The tale of Power Puff Women

The modern day society is obsessed to be tagged with brands, big, small or even medium. They want to have everything branded for making their self more worthy and esteemed. People have forgotten the difference of attachment vs loyalty with a particular brand.

We see many emerging new brands in Pakistan, especially in the fashion industry. Day to day they are rising more with a bigger fan following, but something horrible is happening around which they are unable to see.

Rather than creating an emotional attachment to their particular brand, they are making people, esp. women addicted to their products. What's wrong with that? Indeed, one cannot find anything wrong about it but the recent incidents happening in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi proved a vicious mentality of buying Sale items by hook or by crook. 

The outlets turn into battlefield and women became a warrior. Those who use to flaunt the class and their education, bent to the lowest levels and not only showed the stronger side of them by snatching clothes and having cat fights but made the sale mania craze stronger than ever.

The branded clothes went on sale every year, twice or thrice in 12 months, but few brands are very reluctant to sell their clothes in meager sales. That is why when they announced the 2 days special sales, whole female population gathered at the outlets and showed the desperateness for mere clothes.

I am myself a huge fan of sale but the thing which astounded me, women have become emotionally vulnerable to buy those branded clothes for less price that they can even fight, bite, yell, snatch and misbehave in public while forgetting the Lady side of them.

On Black Friday Sales, we saw a catfight in Sapphire, a newly opened retail outlet of women clothes, which got world attention and was viral not only in Pakistan but in Britain, America and other parts of the world as well. The mirror published the news under Weird news section, which might be not a good thing.

Sapphire is not the trend setter and I am lucky enough to witness such great rush of women in Khaadi Store last year followed by this year as well. When the stocks end, women become furious and even pleaded other women to give them the dress for a bit more price because they have came so far and do not want to go empty handed.

Recently a similar video went viral of a Karachi-based designer outlet Agha Noor who announced flat 50% off in respect of celebrating their anniversary, which was more repulsive than the former ones. The huge mob of women broke the outlet door, many fallen on the floor, many lost their phones, purses and even dupattas, which can be seen clearly in the video. 

I just ask myself one question whenever to see women degrading themselves like this. Do they even have any idea the brand owners make very few clothes for themselves and believe that buying too many clothes is wastage of money? Do these women have any idea that they are representing a frustrated and desperate picture of Pakistani women dying to buy a Kurta in sale which might not even be of their size, because they can't even ask the staff for their size, and if they somehow manage to ask there won't be any left, might be they have picked up the wrong piece in haste.

Here are two suggestions, either these brands should stop announcing such sales or have massive sales, several times in a year to fulfill the apetite for more designer clothes. I feel these women who can do anything to buy that Branded Kurta, might not understand that they are portraying a very bad image of themselves and have stooped so low that we cannot even teach them. This must be stopped here otherwise it will turn into a cultre which would be very degrading for all of us. This not only happens in Pakistan but in worldwide but seeing the misery of Pakistani women the brand owners must do something for their loyal customers rather than insulting and humiliating them like this.

Facebook and Uber came together for loyal customers

Christmas is here so one of the biggest social networking giant Facebook has an exciting gift for its users. The company has launched a new feature that lets people book cars directly from Uber using the Messenger smartphone application. 

The Americans can use Facebook Messenger to book an Uber cab and simultaneously alert their friends in a chat thread under this feature. 

The new Uber in Messenger feature can be found by clicking on the car icon or finding “Transportation” in the three-dot “more” menu below where you write your messages. 

Tech crunch reported that either of those actions will open Uber’s Request Ride option where you can add your pick up location, destination, and car type. 

“We are just getting people used to the idea that you can message more than just people on Messenger,” Seth Rosenberg, Facebook product manager, was quoted as saying in a post. 

Everyone who books a cab via Messenger "Transportation" would get a $20 Uber credit. Earlier, WeChat, a messaging and calling app, allowed users to book cars in China. 

Facebook, however, claims that their move was not inspired by WeChat. Meanwhile, Uber also plans to use Messenger as a test case for real-time customer service 

"We will start testing live support through Messenger to find out if this is the best way to start using real-time support through this," Rahul Bijor, Uber's head of API and strategic partnerships, was quoted as saying. 

According to Facebook, there are 700 million people on Messenger. The new feature will most likely be available in the US by Christmas. 

Uber is not launched in Pakistan yet, so there is nothing for this region other than some new features who let you give a nickname to the chat, while customize chat color and adding some different emoji buttons. So wnjoy them and forget something big from Facebook.

Link related to blog: ZEE

Bangladesh bans Facebook, Whatsapp and Viber over “Security”

Restricting citizens from information flow is morally a wrong deed but many government do not bother to this fact. 

