Linch Pins

Looked at yourself in the mirror lately?

2006-02-12T18:05:00.000+05:00

Following story has been taken from Paulo's short stories collection:

The Window and the Mirror

A very rich young man went to see a Rabbi in order to ask his advice about what he should do with his life. The Rabbi led him over to the window and asked him:

'What can you see through the glass?'

'I can see men coming and going and a blind man begging for alms in the street.'
Then the Rabbi showed him a large mirror and said to him:

'Look in this mirror and tell me what you see.'

'I can see myself.'

'And you can't see the others. Notice that the window and the mirror are both made of the same basic material, glass; but in the mirror, because the glass is coated with a fine layer of silver, all you can see is yourself. You should compare yourself to these two kinds of glass. Poor, you saw other people and felt compassion for them. Rich - covered in silver - you see yourself. You will only be worth anything when you have the courage to tear away the coating of silver covering your eyes in order to be able to see again and love your fellow man.'

Papers Schedule II

2005-12-26T20:46:00.000+05:00

Alright the last posted schedule cant work. Here is another one. Finish the June July vacations. The course will be completed till end of August probably. Take the papers then. The students will have at least 2 months off in November and Decemeber.

Papers Schedule

2005-12-25T15:14:00.000+05:00

I think 11 papers together and 8 practicals in the end of the year which takes at least 2 months gives huge amount of stress to the students. Students mostly enjoy the 8 months of academic session without any fret and then they pass through hell lot of agony in the next two months. So according to Probability and Statstics, there is a lot of Variation. This variation should be reduced and according to me i think they should take at least some papers (4 or 5) in b/w June and July so that there is not much to worry about during the end of the session for the University administration and students alike. However those papers that are taken in June and July, the teachers of that subject should be given more periods so that they can complete their course before June. Students will have more time in december and they can do something useful at that time. At present June, July gets wasted and fifteen days off after the papers in December also get wasted. One cannot enjoy in June, July because of assignments and other stuff and fifteen days period in December is a short period. I say if the above proposal is used than students can have 1 and a half months free in the end and they can do anything in that without the tension of University.

Worthwhile Subjects

2005-11-20T14:04:00.000+05:00

I can't help but think of what we actually will remember from the stuff we studied in Third Year! ... For starters, the obvious DBMS, SE, LDST and MP. We've been studying this since FE and have a significant understanding of them now but what of the rest? ... Any subject that we end up rattafying is not ok! ... EMF, CT, LCS and CS ... which is why PS and BCE were far better since we went into the paper with the potential to sole ANY problem that could possibly have been thrown to us within the limits of the course material, no? You just couldn't say the same for the the four electrical subjects, could you? And last but not certainly the least is DE ... which is pretty interesting itself since all knowledge of circuits will be applied at runtime! ( borrowed from Ovais :P)

and Faisal, you bugger ... Don't give me "Do I only study for marks?" crap after that Munesh Chakka answer-remembering technique ... :) ... We all fall prety to the system, as stupid as it is.

Please do comment people, while I go and watch the seasons finale of LOST ...

CT nay watt laga di!

2005-10-27T06:20:00.000+05:00

Damn it! Shit sessionals and now a shit theory paper! Why are they hell-bent on stopping poor souls like me into getting that coveted 1200+ territory! :'( ... After record-low sessionals this year, I needed an average of 66 marks per subject just to get to 1200! Now thanks to CT, that figure is even higher ... or you could say there goes my hope for hitting 1200 yet again! @%$#@$!#@&!# How the hell am I gonna make up for those lost marks?!

Good grades,my arse yeah but like I'd love it if I were to get an A1 ... and I know its reachable alright!

Good Grades, My Arse!

2005-09-18T11:36:00.000+05:00

This is for all those who over-emphasize the importance of getting GOOD grades at a university like NED. Quite frankly, that is total bull and nothing else. I am most certainly NOT saying that grades don't matter at all, they do and I would just love it if I were to get an A-1 myself BUT getting below that is not the end of the world.

