Dar Singh: ‘I feel more Pakistani than Indian now’

Hairstylist Dar’s client list includes IK, Aish, Sallu and many more. PHOTO: PUBLICITY

LAHORE: 

UK-based Indian hairstylist Dar’s extensive list of loyal clients includes stars from Hollywood (Goldie Hawn, Pierce Brosnan) and Bollywood (Aishwarya Rai, Gurinder Chada, Salman Khan) as well as our very own ex-cricketer-turned-political leader Imran Khan.

Over the last two decades, Dar has successfully built a name for himself and has also worked with top photographers. His work has also been featured in magazines including Vogue,Cosmopolitan and Harper’s Bazaar.

On his recent visit to Lahore, he admits he has a soft corner for the city and its friendly people.

“I was working at Vidal Sassoon when Imran [Khan] and I became friends. He invited me to Pakistan and I was introduced to [socialite] Yousaf Salahuddin,” Dar says, recalling a time when Imran was playing for Sussex. He admits Lahore is one of his favourite places to visit and that he has stayed at Salahuddin’s haveli multiple times. “The people are so hospitable and welcoming that Lahore feels like home,” he says.

“I feel more Pakistani than Indian now, and to me, Lahore is the most beautiful city in the world because the old city still has its character,” the Malaysian-born Indian stylist admits.

Dar’s career started off as him being an assistant at Bruno & John — a salon that later shut down — and soon switched over to Vidal Sassoon and worked there for almost seven years. “Growing up, I knew I wanted to be involved in the fashion industry and I hated formal schooling,” he says. “During my stay at Vidal Sassoon, I met some of the most influential hairdressers of time.” He admits they taught him to treat hair like architecture. “You have to look out for the height of the woman, length of the neck, face cut, shape of the body and the social aspect of her life.”

The stylist feels the right haircut helps create the optimal look for a particular woman. Whether it’s a socialite or a secretary, all women require a certain attitude and finesse. “A good hair dresser will sculpt your hair, not cut it,” Dar continues. “The mark of a good haircut is not whether it looks good after a blow dry — it’s that you don’t need to style your hair everyday in order for it to look fantastic.”

From cut to colour, it’s all about creating the ‘complete look’ for Dar. “Even colouring your hair is very scientific. The colour should not only complement one’s skin tone, but should also sculpt the hairstyle,” he explains. It’s thus safe to say that Asian skin is not made for blonde streaks and ultra-light shades. So ladies, switch to a colour that will complement your skin tone and bring out your personality.

“I feel that each woman is beautiful and her beauty needs to be accentuated and not hidden,” Dar says. Whether it’s long hair or short hair, it needs to be cut in a manner that is flattering to the body and helps enhance it, he adds.

It’s Dar’s individual style which has won him acclaim in the hair dressing industry worldwide. “I have always been about creating looks for tomorrow (the future),” he says. The stylist has travelled with Wella, Red Ken, L’Oréal and KMS, conducting seminars all over Europe.

For the next week, Dar will be available for appointments at Arammish Spa and Salon, offering his services for a subsidised rate of Rs12,000.

Indonesia - the capital of Muslim fashion?

JAKARTA: As evident at the Jakarta Fashion Week 2014, Indonesia, which is home to a Muslim majority, is in the run for becoming a world leader in the Muslim fashion industry, which is worth almost $100 billion.

The Indonesian government is nurturing young designers and garment trade, which provides employment to more than three million people and %15 billion to the economy. Tourism and creative economy minister Mari Pangestu said, “We can be the trend-setter… We have the vision and mission [needed to make] Indonesia the capital of Muslim fashion.”

Unlike Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, Indonesia perceives the Islamic concept of observing modesty in moderate terms. While headdresses are mandatory and outfits are not supposed to be skimpy and see-through, the three young Indonesians who started-off Jakarta Fashion Week diverged from the stereotypes with their ready-to-wear collection.

