Hassan Naeem's Blog

Reality!

2010-08-03T02:33:00.002+05:00

Its very heartening that that precious life's very lost due to floods, that have washed away whole villages and widespread area of KP province. But Allah has shown us all that never to take matters in your hand and say things you dont know. Present government has said that the issue of Kalabagh dam is close and no consultations required and hence claiming to be a government which has created atmosphere of consultation! simple bullshit. They say that Nowshera will drown if kalabagh is made. Now Nowsehra has drowned without any kalabagh dam, it would not be the case if there is a dam. The main purpose of dams is to control floods and also to have a water reservior which can be used when there are no rains. But impotent politicians and dumb people were against it that kalabagh serves no purpose and shitty things like that Punjab will take more water and such substandard issues like this. Now Allah has shown them that what purpose the dam can serve. But they will not learn as they are shameless moral bastards.

The casualty figure is in thousands and millions of people are homeless and the President of the country is on a tour. What a pathetic piece of shit he is. I was watching on TV that someone said that he is there so that he can get help, in plain words he can beg. If this is the work of the president than the eligibility for the president should be that he is a beggar and know the techniques to beg and know how and when to beg, but fortunately this president fits in the criteria well.

And why would wanker president zardari visit UK? after PM UK David Cameron remarks? i know that he is a professional "begharat" and has no shame whatsoever, but he is representing the country as unluckily the piece of shit is president of Pakistan. This present setup is not more than a shame, disgrace and embarrassment for whole of the country. But this nation is more disgraceful and pathetic, we have to build this country and stop such a wanker and make them pay for their wrongdoings but we are not a nation and can never be as we dont have the courage and spirit to make this country prosperous.

FAST-NU Islamabad Convocation 2010

2010-07-22T02:43:00.006+05:00

It is a matter of utmost shame for the prestigious institution like FAST-NU Islamabad to arrange convocation 2010 with such pathetic arrangements. I cant figure it out that who forwarded such enlightened ideas and who has approved them, as to my understanding a person with a good academic qualification and running such an institute can't approve such pathetic and illogical ideas. But unfortunately the university administration did it. Convocation is an event in which a person is rewarded for his hard work that he has put in all four years during his\her stay in the institute, but FAST administration has made it a business and are trying to make huge profits out of it, so the spirit of convocation is lost at all. If there are limited seats then why not delay it for some time and when weather is pleasant i.e in December then arrange it in the ground where everyone can enjoy the convocation and parents can see such an important moment of their child's life.

Director with such a big heart has taken a decision that both parents can sit in auditorium altogether but due to limited number of seats it will be on first come first get basis. What a pathetic and disrespectful thing, i dont know how this idea has popped up in his head which is empty from inside. I may be rude but i think if they cant respect me and respect my parents then they dont deserve any respect at all. I was disappointed from the university before but now my disappointment has turned into hate and disrespect for the administration and the way things are carried out these days. FAST is a good institution but the university administration is running it unprofessionally and turned it in a business rather than an institution. I have much to say but i guess its more than enough, and i have full confidence that university administration will not consider it disgraceful anyways because they dont have any shame left in them.

Therefore I consider it below my dignity and the dignity of my parents to attend Convocation 2010 of FAST-NU Islamabad

Making a Fool!

2010-04-17T00:07:00.004+05:00

The UN commission has presented its report on the Benazir case. Findings of the commission is the biggest joke one can imagine, i can bet that if u walk down the streets and ask a layman or a person who is even not educated can give the same conclusion. The report has put the blame on former government and concluded that not efficient security was provided and so on. Although i am not defending any former government or anyone, but there are some reservations or confusion one can say, i want to clarify. I dont have interest in this topic but i have read some stuff in the updates of my facebook page. A person posted a link from bbc urdu regarding the same report i mentioned before, and wrote that this country is ruled by some other people and they will always rule it, maybe he was signalling towards the establishment and couldnt have the courage to mention its name. Poor fellow doesn't know what he is referring to or what he is accepting, he has affiliation with a political party also and in his ignorance he is accepting that all the political persons(i dont want to call them leaders as they are not worth it) are impotent and dont have the capability nor courage to fight with the forces(which he was referring to), why the establishment is a strong force in this country? the answer is simple that our political personalities are very weak and are not capable of leading and have no right to call themselves as leaders. There are always hardships and forces that are acting against a person to deviate him from the goal, but it exposes the capability of a person to fight with those forces and hence achieve a goal. I want to quote two examples, one is of our great Quaid who had struggled throughout his life and fought with the forces opposing him and in the end he has achieved his goal and beaten the forces opposing him and making hurdles in his way, and he was victorious at the end because of his determination, courage, and capability of being a great leader. ‘Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Muhammad Ali Jinnah did all three.’ - Stanley Wolpert. Not a single political personality exists who can be compared with a legendary personality of Quaid-e-Azam, although putting pictures of a person instead of Quaid doesnt make him/her a leader or a hero, neither do putting pictures on coins or currency do. Because the true leader always lives in heart of people and doing things like renaming roads, buildings etc are acts of forcing a personality on the people. The second example is Nelson Mandela also known as "Madiba" his clan name, he was the freedom fighter and has spent 27 years in prison, it was a real prison not prisons in Pakistan where a political person gets five star hospitality in the prison. Madiba also faced many difficulties when he was in ANC and many forces were working against him and many times he was banned to speak at public gathering or leave the city. But he has fought with the forces instead of self exiling himself as the so called "leaders" of our country Pakistan do.

Political personalities in Pakistan instead of crying and creating a hype that the forces are working against them and bullshit stuff like that, why dont they fight them and emerge as a winner as do the two great leaders quoted in above paragraph did? the answer is simple that the so called "leaders" of Pakistan are corrupt, dishonest, selfish, and dont possess the capability to be a leader because everyone inherits the "leadership", and "leadership" is not inherited, if it was then the sons of Quaid-e-Azam, Nelson Mandela, George F. Kennedy etc would be the leaders also.

There are different theories regarding assassination of Benazir Bhutto, but i have some queries. Why would a person comes out of her car which is bullet proof? and if she does is it a security lapse? or an ignorance on part of a person coming out of a bullet proof vehicle? now some people say that she came out because she was peoples leader and want to wave, then if thats the passion of a leader then why would she using a bullet proof vehicle? and if one is using a bullet proof vehicle then she should be inside it and there is no point of waving after a gathering you have just addressed. Second is that Rehman Malik is the chief security officer of benazir, and according to Naheed Khan and safdar Abbasi, Rehman Malik, Babar Awan were in the backup vehicle and when the blast occured there was no vehicle to take Benazir to hospital, where are the backup vehicles gone? to zardari house. Backup vehicle means that it should be behind a main vehicle and would be used if there is emergency or the main vehicle is not able to move etc. Then why on that day the backup vehicle was not behind and what was it doing in zardari house? i may be ignorant but the duty and responsibility of security officer is to look after the security and be with a person for which one is working. And how come he is not present or nowhere near the scene? he was so far that he has not heard the explosion as was said by him in the interview. And if he had heard it why he hasn't stopped? then why the post-mortem was not conducted? as was said by zardari that he has not allowed it..why?

The rule of impartial inquiry is that neither do the accused and the victim influence the inquirers. The government is of victim so why do i believe that it is a fair inquiry? and the government has stopped the commission to make the findings public as was stated by the commission. And zardari has said that he knows the name of killers, then why to spend nations time and money on the thing he already knows? and what a leader would one be if one doesn't believes in his own country and being the President of a country and having all the resources at his disposal cannot investigate about his wife's death? shame for him and for all the people who call him a "leader" and are disgracing the word "leader" by attributing him to it.

There are many more questions that needed to be asked but the questions posed above are first to be cleared. The present set up(government) can make "jialas" a fool which they are making uptill now, but i am not a "jiala" and neither my eyes are closed that i cant see the things clearly myself.

Geo sab se aage!!!

2010-04-10T19:16:00.004+05:00

Geo is always the first to break the news(sarcasm added). As mentioned in red rectangle Geo would be the first to break that news also(with false name). Instead of emphasizing on quantity if stupid Geo would emphasize on quality then it would be worth watching. Sorry to say but Pakistani media is not mature at all and needs a lot of improvement.

Collective Sin

2010-03-20T15:26:00.005+05:00

Then they hamstrung the she-camel, disdainfuliy disobeyed the commandment of their Lord, and said: '0 Salih! Bring upon us the scourge with which you threatened us if you are truly a Messenger [of Allah].(7:77)

The above verse is from glorious QURAN Surah Al Araf. In this Allah has given us an example so that we can see what has happened to past nations that have gone astray. This verse is about the nation of Hazrat Salih (A.S), Allah has ordered this nation that not to kill a she camel that used to wonder in the fields and used to eat in abundance, but an individual from the nation has killed a she camel, now this is a point of significance and a lesson for us. She camel was killed by a individual not a whole nation but a catastrophe(worst in the history) by ALLAH has struck the whole nation. Because the nation has not killed a she camel but the whole nation has stood at the killer's back. So conclusion is every sin which is committed with the approval and support of a nation, is a national crime even if it has been committed by one person, and a sin committed publicly with the consent of the public is a collective sin and those people are also sinful who tolerate it.

We have killed many she camel's, we have gone astray from the path that the Lord of the Universe has chosen for us, we are the most corrupt nation, we don't fulfill our promises, our rulers are shameless and pathetic, we as a nation support many sins, we are ruled by the bastards of the society, we support those who are not honest with themselves, we are fooled by coward politicians, we are an Islamic nation but the glasses to drink water are chained. and worst of all they are chained in the mosques. Alot of poverty, unemployment, deviation from the teachings of Islam instead deviation from humanity, we don't live as a nation but as animals in which the upper class oppress the lower class, in which richer is getting richer and poor is getting poor every day. The point i want to emphasize here is that we as a nation should not let some bunch of pathetic, shameless people do sins and rule us. The choice is ours now if we want to stand at killer's back, and want to remain silent and do nothing then We are inviting the wrath of Allah every second. It has happened to past nations and are quoted in QURAN so that we can be on a straight path, but we are taking it easy and our faith is at the lowest level. So lets pray that we chose the right path before Allah's punishment would strike us.

President's Fiasco

2010-02-15T21:34:00.003+05:00

Alot of discussion is going in media and in different circles about the turmoil that is going on. I am not writing the stuff that you would have already known. I am not a constitutional expert, but i have two little observations in the regard with the illegal appointment of judges by the incompetent President. First is that Article 177(1) it is clearly written that the President should appoint chief justice of Pakistan or any each of other judges with the consultation of Chief Justice of Pakistan. Now this is clearly written and cannot be denied by anyone. But to their defense the government says that the law of seniority should be applied. Now if we read the article 177(2) clauses (a) and (b) (http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/constitution/part7.ch2.html) with other conditions, it clearly states that the judge to be appointed should have been a judge for more than 5 years in the High Court. Now the question is that if the law of seniority should be applied than why there is no clause which says that the judge to be appointed should be the senior most(chief justice of respective High Court)? and if the law of seniority should be applied than why to consult Chief Justice of Pakistan? and if law of seniority is applied than why appointed judge should be the judge of High Court for minimum 5 years? there is no sense in the government claim of following law of seniority.

Now let me highlight some points. The so called President who is following the law of seniority has ignored the seniority rule not one time or two time but five times in the previous year. is it a coincidence? that he doesnt knew about his self made seniority rule back then? The five judges who were elevated without being senior most by the same ignorant President were Justice Muhammad Sair Ali, Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, Justice S Khawaja, Justice Khilji Arif Hassan and Justice Rahmat Husain Jafferi. How a country will progress when a person holding the highest office of the country doesnt knows the constitution of a country? Shame for the country and for the people.

BitLord !!

2010-02-12T19:00:00.001+05:00

Google Buzz

2010-02-10T19:56:00.003+05:00

Google has now introduced Google Buzz in Gmail. I guess Google is gone mad and wasting its energy and resources on things which are of no use. First orkut, then google wave and now google buzz. Why they are stressing on social networking? whats the point of creating google buzz when there is already google wave. First point is that i dont see much difference in google wave and google buzz except the real time and single threaded stuff in google wave, secondly if there is something new then why not introduce it in google wave? why google buzz??? i cant figure out the answers to these questions. Google is a brand name, and they are known for creativity and quality, so they should focus on introducing new stuff and ideas rather than wasting time of others and themselves in such lame social networking stuff which are already introduced by others and are prevalent in the market.

A joke or what?

2010-01-12T16:12:00.005+05:00

I came across a news that the membership of PPP's CEC member has been suspended, i wondered who is the lucky one and then i came to know that the lucky fellow is Dr Israr Shah, Dr Israr Shah is the one who lost his legs during the countrywide movement for the restoration of judiciary. The reason given for his suspension of membership is that he has shared alot of information. what?what type of information? I searched alot and couldn't find the formula of a deadly bomb shared by Dr Israr which PPP is making! He had only revealed the truth(http://thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=218000) which caused the suspension of the membership. Before Aitzaz Ahsan and now Dr Israr Shah, it looks like whoever speaks the truth and want to let people know that whats going on in the party, his membership is suspended. What type of democracy is this? what democracy will they give to the country when they cant have democracy in their party?. I hear alot from dumb leaders that the beauty of democracy is in difference of opinion, that is what you do when someone has difference of opinion? I really laugh at the way PPP leaders talk on tv shows and in newspapers or interviews, when they cant give answer to a question than they only have one thing to say that the beauty of democracy is difference of opinion, thats the level of these leaders. What do we expect from this corrupt politicians and government? when the Prime Minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan says that morality is not the basis of any holding a office of the country.what? i really cant figure out that how can a person holding the most important office of an Islamic country can say such stuff. Thats the state of the politicians and so called leaders. They are just maligning image of Islam and Pakistan. I cant forget the first press conference of the chairman of PPP in London, a reporter asked him that dont you think your party is like a family furniture, it passed from grandfather to your mother and now a 19 year boy heading a political party only because it was written in will of your mother? and another reporter said how can you represent and solve problems of people of Pakistan when you have hardly lived in Pakistan? PPP chairman answered that they have put responsibility on me so i have to do it. wow! what a rational answer. Thats the level of the leaders. How can a party's chairman chosen on the basis of a will? and where the minimum age for enrollment of a voter is 18 years? Its like you are born today and tomorrow you will be a doctor. Or isn't it like putting a gun in a child's hand to kill people, as done in African countries? Now they can also say that a responsibility has been given to them so they have to do it! By such acts Pakistan is getting very popular around the world as everything is possible here because neither do the people and corrupt leaders care about Pakistan. The main reason of the corruption and shameless leaders or rulers are the people of Pakistan, as we let them whatever they want to do. Richard Nixon 37th President of USA and the only USA President to resign from the office, has resigned because of the Watergate scandal, and later he asked for forgiveness from the people of USA and was pardoned by Ford. If a President of non-islamic country can resign why cant the President and other corrupt ones holding high offices of an Islamic country? Islam has taught and showed greatest morality principles, and laid alot of stress on it. But the corrupt leaders are making fun of themselves.

Google's Chrome

2010-01-06T19:46:00.005+05:00

Google’s internet browser, Chrome, is now more popular than Apple’s Safari, according to data collected in December 2009. The search giant’s browser, launched in September 2008, was used by 4.63 per cent of web users, compared to Apple’s market share of 4.46 per cent. Nearly two-thirds of all web browsers, however, are versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (62.69 per cent), according to online services firm Net Applications. Mozilla Firefox was in second place on 24.61 per cent, distantly followed by Google.

