To oversee or to overlook?

I've seen this mistake several times. This time around, I saw it when I accidentally bumped into a resume of someone who had done an O levels from Beaconhouse School, A levels from Lahore Grammar School and a BSc Honors from LUMS. She says that she "overlooked placements and internships of students." I believe the correct term would be to "oversee placements."

South Africa keen to host series

South Africa are keen to host Pakistan's "home" series against them. Who wouldn't! Consider all the money they would make. The least of which will be the forex that the team will take with them. Hotel costs, shopping, hanging out, etc. And we have plentiful forex as a nation to plounder.
With the current performance, I think the players should be asked to pull their own weight, or at least some of it, until they start to show results. Slap the tour expenses on them for a change.

Doodh key nehrain

Here's to those who ask what the reposed CJ has done. To those who contested the reposing of wrongfully deposed judges wouldn't cause flow of milk streams, you missed the whole point. The point was that wrongful injustice has been done by those in power for way too long. It was a symbolic struggle to say, enough is enough.

Comparing

So, I guess the new idiom would be "comparing apples and googles?"

Duh!!!!

TV Remote tester

Fatima keeps throwing or dropping the TV remote. She also keeps taking it apart from time to time. I believe we've had four or five remote changes over the last one year or so. The TV wouldn't turn on last week. It's a monitor-turned-TV which does not have buttons to change channels and stuff. I found that a component lead in the remote was broken. Tried to fix it but it didn't work. Couldn't decide if it was a faulty TV or faulty remote, so I set out to web search for TV remote testers.
I found several different DIY schematics, but the technique that I liked best was to view the remote through a camera. Point the remote at the camera, press a button and you should see a white LED flashing. The camera captures Infrared radiation. Simple and effective. The remote was broken. I bought a new one. The TV was also at fault, the IR sensor in the TV had to be replaced.

Tax SMS

There's a thread these days on Telecom Grid Pakistan mailing list about the proposed 20 paisa per SMS tax. A poster hinted on how cheap SMS make them the ideal easy way of mobilizing a mob, for instance, in the long march case. The post as well as my reply are way off topic, so I'm posting a reply here.

May I suggest that roads, railways, and telecom are the enablers of growth and development. Branding SMS as the easiest mass mobilization instrument is a flawed argument. For that matter, cars and trucks have been used to carry explosives. Shall we ban them, too? Notice how this discussion is headed way off topic. Every facility has a way to be misused. You can't justify taxing it to lower the risk. Besides, if the government is going to play foul, they should be willing to see the mobs on the streets. To be fair, they haven't seen anything.
I would like to see a million percent tax on cigarettes, cigars, tobacco in general, paan, chewing gum. Those are non essential items. Instead of making wheat, onion and phone calls more expensive, tax these items by the millions of percent. These are luxuries, as are the beamers and the mercs. Oh, but the industrialists would halt that move fearing loss of revenue. We've seen several examples lately of when the ministers talked about rationalizing the prices of local cars (Suzuki Moron, for instance). What did we get? Nada.
Again, if the telecom sector fears loss of revenue, they'd try to fill a few pockets to scrap this bill. But the telecom sector, apparently, isn't doing well anyway.

I am wondering.......

I'm wondering! Some of the things are tested on the third world first. For example, WiMax. They've identified many deployment issues with the technology before they deploy it in the developed countries, if ever. New medicine are launched in third world countries. It helps identify side effects with no legal costs. Human cost in the third world does not count. Surgery related equipment similarly follows.
On the other hand, some things are not tried on us first. For instance, electricity market deregulation, whereby a consumer can purchase electricity from a number of different retailers. Markets for trading power are established. As far as I can tell, the idea originated in the UK. Am I wrong?
Please comment on what you think placing some innovation in one of the above categories.

Pop quiz (including solution)

Time is a relative term. Aging doesn't affect certain people as much as it does the rest of us, like Michael J. Fox, Tom Cruise and, of course, Bryan Adams. He was born November 5, 1959. So, here's the quiz: how old will he be on November 5, 2009?
50? Wrong answer. Haven't you heard "18 til I die"

Garbage characters in files

A friend of mine here at LUMS just told me of an issue he had last night. I thought I'd blog it down just in case someone else would tumble upon it.

His C++ program was writing to a file. While debugging the program, the file contained what he expected. But when the program closed, the file contained some garbage characters near the beginning before the meaningful data. He discovered that it was because he had opened the same file in the program twice.

Last night

This is a true story about what happened last night. It rained cats and dogs in Lahore last night. Hearing the sound of the rain, I immediately got in the mood for "it". We got out of the house and ran over to my car giggling as we got soaked. We drove over to a secluded place with no one around and got out of the car.
Soaking up the skin desperately hoping to ease the prickly heat. I ran my hands over her body at the front first and then the back and watched it get cleaned. I immediately got an idea. I got the shampoo out from under my car's seat and a rag. I washed the rag in the rain and applied some shampoo onto it. I washed her white body with the rag it starting at the top. Some vehicles started to go past us, and I was embarrassed but did not stop doing it. I had not washed my car in ages. What were you thinking you pervert?

