The Folio3 Chronicles

April 2010 - June 2010

April 2010 - june 2010

Can we bring
a change? 05 silent
Revolution 06 Back to Basics
(With Pen & Paper) 08
Quarter 2 > April 1, 2010 - June 31, 2010 - Valume 3 www.folio3.com
The Folio3 Chronicles 2
From The Editor
The Chroniclers
They say troubled times boost artistic expres-
Moiz Kazmi
sion… and this truism has never been more ev-
ident in the case of Pakistan than right now.
Sanam Riaz
We might be a nation with many deep-rooted Aamir M. Ibrahim
concerns at hand, but we are also a nation that Najmus Saqib
is cultivating some great talent. Our bright,
Riaz ur Rehman
young writers are being celebrated in the liter-
ary world; our actors are crossing borders to
play main leads in Hindi movies; while Paki-
stani designers and fashion weeks have been in Submissions
the headlines around the world!
Submit your articles, news,
This edition is done in a very short span, but photos to:
next time we plan to be bigger and better. Still thechronicles@folio3.com
a lot of hard work, determination and efforts
were made by several people to finish this.
I would like to thank Aamir M. Ibrahim, Muham-
mad Kamran and Najmus Saqib for sending in
their submissions. I will appreciate contribu-
tion from all of you. Send anything you would
like to share with other Folio3ers, from images
to comics to articles.

I hope all of you will take out some time from

your busy schedules and enjoy this issue.

Best Regards

Moiz Kazmi
3 April 2010 - June 2010

Table of Contents
Message from the CEO
and VP ........................... 4
Internet Activism: Can we
bring a change? ................ 5
Silent Revolution .............. 6
Back to Basics
(With Pen & Paper) ............ 8
Trust yourself but never trust
your code ..................... 9
The Feat Sheet .................. 10
Hot Shot ........... ...............15
Open job Positions ............. 15
Rosters.............................16
The Folio3 Chronicles 4
Message from the CEO and VP
Hello everyone,
Those of you who have been with Folio3 for many years, as well as those who are our
new employees, are seeing some significant achievements in Folio3’s journey as a
Hi-Tech startup. The journey that began a few years ago has reached an important
milestone. We have passed the one hundred employee mark and rapidly growing.

With growth come changes. And as a company, we will continue to make changes for the better.

At this time, it is important to remember and renew our core values. Values that are vital to our
success. These values guide us and give us a sense of direction through the many changes that take
place. These come before policies, practices and goals. They help shape the basic philosophy of
the way we do business. They help us, the people at Folio3, find common cause with each other.

Our core values are:

1. We focus on our customers’ success.
2. We value our people.
3. We pursue high value in our service – sometimes in difficult terrain.
4. Our corporate culture is hard working, open, friendly and fun.

We focus on our customers’ success, with a passionate commitment to customer service and excel-
lence in quality. We believe that if we strive to make our customers successful, it will result in our
success.

We value our people and recognize that it is our people who make us successful. We give full com-
mitment to the individual employee and try to promote a culture that brings out the talents and en-
ergies of our people. In our people, we value autonomy, expertise and good judgment. We encourage
personal involvement and individual responsibility. We respect individuality and diversity.

We pursue high value in the service we provide to our customers. It is critically important that our
customers get the highest return on investment and we compete with the best in the industry in the
relevant geographic region and market space. We stay focused on this goal and compensate for the
many challenges that the local environment may throw at us. We compete vigorously.

We promote a corporate culture that is challenging and tough, yet open, friendly and fun. Along with
this we value aggressive goals, clear direction and measured performance, and at the same time, a
fun and friendly workplace.

We have a firm belief that keeping true to our core values will guide us through all times,
rough and fair. Thanks for being part of this journey. Together, we aspire to greater heights.