Wresting third place from Apple, however, is a milestone for Google, and coincides with the company launching a major advertising campaign for the browser across Europe. This has used major billboard sites across Britain, and has also included producing a special wraparound supplement for the free Metro newspaper. Searches online for “Google Chrome”, “Chrome” and “Google Browser” almost doubled in mid-December when the campaign was at its height, and the increased usage figures indicate that a large number of people searching for Chrome online have gone on to download and use the product

Google claims that speed and stability are the main selling points behind Chrome, which is also designed to take up as little of the users’ screen space as possible, allowing them to see more of the web in one browser window. Each browser tab also acts like a separate programme, so if a website crashes the tab it does not force render the rest of the browser unusable.

The latest versions of most other browsers, however, also offer similar features or options, and Chrome is itself derived from a version of Mozilla’s Firefox. Google is also the source of the majority of Mozilla’s revenue.

With the growth of Google’s mobile phone operating system, Android, and the imminent launch of the high-profile Nexus One handset, the search giant is focusing on expanding outside its traditional areas of expertise.

Source:- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/6931319/Google-Chrome-more-popular-browser-than-Apple-Safari.html

NRO

2009-12-17T15:23:00.003+05:00

As the Supreme Court of Pakistan has declared NRO null and void, I see it as a step towards transparency. This decision is the first step towards the corrupt free Pakistan. It has also given message to all the corrupt leaders that now the time has come when they are answerable to every act they had done in the past. This decision has set an example that no one is above law and everyone should be treated according to law, in whatever position a person is, he should be answerable to the people of Pakistan. Morally the people who have benefited from NRO and are holding public office’s should have resigned long ago, but moral is not the word for them as they don’t have any moral values. They feel proud on any accusations leveled against them, instead unfortunately a culture has been developed in Pakistan by which a person is more regarded if he has spent some time in jail etc. Take for example the person who is holding the highest office of the country, he had spent 11 years in jail, what type of values and culture is developing in Pakistan? We have named the country “Islamic Republic of Pakistan” but unfortunately even its constitution is not Islamic. For example Article 248 of the constitution of Pakistan is against Islam and human values. In my opinion it is conflicting with the Article 25 of the same constitution, In Article 248 President has indemnity and no legal proceedings can be held against him and Article 25 says that every citizen is equal. Isn’t it a contradiction? How can the office protect a person for being answerable for his acts? Is it Islamic? Now let me quote a event so that you can judge for yourself. Once a woman brought a claim against the Caliph 'Umar. When 'Umar appeared on trial before the judge, the judge stood up as a sign of respect toward him. 'Umar reprimanded him, saying, "This is the first act of injustice you did to this woman!" He insisted that his appointed governors live simple lives, keep no guard at their doors and be accessible to the people at all times, and he himself set the example for them. Many times foreign envoys and messengers sent to him by his generals found him resting under a palm tree or praying in the mosque among the people, and it was difficult for them to distinguish which man was the Caliph. He spent many a watchful night going about the streets of Medina to see whether anyone needed help or assistance. But now I hope that things will change and we will move towards a better Pakistan, as corruption is one of the main problem for the present situation of the country.

I just pray to Allah to show us right path.

Google Wave

2009-11-14T20:13:00.004+05:00

I just got an invitation of Google wave, thanks to Ammar Bhai :). Straight away I started using it as I was excited. It was simple to start, just login from your gmail account if you have one and just start using it. It has very exciting features in it and is really easy to learn, as there are tutorial videos which are simple to understand. It is a real time communication engine, better than facebook in my opinion. I will give details about some features as I have not explored it fully myself. There are waves in Google wave alike status updates in Facebook. If someone wants to share something he will create a new wave and specify friends with which he wants to share it. Then the friends he added and he can have real time communication, if his friends reply to the wave it is visible to him what his friend is writing in real time, and what you are writing will be visible to your friends in real time(you can see what they are writing on your screen). You can also share pictures, videos and much more in Google wave in a new way. You can make your friends understand about a specific location using Google Maps in real time. You can also write documents and your fiends can help you in writing it in real time. if you are chatting with a friend who is spanish for example then there is no problem you just type in English and it will be converted to spanish in real time, and your friend will write in spanish and it will be converted to your language in real time. There is much more, but for now I think Google has really changed the way of social networking. I really liked Google wave and i hope you people will also like it. Google wave can only be used if you get an invitation as it is a beta version for now.

Technology helps in being social

2009-11-08T12:47:00.001+05:00

Contrary to what most of us believe that technology is causing social isolation, few days back I also had a useful discussion with my friends in which we had discussed about the same thing and concluded that surely the people who use computer, internet, cell phones etc are becoming socially isolated day by day.
But a new article I read suggests that a new study has been carried out in which it is concluded that the people who use internet, cellphones etc have more diverse social network. It suggests that people’s social worlds are enhanced by new communication technologies. The research was carried in University of Pennsylvania and they pointed out that it is a mistake to believe that internet use and mobile phones plunge people into spiral of isolation. They stated that it is the first research that actually explores the connection between technology use and social isolation and they found the opposite. It found that on average, the size of people’s discussion networks is 12 per cent larger among mobile phone users, nine per cent larger for those who share photos online, and nine per cent bigger for those who use instant messaging. The diversity of people’s core networks tends to be 25 per cent larger for mobile phone users, 15 per cent larger for basic Internet users, and even larger for frequent Internet users, those who use instant messaging, and those who share digital photos online. The study found that on average in a typical year, people have in-person contact with their core network ties on about 210 days. They have mobile-phone contact on 195 days of the year, landline phone contact on 125 days and text-messaging contact on the mobile phone 125 days. They have email contact on 72 days, instant messaging contact on 55 days, contact via social networking websites on 39 days and contact via letters or cards on eight days. The study involved telephone interviews with 2,512 adults between July 9, 2008 and August 10, 2008 and has a sampling error of 2.1 per cent.

Proud Pakistani!!

2009-10-02T01:32:00.000+06:00

I am a proud Pakistani, I am proud of Pakistan in every condition. Not a single day passes when I don’t hear about corruption and injustice but I am still a proud Pakistani. There is no electricity, gas and the industries are shutting down, but I feel I am a proud Pakistani. New government comes and says the previous government was corrupt and all the problems are because of them and we need time to address issues, but before elections they cry and asks for votes like beggars saying we will solve your issues in no time, but still I am a proud Pakistani. President of my country, whose name is Islamic republic of Pakistan saying that promises are not Quran or Hadith, but still I am a proud Pakistani and I am feeling more pride as I am writing this. President of my country roaming in the world begging for the money and filling his own pockets with that money, but why should I don’t feel pride in it? After all I am a proud Pakistani. Blackwater is called in my country but why would I do anything? I am a proud Pakistani. Prices of basic necessities are out of reach of even middle class people but I am feeling proud that I am Pakistani. American embassy in my country is expanding and marines are called in, it looks like my country is a USA base, but I don’t care I am only proud to be a Pakistani. All the political parties cry for democracy, but infact they don’t have democracy in their party then how could they give democracy to Pakistan but still we vote them, because I am a proud Pakistani. Kerry-lugar bill has been imposed on my country by which we get money for selling our integrity and country to USA, but why should I do anything? being a proud Pakistani is enough for me. Economy of my country is in bad shape and no new investments are coming, even leaders of my country don’t invest money in Pakistan and have bank accounts world-wide, but I am a very proud Pakistani. Government has cabinet of more than 80, but they lack funds for common people, but I also feel pride in it and I am a proud Pakistani.

I can go on and on but I am feeling so much proud that I would explode with it. I don’t give a damn about all these issues and still I am proud of Pakistan but infact Pakistan is ashamed of us, that what we are doing with it? We want to sell it to others? Why blackwater and US marines are here for? It is ashamed that why we give vote to those who stole billions of dollars from our treasury? Pakistan is ashamed of us, we had let our country down. Pakistan is ashamed of this nation, who don’t do anything for their country instead of saying “I am a proud Pakistani”. As someone rightly said “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see something that's above you.”

stampede in Karachi!!

2009-09-15T04:55:00.002+06:00

Today’s stampede incident in Karachi is very unfortunate. Although it is an eye opener for us, by us I mean Pakistani nation, it doesn’t include Government and politicians as they don’t have eyes to see and mind to perceive that what is going on in this country. The thing they really care about is collecting abundant wealth. We Pakistanis should now open our eyes and minds. We have to think that are we making Pakistan, as envisioned by our great leaders Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal? Do we want to live in a country which is ruled by elite and certain families? Do these families have more right on Pakistan than us? After father or mother the son or daughter comes to rule the country, is this the definition of democracy? Or we should change this definition in dictionaries? When will we live as a nation? And eradicate the ills of society?

Sorry to say but we are still slaves, father of the nation Quaid-e-Azam freed us from British, but we ourselves became slaves of certain families. We want to be ruled by others instead of ruling others. I don’t know what type of Muslims we are? Or what type of Pakistanis? We should ask this question to ourselves that where we are heading? And what we want to do to our country?

The stampede shows us the true image of Pakistan. Hunger, poverty, unemployment, corruption and every ill is present in our society. This is the real Pakistan. One of my friend on facebook has a status “whatever happens still proud to be Pakistani”. This is just a statement to hide problems and ills in our society, you should feel proud by first realizing your mistakes and then improving them and then you should say I am proud to be Pakistani, but without power, gas, food, water, shelter and still you feel proud is just giving yourselves false picture and a way to run away from problems instead of addressing them. We should all pray to Allah to show us right path and forgive us for our sins.AMEEN

credibility of PPP

2009-09-14T20:34:00.000+06:00

New development in the credibility of PPP government and so called leaders of Pakistan. US has categorically said that they will not give money (Kerry Lugar bill) directly to PPP government , as they have reservations about the spending of money. What a shame this PPP government has brought to our country, and I don’t know that even USA don’t believe these politicians and don’t trust them but we the Pakistani nation had elected them to run this country. What we want to do with our country? We want those impotent leaders to run our great country who have no credibility in the world? We want our country to be lead by incapable politicians who don’t have a single penny inside Pakistan, then how can we say to other people to invest money in Pakistan?

I recently got into discussion with some PPP “jialas”, and I was amazed to see their illiteracy and illogical reasoning. They even don’t know anything about their own party. Then when they can’t bear my questions and the facts and the quotations I have quoted from different books and newspapers, then they started abusing me and started indecent language, that’s the moment I was waiting for because their they weren’t representing themselves they were representing their party and they showed that what their party teaches them. And in it there is one person, I will not take his name, he was teacher of mine (Phd scholar) and he was also in the discussion and he was also talking illogically and very far from facts, and when the PPP jialas started using bad language his response was that “each PPP jiala is close to my heart and I will not stop them”. Sorry to say but I don’t know what type of Muslim, Pakistani and teacher he is? That he can’t even have the courage or the sense to say what is right and what is wrong, and can’t stop the wrong and can’t fulfill his primary duty. He should fulfill his duties as a Muslim, Pakistani and a good human being rather than fulfilling his duties to a lame and pathetic PPP. This is the new proof about pathetic and corrupt leaders of PPP. May Allah show right path to these jialas.AMEEEN

Microsoft lobbying against Google!

2009-08-29T13:21:00.004+06:00

Microsoft's chief Washington lobbyist has been convening regular meetings attended by the company's outside consultants that have become known by some beltway insiders as "screw Google" meetings, DailyFinance has learned.
The meetings are part of an ongoing campaign by Microsoft (MSFT), other Google (GOOG) opponents, and hired third parties to discredit the Web search leader, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter.
"Microsoft is at the center of a group of companies who see Google as a threat to them in some combination of business and policy," said a source familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to avoid retribution. "The effort is designed make Google look like the big high-tech bad guy here."

The meetings have occurred as frequently as once a week, sources with knowledge of the meetings say.

Microsoft employs several D.C.-based public relations firms, including Law Media Group, a secretive outfit founded by former Democratic operative Julian Epstein, and the Glover Park Group, which the software giant retains for issues related to "public policy and governmental affairs," according to Microsoft's website. LMG declined to discuss its work for Microsoft; GPG says it had never been involved with any "screw Google" meetings.

Nevertheless, one source familiar with the meetings says, "Law Media Group has several people who work full-time on Google-bashing. Everybody knows Microsoft is trying to throw roadblocks at Google and knock them off their game. Microsoft is trying to harm Google in the regulatory, legal, and litigation arenas because they're having problems with Google in the competitive marketplace."

"This is textbook Microsoft," the source adds. "Microsoft has got some of the best, highest-priced lobbyists that money can buy in Washington."

The meetings have been led by Fred Humphries, Microsoft's chief lobbyist in D.C. Ginny Terzano, Microsoft's Washington spokesperson, acknowledged that Google has come up in Microsoft meetings with "lawmakers, regulators, and our own consultants." But of Humphries's alleged "screw Google" meetings, she says, "This is absurd. While Google is a healthy competitor, Fred is focused on advancing policies that benefit our partners and consumers, and not running meetings of the type you describe. Your sources are badly misinformed, and your information is wrong."

"As you would expect, Microsoft and Fred are working to educate policymakers and regulators about the benefits of the Microsoft/Yahoo deal," Terzano says. "When you talk about the Microsoft/Yahoo deal, of course Google is going to come up."

A source with knowledge of the matter called Terzano's statement a "non-denial denial," saying, "This is an attempt to obfuscate the fact that they are indeed having 'screw Google' meetings."

Microsoft is working to allay Justice Department antitrust concerns over its proposed 10-year web search tie-up with Yahoo (YHOO), which would unite the No. 2 and 3 competitors in the space.

The new details about Microsoft's D.C.-based efforts to undermine Google shine a light on the role of third-party firms, funded by tech giants, that engage in activities such as astroturfing, corporate propaganda, and misinformation. Media reports have hinted at a "whisper campaign" undertaken by entities acting at Microsoft's behest to undermine Google, both with policymakers and the public.

In recent months, two heavily detailed, annotated versions of confidential Google slide presentations -- one dealing with competition issues, the other with behavioral targeting -- have been published by a Santa Monica–based group called Consumer Watchdog. The annotations are highly critical of Google and seek to rebut the search giant's arguments. Consumer Watchdog has thus far declined to reveal the source of the documents.

"We consulted with someone outside our organization who did the mark-ups. We published them because we thought they were right on the issue," says John M. Simpson, who leads coverage of issues related to Google at Consumer Watchdog. Microsoft and its PR firms LMG and GPG deny any involvement in producing the annotated Google presentations.

Simpson says the news of the "screw Google" meetings comes as "no surprise whatsoever." "I suspect that such meetings are happening at Microsoft, and I would suspect that Google has had similar meetings," Simpson says. "It's obvious that Microsoft is engaged in some sort of organized campaign to undermine Google."

That there is no love lost between the two companies is well-documented. Microsoft chieftain Steve Ballmer once famously hurled a chair across his office during an anti-Google tirade in which he raged, "I'm going to f*cking kill Google." The incident was revealed in court documents related to Google's poaching of Microsoft's former point man in China, Li Kai-Fu. Google lured Li to head its effort there, leading to a lawsuit from Microsoft, which Google won.

Of course, just as Microsoft holds Washington meetings to discuss its Google strategy, Google does the same. The two companies compete on multiple fronts, and each seeks to enhance its own position while undermining its rival.

"Of course we keep an eye on what's happening in the industry," Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich says, "but the focus of our Washington advocacy has always been advancing good public policy for the Internet and our users."

In less than a decade, Google has become nearly as dominant in the Internet search market as Microsoft is in desktop software. Microsoft recently launched a high-profile foray into the search market with a new search engine, Bing, and it seeks to partner with Yahoo to mount a stronger challenge. But Google, with nearly 70 percent of the search ad market, has little to fear from Bing or the planned joint partnership, and that dominance remains an immense source of Microsoft's frustration.

Microsoft and Google are also gearing up for an intense showdown over the very future of the PC operating system. Google recently said it plans to introduce a new web-based operating system based on its Chrome browser (though to date, Chrome has barely dented Microsoft Internet Explorer's lead in the browser market). Google's fundamental strategy to shift the locus of computing onto in the Internet, and into "the cloud," represents an ambitious assault on Microsoft's dominance of the desktop-based operating system market.

