Asad's Blog

HTC Explorer Home Made Macro Lens Video

2012-11-09T17:54:00.001+05:00

Nokia Launches 3 New Budget Phones: Asha 305, 306 and 311

2012-06-07T15:15:00.001+05:00

Nokia a couple of days ago launched three new full touch screen mobile phones. These phones are running on Nokia's S40 operating system, providing many features and a great UI (User Interface) at a low price.

The phones are part of the Asha family. Below, you can find some information about these phones.

Nokia Asha 305

The Nokia Asha 305 is a full touch screen dual sim phone and has a decent 3″ WQVGA touch screen, unfortunately it has a resistive touch screen rather than a capacitive touch screen which is more responsive. Here are the specs:

3.0” WQVGA resistive touch screen
2 MP camera
Dual SIM
Music player and FM radio
Built-in speaker
Plug and Play, easy PC connection and file transfer
GPRS/EDGE connectivity
Nokia Maps and Nokia Life (in selected markets)
Colors: Silver White, Red, Mid Blue and Dark Grey (varies by market)

Price: PKR 7,000 or USD $75. Available at 3rd quarter of 2012

Nokia Asha 306

The Asha 306 is very much identical to the Asha 305, but it lacks dual sim support, the only difference is that it has WiFi, making it one of the cheapest WiFi phones from Nokia. Here are the specs:

3.0” WQVGA resistive touch screen
2 MP camera
Music player and FM radio
Built-in speaker
Plug and Play, easy PC connection and file transfer
GPRS/EDGE and WLAN connectivity
Nokia Maps and Nokia Life (in selected markets)
Colors: Silver White, Red, Mid Blue and Dark Grey (varies by market)

Price: PKR 8,000 or USD $85 . Available at 3rd quarter of 2012

Nokia Asha 311

This phone stands out from the other Asha phones as it has a 1GHz processor, a 3” scratch resistant capacitive touch screen and also 3G connectivity. Here are the specs:

3.0” scratch resistant, capacitive glass screen
Polarized display filters for better usability in direct sunlight
WLAN
3.2 MP camera
1GHz processor
Music Player, FM Radio and Internet Radio
Plug and Play, easy PC connection and file transfer
HSPA connectivity
Nokia Maps and Nokia Life (in selected markets)
Colors: Dark Grey, Rose Red, Blue, Brown and Sand White (colors will vary by market)

Price: PKR 10,500 or USD $112. Available at 3rd quarter of 2012

Facebook Accounts For Kids Under 13 Years Old

2012-06-05T22:54:00.002+05:00

Currently, a Facebook account can only be created by people over 13 years of age. Although, many kids under 13 have made Facebook accounts by entering fake date of births.

Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg is considering to allow kids under 13 years of age to use the social network. A research shows that about 8 million under 13 year olds' have Facebook accounts, illegally. Zuckerberg is now thinking of making Facebook accessible for kids.

But, it isn't as easy as it sounds. By allowing kids to use the social network site, the site will have to deal with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). COPPA enforces very tight rules against how websites deal with children. That's why to avoid all the hassle the site is only accessible for people over 13 years of age.

Right now, talks are going that the company is working on different technologies to make the site safer to use for kids. It is said that, initially the child's Facebook account will be linked to the guardian's, that way the site will not be monitoring the child's activities only the guardian will i.e adding friends and permission to use apps etc.

By doing so, Facebook can also generate some revenue by targeting products for the children to the guardian's account. This idea sounds promising and to me it looks like it might become a reality someday.

Microsoft Windows 8 Release Preview Announced

2012-06-01T20:07:00.001+05:00

Yesterday Microsoft announced the Windows 8 release preview, which can be downloaded from this link. Microsoft earlier in February released the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which according to Microsoft was downloaded more than 1 million times on the first 24 hours of its release, that makes it the most tested Windows OS so far, and with yesterday's release it is now on the final phase of development.

The new Windows 8 now includes tons of great new apps for our ease and enjoyment such as:
News, Sports, Bing Travel, as well as Gaming, Music and Xbox apps.

The release preview also features some improvements to the People, Mail and Photo apps that were included in the consumer preview. It merits mentioning that this time Microsoft has worked really hard in making apps with the help of developers from around the world to provide a better user experience.

Also, the release preview is much more customize-able, increased personalization options for the Start Screen, enhanced multi-monitor support, Family Safety and many more features have been added.

The new Internet Explorer 10 web browser comes with the release preview packed with more features than ever before. A new, improved and energy efficient version of Adobe Flash Player has been integrated as well. The new browser has also been made a lot more user friendly for touch devices particularly.

Minimum System Requirements

1 GHz or faster processor.
1 GB RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit).
16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit).
DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver.
1024 x 768 minimum screen resolution.

Klik - Taking Pictures and Tagging Friends Made Easy!