Adnan Lawai, CEO Naveed Qazi, VP of Engineering

5 April 2010 - June 2010
Internet Activism:
Can we bring a change?
by Kamran Usman
We are surrounded with many opportunities in
the Pakistani society, simply due to the fact that
there are lots of tribulations. As Pakistanis, we
are all responsible to work towards addressing
the issues that Pakistan is facing, both locally and
globally.
I can get rid of all the mess we have and which
personally believe that taking care of the internal
problems first is a good stratagem. We, as a na-
tion, should focus on strengthening internal secu-
rity to avoid terrorist activities such as bombing
of mosques and other public places. We should
take measures to eradicate growing corruption,
eliminate differences based upon language & re-
ligion, and build an eco-system that promotes lo-
cal industries for economic development.
I know that it is easier said than done. Perhaps,
I am being a bit unrealistic here. We have our
families to look after or maybe we are just lost
in the tech-world to think about anything else
than the latest iPhone or the Microsoft Kinect de-
vice. However, as Will Smith’s beautifully crafted
quote goes:
“Being realistic is the most commonly traveled
road to mediocrity”
Had the human been realistic, we would not have
electricity, or airplanes, or even computers, so
technically we would not have the jobs we do
today.
So, the point is, if any of us can invent the solu-
tion to the current problems of our society, we
currently rule our lives. Running out of your home
when it catches fire is a seemingly sensible solu-
tion, but a better solution would be to think of
ways you can control the fire and save the house.
As a starter, we, as techies can play a positive role
by working in our capacities. For a start, we can
at least start talking ‘publicly’(read: Internet)
about the issues, and offer possible solutions. We
are an organization of over 150 people, so if we
can have, say, a hundred blogs, a hundred twitter
accounts and say another hundred facebook ac-
counts, which focus on highlighting the issues and
solutions, and have a perspective, we surely can
make a difference.
We surely do talk about the problems and the so-
lutions within our small gatherings, but to bring
awareness and change on a large scale, we need
to be more vocal, more out-spoken and be on big-
ger platforms. We have to be updated with media
and news, so that we can keep a counter-check
on what the foreign media portrays of Pakistan.
What I have presented here are perhaps abstract
theories, but providing a generic model is gen-
The Folio3 Chronicles
erally good, as different readers of this article
may extend the ideas presented here in different
ways. Some may setup dedicated websites, some
may even be able to make a revenue-generating
implementation for a social change, infinite pos-
sibilities are there and things can be perceived on
all levels.
I
did not have any specific goals while writing this,
other than igniting our souls to do what we can
within our own capacities to bring a good change
in our society – In this way we carry on with our
normal lives, and contribute without risking too
much. I just sincerely feel that we can bring a
change by putting in tiny bits. Being tech mani-
acs, we at least know the technical challenges of
building internet enabled systems – we just need
to know the non-technical challenges of playing
our part in development of a better Pakistan.
Silent Revolution
by Muhammad Aamir
It was the spring of 2003 and corporations were
falling faster than leaves in autumn. I never
thought two planes crashing thousands of miles
away would have such an impact on this day, in
my part of the developing world.
6
Work started a few days ago, I was still trying
to figure out how things worked. My job was
still a chore, an unnecessary predecessor to
my monthly paycheck. During the first few
months, many men visited from the States,
sharing their views of the little they felt
needed to be seen in my city. Trying but fail-
ing to paint the bigger picture summarizing
the overarching story of things. Sure, it both-
ered me. But I never knew how to respond.
Then, one day, one speech changed every-
thing; or at least my perspective on things.
There were many aspects to his monologue:,
business, sales, corporate mission, and prod-
uct roadmap. But the most important part of
it was about how misunderstood we are as a
nation. Eons ago our people were known as
pioneers of education, science and innova-
tion. Today to the world we’re nothing more
7 April 2010 - June 2010
than terrorists. We complain about being op-
pressed, denied, and violated. because of
the incorrect perception people have about
us, but have done nothing and thought of
nothing beyond the obvious sales goals to
correct this perception. We need to stand
for the bigger picture. We need to prove
that this country can execute and succeed in
delivering high quality technology solutions
and that we are capable of a lot more than
is expected of us. We are no less than any-
one else. We need to change the perception
of people, one mind at a time, by delivering
excellence. This company and the people in
it will be pioneers of this change, and a few
years from now there will be more compa-
nies like us, bringing quality business and
providing cutting edge technology prospects
for its employees. Demand drives supply.
Once there’s demand for skilled workers, the
quality of university graduates is bound to
improve as well. If you have demand for high
quality engineers, supply will follow. And as
time passes, people who once thought of us
as nothing more than under privileged, un-
civilized farmers will realize the difference
between their perception and our reality.
The speech ended and I found the audience
– and myself – with jaws dropped, mesmer-
ized by the possibility of becoming known
as a global technology hub – Of being part of a
historical revolution. Needless to say, it didn’t
take much time for us to snap out of it. We re-
alized this speech was meant merely to get us
motivated and geared up to work harder and
longer days with the idea of a patriotic revo-
lution acting only as fuel to employee motiva-
tion which would not materialize into anything
close to real.
Seven years later, I was invited to attend the
CIO Mentor “Nashta” in our very own Concor-
dia. Ten 3rd year students of science with anx-
ious minds and curious questions made hours
fly by as if only seconds. An extraordinary
revelation hit me that day. I realized a lot has
changed. Without us noticing, time had given
genesis to many changes. New companies; big,
medium, small and tiny; had emerged from no-
where creating more job opportunities. Words
like offshore, outsourcing, product develop-
ment, entrepreneurship weren’t alien any-
more. Companies had made great products,
around mobile testing and content sharing,
finance and stocks. Heck, one company even
made a successful Cricket game! For someone
who said he wanted to be a game programmer
first day in college, this was a huge deal.
In the past few years, universities have become
The Folio3 Chronicles
more organized in their placement programs
and are doing an amazing job bridging the
gap between the industry and the students.
Organizations like CIO-Pakistan and PASHA
have taken some very long awaited steps to
help the technology community grow. Now a
fresh university graduate is better equipped
to make his own decisions about what to do
with his professional life.
8
change one life for the better. All I aim for is
to make one more person realize the dream,
envision the belief and stop for a moment to
think, just a moment. This would be my pixel
in the new image of things to come.
Because I know as well as you do, under the
blue T-shirts, we’re all green and white.