The three designers – Nur Zahra, Jenahara Nasution and Dian Wahyu Utami – were participants of the government’s Indonesia Fashion Forward program. Their collections aimed at targeting a broad audience, including women in Western countries. While Zahra showcased folk designs, Nasution’s collection comprised of sleek cuts. And Utami’s clothing line revived the 1960s with vivid colours and prints.

Nasution’s Jenahara brand is in talks with agent from Milan to showcase the collection in Italy, Russia and Dubai. After displaying her Dian Pelangi clothing line for the first time in Melbourne five years ago, Utami realised that “there is international potential for Muslim fashion.” “Korea is famous for its K-Pop culture and Indonesia is famous for its Muslim wear, so why don’t we focus on that?” Utami said.

Get the look: Simple & classy

Ayseha wore a flattering Maheen Karim printed satin outfit.

Multi-talented actor and singer Ayesha Omar looked uber-sexy as she arrived at the launch party of Oreo biscuit in Karachi. Here is a breakdown of what she wore:

Hair

Ayesha is known for telling hairdressers not to wash her hair with warm water, as it can damage her hair. The practice has totally worked in her favour as her hair looked beautiful cascading down her shoulder and back. To keep your hair shiny and healthy like her, you should follow simple totkas from your nani and give your hair a treat to oiling at least once a week.

Outfit

The stunner wore a flattering Maheen Karim printed satin outfit, pulled together on the waist by an encrusted brooch. This floor-length gown looked perfect on Ayesha’s toned body!

Make-up

Ayesha looks stunning even with this simple and barely-there make-up. We love her pink pout and dewy cheeks. Go for Mac Pink Burst Frost (Rs2,000) for a lippie like hers and smooth out some Maybelline Dream Mousse Bronzer (Rs1,500) to highlight your cheekbone and give you a sunkissed look. Line your eyes lightly with ColorStudio’s Knock Out Marker (Rs900).

Accessories & shoes

The actor-turned-singer paired her outfit with a black clutch with a long chain strap, which she bought from Aldo. Find a similar alternative at local stores like WalkEaze (between Rs1,500 — Rs2,000). We love her silver spike cuff and chunky rings, which can be bought from Sentiments or local accessories stores for under Rs1,000

HTC shuts one of four smartphone production lines, sources say

An HTC First phone with Facebook's software. Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has halted at least one of its four main manufacturing lines, accounting for at least a fifth of total capacity, and is outsourcing production as a sales slump puts pressure on its cash flow, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

A Reuters reporter who visited an HTC factory at the company's former headquarters in Taoyuan, about an hour's drive from Taipei, saw loading docks shuttered and a sign on a locked lobby door that read: "Lobby is temporarily closed for use. Thank you for your cooperation."

HTC launched its latest version of the flagship One series handsets this year but has struggled to gain traction in a market dominated by larger rivals Apple and Samsung Electronics.

The company, whose woes have been exacerbated by supply chain constraints and internal turmoil, reported its first quarterly loss in more than a decade this month, of 3.5bn Taiwanese dollars (£73m) and its cash flow from operations dropped to a negative £440m as of the end of June, indicating that it was spending more than it was receiving.

Despite lacklustre sales, HTC devices usually receive rave reviews, and it has in recent months expanded its range to include smaller and larger models of the One phone and hinted at further products, including a tablet and a wearable device.

HTC initially denied it was shutting down any production, in Taiwan or elsewhere, and declined to comment on whether it was in discussions to outsource production.

Update: in a filing to the Taiwanese stock exchange on Wednesday, the company said: "HTC is not shutting down nor does it have plans to sell any of its factory assets. HTC has a strong cash position and financial structure, and will provide the latest financials in our upcoming earnings call to investors and the broader community." That call will be on 5 November.

The statement does not however contradict the sources' suggestion that production at one of the lines has been halted.