2012-05-29T17:26:00.000+05:00

Capturing pictures with our phones and posting them on social networking sites such as Google+ and Facebook is a task we do very often.

Taking group pictures with friends and sharing them on Facebook with other friends is a lot of fun, but the difficult thing is when you have to tag the names of your friends with the right person, with the introduction of Klik, tagging pictures has become extremely easy.

Klik, is a facial recognition software created by face.com that tags the pictures of your Facebook friends automatically. To make this easier to understand here's an example:

Let's suppose you have 30 friends and 15 out of those friends are connected to you on Facebook. You, along with your 30 friends go to the beach for a picnic and you would most probably take pictures of yourself and your friends. What Klik does is takes pictures of your friends and identifies them from their Facebook profile picture and tags their name to it.

Right now, this app is only available on iOS and that too for free. For the app to work you will need to be logged in on Facebook.

Facebook also has its own auto-tag feature but many people think that Klik works better.

Microsoft's So.cl Social Network

2012-05-22T19:34:00.000+05:00

Yesterday, Microsoft officially opened the so.cl social network worldwide. Previously, it was on a beta testing phase, it was using the name "Tulalip" but it was still using the so.cl domain name and was only used for research by students in selected colleges and universities.

But now, it can be used by anyone in the world (who has access to the internet of course). I consider it as a combination of Twitter and Facebook as you can follow people and share stuff the same you would do on Facebook or Google etc.

I used it for a while but still haven't quite got the hang of it as I only use Facebook very often. It's a whole different experience from Facebook, I can tell you that.

Some unique and good features that have been added are:

Searched
Video Party

These two features are relatively new. Searched is a feature which shows what the person has searched on the so.cl search widget, it shows search results of websites and even status updates of people using so.cl. It doesn't automatically publish what you've searched for on your profile, it only provides an option to directly share that page or status update while currently being inside the so.cl website.

The Video Party feature has also been added which allows users to make a list of their favorite videos from the web i.e YouTube and MSN videos. You can add the videos by directly searching through the search widget. Your friends can then view your video list and comment on them. Unfortunately, you can't upload videos to it.

I think that so.cl isn't going to get much popularity as many efficient social networks are already present then why would anyone want to use it?

If you have used so.cl then feel free to share your experiences and opinions in the comments below.

Siri Says Nokia Lumia 900 Is The Best Phone Ever.

2012-05-21T18:48:00.001+05:00

Last week an extremely embarrassing bug was found on the iPhone 4S's personal assistant software, Siri. In the bug, when someone would ask Siri "What's the best smartphone ever?" then Siri would reply by showing a picture along with the specifications of the new, Nokia Lumia 900.

The bug has been fixed by Apple and now when someone asks Siri the same question, it replies with either "You're kidding, right?" or "Wait... there are other phones".

Although, the bug has been fixed, it has become a source of shame for the company.

Nokia spokeswoman Tracy Postill said: "Apple position Siri as the intelligent system that's there to help, but clearly if they don't like the answer, they override the software."

The reason why Siri said that the Nokia Lumia 900 was the best smartphone because the Lumia 900 was being marketed as "The best smartphone ever." and it was also on offer as "The best smartphone ever!" on many online shops, so many of websites titled its review as "Nokia Lumia 900, The Best Smartphone" or something similar.

Siri uses the search engine WolphramAlpha to search the internet as well as to get possible answers, the search engine picked the Nokia Lumia 900 as the possible answer to the question.

A Little Information About Google's Project Glass

2012-05-18T19:29:00.000+05:00

Google, in April released a video about Project Glass. You most probably have seen the video already, if you haven't then you better go check it out (embedded at the bottom of this post).

The technology that Google's working on is really advanced, the glasses are designed to perform all the tasks that a smartphone is capable of doing. Just
imagine, all the power of a fast smartphone can now be found in a piece of eye wear, it is really hard to believe isn't it? But it's true because Google has already created prototypes and are currently being used by many of Google's employees (yes I know, I'm super jealous too!). The employees using this new technology share their experiences on the official Project Glass Google+ page (go check it out).

The glasses look like ordinary spectacles but with a beautiful piece of technology attached to its right arm, the glasses have a small glass in the right eye which is the display screen and there's a camera too. The lenses of the glasses can be installed according to the person's needs and it can also be worn by people that have perfectly good eye sight (which is one of the advantages).

Google has also secured three patents for project glass and is listed as a “wearable display device frame”. The patents have been given to the three designers that are working on the project who are, Maj Isabelle Olson, Matthew Martin, and Mitchell Joseph Heinrich.

The display of the glasses (as shown in the video) in which the information would pop up will most probably will not be present in the original glasses. The glasses might run on some variant of Google's Android OS.

