A Paranoid Droid

Test

2011-03-08T12:15:00.001+03:00

Another test run

Final Flight

2010-12-15T16:04:00.020+03:00

I have been hard at work at one of my games. This time, it is a flash game where you control a JF-17 to hunt enemies down. It is a simple top down shooter where you control with a mouse. This game is very close to completion, although you can try the beta here or play online here:

Back from the Dead

2009-09-27T09:57:00.002+03:00

Today, as I was enjoying the last day of the week long Eid vacations, I opened up a few blogs and came to realise that I had not posted a single entry for quite some time now. When i started blogging, my aim was to keep a record of my trip to Finland and I think I more or less managed to do that.

Coming back to Pakistan just beat the purpose of writing a blog, so I stopped. I do not know if I am going to keep this up or not, but still, lets hope that the blogging continues.

The first few weeks in Pakistan were very frustrating. you come to realize all the little irritants that you had forgotten that they existed. Being 30 and unfortunately the youngest in my family, I am again treated like a 15 year old who does not know what to do with his life. Half of my time was spent applying to places for a job and half of that rest was spent telling my family that making software for mobiles does not mean that I can work in telenor, warid and the likes. Suffice to say that even after hours of discussion they still had the opinion that working in a telecom company is the best fit for me.

I also started working on iPhone, as in making applications for iPhone. iPhone development is done in Objctive-C which you can call as a Super set of C language. The only fully Object Oriented Language that has ever been created is Smalltalk. Anyway, Objective C borrows from Smalltalk and implements many of its features and also, a lot of new syntax. It is not easy to start Objective C on your own and I understood it after reading a couple of manuals, watching lectures from Stanford University and working on it on my own.

All that was put on hold when I got into Bahria University as a Lecturer. Yes, i chose to take the academic route for my carrier due to may reasons, the most important ones are that I like teaching and it has good working hours. So far everything seems to be going fine. The kids are happy and so am I. The first few weeks were spent in clearing the students' concepts and now it is time to fire up those assignments and quizes (The horns have started to grow).

I have now restarted iphone development but since I had not worked on it for quite some time, I had to restart it from scratch. Surprisingly, since i am teaching data structures, that really helped me in understanding objective C much better this time.

Anyway, I'll go for now, more news later.

Watch our dance moves

2009-07-24T14:51:00.001+03:00

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JOWLS!

2009-07-24T14:50:00.001+03:00

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Last blog from Finland

2009-05-27T01:28:00.003+03:00

As it turned out, I was unable to secure a job for myself in Finland. Today, that is 27th of May, I am leaving Finland for good. This is going to be my last post from the top of the world and my next posts will probably be from one of the hottest regions of the earth.

It has been almost 4 years since I started blogging. I wish that I had blogged on blogger from the begining as half of my blog is at MSN Spaces. But nonetheless, I kept on blogging from time to time and not too regularly as I had hoped. But still, it is better than nothing at all. today at 1:55 pm, I will be leaving Finland on Turkish Airlines and will set foot on my home soil at 3 am in the morning of 28th of May, which is also my birthday. Again, a scary thought as I will be 30 .. that is 3 decades old and yet to do a lot.

I also got hold of Mac OS X version 10.5.6 and plan on installing it on my laptop. I hope that gets installed as it is not an easy task to do so on an Intel machine. If, however, I am successful, I plan on doing some cool things. Lets see how it all goes.

So next time, i'll probably write a blog form my home country. Cheers!

Old games new engines

2009-05-05T17:40:00.002+03:00

Recently, for some reason, I have gotten really interested in many of the old FPSs that I once used to play. I started playing Doom Legacy ... just to kill zounds of monsters over and over again. It is a good mod for Doom 2 and makes many improvements. I wanted to try Doomsday mod too, but could not get it to work.

If you remember, the first FPS in the Star Wars saga was Dark Forces. It came out in the time between Doom 2 and Quake, and had graphics of the Doom era, that is, sprite based. The game was Dos based, so the only way you could play it was using the Dosbox on the latest windows like Vista or XP. But I recetly found out about the DarkXL mod that enhances the graphics of the original game, provides mouse look, makes it look much much better and also provides the functionality to play it in windows.

As I was searching for this mod, I came across the Dark Forces modification. It is actually a modification of the game Jedi Academy and gives you the first 6 levels of the Dark forces game, recreated using the Quake 3 engine. The work done here is quite outstanding and playing this mod is a treat. It is too bad that these guys are not making the complete game for some reason.

Right now I am downloading the Berserker mod for Quake 2 which makes it look as good as Quake 3 and in someplaces even better as it gives per pixel based realtime shadows. I will also install the high resolution textures that I found at a place and then I will check the mods of the games, Blood and Quake, if I get the time. If someone is also having an FPS nostalgia, I will be more than happy to help out.

Algorithms deja vu

2009-03-26T13:59:00.002+03:00

I recently decided that I should re-learn the different algorithms that I once knew. There is a great resource here, that I think everyone should try to brush up their skills. The lectures are from an MIT course so they ought to be good. I wanted to start today, but I cleaned the entire apartment and now I am sleepy. Maybe when I'll get up, I'll give it a try. Oh and I also had an interview at game lion recently. Lets see if I get selected or not.

Star Trek

2009-03-10T00:28:00.004+03:00

The new Star Trek movie is going to be out this May. It contains the charachters of the original series, which is the best series in my opinion and has me all excited. Do check out the trailer below:

Shadow of Empire

2009-03-05T19:14:00.003+03:00

If you have not noticed so far, i have created another blog, Shadow of Empire. I have been hard at work on my mobile game for the past 4 months or so. It is finally taking some shape and the results have been quite good. I think that the demo for it will be ready quite soon, so I thought that I should keep a website to post the latest updates and to remind myself of any new link that I find and which might help in completing the game.

You can go to its site to have a look.

I got engaged!

2009-01-20T00:40:00.004+03:00

Although the engagement took place on December 28, 2008, it is only now that I got a chance to write about it. It was held in Karachi at my Fiancee's home. I went there with my father and my uncle and aunt. It was a small ceremony where me and my fiancee sat on a sofa in the middle and I put the ring on her finger. Many people criticised that I put it too quickly ... but all I'll say is that:

1. How long does it take to put on a ring?

2. I must have been told to do the honours in slow motion.

3. I was in a hurry to get engaged finally!

Ever since the pictures have come, everyone says that we two look alike. And not that I see them, I also feel that we do look alike! The picture below is me and Humaira with my Uncle to the left and my father to the right.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

2009-01-07T14:21:00.006+03:00

My entire trip to Pakistan went as planned, with everything done on time (more on that later) and it went peachy... Except for the time when I headed back to Finland. And boy! Was it a trip full of unfortunate events!

I took my flight from Karachi on 1st of January and that is where all the misfortunes started. At first, the flight from Karachi got delayed, which made me miss my connection at Abu Dhabi. Once stuck in such a situation, you cannot leave the airport, which meant that I had to wait for 11 hours to get the next flight to Frankfurt from Abu Dhabi. 11 hours at an airport when you cannot sleep on a bench, is nothing less than torture... if you are tired. I was awake the whole time the day before so you have no idea how tough it was. I played Brood, watched TV shows and movies, chatted, went around roaming in the airport etc and yes, ate! when i finally boarded the aircraft that flight got delayed as well, which made me miss my next connection from Frankfurt.

Finally reaching Frankfurt, I had to do 3 more hours of waiting, I boarded the flight to Helsinki which arrived here at 130 am. I took a taxi and reached home, only to find out that I did not have the correct keys for my apartment! It was 230 am in the morning, -10 C temperature and I had no idea what to do! I did not even have the number in my cell, to call a taxi, but luckily, I had Zakariya's number. I called him up and got the taxi number from him.

The next taxi then took me to the nearest Hotel, where luckily, I found a room.. even though it was expensive ... 88 euros expensive :/. Later in the morning, I went to the apartment again, called the security company and got my apartment opened; which again cost me 60 Euros!

You would think that my miseries were over then, but when I went to sleep, I got up after 3 hours due to food poisoning :/. I remained bedridden for two days and it was only then that I recovered. That was one of my worst traveling experiences! The only good thing that came out of it all was that, it made me realise that God has blessed me with enough to take care of myself when needed! God has been good to me and I thank Him for it!

Pakistan Blues

2008-12-22T14:54:00.001+03:00

it is 14th december and i am sitting in my brother's apartment in Quetta. The room is too darn cold even though I have kept the heater running for the past 1 hour or so. He has some guests over, thus I thought that I should get down to writing a blog. The poor blog has been neglected for quite some time. There was nothing much to write anyway as there was nothing special that I had done, apart from that Heidelgerg trip to Germany, where I met up with Kutts. I should have blogged about that, but I could not find the energy to do that then.

My trip to Pakistan started on 11th of December, when I got up at 340 am and got ready to catch the bus 514, which picked me up from my doorstep (almost) and took me straight to the airport. The first flight was from helsinki to Frankfurt. The second one was from Frankfurt to Abu Dhabi and finally the last one was from Abu Dhabi to Karachi. By the time I arrived at Karachi, it was 5 am in the morning and I calculated that I had been travelling for more than 24 hours. I spent 2 days in Karachi and then headed off to Quetta. From here, I will head to Islamabad, where I will meet up with my father and the other brother and also, my nephew Ahmed.

Speaking of Quetta, the things are really tense. The militants are doing targetted killings. Whenever they see someone who looks to be from the military, they shoot them. They stop a bus, take out people who are from the army and shoot them on road-side. My brother was taking risk just by picking me up from the airport. He will take the same risk when he'll be dropping me off. I do hope that everything goes well then.

