This was captured during the Pakistan-India Cricket Series 2004. Zaheer Khan is an Indian bowler
Thursday, January 26, 2006
luv in india
Posting this due to popular demand
This was captured during the Pakistan-India Cricket Series 2004. Zaheer Khan is an Indian bowler
This was captured during the Pakistan-India Cricket Series 2004. Zaheer Khan is an Indian bowler
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
b&w to color
Found this really cool app, recolored - it let's you take black & white photos and change them to color with a small amount of input - you specify which gray areas should take which color and it handles it all, including highlights and specular spotsIt is available for download here
The series of the pics on the main page are pretty straightforward. I managed to "colorize" a Marilyn Monroe pic, it turned OK, not too bad - I guess you need a fair amount of practice and some knowledge of photograph colors will be of help
Unfortunately, the intermediary picture which generated the colored one was lost, much as I hate to post incomplete works - Murphy was definitely around today...
Some tips, keep this in mind while working, also do look at this very useful tutorial
a. thickness of the stroke does not matter
b. start with marking out main areas, like clothes and background
c. follow up by fixing areas where color bleeds in
d. test out color dropper, pen, eraser & color replacer, all 4 tools - to change hue, dbl-click color swatch
Another attempt, notice the color bleed around the knees, this can be fixed by putting the correct color stroke where the bleed occured
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
hyperscore
I have been playing around with HyperScore for a few days, spending a few minutes each time, trying to make sense out of it
The application is driven out of a PhD project of an MIT Media Lab student. It's purpose is to help kids (and musically ignorant adults) to create music in an intuitive manner. Download it here
It lets you create MIDI files which can be emailed to mobile devices (in the US) for a small fee - you cannot make an MP3 out of it, that might be available in the paid version - however, if you are using WinXP, there is hack to do it - I wrote about it in a previous post
Hyperscore lets a user write music by painting squiggly (or straight) lines to denote music thingies like motifs & harmony - while painting in the Melody window tool (see the tut for details), you can select a variety of instruments from drums to flute to electric guitar
It's pretty confusing if, like me, you don't know a motif from a score - but this tutorial helps you make sense of it
The Hyperscore forums www.h-lounge.com lists users' tones - it also has a web-based player so you can sample the sounds without downloading the composition files
The application is driven out of a PhD project of an MIT Media Lab student. It's purpose is to help kids (and musically ignorant adults) to create music in an intuitive manner. Download it here
It lets you create MIDI files which can be emailed to mobile devices (in the US) for a small fee - you cannot make an MP3 out of it, that might be available in the paid version - however, if you are using WinXP, there is hack to do it - I wrote about it in a previous post
Hyperscore lets a user write music by painting squiggly (or straight) lines to denote music thingies like motifs & harmony - while painting in the Melody window tool (see the tut for details), you can select a variety of instruments from drums to flute to electric guitar
It's pretty confusing if, like me, you don't know a motif from a score - but this tutorial helps you make sense of it
The Hyperscore forums www.h-lounge.com lists users' tones - it also has a web-based player so you can sample the sounds without downloading the composition files
indian blogger in lahore
An Indian blogger managed to do what I could not, living in Pakistan - photographing Lahore - he visited the historic city as part of a TV news team and wrote about meeting the drum beating dervishes and cringing at the sight of stripped chickens
It's funny at times - if you are Lahore fan or just someone who would like to know how an Indian sees Pakistan, do read it... the article and pics on Cooco's cafe are particularly nice
Every Thursday afternoon, qawwali singers from around Pakistan gather at the shrine of Data Ganj Bakhsh Hajveri to perform. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan has performed here, and it is said to be quite an experience...... The dynamics within each group were fascinating: if one guy had energy and fire in his singing, another had a soothing voice – they would harmonise, play off each other, and move into impassioned choruses.
It's a wonder that the men in Pakistan are so big and the autos[rickshaws] are so small," remarked my friend and colleague Dileep Premachandran as we walked the streets of Lahore.