The release date of these glasses is unsure but I do believe that they won't be released till 2013 or 2014 or maybe even more longer.

Charge Mobile Phones Using Butane.

2012-05-15T23:27:00.001+05:00

Butane charger manufactured by Lilliputian Systems.

Butane is a gas which is widely used in cigarette lighters and stove lighters but now, the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology (MIT) has found another great use for butane, which is, charging cell phone batteries. Butane gas can now be used to charge batteries of smart phones and tablets on the-go.

Most smart phones have a ridiculously high battery consumption rate, which creates a lot of difficulties if there's no place to charge your phone but now, we can use this new butane charger to recharge our phone's battery anywhere and anytime.

The charger uses a cartridge filled with butane fuel to charge. Charging using butane has been made possible by placing a solid oxide fuel cell onto a silicon wafer, which allows the conversion of the fuel into energy, the charger uses a USB port to charge. It can recharge a phone's battery more than 10 times using a single butane cartridge.

The technology will be provided to different companies to manufacture these chargers on a large scale. We might be seeing these chargers later this year. Rumors say that the charger might cost about $100 and the butane cartridge refill can possibly cost about $5, which is a reasonable price to pay judging by the number of recharges you get per cartridge but it still is a rumor.

Top 5 Antivirus Programs

2012-05-12T23:26:00.000+05:00

Today, I have prepared a list of my top 5 antivirus programs. Now, keep in mind that this list is based on the following factors:

How much computer resources the antivirus takes up.
Price of the program.
User-friendliness

So let's begin with the list.

1. Microsoft Security Essentials

Although a lot of you readers might be shocked but yes, Microsoft Security Essentials or MSE for short is the best antivirus program (according to me). Actually, the thing I like most about MSE is that it's from Microsoft and secondly, it's free and it uses a lot less RAM than the other programs I've used. It's a lot more easier to use too.

Pros: It's a free software and provides superior protection from computer threats.
Cons: Only available for Windows Operating System.

2. ESET NOD32 Antivirus

Next on my list is, ESET NOD32. I've used it before and I was really impressed. I was thinking about placing it on the top of my list but the fact that it costs $60 for a single PC and that too for a 1 year license made me place it on number 2. Just like MSE, ESET also took up a very small amount of my computer's resources and I didn't experience any slowdowns while gaming. Here's a screen shot of it's key features:

Click to enlarge.

Pros: Very useful features and doesn't slows your PC.

Cons: The program is a little over-priced.

3. Avira Antivirus

Avira, like many other antivirus programs has two versions i.e the free version and the pro version which you obviously have to pay for but the best thing about Avira is that the free version provides more than enough features for your general home computer usage. It is a very fast program and detects viruses very fast and easily. The pro version includes two extra features which are: Scans websites and indicates if it has viruses (similar to AVG antivirus but is available for free) and Live Support, which I think is not that useful. Overall, it's a pretty neat program.

Pros: Very fast and easy to use.

Cons: The pro version doesn't offer much.

4. AVG Antivirus

I used AVG a long time ago. When I bought a new PC a few years ago it came pre-installed with the free version of it. I was really happy with it as it was really easy to use. One thing I was really impressed with was that, whenever I would search something on Google or any other search engine, it would automatically scan all the websites in the search results and tell me if there was a virus in them or not. The free version worked okay but the pro version had some extra features. AVG used up a slightly larger amount of RAM than ESET and MSE which is why it's on number 4 in my list.

Pros: Internet search results scanning.

Cons: Higher RAM consumption.

5. Avast Antivirus

A little similar to AVG antivirus in design. It provides very basic security features. In the free version there is nothing unique that needs to be mentioned, but it is free and works quite better than many other paid programs. It took up about the same amount of my computer's resources as AVG did. The pro versions provide protection from hackers and makes your internet experience safer. However, browsers such as: Google Chrome already do that for you.

Pros: It's free and is good for normal home use.

Cons: Slows PC when gaming.

These are just my top 5 antivirus programs. I would love to hear about your favorite antivirus programs in the comments.

Self Driving Car. By Google

2012-05-09T20:38:00.000+05:00

Google has been experimenting self driving cars for many years. They had been testing out different technologies to make the self driving car more reliable and safe. In California, Google tested a large fleet of self driving cars but they all were manned in compliance with the laws of the road. The cars used were Priuses. Google has tried really
hard in changing the legislation and to make the self driving car road legal and now, Google's self driving car has been licensed in Nevada, USA.

It was licensed shortly after when a blind man was given a test drive. Which shows how important and helpful this type of technology could be for all the handicapped people. Here's the video:

The car is equipped with an array of hi-tech equipment such as: video camera, sensors, lasers which help in navigating the passengers safely to their desired location. This video was uploaded in 2011 which shows how smoothly the car handles the driving course and what this car is truly capable of:

Google has really out-done themselves with the invention of such a car. Sadly, it's going to take a while for this car to be released for the general public.