I can hear the guests going so it means that we will finally have dinner...yummy! This place is really really cold ... that is the thing to hate about Pakistani homes... no central heating and since these are all brick houses.. they get cold very quickly. Brrr.. I just got a shiver run across my spine. I guess this much blogging should do for now... talk to you guys later!

Fly off! O penguin of the North Pole!

2008-11-26T14:57:00.002+03:00

I know that penguins do not fly, but it is I, who is flying off soon to Germany this weekend. It is a trip that was planned last year, but only materialised this year. The whole point of this trip is to meet up with Kutts (Kindly refer to the Kutts Facts to the right) and pigout together in a KFC for old time's sake. It will be a meeting after 3 long years, during which, a lot has changed.

For once, I was a Bachelors then, now I am Masters, he was married then, now he is a dad. If Sameer is reading this then he might remember that the last time all three of us were together was in Islamabad when they treated me at the Cinnamon restaurant.

The flight is from Tampere as I am going through Ryan Air and will arrive at Hahn Airport in Frankfurt. Then hopefully we will have fun. I will take pictures and maybe put them up here. Otherwise you can check them on facebook.

Then, on 10th of December, I will be heading to Pakistan after a year. It will surely be a quick trip as I need to be at a lot of places and do not have much time. Some important things to do there, which you will get to know soon.

In other news, my job is going well and I am enjoying working here. Gyming is also going well so am currently doing good. Nothing more to say for now, maybe one day when I have something interesting to tell, i'll let you guys know.

Nokia 3110 Evolve

2008-10-29T12:00:00.003+03:00

I recently bought Nokia 3110 Evolve as my previous phone, SonyEricsson T230 finally gave up after 5 years of abuse. Since I got that phone for 5000 Rs, it cost me 1000 bucks a year to use it. That is quite an achievement for a low end phone. The reality is that, the phone is still working fine, but its keys cannot be pressed anymore, which is quite problematic if you want to send an SMS.

So I went for some phone searching and got this one from a sale for 99 euros. It also came with a free bluetooth device which I have not used yet. This phone is made up of recycled material, which makes it exceptionally light and the keys are really big and easy to press, which makes it superb for smsing. Its is a series 40 phone but performs much better than some of the earlier series 60 2nd and 3rd edition phones. The best thing is that, its menu isn't cluttered with useless applications, so it is really easy to use.

On top of that it is also an mp3 phone and supports an FM radio with 1.3 megapixel camera. Plays video, browses the net and runs Java games. I test all the java apps that i make on this phone and trust me, they are really easy to install. just put the JAR file anywhere and it runs it. After a full charge, it easily runs for 4 days under normal use, otherwise it has a 370 hours of standby time! And finally, it can be connected to a USB wire and then to your PC for easy data transfer.

I am not too fond of expensive mobiles. I want a good phone that does everything without much fuss and has good voice quality. This phone fits perfectly for all these tasks and I strongly recommend it if someone has similar requirements to that of mine. Otherwise... happy phone hunting!

The new apartment

2008-10-02T02:11:00.002+03:00

I just moved into the new apartment with Zac. Things have been going really well and I finally feel that I am at a more permanent place for a change. It is one thing to share an apartment with a total stranger and another to share it with a good friend. We have our long discussions about anime, series and movies and other things in life ... mostly about me missing out on all the 'fun' that I could have.

Yesterday we finished the Gears of War campaign on my xbox and it was a lot of fun. Today we started playing bionic commando, which is turning out to be really tough. I must say that GRIN has done an excellent job in making the remake of this game. It looks good and the controls are quite good and intuitive. We have found some levels to be quite hard though which really pissed us off today.

Anyway, we went out, had a fun time, came back, watched House MD and heroes and now Zac has gone to sleep while I type this blog. One thing that Zac got me into doing is to start relearning all the stuff that I once did during my bachelors. You know, once you are so far ahead in your professional life, you start to think that it will just take a lot of time to learn all that stuff again and that your life has a well defined path. But he got me into thinking that if I keep thinking that way, I will always have that deficiency, and all I have to do is to read a good book to fill that gap. so note to self, "MUST READ A GOOD BOOK!"

on the entertainment side, I vow to read the foundation series by isaac asimov

Noog!

2008-09-25T15:20:00.003+03:00

The social networking thing is all the craze nowadays. Everyone seems to be trying to get into it one way or the other which is not necessarily a bad thing, but with all those options available, it is hard to find the best networking site that suits your needs. I have been using Orkut for about 4 years now and I like it for the community support that it provides. The only other site that I use is surprise surprise, facebook. But i am not hooked to it. The only reason I use it is because I get to share pictures on it as it is really easy to do.

Anyway, a very good friend of mine, Abidoon, is going to launch his own social networking thing, known as Noog. Noog is only targetting the student community thus letting them to share academic information and keeping in touch. From what I have seen, the site looks extremely professional and well managed. it is not only that, its look is totally different than what you normally see. Abidoon is planning to launch it in a week's time and I am wishing him all the best. once you ppl get your hands on it, you will understand that how outstanding is the work that Aby has done.

Lead on Asif!

2008-09-18T23:22:00.006+03:00

Recently, Mr. 10%, also known as Asif Ali Zardari, became Mr. 100% as he became the President of Pakistan. This gave me an idea to start a blog about the state of the Pakistani nation under the supreme policies of one, Asif Ali Zardari. But this blog is with a twist... I am playing a game called Galactic Civilisations II, which is one hell of a turn based strategy game for galactic conquest. So I made a race known as The Pakistani and made Asif Ali Zardari as its leader.
Now I will be playing this game and posting on how well the Pakistani nation fares under the supreme leadership of Asif Ali Zardari. This will indeed involve a lot of underhand dealings, political back stabbing and opportunist approach to all the problems. from the screenshots below, you might get the idea that it will go pretty good...but, only time will tell.

Before and After

2008-09-11T18:57:00.002+03:00

As you might know that I had started gyming some 2 months back. These days I am taking a break because it is ramazan and I cannot work out during it... I can in fact, but it is very tough and does little to improve the physic. Anyway, the picture below is a comparison of how I was before I started my dieting and then weight training routine and after it in a lapse of 5 months.
I have managed to lose 9 kgs and my pot belly has gone down considerably. I plan on restarting the gym routine once ramazan is over. you can still see a slight hint of doublechin which will go in the days to come as i lose more weight. 8 more kgs to go and then I will be in perfect shape!

Blog deserted!

2008-08-13T12:40:00.001+03:00

yeah! been a while since i wrote anything here ... even though I have been to quite a few places in the past month. I should get back to some serious blogging in a while. maybe, after I move to a new place.

A definition on gait

2008-07-18T13:14:00.002+03:00

I was recently defined by a friend of mine (Kutts) on the basis of how I walk. this is what he had to say:

Saqib: youre a tip-toe-ing penguin man-boy-pehelwaan

I know one another person who has called me a penguin for a long time ... but hearing the penguin reference again solidifies that comparison.

Going 3D

2008-07-17T14:05:00.003+03:00

I have been at my job for a month now. The good thing about this job is that it is peaceful, I have my own work area and I am working on the stuff that I have always wanted to do and that being 3D graphics programming.

I am using Microsoft's XNA Tools and C# to do all the 3D programming. The good part is that, so far I have been able to create what I was asked and in the time I was asked to do it. The bad thing is that going a bit advance is getting complicated to work in. So far my efforts have been fruitless, but that does not mean that I am going to give up on it. I have created a terrain that changes with the sound input. now I want to do the same by creating 3D bars that change length with the sound input. That part has been both confusing and frustrating. maybe I am trying to do a lot in too less a time and am not giving proper time to think my algos correctly. Anyway, I will get it done sooner or later.

Apart from that, I have also started weight training and jogging. It has been almost 3 weeks and I have been regular so far. I intend to keep this routine up and get in shape. They say that I will start to see some difference after 8 weeks' time. right now,I wish that my left arm was as strong as my right one. it becomes a bit difficult to increase weights while working with my left arm. lets hope that it gains strength soon and keeps up with my right arm.

thats it for now!

Graduated

2008-06-15T00:13:00.016+03:00

I was in Tampere for 12, 13 and 14 this week. My graduation ceremony was on 13th at 6 pm and it turned out to be pretty boring. I can't believe that I had to buy shoes for that occasion and it came out to be so boring. I had heard the same, but I went anyway thinking that graduation ceremonies happen only once.

It had speeches, some music playing and finished with wine serving. No, that is not wine that I am holding, it is apple juice, put there specially for those who do not drink wine. Out of my entire batch that came in 2005, only 3 of us guys graduated, including me. here are a few pictures of us.

After the ceremony, we were feeling hungry, so went to ate pizza with tayyab, shehzad, thanya (the thai girl in the picture) the thai guy, vera (the finnish girl not in the picture) and had a good time there. later, me, shehzad and tayyab went to see the incredible hulk in cinema. The movie was okayish, nothing great.

The picture in which I am standing alone and with my tie slightly to the side is the one we took after we came out of cinema. you can see that I look tired in that one.

Anyway, today after having lunch, I came back to Helsinki, went to get the keys for my new apartment. Stayed with Hanan for a while, discussed many things ranging from education to politics and then ran to catch the bus thus bringing the discussions to a close.

I will be doing the hard work of shifting tomorrow so that I can walk to my work place from the next day. yes the new apartment is at a walking distance to my new place, so it will give me the much needed exercise that I want these days.

Ok that is all that i have to say right now and you can tell with all the disjoint paras that I am not in a mood to write a good blog. I thought that i should pen something down before going to sleep and put some pictures up. I have a video for my graduation ceremony too, but it is in mp4 format and I do not know if youtube or blogspot supports that. if it does, I will upload it. till next time, bye!

