Cool Green car

Anjum Niaz: Air Marshal Imran Khan

You’re a friend of the fundos (read Qazi Hussain Ahmad) and a lover of the Taliban. You’re confused …one day you praise the Sharia law in Swat and the next day you accuse Sufi Mohammad of violating the Quran. What’s with you?IK merely smiles. 'Zardari, Maulana Fazlul Rehman and their ilk (notice he leaves out Nawaz Sharif & Asfandyar Wali) are confused. They showcase themselves as westernised liberals because they want American aid. Their somersaults on Swat deal are shameful. They frog marched before Gordon Brown and ordered our troops to kill fellow Pakistanis in Malakand. There are 1.5 million armed men on both sides of the tribal belt. Are you going to kill them all? Qazi sahib is a man of honour. He’s untainted with corruption. I therefore respect him.You were a hot ticket in 1996 elections. On the eve of the polls, PTV carried a damning story about your love affair and a love child. Sita White was on every lip.‘More than the Sita White affair, I was completely demolished by the Jewish lobby claiming that my former father-in-law Jimmy Goldsmith (British billionaire) pumped $40 million for my election campaign. As for Sita, I never claimed to be an angel. I’ve never glossed over my personal life. I admit my faults but have since undergone an inner transformation. Spirituality has made me a better person.’baithak has an aura. sheesha, fireplace, bulging bookshelves, rugs, divan takias and more...

Don't you hate those door to door selling?

I understand that people need to make a living. I don't really totally hate those door to door sales agent. But their scam tactics really makes me dislike them. One day, my father open the door to a sales agent who tried to sale us security alarm system. They told us that we been selected to have a free alarm system, and totally free. I just had skeptical question on how it gonna be free for us? After several questioning, they revealed that we have to pay the installation fee about $89.00. And they keep on pushing us to sign the subscription paper. We just rejected their offer. I don't like that they kept on saying it is free, at the end, you have to pay eventually. No thanks, not interest it this time.

Microsoft to make Windows Mobile OS upgrades easier?

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows Mobile, MicrosoftWhile Apple and Google have let iPhone and Google Android users add new features and operating system upgrades by downloading and installing software over the air, things have always been much more complicated on Windows Mobile devices. The earliest Windows CE devices could only be upgraded by removing a ROM chip and replacing it with a new one obtained from the device manufacturer. If you had a Dell Axim, or an HP Jornada, it was up to Dell and HP to decide whether you would be able to upgrade, not Microsoft.Eventually technological advances made it possible to upgrade a system just by reflashing the ROM on your device. But you still needed to acquire the ROM update either from the manufacturer, or get a hacked version from the gray areas of the internet.But now it looks like Microsoft is building a "Device Update" service for Windows Mobile. In a job listing, Microsoft talks about a new service that would allow the company to deliver new features automatically much the same way it does with Windows Update on the company's desktop operating systems. This means new features and OS updates could be installed with just a click, or maybe even no clicks at all.It will probably be a while before we see this new feature, so you shouldn't expect it in Windows Mobile 6.5. But future versions of the operating system might be easier to update.[via IStartedSomething]Microsoft to make Windows Mobile OS upgrades easier? originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read Permalink Email this Comments

The semiconductor industry

Chipmakers were suffering even before the global economic downturn. Recession is heightening the pain and highlighting changes in structure and ownershipMOST tourists come to Dresden to view the citys architectural wonders. Beautifully rebuilt, the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), for instance, reveals no hint that its huge cupola once crumbled after a rain of British bombs. But the capital of the German state of Saxony also has more contemporary attractionsat least for technically inclined travellers. It is the hub of one of Europes biggest technology clusters. Silicon Saxony, as the region has come to be called, boasts 1,500 high-tech firms employing 43,000 people, most of them in the semiconductor industry. Yet industrial tourists had better hurry. Recently Silicon Saxony has taken some hits that have weakened its foundations. On April 1st Qimonda, a maker of memory chips and the clusters largest employer, mothballed its factory, having been forced into insolvency earlier this year. Its last hope is to be bought by an outside investor lured by money from the Saxon government. Inspur, a Chinese computer-maker, is among those expressing interest in Qimonda, which has developed some cutting-edge technology. ...