Recently it was reported that Bangladesh authorities insisted on almost a weeklong ban on Facebook and mobile messaging services. They want to ban the services until security in the tense country improved. 

On Wednesday, the government last ordered Facebook, WhatsApp and Viber blocked to be blocked over fears of unrest after the country’s highest court rejected appeals by two top opposition leaders against the death penalty for war crimes.

The telecoms regulator said the ban would stay after the two leaders were hanged on Sunday morning, prompting calls for a nationwide strike and raising fears of violence from their supporters.

“They [services] will be reopened the moment the government feels it’s safe,” Shahjahan Mahmud, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, told AFP. Commission spokesman Zakir Hossain Khan declined to confirm media speculation the ban would be lifted later Tuesday.

In a response, analysts said that the shutdown was aimed for stopping opposition parties organizing rallies in the run-up to the executions, amid anger over what rights group have called “flawed and unfair” war crimes trials. 

The regulator also temporarily banned messaging services Viber and Tango in January after they became a popular way of mobilizing large numbers of activists for anti-government protests.

In recent past, Bangladesh also hanged Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, from the country’s biggest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, a key aide of opposition leader Khaleda Zia, after they were convicted of atrocities during the 1971 war against Pakistan. 

History is evident that social media and social media apps play the key role in modern revolutions and thus the governments do not take a chance for let the citizens come forward and speak for their rights.

A large number of Bangladeshis slammed the ban on Twitter, saying it was curbing free speech and further fueling anger against the government.

This is not it, but the Bangladesh’s fast-growing online retail industry said the ban has hit their business, with some reporting reduced sales.

Such a ban on social media is an attack on free speech and depicts the insecurities of the government regarding people’s rights.

Link related to blog: NW

If your name is ISIS then Facebook might block your account

After the brutal killings in Paris, Facebook has also made an attempt to counter terrorism but they did it wrongly.

A California woman named Isis Anchalee had her Facebook account deactivated apparently due to her first name.

The 22-year-old San Francisco-based engineer logged into her social media account on Monday only to find out it had been suspended.

She implied the lockdown was triggered by her first name's association with the terrorist organization known as ISIS.

"Facebook thinks I'm a terrorist. Apparently sending them a screenshot of my passport is not good enough for them to reopen my account," said Anchalee on Twitter.

Moments after Anchalee tweeted out her complaint, one person reported that a friend had also experienced a similar issue.

Omid Farivar, a Facebook researcher, tweeted Anchalee to apologize for the blunder, saying that the issue had been reported and that Facebook will be coming up with a fix.

The recent incident isn't the first time someone got banned from Facebook because of their name. Back in August, an Arizona couple claimed they were barred from using the social networking site until they verified their rather unusual last name: Avatar.

ISIS is an Egyptian name which means powerful, but all those people who have similar name have to be attentive that anytime their account can be blocked.

In Anchalee's case, presenting her passport was not enough to regain her account. Considering the recent ISIS attacks, more Facebook users are expected to experience the same predicament.

Over 50,000 people have supported a petition on ThePetitionSite, calling the media to stop using the term ISIS to refer to terrorists, as it can be harmful to women, especially young girls, to constantly hear their name being used to describe a terror group. This is a serious issue as many can be harassed and bullied for their name.

Link related to blog: LP

Facebook kills the Other Box, what's its replacement then?

The Other inbox was where messages from strangers, or people you only kind of know. Probably many people had no idea that such folder ever existed. 

Within 10 days, Facebook will roll out Message Requests. It works a lot like the other inbox, except you can actually find it. 

“If you’re friends on Facebook, if you have each other’s contact info in your phone and have these synced, or if you have an existing open thread, the new messages from that sender will be routed to your inbox,” writes Vice President of messaging services at Facebook, David Marcus. 

“Everything else will now be a message request, minus spam attempts that we will continue to ruthlessly combat.”

The biggest change here is messages from strangers will appear in the Messenger app, meaning you have a far greater chance of seeing them, and you get a little information about the person who sent it.

The bad news is that messages from friends of friends will land here, too. This increases the risk that you’ll miss a message you might want, though Facebook is making some effort to ensure you know about the change. 

This could be bad and good as well. But we are looking forward what it actually turns to be in the end.

Link related to blog: Wired

Facebook going to steal all your time and this is how

Facebook has decided to steal all your time and dedicate it to them. I have something to share, I never watched any video intentionally of Facebook ever and by the time they are started to be played automatically, yes I do watched many videos, because once they are started and I found them interesting, I keep watching them. 

There seems to be a lot going on this biggest social network these days. Facebook is building a real-time news tool that could kill Twitter. Facebook's testing shopping products that could take on Amazon. Facebook's making its own YouTube.