Run to you

Bryan Adams is the best live performer ever. Check out his number "Run to you" on YouTube.

Lady finger

This lady finger in the palm of my hand is bigger than my fingers. It is amongst several other lady fingers that have been grown experimentally at LUMS. They have grown several other vegetables, too. Periodically, now, they hold a vegetable market in LUMS to sell vegetables at reduced prices to faculty members, staff and students.

1U

Did you know that 1U of rack space is equal to 1.75 inch or 4.45 cm?

You know....

You know ____________ when your landlord asks his kids to shower your car for you.

Chalo!

Lo g! It seems the saying "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach" is right (at least in this case).

What senior players?

Which senior players? I don't see any. I would call Muhammad Yousuf senior, he's not in the side. Shoaib Akhtar's performance is nill. It even makes me sad that he was the only one to grab the two fallen wickets in yesterday's match against the Australians. He's in, he's out. Wherever he is, he is not fit. Afridi gives 100% only in the commercials. You score 40 runs and you get cramps when fielding. I believe we should put down our feet and say, enough of this crap! We want sportsman who field and ball through the entire innings without getting tired no matter what you scored when batting. Other teams' players do it, why are ours not professional enough? It is time to pay heed to Imran Khan's warnings and take his suggestions into account. He is the only captain under whom Pakistani team has ever delivered even with a weak side.

Of vice and men

This may sound taboo or controversial, but I wanted to raise my voice against the exploitation by women of women and subsequent blaming it on us. Look at this. As I recall, it is women who are on the heels of the bridge the morning after the marriage and every day afterwards asking about "progress". They are the ones who encourage early births. And who gets the mention in the article? The "low-paid guard". Women, for goodness sake, get your act together.

Sad story

A LUMS student was killed in DHA Lahore. It is sad how the privileged class indulge in extortion of the lower classes on the basis of power earned through money and status. It all continues to go unchecked. Not only are the rich oblivious of the foul play of their children, but also, the poor and the middle class. I couldn't imagine leaving home without telling my mother, didn't fly a kite, didn't play cards, because my parents told me it was bad manners. But today, look at the maniacs on cars and bikes and on foot indulging in wheeling, speeding, sex, drugs and what not. All the time getting the ignorance or protection of their parents. We need vigilante.

Soracle? OraSun?

Oracle is going to acquire Sun.

MVP yet again

Yup! I am renewed as an MVP for 2009. All the hard work in the community has paid off yet again. Just gotta work harder to keep it up.

My blog is still useful

Turns out my blog is serving a purpose. A student in the lab right next to mine read this posting and contacted me. One of his friend's laptop had taken a dip in the water and he wanted to open it to dry. Turns out he heeded my warning of worn out screw heads in my aforementioned post and came to get the swiss army knife. Hehehe!

What an idiot!

Meet Mr. Ahsan Saleem. He's got a movement going on for "12th March - Virtual combined Asr(eve) Prayer for Solidarity of Pakistan." Anyone who reads it is thinking about a virtual jamaat. And that's exactly what the title implies. He claims, though, that it is a misunderstanding. What he claims he is talking about is supplicating together, making dua. I pointed out the obvious to him, but he just doesnt get it. People like this are misleading many simple minded folks, and there's plenty of them today, who want to oversimplify the religion. I mean, Islam is a religion of simplicity, but make no mistake, this isnt what it implies. Dont make up things on your own.

Return of the Tecra

I couldnt find time to write an update my Toshiba Tecra S2's surgery. I took it apart over the December 25, holiday. I used precision screwdrivers, which was a mistake. The other ones I had didnt fit the screws, because the screwdriver tips were too big. The precision set was so small that it damaged many screwheads. I took everything apart based on irisvista.com and was able to put it back together and it is still alive.
The "power surge on hub port" message didnt go away, though. I was still able to use the USB ports. I have no disabled the USB controller from Device Manager and am not getting the error messages and the system runs fine. There's just one problem: I think I didnt get it all put back tightly enough. Something seems to be lose. The system would just pause sometimes and I'd have to knock on it to get it to resume working. It's not too bad, though. I'm OK with it.

Take apart your Toshiba

Warning: Taking apart your laptop can kill it (permanently). I've killed an IBM Thinkpad once, I should know. I'm about to take apart my Toshiba sometime in the near future. Let's see how that goes. How do I know how to do it? The information is available at www.irisvista.com. Check it out!

Beggars can be choosers?

Beggars can be choosers? Wow, that's a new one!

what?

This is so unfair to the pakistani spectators. In return pcb should pay every pakistani household 3 years TV license fees and electricity bills for watching games at horme on tv instead of stadium.

