Rain

OK, so many anonymouses would be happy to know that it rained cats and dogs in Lahore and many streets and roads were flooded yesterday. I was out to get a generator for my car in a rickshaw. The rain came all of a sudden, so I conveniently didnt have a camera, but if you would kindly trust my honesty, and believe me when I say that several roads and streets were flooded. I'm sorry but the rickshaw didnt happen to pass by an underpass so I cant say if any underpass was flooded to the top or not. I wonder then, if you're right, and they are spending all of Karachi's taxes over here, then where do they go if they cant stop the streets from flooding here, too?

Rule of law

I've been around a few places in Lahore. While I've seen people caught for traffic violations on Mall Road or in Cantt area, never did I see a traffic policeman stop an offending vehicle in the DHA area. I guess they're not privileged enough to stop and ticket the Defencers.
So, they've launched a new traffic police in Lahore. Time will only tell how effective they are, but my rickshaw driver yesteday was driving diagonally on an intersection with those guys all around. I guess they were concentrating more on controlling the stopping and moving of the traffic. I'll tell you what. Until people drive straight, courteously and correctly on the road, it wouldnt matter if they follow the traffic light or not. Every day I see people driving on the right handside of the road. It doesnt matter what the reason is, it's wrong. It doesnt matter if you're trying to a shop on the right handside that is 10 meters down. You're supposed to drive on the left handside, whether or not the right handside of the road is empty. But we wouldnt take anything seriously, now, would we!

Anniversary

The other night, I was watching A-TV anniversary transmission. On came Nirma in a dance performance for the late Nusrat Fateh Ali's song "Afreen Afreen." Boy, did she save cloth? When the performers put her on a sort of board and lifted it on their shoulders you could see her entire leg naked. That's quite a thing to see on national TV. What exactly are they thinking anyway? I'm surprised no one uploaded a recording of it on YouTube.

Source code and presentations uploaded

For my session at Pakistan Developer Conference 2007, I've uploaded the source code for the demo and presentation at my website. The source code and database script are in the Downloads section and the presentation is in the Presentations section.

Nothing else to do

Like last year, this year, too, some of the volunteers at Pakistan Developer Conference were engaged and interested in only one thing: getting hooked to some other volunteer. All volunteers werent like that, though, and I am not generalizing, but a lot of people in our society are hooked only to this. It's their business, but in most of the cases, these are people who are not doing the rest of their job. Most of them are just a liability on this society, their fmailies. In my neighborhood at the "naan" shop, there are a few wooden chairs and a small wooden bench where mostly laborers and not so well off people have lunch and dinner, and a few weeks back I spotted a guy finish eating there and talking to a friend of his about a mutual trip on which they picked up some girls, and about another girl whom he is able to meet only for a very brief period of time at her medical college hostel. So, you can see that it has penetrated all social classes.
They may call it their right and freedom, but the fact remains that they are not productive for the society, are creating only evil, and are a worthless liability. "Education" just doesnt seem to do anything about it.

Once upon a time

Once upon a time, long long ago, there was a Pakistani who worked at the Graduate School office at an American university as a Graduate Assistant. The job was very important because that office deals with student grades, and a lot of other confidential information. Students have the right not to disclose their grades to anyone, even friends, and they usually didnt share their grades. This fellow, shared Mr. A's grade information with Mr. B, thereby making inappropriate use of his rights over information access. Later on, Mr. A and Mr. B had a disagreement and the argument took a certain turn in which Mr. B taunted Mr. A telling him that Mr. A had claimed to have gotten a better grade in a particular course than he actually got. Mr. A was shocked to learn that Mr. B had this information and further inquiry revelated the source of that information. Learning of this, the Graduate School banned hiring of any Pakistanis to the Graduate School.
While other nations helped their fellows achieve by lending a helping hand, the son of this great nation closed the door on a wonderful opportunity to all Pakistani students who followed him to that university. What is it with us and misuse of privileges.
I thnk that the idea of allowing comments only aims at getting praised for what wonderful work of art you produced, so I am disabling it. The blog is for me to place some of what I learn or experience. I grant you the privilege to share in what I write of my own accord. I am taking away the right to comment from you, thanks to several people, because in several instances it led to unncessary arguments. I apologise if you enjoyed posting comments to my blog.