Guess who is a research assistant?

2008-06-08T16:15:00.004+03:00

As I had mentioned in my last post that I needed to give an interview for a research position, and so i did and so I got the position :D Yippee! This is the place where I will be working from 16th of June and you can see that the type of work they are doing is really awesome. I will be working on touch screen interfaces, computer graphics, OpenGl and other cool stuff. The sort of stuff every computer programmer wants to work in.

This solves few of my problems, the first being "not returning to Pakistan" and the second being, "getting a visa so I may not return to Pakistan". I am going to get my job letter tomorrow and then head straight from there to the police station, to apply for my visa. I hope that they give me a temporary work permit so that I may start asap.

With that said, there is one huge problem that has come up. It is finding a new apartment for myself and that too, possibly near the place I will be working. I am leaving the one I am currently at by the end of June. I will not even keep it if I wanted to because it is too far away. I live in one end of Helsinki and the job place is in another city right next to Helsinki, called Espoo. I checked the bus route for tomorrow's trip and this is what came up:

and if you look at the map it looks kind of like the map here. I live in Vuosaari and have to commute to Spektri in Espoo.

So, its 70 minutes of traveling if I manage not to miss a bus, which sometimes just happens. Anyway, who does not want to live in a place that is a walk away from your home? you can always work as long as you want and come when you want and it keeps things really simple.

now to celebrate my current emplyment, I brought Dr. Pepper and 6 cans of coke. I had never tried Dr. pepper before and my impressions are that, its just another drink, nothing extraordinary. I loved the coke cans though ... it has been a while since I drank any soft drink as I had been dieting (lost 5 kgs by eating only tuna sandwiches and boiled chicken). I might have regained 1 kg after that many cans of coke however.

I am also graduating on 13th and will be wearing a suite for the occassion. The main aim for which I came to Finland is going to be realised soon. I do hope that I get some pictures and a video for the occassion. Anyway, I had planned toclean up my room and put things in order over this weekend, so that is what i am going to do right now. No matter how many times I clean my place, it always ends up being a mess.

Tampere Visit

2008-06-03T11:59:00.002+03:00

I am right now in Tampere as I wanted to get a few things done. First of all, getting my degree and transcripts, and secondly to get my printed thesis. I have already acquired my printed thesis and it looks great! For some reason, my degree is not ready yet, even though I had informed before hand to get it ready. There might have been some confusion regarding it, which, I am going to clarify in about 30 mins. Then, I need to go to my bank and discuss about the possibility of keeping my bank account even if I am abroad. then, I will head home and try to change my ticket for the way home.

I have an interview tomorrow for a research position in Espoo. Espoo is a city right next to Helsinki... it take about 20 minutes of bus ride to reach Helsinki. Apart from that, there is a good Pakistani student community over there which is a good thing if I plan to stay here longer. Lets hope that I am able to bag the that position as that will solve many of my problems, which also includes getting a visa and the inconvenience related to going back to Pakistan.

by the way, Zakariya is also coming to helsinki in September, thus it will be great if I get to stay here during that time. Zac was one of the TAs who worked with me during my GIKI days and we had a good time there. Let us hope that I get lucky in getting that research position which is also one of the things that I want. That's all for now!

The hunt is on

2008-05-27T18:02:00.003+03:00

Job hunt that is. I have applied to so many places already that I have lost track. It is not easy to apply to a place. Write a covering letter, attach your CV and send it individually. Plus, many of the companies want you to create an online profile, that takes 30 - 40 minutes just to complete. Then you send the application and do not hear from the company.

Too many rejections already, but that is the norm when you are applying for a job. Let us see if I get a job before the end of next month. If I do not, then I'll need to go back to Pakistan and my foreign trip will be over for good.

The pre-alpha build

2008-05-18T20:56:00.002+03:00

This is the pre-alpha build of my game. This does not show much, but should give a good idea about how it plays.

My thesis online

2008-05-09T16:06:00.001+03:00

It is now available at my university's website. You can check it out here

We come in peace (Updated)

2008-05-08T00:34:00.003+03:00

After a day's hard work, I now have full scrolling background. As you see in the picture below, there is the far off city at the back, which moves the slowest, then the line of trees and finally the buildings, which of course move the fastest.

All the motion of the background and the spaceship has been coded and the fun part regarding the abductions and movement of different species comes now. This is the game logic that we are talking about and it will require some really good code to be put down. I am also going to try and add crowd behavior to the population, let us see if that is successful.

By the way, I am not totally happy with how everything looks in the screenshot. If some one can lend a hand in making them appear more lively, I'll be more than happy to accept the help.

Here is the screenshot:

We come in peace

2008-05-05T03:22:00.002+03:00

That is the title of the new game that I am making these days, using the XNA game tool. The idea is that, you have a spaceship and you are supposed to abduct humans. There is much more to it that I am letting out at this time.

as you can see from the screenshot, you control the UFO and there are buildings in the background, also clouds and many more effects will be added later. right now I need to make the buildings scroll as you move the space ship. there are going to be some buildings in the fore ground too which will scroll faster. I am thinking of making some sort of crowd behavior... I still need to come up with a good algorithm and design to do just that. I did not work on it today, but tomorrow's task is going to make a separate class for background objects and then apply proper scrolling algorithm. Lets see if I get it to work.

here is the screenshot:

Thesis Evaluation

2008-04-24T13:38:00.002+03:00

That which is done

2008-04-21T14:08:00.003+03:00

It is done, it is finished, it is history! That is right, the last exam for my MS is done. I am a free man now. The maturity test is over and now all that is left is to fix the software (if I want to) and fix the thesis(if I want to as well, it is done more or less) and that's about it.

I came to Tampere yesterday, stayed with Shehzad and woke him up in the morning because I was having a bad dream :/. This is the second nightmare that I had in the past 2 weeks. In the first one, Peshawar was nuked and in this one, I was running away from somemthing really sinister, did not know what.

anyway, after my test, I went and applied for my university degree and also went to get 2 courses corrected which had been marked as intermediate courses where as they were advance courses. Once that was done, I headed for some food and right now I am sitting in the university's study room writing my blog. Yawn! I am really sleepy at the moment, but I have to stay awake for a as Shehzad and Tayyab are going to meet me in 2 hours' time. What to do till then? I think I'll play a game and pass the time that way. Oh, btw, my suprevisor said himself today that he liked my work :D Yaaaaay!

12:45 pm

2008-04-20T12:45:00.002+03:00

Thats the time when I started writing this post. I am just waiting for the Zohr time to hit so that I can pray and leave for Tampere. Tomorrow is the maturity test for my thesis and I have not read a thing. I will probably read about it on my way to Tampere. I cannot wait for this test to be over, so that I may apply for the graduation. It is good that all this is coming to a close finally. I will be so relaxed once its done and might even treat myself by buying GTA IV! Which also does not mean that I would not have bought it anyway, but this time around, its an excuse to buy it, otherwise I would feel guilty in doing so.

Nothing much is new however. Days are spent working on thesis and weekends are spent playing starcraft. I just applied to a place in Tampere for a job. Its high time that I find one and that too in time before I run out of finances.

Thesis Defence

2008-04-18T09:57:00.002+03:00

Finally, the day has arrived when I am going to do my thesis's defense. It is called a Maturity Test here, which requires you to write an essay about your thesis. The idea is that, if you have done the thesis yourself, you can write about it. Apart from that, they also want to see if you can write good English which they check in their language center. If all goes well, then this is the last exam that I will need to take for my MS.

The thesis itself is under review by another professor and once he okays it, it will be sent for printing. This also requires that I apply for graduation as soon as possible, in order to get my degree by the end of May.

These have been the longest 2.5 years of my life, and it had its series of ups and downs but now it is all coming to a close. It is a nice warm feeling :).

More MS updates

2008-04-09T13:31:00.004+03:00

I have been at home for a month now. The main reason for it was to finish my thesis. Writing a thesis and that too in less than 15 days is no easy task. It means that you need to write at least 3 pages a day, which is much difficult than it sounds. Anyway, i just finished writing 52 pages and sent the draft to my supervisor. If he approves of it, then i will apply for graduation at my university. This will bring a long chapter of my life to a close. A chapter worked on and completed all by myself and that too with good overall result.

Right now, I am completing a basic game so that I can display how my software really works. The game is really simple. You have a car and you have to move while avoiding obstacles. I know its really dry a concept, but my aim was not to make a good game, just a demo to show off what my software does. If you still do not know then look at this sample of a screenshot. The car in it looks too bland. If you want to make it look like Ferrari F1, all you got to do is open the in game editor and draw it yourself, no coding or recompiling involved. its that easy.

On the gaming front, I have been playing Starcraft and Supreme Commander on weekends and Call of Duty 4 almost daily. Speaking of which, I am about to gain Prestige a second time, which means that i am going to level up to 56, the second time. Prestige puts your name right on top of the leader boards for everyone to see. But to get that, you have to give up all the weapons and upgrades and start from scratch.

right now, I am about to get 10,000 kills and my kill to death ratio is 1.12 with accuracy of 17.38% oh and my longest killing streak has been 21.

thats it for now, more game talk later... I better get back to work

The Moon

2008-03-26T23:55:00.003+03:00

Yesterday, when I was about to sleep, I saw the moon shining brightly in a clear sky. It hit me just at that moment that it had been some 3 months before I had a glimpse of moon in the night sky. The time that I spend inside the four walls of my room has been a bit too much and I should spend some time outside. Another reason for this absence of moon during the nights is the persistent cloudy weather of Finland.
It shone bright last night and it looked really beautiful with its light filtering through the clouds. Sometimes we remain so busy in our daily life that we miss up on some of the most striking sights in our lives.

