A group photo of the organizers after Code Run 2005 at NED University
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His Last Speech — Usman, the Rehri Wala
6 years ago
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
PAF KIET Session on most wanted computer networking skills
I spoke at PAF KIET about top 10 most wanted computer networking skills. We rocked the hall.
Istanbul photos
I went to Istanbul earlier this year invited to the INETA MEA Country Leaders Summit. Edgar Okiogo, Country Leader Africa.NET from Kenya who was with me in Istanbul
One of my most favorite IT guys, Stephen Forte speaking at the Istanbul Conference about TSQL enhancements in SQL Server 2005
Standing on top of the Galata Tower in Istanbul, where the first man to attempt flying with wings took off from.
A concert was organized at the Microsoft Conference in Istanbul
A view of my hotel room in Istanbul.
Me at the hotel in Istanbul.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
MSN Runtime error
When I was trying to visit my course website at http://suraj.lums.edu.pk/~cs602a05, I mistakenly hit www.msn.com/~cs602a05. I got a runtime error. Try it out, it's fun.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Dont read this posting!
I warned you. Not everyone has the same sense of humor, so if you think this is vulgar, I did warn you. Well, I took my wife to the car seat cushion maker, with my brother and we looked through some ready made material, that was inexpensive, but, well, not very classy. So, we decided to go for the option of having them tailor made, which was about more than twice as expensive. But the results were expected to be very promising as evident from the sample photos of the artistes work. They took out the seats from my car and I went around in an empty car with just one seat.
One great thing that came out of it was that last night me and my brother gave her interior a very very thorough wash, rinse, polish cycle. We fixed a few problems.
Tonight I went to get the seats back and I was pleased with what I saw. They look very beautiful. Very good handiwork. They did spoil all the mood, when they complemented to me that my car looked just like the new Corolla. Oh God, please, not the new Corolla! What did I do? Not the car that is running in taxis!
By the way, I went to Hush Puppies factory outlet and bought a great casual shoe and a dress shoe for steal prices. So, technically, I bought myself shoes and clothes for eid, and I bought my wife, well, judging from the placement of what I got her, undergarments. What are you upset about? I told you not to read this post.
One great thing that came out of it was that last night me and my brother gave her interior a very very thorough wash, rinse, polish cycle. We fixed a few problems.
Tonight I went to get the seats back and I was pleased with what I saw. They look very beautiful. Very good handiwork. They did spoil all the mood, when they complemented to me that my car looked just like the new Corolla. Oh God, please, not the new Corolla! What did I do? Not the car that is running in taxis!
By the way, I went to Hush Puppies factory outlet and bought a great casual shoe and a dress shoe for steal prices. So, technically, I bought myself shoes and clothes for eid, and I bought my wife, well, judging from the placement of what I got her, undergarments. What are you upset about? I told you not to read this post.
Snail race
Finally, after I got my cheque book for my National Bank of Pakistan account here in Lahore, and submitted my filled in ATM card application, I got a letter by TCS day before yesterday, asking me to take it to the branch to claim my PIN. I went there, the old man sifted through envelopes in his drawers and then advised me to come to him in a week's time. The same fate awaited one lady who was there at the same time. Doing business at their own pace. They'll learn their lesson the hard way, I'm sure.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Friday, October 28, 2005
Umair Khan's scream
Umair Khan, CEO of ClickMarks wrote a very nice article recently. I thought I'd share it with the readers of my blog.
Two steps behind
Last action hero was on TV last night. It's not the movie, but when the credits were on at the end, I heard, these lyrics:
Take the time
to think about it
Walk the line
you know you just cant fight it
take a look around
you'll see what you can find
like the fire
that's burnin up inside me
there's a magic running through your soul
but you cant have it all
whatever you do
I'll be two steps behind
wherever you go
and I'll be there to remind you
that it only takes a minute of your precious time
to turn around
I'll be two steps behind
Reminded me how much I loved this song and loved to listen to Def Leppard music back when I did listen to music.
Take the time
to think about it
Walk the line
you know you just cant fight it
take a look around
you'll see what you can find
like the fire
that's burnin up inside me
there's a magic running through your soul
but you cant have it all
whatever you do
I'll be two steps behind
wherever you go
and I'll be there to remind you
that it only takes a minute of your precious time
to turn around
I'll be two steps behind
Reminded me how much I loved this song and loved to listen to Def Leppard music back when I did listen to music.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Wrestle mania - What the worrrrrrrrrrrld is watching
I was just watching wrestle mania. It wasnt Bret the hitman Hart, or the Rock, and it certainly wasnt on TV. It was on the street. Near a traffic light, the car in front of mine dead stopped and so did the one in front of that one. The guy on the driving seats of both vehicles in front of me popped out of their seats like springs and ran to each other. Long lost relatives? They ran to each other. But, wait, they started wrestling each other. There was no referee. A semi-hot dogess popped out from the front most car screaming, desperately trying to sooth down her driver and to avoid conflict, but she wasnt cutting it.