'Strong balance sheet'

"HTC is not shutting down nor has plans to sell any of its factory assets," the company said in an emailed response to queries from Reuters. "HTC has a very strong balance sheet and will provide the latest financials in our upcoming earnings call to investors and the broader community."

When asked about what Reuters had seen at the factory in a telephone interview, HTC chief marketing officer Ben Ho declined to give details, but said: "Like any manufacturer, we do volume planning to optimize our lines, our manufacturing and production facilities.

"Whether we are operating those facilities depends on market demand and our own expectations. When you have less demand you work with less facilities to optimize your costs. When you have demand, or bigger growth, you definitely have to activate all these facilities."

According to data from HTC and the research company IDC, HTC's quarterly phone shipments have dropped from a peak of 13.3m units in the third quarter of 2011 to around 6m units in the same period this year.

Two of the four sources who spoke to Reuters said HTC had combined production from two lines at Taoyuan into one, which would reduce its potential capacity by about 1m phones per month, out of a total capacity of around 2.5m at the site and around 4.5m including operations elsewhere.

Manufacturing has been halted since at least August on the line, housed in a facility called Building H, while production continued at a nearby plant known as TY5.

Most of the assembly lines in HTC's Shanghai factory, which can produce 2m phones a month, were also out of production, one of the sources said, with only a small number of phones being produced for sale inside China.

HTC was considering selling the out-of-use production lines in China and Taiwan, two of the sources said.

"HTC's cash flow is not doing well. It has to do something soon to generate cash," said one of the sources with direct knowledge of the manufacturing sale plan.

Temporary handover

HTC' chief executive Peter Chou, the driving force behind its award-winning handsets, has temporarily handed some of his duties to the company's chairwoman in order to focus on innovation and product development, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

Shares of HTC jumped following the report, on hopes that the change of duties among the top management will help it recapture the sparkle that saw it named Device Manufacturer of the Year at the World Mobile Congress in 2011, when its stock was flying high. The company's market value has roughly halved this year.

HTC, which positions itself as a premium brand, will contract out some manufacturing to FIH Mobile Ltd International , a subsidiary of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry, because contract manufacturers have better component supply management and cost control. It is also in talks with Compal Communications and Wistron Corp, according to four sources.

FIH and Hon Hai declined to comment. Spokesmen for Compal Communications and Wistron could not be reached for comment. HTC also declined to comment.

One of the sources said HTC's top management had agreed to separate the design and manufacturing businesses, which would more closely resemble Apple's model of creating products in-house but then outsourcing to assemblers such as Hon Hai. By contrast Samsung Electronics both designs and manufacturers its smartphones.

However, sources said even if HTC splits the two operations, it would likely hold onto some of its factory capacity initially as the split-up would be a slow process and HTC might explore the possibility of making phones for others.

Chou aims for a doubling

In a Town Hall meeting with staff on Tuesday, CEO Chou said HTC aimed to double its shares of the high-end smartphone market to 15% next year.

When asked about separating out the manufacturing business, he said the company did not rule out the possibility. The comments were reported by local media and confirmed by Ho.

At the end of June, HTC's cash position decreased to NT$48.1bn (£1.02bn) from NT$55.5bn (£1.18bn) a year earlier as cash flow turned negative. Its balance sheet also shows that bill payments increased while less money came in from customers. Receivables - the money owed to the business - increased by NT$7.9bn (£167m), but accounts payable - the money by the business to its suppliers - dropped NT$7.8bn (£165m).

HTC's return on assets (ROA) - an indicator of how effectively a company uses its assets to generate earnings - is expected to turn negative this year at -0.69%, the first time since 1999, according to SmartEstimates. Its ROA last year was 8.1%.

No potential bidders for the manufacturing space have surfaced so far, in part because the global smartphone and tablet PC supply chain is facing overcapacity, the sources said. As a result, HTC is also exploring other options to generate income by using its factories, sources said.