Thesis update

2008-03-18T20:41:00.002+03:00

My thesis has finally reached a stage where I can say that its 95% complete. What remains is XML reading and writing. The code is already there in the project, all i need to do is to make it work. The emulator that I am using for some reason is not running it. I think I will finish this last part in my office.

when this is done, i will go to my supervisor and ask him to accept the thesis as it is, and that being, not adding anything extra. If he agrees, then I will be on my way to writing this thesis and hopefully graduating by the end of May. so this means that I will have the month of April to complete the entire thesis writing procedure. It is going to be hard, but it is still manageable. 2 pages a day will hopefully get the thing done.

3 years in an MS is a long time, better finish it as soon as possible

Naruto: Rise of the ninja

2008-02-29T03:35:00.006+03:00

I recenty got myself Naruto: Rise of the ninja. yes, I confess that I am a big fan of Naruto and follow its Manga (Comics) religiously. This game has been out for a while and I had heard good reviews about it. This game is part adventure and part versus action game. that is, you go around exploring and when you have battles, they are played out Street Fighter style. I must say that the animation is really fluid and its a treat to watch all the battles.

Speaking of visuals, the developers have created the entire leaf village, which looks absolutely gorgeous. Then, when you want to make those hand seals, you do a simple combination and fire up your jutsu (super power move).

The game has a story mode that follows the anime's story, but sadly it is not as engaging as the anime was. All the sounds in the game are in English, but i recently downloaded japanese sounds to play when i play the game.

Those who are a fan of this series, should try this game out and those who are not, should watch the anime because it has a great story. I collected a few screenshots and videos, which, you can watch below:

Here is the trailer:

and the review:

and some pictures to let you see how good it looks.

GIK's Parting Memories

2008-02-27T18:14:00.004+03:00

One of the saddest things that happened in GIKI was that, I could never get a single graduation picture and the the convocation video made by my brother was skillfully overwritten without taking into account that the video might hold some value.

Anyway, as it turns out, mubeen had a video camera at that time, and even though I remember that he used it, I had already forgotten that I was the one who made the last video of GIKI with him with all of my comments and excellent photography :D. Here are a few videos that he recently uploaded. You can see me in the videos and then hear my commentary as my move around with Mubeen making the video.

Another good thing is that, you get to see Mandi, Kutts, Hammy, Nikka, Piracha, Bharam and a few other guys in the videos. So if you want to have some good GIKI nostalgia, see the videos right now.

Last day in GIKI Part 1:

Last day in GIKI Part 2:

The convocation

Thesis flows

2008-02-26T01:56:00.002+03:00

In my last post, I was not too happy with the state of my thesis... now one day later, since I have fixed all the bugs, the thesis has finally started to take shape. The thing to do now is to get the XML parser working and once that is done, I think I will be on my way to completing the thesis real soon. Th problem is that, I need to convince my supervisor that the amount of work that I have done already is enough to count as thesis work. If he agrees, then all that will be left is going to be writing the 60+ page thesis and do the final touches on my code.

wish me luck!

My thesis woes

2008-02-24T23:27:00.002+03:00

I do not think I ever explained what my thesis is about so here goes. the idea is to make a game engine that you compile once and then you get to change it as you please. Thus a normal user, who does not know any programming can change the game as he sees fit, without changing any code. the idea is great, if I say so myself but I have been having problems in the so many bugs that have popped up.

Somewhere, some code is being executed twice, which is making the objects show up twice. I want to get this thing fixed before I move on, but finding the wrong code is becoming problematic. oh well, back to work.

Deezer

2008-02-24T23:19:00.002+03:00

I recently found out about Deezer, thanks to Saad Kiani, who was having problems installing anything on his office's computer. The idea is simple, have an online music player that keeps track of the songs you hear. So, you do not need to install any music player, just log into the site, make your track list and start listening, as simple as that. Those who would rather listen to songs that are according to their taste but not exactly what the have on their playlist, they should check out last.fm. Its a good way to listen to the new songs as it picks up songs according to your liking and plays them. Enjoy!

The angry baby

2008-02-14T19:07:00.003+03:00

On 12th of February, another family member has been added to our family. This time its Ahmad Jamal, My second nephew, who arrived at 7 pm. My brother was exhausted on that day for obvious reasons, so it took him 2 days to gather the pictures up and upload them for all to see. The kid is really angry. He has smiled twice in 3 days' time and right now when I called them up, he was crying his heart out. Looks like people will need to be really careful around this kid.

Ever since I saw the pictures, I really want to hold the kid in my hands, so it looks like that I will need to go to Pakistan quickly. The kid is really healthy Mashallah which is good and I pray that he may stay healthy like this all the time.

Its funny in a way that my other nephew, Rafay, came some 7 months ago and now, 7 months later, he is already a bhaijan.

Sigh! if only mom was here, she would have been really happy.

Company of Heroes: The must have strategy game

2008-02-13T03:05:00.000+03:00

In the real time strategy gaming world, where the norm is to build up a base, set up economy and then churn out forces, we have to agree that it has become too stale. We hoped for a breath of fresh air with the coming of Warcraft 3 which, in my opinion was a complete disaster with its extensive use of magic, buffs and all sorts of stupid icons being displayed on your units’ heads.

Then comes Company of Heroes, a breath of fresh air, a game so different that it totally changed the concept of real time strategy. Gone are the high tech science fiction weapons or crazy ass magic spells that sorcerers fire from their behinds. Here we have World War II era weapons, battling it out on mountain tops, country side and small towns. If you have played any of the WWII games, all the weapons are here and even some that you did not know that they existed. But rest assured, all are tied in well with history.

The basic mechanics are the same. You have a base, you build buildings and, you make forces. What is different is the resource mechanic. The developers used the Warhammer 40,000 : Dawn of War resource mechanic, where capturing the territory, gives you the resources. If the captured territory is not linked, you will not get resources. So the idea is to capture as much of the map as you can and keep it linked to keep a continuous flow of resources. Then there are three types of resources, munitions, fuel and manpower. Fuel is very important for all researches. Munitions is very important to use those researches. For example, if you researched grenades, then every time you throw a grenade, it costs 25 munitions. Also, the special abilities cost munitions and manpower too.

Then, when you battle it out, you gain experience points, much like in C&C generals, but you use these points after selecting the doctrine that you want to use. May it be Infantry oriented, armor oriented, defense oriented, it all depends on your playing style.

Speaking of playing styles you have 2 playable sides in the original (German Wehrmacht and Americans). The expansion pack, Opposing Fronts, adds the British and the Panzer Elite as 2 more sides. There is no buildup time. The game starts and you get right into the action and trust me the action in this one is extraordinary. There are so many things that need to be considered just like in real warfare. If your units are moving, they have less accuracy. If they enter a building, then the number of units that can shoot outside depends on the number of windows in that building. The infantry gets suppressed by machine gun fire. Tanks take more damage if you attack them from behind. There are three types of covers, green (strong cover), yellow (medium cover) and red (negative cover). The damage inflicted on the troops also depends on the type of cover they are in. It is these minor details that really make the game stand out.

And finally, the graphics; the game is beautiful and now with DirectX 10 support, it looks remarkable. But if you have a low end machine, that is, a machine that has nVidia geforce 6200 or equivalent, it will still run on it.

I have played enough multiplayer to decide that this game shines in that department as well, in fact, it is 10 times more fun than any RTS that is out there today. So if you are an RTS enthusiast, buy this game without a second thought and play it today. For more details, do visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_of_heroes

Coding when sleepy causes some frustrations

2008-01-21T04:19:00.000+03:00

I have always enjoyed coding till late at night, but today, a little part of my code had me totally pissed for the mistake that i was making.

public ColorRectangle(int red, int green, int blue)
{
red = this.red;
green = this.green ;
blue = this.blue ;
}

this, along with the sudden mood of eclipse to not compile my program due to some unknown error that got solved all by itself after a computer reboot, had me busy for quite some time. In the end, both problems were solved and I was able to make my color picking menu:

Previously, it looked really cool due to some unknown paint glitch in my code. all the colors appeared to be in a shade which gave a cool 3D feeling. anyway, the menu is running, which is good enough for me, for now. On to making the menu navigation...

2007 Ends with a BANG!

2007-12-29T12:06:00.000+03:00

The bang being the motorcycle bomber and the death of Benazir. Apart from that, I got my new digital passport after a tiresome turn of events. That is a long story, but what I'll tell everyone is that, if you live in Islamabad, go to G-10 markaz for the passport office and if you live in Rawalpindi, go to Hajji Camp. If you end up at the wrong office, you will have your time wasted, and will be in a bad situation concerning the 2100 Rs. Chalan.

My flight is tomorrow, that is, 30th of December and I will pass the new year eve sleeping, as that will be the time when I will reach Finland. I wonder, how many leaves do i have left when I will finally end up in Helsinki.

I have almost no luggage to pack and will do all the packing at night. Oh, and, remember the camera that I bought? Its lens got stuck as it fell from my hand. I do hope that its warranty covers this defect. If not, then i am in for a loss of 150 euros.

Oh the thesis! How will I end thee?

2007-12-16T15:52:00.000+03:00

The progress on my thesis has been really slow. Its a problem to work when you have to get up and pick up the phone, bring rotis, see who is at the door and then not allowed to stay up late to work.