Both men looked like drivers. She seemed surprisingly concerned about the safety of her "driver." No, wait a minute, how can I be sure he was her driver. Maybe he was her car driver, though. Maybe she was worried about how she'd get to the market to do the late night shopping or explain to her husband the bruises on the driver's face or his torn clothes.
Anyway, people started gathering to try and separate the two fighting, to no avail. About real-life fighting, have you every noticed, that none of them kicked the other in the groin. That'd have been an early ending to the fight. ;-P
Well, the traffic light was only a short distance from me and it had turned green. I came that close to sending one of them where he belonged as the other one threw him to the asphalt as I pulled out to the fast lane and drove right past them and unfortunately, the one eating dirt dropped close to my left rear wheel. On second thought, though, I didnt want any red stains on my white car, either.
Both men looked like drivers. She seemed surprisingly concerned about the safety of her "driver." No, wait a minute, how can I be sure he was her driver. Maybe he was her car driver, though. Maybe she was worried about how she'd get to the market to do the late night shopping or explain to her husband the bruises on the driver's face or his torn clothes.
Anyway, people started gathering to try and separate the two fighting, to no avail. About real-life fighting, have you every noticed, that none of them kicked the other in the groin. That'd have been an early ending to the fight. ;-P
Well, the traffic light was only a short distance from me and it had turned green. I came that close to sending one of them where he belonged as the other one threw him to the asphalt as I pulled out to the fast lane and drove right past them and unfortunately, the one eating dirt dropped close to my left rear wheel. On second thought, though, I didnt want any red stains on my white car, either.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Design document submitted
OK! So, tonight at 8 pm was the submission deadline for our software engineering project's design document. That was the toughest document of them all in terms of required hardwork. The weightage of this document, though surprisingly, was amongst the lowest of all deliverables at 15%. I dont know why. Me and my group mate spent all day today and yesterday and some time day before yesterday to prepare the document. I have uploaded it for enhancing your freeloading experience. Enjoy! I am sure there'll be shortcomings and errors in it due to the hasty work done.
Hey, what am I doing online! I have a mid term day after tomorrow and there's little preparation. Off I go!
Hey, what am I doing online! I have a mid term day after tomorrow and there's little preparation. Off I go!
Monday, October 24, 2005
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Project functional specifications and STP
I have uploaded the functional specifications document for online ariline reservation system project for my Software Engineering course. I have also uploaded the simulation code for Spanning Tree Protocol. The STP file contains the simulator object file, alongwith the Visual Studio 6.0 project and workspace files. It is ready to compile and run. The assignment handout which contains the description of the topology and scenario files as well as a brief of the spanning tree protocol are also included. Enjoy!
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Bumper sticker
I've seen a few cool bumper stickers lately. One at the back of a really battered ugly looking Mehran said:
This car is a status symbol: It symbolizes my status of being poor
By the way, I like the license plate numbers down here. While I drive, I am mentally making up pronounciations and acronyms out of the alphabets. Here are a few:
LOV Love
LUV Love
LRE Lahori
LRU Least Recently Used
LRA Least Recently Abused
LZB Lazy Bee
LZS Lazy Ass
LZA Lazy Ass
Too many to mention, but just a sample. Dont miss my rants about "(lost) opportunity"
This car is a status symbol: It symbolizes my status of being poor
By the way, I like the license plate numbers down here. While I drive, I am mentally making up pronounciations and acronyms out of the alphabets. Here are a few:
LOV Love
LUV Love
LRE Lahori
LRU Least Recently Used
LRA Least Recently Abused
LZB Lazy Bee
LZS Lazy Ass
LZA Lazy Ass
Too many to mention, but just a sample. Dont miss my rants about "(lost) opportunity"
Of (lost) opportunities
Disaster, if you look real close, brings with it strange opportunities. On September 11, 2001, when a certain locality of NYC was completely in rubbles, Cisco won hearts by bringing its IP telephony to life in the snap of a finger in that area which had lost all communications infrastructure. Technology, to solve human problems.
That's what technology is for. Technology is not for the sake of itself. It is there to solve human problems. That is a point we (as a nation) do not understand. We become engineers or doctors whatever the else hell we become without knowing why we're doing it.