The roads are conducive to this speed. Everywhere in Lahore we have seen wide, smooth roads -- with no garbage anywhere to be seen, unless we are in a self-deprecatory mood. Last night, when we got in, we were stunned by the lights of Lahore
Friday, January 20, 2006
quotes about programming langs
- There are only two kinds of programming languages: those people always bitch about and those nobody uses. (Bjarne Stroustrup)
- It should be noted that no ethically-trained software engineer would ever consent to write a DestroyBaghdad procedure. Basic professional ethics would instead require him to write a DestroyCity procedure, to which Baghdad could be given as a parameter. (Nathaniel S Borenstein)
- [The BLINK tag in HTML] was a joke, okay? If we thought it would actually be used, we wouldn't have written it! (Mark Andreessen)
- First learn computer science and all the theory. Next develop a programming style. Then forget all that and just hack. (George Carrette)
- If buffer overflows are ever controlled, it won't be due to mere crashes, but due to their making systems vulnerable to hackers. Software crashes due to mere incompetence apparently don't raise any eyebrows, because no one wants to fault the incompetent programmer and his incompetent boss. (Henry Baker)
- Classes struggle, some classes triumph, others are eliminated. (Mao Zedong)
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
professor walter lewin demos physics 101
[Update: Pakistan's HEC is now mirroring MIT OCW here]
If you have ever wondered if the period of a pendulum is independent of the mass hanging from it, see this video available on Physics MIT's OCW page
See the last 5 minutes of the Lecture 11 video as professor walter lewin demonstrates a basic principle of physics
If you have ever wondered if the period of a pendulum is independent of the mass hanging from it, see this video available on Physics MIT's OCW page
See the last 5 minutes of the Lecture 11 video as professor walter lewin demonstrates a basic principle of physics
christmas lights
This is amazing....
Carson Williams, 40, spent nearly two months hooking up 25,000 lights, programing them to flash to Christmas music. Hundreds of cars drove by his house north of Cincinnati. The music was broadcast through a low FM transmitter, so that passers-by could pick it up on their car radios and the music wouldn't be played through the neighborhood.
Now the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens is courting Williams to set up a Christmas display later this year.
"We have a long history of bringing in new entertainment. His would rank right up there as one of the best shows," zoo spokesman Chad Yelton said.
link to news
Carson Williams, 40, spent nearly two months hooking up 25,000 lights, programing them to flash to Christmas music. Hundreds of cars drove by his house north of Cincinnati. The music was broadcast through a low FM transmitter, so that passers-by could pick it up on their car radios and the music wouldn't be played through the neighborhood.
Now the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens is courting Williams to set up a Christmas display later this year.
"We have a long history of bringing in new entertainment. His would rank right up there as one of the best shows," zoo spokesman Chad Yelton said.
link to news
time for some satire
please note that both these websites have some off-color humor, do not go there if don't like such humor
the onion and satirewire are two of the best satire sites on the net - the latter is disontinued though and only the archives of the former are funny anymore now though but I found a couple of "news" too funny to pass up
ESPN Courts Female Viewers With World's Emotionally Strongest Man Competition
"The hour-long weekly show, which will run opposite ABC's Monday Night Football, features an international cast of powerfully caring, emotionally resilient, deeply sensitive men pushing themselves and each other...."
"Other strong overall performances were turned in by Martin "There, There" Richards, a graphic designer who remembered to make his wife's beloved tapioca pudding on the anniversary—not of their marriage—but of their first date; Garth "The Embrace" Josephsen, who maintained some form of reassuring but undemanding physical contact with his fiancée for nine consecutive hours...."
(ow, ow, ow, even reading this stuff makes my head and stomach hurt)
TORMENTED BY NEW U.N. CLASSMATES, SWITZERLAND ALREADY WANTS TO GO HOME
("The Swiss voted Sunday to join the United Nations, moving their country warily but decisively closer to the international community after centuries of neutrality and independence." — L.A. Times, March 4, 2002)
"According to U.N. school nurse Martha Kelly, the Swiss ambassador to the U.N. has visited her office no less than three times in the past 24 hours, twice complaining of a stomach ache, and once sporting a pair of black eyes."
"This isn't a community of nations, it's a zoo," said the Swiss ambassador after a voting bloc of central African nations ran his boxer shorts up a flagpole
"I was talking with Kamalesh Sharma, (India's ambassador to the U.N.), whom I had met on the train," Nordstrom wrote, "when (Chinese Ambassador) Wang comes swaggering up and sneers, 'Hey Switzerland, you're getting off to a bad start, making friends with losers. Maybe I should teach you a lesson.'"
"According to witnesses, moments later Nordmann was punched in the left eye by the Pakistani ambassador, who was upset that the Swiss was talking to an Indian. Nordmann then reportedly asked the Indian ambassador to punch him in the other eye, so as not to appear to be playing favorites."
For some more gems, see the archives of the onion & satirewire
p.s. Snakistan sounds suspiciously like another country I am familiar with....
the onion and satirewire are two of the best satire sites on the net - the latter is disontinued though and only the archives of the former are funny anymore now though but I found a couple of "news" too funny to pass up
ESPN Courts Female Viewers With World's Emotionally Strongest Man Competition
"The hour-long weekly show, which will run opposite ABC's Monday Night Football, features an international cast of powerfully caring, emotionally resilient, deeply sensitive men pushing themselves and each other...."
