Vacation from my Vacation : Long needed GIKI Trip

Last weekend I was at GIK. Croft wanted to go to the ugX[GIK's nationwide lan gaming event]. I thought that I would have a good time meeting everybody and maybe some old students as well. I did intend to go to GIK earlier but wanted to prepare some sort of presentation on something. Having people dependent on you gives you a strong urge to learn something. Thats why people who usually give crashers during the university levels prepare for it really well because of all the dependents or something. I hoped to present something cool, but this time it wasnt possible. I did meet Raptor, Baddie, Junaid and the rest of batch 12 that was present. I was hoping to leave on Monday, but I met Shah during what was a pleasent surprise. Everybody was such a great host and entire volumes can be written on Rappies hospitality :P. We had a great time bugging people too. Playing practical jokes on people with the help of the faculty kekeke. Chuck Norris had his way with a whole lot of people those couple of days.

We had a major gaming session last night of Q3, DOTA and a bit of brood. This was the first time I played brood after something like semester 2 during GIK. And I sucked! Thats an area I need to work on. It was a nice long weekend and a much needed vacation from my vacation. I'll try playing Brood online with UZ and the rest of the people. Its such a fun game, however I dont think that I'll  be able to boost my level a whole lot especially with all the other games out there.

While heading off to GIK, I stopped at Isloo, it was a friday and I got to meet Muji, Athar Shah, Asad Khattak and Ather Shah the 2nd :P. I also got to meet Sameer Durrani, one of my brothers good friends and it was a Friday or else we would've had a great time. He treated me to some great lunch. I intended on meeting a lot more people on the way back but I think that my mom's getting angry and she would'nt let me into the home if i stay for another night outside.

Right now I'm at the Daewoo Pindi Terminal and they have an Internet kiosk which I use while travelling and best of all it's free.

Tragic Demise

I'm very sad to let you guys know that Umair Azfar mother passed away. It is unfair that such things happen to such  nice people. Although I do not know her personally, I am deeply greived and judging by Umair's personality she must've been really kind and caring too.

INNA LILLAHE WA INNA ILAIHE RAJEON
"Verily we are Allah's and verily untoHim shall we return. (Qur'an 2:156)"

May Allah grant her the rewards of her good deeds and the rewards of the good deeds that people she has influenced are doing.

This is the link to Umairs blog. I'm currently unaware of his phone number and contact. I'll post those once I get them.

Defence Cinema

Much better than I expected.

I went there with my mom today to watch that movie, Khuda ke liye that translates to For God's Sake. It was much better than most pakistani movies I have seen so far. The direction was good and all but the plot seemed to have a lot of holes in it. Moreover it wasnt really deep or anything but a great improvement. I'm glad I watched this movie in a cinema and didnt buy some pirated DVD because this movie deserved it. [Not that I condone piracy in any of its forms, but what's a guy to do when the stores are full of nothing but pirated stuff].

And defence cinema, well I guess its the only cinema in lahore where all of the following are true:-

1. Family Safe
   
2. You wont get stung by one of those needles saying you've got aids
3. All of the above, cant think of anymore.

You can find the website at www.dhacinema.com. The phonenumber is 042-5066888 and it is situated on 305 R Block, DHA Lahore. In case any of you googlers stumble upon it.

Regards & Take Care

PC GAMES

Games to be on the Lookout for:-

Crysis
Guitar hero III
Gears Of War
HellGate London

Recommended but not tested Games:-

Oblivion

Games you should already have:-

BIOSHOCK
Company of Heros

PAX 2007 ROCKS!!!!

Hey guy's I'm at PAX 2007.  I've been having fun checking out all the latest games and stuff, but I rather happened to stumble upon this thing by accident. Actually initially I was looking for World of Warcraft video's when I stumbled upon Jonathan Coulton's song code monkey. You can see the video below on youtube :).







I liked it so much that I stumbled across his website . Some of his other songs were also cool like Re Your Brians. You can listen to them on the site and stuff. But what happened ultimately was that I ended up looking for concerts which linked me to PAX2007. I was like hey, I like gaming and I've not been around much so I set off for PAX. It was quite entertaining, the company stalls were great, Jonathan Coultons performance rocked I even got him to sign my zombies shirt and my cast. If you're my parents please ignore the last three words of the previous line :).

I liked the video showcases about the future of gaming, designing video games, 8 bit audio[Which really is a neat thing]. People are using Gameboys to compose 8 bit audio and its actually an art form. Kohina is a great site where you get a lot of old 8 bit game music. Although its not technically the same as people are doing nowadays with their gameboy's its nevertheless equally fun in my opionion.

The atmosphere reminded me about college and stuff, the event team running around with their enforcers T shirts, chicks in dressed up  like NPC's from some MMORPG and others carrying AK-47's. Apart from the chicks, we had stuff like this at my university  back in pakistan at a much smaller scale and it was called the UGX.