How To Keep Track Of Your Family Members Using A Phone

2012-05-08T11:18:00.000+05:00

Google Play, released a new app couple of days ago which allows parents to track their missing children. This app is designed specially for parents, that is why it has been named FamilyTracker. Although, it can be used to track anyone once the person has given permission.

This app can work on any Android or iOS device and it gives the location of your friends and family in almost real time, it updates the location of the device every minute and it can even take up to an hour judging by the connection. The best thing about FamilyTracker is that
it doesn't require a GPS enabled phone, but both the phones should have access to the internet and Google Maps must be installed, otherwise this app won't work. Here are the features of this app:

Track Android and iPhone devices
Force updates remotely at any time without the user having to take any actions and it does not matter if the application is running or not
Ability to send a "Stealth Ping", which forces an automatic location update of the remote device without the person being notified
Even if the phone is rebooted, Family Tracker will automatically resume tracking and updating its position!
Track phones via the web
Free texts between phones
Force a sound even if the phone is on vibrate or silent
Virtually no impact on battery life!
Find your phone when lost or stolen
There are no limits to the number of users to track
Post your current location on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.
Tablet compatible
Great for businesses! Track your vehicles, shipments, etc.
Uses all the possible location methods: GPS, Cell Tower Triangulation and Wi-Fi (if enabled). That provides the best possible balance between accuracy and dependability
Tracks equally well cell phones and tablets
Uses the pictures from contacts or you can set a custom photo for every person you are tracking
Displays the approximate address of the devices being tracked
The most reliable and full-featured cell phone tracker on the market!
Works anywhere in the world, including free texting across borders.

This app costs about $4.99 on Google Play, but wait...

Why Pay When You Can Track A Phone For Free?

What if I tell you that you can use an app which is better than the above one and is also free.

Google Latitude, was developed 2-3 years ago. Google Latitude can work on any phone that has Google Maps. This includes Android, iOS, Blackberry, Symbian and even Windows Phones. Here's a video by Google, which shows how Latitude works.

After watching the above video you can see that it works similar to FamilyTracker. The only downside is that it lacks functions such as sounding an alarm remotely and sending free text messages which can be found on FamilyTracker. Though, it does provide the tools for basic tracking. Of course, you need to give permission and Google Latitude should be installed on all the phones that are to be tracked.

Cheap & Fast Android Mobile Phones

2012-05-05T17:23:00.000+05:00

Android phones are really nice, in terms of apps and games they really dominate the market, after all it is owned by Google, which is one of the biggest companies in the world.

Most people consider Android phones over Apple mobiles mainly because not everyone has the money to buy highly expensive Apple products.

Here's a list of the cheapest Android phones currently out in the market.

1. Samsung Galaxy Pocket S5300

The Samsung Galaxy Pocket is currently the most powerful and cheapest Android phone in the market as of today. The phone is running Android v2.3 (Gingerbread) and this phone weighs only 97g. The screen size of this phone is only 2.8 inches with a resolution of 240x320 and 256k color support. It has a very powerful 832 MHz ARM 11 processor, which is more than enough to run games like Angry Birds. It has a massive 3GB of internal storage and a separate slot for external memory (upto 32 GB). The Galaxy Pocket has Bluetooth v3.0, Edge, WiFi (802.11 b/g/n) and 3G connectivity. Other features include Accelerometer, compass, GPS+A-GPS and Google maps. The phone also has a 2MP camera but the image quality is not really great and the video quality is horrible, but wait till you hear how much this phone costs. The phone costs only 10,500 PKR which is $117 the phone is really price friendly.
Full specifications here.

2. Samsung Galaxy Y (Young) S5360

The Samsung Galaxy Y has almost the same specifications as the Galaxy Pocket but with a slightly bigger screen of 3.0 inches but the resolution is the same. Both phones, the Galaxy Pocket and Galaxy Y have the same processor and both phones run Android v2.3. Actually, as the Galaxy Y is an older model that is why it lacks some features such as compass. The only good thing about the Galaxy Y is its sleek design. The Galaxy Y only has 160MB of internal storage but when compared with the Galaxy Pocket's 3GB Galaxy Y is really behind it. Even though the Galaxy Y is more expensive than the Galaxy Pocket. The Galaxy Y costs around 13,000 PKR which is about $145.
Full specifications here.

