Chowrangi

This month’s Spider turned on it’s head as far as the title is concerned. It was glossy, gleaming and garish. I laughed my guts out, when I read this month’s theme. Goodness me, it was, of all the themes in the world, “Surfing on Faith”. I was grappling with and fuming over some technical hitch in my PHP program and was feeling pretty much gloomy, when I received this gem right out of mess. On the title, “Deus ex machina” really turned my mood on and twinkled my eyes. It made my day. I put aside my hitches and hastened to see what exactly the faithfuls have done this time.

In February, they usually chant about Valentine’s Day. Spider can boast that it has also its share of contribution for introducing this “boon” of a festival to Pakistani youth. I can still vividly recall that issue of February 2002, whose title consisted of two hearts colliding with each other resulting in a flash and the banner telling us that “East has ultimately found the Valentine”. Now just out of the blue, faith has taken over the place of Valentine. Or now they are telling us more seriously that love is faith and faith is love, and of many forms of love, which kind is faith and which is not in the bleary eyes of Spider, is anybody’s guess.

Ed’s Note: Ed says that “most people are turning to the internet for answers to religion-based question”. Really he thinks so? May be in the west, but certainly not in our country. Those who live their life on internet, in our country, seldom find internet an appropriate place to search about religion, not due to paucity of information, but due to the un-reliability of it. For example, most of the sites, professing to be Islamic are exactly the opposite, evangelizing about Qadiyaniat or something else in the name of Islam. Luckily enough, youth in Pakistan seem to be aware of this menace very well.

Email Box: I am itching to speak my mind on this. There could be more good ways to give-away a “staggering” 512MB USB DT Mini. Perhaps the quality of comments drop after editing, who knows?

Spider Poll: For this, I would stick to my previous lines. It should be on dedicated page with results in graphical display. The reason of publishing a particular poll should also be described in a paragraph or two. And in addition to this, it should be interesting, if possible.

News Bytes: Bytes at news were del.ici.ous.

Science Watch: I don’t even want to mention this crap. Read my Jan 07 review, if you want to know more.

Netropolis: The only worth-mentioning sub-section in this section was Internet Bookstore, and it sucked too this month.

@Beat: That space surely did a plausible job by brining forth a useful conference.

Cover Story: Khawer Amir Khan did the cover story in a grand funny way. You just have to look at the images to get a hang of cover story. The chaplain on page 40, a coy girl at the bottom of page 41, on page 42, a yogi finds his head in a blast, an apologizing robot, a couple meeting on top of somewhat “Mobilink” like logo. So out of the way, haphazardly written and misfired articles in tandem.

Feature: Spider took a miss from Steve Job’s MacWorld Expo. The idea was right to discuss the proceedings of this charismatic expo, but as usual, Sabeen Mahmud messed it royally. Anyone, with half-wit could have written this, just researching the web. If she was there, and wrote this piece, I feel sorry for Spider.

E-security: Nizar Diamond Ali, getting better and better at this thing. One could only hope he doesn’t take a dive this time. Worth reading article this time. Recommended.

E-Humour: Who is David Ford? Some foreigner, and oh his work must be awesome. It directly hits home to our inferiority complexes. Besides, Spider couldn’t restrain itself by not getting a poke at Valentine’s day. The article may be a good read for any Western reader, who knows what or who the hell “Barry Manilow” is. Maybe they included this piece, because it discusses e-bakra and Shaadi online.

How-To: Faras Ghani has wasted lots of space here. Could be utilized for something more useful.

Website Review: Hafsa Adil, instead of reviewing a website, as title of article suggests, just apply her brilliance on a not-so-cool feature. With the type of internet connection in homeland, it would be excruciatingly painful to even test it.

Sami Shah has done a good job in reviewing Creative Pakistan website.

Hard Talk: Hamza Mudassir is rocking there. Need I say again that this section never disappoints?

Play Time: Hey gamers out there, Essa Malik has done a swell job out there for you. Go check it.

Kidzone: From cover story in Jan07 to kid zone in Feb07. Was it something I said last month? If you manage to read kidzone some how, you would come know why I said that.

Gadgets and Gizmos: Some pretty useful tools this time. Worth reading.

Entertainment: This time, I was able to find a strong semblance of fun in the sites provided by this section.

Freebies: This section has always reminded me that whatever you get for free is bound to be useless and crappy.

Graffiti: This is the only section in Spider, to which I look forward to. But this time, it was not up to the mark.

Tips and Tricks: So when you can keep your Outlook contacts intact, then you are considered to be an Uber elite by Spider. Ridiculous.

Plug-ins: They plugged-in with me quite nicely. Pretty much useful stuff at last.

E-Vents: So how many of you were just ready to take-off, as soon as you read in E-Vents section of Spider, about the forth-coming ISS conference in Dubai, IT India Fair in New Delhi, Economist Global Tech forum in Hong Kong?

Last Byte: Once again, last byte proved to be last nail in the coffin of my 50 rupees and time. This story should be in Khawateen digest or Akhbarain-a-Jehan instead of Spider.

In this episode of February, they seem to completely forget that this magazine was primarily intended for Pakistani reader. Lets see what sort of rabbit emerges in March.

Other posts by Commoner

• Suicide Bombing at Orakzai Agency: Jirgas Should Not Deter - October 11th, 2008
• Capital Rocks Again - October 9th, 2008
• Bajaur Action Succeeding - October 9th, 2008
• Composite Sessions - October 9th, 2008
• Gates Day Dream - October 9th, 2008
• Another Mistake By Zardari? - October 7th, 2008
• Not So Strange Admission - October 5th, 2008
• Gallop's Trot - October 5th, 2008
• Sarabjit's Pardon - October 5th, 2008
• Not So Kingly - October 2nd, 2008