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2009-03-29T03:40:00.003+05:00

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Pakistan Celebrated the Judiciary Restoration Today

2009-03-16T21:49:00.009+05:00

16th March is a historic day in the history of Pakistan. As soon as the govt. announced the reinstatement of the Cheif Justice of Pakistan at about 2am at night, people started to gather outside the house of cheif Justice of Pakistan in Islamabad!

The people were so much happy and excited that they didn't wait for the morning. The streets of the twin cities, Rawalpindi/Islamabad depicted a view of day time! People came out of their homes bearing torches and lights and headed towards Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhary's House. The on-going Long March which had started two days ago from Karachi had passed Gujranwala and was about to reach Islamabad in a few hours.

As soon as the Prime Minister of Pakistan Yousaf Raza Gilani addressed the nation to officially announce the restoration of judiciary, ex. Prime Minister of Pakistan Mian Nawaz Sharif who was leading the Long March, suddenly called it off and returned back to Lahore. As soon as the sun rose, people from all over the country headed towards Islamabad.
In the morning, when I reached there, thousands of people had gathered! They were dancing, chanting slogans, embracing each other and were doing anything they could do to depict their happiness!

At 11 Qazi Hussain Ahmad President Jamaat e Islami Pakistan addressed a rally in Abpara square Islamabad, so I reached there to have a look! There were thousands of activists gathered, they were all very happy and were celebrating the restoration of Judiciary! Afterwards, the activists of Islami Jamiat Talba Pakistan headed to the residence of Chief Justice of Pakistan and celebrated the success there. Here's a video of people shouting with joy!

Watch Samaa TV Live

2009-03-14T19:22:00.000+05:00

Streaming Video by Ustream.TV

Salman Taseer’s Son Exposes His Father

2009-03-14T18:05:00.002+05:00

I just received this email and found it worth sharing!

Subject: Taseer’s son writes shocking memoirs about his father

Aatish Taseer, the 29-year old son of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, who is a journalist and lives in London, has written a book, a personal memoir, about his life story in which he has depicted his father in a manner that will shock and repel many of his Pakistani readers.

The book, titled “Stranger to History: A Son’s Journey through Islamic Lands”, is about to be launched in London in a week and in India a few weeks later. Indian magazine “Outlook” has acquired the rights to the book and as a gesture of friendly cooperation, the magazine has agreed to share their breaking story about the book with The News. The magazine will hit the stands in India on Friday.

Aatish has also been interviewed by the Outlook magazine, which says the book is ready to roll and Aatish is on the brink of entering a heady world of book launches and international book tours. It has been published by the Picador India.

According to the Outlook, the book is a fictional version of Aatish’s dramatic life story. Briefly, the story is this: “A short, intense relationship between a Pakistani politician, Salmaan Taseer, and an Indian journalist, Tavleen Singh, produces a child. As the relationship founders, the father (according to his son’s account) abandons the mother and the infant in London.

They move to Delhi, where the boy, Aatish, grows up in an elite Sikh family, but with an awareness of being ‘different’ because of his Muslim and Pakistani ancestry. “Twice in his childhood, he makes long-distance overtures to his father, but is rebuffed. In 2002, at the age of 21, he tries again, by simply landing up in Lahore, and meets with greater success. Salmaan’s political career has waned — the military rules; his party’s boss, Benazir Bhutto, is in exile — but he is, by now, a wealthy businessman and a media tycoon, with an elegant third wife and six other children.

“Relatives and family friends, who have known about Aatish for years, help him find a way into Salmaan’s life. So begins a father-son relationship that is, by no means, easy. And so dies a novel.

“There is this extraordinary story, but what does it mean? It’s not everybody else’s,î Aatish said, while looking back on his struggles five years ago to write that autobiographical novel.“Then came a turning point. In 2005, Aatish, now a journalist living in London, wrote for a UK magazine on the radicalisation of the British second-generation Pakistanis, making the unexceptionable liberal argument that it was linked to failures of identity on different fronts. Chuffed by his first cover story, he sent it to his father, to whom he now felt closer — and was shocked to receive a furious reply, accusing him, among other things, of blackening the family name by spreading ‘invidious anti-Muslim propaganda’.

“The accusations set off a storm of reactions in Aatish, from hurt and defensiveness to confusion and curiosity. How was his father, who (as he was to recount in his book) drank Scotch every evening, never fasted and prayed, even ate pork and once said: ‘It was only when I was in jail and all they gave me to read was the Quran.....(This portion of the text has been deleted as it was deemed unprintable.)

Defending his controversial decision to lay bare personal relationships and conversations, Aatish said it came from his conviction, after the letter incident, that “the personal circumstances contained a bigger story.” He, however, acknowledged that the writing of the book was also a way to overcome the despair he felt at having his relationship with his father suddenly run aground again — “a way to make my peace with that personal history.”

The memoir is a journalist’s engaging travelogue. But where the political and personal come together powerfully is in the last third part of the book, which finds Aatish in Pakistan among the Pakistanis.

Personal disappointment fuses with intellectual outrage in his searing final encounters with his father. And as a traveller trying to make sense of the broken pieces of his own ancestry, he takes political discoveries personally. He is wounded by reflexive anti-Indianism, which he encounters widely in Pakistan, and particularly among the youth.

The book quite clearly rejects the idea of Pakistan (while tacitly endorsing the idea of India), but Aatish still seems to be trying to keep the two. “I hope for this to be a book for Pakistan (though) I know that is a very naive thing to say—Neither with my father, nor with Pakistan, was it written to settle any scores. I hope that despite what looks like a bleak look at Pakistan, it is possible to see a genuine concern and affection for the place.”

The Outlook said the personal story of Aatish, meanwhile, had acquired new twists. Salmaan Taseer, with whom he has had no contact for the past 15 months — though he hears he is upset by news of his book — has been resurrected in the topsy-turvy world of Pakistani politics.

About six months ago, he became the Punjab governor. It is a ceremonial role, but since the dissolution of the Shahbaz Sharif government in the Punjab, the man wields real power — and controversially.

“The timing of the book is slightly insane,” he said, laughing uncertainly. “I wouldn’t have wished for it. He was just a businessman, and that was good enough for what I had to say. He didn’t need to be the governor of the Punjab.”

Is he prepared to lose the relationship with a book like this, coming especially at a sensitive time? “Whether I wrote the book or not, I am definitely pretty much persona non grata,” he said. But then he added: “My father is a bright, intelligent man, and well read. I hope he understands some day.”

Following is an extract of the book: “I had begun my journey asking why my father was Muslim, and this was why: none of Islam’s once powerful moral imperatives existed within him, but he was Muslim because he doubted the Holocaust, hated America and Israel, thought Hindus were weak and cowardly, and because the glories of the Islamic past excited him.

“The faith decayed within him, ceased to be dynamic, ceased to provide moral guidance, became nothing but a deep, unreachable historical and political identity. This was all that still had the force of faith. It was significant because in the end, this was the moderate Muslim, and it was too little moderation and in the wrong areas. It didn’t matter how someone prayed, how much they prayed, what dress they wore, whether they chose to drink or not, but it did matter that someone harboured feelings of hatred, for Jews, Americans or Hindus, that were founded in faith and only masked in political arguments.”

“I rose to leave the room. It was if a bank had burst. My father and I, for the first time, were beyond embarrassment. I returned a few moments later to say goodbye to him, but he had left for the day without a word. The now empty room produced a corresponding vacancy in me that was like despair. I wanted somehow to feel whole again; not reconciliation, that would be asking too much, just not this feeling of waste: my journey to find my father ending in an empty room in Lahore, the clear light of a bright morning breaking in to land on the criss-crossing arcs of a freshly swabbed floor.

“As the crow flies, the distance between my father and me had never been much, but the land had been marked by history for a unique division, of which I had inherited both broken pieces. My journey to seek out my father, and through him, his country, was a way for me to make my peace with that history. And it had not been without its rewards. My deep connection to the land that is Pakistan had been renewed. I felt lucky to have both countries; I felt that I’d been given what partition had denied many. For me, it meant the possibility of a different education, of embracing the three-tier history of India whole, perhaps an intellectual troika of Sanskrit, Urdu and English.

“These mismatches were the lot of people with garbled histories, but I preferred them to violent purities. The world is richer in its hybrids.

“But then there was the futility of the empty room, rupture on rupture, for which I could find no consolation, except that my father’s existence, so ghostly all my life, had at last acquired a gram of material weight. And, if not for that, who knows what sterile obsessions might still have held me fast?”

The Game Is Not Over Yet!!

2009-03-13T01:46:00.004+05:00

There's is a massive movement going-on in Pakistan for the re-appointment of Ex. Chief Justice of Pakistan. Despite of going into the details, I will focus on some important points about the current Long March.
In the morning, there was a massive troop deployment outside the Karachi City Courts. Administration announced that they are allowing the Lawyers to enter the premises but Asadullah Bhutto (Advocate) of Jamat-e-Islami was arrested, however, he was released later. Similarly Prof. Abdul Ghafoor, Vice PresidentJamat-e-Islami was also arrested from Karachi despite the announcement of interior Advisor Rahman Malik, that no prominent leader will be arrested. Additionally, the house of Imran Khan Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf is raided thrice.

A friend told me that the police raided the house of his neighbor yesterday, who had passed away in 2001. When I talked to a few workers of PML-N, PTI and Jamat-e-Islami, they told that they have never faced such massive raids before.

Despite of all this situation, some lawyers managed to stage the rally and headed towards the internal Sindh from Karachi, everything was going alright, in the meanwhile, a news started to scroll on the TV screens that Altaf Hussain has just talked to the President Asif Ali Zardari and Farooq H. Naik. As we expected, just after that, vehicles set on fire and firing started at several places in Karachi, giving a reason to the administration to claim that the protest is not peaceful.

The point, I am referring to is, who set the vehicles on fire? who started firing in Karachi? If they were lawyers, why didn't they do so in Quetta?? Why is the timing of telephone call of Altaf Hussain and the mishappenings is so close?

Current news is that Ali Ahmad Kurd, president supreme court bar association has staged a sit-in at the border of Balochistan, as they are warned that they will be arrested as soon as they enter Sindh.

