Posted by hatim
Sat, 18 Aug 2007 20:21:00 GMT
My dad was insistant that I should attend ITCN 2007. Since he has little idea about what my job really is (and I have very less hope of actually making him understand what nitty gritty goes on in software engineering) this is probably one thing which he can relate to, exhibitions. my dad has been going on to and representing his organization(s) on international level for almost last 12 years, so for me to go to a national level trade show is some thing which he thinks is very important for me. In his words "even if there is one thing you learn in all this exercise, its worth it".
Any who on Thursday Aug 9th I had planned to get off early, but I got late (as usual) and reached the airport just 20 minutes before departure and walah ..I had been declared no show just 10 minutes before and my seat was give out. There were no more seats. I had missed my flight and I had already learnt my first lesson :P. I just rushed to PIA ticketing office on the air port and got me self a early bird out of Lahore. Then I hurridly got to Daweoo bus station to catch the next coach out to Lahore. I waited on the air port all night long. Apprently it had been bad weather in Karachi for some few days and there were many flight delays, so I was not the only one waiting late at night on Lahore airport.
I reached Karachi early morning, rushed to the hotel where my dad was staying for a quick shower. Then I proceeded to ITCN. All the arrangnemts looked to be of international standard, but the whole mood was disturbed by water every where. Karachi was one huge pond due to all the recent rains. Any who I roamed around the stalls to get an idea how an IT exhibition happens. In all honesty I was disappointed. It like a Meen Bazaar (for those who don't know what Meena Bazaar is ..its is pathetic attempt to mix School Science Fair with State and Agriculture fair ..minus live stock...even the few State Fairs I attended in US where the farmers take pride in how big a pumpkin they have grown are more fun and better in presentation).
Some how I ended up in CEOs conference with a CEO badge (don't ask, don't tell) I was there for the food. There I met a nice dude named Ray King from AboutUs.org. These guys are working to make Wiki tehcnology better and more accesible (not to mention using Ruby on Rails)
I sort of snuck out of the exhibition to work on my actual agenda, meeting some college buddies and shopping. I met a friend of mine who had been in Sweden for last two years, he is lucky to have a job in Norway now. Another friend of mine works in a constuction company in Karachi and is fed up with the traffic, water and lousy karachi people.
I also spent a day on Tariq road, getting some good/cheap clothes for me self. Generally in Kraachi things are about the same price as Pindi or Lahore, but you can find lots of variety.
Overall it was an OK trip. It was worth taking it, so I now know that I don't need to go to Karachi for any thing except for some good old cheap shopping.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags karachi, technology, travel | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:40:00 GMT
About two weeks ago I had an accident. I was driving my suzuki VXR late at night to get some chicken nuggets from a near by MacDonalds drive through. it suddenly started raining. My glass became foggy in an instant. I was driving relatively fast (ie highway speed 75km/h) when suddenly I came to a point where high way was dividing into two. I hit breaks the usual way, ie after pressing the clutch( normally in emergency one should not press, but that would have been fatal in rain as the car may have over tunred after stoping so fat in the rain). I hit the raod divider , big time.
The whole engine compartment got compressed a bit. Engine was damaged and car won't move. I got out and found that I had injured my nose. Thanks to japanese technology there is no air bag in any Suzuki car in Pakistan. It was raining but some people were kind enough to lend me a hand and help me out. Eventually I had to call up my cousin and ask for his help. We had to call up a tow truck and got the car placed in a safe place. Then I went to hospital. It was really scary scene there as there were two fatal accidents on the highway that night. The whole emergency ward was in action. Rainy season is not very safe to drive in Pakistan, especially on highway where you have an ammalgum of micor fuel leaks on the road by heavy transport.
My poor car is being rebuilt. It cost me about 500$ to get this thing repaired. So goes my Summer of Code signing bonus. Allah has his own ways. Any who I am safe, at the end of the day this is what all matters.
Edit: I am selling off this piece of junk Suzuki and hopefully will be driving a better/safer car from now on wards.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags accident, car, irony | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Fri, 20 Jul 2007 06:39:00 GMT
It saddens me to blog about it but I guess it has to be done. As of July 16th 2007 I am no longer part of Summer of Code 2007. I started off working quite late on the project, some of it has to do with my present circumstances with job, but alot of it has to do with my time managment. i did learn some thing from this experience, but in the end this project was a failure. But no harm done, its all part of learning process in life. Projects fail ..and infact lots of projects in software engineering fail.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags coding, contests, software | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Wed, 20 Jun 2007 22:26:00 GMT
Year 2007 has been probably the hottest year I have witnessed in Pakistan. Many people have persihed due to the heat wave, even in my hilly home town of Abbottabad. But now the spell has been broken thanks to some early rains. It is good that the weather is ok now, but I wonder if its good in a broader sense. For our ecological systems to work properly, summer has to come. Furthermore, this lack of heat will probably effect the summer industry of cooling,cold drinks in some manner. But its all luck for them, perhaps they make _huge_ profits next year.
Any who its pleasent now in Islamabad, and surprisingly mildly cold in Abbottabad. I went on a small hiking with a visiting cousin on a Sunday morning and had to wear a windbreaker. I also snapped some neat pics [will post]
Any reader can notice a considerable lack of blogs in the recent past. It's because I am very busy these days. Between Job, University and Summer of Code 2007, I hardly find time to sleep.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags pics | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Wed, 09 May 2007 03:29:00 GMT
Steve Hajiita ( 1961 - 2006)
I spent a good two years at University of Nebraska-Lincoln as a Computer Science/Math major. Even though I did't get a degree from there (I got my BS in Computer Engineering from GIKI) i still consider that school as my almamatter. I learnt alot from that place and met a great many people. One of them was Steve Hajjita. I was shocked and sad to know that Steve died in bizzare circumstances in rural Nebraska.