Best of all, I was fortunate enough to hear

from many customers that the team here was
Back to Basics
as good as any team in San Francisco. Believe (With Pen & Paper)
me, every time I hear it, it feels good. Makes by Najam us Saqib
me feel, maybe in some way, we made a dif-
ference. We had pioneered the change. Just Computers are getting-in in every aspect of
like he said we would. our life. Perhaps this process is more signifi-
cant and faster than global warming or infla-
But the job’s not done yet. Much more still tion. Even for tasks that require a human to
needs to be done. And it’s up to us to stim- be creative are also being done using computer
ulate the next change. I know you’re busy aided tools.
with all those deadlines in the office and a
list of chores at home. But if this is going to
happen, if we’re going to do this, take this
revolution to the next level, we need to try
and escape the necessary necessaries of ne-
cessity and take one step, one minute, one
pixel to help change this image further. In-
vest in a final year project idea, guide a few
fresh minds on the technologies you’ve mas-
tered, or simply answer a few questions for
those anxious minds. Platforms and people
are there to support the few who dare to try.
I, like you, am an average man who wants to
change the world. But every time I think of
moving a pebble off the road, my responsibil-
ities come calling. The revolution has to wait
for another day. Hope is what I carry with me
and the burden of belief, that one day I will
9 April 2010 - June 2010

I think for such tasks simply using pen and paper

is more helpful. It helps us work fluently with Trust yourself but
the flow of ideas. Whether it’s in our nature or
instincts or genes but it’s somewhere built-in,
never trust your
especially people of current young
code
generation didn’t have these electronic tools in
by Najam us Saqib
their childhood so now their brain is engineered
this way. “An intelligent fool can make simple thing
complex”
Following are my reasons to support this
Most good developers have believed in their selves.
• Our mind and memory is more used to with pa-
This helps them committing and fulfilling harder
per rather than its electronic alternatives.
goals. This self belief also gets extended to the
http://lifehacker.com/5477231/it-didnt-hap- code they write. This feeling make them believe
pen-if-you-didnt-write-it-down that simpler parts of our code can never

• Its far more helpful than just note taking

http://lifehacker.com/5440788/best-goal-track-
ing-tool-pen-and-paper

• A multi-window, multi-tasking and multi-

tabbed system is not helpful for concentration.

• It is fast and more readily available.