Things are becoming worse, and why shouldn't they? Wasn't it our population to vote PPP?? Didn't we know that Asif Ali Zardari had assassinated Benazir Bhutto? Didn't we know that Asif Ali Zardari has an international rank in corruption? So why did we vote PPP???

If the Pakistanis do realize their past mistakes, the game is not over yet! They have time to participate in the long march, for the great cause of justice! And they have the decision in their hands... they can elect the next government honestly and wisely!

ASUS Eee Keyboard: PC Embedded In a Keyboard

2009-01-13T07:18:00.003+05:00

We have seen all-in-one apple MACs that lead the market for a long time. We also have the Laptops as all-in-one devices, but have you ever thought of a complete PC in the form of a keyboard?

ASUS has launched its Eee Keyboard at CES '09 which is a full-fledged PC embedded in a QWERTY keyboard with a built-in 5-inch (800x480 resolution)touch screen and an HDMI to let you connect it to any TV to have a large screen view.

Now having a look at the specifications, we come to know that it has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 or N330 CPU, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 16 or 32GB SSD(solid-state drive), 11.0b/g/n WiFi,Bluetooth 2.0, 2 USB 2.0 ports, VGA, HDMI & audio input/output ports, a built-in mic and a speaker. The HDMI out port might be used to connect to a video monitor or an HDTV wirelessly.

The Eee Keyboard comes with windows XP pre-installed on it so we cannot consider it the next multimedia solution but its a nice gadget to be owned by Geeks. It has not yet hit the markets but is announced to be launched 3 to 6 months later. No price is announced yet.

Beware, Fake Facebook Can Hack You!

2009-01-12T02:50:00.005+05:00

I wrote an article a few days back, exposing a fake website impersonating social networking websites e.g Facebook and Twitter. Here I found another one. Please don't enter any information there if you want to visit the link.I recommend you to read this article before visiting the link
Here is the Facebook phishing website : facebook1(dot)50gigs(dot)net

World's Coolest Digital Photo

2009-01-12T01:40:00.007+05:00

Lots of award winners are there in the field of digital photography but I never thought of such a masterpiece!

Click here to see the world's coolest digital photo.

-Courtesy JehanAra

Projector Embeded Mobile Phone

2009-01-11T22:41:00.004+05:00

A great enthusiasm exists for 3G's high data rate and realtime communication facilities e.g video calling and HDTV. But I have been thinking that what is the use of a 14Mbit broadband connection on a tiny screen of 2 inches? I had an idea to embed a projector in a 3G phone. But before I give out, Logic Wireless has done it.

Here comes the Logic Bolt's Projector-Phone.Now there's no need to worry about the tiny screen. The buit-in projector of this phone can project a fair screen of the size of a normal TV. Built-in projection is 640x480 pixels.
The picture quality is fair enough to provide you with an engaging entertainment time. The phone comes with a 3 megapixel camera and 4GB storage with microSD extension capability. It not only projects its own screen but can also do it for external VGA and RCA inputs. Battery is not an ideal one but can last for 2 hours in projection mode. It
is currently a GSM phone but a nice inituitive to pave the way to 3G projector phones!

Here is a picture slideshow.

Sentiments of a Kid: "America is the Home for Terrorists"

2009-01-08T01:23:00.008+05:00

As the readers of my blog and my contacts on Facebook and Twitter know that I have a beard. Now, why I am telling you that? Because two people added me on Facebook as a friend because of my beard and they both are school going children! I was really astonished to know the sentiments of the young generation of Muslim Ummah. Now-a-days Israel's bombardment on Ghaza is going-on so the sentiments are on extreme. Here is my 1st chat with one of them:

9:54pm NameWithheld

assalam o alaikum
i think that american government is home to terrorists
they blame muslims for no reason

9:58pm Awais

walaikum slam! I agree

9:59pm NameWithheld

i support the so called terrorists

9:59pm Awais

kia matlab? [what do you mean?]

9:59pm NameWithheld

i mean i believe jihad is necessary against such evils

10:00pm Awais

yeah!

10:00pm NameWithheld

u support the taliban too?
....
.....
.......
.........
..........
.............

10:01pm Awais

u like him?? y?

10:01pm NameWithheld

i also like maulana (.....)
n maulana (.....)
n mulla (....)
they r great scholars

10:02pm NameWithheld

n military leaders
.....
......
.......
........
...........
..............
..................
......................

10:03pm NameWithheld
r u phatan, Sindhi or balochi or mohajir or Punjabi

10:03pm Awais

I m Pakistani ;) :)

10:04pm NameWithheld

i of course know that

10:04pm Awais

have u ever heard of Islami (...)?

10:04pm NameWithheld

yes

10:04pm Awais

I think it is a terrorist organization

10:04pm NameWithheld

well i don't!
i believe that it is not justified

10:05pm Awais

justified?

10:05pm NameWithheld

do u live in Karachi

10:05pm Awais

no, Rawalpindi

10:05pm NameWithheld

i will inshallah one day meet u n tell u y!!
u have a beard??

10:06pm Awais

yeah! :D:D
do u wish 2 have one?

10:06pm NameWithheld

of course
inshalllah, when i grow up!
u should also wear a muslim hat!

10:06pm Awais

hmmm! :)
do u want 2 do something for Islam!

10:07pm NameWithheld

i want to be a jihadi

10:07pm Awais

ooo!

....
......
...........
..............
..................

10:09pm NameWithheld

u seee my family is not the islamic type so i willl do all these things after growing up

i wanna be the prsident of pakistan n want to make Pakistan folllow the Islamic shariah

i want to defeat America

**Hassan is offline**

I believe that these innocents souls have a potential to do something for the country and Ummah. If he has such great sentiments at this age, he can do something great in his life. Wish you best of luck, kid!

Virtual Keyboard

2009-01-07T21:06:00.005+05:00

Geeks always remain conscious to find a new gadget. They always wish to have a time machine which could lead them to the 100 year advance world. But now they can have a thing which is really a future gadget!

This is a bluetooth virtual keyboard. Just turn it on and it will project light on your table to draw a virtual keyboard. Don't worry about the physical keys, just start typing on the virtual keys drawn on your table! Its worlds smallest yet complete and full-sized keyboard. Connect it to any bluetooth enabled device and enjoy the future world.

You can buy it here

360 Degree 3-D Display

2009-01-07T19:28:00.001+05:00

There has been a lot of advancement is the visual displays but we know that even the highest resolution 3D displays cannot give us a realistic view like our daily life. The 3D views are in fact 2-D because we cannot visualize the graphics from all sides (360 degree view). But now the problem is solved with the invention of a 360 degree display!

Paul Debevec and Andrew Jones of USC Institute for Creative Technologies along with Ian McDowall of Fakespace Labs, Inc., Hideshi Yamada of Sony Corporation, Mark Bolas of USC School of Cinematic Arts have created world's first real 3D display with 360 degree viewing. The display consists of a reflecting glass rotating at a high speed to give a 3D view, same as we can see in our real life.

Here is a demonstration video:

According to the project team, the display was shown at the SIGGRAPH 2007 Emerging Technologies exhibition in August 2007 in San Diego, California, where it won the award for "Best Emerging Technology". The award brought with it an invitation to show the 3D Display technology at Laval Virtual, the 10th International Conference on Virtual Reality in Laval, France in April 2008.

More details can be found here.

Some Useful Live Blogging Tools

2009-01-07T01:26:00.009+05:00

Live Blogging has been a good source to drive attention and thus traffic to your blog. In past people used to live blog by simply editing their so-called live-blog posts again and again. This was obviously a hectic and non efficient method. As you may have seen that I have been live blogging at different events e.g at Seminar on Usability and Islamabad Bloggers Meet up. In my method, people attending the live blogs see the updates in a dynamic manner and can also comment and participate in it. Also there are services available which let you broadcast a live video stream of any event on your blog. Here are some tools which you can use for text and video live-blogging.

1) Cover It Live:

Cover It live is the most popular tool for live blogging and is completely free to use. All you have to do is to create an account at coveritlive.com, create an event and add the generated code to the HTML of your live-blog page. The live blog window will appear immediately at the relevant place. You can invite people to the live-blog by entering their email addresses. Multiple Twitter accounts and multiple authors can also be added.

2) Justin.tv

This is a tool for live-video streaming. All you have to do is to create an account and an event at www.justin.tv, attach a webcam to your laptop and start the live streaming.

3) Qik.com

Qik is a very useful tool that lets you broadcast the live video right from your cell phone as you can see here. If you don't have a laptop or a wi-fi connection, you can benefit from it. Picture quality totally depends upon your cell phone camera. Simply create an account at www.Qik.com, download a tiny software for your mobile and start live-streaming. You can also embed this video in your blog by pasting the embed code available. As I have done here:

Beware of Online Pirates, Secure Your Personal Information

2009-01-05T16:28:00.010+05:00

A fake website is very active now-a-days to steal your usernames and passwords, Beware and secure yourself!

We find many people mourning over their stolen passwords. Many say that someone has hacked their email account and is sending emails on their behalf. Sometimes even the passwords are changed and the victim is unable to login. Same is the case with Facebook, Twitter, Orkut and other well known services these days. Now the question arises that what's the security flaw with these million dollar services??? In fact these websites have no security flaw! Then how is it possible for hackers to gain access to your account?? The answer is "Phishing". According to this trick, a web page visually exactly the same as the relevant website is created to deceive the users. E.g a fake Facebook login page is created. You enter your username and password and this info is sent to the hacker's email address and also to the Facebook to let you login! In all this scenario, you never come to know that you are hacked!
Mostly you receive fake emails directing you to a phishing page. For example you may receive a message with "Facebook" in the sender column and "A new Message on Facebook" as the subject. Obviously you will click the contained link to go to Facebook and as soon as you enter your login information, you are ruined!

Now the question arises that how to protect yourself? How to differentiate between a fake login page and an original one? The answer is simple! Always look at the address of the website in your browser before entering the personal information. For example if you see "www.Facebook.xyz.com" instead of "www.Facebook.com" in the address bar, it means that you are entering your information on "www.xyz.com" and not on "www.Facebook.com". Entering information on www.gmail.com/login, www.accounts.google.com, www.login.yahoo.com, www.signup.orkut.com is OK. Why? because the word just before .com, .net, .org defines the real website and is called the top level domain name (TLD).