Good grief

What a grieving widower! Sure he'd have (loved to) embraced her.

What a price

What?

Who's lying now?

Who's lying now? This guy, or this guy? One of them definitely has a fame for lying. Guess who!

Kyoon?

Kyoon bay! Nervous ho gaya kya?

Choppers hunting

We were short of choppers for rescue missions after the earthquake, but hunting is a more important use of these machines.

Pet lion

Reportedly, a man in Houston, Texas, recently badly affected by hurricane Ike had a pet lion. He's taken shelter in a Baptist church with his pet and rescue workers arent going in, because they "know where he(the lion) is on the food chain."

Back scratching

It's hot these days and I've got slight prickly heat. Others are also talking about "you scratch my back, I scratch yours."

Insane president?

Yup! Long term psychiatric problems are a big plus for the job of PoP (President of Pakistan).

Hadith

"Agreements are not Hadith or Quran" says Asif Ali Bhutto Zardari. However, I remind him the characteristics of a munafiq.
And why is it that our Prime Minister needs an advisor on Religious Affairs? I thought he was a "Syed" himself. Oh, I guess he's one of those Syeds who are Syed for a different reason.

Rubbish

Rubbish, it is!

Pour some milk in that pond

Story credit of a certain magazine that I saw lying in the pantry in our department.
Once upon a time, long long ago, there was a king. I'm sure he had a queen and princes and princesses, too, but that's not the point. He built a pond at the center of the city and ordered his people to all come and pour a glass of milk in that pond each night. Now, there either was no electricity around at that time, or the city was on the WAPDA grid, so when you went to the pond at night, you couldnt see a thing. Anyway, the order was given. Next morning, the king ordered his interior minister to go and see the pond, and told him, "I assure you, you will see nothing but water in the pond." Sure enough, when the minister got to the pond, there was nothing but water in it. Not a drop of milk. Everyone thought someone else would pour milk in it. Everyone thought if they poured water in the pond, it wouldnt make a difference. Hell, they thought if they poured milk in the pond, it wouldnt make a difference either.
That's how we are today. We are convinced that if I do the right thing, what good will it do. It wouldnt change a thing. It wouldnt make a difference. But I say to myself before I say to you, pour some milk into that pond.

Losing ground

In kay to pairon k neechay say zameen chalee gaee. Here are some actual party principles and mnifestos.
PML-Q: Musharraf, Musharraf, Musharraf....... Oops, no more.
PPP: Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Buhtto gave his life for ...., Shaheed Benazir Bhutto gave her life for ..... Let's change the names of airports, hospitals, roads. Hell, let's name each town in the country after her. What the hell, let's name the country Benazir. That's sure to bring prosperity to the country. If it doesnt, well, we'll find something else to rename, or perhaps some other shaheed. Who's next?

Is that true?

No Chouhdry sahib, he hasnt proven to be a true Pakistani. He has proven to be, perhaps, a true Turk. True Pakistanis never leave the seat of power willingly.

Are you kidding me?

"Ethically wrong" to continue? What the hell is that? Yeah, you better run because now there's no one to protect your wrong doings, and you're not retired from the forces.

Sign it, baby!

Sign this now!

Profit

A few days ago Shell announced dividends to its share holders that were 625% higher than last time. Can you imagine that? How much profit they are making. And that cant be "trickled down" to us? Oil prices are declining worldwide and yet we suffer and this happens.
"In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king." from the movie Minority Report.

Warning

Mark my words! With that Honda City, Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Santro, or Cultus or whatever that you bought on financing/lease, and that credit card that you've been spending off, and that trend increasing in popularity, the day is not far when this will be commonplace for us. But you will not quit, you will not heed this warning or any other.

Smart

The imposition of emergency last year was understamped by the COAS. Now, I reckon you cant challenge that in a civil court, because it wasnt an act of the PoP. Military personnel are above civilian law.

Deja Vu?

They are at it again! Unlike the last extraditee, I'm sure this one wouldnt be dumped in Saudi Arabia, for sure, if at all, that is.

Take 'em away boys

We're at it again! Who's responsible for countering smuggling? If no one is, I'm afraid we'd be sitting out on the streets soon because everything would be smuggled to Afghanistan.

A dog changes its bark tone when in presence of master

These are our Syeds and our Makhdooms:
Gillani, July 30, 2008: "Sovereignty guarantee not needed".
Gillani, August 1, 2008: "Talks focussed on respect for sovereignty".

Reconstruction

Atta boy! Keep it up!

Kill him!

Atta, boy! That's how nations who have some grace in them act. This is how apologetic ones behave! Almost even before someone claims anything on one of our own, we met out the death sentence to our guys. I guess that should send a strong enough message to anyone wanting to contribute anything to this nation. At least that's what the plan of "those who matter" is.