With billions of dollars at stake, the sophisticated D.C. operations and message machines are an inevitable result of Google and Microsoft's epic struggle for dominance. With the Obama administration perceived as "Google-friendly," despite ongoing federal inquests into Google on antitrust grounds, Microsoft has little choice but to ensure that its voice is heard amid the cacophony of Capitol Hill lobbying.

And if secret "screw Google" meetings are any indication, this could get very ugly -- and very entertaining.
source : http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/28/microsofts-secret-screw-google-meetings-in-d-c/

Independence Day!

2009-08-14T15:40:00.003+06:00

We are celebrating 62^nd independence day of Pakistan. But do we know the meaning of independence or meaning of independence is different in Pakistan? With 9 billion dollar loan from IMF in Nov 2008, to save Pakistan from bankruptcy, we are still independent. President and his government had begged to the world to support Pakistan otherwise Pakistan cannot be saved and still we are independent. US drone’s enter Pakistan without the consent of Government of Pakistan and roam freely, but still we are independent. Richard Holbroke who is only US special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan whenever comes to Pakistan, all the government officials including President stand in front of him like sheeps and can’t say a word against penetration of US drones and US forces in Pakistan, but still we are independent. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton chairs the press conference of Pakistan’s and Afghanistan’s President’s. and still we are independent. All major policies are made by US and dictated to coward and impotent leaders of Pakistan, but still we think we are an independent state. So called political parties which talks about democracy so much but unfortunately they don’t have democracy inside their parties, so how can they bring democracy to Pakistan, but we are still independent. With President of Islamic Republic of Pakistan saying that promises are not Quran or Hadees, we are an independent country. With no electricity, jobs, food, shelter still in the 21^st century, we are an independent country. With provinces demanding separation of Pakistan (Balochistan), we are an independent country. With losing East Pakistan within first 25 years of independence, due to political negligence we still are independent. Flag hoisting ceremony is cancelled in parliament house due to security reasons and we are celebrating independence. With 1000 marines coming into Pakistan with the consent of impotent Government, we still believe that we are independent. By substituting picture of our great Quaid with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto, we are celebrating independence. With the 10% increase in corruption, we are celebrating independence. People are forced to do suicides due to poverty, unemployment, but still we are independent. Our Government begs for money from the world to run the country and had sold respect and dignity of our nation, but still we are independent. Our politicians love Pakistan so much that no one invests in Pakistan, no one has any bank account in Pakistan, and no one’s children study in Pakistan, but we still believe we are independent. I can go on and on but I just highlighted main achievements of our independent Pakistan.

It is true that we got independence from Hindus and Britian in 1947, due to our great leader Quaid-e-Azam and many sacrifices made by everyone in the struggle to get independence. But with the demise of great Quaid we became slaves of corrupt politicians, Bureaucrats and elite class. I may be wrong because if independence means that on 14^th August, everyone puts a badge for display and people dancing, youngsters with bikes performing stunts, Government illuminating buildings etc. but the next day you woke up and forget what Pakistan is for? Then sorry there is no point of such an independence L. We got independence but we are still unable to realize what it is and what its worth. We need independence from our self desires, from corrupt politicians, from this corrupt system, from discrimination between poor and rich, from liars, from forces who are working to break our country.

I hope we will get independence from all this one day. Lets pray to Allah Almighty to save our country and Guide us and our rulers to a straight path.Ameen. Pakistan Zindabad :).

Google's "Caffeine"!!

2009-08-14T03:26:00.002+06:00

Google has lifted the lid on its updated search engine, which developers have nicknamed "Caffeine".Although still in the testing phase, the firm says it is the "first step in improving the speed, accuracy and comprehensiveness of search results".The new engine will replace Google's current one after tests are complete.
Martin McNulty of search marketing specialist Trafficbroker said the upgrade threatened to put Microsoft's new engine, Bing, "in the shade"."Google have let Caffeine quietly slip out. It talked about vertical specific searches while quietly doubling the speed and starts introducing real-time results and news feeds," he said.
"Bing was launched with a massive media budget.
"Trouble is, Bing presents itself as an alternative to something that users are still - for now - happy with," he added.
Virtual monopoly
Google is still the dominant search engine. According to market research firm Hitwise, Google accounted for more than 87% of the UK search market in 2008.
However, in recent months, the search engine market has got a little busier. As well as Microsoft's Bing.com - which saw a tie-up between Microsoft and Yahoo - the "computational knowledge engine" Wolfram Alpha and a revamped Ask Jeeves have also entered the fray.
Google is also facing competition from Facebook, which has just acquired FriendFeed, praised for its "real-time" search engine.
This type of search is valuable because it lets you know what is happening right now on any given subject.
Back in May, Google founder Larry Page admitted that the search giant had fallen behind other services like that of Twitter, which boasts nearly 45 million users worldwide.
Fresher content
Google's head of Webspam, Matt Cutts, denied that Caffeine was launched in response to competitive search engines.
"I love competition in search and want lots of it, but this change has been in the works for months," he wrote in his blog.
"I think the best way for Google to do well in search is to continue what we've done for the last decade or so: focus relentlessly on pushing our search quality forward. Nobody cares more about search than Google, and I don't think we'll ever stop trying to improve."
Alex Watson, editor of Custom PC magazine, said Caffeine was reflecting a general trend to what he calls "the real-time web".
"Caffeine now picks up news stories and puts fresher content higher up the search results," he said.
"That said, it's likely that most people won't notice the change. It still looks the same, it's the algorithms that have changed.
"However, it is now doing things that would never be possible a few years ago and knowing Google, this would have been in the works for some time."
source:www.bbc.co.uk

Country Needs You!

2009-08-06T23:56:00.001+06:00

They like their guess bags, nike shoes and daddys’ shiny cars. They also like their hang out spots, their get togethers and late night parties. But outside this diaphanous bubble, some realize that danger is a daily reality and their country needs them more than their materialistic pangs.

Sitting around a table, designer sunglasses perched on their head, they discuss issues in fluent English. A group of affluent youngsters are brainstorming ideas for helping the internally displaced people — they are all volunteers.

Volunteering is often misconstrued as free labour undertaken by individuals as an act of generosity to benefit others. But the important notion behind volunteerism — that the doer of good becomes good himself — is seldom realised. Volunteerism is as old as civilization itself. It started when humans began living in groups as they needed to help each other to survive individually and as a community. That is how societies formed and civilizations grew.

Volunteerism isn’t new to Pakistanis. Disasters, whether natural or man-made, have emboldened citizens to do more each time Pakistan is struck with mayhem. But the key to connecting the well healed to the reality most live in the country (other than their donations) is volunteering. Helping the poor from the confines of cushy sofas and paper cheques are certainly a commendable service, but imperialist and feudal mindsets that have kept the poor in a suppressive psychological cage can only alter over time if they decide to pull their sleeves and pants up to take a dip in the real world.

The process is two-way and rewarding. Helping those in needs instills a combination of humbleness, kindness as well as value for labour and time, attained only through interaction — packing left-over food at a restaurant or foregoing another pair of sneakers and instead buying essentials for someone who probably needs it. Collective support in turn encourages them to believe in humanity and a life worth living for.

Working shoulder to shoulder with other volunteers allows friendships, a network pool of new ideas and a sense of national identity. The barter trade as you may have noticed, is priceless. According to the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy’s statistics for 1998 even though 41 per cent of aggregate ‘giving of people’ is in the form of volunteering, more than 50 per cent of them volunteer individually instead of joining an organization. The impact of coordinated effort is thus widely absent.

The spirit to contribute and offer help does not lack among individuals, yet the guidance, training and aspect of collectivism is seen more rarely. The National Volunteer Movement, initiated in 2005, was essentially a good platform but not surprisingly a managerial disaster. At the beginning 15,000 volunteers were registered across the country and work was being done for the earthquake affected people. But other than a few minor initiatives, such as stalls with young attendants to guide and help older patients at hospitals, the NVM has largely been ineffective. This resulted in a slash of their budget from Rs50 million to Rs20 million. But, Federal Youth Minister Shahid Bhutto states that for the last two months his ministry has been attempting to rejuvenate the largely dormant organization. Since the start of military action against militants in Swat, Malakand and tribal areas that left thousands homeless, many individuals, private and some public rose to the occasion. NVM set up their camps and provided cooked food and electric water coolers to the homeless.

‘I’ve been registered with NVM for 3 years now but this is the first time I’ve done field work,’ says Rashid a 22-year-old volunteer. He worked with NVM in Swabi for one month and 18 days. He took IDPs to hospitals, worked in medical camps, helped old people to avoid waiting in long queues and in the evenings distributed food among them. Altruistic motivations were his predictable response but then he stated the personal benefits of volunteering with an organization. ‘If we have to work we should do it through a proper system. It’s a platform and then we get credit for it too,’ he adds.

Eighteen-year-old Tipu agrees volunteering takes you a long way. ‘It’s about being hands on things and affecting change. You get real concrete tangible changes.’ That’s what which lead him to join hands with his cousin Murtaza to establish the Islamabad chapter of the volunteer organization Zimmedar Shehri (responsible citizens).

Murtaza Kumail Khwaja, a 22-year-old medical student and also one of the chairs of the Zimmedar Shehri, says that the youth needs to be more aware of issues and work collectively to make a change.’ We wanted to show the youth that something needs to be done together instead of just sitting around. So we decided to start with something small.’ They launched a campaign of garbage collection, as their Facebook group states their goal boldly, of creating a sense of social responsibility.

‘Whether this is by convincing the neighbourhood imam (cleric) to stock books in his mosque for the young to read; whether by bringing young doctors to slums to treat the dwellers for free; whether by collecting food from an affluent house to fill the palms of the hungry down the street.’ Considering the perennial needs for volunteers, institutionalising it would be the most effective way for the government to achieve the undying passion of patriotism.

If universities and schools make it mandatory for graduation with credits, the youth would be pushed out of boredom and negative activities towards a more enriching experience and constructive activities, Tipu concurs, saying, ‘I’d rather be doing something for my country than smoking up.’
By Nosheen Abbas
source:dawn.com

Bing's Video Contest

2009-08-06T20:37:00.004+06:00

Let me first give you some idea about the video below.Two or three weeks back Microsoft announced that they are holding "Bingle Jingle Contest".The aim was to record a short music video or you can say a theme song for its recently launched decision engine "Bing".Prize was $500 American Express gift cheque, and they asked the contestants to upload videos on Google's "You Tube". So the video below is the winner of "Bingle Jingle Contest". I have one word for this video "creepy"! i dont know why this video is winner, maybe it is because that other videos were more creepy than it :P and Microsoft have no other choice :).. Watch the video yourself, and please post comments about this video

Supreme Court's Verdict

2009-08-01T00:25:00.003+06:00

This is obviously a very sensitive issue, but I want to give my opinion on today’s verdict. In my opinion this is the most balanced judgment that any court can give, and most importantly the court which itself was a victim of Nov 3 martial law. But the 14 member bench and specially the chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry had created history by giving a sensible and balanced decision, they would have taken revenge from Gen Musharraf and the present Government, but they proved that their decisions will not be influenced by agony that they and their families have received due to Gen Musharraf and Government. This decision is an example for generations to come, it is also an example for our pathetic politicians and rulers that the work they were supposed to do is done by Supreme Court. What a shame for parliament who considers themselves as representatives of people that their work is done by Supreme Court, and the parliament is instructed to review the ordinances. Why the parliament and the present Government had not done it before? Why they had not even nullified Nov 3 acts? Why they have not nullified NRO and other important ordinances? If everything is supposed to be done by Supreme Court, then what is the point of having a parliament?
So Atleast now judiciary is independent and is making decisions for strengthening Pakistan and not to destabilize the system, otherwise the Supreme Court would have given a harsh decision which would have destabilized the system and would have produced anarchy and chaos among the whole nation.
I want to say that if there would be a trial for dictator’s actions, then there should be a trial for past and present Governments also who have looted million of dollars from Pakistan’s treasury and had done nothing for the people of Pakistan and had not fulfilled their promises. Why Is there no case against Zardari, who after publicly making promise said that it is not Quran or Hadees? How can a President of an Islamic republic say this type of bullshit? Who no one has ever filed a reference against it? Or SC has taken suo motu notice? This is not a little issue, in Islamic way of life the leaders should have high moral values and they should be examples for the people. I am not a constitutional expert but the thing is it is written that President of Islamic Republic of Pakistan should be a Muslim. And how can a person be a Muslim if he doesn’t fulfills his promises?

IPv6 compatibility?

2009-07-28T01:05:00.003+06:00

The biggest mistake in developing IPV6 is it lacks backward compatibility with the existing IPV4. IPV4 was made standard protocol 13 years ago and still it is the standard protocol. I also studied these both protocols in my computer networks course apart from articles i studied on net and in books, and there were some ways shown to make IPV4 devices compatible with IPV6, but there is no effective technique yet to make IPV4 devices compatible with IPV6 or vice versa, IPV6 developers envisioned a scenario in which IPV6 and IPV4 devices and networks will work side by side,which is known as dual stack mode. But they failed to realize that some IPV4 devices will never be upgraded to work with IPV6, and IPV6 networks have to communicate with IPV4 devices.. i hope that IETF will come up with some idea to use IPV4 and IPV6 side by side as it is impossible to change the devices and networks overnight to IPV6 from IPV4

Smoking Risks

2009-07-27T18:32:00.002+06:00

I was reading articles related to health and there I saw the article related to smoking, so I read it in curiosity and I am sharing it with u people. A recent study carried out in London and published its findings in European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, said that people who smoke have high blood pressures than the non smokers, and high blood pressure and smoking both are the main causes of heart diseases. It also said that most of the smokers don’t know that they had high blood pressure, they suggests that if the smokers are made aware of their high blood pressure, it can increase their motivation to stop smoking. Well I don’t get it how it will motivate them to quit smoking, in my opinion every smoker or non smoker knows what are the side effects and smokers know that they are at the risk of many diseases i.e lung, heart etc. Whatever, it is pointless to do such lame researches like these and come up with these lame ideas or proposals, researches should be useful and precise.

India exposed!

2009-07-20T18:39:00.002+06:00

We all had suspicion over India’s involvement in Swat and Balochistan, but now the game is over for India as there are clear evidences of India’s involvement, now the true image of democratic India is front of the world that how they are destroying the peace of the world. Maj Gen Sajjad Ghani, in charge of operation rah-e-rast in swat has revealed about the evidences against India’s involvement in a recent interview with AAJ TV. He had given many points backed by evidences but here I am going to discuss some of them. He said that the weapons that are confiscated from so called Taliban are Indian made. He had showed Indian Vickers machine guns and other weapons also to the media. The Gen said that these insurgents have full logistical support of India. The entire operation was planned by Indian military officials posted in Afghanistan. He said they have found Indian currency, Indian bullets, Indian explosives, and other weapons in swat which clearly shows the involvement of India trying to destabilize Pakistan. Indian RAW agents are also fighting in Swat against Pakistan Army.This shows that how much India is afraid of Paksitan's Army and people that they dont have the courage to fight directly but are using coward tactics to destabilize Pakistan.Shame on India.But their are some question that need to be answered,Why Pakistani government is not protesting against india’s involvement in swat and balochistan? Why the government is not showing real face of India to the world? What are they afraid of?In my opinion all the political parties are shameless and corrupt , just power is important to them. They are useless and pathetic. They don’t have any respect and they have sold Pakistan’s respect and dignity. They don’t have the courage to take a stand against enemies of Pakistan, but they feel respected by begging infront of others .Actually they all have sold their soul and have no shame left. They are betraying this country.