Now-a-days a phishing site is very active for Facebook and Twitter. As seen in the following snaps:

So the simplest rule to save yourself is to verify the domain name before entering login information for your email or any other web service.

Trash Your Cell Phone and Have a Happy Life!

2009-01-04T16:57:00.005+05:00

Cell phones have become a part of our lives. Either we stay at home or roam around the world, a cell phone has become a must-have device. There's hardly a person without a cell phone, very low income people and even beggars own one.
But have you ever thought of living without a cell phone?? No? I have!
My cell phone got damaged mysteriously, six months ago. It was a precious and obviously a costly cell phone. A sight at its blank screen was enough to make me sad. I ran to a reparing shop and the guy there promised to repair it for a heavy payment. But after a continuous effort of a couple of hours, when he re-assembled the phone it was in the same condition. In a deep grief condition I returned home.

A few days later, when I was thinking over buying a new one, I felt that life is very happy without it. I noticed that when I keep on working in the office for late hours, I don't receive any calls from home. While working on a critical project, I am not disturbed with an annoying text message. My cell phone does not ring in the middle of an important meeting. I don't have a hassle of turning it off before entering the mosque. I go for an outing and come home late at night but I never receive annoying calls from home. Whenever I get late for the office, my boss cannot call me, all I have to face is what I face in the office. I never have to care for it to fall while playing football with my mates. I never have to find a safe place to place it when I put off my clothes for swimming. When we go for hiking, we ask one of us to stay at the bottom of the hill caring for the cell phones of all of us but now I don't have to handover it to him. I never come across a situation when a colleague snatches it and spends all the credit. I never have to attend an emergency call while driving. I never ever have to worry for its battery drain out. I never have to care for it while enjoying in the rain. No one calls me to say that rush to me, there's an emergency. I never have to put one hand on my pocket while walking through a crowd. Nobody asks to lend it to him for a couple of days.

Whenever I plan to buy a new cell phone I recall the annoying calls of my boss, Whenever I decide to turn to the cell phone shop, I recall an emergency call which made me very close to a road-side accident. Whenever I see an iPhone in my friend's hand I decide to buy one but I suddenly recall the snatch.

In short, it has been six months when my phone got damaged and I have never seen happier moments in my life. I advice all of you to live a happy life without a cell phone!

Obama's Leaked Letter to Israel in Favour of Attacks on Ghaza

2009-01-02T03:13:00.005+05:00

Senator Barrack Obama is a continuation of the rules of blood sucking America. Some say that because of its Muslim background, he might act a little responsibly about the international affairs. But the facts reveal the bitter! The UN security counsel's meeting ended up without any proper decision to stop Israel, Why?? I dare to expose the truth. Here is a leaked official letter of Obama:

http://www.dictatorshipwatch.com/2008/12/31/want-to-understand-obamas-silence-on-gaza.html

A Comprehensive Overview of Israel's Attack on Ghaza

2009-01-02T03:03:00.005+05:00

International community keeps on blaming muslims as terrorists. They are blamed to be involved in terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Kosovo and Palastine etecetera. But a bird's eye view of the international politics reveals that they are infact victims of terrorism. America's attack on Iraq - knowing that there are no illegal weapons, on Afghanistan - without any proof of involvement of Al-Qaida in 9/11, Israel's occupation of Palastine, India's occupation of Kashmir, Serbia's occupation and most recently Israel's bambing on the innocent kids and women are all shouting to tell that who is the real terrorist.

Recently, Israel's attack on Palastine is a continuation of its past role. So far more than 400 people have been martyred. The great flag holders of freedom of speach are all scilent on Israel's restriction on the coverage of the incident. However I salute Al-Jazeerah TV for having these videos published.

The Zionist state Israel claims to be a jewish state, protecting the Jewish religion but here is a very interesting video in which the pro-religious jews are protesting against Israel.

International media is banned by Israel so a very few pictures of war wrecked area are revealed. But here I dare to reveal some pictures taken by a friend of mine who lives in Ghaza.

Sweet Memories: Islamabad Bloggers Meetup

2008-12-31T09:42:00.011+05:00

Islamabad Bloggers Meetup was held on 29th of December 2008 at the IEEE Bahria University Islamabad chapter. It was arranged as a joint venture of Google Pakistan and CIO Pakistan and was sponsered by bloggers.pk, Wateen and RedBull. It was infact a very nice oppertunity for students, professionals and everybody to know that how to make money online through blogging.

Session started up with the recitation of the holy Quran. Later Badar Khushnood(Country Director Google Pakistan) gave a presentation on blogging, "Blogging 101". Saad Hamid a student of Bahria University Islamabad shared his success story with the audience and told that he started his blog sizlopedia.com in January 2007 and is now earning $6000 per month from it. Afterward a panel of some successful bloggers of Pakistan answered the questions of the audience. Everything from the basic definition to the advance level was discussed and explained.

As I was live-blogging there so many people all around the Pakistan including Dr. Awab Alvi from Karachi (declared as the best blogger of South Asia), Maryam Naseem from Lahore, Alif Nizami from Rawalpindi, Khawar from Japan, DuFFer from Islamabad were live with me. The online participants also sent questions which were answered by the panel. Alif Nizami was the "online-panelist" for Urdu blogging. He answered the questions about Urdu blogging.

DjFlush was broadcasting the event live. Here are some snaps of the event taken by Abdul Wahid.

Host, Uzair Sajid

Badar Khushnood during his presentation

The Late Commers had to sit on the carpet

Saad Hamid, During his presentation

The Panelists

If you missed the event, you can still grab the live-blog here

14 Most Amazing Moments of George W. Bush

2008-12-30T03:01:00.011+05:00

Here are 14 unique photos of George W. Bush. I hope you will enjoy them.

Number 1:

Number 2:

Number 3:

Number 4:

Number 5:

Number 6:

Number 7:

Number 8:

Number 9:

Number 10:
Number 11:
Number 12:
Number 13:
Number 14:

Penetration of Telecom in Pakistan

2008-12-29T01:52:00.006+05:00

According to the recent report of PTA (Pakistan Telecom Authority), the total number of mobile subscribers have reached 90 Million in Pakistan. I know it may include the duplicates but even then there is really a scene that there are a lot of people who don't have the basic necessities of life but they own a cell phone. Thus a picture like this may not be considered as unique!
A similar picture can be seen in India, the only difference is of "Faqeer" and "Sadhoo".

Murderers of Benazir??

2008-12-29T00:09:00.006+05:00

Have you ever fallen in love with a browser??

2008-12-28T00:44:00.007+05:00

Have you ever fallen in love with a browser??
Yeah! this is the question of the day, because I have!

I was exploring through www.rehan.com, when I found a link to Flock.com, I navigated and read the description of the browser which appealed me, so I downloaded and installed. Now I am using it and the only thing I can say is "Flock is everything! I love it!"

Before going towards the detailed description, I would like to tell you that it is a Feed Reader, an email client with multiple email accounts possibility, a media (e.g photos and video) uploader, a social networking software, a blog editor etc, etc,.

It has built-in features of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Digg, Picasa, Flickr, TinyPic, Photobucket, YouTube, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, Blogsome, LiveJournal, Xanga, Delicious, Magnolia and any other blog or email service! In addition to that, it is very stable and fast! I opened more than a hundred tabs in it but it didn't slow down. It never crashes! and if for some reason it does.. you will not loose anything because all the tabs will be restored automatically when you open it next time. If you blog or use to type into your browser window, it will help you with the spell check feature. Amazing! Isn't it?

Your whole Facebook is embedded in the left side-bar! You don't need to waste a lot of time in checking the status updates of your friends and the notifications, you can also update your own status with just a single hit of the "Enter" key! All the updates from the people you follow on twitter are also updated continuously in the left side-bar, no need to refresh! and similar to Facebook, update your twitter status with a single key!

Your email is a click away! Just click the email icon on the toolbar and check all new mail in the form of a drop down menu. configure as many email accounts as you can! No need to go to email account and compose an email there, just click the email button on the toolbar and send your mail. If you find something interesting, just click on the share or digg button next to the address bar and share it with the world!

Now if you blog, Flock can help you, just click on the 'blog editor' button and compose your new blog post in a simple browser window. It is a bit slow in publishing, so I will not recommend blogging through Flock. I hope this feature will be improved shortly.

If you Flickr or YouTube, no need to go to Flickr or YouTube to see your favorite pictures and videos, find them all in the upper bar.

With all these features, there is no short of work space, all the toolbars, sidebars and upper bars are arranged so beautifully that the work space remains intact!

In addition to all that, the home of fun is the "My World" tab which automatically opens when you open the browser.

One more thing, there are lots of themes available to choose from!

Flock is brought to you by Mozilla whose Firefox is already leading the market so no compatibility issues. If you still want something more, then add your favorite Firefox plug-in and take a flight!

Download it now for free http://www.flock.com/download/

Islamabad Bloggers Meetup Live Blog

2008-12-27T02:09:00.006+05:00

Here the live-blog for Islamabad Bloggers Meet-up will go on. Please bookmark this page and don't forget to join the discussion on Monday, 29th December 2008 at 5:00pm. I will try my best to ask questions for you!

Islamabad Bloggers Meetup

2008-12-27T01:57:00.005+05:00

Badar Khushnood from Google along with Rabia Gharib from CIO Pakistan have set a very good example by arranging events for the Freelancers of Pakistan. Starting from Lahore Bloggers Meet-up they arranged a similar event in Karachi and now on 29th of December another event is being held in Islamabad with the title "Islamabad Bloggers Meetup".
Details as given on Facebook are:
Host: Pakistani Freelancers
Date: Monday, December 29, 2008
Time: 5pm to 8pm
Location: Bahria University, Shangrila Road, E-8 Islamabad Pakistan
Contact: +923008486070 and badar@google.com
If you want to earn money from home, blogging is a good solution for you. Please do register at the event here https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pw33ACoJeTaVhhpXGnt4vMA&hl=en

If you will not be able to attend the event, I will be there for a live blog. Please follow this link to join the discussion and live questions and answers.

http://the-all-rounder.blogspot.com/2008/12/islamabad-bloggers-meetup-live-blog.html

Arundhati Roy's Openion on Mumbai Attacks

2008-12-26T15:51:00.006+05:00

Indian Media has been doing very bad for last many days. Pakistan is blamed and Muslims are held responsible for Mumbai attacks but Arundhati Roy - a well known journalist of India - spoke daringly on the issue. I don't agree with many of her words but it is a good piece of writing. Here is her article which makes us think about our injustice to the religious organizations and India's favour to the extremist Hindu organizations.