On Friday, the company officially shared news on its video plans, saying that it's testing "new video experiences" for its mobile and desktop versions. These include features on the site that will suggest related videos, let users multitask while watching video and save videos to watch for later. As per the blog post announcing the effort, Facebook is also launching a new, dedicated section on the social network just for videos:

"This new videos section helps people discover, watch and share videos on Facebook that are relevant to them. It can be accessed by tapping a "Videos" icon at the bottom of the Facebook app on iPhone or in the 'Favorites' section on the left-hand side of News Feed on the web."

So now you don’t need to find anything on YouTube or other video related sites and Facebook is going to have all what you want. Well, it's all part of Facebook's really open and not-at-all secret plan to take over the world - by supplanting the web with its own apps as much as possible.

Americans spend far more time using apps than they do the mobile web; according to a July report from Yahoo's mobile analytics firm Flurry, we spend 90 per cent of our mobile time in an app. A full 19 per cent of that time is devoted solely to using Facebook.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has talked about bringing Facebook to more of people's lives - or expanding the things you can do with its products. Acquisitions of WhatsApp, Instagram and Oculus, for example, all give the company a chance to control more of what we do online, beyond the boundaries of shares and likes

"Facebook used to be a single blue app that did lots of different things," Zuckerberg said at last year's f8 developers' conference. "Now Facebook is a family of apps."

With its built-in access to your preferences and your friends' preferences, as well as the social power of being able to see what friends are watching, the potential is certainly there for Facebook's video section to become a machine for making viral hits, or even for broadcasting. (The company added the ability for some users to streamlive video in August.)

YouTube is a stiff competitor and there are chances, even with a special video section, Facebook won't completely replace it. But if Facebook wants to essentially be the one-stop shop for the web, it makes sense to ramp up its focus on video. Video is, after all, an increasingly important medium online for consumers and, therefore, for advertisers. They could give tough time to YouTube and we are waiting to see how many apps will be added to this family in future.

Link related to blog: SMH

Entrepreneurs give people new way to commute in and outside Lahore

Ride to your desired place in a new style, and use your smartphone apps for a better reason.

Daily we need to commute to our workplace or other places for different purposes. If somebody does not have his/her own ride, it’s quite a big mess to manage in that case. Esp. females, have hired services of auto rickshaw or van but many do not have this privilege as well. 

In this busy and expensive life everyone is not able to get their own ride and so they use local commuting system which is quite a hassle itself. Talking about Lahore, the crowded roads and busy boulevards might make you more depress when you are on way to office. So many of us wished to have a system in which we pay less and get hassle free ride to your home, college or workplace. 

Current generation knows how to make their lives easy and make money as well. Many new ideas emerged and we see fantastic entrepreneurs around us who are not only getting something done for their selves but making others’ lives easy as well; by developing these business ideas into real life services. I went through few pages on Facebook while searching random things and found some new things which are awesome if they actually work.

Savaree.com and Tripda.com.pk are the websites which give you a better way for daily commuting. When all our young people getting more attached to their smartphones, then why not to use them for travelling and commuting purposes as well. Uber is a known international cab service and savaree.com seems something inspired by it, so does Travly. You just call them and need to book them when and where you want to go. Plus they can be hired on monthly basis as well.

The mind behind savaree.com is a woman named Madiha Hasan, it’s been a year and the services is quite appreciated by Lahorites. Savaree’s personal Manager Shoaib ul Hasan told us that our drivers are educated, and after proper clearance we have hired people to insure security and make our services better.

Talking about tripda.com.pk, it is a service which you can avail by checking who is available on your route, and you can pool your trip. So many people share their schedule and route, and give a certain amount which can be pooled. This not only reduces the daily fare but also becomes easy for people to get a good ride in less money.

The idea behind these ventures is quite awesome and economical. This is unique, less time consuming and very affordable to person belonging to every class.

Other than that Shahi Savaree and app Travly are also launched to cater commuting needs of the people. They are expanding their service area so that many people can avail them. These apps are making good business through social media.

Smartphone apps for fitness freaks, quit gym but stay in shape

 

Now get a reason to quit gym and at no or low cost have your own fitness trainers.

How many of us get fitness crazy nowadays and everyday plan to join a gym for being a fit. You cannot deny that due to busy schedules we are unable to join a gym and learn a perfect workout for getting rid of extra fats. It isn't always an easiest thing to do, Apart from that who wants to pay for a gym membership they may not be motivated to use? 

While our Smartphones has replaced many things in life, let’s give a chance to them once again and get through with the hassles of joining a gym. Working out and getting back into shape is under your fingertips now.

Smartphone apps make it easy to find motivation to work out, access guided routines, and track progress. Let’s get a glimpse of few of those awesome apps that will help you ditch the expensive gym membership, save money, and cut own extra fats.

