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Discussion on Pakistani Superheroes
2009-08-30 03:42:00
This was a serious status update that I recently made on Facebook about what the Pakistani lawyer movement had turned into. Hilarity soon ensued and it became a discussion of what a Pakistani Superhero should be like. You can read it here: Me: Lawyers fighting each other like kids and turning into a rowdy mob. These are the people who'll give us justice? Arsalan: Dude let's make a comic character. Pakistan's first super hero(one that's not related to an antibacterial soap) You know like captain america! I smell money X D Arsalan: No wait that was just a fly caught in my nose Me: Hmm, that's a great idea, one you'll now regret. ;) I'm going to base Pakwoman on you. A female superhero disguised as a bearded engineer. Weakness: flies and pants Arsalan: turn ons... women and food : P~ Me: So a geeky, overweight lesbian, allergic to flies? On second thought, maybe a Pakistani superhero isn't such a bright idea. Arsalan: we could give her a cape? Me: She'll just make a b...
More About: Discussion

Linux turns 18
2009-08-26 11:23:00
It's finally here. Tux's 18th birthday. It was 18 years ago today, 26th August, that Linux Torvalds unleashed Linux upon the world via this message: Hello to all those using Minix. I am creating an operating system (free) (for pure hobby, will not be as big or professional like gnu) for AT clones 386 (486). I’ve been working on it since April and is already beginning to be ready. I’d like to get feedback on what people like / dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file system (for practical reasons) among other things). So far I’ve ported bash (1.08) and gcc (1.40), and two utilities seem to work. This means I’ll have something functional in a few months and want to know what features would be most people. Any suggestion is welcome, but I can not promise to put them all in practice :-) Linus Benedict Torvalds PD. Yes – it’s free minix code, and has a file system thread-safe. It is NOT portable (uses 386 task switching etc.),...

Renewed hope for Pakistan
2009-08-23 23:28:00
For the past couple of years, there hasn't been a lot of positive news coming out of Pakistan and although it has remained quite insulated from the effects of the global recession, things haven't been too rosy. I was recently reading a nice article on Dawn titled Silly Season in Pakistan that explored the possibility of ridding the country of the current president (don't get your hopes up) and the following part caught by attention: The macroeconomic indicators have stabilised; inflation is down; the power crisis will ease now that summer is over; suicide bombings are down; a degree of normality is returning to Swat; Baitullah Mehsud is dead and his headquarters in South Waziristan is under siege; the judicial crisis is over; a truce, albeit an uneasy one, is holding in Punjab; the American demands to ‘do more’ against the Taliban are muted; drone strikes are less of a political hot potato; relations with India are edging towards a post-Mumbai phase; parliament is upping it...
More About: Hope

Happy 62nd Independence Day
2009-08-13 23:51:00
Just got home (at 2am) after being stuck on Islamabad's roads for a few hours. Cars, bikes, vans, you name it; they were all out on the roads, crawling at a snail's pace and blocking all intersections. However, it was nothing to be mad about. Pakistan's 62nd independence day is here and the party has just started. Seeing all these people, one forgets all the trouble this country's been facing. Terrorism, inflation, unemployment, instability; tonight, these appeared to be the last things on anyone's minds. There were even people riding bicycles while waving the national flag and it's an even bigger celebration than the recent one for the Cricket world cup win. A friend of mine once called the Americans the most flag-waving nation on earth. Guess he should visit Pakistan on one of these occasions. This show of spirit, which was partly just letting off some of the pent up steam, is encouraging. I hope we can all continue with such energy and channel it into productive ways...
More About: Happy , Independence , Independence Day

Telenor Persona Weblounge
2009-08-10 02:51:00
For the last few years, the growth in Pakistan's telecom sector has been spectacular. Yes, we're still waiting for 3G and there's plenty of room for improvement, but we have one of the fastest growing number of users and among the lowest call rates in the world. Competition between the various operators has been fierce, but one that has continued to surprise us is Telenor. It has gained a large chunk of the market in a short time and has usually been the first to introduce a new feature or service. Here is another first. Along with some prominent bloggers, I was invited to a sneak preview of Telenor's new product that is to be launched in Pakistan today. In a country where it is still very hard to manage anything online (I still have to queue up at the bank or service center to pay most of my bills), the Persona Weblounge lets you do just that and a lot more, all from the comfort of your home. Looking for a new connection with a golden number or a customized plan? Just sel...

