Floods have been devastating recently. Especially the ones last year in Pakistan that flooded an area that was larger than many European countries combined. Many lives were lost that could have been saved, had there been a flood forecast. Early warning systems can prove to be absolutely essential, especially in densely populated regions where whatever time that can be bought saves as many lives.
You call it luck or good timing, Sohaib Akhtar of Pakistan might not have known that he would be a part of the Web history as the only person Live Tweeting the Abbottabad operation which involved US armed forces and the Pakistani Intelligence Service killing Osama Bin Laden. The guy is an IT consultant and was probably on a break in the quite of Abbottabad. But things changed and I am sure the atmosphere will not be as peaceful in the city as it had been.
Following are a few tweets he sent last night. Thanks to TC for compiling these up.
So Osama Bin Laden is dead? That’s the worst news you can hear early in the morning, that too in the country you are a citizen of. I am not a political analyst nor is this a political or anti-terrorist blog but what makes it worth its mention is that the whole is crazily taking over the Social Networks. Read More »
When you say Android or Apple iPhone people by default think it’s about high priced only for rich smartphones. They aren’t wrong initially, especially in Pakistan where people would want a nice phone with maximum features but affordable enough for everyone. I mean iPhone 4 can cost you a good $1,000 and the cheapest Android Handset from HTC would be $350 plus. These phones, being really worth the price aren’t one meant for everyone’s pocket. However Zong Telecom, keeping the whole price factor and user demand in sight has introduced an all new handset running on the Android version 2.2 aka Froyo.
I am residing in Pakistan and as the world might be aware that is has been hit by one of the worst floods in the history of the region. The torrential rains in the last couple of weeks have wreaked havoc in the country, devastating the North West Frontier Province [now called Khyber Pakhtunkhwa] with floods affecting more than 3 million people. As of current stats, close to 1,500 people have lost their lives, [the number which is unbelievable seeing the destruction it has caused].
More rains are expected to hit the country in the next week or two as the flood water ravages to the southern areas to Punjab and Sind. We at Startup Meme are sharing possible ways on how our readers across the globe can help the affected people.
Google is getting some kicking in China and Pakistan by the authorities. I had been experiencing a block on certain Google Search Suggestions on random sites by the PTA and I kept ignoring this until I came across news from Cnet. While it’ about China extending its impenetrable firewall further.
Finally! something really worth mentioning in Pakistan for the Web 2.0. I have been complaining a lot about how the events need to be planned and what exactly they should be focused more on. Late, very late but a very important move to bring out a startup from Pakistan by our countrymen.
Welcome Face2Face, the application bringing proximity base social networking. I have had a conversation about this with Umer Umair Aziz late last year and I was impressed by the idea, today the global launch with an event worth mentioning. What’s best about it? It a cross platform social network, removing the need for you to register yourself on a new social site and runs on almost all existing smartphones. From the iPhone, Android to Nokia’s standard Symbian and the J2ME, which pretty much means all devices out there.
Boy o’ boy! It appears that things are set to get ugly after the Draw Mohammad Day controversy that surfaced last month and led to the social network being banned in Pakistan. The ban was lifted on May 31 and we thought the ugliness of the situation has been long hidden. Not really. Pakistan’s Deputy Attorney General has launched a criminal investigation against the social network’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
I was looking to a buy a motorbike for conveyance earlier and had to go through a lot of real search, roaming the markets to find the right thing. Especially because I was looking for a second hand model. I couldn’t find one helpful site that was interactive enough to help me with finding the right thing in Pakistan. I guess many face these issues and usually come across substandard, spammy forums. Motors.pk, however rises above the norms to provide, at least a neat interface to begin with.
It isn’t anything close to CarDomain or others in the category, but when it comes to Pakistan, it is a big step forward. The idea is to provide car or bike lovers a place to sell and buy automobiles. You can search for models, narrow your search to pricing and cities where you are looking forward to make the purchase.
While back in Pakistan, I was busy with the Cyclone threat from Phet that had been building up, China found itself blocking yet another website. This time it is the ever growing Foursquare and the reason for the block is Tiananmen Square.
The ban was initiated on June 4 as the the country was set to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the event when 3,000 protesters, which included students were massacred by the Chinese government. According to the law in the communist state, it is forbidden to discuss about the incident in the country and the Internet is to obey the same rules. The censoring of the site is not a new one, given that even Google obeyed the country’s law and kept search results in strict compliance to the government. Even access to Twitter was blocked last year for the same reasons.
![image thumb81 Face2Face: Bringing Proximity Based Social Networking To The Web [From Pakistan]](http://startupmeme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/image_thumb81.png "image")
