Tuesday, February 28, 2006
google maps at night, sailor's delight?
A Georgia Tech PhD student has a site that displays the earth at night. He has used night-time satellite imagery from NASA and uses Google Maps to manage the maps. It looks really beautiful. Check it out here
Guess which is the darkest continent? :)
This image shows Pakistan and India, the bright lights at the bottom left are Karachi, and there are lights again all the way along the GT road that snakes through the country up-to Peshawar in the North, the other bright spot on the right appears to be Bombay
"The underlying 128 megapixel night imagery from NASA uses a map projection different from Google Maps'. The two are aligned near the NYC-Madrid-Tokyo axis only"
The creator of the site has a very good blog, too, check it out here
Guess which is the darkest continent? :)
This image shows Pakistan and India, the bright lights at the bottom left are Karachi, and there are lights again all the way along the GT road that snakes through the country up-to Peshawar in the North, the other bright spot on the right appears to be Bombay
"The underlying 128 megapixel night imagery from NASA uses a map projection different from Google Maps'. The two are aligned near the NYC-Madrid-Tokyo axis only"
The creator of the site has a very good blog, too, check it out here
Thursday, February 23, 2006
ben kingsley comes to pk
Ben Kinglsey, the British actor was in Pakistan recently to make a documentary about the catastrophics Oct 8, 2005 quake that killed over 80K people in the northern regions. The newspapers and the media were luke-warm about his visit, considering the madness that breaks out whenever Lara Croft comes over in person as a UN goodwill ambassador. 
Jolie was here in May '05 on her second trip to the country and the PM decided to ask her for a stroll in the meticulous PM house lawns - the PM house, mind you, like the President House, is more of a palace. That time she was there to raise awareness about the tens of thousands Afghan refugess languishing in camps in northern Pakistan. I wonder what she thought of the country and its rulers when she saw the poverty among refugess and ordinary people and was then faced with ostentatious chandeliers, bullet-proof Mercs and ready-to-fly choppers
The next time she was here with beau Brad Pitt in Nov 2005 and this time all hell broke loose. Ministers, beaurocrats and all their minions were salivating at the thought of being in the company of the actress - an op-ed in a national newspaper described the full horror of the visit
patenting code
We thought we had dinosaurs here in Pakistan in tech-related organizations, the US Patent Office seems to have its fair share of goons who approved each and everthing that came their way
Someone let Adobe patent tabbed browing, I guess I will have to pay a royalty everytime i click Ctrl-T in my Firefox
Seems like the patent granting officer was really high on dope/acid/sugar&coffee when he gave the A-OK for this gem:
#6055910: Toy gas fired missile and launcher assembly - "A toy gas-fired missile and launcher assembly whose missile is composed of a soft head and a tail extending therefrom formed by a piston.....To operate the assembly, the operator places the inlet tube with its valve open adjacent his anal region from which a colonic gas is discharged" - link
More crazy patented ideas here
Someone let Adobe patent tabbed browing, I guess I will have to pay a royalty everytime i click Ctrl-T in my Firefox
Seems like the patent granting officer was really high on dope/acid/sugar&coffee when he gave the A-OK for this gem:
#6055910: Toy gas fired missile and launcher assembly - "A toy gas-fired missile and launcher assembly whose missile is composed of a soft head and a tail extending therefrom formed by a piston.....To operate the assembly, the operator places the inlet tube with its valve open adjacent his anal region from which a colonic gas is discharged" - link
More crazy patented ideas here
Civic vs GTTi
[Update: the video was made by Bilal, brother of fellow blogger Usman Ilyas, on Constitution Avenue, Islamabad]
This video has been doing the rounds here in PK - it shows a Charade GTTi overtaking a Honda Civic Vti (sorry for the bad quality; Bilal, next time take a better camera)
Honda Civic is a fashionable car wanted by almost everyone who can (and cannot) afford it here in Pakistan - many hours are spent everyday by enthusiasts (who have nothing better to do) debating how a Toyota Corolla in city XYZ overtook a Civic Vti in a race
Daihatsu Charade GTTi is an older model of the hatchback that has a super-charged engine and was a very desirable car by late-teens everywhere about a decade ago
This video has been doing the rounds here in PK - it shows a Charade GTTi overtaking a Honda Civic Vti (sorry for the bad quality; Bilal, next time take a better camera)
Honda Civic is a fashionable car wanted by almost everyone who can (and cannot) afford it here in Pakistan - many hours are spent everyday by enthusiasts (who have nothing better to do) debating how a Toyota Corolla in city XYZ overtook a Civic Vti in a race
Daihatsu Charade GTTi is an older model of the hatchback that has a super-charged engine and was a very desirable car by late-teens everywhere about a decade ago
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
old internet
Waybackmachine lets you "browse through 55 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago"
Click the image to see the page
(12/02/98)
The images load very slowly, so be prepared for it...