3. HTC Explorer

The HTC Explorer is my personal favorite Android phone. HTC is well known for it's build quality and by using the HTC Explorer myself it really had a solid feel. The HTC Explorer runs Android v2.3.5 (Gingerbread). The phone weighs somewhere around 108g. The display size is 3.2 inches with a resolution of 320x480 which is capable of displaying 256k colors. This phone has a 600 MHz Cortex A5 processor,a 200 MHz dedicated GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and 512MB of RAM. The phone runs very smoothly and also supports a little multi-tasking. It has an internal memory of 90MB and a microSD card slot for external memory. This phone has Bluetooth v3.0, Edge, WiFi (802.11 b/g/n+WiFi Hotspot) and 3G connectivity. Other features are GPS + A-GPS, Digital compass and Google maps. The camera on this phone is 3.15MP with decent image quality and it records videos at 15FPS (Frames Per Second) in 480p, which is good. This phone costs about 15,000 PKR which is equivalent to $167.
Full specifications here.

4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 is a little old phone. It was announced some time in the year 2010. This phone's specifications are still respectable and it's a very nice and cheap android phone. The X8 runs Android v1.6 (Donut) which is very old and is only upgradable to v2.1. The phone has a very good design and has a great look to it. It has a 3.0 inch screen with a resolution of 320x480 capable of showing 16m colors. The processor is a 600 MHz ARM 11 and a dedicated GPU of 200 MHz similar to the HTC Explorer. It supports Bluetooth 2.1, Edge, 3G and WiFi connectivity. Other features include Google maps, compass, GPS + A-GPS. The camera on this phone is of 3.15MP and the quality is similar to the one on the HTC Explorer. The price of this phone is 15,000 PKR also which is equal to $167.
Full specifications here.

There are many other cheap phones but I think these 4 phones are the best and cheapest.

Free Laptop Giveaway By The Government

2012-03-31T12:04:00.000+05:00

Free laptop distribution by the government, that's a pretty cool thing to do for the bright and hardworking students. Over 100,000 laptops were distributed to students of Universities in Punjab, Pakistan. The laptop distribution started in February 2nd 2012 and should finish in
the end of March.

Here are the specifications of the laptops being distributed:

Manufacturer: Dell
Screen Size: 14" inches
Processor: Intel Dual-Core B950
Memory: 2GB DDR3 RAM
Hard Disk: 320 GB
Free Laptop Carrying Case and Bag
15 Months Parts and Battery Warranty

The specifications of these laptops show that the laptops are more than enough for an average student and all the laptops come pre-loaded with Windows 7 Home Edition which is nice of the manufacturers to include. This can also be a step for saving their positions in next year's elections.

A country which is currently going through economical crisis has spent more than Rs. 4 billion on free distribution of laptops in the province of Punjab and is said that 300,000 more laptops will be distributed next year. This is however, a good step by the government of Punjab but spending huge funds on such ceremonies is highly unethical.

Our nation has several problems which need to be addressed and this doesn't seem one of 'em. Although, we have to admit that this is really good for the students that couldn't afford to buy such machinery and will help them study and work more easily as well as connect with their friends.

Best Ways To Monetize A Website Or Blog

2012-03-31T10:30:00.000+05:00

In this post I will tell you some efficient ways to monetize you blog.

The best way to monetize a blog or website is by Google AdSense. It's a CPC/CPM based advertising company, in other words you get paid when someone clicks on the ads and you also get paid whenever you get thousand views. The price of a click varies from $0.01 to sometimes even $5 per ad click. It is the only way to get a good earning and also the easiest but sometimes it's pretty hard to get accepted by Google for monetizing. They check so many things on a website, If they find even a little risk of producing invalid clicks on your site they will ban you forever and there is no way to out-smart or get around Google. In AdSense's eyes, the Advertisers are more valuable than their Publishers. In short, If you have a good website or blog with decent amount of traffic you should apply for AdSense first. Sign up for AdSense here.
The second best way to earn money from you blog or website is direct-advertising. Here are some websites that work as an intermediary between you and the advertiser:
BuySellAds
Advertisespace
Puxee
BlogAds
Sign up on any of the websites above and fill in all the information about your site including how much you want to sell the ad space for, the ad size and placement as well. This method usually works extremely well, actually even better than AdSense but it requires you to have large amounts of page views per month and your website must be at least 3 months old. Most advertisers like to advertise on proper domains (www.example.com) and avoid advertising on sub-domains (www.example.wordpress.com) so, if you own a blog then it will need to have a good search ranking and followers to get advertisers to notice your site. Also, sometimes it takes a lot of time till someone buys your ad space.
Affiliate marketing is another way to make money from your blog or website. Once you sign up on an affiliate network they will give you the ad code of their products and whenever someone buys the product then you will be paid some percentage of the money. It doesn't always work well but when it does it pays good. In order to make money through this method you will need to write reviews of the products your showing ads of to somehow convince the reader to buy it through the link of the product on your site. Following are some good affiliate networks:
Amazon Affiliate Program
Commission Junction
Click Bank
The third way is only for very popular websites which have more than 500,000 page views per month. All you need to do is make a new tab or page on your website and name it "Advertise Here" or "Advertise on my site" or something similar. This page will be for people or companies that are interested in advertising on your site. This page will help them better understand your site like, what type of audience it reaches to, number of followers, monthly page views and other information that will convince them to advertise on your site. Also, don't forget to place a contact E-mail for them to contact you about prices etc.