SWORKIT Lite

Do the workout in the comfort of your living room. Sworkit Lite (iOS, Android, and Amazon) has adapted video-based instruction, mixed it with a timing tool and data tracking capability, and put it all into a smartphone app. Choose the workout length as well as which muscle groups to target each day. And it’s free.

SPRING MOVES

Spring Moves (iOS) is a personal DJ app that syncs the steps of a workout with the beat of streamed music. It also tracks distance, calories, and pace. (Free to try; but $3.99/month to subscribe)

FITSTAR

It's impressive when an app knows exactly what you need. FitStar (iOS) is an interactive app that asks questions in order to deliver tailored, personalized workouts. It’s also for Free.

WOD DECK OF CARDS

Created by and for CrossFit loyalists, WOD Deck of Cards (iOS and Android) is for those who want to be surprised and challenged and constantly switch things up. Users choose one type of workout to represent each suit, and then draw a card to see how many times they must complete it. (Free)

ZOMBIES, RUN!

For the couch potato with a fondness for "The Walking Dead," Zombies, Run! (iOS and Android) app motivates users to exercise for a chance to escape a zombie takeover. The effort of running from the undead is rewarded with supplies and tools based on the amount of exercise completed. (Initially Free; $2.99/month to subscribe)

CHARITY MILES

An app that inspires more than calorie burning, Charity Miles offers rewards for running, walking, or biking distances by donating to a charity of the user's choice. The more you move, the more you help. (Free)

PUMPUP

This app can be a social media lover’s newest #fitfriend. Through a supportive community that offers virtual high-fives, PumpUp (iOS and Android) applies the accountability factor and community aspect of social media to working out. (Free)

NOOM COACH

Fitness and healthy eating are essential to achieving optimal health, and Noom Coach (iOS and Android) offers in-depth diet analysis. Keep track of foods consumed through the app and receive feedback, advice, and helpful strategies to meet fitness goals. (Free)

YOGA STUDIO

The app offers a choice of poses as well as the ability to create a personalized sequence depending on user preferences. ($3.99)

Many disliked the dislike button after announcement by Facebook, here is why!!!

How would someone translate meanings out of the dislike notification, i bet it's weird to digest the fact you are being disliked in many uncertain situations.

What if you actually does not like somebody’s post and you wished there was a dislike button on Facebook just to tell that you have no liking for that particular post, comment or photo. I wished it so many times, and I'm sure so many of us did as well.

Seeing the other side of picture, there is some sad or bad news shared by a friend; and you have no choice but to like the post. E.g. someone shared the news of his beloved's death or accident or a stolen purse, and in answer you like the post. Well that's kind of absurd but we all do that.

The news is now a new button for disliking the posts on Facebook is coming on our way sooner. Mark Zuckerberg has finally confirmed that Facebook is working on something akin to a "dislike" button that will allow its users to acknowledge users' posts with just a click, but without appearing to approve of said post.

When asked at a Q&A session about whether the social network might follow up 2010's "like" button with a dislike, Zuckerberg confirmed that the company was "working on it".

However, he also suggested the button, when it is released, might not be called "dislike". "People aren't looking for the ability to down vote people's posts, what they really want is to be able to express empathy... We have an idea that we think we'll be ready to test soon and depending on how that does we'll be ready to roll it out more broadly."

The purported button could have several alternatives to "dislike" that allow users to empathize with a status or photo but without showing disapproval.

I am restless, because I can see how people tend to misunderstandings on the world of social media, because of ironical meanings. I can sense that many of us would not understand what does the dislike button did to their posts and I am pretty sure that many of us will have cat fights, arguments or even hot words among each other. 

Few days back a recording was viral in Pakistan and India, in which a man calls to someone and kept on telling him “ Aap humein bilkul pasand nhi aye”( means we did not like you at all), though the recording was very hilarious and told us what a person feels when he is disliked by someone. We are waiting for some more studies regarding social media and the dislike button which is to be introduced sooner and see what behavioral changes it will bring to so many of us who are not good in bringing out the under cover meanings.

Mawra Hocane slammed for being pro Bollywood, proved how extremist we are in ourselves

My patriotism is another country's treachery, learn to agree on disagreement could save us from hate speech and vengeance.

Pakistan’s social media users has gone crazy over Indian film “ Phantom” which says that Pakistan has terrorists and movie was banned by Lahore High court on plea of Jamat ud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed; who is allegedly Mumbai Blasts master mind as said by Indian Media.

The movie got a lot of criticism and in press conference actor Saif Ali Khan said” I don’t have faith in Pakistan”; the statement got more reaction. Saif and Katrina Khan starrer got no good business of box office as well. IMDB rated Phantom as 4.8 which is quite below the belt rating.