Toshiba Tecra S2 memory card reader driver for Windows Vista

I was unable to connect my digital camera's memory stick on my Tecra S2, so I found a post on a forum, suggesting this driver. I'm giving it a shot. Let's see how it goes.

Exams over

Well, final exams for this quarter are over now. It seems this was probably the toughest final exams period I have had yet in terms of the amount of study required. It seems we covered plenty of stuff in each course. I had a lot to cover in each exam. Then there were projects and assignments in each course. Now, ahead is Summer. I need to focus on the qualifying exam right away and prepare hard for it. Also, I need to start sharpening my research focus.

Generators

A few days ago, on ATV in the program Khwaja Online. A caller complained out power outages and how the political rallies consumed so much electrical power. Khawaja replied that rallies were powered by generators and not the national grid. That reminded me of something I learnt a couple of years back while organizing an IEEE conference.
When you invite a government official to an event, a side benefit is that the local electric supply company - KESC or LESCO, for instance - is informed about the event timings and told that they should ensure power during the event. So, the event organizers dont have to arrange generators. The electric power providing company, on the other hand, has to. So, where does the expense of that generator go if KESC/LESCO bears it?

"Main aap say kena chaata hoon...."

Read a few reports published in Pakistani newspapers referenced by BBC.

This is part of an email by Vadim Antonov on an emailing list to discuss computer networking related issues:

(BTW, one of the most popular little toys I made was a thingie which did domain name-based e-mail routing over UUCP - not by tracking global topology maps a la pathalias, but by insertion of the next hop lookup step at every transit point. No more stuck e-mail trying to get along a precomputed path which has one hop down. That thingie was a smash hit in the place where phone lines used to be so notoriously flaky that every rain caused a singificant portion of them to get so bad that modems couldn't connect.)

Notice that he is referring to a long back time and the fact that we still have that problem in Pakistan every so often, whether or not it rains. Modems fail to connect. So, what have our elders, incharge of PTCL, for instance, for so many decades been doing? Why is that despite posting revenues, despite overcharging us consumers and trunk connection customers, they were unable to deploy a useful POTS?

The mentality of a government employee, ingrained deep in the brain is how to use facilities, how to use the rules and regulations to their benefit and against the poor person on the other side of the window. If and when they are held accountable, they are suspended from duty, with full pay, and asked to do nothing all day, but sit at a certain place in the office while the inquiry is conducted. At the end, they are patted on the back and returned to active duty at the same or different place. Wouldnt that person be encouraged to continue?

Goe TV website hacked

BEWARE: Uses abusive language in Urdu
Cool, haan?
Let me know if you cant see it anymore. I might upload the snapshot of the page.

Peter doesnt answer

Go to www.peteranswers.com. It's a great scam. A wonderful way of fooling people like those who believed in the phone virus scam, which includes most people in Pakistan, so you're in luck. Go there, Type "Peter, please answer the following question:" followed by a question, such as "Who is standing to my right?" and hit enter. You'll get an answer. Now do the following: When typing "Peter, please answer the following:" type "." followed by the correct answer, followed by "." and then continue typing the rest of "Peter, please answer the following question:" Then ask the question. For example, if Atif is standing to my right, I'd do:
Peter, please.Atif.er the following question:
You would see in the textbox:
Peter, please answer the following question:
Followed by:
Who is standing to my right?
Then hit enter and see what happens. If you have quick typing speed, you can fool almost anyone.

Advertisement twists

Twisting a couple of TV advertisements, one for KASB bank and the other for a tea brand. Try saying it you'll like it:
"KASB Bank! Takhleek karay aisee banking, jo laga THAAAA ker kay"
Translation: KASB Bank creates banking that hits with a bang.