"Other strong overall performances were turned in by Martin "There, There" Richards, a graphic designer who remembered to make his wife's beloved tapioca pudding on the anniversary—not of their marriage—but of their first date; Garth "The Embrace" Josephsen, who maintained some form of reassuring but undemanding physical contact with his fiancée for nine consecutive hours...."(ow, ow, ow, even reading this stuff makes my head and stomach hurt)
TORMENTED BY NEW U.N. CLASSMATES, SWITZERLAND ALREADY WANTS TO GO HOME
("The Swiss voted Sunday to join the United Nations, moving their country warily but decisively closer to the international community after centuries of neutrality and independence." — L.A. Times, March 4, 2002)
"According to U.N. school nurse Martha Kelly, the Swiss ambassador to the U.N. has visited her office no less than three times in the past 24 hours, twice complaining of a stomach ache, and once sporting a pair of black eyes."
"This isn't a community of nations, it's a zoo," said the Swiss ambassador after a voting bloc of central African nations ran his boxer shorts up a flagpole"I was talking with Kamalesh Sharma, (India's ambassador to the U.N.), whom I had met on the train," Nordstrom wrote, "when (Chinese Ambassador) Wang comes swaggering up and sneers, 'Hey Switzerland, you're getting off to a bad start, making friends with losers. Maybe I should teach you a lesson.'"
"According to witnesses, moments later Nordmann was punched in the left eye by the Pakistani ambassador, who was upset that the Swiss was talking to an Indian. Nordmann then reportedly asked the Indian ambassador to punch him in the other eye, so as not to appear to be playing favorites."
For some more gems, see the archives of the onion & satirewire
p.s. Snakistan sounds suspiciously like another country I am familiar with....
Monday, January 16, 2006
how to fold a t-shirt in 2 seconds (almost)
I was looking for this video for sometime now - it has to be seen to be believed...
RNGs detect major events
Now this is something totally weird - a Random Number Generator system that detects and sometimes even predicts major cataclysmic events happening around the world. And this is no paranormal mumbo-jumbo experiment conducted by a questionable psychic society.
From wikipedia: Global Consciousness is the idea that there is a collective consciousness in which all individual consciousness participates in, in some ways comparable with an electromagnetic field. There are many hypotheses as to how the field might operate. A project in Princeton University called Global Consciousness Project is created to study it. It was started in 1998 by Roger D. Nelson.
There is a hypothesis that the global consciousness has been getting stronger for the last decade because of communications networks which create more coherence between individual minds around the globe. (about the dot, if you cannot see it properly, you need firefox)
"The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) studies anomalies arising in human/machine interactions" - much of the stuff here belongs to the exciting :) field of stats so I really cannot make sense of much of it but it's conclusions are pretty exciting nevertheless...
The department was created by a Robert G. Jahn, who, in 1979, was Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University.
Their most significant project is the Global Consciousness Project where they have been collecting data from a global network of random event generators since August, 1998. The RNG's are located all over the world from NJ, USA to India to Fiji. "The network has grown to about 65 host sites around the world running custom software that reads the output of physical random number generators and records a 200-bit trial sum once every second, continuously over months and years. The data are transmitted over the internet to a server in Princeton, NJ, USA, where they are archived for later analysis."
The data is collected and graphs are created from the random numbers collected from RNG's around the world - but just before the graph is created, a prediction is made on the shape of the graph - in case of a catastrophe that has affected hundreds of thousands of people physically (earthquake or flood) or mentally (reading in the newspaper or watching on TV), a noticeable spike is seen in the results - the probability of these spikes occuring otherwise is very little, < 0.1% - the people running the show here insist that this shows that the Random Number Generators (RNG) are somehow affected by the consciousness of the people of the world and hence, show a departure from the norm.
Some points in time where a major spike was noticed are listed here (notice the last column, "Z-score statistic for the analysis, and its associated probability" alongwith a description including 9/11, Pak-India cricket series 2004 and the Pakistan eartquake in Oct 2005
See this for a near real-time display of the graph
How this happens and what are the implications, no one is sure of it - this is just too wierd and maybe intangible a science to make any use of it... atleast for now...
From wikipedia: Global Consciousness is the idea that there is a collective consciousness in which all individual consciousness participates in, in some ways comparable with an electromagnetic field. There are many hypotheses as to how the field might operate. A project in Princeton University called Global Consciousness Project is created to study it. It was started in 1998 by Roger D. Nelson.
There is a hypothesis that the global consciousness has been getting stronger for the last decade because of communications networks which create more coherence between individual minds around the globe. (about the dot, if you cannot see it properly, you need firefox)
"The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) studies anomalies arising in human/machine interactions" - much of the stuff here belongs to the exciting :) field of stats so I really cannot make sense of much of it but it's conclusions are pretty exciting nevertheless...
