Posted by hatim
Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:38:00 GMT
I have to register for IELTS in order to apply for admission in a Masters Programme in Europe. I am targetting Sweden, Finland, Norway and Germany. I may also look into Netherlands and Switzeland but so far Sweden is my top choice. Belgium is also another choice but I haven't really explored it so far. I submitted the required fee (around 146$) to the Standard Chartered Bank F-7 Markaz (Jinnah Super) branch. I got the form but screwed it up while filling. Tomorrow I am hoping to fill up a new form and submit it to the British Council for a December 1st test date. I am still not sure how It will work out for submitting the test results to Sweden (I suspect that IELTS reults are not sent to Institute, like TOEFL, but they are confirmed by the Institutes them selves)
Update : I have gotten the date of 15th Dec 2007 for my IELTS test. I could have gotten Dec 1st, but I hand submitted my documents a bit late.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags career, education, tests | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:30:00 GMT
Last night emergency was declared in Pakistan. It was not surprising, but surely was disappointing. The premise for declaring emergency was increase de-stability of Pakistan, but this had more to do with disagreements between the Supreme Court and the executive branch of the governemnt. All tv channels have been shut down and there is a media black out in the country. While writing this blog entry I don't have access to the internet and I hope that internet is not blocked out as well*.
When emergency was declared I was near the Parliment, teaching Linux to MAJU employees. Needless to mention that my parents some how felt I was out of home (they being in another city)and called me up to get back.
*(Internet is up and running in Pakistan, thank God).
Posted in LifeLog | Tags Emergency, Pakistan | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:12:00 GMT
After my car's accident back in July I have had to endure many things from it. Its compressor ball bearing got jammed making its fanbelt stuck. It's head light switch got loose one day, draining all the battery power. On top of that I got a really retarded electrician to look at it, who convinced me to replace my battery (which was 2 years old,but was just discharged). Even after I got a new battery I was getting fumes from my steering assembly (there was some shortcircuiting). Then to top it all, as I had lost my central locking remote control, the car was put on some funky mechanism by the electrecian which would make the engine stop stop if any one opened a lock. I got all these problems fixed one by one over course of last month. But it has taught me one thing, once a car gets into a major accident, it starts loosing it's self.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags car | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Fri, 19 Oct 2007 07:54:00 GMT
My first actual task for the ERP application is to finalize the design of Graphical Modeler. This task involves understanding the complete user requirements, making their UML diagrams and documenting use cases. This particular exercise brought me back to learn UML after a long time. Last time I touched UML in detail was in 2002 in my OOP course. So I got a book called () th help me out in this.
UML is some thing which is to be taken lightly. You cannot draw all diagrams for a particular problem and you cannot nail the design in one go. It's a process which is very iterative. The end product is a design which is re-factored over many times from the original design. It is good to keep one's design simple, but I think this statement is overstated as well. Elegant designs are some times complex (for example there are complex systems which keep us alive while we are flying, and did i mention complex). Any who ISA-95 has 4 different basic models on top of which other models are built (namely personnel , equipment, material, process-segment).
We first started with most simple of them called the Personnel Model. As from a programmer point of view (and that too of an OO language) the crown jewel of all the UML design activity is a class diagram. Fortunately (or unfortunately) class diagrams are already suggested in the standard. In normal circumstances we reach to the class diagram through a methodological way, in which we happen to generate all other sorts of diagrams. But since we already had the class diagram the process becomes a bit fuzzy (since all other diagrams now have to suite the class diagram). But all in all I got to have 3 weeks of design only :)
Update: it seems that design phase will go on for some more period of time as well.
Posted in Technology, LifeLog | Tags design, programming | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:11:00 GMT
This year I spent eid break with my family in Abbottabad. it was nothing fancy. Before eid i took my dad to a video shop to buy all the movies from the James Bond, we had plans to see all those movies but were unable to find the time. Eid was a normal event this year, nothing special to report, except for the fact that this year security for eid namaz was tight. We went to a secure and far place to offer Eid prayers. Things are looking bleak in Pakistan these days as there is alot of unrest in the tribal areas.