Powerful

Yes, he's right! He's probably groomed them, too. Enough Mush talk, Fazloo, shut up already.

Dont expect instant miracles

Oh, really! It's as easy for you to ask people not to expect miracles now as it was for you to promise a miracle before the elections. Hey, Mr! Guess what! We knew exactly what to expect right from the beginning.

Such ulema

Such are our uleman. Fazloo and his flock of kiss asses. If they cant figure out how important the justice system is for the survival of society based on sayings and practices of the best governments in the history of mankind, at Madina and elsewhere, frankly, their knowledge reminds of the books loaded on the donkey metaphor.

VIP culture

Yup, I'm sure he's serious about abolishing VIP culture. Wait a minute! What am I saying? The guys is the second biggest beneficiary of VIP culture in the entire world. Why second, you ask? I can bet you no nation can beat our VIP culture. We proudly uphold it. When the VIP comes to town, we lay down the lives of our critically ill on their way to the hospitals, while traffic is blocked to make way for those who are necessary for the existence and survival of my country. We power our VIPs' residences from three different grids to ensure continued power supply, while a peon in my office sacrificed his infant daughter's life of a few weeks because there was no power at the hospital when a critical operation was supposed to take place on her. Later, she developed pnuemonia and it was impossible to carry out the operation. She laid down her short life for our VIPs. But we're a mighty great nation. She's just one in millions of people who do this every day.
OK, so now that we have ascertained that our VIPs are at the top of the list, then why is this loser number two on our list of VIPs? Hmmmm, there's another one who tops this guy. Go figure! Need some hints?
1. He's the only one in the entire country who knows what is right and what is wrong.
2. He's the ally and we're the enemies.
3. He claims to have sacrificed a lot for the country.
4. He claims to have given independence to a lot of sectors in the country.
You dumbo, you still cant figure it out. What a loser you are! You better watch out because the VIP culture may be coming to an end. Hmmmm. Wait a minute! This same loser promised relief to the people, and we got a "whole lot of relief." And the "relief" will keep increasing. This is the same guy who promised restoration of judiciary and still hasnt delivered. Well, at least he's paying their bills. So, I guess you're likely to be safe. If this loser's performance is anything to guess from, I'd bet VIP culture is only going to grow.

Sweeping moves

Such sweeping moves our ruling criminals make! Pardon off all and sundry (give or take a few) under National "Resurrection" Ordinance. Convert all death sentences to life sentences. Sure, sweeping moves across the board benefits. Do you see sweeping moves in other non-criminal-benefiting areas?
1. Abolish electricity bills for people below poverty line? Nope
2. Free flour for all the poor? No, sir
They did promise scholarships and free books etc to send kids to school, but that's because the "bosses" wanted to keep the kids away from the madressahs.
I dont know whether I should blame the idiots who voted for the arrow because of the "martyr for democracy" or blame myself for not having voted for anyone. But wait, cant blame me. I'm out of the town where my vote is registered, and where my vote is registered, it's already been cast (in absentia) in wins by record margins. What a facility!

Of birds and garbage

Strict measures for housing schemes near planned new Islamabad airport. All based on possibilities of bird hits for aircraft due to garbage dumps. Shouldnt garbage management be across the board and not just around airports for the elite?

You gotta be kiddin' me

Relief for the masses? You gotta be kiddin' me! Hey, we've been promised that too many times by too many faces. We know exactly what's coming. Dont you?

He did it!

If you ask Shortcut Aziz about this, he'll say it was all due to the careless caretaker government.

When will you quit lying

Sure! That gives us the much needed "relief" that you had been promising. Stop lying already, you a-holes.

Hang these criminals

I feel sick and angry. My eyes are filled with tears after reading this news item and I wish I could wipe it out of my mind. Such cruel bastards, these killers. Images of that boy cant stop running through my mind, as acid is poured into his ears, mouth and other parts of his body. How can one be so cruel. And all that over the dispute of not letting an @$$hole cross over your roof to burn someone's pigeons.
And our present "democratic" government is moving forward with banishing capital punishment. Barbarians like these must be hanged to death. There's no cure for these criminals. There's the chance criminal who makes a mistake and then feels sorry for his crime, and then there are bastards like these, who do it with pleasure. There should be no mercy for them. And since you cant tell the difference between the two types, it should be the same across the board, so that society gets rid of the willfull criminal and if any one is tempted to commit a crime, he would shudder at the consequences. But as it stands, there is no justice in our society and the present regime is striving to spread injustice even further. Why wouldnt they, they are themselves founded on the basis of illegality. The sooner we get rid of them, the better, because there's no way you can block them through the parliament. And you thought, let's participate in the elections and then we'll restore the judiciary through the parliament. I hope you're disillusioned already.