The department was created by a Robert G. Jahn, who, in 1979, was Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University.
Their most significant project is the Global Consciousness Project where they have been collecting data from a global network of random event generators since August, 1998. The RNG's are located all over the world from NJ, USA to India to Fiji. "The network has grown to about 65 host sites around the world running custom software that reads the output of physical random number generators and records a 200-bit trial sum once every second, continuously over months and years. The data are transmitted over the internet to a server in Princeton, NJ, USA, where they are archived for later analysis."
The data is collected and graphs are created from the random numbers collected from RNG's around the world - but just before the graph is created, a prediction is made on the shape of the graph - in case of a catastrophe that has affected hundreds of thousands of people physically (earthquake or flood) or mentally (reading in the newspaper or watching on TV), a noticeable spike is seen in the results - the probability of these spikes occuring otherwise is very little, < 0.1% - the people running the show here insist that this shows that the Random Number Generators (RNG) are somehow affected by the consciousness of the people of the world and hence, show a departure from the norm.
Some points in time where a major spike was noticed are listed here (notice the last column, "Z-score statistic for the analysis, and its associated probability" alongwith a description including 9/11, Pak-India cricket series 2004 and the Pakistan eartquake in Oct 2005
See this for a near real-time display of the graph
How this happens and what are the implications, no one is sure of it - this is just too wierd and maybe intangible a science to make any use of it... atleast for now...
Friday, January 13, 2006
firefox screws up & live mk4
Upgraded to Firefox 1.5 (from 1.0.7) and it started actign up, refusing to show embedded Flash movies - after a lot of searching (and many reinstallations/reboots), found the source of the problem, the Adblock extension - in order to make it work, disable tools->adblock->preferences->adblock options->obj-tabs
More details here
One of the first videos I saw after fixing firefox is this hilarious MK spoof
More details here
One of the first videos I saw after fixing firefox is this hilarious MK spoof
my google video
I uploaded a video to ggl video
It's a 14 minute basic video teaching a beginner in Alias Maya to build a glass tumbler using NURBS and the software's default renderer - I will update this post when the film is online - I encoded it using WMEnc which is probably the easiest way to make a tutorial movie but google asks for MPEG2+MP3 - it may take longer to verify...
(had some problems with capturin video, see this for help if you want to capture screenshots of your video)
It's a 14 minute basic video teaching a beginner in Alias Maya to build a glass tumbler using NURBS and the software's default renderer - I will update this post when the film is online - I encoded it using WMEnc which is probably the easiest way to make a tutorial movie but google asks for MPEG2+MP3 - it may take longer to verify...
(had some problems with capturin video, see this for help if you want to capture screenshots of your video)
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
downloading google videos
found a way to download google videos - thanks to an alumnus of mine
1. select a google video from - http://video.google.com
2. from the menu, select view->source and find /googleplayer.swf?videoUrl= and copy text between videoUrl=" and ">
3. Save this text on your machine with the extension .html (e.g. paste in notepad and save file as "converter.html" - with the quotes)
5. Add .flv to the end of filename and play it using flvplayer
1. select a google video from - http://video.google.com
2. from the menu, select view->source and find /googleplayer.swf?videoUrl= and copy text between videoUrl=" and ">
3. Save this text on your machine with the extension .html (e.g. paste in notepad and save file as "converter.html" - with the quotes)
- <html><input type="input" size="70" id="converter" title="convert"><input type="button" size="70" id="btn" title="convert" onclick="func()"><script language="javascript">function func(){converter.value=unescape(converter.value)}</script></html>
5. Add .flv to the end of filename and play it using flvplayer
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
i am on tokyo time
im back from my holidays... spent some time in lahore and the rest at home in 'Pindi, with a really bad case of flu...
the following comic reminds me of myself, very much :)
© c&h
the following comic reminds me of myself, very much :)
© c&h
Friday, December 16, 2005
holidays...
to all the millions of my readers :), i am on vacation till the new year... for the first time since i started work
hopefully i'll be back with some great pictures of the great city of lahore.... cheers!!
meanwhile, check out these fantabulous pix by the guy at ddoi - if only peter jackson had him for art director - LOTR would have looked half-decent....
hopefully i'll be back with some great pictures of the great city of lahore.... cheers!!
meanwhile, check out these fantabulous pix by the guy at ddoi - if only peter jackson had him for art director - LOTR would have looked half-decent....
Friday, December 09, 2005
linus the creator
Linus almost sounds like Calvin when he makes a snowman but in the end, he shows he really is Linus...
