for the most part.
Facebook isn’t totally horrific - I’m just mean and nasty, but it could be a whole lot better if someone from Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines team joined them.
All this seemingly mundane drivel we "share" about our interests, activities, favorite music and movies, political affiliations, sexual orientation, how you are related to or know others, religious views, desires, schedules, needs, wants, etc. translates into SOLID GOLD that gets sold to "responsible third-parties that Facebook has relationships with". So, all your data is analyzed, collated, and presented to marketeers in the form of neat little charts that tell them which movies 18-25 year old girls like and how many 20 year old boys still don’t have Nintendo Wiis. Cool huh? And you thought Facebook was all about giving you an innocuous platform to connect with friends?
Did you know that "by posting Member Content to any part of the Web site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sub-license) to use, copy, perform, display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such information and content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such information and content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.
Translation: Facebook and any third-parties they choose can fuck you over because they know everything about you. Third- parties include the Government and the agencies.
The more information we feed Facebook about ourselves, the more we ramp up Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth. Facebook will soon get get sold to the highest bidder for zillions of dollars heralding the death of the resurgence of the web. 3.0 will be a long time coming.
If this sounds melodramatic, it isn’t. Just be aware of what’s going on. Read the privacy policy and terms of service and know that what you tell Facebook does not stay within the cosy confines of what you think is a closed network for you and your buddies. Mark Zuckerberg is not your friend. He runs a corporation. Enough said.
Thursday, August 16th, 2007
Tuesday, September 11th, 2007
Anita Roddick is dead!
She died of a brain hemorrhage last night.
Anita, how could you just drop dead? You were such an inspiration. Rest in Peace. :-(
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2007/09/anita-roddick-obituary.html
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007
The E-Crime Bill 2007, has been approved in principle by the Federal Cabinet and will be enacted soon, according to the Minister for IT & Telecom, Awais Leghari. The Bill is one of the most draconian laws yet to emanate from the Government. It conflicts with international treaties, usurps fundamental human rights, violates the Constitution and effectively lays the legal foundation for a police state. It also obstructs any international cooperation on cyber crime, terrorism and enforcement.
The legally and technically incorrect definitions in the E-Crime Bill 2007 ensure that rather than preventing cyber crimes, perpetrators will view Pakistan as a safe haven. The innocent will fall victim to its abuse, and for international and domestic businesses and investors, Pakistan will not be a destination of choice but a jurisdiction to stay away from.
T2F has hosted 2 awareness/activism sessions, DAWN TV has done a show, various print publications have written articles, and bloggers across the country have been blogging about the implications of the Bill. This is not enough. Please spread the word and help people understand that this Bill does not affect techies only. It adversely affects every Pakistani who uses a computer or mobile phone. Please watch the videos, read the blog posts, and join hands with us as we lobby for a redrafting of the E-Crime Bill 2007.
Google and YouTube Videos
Zahid Jamil’s Presentation:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
One-to-One Q/A with Civil Society Blog Posts
Another Draconian Law In The Offing Draconian Cyber Crime Law in Pakistan
I’m Scared
I Can’t Believe The Government Is Doing This Internet Freedom, Goodbye
The Activism Continues Be Really Scared
Recommended Reading:
Cyber Crime FAQ | Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act | Letter to Cabinet
Please send links to other blog posts and articles via comments.
Sunday, September 30th, 2007
Muneer Malik (Head of the Supreme Court Bar Association) has announced a nation-wide strike call for Monday 1st Oct to protest law-enforcement/police brutality against civil society, the lawyers, and the media.
Is this form of protest meaningful in the 21st century? If so, how do we participate? If not, what are the alternatives? How can we ignite a movement to reclaim our rights? This particular post is not about “If not Musharraf, then who?” This is about registering a strong protest, rather, expressing outrage against ongoing crimes inflicted upon civil society and the media.
Would really like to hear some sane voices with ideas about how to mobilize using technology, social networking tools, text messaging, design, and the energy of the young and not so jaded. And you know what? Being apathetic is so last century.