In that instance Pakistani actor Faisal Qureshi uploaded a video slamming Saif Ali khan, later on Shan Shahid and Hamza Ali Abbasi jumped unto the train and gave a strong answer to Saif ali khan.

Model and actress Mawra Hocane got slammed by twitteratis and Facebook users on defending Phantom and saying that she is pro humanity. The movie only tells about terrorists and it does not say Pakistan is a terrorist country.

In response to that a motivational speaker and trainer Ashraf Chaudhary gave her a befitted answer and later on called her a sl**t in response when he forgot the preaching of tolerance. While Shan Shahid asked to ban Mawra for supporting 'Phantom'.

My say is that Phantom is just a movie, and it cannot lead us to a war, watch Bajrangi Bhai Jaan directed by the same person i.e. Kabir Khan. The issue which I see is that people who cannot win from a logic they start character assassination, and in a woman’s case it is the easiest thing to do. Favoring or not favoring movie Phantom cannot judge your loyalty with the soil and this cannot be forgotten that one’s patriotism is other country’s treachery. 

Seeing the universal facts, and the present situation in which we are in, any hate speech lead us to more hate speech. The hate speech we do to defend our argument is too mainstream now and we can see this on any matters. Few of the comments I saw were regarding actress’ new Bollywood movie poster and the other thing she was criticized for spelling her name.

I don’t think anyone has rights to point finger on anyone’s name spells. This is us who decided which letter to use and what if Mawra write ‘Hocane’ instead of ‘Hussain’ makes her any less a Muslim or Pakistani.

What wonders me is how intolerant we have become. How indecent we are in our conversations towards women, we think if a woman says of her heart she is nothing but trash, and if she is from showbiz then she has a certain name which can be tagged with her to shut her mouth.

Agree to disagree, respect other’s point of view, you have to dislike them but have no right to humiliate and say indecent words when you are out of logic or argument.

Facebook connects 1 in every 7 human beings on earth, are you connected?

 A new milestone of FB, we are connected and hence proven we are too much social, esp. on Mondays.

We know already that almost every person around us in on social networking website and those who are not, we see them with quite amazement that how come they manage to survive.

Recently the biggest social networking platform Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had one billion people logged on to the site on a single day, marking the first time in company history to reach this milestone.

That's quite amazing that a million people logged on the busiest day of week that is week start. In a Facebook post by the CEO, “On Monday, 1 in 7 people on Earth used Facebook to connect with their friends and family.” He stated that the company uses average numbers but this instance was different! “This was the first time we reached this milestone, and it’s just the beginning of connecting the whole world,” he added.

Facebook has also released a special video to commemorate the milestone.

The CEO went to say how proud he was of their community and the progress which has been made. He states, “A more open and connected world is a better world. It brings stronger relationships with those you love, a stronger economy with more opportunities, and a stronger society that reflects all of our values.”

However, no information was provided from which source the new users came from but the company definitely had a reason to celebrate, along with the advertisers too. In the end, the young CEO thanked its users for being a part of his community and for everything they have done to help Facebook reach this milestone.

Facebook Co-Founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is also the wealthiest individual under the age of 35, with a personal fortune of $41.6 billion (roughly Rs 2,72,667 crores). According to a previous report, Facebook aims to bring 4.5 billion users online with Internet.org.

With huge susccess of this project we saw many other social networkign website but they caould not reach to the heights of this website. It depicts that FB has the best tsrategies to engage people, while many researches also say that people are addicted to it.

Malala got straight A’s, another western conspiracy against Pakistan

Courtesy: AFP

May be I’m being too sarcastic but this is what general public think here in Pakistan. All the good things that little girl are backed by western agendas.

So she proved them right again by acing her O level with awesome grades. That is what western mission is; to educate Pakistan and this is how Malala Yousafzai proved them right.

The teenage education rights campaigner who came to Britain after the Pakistani Taliban tried to kill her, has scored high marks in national school exams, her father tweeted and said to media.

The girl shot for championing girls’ rights to education, gained six A* grades, the highest possible, and four As, the second highest, in her GCSEs.

“My wife Toor Pekai and I are proud of Malala,” her father Ziauddin wrote on Twitter. “Education for every child.”

Her top grades were in biology, chemistry, physics, religious studies and two math’s exams.

The news flashed on social media and there the anti Malala comments started again. She was as usual highly criticized but many appreciated her as well.

Malala Yousafzai was flown to Britain in 2012 for hospital treatment after being shot on a school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley.

She now lives permanently in Birmingham, central England, with her family and attends an all-girls school.

She hopes one day to be prime minister of Pakistan, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 jointly with India’s Kailash Satyarthi for promoting education rights for children.