What To Blog About?

2012-03-30T22:08:00.000+05:00

I'm running out of ideas! I don't know what to blog about! I did think this would happen to me sometime or later but didn't know that it would happen so quickly.

Here I am sitting in front of my computer screen thinking about what to blog about? I would think of something cool, then I would be like no that's stupid. Every blogger goes through this I guess but with me this is happening way too quickly. It's been only a month since I've started blogging and I'm stuck already. This makes me kinda think that maybe this blog isn't going to last long.

I really like blogging it's like the best thing I can do in my leisure time and I'm now kind of addicted to it.

So it's like I'm asking for help from whoever is reading this stupid post, so if you have any good ideas for me please tell me in the comments section. Thanks!

Thinking About My Future

2012-03-26T14:24:00.003+05:00

Everyone thinks about their future sometime in their life. "What will become of me when I grow up?", "Will I be successful?", "Will I become a complete failure?". These are some questions we ask ourselves. We all want to become a successful person when we grow up, no one wants to be a failure.

You think about becoming someone like a lawyer or a doctor or any other kind of successful person when you're a child and

usually as you grow up you start to think differently and become reluctant. There's no telling what you're capable of becoming when you grow up that's why you must at least have some determination because no aspect of life can be completed without determination, not to lose hope and try to keep your hopes high is what I have learnt.

When I was younger, when people would ask me what I wanted to become when I grow up? I would always have one answer, "I wanna become a pilot". As a kid becoming a pilot was like a quest that I wanted to succeed in and do what ever it takes to become a pilot but as I grew up I started to think differently and started seeing my childhood dream as a foolish thought and became totally reluctant towards it. I still want to become a pilot but have a feeling that I can't. I now have a sudden urge to undo that feeling and start believing that I can become a pilot and I will! Someday I'm gonna turn that dream into a reality.

So what I want to say here is that don't lose hope and always stay motivated.

How To Add Floating Social Media Options In Blogger. Easiest Way!

2012-03-23T14:41:00.000+05:00

I was crazily searching on how to add the floating social media option on the Internet and now finally found it! All the tutorials on the internet were so hard, I wasn't able to install it. This method is really easy if you are new to blogging and HTML editing, like me. So let's start!

Go to www.sharethis.com then click on "Get the button".

Now, don't select the blogger icon, select the "website" icon. Then click "next" and select the "Bars" option.
Select the services you want to add by dragging/dropping and click on "Finish".
If you aren't already registered, then register or login.
Then codes and instructions will pop up.
Select the first script tag and copy it.
Open your blogger account. Go to "Template" and click on "Edit HTML".
Find "<head>" tag and paste the tag you copied in the 6th step below the head tag.
Click "Save Template".
Now copy the second script tag from the sharethis website.
Go to "Layout" in your blogger account and click on "Add a gadget" and select the "HTML/Javascript" gadget.
Now paste the script tag you copied in the 10th step in the HTML/Javascript gadget and save it.

Now you're done! Have any questions? Ask 'em in the comments. Thanks and I hope it works! (which it definitely will.)

Pakistan Will Become World's Largest Economy?

2012-03-22T19:29:00.002+05:00

Pakistan will become the world's largest economy in the 21st century? This is really hard to believe because when you look at Pakistan you can't believe that it is capable of becoming one of the world's largest economies.How I found about this? Well, what happened was that I just

randomly searched the word 'Pakistan' on Google, the first result that came up was a page from Wikipedia about Pakistan. Wikipedia provides a lot of information about practically anything so, it also had a very detailed page about Pakistan. I scrolled down the page and found a heading which said 'Economy', when I started reading it I couldn't believe my eyes, it said that,

"Pakistan is a rapidly developing country. Pakistan has been listed among the Next Eleven, the eleven countries that along with the BRICS have a high potential of becoming the world's largest economies in the 21st century."

The Next Eleven are: Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Philippines, Turkey, South Korea, and Vietnam. These 11 countries were introduced by Gold Man Sachs Investment Bank. The bank studied the countries and stated that they will give good results for investment and growth in the future.

BRICS which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The BRICS is an organization for all the leading emerging economic countries who also have an extremely high chance of becoming the world's largest economies.

This is really big news for Pakistan but seeing how the current situation of the country is there are very low chances of Pakistan becoming one of the world's largest economies in the near future.