Click the image to see the page
(12/02/98)
The images load very slowly, so be prepared for it...
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Thursday, February 16, 2006
isloo/pindi in high-res
Google Earth now has high-resolution satellite imagery of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan in addition to Karachi too
See if you can identify the following places (hover over the image to see it's name):
See if you can identify the following places (hover over the image to see it's name):
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
destructive hackers
This is a chat transcript that shows why it's no good to try and "hack" systems without an inkling of how PC's work...
link
I remember how girls (usually) used to come online on our IRC channel at giki and ask dumb questions like "I have problem with my computer, please help fix me" or something and the response would consist of carefully spelled out steps with an instruction to click Alt-F4 in the middle...
link
I remember how girls (usually) used to come online on our IRC channel at giki and ask dumb questions like "I have problem with my computer, please help fix me" or something and the response would consist of carefully spelled out steps with an instruction to click Alt-F4 in the middle...
Friday, February 10, 2006
caricature blasphemy
In addition to the peaceful protests, physical attacks on the Danish and other European embassies & economic boycotts, cyber-attacks have also been launched at many European websites, specially those with the .dk domainZone-H, a security firm, lists the details of the 1000+ attacks here
One of the most prolific hackers around is the Pakistani group called GForce Pakistan. They were featured on the BBC and were also interviewed by an Indian security website. I am not sure if GForce Pakistan was involved in any of the attacks, they are mostly attributed to script-kiddies
uncyclopedia
I don't know how I could have missed something as cool and funny as this wiki site - it is a humorous version of the very famous wikipedia and has been running since Jan 2005
The wikipedia article on the site can be seen here
All the articles are monitored by the admins to ensure they follow the rules to good humor: "In essence, written humor is not "Whack-a-mole;" it is more like Tetris."
Browsing it is a *must* for everyone - it features everything from the satirical to the absurd. Some gems I came across in the 5 minutes I browsed:
9/11 (video game) - (9/11 runs as a hacker noobs chat session)
[9/11 Chat session]
*Flirty18 has joined the game*
Flirty18: asl? me: 18/f/Kabul
fundaMENTALIST: OMG WTF J00 HAV DESECRATED THE HOLY SERVER!!1!1
fundaMENTALIST: J00 MUST PAY FOR YR SIN!`~~!!
*Flirty18 has left the game (kicked: INFIDEL!11!!)*
fundaMENTALIST: pak, u need to Nforce rulz on ur svr
tuPAK: um yah sure right after i patch #Kashmir
fundaMENTALIST: ur svr is full of infidels. u need 2 drop da bomb.
fundaMENTALIST: if u dont i will
tuPAK: how bout u dont. haev this insted
*tuPAK has given GUNS to fundaMENTALIST!*
*tuPAK has given CASH to fundaMENTALIST!*
[9/11 Chat session]
Pakistan:
img © uncyclopedia
“What muslim leader Jinnah made to the Indian subcontinent is somewhat the same as hindu leader Jawaharlal Nehru made to Lord Mountbattens marriage ”~ Oscar Wilde on Pakistan
"The national motto of Pakistan is Allah o mamnunam ki ham bharati nahin hai~, which means, Thank God , we are at least not Indians!"
