When will Mark Zuckerberg buy a new shirt?
Posted on 02. Feb, 2012 by Zahid Lilani. 0
I have long awaited for this day. The day that kept the tech news reporters up all night and then disappointed them in the morning only to surprise them in the afternoon – Facebook IPO.
You see, I have had enough of Mark Zuckerberg in that grey shirt. I have a feeling, he might actually buy a different colored shirt now. When he rings the bell on NYSE in few months, I want to see him in at least something buttoned down, if not a suit.
Please Mark, make it happen.
Photo credit: Paul Sakuma/AP/File
How to restore MacBook Air to factory condition
Posted on 23. Jan, 2012 by Zahid Lilani. 0
I bought MacBook Air in August and sold it a a month ago on eBay. At the time, I was planning on using it during my commute and for school. Though my commute is still there, there is no school in the horizon, at least for the time being. The machine was too sexy for dust and that’s why I sold it.
I got little frustrated when I wasn’t able to figure out how to restore MacBook Air to factory condition. After spending over 1 hour reading support forums and numerous blogs, finally, I was able to figure it out.
In the end I felt that it wasn’t really that complicated and Mac geeks seem to think that Command Line is a piece of cake for an average person. Trust me, it’s not.
Here’s my simple 5 step guide to restoring MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2011) to factory condition:
1) Restart your computer while holding down the Command and R key. The Mac OS X Utilities pane appears.
This screen allows you to run Disk Utility to erase your hard drive and reinstall a fresh copy of Mac OS X Lion.
2) Click on Disk Utility, select the disk on the left, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the pop-up menu and then click Erase. Your screen should look something like this:
3) After the disk is erased, select Disk Utility and then Quit Disk Utility.
4) Make sure you are connected to the Internet through WiFi. You have to be connected in order to re-install Mac OS.
5) In the Mac OS X Utilities pane, select Reinstall Mac OS X and click Continue.
If all goes well, you will have a clean install of Max OS X. Your MacBook is now officially restored to factory condition and you didn’t have to go through the command line.
If there’s a better and easier way, feel free to chime in below.
Stop SOPA before it’s too late
Posted on 14. Jan, 2012 by Zahid Lilani. 0
In the tech community, SOPA is not news. For an average American, SOPA is unheard of. The traditional media and major news organizations have completely ignored SOPA as if it doesn’t exist. SOPA is real, it does exist and if passed could mean the end of internet as we know it.
Apart from calling your representative, bloggers and social media influencers should do couple things. If you are on WordPress, download the plugin, Stop SOPA Ribbon, look at the upper right corner to see how it looks like. Go to BlackoutSOPA and change your profile picture. Stop American Censorship has few different ways to highlight censorship, check that out too.
January 18th is the day that is designated for a massive awareness campaign. Reddit, Wikipedia, Cheezburger Network etc have confirmed that they will go dark in order to garner attention and call for action. Google and other major companies are anti-SOPA but won’t do much apart from having a stand.
+Paul Tassi from Forbes has created “Stop Internet Censorship by Protesting SOPA” event on Facebook. Plan to attend and follow the steps to get the word out.
Still don’t know what SOPA can do to the internet? Here’s an infographic that sums it all up, courtesy of Stop American Censorship
Be prepared to make some noise.
Facebook not on the Technology Fast 500 list released by Deloitte
Posted on 18. Nov, 2011 by Zahid Lilani. 0
Deloitte, one of the Big 4 CPA firms, releases a list of the 500 fastest growing technology companies every year – Technology Fast 500. To be recognized as Technology Fast 500, companies need to own intellectual property that generates majority of the operating revenue. It looks at companies that have been in business for at least 5 years and have revenues of minimum $5 Million. It doesn’t matter if the companies are public or private, as long as they meet the criteria and are nominated, they have a fair shot at recognition.
My focus while skimming the list was on social media and internet companies and here’s what I found amongst other facts already mentioned in the report:
- Majority of fastest growing companies are in the West (LinkedIn, IMVU, Shutterfly, Tagged, Ooodle etc)
- Recent IPO darling LinkedIn’s revenue grew 2372% over 5-year period; overall it ranked 49th.
- Google is ranked 425th; revenue grew 176% over 5-year period.
- Facebook and Twitter not yet on the list.
I reached out to Deloitte to inquire why Facebook wasn’t on the list. That’s because according to publicly available data, it has had revenues since 2006 and if I use the formula [(FY’2010 revenue – FY’2006 revenue)/ FY’2006 revenue] x 100, used by Deloitte for 5-year growth percentage, I get 3746%.
In response, I was told by the Facebook page administrator, “Private companies must self-nominate themselves to be part of the program. To my knowledge, Facebook has never submitted a nomination form or the supporting documentation, and the selection team would not base revenue numbers off of a Wikipedia page. Interestingly, you’ll notice Facebook is also not listed on the Inc. 500 list.”
That explains why Facebook is not on the list but it still doesn’t make sense that a company that strives on selling personal information would be so secretive about its own growth. Most figures on Wikipedia page happen to be pure speculation based on market data that is not really verifiable.
[INFOGRAPHIC] The Science of Timing and Blogging
Posted on 11. Nov, 2011 by Zahid Lilani. 0
Timing is everything, and maintaining a blog is no exception to the rule. Learning when your audience is tuning in, and therefore when to post, is mandatory for any successful blogger.
Two Takeaways
- Post on Monday before 12:00pm.
- Post opinionated posts on Saturdays to generate discussion and comments.
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