Sharp shooting

Hurray! Ch Pervaiz Ilahi's traffic wardens in Lahore are human, too. I thought they said they were courteous. Maybe this particular warden was executing a courtesy to the rest of the traffic by getting rid of a bad driver. Street justice. Hmmmm. Wanna let me join you, too, brother? I get lots of such opportunities everyday. Together we can make our roads safe in no time at all.

The victim or the victimizer

In our society, with no rule of law, you can either be the victim or the victimizer. Nothing in between. Take this incident for example. The only cause of this and so many other incidents is that there is no rule of law. There is no fear of punishment for wrongdoings in any group of the society. Those who realize this capitalize on this "freedom" and choose to be the victimizers rather than the victim. It's as simple as that. And Salman Taseer thinks justice is not the masses' problem, food, electricity etc is. My dear jackass, if there was ever any form of justice in this society, these problems wouldnt exist. The only politician who bases himself on this principle is Imran Khan.

Ironic

It is ironic how in the Indian subcontinent, conviction can lead to entry into politics.

Prince trophy

Seen the new Prince Biscuits adv on TV? The one that shows a boy lose his trophy to a flying monster. Prince arrives promptly and throws the boy a biscuit. The adv asks you to write a story telling how the boy and the Prince would reclaim the trophy. You want a story? Here's a story for you.

Eating the biscuit, the boy spots a police mobile coming up. He motions for them to stop. The boy tells them his story. The police laugh at the boy and arrest him. The Prince manages to escape on a horse. While the police hold the boy in illegal confinement, torturing him, they are hoping for his parents to come and claim him so that they can extort some money from them. The Prince calls Shahrukh Khan to intervene, who calls President Musharraf, who calls the police station, and the boy is released and sent straight to a hospital.
The Prince stays with the boy as he spends six months recuperating. Once the boy has recovered, they swear to reclaim the lost trophy and head for the hills where the monster lives.

Complete the story and send it in for a prize if you want. Me, I'll just hope that Shahrukh Khan or the Saudi President calls President Musharraf to help solve the following problems: outrageously unreal property prices, outrageously unreal property rental charges, outrageously unreal UPS prices and shortage, outrageously unreal battery prices and shortage, outrageously unreal floor prices and shortage, outrageously unreal everything else prices and shortage, justice in general, power crises, outrageously unreal school fess etc.

An important breakthrough

Finally, an important breakthrough. This will definitely help immediately solve the electric power crisis, bring down the prices of petrol, CNG, and all food items as well as miraculously remove the flour shortage.

Muhabbat-e-Rasool ka taqaza

This morning while driving to LUMS, I noticed that some @$$hole has pasted a "Muhabbat-e-Rasool ka taqaza" sticker on the rear widnshield of my car. Well, jackasses who are doing this, other people's property is not your billboard to paste posters on. Nor is causing people the trouble of scrapping off stickers from windscreens a "mohabbat-e-rasool ka taqaza."

They find out who's responsible

Well, they've found out who's responsible for their losses. But then, again, they've always given credit for everything to him. "Iss ka credit president saab ko jata hay. (Hum to minister bun ker bhaarh jhonk rahay hain)."

300 spartans!

Just 200? In my opinion, they'll need at least 300 spartans.

Why not!

Sure, why not!

I think......

This is what he predicts. And why not! What good are the pre-stamped ballot papers, otherwise?

Geo Musharraf

Geo Musharraf!

Pakistan cruising?

I dont need this! The country's petroleum reserves are extremely low and sufficient (for most products) for at most 6 days. Three bumpers crops every year, three years in a row and each year, we saw a shortage of the bumper crop. PIA is going down the drain, as are so many other valuable assets. Too much going on to list. All we get are successful test? We dont need that.

Phenkta hay salaa

Phenkta hay salaa! Konsa loss? They're buying most of their oil on subsidised prices from Saudi Arabia. They're not suffering any loss. Oil companies and government is earning huge chunks.

Badal raha punjab

Whether or not "badal raha Punjab" which means "Punjab is changing" is an accurate statement or not, the boring, on screen all day publicity campaign of Ch. Pervez Elahi and GPM, who gives a crap if Punjab is changing? We're more intersted in whether Pakistan is changing or not. It's a stupid sectrian advertisement campaign.

Respect

Such is our establishment. Such is our country. Such is the respect we pay to our teachers. Such is the treatment metted out to people who left comfortable job offers abroad to seek to do some good to education in our homeland. Two LUMS faculty members were arrested by police during a peaceful protest outside HRCP.
Look at www.dawn.com, look at www.geo.tv/geonews. My source of daily authentic news are gone. Will Benazir pull string in DC to do something about this? Perhaps, only if the wrath falls on her.