Google's operating system for PC's

2009-07-10T00:05:00.003+06:00

Google is planning to develop operating system for PC's, Google has made an operating system with the name Android for cell phones. Now they are planning the OS for PC's. This will be the clash between internet search king Google and software giant Microsoft. But the fact is when Google launched its browser Google Chrome, it was not able to fetch a major market share dominated by Microsoft's Internet Explorer. And on the other hand Microsoft's search engine "Bing" is also not able to give hard time to Google's search engine. As Google continues to dominate the search market with 78%. So if Google launches its OS, it will be a very healthy competition in my view, as the Google will try to come with a good OS and with the view of dominating the market. So lets see how the Google's OS will be like? :)

Google Voice

2009-06-28T17:23:00.003+06:00

Google has started its new service "Google Voice", it is currently available by invite only. It is a useful service in my opinion. Now let me describe that how it works. When you register with google voice you will be given a google number, it will be like an ordinary number. Now your friends, family and people who wants to contact you will call on your google number, and you will choose that if someones call you at google number it should ring your home, office, cell number or all of these ring at once and you can answer the phone by any number or any specific number. The best feature of this is that people dont have to remember or store different numbers like home,work,cell etc. Only one google number is enough to reach a person, secondly if you are expecting an important call than it cannot be missed as you can get it on all your phone numbers and you dont have to worry that will he call on your cell or at your home number? isnt it cool :)

Progress Bar in C#

2009-06-27T14:27:00.003+06:00

I am very busy these days and not getting time to do readings or writing on my blog. But today i manged to get some time so i decided to write this simple tutorial. I am going to write that how progress bar works in C#, ProgressBar class is part of .NET framework. In this tutorial i am going to use three members of class ProgressBar Minimum,Maximum and Value.
So first create a C# Application and add progress bar control on your form, you can give it any name but i am naming it "pb" here. Add timer and name it as "tr".Now paste the following code in form load event

private void frmProgressbar_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
pb.Minimum = 0; // set Minimum to 0
pb.Maximum = 100;// set Maximum t0 100
tr.Interval = 100;// timer ticks each 100 milliseconds
tr.Enabled = true; // start the timer
}

Now paste the following code behind Timer Tick Event

private void tr_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if(pb.Value!=100) // check if value below 100 as it shud not be greater than maximum value
{
pb.Value += 5;// add 5 to the Progressbar current value
}
}
Thats it!! its done, isn't it simple? :P.I hope this will help you

Pakistan Zindabad

2009-06-22T00:07:00.001+06:00

Congratulations to whole of Pakistani nation and Pakistani team who have really done a great job by winning T20 World Cup,it is a time when everyone has boycotted to play in Pakistan. Pakistanis have shown to whole of the world that we are the nation that can do anything so don’t try to underestimate Pakistani nation. It was a great match and Pakistani players really played very well, they played as a team and as a unit, it can be seen from their body language that they have the courage to win T20 World Cup and they did it. It is a great gift to the nation from the cricket team as Pakistan is facing many challenges and is at war, this win has delighted Pakistani nation. We are proud to be Pakistani, and let us all pray for the success of Pakistan in all the areas it is facing problems today or will face in future. Pakistan Zindabad J

Nokia's new charger for cell phones!

2009-06-19T17:00:00.002+06:00

Those days are going to be over when you say to your friends or other people while talking on your cell phone that my battery is low and I cant talk and stuff. Because Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge is working on a prototype that would eliminate traditional cell phone chargers. Isn’t it cool? J. This system will collect energy from ambient radio waves emitted by antennas,Wi-Fi transmitters etc. This all sounds that this is a whole new concept but it is not a new idea as this technology is used from years i.e in alarm systems etc. so Nokia is going to catch radio waves across a range of frequencies, harnessing them for power. I am not going into more detail about its working to keep it simple :p. I don’t know that what features will it power ?music playing?internet browsing as consumers have entertainment and business needs. This system will develop in 3-5 five years according to Nokia. By the way wireless chargers have already hit the market. This month Palm introduced a wireless charger touchstone for its Palm Pre. Touchstone uses method known as inductive charging.

Contradiction!!

2009-06-18T17:38:00.003+06:00

President Zardari said that we need trade not aid, I still can’t believe that is it Zardari? Who was begging all around the world for more aid. How this change occurred? It is a very essential question that needs a precise answer. Whatever it is but you can see the contradiction and lack of commitment in Zardari’s administration. Two or three days back foreign minister Qureshi said in an interview that Pakistan needs aid to fight against Taliban otherwise Taliban can enter India. What a shameful act. He spoke non sense and rubbish, and had disgraced Pakistan by not only doing begging but by saying that Taliban would enter India, why would any Pakistani say this? Everyone knows that India is accusing Pakistan of terrorism activities and doing propaganda of highest level to portray Pakistan as a terrorist and failed state, and people like FM Qureshi are helping them to achieve their goal. This is a clear act of treason and I don’t know why Supreme Court of Pakistan doesn’t take suo motu notice on these types of statements and issues? And most unfortunately people of Pakistan can come on roads for restoration of democracy but no one cares about these traitors who are disgracing Pakistan and also betraying its people.L

Network Simulator 2

2009-06-17T18:04:00.004+06:00

I am installing NS2 v2.33(latest version) on fedora 9(i386). There are two ways to install it either piece wise or all in one. Here i am installing all in one because it is simple.

Download all in one package from NS website.
It is ".tar.gz" format so extract it on your fedora desktop.
Open terminal
Type "cd Desktop" and press enter(as your ns folder is on desktop)
Now type "cd ns-allinone-2.33" and press enter
Type "./install" and press enter. It will automatically install all the compoents in the folder and it will take some time.
When done. Now type "gedit ~/.bashrc"
Add the following lines of code at the end of the file (remember to replace"/home/hassan/desktop" with your installation path)

# LD_LIBRARY_PATH

OTCL_LIB=/home/hassan/Desktop/ns-allinone-2.33/otcl-1.13

NS2_LIB=/home/hassan/Desktop/ns-allinone-2.33/lib

X11_LIB=/usr/X11R6/lib

USR_LOCAL_LIB=/usr/local/lib

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$OTCL_LIB:$NS2_LIB:$X11_LIB:$USR_LOCAL_LIB

# TCL_LIBRARY

TCL_LIB=/home/hassan/Desktop/ns-allinone-2.33/tcl8.4.18/library

USR_LIB=/usr/lib

export TCL_LIBRARY=$TCL_LIB:$USR_LIB

# PATH

XGRAPH=/home/hassan/Desktop/ns-allinone-2.33/bin:/home/hassan/Desktop/ns-allinone-2.33/tcl8.4.18/unix:/home/hassan/Desktop/ns-allinone-2.33/tk8.4.18/unix

NS=/home/hassan/Desktop/ns-allinone-2.33/ns-2.33/

NAM=/home/hassan/Desktop/ns-allinone-2.33/nam-1.13/

PATH=$PATH:$XGRAPH:$NS:$NAM

Now type "source ~/.bashrc"
Installation is completed. To check whether your installation is correct type "ns" a "%" will appear on the screen enter "exit". Type "nam" this will open network animator. I hope this tutorial will be helpful for you.

Pity on India!!

2009-06-16T02:11:00.003+06:00

I am writing this article after I read some news articles which had bothered me and as being a Pakistani I thought that it would be betrayal with my homeland that If I remain silent. Here I am only discussing two points, I was reading in newspaper that the Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna said that there would be no dialogue with Pakistan unless they carry out some positive steps against terrorists. He also said that he doesn’t know what is good Taliban and what is bad Taliban.

We should have pity on Indian people and its government, because I guess that ministers like SM Krishna should first complete their education and then should think about coming to politics or if they think it is hard for them then they should hire someone who would atleast read news for them and update them about the events occurring around the world otherwise they are creating so much embarrassment for their country(India). Everyone in the world knows that Pakistan is at war with Taliban, Taliban is just a label that Indian, US and Israel agents are using to conceal their identity and they are the ones who are involved in Swat and Wana, arms that are recovered from these Taliban are Israel made or US made and they got their training from RAW and some agents of RAW are also involved and are fighting against Pakistan in Swat and Wana directly. The most surprising thing that I want to mention here is that I was reading articles about the ongoing war, I came across pictures of terrorists who were killed and you would not believe that they were not even circumcised!. So Mr SM Krishna’s knowledge is not good that’s why he is saying that Pakistan should do some positive steps, I wanted to ask him that what would be more positive step than declaring war against terrorists? But I guess it is not his fault, it is fault of his ignorance. And the fact of matter is that Pakistan is a sovereign country and no one can dictate Pakistan that what to do and what not to do. Infact it is tactics of politicians of India to blame Pakistan and try to dictate things to other’s so that they can divert attention of their own people from the problems and issues related to their own country. Now as he said that he doesn’t know what is good and what is bad Taliban. That shows that SM Krishna is living in ignorant world and doesn’t know about the history of the world, sorry world is a big thing I must say history of sub continent. What an uneducated person he is. Hillary Clinton (secretary of state of USA) herself said that America is responsible for creation of Taliban. So what one gets from it? According to me what I perceive from this is that Taliban’s were created by USA and when USA has completed its goal then they abandoned Taliban and 9/11 was just a drama to eliminate them, so the USA attacked Afghanistan, Taliban defended Afghanistan and for this they became terrorists, obviously if some country attacks another country then the attacked country has the full right to protect and defend itself and Taliban had done the same. And on the other side some people from Taliban had betrayed their own country and had sold themselves to USA, and USA is using them to obtain their objectives in this region and in the world, there are always some good and bad people. Have you ever thought that why American drone attacks never hit hideouts of Beitullah Masood? Because he is the agent of USA and is disloyal to his own country and to Muslims. So there are good Taliban and bad Taliban and most of the people know about it but the foreign minister of India doesn’t!!. well no one can do anything in this matter as there is no remedy for person who remains ignorant after observing all the facts on ground.. but I guess I can do something useful for him :P I can pray for him that Allah please give him some sense and some knowledge so that he can talk intellectually and not like an idiot!!

Facebook vanity URL!!

2009-06-14T23:26:00.005+06:00

No doubt that you have heard of Facebook vanity URL, it is a thing for which everyone was so excited from days. It is quite a bigger success for Facebook. As I was seeing the statistics that within first seven minutes of launch of this service 345,000 users grabbed the URL’s and within 15 minutes over a half million users have grabbed one, it was on first come first serve basis. I was doing some research and I found that the best URL so far is “facebook.com/default.aspx” chosen by a user. I know some of you will be amazed that doesn’t it conflict with facebook's default page :P..well no it is not going to create a problem as facebook is built in php not asp J. I have also read in different websites that some people selected good URL’s and are now auctioning it to make some good money. But there are also some people who are sad as they were unable get their favorite URL, because it is taken by someone else before them :P. I think it’s a good thing to give everyone a unique URL as a name instead of a number(as it was previously) as it will help in tracking friends and stuff. I haven’t got one for me up till now, I hope I will be able to get a good one J

Bing.com

2009-06-12T01:13:00.002+06:00

I am writing it a little late because I thought that I should wait for some time before writing a review about bing.com, Microsoft’s “decision engine”. Bing was released on June 3^rd, all the technology conscious people were waiting that what type of decision engine Bing will be. I also got baffled with the term decision engine, will it be like WolframAlpha? Will it be like search engines like Google? Or will they are coming with a whole new idea?. But at the end it is a search engine like Google, then why they were saying it decision engine? Well whatever it is, Microsoft has followed its traditions to copy others idea and then grab the market share. Well Google is their main competitor and interestingly the stats after the release of bing shows that more and more people are using bing than Google, so some good news for Microsoft :P. I also used bing and it produces good search results, the interface is quite cool with rotation of stunning photography while Google interface is simple, maybe more people are attracted towards the cool interface of bing. But in my opinion as I said in one of my previous posts that users don’t want to get links for their searches, they want answers rather than list of links of websites that Google and Bing are providing. Users want search to be smarter and simple than ever before, which gives them accurate results within less time. Bing has not came with any new idea it is just another drop in an ocean. Although WolframAlpha is not successful but they came with a new idea and they are going to improve it with time, that’s the type of search that people want or even more. Let’s hope that some useful search engine will come or the existing ones will be optimized to give users what they want!!

Convert FAT partition to NTFS

2009-06-08T15:43:00.003+06:00

I am telling you a simple way to convert your drive's partition from FAT or FAT32 to NTFS. If you want more security, file by file compression etc than you can convert FAT file system to NTFS with just one command, so lets start

Go to start->RUN
In RUN type "cmd" to open command prompt
Now in command prompt type "CONVERT [driveletter]: /FS:NTFS". In drive letter above you have to give drive name that you wish to convert to NTFS.
Wait for few moments, depending on your disk size, and after some moments your FAT drive will be converted into NTFS.

There is a minimal chance of data loss or corruption during conversion but it is better that you perform a backup on drive that you are converting before doing this.

Future of Gaming!!!

2009-06-07T00:32:00.000+06:00

Creating a torrent file in uTorrent

2009-06-06T03:51:00.005+06:00

Many people know that how to run a torrent file but most of them dont know how to create it. If you want to share a file with your friend over the internet than rather than sharing through msn or e-mail as they will take years :P you can make a torrent file and share it.its simple

1.Open Utorrent

2.Press "ctrl+n"

3.Enter source as shown above.In "source"you have to give path of a file for which you have to create the torrent.

4.Now in "trackers" you have to give tracker. You can give one or more than one. Below are preferred trackers

http://open.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce
http://www.torrent-downloads.to:2710/announce
http://denis.stalker.h3q.com:6969/announce
udp://denis.stalker.h3q.com:6969/announce
http://www.sumotracker.com/announce

trackers identify location of each client either uploading or downloading a P2P file associated with a torrent.It notifies client of P2P file location.

5.Press "create and save" and give it location where you want your torrent file to be saved.

Now you can upload the torrent file that you had just created on different torrent sites or can give it to your friend for sharing.

How to make a DLL file and use it in C#

2009-06-05T15:10:00.013+06:00

I am assuming that you know about dll files.So i am going to show you a simple way by which you can make a dll file and can use it.There are many other ways also but this is the simplest.

1.Open new project and select "class library", and choose location where you want to save it.

2.Now create a simple function in class1 as shown below.You can add classes and functions as much as you need but for simplicity i am just writing 1 function "add" which add two numbers and returns the result.

3.Now Build Solution from menu bar

4.Your DLL file is ready and it will be in the debug folder of the project as shown below

the dll file that you have just created can be copied and pasted anywhere and can be used by number of programs.

5.Now create new windows application in C#

6.Build the windows form according to your need, i am just adding a button to the form

7.Now add reference off the DLL file that you have created.

8.We will use class and namespace of the dll file we had created

9.Double click on the button to create event handler and write the code as shown in templates below.

10.Now run the program and output will be according to the parameters that yiu passed to add function in your dll file.i passed 1 & 2 so output should be 3 :P

I hope this will help you :P

Future PC

2009-06-04T19:57:00.000+06:00

Google Squared

2009-06-04T16:44:00.004+06:00

Google Labs has released "Google Squared", which according to the search giant, "constructs a table of facts about any search category you specify". I used it and had tested it with random searches, some searches produce better results than others. I think this is Google’s short term answer to WolframAlpha. Google said that this is no perfect yet, so they will definitely improve this. In this approach they put results in a square or table format of a category or topic you specify. You can also track the links by which the data is putted in square. You can use Google squared by typing google.com/squared. Try it yourself and also let me know that what you think about it :P

Future!!