All in all it was a great day and a great experience. The part when I actually got to play games was at the end where they had a demo section. They had free playable demo's of old nintendo games from ages long forgotten as well as the latest titles like Bioshock and GuitarHero. It was while playing guitar hero that I made some new friends.

In fact I liked guitar hero so much that I want to have it, but because I spent my annual gaming budget on my laptop, it didnt look like I'd be able to play it until I came across Frets On Fire, the open source version of guitar hero available on Windows, Linux and Mac. You guys can get it here. It hooks up to the actual guitar from guitar hero. And if you dont have one, you can play it via keyboard. The video below shows the code monkey demo of frets on fire:-









Although it does not have characters with guitars and stuff, it has all the basic functionality and I guess it'll work as a substitute for some. I wont think twice about buying the actual guitar hero if it comes out on the PC though.

Anyways have fun and game on.

Face Recognition in Live Search

Check this article out. It is about Face recognition in Live Search:-

http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2007/07/27/three-new-features-in-live-search-images.aspx

New York!!!

 

Start spreading the news
I'm leaving today
I want to be a part of it
New York, New York

These vagabond shoes
Are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it
New York, New York

I wanna wake up in a city
That doesn't sleep
And find I'm king of the hill
Top of the heap

These little town blues
Are melting a way
I'll make a brand-new start of it
In old New York

If I can make it there
I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you
New York, New York

New York, New York
I want to wake up
In a city that never sleeps
And find I'm a number one, top of the list
King of the hill, a number one

These little town blues
Are melting a way
I'm gonna make a brand-new start of it
In old New York

And... if I can make it there
I'm gonna make it anywhere
It's up to you
New York, New York

-- Frank Sinatra, New York

Hello viewers from across the globe. I've finally gone all the way from Seattle to New Ark[NY's 2nd largest airport] via Portland, Oregon [The place we all know and love because of no sales tax].

 

Anyways, I got the the airport at 6:00 am and I took the taxi to some street intersection tiffy told me about on the phone. At first the taxi driver didnt understand, i had to take the map out on my cell and show it to the taxi cab driver and he finally figured out where we had to go.

 

We'll when I got to Tiffy's place in 15 minutes, tiffy was nowhere to be seen. he wasnt even picking up his cell phone. :/ Turns out he was sleeping and he'd been up watching transformers till 4:00 am. I had to wait A LOT!!!. I will seek vengeance.

 

I'll let you know what became of Tiffy later, or you may find a post written by some bashed up Tiffy on his own blog.

 

I just had breakfast at Tiffany's [oh sorry Tiffy's]. I'm waiting for Prince Tiffy to take a shower. Will catch you guys later.

 

ciao!!!

My Life Nowadays

And now, the end is near;
And so I face the final curtain.
My friend, Ill say it clear,
Ill state my case, of which Im certain.

Ive lived a life thats full.
Ive traveled each and evry highway;
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

This song was dedicated to me by a close friend recently. And I listen to it at the end of every day. I dont know why, I just do.

Quite on the contrary my life has just begun. I've gained a lot in the last couple of months, experience, tolerance, weight, you name it and I would've gained it. However my life's just begun. It might be changing its direction along some other lines but still theres some momentum in there.

I've been having a lot of fun recently. I've been hiking, kyaking, whale watching, watching movies and all kind of stuff and that was because I had a car. Not just any car, the car but its gone now and I'm wondering what I'll do without it. I bought a bike though, however its useless without a helmet. Gotta buy meself one of those.

Oh by the way, I got some cool whale pics like this one here.

Now I just need to take a picture of bigfoot. He's also roaming around the pacific north west.

Oh yeah and Tiffy also came and visited us during his tour of the area. You'll find more at his blog. I could just find one pic and that is here . Are you thinking what I'm thinking, maybe we can cancel the previous paragraph out. Man I'm dumber than Johnny Bravo.

Anyways people see you around and have a blast.

Microsoft

Alas I'm finally here. I've been here since a month just in case I didnt tell someone. I also just passed my driving test. Today is a good day :).

 

This place is fun. Pictures speak louder than words. I'll put links to pictures somewhere around here in a bit.

 

Take Care Dudes. 

3 Tragic Demises

My EPSON LQ-550

First of all I'd like to offer my condolences to the Epson family of printers for the demise of my LQ-550. It had been a faithful printer.

About my EPSON-550:-

This model of EPSON 550 was bought in December 1991 along with a 386 machine with something called an IO card in it back in the days when PC's used to have a Turbo button which worked.

It was not an ordinary 9 dot matrix, it was a 24 dot matrix with advanced graphics support. It was not as fast as one of em daisy chains or line printers but it was a lot better. Color printing was not an option back then and you had weird dot matrixes that could print in 2 or 3 colors but none of them beat my LQ-550 which rendered a good 15 years of service after which it was put into a box never to be seen again until today.

Upon plugging in the device its soul made a final shreiking static noise and now its dead.

I hope my LQ-550 rests in Peace.