Calvin is very active in the winters - this site is a testament to his creativity - read and enjoy
For those unaware of it, Calvin and Hobbes were two real life people from the 16th and 17th centuries whose philosophy about life is mirorred in the characters by their creator Bill Waterson
Wikipedia links to John Calvin, Thomas Hobbes and Calvin & Hobbes, the comic strip
Calvin is very active in the winters - this site is a testament to his creativity - read and enjoy
For those unaware of it, Calvin and Hobbes were two real life people from the 16th and 17th centuries whose philosophy about life is mirorred in the characters by their creator Bill Waterson
Wikipedia links to John Calvin, Thomas Hobbes and Calvin & Hobbes, the comic strip
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
new hotmail
hotmail, following the footsteps of gmail are using ajax to run their service
I received an email telling me that being a "VIP" hotmail member, I am invited to use their service - dunno what made me a VIP - maybe they are aware that we have many status-conscious people in Pakistan - yes, I am in Pakistan, only I set my location to USA to try one of those tricks for increasing mailbox storage
The service is nice and slick with an outlook like interface drag/drop for moving messages to folders and right-click context menus
In a clear "inspiration" from gmail, they have added auto-complete in the mailto address bar, their news about this feature is well worth a read:
"Start typing a name and—pow!—up pops a list of possible recipients from your contact list. Click on the one you want and you're done."
It's the "pow!" that converted me.... (sarcasm)
I received an email telling me that being a "VIP" hotmail member, I am invited to use their service - dunno what made me a VIP - maybe they are aware that we have many status-conscious people in Pakistan - yes, I am in Pakistan, only I set my location to USA to try one of those tricks for increasing mailbox storage
The service is nice and slick with an outlook like interface drag/drop for moving messages to folders and right-click context menus
In a clear "inspiration" from gmail, they have added auto-complete in the mailto address bar, their news about this feature is well worth a read:
"Start typing a name and—pow!—up pops a list of possible recipients from your contact list. Click on the one you want and you're done."
It's the "pow!" that converted me.... (sarcasm)
Monday, December 05, 2005
tv shows from too long ago
I remember very vaguely a few TV shows from the early 80's when I was in pre-school
Back in those days, there was only one channel, PTV, which showed (as far I remember) just one English TV show per week - since there was (and still is) a strict censorship policy in place, the shows hacked in places to make them kid-friendly
I was reminiscing with friends about them and was amazed to find they remembered almost all of them
If you grew up in Pakistan in the 80's, you might remember them too, being primary TV viewing for kids, in addition to Nazia, Zoheb songs
These are listed in the order I remember them being played on PTV, I am sorry I cannot find better links to the shows
1. Chips
2. The Man from Atlantis
3. Tales of the Golden Monkey
4. Voyagers
5. The Powers of Matthew Star
6. The Fall Guy
7. Airwolf
8. Knight Rider
Back in those days, there was only one channel, PTV, which showed (as far I remember) just one English TV show per week - since there was (and still is) a strict censorship policy in place, the shows hacked in places to make them kid-friendly
I was reminiscing with friends about them and was amazed to find they remembered almost all of them
If you grew up in Pakistan in the 80's, you might remember them too, being primary TV viewing for kids, in addition to Nazia, Zoheb songs
These are listed in the order I remember them being played on PTV, I am sorry I cannot find better links to the shows
1. Chips
2. The Man from Atlantis
3. Tales of the Golden Monkey
4. Voyagers
5. The Powers of Matthew Star
6. The Fall Guy
7. Airwolf
8. Knight Rider
follow-up on the mess-up
[Update:
. Bob responds to the controversy
. USAID's page about education reforms in PK
. Congressional Research Service Report (CSR) on education reforms in PK]
My last post was about a poem that is now part of the 11th Year curriculum for Pakistani students - the first letter of each verse of the poem reads the name of the US President
After a ruckus was raised in the Pakistani newspapers, the Education Ministry has announced that it will withdraw the poem from the textbook from next year - of course, no heads will roll, "it was an honest mistake", "our intentions were clean" - these are the words we will hear - a simple google search for one verse of the poem would have clarified the source - but who uses computers in the Ministry? They are certainly nothing more than decoration pieces for them
Of course, the real reason is that the poem must have had the stamp of approval of the Education Ministry and now lowly book editor would dare to raise his voice, even if he could
For those unaware of this, the US government is funnelling in money to "help improve" Pakistani education currculum - the Pakistani government (and all its predecessors) being more loyal than the king, fall head over heels to appease the Americans whenever they can and hence this poem
I imagine it went something like this in the funding agency's office:
Some guy in USAID: Dude, let's play a trick on these Pakis and send them this poem - bet you 10 bucks they will publish it without reading it
Another guy in USAID: Bet you 20 bucks they will publish it even after they read it
It must be said that USAID is doing a lot for education in the country - even the MBA programs in our top business schools are fully funded (tuition & living expenses) - see the info on financial aid at LUMS
I emailed the gentleman who wrote the poem, probably in 2003 - he was kind enough to write back in a very positive way - I really appreciate him for doing this - the response is produced below:
Dear Sami,
If I'm correct in assuming that your blog is Sami's Place, I must say
it's a very nice blog. You keep it updated much better than I do mine.