What pressed me to make this post here was an experience a very close cousin of mine had recently when he was appying at GeorgiaTech. He had a GPA of 3.4 but unfortunately couldn't get a very good GRE score on his first attempt. Much to his surprise, his batchmates with a GPA as low as 2.6 got the greenlight and he was kept waiting until finally being rejected. It was only later that he found out that what had kept him from getting in was his GRE score. His university grades were great, but GeorgiaTech preferred his GRE score over his academic grades that he secured here in Pakistan. He had to give the GRE again just to improve his score, which he did in the end and now he IS at Georgia Tech.

So, just goes to show how much they rely on gradings of our universities and it couldn't be more fitting to a system such as the one at work at our very own NED.

Intel's manufacturing cost: $40 per chip!

2005-09-16T08:07:00.000+05:00

http://news.com.com/Intels+manufacturing+cost+40+per+chip/2100-1006_3-5862922.html?tag=nefd.top

It's funny they still wouldn't slash their prices given the intense competition they are having to deal with at the moment. I must admit, I'm beginning to consider an AMD processor for me next PC, not that it is coming anytime soon but it's been posting impressive performance numbers everywhere and it's days of instability with Windows and other bull are long gone. Will do more research later.

Coolest Blogs on the Net

2005-09-16T07:50:00.000+05:00

TIME's selection of the best blogs there are...

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1072872,00.html

Where We Headed?

2005-09-07T07:19:00.000+05:00

Today was supposed to be an auspicious day for us. The sixth of September, the defence day, the day we showed the enemy that we're united and willing to fight to the last man. But is that passion and unity the same as it was in good ol' 1965?

Frankly, the Quaid's principles of Unity, faith and discipline seem like a pipedream now for a nation like us. One of the worst experiences I had was when I witnessed the looting of a shop, as the Police had just taken away the shop-owner for allegedly selling some stuff at higher prices on purpose, and behind his back people on the streets looted the shop, AND THIS WAS IN RAMZAN! :(

This seems typical of the Muslims, who despite being God's chosen ones are sufferring in this world because of their lack of discipline and unity. Someone aptly said on his return from one of the western countries ...
" I found Islam everywhere, but no Muslims. But once I came back, I saw Muslims everywhere but no Islam. "
(referring to the inherent values of honesty, discipline and sincerity in the people of the West and none over here)

Indeed, the essence of Islam after the Prophets has been that of AMAR MAROOF AL-NAHI ANIL MUNKAR, that people in a society guide others to do good and repel them from doing harm so that the society improves its own self. But sadly, in a society like ours you would find more hate for one another, than love. All this sickens me to death and sometimes I just lose hope. Is there a way out? I can't see it.

The Architect

2005-09-04T11:09:00.000+05:00

Behind every great show, every quality service that you use, all quality fabric you wear, everything that you find up-to-mark and satisfactory, there are several stages of excessant amount of efforts involved. I've learnt this in time that things don't happen just like that; at every level a dedication and spirit is involved and is clearly reflected in the end product. Our nation is not very fond of putting in the hardwork but they want excellent results all the time, hoping that some miraculous force will fill in the gaps for them. All this thinking reminds me of the The Architect, the immaculate nature of this universe clearly reflects the interest and devotion of The Architect. The wonders of nature are in perfect harmony while anything that man has has invented is prone to failure and has been flawed. The concept of money and society is to keep the humans under control, I wonder if there could have been a different arragement of those things from what we have right now (multiple realities, parallel existences, quite right). Nature is the ultimate inspiration for the humans and I think everything we do, for ourself, or someone else; no matter how small, we should do it with full devotion and devoutness.

Evaluation of the 'Evaluation Forms'

2005-09-02T12:03:00.000+05:00

For once, they did something useful for us and I was left wondering if they'd done it any sooner. I mean, we're almost dead and buried now ... the whole freaking year has passed and we're almost done witnessing the shocking level of teaching at such a high level.

Oh yes, there was hardly anyone who did not get any stick from me. To be perfectly honest, what I have I learnt in the three years I have been here thanks to the teachers?! ... Very little! We're not talking generally, but of things relating to Computer Science ... after all, thats what we're here to learn. The only thing me and everyone else have learnt is how to prepare LONG assignments, which is pointless since everyone ends up copying from the manual! The idea here is to get things done, no matter what.