Metal Gear's Solid Snake:
"I'm going to f** bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f** kill Solid Snake." ~ Steve Ballmer on Solid Snake
"Solid Snake is a crazy dude who has saved the world, like, a bunch of times."
Ducks:
"A Duck is a mythical creature." "Now the word ‘Duck’ is actually an acronym. It stands for Dynamic Uber Commando Koala. Why? Because inside every D.U.C.K is a Dynamic Uber Commando Koala bent on donut domination. They will enslave your donuts and take over the Galaxy."
The Great Pirate-Ninja conflict:
img © uncyclopedia
"It is a proven fact that pirates and ninjas are polar opposites, thusly there is a theory that neither could get along very well with the other. This theory is proven by the fact that there is a war going on, as of this very second waged between both of these great forces." "image: A brave cameraman takes a moment to film some ninjas running over to kill some pirates."
The wikipedia article on the site can be seen here
All the articles are monitored by the admins to ensure they follow the rules to good humor: "In essence, written humor is not "Whack-a-mole;" it is more like Tetris."
Browsing it is a *must* for everyone - it features everything from the satirical to the absurd. Some gems I came across in the 5 minutes I browsed:
9/11 (video game) - (9/11 runs as a hacker noobs chat session)
[9/11 Chat session]
*Flirty18 has joined the game*
Flirty18: asl? me: 18/f/Kabul
fundaMENTALIST: OMG WTF J00 HAV DESECRATED THE HOLY SERVER!!1!1
fundaMENTALIST: J00 MUST PAY FOR YR SIN!`~~!!
*Flirty18 has left the game (kicked: INFIDEL!11!!)*
fundaMENTALIST: pak, u need to Nforce rulz on ur svr
tuPAK: um yah sure right after i patch #Kashmir
fundaMENTALIST: ur svr is full of infidels. u need 2 drop da bomb.
fundaMENTALIST: if u dont i will
tuPAK: how bout u dont. haev this insted
*tuPAK has given GUNS to fundaMENTALIST!*
*tuPAK has given CASH to fundaMENTALIST!*
[9/11 Chat session]
Pakistan:
img © uncyclopedia
“What muslim leader Jinnah made to the Indian subcontinent is somewhat the same as hindu leader Jawaharlal Nehru made to Lord Mountbattens marriage ”~ Oscar Wilde on Pakistan"The national motto of Pakistan is Allah o mamnunam ki ham bharati nahin hai~, which means, Thank God , we are at least not Indians!"
Metal Gear's Solid Snake:
"I'm going to f** bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f** kill Solid Snake." ~ Steve Ballmer on Solid Snake
"Solid Snake is a crazy dude who has saved the world, like, a bunch of times."
Ducks:
"A Duck is a mythical creature." "Now the word ‘Duck’ is actually an acronym. It stands for Dynamic Uber Commando Koala. Why? Because inside every D.U.C.K is a Dynamic Uber Commando Koala bent on donut domination. They will enslave your donuts and take over the Galaxy."
The Great Pirate-Ninja conflict:
img © uncyclopedia
"It is a proven fact that pirates and ninjas are polar opposites, thusly there is a theory that neither could get along very well with the other. This theory is proven by the fact that there is a war going on, as of this very second waged between both of these great forces." "image: A brave cameraman takes a moment to film some ninjas running over to kill some pirates."
Thursday, February 09, 2006
john carmack on mobile games
John Carmack is the head of id software, the people who created Wolf3D, Quake, Doom and of course Commander Keen
I was very happy to find out he writes a blog, but it turns out he has only 2 entries... well, so much for the good news
His writings about mobile gaming is very interesting - keep in mind he is the guy who almost single-handidly invented 3D gaming and the market for high-end graphics cards
Click the picture to see a photostream of Carmack's team preparing an attempt at the Ansari X Prize, which was a competition to see which private venture first made it into space (his team could not finish their spaceship in time)
vista launch date guess contest
MS is hosting a contest to guess the launch date of the new Vista OS
One of the few countries that the contest is open to is Pakistan - even the US/Canada do not show up there, I wonder why is that...