For 1%

Gone are the days of good entertaining programming on TV. Now you cant see a drama on TV that has anything but hatred, scheming, crime, depicting only the 1% of the nation's population. Other major ingredients include hijras, dresses you wouldnt see anyone wearing ordinarily in the depicted social class, and lots of other absurdity. There's this program on A-TV in which the host invites rich people to show off their fancy wheels and to tell us how much they bought them for. That' bullcrap! I used to watch a similar BBC program on PTV and they never showcased any billionaire owners, of which I'm sure they have plenty. But our 1% wouldnt be left behind. Then, there's this interior design program, again, for the 1%. Hello, how about us? The 1% can watch their own favorite foreign channels, so why dont you give us what we would like to see.
There was a host on PTV who was talking about "enlightened moderation" saying that we are not adopting western extremism, of vulgarity for instance, but are showing moderation, by balancing with our culture. Well, she got it all wrong. It's not coming down from their side, it is going up from our side. Leaving our extreme and finding a common ground. Like saying, yea, yea, that might be my religious obligation, I understand, but I have to keep the rest of the world happy, too, I'm sure Allah would understand, so I'll just skip namaz and some other stuff and be enlightened moderate. At least get your facts straight.
Talking of the media, what's with these protests against protesters? The ruling party protesting against Jamia Hafsa, protesting against those who are protesting in front of Supreme Court, and being so nice as to have their own rally stopped far from the Supreme Court, "to avoid any clashes." That's a little more bullcrap! The same people who had media people beaten up, talk about freedom for the media, and protest when "the other guys" beat up some journalist during their protests. That's even more bullcrap! Stay tuned, there's much more bullcrap than can fit on this page.

Road safety

During the 4 kilometer drive from my home to LUMS, 3 motorcyclists riding just ahead of me towards the left handside attempted to make a U-turn from in front of me. They wouldnt have cared if I'd ran them over, too, judging from their complete ignorance throughout the manouver until I slammed my hand on my horn. We dont value our lives at all. That was three incidents in just four kilometers. That's not counting the reckless car drivers coming out of streets straight onto the fast lane with complete oblivion to the approaching traffic. That's also not counting the pedestrians and bicycle riders who are more reckless than all others. Welcome to Pakistan!

(In)Justice

I used to think that justice isnt available to the weak or the poor (synonymous, arent they?) in Pakistan. That still is true. I also used to think that justice is only available to the rich and the strong (synonymous, arent they? Not really, the cops are powerful but not rich) in Pakistan. After some thought, I decided that justice isnt for anyone in Pakistan. No one gets justice. The rich and powerful have the right to commit injustice, which they may choose to avail.

Something that only works in Pakistan

Well, there are certain things that just wouldnt work anywhere except Pakistan. Here's a shot that I took from inside my car approaching Lahore-Islamabad motorway, several months back, of a tractor with only three tyres on the road. I guess they must be endangered species.

Victory of the establishment

It was proven yet again that you cant beat the establishment and that there is no such thing as justice. In the Sonia Naz case, the defendent didnt appear before the court on repeated calls, and left her home. The reason is quite obvious. The powers that be must have threatened her. The accused have been acquitted. Yes, the present regime is best for Pakistan.

What crap

I bet most of the Pakistanis reading this blog have already received what I am referring to here. An SMS requesting you to forward it to everyone you know that if you receive a call from a 12 digit number containing 0099, dont answer it. The SMS even mentioned a name for the condition it causes. Allegedly red rays are emitted and the brain is affected by the radiation, and the preson dies. 20 deaths were reported in a message. The stupid Geo network even aired this news. Someone mentioned that a person died on Mall Road, Lahore like this. A friend of mine reported that his entire village had turned off their cell phones because of this report.
What crap! This is bullshit and anyone participating in this spreading of rumours should be prosecuted.
First, Imagine the tiny battery in your cell phone. How the hell would it be capable of emitting radiation strong enough to damage your brain? You've had hundreds of X-rays, and that huge machine never damaged your brain to kill you instantly (at least not yet). So, how can your tiny cell phone battery do me this great favour? Also, the GSM standard is clearly documented, and it doesnt matter what number a call comes from, the same protocol is followed. It's downright impossible.
Grow up, people! Bullshit like forward it to everyone you know, care about, love, $1.00 for everyone you forward this email to, 10 copies kara kay distribute karain warna aap ko nuqsan ho ga, it's all nothing but bullshit. Grow up!