I am a bit surprised that our Dean Sahab atleast tries to teach differently, which is good yet the teachers under him are totally the opposite. I wonder what the future holds.

We're Brothers!

2005-08-31T21:31:00.000+05:00

aa rahee hai chah-e-Yousuf say sada
dost yahan thoray hain bhai bohat hain

I love Gmail!

2005-08-30T23:17:00.000+05:00

I have totally moved all my email to Gmail now so I'm kind-of totally dependent on Google for email. I wonder if somebody should make an email client application which would work just like Gmail. Gtalk is great and so is Gearth. Let the Goodies come!

"I was awfully curious to find out why I didn't go insane"

2005-08-30T23:08:00.000+05:00

URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bhmasl.html

Excerpt:

Abraham Harold Maslow was born April 1, 1908 in Brooklyn, New York. He was the first of seven children born to his parents, who themselves were uneducated Jewish immigrants from Russia. His parents, hoping for the best for their children in the new world, pushed him hard for academic success. Not surprisingly, he became very lonely as a boy, and found his refuge in books.

He gave a very interesting theory on the heirarchy of needs. Here it is:

He proposed that the triangle is traversed bottom up and humans can only move up the rung by fulfiling each of the steps. If the physiological needs aren't fulfilled, he won't move ahead the stage of say esteem needs.

For complete details, I suggest you go through the entire article.

Sir Irshad Hadi

2005-08-30T22:44:00.000+05:00

I think Sir Irshad Hadi is a wonderful teacher. There aren't many teachers who would talk about conscience, existence, reality and philosophy! Like others, I do agree that he hasn't been teaching exactly what he should be but considering the fact that the students aren't even OKAY at communication, there is no point of teaching business communication in a context I believe it should be taught. None of the students are happy with him! I met a mechanical guy today and he said that his entire class gave him poor in the evaluations.

I think the problem lies in the fact that he tries to keep everybody in discussion by asking basic questions like What is Engineering? or What is communication? and sometimes very simple meanings of words like conscience etcetera to random people. The reason the students don't like him much is probably because they are actually scared of him that he might ask the simplest questions and they'd feel embarrassed if they didn't know the answer, of course nobody would admit it perhaps not even internally but I think if they think deep about it, they would feel a certain tinge. I have always noticed that there is never absolute silence in the class! Somebody is moving his/her bag, making noise with the pen, chairs or hums, moving their heads; in other words, there are always distractions. If you sit in the back you can see it all happening and there's always restlessness in the mind as a brain thread is dedicated to notice what is happening around. What I've noticed is that we're actually scared of a good two-way intellectual conversation. Everytime we converse, one of the two would always try to sound smarter as if listening is a disgrace to their pride and speaking makes them look smarter. As a friend would say: When speech fades... the intellect awakes.

I understand Sir Irshad Hadi's psyche a little and I admire his style and his way of delivering knowledge a lot. I don't like the fact that he's always trying to clarify his position by saying I know you are good engineers! The cream, the best!; I believe that when he says that, most of the minds would be so aroused by the praise that they wouldn't want to interpret the message that follows it (as Sir Noman would say: maqsad hi faut hogaya). I think he probably needs to work on that a little. He's much older and way more experienced than me so I sometimes wonder if he does the right thing and that I need to reevaluate my position. I also really admire the fact that he is always ready to learn from anybody and everybody. If I were to select three BEST teachers from third year, I think he'd be one of them. I've learnt a great deal about listening and communication from him and I do believe that listening is much more rewarding than speaking.

Normally the students would complain that he didn't teach us to write CV, Memos, professional business letters etcetera. I'd sometimes smile when they say that because if they can understand the real essence of the language and communication, adapting a pattern will not be difficult at all! They can pick up any good book and provided that they are good readers, they will not have any trouble understanding simple procedures. We are not going to take any evaluations this year but I'd like to give him a 10/10 here, all the way!

First Post

2005-08-30T22:35:00.000+05:00

yada yada