We talk of IT, but all we have done in the name of IT, truly, in all these years, is:
The reason everything is faring badly, except for the shops (well the universities are making lots of money, too, but if you look at the output they are producing, I wouldnt call it success) is that we are thinking IT for the sake of IT. Computer to play games, chat or whatever. We're not solving the real problems that we should've solved. Few banks in our country are tech savvy. Airlines and civil aviation is only so much IT enabled. We are way far behind where we should be because we are not moving at all, let alone in the wrong direction. Well, we are moving in the wrong direction on every other count, but as far as IT is concerned, we arent even doing that.
So, back to my point, the disaster, the tremors. IT could be an enabler for so many things here. IT could do wonders here. Saving lives, speeding up so many other (sometimes life) critical processes. But, look at the situation, the million dollar telecom investors are riding people's shoulders by providing telephone booths and stuff in those areas. In the end, people will remember Telenor for they enabled them to call some disaster "relief" center to find out about the well being of their loved ones. IT, on the other hand, will go unnoticed. If IT were to take the lime light, as it should, because compared to IT, even telecom takes the back seat, and telecom wouldnt be anything if it werent for the computing infrastructure, then our society would begin to give IT its proper place and see it as an enabler of sorts, and not as a laptop that seth sahib wants to buy because it's a status symbol.
But unfortunately, that is not going to happen. PASHA is running around to do something. Several other people are talking about what should be done. Zohaib Hassan talked about building a website. One person on a mailing list that I subscribe to, wanted to build a similar website. 100 different people and organizations will be interested in it. A few of them will develop unconnected, uncoordinated solutions, that no one will really use, and the golden opportunity will be lost. Hasta la vista, IT!
Too bad!
That's what technology is for. Technology is not for the sake of itself. It is there to solve human problems. That is a point we (as a nation) do not understand. We become engineers or doctors whatever the else hell we become without knowing why we're doing it.
We talk of IT, but all we have done in the name of IT, truly, in all these years, is:
- establish shops that sell computers
- establish shops that sell computer CDs
- establish the so-called software houses, who are for the most part not doing so well
- establish call centers, train jobless graduates and throw them in to take pizza orders
- establish so-called IT "universities" in bungalows, churning out IT degrees to anyone and everyone who happens to be interested in an admission there
The reason everything is faring badly, except for the shops (well the universities are making lots of money, too, but if you look at the output they are producing, I wouldnt call it success) is that we are thinking IT for the sake of IT. Computer to play games, chat or whatever. We're not solving the real problems that we should've solved. Few banks in our country are tech savvy. Airlines and civil aviation is only so much IT enabled. We are way far behind where we should be because we are not moving at all, let alone in the wrong direction. Well, we are moving in the wrong direction on every other count, but as far as IT is concerned, we arent even doing that.
So, back to my point, the disaster, the tremors. IT could be an enabler for so many things here. IT could do wonders here. Saving lives, speeding up so many other (sometimes life) critical processes. But, look at the situation, the million dollar telecom investors are riding people's shoulders by providing telephone booths and stuff in those areas. In the end, people will remember Telenor for they enabled them to call some disaster "relief" center to find out about the well being of their loved ones. IT, on the other hand, will go unnoticed. If IT were to take the lime light, as it should, because compared to IT, even telecom takes the back seat, and telecom wouldnt be anything if it werent for the computing infrastructure, then our society would begin to give IT its proper place and see it as an enabler of sorts, and not as a laptop that seth sahib wants to buy because it's a status symbol.
But unfortunately, that is not going to happen. PASHA is running around to do something. Several other people are talking about what should be done. Zohaib Hassan talked about building a website. One person on a mailing list that I subscribe to, wanted to build a similar website. 100 different people and organizations will be interested in it. A few of them will develop unconnected, uncoordinated solutions, that no one will really use, and the golden opportunity will be lost. Hasta la vista, IT!
Too bad!
Imama-e-White House
The supreme religious spiritual leader of the muslims, George W Bush has called upon all "responsible" muslim leaders to reject terrorism. The "responsible" muslim leaders were invited to an iftar dinner at the holy white house. I'm sure the leaders would, after iftar, have praid Maghrib behind their imam, George W Bush.
Halt! You cant take that tent!
Major General Farooq Ahmad Khan said that there are 37 units in Punjab that can manufacture 75000 tents a day. Well, for a layman like me, at that rate, the requirements for tents should have been fulfilled within one or two days of the tremors. Oh, the press releases they give!
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