2009-06-04T15:48:00.000+06:00

Reality

2009-06-03T15:19:00.007+06:00

I am uploading the pictures of minister of information Qamar uz Zaman Kaira, who on a recent visit to USA was indulged in shameful and dismal activities, let me inform you that it was the time when Pakistan was at war and there were more than 2 million internally displaced people (IDP’s) who were homeless and have to stay in tents in this unbearable hot weather. And soldiers of Pakistan were being martyred and they were sacrificing their lives for this country. But our politicians and especially the Government of Pakistan (zardari and his party) was busy in foreign trips and were begging to other countries for help. So with so called help they can rent expensive limousine for their ministers and can arrange dance parties etc (the cost of renting this limousine is $500 per hour) as our Government is much busy nowadays in running this pathetic administration and they want to relax on people’s money. These pictures are proof for you, you can judge what these bastards are upto!!

Reading in dim light

2009-06-01T21:20:00.000+06:00

It is still believed by most of the people that reading in dim light ruins your eyesight and can make you blind. Parents use to say to their children that don’t read in the dark or in dim light it will affect your eyesight. Even doctors are not reluctant about it, most of them also say that don’t read in dim or murky light. But it is a myth or I must say a medical myth that everyone believes even doctors that reading in dark light will damage eyesight and can lead to blindness. A study is published in British Medical Journal, that it is a myth which even doctors believe. According to the study it has very little scientific backing that if you read in dark or dim light it will affect your eyesight, the tests only prove that when you read in dark or unsatisfactory light conditions there is a temporary strain on the eyes but it rapidly goes away when you return to bright light. So if you love reading and there is no light or dim light then don’t worry you will not get blind or any bad affect on your eyes. If it was true that bad light conditions affect eyesight than people in earlier times would have been blind, as there were only candles or oil lamps in which they can read and write.

C# to VB.net and vice versa

2009-05-31T00:52:00.004+06:00

Here i am posting a link where you can convert code written in C# to VB.net and VB.net to C#,as some people are better at writing code in C# and some are in VB.net but if you need a code of C# in VB.net or VB.net in C#,then dont worry this link will do it for you :P.I hope that it will help you :)

CLICK HERE

Search is going to get smarter

2009-05-30T21:09:00.002+06:00

Google IO Conference was held this week in which its co-founder Sergrey Brin said that search is going to get smarter. He said that size of the web isn't the problem for Google,as we all know that the internet had grown rapidly when it was started and still it is growing swiftly. He said the reason behind Google success is that how Google retrieves a lot of information from the web. The problem is kind of questions user want answered, and he said that Google is now adding intelligence to its search and Google is planning to start new service which will be similar to WolframAlpha. In this they will combine information from thousands of pages and will put in a table, and it will be better than WolframAlpha hopefully :P. I guess now the war has just begin between search engines that how they attract users by making more intelligent search engines and more functionality and I have very high expectations with Google that they will come up with good ideas and techniques as in the past. Because now the world has changed people’s expectations of search engines have increased and they want the search to be intelligent. And search should be intelligent as the questions are more complex, and people don’t want a link or a page to look for information in it, they want to the point answers and quick results. Microsoft is also launching its “Decision Engine” on Wednesday and will challenge Google. Many people are looking forward to it as it will set new standards for all search companies, lets wait and see what Microsoft can do with “Bing” (Bing.com), but I doubt that it will be a breakthrough in search industry as was claimed by WolframAlpha, but its premature to say anything about it.

How to enable Task Manager

2009-05-29T19:13:00.002+06:00

It sometimes happens that task manager is disabled by virus or other reasons which causes problems.So i am writing here that how to enable it.It's easy just follow the steps.

Go to Start > Run
Type gpedit.msc and then press Enter.
In the Group Policy window, go to the path, User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Ctrl + Alt + Del Option
Double click on the Remove Task Manager which is in the right hand of the Group Policy window
In the Remove Task Manager Properties, select Disabled and then click Ok.

And you are done and you can see your task manager again :P

How to lock a folder in WinXP without any software

2009-05-29T18:08:00.003+06:00

It's very simple just follow the steps.

1.Make new folder and name it.I am naming it "folder" as an example.

2.Now open Notepad and copy paste this code in it ren folder folder.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} and now in Notepad Menu File->"save as".and give it name "lock.bat:".bat is extension.If you have used another name of your folder than in the code above write name of your folder in place of "folder" and "folder".for example if it is abc then above code will be ren abc abc.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}.

3.Now again open Notepad and copy paste this code ren folder.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} folder.and save it as "key.bat".If your folder name is different then replace "folder" and "folder" with your folder name.For example if your folder name is abc then above code will be ren abc.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} abc

4.Now double click the "lock.bat" and it will lock your folder and your folder cannot be accessed by anyone.If you double click on the folder it will take you to control panel.To access the folder double click "key.bat".Now you can hide "key.bat" anywhere on the hard disk and whenever you want to unlock the folder place "key.bat" where the folder is located.

Champions league final

2009-05-28T02:12:00.005+06:00

Today was champions league final between Barcelona and Manchester United,i saw this match.I was supporting ManU but unfortunately they didnt played better than Barca.Barca played very well and there moves were really great,and they started building the pressure from start of the match.Opening goal was scored by Eto'o within first 10 minutes.It was a good goal.After the goal Barca made many moves but didnt succeed.ManU also played good but not upto the standards which they are capable of.Then Messi extended Barca's lead over ManU with a nice header in 70th minute.Van der sar did very good goalkeeping and saved many shots on target.Barca defended really well throughout the match and it was delight seeing this match.ManU fans were hoping till the last minute that they will come back but they didnt and champions league final was won by Barca 2-0 ManU and Barca won European Cup for the third time.I must say that I've never seen such a pathetic performance and effort by ManU.Whereas Barca have been sublime,smooth and with a purpose.

.NET and java

2009-05-27T00:14:00.002+06:00

Microsoft and SunMicrosytems were rivals of each other after bitter split up over Java in late 1990s.But now relations between both are getting friendly,they have good relations after they settled a lawsuit over Microsoft's use of Java in 2004.Microsoft after it started attending annual conference JavaOne by Java.But now they are coming with a big surprise at this years JavaOne conference in June that SunMicrosystems Java will be interoperatable Microsft's .net environment,which is a good and positive step for programmers and it will be of great help.When both will be interoperatable then programmers will more easily code applications and platform independent issues will be resolved as .net is not platform independent.I think Microsoft is working hard to shed its image as a monopolist after it realized that this world is greatly dominated by internet companies such as Google.

Can robots replace humans?

2009-05-26T20:37:00.002+06:00

We are living in a world where new technologies come quickly, and more new ones replace them more quickly,it gives us alot of options to choose from.This has change our lifestyles than our ancestors used to have.Everyone wants to spend a comfortable life.As i was getting bored so i choose to do some readings on robots,so i read some articles and now i am going to share my views here.There are different types of robots presently available which are meant for different tasks.Some robots pick stuff from one place and put it to its destination, some robots are meant for doing maid's work and there are many more.But they are not generic,means they are only meant for only one or more tasks.They cannot behave like humans,but research is going on in which scientists are trying to make robots which will behave like humans and there will be no difference between a robot and human being.Those robots will be able to do every task that a human being can perform.Then i also want to mention another research which is carried by pentagon that they want to replace soldiers with robots and they had made some prototypes of it and 90% work is completed,it will take them another 10-15 years to make full equipped soldier robots that can perform tasks of human soldiers and will not be costly.Where the world is heading?why would they want to replace humans with robots?if robots are replaced by humans then what will humans do?if robots replace humans is there a possibility that robots will take over humans and a war between robots and humans can be fought(like in terminator movie & eagle eye :P)?.These are some of the quesions that the researchers should consider before going with the idea to replace humans with robots.

Animoto.com

2009-05-25T04:25:00.003+06:00

www.animoto.com is a very good website for making movie,you just have to give your pictures and music and it will automatically generate a good movie for you without any cost :P.You can also give your own pictures by uploading from your pc or getting pictures from anyother website or you can also use pictures provided by animoto.com.For full length movie you have to pay but half length movies are free of cost, so try it and have fun :P

Open Source

2009-05-24T17:53:00.004+06:00

Nowadays there is alot of discussion going on open source softwares,OS etc.So i decide to share my thoughts here.Before going to describe the advantages and disadvantages of open source first i am going to tell you that what open sorce means.As most of the people think that open source implies no cost but infact open source means availability of source code and it has nothing to do with cost.Softwares that are free are said "freeware" not open source.Now i guess your thoughts are clear about open source now i will discuss some advantages of open source.Developers don't have to create code from scratch.Developers can gain experience by working on open source projects and most of the companies encourage development of open source projects.The useful and interesting feature of open source softwares is that they are mostly free of cost which encourages user's to try it.Open source projects are responsive with users's.Open source is more secure and bug free than closed source softwares.In open source you can implement your features and can share with anybody.Now coming towards its disadvantages claimed by its opponents,but in my view open source softwares are more reliable and more efficient.Opponents say that in open source projects developer lose's control of the project.Others can change code and can create a competiting product and they say that as source code is available to everyone so the world can openly see the flaws in the product or software.But i must say that everything has some advantages as well as disadvantages and if advantages are greater than disadvantages than you must go for it,open source products should be more encouraged as they create a competitive environment and more reliable and safe products for its users.

Pictures...Are they really removed?

2009-05-23T21:22:00.006+06:00

I came across an article and i am not much amazed while reading it as i already have some hint about it.A new research has been carried out by cambridge university in which they had studied different social networking sites such as Facebook,MySpace and others,the main thing pointed out in the research is that when you delete your picture or pictures from social networking sites,infact they are not deleted and remains on the servers without your knowledge, unfortunately Facebook is also one of them.It was also pointed out that the webpage and photos resides on different servers, and whenever you delete a picture it only deletes it from webpage and pictures are not deleted from servers.But facebook claims that whenever a picture is deleted it is also removed from its servers. Dont knw what they want to do with alot of pictures?:P.Anyways dont upload the pictures that you dont want the world to see even after they are deleted..

Google Chrome 2.0

2009-05-22T20:37:00.003+06:00

Google Chrome 2.0 is released.There were some problems and bugs with previous versions of Google Chrome which have been fixed in 2.0.According to tests Google Chrome is the fastest browser , but it does not provide more functionality than other browsers.But Google had tried to put new functionality in Chrome 2.0 which were not in previous versions,One such functionality is full screen,press F11 to invoke it.I dont know whats the use of full screen mode but Google says that it is for viewing videos and presentation on full screen,but the video and presentation players provide full screen functionality.While you are in full screen mode all the browser controls disappear,and also you cant enter new address to visit.Cant figure out why they added this control?But i hope Google will provide more functionality in versions to come,but still Google Chrome is worlds fastest browser :P

Pakistan Army is writing history!!!

2009-05-22T18:23:00.006+06:00

While Pakistan is at war with taliban in swat,Pakistan Army is writing history and setting examples that are never set before..at this time the morale of Pakistan army is at its peak and alot of soldiers and officers had laid down their lives while protecting Pakistan and its people..i think that most of the people dont know, as i also came to know about it yesterday that DG SSG Maj Gen Muhammad Haroon Aslam has also been airdropped with his young officers and soldiers and he himself lead the operation and fought with his soldiers on battlefield,although he is a General officer but he went himself and lead his soldiers,this would have boosted the morale of the troops as their commander is also fighting with them in the battlefield..I think this is one of the great example set by him it shows that how much motivated is our army not only jawans but officers also and that whenever they get a chance they prove themselves that they love this country very much and will not hesitate to make a sacrifice for it.Taliban are well equipped and have more advanced weapons than Pakistan Army,but Pakistan Army has the will power,inspiration and desire to get shaahadat and they dont hesitate to lay down their lives for Allah.We should all support Pakistan Army as they are giving every sacrifice to protect us and this country...So we should all pray for the martyrs and their families,and also for Pakistan Army and successful completion of this operation...Pakistan Army Zindabad!!

Microsoft launching its search engine

2009-05-21T02:28:00.005+06:00

I was reading an article relating to search engines,there i got this news that Microsoft is now going to launch its search engine "Kumo".Microsoft claims that its search engine will produce more effective and better results than google,yahoo and others, but in my opinion main concern for them is google, they are of the view that there search engine will produce good and useful results than google and people will switch to "Kumo".But in my view its premature to say that,as somedays back same hype was created for WolframAlpha which was not upto expectations, in my opinion it is not easy to compete google as they are adding more and more functionality and they also are coming up with new search techniques.Microsoft would like to form a partnership with Yahoo,so that they both can challenge Google.In my opinion google has done a pretty good job and "Kumo" will be another drop in the ocean..there are alot of search engines today,but in my opinion people get more than adequate information form google and other search engines, it is not a good idea to come up with more and more search engines.. google is the product on which everyone relies and there is very less probability that people are going to switch to another product..

USB background

2009-05-20T16:40:00.006+06:00

if u want to add background picture or image to your usb device,then this is a simple tutorial to add

background image

1.open notepad and copy and paste the following code

[.ShellClassInfo] IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll IconIndex=127 ConfirmFileOp=0

[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]
Attributes=1
IconArea_Image=”your_picture.jpg”
IconArea_Text=”0xFFFFFF”
VeBRA sources - don’t delete the tag above, it’s there for XXXXX purposes -
[ExtShellFolderViews]
{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}={BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}
{5984FFE0-28D4-11CF-AE66-08002B2E1262}={5984FFE0-28D4-11CF-AE66-08002B2E1262}

[{5984FFE0-28D4-11CF-AE66-08002B2E1262}] PersistMoniker=Folder.htt PersistMonikerPreview=%WebDir%\folder.bmp

2.save it as "desktop.ini" .ini is file extension

3.then copy this "desktop.ini" file and image that you want as background in usb drive and name picture as "your_picture.jpg"

4.Refresh or re-insert usb drive and you will see the picture as your device background image.

try this :P

Pakistani PM before and present!!

2009-05-20T15:18:00.005+06:00

i saw this program on tv and i liked the way he portrayed beautifully the difference between Pakistan at the time of creation, its people and its leaders,and present Pakistan. people of Pakistan and the leaders of Pakistan should get some lesson by this..hope you will find it interesting !!

Linux on virtual machine

2009-05-20T01:41:00.002+06:00

I am writing this tutorial to let you know that how to install linux on virtual machine as alot of people face problems.so its easy and simple..
1.open virtual machine and select "New virtual machine"

2.select "typical"

3.select"installer disc image file" and press browse and give it a path of .iso file that you want to load(if you dont have .iso file you can make one by magiciso or poweriso).
then select next.
4.then select the version of your linux

5.then give name to the virtual machine you are creating and also give it location where you want it to be installed.
6.then after clicking next you will get option of selecting maximum disk size for this virtual machine,so specify disk size according to your space
7.then click next and another window comes,telling you about options you selected,then press next and installation begins.
8.A screen will appear with multiple options select "install or upgrade existing system" press enter.
9.now the setup begins and will ask you some question like time etc,so select options according to your choice.
10.then it will start installing the files(it will take sometime)

11.After installation is finished it will ask for reboot,reboot it and you are done .

Translation of Holy Quran

2009-05-19T20:21:00.004+06:00

My humble request to all, i am uploading the translation of the Holy Quran please read it on daily basis it will be good for you and your family, you will know what Islam says?and are you going in right direction.Do not over exhaust yourself,initially you can start with one verse daily and believe me you will love it and you will want to read it more,it is just about making a habit once you will able to make it a habit it will be very easy and when you read this translation your mind will be clear and by the will of Allah you will be on the right path, the problem with us is that we only read arabic text of Quran and do not know its meaning, and if we dont know the meaning we can not know it and cant spend our lives according to Quran..this translation is by Yusuf Ali...may Allah guide us all to the right path..ameen Download Translation

Benefits of wudu

2009-05-19T17:24:00.003+06:00

i had read a very good e-book that describes the benefits of wudu and how it is beneficial and how it is useful in curing diseases..so i am sharing this link so if you have sometime plz download it and read it,it is really informative and good!! Download Book

Intelligent LCD

2009-05-19T15:44:00.002+06:00

This is not a normal LCD,this LCD stares back at you :P ..i came across this gadget during my search and and it's really cool..this 23 inch high definition LCD known as "Eizo Nanao FlexScan monitor" uses an infrared "human presence sensor" to determine whether anyone is sitting infront of it or not..if no one is sitting in front of it then after 40 seconds the screen automatically powers down to conserve energy..it can also detect motion of objects and distinguish between moving and stationary objects..The 1920 by 1080 resolution monitor consumes just 18 watts at full power and 0.7 watts in standby mode, and it weighs 40 percent less than previous models, making it both lean and green.Isn't it a cool thing?