I do hope that i get some progress, if not much, so that when i get back, i do not have much of the coding left to do. and all that is left is writing about my thesis. this also brings me to the topic of finding a PhD in USA. I better start my search for the universities, or i will be too late to go this year.

so now I push myself to code a bit

Life goes on

2007-12-07T05:59:00.000+03:00

It has almost been a month since mom passed away and life is getting back to normal. One of my bhabis is managing all the household chores, while my brother goes to work. Dad is getting better and I can now find time to sit on my laptop for longer durations.

My time here had been hectic so far. Coming home, spending time with guests, family, traveling. I've been to Peshawar twice already and we will again be going there on Eid. Got my documents for passport submitted and it was one big hassle which I do not want to tell here. Now I just want to spend more time at home, away from everything and everyone (not from family of course).

On the way to Peshawar as Abbu sleeps

Met with sameer in Peshawar and now I think I should change kutts facts to sameer facts, because sameer has expanded into a behemoth and will put kutts to shame. And as always, sameer had no idea and no clue as to what he plans to do in life. But as long as he keeps treating me to some free KFC dinners, I do not really mind his future plans as long as they contain me getting treats.

The time spent at my bro's place in Peshawar was fun. Got treated to many nice dinners and had a good time with bro and bhabi.

At home, Rafay, my nephew gets most of my attention. Right after the picture below, he managed to put his toe in his mouth and suck on it. Anything that he can get his hands on, ends up in his mouth, my neck, collar cheeks, fingers etc.

Rafaybatics

Asim Ghaffar came to meet me and took me to MacDonalds for a treat which I enjoyed. Here we are in front of Cinepax.

Beams and beaming smiles

Things go normal, they always do but the gap left by Ammi is still there and I do not think that it can ever be filled. Yet, we all go on and we must go on.

Miscalculation of 40 days

2007-11-10T14:53:00.000+03:00

Today is the saddest day of my life. My whole world was turned upside down at 3 am in the morning when my father called and told me that my mother had passed away.

Inna lillahe wa inna ilaihe rajeuun

Finland gave me many things but took away the time that I would've spent with my mother as she will be laid to rest.

She always used to come online on the weekend to talk to me and she did not last night. I found it a bit strange but it was late here already so I did not call home. She laid down in the computer room as she always did and then did not get up. The only solace that I find in all this is that she went peacefully.

I just talked to IT and he asked me that he cannot begin to imagine how I felt and I replied,

"Its just empty space, a void, you try to place anything there and nothing fits and you know that nothing can fit. All the love, care, trust, faith, everything just gone, stripped away and you feel like you will never be loved that way ever again.

You love someone and you want it to be returned in full, but you always get more than you asked for, now that is gone forever... in a single instant, one sentence and its all gone."

Whoever reads this, just call home right now, tell your mom that you love her, even if it is really hard to do. I always did that now I cannot, so do not let this chance be taken away from you because it will be.

I had waited for 25 months and kept on counting days till I get back and meet my mom. Now that day will never come. How will this void be ever filled? Below is the picture of her with me at my brother's mehndi. Can't hold her like that ever again.

I met House M.D ... almost

2007-11-09T19:26:00.000+03:00

I had informed you guys that I had been having problems with my left eye, which included watching 2 images with it and having a growth on the top eyelid. This called for action and that meant going to a doctor for checkup. This is a big thing because it takes about a month to get an appointment time and if you are unable to reach the place, you are charged for not canceling the appointment. That is what happened with my last appointment and with a month of delay I finally was able to get my checkup.

The doctor in this case was not your everyday sweet and well mannered doctor. He was one rude asshole and only if I had not seen House M.D. I would have been really pissed rather than enjoy the way he treated me.

When I came in he asked me what was wrong and when he saw my eye he said, "Oh! that is apparent." I then added that it was not the only thing that is wrong with it, to which he added, "I do not have time for anything else, sorry about that." Hearing this, I got amused and then I explained to him anyway that I was seeing two images with my left eye to which he got a bit interested ... like House and then properly examined my eye.

While he was switching lenses to make me see better, he asked if I can see better. The thing with watching two images is that, even if you have the correct number on the lens, since the images merge together, you cannot really say, so I said that, its clearer but I still see two images. To that he said, "I didn't ask if I could see two images or not, just asked if I could see better." Very
charming fellow don't you think?

Anyway, the verdict as given by him was that, the growth needs to be taken out before anything else is done and the two image problem can be solved easily with proper lenses as I have astigmatism and refraction problems. So I guess I am going to recover some time soon and I hope that I get the operation done before I go to Pakistan.

Gears of War

2007-11-08T00:37:00.000+03:00

I finally finished Gears of War on xbox 360

I must say that it was really enjoyable and i had fun all the way. a few things that really bothered me were getting stuck to the walls when you are trying to run and the AI of my team mates was horrible. I played most of it as Coop and i must say that whoever buys this game, should play it as coop. this is not fun as a single player game... well it's fun but not as much as coop.

great graphics, great gameplay, few annoying glitches but the whole experience is so enjoyable that they do not matter.
The story sucked with no heads or tails. Cutscenes were done amazingly well but they were predictable. The voice acting was done well and i liked the alien voices too.

The enemy variety was not that much but the enemy AI was quite good. I played it on hardcore difficulty so sometimes you get to try a lot of times to pass a stage. That is my recommended difficulty to play. I am going to try it with insane difficulty next, so lets hope that its not too difficult.

The camera angles are sometimes annoying when you are trying to throw a grenade or sprinting. You do not get to see where the grenade might end up or where you are running to; even though the grenade shows its trajectory.

weapon variety is really small:

pistol/revolver almost useless
machinegun which fires small bursts (you rarely use it)
machinegun which fires long bursts and has chainsaw
shotgun
explosive bow (very limited ammo)
rocketlauncher (very very limited ammo)
grenades
sniper rifle
hammer of dawn (used in scripted places only)

with that said, i always enjoy games with ballistic weapons rather than energy weapons, so it was really fun to use the guns over and over again. I loved the chainsaw... if only it would work all the time. The reloading technique is fun too.

I played it on multiplayer and its a lot of fun there. People use good tactics and the action is fast and frenetic

Its a must buy and if you do not play it online, you are missing 60% of the fun of and the picture above is in-game.... so is the video below... I like the song.

Dune

2007-11-07T01:09:00.000+03:00

He who controls the spice, controls the universe

I finally read the all time best Science Fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert. It was interesting and every bit the way I had imagined the Dune universe. I came across Dune with Dune 2 which was the first ever real time strategy game which set the foundations for all strategy games to follow.

After reading the book, watching the TV series was a treat. I suggest that who so ever has not seen the series, do not see it unless you have read the book. The series is true to the book and there are going to be many things that will not make sense unless you have read the book. I also watched the other series Children of Dune, which is much better made and acted. Even though I have not read the novels on which it is based, it was fun to see it and was understood easily. If you get the chance and are a fan of science fiction, this book is not to be missed.

Winter has arrived

2007-11-07T00:57:00.000+03:00

It snowed here 3 days back, which gave a bit of an indication that the winter has finally arrived. With temperatures reaching -30 C sometimes, this is no easy winter. It feels that harsh, but since you hardly spend any time outside, you do not get to feel that much. This photo shows how it looks from outside my apartment. Snow has melted now but believe me, there is going to be loads after loads of snow in the coming days.

Yoda in the family

2007-10-25T00:17:00.000+03:00

You all might think that this is the great jedi master Yoda, but its none other than my nephew Rafay. His favorite habits are smiling, sleeping, watching TV (yes, he is 3 months old and watches TV) and crying at night. Anyway, this is the youngest member in the family after me so let me celebrate a little.... yaaay!
According to my brother, he talks to him with his babylingish for hours and smiles at any new face that he sees. By the looks of it, he is going to be a very active child and a geek ... qualities that will make his uncle proud.

Wii ... 10 minutes fun

2007-10-18T22:49:00.000+03:00

We have Wii in the office. If you had been living under a rock, then let me explain what Wii is. Nintendo launched their latest console which had basic graphics and advance controls. In my opinion it is the best control scheme that anyone has ever come up with... I give nintendo full credit for that. The controls are based on motion sensing, so you play games as if you play them in real life. Got a gun, aim and shoot. Got a golf club, swing it... well you get the idea.

My experience with Wii has been brief and that is because, its 10 minutes of fun. You like the idea and all for the first 10 minutes and then it gets boring. Just do not take my word for it here is the link that says it all.

So we had a small Wii party in the office and I got to do some boxing. Don't mind my weird posture as I could not make out how my punches were being thrown in this boxing game. After I knock the guy down, i was actually checking if going round has any effect on the motion sensing, but it came up as if i was dancing. Anyway, here is the small clip:

A bad day, Monday

2007-10-08T20:52:00.000+03:00

Today was a bad day, I got up late and after getting ready to work, just as I entered the lift, i realised that i had forgotten my keys inside. I called up Juke and asked him if he has a spare key that he can lend me so that I can enter the apartment. Luckily he did, so i took the metro to his office. Just as I stepped out of the metro, I realised that I had forgotten my umbrella in it.

Luckily it was not raining in that part of Helsinki so I got the keys from Juke and then started walking to my office. Unluckily, by that time the rain had resumed and I got wet on the way to my office. The work was boring and I kept yawning all day.

My left eye is giving me problems for the time being. There is some growth inside the upper eyelid and also, I have dual vision which makes it harder to read anything. I have an appointment with the doctor on 17th so lets hope that it is nothing serious.

4 rozas left and i cannot wait for them to be over. Rozas are difficult in a foreign country specially if you are working. They mess up your schedule which is very important if you go to office daily. as long as i was a student, they were not a problem, now they are. anyway, so far so good, just a few days more.

