'Chrome-d'

Up till today, or rather yesterday, since I am, as usual, awake at an ungodly hour, chrome brought two things to my mind: fancy bathroom fittings or snazzy alloys that people invest into when they are trying to 'supe up' their cars (i hope that is the right spellings, i remember reading 'soup up' somewhere, but that really reminded me of a soup kitchen serving goulash) ... anyway, today we have a third definition for Chrome (and no i'm not referring to the Chromium alloy). Google has come up with its own web browser, to rival IE and FireFox, and they for some reason only known to them, have christened it Chrome.

I found out about it only today, rather yesterday. And my techie/nerd/geek sensibilities were temporarily bruised by the fact that I didn't find out about it earlier. But then the thought that I wouldn't have to wait for a million or so clicks for it to become available for download cheered me up a little. And i decided to while away the time by reading their pre-launch 'comic' gimmick here. This helped restore my faith in my own geeky prowess as I was able to get almost all of the concepts presented despite the fact that Object Oriented Programming and development is not really my forte and I haven't done any coding in over 2 years! even while at university I chose MATLAB over .NET as early as 4th semester so you can imagine. Anyway once done with the 30 page or so comic, I made my way to the Official Google Blog and resorted to clicking refresh once every 15 minutes for the announcement of Chrome becoming available for download. Which turned up sometime around 1 am our time. It can be downloaded from here. Time to give it a test drive:

1. Download & Install: The download was a surprisingly small 476KB. Turns out you have to be connected to the internet to install. Once you run the 'small' setup, it connects to the net to bring in the rest of the installation files ... hmmm something we're not very fond of. We prefer having the entire setup offline.


2. Interface: Okay I agree its clean and uncluttered and the browser itself doesn't compete for attention with the content it has been instructed to display. All the tabs are on top, which is good, they resize to all fit in the width of the window, which is not-so-good. If you have like 30 tabs open at one time, often several of the same site, you would want to know what EXACTLY each is displaying rather than going through each seperately. Take out the 'favicons' and you'll be left tab switching all day. Compare google tabs to firefox (my previous favourite browser) tabs (click image to enlarge):
   
   
   
   
   Would  be good if we get the *option* of either fitting all the tabs on a single screen or letting them disappear into the unknown space on the right of the window, calling any of em back, when needed, by a mere click of the tiny arrow you see in firefox.
   
    Also, no status bar at the bottom, and no option to display or un-display it. I always go for the display option for the status bar. Otherwise it feels like my web-pages are scrolling up into existance from an uncomfortably deep abyss!
   
   I also cannot remove the weird tool bar that says 'customize links', 'free hotmail', 'windows marketplace' yada yada. I don't like it! I never keep any toolbars in my browser, and I always keep the google toolbar! Time to see if we have a google toolbar set up available for Chrome! Would be funny if they don't *snorts with suppressed laughter*


3. Options: So expand the little arrow next to the blueish-greyish monkey wrench (see the image above) and you will find the option for 'options' (yea, yea I know i'm funny!). Rather amusingly named as 'basic', 'minor tweaks' and 'under the hood', the options sadly donot have that many of just that ... i.e. the options! Oh well can't complain, its pretty simple, i must admit ... but oh WAIT I still don't know how to purge the cache in this one! darn!


4. Functionality, Plugins and Add-Ons: The basic run of the mill stuff is well obviously what works, it won't be a browser otherwise. The URL bar is nice and big, with large text which you can easily see without squinting at it. The minimalistic blue-grey interface is pleasing to look at. I wish the tabs were more to the silver gray side rather than the boring winXP blue.
   
   The search within web-pages function is not as cool as the one in firefox. e.g. firefox also returns results from script windows and other paraphernalia embedded in your webpage, like looking for a word in this post i'm currently writing. Not the case with Chrome. It only searches the parent page and doesn't return results from the embedded content.
   
   I absolutely LOVE the home page that shows your most visited pages and recent bookmarks. Makes it all the more easier to open those 7 AstroEmpire pages (click to enlarge):
   
   
   
   I won't give them marks for the 'awesome bar' that goes through your recently visited pages, bookmarks and history to return results. Firefox came up with it already, but the fact that it takes you to the main page and not to some obscure sub-sub-sub-sub page is good.
   
   And I still don't know what is the status of adding stuff to the basic browser. I for one can't survive without greasemonkey and flashgot on Firefox. How will I run all of those snazzy scripts that let me supe up my AstroEmpires pages? :(


5. Memory Usage: So it claims to open each tab in a seperate process, which is true, and freaks you out a bit the first time you check your task manager:
   
   
   
   So just to test I decided to open my usual 30 or so pages both in firefox and Chrome. I do have trouble managing all the tabs in firefox because the thing gets miserably slow and often hangs or needs to crash and restart in safe mode. Oh and how many times in both IE and firefox you have to end task cuz of one runaway process and mourn the loss of all of your 30 or so painstakingly opened web pages! Chrome so far is working okay ... but I will have to let it run for 2-3 days without so much as a hibernate to see how it fares >:) Here's the memory usage:
   
   Firefox: CPU usage 50, Mem Usage 131,288 K
   Chrome: CPU usage 2, Mem Usage 252, 796 K (cumulative).
   