I do respect your feelings in the "Shameful" post. I don't recall
authorizing the reprint in the Pakistani educational textbook. To be
fair, I sometimes e-mail permission for limited copying without paying
too much attention to details, so I'm not sure.
While I still admire GWB, I have learned since I wrote "The Leader"
that he certainly has some shortcomings in the leadership role. The
vertical spelling of the president's name is, of course, intentional.
Even at the time I published it, along with the questions on the
worksheet, there were included these notes to the teacher in the
answer keys:
The Leader
Best answered in discussion format:
1. Student should refer to text when putting a characteristic in his own
words.
2.Answers may vary.
3. There is a clue in addition to inference: The name is spelled out
down the left column. Respect any opinion if student backs it with a
reason or reasons.
4. Answers may vary.
In other words, no brainwashing intended!
Thanks for writing and good luck with your blog.
Bob (RHL)
Please note the the author does not hide the fact that the name of George W Bush is hidden in the poem (link)
. Bob responds to the controversy
. USAID's page about education reforms in PK
. Congressional Research Service Report (CSR) on education reforms in PK]
My last post was about a poem that is now part of the 11th Year curriculum for Pakistani students - the first letter of each verse of the poem reads the name of the US President
After a ruckus was raised in the Pakistani newspapers, the Education Ministry has announced that it will withdraw the poem from the textbook from next year - of course, no heads will roll, "it was an honest mistake", "our intentions were clean" - these are the words we will hear - a simple google search for one verse of the poem would have clarified the source - but who uses computers in the Ministry? They are certainly nothing more than decoration pieces for them
Of course, the real reason is that the poem must have had the stamp of approval of the Education Ministry and now lowly book editor would dare to raise his voice, even if he could
For those unaware of this, the US government is funnelling in money to "help improve" Pakistani education currculum - the Pakistani government (and all its predecessors) being more loyal than the king, fall head over heels to appease the Americans whenever they can and hence this poem
I imagine it went something like this in the funding agency's office:
Some guy in USAID: Dude, let's play a trick on these Pakis and send them this poem - bet you 10 bucks they will publish it without reading it
Another guy in USAID: Bet you 20 bucks they will publish it even after they read it
It must be said that USAID is doing a lot for education in the country - even the MBA programs in our top business schools are fully funded (tuition & living expenses) - see the info on financial aid at LUMS
I emailed the gentleman who wrote the poem, probably in 2003 - he was kind enough to write back in a very positive way - I really appreciate him for doing this - the response is produced below:
Dear Sami,
If I'm correct in assuming that your blog is Sami's Place, I must say
it's a very nice blog. You keep it updated much better than I do mine.
I do respect your feelings in the "Shameful" post. I don't recall
authorizing the reprint in the Pakistani educational textbook. To be
fair, I sometimes e-mail permission for limited copying without paying
too much attention to details, so I'm not sure.
While I still admire GWB, I have learned since I wrote "The Leader"
that he certainly has some shortcomings in the leadership role. The
vertical spelling of the president's name is, of course, intentional.
Even at the time I published it, along with the questions on the
worksheet, there were included these notes to the teacher in the
answer keys:
The Leader
Best answered in discussion format:
1. Student should refer to text when putting a characteristic in his own
words.
2.Answers may vary.
3. There is a clue in addition to inference: The name is spelled out
down the left column. Respect any opinion if student backs it with a
reason or reasons.
4. Answers may vary.
In other words, no brainwashing intended!
Thanks for writing and good luck with your blog.
Bob (RHL)
Please note the the author does not hide the fact that the name of George W Bush is hidden in the poem (link)
Friday, December 02, 2005
shameful
What a dark day for Pakistan and for the students of Pakistan... this poem is now a part of the high-school syllabus for all Pakistani students
link to bbcurdu story
If you cannot read the above, don't worry - it was lifted from another source, read it in its full glory here - do check out the questionnaire at the end of the poem
Who does this remind you of? Read just the first letter of each verse and see what it all spells...
What a bloddy sovereign country we are... I wonder which picture now hangs in the Education Minstry where Jinnah's used to be?