A friend left Finland for good

2007-10-07T04:10:00.000+03:00

Haroon, a B10 guy, whom I did not know before coming to Finland and made good friends after being here, finally went to Pakistan. His actual destination is Japan, where he is going to do his PhD but what I meant to say is that, he won't be coming here for a while.

Well, this is good bye to Haroon till we meet again... someday

I sold my soul today

2007-09-28T21:10:00.000+03:00

Yes, I did it, I finally did it. I do not have any excuse, I do not call it sanity and I still cannot believe that I gave away a lump sum to Microsoft, a sum that is more than a month's rent. I gave it all away to get what you see in the pictures below.

Yes, this is XBox 360 Limited Halo 3 Edition. It was 25 Euros expensive than the Premium version and both do not have anything different apart from the cool Halo finish that this one has. Was it worth the extra money? HELL YEAH! Plus, it comes with the 65 nm Falcon processor, which will put an end to the 3 rings of death (Hopefully). So why did I do it? Why when I was pro PS3 all the time? The reason is simple, I am still pro PS3 and i will get it when the time comes, but for now, the reasons for me are:

Gears of War
Bioshock
Mass Effect
Halo 3
Ace Combat 6
Condemned 2

Need I say more? Well anyway, once i take the box apart, more pictures will follow. By the way, I do not have a TV at the moment. If my attempt to run xbox on my laptop via a TV tuner card fails, then I will get a TV as well.
This is why we earn...

Sameer's weight loss plan

2007-09-26T14:04:00.000+03:00

A few days back, I asked Sameer to get Internet installed. He told me that he will not as then he will keep playing it and will not lose weight. When I asked what he will do to lose weight then, check this strip to know...

Blabbering Wombat

2007-09-25T20:42:00.000+03:00

This strip is in honour of the blabbering wombat aka Wajiha.

There and back again

2007-09-23T22:26:00.000+03:00

This weekend was passed in the good old Tampere. Whenever I visit Tampere, I have that homely feeling over there. Me and Jon had initially planned to play paint ball, but since it was raining, we had to settle for cart racing. Its like formula one racing on a very small scale and trust me, its not easy. The steering wheel is very tight and by the time i finished 10 laps, my hands were aching. Apart from that, you get to experience all those G-forces due to the extreme bends and by the time you finish, you can feel some strange stretching in your back.
Afterwards, we went bowling in which i performed poorly. My hands were aching and some how i could never get the right ball for me. Later that night, Jon took me to a very nice Chinese restaurant, where I had a fried salmon steak. That was the first time that I really enjoyed food here in Finland, and unfortunately, it was not Finnish food (sorry Finnish people)

Then today I met up with Shahzad, Tayyab and Haroon, took my jacket and student card from Shahzad and headed to Helsinki via train. A drunk guy sat right next to me and went to sleep. When the ticket checking guy came, he woke the guy up for ticket and the drunkard started to have a fight with him. The end result was, the train had to be stopped and the drunkard thrown out. Its just sad to see that in such a civilised country, they still have this drinking problem. This is one of the banes for this society and I do hope that they realise that the problems with alcohol are far more than the benefits.

Anyway, I arrived home and then, as always, had to wait for prayers to be over and right now am planning to sleep. I do hope that i get up for sehri, which seems unlikely now as it is almost 11 pm here. No pictures this time folks, as I forgot to take the camera with me :(

Time for 2 songs with good videos

2007-09-20T16:05:00.000+03:00

If you guys have not noticed yet, the music scene has become really bad in the past few years. You can hardly hear a good song and since I have not seen regular TV for about 2 years now, I do not get to see a lot of videos. Recently I came across two videos of two songs that I liked. The first one is One Two Three Four by Feist. I like the song because its totally different from what you hear these days and secondly, the video is very colourful and cool. Here, have a look:

The other one is the song, Koop Island Blues by Koop. The song is good but some how this video makes it sound even better. Such a carefree song with all the destruction and mayhem going in the back ground. This is from the game World in Conflict, which got 95% on gamespot. IT, if you are reading this, you know where to try the mettle of your gaming rig.

NostalGIK

2007-09-18T22:38:00.000+03:00

When I went to Sweden to meet up with KB, I got hold of the many pics from GIKI that KB had on his drive. I will say that I am not too proud of the many pics of myself that I took, but these are still memories. I am posting them all here for you guys to have a look. I look like such a small kid!

This is me raza and Sarfaraz

Do not give me a camera, or this is how I will take the pictures
Just before final exam 1
Getting chummy with Asim

A sight too common these days

Just before our final presentation

You guys might be wondering that why most of the pictures are from the same place. Well, it was a digital camera that was given to Asim Pai for his FYP. Whenever I went to his room, I took pictures. I am glad that I did, because these are the only pictures that I have got while I was in GIKI. I do hope that you guys enjoyed the pictures.

CD Key doesn't come out with a straight finger

2007-09-18T22:03:00.000+03:00

Guildwars is one of the most popular MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) available, second only to World of Warcraft. Those who think that it is just another MMORPG, should consider the fact that it has more than 3 million players world wide. The best thing about this game is that, you buy it just once and play it forever, there is no online playing fee unlike World of Warcraft. I have tried WoW too, but it fails to grasp my interest. Guildwars is better looking and has better quests, which keeps it interesting. You can have two specialties for your characters and even play it alone, if you do not have friends online.

Anyway, me and Kashif Bhatti (aka KB, aka Fryingpan aka Robot aka some other names which are not too ethical) wanted to try it online and we were in luck. My Guildwars copy came in with a trial key which I gave to him to try. But then we ran out of luck because the key was not working.

Thus, I contacted the support and asked why the key is not working and asked for an alternate key. They asked for a receipt of purchase, which I had misplaced (unfortunately a whole bag of receipts that I wanted to bring with me to my new place, but I think I threw out without knowing. I told them that I had misplaced it so as a proof, they asked me to send them the digital images of the copy, which I did. then the response came and it read:

Dear Umair,

Thank you for all the images provided.

However, in order to assist you further we need to send also a scan or gigital picture of the receipt of purchase of the game.

Thank you for your time and cooperation.

Kind regards
The Guild Wars Support Team

This really infuriated me, so I wrote this response:

"I have lost the receipt for the purchase, but i will try my best to provide the information as I remember it."

we have a history in this mail to read what the other guy wrote. That was the whole reason that i sent the digital images over as proof of purchase. I have given the trial key, I have given my own key which can be correlated with my account to know that my copy is genuine and it has not been duplicated.

On top of that, all I am asking here is a trial key, which lasts 10 hours or 14 days, its a key that will expire.. a small privelidge for those who bought this game. Now if you just think about it a bit, I need the key for a friend, who wants to try the game to see if its worth BUYING it, which in turn will benefit no other than your company and might even influence both me and him to BUY other expansions and guild wars 2 in the long run.

other publishers are giving trial keys for free while all I am asking here is that, i bought the game and lost the receipt which can happen in many ways, let me state some to explain how:

1. I had secret code written on it, so i ate it before my enemies got to it
2. my dog ate it
3. i burned it
4. i threw it with the bag i brought guild wars in
5. it was taken from me at gun point
6. i used it as toilet paper
7. somebody gifted me the game with my own money and since it was a gift, he didnt give me the receipt
8. i just like to keep it out of sight

Now if the high and mighty game company can't even give a trial key to a buyer who has been having problems in using the key which came with the package, a problem which he should not have in the first place, then I believe this is the most awful support for any game that I have come across. I need the trial key, if you can give it, then ok, if not, then thank you for wasting my time.

Umair

Today I got their response and it was this:

Dear Umair,

Thanks for your reply.

Please find your Guild Wars Prophecies trial code: *****-*****-*****-*****-*****

You can therefore give this code to your friend you will be able to create his Guild Wars account by following these steps:

- Open the game client
- Click on 'Create Account or Add Access Key'
- Select “Create a new Guild Wars Account”
- Enter your 25-digit Guild Wars access key
- Enter a valid email address (which will be your account name)
- Choose a password

Thanks for your cooperation.

Kind regards
The Guild Wars Support Team

I removed the key on purpose so that some of you free loaders might not copy it.

So now both me and KB intend to play it online and try it together. If KB likes it, he will buy it. Anyone else interested in playing it online?

Let us all welcome Wajiha

2007-09-18T21:43:00.000+03:00

If you guys have not noticed yet, there are now two persons who are managing this blog. One is yours truly and the other one is Wajiha (The description about us is given to the right). I should thank Wajiha for taking her time out and making my blog look much better than before... Even Katta who is critical about everything that I do liked the look of it, so I guess the Wajiha magic has started. So who is Wajiha? A batch 12 gikian who made one of the best looking calculators in C++ (Yes, I was very surprised the first time I took a look at it, as it didn't look like an effort done by a beginner.) Her employment in P&G is yet another proof about the capabilities that she possesses and we will see more about it in the days to follow.

Another incident that I also recall is that, I was asked so many times the same questions over and over again that I got pissed and put up a note on my cabin's wall (facing outside which said).

I do not have any markers
I do not have a stapler
I do not know where Usman Muneer is

So she walked in and took it started to take it off and when I asked what she was doing, she said "its too rude and doesn't suite you, so I am taking it off" and she took it off.

Anyway, I am glad that my blog is getting a decent look finally which also got me to kill my other blog at Vox. May that blog rest in peace. Oh, btw, she prefers the nick "jay" so you can spot the link to the right that points to her blog.

My Apartment

2007-09-15T17:01:00.000+03:00

This video is to show where I live these days.

Enjoy!