Several analyst and media reports said HTC was in talks with Chinese peer Lenovo Group Ltd and US online retailer Amazon. There is also speculation that Hon Hai will use HTC's plant for its own production.

Hon Hai said there was no plan to use HTC's production lines in Taoyuan now. Lenovo declined to comment and Amazon could not be reached for comment

'GTA V for PC' torrent scam hits gamers as Online 'stimulus package' rolls out

GTA V: a torrent apparently containing the eagerly awaited PC version in fact contained malware

Life in Los Santos is never predictable – on the streets of Grand Theft Auto V's crime-ridden cityscape, there is always some underworld villain looking to bring you down. This week, however, the criminal activity seeped out of the virtual world into the real one. On Monday, PC news site WCCFTech reported that thousands of eager gamers had been taken in by a fake file distributed on torrent sites, which appeared to be a leaked PC version of GTA V, but was actually a great big bundle of malware.

Site metrics and Seed Ratio reveal that this particular torrent has been downloaded well into the thousands. The setup file is a realistic 18GB and has an actual setup.exe file, one that works. Basically a malicious replica of the original setup file, this one doesnt give out any hint of malicious activity.

As CNET later reported:

The file looks legit, appearing near the top of Google search results, and nearly 7,000 users connected; however, appearing as a setup.exe file, the first clue that something could be awry is the file size 18.3GB, compared to 7.7GB for the Xbox 360 version.

Of course, what should have alerted eager GTA fans was the fact that Rockstar is yet to even announce a PC version of the hit console title.Rumours suggest that a conversion could arrive in spring 2014, and there is clearly demand – an online survey requesting a PC version now has more than 600,000 signatures. If life in GTA has taught us anything it's that, where there is demand, there is criminal exploitation.

Meanwhile, GTA Online is still undergoing tweaks as Rockstar continues to balance the twitchy economy. Late last week a new patch updated various issues with the troubled multiplayer mode, but also halved the amount gamers could make from repeat missions. According to GameSpot, the publisher explained he decision thus: "We understand players do like to enjoy a mission multiple times, so rather than remove the possibility of doing so, we've allowed replays of these missions at a reduced payout. Many players can get very good at a mission and beat it much faster in consecutive tries, so we've adjusted these payouts to match that case."

The problem Rockstar has is the need to gently lead gamers away from turning the mode into a grind-fest, without making it look like a way to nudge them toward micro transactions. But responses have been… mixed. Beneath the announcement on the GTA support site LocoWithGun writes: "To be honest missions are rather worthless now. Maybe I'll do the occasional Base Invaders that comes my way but that's about it. There was already a huge trouble getting anyone to join your mission ... newbies are never going to get anyone to play with them now."

On the plus side, it seems the promised "stimulus package" will arrive this week, giving GTA Online veterans a major free cash boost to the tune of $500,000. Rockstar is also preparing to launch new features, whichaccording to its Newswire site includes a DLC package named Beach Bum pack (lots of new beach ware for characters, plus four new beach vehicles) and a content creator that allows players more breadth to design and run their own personalised death match and race events. More exciting, though, will be the launch of more in-depth Heist missions, requiring tactical co-op play. Players getting tired of pummelling through street jobs and grinding high-paying errands from Gerald will be pleased to try out something a little more complex.

But PC owners will have to wait, or risk an unwanted mission to rid their hard drive of malware

Call yourself a hacker? Your computer could be seized without warning

Open source developer labelled as a hacker in copyright infringement case to have his computer seized. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Describing yourself as a "hacker" – in the sense of someone who messes around with computer code – could lead to your computer being seized without warning.

A US government contractor, Battelle Energy Alliance, has used the fear of criminal hackers to obtain a court order to seize the computer of an open-source developer, Corey Thuen, who worked for it, despite him not being present in court.

The company used an argument of copyright infringement and the reputed ability of hackers to cover their tracks online to obtain a court order against Thuen. It argued that he was likely to destroy evidence on his hard drive.