Master pages

I delivered a brief talk about ASP.NET 2.0 Master pages, and Membership controls at MS Faculty Meet 2007 at Pearl Continental Hotel Lahore recently. There was a question directed towards me during the Q&A session, which I was advised to take offline. However, I had to split after the Q&A session while the audience had dinner. Perhaps the person who asked the question would read this blog and get the answer.
His question was that pages based on Master pages are very slow to load, which is troublesome over dialup connections. Slower compared to perhaps frames based pages. Then, the other part of the question was that "Microsoft" stores a small 6-9kB configuration file on the client computer which is again a slow operation.
First, my talk was targeted for an academic setting in which speed efficiency of development is more critical than speed efficiency during use. There are comparisons of Master Pages and Frames on the web so I wouldnt replicate them here. You can google them out. Plus, there are ways to improve your webpage load times. An ASP.NET MVP would be better positioned to answer that question for you. Also, the answers are out there on MSDN and the web. About the configuration file, perhaps the reference was to session management, and that is a necessary evil. Once again, I'm sure there are ways to improve the size of that file, as well as the duration between transfers of that file.

Infant stimulation

I put together a small infant stimulation toy for Fatma from BabyStrology.com. My nephew Waaiz used to have a toy like this in Dallas. So, inspired by that, I developed my own, based on card, printouts and some thread. I'm posting a couple of photos of the toy. Fatma seemed really fascinated with it. During the first few months of the infancy, she can see only high contrast such as black on white. Putting shapes in such high contrast helps her learn to focus, and perhaps even learn to differentiate between shapes. Later on, she will learn to recognize colors and we should have toys for her accordingly.
I think the design of this toy could've been a lot simpler if I started with a cardboard circle, placed holes at six equidistant points and hung down the stimulation patterns from these holes. Three of these holes could be used to host the suspension strings to the roof. I did this toy without any rulers and this better design would've required a ruler for equidistant point placement. Plus, I'd have had to make extra efforts to ensure that the threads that the stimulation patterns hung from were equal length so that the toy wouldnt tilt to one side. Anyway, a little bit of engineering mechanics for Fatma there. If you need some schematics for this design, just drop me an email.

Mobile payment

Yup, bring it to Karachi. ASAP.

Forex

.Yet another forex source for the UK.

Knows something

This guy obviously knows something we dont. How can pardoning criminals from a selected period of time put an end to politics of revenge?

Worthless

These two have done nothing of note in their career except one or two occassions. They're complete wastes of time. Only good at one thing: modeling. Quit cricket already, both of you morons.

Live up to my expectations

I had bet my friend that Inzamam wasnt getting the 22 he needs to break Miandad's highest score in test cricket by a Pakistani batsmen. Not only did Inzi live up to my expectations, so did the rest of the team. Good work boys! I wonder what Inzi will do in the second innings. Hmmm, I hope he does live up to my expectations again. Whatever the case, I can picture his dismissal. He'll stand there for a long time, starting at nothing, wondering why he got out, and then in the applause of the SA team, and perhaps that of the crowd as well, make his way to the pavilion. I doubt that he'll be able to end not out in the second innings. That's too much to expect from Pakistan team in test cricket for a long time to come.

Who gives a shit?

Well, someone's angry at the Sindh CM's remarks. Come on, name me one person in the present setup who hasnt committed contempt of court. Take this one, for example. Between Durrani, Qusuri, Rasheed, and Sher Afgan, I cant decide who is the biggest joker.

Justice

One man is taking intiative. A friend of mine told me more than an year ago that a person who had bought these farm lands had gifted one to the President. I'm sure, looking at the above mentioned news item, there were several other gifts. The benefit to be had from these gifts was that an immaculate road was built to these luxury farm houses, thereby increasing the prices. How smart!

Friends

Friends indeed!

Oh, the games they play

This goes to show that the real priority is playing games, achieving own agenda, and not securing public interests. Part of the game is this statement. While the poor cant even buy essentials to eat, the rich who couldnt secure enough profit in bank deposits or estate business traded and stock-piled wheat in their warehouses to decrease supply and increase prices, the criminal class abounds in the society, they are the least concerned.

Akhtar

Maybe Shoaib Akhtar should also be included in the national indemnity package.

You bet

I bet every criminal in the country is wishing how they'd been a political worker.

Inzamam goes

Inzamam goes for Rs. 10 M. When he retired from one-day cricket, I opined that he was being silly. If he wanted to retire, he should've retired from both one-day and test cricket. I wonder why he didnt realize that himself.

Only one place to go

Looks like there's only one place to go whatever your need be. Read this. What's next? Children fight cases in SC?

More fiction

(Just some more fiction. Similarities to reality are purely and merely coincidental).

I watch dazed as you walk away. I dont know what I'm feeling. Maybe I'm thinking, "Why me?" Maybe I'm pittying myself. Maybe it's what they call hurt. Maybe it's heartbreak. It's like being numb after anaesthesia. Only, I'm fully conscious and able to move my body. But I dont move. Just stare emptily at your silhouette as you drift away.
I cant help but ponder on where'd I go wrong. Deep inside, I hope that you'd come back soon. Sooner than I might think. Right now. But your mind is made up. You know what you're doing. I can feel it. Yes, I can read your mind. We bonded, I can feel what you're thinking. I can actually hear your voice when you whisper my name in your thoughts.