Last leg of the Sweden trip

2007-09-09T13:45:00.000+03:00

Playing Titan Quest

The last day was spent in KB's room as you might have guessed from the pictures. Whenever you think that your room is dirty enough, just visit his legendary abode and you will find yourself clean and pure. We went out to see the city of Gothenburg on the last day. The city is quite big, almost as big as Helsinki. The best thing about KB's place was that it was 5 minutes walk from his university and about 15 minutes walk from the city.

In the city

at the docks

We roamed around the markets, got to the harbour, took pictures here and there and finally ended up at KB's place with the intention of playing something. The better part of the day was spent installing world of warcraft on our machines and setting up the network. Even though I had told KB that we'll spend the night playing together, but I was so tired of waiting that I hit the bed for 2 hours or so.

Me in front, nude in background ;)

World of Warcraft woes

and I sleep...

Then Kb went to drop me off at the bus station from where i took the bus to the airport, where i boarded the Blue1 flight to Helsinki and i was in Helsinki at about 11 am. An hour's ride back to my place and then I slept for 7 hours, got up, ate and then slept for 9 hours more. Even then I was tired the whole week and was not able to do much at work.

You can't imagine how hard it is to make KB smile like that

That puts an end to my Swedish trip and all the stories related to it. Personally, I enjoyed the trip a lot as it was fun all the time as me and KB had loads of time together where we talked about all sorts of things. Of all the things that i have missed here in Finland are like minded friends with whom I can talk on almost anything. Its not to say that I did not find good friends here, its just to say that its totally different when it comes to people with whom you have spent some 4 years of your life together. They know you much better than anyone else and you know them the same way.

The Helsinki Airport: carrier has arrived

To me, the highlight of any trip is the company. I hate travelling, but when I have great company, I love to do it. Next travel plans are for Germany, where me, saqib, kiani, raza and maybe KB will come together for a long road trip to munich and berlin. Great company, with money to spend and 7 days to enjoy is really going to be something. I am already very excited about the trip... I just hope that it doesnt end in a disappointment.

Thats it for now and oh, now that I have my camera, i might be a bit more regular in posting stuff.

Last but not the least... RESPEKT!

Naach Basanti!

Wonderbase, Sweden, day03

2007-09-03T11:48:00.001+03:00

The second wonderbase day was full of disappointment. First, i got a match with the best player of the tournament, who was pretty adept with protoss vs protoss game. So I lost two straight games, which put me in the loser's bracket. This meant that I had just one chance and that too against a player whom i had defeated in two straight games when we were having a friendly match. But as you know, when you need to get something done right, everything gets bad, or wrong.

During the game, if I had stuck to my usual safe protoss game, i wouldve been in a better position. but i tried to do reaver drop and got many things wrong. First off, I forgot to make the srop ship at a critical time, which got everything delayed for me. the reaver drop got delayed, i got into a bad position and was easily killed off by the other player. So, as the saying goes, shit happens.

KB had better luck as he got the easiest player of the lot in his loser's bracket. this meant that he will b able to play a few more matches bfore he is knocked out.But, he lost eventually and both of us were out of the tournament. We stayed there over night and then set out for Gotenburg at noon. The tornament was beingheld in boras btw.

This is how we look after 3 days of non stop gaming and no washing

On our way back, I had to say skeletaun to make KB smile... sameer's sameeries always work

Another fun thing about the trip was that, we went to city center about 4-5 times during the 2 days that we spent there and every time, we got lost. every time, we used to take the wrong road or the wrong turn and ended up in the middle of nowhere. The only good thing about it was that, this gave us ample time to catch up on our past 2 years away.

Tired in the bus

As of now, I am sitting in a bus going to Gotenburg from Boras. I have not washed for 3 days now, so at least, getting to KB's place will give me an opportunity to fresh up. Oh, and I have finally started to like Facebook as I did not know till now that it has these really cool applications which are a lot of fun. I created my very own Simpson's avatar Sine using one of its many applications. SinceI am writing this blog on notepad, so if I do not forget, I will upload it up too with this blog. OK, i think its time that I start enjoying myself a bit, so I am starting a game now. KB is button mashing on my PSP at the moment so you guys cannot talk to him. Till next time, ta!

Standing by the new beetle

before the dinner

In the Simpsons

Wonderbase, Sweden

2007-09-01T08:18:00.000+03:00

The good thing about being abroad is that, it is really easy to travel from country to country if you feel like doing. Kashif Bhatti had been inviting me to Gothenburg, Sweden for about one year now. Previously, I never could find a good enough reason to travel, but with wonderbase, it was easy to get me attracted and i ended up being in Sweden this weekend (31-08-2007)

I had a flight at 715 am on Friday, which meant that I should get up at around 430 in the morning. I got up, got ready and was at the bus stop at 521 am. 10 minutes of wait and then i was on the bus off to airport. Once you get to the airport, everything seems so daunting and you stand there clueless as to what to do. Another reason for it is that, you should relieve yourself when you get the need, or your mind is always worried about that. So after relieving myself, i read on one of the screens that, my flight was from terminal 3, not 2 as it said on the online booking. Yes, I booked the tickets online, so you only go to the check in and show them your passport and you are good to go.

Taking the window seat, I was in the flight and off to Sweden at the right time. KB got to the airport in about 30 mins after I arrived and then we stood at the bus stop to wait for the bus. When you are with KB, always be extremely vigilant, or you will miss your bus like we did :). KB did not think about asking that small van stopping right in front of us to go to Boras. So, 2 hours of wait at the airport, got us our bus, with which we went to Boras. When we arrived, KB said that we need to take the bus 4 5 0. Either he said it 405, or i thought that he said 405, the bus stop where we got off had a bus numbered 405. I told KB, look it says 405 at the bus stop sign that listed all the buses. KB never bothered to correct me, and we stood at the wrong bus stop waiting for the wrong bus for about 30 mins more. Finally, we figured out our mistake and then got to the correct bus stop and then took the correct bus. It wouldn't had been this bad it wasn't raining at that time.

When we finally reached the place, there were hardly 20 people there and the place was being set up. We stayed there for a while, got hungry, went out in the rain to get something to eat, got wet and then came back with nothing and then went out again after 2 hours' wait. we got to eat at a snack shop and when we got back after 3 hours or so, the place was jam packead. it felt as if people had gone through bacterial mitosis (you can tell from the pics can't you?)

Then we had a few brood matches with some new friends that we made and those were all good games. Those guys had one player short for CS, so I have joined them for that and they needed a guy for DOTA, so KB has joined them for that. At around 1230, I went to sleep using my inflatable mattress and got up at around 6 because i was too cold. Then found KB who was sleeping on a row of seats, gave him my sheet and came here to write my blog.

Brood tournament will start today and it is double elimination, which means, if you lose twice, you are out. Lets see how well we end up doing here. Oh, btw thee is pic below is of the guy who was handing us our behinds... he is 17.

A story with a camera in hand

2007-08-30T19:05:00.000+03:00

I tell you a story of a camera i bought
which got to me delayed at a speed of 1 knot

as i looked at its components that finally reached me
My boss has a reason or two to be in glee

today I took it out to take the pictures of my apartment
my very own big and cozy compartment

Looks a bit untidy and poorly decorated
but we all know that bachelor life it is a bit overrated

a table, a laptop, a portable drive that can be hardly seen
if you look closely, its right next to starscream

the view is great and the weather is fine
Even homer is amazed at the apartment of mine
getting ready i get in the lift with my charming face
turning to take a snap of my current place

walking past the markets, I reach the metro
down the escalators she is ready to go

I arrive at my stop with some time to spare
up the escalator, I am in the clear
A river flows near the place i work
with long hours and only a few perks
its a small nice place which even has a kitchen
If nothing else, i can always have the resident chicken

Moving to a new home

2007-08-05T18:02:00.000+03:00

I am moving to a new apartment, so have been busy packing stuff. Still in my old room as I need to use the net. I will go to the new place tomorrow permanently, but will need to come back here to clean up stuff and take a few things that are still present here. more on this from my new apartment once i take some pictures.

Rock climbing, purse finding

2007-07-16T00:02:00.001+03:00

This blog is going to be a small one. I am dead tired, had a session of brood, which went well but gave me a headache and am about to sleep.

on wednesday this week, we went for indoor rock climbing. although I managed to climb to the top, but seriously, its not my cup of tea. The shoes are supposed to be one size small as that helps in climbing and they are not comfortable at all. Then your fingers really get stressed with all that climbing. Its a pretty safe sport as one guy is down there, holding you up in case you fall (they use pulleys to keep you up). Then I had a nice company dinner which let me realise that Finnish food ain't great (sorry Finnish people, but thats the truth).

then on thursday i was doing grocery shopping, when i realised that my purse has been stolen. i called security and when they asked ppl around, they found out that i had put it on the counter and forgot to pick it up :D. So i was saved.

thats about it for now. more news, some other time.

Umair 4 eyes

2007-07-06T11:37:00.000+03:00

2 days back, that is July the 4th, I got my glasses so now I am an official 4-eyed monster. Its only after you put one your glasses do you realise how much of your eyes had gone weak. The glasses were not cheap either, costed me 350 euros in total including the insurance. I couldve bought an ipod and a digital camera in that amount :/ oh well, the good thing is that the glasses suit me and I also got a pair of sunglasses with these ones, so each pair cost me about 175 euros each, which isn't too expensive for a pair. But the question remains, did I really need a pair of sunglasses? Only time will tell.

June comes to a close

2007-06-28T23:56:00.000+03:00

June is ending and this means two things. I am going to be a bit more rich and I will watch transformers soon. I was planning to see it tomorrow but its going to be shown at 945 pm which makes it too late for me. next week it will be and autobots and decepticons fighting for world domination.

