Wasif Malik > Blog

Musharraf joins Facebook

// December 1st, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Featured Articles, Pakistan

Whether you love him or  hate him, I am sure that deep down inside you, a part of you still wants Musharraf back (unless you are Nawaz Sharif).  Musharraf recently launched his facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pervezmusharraf) and has attracted 36,166 fans as of now which is not a bad number, considering that there are only one million facebook users in Pakistan. If you ever wanted to ask Musharraf a question, now is your chance to do so. Every now and then, Mr Musharraf will select the most relevant questions and answer them in a YouTube video. He has already answered a few questions already (as mentioned in the “Notes” section of his page). Give them a watch if you want to know Musharraf’s perspective on the issues we are facing these days (whether you agree or not).

The Forum -- PART 1

Q: On Constitution’s Article 6 trial
Q: Action taken by Nawaz Sharif on 12 October 1999
Q: On Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti’s death
Q: Reasons for imposing emergency on November 3, 2007
Q: War on terrorism

The Forum -- PART 2

Q: Foreign actors after Afghan war

The Forum -- PART 3

Q: Criticism by media that resignation on pressure by US
Q: Reasons did not fulfill the promise to resign as chief of Army
Q: War on terrorism, what, when, how it will end
Q: What action should US President Barak Obama take?
Q: Current law and order scenario, and future development of it

The Forum -- PART 4

Q: Current political situation in Pakistan
Q: Army response of Kerry Lugar Bill
Q: Future role of army in the context of democracy in Pakistan
Q: Significance of National security council

The Forum -- PART 5

Q: Army’s popularity
Q: Presidential form in Pakistan
Q: Solving Baluchistan problems
Q: Entering Pakistan politics again
Q: Message to Pakistani nation

Interestingly, all of these videos are being uploaded by TVONE which is a TV channel owned by Interflow Communications (one of the largest advertising agencies in Pakistan). So it seems that Musharraf has hired one of the best advertising companies to help him in carrying out a social media campaign. This is definitely a first, at least in Pakistan.

So for now, I am keeping a close eye on his Facebook page because Mushy might have a trick or two up his sleeve.

Fingers crossed.

Google Adsense frustrates web publishers

// September 25th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Featured Articles, Technology

I am a big fan of Google’s products but I experienced something recently that has forced me to change the way I think about Google. I thought Google has good customer service and they are very good with resolving issues faced by their users but I was wrong.

Recently I decided to put Ads on my blog and found out that Google AdSense offers the best solution for making money through online Ads (although I have never clicked on a Google Ad). So I registered for AdSense only to find out 1 day later that my application was rejected because my domain name (wasifmalik.com)  was pointing to an “Under Construction” page (although my blog was up and running on http://wasifmalik.com/blog at that time). Fair enough. So I updated my domain name settings so that it points towards my blog and then tried to resubmit my application by going to the URL provided by Google AdSense (see excerpt below).

But whenever I try to login I am redirected to the same login page. I tried clearing up my cache, cookies etc. but I am still facing the same issue. I “googled” the issue and found out that I was not alone and there were other users who were facing the same problem. Infact it is the most popular discussion on Google AdSense forums at the moment. Other bloggers have also reported this issue.

The “login loop issue” or the “endless login cycle” as some users are calling it, has frustrated  so many web publishers who want to put Ads on their sites/blogs. Some users have been facing this issue for months and Google has been unable to provide a workaround or a permanent fix to this issue. See posts by annoyed users here.

Google, I know you want to “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful“, but I would really appreciate it if you fix my AdSense login issue first.

Another blog that has reported the same issue.

Evolution of Social Networks

// September 9th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Featured Articles, Technology

The need to network and interact with each other has been growing at a fast pace lately. So what is it that persuades people to “network”? The simple answer is that it is human nature to interact and share.

What is a social network anyway? It is an entity that makes it easy to share and interact with people you know or you want to know. Try asking from your friends what social networks are and I am sure most of them would reply Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc are social networks. Perfect. Now go back ten years and ask the same question and you would not get any answer. Because there wasn’t any social network at that time you would say, right? Think again.

The landline telephone network, the postal service, the telegraph, mobile networks, television and radio have been here for ages and are all examples of social networks. All of these are entities that encourage people to share and communicate. The social networks of today are much efficient and have increased the frequency of interaction between known and unknown people by making it simple and easy to share and communicate. The question is how much sharing is good? Well, it totally depends on you. But there has to be a fine line between your public and personal life. There have to be some rules for online sharing. Sadly, there aren’t any at the moment. Even if there are, they keep changing at a rapid pace. Stuff that was considered to be private some years back is now considered to be “public”. Sharing and interacting with each other has been made so easy and seamless that sometimes it is hard to control the flow of information. What to share and what not to share is the million dollar question that needs to be answered by the users, the social media gurus and the creators of social networks.

The social networks have evolved and changed into something completely new and modern but they still rely on the most basic nature of humans, to communicate and to share. These networks have enabled us to share everything, but how do we absorb so much information? It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with this monstrous flow of information. What to absorb and what not to absorb is the second million dollar question. And the social network that will enable us to seamlessly absorb useful information and discard useless information will be the leader in the social networking space in the years to come.

The “Grin” Man

// September 2nd, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Featured Articles, Pakistan

While the whole nation is busy crying and fighting over who-said-what-and-when-and-why, inflation, security situation, lack of basic necessities etc., one man is sitting in his 7-star accommodation somewhere in Dubai, London or Islamabad, wearing a grin on his face, as if his lifelong dream has finally come true. It sure has. I am talking about the most intelligent and most influential man this nation has ever seen. I am not kidding. He deserves an award. No, not for being the most corrupt man in Pakistan (and arguably in the world). But for taking the most powerful position in Pakistan with such ease and effortlessness. Thanks to the so-called-democracy in our country, the visionary voters, free but irresponsible media and non-existence of law and order; these bastards are all set to rule and rip apart this country, once again.

God bless Pakistan.

GEO TV minivan violating traffic rules

// June 25th, 2009 // 21 Comments » // Featured Articles, Pakistan

What are the odds of a GEO minivan violating traffic rules? And what are the odds of capturing it on camera? Well, whatever the odds are, I (with the help of Moonis) was lucky enough to capture a sequence of pictures showing a GEO minivan violating traffic rules. The place is China Chowk, Blue Area, Islamabad and the time was 10:30PM 24^th June 2009.

While it is exciting to catch this moment on camera, it is equally disappointing too. A TV network that boasts so much of its achievements in highlighting key issues of our country and which talks so much about law and order, is unable to educate its employees about simple traffic rules.

GEO’s vision as mentioned on their website:

“GEO will be the voice of freedom from the Asian subcontinent. It will highlight the issues of concern and the cultural richness of its people through information, discussion and entertainment.“

Since highlighting issues of concern is the vision of GEO, then I would request the GEO team to please highlight this issue on their own channel and before doing that they should pay the fines for violation of traffic rules.