Add: here are some pictures which I snampped on this Eid.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags Eid, Family | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT
As an academic exercise I have been training IT staff of Muhammad Ali Jinnah University from mid August. This exercise got started while I was at my previous job. I am hoping to finish basic training of IT staff over CentOS linux and migrate their backbone system from Windows to Linux. For my time MAJU decided to financially compensate me. I was very please when I got my first pay check, as teaching linux has been one of my great passions. Training is still going on hopefully we will be finished with migration by end of December. Initially the timings which I was folloing was near lunch time. Now due to my new job I have to spend proper timings in my office from Mon-Fri, so lessons commence on my off days. These lessons have given me a good chance to update my RHCE prepration from RHEL-2 to RHEL-5 (it was long ago when I last prepared for RHCE exam). I hope to give RHCE exam in 2008.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags linux, Training | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:10:00 GMT
Leaving Iphonica and Joining Zeropoint.it
In Mid Feb 2007, when I decided to leave my first job to join Iphonica, I was very excited. Iphonica seemed to be a small but enterprising company with open source based telecom software roots. Although I was not happy about location of Iphonica, which was considerably a down from the fancy Evacuee Trust Complex in downtown district of Islamabad. It was closer from my home and pay was bit comparable. The most important thing was that I was to work with Open Source technologies.
After working in Iphonica for seven months I realized two things, first I left my job at JinTech too early. Perhaps If I was patient enough and open minded enough to embrace proprietary technologies I would have probably ended with a better one year experience, instead of fragmented 7 1/2 months and 3 1/2 months at two places
Second, that it is very hard to find a job in Pakistan where people act professionally. This I say with great regret that very few companies in Pakistan, which are lead by Pakistani's are capable enough to have good work ethics (there are very few places which are truly professional, Jintech being one of them in my opinion). Though the work seemed interesting on paper for me, the fact was that alot of my time and efforts were being wasted . I learnt a few things here and there in Iphonica, worked with networking software and did some java coding, but I could have done alot more.
Iphonica's inherent "Pakistani" practices of time management had so much effect on me that I had to leave Summer of Code unfinished(on top of which the other fact that time was already short for SoC). Overall I was disappointed with my self and was reevaluating my career choices. One fine evening I got an email for an interview at Zeropoint.it. I had heard this name before as back in Jan 2007 when they were looking for some Slashdot reading Linux Gurus (I don't claim to be one, but would love the idea of working in company of people like these). I went for the job interview.
From the job interview it was obvious how methodological were people at Zeropoint. I gave Java test from which I cam to realize that I still need to learn a few things from core Java. One thing which struck me very positively was that my blog was a consideration in the selection process.
I switched jobs on 1st of Oct 2007. The new job is probably the best so far. I get to have free lunch, but its home cooked. There is a pool table in the lobby for free time. I get to work on a dual-LCD ubuntu, and last but not least there is a big conference room with a huge blackboard. Lets see how much I can gain from this job (my hopes are high).
As for Iphonica, I heard that thye have got a new Technical manager, hpoefully they will succeed in achieving what ever they aim to. I will sure miss all the fun times I had at this place.
(put picture of my station on to it)
Posted in LifeLog | Tags career, opensource | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:17:00 GMT
I was asked to represent my company in Jitex 07 as a technical representative. For this I prepared my slef by going to ITCN Asia (which was not an amazing experience). I had tried to juggle the dates of Umrah so that I wont miss the first days of Jitex, but it was inevitible. After coming from Umrah, I hopped on to the next Air Blue flight ti Dubai. This was my first time travelling with Air Blue, and it reminded me of commercial Air Travle in rural USA where there are no goodies at all, and they just give you peanuts a juice.