Remarks against Quaid

2009-05-19T14:40:00.002+06:00

In today's newspaper i came across a very unfortunate and heartening incident, on sunday at ulema and mashaikh convention, one of the speaker has used harsh and derogatory words against the Quaid(father of the nation), i dont know why would some Pakistani will use such type of words against a man who has sacrificed his whole life for the well being of muslims and had fought with whole of the world so that muslims can live in peace ..especially from any intellectual this kind of behaviour is not acceptable...the speaker was Pir Mohammad Chisti from NWFP who said "British brought forth Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah to create Pakistan and during the process also used Ahle Sunnat."at this some of the participants got angry and pulled down the speaker from the stage...thnx God we still have some people who have respect for the father of the nation,otherwise picture of Quaid-i-Azam has been replaced with Benazir Bhutto by this present government..i hope someone will also drag down zardari and gillani...

simple login page in ASP.net

2009-05-18T23:16:00.007+06:00

i am sharing an easy way to make simple login page, its easy and simple just follow the steps.
1.open visual studio
2.file->new->website.
3.from options select ASP.net website and give name to the website and press ok.
4.Now in solution explorer rename Default.aspx to login.aspx
5.Or if you want you can add a new page.
6.Now from options above select Website and then select ASP.Net configuration.

7.you will get above window.Now select Security from it.

8.you will get above window.now you can define roles of the user by pressing "enable roles" and you can create roles.
9.then you can add users by clicking "select authentication type",when you click it you will get a window as below

10.then select "from the internet" and you will go back to security page ,from there select "create user" and you will go to a form where you have to fill user details such as username,password etc.You can assign roles to the users that you had defined before.
11.when you are done then close your browser,and return to visual studio,now in "toolbox" under "Login" select "Login" and drop it on the page.(as shown below)

12.just run it and you are done
13.or you can add extra things such as whenever there is successful login you go to a specific page,for this you have to select "DestinationpageUrl" in "properties" and give the address of a page where you want to go.
14.Then you can add that when you signIn page shows username,for this drag "LoginName" in the tool box to the page,and it will show you the username that is currently signedIn
i hope that this will be useful for you ppl :)..

world fastest processor

2009-05-17T21:37:00.003+06:00

Today,while searching the internet i came across this article that Japan build a new supercomputer processor which has beaten the previous records and is the worlds fastest processor.It is Fujitsu's eight-core SPARC64 VIIIfx Venus CPU which clocked at 128 billion computations per second(wow :)), which destroyed the previous Intel-held record by a factor of 2.5.New processor is smaller and energy efficient than its predecessors,128 gigaflops chip is based on 45nm circuitry,compared to Intel's 90nm that previously was the fastest...

Zardari is a traitor

2009-05-16T23:51:00.005+06:00

Pakistan is at war in Swat valley with taliban,while the president of the country was on a world tour in which he visited USA,UK 2 times,France and other countries.I think donations they are getting for misplaced people is used in this long trip, but the thing that is more of a concern is that during his visit to France zardari and foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said France is going to help Pakistan in nuclear technology...but the real story is that France is helping Pakistan in protecting nuclear installations, and protection means that France has to know that where are the installations so that they can protect it!!!what is this government really wanna do with Pakistan?they already had sold respect and dignity of Pakistan,now they want someone else to protect nuclear installations of Pakistan so that they can easily neutralize Pakistan?this is pathetic government with shameless people who are working against Pakistan instead of working for it..zardari and his government is traitor to Pakistan and are misleading Pakistani people..

WolframAlpha!!waste of time....

2009-05-16T20:29:00.000+06:00

WolframAlpha(www.wolframalpha.com)has started its operation...There was a hype before its release that it is going to beat google,wikipedia and others...even me and my friend were talking about it before its release and he was also of the same view that the bad times for other search engines will be started by the release of WolframAlpha, but i didn't agreed with him and i said to him lets see what it will do...now as it has been launched so i tried it with differnt searches and unfortunately results are very poor..i guess not upto anyone's expectations as we all were expecting alot....i had searched it with random questions and sometimes it failed to produce results and sometimes it produced results that even a 1st grade student would know better than this computational knowledge engine :( for example i typed in "color of water" and after about 20 seconds it showed no results...then i typed "Richard Nixon" it gave me information that i am not looking for,nowhere in the result it was written that he was the 37th president of the USA...only the thing that is good in it is its mathematical calculations...it only does good calculation and gives correct results...why not buy a calculator?i found WolframAlpha as irrelevant and not upto the standards,although it is a good concept but they failed to deliver....google and wikipedia are far more better than WolframAlpha in every manner..so why not go to google or wikipedia and get lots and lots of information instead of getting two lines of result which is irrelevant and useless.it is only a waste of time to use WolframAlpha...lets hope google will come up with good search techniques as they have announced that they are going to add different search techniques, which will be very useful.

Google fails?

2009-05-16T03:50:00.000+06:00

One of the wrong results generated by Google,as u can see it is highlighted with a red rectangle in the above picture...the result should be 1 but it gives 0!!!(click on the image to enlarge it)

Dual screen

2009-05-16T00:39:00.000+06:00

i am going to tell you that how to setup dual screen on your laptop without installing any extra software.it is simple just follow these steps.
1.plug in your monitor with your laptop
2.right click on your desktop and click properties
3.from tabs above select settings.
4.you will see two monitor icons marked as 1 and 2.
5.now check the box "extend my windows desktop onto this monitor".
6.and you are done, you can change the resolutions of both the monitors according to your need.

its very helpful to use two monitors as u can browse internet or stuff on one,and can do work on the other,especially for coders as you can open visual studio on one monitor and can search internet on the other one...i hope it will help you...

Facebook virus

2009-05-15T20:31:00.000+06:00

As the number of users of facebook are growing day by day...in a recent article i was studying,it states that around 600,000 users join facebook every day,so facebook is becoming a target for all kinds of internet filth..i came across an article so i decided to share it with u guys,it may be a rumor but why to take risks :P....if any one of ur friend or anyone urges you to check out ponbon.im, 121.im or 151.im,then do not!!!!...because this virus will steal ur facebook account and will send a similar message to ur friends....

ASUS Eee Keyboard

2009-05-15T03:13:00.000+06:00

The dream of owning a keyboard embedded with a full-blown PC running XP on an Atom N270 processor and 5-inch, 800 x 480 pixel touchscreen display/trackpad is nearly upon us. A dream, quite honestly, nobody had prior to seeing the reveal of the 2-pound Eee Keyboard prototype at CES in January. Engadget Chinese has it on authority that this oddball all-in-one will ship in June with specs that should include a 32GB SSD, 802.11n, Bluetooth, HDMI-out, stereo speakers and mic as we saw during our hands-on with the Eee Keyboard back in March. With any luck, ASUS will also be embedding some form of ultra-wideband HDMI as promised in January alongside one of those UWB monitor prototypes they had on display at CeBIT. One thing's for sure: all will be revealed at Computex in Taipei in just a few weeks.
This keyboard will be launched by the end of june...but i cant see any use of this keyboard!!!

Dell launches "Della"

2009-05-15T02:41:00.000+06:00

Dell launched a website "Della" for attracting women..i think the PC sales has gone down very badly for Dell,as the world's second largest computer manufacturer is now making websites for women :)...wts next?"Dello" for guys?lol....i must suggest this to HP no.1 PC maker to follow the trend set by dell...and they can give names such as "Hewlett packardo" for women and "Hewlett packarda" for men :)...."Della" is a silly website with a silly idea,,they are presenting laptops as fashion statements...and sites "tech tip" includes that "seven unexpected ways a notebook can change ur life"....and this is not all..you can also search recipes....what a concept by Dell....gud luck Dell:)

Is Pakistan dignified?

2009-05-14T20:59:00.001+06:00

Is Pakistan a sovereign, dignified country?.It may be to a patriotic Pakistani but according to the present government(PPP) Pakistan is a poor,weak and the base of terrorists. present government has crossed all the limits and bounds and had sold dignity and sovereignity of the country.They are portraying Pakistan as a country which only relies on foreign aids and donations by other countries...recently the act by the government i.e president zardari (i should not use vulgar language here) by begging in front of the whole world had crossed all the limits and barriers and had portrayed Pakistan as a beggar country :( ..he said "we want the world to help us" this is a shameful act and humiliating for Pakistan...i dont know why this act is not criticised in the media or by intellectuals and so called leaders etc...but the fact is the people had also not done anything,,if people can come on streets for the independence of judiciary,why not for the dignity of Pakistan?...but the fact is we are not a nation,we r just a bunch of people living together we have our own concerns and interests,we only do what we think is good for our individual interests not for the whole nation ,why would we take strong actions against such kind of leaders or politicians or anyone who humiliates Pakistan and are working against the interests of this nation..? if they are humiliating Pakistan then we are also doing the same by not taking any notice and actions against it,or we are doing greater bad for Pakistan by not defending our great country...i dont think that Quaid e Azam has dreamed about this type of Pakistan....so think about it!!! i pray that Allah please show us all the right path and guide us all..ameen

Apple's upcoming iphone

2009-05-14T20:23:00.000+06:00

Apple's upcoming will likely have the following features,the shape and the screen dimension of iphone will be similar as 3G. These specs are not given by Apple or official, it is just a guess,lets see to what extent it is a correct guess.

32 GB of storage - A solid increase from the current max of 16 GB.
An upgraded 600 Mhz processor - More speed! The current iPhone 3G clocks out at 400 Mhz.
256 MB of RAM - The current iPhone has 128 MB of RAM. So far this is looking pretty good.
A 3.2 Megapixel camera with autofocus
A digital compass
An FM radio

EU will use brain scanning to catch terrorists

2009-05-14T20:11:00.000+06:00

i had been recently studying an article in which it is mentioned that EU(European Union) has been testing new ways to catch terrorist..it was a long list,but one important thing mentioned there was brain scanning...it will be developed via the Humabio (Human Monitoring and Authentication using Biodynamic Indicators and Behaviourial Analysis) , the scans would search for distinctive brain patterns as people pass through checks.According to them they would install these devices on key locations such as airports and borders,so that it can help in catching people who have forged documents.The time that the scan would take was not given...so my suggestion to all of u that dont think about bombs when u travel to EU countries :P

Daydreaming helps solve problems

2009-05-14T19:04:00.000+06:00

In a recent study conducted at the University of British Columbia, in western Canada, the scientists found out that "default network" inside human brain becomes more active during daydreaming.According to them when the brain wanders it is working even harder to solve problems...Scientists scanned brains of people by MRI(magnetic resonance imaging),and the scans showed that the "default network" deep inside the human brain becomes more active during day dreaming...so the scientists say that this would change the attitude towards day dreamers,and towards ourselves as we become harsh with ourselves when we catch that we are mind wandering...the scientists said that this is the first study to use MRI to study brain activities as uptill now self-reports were used that were not always reliable...

Google unveils new search features

2009-05-14T19:00:00.000+06:00

WASHINGTON: Google rolled out new Web search features on Tuesday and an update to its ‘Sky Map’ that can allow users of its mobile phones to figure out which constellations they are looking at in the night sky.

Google’s new ‘Search Options’ lets users ‘slice and dice’ search results, narrowing them down in time to results from the past 24 hours, the past week or the past year, for example.

‘Search Options’ also allows users to confine their search results to videos, product reviews and forum posts on a particular topic.

Search results can also be viewed on a timeline displaying their popularity over time.

'We want to help our users find more useful information, and do more useful things with it,' Marissa Mayer, a Google vice president said in a blog posting about the new features unveiled at Google's California headquarters.

She described ‘Search Options’ as ‘a collection of tools that let you slice and dice your results and generate different views to find what you need faster and easier.’ Google also previewed a new tool called ‘Google Squared’ which is to become available later this month.

‘Unlike a normal search engine, Google Squared doesn't find webpages about your topic — instead, it automatically fetches and organizes facts from across the Internet,’ Google said.

Google also showed off an update to ‘Sky Map,’ an application for the T-Mobile G1 phone which uses Google's Android software.

The application uses global positioning system and compass data and the date and time to figure out what celestial objects the device is facing at a given moment.

‘If it is pointed towards Venus, for example, users will see a labeled map of the sky with Venus and the objects surrounding it on their screens,’ Google said.

‘As users move their phones, the map displayed on the screen adjusts accordingly, enabling them to point their phones at the sky and discover what they are seeing (or could be seeing), wherever they may be.’

Chip rival AMD welcomes EU fine on Intel

2009-05-14T18:39:00.000+06:00

US computer chip-maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) on Wednesday welcomed the decision by EU antitrust regulators to fine rival Intel a record 1.06 billion euros (1.45 billion dollars).

‘Today’s ruling is an important step toward establishing a truly competitive market,’ AMD president and chief executive Dirk Meyer said in a statement.

‘AMD has consistently been a technology innovation leader and we are looking forward to the move from a world in which Intel ruled, to one which is ruled by customers.’ ‘After an exhaustive investigation, the EU came to one conclusion — Intel broke the law and consumers were hurt,’ added Tom McCoy, AMD's executive vice president for legal affairs.

‘With this ruling, the industry will benefit from an end to Intel’s monopoly-inflated pricing and European consumers will enjoy greater choice, value and innovation,’ McCoy said.

The US Chamber of Commerce meanwhile expressed concern that the EU move against Intel, which follows similar actions against US software giant Microsoft, was ‘part of a larger, troubling pattern.’ ‘Fines by the commission have escalated in size in recent years, raising serious concerns about due process and the method for determining these huge fines,’ said Myron Brilliant, senior vice president for international affairs.

‘Huge fines demand greater due process protections,’ he said. ‘The current EU guidelines for determining fine amounts are too vague.’ The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) said the ruling against Intel was ‘not a great surprise since it follows similar decisions by Japanese and Korean competition authorities in recent years.’

The CCIA added that the Intel decision in Europe ‘has many in Washington wondering whether US action may soon follow,’ especially after the Obama administration this week pledged to step up antitrust enforcement.

‘A convincing picture has emerged revealing that Intel's actions were unquestionably strategically premeditated to be anti-competitive and willfully illegal,’ said CCIA president Ed Black.

‘A vigorous US investigation focused on the evidence in the case leaves us believing Intel will have its day of reckoning in the US as well,’ he added.

The European Commission, Europe's top competition watchdog, accused Intel of using illegal loyalty rebates to squeeze rivals out of the market for computer processing units — the brains inside personal computers.

The Santa Clara, California-based company dominates the 22-billion-euro (30-billion-dollar) market for so-called x86 CPUs with a 70-percent share during the more than five years it was accused of breaking EU antitrust rules.

‘Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years,’ EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said. ‘Such a serious and sustained violation of the EU’s antitrust rules cannot be tolerated.’ The commission said that Intel had used wholly or partially hidden rebates to get PC makers such as Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC to buy all or almost all their CPU supply from Intel instead of AMD.
Intel rejected the charges and said it will appeal the EU ruling.

Pakistani high-school students build hovercraft

2009-05-12T14:03:00.001+06:00

ISLAMABAD: Mohammad Naeem Khan, Zaki Hussain and Mohammad Qasim, second-year students from Sir Syed Science College, Rawalpindi, have developed Pakistan’s first ever hovercraft.