GCSEs are exams in a wide range of subjects usually taken by all children in Britain at the end of their fifth year in high school. Pupils received their results on Thursday.

I wonder why we are so frightened with a little girl. If she gains something good it’s a pride for us, until she is not doing anything bad, then why can’t we digest her success?

My wife Toor Pekai and I are proud of Malala getting 6A*s and 4As. #education for every child. pic.twitter.com/lfoKBLMGYz

— Ziauddin Yousafzai (@ZiauddinY) August 21, 2015

Taj Mahal got Twitter handle, became first historical monument to have own Twitter account

This is the age of social media, not only the celebrities buy people love to have a social meddia account. In this regard the monument of love i.e Taj Mahal also got it's first twitter account.

With the launch of Taj Mahal’s twitter account today, the 17th century mausoleum became the “first historical monument” to have an official handle on the micro-blogging site.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav launched the official twitter account of the monument– @Taj Mahal at his residence.

“With this Taj Mahal has become the first historical monument in the world to have its own twitter account,” Principal Secretary Navneet Sehgal told local daily..

He said that while visiting the official account, a tourist could share his picture on #MyTajMemory, which would be included in the main account.

In fact immediately after its launch the twitteraties started hash tagging pictures of their visit to the monument of love.

Within an hour of its launch, the Taj Mahal account got more than 2000 followers.

“There are two kinds of ppl in the world. Those who have visited me and follow me here and those who haven’t seen me and yet follow me here,” the official handle tweeted after its launch.

According to sources, initially, it was proposed to launch the handle from Taj Mahal itself, but Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) denied permission.

The twitteraties loved this step taken by local government and want to have other historical monuments' twitter handle as well. So that they can share their memories.

Online Porn movies banned in India, hue and cry on social media over decision

No more adult movies for Indians, ministry bans more than 800 websites.

Online porn videos are seen in abundance and people of every age watch them with great interest. Evidently, the use of such videos is increasing day by day. One of the world’s largest website Pornhub discloses data which says Indians are among the most "prolific consumers" of internet pornography, accounting for 40% of its 14.2 billion visits. As per google trends the Pakistani usage stats of porn websites is 39%. Thank God we are some way behind India for a good thing.

Recently the outrage had been witnessed in Indian community of porn watchers when Internet service providers (ISPs) in the country have been asked to block more than 800 pornographic websites, communications ministry sources said.

"Certain websites have been reviewed and found to be spreading anti-social activities as hyperlinks from these websites, some of them were pornographic, so we have sent letters to internet service providers to block them. The action has been taken in reference to section 79 of IT Act," the sources to Indian daily.

Information technology secretary RS Sharma told newspaper that the ministry "followed court directives," a reference to an ongoing case in the Supreme Court against adult websites.

Sonam Kapoor calls Indian government 'idiot' for banning porn sites:

Ban idiots who think banning things is going to make a difference to Indian mentality.. #sooverthisgovt #NextBanIdea #sick #ashamed

— Sonam Kapoor (@sonamakapoor) August 3, 2015

ISPs also confirmed receiving letters on Saturday from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) directing them to block certain websites.

More such sites are being reviewed by the communications ministry upon the instructions of the court. However, senior officials acknowledged it is difficult to track sites on a regular basis.

This news put Indian porn lovers into shock, as porn sites were inaccessible on most ISPs – including Vodafone, MTNL, ACT, Hathway and BSNL. On searching for popular porn sites Pornhub and Redtube, all they ended up on were blank pages.

“When I checked last night it was opening fine, but this morning it seems all the popular porn sites are blocked,” said a Vodafone user from Kolkata to Indian daily. Though I am surprised to read that really people do the first thing in morning is watching a porn? I mean seriously is it what they do the first thing when just get up from sleep. That’s weird.

Many of them took to social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit to vent their outrage. The ministry still has banned it. It’s under discussion what will be the long term decision in this regard. We can only suggest to porn lovers that they must find a healthy habit to replace it in the morning, may be that would cause some good changes in their life.

People reacting to #PornBan pic.twitter.com/at4ArnPw8l

— Shalaka Juvekar (@zoowaker) August 1, 2015

Indian guys after they heard about #PornBan pic.twitter.com/yfkdIQh0U4

— Champ from Westeros (@BolshoyBooze) August 1, 2015

@chhabs waiting for the mandir attendances to be made compulsory now :-) practicing that at home.

— Sunit Kumar Madhur (@skmadhur) August 2, 2015

In a country where the Prime Minister and apparent Leader of Opposition are bachelors, Porn is banned. Unfair.. I say unfair. #PornBan

— Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) August 2, 2015

Link related to blog: Verge

Free internet is just a balloon away,thanks to google

Up above the world so high, like a Free WiFi Balloon in the sky, will be the new rhyme for kids of Sri Lanka.