(I wanted this blog to be apolitical - unfortunately, that's getting tough so I will start posting some news related to "politics" or "international relations" as I see fit - be assured, it will be interesting....)
link to bbcurdu story
If you cannot read the above, don't worry - it was lifted from another source, read it in its full glory here - do check out the questionnaire at the end of the poem
Who does this remind you of? Read just the first letter of each verse and see what it all spells...
What a bloddy sovereign country we are... I wonder which picture now hangs in the Education Minstry where Jinnah's used to be?
(I wanted this blog to be apolitical - unfortunately, that's getting tough so I will start posting some news related to "politics" or "international relations" as I see fit - be assured, it will be interesting....)
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
how to tick people off
this is doing the rounds on mailing lists these days... i refrain from publishing from these sources but this is too funny to pass up
how many people have actually tried one of these?
1. Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17 inch paper, 99 copies.
2. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors."
3. Specify that your drive-through order is "TO-GO."
4. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
5. Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets.
6. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep them tuned up."
7. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what you think."
8. Practice making fax and modem noises.
9. Highlight irrelevant information in scientific papers and "cc" them to your boss.
10. Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.
11. Finish all your sentences with the words "in accordance with prophesy."
12. Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears and grimacing.
13. Disassemble your pen and "accidentally" flip the ink cartridge across the room.
14. Holler random numbers while someone is counting.
15. Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green, and insist to others that you "like it that way."
16. Staple pages in the middle of the page.
17. Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a croaking noise.
18. Honk and wave to strangers.
19. Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints at the cash register.
20. TYPE IN UPPERCASE.
21. type only in lowercase.
22. dont use any punctuation either
23. Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets.
24. Repeat the following conversation a dozen times.
"DO YOU HEAR THAT?"
"What?"
"Never mind, it's gone now."
25. As much as possible, skip rather than walk.
26. Try playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce "No, wait, I messed it up," and repeat.
27. Ask people what gender they are.
28. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.
29. Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
30. Sing along at the opera.
31. Go to a poetry recital and ask why each poem doesn't rhyme.
32. Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about "psychological profiles."
how many people have actually tried one of these?
1. Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17 inch paper, 99 copies.
2. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors."
3. Specify that your drive-through order is "TO-GO."
4. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
5. Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets.
6. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep them tuned up."
7. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what you think."
8. Practice making fax and modem noises.
9. Highlight irrelevant information in scientific papers and "cc" them to your boss.
10. Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.
11. Finish all your sentences with the words "in accordance with prophesy."
12. Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears and grimacing.
13. Disassemble your pen and "accidentally" flip the ink cartridge across the room.
14. Holler random numbers while someone is counting.
15. Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green, and insist to others that you "like it that way."
16. Staple pages in the middle of the page.
17. Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a croaking noise.
18. Honk and wave to strangers.
19. Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints at the cash register.
20. TYPE IN UPPERCASE.
21. type only in lowercase.
22. dont use any punctuation either
23. Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets.
24. Repeat the following conversation a dozen times.
"DO YOU HEAR THAT?"
"What?"
"Never mind, it's gone now."
25. As much as possible, skip rather than walk.
26. Try playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce "No, wait, I messed it up," and repeat.
27. Ask people what gender they are.
28. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.
29. Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
30. Sing along at the opera.
31. Go to a poetry recital and ask why each poem doesn't rhyme.
32. Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about "psychological profiles."
Saturday, November 26, 2005
ex googler talks about his days
a 42 year old marketing guy joined google in '99 - he has now left google and is writing a blog of his experiences - very good read and very high on the del.icio.us rankings - xooglers
Excerpt:
"When Sergey showed up, my initial impression was even more reassuring. He was wearing gym shorts, a tee shirt and inline skates. He had obviously been playing hard. I'd known better than to wear a tie, but he took office casual to a new level."
wish my office was this casual... maybe when I start my own tech company.....
Excerpt:
"When Sergey showed up, my initial impression was even more reassuring. He was wearing gym shorts, a tee shirt and inline skates. He had obviously been playing hard. I'd known better than to wear a tie, but he took office casual to a new level."
wish my office was this casual... maybe when I start my own tech company.....
Thursday, November 17, 2005
my firefox
Following is a list of extensions that are *must-use* if you are a firefox user - if you are'nt one, do yourself a favor and go get it
. adblock - gives you the option to right click on an ad image and select "block image" or iframe or url with a wildcard (e.g. *_ad_click*) - the image is removed alongwith the whitespace that would have been left behind
Use the script here in tandem to give the best adblocking support
. apart from the heavy loading time, the one thing that was stopping me from switching to firefox was the terrible usage of tabs inside firefox - ctrl-tab opened the next tab in the firefox window and not the last selected - e.g. if you have 10 windows open on your windows machine and you opened window # 5 and then window # 8, pressing alt-tab would open 5 & 8 alternatively - in firefox doing the same for tabs would open tab 9 after tab 8 and then tab 10 next... grrrr.... fortunately we have lasttab now - not only it opens the previous tab but also gives a menu listing all the current tabs in the window
. this extension saves the state of your browser in real time (did not feel any difference in system performance on my p4/512 mb ram) - it's great in case your browser crashes with many tabs open - it even saves the text you are typing in an edit-box !