Steve was my teacher in Math 314 (Linear Algebra). He was an innocent and intelligent soul. Some may call him looser, but what he really was a sensitive funny guy, who loved to teach. He used humor to make his lectures interesting. The closet person in fictional life he relates to is Jerry Espenson on Boston Legal.
The last time I met him was in Avery Hall at UNL campus back in 2004 when I was cramming for My Math 314 final and needed to get some problems solved. He was always willing to help.
He is survived by his mother and two sisters. His father also passed away after his body was found. He had just completed his Phd from UNL and joined a small community college in rural Nebraska. It is sad to know that a bright mind like his had so little time to influence others in a positive manner.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags obituries | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Thu, 12 Apr 2007 08:00:00 GMT
As I had mentioned in a previous blog entry, this year I put up four proposals to Google Summer of code. The final decision on these proposals was scheduled for April 12, 2007 5:00 am (Pakistan time). After a long night of waiting I finally received official word from Google Inc. that one of my application has been selected for Google Summer of Code. In total I had four (meaningful) applications. Oddly enough I had not received even a single comment on any one of them. During conflict resolution period I got a comment from Lanka Foundation( Sahana Project) saying that my proposal was comprehensive and complete proposal. It would have been accepted if it were if not for the alternative acceptance I had received. Alternative what???.
This came as a cautious but pleasant surprise. Sahana people were the first one to comment on my applications. Naturally I assumed that I had been selected by any of the other three organizations. I went to some SOC-irc channels and with the help of some (non related)mentors I found out that I was tagged by Internet2.edu. I then contacted the Internet2 mentor related to my project via email citing that I had no clue if I were being selected. He replied saying that there was no need from his side to post any comment on my application, it was good to go. No one had contacted them for any conflict resolution regarding me. It was the personal choice of SAHANA mentors to not contact Internet2 , even though they found my application compelling enough.
I suspect that this could have happened to my other applications as well. Where mentors were reluctant to contact me when they saw that I already have a mentor. Therefore I would propose the following additions to the SOC web application.
- There should be information in the webapp if some one gets tagged, is assigned a mentor etc.
- A stat showing number of unique views from within a mentor organization would also be helpful. This can also be applied for non organization people like Google SOC staff.
As for now I will start working on my project from tomorrow, just like I stated in my detailed plan :).
Here is an excerpt from the official email I got from Google.
Subject: Congratulations!
To: my address at gmail dot com
From: gsoc at google dot com
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 00:15:43 -0700
Dear Applicant,
Congratulations! This email is being sent to inform you that your application was accepted to take part in the Summer of Code.Please check your student home page in the SoC web application at http://code.google.com/soc/student_home.html to determine which ofyour applications was accepted.
Thanks for taking part we are very excited to see what the Summer will bring!
Congratulations once again,
The Google Summer of Code Program Administration Teamem>
More detailed post to come, URL of application , proposal and some other links.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags coding, contests | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Sun, 25 Mar 2007 16:38:00 GMT
These are interesting times to be an open source developer. Google Sumer of code enters its third year in 2007 and this time the process has started earlier than previous years. As I am registered as part time certificate course student at Virtual university of Pakistan, I can take part in this competition. I have used open source for around seven years now and have yet to give back some thing solid to the open source community (occasional irc help secessions and little bit of wiki editing is good but not a very big contribution in my opinion). I feel that if I am able to be a part of Google summer of code this year, not only I would be giving back to the community in a structured way, but I would also be learning a lot from seasoned hackers and developers who would be mentoring me.
I am not certain what mentoring organizations are expecting in an application. I don't think the mentors should be expecting the participants to know a lot about their project as the whole point of SOC is to make new people come into open source development. But at the same time if some one has worked with the project in question in the past (s/he may be part of code project team and a student as well), that person would be a better catch. As for me I am applying to the projects which are of technical/intellectual interest to me or solve some important problem that I have encountered.
I will be posting a few apps within next 24 hours. I will try to supplement them with web pages on this site. I hope at least this application process will be a good experience for me to polish my writing skills.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags contests, programming | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Wed, 07 Mar 2007 19:15:00 GMT
My new job has brought me to lahore to a major cellular comany Network Operations Center in Lahore for testing and deployment of our solution. I am currently working with XML-RPC using GNU C. Its been long since I have worked with C. The elegance simplicity and beauty of C code is refreshing. It takes me back to my early days in programming when we used to work with Turbo C++.
Initially I had planned to stay for only one day, but things changed and I got stuck here. I will hopefully get home by friday and take the weekend off.One side effect of staying in Lahore has been the dining out part. I had the chance to go to food street and Lakshmi chowk with colleuges. And I was able to eat falloda after a very long time. I had been trying to find a nice place for falloda in pindi for 2-3 months now
Posted in LifeLog | Tags Food, Job | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Wed, 21 Feb 2007 05:19:00 GMT
I have recently resigned from my job at the small databases company I was working. It was a nice company and I learned a lot about myself. The work was not very exciting, but then in this country you don't get to work on exciting things any ways. The primary reason I left my job was that I got another offer which is more suited to my interests. The job is closer to home and pays a bit more. On top of that I would be working with current technologies.
I also had the opportunity to give interviews to few more places. It seems that US based companies are increasingly outsourcing their work to Pakistan, especially in last few months lots of work has pumped into Islamabad. I have come to realize that I desperately need to revise my OOP and Java concepts as I am getting rust after 4 months of structured programming
Posted in LifeLog | Tags Job | no comments | no trackbacks
