Bits and Pieces

Only Apple …

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 01:05:43 -0800

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Spot On!

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:57:02 -0800

Taken from The Nation's Daily Cartoon

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آو ہم سب، ایک ہو جائیں

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 06:33:18 -0700

۶۰ کا عشرہ پاکستان کی تاریخ کا سنہرا دور تھا کہ جب یہاں صنعتی انقلاب اپنے عروج پر تھا، وطنِ عزیز کو آج بھی وسائل اور با صلاحیت لوگوں کی کمی نہیں، بس ہم کو پھرسے اسے اپنی چاہتوں اور کامیابیوں کا محور بنانے کی ضرورت ہے۔ حکمراں تو خیر سب کے سب بکے ہوئے ہیں اور وہ اس سر زمیں کو انجانے میں نہیں بلکہ دانستہ اندھیروں میں دھکیل رہے ہیں کہ ان کو اسی کام کی اجرت ملتی ہے، ہم میں سے بھی مگر کتنے ہیں جو پاکستانی ہونے پر فخر کرتے ہیں؟

چاند تاروں سے سجی،
میری سوچوں سے حسیں،
سچے خوابوں کی زمیں،
تیری میری سرزمیں۔

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Fail: DIB's site only works in IE

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 03:31:00 -0700

just got off the phone with Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) support and they so conveniently tell me to use IE to use their Internet Banking (http://www.dibpak.com). The only trouble is, I am on a mac and wouldn't use IE even if I was on windows. How long would it take for the gentlemen running these institutions (Banks, FBR, etc) to understand that their beloved IE is dead, specially IE6 which even MS doesn't recommend anymore? perhaps never!

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The "very scary" Iranian Terror plot - Glenn Greenwald

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 03:40:00 -0700

just because US are strong, doesn't mean they are right. Propaganda machines sometimes border absurdity trying feed you their agenda, in this case the Iranian terror plot, the foolishness if which is beyond me to fathom.

http://www.salon.com/2011/10/12/the_very_scary_iranian_terror_plot/singleton/

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sounds like a solid plan :D

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:49:00 -0700

taken from The Nation - Daily Cartoon

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Sounds Logical

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 11:44:00 -0700

(source: http://nation.com.pk/uploads/news_image/original/Maxim_Cartoon_33273.jpg)

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There's no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people:

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 09:33:00 -0700

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Finally Some Spine - Gen Kayani slams US allegations

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 05:00:00 -0700

from The Nation

Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani categorically ruled out the allegations of White House and Pentagon leveled against Pakistan and its main premier intelligence agency – Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) – supporting Haqqani network. Military Chief rejected the statement of US Joint Chief of Staff Committee Admiral Mike Mullen in which he had stated that Pakistan was supporting Haqqani Network for militancy in Afghanistan. He said Admiral Mike Mullen statement after positive talk in Spain was deplorable. Admiral Mullen allegations were baseless, General Kiyani said, adding that, Mullen knows very well that how many countries have links with Haqqani network. Nothing would be gotten by blaming Pakistan, he stated.

Glad the COAS is finally showing some signs that he serves Pakistan. Also, US government's lunacy baffles me, they are such hypocrites. I was watching Rambo 3 the other day and it was so proudly dedicated to The Gallant People of Afghanistan. Now they are fighting the same gallant Afghans and since they can't beat them, they have chosen Pakistan to use as their shock absorber. This cartoon summarizes the issue very effectively:

(taken from: The Nation's Daily Cartoon)

Dear US: Learn to admit your failures! Afghanistan has turned out to be a Vietnam for you and now you don't know how to escape it.

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Feeling disgusted by BBC headline

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 05:33:00 -0700

Saw this (from my twitter feed) a bit earlier today: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14998394

the headline says: "Death penalty for seven Pakistanis who killed teenagers"

notice how BBC is trying to highlight nationality of the convicted only. I have a few problems with that:

The headline feels odd, it could easily have been "Death penalty for seven who killed teenagers", it's short and comprehensive. Why was it so important to highlight the nationality of the convicted, thereby making all Pakistanis look like barbarians? Do criminals and terrorists have any faith/nationality/heritage? No, they don't.
If they were so hung up on mentioning the nationalities, why not appreciate the Pakistani court that upheld justice, something like "Death penalty by Pakistani court for seven who killed teenagers", that would have had a positive effect (for a change for BBC)
And if they still are totally in pain to mention the nationality of the convicted, then they should mention all nationalities, so the headline would have been "Death penalty by Pakistani Court for seven Pakistanis who killed Pakistani teenagers"

I am disgusted and hurt by this reporting standard. Pakistan desperately needs some positive portrayal, we Pakistanis have been trying hard to do that too, but the most international media take particular pleasure in negatively highlighting our faith and nationality. In fact, the problems in Pakistan are really not as bad as portrayed by some media companies like BBC.

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Groupin's "Mindblowing" discounts OR Insanely inflated figures?

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 02:20:23 -0700

If you have been using Groupin (a Pakistani flavor of Groupon) for sometime, you would have an idea of how inflated their original prices are, usually I think it's alright, the guys are trying to start a business and they need to attract some eyes (from both the businesses and buyers) before they can start being more reasonable, but this offer I received yesterday is a real gem.

Seriously Groupin? May be you think we are stupid, right?

The most expensive figures I know of the test are Rs. 750/-, the average figures range between Rs. 400/- and Rs. 500/- So where did you guys get this figure of Rs. 1200/-? From the top of your head I think, and hey! it makes the discount go above 50% so lets just put it in there, yup?

No Thank you, I guess I will do better without your mind blowing discounts, I am happy to unsubscribe.