Disclaimer: I don't agree with many of her sayings about Islam, Muslims, Pakistan and Muslim organizations. So read at your own risk ;)

"We've forfeited the rights to our own tragedies. As the carnage in Mumbai raged on, day after horrible day, our 24-hour news channels informed us that we were watching "India's 9/11". Like actors in a Bollywood rip-off of an old Hollywood film, we're expected to play our parts and say our lines, even though we know it's all been said and done before.

As tension in the region builds, US Senator John McCain has warned Pakistan that if it didn't act fast to arrest the "Bad Guys" he had personal information that India would launch air strikes on "terrorist camps" in Pakistan and that Washington could do nothing because Mumbai was India's 9/11.

But November isn't September, 2008 isn't 2001, Pakistan isn't Afghanistan and India isn't America. So perhaps we should reclaim our tragedy and pick through the debris with our own brains and our own broken hearts so that we can arrive at our own conclusions.

It's odd how in the last week of November thousands of people in Kashmir supervised by thousands of Indian troops lined up to cast their vote, while the richest quarters of India's richest city ended up looking like war-torn Kupwara – one of Kashmir's most ravaged districts.

The Mumbai attacks are only the most recent of a spate of terrorist attacks on Indian towns and cities this year. Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Guwahati, Jaipur and Malegaon have all seen serial bomb blasts in which hundreds of ordinary people have been killed and wounded. If the police are right about the people they have arrested as suspects, both Hindu and Muslim, all Indian nationals, it obviously indicates that something's going very badly wrong in this country.

If you were watching television you may not have heard that ordinary people too died in Mumbai. They were mowed down in a busy railway station and a public hospital. The terrorists did not distinguish between poor and rich. They killed both with equal cold-bloodedness. The Indian media, however, was transfixed by the rising tide of horror that breached the glittering barricades of India Shining and spread its stench in the marbled lobbies and crystal ballrooms of two incredibly luxurious hotels and a small Jewish centre.

We're told one of these hotels is an icon of the city of Mumbai. That's absolutely true. It's an icon of the easy, obscene injustice that ordinary Indians endure every day. On a day when the newspapers were full of moving obituaries by beautiful people about the hotel rooms they had stayed in, the gourmet restaurants they loved (ironically one was called Kandahar), and the staff who served them, a small box on the top left-hand corner in the inner pages of a national newspaper (sponsored by a pizza company I think) said "Hungry, kya?" (Hungry eh?). It then, with the best of intentions I'm sure, informed its readers that on the international hunger index, India ranked below Sudan and Somalia. But of course this isn't that war. That one's still being fought in the Dalit bastis of our villages, on the banks of the Narmada and the Koel Karo rivers; in the rubber estate in Chengara; in the villages of Nandigram, Singur, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Lalgarh in West Bengal and the slums and shantytowns of our gigantic cities.

That war isn't on TV. Yet. So maybe, like everyone else, we should deal with the one that is.

There is a fierce, unforgiving fault-line that runs through the contemporary discourse on terrorism. On one side (let's call it Side A) are those who see terrorism, especially "Islamist" terrorism, as a hateful, insane scourge that spins on its own axis, in its own orbit and has nothing to do with the world around it, nothing to do with history, geography or economics. Therefore, Side A says, to try and place it in a political context, or even try to understand it, amounts to justifying it and is a crime in itself.

Side B believes that though nothing can ever excuse or justify terrorism, it exists in a particular time, place and political context, and to refuse to see that will only aggravate the problem and put more and more people in harm's way. Which is a crime in itself.

The sayings of Hafiz Saeed, who founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure) in 1990 and who belongs to the hardline Salafi tradition of Islam, certainly bolsters the case of Side A. Hafiz Saeed approves of suicide bombing, hates Jews, Shias and Democracy and believes that jihad should be waged until Islam, his Islam, rules the world. Among the things he said are: "There cannot be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy."

And: "India has shown us this path. We would like to give India a tit-for-tat response and reciprocate in the same way by killing the Hindus, just like it is killing the Muslims in Kashmir."

But where would Side A accommodate the sayings of Babu Bajrangi of Ahmedabad, India, who sees himself as a democrat, not a terrorist? He was one of the major lynchpins of the 2002 Gujarat genocide and has said (on camera): "We didn't spare a single Muslim shop, we set everything on fire … we hacked, burned, set on fire … we believe in setting them on fire because these bastards don't want to be cremated, they're afraid of it … I have just one last wish … let me be sentenced to death … I don't care if I'm hanged ... just give me two days before my hanging and I will go and have a field day in Juhapura where seven or eight lakhs [seven or eight hundred thousand] of these people stay ... I will finish them off … let a few more of them die ... at least 25,000 to 50,000 should die."

And where, in Side A's scheme of things, would we place the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh bible, We, or, Our Nationhood Defined by MS Golwalkar, who became head of the RSS in 1944. It says: "Ever since that evil day, when Moslems first landed in Hindustan, right up to the present moment, the Hindu Nation has been gallantly fighting on to take on these despoilers. The Race Spirit has been awakening."
Or: "To keep up the purity of its race and culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races – the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here ... a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by."

(Of course Muslims are not the only people in the gun sights of the Hindu right. Dalits have been consistently targeted. Recently in Kandhamal in Orissa, Christians were the target of two and a half months of violence which left more than 40 dead. Forty thousand people have been driven from their homes, half of who now live in refugee camps.)

All these years Hafiz Saeed has lived the life of a respectable man in Lahore as the head of the Jamaat-ud Daawa, which many believe is a front organization for the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He continues to recruit young boys for his own bigoted jehad with his twisted, fiery sermons. On December 11 the UN imposed sanctions on the Jammat-ud-Daawa. The Pakistani government succumbed to international pressure and put Hafiz Saeed under house arrest. Babu Bajrangi, however, is out on bail and lives the life of a respectable man in Gujarat. A couple of years after the genocide he left the VHP to join the Shiv Sena. Narendra Modi, Bajrangi's former mentor, is still the chief minister of Gujarat. So the man who presided over the Gujarat genocide was re-elected twice, and is deeply respected by India's biggest corporate houses, Reliance and Tata.

Suhel Seth, a TV impresario and corporate spokesperson, recently said: "Modi is God." The policemen who supervised and sometimes even assisted the rampaging Hindu mobs in Gujarat have been rewarded and promoted. The RSS has 45,000 branches, its own range of charities and 7 million volunteers preaching its doctrine of hate across India. They include Narendra Modi, but also former prime minister AB Vajpayee, current leader of the opposition LK Advani, and a host of other senior politicians, bureaucrats and police and intelligence officers.

If that's not enough to complicate our picture of secular democracy, we should place on record that there are plenty of Muslim organisations within India preaching their own narrow bigotry.

So, on balance, if I had to choose between Side A and Side B, I'd pick Side B. We need context. Always.

In this nuclear subcontinent that context is partition. The Radcliffe Line, which separated India and Pakistan and tore through states, districts, villages, fields, communities, water systems, homes and families, was drawn virtually overnight. It was Britain's final, parting kick to us. Partition triggered the massacre of more than a million people and the largest migration of a human population in contemporary history. Eight million people, Hindus fleeing the new Pakistan, Muslims fleeing the new kind of India left their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Each of those people carries and passes down a story of unimaginable pain, hate, horror but yearning too. That wound, those torn but still unsevered muscles, that blood and those splintered bones still lock us together in a close embrace of hatred, terrifying familiarity but also love. It has left Kashmir trapped in a nightmare from which it can't seem to emerge, a nightmare that has claimed more than 60,000 lives. Pakistan, the Land of the Pure, became an Islamic Republic, and then, very quickly a corrupt, violent military state, openly intolerant of other faiths. India on the other hand declared herself an inclusive, secular democracy. It was a magnificent undertaking, but Babu Bajrangi's predecessors had been hard at work since the 1920s, dripping poison into India's bloodstream, undermining that idea of India even before it was born.

By 1990 they were ready to make a bid for power. In 1992 Hindu mobs exhorted by LK Advani stormed the Babri Masjid and demolished it. By 1998 the BJP was in power at the centre. The US war on terror put the wind in their sails. It allowed them to do exactly as they pleased, even to commit genocide and then present their fascism as a legitimate form of chaotic democracy. This happened at a time when India had opened its huge market to international finance and it was in the interests of international corporations and the media houses they owned to project it as a country that could do no wrong. That gave Hindu nationalists all the impetus and the impunity they needed.

This, then, is the larger historical context of terrorism in the subcontinent and of the Mumbai attacks. It shouldn't surprise us that Hafiz Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba is from Shimla (India) and LK Advani of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh is from Sindh (Pakistan).

In much the same way as it did after the 2001 parliament attack, the 2002 burning of the Sabarmati Express and the 2007 bombing of the Samjhauta Express, the government of India announced that it has "incontrovertible" evidence that the Lashkar-e-Taiba backed by Pakistan's ISI was behind the Mumbai strikes. The Lashkar has denied involvement, but remains the prime accused. According to the police and intelligence agencies the Lashkar operates in India through an organisation called the Indian Mujahideen. Two Indian nationals, Sheikh Mukhtar Ahmed, a Special Police Officer working for the Jammu and Kashmir police, and Tausif Rehman, a resident of Kolkata in West Bengal, have been arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks.

So already the neat accusation against Pakistan is getting a little messy. Almost always, when these stories unspool, they reveal a complicated global network of foot soldiers, trainers, recruiters, middlemen and undercover intelligence and counter-intelligence operatives working not just on both sides of the India-Pakistan border, but in several countries simultaneously. In today's world, trying to pin down the provenance of a terrorist strike and isolate it within the borders of a single nation state is very much like trying to pin down the provenance of corporate money. It's almost impossible.