Piracy In Pakistan

2012-03-14T23:29:00.001+05:00

Piracy has become a huge problem in Pakistan. You can easily buy pirated movies, songs, games and soft-wares from any CD/DVD store for as low as 0.50$. Most of the people here don't even know the difference between genuine and pirated soft-wares. In the same way piracy is found in books and even in clothing from big brands like Nike and Reebok. Computer soft-wares have

been affected the most by piracy. There is no such store here in Pakistan that sells original soft-wares and games. That is mostly because people here can't afford to buy 20$-50$ soft-wares, same goes with books and clothing. When people don't even know the difference between a legitimate and pirated copy then why would they pay 10x more than they're already paying? Not many people here have access to the internet so they can't even verify the soft-ware from the manufacturer's website. Companies have lost millions of dollars worth of games and soft-wares in Pakistan, resulting in a big loss.

The main reason for the rapid increase of piracy in Pakistan is that there is no serious punishment for selling fake and pirated stuff. Sometimes, even the people that sell these programs don't even know they're pirated because they too buy from illegal sources. This is a big problem and will not be easy tackle as there are so many illegal businesses running. The government should first educate the people about this issue and after that, they should implement severe punishments for those who are promoting piracy and put an end to this illegal act.

I asked a question on google support "Why YouTube partnership program isn't in Pakistan?" They answered, "The YouTube partnership program isn't in Pakistan because your copyright law is very flawed."

If our copyright law stays this way companies will be more afraid than they already are in investing in Pakistan.

Top 5 Pakistani YouTube Channels

2012-03-13T14:37:00.000+05:00

5. Pro Pakistani

The very popular Pakistani IT news website propakistani.pk owns a YouTube channel as well. They don't upload in this channel very often but focus mostly on their website. They mostly upload interviews with some IT related people in this channel and also some important telecom news. If you are interested in some latest IT news then you should probably subscribe to their channel.

YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/ProPakistanii
Website: www.propakistani.pk

4. Mera Passion Pakistan

It is a platform which isn't in association with any sort of regional or political party. Their aim is to create a positive feeling in the minds of our youth towards Pakistan. They try to find people that are unique and tell their great success stories. It's a very wonderful channel and one of my favorites but sadly, it isn't appreciated as much as it should be and doesn't have much subscribers.

YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/MPPakistan1
Website: www.merapassionpakistan.com

3. Evil Spellz
The third on my list of top Pakistani YouTube channels, Evil Spellz. The channel focuses on comedy and has gained popularity with their very popular video "Shit Pakistani Girls Say", this video has over 300,000 views and it is the main reason why this channel is on number 3. The owner of this channel is Muhammad Salman Shamim. According to him, he made this channel because he likes to direct and make movies.

YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/evilspellz

2. X Productions Media

It is the second most popular Pakistani YouTube channel. XProductions Media is a company which provides services such as. Music videos, Video editing, Event planning, T.V commercials and Photo shoots.

They started this channel in 2010 and have created very informative documentaries about some of the problems faced by Pakistan along with some very great music videos. Currently they have 200+ subscribers.

YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/XProductionsMedia
Website: www.xproductionsmedia.com
1. The Living Picture

This is the #1 YouTube channel of Pakistan (in terms of comedy). It has more than 7000 subscribers and are increasing in a steady pace. The content which is provided is very original and funny. Started in 2007 and now to this year the channel has developed a decent amount of entertaining videos. The owner of this channel is a young Writer, Choreographer, Theater Director and Actor, Osman Khalid Butt.

According to him the purpose of this channel is not only to entertain but also to help in the advancement of the performing arts of Pakistan and to encourage creative individuals in the performing arts.

YouTube Channel:www.youtube.com/TheLivingPicture

These are my top 5 Pakistani YouTube channels. If you know any other good Pakistani YouTube channels then don't forget to tell me in the comments.

Effects Of Media On Our Brain

2012-03-10T20:29:00.000+05:00

Today I'm gonna tell you the effects of media on the human mind. Now, I'm no psychologist who has been studying about this, I'm just a normal guy who has been experiencing something weird. Whenever you switch on the news channel, you probably hear the word 'terrorist' at least once a day. Most of the times when you hear it you see a picture of some
Arab guy or specifically a Muslim, usually in the photo the person has a beard or has covered his entire face with a cloth and is holding a very famously known terrorist used weapon, yes, you're right, the AK-47. They also sometimes wear a head band which says something like this:

Whenever we see this, our brain automatically points towards Muslims, because they are on the news so often and the word 'terrorist' is used for them so many times, that we now only see their faces. I think this is a really huge problem. There was once a time when people used to look for a taxi driver who had a beard, as they were known for being honest and truthful. But now, people have bad images in their brains towards people with a beard, people get a bad image when they hear the words Islam and Allah.

This is a picture of an American soldier along with a picture of an Arab soldier. Who looks like a terrorist to you?