The project was sponsored by Intel under its ‘Intel ISEF Awards,’ and led to the team designing a machine capable of lifting up to 350 kg.

The team told APP that they ‘feel pride to win laurels for our country and becoming forerunner in this field,’ and that they looked forward to the second phase of the competition, which would see them travel to the US to present their project at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).

The ISEF is a global science competition for students in grades 9-12, and this year will include 1,557 high school students from 51 countries presenting 1,241 projects. The finalists are chosen from the two top-ranked individual entries, and the highest ranked group project from 550 associated fairs around the world.

CNIC to be a multi-purpose smart card by year-end

2009-05-12T13:55:00.000+06:00

LAHORE: The computerised national identity card (CNIC) is being converted into a multi-purpose smart card by the end of this year.

The new card will also have details of national identity, driving licence, immigration and health information.

‘The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) is introducing the plan with a view to meeting the financial and social needs of Pakistanis. The multi-purpose card project is a flagship application of the authority designed to accelerate country’s entry into the information age,’ Nadra deputy chairman Tariq Malik told Dawn.

Mr Malik said: ‘The card will have an embedded chip or microprocessor that can perform a variety of functions. It will be used to pay for highway tolls, parking and public transportation and ATM transactions.’

With its digital signature feature, he said the card would enable its holder to secure e-commerce transactions. ‘It will be used as an e-purse for small purchases up to Rs10,000,’ he added.

He said Nadra had to face two major challenges when it embarked on this project. The first was technology and the other was changing the mindset of the people to accept the new card.

‘To address the technology challenge the authority evaluated leading technologies and chose the best one. The authority also benefited from the latest chip and biometric technology available with it to ensure the data on the card are accurate and secure,’ he said.

Mr Malik said now with a thumbprint image, photograph and surface information, Nadra could verify the cardholder’s identity with a card acceptance device (CAD).

‘This helps prevent forgery and misuse of cards,’ he added.

SimMan 3G Patient Simulator

2009-05-12T03:14:00.000+06:00

The SimMan 3G is a robot that can cry, bleed, convulse, go into cardiac arrest and do any number of other things that humans do when their bodies are malfunctioning. Also, it's super creepy looking.

This is one crazy robot. Here's just a partial list of features:

Quality CPR Feedback Laerdal's Q-CPR technology measures the quality of CPR providing real time feedback on compression rate, depth, release, and hands-off time as well as generating palpable pulses , blood pressure wave forms and ECG artefacts.
Convulsions
Degrees of seizures and convulsions can be created from minor effect through to a full convulsion through the Instructor Mode.

Bleeding and Wounds
Wound models can be connected to an internal blood reservoir which will bleed both from arterial and venous vessels. Connected to the simulator's physiological modeling, SimMan 3G will react appropriately according to treatment.

Wireless Monitor
Part of the complete wireless simulation solution, the wireless monitor enables you to observe the patient simulator's vital signs while moving around freely during training.

Secretions
The new eye secretions feature has multiple scenario applications such as responsive reactions to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear agents.

Drug & Event Recognition
The new and advanced Drug Recognition System allows students to administer drugs simultaneously. It registers the amount, speed and type of drug automatically and applies the appropriate physiological responses, saving the instructor time and improving the overall intelligent debrief.

Eye Signs
Include pupillary responses to light, blinks at slow, normal and fast rates, winks and open, partially open and closed reactions.

Vascular Access
In addition to the standard vascular access in the right arm, the new intraosseous access via the tibia and sternum allows for procedure accuracy

Chest Decompression & Chest Drain
Students can now perform a needle Thoracentesis and insert a chest drain bi-laterally.

It's not quite as good as practicing medicine on a hobo that you hunted and caught yourself, but I guess that's not always an option.

Microsoft keeps tabs in a crisis

2009-05-11T22:15:00.000+06:00

Microsoft has launched a trial product to connect users to the people and places they care about especially when crisis hits.

The company said the main inspiration for Vine came from Hurricane Katrina.

The product is designed to keep family and friends in touch when other communications fail or falter.

The Seattle Times has described this hyper local, personalised message and alert system as "Twitter + Facebook on steroids".

In a slick video, Microsoft demonstrates a number of ways the service could be used.

In one example, "Doug" is planning a trip to the mountains but a constant deluge of rain means schools in his local area are forced to close and the community is put on high alert.

Using Vine, Doug keeps in touch with friends and family and with what is going on locally to make sure everyone stays safe.

Another example includes "Dave" whose wife goes into early labour and uses Vine to make sure the neighbours keep an eye on his house, take the dog out for a walk and cancel baseball practice.

Microsoft said the aim is to keep people connected. Brier Dudley of the Seattle Times said the critical audience are those involved in emergencies.

"Microsoft's main emphasis now is providing Vine to emergency management officials, who are intrigued by a new tool that could be used to broadcast and receive information during a disaster or other major event."

"Superhero software"

Vine works by downloading a "dashboard" application using Windows Live ID. Users say where they live or where they are at any given moment and information from 20,000 local and national news sources links to that location.

Information is also provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.

Users can also view and post alerts in a variety of forms from quick messages to longer reports.

"Microsoft Vine aims to create an inclusive network so that ultimately anyone can participate, though a social networking application such as Twitter or Facebook or using e-mail, any computer connected to the internet, or a mobile phone, kitchen phone or special needs device," said the software giant.

Initial reaction to the service, which has been described as "societal networking" has been positive.

CNET's Caroline McCarthy has dubbed it "superhero software".

But she said "all joking aside, the web's biggest players are gunning for a way to appropriately harness social media for emergency preparedness.

"Google's non profit Google.org arm has launched a project called Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disaster (inSTEDD) with similar goals, and Google has invested $5 million in it."

The service is currently in beta which means Microsoft is looking for people to sign up to try it out and give feedback.

The company, which is testing Vine initially in Seattle, is hoping to recruit 10,000 people to put it through its paces.

US bombing a sovereign country: US lawmaker

2009-05-09T21:16:00.000+06:00

‘We are bombing a sovereign country. Where do we get the authority to do that? Did the Pakistani government give us written permission? Did the Congress give us written permission to expand the war and start bombing in Pakistan?’

WASHINGTON: The House Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Congress heard an unusual speech from a Republican lawmaker who described US drone attacks as the bombing of a sovereign country and questioned America’s right to do so.

US special envoy Richard Holbrooke disagreed with this description of America’s military operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan and reminded Congressman Ronald Ernest Paul that US troops were there because people living in that region had invaded their homeland on Sept. 11, 2001.

But the explanation came only after Rep. Paul had completed his speech, urging policy makers in Washington to review the US foreign policies which were causing worldwide resentments against the United States.

‘Why do we as a Congress and as a people and as our representatives within the executive branch just so casually and carelessly expand the war and say, ‘Well, today we have to do this; we’ll worry about tomorrow.’

Mr Paul is an American physician and Republican Congressman from Texas, who gained widespread attention during his unsuccessful bid for the 2008 Republican Party presidential nomination. During the campaign he attracted an enthusiastic following which made use of the Internet and social networking to establish a grassroots campaign despite lack of traditional organization or media attention.

Rep. Paul wasted little time in formalities when the committee’s chairman, Congressman Howard Berman, invited him to speak.

After thanking the chairman and welcoming Ambassador Holbrooke, the lawmaker went straight to the question that seemed to be bothering him.

‘The main concern I have is I was hoping to see maybe a change in our foreign policy from the last administration, but, of course, we see just more of the same — more nation-building, more policing of the world, more involvement,’ he said.

‘And it just seems like we never learn from our past mistakes. We don’t learn from what kind of trouble the Soviets got into, and yet we continue to do the same thing.’

Referring to Mr Holbrooke’s earlier statement before the committee, Rep. Paul reminded him that he too had set ‘a grandiose goal.’

‘We want to work for a vibrant, modern democracy. Wow, what a dream. But think of how we’re doing this. I mean, we label everybody that opposes what we’re doing, we call them Taliban,’ he said.

While the US fought this war, ‘all of a sudden … many, many thousands of Pashtuns that are right smack in the middle, getting killed by our bombs, and then we wonder why they object to our policies over there.’

The bombing of this area, Mr Paul said, made him believe that the US was there for the long haul. ‘It’s going to cost a lot of money and it’s going to cost a lot of lives.’

The US lawmaker said that if the members of Congress had ever realized what Iraq would end up costing America in the number of deaths, in the number of dollars, ‘now trillion dollars,’ they would have been a little more hesitant to approve it.

‘They admit that now – ‘Well, maybe we shouldn’t have.’ But who knows what this is going to end up costing in terms of lives?’ he asked, reminding other lawmakers that the odds of the US policy for Afghanistan and Pakistan working were very slim. ‘This is what my great concern is,’ he added.

Congressman Paul then explained Pakistan’s recent history to other lawmakers, recalling that in 1999 the country had an elected prime minister who was toppled by the military. ‘And (Gen.) Musharraf comes in and we support him.’

Mr Paul then accused the US administration of trying to engineer yet another change in Pakistan, a charge Mr Holbrooke vehemently denied.

‘So now it’s said that we have relationships with Sharif, which everybody knows exactly what that means. It means that we’re involved in their elections. That’s the way that we’ve done it for so many years,’ said the congressman.

‘But, you know, the Pakistani papers report it as ‘US taps Sharif to be the next Pakistani prime minister.’ Now, whether or not we literally can do that — I think we can have a lot of influence — that’s what they believe in.’

He then asked: ‘How do you win the hearts and minds of these people if we’re seen as invaders and occupiers? And here we are, just doing nothing more than expanding our role in Pakistan and in Afghanistan. I don’t see any end to it.’

Addressing Mr Holbrooke, the US lawmaker said he had several specific concerns about the current situation in Pakistan.

‘It has to do with Pashtuns that have been killed by our bombs. What about our national debt? We have $1.8 trillion debt facing us.’

He said that while the administration was currently seeking $3.5 billion to support its efforts in Pakistan, ‘it will turn out to be tens of billions of dollars after this.

‘So I’d like to know where you stand on this, the innocent killing of Pashtuns. Are they all Taliban, or are there some innocent people being killed?’

As Congressman Paul finished, a Pakistani in the audience commented: ‘This American lawmaker has defended Pakistan more eloquently than our ambassador ever has.’

Obviously displeased with the questions the congressman raised, Ambassador Holbrooke said he did not say exactly what Mr Paul imputed to him, but he had thought a long time about the issues raise.

‘And you mentioned Iraq. Afghanistan-Pakistan is not Iraq. The reason we are in this area, notwithstanding its immense difficulties, is because the people in this area attacked our country on September 11th, 2001, and have stated flatly they intend to do it again.’

The militants, he said, not only killed Americans on 9/11 but also killed hundreds of Pakistanis and Afghans and committed gross human rights violations.

‘And therefore, it is not Iraq and it’s not Vietnam, despite the fact that many people say it is. It’s about defending our country,’ he said,

Ambassador Holbrooke said he agreed with the lawmaker that the fight against the extremists was not easy and it was not cheap either.

‘And having seen wars on three continents, having been shot at for my country, I sure don’t feel comfortable in a situation where you ask brave young American men and women to risk their lives and sometimes pay the ultimate sacrifice,’ the ambassador said.

‘However, the president of the United States reviewed everything in regard to this and came to the conclusion … that our goal has to be to defeat al Qaeda. We cannot let them take over an even larger terrain, move into other parts of the world, and then plan what they’re planning,’ he concluded.

2009-05-09T16:06:00.000+06:00

A hard drive sold on the online auctioning website eBay reportedly contains highly sensitive details of a US missile air defense system.

The UK state telecommunications operator, BT, had discovered the information on one of the hard drives purchased by its Security Research Centre, The Daily Mail reported on Thursday.

The drive reportedly contained the test launch procedures for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, known as THAAD.

The ground to air missile defense system, which uses a hit-to-kill approach to shoot down short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, was last tested in March.

The US-made THAAD and the advanced Aegis combat system are scheduled to be deployed in Israel for Tel Aviv's largest military exercise in history.

Israel has announced that it is set to mobilize its army to hold the large scale exercise on June 2.

The hard disk, which came from an unspecified location, also contained security policies, blueprints and employee data from Lockheed Martin -- the company responsible for THAAD.

A spokesman for the company told the daily that "Lockheed Martin is not aware of any compromise of data related to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence program."

"Until Lockheed Martin can evaluate the hard drive in question, it is not possible to comment further on its potential contents or source," he added.

THAAD intercepts ballistic missiles in the high stratosphere but has the capability to intercept targets both in and coming from the outer reaches of space.

The United Arab Emirates, which accounts for the largest weapons purchases in the Middle East, has decided to spend a reported $7 billion on the American missile defense system.

The reported information leak comes at a time when Tel Aviv has been heading steadily toward a confrontation with Tehran over its nuclear activities, citing fears that a "nuclear Iran" is the prime existential threat to its security.

Earlier in March, hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the alarm and spoke of a major military conflict in the upcoming months.

A new way to find data online?

2009-05-08T23:18:00.000+06:00

There’s been lots of buzz in the tech community about a site called Wolfram|Alpha, which is set to launch in about a week — likely on May 18, according to a spokesman.

On first glance, Wolfram|Alpha looks like a search engine: it has a box where you type in a question or query terms. That’s about where the similarities end, though, because, unlike Google or Ask, Wolfram|Alpha is kind of like an enormous calculator. It takes your question and crunches out an entirely new answer, even if the answer isn’t something that’s been posted on the Web before.

Confused? You’re not alone. An example should help.

Say you’re an investor and you want to see how two companies are faring against each other on the market. You could type in “IBM versus Apple” and Wolfram|Alpha will generate graphs and tables to compare the stocks over time. It also give you the Web-based sources used to generate the data, so you know where the numbers are coming from.

The site also solves equations and shows the steps it took to do so, which will be of interest to high school students and math majors. Not into number crunching? If you live near the coast, you could type in “tides in ____” and find charts of tidal and lunar information. You could also graph that against other cities, which would be cool if you’re a surfer.

The site is also interesting for academic queries. Type in “Internet users in Africa” and you’ll get the total number of Web users there — 51 million — as well as lists of the number of users by country plus graphs of this information. If you’re in the fisheries business, or if you’re an environmentalist, you could type in “fish produced in Italy versus France” to get an idea of how that sector is faring. The answer includes specifics, like how much of the fish crop was farmed versus what was captured. Such data could be used to argue policy points or to debate whether or not certain industries are sustainable.

Sound magical? Many people seem to think so. CNET and the New York Times have informative posts about the site and what it means for the way we generate and digest information in the Internet age.

But it’s worth noting that all of the above searches were pulled out as examples in a press video released by the site’s founder, Stephen Wolfram, who also was the creator of Mathematica. CNN obtained a test version of the site before its official release, and other searches that seem like they would work often didn’t when I tried them.

I recently wrote a story about people who travel to dangerous parts of the world, so I searched for “countries with highest crime rates” and got no answer from the site. I tried a few variations and nothing seemed to work. “Country homicide rates” provided me to a link for the definition of a homicide, but that was about it.

CNET, a CNN partner site, experienced similar troubles when it tested Wolfram|Alpha. In a video, CNET says about two-thirds of its test searches didn’t turn up useful information.

A writer for Harvardbusiness.org says Google is easier to use and Wikipedia is more powerful in the sense that it allows users to improve upon the site:

Think of Google as the Sears Roebuck of search — there are many “specialty” stores yet to be launched to meet different tastes and needs. But I don’t think that Wolfram Alpha will be as widely used as Google is because it does not tap into a well-distributed, universal meme or structure as Google did; nor has the brilliant scientist figured out the architecture of participation — an easy to understand method for anyone with the desire and skill to help make Wolfram Alpha a better tool and knowledge base. If I want to help build Wolfram Alpha, I don’t know how to begin; I do with Wikipedia.