Toilet in pipe shape

Mortal Online presentation puts all you want to know in one place

The Mortal Online team decided to create a PowerPoint presentation (available here -- the .rar file is 100mbs and includes some videos) to explain to the world what their game is. As it turns out, the presentation begins with a list of what their game isn't. The short version is that they're trying to make a very different MMO experience. Of course, if you've been following the game you're well aware of that fact, and it's probably what has you interested. The PowerPoint serves its purpose of bringing all the information together in one place, but if you can't be bothered downloading it and want a quick way to learn what's up with Mortal Online, we've summarized the biggest points from the presentation after the jump.Continue reading Mortal Online presentation puts all you want to know in one place.

Guilin LI river misty rain

Onitsha by JMG LeClezio

It wasn’t until the end of the novel that I really connected this novel with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel, Half of a Yellow Sun which was based on the Biafran War in the 1960ies where the eastern part of Nigeria, primarily represented by the Igbo people, were hounded into succession and an attempt to found their own state. Or that I began to wonder why so much of the literary output of Nigeria (besided Adichie, Chinua Achebe in the previous generation and Chris Abani more recently)—at least that which has got attention in the West—comes from this area of the country.LeClezio’s novel spans the time frame of Achebe and of Adichie, with the novel beginning in 1948 when its main character, Fintan, first travels to Africa and 1969 when Fintan travels to France where his father is dying and from there, one speculates—since he resigned his teaching job—to Nigeria. Fintan is 12 when he travels with his mother on the Holland Africa steamer from France to Nigeria. Mother and son are unusually close and both write on the ship—the mother (Maou, short for Maria Louisa), bits of evocative poetry and Fintan, a chronicle called “A Long Voyage”. On the ship with them is the new British DO (District Officer) at Onitsha—where they are headed—giving the reader a preview of the racial and cultural disconnect they’ll encounter at their destination.In addition, we have the strange circumstances of their own voyage. In the 30ies Maou had married Geoffroy, an Englishman, in her home country, Italy. Shortly after their marriage he goes off, presumably to Africa, promising to send for her which he does only after his child is 12 years old! Fintan resents the father he’s never met and doesn’t like him in person and we’re at first on his side as his father seems to be as insensitive as the other British functionaries in the local colonial government—including the DO met on the ship. Gradually, though, as Fintan toughens up his feet and runs with a local boy, learning the ways of the forest and the river, we learn of Geoffroy’s passion for the ancient myths and legends of the people who first settled on an island in the Niger. His interest borders on obsession, is deemed inappropriate by local whites. When Maou speaks up about British mistreatment of the people at the British club, she’s ostracized and the powers that be decide they have to go.The point of view shifts almost imperceptibly between Maou and Fintan. LeClezio excels in characterizing the place, through descriptions of the sights and sounds of the forest and the river and the love of the land and the people that grows in mother and son. The sections that represent Geoffroy’s thoughts are printed in a different font to indicate a shift; at first they seem irrelevant to the contemporary world, though gradually people and events from the past seem to merge with those in the present. Readers hardly experience Geoffroy except through his research into the mists of history, though his sections communicate his intense emotional involvement with that past. Gradually, though, as Fintan comes to acknowledge and respect his father's understanding of the past, we see the small family of three standing implacably against the colonial establishment in what is a powerful, because understated, indictment of colonialism.

Stefan Kost: 8 Apr 2009

buzztard We're heading for a 0.5 release! Most planned features are done and thus its time for testing. I've added some more unit tests. Especially for the dynamic editing, which now finally seems to work quite fine. I added more keyboard shortcuts to support the workflow people might know from buzz. There is one to start playback from cursor-position and several for cycling through the comboboxes in pattern editor. I started to work on the play-notes functionality in pattern editor too. One can play notes while editing if song is playing already. Need to play the song in a idle-loop otherwise. Also need to figure the horrible latency I get. One feature that was missing compared to buzz, is that buzz also shows parameters (volume, panorama) of incoming connections in the parameter view. We have this now too. I also refactored some code in the machines and made monitoring more flexible. As a result the level-meters in the toolbar are now post-gain. Means if you change the volume you see the level-changing accordingly. Last change of the month is some eye candy. The icons in the machine view don't become blurry when zooming anymore. I also added some simple effects to show the state (desaturizing them or making them half transparent). LJ has part two of the buzztard article online. Its an interview and tells you all you never wanted to know a bout me and the project.