. one of the most annoying things on the web is when java applets decide to loading without asking you first - noscript can disable them (asking you politely at the bottom of the screen whether you want to run it or not) - it also disables javascript too - not sure if this is really useful...
. mouse gestures really improves your browsing experience, now you can only move your mouse without clicking to open and close tabs and windows - trust me, it's not an indication of laziness...
. firefox has a problem with adobe pdf files - use this extension to receive a prompt about whether you want to download the file
. use this extension to bypass compulsory website registration on websites (these come up often if you regularly read google news)
. stumbleupon - probably the best thing next to google for web browsing afficiandos
. I left Greasemonkey for the end but in the long term, this will probably overtake all the extensions - this is essentially a piece of code that acts as an extension engine - it lets people write scripts that can be run inside this extension - the coolest thing is that these are scripts, not compiled dll's or even zipped xpi files - so you can change variables, add functionality if you know even the most basic javascripting. Installation is very simple
1. just install the greasemoney extension and restart firefox
2. Next search for the best site-specific and generic scripts here and here
3. Click on the script you want to install - a whitepage with javscript mumbo-jumbo will open up - just click Options-> Install User Script and click OK on the window that opens up
4. Refresh the page on which you want to see the script action and you are ready to go
I have installed quite a few scripts including:
.Gmail delete button - this one is buggy, use the "smart" Gmail Delete Button
. adblocker
. bookBurro (let's you see prices of different books on different sites side-by-side, fantastic!!)
Please let me know of any other extensions if they are necessary for your firefox browsing
. adblock - gives you the option to right click on an ad image and select "block image" or iframe or url with a wildcard (e.g. *_ad_click*) - the image is removed alongwith the whitespace that would have been left behind
Use the script here in tandem to give the best adblocking support
. apart from the heavy loading time, the one thing that was stopping me from switching to firefox was the terrible usage of tabs inside firefox - ctrl-tab opened the next tab in the firefox window and not the last selected - e.g. if you have 10 windows open on your windows machine and you opened window # 5 and then window # 8, pressing alt-tab would open 5 & 8 alternatively - in firefox doing the same for tabs would open tab 9 after tab 8 and then tab 10 next... grrrr.... fortunately we have lasttab now - not only it opens the previous tab but also gives a menu listing all the current tabs in the window
. this extension saves the state of your browser in real time (did not feel any difference in system performance on my p4/512 mb ram) - it's great in case your browser crashes with many tabs open - it even saves the text you are typing in an edit-box !
. one of the most annoying things on the web is when java applets decide to loading without asking you first - noscript can disable them (asking you politely at the bottom of the screen whether you want to run it or not) - it also disables javascript too - not sure if this is really useful...
. mouse gestures really improves your browsing experience, now you can only move your mouse without clicking to open and close tabs and windows - trust me, it's not an indication of laziness...
. firefox has a problem with adobe pdf files - use this extension to receive a prompt about whether you want to download the file
. use this extension to bypass compulsory website registration on websites (these come up often if you regularly read google news)
. stumbleupon - probably the best thing next to google for web browsing afficiandos
. I left Greasemonkey for the end but in the long term, this will probably overtake all the extensions - this is essentially a piece of code that acts as an extension engine - it lets people write scripts that can be run inside this extension - the coolest thing is that these are scripts, not compiled dll's or even zipped xpi files - so you can change variables, add functionality if you know even the most basic javascripting. Installation is very simple
1. just install the greasemoney extension and restart firefox
2. Next search for the best site-specific and generic scripts here and here
3. Click on the script you want to install - a whitepage with javscript mumbo-jumbo will open up - just click Options-> Install User Script and click OK on the window that opens up
4. Refresh the page on which you want to see the script action and you are ready to go
I have installed quite a few scripts including:
.
. adblocker
. bookBurro (let's you see prices of different books on different sites side-by-side, fantastic!!)
Please let me know of any other extensions if they are necessary for your firefox browsing
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Murphy's love laws
:)
More here
- All the good ones are taken.
- If the person isn't taken, there's a reason.
- Brains x Beauty x Availability = Constant.
- Money can't buy love, but it sure gets you a great bargaining position.
More here
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