Hurt aint gonna last forever

When love puts you through the fire
When love puts you to the test
Nothing cures a broken heart like
Time, love and tenderness

You think your world is over
Baby, just remember this
Nothing heals a broken heart better than
Time, love and tenderness

Only Hope

There's a song that's inside of my soul.
It's the one that I've tried to write over and over again
I'm awake in the infinite cold.
But you sing to me over and over and over again.

So, I lay my head back down.
And I lift my hands and pray
To be only yours, I pray, to be only yours
I know now you're my only hope.

Sing to me the song of the stars.
Of your galaxy dancing and laughing and laughing again.
When it feels like my dreams are so far
Sing to me of the plans that you have for me over again.

So I lay my head back down.
And I lift my hands and pray
To be only yours, I pray, to be only yours
I know now, you're my only hope.

I give you my destiny.
I'm giving you all of me.
I want your symphony, singing in all that I am
At the top of my lungs, I'm giving it back.

So I lay my head back down.
And I lift my hands and pray
To be only yours, I pray, to be only yours
I pray, to be only yours
I know now you're my only hope.

Fiction

Some of my students have been asking me to write, but I've always shrugged it off. Here's just some aimless scribbling with very little editing and no second looks. Please dont use this in one of your novels or whatever.

I spotted a vaccant parking slot to my left and quickly turned my car into it. Bringing the gear into neutral, I switched off the engine. I drew the windscreen reflector from the console near the gear lever. The powdery substance falling off the edges of the reflector had been reminding me for weeks that it needed replacement. The suction cups on the reflector didnt work either, but they had given up on me a long time ago. I put the reflector against the windscreen and pulled down the sun shades over it to keep it in place. Looking over my shoulder to check the backseat, I found my backpack lying there. It'd be safe there for a while.
I opened the door and stepped outside. A pleasant breeze greeted me. Having been parked under the sun for hours, the car's interior was hot. Wiping the sweat off my face and neck, I slammed the door and armed the car security system with the remote keyless entry, paying attention to the sound of the door lock actuators to make sure my backpack would be safe inside the car, and that I'd have a good chance of finding my car still here when I got back.
I walked through the park entrance and onto the jogging track. I wasnt going to do jogging, just take a walk. As I walked I pondered on the day's events, and found myself satisfied with what I had accomplished that day. I had prepared a progress report for the latest project my team was undertaking, with which my manager was thoroughly satisfied, but I wasnt. The progress I mean. But I decided to shrug it off. A walk in the park isnt the time to think about work.
I watched people walk by me. All kinds of people. Young people holding hands, ageing people trying desperately to loose those extra pounds with the brisk walk, kids playing with their air-inflated footballs. Trying not to think of anything, I made a lap around the track and went back to my car. Unlocking the car as I approached it, I got in. It started quickly on the first ignition. As I turned the key in the ignition, I always paid attention to the temperature gauge as it slid upwards slowly. The petrol tank indicator wasnt working. I need to get that fixed. I also need to get some petrol, to be a safety net in case I run out of CNG some time.

Threaten me

History does repeat itself.