In circumstances like these, air strikes to "take out" terrorist camps may take out the camps, but certainly will not "take out" the terrorists. Neither will war. (Also, in our bid for the moral high ground, let's try not to forget that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the LTTE of neighbouring Sri Lanka, one of the world's most deadly terrorist groups, were trained by the Indian army.)

Thanks largely to the part it was forced to play as America's ally first in its war in support of the Afghan Islamists and then in its war against them, Pakistan, whose territory is reeling under these contradictions, is careening towards civil war. As recruiting agents for America's jihad against the Soviet Union, it was the job of the Pakistan army and the ISI to nurture and channel funds to Islamic fundamentalist organizations. Having wired up these Frankensteins and released them into the world, the US expected it could rein them in like pet mastiffs whenever it wanted to.

Certainly it did not expect them to come calling in heart of the Homeland on September 11. So once again, Afghanistan had to be violently remade. Now the debris of a re-ravaged Afghanistan has washed up on Pakistan's borders. Nobody, least of all the Pakistan government, denies that it is presiding over a country that is threatening to implode. The terrorist training camps, the fire-breathing mullahs and the maniacs who believe that Islam will, or should, rule the world is mostly the detritus of two Afghan wars. Their ire rains down on the Pakistan government and Pakistani civilians as much, if not more than it does on India.

If at this point India decides to go to war perhaps the descent of the whole region into chaos will be complete. The debris of a bankrupt, destroyed Pakistan will wash up on India's shores, endangering us as never before. If Pakistan collapses, we can look forward to having millions of "non-state actors" with an arsenal of nuclear weapons at their disposal as neighbours. It's hard to understand why those who steer India's ship are so keen to replicate Pakistan's mistakes and call damnation upon this country by inviting the United States to further meddle clumsily and dangerously in our extremely complicated affairs. A superpower never has allies. It only has agents.

On the plus side, the advantage of going to war is that it's the best way for India to avoid facing up to the serious trouble building on our home front. The Mumbai attacks were broadcast live (and exclusive!) on all or most of our 67 24-hour news channels and god knows how many international ones. TV anchors in their studios and journalists at "ground zero" kept up an endless stream of excited commentary. Over three days and three nights we watched in disbelief as a small group of very young men armed with guns and gadgets exposed the powerlessness of the police, the elite National Security Guard and the marine commandos of this supposedly mighty, nuclear-powered nation.

While they did this they indiscriminately massacred unarmed people, in railway stations, hospitals and luxury hotels, unmindful of their class, caste, religion or nationality. (Part of the helplessness of the security forces had to do with having to worry about hostages. In other situations, in Kashmir for example, their tactics are not so sensitive. Whole buildings are blown up. Human shields are used. The U.S and Israeli armies don't hesitate to send cruise missiles into buildings and drop daisy cutters on wedding parties in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.) But this was different. And it was on TV.

The boy-terrorists' nonchalant willingness to kill – and be killed – mesmerised their international audience. They delivered something different from the usual diet of suicide bombings and missile attacks that people have grown inured to on the news. Here was something new. Die Hard 25. The gruesome performance went on and on. TV ratings soared. Ask any television magnate or corporate advertiser who measures broadcast time in seconds, not minutes, what that's worth.

Eventually the killers died and died hard, all but one. (Perhaps, in the chaos, some escaped. We may never know.) Throughout the standoff the terrorists made no demands and expressed no desire to negotiate. Their purpose was to kill people and inflict as much damage as they could before they were killed themselves. They left us completely bewildered. When we say "nothing can justify terrorism", what most of us mean is that nothing can justify the taking of human life. We say this because we respect life, because we think it's precious. So what are we to make of those who care nothing for life, not even their own? The truth is that we have no idea what to make of them, because we can sense that even before they've died, they've journeyed to another world where we cannot reach them.

One TV channel (India TV) broadcast a phone conversation with one of the attackers, who called himself Imran Babar. I cannot vouch for the veracity of the conversation, but the things he talked about were the things contained in the "terror emails" that were sent out before several other bomb attacks in India. Things we don't want to talk about any more: the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the genocidal slaughter of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, the brutal repression in Kashmir. "You're surrounded," the anchor told him. "You are definitely going to die. Why don't you surrender?"

"We die every day," he replied in a strange, mechanical way. "It's better to live one day as a lion and then die this way." He didn't seem to want to change the world. He just seemed to want to take it down with him.

If the men were indeed members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, why didn't it matter to them that a large number of their victims were Muslim, or that their action was likely to result in a severe backlash against the Muslim community in India whose rights they claim to be fighting for? Terrorism is a heartless ideology, and like most ideologies that have their eye on the Big Picture, individuals don't figure in their calculations except as collateral damage. It has always been a part of and often even the aim of terrorist strategy to exacerbate a bad situation in order to expose hidden faultlines. The blood of "martyrs" irrigates terrorism. Hindu terrorists need dead Hindus, Communist terrorists need dead proletarians, Islamist terrorists need dead Muslims. The dead become the demonstration, the proof of victimhood, which is central to the project. A single act of terrorism is not in itself meant to achieve military victory; at best it is meant to be a catalyst that triggers something else, something much larger than itself, a tectonic shift, a realignment. The act itself is theatre, spectacle and symbolism, and today, the stage on which it pirouettes and performs its acts of bestiality is Live TV. Even as the attack was being condemned by TV anchors, the effectiveness of the terror strikes were being magnified a thousandfold by TV broadcasts.

Through the endless hours of analysis and the endless op-ed essays, in India at least there has been very little mention of the elephants in the room: Kashmir, Gujarat and the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Instead we had retired diplomats and strategic experts debate the pros and cons of a war against Pakistan. We had the rich threatening not to pay their taxes unless their security was guaranteed (is it alright for the poor to remain unprotected?). We had people suggest that the government step down and each state in India be handed over to a separate corporation. We had the death of former prime minster VP Singh, the hero of Dalits and lower castes and villain of Upper caste Hindus pass without a mention.

We had Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City and co-writer of the Bollywood film Mission Kashmir, give us his version of George Bush's famous "Why they hate us" speech. His analysis of why religious bigots, both Hindu and Muslim hate Mumbai: "Perhaps because Mumbai stands for lucre, profane dreams and an indiscriminate openness." His prescription: "The best answer to the terrorists is to dream bigger, make even more money, and visit Mumbai more than ever." Didn't George Bush ask Americans to go out and shop after 9/11? Ah yes. 9/11, the day we can't seem to get away from.

Though one chapter of horror in Mumbai has ended, another might have just begun. Day after day, a powerful, vociferous section of the Indian elite, goaded by marauding TV anchors who make Fox News look almost radical and leftwing, have taken to mindlessly attacking politicians, all politicians, glorifying the police and the army and virtually asking for a police state. It isn't surprising that those who have grown plump on the pickings of democracy (such as it is) should now be calling for a police state. The era of "pickings" is long gone. We're now in the era of Grabbing by Force, and democracy has a terrible habit of getting in the way.

Dangerous, stupid television flashcards like the Police are Good Politicians are Bad/Chief Executives are Good Chief Ministers are Bad/Army is Good Government is Bad/ India is Good Pakistan is Bad are being bandied about by TV channels that have already whipped their viewers into a state of almost uncontrollable hysteria.

Tragically, this regression into intellectual infancy comes at a time when people in India were beginning to see that in the business of terrorism, victims and perpetrators sometimes exchange roles. It's an understanding that the people of Kashmir, given their dreadful experiences of the last 20 years, have honed to an exquisite art. On the mainland we're still learning. (If Kashmir won't willingly integrate into India, it's beginning to look as though India will integrate/disintegrate into Kashmir.)

It was after the 2001 parliament attack that the first serious questions began to be raised. A campaign by a group of lawyers and activists exposed how innocent people had been framed by the police and the press, how evidence was fabricated, how witnesses lied, how due process had been criminally violated at every stage of the investigation. Eventually the courts acquitted two out of the four accused, including SAR Geelani, the man whom the police claimed was the mastermind of the operation. A third, Showkat Guru, was acquitted of all the charges brought against him but was then convicted for a fresh, comparatively minor offence. The supreme court upheld the death sentence of another of the accused, Mohammad Afzal. In its judgment the court acknowledged there was no proof that Mohammed Afzal belonged to any terrorist group, but went on to say, quite shockingly, "The collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender." Even today we don't really know who the terrorists that attacked the Indian parliament were and who they worked for.

More recently, on September 19 this year, we had the controversial "encounter" at Batla House in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, where the Special Cell of the Delhi police gunned down two Muslim students in their rented flat under seriously questionable circumstances, claiming that they were responsible for serial bombings in Delhi, Jaipur and Ahmedabad in 2008. An assistant commissioner of Police, Mohan Chand Sharma, who played a key role in the parliament attack investigation, lost his life as well. He was one of India's many "encounter specialists" known and rewarded for having summarily executed several "terrorists". There was an outcry against the Special Cell from a spectrum of people, ranging from eyewitnesses in the local community to senior Congress Party leaders, students, journalists, lawyers, academics and activists all of whom demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident. In response, the BJP and LK Advani lauded Mohan Chand Sharma as a "Braveheart" and launched a concerted campaign in which they targeted those who had dared to question the integrity of the police, saying it was "suicidal" and calling them "anti-national". Of course there has been no inquiry.

Only days after the Batla House event, another story about "terrorists" surfaced in the news. In a report submitted to a sessions court, the CBI said that a team from Delhi's Special Cell (the same team that led the Batla House encounter, including Mohan Chand Sharma) had abducted two innocent men, Irshad Ali and Moarif Qamar, in December 2005, planted 2kg of RDX and two pistols on them and then arrested them as "terrorists" who belonged to Al Badr (which operates out of Kashmir). Ali and Qamar who have spent years in jail, are only two examples out of hundreds of Muslims who have been similarly jailed, tortured and even killed on false charges.