There was a time when Internet was connected through telephone lines and wires. We all have been through the mess of internet cards and what not. The era of technology has brought tremendous changes and facilitate new generation with the things we have not even thought of. Google time and again proves its wondrous place in the world of IT and gives us another chance to hail for its services,

That’s not all. We've all experienced those annoying Internet dead zones where signals are blocked by geographic features or where you're just so isolated that it's not practical to build a tower or install wires. Unfortunately, that's still how it is for people in large parts of the world. Even the latest technologies are unable to reach there; but Google has found a unique way to give access of Internet in all those dead and isolated zones.

They call it “Project Loon“, somewhere in 2013 it began on New Zealand's South Island. It was as an attempt to bring network connectivity to farmers in isolated areas where physical wires were difficult or too costly to install, or were just too remote for consistent reception.

The project Loon used remote-controlled balloons (like weather balloons, not the birthday kind) instead of traditional landlines or satellites to broadcast LTE cellular service.

The news has come that after success from the experiments in New Zealand, Sri Lanka is slated to be the first country to offer balloon-based Internet access to everyone.

The Sri Lankan government signed an agreement with Google to bring broadband Internet access to all 21 million people on the island In late July 2015. This is marked as a significant step up from the estimated 2.8 million mobile connections and 606,000 landlines currently available, which are one way or another unable to reach remote areas of Sri Lanka.

Essentially weather balloons are used satellites. The balloons broadcast 3G network access from the stratosphere to remote locations that otherwise can't get coverage.

Google describes Project Loon as "a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, designed to connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill coverage gaps, and bring people back online after disasters."

We wish to see such initiative in Pakistan as well, and we hope after internet.org, Google will also look up for investments in Pakistan.

Link related to blog: Google

Desi urdu version of WhatsApp to be relased soon

Photo by Tribune

Urdu is in demand nowadays. After getting notifications for making our national language the official language, another shocking but good news is on it’s way.

In this age of advance technology, people belonging to every class, age and gender have smart phones. Which are cheaper as well and affordable too. The mobile companies have different packages but revolutionary internet is also available to all people.

After seeing great demand of social media apps e.g. WhatsApp and Viber, the companies gave a thought of giving a local version to its users. So they can use it more frequently.

An Urdu version of Whatsapp will soon be available on the Android platform, Whatsapp Translation Administrator Ahsan Saeed announced.

In a conversation to local daily in Pakistan he said “The translation process started three years ago, while the final moderation process took three months”, adding that the whole process was driven by volunteers.

“I translated 753 strings and moderated 2,089 strings in less than three months and made Urdu [the] 18th language in which WhatsApp for Android has been fully translated,” Saeed said in a Facebook post.

Since Whatsapp users can already communicate in Urdu using an Urdu keyboard, Saeed said his efforts were geared towards localizing the app itself for Urdu users. This included translating everything from the menus to the settings.

Saeed, who had already been working with Twitter as an Urdu localization moderator since 2012, signed up when Whatsapp called volunteers for their translation project. Around three months ago when the Whatsapp Urdu moderation process started, Saeed was promoted to Translation Administrator.

In case you are wondering if there really is a need for an Urdu version of Whatsapp, Saeed assures that a large proportion of Pakistani mobile internet users prefer Urdu. “It would also be beneficial for those looking to get connected with their national language again.”

The most interesting aspect of these volunteer-driven translation projects is that the individuals involved dedicate their energies entirely out of love for their languages. Now that Android has taken the lead in translating one of the most popular apps in Pakistan to Urdu, it remains to be seen if Whatsapp Urdu will be coming to iOS or Windows Phone next.

Link related to post: Tribune

Facebook goes feminist, subtle change in friends icon

Throughout the world we see women getting empowered and for the sake of this purpose only our society can take initiative. 

Brands and social media websites are doing much for this purpose and here we saw a new initiative taken by the biggest social media website ever.Facebook has made a subtle change to the "Friends" icon that appears at the top-right of its homepage, bringing the woman in the image in front of the man, The Verge reports.

Facebook design manager Caitlin Winner explains in a Medium post that the change was brought about after she noticed that while the man in the icon in the Facebook stylebook — or "glyph"— was symmetrical (except for his spiked hairdo,) the lady "had a little chip in her shoulder."

Then Winner encountered another problem: "In comparison to the new lady, the old man icon seemed stiff and outdated." So she then set about smoothing down his hair and adding a slight slope to his shoulders.

In updating the man, she also noticed there were many places on Facebook where a single male figure is used to represent an action — such as the "add friend" icon — so she drew a female single silhouette too.

The next issue to tackle was the size and order of the female silhouette in the "Friends" icon.