• Change is always good. As we are using com

puters for communication, fun and many more
things so most of our time is spent in front of
computer screen.
The Folio3 Chronicles
be wrong neither syntactically nor logically. In
reality it frequently happens that few lines of
code written to perform a very mundane task
become the source of Bug.
Let’s take an example. You write a small script
to fetch some data from the DB and show it in
HTML table. Somehow the data does not show
up correctly. You scratch your head as you are
unable to find any bug in your db schema or in
your PHP code. After a painful debugging ses-
sion you find out that real problem was in your
HTML tags. It took so long to find the bug be-
cause developer thought that the html part is
simple and it can’t be wrong so the bug must
be in some other part of the code.
Trusting your code blindly results in time-wast-
ing. In fact the more you write and test code
the more you understand that “less is more”.
http://elegantcode.com/2010/06/06/the-
best-code-you-will-ever-write.
The Feat Sheet
Occlink
Occlink Management System is end-to-end soft-
ware designed to lessen the burden of Work-
ers’ Compensation by assisting the employer
in tracking and management of claims. It pro-
vides a repository in which documents, billing
10
history and other types of correspondence can
be stored electronically, retrieved and shared
with all concerned parties pertaining to a claim
so the employer has more insight and timely in-
formation. It also provides an easy way for all
the stakeholders to interact and use the system,
ranging from tech-savvy administrators to the
medical providers and attorneys.
Achievements
Occlink is the first one amongst the stream of
projects we have been doing with Growers Ex-
press. Due to this reason, it was very critical
for the team to deliver a good quality product
meeting the required features list. The team
started off with a small pilot to facelift the UI of
this application and then eventually worked on
to add many high quality features. The system
went into production on June 1st 2009 and the
team has been enhancing the system since then.
Technologies
.NET (VB & C#), jQuery, MS SQL Server 2005,
Email2Db
SurveyTool
Another system that is being developed for
Growers Express is Survey Tool. It is a stand-
alone set of applications that provides an effec-
tive and efficient mechanism to conduct onsite
surveys in an automated environment. Handheld
technology is used to capture survey data from
the field that is sent back to the servers through
11 April 2010 - June 2010

