Review of Spider August 2007

Humans in space are useless right now. Similarly our Spider is useless on earth right now. May be someday, space missions would render some benefit in Space and Spider on earth, but that seems elusive for now.

I honestly respect the intellectualism and knowledge of all the authors, yes all the authors (O My, why are you not believing me?), yes dear all the authors, yes including Mr. Diamond, Hafsas’ and the rest. I don’t have the courage to call them overgrown teenagers who fancy themselves IT gurus hell bent of spewing their guruness on Spidery pages, just because they are not teenagers.

Incongruous juxtapositions and phantasmagorical surreality or in simple words useless bewilderment are the words which describe this month’s issue of our toy, and its made in PK, the tagline or whatever the hell says. They have even wrapped the whole magazine on the title page, and now lets throw it in the dustbin.

Un-celebrated editor is discussing me, when she says that the poor often get alienated from the government as they feel blah blah blah . I am blushed and excited over the mention. At least Spider have involved the poor, now we don’t have a thing to complain about. So shall we close the review here? No, oh, you are a sadist, ok lets carry on then.

News Bytes were interesting this time, luckily. Junaid Hameed in tips and tricks discuss some old, beaten and not-so-required tips, but his writing style is not bad. Then the first slap comes, when you glance at Internet Bookstore. I mean who the hell selects books for this section, hang him/her, ok if thats cruel, send her in for 3 months. The rest of the Netropolis is a junkyard.

Saniya Zubairi gives a short beating about the Pakistani participation in WCG, then there is a source of discomfort. Khayyam Siddiqui tells that they are soon going to jot down on the back of Spider that reading it is injurious to health and especially his articles are a sure-fire way to catch mind-cancer. what a pathetic piece, he seems to be one of those dweebish types who call themselves social nerds.

The major plot behind Spider’s every review seems to be that all the authors are mysterious and no one really knows what’s going on. Everyone is churning out the same ideas with different words in alternate issues. They seem to like literary genocides and IT rapes. You could sense the weird little insects crawling out of the pages. This feelings gets stronger, once you collect your bulldozed wits and start reading the cover story.

Aunty Reba tells the plight of e-government in the fatherland, and I was replacing the word ‘government’ with ‘Spider’ and was nodding my head in agreement on every line. Sanya then goes to harrangue monotonously about the IT literacy and its importance to the paperless culture. She has taken views of some people, and then gives some vague and general suggestions, which you could also give, so you can skip the crap after reading the title of article.

Then they show a touch of usefulness, which brought a nice, fresh blow of air. Spider presented you a list of official websites of Pakistan. Its a good thing to have, and yes they are right that people are not aware of these sites and surprisingly enough, many of them are updated regularly. Then Anis Sheikh has a very good effort and his mapping of trade policy to the IT industry is to the point and near to the ground. He needs to write more here. But Spider save him, and don’t include him in the editorial team just because i praised him.

Mohsin Siddiqui, my hat is off to you. In “Getting IT going, this lovely author has done wonders. He has spoken the voice of Pakistan. Brilliant. He has very candidly and lucidly explained the dismal Internet situation and the status of IT in country in a very matter-of-fact and true way. It is clear that he has seen it, been there, done it. Most importantly he cuts out the crap and dont give some vague and general suggestions. Remote possibilities by Saniya Zubairai was also a good effort.

Then Chris Cork, dont leave much of an impact through his article regarding the digital divide, but his one point needs to be repeated here which says that *consistent* failure to make investments in education as a change agent by any government since partition has crippled millions and the growth of digital divide between haves and havenots will cripple million more. True words. Then someone broke my reverie, and that someone was a Diamond. He has found a book of Ubuntu, and we have to suffer until the book gets finished.

A new section with nice idea has been added to the magazine. Its the “Career. It could be useful if it sticks to its essence. If you have just graduated or in your graduation and as expected completely clueless as what to do, or have some option in front of you , what are the things you want to know to select your career path? A little intro to the field, job scope of that field in your or nearby city, or in the country, average salary for novice and experts, future scope, need for any further course, top websites, blogs and forums. Another thing could be that in case of obsoletion of that field, where could you go from there.

Maria Patel has also shed a nice light on the search engine optimization, though she has just touched the tip of iceberg, she could start a series on it. Its yet another useful addition to Spider. Hamza Mudassir is again churning out quality, needless to say his is still one of the crown attraction of Spider. Hafsa will may improve some day, and start writing about blogging in meaningful way, but for now she is blocked.

Social Network comparison could be find on millions of websites right now, and all are same. Mamun Adil has also posted one and its also same as others. Rizwah Ahmad also has a useful article about hosting. Then we have Verdah Asif spanking us with the utter crap which goes with the name of Science Watch. But graffiti still tastes good. When I read articles like Zainub Rizvi’s Last Byte, I want to vomit in public. Its a severe overbite. It makes you hate yourself for losing so much time.

Review of Spider July 2007

Review of Spider June 2007

Review of Spider May 2007

Review of Spider April 2007

Review of Spider March 2007

Review of Spider Feburary 2007

Review of Spider January 2007


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8 responses to “Review of Spider August 2007”

  1. Maria Patel Avatar
    Maria Patel

    well surely i will, i m planning to … but just let me have some spare time.

  2. Fahd Mirza Avatar

    @Maria Patel: I concur with you that people in Pakistan must know about SEO, if they really want to be the part of Virtual world. Would you like to write on SEO and any other topic you like on Chowrangi? If you are kind enough to accept that offer, please email at [email protected]

    regards.

  3. Maria Patel Avatar
    Maria Patel

    Hello Fahd,

    Its just a generous comment you posted about my past passion SEO .. however, i wanted to start a series on it, but spider people I mean Reba was like conclude all these parts in an article and i had to… so it didnt come out so good .. my apologies for that… probably @internet people will be more interested in it but it will be like honour killing of writing .. it wont do justice as @internet trip off the standards of a properly published paper in my view.. its more like a newsletter… anyhow, i would like to end here with a note that, not many people in Pakistan knows what SEO is, but they should know otherwise we will be lagging behind a decade in it too…

    regards,
    Maria Patel

  4. Moin Pirzada Avatar

    So you all guys enjoy criticism for sake of criticism, which is personal and abusive ?

  5. maliha Avatar

    lols that very interesting …

  6. BuzzVines Avatar

    We just launched a mega event with the name “I Still Love Pakistan Do You !” at BuzzVines.com, and would love if you join up and spread the word around. we are inviting all the bloggers of Pakistan so hurry join up!

    PS: this is not spam i visited your website personally to leave the message.

  7. omerifti Avatar

    very well deude keep it up an intrusting topic u’ve chosen

  8. Spider Critic Avatar
    Spider Critic

    Had to laugh at your review of the latest issue of Spider.

    I think I would have to agree with you it sucks…..

    They need a serious injection of marijuana to come out of this spinning nose dive. The publication has lost its sparkle since a few months specially after the departure of Halai and since then the untried and untested tyrant Reba has continued to run a lame outfit utilizing lame content on a monthly basis – someone needs to send the owners a wake up call before it really bombs out.

    But then again why should they worry when over 85% of their pages a rock solid stuffed with ads, and content is simply uses as space fillers heck they should just mail us a monthly advertorial

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