   I suppose many little processes are better than one mammoth process. And I can feel it, as the response rate of each tab is significantly faster. And now I must stop *@&!*$ my laptop and kill one of these browsers ... or at least 28/30 tabs in firefox ... Chrome still doesn't qualify to run my Astro Empires ... hummph!

Overall Chrome hasn't been disappointing. Coming from someone who bashes her head against the nearest wall some twenty times a day due to a slow system and also persistently refuses to restart it, I think it might do good to the overall health and longivity of my much used and abused laptop. With my prowess not being development and coding and more into requirements gathering and analysis, a skill honed in 2+ years of designing and launching business intelligence applications here at good old P&G, I can't really use its open-sourceness for my benefit without significant time and effort investment, but I hope someone thinks of including a few more 'tweaks' in the package.

Rechargeable Fan for the Soul

No sir, chicken soup is not the only thing needed for the soul, rechargeable fans are just as important, especially if you live in Pakistan, and specifically Karachi.

The other day, I woke up in the morning to no electricity, bumbled about in the dark, got dressed, went to work, came back to no electricity. In frustration went to sleep, woke up 10:30ish, had barely managed to get out of bed and think about dinner when electricity went the third time, coming back at 1:30 am. One can endure the pitch dark but not the stuffy, humid Karachi heat. Humidity here was 81% or something yesterday. Anyway I have a trusted rechargeable fan. It runs like no tomorrow. Charge it fully once and it can last 8 hours or more without needing a recharge. Small enough to put on your bed and sleep with the wind in your face.

And I don't know why I made this post, maybe cuz the title is probably the only interesting statement in the entire thing or probably just for the heck of it I guess!

*poof*

Go Knock Yourself Out!

Many of us have tried doing quick funky graphics designing at one time or the other. Anything worth its salt requires time, effort and preferably loads of processing power. While stumbling around the internet today, I ran into Glogster. A site that claims you can 'poster yourself', and that too in 5 seconds. Essentially it is a flash based site with loads of background and artwork available, which you can throw together to create anything that comes to your mind. You can even upload your own photos/artwork and even video/audio. It is *pretty* cool. At least you can spice up your websites in no time!

The catch is it is only web-based. Trying to come up with a hack to download it as .jpeg or something. Maybe croft might have some clue. Anyway signing up is for free, and here is my first attempt for the purpose of this blog. Just random stuff put in a bag and jumbled. I swear the cat thinking about the fish climbed onto the scooter on its own! Pretty cool no? :D



*let the glogging begin!*


Addendum (after a few hours of experimenting):
Okay so the best solution I've figured so far for saving to your computer:

1. Use AFPL Ghostscript (also called Aladdin GhostScript. Make sure you get AFPL and not GPL as that doesn't have support for color printing). The current stable version is 8.54, available for download here . Also download and install GhostScript View GUI from here. The current version is 4.9.
2. Now right click on your glog and select print. Make sure you have a color printer installed. Select that, and check print to file. Save to disk by using .prn as the extension.
3. Now open the .prn file using GSView. Select file -> convert and save in any file type. for regular desktop printing .bmp with 72 pixel resolution would work. It also has 600 pixel resolution available which I suppose can be used for commercial printing. Though I won't vouch for the results.
4. The saved file will have a glogster tab on the top. Using trial and error, work your graphics below it and then u can edit out that area using image cropping.

Here is what my .jpg looks like (without the cropping, click to enlarge):


Thats all for now.

*Over and Out*

Cause to Celebrate

Long ago, I celebrated here, the 400th visit as recorded by my faithful statcounter. Since then we have progressed nicely along, and with the last post, the one below this one, we have reached another milestone; one whole year of faithful blogging, at least one post every month in the past 12 months.

*blog roll please*


oops i mean drum roll! ^_^



disappears into thin air *poof*

for your past *click* *here*

So I have a counter on my blog, which as is obvious counts the visits to here, and also comes bundled with a number of features including where the recent visitors came from and also the referring URL. While I was randomly clicking away at the referring URLs, one of them was a google search for I-T (Iqbal Talaat Bhatti's) blog. So I clicked away from link to link and this is what I stumbled across:

this blog → my statcounter page → Google search: "Iqbal Talaat Bhatti's blog" → youtube result for Iqbal Talaat Bhatti (movie alpha) → Similar vidoes on youtube → *some more clicking* → Batch12 GIKI welcome add → Batch12 GIKI farewell video.