This pattern changed in October 2008 when Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) that was investigating the September 2008 Malegaon blasts arrested a Hindu preacher Sadhvi Pragya, a self-styled God man Swami Dayanand Pande and Lt Col Purohit, a serving officer of the Indian Army. All the arrested belong to Hindu Nationalist organizations including a Hindu Supremacist group called Abhinav Bharat. The Shiv Sena, the BJP and the RSS condemned the Maharashtra ATS, and vilified its chief, Hemant Karkare, claiming he was part of a political conspiracy and declaring that "Hindus could not be terrorists". LK Advani changed his mind about his policy on the police and made rabble rousing speeches to huge gatherings in which he denounced the ATS for daring to cast aspersions on holy men and women.

On the November 25 newspapers reported that the ATS was investigating the high profile VHP Chief Pravin Togadia's possible role in the Malegaon blasts. The next day, in an extraordinary twist of fate, Hemant Karkare was killed in the Mumbai Attacks. The chances are that the new chief whoever he is, will find it hard to withstand the political pressure that is bound to be brought on him over the Malegaon investigation.

While the Sangh Parivar does not seem to have come to a final decision over whether or not it is anti-national and suicidal to question the police, Arnab Goswami, anchorperson of Times Now television, has stepped up to the plate. He has taken to naming, demonising and openly heckling people who have dared to question the integrity of the police and armed forces. My name and the name of the well-known lawyer Prashant Bhushan have come up several times. At one point, while interviewing a former police officer, Arnab Goswami turned to camera: "Arundhati Roy and Prashant Bhushan," he said, "I hope you are watching this. We think you are disgusting." For a TV anchor to do this in an atmosphere as charged and as frenzied as the one that prevails today, amounts to incitement as well as threat, and would probably in different circumstances have cost a journalist his or her job.

So according to a man aspiring to be the next prime minister of India, and another who is the public face of a mainstream TV channel, citizens have no right to raise questions about the police. This in a country with a shadowy history of suspicious terror attacks, murky investigations, and fake "encounters". This in a country that boasts of the highest number of custodial deaths in the world and yet refuses to ratify the International Covenant on Torture. A country where the ones who make it to torture chambers are the lucky ones because at least they've escaped being "encountered" by our Encounter Specialists. A country where the line between the Underworld and the Encounter Specialists virtually does not exist.

How should those of us whose hearts have been sickened by the knowledge of all of this view the Mumbai attacks, and what are we to do about them? There are those who point out that US strategy has been successful inasmuch as the United States has not suffered a major attack on its home ground since 9/11. However, some would say that what America is suffering now is far worse. If the idea behind the 9/11 terror attacks was to goad America into showing its true colors, what greater success could the terrorists have asked for? The US army is bogged down in two unwinnable wars, which have made the United States the most hated country in the world. Those wars have contributed greatly to the unraveling of the American economy and who knows, perhaps eventually the American empire. (Could it be that battered, bombed Afghanistan, the graveyard of the Soviet Union, will be the undoing of this one too?) Hundreds of thousands people including thousands of American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. The frequency of terrorist strikes on U.S allies/agents (including India) and U.S interests in the rest of the world has increased dramatically since 9/11. George Bush, the man who led the US response to 9/11 is a despised figure not just internationally, but also by his own people. Who can possibly claim that the United States is winning the war on terror?

Homeland Security has cost the US government billions of dollars. Few countries, certainly not India, can afford that sort of price tag. But even if we could, the fact is that this vast homeland of ours cannot be secured or policed in the way the United States has been. It's not that kind of homeland. We have a hostile nuclear weapons state that is slowly spinning out of control as a neighbour, we have a military occupation in Kashmir and a shamefully persecuted, impoverished minority of more than 150 million Muslims who are being targeted as a community and pushed to the wall, whose young see no justice on the horizon, and who, were they to totally lose hope and radicalise, end up as a threat not just to India, but to the whole world. If ten men can hold off the NSG commandos, and the police for three days, and if it takes half a million soldiers to hold down the Kashmir valley, do the math. What kind of Homeland Security can secure India?

Nor for that matter will any other quick fix. Anti-terrorism laws are not meant for terrorists; they're for people that governments don't like. That's why they have a conviction rate of less than 2%. They're just a means of putting inconvenient people away without bail for a long time and eventually letting them go. Terrorists like those who attacked Mumbai are hardly likely to be deterred by the prospect of being refused bail or being sentenced to death. It's what they want.

What we're experiencing now is blowback, the cumulative result of decades of quick fixes and dirty deeds. The carpet's squelching under our feet.

The only way to contain (it would be naïve to say end) terrorism is to look at the monster in the mirror. We're standing at a fork in the road. One sign says Justice, the other Civil War. There's no third sign and there's no going back. Choose."

Some Amazing USB Flash Drive Designs

2008-12-26T02:06:00.070+05:00

Here are some amazing USB flash drive designs. Gadget freaks will really like them!

1) Tiny 8GB
This USB Flash Disk is tiny enough to to reside on the top of your thumb. Interestingly, it has 8GB storage to meet all your needs.
Details:

Smallest size yet largest capacity USB flash drive around
8 gigs, yet the size of your fingertip
- 31.3mm x 12.4mm x 3.4mm
Polished Chrome finish
Shock and water resistant
200x speed, 30MB/second
Mac, Windows, and Linux compatible
Details are Here

2) Wrist Watch Hidden 4GB USB Flash Disk
This ultra cute watch is a USB storage in fact!
Details:

Small USB flash drive fits completely inside of the watch
Perfect for carrying your data on secret missions
Japanese quartz movement
Black polyurethane strap
Luminescent hands
4GB capacity
Watch dial size: 1.1" x 1" (29 x 25mm)
Flash drive size: 1.5" x .5" x .25" (38 x 13 x 6mm)
Details are Here

3) Ultra-Thin 1GB Flash with Voice Recording
This ultra slim USB flash drive has a storage of 1GB and an added fuctionality of voice recording and playback. It weighs only 36 grams!
Details:

Perfect for meetings, interviews, personal notes, classroom, lectures, etc.
Memory of 1GB gives up to 69.3 hours of record time
USB 2.0 (Full speed)
Battery life of about 4.5 hours record/playback
Built-in rechargeable Li-Ion battery, charge via USB connection
Comes with earbuds and neck strap
Built-in speaker and microphone
Status indicator LED lights
Headphone jack
Works with Windows only
Dimensions: 3.4" x 2.2" x .26" (86 x 56 x 6.5 mm)
Details are Here

4) 8GB USB Flash Lighter
Need a lighter to keep with you? and a cute flash disk too? Here comes the solution:
No No! don't burn your old USB with it, keep that also ;)

Details:

Refillable lighter with built-in USB flash drive
8GB capacity
USB connector slides out of the lighter
Metal case
Adjustable flame
Includes USB cable
Dimensions: 1.5" x 2.4" x .5" (3.8 x 6 x 1.3 cm)
Details are Here

5) Comprehensive Kit
Some of you might have an exploring nature and do dig everything out! Some are keen to repair every damaged thing themselves and keep the data with them also. So get this comprehensive toolkit, which has USB drive and a flash light included!

Details:

The ultimate geek multi-tool
USB storage in a beautiful Swiss Army knife design
Available in 4GB, 2GB, 1GB capacity
USB Flash Drive (easily detachable)
Includes: Red LED light, ballpoint pen, knife, scissors, file with screwdriver, keyring
Flash drive is USB powered, no external power supply required
LED blinks to indicate read/write activity
Works with Windows 98/SE/2000/ME/XP, MAC OS 9.x or above, Linux 2.4 or above
USB 1.1/2.0 interface
Legendary Swiss Army quality construction and materials
Red LED light uses a single CR 1025 battery (included)
Comes with USB cable (1 meter length)
Size: 2.4" length x .75" wide x .6" height
Weight: 1.2 oz (33 g)
Details are Here

6) Brick Drive
Have been playing bricks and block in childhood and love to have them again? Here is a brick USB flash drive with 4GB storage, so get it, pull the cap and have fun!
Details

Windows, Mac and Linux compatible
USB 2.0 interface, 4 Gigs of storage
Laniard and keyring attachment included
Comes in Red, Blue, and Black
Details are Here

7) Broken Chord
Throw it away on the floor or under the desk, people will think it just like a broken USB wire. But they may laugh at you when u insert it into your laptop ;)
Details:

2GB flash drive cleverly disguised as a frayed and broken USB cable
Easily transfer and store files, photos and music
USB 2.0 with 1.1 backwards compatibility
Mac, Windows and Linux compatible, of course
Details are Here

8) Tape Cassette
This is infact a USB Flash drive holding case
Details:

Hold any USB drive in it!
Details are Here

9) "Flash Padlock" PIN-based flash drive
Here's a PIN secured Flash drive. So no more files stollen by friends!
Details:

1GB and 2GB storage available
Tacking on a PIN based security system
USB 2.0 with backwards compatibility
Details

10) World's Smallest and Luxury Flash Disk
This is world smallest and lightest flash disk weighing only 1 ounce. A gittering brass casing makes is Luxurious!
Details:

4GB storage
Brass body
USB 2.0 with backwards compatibility
Details

11) Micky Mouse
Put your tiny pic into it see yourself as a micky mouse!
Details:

1 to 8GB storage
USB 2.0 with backwards compatibility
Details

12) Laptop Style
ValueStar has launched this USB drive which is nearly of same shape as their laptop.
Details:

Details may be found Here

13) World's Slimmest USB Flash Drive
Here's the slimmest Flash drive of the world!
Details:

Storage of 512MB to 4GB is available
USB 2.0 compatible
Details may be found Here

14) Nice Fruity smelling USB Flash Drives
Here are the USB drives with a smell of a fruit each!

Details:

Storage of 128MB to 4GB is available
USB 2.0 compatible
Strawberry, Grape, Green apple, Orange smells available
Details may be found Here

15) SpaceStation 12GB Flash Drive
Here is a SpaceStaion Flash drive consisting of six 2GB tiny flash drives.
Details:

Storage of 6MB & 12GB
USB 2.0 compatible
Details may be found Here

16) Flash Drive with integrated Speaker
This flash drive is equipped with a built-in USB powered speaker
Details:

Details may be found Here

17) Jerry USB
Isn't it like Jerry? Teens will love it a lot!
Details:

128MB
Details may be found Here

Your comments keep me writting so don't forget to comment and "digg" if you liked the article!

Arrange a LAN Party to have a fun!

