Transformers 3

Yes, these are three transformers. Compare the desi transformer with the other two. The desi one is so ugly and the foreigner transformers are so cute. I pulled the foreigners out of a computer's power supply. I don't know what their rating is or how I might be able to reuse them, yet.

uncalled for

This guy is telling that guy to not make comments on cricket? (and concentrate on coaching)
What a shame!

Food for thought

Some food for thought for the young aspiring leaders of not only organizations in our country but also of the country itself.
I was reflecting the other day how our political "leaders" and other "leaders" get pissed off when asked probing questions by the journalists. While sometimes the latter can be bitchy, the former are in the limelight, and they should be prepared and accepting of the questioning. People have the right to ask questions of you. At least feel privileged, because no one asks those who don't matter.
The other day, PCB Chair, Mr. Ijaz Butt was visibly and clearly out of control when addressing the media. Come on, old chap, our nation is sensitive about cricket, with the kind of performance by our country's team over the years, you should expect to be asked stinging questions.
On a related note, I noticed how Mr. Ijaz was insisting that he was doing everything according to the PCB's question. Notice how the leaders of the organizations and of our country, for that matter, contend that they are not doing anything wrong. The leader might as well not be corrupt, might follow all rules and regulations, but if the organization is not functioning properly, in our nation, the leader does not take the blame. In case of a train wreck, a few linemen are shown the door.

I guess they feel their responsibility ends at doing the right thing themselves. That is not the case, leaders of today and those of tomorrow. Your responsibility, as a leader is to ensure that your organization functions correctly. Most other nations realize this. Think about it.

Taxonomy of a Secular Mind

A couple of friends of mine authored this. I'm posting it here on their request:

Apologist: Is not one who survived Apollo 13.
Mullah apologist: Is one who disagrees with me and asks different questions.
Intellectual: Is one who agrees with me and asks the same questions that I do.
Religion: A flogging, stoning, amputating ... movement started about 1400 years ago (reference: Pervez Hoodhbhoy's talk "Why we are not a nation and how can we become one")
Rational: Anything against religion (as defined above).
Irrational: Everything else.
Faith: Accepting irrational (defined above) as true. Axioms of science are exempted.
Science: Accepting rational (defined above) as true.
Blind faith: Faith (defined above) of mullah apologist (defined above).
Scientific: Anything I can observe (even if in imagination) or another intellectual (defined above) can, and no one else.
Respecting opinion: Accepting everything rational (defined above), and ridiculing everything else.
Taliban: Should be brutally killed.
Democracy: (Imported from double speak) Anything a secular person says. PS: Double speak implies if a secular contradicts two definitions of democracy, then both are true but only one is applicable which is rational (defined above) in course of argument at that time.

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).