Wi-Fi network. TrueTrac

The tool also let
you print sur-
veys, correc-
tive actions and TrueTrac is a suite of related products created
rewards tickets for produce industry. It is designed with the
while conducting aim to enhance the product traceability for
a survey. Blue- produce industry at first stage and then other
tooth technology industries going forward.
is used to print Products include mobile based applications
these artifacts in for tracking harvest data (CropTrac™), manag-
the field through ing employees & harvesting crew (CrewTrac™)
wireless print- and printing PTI complaint case labels (Label-
ers. Currently the handheld side is being de- Trac™). MyTrac™ is a web-based content man-
veloped for Window Mobile 6 platform. Future agement system that allows TrueTrac custom-
plans include expanding it to iPhone and other ers to maintain content pertaining to their
popular platforms. business and customize the instance of web-
site. Customers may manage their own learn-
Achievements
ing center through this CMS.
Survey Tool’s pilot project was launched in
July 2009 with a set of devices floated around Achievements
the user’s com- TrueTrac has been
munity. The developed in Fo-
product has been lio3 from scratch.
enhanced since Development team
then and now it started working
is being used by on CMS and its
the Growers Ex- admin console in
press folks to in- July 2009 and first
vestigate hygiene demo version was
and perform ready by October.
various internal TrueTrac’s hand-
audits. held application
LabelTrac™ was
Technologies
ready for its first
.NET (C#), .Net Compact Framework, jQuery,
demo to the stra-
MS SQL Server 2005, MS SQL Server CE 3.5
tegic partners ear
The Folio3 Chronicles
ly January and the event happened successfully.
The system is now in production for its customer
and many other features and products are in line
for upcoming releases.
Technologies
.NET (C#), .Net Compact Framework, jQuery,
SQL Server 2008, MS SQL Server CE 3.5
Gamezebo
12
This quarter, Gamezebo saw a major Facebook in-
tegration overhaul. Based on the latest features
released by Facebook in their F8 conference,
we integrated Facebook Connect Single Sign-On,
Graph API to access profile information and social
plugin’s for Like button, Like Box, Friends Activ-
ity and Recommendations.
Continuing on the Facebook front, we added syn-
dicated content support through RSS feeds from
various game blogs for Facebook game updates.
Now anytime a new feature gets launched in
Farmville, Gamezebo users get to know about it
instantly.
Also to keep up with the increasing page views,
now hovering around 140,000 views per day and
downloading 70GB’s of data daily, we moved
our walkthroughs, our most viewed content, to
the Rackspace Cloud. Now the walkthrough for
Farmville, consisting of over 100 images, loads up
blazingly fast through the Rackspace Cloud Con-
tent Delivery Network.
SAP Spotlight Positioning
Designed as a professional collaboration applica-
tion for SAP’s marketing and sales division to help
in the prod-
uct position-
ing of various
SAP products. SAP wanted a product that could
enable easy access to positioning message pro-
files (topics), create new topics and be able to
share and collaborate on topics. In addition they
wanted some means to score topic performance.
Achievements
Folio3 worked with SAP through a 3 month dis-
13
covery phase to design a sophisticated collabo-
ration application that fulfilled the needs of the
SAP marketing and sales divisions for positioning.
Then with only a 4 month development window,
Folio3 completed and delivered the application
providing the following features for various types
of users
Content Owners - Solution Marketing
- Enter content under development and publish
- Share content with others
- Consume content index with ability to see de-
tail - score
Content Consumers – Marketing Programs, Field
Marketing
Solution Engineer, Account Executive, and Global
Communications
- At-a-glance summary of topics
- Discover relevant topics
- Track areas of interest
- Use consistent messages
Executive Stakeholders – Marketing Executives
- Find categories, sub-categories and topics of in Workflow” was completed and deployed at Warner
terest
- Simply and easily understand the content index
for each
- Be able to drill-down into a category or sub-
category
Technologies
PHP, Drupal 6, MySQL, SPHINX, jQuery
April 2010 - June 2010
MediaMorph
MediaMorph is a NYC-based start-up whose platform
helps Film Studios and Television networks to man-
age, account for and optimize revenue from Digital
Distribution. MediaMorph’s product is in daily use at
major Hollywood Studios such as Warner Bros and
Sony Pictures, giving them the insight that they want
and the control that they need in order to foster the
growth of digital channels.
With digital content being sold at over 100 outlets
like Amazon, iTunes, XBox, Hulu selling digital media
all over the world, having a platform which performs
revenue aggregation precisely to the penny is very
important. MediaMorph makes that possible with
its comprehensive, sophisticated and highly flexible
product suite.
Achievements:
1. The revenue aggregation cycle called “Royalty
Bros. We are now integrated with SAP at Warner
Brothers.
2. Comcast Entertainment Group, a big name in the
US entertainment industry, becomes our customer.
Their manual reporting system has been completely
revamped with MediaMorph’s automated aggrega-
tion and scheduled delivery systems.
3. With a mammoth database being maintained for
Sony Pictures Entertainment, daily ETL scripts took
as longer than 6 hours to complete. Performance
improvements got the number down to 1 hour!
4. Numerous complex reports for WB and SPE were
The Folio3 Chronicles
improved to run as fast as under a minute
against a 20 minute generation time earlier.
The team has done wonderfully well to under-
stand the needs at the customer level and have
surpassed expectations on numerous occasions.
Technologies
J2EE, Postgres, Python, Jasper, Struts, Quartz,
Tiles, AJAX, ActionScript, XML, WebServices,
Tomcat, Apache Axis, different APIs
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT)
The Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology
(MIT) is a private re-
search university lo-
cated in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five
schools and one college, containing a total of 32
academic departments, with a strong emphasis
on scientific and technological research. MSRP
(MIT Summer Research Program) and Converge
are two such research programs for which hun-
dreds of students enroll every year. Folio3 was
involved in the design and development of online
student application forms for both MSRP as well
as Converge this quarter.
Achievements:
MIT’s pilot project MSRP was released in Feb
2010. Even after facing a few bumps in the
beginning, the team worked diligently to get
the project back on track and make it a suc-
cess. The MSRP application is being used by MIT
students and faculty to enroll new applicants
for the summer research program this year. The
Converge application is under development and
14
leading online casual game destination, attract-
ing 700,000 unique users and 3.5 million page
views per month. Gamezebo, re-launched its
web site with the help of Folio3, as the first des-
tination to discover new games, read reviews,
and share tips for casual games on the iPhone,
Facebook, and online.
Achievements
Folio3 created the 2.0 version of the site from
start to finish. In addition to reviews, previews,
walkthroughs and news for casual games for all
platforms, the new Gamezebo web site enables
casual gamers to:
- Post and share user tips and game guides
- Search and discover casual games to play
based on platform, genre, or rating
- Follow favorite games with alerts
- Add friends, post in forums, and send private
messages
Technologies
PHP, Drupal 6, MySQL, J2EE
Soccer World
We launched our first in house flash game Soccer
World on Kongregate, in time for the FIFA World
Cup 2010. The game was developed in Flash AS3
and integrated with Kong API. Because of easy
pick-n-play game mechanics, we received a very
positive response from users. The team is now
working on the Facebook version of the game
complete with social features and leader boards.
15 April 2010 - June 2010