2008-12-21T11:12:00.011+05:00

A lan party is a very simple and interesting way of recreation. In a LAN party friends come up at a common place with their Laptops or desktop computers, connect them together in a LAN (Local Area Network) and share whatever they want. The most common purpose of a LAN party is to play the games. However you can arrange a LAN party for your homework, data sharing or any other purpose. Here I will tell that how to arrange a LAN party in a simplest way.
Requirements:
1) Any number of Laptop or desktop computers (I assume that you have pre-installed windows XP and LAN cards on all of them)
2) Straight Cables (Click Here for detail)
3) A LAN switch (The number of ports on the switch must be equal or more than the number of computers)

Step-by-Step:
1) Arrange the computers in such a way that the switch is in a central location (so that the cables might be accessible from all computers)
2) Connect each computer with the switch through the Straight Cables.
3) Turn on all the computers and the switch.
4) Configure the network
a. Go to the desktop of 1st computer
b. Right click on ‘My Computer’ icon and click on Properties
c. Click on ‘Computer Name’ Tab from the new window
d. Click on the ‘Change…’ button and another window is opened
e. Give the Computer Name (e.g. Ahmad’s Computer). It should be unique for each computer.
f. Now choose the ‘Workgroup:’ radio button and enter the name of your network e.g. OfficeNetwork. Press 'OK'.
g. Right Click on 'My Network Places' and click on 'Properties'
h. A new window is opened. Right Click on 'Local Area Connection' and click on 'Properties'
i. Choose 'Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)' from the newly opened window and click on properties.
j. Choose 'Use the following IP address:' radio button from the newly opened window.
k. Enter '192.168.12.5' in the 'IP address:'. Subnet mask will automatically change. Leave all the other fields blank.
l. Click 'OK'.
m. Repeat the steps (b) through (l) on each computer but make sure to enter a series of IP addresses. i.e 192.168.12.6 for second computer, 192.168.12.7 for third computer and so on. Also make sure that the computer name (defined in step 'e') should be unique for each computer and the workgroup name (defined in step 'f') should be the same for each computer.

Restart each computer and your network is ready to work. Install your favourite multiplayer game on each of them to enjoy the LAN party!

(If you find this article useful then don't forget to click on "digg")

Download Youtube Videos Without Any Hassle

2008-12-21T02:49:00.014+05:00

Youtube is the most popular video sharing website around the globe. You watch a lot of videos that you wish to download from Youtube for offline viewing. There are many websites offering this functionality but most of them are not very efficient. There are a lot of problems with them e.g. you have to wait a long for a download, no "Pause" function is available, you cannot download several videos simultaneously, you require to convert the video format to view it in your favorite media player etc.

Here I am going to mention a simple way to download Youtube videos. There are lot of videos on the web to download other than Youtube so you will not only be able to download videos for free from Youtube but also from other websites e.g Metacafe.com, Qik.com, Justin.tv or any other.
All you have to do is to download Realplayer 11 or higher for free (Click here to Download Now), install it on your PC and you are done! Just go to the website you want to download a video from, rollover the mouse on the video, a button will automatically appear with the text "Download This Video". Click this button to start the video download.
You can download multiple videos simultaneously and the pause functionality is also available. There's no need to convert the video to any other format, just go to the "Media library" of Realplayer and then choose "Downloads and Recordings" for a playback!

(If this article is useful to you then don't forget to give me a favour by clicking on "digg")

Let's Celebrate the International Shoe Day!

2008-12-17T20:11:00.013+05:00

Dogs and shoes are very happy these days because international media has spread the word of Muntadar Al-Zaidi that American president is a dog! :) and Hasan Muhammad Makhafa has raised the value of shoes by offering 10 Million US dollars for a single shoe.

The social structure of the west had been destroyed by the so called freedom movements, so they celebrate different days to bring back their social values. Mother's Day - to bring awareness for the respect of mother, Father's Day - to tell people that father is also a part of a family :), Aids Day and many more. This really gives a sense of awareness to them.

Muntadar Al-Zaidi has appeared as a symbol of awareness in the Muslim world. So why not celebrate a day for the shoes of Muntadar Al-Zaidai??? He (I should say "Rehmatullah Alaih!" :)) has given a message of resistance and expression of dignity to the Muslims. He is under the custody of arms and obviously, will be subjected to death. His daring act is calling the Muslim youth to wake up and struggle hard to handover the occupied lands, his broken bones are screaming to say "Get up Muslims! Provide a shadow to the widows and the orphans!"

(Did you like this post? Don't forget to subscribe and give me a favour by clicking on digg)

Hats off to Iraqi Journalist!

2008-12-15T08:15:00.005+05:00

An Iraqi Jouralist Muntadar Al-Zaidi, belonging to Al-Baghdadiya TV threw his shoes to Mr. Bush during a press conference tomorrow in Iraq.
During his surprise visit to Iraq, Mr. Bush was addressing a press conference when Mr. Zaidi lost his temper. He suddenly stood up on his seat and the only thing he could do was to hit Mr. Bush with his footwear. He threw his first shoe towards Mr. Bush saying:

"This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog!".

Mr. Bush cleverly managed to save himself from the attack so Mr. Zaidi put off his other shoe and threw it towards him saying:

"This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq."

Mr. Bush is responsible for thousands of murders and violations of human right laws made through out the world daily. Being a journalist it is the duty of a person to speak the truth but when hundreds of sacred mothers and sisters are raped, dozens of children are killed, respectable old people, innocent citizens are murdered mercilessly in a community then the act like Mr. Zaidi is very much obvious. All the Iraqis have the same sentiments but they are unable to do something.
He was quickly caught by the authorities and nobody knows where he is at the moment.
"I am trying to reach Muntadar since the incident, but in vain," said Fityan Mohammed bureau chief of Al-Baghdadya TV. "His phone is switched off." Mr. Zaidi knew the after-effects of his deed but he dared to protest.
When we look at the scenario around the globe, we come to know that a movement of awareness is making its way in the minds of Muslims and one day the Muslims will bring the cruel to the court to ask for the blood shed!
Hats off! We are proud of you Mr. Zaidi!
Here are more details and the video coverage.

NVIDIA Personal Supercomputer

2008-12-13T12:39:00.018+05:00

Supercomputers comprise of hundreds of CPUs connected together in such a way that they process simultaneously to achieve a specific task. A huge processing task is divided into small chunks and allotted to separate CPUs. These CPUs after performing the operation generate the result and the results from the separate CPUs are integrated to get the task done. This type of computing is called distributed computing. All this takes a long time and huge power resources. The supercomputer hardware also costs very much, as a result of which, they are limited to large enterprises and research centers.
NVIDIA has given a new meaning to supercomputing by inventing GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit and releasing a PSC (Personal Supercomputer) by integrating GPUs. A GPU is a processing unit comprising of multiple cores working simultaneously.
GPU is explained by Mythbusters here:

NVIDIA has launched Tesla personal supercomputers in single processor, desktop and rack-mount units which support Windows 32bit (on Tesla C870 and Tesla D870 only), Windows 64bit, Linux 32bit and 64bit (RedHat Enterprise Linux 4&5, SUSE 10.1,10.2 and 10.3). The Tesla personal supercomputer is scalable from one to one thousand GPUs. Each GPU contains 128 to 240 multi-threaded processors. The processors are scalar thread with full integer and IEEE 754 single-precision floating point support. Initially the memory access was 76.8GB/sec but it has now reached 408GB/sec in Tesla S1070.

High end processing tasks are achieved on personal supercomputer by the C language compiler and standard numerical libraries for Fast Fourier Transform and Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines available for it. NVIDIA CUDA is the software which makes this all done and is available freely from NVIDIA website http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_get.html for Windows XP(32bit & 64bit), Windows Vista (32bit & 64bit), Linux (32 bit & 64bit) and Macintosh.
The personal supercomputer products released so far are Tesla C870 computing processor, Tesla D870 desktop GPU system, Tesla S870 GPU computing system, Tesla S1070 and Tesla C1060 processor.
Tesla C870 computing processor contains one GPU, 1.5 GB dedicated memory and can be connected via full-length dual open PCI Express x16 slot.
Tesla D870 desktop GPU system contains 2 GPUs, 3GB memory and can be connected to a host via cabling to a low power PCI Express x8 or x16 adapter card. This desktop system is ideal for office environment because of its quiet operation (40dB).Tesla S870 GPU computing system contains 4 GPUs with 6GB memory. It also connects to a host via cabling to a low power PCI Express x8 or x16 adapter card. It is available in a 19 inch 1 unit rack-mount chassis.
Tesla S1070 GPU computing system contains 4 GPUs with 16GB memory. It connects to a host via cabling to PCI Express x8 or x16. It contains 960 processing cores (240 cores per processor). The frequency of each core is 1.44GHz.
Tesla C1060 processor contains 1GPU with 4GB GDDR3 memory. It connects to a host via cabling to PCI Express x16. It contains 240 processing cores. The frequency of each core is 1.3GHz.
NVIDIA personal computers are widely accepted by the market.
OptiTex (Israel) has taken the design industry to an entirely new level with its 3D CAD/CAM design technology. They are using the NVIDIA® CUDA™ software development environment to reconstruct their cloth simulation engine’s data and algorithms to run on GPUs. The GPU computing solution has enabled developers to remove bottlenecks in the CPU environment and deliver up to a 10 times performance increase.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) are using NVIDIA® CUDA™ for Microphysics, a crucial but computationally intensive component of WRF (Weather Research & Forecasting Model). Similarly Manfold.net has implemented NVIDIA in the field of GIS. According to Dimitri Rotow, product manager, Manifold.net “It is not an exaggeration to say that NVIDIA CUDA technology could be the most revolutionary development in computing since the invention of the microprocessor. It’s fast, inexpensive and loaded with potential. NVIDIA CUDA is so important that all Manifold users should insist that the computer hardware they procure is CUDA-enabled.”
Techniscan has ported its proprietary inverse scattering algorithm for medical sciences from a FORTRAN and MPI system to NVIDIA® CUDA™
NVIDIA personal super computers are available under the price range of $10,000 and are thus easily affordable to scientists and researchers.