So here it is. Some things I can say about: "I was there when it happened"

Batch12 GIKI Welcome Ad (2002)

Every year, the freshman batch in GIKI is welcomed in by the junior year batch. Typically it includes publicity, multimedia advertisements, all leading to the weekend of the welcome show and the concert. So in 2002, my batch i.e. batch12 (class of 2006) was welcomed in by batch10 (class of 2004). And here is the welcome add that they made for us:




Batch12 Farewell Video (2006)

So like the welcome, the farewell to the senior year is given by the Sophomore year. We did it for Batch10 in 2004 and Batch14 did it for us in 2006. Crofty (Saad Sadaruddin Khan) and Polly (Fahad Rasheed) surprised the rest of us Batch12 people with the following dedication to the batch. Reflects croft's skill at flash and polly's eye for photography and ear for music. It was an emotional 4 minutes 39 seconds for the 170 or so people in the auditorium. Here it is:




About Movie Alpha (sometime in the dark ages between 2002 and 2006, actually the 5th semester)

There are no words to describe this piece of work which I-T, Basim, Babarman, Rizvi and some other people in my batch found the time and brainwave to make back in the 5th semester. Here it is, and you have been *sufficiently* warned!

Farewell my friend!

19th July 2008 is one of the saddest days I've known in my 23 years. I lost a friend. It is one of those curve balls life throws at you. The ones you can't possibly do anything about. The ones that bowl you out, and you pick up and move on, hoping to bat another innings another day.

At 26 years of age, Immad Muzaffar (ganges) passed away in his sleep due to a cardiac arrest. This goes out to you my friend, though I know you will never read this.

The first clear memory of you that I have is of our first semester in GIKI in 2002; in the auditorium during the declamation contest. You came, asked if you could sit next to me, and introduced yourself. You are one of the few people I made friends with in the beginning of the four years that changed everyone completely, and you're one of the fewer still that I can still call friends even now. You will be remembered by most for your single 'mera number', for your red electric guitar and all night guitaring sessions, for your love of lennon and dylan and hendrix and morrison. For your incredible rendering of 'waiting for godot' for the GIKI stage and your love of english literature. For 'Aqualung', 'badge', 'shararti' and various other irc/msn nicks. And for your incredible sense of humour.

I will remember you for your love of Urdu poetry. For your quoting of Ghalib on irc at 4am. For your pestering to download and listen to Dylan's 'My Ramona'. For your very interesting interpretations for every random letter/symbol I would keep typing over the chat just to see what you would come up with next. And your well placed and well done ascii arts. For your setting fire to a random poster on the cafe wall and for your harebrained schemes of throwing food over the Girls' Hostel gate after 2am cuz I had missed dinner. For your suggestions at 3am on Saturday mornings of me coming down to Lahore from Karachi for the weekend so we could hang out and I could get a break from my gloom and doom, and then your cheek for asking the next day "Hey weren't you coming?" For your confidence, and your always kind words. And your reassurance and encouragement whenever I was down, which was often. For your good humoured enumerations of my successes that made you proud of me, to cheer me up and assure me that I wasn't completely useless afterall. I will remember you for all these and a million things more that I haven't put down here.

Also for your wish for wife and kids, basically family. For your commitment to a job you didn't really like and your persistent search for a better one. For your queasiness over GRE prep and your hopes for getting the fulbright. For your pride and joy in Ghalib Blues, for sharing it with me, and your approval of the review that I wrote for it here in April. For Zzing which you claimed was in you and wasn't dependent on stuff like you being here in Pakistan or in the US for studies.

I will also remember wanting to talk to you on wednesday the 16th of July to ask what was up with you since we hadn't talked in nearly a month. And forgetting to follow it through thinking I would do it later or maybe over the weekend. And regretting it dearly now.

It would be simple to dedicate some beatles song to you. Maybe Golden Slumbers. Or something by Dylan. But I would dedicate something that very much echoes my mood right now. Given your insight into Urdu poetry, I'm sure you would have appreciated and understood it. So here goes:

hamesha der kar deta hun main
zaruri bat kahni ho
koi wada nibhana ho
use awaz deni ho
use wapas bulana ho
hamesha der kar deta hun main

madad karni ho uski
yar ki dharas bandhana ho
bahut derina raston par
kisi se milne jana ho
hamesha der kar deta hun main

badalte mausamon ki sair main
dil ko lagana ho
kisi ko yad rakhna ho
kisi ko bhul jana ho
hamesha der kar deta hun main

kisi ko maut se pahle
kisi gam se bachna ho
haqiqat aur thi kuch
us ko ja k ye batana ho
hamesha der kar deta hun main

-- Munir Niazi

To losely translate in English for those who can't catch it in Urdu:

I always make it too late
to say something important
to fulfil a promise
to call him/her*
to ask him/her* to come back
I always make it too late