PS: And Punjab Government has enforced a discounted price of Rs. 90/- for Dengue fever test through out Punjab, I am not a fan of PML(N) but this is what real discount is, Groupin people should learn from this.

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Dear USA, your 9/11 is our 24/7. Sincerely, Palestine.

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:11:10 -0700

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Lets not forget (Fixed):

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 22:17:47 -0700

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iPhone Boot Camp - Lahore

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 02:34:00 -0800

I'll be coaching at an iOS training workshop called iPhone Boot Camp from Feb 15 - Mar 01, 2011. The workshop is being organized in collaboration with Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) and Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA). If you live in Lahore and would like to attend a crash course on iOS development, feel free to join in.

Registration form and course details are available at: http://ietpk.com/registration/, Registration closes on Feb 11, 2011

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Quit Game View Studios, Starting Up

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:41:00 -0700

Today was my last day at Game View Studios, It was busy. Not busy as in busy-packing-things-before-you-leave, but as in busy-fixing-bugs-and-giving-build-to-QA. It was good though, I enjoyed fixing bugs. I enjoy building games.

I am going to try building my own games. "Work, work and only work"[1], I am planning to keep that pasted on my front wall for next few months.

I will also be doing services work here and there to keep my head above water. If you have iphone/android/google-app-engine work, feel free to contact me.

[1] quoting Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

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GameBiz 2 - Game Industry Simulator

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 03:36:00 -0700

NOTE: Excerpt from http://forums.indiegamers.com/

In GameBiz 2 you can start up a game development house, hire staff, build a game engine, build a game, sell the game, make sequel games and the old fan base who bought your original game are likely to buy the sequel, realise the console you released the game on is about to stop being made, go bankrupt, compete with the main rivals game company like EA, etc

Sounds Interesting. Too bad it's for windows only, so I cannot play it. You can download the game here

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SFXR: 8bit sound effects generator

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:50:11 -0700

taken from struct.ca

SFXR

SFXR is a simple 8-bit retro sound generator that was created as a way for devs at Ludum Dare to create sound effects really quickly. It’s open source, and has been ported to Flash for convenient in-browser use: http://www.superflashbros.net/as3sfxr/

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should tabloids be cricket's judge and jury?

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 04:55:00 -0700

NOTE: I am not a big fan of cricket, but humiliation of our team is something no Pakistani would digest. Hence this rant. :-)

Pakistani cricket is under a lot of criticism these days for alleged spot fixing. These may, or may not, be true. Investigations are in progress and one should not be passing judgements just yet. A couple of things have gone wrong and unnecessarily escalated the situation. First, ICC should not have suspended Pakistani cricketers without some concrete evidence first, Or are the tabloids going to decide who plays and who does not? Second, PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt's tirade on English players was totally uncalled for, ECB was helping us. The anger should have been targeted on the tabloids trying to become the jury. Mr. Chairman made a wrong move.

Couldn't agree more with this blog post on CNN

On a lighter note, I don't buy English skipper's justification for yesterday's loss, He says, "players were disturbed". Learn to accept your defeat man! :-) Pakistan won because they played better. And what pressure are you talking about? Pakistan team was under pressure right from first allegations incident in Oval.

About Wahab/Trott situation, I think Wahab did the right thing. Trott has too much hot air in his head, casting aspersions on Pakistan players and Pakistani nations is cheap! If he is part of the national team, ECB should teach him some manners too. PCB higher management should take notice of this, it should be their job to take care of these things, players should focus on the game.

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Memory Management Pitfalls (iPhone)

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 05:02:00 -0700

MemoryManagementPitfalls.pptx Download this file

Recently I presented a session on common memory management mistakes while developing for iPhone. Slides from the session are attached.

EDIT: a follow up session on fixing memory leaks was presented. slides were even more scarce this time, attached below for the interested :-)

FixingMemoryLeaks.pptx Download this file

PS: This was more of an interactive discussion rather than presentation, hence so few slides.

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iPhone SDK | NSURLRequest | timeoutInterval does not work

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:40:16 -0700

NSURLRequest's timeoutInterval setting is broken or at least it does not behave as one would expect it to, as discussed here, here and here and on the apple forums here.

One possible workaround for this is to use performeSelector:withObject:afterDelay: to cancel the request after timeout interval has passed. here's how it might be implemented:

connection_ = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest: urlRequest delegate: self];

[self performSelector:@selector(triggerTimout)

withObject:nil

afterDelay:requestTimeout];

if the request fails with an error, we need to cancel the performSelector: request, so connection:didFailWithError: would look like:

- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *) myConnection didFailWithError:(NSError *) myError

{

[NSObject cancelPreviousPerformRequestsWithTarget:self

selector:@selector(triggerTimout)

object:nil];

}

similarly, if the request succeeds, we need to cancel the performSelector: request, so connectionDidFinishLoading would look like this:

- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *) myConnection;

{

[NSObject cancelPreviousPerformRequestsWithTarget:self

selector:@selector(triggerTimout)

object:nil];

}

If our timeout selector gets triggered, we'd want to cancel the request and return an error to our application, like this:

/**

* NOTE: since apple's own timeout is buggy, we trigger timeout manually for our requests

- (void)triggerTimout

{

[[self connection] cancel];

NSError *tmpError = [[NSError alloc] initWithDomain:NS_ERROR_DOMAIN

code:1001

userInfo:[NSDictionary

dictionaryWithObject:@"Network request has timed out"

forKey:NSLocalizedDescriptionKey]];

// return the error to application

}

**NOTE**: error code 1001 is used for timeout errors by apple as well.

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