Hot Shot Employee In Other News

of the Month
(April’ 10 – Jun’ 10)
Hot Shot employees who impressed all of us
throughout the year are the biggest asset of
Folio3. They work hard, they are determined
and are helping us grow substantially. We con-
gratulate all of you and thank you for your ser-
vices:

• April 2010 – Shahzad Anees

• May 2010 – Kamran Usman

Kaab Ahmed completed his MS in Software En-
• June 2010 – Syed Zeeshan Ali
gineering from Mohammad Ali Jinnah University

Khulood Ali, Usman Aleem were promoted to

• Personnel Lives the position of Senior Software Engineer from
Software engineer and Zeeshan Hussain, Saira
Special Moments:
Sarfaraz, Amna Khan were promoted to the
Some of our Folio3 employees finally tied
position of Senior Quality Assurance Engineer
nuptial knots. The entire team at Folio3
from Quality Assurance Engineer.
is happy for them and wishes them good
luck for the life ahead:
Open Job Positions
1. Salman Rawala
2. Sanam Riaz 1- Iphone/Blackberry Developer

2- Senior .net Developer

Folio3ers who went for 3- Senior PHP/Java/.net Developer

Umrah: 4- Senior QA
Imam Raza got a chance to perform Umrah
5- Fresh graduates
this quarter. The Folio3 Team congratulates
them and wishes that more Folio3ers get an 6- Interns
opportunity to go for the Holy pilgrimage
The Folio3 Chronicles 16
Rosters Bukhari, M. Ouns Qureshi

New Members at Folio3: Support Engineer - Ijaz Hussain, Muhammad

Faizan Noor
Folio3 hired some very talented employees this
quarter with the headcount reaching 150 and
Senior Support Engineer - Ather Sultan
still counting. These employees were hired under
several designations. The lists of their names are
Graphic Designer - Yasir Siddiqui
listed below. Let us all welcome them wholeheart-
edly and wish a prosperous future for them. Senior Graphic Designer - Syed Muhammad
Kashif Hashmi
Senior Project Manager - Muhammad Ibrahim
Khan, Waseem Ahmed Engineering - Sabheen Ahmed

Project Manager - Muhammad Imran, Navaid Technical Writer - Moiz Kazmi

Ahmed
Internees - Shahab Uddin (Technical Support),
Lead Software Engineer - Muhammad Asif Kam- Mohsin Ali (Data Entry), Muhammad Jawaid Gadi-
boh, Muhammad Sheraz Siddiqi wala (Engineering)

Senior Systems Engineer - Muhammad Hasan

Bin Jamal Siddiqui

Senior Software Engineer - Hassan Adeel, Ja-

hanzeb Zaman, Moin Ahmed, M. Kamran, Kaab
Ahmed and Shahzad Fateh Ali

Senior Software Engineer - Faraz Ahmed Ikram,

Hassan Jamil, Muhammad Saqib Javed, Umair Vatao

Software Engineer - Moiz Uddin Hyder, Aneeq

Hashmi

Senior QA Engineer - Yasmeen Mushtaq, Ahsan

Mustafa, Ashar Hassan, Azfar Ayub, Salman Sadiq,
Syed Zeeshan Ali

QA Engineer - Hafsa Saeed, Hunza Basharat, Mu-

hammad Nasir, Naveed Ahmed, Syed Samad Ahmed
 April 2010 - June 2010

The Folio3 Chronicles

www.folio3.com