Simplest Way to Setup a Local Area Network (LAN)

2008-12-11T22:03:00.032+05:00

We need LAN in our homes and offices to share an internet connection, files and for collaboration with each other. Here, I will provide a step by step guide to setup your own LAN in which you will be able to connect to the internet any time without making a server or keeping an always-on computer.

Requirements:

1.UTP Cat-5 Cables^I

2.RJ-45 Connectors^II

3.Crimping tool^III

4.Cable stripper^VII

5.Broadband router ^VIII

6.Switch^I

Step by Step:

1.Choose a central location for the switch^IX and the Broadband router ^VIII

The cables from each outlet will reach the switch so locating the switch along with the router at the center of the network is the best option to save the cable lengths. Place the router and the switch close to each other.

2.Measure the distance of each computer from the switch.

3.Prepare cables to connect the computers with the switch.

a.Cut the required length of the cable.

b.Strip it up to 2 inches with the stripper from one end

c.Arrange the cables in the Straight-Through^XV manner.

d.Cut the cables in such a way that the stripped length is less than ½ inch.

e.Hold the RJ-45 connector in an upside-down manner (i.e. the little pin is downward)

f.Insert the wires into the connector so that the color combination is not disturbed.

g.Punch the connector with the crimping tool^III

h.Repeat the steps ‘b’ through ‘g’ for the second end of the cable

i.Your cable is ready.

j.Repeat the steps ‘a’ through ‘i’ for each computer

Now your cables are ready

4) Insert one end of each cable in the ports of the switch

5) Insert the free end of one cable into the router

6) Insert the free ends of the remaining cables into the LAN ports of the computers

7) Arrange the cables in such a way that they are not creating hurdle for people

8) Now bring the router into the working condition ( as directed by the vendor or the broadband service provider)

9) Power on the switch

10) Turn on the computers one by one.

11) Configure your network
a. Go to desktop of 1st computer
b. Right click on ‘My Computer’ icon
c. Click on Properties
d. A new window is opened
e. Click on ‘Computer Name’ Tab
f. Click on ‘Change…’ button
g. A new window is opened
h. Give the Computer Name e.g. Ahmad’s Computer. The computer name should be unique for each computer.
i. Now choose the ‘Workgroup:’ radio button and enter the name of your network e.g. OfficeNetwork
j. Repeat the steps ‘b’ through ‘I’ for each computerk.
Restart each computer and your network is ready to work.

Note: If your network is not yet working then the DHCP service may not be activated on your router or the router may not support it. If your router does not support DHCP, you may need to allot the IP addresses to the computers. (I may post an article on IP addressing in future so don’t forget to subscribe via e-mail or feed)

Creative ideas:

1) Entertainment:

·Organize LAN party with your friends. Establish a LAN for gamming.

2) Business:

·Start your own business. Take contracts from organizations or companies to setup a network in their offices.

3) Collaboration:

·Install LANTalk on each computer to chat with each other for free, even when internet is not available.

·Install Skype on each computer to talk to each other for free.

4) Other:

·Setup a LAN at your home to share internet connection and files with your neighbors and family members.

Related Posts:

I may write about Wireless LAN in future so don’t forget to subscribe via e-mail or feed.

Terminology:

I.UTP Cat-5 Cable (Unshielded Twisted Pair, Category 5 Cable):

It’s a cable available for networking. It consists of 4 pairs of wires in a single coating.

II.RJ-45 Connectors

These Connectors are punched at the ends of the cable and are used to connect the cat-5 cable to a switch, a computer or a wall jack.

III.Crimping tool

A tool used to punch a connector at the ends of the cables

IV.Wall I/O boxes

These boxes are similar to electricity switch/socket boxes and are used to provide a LAN outlet on a wall

V.Wall Jacks

A Similar thing to electricity sockets. They are attached to the I/O box. The patch cord (a LAN cable having RJ-45 connectors on its both ends) is inserted into it from one side and into the computer from the other side

VI.Ducts

Plastic ducts are used to route the cables across a surrounding.

VII.Cable stripper

A tool to strip the Cat-5 cable

VIII.Broadband router:

A device which contains the functionality of a Broadband CPE^X and a DHCP server.

IX.Switch

A device used to interconnect different computers

X.CPE:

Customer premises equipment. E.g. a DSL modem.

XI.DHCP server:

Dynamic Host controller Server. A server which automatically assigns IP addresses to the devices/computers.

XII.Cabling Scheme:

The color combination of the wires of a Cat-5 cable.

XIII. 862-B standard of ITU-T:

A standard which defines the combination of wires in a cat-5 cable for LAN

XIV.Straight-Through Cable:

A color combination of wires of a Cat-5 cable used to connect un-like devices e.g. a switch and a computer when connected directly. Color combinations according to ITU-T 862-B are:

a.White orange --> White orange

b. Orange --> Orange

c.Wight green --> Wight green

d.Blue --> Blue

e. Wight blue --> Wight blue

f.Green --> Green

g. White brown --> White brown

h.Brown --> Brown

New "Scratch Card-Less" Dialup Internet Model in Pakistan

2008-12-04T01:41:00.003+05:00

I have just come across a post on Yahoo Groups by Wahaj-Us-Siraj, CEO Micronet (Pioneer DSL ISP of Pakistan) and CEO Nayatel (Pioneer FTTH service provider in south Asia). This post describes a new decision made by PTA (Pakistan Telecom Authority). According to the decision there will be no scratch cards for dial-up internet connections in Pakistan. The user will dial a dial-up number of any ISP of his choice and he will get connected to the internet! The post is quoted below.

"As you’d probably aware that PTCL about a month back, launched free dialup Internet service for all its telephone customers. The decision was proving to be a final nail in coffin of ailing ISP industry which in past has witnessed many onslaughts, predatory pricings anti-competitive moves from the state owned incumbent (now partially privately owned), PTCL.

The ISP industry approached the regulator, PTA and hearings were held wherein PTA desired to formulate a long term model for betterment of all stakeholders, PTCL, ISPs and the Internet users. After detailed discussions and deliberations, a new model for dialup ISPs is being emerged wherein all ISPs including PTCL would provide free dialup access to the customers through 131 access. ISPs would advertise/market their service on service quality, customer support, etc., and access would be open for all PTCL phone users to connect to Internet using any ISP’s username and password. PTCL would charge one local call for every 20 minutes for Internet users and this revenue would be shared between PTCL (30%) and ISPs (70%) in case of ISPs POP being located in same area codes of calls origination. In case of calls originating from outside area codes, this revenue share would be reversed, PTCL 70% and ISPs 30%. Long distance Internet calls (from area codes where ISPs are not located) would still be charged at the cost of local call/20 minute.

There would be no scratch cards for the ISPs and customer’s would be billed in their PTCL’s monthly bill for a local call of 20 minutes duration. This would mean Rs. 6/hour of dialup Internet for the users. Currently, the Internet scratch cards are being sold at Rs. 2 to 4/hr. With one local call per hour, the expense of users was around Rs. 5-6/hr. Industry standard (in Pakistan) duration of Internet calls is 20 to 30 minutes. So for the users, there would be hardly any change in the charges. Users would also have more choices to use any ISP they like and would be billed in PTCL’s bill at the end of every month.

This new regime is expected to be announced within next few days.

Kind regards…Wahaj"

That's great! It means that the dial up users will only have to dial a 131 dial-up number of their choice and they will get the service of the relevant ISP. No scratch cards, no outage of scratch card limits and eventually no more degraded performance due to to heavy traffic! ( because the user will be able to switch the ISP suddenly)
This will not only add to the user experience but will also add to the revenue of the ISPs in the following manners:
1) The expense of scratch card publishing and delivery will be eliminated.
2) There will be no need for ISPs to lessen per hour charges to beat the competitors.
A bad move of PTCL - the try to kill the ISP competition - has eventually ended in a very positive thing!

Live Blog: Seminar On "Usability: Why Should You Care?"

2008-12-01T10:53:00.011+05:00

Here the live blog for the Seminar On Software Usability will go on! Please bookmark this page and don't forget to join us at 5:o0 pm on Tue Dec 02, 08.

Disclaimer: Following is the live coverage of the seminar on the topic of "Usability: Why Should You Care", so please ignore spelling, grammar or other mistakes if they occur. I will try my best to avoid them.

There is also a live video streaming available from the organizers. The video quality is not too good but a nice thing to overview the event.

This seminar is worth appreciation as it has set an example of arranging awareness and training events for the professionals and the students. As I noticed, all the panelists, volunteer students of NUST, organizers and the live bloggers were there only to contribute and not for any reward. In the presence of these type of professionals - who take a headache of arranging the events without any hope of reward - we can hope a flourishing software industry in Pakistan. NUST should also be appreciated for providing the facilities of Auditorium, multimedia, Wi-Fi and the Volunteers.

A Seminar on Software Usability

2008-11-30T03:58:00.009+05:00

Usability is the key to success for a software product. Pakistani software industry is flourishing rapidly but needs professionalism and compliance with the international standards.
The successful Pakistani software market players have realized the importance of usability and have thus arranged a seminar. Here are the details:

Topic: A Seminar on Usability - Why Should You Care?

Day: Tuesday, Dec 02, 008

Venue: NUST (SEECS Campus). Sector H-12, Islamabad Pakistan

Speakers:
1) Babar Khan from ikonami
2) Dr. shoaib Karim from Quaid-e-Azam University
3) Dr. Khalid Latif from Nust
4) Faizan Babar from Scrybe
5) Haris Khan from Zigron
6) Murad Akhter from Tintash
7) Usama Hashmi from CDF software

Registration: Facebookor Zigron

Additional: Exclusive Screening of Helvetica (A Documentry film on typography, graphic design and global visual culture)

The good news is that the seminar is absolutely free but the participants have to register themselves at Facebook or Zigron

All the speakers are well versed with the software usability, for example, Faizan Babar from Scrybe will be there to share his experience.

(Click here for Scrybe's Video at Youtube)

Similarly Dr. shoaib Karim is an assistant professor at Quaid-e-Azam University and has done his PhD in Web Accessibility. He has also been involved in W3C’s working group on accessibility evaluation and reporting. His words will also be a great worth.

All the computer science, software and IT students, professionals and entrepreneures should attend the event. And the bloggers will be there obviously!