When I arrived at Dubai airport I was not pleased to know that we would be going through terminal 2. Terminal 1 is the one with fancy duty free shop (so now I know why air blue is cheap, they don't have to pay extra for the nicer terminal). There was a long line of immigrant worked coming from Pakistan and India. I joined the queue and went through the ratina scan. After that went straight to immigration where the Arab immigration was flirting with a Pakistani passenger lady (so it took an extra while before it was my turn). Lucky me I had every thing as my hand luggage, so I got out and went straight to a cab. I was suppose to reach World Trade Center to the expo (it was around noon). I was coming to Dubai after 5 years so there was lots to see. First thing that I noticed was the under constuction, tallest building in the world. It is said that it can be visible to the nacked eye from alot of distance. The reality is that Dubai has so much mist all year long, it is hardly visible from mere 2 kilometers. But it sure is huge.
I arrived at the Dubai world trade center, contrary to my belief its not a sky scraper (I always confused it with emirates towers). I then called my supervisor who was already on the company's stall. He came out with my ID badge. GITEX is much bigger than ITCN as it focuses not only on IT but on consumer electronics as well. I went to my company's stall which was a subpart of PSEB's contingent. We were very incoventinetly placed in last of IT section, where as our focus area was Telecommunication companies which were in a whole another hall. First day was not suppose to be be long, but it felt otherwise. Later in the evening we went to our place of residence which was almost 20 km away from the trade center, (where tradecenter is already at the fringe of the city). A by product of Gitex is that there is virtually no suitable accomodation available in the Dubai area during exhibition days. Also one has to wait for very long hours to just get a taxi cab. Perhaps this situation would change one Dubai's intera-city train is up and running.
I stayed in Dubai for a period of 5 days. It was the first time I was on my own so went to all the places where I always wanted to go (ie. Emirates Shopping Mall for its Sking, to Sharja University to meet some old buddies and boating in the marina creek (on behind in the picture i am standing). All in all it was fun. Dubai is one good place to live (provided your income is alos g$$d). Any who I am looking forward to my next trip to Dubai. Hopefully by that time Burj-Al-Dubai will be complete and I will try to go to its top floor.
(me in Dubai Marina at the company's rented apparment)
[more on this later]
Posted in LifeLog | Tags Conference, Dubai, Jitex, travel | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Tue, 04 Sep 2007 19:27:00 GMT
(Gumbede Khizra as seen from my camera)
(more photos here)
After a six day trip in Mecca, it was time for us to embark to a trip to Madina. We did a Tawaf of farewell. It was an emotional moment for all of us. A sense of pride and happiness for we had accomplished our Umrah, a bitter sweet sadness that we are leaving this holiest of place and a sense of hope and pray that we shall all try to visit it again.
My mom made me promise in Bait-ul-Allah that I will accompany her to Hajj in coming years (Insha Allah)
We then boarded on to the same 14 seater van driven by our Pakistani driver from Pakistan house. We were enroute to Mecca by 10 am. We chose to go via the historical battle grounds of Badar. Country side Saudi Arabia is a sharp contrast from the bustling metroplis of Macca, Jeddah. It is as barren as it can be. We also saw the tree line for the under construction city by Emmar on the shores of Red Sea.
We reached Medina around 4:00 and went straight to Pakistan House No 2 (In Medina there are two Pakistan houses and are considerably farther from the Harem as compared to in Mecca).
In Medina Pakistan house had arranged a daily bus, which would pick up people from both houses and drop them off to Masjide-Nabvi (mosque of the prophet). Since Medina is in a plain area as compared to hilly region of Mecca, the overall construction of the city is a bit spacious.
Masjide-Nabvi is one masterpiece. It has a very good system of underground parking and ablution. Around the mosque there are scores of shopping malls and food courts. We found a nice Turkish place just around the corner to Pakistan house.
During our stay we went to see the place where battle of Uhad and Khandaq were fought. We also saw Janat-ul-Baqi, Hazrat Salman Farsis’s gardens and many other historical places in Medina.
In Medina I also found a nice internet café to post initial drafts of this blog entry.