I got my eyes checked and it turns out that I can't see far away stuff that clearly. -0.75 my right eye and -1, my left eye. gave order for glasses which cost......................... a whopping 300 euros. thats more than what I pay for rent these days.

many things are going to be done next month. hiring an agent to get me my apartment (i tried searchign myself but everything being in finnish has its drawbacks. I'll have to pay the agent to help me find an affordable place that is also close to my office. I'll be atleast closer to my office this way.

After being stuck on the software that i was working on, I finally found out that the problem was with the emulator and not with the code that I had written. There goes 2 whole days of effort! I am making some progress, I just hope that I make more progress in less time. My speed has not been bad, but it has not been good either and since this current project is approaching its deadline, i need to show results fast.

tomorrow, I am planning to see either deathproof or teenage mutant ninja turtles. depends on what film has better timings.

I guessI'll hit the sack now, last day of the week tomorrow... yippee!

Some updates

2007-06-06T21:49:00.000+03:00

I think I never got to write a blog about Helsinki ever since i moved here. The things have been so fast and crazy that I forgot about most of the stuff that i was supposed to do. First of which is completing my MS. now that the course work is almost over, I should be working on my Thesis, but after a week of sitting in front of eclipse, I can never find the strength to work on my thesis on weekends. Right now my supervisor asked about the update, but sadly I have not been able to do anything since I got here. I do not think that he will be pleased at the answer.

My job is going ok and finally I got a thing to make on my on for the first time. Havent been able to show much progress in that, but now I have done enough to understand the thing from in and out. I think I will start working on that from tomorrow and redesign what I had been doing in the past 3 days.

Summer is in full swing and the temperature is reaching 27 C over here, which is quite good with the cool breeze blowing over here all the time. The same breeze is awful during winters however, so better enjoy while it lasts.

Now I live in this place called Kontula which is really far away from Helsinki. First I have to walk daily for 15 minutes to the metro station. these days some renovation is going on so i have to change two trains before reaching my stop and then I have to walk to the office. Some 50 minutes are just spent travelling! I am glad that I bought PSP at the right time... keeps me good company. I am also thinking of moving from this place as it is too far away and i have nowhere to go over the weekend. let us see if I am able to find something good enough.

Tomorrow is my eye examination. I have started to see things blurry which are some 30 feet away.. even watching spiderman was hard on my eyes though. So I guess i will be getting glasses really soon. But here is the problem. a good pair of spectacles costs from 150 - 200 euros... DOH!

I think i should finish up one of my reports now, so talk to you later.

Roller coastering in Tampere

2007-06-04T01:41:00.000+03:00

Before I begin, I must say that formatting my post here on blogspot is a pain in the ass as firstly, I can never understand how to put two pictures side by side and secondly, all the text shows in finnish, so I can never get to the correct setting that I want. Anyway, to see a better formatted post, head over to my Alter ego at vox, for a better reading experience.

I went to Tampere on 30th of April to Enjoy the May Day's celebration knows as Vappu. I tagged along with Shahzad and Tayyab to see the parade and then we went to the theme park to see the aquarium and to sit on a few rides. At least that was the idea, but we only managed to sit on the ride known as Tornado. and yes, it was a Tornado indeed.

Shahzad was a bit afraid so we chose to sit in the last seats which is never fun according to me as you view is blocked. but that doesnt mean that you cannot have fun rollercoastering. As it goes up to gain momentum, you see the seats go one by one and then you are like, "Oh shit! its my turn now" and then there is a series of barrel rolls, loops and in about 30 seconds the ride is over.

When I came out, I was pretty shaken up and disoriented. It took me a while to get my bearings together. Here are a few pictures that you might enjoy:

Bye Bye Piracy

2007-05-05T21:10:00.000+03:00

I had made up my mind that once I start earning, i would stop downloading games from the internet. And now that I have started earning, I have started to buy all the games. Its not easy on my pocket, but it is the right thing to do. The best thing is that, if you get a year or two old games they come really cheap and you get the real stuff with all the multiplayer sweetness added into them. So, here are the games that I recently bought and small reviews for each.

Fear is one of the greatest games that has ever graced PC. Amazing amazing AI as I must say. I have not yet ended it, but once i start playing, I play a good 3 or 4 chapters of it before I stop.

Company of Heroes is another revolutionary Strategy game. It has ragdoll physics, deformable terrain and very realistic gameplay for a strategy game. I just got it and its amazing.

Command & Conquer 3 which is the final chapter in the command and conquer series that has been going on for about a decade and its one satisfying end to the entire story line. The old video cutscenes are back, which were the hallmark of this series.

Oblivion is one of the best role playing games out there. The best thing about this game is that, you can have a whole new life out there where you do not need to follow any story, just play as you please.

Stalker is one game that i plan to buy, but after a while. its like a modern RPG with guns and grenades. It has a few issues with windows vista so I am waiting for all the patches to come out and the price to drop before I buy it.

And finally supreme commander... it has revolutionalised how RTSs should be in the future. Nothing beats thousands of units fighting it out on a global scale.

Thats about it for now, will get back to you later.

Getting Hightech

2007-04-18T15:42:00.000+03:00

It has been a while since I wrote anything to this blog of mine and that too had been because of valid reasons. First of all, i had moved to Helsinki and did not have a computer with me and secondly I did not find enough time alone in my office to spend on some blog writing. So today seems like a good day to write what has happened so far. I think this is my 10th day at my job and I am finally settling in. Have been able to understand the code and have started to make few contributions of my own to make it look better and bug fixing.

As soon as I moved to Helsinki, I bought a PSP and with it Grand theft Auto Vice City stories that I have already finished (As I had 4 whole days during easter to kill and only my PSP to pass the time) Now I use it as an mp3 player, reading the whole collection of Calvin & Hobbes and of course play games.

Today I got the laptop that i talked about two posts back and also the cool backpack. Trust me, both are amazing and since I am a student here, I was saved the 165 Euro tax which makes my laptop an amazing buy. Trust me, for this price, you will be getting semprons or celerons over here and that too of the Acer company.

Anyway, I end this post here as now I need to work some more before I leave for some shopping in an hour. Cheers!

Last blog from Tampere

2007-03-30T01:29:00.000+03:00

Today is 30th of March and I sit here in my Lukonmaki room which I am about to leave, on a Sempron powered desktop which is I am about to sell and writing a blog which I am about to post. It has been about 19 months in Tampere, an MS which is almost done and a job in Helsinki that I am about to start. Right now I came back after watching the movie 300 which I found to be okayish. Then me, Jon and Chienting had our chat and its only now, at 1:35 am that I sit on my pc writing this blog.

I think that once I move to Helsinki, I will miss the peace and quiet of Tampere and the joy of studying when you had absolutely nothing to do and most of all the good friends that I made in this city. But, as life moves on so shall we and this might be the first step, first proper step in my professional life even though I have worked for 3 years in the past.

The company that I am going to work in is Comeks and I will be working on the J2ME side of things. I have become a bit rusty and even though I tried to make my skills better, it will still take me a while to get up to speed to things that I had done before. I guess that hard work is the only available solution here.

With that, I should call it quits, hit the bed and hopefully get a nice sleep. Tomorrow me and Jon have some plans so that should be a bit of fun. So its time to say good bye and maybe next time when I write something, it will be on my new laptop.

A notebook in my life

2007-03-26T12:18:00.000+03:00

I recently bought a notebook with the help of my good friend Mubeen, who bore an hour with me on Skype giving recommendations and adding the components as we went from site to site. It is of course his credit card that I am using to make the purchase, so I will be indebted to him for money for a few days and his help for life. This is what we settled for in the end:

PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5200 (1.66GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB) OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic
LCD PANEL: 15.4 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WXGA+ Display with TrueLife™ MEMORY: 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
HARD DRIVE: 100GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
OPTICAL DRIVE: 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
VIDEO CARD: 256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™
WI-FI WIRELESS CARD: Dell Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini Card (54Mbps) BLUETOOTH WIRELESS: Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate)
SOUND OPTION: Integrated Audio
BATTERIES: 53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Network Card and Modem: Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem

Apart from this, I also bought a Samsonite's backpack for carrying this baby around. The bag had almost everything, a pocket for keeping mp3 player, cushioning, good straps and was only 24.99$ which brought it right in the affordability limit. The bag unfortunately had two colours, a rosey pink and a pumpkin orange. As the pink was out of the question, I settled for the orange one. Mubeen also introduced two sites which are very helpful. One is Nextag and the other one is eBags. Both had been very helpful in making this decision of mine. Here, you can see the bag:

After making my calculations, I found out that the entire laptop + bag and the delivery charges might take the amount for this thing up to 1100$ which is a steal if you change that to euros as then it sums upto 850 euros. Here, a laptop with the same qualities will be on the 1200+ euro range and will be of some totally useless company like HP and Acer. Its not to say that those companies are bad, its just that, they do not stand a chance when we talk about Dell. My opinion and that of my friends has been that Dell always offers best value for price and I stick to that still. now the only thing that remains is to hold that notebook in my hand and test its capabilities.

And yet, I might switch again...

2007-03-24T00:36:00.000+03:00

Time and again friends of mine have complained that vox does not provide the ability to write comments on my blogs. That really is a shame because I really like the layout, well almost everything about vox. I am experimenting with blogspot to see if it allows me to change the template to look a bit like how it does on Vox. that can be done by changing the template using HTML ... a thing that I do not really want to do.

Why the hell does blogspot, owned by google, does not allow an easy to change blog interface? Google has really disappointed me.