As well as being an open-source developer for Southfork Security, Thuen is a cybersecurity professional who previously worked for the FBI among other US government agencies.

The official documents specifically state that "the court finds it significant that defendants are self-described hackers".

"This makes it likely that defendant Thuen will delete material on the hard drive of his computer that could be relevant to this case. The tipping point for the court comes from evidence that the defendants – in their own words – are hackers," the court documents continue.

All hackers are bad

The court's actions specifically call into question who should and shouldn't be labelled as a hacker, and whether all hackers are inherently disposed to use their technical skills with criminal intent – an idea disputed by the cybersecurity company Thuen works for, Southfork Security, on its website:

We're pretty good at hacking things. The idea is:

1. Identify what you want looked at
2. We hack it
3. You fix it

Your customers love you and you gain a little bit more peace of mind. We wouldn't mind bringing your people in to participate and see first-hand how an attacker views your system. We'd love to train ourselves out of a job.

National security

The order also prevented Thuen from releasing his allegedly copyright infringing open-source software, Visdom, a network visualisation and whitelisting tool that is used by security personnel to identify issues and weaknesses within a secure network.

Thuen previously worked on a similar tool as an employee of Battelle Energy Alliance called "Sophia", which forms the basis of the alleged copyright infringement. 

Battelle Energy Alliance also alleged that Thuen's work also endangered US national security, stating in its complaint that, "given the nature of Sophia, defendants' actions have implications for our national security. Defendants know of these implications but have ignored them."

A statement on the Southfork Security website said: "Obviously, until the injunction hearing, we can't say anything about what's going on, and until the forensics guys are done imaging our computers, as they are right now, we can't even type it. But I think it's safe to say that, no, we didn't steal government code and then open-source it."

 Github: evidence source?

Thuen denies the allegations of copyright infringement, citing the different programming languages used between the two programs and the heavy reliance on existing open-source elements within Visdom as evidence, as well as the complete coding history available on the open-source code storing and documentation website Github.

"They didn't check Github. And if they had, they'd have found out that the open-source project is built in a different language, using open libraries," Andreas Schou a lawyer who has previously represented Southfork Security told TechDirt.

"Visdom's heavy use of open source libraries facilitated its development in a matter of several months," Thuen added.

Samsung fined in Taiwan for 'dirty tricks' campaign against smartphone rival HTC

Amidst the hustle and bustle of Taiwanese life social entrepreneurship is on the rise. Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian

Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission on Thursday fined the local unit of South Korea's SamsungElectronics NT$10m (£212,000/$340,000) for organising an "astroturfing" campaign to denigrate smartphone rival HTC.

In a notice on its website, the consumer protection body said that Samsung had organized an Internet campaign in violation of fair trade rules to praise Samsung smartphones while slamming those of HTC.

The incidents first surfaced in April, when the Taiwan FTC said that it would investigate the matter after receiving complaints. The United Evening News in Taiwan said at the time that students had been hired through Samsung's local agent to write online articles attacking HTC and recommending Samsung phones. 

At the time Samsung posted on its Facebook page that it regretted "any inconvenience and confusion from the Internet event" and that "Samsung Taiwan has halted all Internet marketing such as posting articles on website."

The fine imposed was less than half the maximum NT$25m that could have been levied. 

The FTC also handed out smaller fines on two Taiwanese trading companies it said were responsible for mounting the online campaign.

Earlier this year the FTC fined Samsung NT$300,000 for misleading advertising about the camera functions on its Galaxy Y Duos GT-S6102 phone.

The FTC action comes with HTC badly on the defensive amid disappointing sales for its once popular smartphones.

The company, which posted its first quarterly loss in the July-September period, has suffered a drop in its global smartphone market share from a high of 10.3% in the third quarter of 2011 to only 2.6% in the third quarter of 2013.