" * 1st Prize: Be live at the Vista launch event in the USA: a full package with entry, flight, and 3 nights in a 4-star hotel.
* 2nd–4th. Prize: New XBOX 360
* 5th–10th Prize: XBOX Core System
All legal residents of Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, UK who are 18 years of age or older will have the chance to win."
One of the few countries that the contest is open to is Pakistan - even the US/Canada do not show up there, I wonder why is that...
" * 1st Prize: Be live at the Vista launch event in the USA: a full package with entry, flight, and 3 nights in a 4-star hotel.
* 2nd–4th. Prize: New XBOX 360
* 5th–10th Prize: XBOX Core System
All legal residents of Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, UK who are 18 years of age or older will have the chance to win."
best smallwares
This site is pretty popular - it keeps coming up on del.icio.us and stumbleupon - it lists some very useful small & free softwares - marktaw's smallware
Some of the best include Analyzer, the packet sniffer, it helped me write a program for downloading my fave daily comix off the web, folder size view in explorer (this is something so simple, why did'nt MS think of this?) and waste, a p2p client written by Justin Frankel, the guy who wrote winamp - the last one is the best for p2p file sharing, only if you can get into a network (u need an invite), I have lost access to mine unfortunately so it is'nt much use for me - if anyone reading this has access to a network, please do let me know
Some of the best include Analyzer, the packet sniffer, it helped me write a program for downloading my fave daily comix off the web, folder size view in explorer (this is something so simple, why did'nt MS think of this?) and waste, a p2p client written by Justin Frankel, the guy who wrote winamp - the last one is the best for p2p file sharing, only if you can get into a network (u need an invite), I have lost access to mine unfortunately so it is'nt much use for me - if anyone reading this has access to a network, please do let me know
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
a take on blogging
be careful since there is some strong language here but it's too funny to pass up - link
all the satire here is pretty humorous but the take on blogging takes the cake...
all the satire here is pretty humorous but the take on blogging takes the cake...
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
al-jazeera in english
Coming "late spring" is Al-Jazeera International, an English language channel of the famous Arabic news channel
It's already sending ripples through the so-called mainstream media, which is largely corporate and special-interest owned/influenced and provides a very one sided view of world happenings with a few off-the-script interviews and comments thrown in just to show they have a "balanced" approach towards news
Our cable service provider does not show the channel, saying it has been "instructed" by higher authorities - I wonder if the scene is the same elsewhere in the country
The channel is based in Kuaula Lumpur, Malaysia and has signed up a star cast of news commentators including the veteran Jewish, American anchor David Marash, Josh Rushing, a former US Marine who conducted journalist briefings at CENTCOM HQ in Qatar during the attack on Iraq, David Frost (the "Breakfast with " guy) and Veronica Pedrosa & Riz Khan from CNN. The channel is headed by a 33-year veteran of British journalism, David Foster
An interesting news item about the new channel can be read here
It's already sending ripples through the so-called mainstream media, which is largely corporate and special-interest owned/influenced and provides a very one sided view of world happenings with a few off-the-script interviews and comments thrown in just to show they have a "balanced" approach towards news
Our cable service provider does not show the channel, saying it has been "instructed" by higher authorities - I wonder if the scene is the same elsewhere in the country
The channel is based in Kuaula Lumpur, Malaysia and has signed up a star cast of news commentators including the veteran Jewish, American anchor David Marash, Josh Rushing, a former US Marine who conducted journalist briefings at CENTCOM HQ in Qatar during the attack on Iraq, David Frost (the "Breakfast with " guy) and Veronica Pedrosa & Riz Khan from CNN. The channel is headed by a 33-year veteran of British journalism, David Foster
An interesting news item about the new channel can be read here
fon
FON is a Spanish company that recently received $20M investment from VC's, Google and Skype
"FON is a global community of people who share WiFi connections. We call these people "Foneros", as a tribute to our heritage as a Spanish company. In order to become a Fonero, you go to FON, to download software that you install in your router, you place your antenna by a window and you share bandwidth with other Foneros from anywhere in the world. You can also buy the FON Ready router from our web site, plug and play. FON creates a free WiFi roaming environment for those who contribute WiFi signals, namely those who have already signed up with a local ISP and downloaded our software into their WiFi routers.