Battle Star Galactica:-

This one happened some time back but I just realised it. BSG is finally over I'll have to find some other series. I'm too upset about the first loss I wont write much here.

Anyways there is going to be another series about the battle star Pegasus and what happened to it between the invasion of New Caprica and its reunion with Galactica.

I actually started watching this show when Whiz told me that Cmdr Adama looked like Gen Pervez Musharraf that got me on one episode and then I watched every episode till the end. BTW near the end they show Adama with a moustache then he looks like Musharraf for sure.

Prison Break

This is also over and this time for good. But they still left room for more seasons I think.

Coldest day in 70 years

I'm at home in Lahore[Yes yes laziness got the better of me] and its the coldest day in 70 years. At a stagerring -1 degrees Centrigrade, it really isnt that much but for an unprepared population it can wreck havoc, especially with respect to young, old and people with breathing ailments like asthma. For a live feed into Lahores temperature with a considerable lag time, check this [ link]that reports the temperature at Lahore Airport.Delhi also saw its coldest day in 70 years logged in at 0.2 Degrees [ link]. I hope that there isnt a significant loss of livestock, crops and worst of all people.[Not everyone can enjoy a warm cup of custard next to the fireplace]

Seasons Greetings, Happy 2K7, Eid Mubarak and lots of Cheese

The first act of the new Year:

Well, let me recall whats the first act I this new year, I broke my 1.5 month abstinence period from carbonated drinks. No thanks to my younger brother who filled the fridge up with Pepsi Lemon. Man a new flavor had to get the better out of me.

Who moved my Cheese

Right around this time of the year, I read a book called who moved my cheese[click for website]. One of the best books I've ever read. It contains a different approach to look at life and I feel that its raised my motivation levels to do something new by a significant amount and I hope it raises yours too. Also by Dr Herbert Spencer is the 1 minute manager, while being a good book with some valuable lessons I didnt find it as awe-inspiring as "Who Moved my Cheese". Lets get to what this book is about. It's about four characters: two mice called sniff and scurry and two littlepeople called hem and haw. They're all stuck in a maze and they need to find cheese[something that makes you happy]. The cool thing is that by comparison you can actually use this story to motivate you whenever you're down, its something that you'll have to read yourself in order to appreciate. The cool thing is that this book only takes an hour and a quarter to read.

Visual Mumbo Jumbo [Cheese for Geeks {Inspirational} ]

Another thing [for the geeks] that had me interested is a paper by a notable Google Employee TV Raman on "Visual Techniques for Computing Polyhedral Volumes". Now I generally dont put Geek stuff on my blog, however this paper compares properties of various shapes in 2D and 3D and relates them all to simple elements such as unity(1), important angles in a unit cube and the golden ratio and goes on to derive lots of stuff visually using only class 8 Math. It had me impressed. And more amazing is that this person has a sight disability. Just lets you wonder at the accomplishments a motivated and hardworking individual can make despite of handicaps.

Fake Powdered Cheese Leading to Real Lunar Cheese [Cheese for Geeks]

Nasa Needs Ton's and Ton's of Fake Moon Dust.

The Cheese I hope to have in a months time

Oh and well I've decided on one thing for sure this year and that is to buy myself a digital camera. After around 2 days of extensive web search I selected the Fujifilm S5600 which is also rated #1 Camera on PC World's List of Advanced Digital Camera's. For people in Pakistan, this is availible from the official dealers for 23,900 Rupees from the official Fujifilm Dealer in Lahore.

S5600 Page on Fujifilm.
FujiFilm Dealerships in Pakistan [Note: Their site is not updated regularly so it does not list this model
FujiFilm FinePix S5200 Review on Steve's Digicams[No 1 Digital Camera Review Site in my opinion]
S5200 Review on PCWorld
Compare the S5200 with other camera models like the Canon S3IS in the same Category on PCWorld

Apart from StevesDigicams, another cool site for camera reviews is Digital Photography Review.

How I intend to work towards my Cheese

We'll I'm not very Certain at the moment, but I have a feeling it would include Crofty.

A Miscellaneous Tip to help you get to your Cheese

If you havent already, check out FreeMind an open source mind mapping software that helps you come up with new dynamic ideas, do research, maintain a featureset for an existing product, brainstorm for an essay and lots of many other uses including undiscovered ones. In addition, it does not lack the usual annoyances of mindmapping on Paper[cutting & starting over] and you never run out of space. Its worked for individuals like me, its worked for the industry and it could work for you.

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Wishing you a Happy New Year With all the Cheese you Hoped For, this is your host I-T signing off and retiring to dream about Cheese. Good Night!!! And Eid Mubarak in Advance.

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If you're a resident of Lahore Pakistan and want the prayer timings for this Eid, they're availible at the Daily Times WebSite here. List covers most mosques in Lahore.

So that web crawlers cache this : Eid Eid-ul-Azha Lahore Timings Prayer timings