The tech cycle of failure and rebirth
2009-08-09 02:51:00
This year has been especially rough for gadgets and tech in general. Murphy's Law has struck not once, not twice, but a number of times and I put it all down to a cycle of life that everything follows. I lost most of my equipment to power damage a couple of months ago. More recently, I let out my anger and frustrations on the laptop for the last time. Right after doing an SR (long story, but to cut it short, it means bringing one's fist down very hard) on the keyboard, the drive made a click and I witnessed my work grind to a complete halt. I usually keep enough backups to minimize disruption or downtime, but I was already running in degraded mode with the PC knocked out of service. I had only a couple hours to be fully functional and get back online so I took the fast, but expensive route and got a new power supply, LCD and video card for the PC. Was back to work in a couple of hours, but it cost me and also taught me some cruel lessons. There is certain data that you usually ...
More About: Tech , Cycle , Failure

Michael Jackson dies at 50
2009-06-26 02:53:00
Heard about the shocking news about an hour back and it's official. Michael Jackson has passed away at the age of 50. Although I was never a real fan, I remember being asked to write a letter in school to my favorite musician. Only one name came to mind: Michael Jackson. I also remember John, Manish and Anil, some of my friends at the time, doing the same. Then I remember the King of Pop coming to Singapore on his Dangerous tour and taking the whole island by storm. For months later, we were drinking from cups bearing the Dangerous insignia and being awed by his Black or White video. Though he gained notoriety for some of his more recent antics, such as dangling his baby son off a balcony, he has definitely left his mark on more than one generation and was one of the world's most recognizable names. Sad to see him go like this. R.I.P.  

Pakistan wins the 2009 Cricket World Cup
2009-06-22 01:36:00
Firstly, let me just say that despite my great love for participating in most kinds of sports and physical activities, the thought of watching a match from the couch doesn't quite appeal to me (well, maybe with the exception of the FIFA World Cup ). And when it comes to Cricket , I have neither the patience, nor the will to sit through a whole match. But this post is about the only spot of good news that this nation has seen in a while. It comes after a long and bitter spell of the last few years, filled with the news of war, suicide bombings and all kinds of catastrophes. As usual, I found other stuff to do during tonight's Cricket World Cup Final. I didn't even know who we were playing against until after it had started, but the final victory was instantly apparent as screams of joy and a roar of fireworks went up all around my area. Pakistan had won the final match against Sri Lanka and were this year's world champions. Even after midnight, the streets of Islamabad were li...

Using multiple broadband links from one system
2009-06-20 02:30:00
This is a piece I wrote a while back and lost when my hard drive died. Just found it again in one of the backups These days, it's not uncommon to have multiple ways to access the Internet. It is quite likely that you have a home DSL connection and another wireless connection via your mobile device, albeit a lot slower than the DSL. But if you're anything like me, you had better keep a backup connection or two. Until the recent disaster that wiped out most of my devices, I had DSL (from PTCL), a fiber-to-the-home connection (Nayatel) and a trial WiMax one (from Wi-Tribe that I'll soon have to start paying for), all without any limits on how much I could download (at least after 8pm). (I wrote the above part right after the burnout, but things have fully recovered since then) The simple way to deal with that is to maybe use your laptop with one link and your PC with the other (assuming you have more than one system). However, there's another, geekier way which I discovered afte...
More About: Broadband , System , Links

Suicide bombing at Rescue 15 compound
2009-06-06 18:49:00
There has just been a suicide attack on a police emergency station, right in the heart of Islamabad. The terrorist climbed over the fence of the Rescue 15 compound near Zero Point and opened fire on the security personnel inside. Upon retaliatory fire, he blew himself up, killing two policemen in the process and injuring several others. I've always wondered What could drive someone to harm another human being, especially someone you don't even know and who is only doing their job. Forget about humans, what gives you the right to hurt any living thing? It's an unforgivable crime when you kill others. Even worse when you take your own life in the process. But to do it in the name of religion? Especially a religion that preaches peace and tolerance? And to people who follow the same one as you claim to follow? I don't know what to say. So what next? Do we just keep putting up with this? Isn't there anything that can be done about it? How about accepting some serious security me...
More About: Suicide , Bombing , Suicide bombing