Winner says the new male and female silhouettes have already been shipped out for desktop, and appropriate male and female icons are now designated in the new profile creation process.

You may have not noticed it but these slight changes in icons matter a lot. Many apprenticed this new change in icon on social media.It's also being hailed as a small, 32px small, to be precise, victory for feminism.

Link related to blog: Binsider

"50 States of Gay" is land of homosexual love

The need of hour is to diagnose what are the factors which lead people to get indulge with same genders rather than humiliating them for what they love. One must prevent it by curing the mentality not suppressing. 

The biggest news for America this week might be the pride for all or equality for all is when the Supreme Court legalize the right to marry the person you love i.e. same sex marriage.

Following the Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage in the United States, Twitter was a-flurry with millions of tweets celebrating the decision.

While multiple hashtags were used, ranging from #SCOTUSMarriage to #GayMarriage, the hashtag that successfully broke the Internet was #LoveWins.

The hashtag was used almost 5.5 million times in 24 hours, according to Topsy, a social analytics site. It also remained in Twitter's top global trends throughout the day, as celebrities, activists, even the president used #LoveWins to celebrate the Court's decision.

Overall, there were over 10 million tweets about the Supreme Court decision, between 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Friday, according to Twitter.

This also occurred as a war between the people of other conservative countries who are against it,

Social media got trended with in and against this law while we saw a huge number of rainbow display picture on social media accounts. 

The same sex marriage is not allowed in any religion but even then a large number of homosexuals live around us, some declare and some don’t. It is only a matter of fact these such marriages in USA are inevitable while in some other countries such couples are seen in a handful of quantity.

There is need to understand that what urges these youngsters to get attracted towards their same sex and to educate them the law of nature rather than disgusting them for their feelings of love. One cannot sabotage the feelings but can suppress it, which is not the solution.

This is a truth which prevails in our societies and it cannot be denied.

Instagram is predicted to be 2 billion business by next year

Facebook had effectively zero mobile advertising revenue at the beginning of 2012, and mobile now represents almost three-fourths of its ad sales.

The smart app of sharing your photos has got fame in very short period. Facebook’s Instagram deal keeps looking better time and again.

Three years ago it had 80 million users, and now Instagram boasts more than 300 million active users globally. And it’s showing signs of becoming a real business. As per a report by international news website Instagram, it could generate at least $2 billion in advertising revenue next year.

For context, $2 billion is almost 10% the amount Wall Street is estimating for all of Facebook’s 2016 revenue. It’s also double the $1 billion that Facebook famously offered for Instagram in 2012—which was a surprising number at the time.

Analyst Mark Mahaney writes in a research report “That may sound way too aggressive, and is highly contingent on how quickly Facebook decides to monetize Instagram; but we believe it accurately represents the potential contribution from Instagram Monetization (#nofilter).”

It is a way through which Facebook gets ads and this is adding more to the business. By April 2015 we seen most visitors on Instagram as compared to last year. It is a quick and easy way to share and view pictures, so it becomes easier to get ads from online businesses or others.

Say no to “Nose Job”, Iranian Women protest in an innovative way

Iranian Women protest in their own way and say no to "Nose Job" for them as they believe on natural and real beauty rather then having a fake one,

What defines beauty of a woman? May be for now it is the media and cosmetic industry who determine which face feature is determined to be enhanced this season. As in south Asia we see a trend of bigger and pulpy lips are very much in nowadays and we see lip job exceeding its limits. 

As in Iran the trend of nose job is increasing. The issue is not limited to nose jobs. At some point, “wide eyes” became popular in Japan. In Malaysia, all kinds of skin-whitening creams are popular. A certain “hegemonic,” “standardized” and “normalized” look is promoted throughout the media and cosmetic industry’s interests cannot be neglected in this. 

It’s not surprising that Tehran has come to be known as the “nose job” capital of the world. Why does this eagerness for cosmetic surgery and for changing one’s appearance exist in Iran?

It has been said that the “culture industry” makes decisions about the appearance of the masses. “Beauty” has been reduced to certain clichés for all, even on an international scale. 

Women face certain kind of pressures both from society and the fake standards set by media. In this regard a Facebook page called “Iranian Women Up Close” ha started a movement as a protest against this nose job culture exceeding in Tehran. They asked women to post their pictures of original nose which can tell that they do not need a cosmetic surgery to look beautiful. The unusual call sent out by page administration was followed by many women who posted their pictures and questioned the certain definition of beauty. 

The post "Pictures of My Real Nose" as a way to their protest.

We have seen many cases of accidental surgeries which gave hideous results that women suffered from these cosmetic surgeries. We wish to see a bigger movement in this regard.

Link related to blog: Iran Wire