On the morning of 8th we went to Medina International airport for our flight back to Islamabad. Overall the whole trip was without any major hassle. This experience has brought me to a place where I am beginning to re evaluate my life in general. I would like to do more conscious effort to become a better Muslim and a better human being from now onwards. And I look forward to a similar religious experience in the coming years.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags Medina, travel, Umrah | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:19:00 GMT
(Holy Kabbah as seen on last day of Umrah by my camera)
My family had been planning to go for Umrah for a very long time. We had booked flights/rooms etc for late August this year. It was not easy to juggle with through schedules of exams (sister), foreign trips (dad) and project deadlines (me). Finally we embarked on Umrah on 28th of August in the afternoon from Islamabad air port.
We booked seats on Saudi air lines. It is not a very splendid air lines, but then again we were not going on a luxury vacation.
I left my work sort of in an unfinished state. I am supposed to attend a trade show in Dubai right after Umrah. So hopefully by the time I reach back there would be a pile of work stacked for me.
Saudi Air lines flew from Islamabad to Dammam. Dammam is the oil hub of Saudi Arabia. Lots of passengers boarded off from the aircraft. Since we were going on Umrah, in flight entertainment was not a big concern, but still the remote control of the in flight entertainment system was broken, food service was average and overall mood gloomy.
All this changed once we reached Jeddah. We had a quick immigration other than one hitch. We had booked our visas through a Mulaim (loosely translated as religious guide). This is nothing but a business monopoly, the Mualim’s people make you stay in a particular Hotel and make you buy tour packages. Since we had every thing planned out, we didn’t need them. Fortunately for us our Pakistani driver Mr. Razzaq did all the talking. He had been here in Saudi for last 27 years and was an experienced driver and fluent Arabic speaker. We finally got out of the airport premises and got on to Mr. Razzaq’s 14 seat Hiace and were on the way to Mecca in no time.
I had heard about Saudi wealth in terms of infrastructure, the cars they drove, the kinds of huge gas stations they have, but witnessing it my self was an eye opener. Every thing in Saudi is huge.
We reached Mecca in around midnight and went straight to our first Umrah. It would have been a breeze, but I had to push my nanny’s wheel chair (which I did my self happily, but it was not easy). After our first Umrah was over we stayed in Haram for a while, and I offered my first prayer with congregation in Haram. It was a magical site, the sound of Azan echoing all around and thousands of people facing Bait-ul-Allah.
In Mecca we stayed in Pakistan House. It is a Govt. operated facility operating on no-profit/no-loss basis. We got a suite of 4 rooms on very reasonable rates. It even had a TV Lounge/Dining room where they had Pakistani news channels tuned in.
Our total stay in Mecca was of 7 days. We attended one Jumma prayer and one more Umrah during that (not to mention all other prayers with congregation). I was able to kiss Hijre Aswad on the last day (in the same spirit as Hazrat Umer kissed it...because Prophet PBUH once kissed it....and not because it is some thing divine).
We also visited all the historical places, like the birth place of Prophet PBUH, cave of Sour, cave of Hira, Ayesha Mosque, Jinn Mosque, Mina (place where Prophet Abraham PBUH went to sacrifice his son and where there are three symbolic statutes of the devil), Muzdalfa, and the mosque from where Hajj khutba is given.
Some thing worth experiencing in Mecca is the late night worshipping and the early morning breakfast. Even though it is not that hot during the day, thanks to Air conditioners all over the Haram, but night time is still ideal for Umrah in terms of weather (that is why every one is out there at that time)
Another thing which we experienced was some thing for which prophet Abraham prayed that May Mecca never be empty from fruits and foods. We ate all kinds of off season fruits, brought all over from the world during our short stay.
The Haram in Mecca is now surrounded by huge buildings and shopping Malls. We spent few lunch hours in those malls as well. Macca by any standard is a modern world city. With all its modern roads, tunnels, buildings and facilities I am proud that our holiest city is match for any city in the world.
It was defiantly a major mile stone moment in my life; these few days and I hope and pray that I go back to Mecca for Hajj in coming years.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags Mecca, travel, Umrah | no comments | no trackbacks