To help him/her*
To encourage a friend
To walk on the old pathways
To go meet someone
I always make it too late

To get the heart caught up in ...
... the changing of the seasons
To remember someone
To forget someone
I always make it too late

To save someone from sorrow ...
... before death
To go to him/her* to ...
... tell him/her* the reality
I always make it too late

Rest in Peace Immad Muzaffar (May 13, 1982 - July 19, 2008)



*Those familiar with urdu poetry will understand the ambiguous pronoun that is preferred for second person and is essentially genderless. I have used both masculine/feminine to capture the essence as closely as possible

P.S.: I have uploaded Immad's 'Mera Number' here for those who might want to relive it:

Perfect World

... is one without boundaries

where great outdoors is truly the great outdoors and one can actually go where the signposts point.

I love road trips. Because you can see the land roll past. The green, brown, grey hills. The blue sky, sometimes sparkling, sometimes with white, grey, black clouds. Fields, green, gold, yellow. Like a massive patchwork quilt. Cities and rivers and lakes. But also because you see signposts. That tell you what lies ahead. Start traveling south from Islamabad towards Punjab and the boards will measure distance to Attock and Jhelum, then to Lahore, then Multan. From Multan they start measuring road distance to Karachi. Travel east from Lahore, they'll give you distance to Amritsar (which is in India). Travel west towards Peshawar and they'll tell you you will reach Kabul (Capital of Afghanistan). Travel from Karachi and they will tell you how far away Quetta is. I can spend my life following where these roadsigns lead.

A week ago I had the chance to travel through northern Pakistan. Through the state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. I'll write about that later. While travelling north from the capital Muzaffarabad along a narrow road clinging to the mountain side with neelam river snaking along, one sees roadsigns at a very regular basis. The ones that truly caught my imagination were the ones measuring distance to Srinagar and Baramula. To us Pakistanis, places of lore and also heartbreak. Cities in the heart of Jammu and Kashmir, renowned for their breathtaking beauty, places one yearns to see, but somewhere where we can never go. Srinagar was once the capital of the unified state of Jammu and Kashmir, now a part of the Indian held Territory. It has been that since 1947. So is Baramula.

I'm not discussing politics here. I'm only talking about my perfect world. A place without boundaries. Where you can go where the signboards lead ...






I apologize for the picture quality. Taken from the cracked windshield of a moving bus.

*A little history/geography lesson (from a Pakistani point of view): Azad is Urdu for 'free'. Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) is the part of the state of Jammu & Kashmir under Pakistan. Jammu & Kashmir is disputed territory between India & Pakistan since independence in 1947. Predominantly Muslim, at the time of independence people of the state wanted to join Pakistan (I don't know what they want now other than an honest referendum and a right to choose. If East Timor can get it, why not them?). It was instead merged with India as the state had a Sikh ruler. AJK is the territory that was liberated in the 1949 war between India & Pakistan over Kashmir. Muzaffarabad is its capital. The rest of the state is still under Indian rule. We Pakistanis call it 'Maqbooza Jammu & Kashmir'. Maqbooza is urdu for 'occupied'. Srinagar is still its capital.

Throw Rocks at Boys!

Fudgin' Brilliant!

Combine creativity, hard work, loads and loads of paint, utter patience, time lapse filming and sheer brillance and this is what you get: Muto wall-painted animation



Again the direct link for those who have trouble running it directly via blogger:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhflifd68uo

Very Narrow Aisle

Working for an industry that involves marketing, advertising, manufacturing, warehousing, sales, planning, research, financials and project management (to name only a few) ... all combined with cutting edge technology ... brings me in contact with people, places, experiences, areas and terminologies that we won't get to hear about in our otherwise routine lives.

About three weeks ago I had a chance to visit a warehouse, where I learnt that there are at least 18 different ways to stock product based on its specifications, one of which is called VNA or 'very narrow aisle'. It basically involves multi-tiered storage structures, this particular one had them at 18 meters high, spaced apart by only a few feet to maximize space utilization. However to efficiently move stock in such a storage scheme, special equipment is used, which incidentally, is also called VNA. Here's a picture:



So why is it cool? Because the machine simultaneously moves Up and Back at very high speeds meaning you quickly zip up and down your desired storage location in a sharp hypotenuse! And you see yourself leaving the ground while you do it. Throw in the snazzy hydraulic sounds that the machine makes and the smell of product and packaging material and it is quite an extraordinary experience! It is controlled by two joystick-like controls, one obviously for the horizontal while the other for vertical movement. While I rode in it with an operator, needless to say, I was *itching* to get my hands on it!

Those who would want to invest in this nifty toy, you need (other than about a 20 meter high building the size of at least a football field, with VNA shelves stocked with product for maximum effect) around 8,000,000 Pakistani rupees (about 120,000 US$).