More Topi

At the last minute, we found that Kamran Nishat bugged out. He instead asked Zahid to go with us. We left about 45 minutes late at 4:30 pm from LUMS. We stopped at Thokar Niaz Baig to offer Asar prayers. Usman Ghani did the imamat. We then moved on and did the iftar in the bus and stopped at the next rest area to say the prayers. The iftar arrangement was plentiful for me. We bought some cold drinks and chips and the rest area. We also stopped at Bhera rest area for dinner and offered the isha prayers. There was actually taraweeh going on there. I had a cup of tea with Usman. I've rarely tasted worse tea in my life.
Topi is so far off that it seems out of this planet. The road is so pathetic that anyone who commutes to Topi regularly, I think that all his sins should be forgiven. GIKI, in my opinion, is built at a very wrong place. No easy approach and away from everything. While that makes for some calm within it, with a difficult approach, it was anyone's guess why the only teams at the competition were from Islamabad or at most Lahore.
Billions in funds were spent on this place, which might close down because the funds are not flowing in any more. The staff has been cut down and the facilities are not well managed. The hostel accomodation was double rooms for the first year students and single rooms from second year, which is useful. We were accomodated in the common room of a hostel. We got there at 1 am. I couldnt sleep because students were making noises outside the common room somewhere. We got up at 2:30 am and went for sehr at the cafeteria. It was raining lightly and a wind was blowing, making it a bit cold. We beat the cooks to the cafetaria and had to wait for a while until the food was brought to the front. The service was extremely slow as we received our sehr. After eating and having tea, we decided to get a glass of milk shake, which turned out to have a lead time of 30 minutes. We went back to the common room and tried to sleep for a while. At 6:15 am, I got up and got ready to go the AHA auditoritum. Once there, we found a couple of other teams waiting outside the locked auditorium with no one outside. After about 45 minutes of waiting, one of our team mates found a posting at a distance saying that the quiz will start at 8:30 am. We cursed the organizers and went off to get a few things done. Once back, time went by as we saw the organizers in the auditorium trying to set up the computers and projectors. The projection was done on the back walls of the auditorium, which were cream color and with some design on them, which made for extremely difficult reading. With the figures impossible to see, the anchor had to come and draw the figures on a paper for the teams every once in a while.
Several questions were repeated and after objection from participants and audience, they were changed. The planning and execution couldnt have been poorer. The questions and answers were in PowerPoint slides. Several decks of them. The computer operator would blank the projector, sift through his slide decks to find a question and then put it up on the screen, which meant a very long competition. There was absolutely no audienec, except for a few supporters that came with the teams.
The slide decks were also from previous years and you could see 2005 and 2006 occassionally. Plenty of answers were incorrect. For instance, "There can be more than one instructions executing at a given instant of time in a multiprogrammed system." We challenged this and the judges dropped our objection. Then there was "hacking is negative activity, cracking is positive." Now this is extremely controversial. Then, there was the question that resulted in our ouster from the semi finals, "Redundancy in data results in loss of integrity and consistency." We answered that it results in loss of consistency only.
We had two teams from LUMS, two teams from Military College of Signals (MCS). We ousted NIIT, MCS 1 and MCS 2 in the first two rounds and PUCIT lost in the semis, too. The LUMS 2 team gave an excellent fight, but eventually lost on sudden death to Bahria.
You could clearly see from the body language of the organizers how they were biased against LUMS teams. For instance, how the volunteers near the computers running the questions and timers, said, "Shit" when at a crucial stage, LUMS 2 had to get an answer correct to move to the next stage and got an easy question. Then, the judge started pointing his finger at us when we lost in the semis, as if asking for us to get off the stage. Then, before the finals, a volunteer stepped on the stage, to remove the sign saying "LUMS1" form our table since we had lost in the semis, saying "I'll remove this with great pleasure."
By the way, the timer and the question were on separate machines and projectors. How long does it take to build an application that operates that quiz with the timer, the questions, the scores all on one screen? GIKI claim to have excellent programmers, so it shouldnt take more than 15 minutes. I guess they were too busy to do that.
In the second stage of the competition, the teams objected to the projection on the wall, and asked the organizers to project on the regular projection screen. I wonder why the organizers hadnt thought of that themselves. That request was granted. However, it did result in the fact that now, the screen was to our left and the timer to our right. So, while thinking for an answer, we had to look from side to side.
In the end, the organizers apologized for the late start saying that they were rehearsing in the auditorium till 12 midnight. I wonder what they were rehearsing, because they set everything up in the morning hours after scheduled start time.
After collecting our speed programming and software design teams, we got in the bus and headed out. Back on the GT road, we got one of our friends on a bus for Peshawar to see his family, said asr prayers and set out for Lahore. We stopped at a truck stop and had iftar in the form of khajoor and pakoray. We then stopped at Rawalpindi to have dinner at a small roadside restaurant. I listened to the radio for the Pakistan-NewZealand T20 cricket semi finals and reported the proceedings to my friends. Pakistan won the semis and we were on our way after dinner. We dropped Zahid off at Sadar, Rawalpindi and headed off on GT road to Lahore. I slept a little on the bus. We stopped at Mall Road in Lahore at a few minutes past 12 midnight, and had the famous Chaman Ice Cream. Back at LUMS, we shook hands with each other and went to our dorms. It was about 2 am and I had to wake up again at 3:15 am for sehr. Malik Jahan woke me up and we went for sehr.

Topi

In about half an hour, I'll be leaving as part of IEEE LUMS team for the Quiz competition for SoftCom 2007 being held in GIKI at Topi. It'll be a long drive and we're expected to get there at 1 am. Soon afterwards there'll be sehri and then fajr prayers. Our competition is at 7 am, so count sleep out of the equation. I cant sleep during travel in bus/train/aircraft. No preparation for the quiz, just going there for the heck of it. See what happens. With me will be my talented student Usman Ghani and another class fellow here at LUMS Kamran Nishat. As it happens, all quiz team members came to LUMS from Karachi.

Education department

Check this out! Several Masters degree and Bachelors degree holders apply for Peon job (BPS-4).

Terrific English

What kind of English have they composed here?

Little Ms. Saqib

Yesterday, September 4, 2007, I was blessed by Allah with a daughter. My wife and daughter are doing well, alhamdulillah.