Your brain will most probably point towards the Arab soldier. The media has made them look so bad and has made them look like the bad people but in real, the terrorists are the Americans, who are killing men, women and children by the thousands every year in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and now, in Pakistan as well.

Mobile Snatching In Pakistan (My Story)

2012-03-09T16:03:00.000+05:00

Mobile snatching has become a really big problem in Pakistan, since the last few years it has increased tremendously. People are afraid to use their cell phones on the streets, they all have the fear of getting it snatched away, that's why many
people don't buy expensive smart phones these days in Pakistan. My closest friend had got his cell phone stolen more than 5 times last year and now after experiencing it so many times he now says "These cell phones that we keep really belong to them (snatchers), we just keep it warm for them till they take it back". I think what my friend says is kinda true because almost every person in Pakistan or at least in Karachi has got his/her mobile phone stolen. This happened to me as well.

It was a Sunday night, me, my two brothers and my mom and dad were driving back from a wedding, it was about 12:00 AM and the electricity was out as well so it was dark, we parked our car outside the main gate of our house, that's when suddenly two men in a motorcycle stopped their bike in front of our car, at that moment we didn't know what was going on, my dad quickly stepped out of the car and asked the men what was wrong, then both of the men took out their pistols and shouted "Take out all of your phones and jewelry or else we'll shoot you". We had a total of six cell phones in the car, one of my brother had two cell phones, one was a cheap one and the other was an expensive one, my second brother had a very expensive phone too, me and my mom and dad both had cheap phones. In short we had about 85,000 PKR worth of mobile phones in the car. As my dad was the first one to step out of the car, the thieves robbed him first, they took my dad's cell phone and wallet (luckily he didn't have any money in it), then they went towards my mom and took her necklace (it wasn't of much value but it looked expensive). Thankfully some people were passing by, the robbers got scared and ran away. As soon as they went we called the police and filed a complaint but they never got caught, I even gave them their bike's license plate number but still they were'nt able to find 'em. But in the end we were all fine and only faced a loss of about 3,000 PKR.

After this incident we found out that the CPLC (Citizens Police Liaison Committee) can track down your stolen cell phone and retrieve it back, they will ask you some questions including your phones IMEI number which you can find on the box of your phone. If any of you have gotten your cell phone stolen please block you sim card and file a complaint against the theft. You can even fill out an online mobile theft complaint at http://www.cplc.org.pk/

Aik Naya Pakistan (A New Pakistan)

2012-03-06T17:37:00.000+05:00

The video above was recently uploaded by Aik Naya Pakistan (ANPak)on their YouTube Channel. Their YouTube Channel is www.youtube.com/AikNayaPakistan.

Aik Naya Pakistan or ANPak for short is an organization whose
objective is to unite the youth of Pakistan on a single platform and raise their voice as one and make this country a better place for us to live. It's good to see that people like them are working so hard for the betterment of our nation and it makes me feel proud to be a Pakistani (the kind of feeling I haven't been feeling for a long time). They are focusing on reviving the patriotism, devotion and commitment of the people of Pakistan with their videos and other campaigns.

Because of the current situation of our state, people are starting to lose their patriotic feelings towards Pakistan. Mostly who are being affected are the youth, they are beginning to think that there's nothing left in this nation and are migrating to other developed nations. This is where ANPak and many other groups are trying hard to revive the devotion and commitment to our great nation which we once had in our blood.

Just like ANPak there are many other groups trying to unite the people of Pakistan, some of the most popular groups are:

Xproductions Media
Mera Passion Pakistan

Change In Pakistan

2012-03-05T21:05:00.001+05:00

Revolution isn't gonna be easy to bring, especially in a country like our's. So many leaders promising to bring change in our country, I say that we should not just rely on our politicians for bringing change, we should also do our bit, even if
we have to do the smallest ones. Well, for starters we can at least stop littering on our own soil, it won't kill you if you just keep your trash in your pockets for a while and throw it in a trash can later. I see more than a dozen people everyday littering on the road without any hesitation and then most of them are complaining about pollution and trash everywhere.

The system of our country has completely changed. We have utterly lost our way. Our country is full of Bribery, Injustice and Discrimination. Ask yourselves for real, what kind of era are we headed towards? Almost every department involves bribery. The court of justice, one place where we can get our rights back is filled with all these things the most. How's a citizen who has been scammed get justice, when the one place for justice is filled with bribery.

It will be hard for us, the people to bring revolution but we keep forgetting one thing. We have the upper hand, we are in control of our country not the politicians but the problem is that we aren't united. We already have problems like Pathan/Muhajir clashes and now talks about Balochistan wanting to become a separate nation. how's a nation, which is fighting with itself stand as one against the corrupt people who are in control of our country?

I guess all we can do now is wait for a promising leader to take over our nation. Right now, it looks like Imran Khan is our only hope.