In a recent blog post, Google also says it has added a public-data search function.

Still, it sounds like people are mostly excited about Wolfram|Alpha — in part because the project’s aim is just so lofty. In a press-release video, Wolfram says the site aims to “compute whatever can be computed about the world.”

Muslim Demographics

2009-05-08T19:52:00.000+06:00

Urban Concept vehicles

2009-05-08T02:26:00.001+06:00

This sleek 150-kilogramme ‘urban concept’ vehicle has been desgined and built by students of the GIKI.

Pakistan is hardly known for its engineering expertise or environmentally friendly policies. But students from two leading universities are trying to change that perception. Four Pakistani student teams have taken up the challenge of building eco-friendly cars as part of a competition featuring 196 other teams from across the world. They are tasked with building ‘urban concept’ vehicles, which are designed for everyday use by consumers, and ‘prototypes’ – unique, experimental vehicles that may seem impractical today, but might inform the design of cars in the future.

Two teams from the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Science and Technology (GIKI) and two teams from the Pakistan Navy College of Engineering (NUST) are headed to Germany on May 7 to participate in the Shell Eco-Marathon. The competition will reward the vehicle that goes the farthest distance using the least amount of fuel.

‘This is the first time that teams from Pakistan will be participating in the event,’ says Khurram Aziz, a third-year GIKI student. His team has designed a sleek 150-kilogramme ‘urban concept’ vehicle capable of clocking 80 kilometres per litre. ‘It took us around five and a half months to build our single-seater car, which is equipped with a 70cc engine,’ he says proudly.

Another GIKI vehicle, which will be competing in the prototype class of cars, gives 500 kilometres per litre mileage without a load and 350 kilometres with a driver. ‘Apart from the futuristic look,’ says Hammad, another GIKI student, ‘special care has been taken in the aerodynamics and car safety section.’

While the GIKI vehicles are rather sleek in appearance, the entries from NUST look awkward. A vehicle designed by student Ali Khan’s team resembles an egg shell on wheels. But Khan shows off the vehicle’s aluminum chassis and fiber glass body, which he insists make for a reliable automobile. ‘There are even air ducts installed to keep the driver cool in hot weather,’ boasts the 21-year-old. Satisfied with the vehicle’s functionality, Khan admits that his team did not have ample time to work on aesthetics – they completed and executed the design in just four weeks.

The young teams from Pakistan will not have an easy time competing with the best in the world. The record for a combustion engine entry was set by a French team in 2004 – the vehicle travelled 3,410 kilometres on just one litre of fuel. None of the Pakistani students’ vehicles even approach that mileage.

But GIKI’s Hammad, is not easily discouraged. ‘Our purpose is not to break the record, but to show the world that we too in Pakistan can make something brilliant. Even if we don’t win this time, we will get a chance to learn from other foreign teams. This way, we can improve our design and compete better in the next races.’

NTFS or FAT?

2009-05-07T23:02:00.001+06:00

To NTFS or not to NTFS—that is the question. But unlike the deeper questions of life, this one isn't really all that hard to answer. For most users running Windows XP, NTFS is the obvious choice. It's more powerful and offers security advantages not found in the other file systems. But let's go over the differences among the files systems so we're all clear about the choice. There are essentially three different file systems available in Windows XP: FAT16, short for File Allocation Table, FAT32, and NTFS, short for NT File System.

FAT16
The FAT16 file system was introduced way back with MS–DOS in 1981, and it's showing its age. It was designed originally to handle files on a floppy drive, and has had minor modifications over the years so it can handle hard disks, and even file names longer than the original limitation of 8.3 characters, but it's still the lowest common denominator. The biggest advantage of FAT16 is that it is compatible across a wide variety of operating systems, including Windows 95/98/Me, OS/2, Linux, and some versions of UNIX. The biggest problem of FAT16 is that it has a fixed maximum number of clusters per partition, so as hard disks get bigger and bigger, the size of each cluster has to get larger. In a 2–GB partition, each cluster is 32 kilobytes, meaning that even the smallest file on the partition will take up 32 KB of space. FAT16 also doesn't support compression, encryption, or advanced security using access control lists.

FAT32
The FAT32 file system, originally introduced in Windows 95 Service Pack 2, is really just an extension of the original FAT16 file system that provides for a much larger number of clusters per partition. As such, it greatly improves the overall disk utilization when compared to a FAT16 file system. However, FAT32 shares all of the other limitations of FAT16, and adds an important additional limitation—many operating systems that can recognize FAT16 will not work with FAT32—most notably Windows NT, but also Linux and UNIX as well. Now this isn't a problem if you're running FAT32 on a Windows XP computer and sharing your drive out to other computers on your network—they don't need to know (and generally don't really care) what your underlying file system is.

The Advantages of NTFS
The NTFS file system, introduced with first version of Windows NT, is a completely different file system from FAT. It provides for greatly increased security, file–by–file compression, quotas, and even encryption. It is the default file system for new installations of Windows XP, and if you're doing an upgrade from a previous version of Windows, you'll be asked if you want to convert your existing file systems to NTFS. Don't worry. If you've already upgraded to Windows XP and didn't do the conversion then, it's not a problem. You can convert FAT16 or FAT32 volumes to NTFS at any point. Just remember that you can't easily go back to FAT or FAT32 (without reformatting the drive or partition), not that I think you'll want to.

The NTFS file system is generally not compatible with other operating systems installed on the same computer, nor is it available when you've booted a computer from a floppy disk. For this reason, many system administrators, myself included, used to recommend that users format at least a small partition at the beginning of their main hard disk as FAT. This partition provided a place to store emergency recovery tools or special drivers needed for reinstallation, and was a mechanism for digging yourself out of the hole you'd just dug into. But with the enhanced recovery abilities built into Windows XP (more on that in a future column), I don't think it's necessary or desirable to create that initial FAT partition.

When to Use FAT or FAT32
If you're running more than one operating system on a single computer (see Dual booting in Guides), you will definitely need to format some of your volumes as FAT. Any programs or data that need to be accessed by more than one operating system on that computer should be stored on a FAT16 or possibly FAT32 volume. But keep in mind that you have no security for data on a FAT16 or FAT32 volume—any one with access to the computer can read, change, or even delete any file that is stored on a FAT16 or FAT32 partition. In many cases, this is even possible over a network. So do not store sensitive files on drives or partitions formatted with FAT file systems.

mughal rocketry

2009-05-07T18:55:00.001+06:00

Pakistan may face exceptional climate change

2009-05-07T17:28:00.001+06:00

KARACHI: A UK-based climate change expert has said that there will be an exceptional change in the temperatures in Pakistan as a whole in the coming years, but that the province of Sindh will be less affected as compared to the other parts of the country.

Speaking to senior officials and heads of various departments of the City District Government Karachi on the second day of a training workshop on climate change, environmentalist Matthew Savage added that the temperature increase in Pakistan as a whole would be higher than the expected global average increase. Climate change projections up to the year 2080 were discussed at the workshop.

The projected temperature increase in the north is somewhat higher than in the south of Pakistan, Mr Savage said, adding that the projected temperature increase in winter is more than that in summer.

Discussing the impact of climate change in the future, the scientist said that there were chances of decline in irrigated wheat yield in the semi-arid areas of Pakistan in the range of nine to 30 per cent for a temperature increase of one degree centigrade to four degrees centigrade.

About 80 per cent of the nation’s food and fibre needs are met by irrigated agriculture, with the canal irrigation network mainly dependent on glaciers of the Hindu Kush and Himalayas, which are believed to be receding. He said that climate change is expected to result in changes in land and water resources that will subsequently affect agriculture productivity.

Speaking about the monsoon season, Mr Savage said that climate change could influence monsoon dynamics and cause summer precipitation levels to drop, as well delays in the start of the monsoon season. There may also be longer breaks between rainy periods, he said.

According to him, Karachi may however face the threat of rising sea levels by the year 2100, and therefore better monitoring and data collection is required to calibrate models correctly. More saline-tolerant species of mangroves should be planted, and there should be a strict control on the removal of mangrove trees. Further, there needs to be community involvement, as well as a topographical survey of coastal and mangrove areas, he said.

He regretted that climate change research was ‘essentially neglected’ in Pakistan until recently.

The local administration is the first line of response to climate change and as such they should acquaint themselves with the changes of climate and should know more about the impact of drought, water shortages, wild fires, flooding, rising sea levels and infrastructure disruption, he asserted.

The visiting expert also shared his views on the issue of adaptation and responses, and called for promoting and facilitating new development and infrastructure that was located, designed and constructed for the climate it will experience over its design life.

During the session on Monday, the environmentalist stated that deforestation, along with a substantial increase in the number of motor vehicles and industrial zones, had contributed significantly to the rapid changes in the global climate.

With the melting of huge glaciers, the sea surface is expected to rise by two metres, which would result in the sinking of many islands and a further increase in the populations of many already overburdened cities, he said.

While updating the EDOs and senior officers of the CDGK, Mr Savage had remarked that human beings around the world should bring about changes in their behavior, as climate change was a problem faced not by a single country, but by the entire world, and it could only be dealt with by coordinated efforts.
We should also use natural resources with great care, so that the next generation should not suffer from their scarcity, he added.

Hinting about the availability of funds for undertaking research and development of mitigation mechanisms, the British expert said that Pakistan had never asked for assistance in this sector, while other developing countries had been getting help from the world community. Pakistan should also get this assistance from the developed world, he suggested.

The two-day workshop was held on the directives of City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal with the collaboration of the British Deputy High Commission in Karachi to update the government EDOs and senior officers on global climate changes and its effects on coastal cities.

chelsea v barca

2009-05-07T16:27:00.000+06:00

chelsea should have got two penalties.chelsea played really well and deserved a win but they get robbed.thats not fair !

World gets to put Windows 7 software to the test

2009-05-07T16:04:00.001+06:00

San Francisco - A nearly-final version of Windows 7 made its world debut on Tuesday, giving people a chance to tell Microsoft what they love or hate about the new-generation operating system.

Microsoft is making a Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) available as the global software giant puts finishing touches on an operating system that it hopes will escape criticism heaped on its predecessor Vista.

‘It appears that they are on target,’ said analyst Michael Cherry of private firm Directions on Microsoft, which specializes in tracking the US software giant.

‘I think we need to be cautious though. Windows 7 is still in development.

While Microsoft is certainly moving on to the next logical milestone, this is still a test version of the operating system.’ People are invited to download the software from Microsoft's official website and install it on computers in a public test of the operating system's capabilities.

‘You put it on your PC, and then do what you'd normally do,’ Microsoft said in a message on the download page.

‘Your PC will automatically and anonymously send our engineers the information they need to verify the fixes and changes they made based on the Windows 7 Beta tests.’ Microsoft's website gives Windows 7 installation instructions and tells visitors that the RC ‘expires’ on June 1, 2010. The RC will begin warning users in March of next year by shutting down their machines every two hours.

‘Based on feedback we've received from beta testers and early adopters, we think Windows 7 is on track to be the most well-planned, highest quality Windows release ever,’ Microsoft said Tuesday.

‘The Release Candidate of Windows 7 reflects extensive beta tester feedback, and is ready for IT professionals and tech enthusiasts to evaluate.’ Copies of the RC were made available to developers last week and early reviews have praised the operating system for its stability and for avoiding problems that marred Vista's image.

Complaints about Vista included that it was not compatible with some software designed for the previous-generation Windows XP operating system and that it was too much for notebooks or older computers to handle.

‘Windows 7 is everything that Vista should have been,’ said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.
‘It's less annoying and it's a fraction of the size. The only thing working against them is the economy; people without money aren't going to buy no matter how good the product.’ Enthusiastic early reviews of Windows 7 are stoking speculation that Microsoft will release a final version of the new operating system in time for the year-end holiday shopping season.

‘It makes sense that Microsoft should have it pre-Christmas,’ Cherry said of Windows 7.
‘I think you need to keep in mind that if something comes up in testing they are going to take the delay and get it right. Microsoft doesn't need a problem on their hands.’ - AFP

Old Japanese maps on Google Earth unveil secrets

2009-05-07T15:59:00.000+06:00

TOKYO: When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan to its online collection last year, the search giant didn’t expect a backlash. The finely detailed woodblock prints have been around for centuries, they were already posted on another Web site, and a historical map of Tokyo put up in 2006 hadn’t caused any problems.

But Google failed to judge how its offering would be received, as it has often done in Japan. The company is now facing inquiries from the Justice Ministry and angry accusations of prejudice because its maps detailed the locations of former low-caste communities.

The maps date back to the country’s feudal era, when shoguns ruled and a strict caste system was in place. At the bottom of the hierarchy were a class called the ‘burakumin,’ ethnically identical to other Japanese but forced to live in isolation because they did jobs associated with death, such as working with leather, butchering animals and digging graves.

Castes have long since been abolished, and the old buraku villages have largely faded away or been swallowed by Japan’s sprawling metropolises. Today, rights groups say the descendants of burakumin make up about 3 million of the country's 127 million people.

But they still face prejudice, based almost entirely on where they live or their ancestors lived. Moving is little help, because employers or parents of potential spouses can hire agencies to check for buraku ancestry through Japan's elaborate family records, which can span back over a hundred years.

An employee at a large, well-known Japanese company, who works in personnel and has direct knowledge of its hiring practices, said the company actively screens out burakumin job seekers.

‘If we suspect that an applicant is a burakumin, we always do a background check to find out,’ she said. She agreed to discuss the practice only on condition that neither she nor her company be identified.

Lists of ‘dirty’ addresses circulate on Internet bulletin boards. Some surveys have shown that such neighborhoods have lower property values than surrounding areas, and residents have been the target of racial taunts and graffiti. But the modern locations of the old villages are largely unknown to the general public, and many burakumin prefer it that way.

Google Earth’s maps pinpointed several such areas. One village in Tokyo was clearly labeled ‘eta,’ a now strongly derogatory word for burakumin that literally means ‘filthy mass.’ A single click showed the streets and buildings that are currently in the same area.

Google posted the maps as one of many ‘layers’ available via its mapping software, each of which can be easily matched up with modern satellite imagery.

The company provided no explanation or historical context, as is common practice in Japan. Its basic stance is that its actions are acceptable because they are legal, one that has angered burakumin leaders.

‘If there is an incident because of these maps, and Google is just going to say ‘it’s not our fault’ or ‘it’s down to the user,’ then we have no choice but to conclude that Google’s system itself is a form of prejudice,’ said Toru Matsuoka, a member of Japan's upper house of parliament.

Asked about its stance on the issue, Google responded with a formal statement that ‘we deeply care about human rights and have no intention to violate them.’
Google spokesman Yoshito Funabashi points out that the company doesn't own the maps in question, it simply provides them to users. Critics argue they come packaged in its software, and the distinction is not immediately clear.

Printing such maps is legal in Japan. But it is an area where publishers and museums tread carefully, as the burakumin leadership is highly organized and has offices throughout the country. Public showings or publications are nearly always accompanied by a historical explanation, a step Google failed to take.
Matsuoka, whose Osaka office borders one of the areas shown, also serves as secretary general of the Buraku Liberation League, Japan's largest such group. After discovering the maps last month, he raised the issue to Justice Minister Eisuke Mori at a public legal affairs meeting on March 17.

Two weeks later, after the public comments and at least one reporter contacted Google, the old Japanese maps were suddenly changed, wiped clean of any references to the buraku villages. There was no note made of the changes, and they were seen by some as an attempt to quietly dodge the issue.

‘This is like saying those people didn’t exist. There are people for whom this is their hometown, who are still living there now,’ said Takashi Uchino from the Buraku Liberation League headquarters in Tokyo.

The Justice Ministry is now ‘gathering information’ on the matter, but has yet to reach any kind of conclusion, according to ministry official Hideyuki Yamaguchi.