The success of FON, like the success of all online communities -- such as eBay, Skype, ICQ, IM -- depends on many people joining.
FON was launched just 90 days ago and we already have over 3,000 registered Foneros." - link
What got me interested was their idea of this working in developing countries like Pakistan
"While in Europe, Japan and United States FON´s motto is share broadband at home have broadband everywhere in Argentina for example our motto will be, team up with your neighbors to share bandwidth...through wifi. In order for broadband to have a similar impact on people´s budget the sharing will have to be on an approximate 10:1 ratio. Initially ISPs may be against our model but we will probably prevail when they see that we will work with them, deploy our model in low income neighborhoods and the result will be that more connections are sold." - link
I wonder if it is really feasable in a place like PK, where broadband is prohibitively expensive, costing Rs 1K per month (about US $15) for a 256KBPS (allegedly) connection with a 1GB/month limit - broadband licenses are only handed out to a select few, there is no level playing field - Spider Magazine has debated this issue many times
"FON is a global community of people who share WiFi connections. We call these people "Foneros", as a tribute to our heritage as a Spanish company. In order to become a Fonero, you go to FON, to download software that you install in your router, you place your antenna by a window and you share bandwidth with other Foneros from anywhere in the world. You can also buy the FON Ready router from our web site, plug and play. FON creates a free WiFi roaming environment for those who contribute WiFi signals, namely those who have already signed up with a local ISP and downloaded our software into their WiFi routers.
The success of FON, like the success of all online communities -- such as eBay, Skype, ICQ, IM -- depends on many people joining.
FON was launched just 90 days ago and we already have over 3,000 registered Foneros." - link
What got me interested was their idea of this working in developing countries like Pakistan
"While in Europe, Japan and United States FON´s motto is share broadband at home have broadband everywhere in Argentina for example our motto will be, team up with your neighbors to share bandwidth...through wifi. In order for broadband to have a similar impact on people´s budget the sharing will have to be on an approximate 10:1 ratio. Initially ISPs may be against our model but we will probably prevail when they see that we will work with them, deploy our model in low income neighborhoods and the result will be that more connections are sold." - link
I wonder if it is really feasable in a place like PK, where broadband is prohibitively expensive, costing Rs 1K per month (about US $15) for a 256KBPS (allegedly) connection with a 1GB/month limit - broadband licenses are only handed out to a select few, there is no level playing field - Spider Magazine has debated this issue many times
Thursday, February 02, 2006
sania mirza is a hot indian tennis sensation who has most men drooling both sides of the border due to her short skirts and good looks and some religious men on the Indian side issuing fatwas (religious edicts) blasting her for her casual display of flesh
During the on-going Pakistan-India cricket series, Pakistani fans decided to show their appreciation of Sania
This reminds me of a quote that was going around at the height of Pakistan-India tensions over Kashmir in the 90's: "Madhuri de do, Kashmir le lo" (Give Madhuri and take Kashmir). Madhuri Dixit was India's top movie star for over a decade during those times
During the on-going Pakistan-India cricket series, Pakistani fans decided to show their appreciation of Sania
This reminds me of a quote that was going around at the height of Pakistan-India tensions over Kashmir in the 90's: "Madhuri de do, Kashmir le lo" (Give Madhuri and take Kashmir). Madhuri Dixit was India's top movie star for over a decade during those times
ascii matrix scene
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